Tag: Drone

Out Now! Mikael Lind & S.hel + Rachel Jutková – RAMMI

Today we’re proud to launch our new digital series called <facets> in collaboration with Art North Magazine. This series will involve a range of composers and sound artists, teaming up with talented visual artists, for an audio-visual release. For this first edition, we welcome back Icelandic artists Mikael Lind and S.hel who both released solo albums on Whitelabrecs last year. They’ve been paired with Slovakian painter and artist Rachel Jutková who took her one metre square painting out into the fields to shoot photographs of it, which placed the art in a new ‘frame’. RAMMI is coincidentally the Icelandic word for frame, as Mikael and Sævar re-contextualised piano sounds within the plush surroundings of Valgeir Sigurðsson‘s renowned Greenhouse Studios.

Each <facets> edition will include either an EP or album of music available in a range of high quality audiophile formats, accompanied by a work of art as the cover image and a booklet PDF which contains art, profile imagery, background information and an interview, featuring both the sonic and visual artist.

RAMMI is released today, Saturday the 24th of April with no pre-order. If you join our mailing list , we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear about future editions.


press release
“<facets> is an audio-visual series, co-curated between Whitelabrecs and Art North Magazine. This collection provides a space in our catalog for digital music, in which we aim to provide more than a few mp3s and a low resolution square image. Each edition of <facets> is pitched equally at both your eyes and ears. Sonic and visual textures overlap as we pair musicians, composers or sound designers with painters, sculptors or photographers. The work includes the music in a range of formats, specially created visual artwork and a PDF art booklet containing imagery, interviews and liner notes. Our collective aim is to create a coherent work of cross-media art, where the creative outputs of a sonic artist and a visual artist complement each other as a singular creative output.

In this inaugural edition of <facets> we welcome back two artists from Iceland who each released solo albums with us in 2020. This four track EP combines the contemporary modern classical work of Mikael Lind with the prepared-piano sound of S.hel. ‘RAMMI’ was recorded at Valgeir Sigurdsson’s Greenhouse studios in Reykjavik. The collaboration is complete with Fine Art BA (Hons) student Rachel Jutková, who has contributed her painting ‘Morning fog and walking on painting’. This is a mixed-media intuitive painting which was created in her studio and then later placed outdoors in a foggy field.

‘RAMMI’ is Icelandic for frame and this takes on its loose meaning to reflect the processing and techniques of the pianos that Mikael and S.hel created, as they aimed to extend beyond the framework of piano music. The rearrangement of the recorded sounds is also reflected in the track titles, as the letters of RAMMI are shuffled to give way to new meanings. This links into Rachel’s idea of placing her work outside of its usual context, physically, to allow for alternative meanings to be reflected upon.”


credits
Music: Mikael Lind & S.hel
Mastering: James Edward Armstrong
Art Direction & Editing: Ian McKay
Additional Camera Work: Rachel Jutková

Featured artwork by Rachel Jutková: ‘Morning fog, walking on painting’ 100 x 100 cm, 2021

Music & Artwork © 2021, The Artists (Mikael Lind, Sævar Helgi Jóhannsson, Rachel Jutková), All Rights Reserved. Video ℗ by Art North Projects. Music ℗ by Whitelabrecs, 2021

Project Curators: Harry Towell (Music) & Ian McKay (Visual Art)

whitelabrecs.com
whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com
artnorth-projects.org

mikaellind.com
facebook.com/shelmusik
instagram.com/racheljutka

Coming soon… Mikael Lind & S.hel + Rachel Jutková – RAMMI

We’re excited to unveil a short preview of the very first edition in a new digital series called <facets> in which we’ll be collaborating with Art North Magazine. This series will involve a range of composers and sound artists, teaming up with talented visual artists, for an audio-visual release. First up, we welcome back Icelandic artists Mikael Lind and S.hel who both released solo albums on Whitelabrecs last year. They’ve been paired with Slovakian painter and artist Rachel Jutková who took her metre square work out into the fields to shoot photographs of it, which placed the art in a new ‘frame’. RAMMI is coincidentally the Icelandic word for frame, as Mikael and Sævar re-contextualised piano sounds within the plush surroundings of Valgeir Sigurðsson‘s renowned Greenhouse Studios.

Each <facets> edition will include either an EP or album of music available in a range of high quality audiophile formats, accompanied by a work of art as the cover image and a booklet PDF which contains art, profile imagery, background information and an interview, featuring both the sonic and visual artist.

RAMMI will be released on Saturday the 24th of April with no pre-order. If you join our mailing list using the link below, we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear.

press release
“<facets> is an audio-visual series, co-curated between Whitelabrecs and Art North Magazine. This collection provides a space in our catalog for digital music, in which we aim to provide more than a few mp3s and a low resolution square image. Each edition of <facets> is pitched equally at both your eyes and ears. Sonic and visual textures overlap as we pair musicians, composers or sound designers with painters, sculptors or photographers. The work includes the music in a range of formats, specially created visual artwork and a PDF art booklet containing imagery, interviews and liner notes. Our collective aim is to create a coherent work of cross-media art, where the creative outputs of a sonic artist and a visual artist complement each other as a singular creative output.

In this inaugural edition of <facets> we welcome back two artists from Iceland who each released solo albums with us in 2020. This four track EP combines the contemporary modern classical work of Mikael Lind with the prepared-piano sound of S.hel. ‘RAMMI’ was recorded at Valgeir Sigurdsson’s Greenhouse studios in Reykjavik. The collaboration is complete with Fine Art BA (Hons) student Rachel Jutková, who has contributed her painting ‘Morning fog and walking on painting’. This is a mixed-media intuitive painting which was created in her studio and then later placed outdoors in a foggy field.

‘RAMMI’ is Icelandic for frame and this takes on its loose meaning to reflect the processing and techniques of the pianos that Mikael and S.hel created, as they aimed to extend beyond the framework of piano music. The rearrangement of the recorded sounds is also reflected in the track titles, as the letters of RAMMI are shuffled to give way to new meanings. This links into Rachel’s idea of placing her work outside of its usual context, physically, to allow for alternative meanings to be reflected upon.“

credits
Music: Mikael Lind & S.hel
Mastering: James Edward Armstrong
Art Direction & Editing: Ian McKay
Additional Camera Work: Rachel Jutková

Featured artwork by Rachel Jutková: ‘Morning fog, walking on painting’ 100 x 100 cm, 2021

Music & Artwork © 2021, The Artists (Mikael Lind, Sævar Helgi Jóhannsson, Rachel Jutková), All Rights Reserved. Video ℗ by Art North Projects. Music ℗ by Whitelabrecs, 2021

Project Curators: Harry Towell (Music) & Ian McKay (Visual Art)

whitelabrecs.com
whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com
artnorth-projects.org

mikaellind.com
facebook.com/shelmusik
instagram.com/racheljutka

Out Now! Spheruleus – Canvas Homes + Supplémentaires

The second of our new releases for March out today, sees the return of our label owner Harry Towell as Spheruleus. Harry has not released a CD on his label since 2016’s Obsolarium and with Canvas Homes + Supplémentaires he presents a double album of lockdown sound diaries. Some may recall Canvas Homes from Harry’s Home Diaries edition but 2nd Disc Supplémentaires is a new album, created during November’s lockdown mark II.

This limited edition double CDr edition uses photographs Harry captured during family walks as cover artwork and the sounds within these records cover field recordings, acoustic instrument sketches, household sounds and orchestral tones.

Whitelabrecs low-run releases are likely to sell out fast. The best way to keep informed is to join our mailing list which can be located through our website menu or you can click HERE

press release
“Spheruleus is Lincolnshire, UK based artist Harry Towell, who also runs Whitelabrecs and records alongside his brother Stuart as Paper Relics. Harry has been active in the modern Ambient music scene for over a decade and has released works with labels such as Eilean, Hibernate, Home Normal and Time Released Sound. His output on his own imprint has been scarce however, limited to one CD edition ‘Obsolarium’, released back in 2016.

We launched last year’s digital Home Diaries series off the back of ‘Canvas Homes’ which was a sonic diary of life at home during lockdown. The recording for this album began around 1 year ago with three key sound elements: field recordings, sketches made using acoustic instruments and MIDI keyboard arrangements. The sketches were all captured during brief 1-2 minute recordings to an iPhone whilst in his daughter Isla’s playroom. She unwittingly became part of the album and a positive constant during the strange events that were unfolding across the spring and summer. Walks out into local parks and woodlands became a source of field recordings and a connection to the natural world. Then evenings were a time of reflection and processing, as the sounds captured were orchestrated into tracks.

In November another lockdown was announced and Harry decided to repeat the process as a compare and contrast from his original process. The idea to create a second album began with the assembly of a new item of furniture for Isla’s room which arrived from France. A bag of spare fixings was labelled ‘Supplémentaires’ and Harry decided to set about a series of additional recordings with a view to release it as part of a double album. This time, the weather had turned cold resulting in a different lockdown altogether, with more time spent indoors. Isla had grown considerably in the space of just 6 months and her speech was much clearer. A familiarity with the ‘new normal’ also seems to have translated into the music, with longer, cosier tracks drawing out the winter months. There are more moments of calm and warmth; ‘les dormeurs’ was created at low volume one afternoon, as the household napped. ‘notre cocon’ establishes a sleepy comfort in the descent towards the festive period before ‘le résumé’ plays out a recollection of the year 2020, with Harry using every field recording he’d captured during this most eventful of years. The cover photograph was captured during a family walk in the summer; a reflective gaze into the local ‘Bourne Eau’.“

credits
Written and produced by Harry Towell
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Artwork and design by Harry Towell

Out Now! Andrew Heath & Anne Chris Bakker – How To Breathe Like A Stone

Today we released two new CDs and in the first we have an exciting collaboration between UK’s Andrew Heath and Anne Chris Bakker from the Netherlands. Their next album ‘How To Breathe Like A Stone‘ will be out this Saturday the 20th of March and is an album full of acoustic warmth from real life improvisations, recorded environments and reel to reel tape, yet it also feels lulling, drifting and very ambient.

This limited edition CDr edition makes use of photography provided by Renske Zijlstra as well as packaging art and design by Andrew himself. As a special gift from the artists, there are 25 hand-numbered prints which will be included with the first 25 CDs purchased.

Our low-run releases will be made available suddenly without official release dates, meaning they’re likely to sell out fast. The best way to keep informed is to join our mailing list which can be located through our website menu or you can click HERE

 

press release
“‘How to breathe like a stone’ is the third release from the ongoing collaboration between Dutch, ambient and experimental guitarist Anne Chris Bakker and British, minimal pianist Andrew Heath. Their work charts a slow moving, lower case journey inspired by place and process. Combining tonal washes and textural recordings, punctuated by pointillist piano and guitar notes to produce music that creates an ephemeral, dreamlike state.

Previous releases have been on Chihei Hatakeyama’s small Japanese label, White Paddy Mountain (Lichtzin) and the English, tape cassette label, Rusted Tone Recordings (A Gift for the Ephemerist).
Having been aware of each other’s music, Chris and Andrew finally met when Andrew invited Chris to play in the UK’s Resound festival several years ago. This cemented a friendship and mutual admiration of each other’s music. Various visits to both The Netherlands and the UK offered opportunities to record and improvise together before a file exchanging process followed, allowing their work to be edited and further refined.

Both artists are experienced performers and collaborators, with Andrew having played at Iceland’s Extreme Chill festival and working with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Toby Marks; Chris Has performed with the trio Kleefstra/Bakker/Kleefstra, touring Europe and Japan.

How To Breathe Like A Stone utilises Chris’s mainstay, the guitar, often processed with a huge 20 second delay and placed alongside Andrew’s piano and electronic sounds. Two different church pianos were used for their natural tones, one recorded in Noordlaren and the other in the village of Sheepscombe. Additional textures derived from field recordings and reel to reel tape machines, providing a layer of subtle detail to complete the aesthetic. One of the more unusual recordings on the album was made at the Kröller Müller museum in The Netherlands in the large sculpture room. The sun outside was causing the building to emit various quiet creaks and clicks, amplified by the acoustics of the space. It was as if the weather had its own improvised response to the collaboration, creating further notable moments that became woven into this story of chance.

This album does not have a mapped out concept, more that it uses the artist’s evident love of process and improvisation as a springboard into their sound world. It is hoped that the listener will pause to absorb this environment, both contemplating and losing track of time.“

credits
Written and produced by Andrew Heath and Anne Chris Bakker
Acoustic and Electric Pianos, Electronics, Treatments and Field Recordings by Andrew Heath
Guitars, Electronics, Tape Manipulation and Field Recordings by Anne Chris Bakker
Artwork by Andrew Heath
Cover Photography by Renske Zijlstra

Coming soon…Spheruleus – Canvas Homes + Supplémentaires

The second of our new releases for March sees the return of our label owner Harry Towell as Spheruleus. Harry has not released a CD on his label since 2016’s Obsolarium and with Canvas Homes + Supplémentaires he presents a double album of lockdown sound diaries. Some may recall Canvas Homes from Harry’s Home Diaries edition but 2nd Disc Supplémentaires is a new album, created during November’s lockdown mark II.

This limited edition double CDr edition uses photographs Harry captured during family walks as cover artwork and the sounds within these records cover field recordings, acoustic instrument sketches, household sounds and orchestral tones.

The album will be released on Saturday the 20th of March with no pre-order. If you join our mailing list using the link below, we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear.

Whitelabrecs low-run releases are likely to sell out fast. The best way to keep informed is to join our mailing list which can be located through our website menu or you can click HERE

press release
“Spheruleus is Lincolnshire, UK based artist Harry Towell, who also runs Whitelabrecs and records alongside his brother Stuart as Paper Relics. Harry has been active in the modern Ambient music scene for over a decade and has released works with labels such as Eilean, Hibernate, Home Normal and Time Released Sound. His output on his own imprint has been scarce however, limited to one CD edition ‘Obsolarium’, released back in 2016.

We launched last year’s digital Home Diaries series off the back of ‘Canvas Homes’ which was a sonic diary of life at home during lockdown. The recording for this album began around 1 year ago with three key sound elements: field recordings, sketches made using acoustic instruments and MIDI keyboard arrangements. The sketches were all captured during brief 1-2 minute recordings to an iPhone whilst in his daughter Isla’s playroom. She unwittingly became part of the album and a positive constant during the strange events that were unfolding across the spring and summer. Walks out into local parks and woodlands became a source of field recordings and a connection to the natural world. Then evenings were a time of reflection and processing, as the sounds captured were orchestrated into tracks.

In November another lockdown was announced and Harry decided to repeat the process as a compare and contrast from his original process. The idea to create a second album began with the assembly of a new item of furniture for Isla’s room which arrived from France. A bag of spare fixings was labelled ‘Supplémentaires’ and Harry decided to set about a series of additional recordings with a view to release it as part of a double album. This time, the weather had turned cold resulting in a different lockdown altogether, with more time spent indoors. Isla had grown considerably in the space of just 6 months and her speech was much clearer. A familiarity with the ‘new normal’ also seems to have translated into the music, with longer, cosier tracks drawing out the winter months. There are more moments of calm and warmth; ‘les dormeurs’ was created at low volume one afternoon, as the household napped. ‘notre cocon’ establishes a sleepy comfort in the descent towards the festive period before ‘le résumé’ plays out a recollection of the year 2020, with Harry using every field recording he’d captured during this most eventful of years. The cover photograph was captured during a family walk in the summer; a reflective gaze into the local ‘Bourne Eau’.“

credits
Written and produced by Harry Towell
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Artwork and design by Harry Towell

Coming soon…Andrew Heath & Anne Chris Bakker – How To Breathe Like A Stone

It’s about time that we released some more CDs and next we welcome an exciting collaboration between UK’s Andrew Heath and Anne Chris Bakker from the Netherlands. Their next album ‘How To Breathe Like A Stone‘ will be out this Saturday the 20th of March and is an album full of acoustic warmth from real life improvisations, recorded environments and reel to reel tape, yet it also feels lulling, drifting and very ambient.

This limited edition CDr edition makes use of photography provided by Renske Zijlstra as well as packaging art and design by Andrew himself. As a special gift from the artists, there are 25 hand-numbered prints which will be included with the first 25 CDs purchased.

The album will be released on Saturday the 20th of March with no pre-order. If you join our mailing list using the link below, we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear.

Whitelabrecs low-run releases are likely to sell out fast. The best way to keep informed is to join our mailing list which can be located through our website menu or you can click HERE

press release
“‘How to breathe like a stone’ is the third release from the ongoing collaboration between Dutch, ambient and experimental guitarist Anne Chris Bakker and British, minimal pianist Andrew Heath. Their work charts a slow moving, lower case journey inspired by place and process. Combining tonal washes and textural recordings, punctuated by pointillist piano and guitar notes to produce music that creates an ephemeral, dreamlike state.

Previous releases have been on Chihei Hatakeyama’s small Japanese label, White Paddy Mountain (Lichtzin) and the English, tape cassette label, Rusted Tone Recordings (A Gift for the Ephemerist).
Having been aware of each other’s music, Chris and Andrew finally met when Andrew invited Chris to play in the UK’s Resound festival several years ago. This cemented a friendship and mutual admiration of each other’s music. Various visits to both The Netherlands and the UK offered opportunities to record and improvise together before a file exchanging process followed, allowing their work to be edited and further refined.

Both artists are experienced performers and collaborators, with Andrew having played at Iceland’s Extreme Chill festival and working with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Toby Marks; Chris Has performed with the trio Kleefstra/Bakker/Kleefstra, touring Europe and Japan.

How To Breathe Like A Stone utilises Chris’s mainstay, the guitar, often processed with a huge 20 second delay and placed alongside Andrew’s piano and electronic sounds. Two different church pianos were used for their natural tones, one recorded in Noordlaren and the other in the village of Sheepscombe. Additional textures derived from field recordings and reel to reel tape machines, providing a layer of subtle detail to complete the aesthetic. One of the more unusual recordings on the album was made at the Kröller Müller museum in The Netherlands in the large sculpture room. The sun outside was causing the building to emit various quiet creaks and clicks, amplified by the acoustics of the space. It was as if the weather had its own improvised response to the collaboration, creating further notable moments that became woven into this story of chance.

This album does not have a mapped out concept, more that it uses the artist’s evident love of process and improvisation as a springboard into their sound world. It is hoped that the listener will pause to absorb this environment, both contemplating and losing track of time.“

credits
Written and produced by Andrew Heath and Anne Chris Bakker
Acoustic and Electric Pianos, Electronics, Treatments and Field Recordings by Andrew Heath
Guitars, Electronics, Tape Manipulation and Field Recordings by Anne Chris Bakker
Artwork by Andrew Heath
Cover Photography by Renske Zijlstra

Out Now! James Osland & Finn Kelvin – Don’t Worry, I’m With You

Our physical editions for 2021 begin with a the return of a collaboration between James Osland and Finn Kelvin. Previous releases have appeared on Kate Carr’s Flaming Pines and our sister netlabel Audio Gourmet. Their new album ‘Don’t Worry, I’m With You‘ will be out this Saturday the 20th of February and features a collection of deep treated drones, improvised guitar sounds fed through a series of bespoke pedals.

This limited edition CDr edition makes use of photography provided by Peter Nejedly, in our sleek minimal design template, new for 2021, complete with a vinyl-effect disc.

Our low-run releases will be made available suddenly without official release dates, meaning they’re likely to sell out fast. The best way to keep informed is to join our mailing list which can be located through our website menu or you can click HERE

press release
“Don’t Worry I’m With You is a new collaborative album between James Osland and Finn Kelvin who first met one another at Bath Spa University, UK. They initially performed as part of the Elm Collective before releasing an EP under their respective names, on our sister netlabel Audio Gourmet. Their debut album ‘Colourless’ was released via Kate Carr’s Flaming Pines label in 2017 and this new record is their follow-up.

This record was created via remote exchanges of material at the beginning of the emerging pandemic. The resulting nine pieces are a set of foggy, atmospheric works which draw reflections from the passing of James’s grandfather at the beginning of 2020. James’s grandfather suffered with dementia for a long time and Don’t Worry, I’m With You explores the dark and unsettling place the mind must go when suffering with the disease, unable to communicate with those who love you.

The album features two very different approaches to sound creating as James focused on a purely digital sound through the complex processing of electronic sound beds, whilst Finn’s parts were guitar performances fed through a series of bespoke pedals. The human glimmers of guitar that are interspersed between layers of confusion, provide twists and turns throughout, as a milieu of contrasting moments.

The odd and unlikely emotions of sadness and relief meld together, as clearly recollected memories are interspersed with a vacant hum of melancholy and occasional paths of darkness. The album finishes to mark James’s grandfather’s passing on the 10th January 2020; the track ‘Your Love, I Don’t Want To Lose’ is a reflection of the final release from this disease.“

credits
Written and produced by James Osland and Finn Kelvin
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Photography by Peter Nejedly
CD Packaging Design by Harry Towell

Coming soon…James Osland & Finn Kelvin – Don’t Worry, I’m With You

Our physical editions for 2021 begin with a the return of a collaboration between James Osland and Finn Kelvin. Previous releases have appeared on Kate Carr’s Flaming Pines and our sister netlabel Audio Gourmet. Their new album ‘Don’t Worry, I’m With You‘ will be out this Saturday the 20th of February and features a collection of deep treated drones, improvised guitar sounds fed through a series of bespoke pedals.

This limited edition CDr edition makes use of photography provided by Peter Nejedly, in our sleek minimal design template, new for 2021, complete with a vinyl-effect disc.

The album will be released on Saturday the 20th of February with no pre-order. If you join our mailing list using the link below, we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear.

Whitelabrecs low-run releases are likely to sell out fast. The best way to keep informed is to join our mailing list which can be located through our website menu or you can click HERE

press release
“Don’t Worry I’m With You is a new collaborative album between James Osland and Finn Kelvin who first met one another at Bath Spa University, UK. They initially performed as part of the Elm Collective before releasing an EP under their respective names, on our sister netlabel Audio Gourmet. Their debut album ‘Colourless’ was released via Kate Carr’s Flaming Pines label in 2017 and this new record is their follow-up.

This record was created via remote exchanges of material at the beginning of the emerging pandemic. The resulting nine pieces are a set of foggy, atmospheric works which draw reflections from the passing of James’s grandfather at the beginning of 2020. James’s grandfather suffered with dementia for a long time and Don’t Worry, I’m With You explores the dark and unsettling place the mind must go when suffering with the disease, unable to communicate with those who love you.

The album features two very different approaches to sound creating as James focused on a purely digital sound through the complex processing of electronic sound beds, whilst Finn’s parts were guitar performances fed through a series of bespoke pedals. The human glimmers of guitar that are interspersed between layers of confusion, provide twists and turns throughout, as a milieu of contrasting moments.

The odd and unlikely emotions of sadness and relief meld together, as clearly recollected memories are interspersed with a vacant hum of melancholy and occasional paths of darkness. The album finishes to mark James’s grandfather’s passing on the 10th January 2020; the track ‘Your Love, I Don’t Want To Lose’ is a reflection of the final release from this disease.“

credits
Written and produced by James Osland and Finn Kelvin
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Photography by Peter Nejedly
CD Packaging Design by Harry Towell