Press has been steadily increasing for our releases. Here’s a very nice take on Elle Avait Raison Hathor from Oliver Arditi.
July 28, 2012
Micropangaea is available!
Brendan Byrnes has crafted an alluring concept album of prog/avant/electronica exploring tuning systems and imaginary terrain. Check it out via the animated site at micropangaea.com.
Or download/purchase it directly from bandcamp.
July 21, 2012
new Brendan Byrnes album out July 28
coming 7/28!
An arresting collection of microtonal electronica and avant-rock by Los Angeles-based composer/instrumentalist/producer Brendan Byrnes. The eight tracks each explore a different tuning system and are based on imaginary locations or features of Micropangaea, a fictional continent that will form on earth in the distant future. Byrnes, with the help of Michael Day, Brian Saia, Mike Horick, and a microtonal guitar ensemble, pulls the listener through instantly compelling song structures while pushing sonic boundaries. Liner notes for the album will presented uniquely in an animated website designed by Kerstin Hovland (TBA). —–brendanbyrnes.com—–
listen to a sampler here:
July 11, 2012
Lark [markings] now available!
Lark [markings] is an album of exploratory duos from woodwind player Paulo Chagas (Portugal) and ‘mosesa 2′ inventor/performer Wilhelm Matthies (USA). Each artist composed a graphic score for multiple recorded interpretations; these tracks are complimented by free improvisations.
The mosesa 2 (shown below) is a one-stringed instrument with variable bows & resonators, providing Matthies with a surprisingly large palette to paint sound with…a good thing given Chagas’ expansive and virtuosic instrumental range. The collaborative result is a playful, violent, warm, haunting, humorous, menacing, and surreal. It’s a musical funhouse. Available as a name-your-price download from the Spectropol Bandcamp site.
June 28, 2012
Lark [markings] out on 7/11/12
an album of free improvisation and graphic score interpretation from Paulo Chagas (Portugal) and Wilhelm Matthies (USA).
May 8, 2012
Golden Town on Renewable Music
Very thoughtful review from the ever interesting Daniel Wolf.
May 1, 2012
Elle avait raison Hathor live!
Vincent Berger Rond and cohorts will perform a rendition Elle avait raison Hathor (recently released on Spectropol) live in Montreal this Saturday, May 5.
April 28, 2012
Cyclic Defrost reviews + hard copies
Some thoughtful reviews over at the excellent Cyclic Defrost:
Christopher DeLaurenti: Perforate Silence
Meanwhile CD versions of Elle avait raison Hathor (V. Berger Rond) and Axe (V/A) will be ready and shipped later this week.
April 17, 2012
“Axe” electric guitar compilation now available
This long-awaited collection of experimental tracks featuring electric guitar is finally out for download and purchase.
Prepared guitar, computer processed, fretless, alternate tunings, noisy ambient, composed layers, unplugged-electric, controlled feedback, free improvisation, interlocking loops, virtuosic lines, shimmering drones, haunting melodies.
With Kavin Allenson, Tigress and the U-Fraidees, Bruce Hamilton, Mark Hamilton, Bill Horist, Neil Haverstick, Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Steve Moyes, Marco Oppedisano, James Ross, Roger Sundstrom, Chris Vaisvil, the Michael Vick Trip, and Jordan Watson.
This compilation celebrates the electric guitar and its creative use with a collection of varied tracks that provide a small snapshot of what some artists and composers have been doing in 2010-2012.
Despite only eighty odd years of use (and even less as a widespread instrument), the electric guitar has been a major force of musical invention, forging new genres of music and new sonic territories to explore. Musicians today have a rich history to draw upon: Les Paul and other early masters, the various and celebrated icons of blues, rock, jazz and fusion; and several decades of guitarists extending their instruments through preparation and modification, processing, new playing techniques, and different tuning systems.
The music on this album is informed by the aesthetic, timbral, compositional and conceptual innovations of Derek Bailey, Adrian Belew, Glenn Branca, Robert Fripp, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Rowe, and Elliott Sharp, to name but a few. Yet there are always more things to say, more avenues to explore, and more artists popping up to advance down these paths.
April 3, 2012
new Vincent Berger Rond: Elle avait raison Hathor
Out today (4/3). Inspired by mythology, this collection explores notions of womanhood. With the Quebec-based composer’s characteristic “spasmacousmatic” cutup textures guiding form, this is an electroacoustic chamber music that is both disorienting and utterly engaging.
spectropol records 