PASSEPARTOUT DUO AND INOYAMA LAND - 'RADIO YUGAWARA'

Formats

• TU007LE - LP

  4251804143622

Details

**NEW RELEASE DATE 4TH OCT***Limited x300 Transparent Clear Vinyl. Locked groove.* Tonal Union present this unique meeting between the experimental Passepartout Duo and the Japanese renowned ambient pioneers Inoyama Land. Kindred spirits Passepartout Duo and Inoyama Land embody the essence of play – charting a new chapter and reinvigorating the environmental music and electronic landscape. Passepartout Duo is formed of Nicoletta Favari (IT) and Christopher Salvito (IT/US), who since 2015 have been on a continuous journey travelling the world’s corners, engaged in a creative process they term “slow music”. Having been guests of many notable artist residencies and with live performances in cultural spaces and institutions, their evocative music escapes categorisation. With no fixed abode their musical pilgrimage brought them to Japan first in 2019, which prompted a deep connection to Kankyō Ongaku ‘environmental music’, a genre in which Inoyama Land is often associated with, soundtracking the duo’s first immersive experience. In 2023 the duo revisited Japan and set out to reconnect in particular with the music of Inoyama Land, performed by Makoto Inoue and Yasushi Yamashita. The highly revered album ‘Danzindan-Pojidon’ (1983) produced by Haruomi Hosono amongst other well publicized and acclaimed reissues (Light in The Attic Records’ Grammy-nominated compilation ‘Kankyō Ongaku’), produced a global resurgence and admiration of the environmental music movement. Nicoletta took the lead to seek out Inoyama Land and in making contact successfully their intrigue and eagerness to meet was warmly reciprocated, and the group scheduled to meet in the form of a spontaneous improvisation session. “We’re deeply concerned with what it means to be a duo, and what it means for people to connect through music.” Radio Yugawara was recorded in 2023 in Makoto Inoue’s hometown of Yugawara where his family runs a kindergarten, whose space has doubled as a Sunday recording studio. Upon arriving a circle of four tables was set up in the school’s auditorium - the tables were carefully populated with children’s instruments: a full set of handbells, a glockenspiel, a xylophone, recorders, melodicas, and harmonicas. Surrounding the tables were racks hanging all sorts of bells and wind chimes and within this environment each performer set up their own electronic instruments. Dialling into each other, a simple set of playground ‘game rules’ was devised where time was divided into three separate sessions (1) ‘only electronic instruments’, ‘only acoustic’, and ‘a mix of both’, (2) ‘revolving duets’ each taking turns to play through a cycle of ‘four duos’ and (3) ‘anything permitted’, accumulating to more than three hours of material which was then carefully distilled into succinct tracks. The alluring album opener ‘Strange Clouds’ oscillates into view, setting a lush scenery built from a bed of synthesisers and the first glimpse of the chromaplane, the hand-built analogue instrument designed by Passepartout Duo, featuring a touchless interface and endless organic sounds that underpin the album’s 11-track inlets. Percussive pulses act as the heartbeat to ‘Abstract Pets’ before earthy sub-swells open the pathway to glistening glockenspiels and wind chimes. The atmosphere shapeshifts with ‘Simoom’ and ‘Tangerine Fields’ with swirling synth lines and subliminal beats resembling changes in weather patterns. At the centre points the idyllic ‘Observatory’ and ‘Mosaic’ could illuminate the deepest oceans before the hypnotic, arpeggiating synth lines in the otherworldly ‘Xiloteca’ propel the album towards ‘Solivago’, with its gentle lullaby of playful ambience. The reflective closer ‘Axolotl Dreams’ resolves their somewhat chance meeting with elegant pastoral chord strokes and uplifting synth swells, sending final signals upwards into the ether. Radio Yugawara is a unique one-off transmission from a specific place and point in time, unlikely to ever occur again. The respective duo’s approach can really be described as “tuning in”, a tuning into each other, to themselves, and to the surrounding nature of Yugawara. Like waves that travel off-world, sounds travel through the universe and can be lost forever if we don’t seek them out. In finding a harmonic affinity within their instruments and a spiritual kinship in their interwoven performance, Radio Yugawara at its core is an interpretation of feeling, of close human interaction and the true essence of discovery.

Tracks

A1. Strange Clouds
A2. Abstract Pets
A3. Simoom
A4. Tangerine Fields
A5. Observatory

B1. Mosaic
B2. King in a Nutshell
B3. Xiloteca
B4. Solivago
B5. Berceuse
B6. Axolotl Dreams

Press

For fans of Horishi Yoshimura (Green, Surround), Sushi Yokota, Yasuaki Shimizu, Kankyō Ongaku

Audio & Video

MOTORPSYCHO - 'NEIGH!!'

Formats

• NFGS0124 - LP (COLOURED)

  9008798495061

Details

There are songs that makes friends with anyone and do great at parties, doling out compliments left, right and center. And then there are those songs that just don’t seem to fit in, songs that knock over glasses and makes awkward comments to the host as they stubbornly refuse to adapt and adjust to whatever larger setting you needed them to work in; these are songs that seemingly insist on remaining outside your control no matter how many stylistic or production tricks you try to pull. Usually, for a band such songs eventually fall by the wayside, are left behind or butchered for parts a few years later. But sometimes quite a few of them show up at the door, at the same time, unruly & ready to shake things up a bit. Sometimes there is trouble. These are the songs that makes up Neigh!!* Not merely a companion piece to last year’s Yay!, not a collection of B-sides or simply leftovers from that same period, but a reaction, a party for those not invited to parties, consisting of troubled, sometimes weirdly clothed outcasts that refused to go away and instead languidly found their place in the post-plague world while the tunes from Yay! were being pampered and sing-along’ed by band and fans alike. So, then, it’s not a Nay! These songs care not that the band didn’t notice their potential at first. They know who they are, what their purpose is and what they’re capable of. They proudly wear their ‘lo-fi/no-fi’ and ‘recorded in rehearsal room/home studio’ as embroidered patches on jackets you only now realize are pretty cool. Granted, they had a tough upbringing, some of them come from broken homes and they learned the hard way to ‘Turn a frown upside down’, but here they are, together + strong! Neigh!! is an album of ‘songs that won’t fit on an album’ – the non-concept of all concepts – a home for strays and runaways perhaps, but more importantly a bunch of tunes Motorpsycho are finally happy with, that found their purpose and now have a home: songs that the band are proud to finally being able to present to the world. - Dr. Th. Kneipp

Tracks

1. Psycholab
2. Return To Sanity
3. This Is Your Captain
4. All My Life (I Love You)
5. Edgar?s Bathtub
6. Elysium, Soon
7. Revenants
8. Crownee Says
9. The Condor

Press

Audio & Video

MILIVOJE MICCA MARKOVIC - 'OST - OTPISANI & POVRATAK OTPISANIH'

Formats

• Everland-YU05LP - LP

• Everland-YU05CD - CD

Details

Premier release of the Never before released iconic, cult & paramount original holy grail soundtrack recording for the action packed partisansploitation movies and TV series - Otpisani and Povratak otpisanih (The written offs & The return of the written offs). This music composed by Milivoje Markovic and recorded in 1972 & 1976 represents the epitome for original Jazz Funk music recorded in ex-Yugoslavia. The series had people glued to their television screens awaiting for their own ‘Inglorious basterds’, the Belgrade guerilla group, to appear gunning down nazis by the hundreds - backed by an original deep funk soundtrack.

Tracks

Press

Audio & Video

UNICORN SHIP EXPLOSION - 'THERE'S A RHINOCEROS IN THE MEGA CHURCH'

Formats

• SNDREC004 - 12"

  5061024580386

Details

Confirmed feature article in Electronic Sound Magazine and other media. “There’s A Rhinoceros In The Mega Church” is their debut LP released on Sound Records. U.S.E. (also often expressed as Unicorn Ship Explosion, but feel free to interpret this yourself), are unfortunately two boys known to their mums as Rob & Sash. Since we last saw Rob he has been working really hard as a multi-instrumentalist. He’s almost mastered the drums (he’s even been to jazz school), and he’s near to the final chapter of piano lessons. He’s really talented. He has his own music studio where he produces & writes music for the likes of, The Staves, Holysseus Fly & other fantastic acts that are well worth a listen if you have the time. Sash (or Sasha) is a great guy. Everyone loves working with him. He’s an average musician with big ideas, which is why he uses modular synths. He has written much music for many artists you’ve probably not heard of and has collaborated with some musicians you’ve definitely heard of. He sometimes works as a sound designer for some fashion brands you can’t afford, but you wouldn’t want to wear them anyway (so don’t feel bad for not being successful enough to spend £400 on a t-shirt). Sometimes a really cool woman called, Agnieszka Szczotka, collaborates with these two loveable boys. She is a performance artist of great skill. She studied art at the Royal Academy and chose to abandon her supreme painting and sculpture skills to dedicate her life to confrontational live performance art. Big respect. Together they are Unicorn Ship Explosion (not yet known as U.S.E. as it hasn’t caught on yet). It’s a creative attempt to be in the present and not overwork music as is often the norm these days.As a result an exciting new genre is emerging from this album. The genre hasn’t a name yet, but what is certain is that A.I. can’t recreate it, and wouldn’t want to either. Let’s be human together and accept and appreciate we can’t always be great. Enjoy the good moments with the bad. And together, yes together, you the reader and us(e) your new best friends, shall show A.I. that humanity is beautiful.

Tracks

Press

Plays from Gilles Peterson

Audio & Video

WILL SERGEANT / PAUL SIMPSON - 'SPLIT 7'

Formats

• FC28 - 7"

Details

SOLD OUT & FULLY ALLOCATED ON PRE-ORDER  Next up on Feral Child sees a reissue of a 45 that initially came and went in a day, last July. A beautiful pair of instrumental gems from two of label head Dom’s musical heroes; Will Sergeant and Paul Simpson. Released as a limited 7” clear vinyl repressing. Wills' “Toy Piano Mantra” is a beautifully meandering, slow building, multi layered piece- more melodic than some of his previous more experimental solo work; of its back story and creation, Will says: “I’m not really one for acoustic guitars, I have played them on EATB records, but the electric guitar is my weapon of choice. So I set myself a little task -for no other reason than it being a bit of fun- and thought “Why don’t I make a collection of acoustic tunes, purely to see if I could?”. All my acoustic guitars are very cheap, which never stopped me using them. I had bought a Chinese pedal harmonium in London in the ’80s, and scrounged the use of a good ukelele, my Auto Harp was an obvious component, then I remembered the toy piano I had bought in a pop-up flea market in a vacant New York lot, back when New York still had vacant lots. Deliberately deciding against having any tunes ready, everything was set up and with the help of Andrea my engineer and pro tools wizard, we kept the good bits and expanded with these instruments until I felt it was finished. It was all off the top of my head and my fingers created music like some automatic drawing that Austin Osman Spare might have conjured up on one dark and ritualistic night. I added the toy piano and christened it “The Toy Piano Mantra”. Paul’s side features the previously unreleased “Ghosts of the Karelia Forest” recorded in 2006, a beautifully simple piano piece which again slowly builds, and distorts with added moog and so on. Paul says of the piece: “The higher harmonics of the tuned wine glasses used on this piece, sent the VU meters on the mixing desk at The Gossamer Dome studio into the red, but Producer Henry Priestman and I both liked what that distortion added to the atmosphere of the piece, so chose not to correct it. ….I await its use in a disturbing art house movie”. When the single was first released, both Will and Paul were embarking on next / first instalments of their books; Will’s “Echoes” and Paul’s “Revolutionary Spirit: a post punk exorcism”- both are now long since out, selling well and receiving rapturous reviews both here and overseas. Releasing this one is firmly in honour-to-do territory for the label, and initial copies are available from Feral Child HQ but mostly via shops courtesy of Forte Distribution.

Tracks

Press

Audio & Video