Oddity Radio ASIP Label Profile + Inspirations mix

Curated by Alexis Le-Tan and featuring a host of brilliant, inspirational labels, it’s an honor to be invited to be a part of the growing Oddity Radio collective.

The ASIP label profile is now live on the site, including a playlist of tracks from the label so far, which can be added to your listening rotation on the station, a short interview, and an Inspirations mix by yours truly (cue biggest picture of me on the internet).

Oddity asks each label contributor to submit an inspirations mix, and it felt like an extremely daunting task at first. Capturing my inspirations in one mix would send me in circles, and I needed a more specific angle (you know I love a constraint when it comes to mixes!) So instead of looking far and wide or deep into my record collection, I looked to the many artists who have defined ASIP over the years and made it what it is today. They appear in the mix under different guises, collaborations, or with earlier releases before they were on ASIP.

Somehow, it manages to capture the sound of the label and is probably one of my favorite mixes I’ve put together in a while… maybe because of the nostalgia - it reminded me of times many years ago, discovering some of these artists for the first time a long time ago.

Head over to Oddity Radio to listen to the playlist and the Inspirations mix.

Big thanks to Oddity Radio for spreading the love and curating such a great platform, please check it out and the many other great labels featured!

ODDITY RADIO · ASIP - Oddity Influence Mix

Inspiration Mix tracklist:

01. Scanner - Anna Livia Plurabelle
02. Silence - Santur
03. Charlie May - Custard
04. Plastik - Herna 6
05. Scanner - Scanner 2.4
06. 36 - Geiga
07. Arovane - scapen te
08. ASC - Echo Location
09. bvdub - I Would Have Waited
10. Leandro Fresco - El Valle
11. Herrmann & Kleine - Leaving You Behind
12. Chymera - Umbrella (Beatless mix)
13. Influx - Dreamscape (ambient mix)
14. Joel Mull - Alden Plateau
15. Strië - Capsule
16. Yagya - Rigning einn
17. Wanderwelle - The Haunted Shores of Hiva Oa
18. The Sight Below - Further Away (Benoît Pioulard remix)
19. Olga Wojciechowska - Primal Fear
20. Tempelhof & Gigi Masin - Tuvalu
21. Stareaway - The Loss Of Breath
22. Johaness Schmölling - Icewalk (Ulrich Schnauss remix)

Inspiration mix MP3

Merrin Karras Live at Klangsphäre, Planetarium Bochum 11-11-2016

Both Merrin Karras and Markus Guentner took to a unique stage in Bochum (Germany) this past weekend, alongside the likes of Max Würden, Sine Sleeper, Mario Hammer And The Lonely Robot, and Safrronkeira. The Ambient Festival, played out within a Planetarium, with listeners immersed in darkness as they stared up towards dream-like visuals across the ceiling. It was undoubtedly a very special and unique show, marking Brendan's first live show as his ASIP alter-ego Merrin Karras.

Below we have the recording of his set, featuring live renditions from the album, Apex, and one new track.

Merrin Karras' album Apex, is available to buy using the links below:

Digital @ Bandcamp
Vinyl (US) @ Bandcamp
Vinyl (Europe & Worldwide) direct from Merrin Karras' Bandcamp, or at Juno. 

Equipment used:
Macbook pro running Ableton Live
Nord Lead 2
DSI Tetra
Vermona Mono Lancet
Roland Jp-08
2 x Launchpads
1 x Launchcontrol XL

(Photo by Markus Guentner)

Video: Merrin Karras - Liberant (by Jan Goldfuß)

 Jan Goldfuß returns with another superb video for Merrin Karras' track, Liberant (taken from his album Apex).  

After his video for Markus Guentner's, Theia, Jan progresses from the fluid drama of Theia, to the graphic, poly-like take on Merrin Karras' album artwork - a perfect match for the colorful, fizzing synths of Liberant.  Read his detailed approach to the video below, and check out his other videos at http://jangoldfuss.de/.

Merrin Karras Apex (ASIPV005), is available to buy in digital and vinyl formats here.

Remember to watch the video full-screen and in HD, if possible.

~

Hi, my name is Jan Goldfuß. I'm a digital artist based in Berlin, Germany. I work both for commercial projects, as well as independent art centered ones.

The beginning point was the cover-image of the album, which represented an abstracted low-poly-like version of an image as Ryan told me.

My approach was to use something similar as the beginning frame and from that start a journey building up in complexity corresponding to the climaxing music. I decided to not work with editing but instead do a cut-less over six minute long evolving take while zooming out slowly, as the chosen track (Liberant) develops in a similar way.

What you see is a simple low-polygonal sphere which gets deformed by two animated noise-fields while the polygonal resolution of the sphere is increasing. Also the colors get directly influenced by these noise-fields. This is kind of what happens with digital media in general nowadays: Increasing the resolution and by that getting more and more complex. But it is all based on rather simple discreet and controllable units (be it polygons, pixels or transistors...). I like to show this in general in my works: A lot of simple stuff can produce new systems and thus overwhelming complexity. (Just like in our real world by the way...)

On the other hand we got algorithms which need only a few inputs but then can run forever, ever evolving and generating new kinds of form or information. Mostly these are used to generate something similar we already know (VFX, photo- realism).

For me it is more interesting to discover what kind of new aesthetics are hidden in these algorithms. So I often just allow them to happen as they like, merely defining the ground rules and letting them run. In an art context I like to compare this approach with the surrealistic technique of "ecriture automatique" or Pollock's "action paintings". This means for me working partly subconsciously with the medium and not dominantly against it, not forcing it into forms but letting it flow.

As in the real world I like to just watch and observe things changing and evolving (like clouds, water, plants,...) which also can happen in the digital realm in it's own way as we have seen.

For synchronizing image and sound I resigned to use beat detection, as this can tend to feel forced in my opinion. Instead I matched the animation of the noises to the rhythm of the music by hand. In this way I hope to generate a more organic feeling by so to say using the spectators brain to establish a connection between image and sound. Thus the spectator becomes an active element, reacting to and interpreting the "abstract narration" of "techno-poetics" as I like to call it". http://jangoldfuss.de/

See Jan's previous video for Markus Guentner, here. 
 

Merrin Karras / Apex (now available)

We're pleased to announce our next release from Ireland's Brendan Gregoriy under his new ambient alias, Merrin Karras. 

"An inspired album of vibrant, expressive compositions"
"Stockpiled soundtracks for yet-to-be-realized and conceived cinematic masterpieces"

Available now in a green double vinyl; housed in a matte gatefold sleeve; digital and a very limited run of CDr's at Bandcamp.

For non-US customers, do not fret! UK based site Juno will have stock from Monday August 1st with cheaper shipping to Europe and rest of world. You can sign up on the site to get an emil notification. 

Read more, along with existing reviews of the release, and interviews with Brendan, over on the full release page.

Pre-order Merrin Karras / Apex (ASIPV005)

Pre-order is now available for our upcoming release by Merrin Karras, available on limited edition "Balearic Sea' green double vinyl, and digital. 

Please note, for UK/EU customers, there will be plenty of copies available on release date (June 10th) at Juno.co.uk and other fine retailers. So to save on shipping, you can hold out until then - this pre-order is best for US customers (or those desperate to not miss out!)

You can stream the ever-so-epic synth build of Void below.

Full release information can be found here.