Favorite Releases from March 2021
Despite the continued pandemic, electronic music surges into 2021 with notable releases from Valentino Mora, Toki Fuko, Alex Albrecht, Lawrence, Atoloi, Baaz, Two Shell, upsammy, Javier Marimon, Oslon, and Ivress released via Office Recordings, Livity Sound, Dekmantel, Analogue Attic, Spazio Disponibile, Oslated, Lowless, Mule Musiq, Green Sand Records, and Sure Thing.
Lawrence
Everglade
Mule Musiq
The Hamburg-based artist and Dial label co-founder Peter Kersten, better known as Lawrence, brings blooming ambient sounds and improvisation on his fourth studio album, "Birds On The Playground," for Japan's Mule Musiq. Drawing inspiration from Studio Mule, the audiophile bar recently opened in Tokyo by Mule Musiq head Toshiya Kawasaki, Lawrence’s nine-track record is a bright collection of eloquence.
"Toshiya's wine and listening bar was the inspiration for the project," Lawrence reveals in the press release. "I followed the idea of listening to music in this (for me imaginary) place on a magic vintage sound system, slightly drunk with an always special drink in my hand! The music is therefore also very eccentric and 'tipsy,' improvised on acoustic instruments, synthesizers, and computer, combined with recordings I did in Berlin's Central Tiergarten Park."
The third track, "Everglade," is a masterfully crafted journey of bassline-driven dreamy grooves combining twinkling melodies, gauzy ambient textures, and atmospheres.
Valentino Mora
Inhalation
Spazio Disponibile
Spazio Disponibile is the Italian record label run by Donatto Dozzi and Neel. Their latest release welcomes Valentino Mora back for a debut full-length album' Underwater.' Finding a delicate balance between enigmatic minimalism and twisted drone-infused rhythms, the Berlin-based artist creates an album that enthralls the listener from start to finish.
Embracing a dark and ominous atmosphere, "Inhalation" is a strikingly immersive listening experience built from distant sounds, sinister drone textures, and the mystery of stark hypnotizing beauty.
Toki Fuko
Convey Sense Of A Being
Lowless
Russian producer Toki Fuko delivers his first album, "Human Design" for Parisian record label Lowless, weaving boundaries between experimental and organic sounds. The record is Toki Fuko's second outing on the label following his contribution to the Rhizome 03 compilation series. Full of hypnotic rhythms and reflective harmonies, Toki Fuko pursues a delicate line across eight tracks that leads the listener to deeper regions of awakening introspection.
"Convey Sense Of A Being" is a tranquil and meditative musical journey comprising subtle melodies, immersive soundscapes, and quietly ethereal electronics that seem to appear from deep within a dream connecting the imagination and universe.
Atoloi
Chiusura
Sure Thing
Sure Thing imprint continues its musical journey into 2021 with its third release from Milano-based producer Atoloi. Entitled "Inflorescenze", the nine-track album offers a meditative reflection on the subtle panoramic ambiance and spheric, multi-dimensional rhythms all arranged as one logical flow. The label describes the album as "a meditative work that reflects upon the tension that arises from polarity: nature and the city-bound sphere of clubbing, weight, and levity, the internal world of the artist and his external environment. Inflorescenze moves like a living, breathing organism, or like one undifferentiated process: a circuit with no end and no beginning."
On "Chiusura," Atoloi paints a tranquil yet dystopian musical landscape deluged of obscure drones, ambient textures, and chiming bells drifting between the dark and enigmatic sounds.
Javier Marimon and Oslon
T'alch'um 탈춤
Oslated
South Korean influential record label Oslated celebrates its 5th anniversary with the various artist compilation album "Oslated 5th Anniversary Compilation." The vast and diverse collection of fourteen tracks focused on the obscure fringes of deep and atmospheric techno featuring music from Adhèmar, Javier Marimon, Elle, Yukari Okamura, Einox, Bumho, Alfred Czital, Eyvind Blix, Doltz, Asllan, Giuseppe Falivene, Unjin, Sanjib, The Alchemical Theory and the label founder Oslon.
"T'alch'um 탈춤," a track by Spanish producer Javier Marimon and Oslated label boss Oslon, delves into a realm of sonic beauty and darkness with washes of foreboding ambiance and icy suspense.
Baaz
Untitled 2
Office Recordings
Berlin-based veteran producer Bastian Völker, better known as Baaz, returns to the foreground of electronic music's vast landscape with a brand new EP released through his own imprint, Office Recordings. "Untitled OR018" is a beautiful record highlighting an artist's creative approach to music and offers an evolving textural exploration into realms of microhouse and deep techno.
"Untitled 2" is floating on a subtly broken minimal percussive rhythm, channeling the pulsating energy that strikes through with its warm pads and distant breeze of synth sounds.
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SoundCloud
Two Shell
Soft Core
Livity Sound
After an impressive debut of 2019's "Access" EP, the enigmatic producers Two Shell return to Bristol-based Livity Sound with their sophomore effort, "SoulCity" EP. The four-track record "expands their sonic utopia, injecting early dubstep and grime influences with their signature optimistic digital futurism for maximum dancefloor effect," the label describes.
The second track on the record, "Soft Core," employs a futuristic approach with blossoming breakbeat rhythms, twisted bassline, and a captivating atmosphere that consumes the listener in a bubble of euphoric bliss.
Upsammy
Flutter
Dekmantel
Rising Dutch producer Upsammy revealed her colorful new EP following 2020's debut album 'Zoom.'
Entitled 'Bend,' the collection of four tracks exhibits a vibrant ability to blend "the floral and martial" sounds ornamented with delicate filigree patterns and subtle contrasts in metallic texture and tone.
The opening track "Flutter" collages coated in metallic texture bell sounds, leftfield influenced rhythms, and iridescent ambiance into a stunningly sophisticated voyage full of futuristic impressionism.
Ivress
Borderline
Green Sand Records
Paris-based musician Ivress releases his first single
"Borderline" with the Green Sand Records record label. "Previously known as a movie and advertising soundtracks producer, Ivress completely changed his creative process during the 2020 lockdown," described in the press release. "The Parisian producer dove into the analog synthesizers and hardware worlds where he entirely freed himself from all the current trends and his commissioned work with one goal: to create more spontaneously music that reflects his personality."
"Borderline" gives a glimpse of Ivress's upcoming "Vertige" EP, set to be released in Spring 2021. The gorgeous track swims effortlessly in a warm flow of emotive analog synth filled with melancholic flourishes that ebb and flow in perfect tandem.
Alex Albrecht
The Summit with Ziggy Zeitgeist
Analogue Attic
Australian imprint Analogue Attic presents a debut solo album from the label co-founder Alex Albrecht. Entitled the "Campfire Stories," the ten-track album is an enchanting fusion of field recordings, elegant piano melodies, and electronics that displays various colors and moods ranging from warm new-age style to ambient electronica.
In the artist's own words, the album "explores dreams, the unconscious and the intertwining of feelings and memory. Interspersed field recordings lend to the fragmented way people recall experiences. It is a narrative in which the listener is encouraged to attach their own thoughts and impressions to the soundscapes."
"The project is a gapless album, intended to be listened from start to finish and welcomes a number of collaborations throughout with the likes of 30/70's Allysha Joy and Ziggy Zeitgeist (ZFEX), Thomas Gray, Carla Oliver (Badskin) as well as long-time musical partner and co-label head, Sean La'Brooy."
"The Summit with Ziggy Zeitgeist" is a dazzling collaboration between Alex Albrecht and Australian producer and percussionist Ziggy Zeitgeist. Drawing from an amalgam of atmospheric soundscapes, soft synth pads, and expressive percussive rhythms, the eighth track on the album absorbs the listener into an immersive world of dreamy imagination.