2009-07-30

sonig mixtape

sonig mixtape by entenpfuhl

original sonig tracks by Audiogarde, Baleine 3000, Mouse on Mars, Xberg Dhirty6 Cru, The Allophons, Schlammpeitziger, DJ Elephant Power, Lithops, Candie Hank, Fan Club Orchestra, Workshop, Xberg Dhirty6 Cru, Sun OK Papi K.O. & Fanal compiled by Frank D.

2009-07-26

Spätkauf mit Melani Wratil

Donnerstag 06-08-2009 ab 19 Uhr

Melani Wratil (Karlecik-Czybulka-Wratil/Institut für Feinmotorik) spielt lauter Liebeslieder.

Der Laden ist bis 23 Uhr geöffnet.















(engl.: late-night-shopping with DJ Melani Wratil - shop is open until 11 pm)

2009-07-21

Uske Orchestra "Palpelpin"











Samstag 25-07-2009

Uske Orchestra "Palpelpin"
Ausstellung & Konzert

FYW, Lichtstrasse 50, Köln-Ehrenfeld
fyw.newamerika.de

Einlass: 20.30h / Beginn 21.00h

Für seine neues, viertes Album "Palpelpin", das beim Kölner Label sonig in einer limitierten Auflage von 200 Exemplaren erscheint (sonig 72LP) hat der belgische Künstler, Musiker und Feuerwehrmann Nicolas Husquet alias Uske Orchestra alle Cover individuell gestaltet. Über eine Zeitraum von mehreren Monaten hat er Vorder- und Rückseite der Schallplattenhüllen in einer Mischtechnik aus Zeichung, Malerei und Collage bearbeitet. In sich immer weiter variierenden Serien mutet die Vorderseite rhythmisch, die Rückseite melodisch an. Die Musik auf Palpelpin ist neben dem Album "Moli Herzog" (Ambivalence 2003), mit dem er bekannt geworden ist, vielleicht die schönste, die Niko Uske bisher veröffentlicht hat.
Im Ausstellungsraum FYW wird es am Samstag, den 25. Juli, nach einer Ausstellung in der Brüsseler Galerie "Käämer 12", die einzige Möglichkeit geben alle verbleibenden Cover anzusehen und auch direkt zu erwerben. Gegen 21 Uhr gibt es ein Konzert des Uske Orchestras.

Vorschau auf die Cover by Flickr.






Uske Orchestra @ FYW

2009-07-03

Fonal-label now in distribution

A-Musik has most of the Fonal-records in stock, distributes them throughout Germany and sells them in its record-store in Cologne.

During the last couple of years there has been a lot of hysteria about the New Weird America. In its shadow an experimental folk scene has grown in Finland as well, often labelled the New Weird Finland. Some people might say at that point that music from Finland has always been weird – just think of M. A. Numminen, Pan Sonic or Lordi. However, this new scene mainly gathers around the Fonal label from Tampere, Finland's third-biggest town. Its roster ranges from the free-wheeling experimentalists of Tomutonttu to (tendentiously less challenging) Finnish mainstream pop-acts; from Islaja with her lost in reverie vocals to the repetitive organ-madness of Shogun Kunitoki (my sister speaks of repetitive orgasm-madness).






















Photo: Liv Læssøe


Sami Sänpäkkilä started the Fonal label in the mid-nineties when he released a cassette of his own solo-project work Es. Since then he has worked with more than 40 mainly Finnish acts and as part of a number of recording projects such as Kiila and Kemialliset Ystävät. The latter can be characterised as a kind of primordial soup for the whole Finnish avantrock/-folk-scene emerging as it does from a collectivist spirit similar to that of American counterparts such as No-Neck Blues Band and Sunburned Hand Of the Man. They combine Finnish-folkloric elements with neo-psychedelia, jolting drumming on pots, mantra like vocals and a certain Lo-Fi-approach. Their consistent use of Finnish lyrics (nearly all of Fonal's artists sing in their mother tongue - a lot of Double-Umlaute, you know) further underlines the psychedelic mood. It must be said the association of this music with fairies is quite obvious and according to the sleeve notes of Kemialliset Ystäväts great album “Kellari Juniversumi” these tiny folks are even sharing a house with the musicians.

A-Musik has received four new Fonal releases: “Kesämaan lapset” by Es, “Tuota Tuota” by Kiila and re-issues of “Tomutonto” and “Tomutonttu” by Tomutonttu.

















“Kesämaan lapset” is a less concept-album than its predecessor “Sateenkaarisuudelma”. Sänpäkkilä calls his fifth longplayer under his alias Es “a childhood photo album”. It seems to be about ghosts and drones in big parts and as Bryon Hayes writes for Foxy Digitalis: "Sänpäkkilä has achieved what can only be described as musical perfection. [...] This is highly, highly essential!"

















With “Tuota Tuota” Sänpäkkilä gets a little more pop-like but still remains true to his psychedelic dreamscapes and soundscapes. His project Kiila with Niko-Matti Ahti, has seen a lot of musicians since its formation in 1993 and its live shows currently plays as a six-person band. Joseph Stannard praises the record in The Wire saying “Kiila's latest is another feather in Fonal's already impressively plumed cap".



















Tomutonttu seem to try and plumb the relation of the oppositional poles of extreme redundancy and originality on their similar-named records “Tomutonto” and “Tomutonttu” (Wolfgang: “With these names, the mix-up of the two albums is preprogrammed.” – Me: “This really is subversion!” – Wolfgang: “This really is a pain in the ass!”). Less folk, even more weird and as Daniel Spicer puts it in The Wire: “...[it] feels like a glimpse into the private workings of a unique mind."

Even though the Fonal label sells a noteworthy number of albums today Sami Sänpäkkilä still recruits his own parents to help pack up the records. Clearly Fonal has gained quite a lot of attention and not only in The Wire during the last few years, but: It deserves more than that! (Gianni Düx)

www.fonal.com

fonal/a-musik