XS Records [pt netlabel]

[xs-72] Agnes Heginger and Karlheinz Essl - Out of the Blue

2010-04-12T12:11:00.006+01:00

THIS IS OFFICIALLY THE LAST XS RECORDS release

artist: agnes heginger and karlheinz essl

album: out of the blue

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release date: 31/03/2010

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contact: webpage

cover: front

On December 9th, 2010 I made my way to the Essl Museum in search of the lost spirit of Advent. It was there that Agnes Heginger and Karlheinz Essl performed for the first time as a duo, developing an improvised musical dialogue 'out of the blue'. Somehow 'out of the blue' fit perfectly for me because I was looking for a way out of my melancholy December mood. Instead of chairs there were cushions spread out on the floor that seemed to invite the audience to a direct, unconventional and comfortable listening experience.
The Essl/Heginger performance: responsive, unpretentious and focused. There was a positive feeling of closeness and a friendly attentiveness towards the audience.

From the very first moment I was stunned and amazed, and at the same time touched and fascinated with what then happened. As I sank deeper into my floor cushion, I felt almost embarrassed by a let's say 'complete sense of happiness'. Two highly sensitive personalities engaged each other in a dialogue that should go down in history as a prime example of musical interaction.

There were many innovative moments, alternating quite willingly the musicians pulled each other into reflection, with clear sighted independence, fusing things into perspective. With a dramatic climax at the perfect moment, they communicated affectionately with virtuoso clarity to a spellbound audience. Whether it was 'out of the blue' or carefully planned, the opportunity to listen to Agnes Heginger's and Karlheinz Essl's musical dialogue was indeed my good fortune.

You were certainly left hoping that this musical conversation will be continued.

Press review by Jörg Duit

[xs-71] cage cabarrett - covil radiophonic workshop

2010-04-12T12:01:00.005+01:00

artist: cage cabarrett

album: covil radiophonic workshop

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release date: 31/03/2010
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contacts: myspace

cover art: front

Cage Cabarrett explores notions of indeterminacy in art. We encourage a DIY aesthetic and we value simplicity over complexity. Like Dada before, Cage Cabarrett stands for a strong anti-commercialism attitude and an anti-art sensibility, disparaging the conventional market-driven art world in favor of an artist-centered creative practice.
We believe in the creation of art by chance, exploiting the principle of randomness. The word derives from the Latin word alea, the rolling of dice. We give you the sound of that rolling dice. It sounds like Cage Cabarrett!

[xs-70] hui-chun lin - selected improvisation works

2010-04-12T11:56:00.009+01:00

artist: hui-chun lin

album: selected improvisations work

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release date: 31/03/2010

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contacts: myspace

cover art: front

Hui-Chun Lin, is a Solo cellist. She works with improvisation, theatrical music, world music, and contemporary music interpretation. Born in 1979 in Taiwan, she plays violoncello, on which she received a classical education. Since 2006, she finished her study in Leipzig, Germany, she lives also in the same city as a cello player and an artist.
Her artistic versatility appears in the co-operation in numerous projects with theatre, dance performance, contemporary and classical music and also world music. She also had appearances with different music festivals, like: the Leipzig Jazz Festival 2007 with Beat Freisens Spelunkenorchester.
After her postgraduate study in improvisation, she received a teaching assignment for improvisation in the university for music and theatre in Leipzig.

[xs-69] heitor alves - gimme some more sounds

2009-11-16T10:20:00.004Z

artist: heitor alves

album: gimme some more sounds

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release date: 15/11/2009

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contacts: facebook

cover art: back & front

Today we present you the amazing gimme some more sounds, a work done by Heitor Alves, during a workshop with Vitor Rua (GNR, Telectu, Organização), and Dwart, that took place in the summer of 2009. This work is a simple and amazing multi-track recording, featuring a very naif, and well-acomplished work, which features improvisation, with found instruments, namely a whole-range of instruments, that are basically found objects, and which reflect the best spirit and stuff made by Heitor Alves, when trying to seek for transposing with transcendentalism his personal life experiences of the summer, to the music he made. Aesthetically it basically results, in a simple, but well archieved recording which comes from the ideias of Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, to Pauline Oliveros, going throught stuff like John Cage, and Beatriz Ferreira. All made with a very personal aproach, throught improvisation, and studio recording techniques

For those who don't actually don't know, Heitor Alves builds electronic instruments, having already build to people such as Vitor Rua, Rafael Toral among others. You can find them in http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/.

Have a nice day listening to this music, and share this experience with your family and friends.

[xs-68] karlheinz essl and matthew ostrowski - flechtwerk

2009-10-24T18:22:00.006+01:00

artist: karlheinz essl and matthew ostrowski

album: flechtwerk

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release date: 24/10/2009

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contact: myspace

cover art: back & front

On May 5th 2009, Austrian composer Karlheinz Essl and New York-based sound artist Matthew Ostrowski met for a free improvisation concert at ISSUE Project Room in Brooklyn, NY. Although it had been 8 years since their last performance as a duo, the show turned out to be very powerful, each performer complementing the other in ways neither had anticipated. They were so excited about the results of this almost chance encounter that they decided to make the recording available to the world.
This album is dedicated to the memory of Suzanne Fiol (1960-2009), founder of Issue Project Room.

Liner Notes by Tom Hamilton

I go to a lot of concerts. I actually try to go to fewer concerts, but it never lasts for very long. I have lots of friends playing electronic music, because I've also been doing it myself for 40 years. Seeing friends and hearing electronic music seem to go together, but that's just me. So that's what happened on May 5, 2009, when I schlepped out to Brooklyn to hear Karlheinz and Matt at Issue Project Room.
Sometimes the experience of listening to electronic music is masked to a degree by the "electronic-ness" of it all; the suspicion that we're now being asked to suspend our musical instincts to allow for the intricacies of the media. So we forget for just a little bit that we really do like a big dose of plain old musicianship. What a relief when we finally get it.
Like in all good concerts, what I did not count on was what I actually heard. And like in all good concerts, it felt like a wholly new experience in the art form itself. And now I listen to the CD and I'm reminded again how valuable and desirable we find contrast, drama and excitement - qualities that we wish for in any other music. I listen again as if it were jazz. Surprise!
OK, I can't help it. I will digress to one technical point: An obstacle that faces every performer of our electronic ilk is that electronic and acoustic instruments do not project their sound quality in the same way. Our ears hear the subtlest changes radiating from a clarinet in almost any space. Not so with the electronic sources in that same room. Loudspeakers are usually the culprits - they just don't deliver the punch the way the clarinet does, and microphones just seem to play dumb when they hear anything from a speaker. But in the present recording, I can hear tremendous contrast in dynamic range and a great deal of detail in the sound. This is not because the loudspeakers or microphones were something exotic (they weren't, sorry). Karlheinz and Matt have made their original computer-based instruments with a great deal of attention to those important sonic qualities and how that bears on the resulting music. High resolution plus large dynamic range plus expressive controls equal a terrific sound. And a little recording common sense never hurts. We're reminded of the room, reminded that it was a live event, but never limited by it.
The key to this isn't that it's electronic, computerized, sampled, or really tied to any particular technology, though ironically each of these artists are well-known for having innovated new techniques that help bring the resulting music across. The importance of their work lies in their abilities to improvise with endless shadings ranging between simplicity and complexity, and to channel the overriding musicality to fuel the performance.
And like a really good wine that we're experiencing for the first time, we just know that it's a good drink. Words don't fail us; we just don't need them any more.

Tom Hamilton
New York, October 2009

[xs-67] zuramone - the spiders dance

2009-09-27T18:22:00.003+01:00

artist: zuramone

album: the spiders dance

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release date: 27/09/2009

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contact: myspace

cover art: back and front

Nowadays many rock musicians are used to have side projects, where they include electronics. That's not something particulary new. We were already used to see phenomena like this in the 70s and the 80s, and it was exactly what happened with alex (aka zuramone), the drums player from the evora's (south-west of portugal in the south-west of europe) band "lotus mecanica". He was also drummer in the les baton rouge band and he is involved in another band with musicians from les baton rouge, great lesbian show and ideas for muscles.

When Alex sent me that music, I said to him that I was interested to hear, to see how it was like.. and so I did.. after sometime listening to it, I said to him that I was unhappy with the sound quality in terms of recording and mixing, which was something that could only get better, if it was properly recorded and mixed. But I also said that I could give it a better sounding by giving a more solid sound to the recording. And so I did. I mastered and the music was sounding a bit better (in the terms of my limitations and capabilities), and I decided to release it.

Musically we can say that Alex's band (zuramone), is actually some sort of rockabilly stuff, and although this is not particulary very close to rockabilly, it ended by being like some sort of hybrid between some drum n bass (sometimes close to photek when the acoustic drums appears), and something close to trance music, reminding me some aproaches in shpongle. In short, hardware electronic instruments, like drum machines, synths and so on, then a couple of guitars, and some drums.. and that's all.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did

Tiago Morgado

[xs-66] BpOlar - subversive vespers

2009-09-05T14:12:00.005+01:00

artist: BpOlar

album: subversive vespers

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release date: 05/09/2009

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contact: myspace

cover art: back and front

videoclip: krow

BpOlar is son of a jazz musician and as such he was raised from a very young age listening to the jazz masters, and although is approach diverted from this it is part of his background and as such is part of his aproach to the berlin electronic music scene. BpOlar is also a multidisciplinary artist, creating digital drawings and paintings and 3D video clips to document his music and for live usage, or the opposite (makes music to illustrate video). One of these works is presented together with this release.

BpOlar music is strongly focused on creating textures, with a close relation with ambient music. This textures are nonetheless rough and arid, and lead us to alien environments where beats, noises and voices all create suspense moments, where you feel alert all the way through. This release is composed of four tracks and a bonus movie, that complements this particular vision.

If you pay attention to BpOlar work you'll find, in his drawings/paintings, movies and music, traces of this imaginary world, where the central element is the feeling of unsettlement.

[xs-65] DNP X-Citer - algorrithmic chaos

2009-08-25T19:27:00.008+01:00

artist: DNP X-Citer
album: algorrithmic chaos

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release date: 25/08/2009
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contact: myspace

When Tiago Morgado idealized Algorrithmic Chaos for his DNP X-Citer alter ego he thought of a way to break, in a certain way, with the IDM tradition, following some of the guidelines defined by Scanner the german musician (in the sense of not confining IDM to reductionist formulas). The background for this DNP X-Citer ep is Tiago's influences and reverence to artists such as Aphex Twin, Autechre (warp records), Alva Noto, Ryochi Ikeda and Byetone (raster noton) but also Nine Inch Nails and his approach to industrial rock that Einsturzende Neubauten, Throbbing Gristle and etc... brought to music. All this influences can be identified in the electronic part of the DNP X-Citer ep which serves as the basis for an improvised "free/structured" with alto viola. Again in this improvisation several references can be found, such as, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, Pharaoh Sunders, Frank Zappa, John Zorn, Otomo Yoshihide, Fred Frith, Evan Parker, among others.

The electronic part of the ep was worked with the use of algorithmic composition techniques, where instruments in the DAW (digital audio workstation/sequenciador) were triggered by MIDI, according to simple theoretical and systematized assumptions from the AC Toolbox (designed by Paul Berg from the Institute of sonology - the hague - netherlands). tiago morgado as been working with these tool because he believes that it can be helpful in his work with algorithmic composition (please do not forget that the MIDI and OSC material genarated with ac toolbox can be used to play live; eg: histo+anal+MIDI/OSC source reading and generative/reactive control of parameters).

Algorrithmic Chaos is a technical work, without an a priori conceptual background, but when Tiago Morgado analyzed it a posteriori an organized chaos appeared. And based on that, using contemplation maybe you the listener can identify a theme for this ep.

[xs-64] ziur - granular world

2009-08-16T21:52:00.009+01:00

artist: ziur

album: granular world

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release date: 16/08/2009

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contact: myspace

cover art: back and front

In the year that we celebrate 40 years upon the arrival of men at the moon, and so many scientific discoveries, and so many lab discoverers and adventurers I present you a composer – Ziur. His passion for the discovery and study of the unknown leads us to the essence of sound, of its granular essence, presenting us another meaning, invisible to the naked ear. And like a stone is a stone on earth or on the moon, sound will always be sound whether savage or trained by Ziur.

Leonardo Rosado (xs records curator)

André Ruiz is a composer and professor at the Braga’s Conservatório Calouste Gulbenkian and he is also known in the electronic music as Ziur. He released is work concrétement at xs records [pt netlabel] in which he explored the digital media and the paradigm of composition initiated by Pièrre Schaeffer or Pièrre Henry. Ziur as been working in a series of initiatives and collaborative projects using the icompositions platform. Granular World he presents us with a series of experiments that take us to the granular synthesis domain, using the ixiquarks software developed by Italian softwarehouse ixisoftware developed with supercollider (this software is freeware and opensource). This music is as a performance component based upon the mentioned software which was refined a posteriori.

Tiago Morgado (xs records curator)

“Granular World” is an album conceived from inumerous experiences made by André Ruiz aka Ziur (the composer) using granular synthesis processes. All compositions were made in real time, i.e., all transformation processes and progressive developments were done and recorded in real time, which excludes it’s exact remake. Starting from simple recorded sounds (crystal glasses, tam tam’s, piano chords, etc.) it was possible to create diversified and individual compositions, which can suggest the listener several environments.

André Ruiz (composer)

[xs-63] subterminal - filled with light

2009-08-03T12:52:00.006+01:00

artist: subterminal

album: filled with light

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release date: 03/08/2009

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contact: blog & myspace

cover art: back & front

With eyes wide open.
Like in a reawakening. A strange awake that repeats itself every night; every passing day, or so it seems. Like a virtual experience; or maybe not. Maybe it is just a normal but scary awakening. ... "Filled With Light".

"Filled With Light" awakens us in two different ways. The first, because it is only an EP which is part of an album yet to be released; the second, because in that album, poetry, a core element always present in Subterminal's work, makes an eulogy to digital life. "Filled With Light" is like a trailer of a full movie that we anticipate; a summary with a beginning middle and end. For now, the awakening is what matters most and "Filled With Light" awakes; awakes us.

In that slow awake, "With You" introduces us to the theme, to the electronic principle that conducts the EP. However, "Filled With Light" is the track that captures our attention; because of the movement; the layers of sound; the excellent alto viola played by Tiago Morgado. There is a slight techno-industrial mood coloring Leonardo Rosado's words, the man behind Subterminal. At last, "For the First Time" definitely introduces us to what's coming. A confrontation with a different reality; or, an almost-reality. "For the First Time" introduces us to a confrontation between poetry and technology, created by dense sound ambiences, images, differing in rhythm and form. They are different lines of the same life; parallel or perpendicular. The exhaustion of conflict.

"Filled With Light" was composed and played almost entirely with an iPhone, with some extra sounds from other objects. After "Alumina" and "Insight", released in 2009, the reawakening of Subterminal is of happiness. "Filled With Light" is a great step forward when comparing with prior releases, which leads to the expectation of a very interesting conceptual album. Coupled with the refinement of his personal electronic universe, the author added a better voice treatment. The production of the EP was made by Tiago Morgado.

... to keep the eyes wide open.

Press Review by Rui Dinis, A Trompa

[xs-62] hola one & elka brown - visitors

2009-07-18T16:38:00.007+01:00

artist: hola one & elka brown

album: visitors

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release date: 18/07/2009

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contact: hola one @ myspace & elka brown @ myspace

cover art: back & front

In this new release by XS Records, Marek is back, this time together with elka brown, who has colaborated in this album with a remix of a song and some more colaborations. Personally, the main difference I see between this and the last album, is basically the production (in terms of mixing and mastering) which is signifcantly better in relation to last one.. also there has started to appear some drum machine components, which give a more rithmic character to visitors that hygh. Marek is a resident at Vombat Radio, where his tracks are featured in the electric city radio show, and which has allowed us to be partners of that radio. Hope you guys enjoy this release as much as we've done.

[xs-61] carlos d. perales - acousmotion

2009-07-02T11:55:00.006+01:00

artist: carlos d. perales
album: acousmotion

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release date: 2/07/2009
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contact: myspace
cover art: back & front

after releasing karlheinz essl performance with klaus burger, we are releasing carlos perales, which is like a returning to the musical orientations of electroacoustic avant garde music, but this time in fixed media (acousmatic) support. and in this sense we are happy because we are doing things each step to make the music we release reaching as many people as possible, and not to confine composers and musicians to their own home studio. we can say that we are as happy to release perales as we were happy to release poros or essl. and we cannot speak as well of carlos music has he speaks, reason why we leave you his text about his his music written by himself.

tiago morgado (in the hand of xs records [pt netlabel]

SYNAPSE

The brain of intelligent mammals constitutes the most organized form of matter known until now. Trying to understand this operating, the scientist behaves as an engineer would do in front of a machine; this is, firstly he would study and identify the components and then he would try to quarrel how do they work and how do these relations establish between them as a whole. In these relations, the structural and functional unit corresponds to the neuronal synapses. This way so, this interaction among neuronal components is the base of our cognition.

There exist cerebral diseases that are tied to an abnormal functioning of some neuronal synapses. Certain pathologies, as the cerebral arteriosclerosis, more known as Alzheimer, have been unjustly introduced in our society. This disease is caused principally by destruction of neurons of a cerebral region named the basal nucleus of Meynert, which establishes cholinergic synapses with the cerebral cortex. Our life turns then into a carrousel of false images, dismembered recollections, slanted impressions, constant dreams... This sonic synapses is dedicated to all whom have to fight against themselves.

MYSTIC NITS

In full technological modernity surprise me to see even the manual method to remove with patience the nits from the hair of children. Sometimes my subconscious leads me along grotesque paths and makes me to do some bizarre associations. In this work I see a craftsman against this nits, but this time, the nits are not other than ideas that the worship of ancient myths. At the same time those are difficult to remove, they also put it not that easy. Modernity cannot remain in vain advancement of technologies and therefore this craftsman wants to eliminate all traces of old-fashioned prejudices, fears, religious ties, double and triple standards.

HYDRA

Aubrey de Grey, engineer specialized on data analysis, argues that genetic senescence (molecular degeneration) is a parameter that, according to the latest research, could be corrected. He claims that we have a 50% chance of achieving the goal of living until 1000 years in 25 to 30 years of appropriate research. In this case, the genetic information of cells that go growing old and deteriorating would be corrected. Based on this conjecture my attention focused on simple hydridae such as Hydra, which do not have this congenial defect. The Hydra is a fresh-water animal, usually a few millimeters long and very interesting for the scientific community because it has this regenerative ability. They appear to be unique in the animal world because of not suffering from senescence. Based on this ability to self reparation, the work is divided into 3 sections. Each of them have a similar behavior, as the used samples develop micro evolutions on themselves, becoming degenerate and transforming to similar materials.

carlos perales

[xs-60] poros - labass

2009-06-20T14:07:00.003+01:00

artist: poros

album: labass

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release date: 20/06/2009

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contact: myspace

cover art: back & front

Poros is a solo project of Paulo Vicente born in Lisbon (Portugal). Playing bass since 1987. He is also the author of the current xs records [pt netlabel] release, in which ((he presents himself as a one man band show) || (solo)) some sort of symbiosis occur between rock and electronic music, ambient, trip hop and downtempo.

Having such a passion for bass Poros bass leads the way to his admirable world of senses. Every note is played respectfully every chord has a smell, every beat a taste. You can sense different worlds in harmony. And all the other sounds increase this sense of perfume, of exotic nights, of longing for something. Carefully noises and sounds are placed in such a way that brings us closer and closer to desire.

This is we think what Paulo wants to show the world. If the word romantic wouldn't have such a bad implication nowadays we would say that Paulo is one of the ultimate romantics of this world. And this is also what we enjoy in the music we present you, passion and reverence for this language of feelings. Hope you guys enjoy this fine release as much as we enjoyed.

[xs-59] essl.burger - live!

2009-06-06T18:30:00.008+01:00

artist: essl.burger

album: live!

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release date: 07/06/09

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contact: Karlheinz Essl myspace homepage & youtube - Klaus Burger myspace & homepage

As a netlabel, we've always been worried about bringing music with an ascending quality to people, although some our releases seem a bit controversial, since we try to get as much diversity as possible.

This month, we can say that we are extremely proud to release Karlheinz Essl's and Klaus Burger's duo ESSL.BURGER. Not only because Karlheinz Essl is one of the most relevant figures of nowadays improvised music with live electronics in Europe, but also because we believe that together with our previous release and the following we might be heading to new pathways and manners of discovering ourselves in the music we are in contact with (in our music as an ascetic path belief), and in what we believe to be our role in this universe.

[xs-58] v.a. - past present and future

2009-05-17T23:56:00.005+01:00

artist: various
album: past present and future (meditation on the ascetic role of music in human existence)

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release date: 17/05/2009
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contact: myspace and email

For those who use it and want to use it, Music is certainly more than just a form of expression or language, no matter if we consider it to be universal or not. It is part of our existential condition, it is a way of transcending beauty, through love and friendship and all that is around it - Life. Music is beyond religion or judgment, no matter if you are atheist, Agnostic, Christian, Buddhist, or Hindu, open minded or anything else. It is a way to practice Asceticism, no matter if you believe or not in the relationship between macro and micro-structures. It is a way of making a statement about and for the world and ourselves.

In my life I have learned some things, of which the main and most recent discoveries, is that we all make part of the very same thing, and we are all connected. So if Music is a relevant dimension of our existence, we make Music with and for other people. Even if we think that we can make it without other people, something extremely personal, something like a daily-route escape, the seeds of our existence are embedded in it, our dreams, our fears.

In the past year XS Records [pt netlabel] started a gigantic task - creating a circuit for people to share Music, in their own personal way, such that each ones personal vision is not captive to each ones studio, but free for other people to listen to it. And in that way share everything we make and our beliefs, with respect for the differences among all of the people that are inside this boat, this train, this airplane, on this thing that is our Life. The blind man is welcome, the virtuoso is welcome, the average men and women are welcome. Everyone one is Welcome, to share the same embrace that is MUSIC.

And this is not only done by welcoming everyone, but also by breaking all boundaries bringing as much diversity as possible in the name of an ascending quality, and in that sense since the Music in this two sided-release is really good, then consequently a lot of really good people are here represented. And I can say I am proud to share this with these guys, so I will let you discover each one personally.

I've done my best compiling this, and hope you all listen to this Music and have a lot of pleasure listening to it. If you enjoy this compilation then, I can say: I was successful doing it.

Part One

01 - João Clemente - Chamber of Dismemberment by Chariot
02 – Aaldo - Mantra
03 - Minson - Contagious passion
04 - Ziur - The mind of a budist monk
05 - Claudio Moreira - AQUATICA Artificialis & Naturalis
06 - The Astroboy
07 - Isaac de la Concha - Caminos y valles
08 - Subterminal - Still
09 - Light Implant - Barack Obama
10 - Topi Reta - Cuando los Payasos invadieron la Tierra
11 - Hyaena Reich - Zlknf - telegramme de brest cover wampa
12 - Luis Salgado - Pict
13 - Miguel Urbano - Doepfer1
14 - Most People Have Been Trained To Be Bored - Spontaneity less hampered
15 - ocp - Untitled Tower

Part Two

01 – Necrostilet – Amor de cabeça perdida (feat. Valter Hugo Mãe e Luis Fernandes)
02 - João Clemente - Chamber of Heart-digging
03 - Filipe Lopes - Whitemusic
04 - Essl.Burger - EsslMuseum#2
05 - Daily Misconceptions - How to wake up slow and easy in the morning
06 - José Gomes - Distorção 16Bit L2
07 - AGF - minimalTunesia
08 - Adamned.age - In abwesenheit
09 - Jorge Nunes - Tatoo
10 - Hola One - Hipnozia

[xs-57] hola one - hygh

2009-04-05T17:34:00.014+01:00

artist: hola one

album: hygh

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release date: 5/4/2009

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contact: myspace and radio

Hola one is Marek Ogorzalek, the same person behind lost reality, khhh, and morten - pa gyngende grund. Marek has started his music activity in the hip hop underground scene in the late 90's and has been working in electronic music since 2000, although only in 2007 he sucedeed implementing something that he thought had interest for himself, in an aesthetic way. This was a basis for going throughout some existencial states, that condicioned his way of seeing life in limit situations. Lost Reality has been the result of it, and hola one works as an extension for this kind of sound. Here we have an interwine between experimental, ambient, minimal, micropoliphonic stuff, somewhere in the line of people such as brian eno, alva noto (in terms of textures), beatriz ferreyra, pauline oliveros and so on. Marek is a resident at Vombat Radio, where his tracks are featured in the electric city radio show.

[xs-56] egotron - egotron

2009-03-30T00:07:00.004+01:00

artist: egotron

album: egotron

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release date: 29.03.2009

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contact: myspace

Katarina Magalhães is egotron and vice versa. Both share kellogs froot loops fashion design and listening and making music. Has sound artist, she learned by her self to use Ableton Live software for her musical creativity process. In term of influences one can find reminiscences of electro/punk/pop totally electronic, in an almost low fi tronica sense. It can be recognized different sorts of influences from mylo, uclic, stereoboy, metronomy, the faint, cabaret voltaire, goldie or tricky. The symbiosis between music and fashion design is a key element to egotron, and although the world will lose someone with a potential for music maybe someday we can see her in the catwalk.

[xs-55] lotus mecanica - the live sessions and jack d

2009-03-29T23:57:00.005+01:00

artist: lotus mecanica

album: the live sessions and jack d

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release date: 29.03.2009

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contact: myspace

In the last years in Portugal there has been recurring manifestations of the rockabilly movement, most of them centered on Coimbra. Bands, such as The Legendary Tiger Man, Wraygunn, and later, Nicotine Caffe Orchestra have come to the forefront of the underground Portuguese scene and extrapolating (at least the first two bands mentioned) to the mainstream. Choosing to publish a rockabilly band with a creative commons license is part of the xs premises of breaking all barriers in avoiding the choice to publish specific types of music, such as, electronic projects. Having said this, we present you Lotus Mecanica, a band that we believe has what it takes to be a rockabilly band. This is a live recording act, in which we can listen to Lotus Mecanica style, a kind of rockabilly blues dirty punk. Also to note, is the fact that we are discussing the idea of distributing a limited edition in digipack or cdr of this ep, so if you’re interested, just let us know.

[xs-54] emanuel casimiro - a revolta das plaquetas

2009-03-24T23:35:00.001Z

artist: emanuel casimiro

album: a revolta das plaquetas

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release date:

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contact: myspace

Emanuel Casimiro, conhecido como Rei do Power Pimba, genero este que engloba correntes musicais ao mesmo tempo tao diversificadas mas com tanto em comum como o Power Metal, o Punk e o Pimba, acaba de atacar na XS Records (pt netlabel) - depois de um projecto brazileiro que une o grindcore com o punk e a lowfi tronica -, e com um único objectivo. Marcar a diferenca - e nesse sentido acho que consegue aquilo que e pretendido. E como os gostos musicais sao a meu ver, numa certa perspectiva relativista subjectivos, e nao ha, no fundo visoes mais validas do que outras, apenas visoes diferentes, acho que Emanuel Casimiro esta de parabens.

[xs-53] emanuel casimiro - o rei do power pimba

2009-03-24T23:29:00.001Z

artist: emanuel casimiro

album: o rei do power pimba

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[xs-52] AAM! - ojodoro

2009-03-24T23:20:00.001Z

artist: AAM!

album: ojodoro

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AAM! is a research laboratory of sounds, noises, Futurism visions and DaDa references.
A collaboration between "Aaldo" contrabassist/bass player, composer and researcher, "M!" noisemaker, composer, researcher and inventor of musical instruments
"OJODORO" it's a 22 min.long track. The title is inspired by the reading of the biography of the director Alejandro Jodorowski.

[xs-50] grupo porco de grindcore interpretativo - the rala o pinto massacre

2009-03-24T23:07:00.001Z

artist: grupo porco de grindcore interpretativo

album: the rala o pinto massacre

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Grupo Porco de Grindcore Interpretativo is a brazilian experimental lambada metal band that incorporates elements of grindcore in their sound and punk rock in their aesthetics. The band is currently signed to Azucrina Records of Brazil.

When asked about the origin of their name, Porquinho stated in an interview that he was a big fan of the arts, dance and some cultural raping stuff, so he think - Fuck it - This is my band i'll call it that way.

The band was infamous for seeming to hate the experimental-lambada-metal-band-that-incorporates-elements-of-grindcore-scene back in the early 1990s however the band now seems to disassociate with such hatred. It has been ascertained that the origin of such "hate" was the fact that singer Leo Pyrata had been subjected to telephonic pranks by members of fellow brazilian metallers Falamansa, which he interpreted as "attacks" from members of the experimental-lambada-metal-band-that-incorporates-elements-of-grindcore-scene. They also stopped wearing corpse paint in the mid 1990s due to it being "too trendy".

In 2003, guitarist Porquinho died falling - or jumping - off a bridge on the ice below. Although officially he's alive.

[xs-49] rainbows - universal compassion

2009-03-24T23:01:00.000Z

artist: rainbows

album: universal compassion

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Universal compassion is one more registry of the solo project of tiago morgado, this time with two small experiments in the style of christian fennesz (some sort of shoegazze noise, where piano drones, are processed over the time).

[xs-48] rainbows - songs for someone

2009-03-24T22:54:00.000Z

artist: rainbows

album: songs for someone

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Songs for someone é como que um tardio iniciar de uma nova etapa e como que um preparar de uma novo ciclo de releases (e quem sabe, até projectos) por parte de Tiago Morgado, mentor da netlabel XS Records [portuguese netlabel]. Songs for someone faz-se então adivinhar como que um abrir de novos caminhos no sentido de uma espiritualidade vivida essencialmente através da música, e que encerra tudo aquilo que faz com que o autor do mesmo sinta a existência de uma razão para continuar a fazer música. Uma espécie de mística onde a angústia, a paixão, o sofrimento, o amor, o equilibrio se encerram numa vivencia espirtual conduzida através da musica. Trata-se portanto de uma maneira de transmitir através do seu instrumento com recurso a processamento (pedais e racks direccionados essencialmente para o processamento de guitarra electrica), aquilo que sente em relação a alguém ou algo, em relação ao tudo ou nada, caminhando num sentido de abraçar uma linguagem que cruza em alguns momentos o minimalismo presente na musica de compositores como steve reich ou philippe glasse, a uma quase sugestão de tratamento micropolifónico, típico da música de brian eno.

[xs-47] nata - stormy weather

2009-03-24T22:48:00.000Z

artist: nata

album: stormy weather

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Recorded on my balcony one summer afternoon while watching a particularly vicious storm lash the coastline, literally destroying everything in its wake, then slowly going out to sea. this is how it felt to be there, the air thick with electricity and a sinister atmosphere of profound unease...this record is playable at any speed

[xs-46] pangea - vital error [feat kenji siratori]

2009-03-24T22:43:00.001Z

artist: pangea

album: vital error

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Today we have a spoken word lp to present to all of you guys.. it's called vital error and it's the last aparition of pangea, a friend of ours callled juan nieto (he has previously released some stuff in test tube), and which features the colab of kenji siratori, a japanese cyber punk poet well known in the web and which has featured colaborations in my project uncle bart comes to have breakfast.

[xs-45] jorge nunes - comprimido

2009-03-24T22:37:00.001Z

artist: jorge nunes

album: comprimido

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Jorge Nunes abre o ano de 2009 com uma bomba em estilo "Comprimido"; qual complexo químico ou arma de arremesso a lembrar o Dr. Robert Moog - esteja ele onde estiver desejando que esteja em paz - que continua a valer a pena ter criado nos idos 60 aquele extraordinário aparelho de som sintetizado. O Moog. É ele que serve de primeiro veículo transmissor ao universo em turbilhone que aqui vem comprimido. Ele e mais alguns pedaços arrecadados ao espaço e ao tempo por um moderno iPod de toque. Mas adiante que a loucura não espera; Desespera.

[xs-44] moreu - gong music

2009-03-24T22:32:00.001Z

artist: moreu

album: gong music

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Suyoshi kanda is a Japanese Composer / Eight Strings Instrument Player. in this 44th release in xs records [pt netlabel] - the very last one of 2008, he presents himself with a work for gong, a percursion instruments of huge dimension used early by percussionists and drummers, ranging from percursion ensembles, to classical sinphonyc orchestras, and which has been introduced in contemporary music by the visionary karlheinz stockhausen in his works Mikrophonie.

[xs-43] 10konekt - telekom

2009-03-24T22:25:00.001Z

artist: 10konekt

album: telekom

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Today I present you with this fine industrial project from france, 10konekt, which works in the base of circuit bending stuff.. an ep to be listened with care and open mind.

[xs-42] ziur - concretement

2009-03-24T20:16:00.001Z

artist: ziur

album: concretement

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Ziur is the artistic name of Andre Ruiz. Originally from Maia, Portugal, is a composer who has made creations for movie pictures, animation films, video games and musical orchestral arrangements and collaborated with several artist performers. He lives in Braga where he teachs composition at the local Music school. For many years is working in classical music as teacher and composer. Ziur's project (created in 2005) is an escape for his believes and is an atempt to expand his music ideas and share with all his musical visions.

[xs-41] engenho - amazónia

2009-03-24T20:10:00.000Z

artist: engenho

album: amazónia

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Se o ritmo, efectivamente, é o elo de ligação de todos os temas, Engenho aventura-se por vários territórios musicais de diferente estética, desde o ambiente mais negro até qualquer coisa como paranóia sonora free noise boa, porque Engenho é malta ligada à música exploratória, desligada de preconceitos, rica em fusões e infusões.

[xs-40] mezcup - 2008

2009-03-24T20:03:00.000Z

artist: mezcup

album:2008

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Meczup enter chaos
"As a result of experimental compositon methods, this music is concrete. It’s concrete because there’s no abstract chart, partition or proclamation that the composer set, before creation. It’s concrete because the music is created with direct interaction with the sound and creation is started with hearing total involvement of every single sound." İlhan Mimaroglu

[xs-39] exportion - stream of conciousness

2009-03-24T19:07:00.001Z

artist: exportion

album: stream of consciousness

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Exportion is sound and visual project. We are alive in the interstice of the fantasy and the reality. This story is a fantasy but a reality. We travel from the reality to non-reality again. It considers, time and space become one flow that forms the world at time. The two worlds exist in the same time and the verges exist close to us. The world not seen if consideration is not turned. Door that opens by feeling that it is strong. The door is open and we travel to the world that has not seen yet. We express it by the sound and the image.

[xs-38] beautiful venom - prologue

2009-03-24T18:33:00.001Z

artist: beautiful venom

album: prologue

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Beautiful venom is one of those bands you can't fit in only one known musical genre. with clear influences of the rock and metal worlds, the concept of their music is based on creativity and originality. andres, manuel, willy, and mits mix their different musical preferences and influences in a big cauldron forged with teamwork, persistance and faith on their music and work, resulting on something different from everything you have heard before. their constantly working creative spirit makes every song different and unique. some people might not like that, but as long as ther is one fan on eart, they will keep on working to make it even better for that one person. for the band there are onlhy two types of people: those who like and those who don't like. It's a 50/50 thing. never giving up, not even when everything turns against them, their struggle, to keep on creating and improving led their way during the last 3 years. Evolving form a teenager punk rock band to somehting mature with the guts to turn you upside down, or simply leave you untouched - if you have already been brainwashed, that's it. don't get stung. this is lethal venom.

[xs-37] outlevel - estrela

2009-03-24T18:26:00.001Z

artist: outlevel

album: estrela

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To discover out Level is undoubtely an experience. More enjoyable for ones, less for otherones, all this sound universe touch us in the way as it interwines all a variety of aesthetic languages, that walk from a sight more close to indie and shoegazze, to all a universe of field recordings and idm, with a close contact to the new tendries of all the electronic music of germain alternative circuits (besides that the author assumes by lots of times influences in Kubik as a major influence, which in a certain way reflects on the way as it goes into contact with the author's work without forgetting his last album). A sensorial experience which transforms itself at the course of four long tracks, with a deeply minimal character getting together all those four themes which have in common the contact with a sound reality.

[xs-36] salad - ubiquo

2009-03-23T23:08:00.002Z

artist: salad

album: ubiquo

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If the holy graal of the free jazz, may goes through american musicians such as Frank zappa, Ornette Coleman, John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, Peter Brotzmann, Charles Mingus or Evan Parker, going to the oriental world where important names of improvisation don't stop echoing, and where we can find musicians such as Kawabata Makoto, Otomo Yoshihide, Kenji Haino, among other, I am sure that we cannot say that we have a bad improvisation scene here in Portugal, although many times musicians rejected by the portuguese society as Carlos Zíngaro, António Pinho Vargas (in a past now in recovery), Nuno Rebelo, Vítor Rua, or Jorge Lima Barreto appear many times in an indiscrimination motion of marginalization of some of the best music that has been made in here for the last 20 years. it is right that although recent, and practically hidden and limited to the anonymous identity of life in the deep of portugal this project salad, of the authory of João Clemente created in May 2007 (first recordings) that is now presented in this release, takes the notion of free improvisation with base in pre-defined structures where most of the times the line which separetes the rigid structure and the free improvisation is almost imperceptible, at an high state, so high that it may even take the risk of becoming a reference in the national scene at medium long date. It's the author's papper to create a fluxus, where the motivic gathering, in a support close to the standard, lead to all this magic, in the style of what we can see in different contexts, and with different aesthetic backgrounds, in masada recordings of john zorn in his own label tzadik just as some of Frank Zappa work if we want to go a bit more back in the past. To notice also the possibility of future releases with another formations, dued to the existance of more studio recordings, and to the high notion of social structure present in all the musical trama. The spontaneous portuguese creation is in good health and it is highly recommended - a release to be listened and re-listened and enjoyed times without count.

[xs-35] jackpooote - jackpooote

2009-03-23T23:00:00.000Z

artist: jackpooote

album: jackpooote

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In this release we are took into the deep lands of portugal, and we are self presented with a release of jackpooote (aka xarope), some sort of punk (I didn't want to use that word, once I just wanted to give the idea that we are facing something recorded in low fi terms), where we can listen to a project that makes us remind, in certain terms, all the universe of which reminds us of stuff ranging from FRICS to stealing orchestra music (another portuguese project with a similar language - although jacpooote is more closed to cut-up music - doesn't matter if the musicians are more technical or less skilled).. But if we get close to this music we can just understand that it is something completely naked of stereotypes - something where punk and low fi meets with tribal noise improvisation, and if you are open minded and don't have problems with music cliches (kinda it's low fi music - so I won't listen it as a principle), we can probably meet something which brings us some ethnographic ideas of music, allied with some sort of originality and will to make something different.

[xs-34] tiago morgado & adamned.age - EHF: collaboration works

2009-03-23T22:54:00.002Z

artist: tiago morgado & adamned.age

album: EHF: collaboration works

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Much has change in my life since I created this netlabel. I knew people, I expanded my horizons in terms of music knowledge and I created an interesting circuit for promotion of my music and others work. But in the middle of all that, there is nothing more important than the experiences echanged with other people, and the friendships that a guy establishes over the internet. For an instance in my album "Some paradoxes about the human existence (...)" released in test tube (Uncle bart (...) tube 125) I've had collaborartions requested by me ranging from portuguese musicians friends of mine (and people which work I admire a lot) to kenji siratory but I've never imagined that some months later I would being asked by german musicians to collaborate with them. And this experience, of giving few material of mine to other to work over the internet that has been a happening but will turn more periodical (at least I wish so), I desire to have more opurnities to seeing these sort of mutations of my own musical and sound identity by others and going along with making music with other people, and creating circuits for other people to make it which was also a big purpose of all this thing.

[xs-33] gabran - anthem

2009-03-23T22:49:00.001Z

artist: gabran

album: anthem

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Gabriele Ranica teaches literary subjects in the superior school. Beginning from the seventies, he has played in groups of music jazz and contemporary improvisation. The meeting with the Teacher Angelo Paccagnini has brought him to the reflection on the sound addressing him/it toward the aesthetics of the musical search. You/he/she has published for Picked Editions: "Angel Paccagnini: The displease cosmic."

Anthem is a prayer to the possible sonorous worlds that are inside and out of us. We are sound and it are the discovery of the sense of the sound that we are to bring I spill me the search and the experimentation.
These sounds are only some of the sounds that I have met in this world, many others I have still discovered of it and many I will discover of it when my world will be only Sound.

by the Author

[xs-32] ruins winter - natural

2009-03-23T21:38:00.001Z

artist: ruins winter

album: natural

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Going into the japanese hardcore power noise of people as masami akita, this argetine project ruins wintar - natural ep gives us a set of 3 moments of pure noise, in an active nuclear charge, To listen with care.

[xs-31] aaldo - selected works

2009-03-23T21:26:00.001Z

artist: aaldo

album: selected works

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"AAldo 'and' a sound project by Aldo Ammirata, bassist and contrabbassista from Palermo (Italy) after several musical experiences ranging from punk / new-wave classic studies in collaboration with various artists of various trends, has undertaken a few years of research in the field of music concrete and minimalist theatrical feature, starting from the collaboration with the actor vanguard: Claudio Ambrosetti with which it has cooperated for a long time.
The "fragment" and "Les dieux frozen '" are compositions for theatrical monologues, "fragment", part of a single tatrale opera, "Les dieux frozen '" less minimalist precedents (with the voice of reverse FTMarinetti) is part of a representation is not achieved.
Currently "AAldo" is implementing and completing various compositions that will form an entire album that will ' probably finished by 2008.

Aldo Ammirata

[xs-30] palindromic resonance - voidfuck sessions

2009-03-23T21:19:00.000Z

artist: palindromic resonance

album: voidfuck sessions

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"Ever since I discovered ambient and drone music, I've been interested in trying to experiment and play around with sound and mixing and matching it with all sorts of things to try and come up with something that satisfies me. I also love sound that has a "decaying" or "dirty" quality to it to convey a certain atmosphere, which is why I love black metal also (one of the reasons why). I also love minimalism (in any form of art) as well as using any instrument as a means of creating a "sound" so to speak rather than using it in a conventional manner."

[xs-29] light's on - words of nature

2009-03-23T21:15:00.001Z

artist: lights on

album: word of nature

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This is the second release of lights on in xs records. in fact, where we can listen and enjoy to the sound gallery of images of the author's where we can listen to the authors life philosophy.

[xs-28] die minimalistin - isolator

2009-03-23T21:08:00.000Z

artist: die minimalistin

album: isolator

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Tanja D., born on Sep5,1975 and living in Berlin, received a classical piano-training at the music-academy in Hamburg plus education in composition and audition. At the age of 13 she already developed her own compositions in classical minimal-music that still plays an important role in her musical activities owadays. In December 2006 the first computer-compositions involving music-software, VST-plug-ins and VST-instruments were developed. Tanja D. likes to integrate noise-recordings of everyday life (ventilation-systems, tubes, etc.) as well as lyrics and her own voice. After having tested various styles of electronic music (e.g. minimal techno) she soon discovered the experimental electronic style and dark-ambient-genre. Currently she mainly concentrates on experimental dark-ambient-soundscapes and production of surreal sounds accompanying visual artworks. Inspired by the established project Exurban founded by the artist ADAMNED.AGE, she began to deal with the photographic/visual realisation of experimental contents and ex-urban rooms as basis for musical soundscapes. The most important aspect is the audiovisuality reference in her works; associative journeys through abstract, irreal and fantastic worlds or experienced events.

First release of tanja from exurban in xs records.. a very tripy dark ambient one.. to listen with care.

[xs-27] renato folgado - late

2009-03-23T21:03:00.001Z

artist: renato folgado

album: late

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Renato folgado is a classicaly trained musician, from the deep lands of portugal. In this release late, he presents himself in a solo grunge project.

[xs-26] cláudio moreira - showcase @ fnac bragaparque 02-06-08

2009-03-23T20:55:00.001Z

artist: cláudio moreira

album: showcase @ fnac bragaparque 02-06-08

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Steping aside presentations to those ones that have someway been inside the work of the netlabel, claudio moreira presents himsfelf in this new recording registry this time, in a small showcase in the braga's fnac, a small city in the north of Portugal
With an aesthetic aproach completely avant gard and influences which come from Boulez to Stockhausen to John Cage and so on, Claudio Moreira (horn compostion and radios) presents himself in this registry together with virigilio oliveira (basson and radios), with who performs his own works, and tiago morgado which joins them to make an intercourse between works of tiago morgado as a composer and improviser adn to the aesthetic of the instrumental writting of claudio moreira.
Even minding that it's a small work, it allows us to have a more clear wider and more concret and precise vision of the work of claudio moreira while composer and performer and eventually to reveal a future and promiser member of the next generation of portuguese musicians and composers.

[xs-25] la stanza bianca - cristina bardo thodol

2009-03-23T20:03:00.001Z

artist: la stanza bianca

album: cristina bardo thodol

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This fine band brings another great release to our netlabel where we can listen to some sort of intercourse between free improv and progressive/post-rock, resulting in an astonishing musical stuff.

[xs-24] algo - there will never be another you

2009-03-23T19:54:00.001Z

artist: algo

album: there will never be another you

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AL has found GO in a universe far away from here, l. where sun would come. AL was listening to Rihm and Shnittke and GO was listening to Alvo Noto and Murcof. It was love and hate at first sight. From this first and unique encounter there have gotten to the history this 11 digits, in shape of sound. For some people incompreensible, for other ones weird. For them, just ALGO.

[xs-23] the oniric - the oniric

2009-03-23T18:51:00.001Z

artist: the oniric

album: the oniric

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Today I present you a project of a long date friend, Luis Guilherme , who I met while I was still a child. and who brought us, among with his friend Luis Silva this fine ep which is actually their very first recording registry and where we can listen to some kind of singular sound that trancends music cathegories, where dark ambient is conflued with electronica, goth music and at a more conceptual basis, trip hop, neo-folk fado, XIXth century classical music power and intelligent pop in a fusion registry. To listen and re-listend with the dued attention.

[xs-22] necrostilet, minson, uncle bart comes to have breakfast - split

2009-03-23T00:15:00.002Z

artist: necrostilet, minson and uncle bart comes to have breakfast

album: split

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contact: necrostilet myspace, minson myspace & uncle bart myspace

Tiago Morgado met Marco Ramos accidentally met in college (FCSH). They shared their avant-garde music passion and sometime after they where working on something Tiago had in mind, which was the experimental project necrostilet. They made music together during one year, and after it they were forced by their own destiny to pursuit their lives separately on far locations in Portugal. But they did not stoped working on necrostilet, and they continued to essay some sound experiences with something that their friendship gave them and helped them to grow. Marco has continued working on Minson but with an aesthetic much closer to necrostilet (two releases came then - the first one in enough records and the other one in this same netlabel), and Tiago created a new project called Uncle Bart comes to Have Breakfast, which has lead him to make experimental music among with some friends and people who he admires a lot (will be soonly released in test tube) and alone. Some of the work of the late home studio sessions of necrostilet among some material unreleased by minson and uncle bart is here represented which allows to communicate more then a end of a chapter in a friendship a page turning to a new one.

[xs-21] forgotten ruins - forgotten ruins

2009-03-22T23:12:00.001Z

artist: forgotten ruins

album: forgotten ruins

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Today we present you with this fine release of forgotten ruins, a very recent uk dark ambient and experimental project that gives us this fully lp in which we can find a crossover between field recordings and electronic sound manipulations. A very cold experience to be heard with ears and mind.

[xs-20] tiago morgado - zen garden

2009-03-22T22:58:00.001Z

artist: tiago morgado

album: zen garden

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Zen Garden is the result of a music reflection made by Tiago Morgado, somewhere before he was 20 years old in a deep loneliness afternoon. A work where the subject is travelling through his mind to clarify the reason of his will and existence. The result is a abrasive viola drone of 20 minutes processed by his hybrid analogue/digital toys setup.

[xs-18] youth and student travel - copy me copy you

2009-03-22T22:38:00.001Z

artist: youth and student travel

album: copy me copy you

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In this release we want to present you an ep of a sweden indie band called youth and student travel. a very soundful work, which can trasport you to imaginable imaginary soundscapes and reminds (not as the way as john cage was used to refer to it). A band with a substract to be heard.

[xs-17] landerim - shallow draw

2009-03-22T22:27:00.001Z

artist: landerim

album: shallow draw

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Today we present you with this fine release from Landerim, a Psychedelic/Ambient Folk Band from the USA (Brooklin, New York), with influencies which come from Robert Wyatt, to Soft Machine, Brian Eno, Harold Budd, Jon Hassell, Scott Walker, Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett. Like a girl that I met yesterday said, their music invites us to close the eyes, in order to listen to it with the due attention, and exploring each sound.. it's interesting!

[xs-16] EXurban - leerstand untergrund

2009-03-22T22:19:00.001Z

artist: EXurban

album: leerstand untergrund

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about EXurban (by José Luis aka Gift of Vision):

"this both artist bring more than an empty space composition cliche, actually they discover a forgotten world, a world that is there but nobody notices it anymore... or anybody wants to notice. and it is because watching the slideshow, it inmediately takes you to a walk tru the corridors, the rooms and halls. And the questions come to surface in a second? what happened here? what kind of people was attended in this room? it was a injuried soldier? a happy pregnant mother giving birth?
an old man waiting for the last breath of his life?

While the walk continues on every picture, a feeling of sadness, solitude, forgotten, depressive and nostalgic when the sun tries in vain to warm these rooms, and a mistery around it is overpassing the eyes, mind and hearth of the expectator, but... stop walking is not a choice. at the same time thousands of questions will remain with no answer: why this place is not used anymore? why they dont just tear it down and build a new thing? does anybody cares about this place? all that dust, rusty, broken windows and wide empty spaces just remain quiet with memories of echoes, voices and situations that happened there and no one will tell.

Even worse for my hearth: die minimalistic background sounds makes me going down, keeping my hearth cold, hopeless for an answer and fitting to my heartbeat and unexpected noises turns my skin with goosebumps not of scary, but yes: for emptyness.

I loved it, yes, this travel took me to the basement of my own personal ghosts and took me back to reality, I would recommend to everyone to have this travel and find their own basements without the classical gothic way for personal suffering: just real places, real pictures and the real noises in your head. I will be waiting for the next walk."

In this new release of the german colective EXurban, crossover by two influent projects of the electronic german music scene, we find some sort of aproaching between languages as, for an instance, dark ambient, electronica, musique concrete, field recordings, electroacustic music, idm, downtempo, and so on. An ecletic experience, to see, taste, smell and listen. Recommended.

[xs-15] emanuel salvador - selected performances

2009-03-22T20:40:00.001Z

artist: emanuel salvador

album: selected performances

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We are glad to announce this new release by Emanuel Salvador, one of Portugal's most promising young violinist.

Emanuel Salvador, one of the finest Portuguese violinists of his generation.
Strad Magazine, Agosto de 2007

Born in 1981, Emanuel Salvador has already performed as a soloist and chamber musician in many important venues including St. Martin-in-the-Fields and Southwark Cathedral (London), Philharmonic Hall (Uralsk - Kazakhstan), Gulbenkian Museum, Rivoli Theatre and Bank of Portugal Hall (Lisbon), Principe Filipe Hall (Oviedo, Spain), Centro de las Artes Escenicas y de la Musica (Salamanca, Spain), Sto. Antonio Church (Rome) and Manoel Theatre (Malta). He has been awarded several prizes such as: first prize at Isolde Menges (RCM) and Beckenham Festival competitions; Barbirolli Memorial and Wolfson Foundation Award; second prize at Jovens Musicos competition; Honours Mention at Julio Cardona International Competition - Portugal; Gulbenkian Foundation Scholarship (2000-2003), amongst others. In 1999 Emanuel graduated from Artave (a specialist music school) as the best student of the year. During this time he studied with Costa Santos, Sergei Aroutiounian and Yakow Marr. He then moved to London, where he got a Bachelor of Music Degree from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (studying with Professor John Glickman) and a Masters Degree in Advanced Performance at the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Dr. Felix Andrievsky. Other professors with whom Emanuel studied include Ulf Hoelscher, Alberto Lysy, Vadim Brodsky, David Takeno, Gerardo Ribeiro and Ilya Grubert. As a concerto soloist Emanuel has played with Artave, do Norte, Nonesuch, Morley College, Vitalis, Newbury Symphony and Nova Amadeus orchestras, under Antonio Soares, Ferreira Lobo, Vi tor Matos, Chris Dawe, David Drummond and Massimo Scapin. His festival appearances include Encontros da Primavera e O violino por (Portugal), Proms in St. Judes and Ampthill (U.K.) and at the International String Orchestra Festival (Malta). Some of his performances have been recorded for the Portuguese Radio and Khabar TV (Kazakhstan). The Violin Concerto by Joaquim dos Santos, was written for, and premiered by Emanuel in Rome in June 2005 and later in Portugal. The first performance was recorded for the Portuguese Institute in Rome. Karl Fiorini's Violin Concerto, also written for Emanuel, which was premiered in Rotterdam in March 2008. Emanuel is an active chamber musician and has studied in masterclasses with Bernard Greenhouse (Beaux Arts), Florestan and Peabody trios and the Borodin, Takacs and Vellinger Quartets. He was a founder member of the Vianna da Motta Piano Trio, with whom he performed extensively in the U.K. and Portugal and recorded a CD for Centro Atlantico label. In 2003, he formed a violin and harp Duo with Ieuan Jones, playing regularly in the U.K. Since September 2005 Emanuel is the leader of Orquestra do Norte in Portugal. In June 2006 he played second solo violin in Gulbenkian Foundation's project Uma Pequena Flauta Magica (Lisbon). He plays on a tonal copy of a Guarnerius del Gesu, by Martin Schleske (Munich, 2004), which he acquired with the help of a Loan Fund for Musical Instruments' grant.

[xs-14] tiago morgado - playing to ghosts

2009-03-22T20:38:00.001Z

artist: tiago morgado

album: playing to ghosts

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You are in the middle of nothing.you are surrounded by the darkness and the emptiness of your mind, surrounded by ghosts. your ghosts, not the ghosts of anyone else. you want to run, but you cannot hidde from yourself. and then, at the end of a tunel, you see yourself highlighted with a piano, in the middle of a theatre. you want to play, but you cannot because there is not anyone to listen to you. only your ghosts are sitted in the middle of the audience. then, when the concert ends up, you wake up. you see that you were not sleeping. and then you want to continue with your routine, but you are not able to because you feel empty and tired of living and bleeding the dreams of someday.

[xs-13] Light's On - Save The World EP

2009-03-22T20:23:00.001Z

artist: light's on

album: save the world

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This project Light's On was a way that Pedro Marques has found to communicate and share his vision of life by music, on a effort help humanizing the nowadays society of consumism, repetition of routines, and individualism. In this context we can see someone appealing to a better world, where everyone can share iquality, inter-help and love by the people around us.

This light's on save EP is an ambient electronica registry where we can find someone looking for a path, and trying to help the others, communicating it by a minimal electronica music tendry, full of visual images, and smells and tastes. Someone that tries to share his own equilibrium with the others.

[xs-12] adamned.age - photosphaere

2009-03-22T00:42:00.001Z

artist: adamned.age

album: photosphaere

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release date: 2008-04-10

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Adamned.age (Hanne Adam), born and grown up in Hamburg in 1977, is an artist residing in Berlin who already began very early practising music on piano, guitar and drums. She mainly played drums in punk- and crossover-bands and started her first solo-recordings on an 8-track-taperecorder.In 1996 she integrated computer-technology and virtual instruments to create her first electronic-music-works in trip-hop-/downtempo-style. She never stopped singing because vocals are considered as a particular experiment. Intense experiments on hard- and software involved transformations of sounds and samples to click and cut-elements that have become a relevant basis for the rhythmic and percussive tracks of her minimal techno-style.
Recently she re-concentrated mainly on sound-design (an integral part of her former studies) and experimental structures leading to electronica and IDM-style. Beside these styles she still works on her well-known downtempo-structures, combined with ambient sounds.In addition, many collaborations such as remixes and multimedial projects are part of Hanne's complex musical carrier.Due to her immense artistic output, Hanne Adam is often characterized as a very busy person. In fact, working on musical media, paintings, graphics, photographies and films is the most essential part in her life to create means of communication with the inner- and outside-world. Music as a constant work in progress that serves as a liberation of mind.

This ep is a good way of seing the way as she actually sees, listens and makes music, what music represents to her, and how much she needs music to live.

[xs-11] tiago morgado - 363

2009-03-22T00:34:00.001Z

artist: tiago morgado

album: 363

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release date: 2008-04-10

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Another release of the netlabel founder a set of three performances where he uses mighty moogerfoogers to generate both psycadelic noise textures on drum machines, and smooth drones to his viola. A vintage analogue hardcore registry.

[xs-10] tet open ensamble - zen trip

2008-10-11T12:41:00.000+01:00

artist: tet open ensamble

album: zen trip

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release date: 2008-03-16

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In this performance recorded in Braga, at CAB, we can listen to a trio free improvised Jam Session, somewhere between Dream Theatre, John Zorn, and something else. A tribal zen experience leaded by Tiago Morgado, Caldas (haven't denied) and Gilly (the crew), where you can listen to a very progressive sound.

[xs-09] minson - hidden monsters

2008-10-11T12:27:00.001+01:00

artist: minson

album: hidden monsters

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release date: 2008-04-16

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We are glad to anounce that the minson Hidden Monsters EP, released in March, is finally available for listening. here we have a text present on the cover which induces us in the mithologycal theme of the album

Beneath us was nothing now to be seen but a black tempest, till looking east between the clouds & the waves, we saw a cataract of blood mixed with fire and not many stones thrown from us appeared and sunk again the scaly fold of a monstruous serpent: at last to the east, distant about three degrees appeard a fiery crest above the waves slowly it reared like a ridge of golden rocks till we discoverd two globes of crimson fire, from which the sea fled away in clouds of smoke, and now we saw, it was the head of Leviathan, his forehead was divided into streaks of green & purple like those on a tygers forehead: soon we saw his mouth & red gills hang just above the raging foam tinging the black deep with beams of blood, advancing toward us with all the fury of a spiritual existence.

BLAKE, William, The Marriage Of Heaven and Hell

[xs-07] C R Moreira - sauroposeidon

2008-10-11T12:19:00.002+01:00

artist: CR Moreira

album: sauroposeidon

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release date: 2008-03-07

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C R Moreira was born in 1989, in Oporto. In 2003, he starts to study music in Musical Academy Of Lousada, where he studied horn with Filipe Fonseca and Ricardo Matosinhos. In 2005, he enter in ARTAVE - Escola Profissional Artistica do Vale do Ave, in the horn class of professor Helder Vales. In 2006, he starts to compose by himself learning composition by himself. In 2007, his works have been performed by 10 times. Right now, he is working in seminary with Emmanuel Nunes. He is finishing the winds programme in ARTAVE

Sauroposeidon is a work of the young composer, that makes part of a cycle of pieces which leads us into the origins of the existence in this planet. Although this release is intended to promote this young talented and devoted portuguese composer, we do not Intend to make it represent a serious performance of it - the prove of that is that what you will hear is some sort of sampled orchestra which audio has been remastered, and then if although this is extremely impressive, imagine what would be a performance of professional instrumentists working during 1 intense work-week on it.

[xs-06] tiago morgado - self-knowledge

2008-10-09T09:34:00.001+01:00

artist: tiago morgado

album: self-knowledge

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release date: 2008-03-05

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OK, you may eventually be tired of listening to Tiago Morgado music... ok, we have more stuff in the way to edit from other artists. For now, we propose another listening to his home studio works recorded on the summer of 2007. An indie pop rock unusual registry, where we have an instrumental background lead by the alto viola (viola d'arco in portuguese)

[xs-05] tiago morgado - welcome to spriengfield

2008-10-09T09:32:00.001+01:00

artist: tiago morgado

album: welcome to springfield

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release date: 2008-02-22

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The fifth release of this netlabel, is another set of performances in alto viola recorded by tiago morgado in the summer of 2007. In here, we can listen to some tripy soundscapes, easy to listen music, and some nostalgics reminds of the authors childhood (maybe when he was watch the simpsons series).

[xs-04] DNP X-Citer - finding love in cosmos

2008-10-09T09:31:00.001+01:00

artist: DNP X-Citer

album: finding love in cosmos

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release date: 2008-02-18

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the second recording of DNP X-Citer, now bringing us something much closer to electronic, emo, chill out, and minimal music. something less conceptual and more easy to listen than the previous one.

[xs-03] DNP X-Citer - epiphany of light

2008-10-09T09:24:00.001+01:00

artist: DNP X-Citer

album: epiphany of light

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release date: 2008-03-21

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First work of the portuguese electronic colective (by that time focused only on the figure of Tiago Morgado), which bring us some sort of tripy light dark ambient music, using unusual techniques for making conceptual music with ordinary music software

[xs-02] tiago morgado - 2007 drone sessions

2008-10-09T09:20:00.001+01:00

artist: tiago morgado

album: 2007 drone sessions

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release date: 2008-02-10

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recording of improvised drone sessions in the summer 2007 by tiago morgado (alto viola)

[xs-01] sons of aphrodite - sex magic

2008-10-05T11:46:00.001+01:00

artist: sons of aphrodite

album: sex magic

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release date: 2008-02-10

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sex magic is a performance made with the intuit of reach some sort of post-rock with influences from godspeed to coil, swans and einsturzende neubauten.