Blinkar från Norr

ASIP - En Pausa Festival / Conexión

 
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April 18th witnessed another big takeover on 9128.live with En Pausa festival.

Alex Albrecht, Ario, Chris SSG, Federico Duránd, Gigi FM, Karim, Klara Vedis and Patricia Wolf, plus a live performance by Jo Johnson & Hilary Robinson was the order of the day. Now all of the DJ sets can be heard once again online, including my own.

My mix leaned into the notion of “En Pausa” and “Conexion” with a patient and slowly unraveling mix that focused a lot on ASMR, featuring lots of small vocal samples and textures.

And as always, there were some unreleased ASIP bits along the way.

Hope you enjoy it.

Download.

Tracklist:

01. Isorinne - Blurred Perceptions of Substance
02. Ulla - Inside Means
03. DJ Healer - Gone
04. DJ Lostboi - Open World
05. Malibu - Tilting on Windmills
06. Pechblende - And I_Am The Arrow
07. Arovane - olopp_eleen
08. Gi Gi - Montjuic feat. Mi Mi
09. nthng - Disappeared but not forgotten
10. Unreleased
11. Quiet Places - Track 4
12. Unreleased
13. Forrest - Inner Coral
14. Unreleased
15. Unreleased
16. Unreleased
17. woob - III [Sample]
18. Malibu - Nana (Julianna Barwick remix) [Sample]
19. Pechblende - Tear Away
20. Secret Pyramid - V
21. William Basinski - Please This Shit Has Got To Stop
22. Abul Mogard - Clouds
23. Blinkar från Norr - Disconnection From Reality
24. The Caretaker - Bewildered In Other Eyes

 

ASIP - Label Mix for Diamondstein's Nightshift on NTS radio

 
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I was honored to be invited to compile a mix for Diamondstein’s regular NTS Radio show, Nightshift, which features music aligned to its aesthetic of: “Cold winds, empty streets, ambient techno and moody experimental music for night time noir moments.” Always a brilliant listen and a treasure trove of previous guests’ slots to check out.

Aired earlier this month, the mix is now uploaded to the NTS site for you to listen to again. I chose some more storied, dark pieces from the label to compile a little showcase, featuring six unreleased/upcoming ASIP tracks (not shown in the tracklist on the NTS site).

The ASIP mix is for the last hour, with Diamondstein for the first hour.

Big thank you to Diamondstein for the invite.

Listen on NTS


Tracklist:

01. I405 Field Recording
02. Unreleased
03. 36 - Soul Boundary
04. Blinkar från Norr - Manifestation of the Unconscious
05. Unreleased
06. Quiet Places - Track 5
07. Max Würden - Constituent Elements
08. Gadi Sassoon - Moto Perpetuo
09. Merrin Karras - Crevasse
10, 11, 12, 13……

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2020 ASIP Label Showcase (Mixed Edition + CD)

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After our successful 2019 edition, our annual label retrospective has now evolved in tradition to include a mixed edition available on CD (and of course digital).

Featuring one track from each of our 2020 releases, the digital download is now available alongside the CD, with the latter featuring a few additional tracks that aren’t available individually.

The artwork is always a personal choice for this compilation - and reflects my year in some way or another. This time, it features screen-grabs from a film that not only visually felt relevant, but captured the notion of everyone being inside - wishing to be somewhere else. I won’t say which film it was incase I get into issues, but lets just say it’s a heart-warming film about a man who did everything he could to escape reality and get in contact with others.

A big thank you to all of the artists for a brilliant year, and to you, for listening and supporting our music.

We also have a limited set of download cards available to purchase with this release - a perfect gift to introduce someone to the label maybe!

Available on Bandcamp.

 
 

isolatedmix 105 - SaffronKeira

 
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After a string of powerful albums with the Denovali label, Eugenio Caria is quickly becoming synonymous with the more epic and intense side of ambient music. Often introducing beats or IDM influences, amongst classical elements and big swells of atmospheric textures, with albums normally built upon strong, vivid concepts, SaffronKeira’s music draws you in for the full, immersive, storytelling experience.

Eugenio’s 2019 album ‘Automatism’, sat with many of my faves of the year, and with the new album ‘In Origine: The Field Of Repentance’ released just a few months ago, it’s clear that SaffronKeira has a lot to give. We sat down with Eugenio to ask a few questions to accompany his suitably powerful isolatedmix.

~

Hi Eugenio, thank you for the isolatedmix and for the brilliant new album.
Hi Ryan! Thanks to you!

Many will undoubtedly know you as a producer in your own right, but some keen eyes may have spotted you on the credits of our recent Blinkar från Norr record. Can you tell us about that experience?

Yes, working with Andrea it was a really good experience, also because here in Sardinia we are very few who produce this kind of music ... when I meet Andrea he showed me his knowledge and passion of “that kind of music” and I see again myself at his age…

Andrea in the beginning, was a student of mine, studying production and some skills started to appear from his mind pretty soon… he’s shy but with a lot of intelligence and musical culture from such a young age. In the few years he has been producing music I have seen him embark on a beautiful musical journey. I think ‘Metaphors For Things’ is a great album! Working in my studio at ‘Suvitas’ was a pleasure with lots of good times and shared comparisons and choices together with him.

What do you try and bring to a new production relationship like this? Can you describe the process with Andrea?

I try to take the production to a higher level - trying to fill some gaps and give a continuous mood/color. But I always respect the philosophy and the will of the artist and look for a compromise through a comparison between us, trying to establish a long-term relationship and trust. It is very difficult to get your hands on work of others without compromising their vision sometimes, as it is still something intimate and personal. From my point of view the additional production is a different example from mastering (for example). Mastering is an art undoubtedly, and in many cases it gives high value to potentially dull work, but a mix for example, can drastically change a piece of music. 

Regarding the process with Andrea, we worked on the original material to create new drone layering through the use of echo tapes such as Roland Space echo, Chorus Echo and different vintage outboards. We also used different delay and reverbs trying to better understand the spaces by finding the right balance and also trying to remove - in some cases - that digital touch, trying to make it warmer and more alive. Then we moved on to the arrangement.

Your new album, ‘In Origine: The Field Of Repentence’ incorporates Jazz artist Paolo Fresu - what was the idea behind this collaboration?

I already released an album - ‘Cause and effect’ in 2013 with another Sardinia Trumpeter and I was astonished of the power and soul of this instrument. Paolo Fresu is one of the best trumpet players in the world, and he has worked with other heroes such Jon Hassell, Nils Petter Molvaer and many others. Here in Sardinia he’s an institution and a legend and I’ve know him as an artist since when I was kid… It was one of my goals to make a record with him, so I started some years ago to write draft/landscape sounds thinking about his projection with his great instruments on top of my music, even before I knew he would accept this collaboration.

It may have also came about from the relationship we have with our magic island ‘Sardinia’…

Tell us about that… Sardinia seems to have a lot of great music exports - why do you think that is? How does the music scene differ from the mainland at all?

Yes it's true, the Sardinian scene really has a lot of talented artists who are making their way and exporting their sound all over the world. See for example artists like: Claudio PRC, Dusty Kid, Perry Frank, Paolo Angeli, Paolo Fresu, Stefano Guzzetti (and Blinkar från Norr) just to name a few. All different from each other but each with their own identity which I believe is also transmitted by the power and magic of this land.

I believe that being partially isolated, we withdraw into ourselves by isolating ourselves and allowing ourselves to be contaminated by the scents and climate of this land, sometimes even by the desolation that occurs in the winter months... in the end I think this answer has a connection with ASIP :) a strangely isolated place = that's what Sardinia is!

You’ve been releasing on Denovali since 2012 as your only label home. Can you tell us a about your relationship with them?\

Well, like you said it’s like my home now. They were the first to believe in my art…and I feel super comfortable without any kind of pressure. The first love is never forgotten

Where do you take your inspiration from musically?

I try to find inspiration continuously, traveling, knowing and confronting myself with new and different cultures. This has given me so much in terms of inspiration. Unfortunately for problems that we all know, we cannot travel and I miss this so much. But all of this is also a time for reflection and inspiration; when you are hungry for culture, traveling is like a drug!

It allows me to escape and paint new ideas in my head that I can turn into music, so now that all of this is missing it makes me think a lot…

Other sources of inspiration include the music itself, movies, books, and nature is obviously always in the foreground. But also a man in his actions of the past and present is a primary factor that leads me to be inspired to make music… In fact the concept of my new album ‘In Origine: The Field of Repentance’ came from here.

I see you play live and recently played the notorious Funkhaus in Germany. What elements do you incorporate into your live sets?

Yes, such a great experience, with a great audience; lineup; soundsystem and a magical place… If you have never been there you can’t imagine. The acoustics are fabulous.

Funkhaus is a temple of music, a journey through time. In this specific live set, I incorporated some draft and unfinished material from the new album and I used some trumpet loops that I had from Paolo Fresu’s recordings, processed live with a granular fx + some improvisation on a Eurorack system. Plus some unreleased material - I used a lot of beat, idm, ambient stuff.

Can you tell us about your isolatedmix and the idea behind it?

When I choose the music my main idea it was to have a continuous mood/status/path of thinking that would fit the ASIP world, but without using all music from the ASIP catalog. I hope that I reached this goal and the listener will have a good feeling… I’m huge fan of the isolated mix series!

Listen on Soundcloud, Mixcloud, or the ASIP Podcast.

Download

Tracklist

01. Blinkar från Norr - Motionless
02. Biosphere - Birds Fly by Flapping Their Wings (v2)
03. Becoming Animal - The Sky Is Ever Falling (Abul Mogard Remix)
04. Emra Grid - Trace It Back
05. Lawrence English - Hapless Gatherer
06. Cristian Vogel - Signal Symbol
07. Emra Grid - Fifteen Day Trilogy
08. Rafael Anton Irisarri - Black Pitch
09. Siavash Amini and Saåad - Dragging the Harrow
10. LF58 - Metamorfosi
11. Alina Kalancea - Devil's Lullaby
12. Saffronkeira - Chthonian (w/Mia Zabelka)

SaffronKeira | Bandcamp | Soundcloud | Denovali

 

Now available: Blinkar från Norr / Metaphors For Things

 
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It’s not often we get to release music by an artist without a recognizable catalog, so we’re very excited to present the first ever release by Blinkar från Norr.

The debut album from Sardinian composer Blinkar från Norr covers a rich, atmospheric and melancholic stretch of territory. Metaphors For Things was born from composer Andrea Garau’s own personal experience of the world today, brought to life through currents of powerful sound and an always shifting but ever-pensive state.

The album aims to express the negative conflicts and diseases often seen in people and modern society, capturing thoughts, emotions and feelings that can generate internal conflicts, anxieties and fears.

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri and featuring artwork by Noah M / Keep Adding, Metaphors For Things is available on transparent, colored smoke gatefold vinyl and digital download.

See the release page for all links to buy