“The music is both atmospheric and aggressive, although the bleeping strikes me as more ambient than kosmische. Either way, a cool tape.” Byron Coley in The Wire 475, September 2023
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“If a tape loops infinitely, where does it start and end?
A new split cassette from anonymous electronic artist and bassist bleed Airand Shenzhen legends Hualun ruminates quietly on that enquiry. The beginnings and conclusions are not clear. There is an A-side and a B-side, one by bleed Air and one by Hualun, but the labels glued to each side of the cassette shell might as well be interchangeable. (…)
These two sides are, then, inextricably and umbilically linked. They both occupy a contemporary vantage point overlooking some of 1970s German electronic music’s finest moments, completely in tune with the sonic adventuring that the likes of Conrad Schnitzler and a select pioneering few bravely undertook.” (…) Mat Smith, Further. <- read the full review)
Tuesday, 23 May 2023, 16:00-18:00 CEST, Dirk Specht (Therapeutische Hörgruppe, Miniklon) and Georg Dietzler (artist, curator, gerngesehen.de) welcomed bleed Air, i.e., well … me, the guy who runs the superpolar Taïps label and also produces music as bleed Air, to FUNKT Sessions on Cologne, Germany’s 674.fm for a two hour live broadcast.
As part of the programme announcement, Georg wrote:
“Experimental pop music on cassettes” – superpolar Taïps is a micro-label, non-commercial, not-for-profit, with a preference for unusual, rarely heard music on cassettes which don’t have much relevance in the mainstream but are becoming increasingly popular in independent and experimental music scenes.
Limited edition cassettes, albums, EPs and – a special format – so-called ‘cassingles’, indeed cassette singles, within the framework of a series that will culminate in a compilation in 2024, have been and are still being released.
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
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.
Ogehiko is a layered four track cassette tape loop., The artist does not exactly remember how he created the main sound element (with one of his synths, he believes). He however recognises use of the Fostex’s lovely pitch wheel, which he digs a lot.
Yahiko is a reel to reel found sound tape loop, played at various speeds and sometimes also slowing the reels down by hand, eventually processed with an aged digital pitch shifter/delay pedal. The artist, due to his continual confusion while splicing the 4-track tape), no longer knows whether the basic drone sound is playing forwards or backwards.
bleed Air’s debut full-length is a mix tape blending dark ambient, playful electronica as well as experimental beat and drone.
A journey into warm, analogue noise, echo and soundscapes, sometimes resembling a soundtrack for a yet to be filmed low budget sci-fi movie. When Robot choirs start singing or broken analogue circuits and filters start doing what they want, it can get wacky, but we think it always remains pleasant to listen. Mostly analogue electronic gear, often of the cheaper and not exactly hip kind, and tape effects were used.
It is recommended to listen to each side of the album in one piece.
bleed Air lives in Cologne, runs this label, loves his Omnichord OM-27 and his tape echo too.
