Coming soon… blochemy – sen

Here’s the second of two physical releases set to drop in June; ‘sen‘ by Ostrava, Czech Republic based artist blochemy, who some may recall from his past Whitelabrecs releases aithem and nebe. This album is full of wobbly summer tape drones, created from guitar and field recordings. It will be available officially in a run of 100 CDrs in our signature gatefold vinyl-effect sleeves. The album will be out officially on Saturday the 10th of June after a pre-order on the 3rd of June. If you follow us on Bandcamp (Click HERE) we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear.

press release
“This new album by blochemy is the third album edition we’ve released, following 2020’s ‘nebe’ and 2021’s ‘aithem’. This artist, hailing from Czech Republic also contributed the 21st edition of our Home Diaries series, and has music available through other labels such as Krysalisound, Shimmering Moods, Hibernate, Clean Error Records and Sun Sea Sky Production.

Active in electronic music production since the mid-1990s and inspired by intelligent music forms such as IDM and Ambient, the blochemy sound is created inside a small home studio, as a means of escapism and self-expression. As such, experimentation and creativity is the driving force behind his sound and so themes and concepts take a back-step. Simple, singular word track titles serve as cryptic hints of fractured ideas, to accompany a faded filigree minimalism.

In ‘sen’, blochemy used electric guitar, field recordings and tapes, as well as hardware and software to develop this set of nine melancholy reveries. The album name translates to mean dream in Czech and whilst this is not a clearly defined concept, the hazy sound reflects the artist’s love of sleeping, and dreaming to ambient music late at night. Whether it’s the low-end hum that pulls you into slumber, the nostalgic summer field recordings or shimmering tape noise, this one’s likely to be a go-to ‘music for sleeping’ album.

credits

Written and produced by Andy Cartwright
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Photography by Andy Cartwright
Art and design by Andrew Heath

Coming soon… Andy Cartwright – Below the Noise

Here’s the first of two physical releases set to drop in June; ‘Below the Noise‘ by Andy Cartwright, who some may recall records as Seabuckthorn. This album is a more electronic-leaning record, than you may have come to expect from Andy, recorded under his own name. It features layered field recordings, synth drones and side-chained noise tracks, which result in a ghostly bed of crackly microsound. It will be available officially in a run of 100 CDrs in our signature gatefold vinyl-effect sleeves. The album will be out officially on Saturday the 10th of June after a pre-order on the 3rd of June. If you follow us on Bandcamp (Click HERE) we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear.

press release
“Andy Cartwright is an artist originally from Oxfordshire, UK who currently resides in the French Alps. Alongside his other projects Seabuckthorn and Mt Went, Andy’s work has been released through labels including Bookmaker Records, Lost Tribe Sound, Eilean, IIKKI, Fluid Audio, A Quiet Room Recording and, LAAPS. Andy’s taste in music flits between guitar-based bands and electronica; these sources of inspiration led to him creating electronic music under his own name since 2021 alongside the more acoustic-leaning work.

In this album, Andy departed from the more traditional song-writing style, in which he would normally play riffs and chords on a guitar before developing the composition. Instead, he headed straight for the computer. ‘Below the Noise’ is a series of microsound collages, built upon layered field recordings, synth drones and noises. Field recordings were captured on his phone, loaded into Ableton and then processed with lo-fi effects. Additional synth sounds were added and side-chained to a heavy noise track, which was muted. This reduced the track down almost into a microsound, which left lots of air and ghost fragments in the mix.

Andy was intrigued by the idea of filtering out all the harsh noise, as a mix technique to thin out the sounds. From here, the process led to the album’s name and overall concept. Traces of the original sound source can only be imagined, as it sits below the noise. The reduction method leaves us with this collection of dusty ambient drones, imbued with satisfying static and crackly ASMR textures.

credits

Written and produced by Andy Cartwright
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Photography by Andy Cartwright
Art and design by Andrew Heath

new mix show! vervine004

It’s been a while again since our last one – here’s the latest Vervine show which as usual, is hosted by our label owner Harry Towell.

This fourth show in the series includes recent Whitelabrecs pieces from the likes of The Dead Bell, Yuya Ota, Tum Tum, Bledi Boraku and Mardit B. Lleshi, Philipp Bückle and Martijn Pieck, Matteo Cantaluppi, Glåsbird and a track from Andy Cartwright’s forthcoming album ‘Beyond the Noise’. It also features plenty of other ambient music, some folk, indie, downtempo, disco and electronica.

The cover artwork for this one was taken on a visit to Burghley House in Stamford, through a small round portal with a green colour filter. The sun-worn colours are apt as we move into summer!

Here’s a mini player/link to the show which you can check out on Mixcloud:



Tracklist:
01 ElodieVent Blanc
02 Bledi Boraku – Mardit B. Lleshi Tema
03 Matteo Cantaluppi Messian
04 David Cordero Oma
05 Andy Cartwright – Mended Environment
06 North Americans The Nighthawks Are Our
07 Philipp Bückle & Martijn Pieck Grains
08 Wil Bolton Of Ruins
09 Tum Tum Twenty Seven
10 Seabuckthorn What was once
11 Lucinda Chua Golden
12 Observatories Sapphire Waters
13 blochemy sien
14 The Dead Bell Forgotten Reveries
15 Hummingbird Turrēs
16 Yuya Ota Daydream
17 Glåsbird Inyeug
18 John Haycock Nyonks Jarabi
19 Fabiano do Nascimento with Arthur Verocai and Vittor Santos’ Orquestra Fonte
20 Meg BairdStar Hill Song
21 Ruby GoonCold Wind
22 Hagan Textures
23 Vicmari With Or Without (ft. Shiloh)
24 FenomenomOut Of Control
25 Pharoahs Invisible Mile
26 Pools Penwick Pool
27 Roman Rauch Bumble Beat
28 Rim Kwaku Obeng Believe In Yourself

eRecord019 Henrik Meierkord – Cello Improvisations

Today we have a new edition in our digital-only series, eRecords!
‘Cello Improvisations’ is a short collection of cello improvisations by Stockholm, Sweden based cellist and composer Henrik Meierkord.

eRecords is a digital record series created by Whitelabrecs, to run alongside our physical releases. These editions aim to transform the digital format into something that can be experienced in a similar way to a listener’s interaction with a real, white label vinyl record. Each edition includes a special PDF scrapbook including polaroids and liner notes.

We do not publish details about the concepts or production methods of a release so that the liner notes and content in each scrapbook will reveal the background of each edition in the series.

catalog: eR019
artist: Henrik Meierkord
release title: Cello Improvisations
release type: EP
location: Stockholm, Sweden

released may 20, 2023

Written and produced by Henrik Meierkord
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Cover artwork by Henrik Meierkord
Art and design Andrew Heath

You can find out more information about eRecords in our landing page link, below:

Out Now! Tum Tum – A Tree Hollow

Also new for May is ‘A Tree Hollow‘ by Texas, USA based composer John Paul Thompson who records as Tum Tum. This record is a conceptual album in which there are three movements and nine tracks. It is inspired by both by Dr. Li Wenliang who became prominent in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the artist’s own personal experiences. This album is out now in a run of 100 CDrs, in our signature gatefold vinyl-effect packaging. If you follow us on Bandcamp (Click HERE) we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear about future releases. Or you can become a subscriber and receive our monthly newsletters by clicking HERE

press release
“Tum Tum is the project of composer John Paul Thompson, who is based in Texas, United States. He is from a family of musicians and began his own journey with the violin at the age of 8 before moving on to guitar, piano, and eventually synthesis and sound design. John Paul also previously ran an independent record label called Pandarosa Records, producing multiple albums and performing alongside several acts in the label’s roster.

Wider artistic initiatives also play a key part in John Paul’s work, with his enthusiasm for photography and his work in music licensing with Chicago-based Comma Music. He is also co-founder of Easyside, an arts + food non-profit working in East Fort Worth. This wider creative lens transforms the series of compositions in this album ‘A Tree Hollow’, into a conceptual album in which there are three movements and nine tracks.

The backstory of this record is told by John Paul in the following album introduction:

“I heard the term ‘a tree hollow’ described in a radio story memorializing the death of Dr. Li Wenliang one year after he passed due to COVID-19. Dr. Li had been the first to sound the alarm and he died of the virus in the nascent days of the global pandemic. “You find a tree hollow in the forest and seal your written secret in there so you can feel better,” Huang Zhisheng, a professor and researcher at the Free University Amsterdam explained of the Chinese tradition. Since his death Dr Li’s lingering social media presence had posthumously transformed, and people were sealing messages on his unattended page – ‘Will I pass my graduate exams tomorrow, Dr. Li?’ – ‘Dr. Li, I pet a cute orange cat today! I’m happy!’ – ‘I can’t’ – ‘I don’t understand.’

In 2018, as I prepared to move away from Chicago with my wife and daughter to rejoin family in Texas, we received news of a friend’s disappearance, then of their death. We pushed the move date forward to make it to the funeral and made a hasty goodbye to our home. Two months later we learned of our niece’s death, stillborn within weeks of her due date. Shortly after that funeral, a family fracture emerged that cast a dark shadow of doubt over our decision to leave Chicago.

In the oppressive Texas rains of late 2018, I began rebuilding a studio in the spare bedroom. As we emerged from grief, as family bonds were slowly restored, as trust in others and ourselves was replenished, and as we found focus and budding purpose in our Fort Worth community, I began writing these pieces – for myself. I eventually decided to share a few of the tracks in early 2019 but ended up sitting on the work for over two years, first delayed by my own self-doubt and then by the cataclysms of 2020. In the face of such global and systemic tragedies, what could I say?

It wasn’t until I heard the story of Dr. Li in February of 2021 that I found a renewed interest in this project. These pieces had been a tree hollow in the forest, into which I had sealed my secrets so that I could feel better. That was enough for me, but moreover, I found hope that there might be enough room in them into which an audience might place their own secrets.

credits

Written, produced and mastered by John Paul Thompson
Cover artwork by John Paul Thompson – john-paul.xyz
Art and design by Andrew Heath

Packaging photos

Here’s a glimpse of the packaging files, which you can see via the slideshow below:

Out Now! Mardit B. Lleshi – Bledi Boraku – Saggio

Our next release is ‘Saggio‘ by Mardit B. Lleshi and Bledi Boraku which is a collaborative album from these two Albanian musicians. The album combines Bledi’s electric guitar tones with the timbres of Mardit’s cello compositions. The minimalist artwork of a dimly lit church shot from outside at night, reflects the imposing yet inviting nature of the music. This album is out now in a run of 100 CDrs, in our signature gatefold vinyl-effect packaging. If you follow us on Bandcamp (Click HERE) we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear about future releases. Or you can become a subscriber and receive our monthly newsletters by clicking HERE

press release
“In this album we welcome Albanian musicians and artists Bledi Boraku and Mardit B. Lleshi, with their album called ‘Saggio’. Their work together combines Bledi’s electric guitar tones with Mardit’s textured cello timbres. Whilst they work together regularly in live performances, this album is their official debut release.

The album was performed and recorded live, capturing the acoustics of the room as a key component of this record. This gives the album another dimension from contemporary classical music, which tends to be produced pristinely, with high-end mixing equipment. There is a balance of darkness and warmth throughout these pieces, which play through seamlessly as one continuous listen.

The impression is given of a live concert, perhaps inside a dimly-lit church as depicted by Benet Nelku’s cover artwork. The grandeur of the church from the outside dark alongside the power of the music is imposing, yet inviting. Inside, a charm and character unravels; Peter Nejedly’s photo in the CD sleeve shows a tired old roof with its dusty beams. Tales from the centuries would be told, if these beams could speak. Instead, the music beams through in the detailed layers of Saggio, a word which translates to ‘wise’.

credits

Composed, performed & recorded by
Bledi Boraku (electric guitar) – Mardit B. Lleshi (cello)
Tirana, Albania
Mixed by Dritëro Nikqi – Studio C (Prishtinë)
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Front image – photo by Benet Nelku
Inner image – photo by Peter Nejedly
Design by Andrew Heath

Packaging photos

Here’s a glimpse of the packaging files, which you can see via the slideshow below:

eRecord018 Philipp Bückle & Martijn Pieck – A Storm Is Any Disturbed State Of An Environment

Today we have a new edition in our digital-only series, eRecords!
‘A Storm Is Any Disturbed State Of An Environment’ is a collaborative album by Philipp Bückle and Martijn Pieck, a noise and minimalist influenced Ambient album.

eRecords is a digital record series created by Whitelabrecs, to run alongside our physical releases. These editions aim to transform the digital format into something that can be experienced in a similar way to a listener’s interaction with a real, white label vinyl record. Each edition includes a special PDF scrapbook including polaroids and liner notes.

We do not publish details about the concepts or production methods of a release so that the liner notes and content in each scrapbook will reveal the background of each edition in the series.

catalog: eR018
artist: Philipp Bückle & Martijn Pieck
release title: A Storm Is Any Disturbed State Of An Environment
release type: Album
location: Dortmund, Germany / Utrecht, Netherlands

released april 22, 2023

Written, produced and mastered by Matteo Cantaluppi

Written, produced and mastered by Philipp Bückle & Martijn Pieck
Artwork by Martijn Pieck
Design by Harry Towell

You can find out more information about eRecords in our landing page link, below: