Sven Laux

new mix show! vervine003

It seems like ages since we last made a Vervine mix show and this is largely down to having moved house. These shows are great fun to make, but we’ve seen why it would have been difficult to commit to a monthly show. So after a bit of a new year pause, here’s the next Vervine show, as usual, hosted by our label owner Harry Towell.

This third show features recent Whitelabrecs pieces from the likes of Guy Gelem, Peter Kvidera, Wodwo, Glåsbird, thisfloatingworld and a piece from Hoshiko Yamane’s forthcoming album. It also features jazz, shoegaze, folk, indie, chillout and ambient music and then this show is rounded off with a Deep House mix.

The cover artwork for this new show was created from a photo of a painting from Harry’s daughter Emily, who was learning one day last year about paint, colour and art, with the help of her Mummy. Harry was struck by its abstract shapes, colours and texture and knew he’d use it in a musical project sometime.

Already we’re planning the next show and we hope it won’t be too long a wait next time. But for now, here’s Vervine003:

Tracklist:
01 Masako Ohta/Matthias Lindermayr – La
02 Guy Gelem – Relocations
03 Joel Vandroogenbroeck – Mutation
04 Ballake Sissoko & Patrick Messina & Vincent Segal – Jeu Sur La Symphonie Fantastique
05 Tokyo Bloodworm – Pale The Clerics Pass
06 Wodwo – Veils
07 Peter Kvidera – Obsaženo
08 Afterlife – Dust
09 TLF Trio – Suite X
10 Hoshiko Yamane – Patiently
11 Harry Towell & Sven Laux – Ground Moraine
12 Tone – Dawn
13 Glåsbird – Tired Seams
14 Efterklang – The Living Layer
15 thisfloatingworld – airs
16 Alan Licht – Raw Deal
17 Telly Quin – My Funny Side Up
18 Pender Street Slippers – The Glass City
19 Jonas Palzer – Friendssection
20 Hamatsuki – Kandzaia
21 Izmo – Echoes
22 Jump Source – S Recovery
23 Nacho Riveros – Moment Of My Life
24 Yadava – Heart Strings
25 Edward White – Cool Water
26 Fantastic Man – St. Elmo’s Theme
27 Intr0beatz – Trees Breez
28 Tour-Maubourg – Might Groove
29 D’Arabia – Key Lime (Harry Wolfman Remix)
30 Zoo Look – I Can’t Deny

Out Now! Harry Towell & Friends – Petrologist’s Lens

Here’s our first release of 2023 which is called ‘Petrologist’s Lens‘ by our label owner Harry Towell as Harry Towell & Friends. It was made in collaboration with 12 artists who have had 2 or more releases on Whitelabrecs over the years. This album is out today in two runs of 100 CDrs; a standard gold edition, and a special marble-effect version. Both packaging versions include a 16 page booklet in our gatefold vinyl-effect. If you follow us on Bandcamp (Click HERE) we’ll keep you updated when we have new releases.

press release
“Whitelabrecs label owner Harry Towell is perhaps best renowned for his long-standing Spheruleus project, with a discography listing releases on Lost Tribe Sound, Home Normal, Time Released Sound, Hibernate and Eilean, as well as his collaborations alongside Sven Laux, Guy Gelem, Ekca Liena and more. Harry returns to his own label, following 2021’s ‘Canvas Homes + Supplémentaires’ and EPs ‘Absent Frames’ and ‘Inaugurate’, in this special collaborative album called ‘Petrologist’s Lens’.

January is a month we usually reserve for a compilation album, such as our Sleeplaboratory series. This year Harry decided to invite 12 artists who had contributed more than 2 releases on Whitelabrecs to submit a short sketch or sample, and then he developed these into the tracks that make up this album. As with some of his more recent work, this album is created under his own name, but with ‘& friends’ added to credit the label artists and good friends which he has worked alongside.

The title ‘Petrologist’s Lens’ nods to the concept of this body of work, which is rooted in the ancient geological history of the earth. Harry studied the land history of the areas where his collaborators reside, to help form a title for each piece. Tracks are named after particular fragments of rock or sediments, land regions or fossils for example, and the compositions were developed in a way which mimics the layering of these. The layers tell a story, giving clues of how they came to be. Sonically, filigree details and eroded tape textures ride waves of modern classical orchestration, ambient drones and electronics.

The packaging for this release features cover artwork by Soraya Kornblum, an art student in Adrian Lane’s class, submitted to Whitelabrecs as part of a school project. Each of the 200 editions include a 16 page booklet with words provided by Neil McRoberts, who transcribed his thoughts after listening to the music and reflecting on the concept. Physical copies are split into two runs; a standard gold disc version and a special marble print deluxe edition.“

credits

Written and produced by Harry Towell
Additional production and inspiration provided by Adrian Lane, Andrew Heath, Blochemy, Edu Comelles, Glåsbird, Guy Gelem, James Edward Armstrong, Paweł Pruski, Phil Tomsett, Polaroid Notes, Simon McCorry, Sven Laux

Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Cover Art by Soraya Kornblum
Booklet Notes by Neil McRoberts
Art and Design by Andrew Heath

Coming soon… Harry Towell & Friends – Petrologist’s Lens

Our first release of 2023 is ‘Petrologist’s Lens‘ by our label owner Harry Towell as Harry Towell & Friends, in collaboration with 12 artists who have had 2 or more releases on Whitelabrecs over the years. This album will be available officially in two runs of 100 CDrs; a standard gold edition, and a special marble-effect version. Both packaging versions include a 16 page booklet in our gatefold vinyl-effect sleeves and will be out officially on Saturday the 14th of January after a pre-order on the 7th of January. If you follow us on Bandcamp (Click HERE) we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear.

credits

Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Cover Art by Soraya Kornblum
Booklet Notes by Neil McRoberts
Art and Design by Andrew Heath

new mix series! vervine001

Today we’ve launched a new mix series called ‘Vervine’. This will be presented by our label owner Harry Towell, and will cover the full extent of his wide ranging music taste. We can’t say how frequently we’ll make these shows but we’re hoping they’ll appear regularly enough and include one or two interesting features such as themes, vinyl-only shows and guest mixes. Hopefully, the voice-overs should hopefully grow in confidence the more of these we do!

This first show features a range of musical styles including Ambient, Electro Acoustic, Funk, Jazz, Modern Classical, World. The tracks are not arranged in a particular order, so it should feel pretty varied throughout and within the tracklist there are a few recent Whitelabrecs releases from the likes of Sven Laux, Adrian Lane, Fred Baty and John Reidar Holmes. Not to mention the opening track which is a premiere of our next release on the 19th of November, which is by Tapes and Topographies! Click the picture above or the player below:

Tracklist:
01 Tapes and Topographies – Diffraction
02 Kiyoshi Yamaya/Toshiko Yonekawa/Kifu Mitsuhashi – Nanbu Ushioi-Uta
03 Lucien Johnson – Magnificent Moon
04 Vega Trails – Love Your Grace
05 Feras Charestan – Zekrayat
06 Adrian Lane – White Winter Cloudy
07 Fred Baty – To Feel at a Distance
08 Dandelion – All You Know
09 Wax Machine – Gaian Dream
10 Jaubi – Straight Path
11 Black Flower – Morning In The Jungle (ft. Meskerem Mees)
12 Kolumbo – Evening Time
13 Jonny Nash & Teguh Permana – Air
14 John Reidar Holmes – Goodbye To Cape Farewell
15 Ralph Heidel – Wenn Ich Wach Werde (ft. Hannah Weiss)
16 Sven Laux – The Hope
17 Duelling Ants – Reise
18 Hiroshi Ebina – It 2
19 Julien Dyne – Beecon
20 Surprise Chef – Goldie’s Lullaby
21 Malcolm Pearson – Fleeting Thoughts
22 Lissom – Big Sleep
23 Naima Bock – Enter The House
24 Channelers – Diguised As Another
25 Misha Panfilov – Amphibian Girl
26 Liquid Saloon – Shaiza (ft. Elyasaf Bashari)
27 Djavan – Nereci (Case’s Edit)
28 Jef Gilson & Malagasy – Valiha Ny Dada
29 Philou Louzolo – Queens Of Zomba

Out Now! Sven Laux – What Remains

Here’s the first of two new releases out today on Whitelabrecs. This one’s a cinematic modern classical album called ‘What Remains‘ by Sven Laux, combining piano and strings arrangements with sensitively placed electronics. It’s out now in a run of 100 gatefold vinyl-effect CDrs after a short pre-order last week. If you click here: mailing list, we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear.

press release
“Since 2018 we’ve released five albums from Berlin, Germany based composer Sven Laux, including his most recent collaboration with Fione and solo albums ‘Schachmatt’, ‘ODD’, his Home Diaries edition and 2020 and the extended version, Scattered Fragments of Separation (The Complete Story). Sven’s sound design has found its home in short films, advertisement and in audio branding but he also maintains his discography as an artist, focusing on deeply stirring cinematic themes.

A well-balanced contemporary sound awaits you in this latest edition ‘What Remains’ and you are urged by the title to consider what you think about when something is left over? The record uses a depth of sprawling orchestral timbres, across its at-first cryptically titled tracks, to set out the phases of processing an event. At first there is ‘patience’ and ‘hope’, then there is the passing of the event (‘the goodbye’) followed by ‘what remains’; the now. Memory may serve ‘the return’ and perhaps ‘the cohesion’ and for some, there may be ‘the ending’.

You may choose a past experience to relate with these titles or, you might choose to allow it to relate to the present day. It does not matter whether you think positively about something from the past, or whether you mourn something afterwards in a sad or melancholy way. Whether negative, positive or even indifferent, it is the contemplative environment that each track brings which will allow this record to become a thinking space; a ceremonial framework to process events.“

credits
Written and Produced by Sven Laux
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Artwork by Zoë Heath
Art and Design by Andrew Heath

Coming soon… Sven Laux – What Remains

Our new release ‘What Remains‘ by Sven Laux will be available officially in one of our typically low runs of 100 gatefold vinyl-effect CDrs on Saturday the 15th of October after a pre-order for Bandcamp Friday on the 7th of October. If you click here: mailing list, we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear.

credits
Written and Produced by Sven Laux
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Artwork by Zoë Heath
Art and Design by Andrew Heath

Out Now! Sven Laux & Fione – Tomorrow Everything Could Be Different

Our June releases are out today and in this edition we have a collaboration between our regular artist Sven Laux, and his fellow Berliner Fione, a pianist and musician. ‘Tomorrow Everything Could Be Different’ is a collection of solo piano compositions that have been adapted into a magical soundtrack of strings, synths and electronics.

Tomorrow Everything Could Be Different is out now in a run of 100 copies! The best way to keep informed about our low-run releases, is to join our mailing list, and we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear!

press release
“With this latest edition to the Whitelabrecs discography, we welcome back composer Sven Laux with a collaboration with fellow Berliner and musician Fione. This record began from a chance meeting at a party after Fione had discussed her improvisational piano performances and how it might lend itself to Sven’s orchestral Ambient music. After over a year, Fione recorded a track and sent it to Sven, who added layers of additional texture and detail; enough to be a catalyst from which they produced an album.

Each original piano composition was adapted one by one, piece by piece, into its magical whole. Fione tells us that for her, the music was always about what could have been, a sort of pain that we feel inside of us that we know we can’t change, because it is impossible to turn back time. Instead, we live with what we know we have to deal with, facing every day with the uncertainty that something might change in a minute, an hour or, tomorrow. From here, Tomorrow Everything Could Be Different’s concept can be gleaned as we contemplate the past, present and future and it can be interpreted differently by the listener.

Quiet moments of reflection weave a pensive environment in which you can either concentrate your thoughts, or allow them to evaporate. The music feels at times as if it is containing and conserving its energy, only for swells of strings and fleeting crescendos to release the tension. It’s a release which reveals either negative, or positive energy, depending on its listener. The artwork from painter Maliana Wang reflects the album’s themes by offering what appears to be storm clouds or crashing waves.

We all see the future in different ways. Tomorrow Everything Could Be Different doesn’t tell you what will change, that things will get better, or worse. The clouds may thicken, or they may disappear.“

credits
Written and Produced by Sven Laux and Fione
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Painting by Maliana Wang
Art and design by Andrew Heath

Coming soon… Sven Laux & Fione – Tomorrow Could Be Different

Here’s the second of two new releases lined-up for the 17th of June and in this one, we welcome back Sven Laux who has collaborated with a fellow Berlin-based artist Fione, who is a musician and pianist. Tomorrow Everything Could Be Different is an album inspired by time and place, with Sven taking Fione’s piano compositions into lush, orchestrated Ambient territory. The release is complete, with an original painting as the cover artwork, by Maliana Wang. ‘Tomorrow Everything Could Be Different‘ will be up for pre-order this coming Bandcamp Friday, the 3rd of June.

Then ‘Tomorrow Everything Could Be Different‘ will be available officially in one of our typically low runs of 100 gatefold vinyl-effect CDrs, complete with art and design by Andrew Heath.

It will be released officially on Saturday the 17th of June. If you join our mailing list using the link below, we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear.

credits
Written and Produced by Sven Laux and Fione
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Painting by Maliana Wang
Art and design by Andrew Heath

Out Now! Sven Laux – Scattered Fragments of Separation (The Complete Story)

We’re to announce today this new double album by Sven Laux, who has adapted last year’s Home Diaries album ‘Scattered Fragments of Separation‘ with a new album of material. This is available now in a special double gatefold CD edition, with the 2 discs containing a total of 17 tracks.

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
“In 2020’s mammoth Home Diaries series, Berlin composer Sven Laux contributed the 25th edition in this collection, which focused on the lives of sonic artists from across the globe and their own unique experiences during the pandemic.

Sven was handed an unplanned hiatus from creating music, due to staying some 100 kilometres away from his studio. He was based with relatives for childcare purposes and the weeks away from his art led to him returning home alone. He knew that whichever path he took, a compromise was required as he had to either be away from his family or separated from the creativity that so defines him. Separation became the theme to an immersive collection of ‘fragments’, which was created almost instinctively over a short period of time following his return.

Later in 2020, sunken and heartbroken, Sven set about exploring these themes once again. The result is an expansive double album, containing both the original 9 pieces that were released as the Home Diaries edition and 8 new pieces. This is a record that is unapologetically cinematic, presented by an artist who is adept in sound design and writing music for film. The honest and reflective portrait photography by Polina Georgescu cements this as an auto-biopic experience, Laux’s most personal album to date. Scattered Fragments of Separation (The Complete Story) follows the ‘Schachmatt’ and ‘ODD’ albums released in 2018 and 2019 respectively and marks four successive years of releasing music with us. Sven has also released with labels including Archives, Dronarivm and Fluid Audio.

In the liner notes on the CD, it is stated that this is ‘music for the brokenhearted, written by a broken heart’ and in just under 2 hours of sound texture, the music will both break and restore you, as melancholy moods are interspersed with moments of drama, peace and acceptance.“

credits
Written and produced by Sven Laux
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Photography by Polina Georgescu
Art and design by Andrew Heath

Out Now! Various Artists – The Home Diaries

We’re delighted to get back to making CDs again after our break over December. It was good to have some down time and to do some planning too but it’s wonderful to be back, with our exciting schedule for 2021.
We’d like to thank all of those who supported us over this period, getting involved with our winter sale. Our stock cupboard is looking lighter and at last there is some space in the drawer for this year’s release schedule!

First up is the double-album Home Diaries compilation, which includes a track from each of the 30 Home Diaries releases from last year. For those unfamiliar, Home Diaries was an invitation to artists to write a record about their situation in lockdown. It was a digital only series, put together to keep our label going after we had to stop releasing CDs.

We know that many prefer a physical edition and so we wanted to create something so that those who do are able to experience this series in some way. So we decided to go all out on the packaging for this one. There is a standard double gatefold edition as well as an ultra deluxe edition, in which the double gatefold CD is contained within a gold foil-printed matchbox, which also includes a booklet which contains a photo of each artist’s home.

There were only around 65 copies of the ultra deluxe to sell after artist allocations, and these have sold out already having been snapped up quickly by our subscribers. However, at the time of writing we have around 50 copies of the standard double album edition, which we feel is still quite a spectacle in itself. It’s complete with the cover artwork, which is an oil painting by Adrian Lane who re-imagined the original series cover.

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
“It’s fair to say that the events of the year 2020 will go down as quite a year and may form a large part of the history curriculum for the children of tomorrow. The pandemic is of course just part of the story, against a backdrop of political unrest, climate change and injustice too.

Whitelabrecs was affected with the closure of our local post office, meaning we were unable to ship our CDs. We also felt we had a duty not to hold up a queue of people and decided to stop production of our catalog. During that time, to make sure we still had a label left to return to, we launched the ambitious Home Diaries series. It ran for 3 months and in that relatively short space of time, the series reached 30 releases!

Home Diaries was an invitation to artists and musicians to create an album or EP to document their personal experience during the lockdown or social distancing conditions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The series reflects a range of sounds, styles and ideas, as each artist portrayed their own reflections uniquely, available as a digital only edition including a bonus interview and photos.
Each of the 30 digital editions in the Home Diaries series is an individual work of art, created to share the varying experiences felt by each artist.

This compilation album pulls together a track from each record, sequenced in a way that flows as a specially curated environment, over the course of two CDs. We have two versions available as follows:

A standard edition, which is a double-disc gatefold vinyl-effect CDr album, featuring a re-interpretation of the original cover artwork, painted by Adrian Lane.

A deluxe matchbox edition, in which the double-disc gatefold vinyl-effect CDr is housed inside a gold foil-etched box, which also contains a booklet which includes a photo from each artist’s home during lockdown. This version serves as a time capsule into the original series; a keepsake which is limited to just 70 copies.

If you opt for the digital version, this also includes the photo booklet as a bonus PDF item.“

credits
Released January 23, 2021

Painting and artwork by Adrian Lane
Booklet images provided by each respective artist
Packaging layout by Harry Towell
Compilation curated by Harry Towell

All tracks mastered by James Edward Armstrong, except:
12 ‘Out In The Open’ Mastered by John Hannon
17 ‘Distance Learning’ Mastered by Michael Southard
29 -‘Stanze e Distanze (part 2)’ Mastered by Francis M. Gri

Tag: Sven Laux