The Russian producer Vladimir Karpov is well on his way towards a lasting legacy as a modern synthesizer wizard in the grandiose vein of Vangelis and Jarre. With a propensity for concept albums he has built a sturdy discography during this past decade that echoes the progressive ideas of the psychedelic generation as it moved into adulthood with Moog in hand.

While equally a part of the postmodern generation; Karpov’s ouvre also embraces the utopian daydreaming of the new age, the environmental concerns embodied in field recording, and the holistic approach of Jon Hassels 4th world concept.

While the esoteric fantasies of previous works linger on, the conceptual aspect of “Anciente” is rendered more abstract. And instead of dividing ideas into tracks that form an album, here Karpov is pushing the boundaries of his compositions further into longer forms. Like trails into humid forest landscapes, they run deep enough for one to get lost along the way.

Clocking in at a neat 20 minutes per side, the two tracks that make up “Anciente” weaves soft brushes of undefinable sounds and tropical field recordings that almost create ASMR-inducing vibrations in the minds of the listener. Eventually they might open a doorway to a twilight-lit wilderness and the possible secrets of the first civilised men. As Carlos Castaneda once wrote, relaying the wisdom of the Yaqui; “twilight is the crack between worlds. It is the door to the unknown.” Or, as in this case, the door to the ancient.

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Donghoon Gang, a Frankfurt-based South Korean artist and composer, has released a new album titled 4.6m/s. This album is inspired by Yeondeunggut–an annual ritual summoned to the God of wind that takes place in early February in Gangʼs hometown, Jeju Island, in South Korea. In the spirit of the God believed to protect the wellness of the island and sow seeds for a fruitful spring, islanders pray, hoping for the peacefully calm sea surrounding the island during the two-week duration of the ceremony.

The title of the album, 4.6m/s, is the average wind speed on the day the God of wind arrives on the island for over the past thirty years. Each track was written and presented in the order of the traditional ceremony procedures: Calling, Telling, Seeding and Playing – all of which are symbolic gestures of welcoming the wind deity and sending her back to her origin. Every component in the album is created in mixtures of field recordings and collaborative fulfillment with traditional instrumentalists and shamans based on the island. All the tracks are also incorporated with ambient sounds, spoken words and musique concrète, generating a variety of aural and texture affections at different parts of each sequence.

Released on December 10, 2022

Edition of 200

One side (22ʼ16”)
1. Calling (06ʼ50”)
2. Telling (09ʼ38”)
3. Seeding (03ʼ26”)
4. Playing (02ʼ22”)

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*Perdu LP by Piezo
After releases on Idle Hands, Version, Wisdom Teeth and his own Ansia label, Piezo lands on Hundebiss Records for his first full length. Perdu is all about stark contrasts: raw & dirty sub–frequency pulsating beats VS crystal–clear digital sounds and atmospheres. Piezo’s non-synthetic approach to sound design conveys a sense of ‘realness’ of the displacement, a dust blow cut by razor blade FM synths, pervaded by a sense of restless hypnosis.

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*Kamil Manqus كَامِل مَنْقوص by Muqata’a
‘Kamil Manqus’ means “whole imperfect” or “perfect imperfect” in Arabic, referencing Muqata’a’s way of working that incorporates mistakes into the fabric of his work. The concept for the album’s construction is Simya’, an ancient Arabic science of combining numbers and alphabets to communicate with the unseen.

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Album, Magazin Für Fotografie #2

The forthcoming second issue examines the question of the singularity of photo­graphs: how new and unseen can pictures still be today? Which artistic possibi­lities lie in the doubling of motifs? Which concepts play with repetition and recognition?

A large amount of image data circulates in the internet and is becoming vast: Every street is photographed and able to be found using a search engine, every birthday, and every vacation is documented and uploaded for viewing. With this amount of material, there is no shortage of similarity and doubling so it is natural to use databanks, the fringe and chance products in the web for your own work: New design and curation, sampling and re-enactment are considered to be artistic approaches for the image worlds in the web. Upon closer examination, while it still seems possible to produce a unique photo, it is that much more fascinating to actively handle and play with photographic doppelgangers: Histo­rical shots, amateur photos and other image material all become the basis for artistic concepts, which Album #2 selects as its topic. This concerns model and replica, copying and simulation, re-contextualization and recognition. And ulti­mately it is concerned with the fear of encountering one’s own pictorial ideas, motifs and concepts as well as the conscious, self-ironic way of hand ling it.

September 2011
ISSN 21924139
D 10€

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