Hualun（花伦）- Dawn [Cassingle #27]

Author: bleed Air
Date: 21. January 2022
Categories: Releases

superpolar Taïps is very happy to welcome Hualun to the cassingle series. While they modestly call themselves ‘a rock band from China since 2004’, their oeuvre offers so much more.

Multiple influences from Krautrock, Minimal and Experimental form the mesmerising soundscapes you can listen to on this cassette single, but also on their other releases.

Hualun was a vital part of the early years of the “Wuhan punk” scene and the explosive Chinese “post rock” wave.

Since then, Hualun have been exploring new ways of developing their music, focusing on creating mesmerising and immersive soundscapes, and diversifying their music, as it can be experienced in the soundtrack for the independent film ‘An Elephant Sitting Still‘ nd the impromptu project “wʌndərlænd” in 2018 and 2019.

Last year, Hualun created an original score to the Yung Chang documentary Wuhan Wuhan and launched a new episode of their “Scene” series.

Known as a group of musicians who rely on their intuition, they are at the forefront of experimenting with sound and exploring the source of natural growth with their music.

-> https://hualun.bandcamp.com

WCR Dark Train C19#87 – bleed Air/superpolar Taïps Mix – 06-12-21

Author: bleed Air
Date: 11. December 2021
Categories: Radio/Mixes

With huge thanks to Dark Train host Kate Bosworth for the invite!

Kate Bosworth / Dark Train

  • f5point6 – Charting Unknown Constellations
  • Ffion – Lights That Burn Twice As Bright
  • Lisa Bella Donna – (Excerpt) Atagahi, of the Great Smoky Mountains
  • Kindly Spoken Thieves – Rheostat
  • Ordnance Survey – Connolly Station December 1962

bleed Air / superpolar Taïps

  • bleed Air – proper time – time, ferocious (superpolar Taïps 2021)
  • Ardor – Flux – Split w/ Smylex Attack (Strategic Tape Reserve, 2021)
  • Therapeutische Hörgruppe Köln – Enchanted Isle of Entanglement (Flexi postcard single, self-released)
  • Gordan – Seediq – Down In The Meadow (Morphine, 2021)
  • Adderall Canyonly – Thine Hands Rend As Well As Reap – Stand Alone And Burn (Opal Tapes)
  • Field Tape – Yellow – Ambient Journal (Yellow), self released
  • Leaaves – Another Bright Nothing – Asleep for a YearB side (Cassette single, superpolar Taips, Dec 2021)
  • The Incidental Crack – I lost it – Detail (Anticipating Nowhere Records, 2021)
  • Guybrush – Distrazione – Music for queuing at the supermarket (SØVN Records, 2021)
  • Phirnis – Gated Communities – Non Traumatic Events, split with Chorchill (Submarine Broadcasting, 2021)
  • Ergo Phizmiz featuring Depresstival – Scream If You Wanna Go Faster – Plaza Centraal (Strategic Tape Reserve, 2021)
  • The Fall – New Face in Hell – Grotesque (Rough Trade, 1980)
  • Jacques Palminger & 440Hz Trio – Die Kirschblütenrakete (Staatsakt, 2016)
  • Carsten Erobique Meyer – Schottys Traum – Tatortreiniger Soundtracks (A Sexy Records, 2018)
  • The Tuesday Night Machines – The Long Way Down – Roof Tent Rhythms (Strategic Tape Reserve, 2019)
  • Schmitz & Niebuhr – Pinky – The Very Best Of (superpolar Taïps, early 2022)
  • Brigitte Fontaine, Areski Belkacem and the Art Ensemble of Chicago – Lettre à Monsieur le Chef de gare de la Tour de Carol – Comme à la radio (Saravah, 1969)
  • Hualun – 野兽 – An Elephant Sitting still Soundtrack (?, 2018)
  • Can – Mother Upduff – Unlimited Edition (Harvest/Caroline, 1969,1976)

Kate Bosworth / Dark Train

  • JayetAL – Typewriter
  • The Loved One – Paradox Zn
  • Apta – We Tire
  • Crisp Packet Jackets – (Excerpt) Opposition Is Obsolete
  • dogs versus shadows – Futura (1972)
  • mold omen – duality of the zookeeper
  • Maxx Silver – Visionary
  • Southfacing – Muted Response
  • Zyklus – Porridge Funnel

Ffion – Lights That Burn Twice As Bright [Cassingle #26]

Author: bleed Air
Date: 7. December 2021
Categories: Releases

“Two pieces of music inspired by the many cloud formations and skylines I’ve seen from my home in West Yorkshire. Everything I see here is almost in slow motion and the birds seem to be carrying a great weight as they fly.” 

Yorkshire, UK based composer Thomas Ragsdale produces under his own name, but also as Ffion and Sulk Rooms. 

His music is formed by extensive experience as a music producer for TV, advertising and film – including groundbreaking BBC documentaries such as Adam Curtis’ acclaimed ‘HyperNormalisation’, where his track ‘Warning Mass’ was featured extensively alongside the likes of Brian Eno, Burial and Aphex Twin. 

Not to forget: Thomas also runs the tape label Soundtracking The Void together with Ashleigh Ragsdale, releasing such fine acts as The Incidental Crack, Pola, Andy Fosberry and many more. 

With ‘Lights …’ and the (cassingle and download exclusive) B side ‘Flightless’ he treats the SPT community with two timeless, cinematic instrumental pieces. 

Learning by Listening Vol. 4: Abstruse Theories in Occult Christian Science – presented by bleed Air (C-16, Strategic Tape Reserve)

Author: bleed Air
Date: 5. November 2021
Categories: Releases

From the liner notes:

“On the 4th volume of Learning by Listening, Köln-based bleed Air guides us on a strange, sinister survey of primary source audio documents detailing abstruse scientific postulations emerging from contemporary occult branches of Christianity. Suitable for everyone from seminary students to secular amateur scientists, this cassette sees the unorthodox theories set against rich, eerie tape loop drones, sly, laconic guitars and proggy Giallo jaunts conjuring hazy, unsettling surroundings beyond the fuzzy fringes of reality. Topics range from vertebrate anatomy to phonemical history and, while factually inaccurate and indeed frightening, this impressionistic overview provides a mesmerizing and informative introduction to an inscrutable world of anti-information. 

bleed Air holds a senior leadership position at the Köln tape label superpolar Taïps and is accompanied on drums by Rose T.”

Learning by Listening is an educational, instructive cassette series designed to bring the information of the world into your home, and your brain. Read more and & listen

bleed Air – time, ferocious

Author: bleed Air
Date: 1. October 2021
Categories: Releases

Concepts of time, in (tape) music. 

Time as physical quantity, the nature of time as defined by general relativity, the resulting model of spacetime (German: Raumzeit) and ripples therein caused by gravitational waves. Time dilation, time offset, time measurement. Present, future, past. 

An attempt to approach the complex subject of time and spacetime sonically, using devices that allow time manipulation (somewhat): Analogue tape recorders, effect pedals with ‘time’ knobs. 

All instruments were recorded to and with (mostly half broken) tape machines on looped reel to reel or endless cassette tapes. On some tracks, these machines were also used as tape echos, mostly by exploiting their saturation, warm overdrive and noise capabilities. 

Instruments and sound sources and tools used: Field recordings (Star City Tserkov’ Spasa Preobrazheniya church bells; Mbira, Kalimba, Acoustic Guitar, electric bass guitar, cello bows, human voice, found reel to reel audio that came with used tape recorders I bought), synthesizers. 

In a way, this album concludes, albeit in a somewhat noisier, abstract and sometimes deafening way, what I started with the ‘Ogehiko/Yahiko’ cassingle. 

QST cassingle & new bleed Air album

Author: bleed Air
Date: 26. September 2021
Categories: Promo

Friday 1 October sees the release of a new Cassette Single by QST, Frans de Waard’s – as he says – ‘failed attempt’ on producing ambient house music. I must say I’m glad he failed since what he produces as QST (with beats) and Quest (w/o beats) is way better than what the genre name suggests. In simple terms it’s pretty captivating minimal synth stuff.

The QST cassingle will be accompanied by a new bleed Air album, titled ‘time, ferocious’ – the first following the eponymous 2020 debut album. It is an attempt at sonic exploration of concepts of time.

bleed Air concludes the work started with Cassingle ‘Ogehiko/Yahiko’, albeit in a somewhat noisier and more abstract way. Again, all instruments and other (found) sounds were recorded to and with mostly half broken reel to reel and cassette tape machines, fully exploiting their fantastic manipulation capabilities.

Both cassettes will be available from Friday, 09:00 CEST and also offered as a bundle, so that you can save on postage.

P.S.: The ‘time, ferocious’ digital download will be ‘name your price’ for the first couple of weeks.

Carlos Perea Milla – tactile / distante [Cassingle #22]

Author: bleed Air
Date: 12. September 2021
Categories: Releases

CARLOS PEREA MILLA has been creating improvised ambient experiments under the moniker MELQUÍADES since 2016, using tapes, electronics, guitars, harps, field recordings and other sounds. His first two solo albums, ‘Keep A Seed’ and ‘Imaginary Soundscapes / A Map’ were released on CANIGOU RECORDS, the cassette label he has been running from London, Buenos Aires and Málaga. He also co-runs the concert series Bedroom Gigs with Catrin Vincent. 

tactile / distante’ was recorded in October and November 2020 in Málaga, right after the change of seasons and right at the start of a new life chapter. This new work is heavily inspired by instrumental and folk music, and artists like Lake Mary, Karen Dalton, John Fahey, Nathan Salsburg, Wall Matthews and Mat Eric Hart. 

It’s less abstract and more tangible, but it stays experimental: each part was recorded separately into a tape recorder whilst listening to a metronome, then sent to another tape machine, then into Ableton where the two songs were pieced together, editing the speed and pitch variations caused by the tape. And it has drums for the first time – a lot of drums. ‘tactile /’ features a recording from a conversation I had with Calum Perrin about modes of listening.  

canigourecords.bandcamp.com

Recorded using classical/electric/12 string guitar, tapes, OM-1, pocket piano, zither harp and drums. 
Photography by Carlos Perea-Milla in Andalucía. 
Mastering by Adam Badí Donoval. 

Chorchill – Ruhrpott Diver [Cassingle 23]

Author: bleed Air
Date: 12. September 2021
Categories: Releases

Chorchill revisits his 2020 album Nachtfisch (for Cologne fellow label Strategic Tape Reserve) and gives two tracks the post-minimalism treatment.

RUHRPOTT DIVER is a remix and sequel of and to FLOODED RUHRPOTT, while MODERN TAVLA (remix of BLEEDING INTO FALL) sheds some light on the backgammon playing habits of mythical Ruhrpott figure Apel Okuyan on who the NACHTFISCH album is centered around. Chorchill is an electronic music project by Matthias Cingoez on MIDI, synthesizer, sounds, acoustic bass and aerophone. Minimalistic and melodic pieces influenced by the softer side of Krautrock and film music.

Mix for Gated Canal Community on Reform Radio

Author: bleed Air
Date: 12. September 2021
Categories: Radio/Mixes

Justin Watson, 1/3 of The (wonderful) Incidental Crack invited me to a guest mix on his (and Spenser Tomson’s and Becca’s) Gated Canal Community show on Manchester’s (equally wonderful) Reform Radio.

Listen below and read more here.

Stichflamme Dormagen – Ihre Meinung ist uns wichtig

Author: bleed Air
Date: 2. August 2021
Categories: Uncategorized

‘Ihre Meinung ist uns wichtig‘ is the artist’s debut under his Stichflamme Dormagen moniker and, in Vital Weekly’s words, “a most curious piece of voices, chanting exotically, along with wooden drum percussion and line hum for electronic component (…)” as well as “urgency and weirdness at work.” (www.vitalweekly.net/1294.html)

Stichflamme Dormagen is the mischievous incarnation of Rudi Baumgärtner, a music producer born and raised in the city of Remagen, in western Germany. 

Not much is known about Baumgärtner except his attempts to self-publish criminal stories under the moniker Sulke Diebler and his deep mistrust of public transport. 

In 2006 he took part in a macramé class. Baumgärtner makes his living from soundtracks for local adult film productions. He spends his free time in his little garden in the Remagen suburbs, where he breeds rare slug species. 

— THE CASSINGLE SERIES — 

30+ Artists. 30+ cassette singles with an intentional, conceptual limitation of under 3 mins per track, exclusive B-sides. Individual artworks. Merely 10 hand-dubbed copies per tape will go on sale. Eventually, all tracks will be released on a compilation, planned for late 2021. That’s the SPT Cassingle series in a nutshell

Carnedd Aur – Beetles

Author: bleed Air
Date: 27. July 2021
Categories: Releases

Following the long sold-out ‘Blessing of the Hand​-​Sanitizer’ cassingle, superpolar Taïps is very happy to present the first full-length release by prolific and versatile artist Simon Proffitt, here under his Carnedd Aur moniker. 

Here’s Simon’s take on ‘Beetles’: 

“After a few years of exploring drones / tones / field recordings (as Cahn Ingold Prelog), fictional ritual trance (as The Master Musicians of Dyffryn Moor) and the outer limits of acoustic instrumentation (as Simon Proffitt), the Carnedd Aur project came about as an answer to the question of whether I was capable of writing electronic pop music. 

It turns out that I am not – at least, not yet – but what arose instead was actually far more satisfying. Armed with just a MicroKORG, bought years earlier for a one-off gig in a swimming pool and then not used since, I set about trying to make shorter pieces with a focus on rhythm and melody of the kind that my parents (harsh critics of my other work) might not actually like, but might at least understand as music. 

Carnedd Aur translates into English as Gold Cairn, a sort of Welsh-language take on Cahn Ingold Prelog. 

I’ve long been fascinated by evocative common names for species (mushrooms, moths etc), and especially so in the case of beetles – these names add a layer of mystery and magic to creatures that are well known from a distance but fascinating and alien when viewed close up. It seems to me that there’s a definite link between shuffling drum machine rhythms and busily meandering insects, between shimmering synth pads and shiny, multi-coloured wing-cases.” 

Read more about Beetles here.

CARNEDD AUR DISCOGRAPHY 

Moths (Wormhole World, 2020) 
Hel Bwyd Cennad y Meirw (Exotic Spresm, 2020) 
Music for the Welsh European Funding Office (Exotic Spresm, 2019)  

credits

releases August 6, 2021 

Written, performed and recorded by Simon Proffitt at the Museum of Dust, January-March 2020 with a MicroKORG and Toshiba Satellite L300.

Phirnis – Culinary Delights [Cassingle #15]

Author: bleed Air
Date: 15. April 2021
Categories: Releases

Oops. A maxi cassingle. Phirnis aka Kai Ginkel’s super dark, noisy and haunty tracks are awesome, but impossible to squeeze into two minutes and thirty seconds. So for once I break the otherwise strict rule. Further info on the BC release page …