Sonic Oyster Records

Will Klingenmeier & Tim Dickson - A Cluster of Stars

2012-01-17T15:34:00.000-08:00

Will Klingenmeier & Tim Dickson - A Cluster of Stars
Sonic Oyster Cassettes (008)
Limited edition of 50
Release date: 30 January 2012
Cost: £6.00 plus postage & packaging

"A twilight recording of cosmic star dust bringing into being ethereal guitar and transcendental piano, 'a cluster of stars' is an immersive journey to whence we came. Recorded straight to two track; it is the duo's maiden voyage." Will Klingenmeier

Please note new pricing for POSTAGE & PAYPAL: - CD-R- In the UK, please add £1.00p towards p&p for one CD-R, £1.50 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1.50 towards p&p for one CD-R, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk. 

Buddha on the Moon - Passage

2012-01-17T15:09:00.000-08:00

Buddha on the Moon: Passage
Sonic Oyster Cassettes (007)
Limited Edition of 50
Cost: £6.00 plus postage & packaging
Release date: 30 January 2012

A new 'Buddha on the Moon' release to usher in 2012.

'Passage' takes its starting point from the mesmeric bass line of 'The Other Side of the Ocean' and gently sets sail on a calm and balmy voyage of the inner-psyche.

This is meditational music with a kick: as melody starts to boil and bubble: free-form percussion and barely-contained space drone providing rich, absorbing dark ambient tones.

If you were lucky enough to grab a copy of 'Between Seasons', then you're definitely going to need this. Already a contender for my record of 2012.

Please note new pricing for POSTAGE & PAYPAL: - CD-R- In the UK, please add £1.00p towards p&p for one CD-R, £1.50 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1.50 towards p&p for one CD-R, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk. 

The Sonic Oyster... Tongued

2011-11-06T10:40:00.000-08:00

"Fantastic new compilation celebrating the fiftieth release on Andrew Paine’s consistently excellent Sonic Oyster imprint, with exclusive unreleased tracks from Richard Youngs (a song from his unreleased B Sides for Ultrahits project!), Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine, a beautiful drone work from Alistair Crosbie, The Zero Map with Wellington Squares (A Band related), Buddha On The Moon, Andrew Paine (US), Susan Matthews, Bolide, Clutter, Matthew Shaw, Brian Lavelle, Astral Social Club, Andrew Paine (UK), Will Klingenmeier, Book Of Shadows, Sindre and a final amazing blow-out from Glasgow’s Smoke Jaguar that pretty much justifies the entrance fee on its own. Edition of only 50 copies, immediately sold out at source" Volcanic Tongue

SOR50: SOLD OUT!

2011-10-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

Strictly Limited to 50 copies on CD-R
£5.00 plus postage & packaging
Released 7th November 2011

To celebrate the 50th Sonic Oyster CD-R release, I asked all the collaborators, artists, groups, chancers and shysters associated with the label to dip into their archives and choose a curio for a compilation.

What we have here, ladies and gentlemen... is a 17 track album, featuring exclusive cuts by:

Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine

Alistair Crosbie

Buddha on the Moon

The Zero Map

Susan Matthews

Bolide

Astral Social Club

Will Klingenmeier (Soliloquy Sun)

Sindre

Andrew Paine (US)

Matthew Shaw

Book of Shadows

Brian Lavelle

Richard Youngs

Smoke Jaguar

Andrew Paine (UK)

Clutter

This is a strictly limited release of 50... and an essential must-have for any serious SOR fan.

Volcanic Tongue... on... Clachan Flats

2011-10-02T11:47:00.001-07:00

"Stunning new cassette from the duo of Stuart Crutchfield and Kevin McCarvel that pretty much cements their reputation as the best ‘rock’ band in the UK right now, with six tracks of devolved drums/guitar/vocals/electronics that come over like the early Royal Trux cassette that Xpressway never released. McCarvel’s vocals exist on the very limits of subliminal sound with the feel of a more beatific Michael Morley hovering over raggedy guitar kinetics that stagger in and out of clipped melodies w/a martial aspect that is totally exhilarating. Throw in the collapsing universe feel of your favourite South Island satellite and the kind of epic fuzz/ reverb excursions that could easily be Japanese and you got alla the ingredients for the cassette release of the year thus far. And, sure, they may feature a baldy, but there ain’t no laptops in sight. This is bloodied freeform rock at some kind of deformed tactile apex and easily their most accomplished release to date. Edition of only 50 copies, already sold out at source, highly recommended!" David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue

Smoke Jaguar - Clachan Flats: SOLD OUT!

2011-09-20T14:57:00.001-07:00

Strictly Limited to 50 copies on Cassette
£5.00 plus postage & packaging
Released 3rd October 2011

Smoke Jaguar are that rare thing: a guitar / drum / vocal / duo who embrace instant form with honesty and authenticity: embellishing on the kind of myth, legend and folklore first lain bare by the likes of early Fushitsusha and Skullflower.

‘Clachan Flats’ introduces a wholly new narrative: six pieces unfolding through improvisation and raw instinct: complex electrical storms of spit and spunk: rudimentary free-drones, carving themselves onto your brain, like sonic cave drawings.

Essential. Seriously, what are you waiting for?

You can listen to 'the inside of both of his hands' at http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/smoke-jaguar-the-inside-of

Brian Lavelle - Empty Transmissions

2011-08-14T05:35:00.000-07:00

Strictly Limited to 50 copies on Cassette
£5.00 plus postage & packaging
Released 29 August 2011

Brian Lavelle has gifted the Sonic Oyster estate with possibly its finest release of the year:

‘Empty Transmissions’ builds on a melodic synthesizer groove and heads into space, bound for the cosmic territories last orbited by Manuel Gottsching’s ‘E2-E4’.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - Casette - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one cassette, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one cassette, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk. 

You can here an excerpt from ‘Corridor of Stars’ at http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/brian-lavelle-corridor-of

Susan Matthews & Richard Moult - Music For Two Pianos Vol 1 (SOR49) SOLD OUT

2011-06-07T07:53:00.001-07:00

Strictly Limited to 50 copies on CDR
£5.00 plus postage & packaging
Released 20th June: SOLD OUT

Susan Matthews is a UK based composer/musician, known for her intense, ambitious, hypnotic harmonies and industrial noise creations: Richard Moult is a poet, painter and composer, and a member of Irish psych-folk band United Bible Studies.
‘Music For Two Pianos Vol 1’ is their first collaboration: a ‘classical’ transmission: personal, meaningful, emotive.
The playing is beautiful: the dynamics, tempo and expression of the music located somewhere between creative improvisatory deviation and the discipline of trained musical tradition.

Listen to ‘Aria’ at http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/susan-matthews-richard-moult

Astral Social Club - Wheezy Paradise (SOC004) - SOLD OUT

2011-06-07T02:38:00.000-07:00

Strictly Limited to 50 copies on Cassette
£5.00 plus postage & packaging
Released 20th June: SOLD OUT at source - copies available from Norman Records & Volcanic Tongue from 20th June

Neil Campbell unleashes a seminal slice of full-on mutant techno ambient metal music: a psychedelic dawn-chorus with all-important critical beats, jarring, distorted electronic soup and a large dose of tongue-in-cheek.

This is fabulous, bonkers and guaranteed to put bird-song on the electro-map. What are you waiting for?

Listen to an extract from ‘Wheezy Paradise’ at http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/astral-social-club-wheezy

Volcanic Tongue... reviews the A Band

2011-05-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

"Edition of 50 numbered copies 3” CD-R documenting a rare trio performance from long-term UK free/freak ensemble The A Band, here represented by Simon Murphy, Karl M V Waugh and Alasdair Willis. Recorded live at The Iron Duke in November 2010, there’s a great cracked free jazz feel to much of this, with someone slow-dialling cold war electronics beneath an eerie melodic/reeds back and forth that could almost be session players from The TV Personalities’ Mummy You’re Not Watching Me channelling the ghost of Anima Sound during downtime or a more punk-primitive This Heat pitching for a gig with The Shadow Ring. But where’s Walden?" (Volcanic Tongue)

Volcanic Tongue visits the Goetheanum

2011-05-15T14:26:00.000-07:00

"Hovering edge-of-the-void style psychedelic drone from Matthew who runs the Apollolaan Recordings label and also records as Tex La Homa and Fougou with Brian Lavelle. Some of the mystery of Thomas Koner’s endlessly bleak gong works, aspects of the sidereal Masami Akita/Christoph Heemann collaboration, all rendered with a reverb heavy/ritual atmosphere that is almost Japanese. Music for guitar, piano, singing bowl and voice. Numbered edition of 50 copies." (Volcanic Tongue)

Volcanic Tongue Lifts Into My Hands

2011-05-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Heather and David from the ever excellent Volcanic Tongue, for the lovely review of 'Lift into my Hands' by Andrew Paine:

"New solo piano work from Andrew Paine that operates on the very extremes of volume/fidelity: following on from his earlier solo piano work, The Haunts Of Ancient Peace, Lift Into My Hands dissolves the instrument in foggy blooms of tone that expand with all of the slow-motion majesty of colour into water. The percussive aspect of the keys is completely submerged so that instead there are just sighing clouds of melody that move in forlorn shapes across landscapes shaped like memories. If you’re a fan of Andrew Chalk you need to check in. Numbered edition of only 50 copies. Recommended."

A Band - Abstruse

2011-04-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

The A Band - Abstruse
Abstruse
Sonic Oyster Records (SOR 48)
Strictly limited (numbered) edition of 50 on 3” CDR
£5.00 plus postage & packaging

Simon Murphy
Karl M V Waugh
Alasdair Willis

Recorded live 18th November 2010 @ The Iron Duke

The A-Band deliver a righteous ritual of ‘primitive’, over 22 glorious minutes: fucked up free jazz: unfettered avant-abuse. It is a beautiful thing.

http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/the-a-band-abstruse-edit
to listen to a short extract from 'abstruse'.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk. 

Andrew Paine - Lift Into My Hands

2011-04-26T09:24:00.001-07:00

Andrew Paine – Lift Into My Hands
Three pieces for piano
Sonic Oyster Cassettes (SOR003)
Strictly limited (numbered) edition of 50.
£5.00 plus postage & packaging

Andrew Paine builds on last year’s ‘The Haunts of Ancient Peace’; his farewell to a fallen traveller, with this new solo work.

Three pieces explore the themes of emergence and resurrection: ‘Lift Into My Hands’ serving as the perfect counterpoint between ‘The Seeds of Intention’ and ‘Of Rabbits & Horses’: slow, unfolding, sparse, low-volume music.

http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/of-rabbits-horses-edit
to listen to a short extract from 'Of Rabbits & Horses'.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - Cassettes - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one cassette , £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one cassette, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk. 

Matthew Shaw - Goetheanum - SOLD OUT

2011-04-26T09:18:00.001-07:00

Matthew Shaw – Goetheanum
Two pieces for guitar, piano, singing bowl and voice.
Sonic Oyster Cassettes: Strictly Limited (numbered) edition of 50
Release date 9 May 2011… taking pre-orders now.
£5.00 plus postage & packaging

‘Goetheanum’ comprises two beautifully measured slices of drone as cosmic debris: true knowledge falling in and around infinite dimensions in its quest for spiritual wakening.

Two sides of the most haunting and affecting music you will hear this year. Not to be missed.

http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/goetheanum-ii-edit
to listen to an edit of Goetheanum (side 2)

The Zero Map - The Process of Sanitation

2011-03-13T13:19:00.001-07:00

'The Zero Map' (Chloe Wallace & Karl M V Waugh), take time away from their jobs in 'The A Band', to bring us fearless experimentation with a hybrid dose of murky ambient and sugared soundscapes: imagine the bastard child of Hawkwind and Faust as conducted by Edgard Varese.

Mechanical, pastoral and relentlessly progressive, 'The Process of Sanitation', is strictly limited to 50 copies and is released on 21 March 2011. Available for pre-order now. The cost of the CD-R is £5.00 plus postage & packaging.

Listen to 'Notre Dame' at soundcloud:

http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/the-zero-map-notre-dame

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk. 

For further information on 'The Zero Map' go to http://www.thezeromap.wordpress.com/ or email sarcasticmuffin@hotmail.com

Taking Stock - Currently Available

2011-03-13T04:35:00.001-07:00

The following titles are still available. Each CDR release costs 5GBP, with the exception of 'Fougou: Atlantis (for John Michell)', which is available for 4GBP.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

Clutter - Live At the Bombed Out Church

'Live At The Bombed Out Church' is a big shimmering, swirling, electro-acoustic album, full of twisting ambient melodies.

Boasting an enormous range of impressions, Clutter is never afraid to just let things be, to swirl around a groove and let the sonic entropy do the work for him.

'Church' constantly evolves and expands; its path of development building on sumptuous tones, simple loops, multi-field recordings - constantly clashing, complementing and contrasting into a rich yielding electronic soup.

Clutter (Shaun Blezard), works between the fields of electroacoustic improvisation, ambient electronics and music concrete, adding touches of anything from dub, jazz and post rock to his eclectic mix of influences.

He is interested in areas of music where genres meet and finding ways to incorporate this melding of influences back into his music. His working method involves the use of field recordings, both raw and processed, to convey a sense of place and narrative, with the immediate sonic environment at the core of his work. He combines this with electronics and traditional instruments. His current set up involves laptop, I-Phone, Nintendo DS, a number of effects pedals, and guitar and bass.

He is also a regular improviser on the improv circuit where he has been developing ways of working with electronics alongside traditional players on this scene and also with jazz musicians.

Clutter has been involved in a number of recordings since 2001 under his own name and with a variety of other projects, including orfeo 5, Good Noise Bad Noise, Aht-n and with composer Susan Matthews. Recordings include releases on Clinical Archives, Dokuro and Earth Monkey Productions.

Listen to 12 January 1831 from 'Live At The Bombed Out Church' at http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/clutter-12th-january-1831

Sindre Bjerga - Nowhere & Nowhere Else

SINDRE BJERGA has been touring the UK every October for the last 5 years, as well as mainland Europe and even Russia, with his cassette player drones and kitchen sink psychedelia... armed with an array of tape players, dictaphones and a pile of less-than-glamourous sound debris from the sonic junkyards, as he tries to juxtapose and melt sound ghosts hidden deep in the molten magnetic tapes, sometimes forcefeeding them with sheets of feedback from dying amps, always aiming for that mind-altering head trip...

He has released over a 100 records as a solo artist and in a variety of collaborations, most notably with Jan Iversen.

Recently most of his releases have been live recordings taken from his many concerts and tours around Europe: 'nowhereandnowhereelse' is taken from a performance in the Art Academy in Warsaw, 2010.

For further information about Sindre visit him at www.myspace.com/sindrebjerga

A blast from the past...

ILK - Zenith

"We managed to score some copies of this out of print disc from Richard youngs. Holy shit what on earth is going on???? A sort of new age spoken word intro gives way to what I can only describe as what it might sound like if Rick Wakeman was playing a crystal organ somewhere in the hills of Transylvania! Oh yes for this is Richard Youngs' one man progressive rock band. Multi-tracking and building up various layers and channels it does really sound like a fully formed group project. To be honest this has completely blown me away. The passion, skill, vision and creativity on this record is mind blowing; Richard plays bass, guitar, flute, keyboard, sleigh-bells and violin as well as singing. Recorded back in 1997 the record still sounds relevant and sounds like it could have been recorded much earlier but will doubtlessly age with grace. Brimming with the mans trademark folk magic, this is a great opportunity to fill a gap in your Youngs collection (Norman Records)"

Soliloquy Sun - Soliloquy Sun (SOR44)

Soliloquy Sun is an ambient and experimental outfit comprised of varying members and instruments. It was created out of an idea Will Klingenmeier (Burning Shutter, Still Light) had to gather various musicians to play improvised music based around simple chord progressions and/or spontaneously create music.

These recordings drift out into the room: sombre, reflective, nocturnal, deeply personal: this is a highly original work, owing much to the techniques of jazz improvisation and the early pioneering minimalist composers.

Recorded in Spring 2010, this is simply one of the most evocative recordings Sonic Oyster has put out to date.

Bolide - The Mighty Hand (SOR 42)

Edition of 50 copies CD-R on Andrew Paine’s Sonic Oyster imprint with a new blat from Brighton’s Bolide aka Bolide Awkwardstra. Bolide play freak free jazz in the tradition of The Art Ensemble, Le Forte Four and The Mothers Of Invention with a goofy communal style that moves from cosmo-shakedowns through wall-destroying breakout brass.

The Haunts of Ancient Peace (SOR40) Andrew Paine

'The Haunts of Ancient Peace' is the result of a one hour session at my piano, recorded directly onto an iphone mic.

Free and indeterminate in nature, these simple compositions chart loss and friendship through quiet, slowly evolving patterns.

The album is dedicated to AKN 1963 - 2010.

STRCTLY limited to 50 copies

In Search of the Shadow Walker (SOR39) Susan Matthews

'In Search of the Shadow Walker' is Susan's first solo release for two years and is described as an album of 'classically inspired vignettes and piano compositions'.

Susan Matthews meditates on ancient landscapes & personal histories with a keening cragged honesty - beautiful and sad.

Haunting harmonies, melancholic piano patterns, violent stabbing entreaties all unfold with unresolved tension, drama and subtle poignancy.

The album is STRICTLY limited to 80 copies

Atlantis (for John Michell) (SOR37) Fougou

'Fougou' are Brian Lavelle (Space Weather, Richard Youngs) and Matthew Shaw (Tex La Homa). The name derives from a peculiar type of subterranean structure only found in Cornwall in the extreme southwest of the United Kingdom.

'Athantis (for John Michell)' released on Sonic Oyster Records on 24 May is the next stage in Fougou's sonic descent into subterranean chambers.

Following on from their stunning debut "Reversed Dreams of this Nature', the duo offer up a meditative love letter to the English writer, John Michell, using dense textural electronics, processed acoustic instruments, vocals and field recordings conjuring up a kind of megalithic valediction to Michell's vision of fortean phenomena.

Functions of Hedgerow (SOR31) Andrew Paine

"The EP "Functions Of Hedgerow" by Andrew Paine of Scottish label Sonic Oyster Records is an all-too-brief excursion into minimal, spectral sonic tapestries. Opening with the title track, the mood is very eerie; ghostly piano chords haunted by whispering voices. 'Scent Of Green' matches resonant bass notes with whistling synths (or sounds - difficult to tell, which is a good sign), while 'Year Of Rabbit, Year Of Cat' sounds like an out-take from Tangerine Dream's "Atem" - an outstanding track.

'Walk the Field' features heavily effected voices over a spooky soundscape, while EP closer 'Corners Of Canterbury' sounds like an audio description of a macabre nocturnal world. This is an evocative and peaceful work, notable not least for the track titles. Highly recommended for those into the ambient side of things." www.terrascope.co.uk

Each to Each... Exclaims (SOR27) AP/AP

"Collaboration album between two different guys with the same name, one an artist based in the USA and the other the CEO of Sonic Oyster and frequent Richard Youngs collaborator. One 31 minute track, recorded in a series of back-and-forth mail shots. The guitar has some of the Japanese amp worshipping form of Paine’s Mekonium Reaktor, albeit processed through the bedroom fuzz-monster style of UK units like Spacemen 3 and Flying Saucer Attack. Electric guitar, bass, keyboard, radios and subliminal vocals." (Volcanic Tongue)

Clutter - Review

2011-02-28T13:42:00.000-08:00

Norman looks beyond the clutter and reports:

"A kind of dark, swirling chamber kosmiche/ambient tangent, Clutter has created something organic & cerebral from contributed noises & sounds which he has re-arranged & processed to create something quite wonderful. I don't particularly want to rattle on too much about this as the music is of a rich, fascinating quality, 'Live at the Bombed Out Church' takes you right off on a dream-like astral plain. Does this church exist? If so, I want to go." Norman Records

Norman is Nowhere... and... Nowhere Else

2011-02-12T12:54:00.000-08:00

"This single piece was recorded live in Warsaw in 2010 and clocks in at just under thirty minutes. Here Sindre is summoning ghosts buried deep in magnetic tape, using Dictaphones, feedback and lord knows what. The results are unsettling drones and hums, distant creaks, strange frequencies and the sounds of plankton having a rave while toucans try and battle them off the decks armed with blowpipes that shoot out ever-lasting gobstoppers. Bizarre samples/ loops are employed/ deployed creating strange and mysterious audio environs. Some things are really deep in the mix and sometimes I'm wondering if what I'm hearing is just my imagination... Who Knows??? Edition of 50 copies." (Norman Records

Clutter - Live At The Bombed Out Church (SOR46)

2011-02-12T06:25:00.000-08:00

'Live At The Bombed Out Church' is a big shimmering, swirling, electro-acoustic album, full of twisting ambient melodies.

Boasting an enormous range of impressions, Clutter is never afraid to just let things be, to swirl around a groove and let the sonic entropy do the work for him.

'Church' constantly evolves and expands; its path of development building on sumptuous tones, simple loops, multi-field recordings - constantly clashing, complementing and contrasting into a rich yielding electronic soup.

Clutter (Shaun Blezard), works between the fields of electroacoustic improvisation, ambient electronics and music concrete, adding touches of anything from dub, jazz and post rock to his eclectic mix of influences.

He is interested in areas of music where genres meet and finding ways to incorporate this melding of influences back into his music. His working method involves the use of field recordings, both raw and processed, to convey a sense of place and narrative, with the immediate sonic environment at the core of his work. He combines this with electronics and traditional instruments. His current set up involves laptop, I-Phone, Nintendo DS, a number of effects pedals, and guitar and bass.

He is also a regular improviser on the improv circuit where he has been developing ways of working with electronics alongside traditional players on this scene and also with jazz musicians.

Clutter has been involved in a number of recordings since 2001 under his own name and with a variety of other projects, including orfeo 5, Good Noise Bad Noise, Aht-n and with composer Susan Matthews. Recordings include releases on Clinical Archives, Dokuro and Earth Monkey Productions.

Listen to 12 January 1831 from 'Live At The Bombed Out Church' at http://soundcloud.com/sonic-oyster-records/clutter-12th-january-1831

STRICTLY limited to 50 copies, 'Live At The Bombed Out Church' is available from 21 February 2011. The CDR release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

If you want to see what is happening in the wider Clutter universe visit www.cluttermusic.com or www.myspace.com/clutterearthmp - got a couple of new releases coming out as soon as I master them and some more remasters of old net label stuff

ILK - Zenith... a resurrection

2011-01-28T06:16:00.000-08:00

A blast from the past...

"We managed to score some copies of this out of print disc from Richard youngs. Holy shit what on earth is going on???? A sort of new age spoken word intro gives way to what I can only describe as what it might sound like if Rick Wakeman was playing a crystal organ somewhere in the hills of Transylvania! Oh yes for this is Richard Youngs' one man progressive rock band. Multi-tracking and building up various layers and channels it does really sound like a fully formed group project. To be honest this has completely blown me away. The passion, skill, vision and creativity on this record is mind blowing; Richard plays bass, guitar, flute, keyboard, sleigh-bells and violin as well as singing. Recorded back in 1997 the record still sounds relevant and sounds like it could have been recorded much earlier but will doubtlessly age with grace. Brimming with the mans trademark folk magic, this is a great opportunity to fill a gap in your Youngs collection (Norman Records)"

The CD release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CD - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

Sindre Bjerga is... nowhereandnowhereelse

2011-01-16T15:11:00.000-08:00

SINDRE BJERGA has been touring the UK every October for the last 5 years, as well as mainland Europe and even Russia, with his cassette player drones and kitchen sink psychedelia... armed with an array of tape players, dictaphones and a pile of less-than-glamourous sound debris from the sonic junkyards, as he tries to juxtapose and melt sound ghosts hidden deep in the molten magnetic tapes, sometimes forcefeeding them with sheets of feedback from dying amps, always aiming for that mind-altering head trip...

He has released over a 100 records as a solo artist and in a variety of collaborations, most notably with Jan Iversen.

Recently most of his releases have been live recordings taken from his many concerts and tours around Europe: 'nowhereandnowhereelse' is taken from a performance in the Art Academy in Warsaw, 2010.

For further information about Sindre visit him at www.myspace.com/sindrebjerga

STRICTLY limited to 50 copies, 'nowhereandnowhereelse' is available from 24 January 2011. The CDR release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

Shhhh... Urban Parable reviewed in The Quietus

2011-01-06T07:03:00.000-08:00

"As peculiar as it sounds, fans of experimental music aren’t known for their unbiased welcomes when it comes to the straighter side of electronic music. Sure, many of these listeners are happy enough to suffer music that sounds like the difficult irradiated birth of some unimaginably structured alien form, but very little from the normal side of town – often regardless of the process or ideas behind it. So despite the fact that Richard Youngs is probably one of the most diverse figures still working in the UK’s folk and drone experimental undergrounds, this duo recording alongside Andrew Paine, a full record of electronica and its numerous 90s subgenres, is probably the most leftfield thing he could ever do.

In the past year or so there has been a distinct shift in this duo’s recorded material, revealing a somewhat branch-hopping style of sideways experimentation. Instead of a just relying on or refining their shared chemistry, there’s been more of a carefree shift in directions. Where nearly all of Youngs’ extensive collaborations with Paine have been under their own names, this disc is out under the Urban Parable moniker. But where their use of the name Ilk feels more like a placeholder for their definite step into the tenets of progressive rock, Urban Parable feels more like a purposeful distancing from the Paine/Youngs brand.

Whether this is a way of avoiding any directly aimed raised eyebrows or screwed up faces isn’t clear, but Urban Parable are unlikely to be hitting the bulls eye of their usual target audience. With its eight separate tracks programmed as a single thirty minute piece, Urban Parable is more capable than it is revelatory. With fairly straight-laced movements in the electronic world covering several subgenres like rubbery up-tempo acid, as-the-crow-flies techno and down-tempo, there were future echoes of this sound on Youngs’ recent ‘pop’ album Beyond The Valley Of The Ultrahits, but little evidence that he’s was going to go all out. Indeed the opening piece here could be a leftover from …Ultrahits, containing a few lines of Youngs vocal over a squiggly bleep synth backing. Those expecting a dose of explosive-minded electronica via the worlds of drone, progressive rock or noise will be disappointed.

However, just when you think that Urban Parable aren’t going to scaring the shit out of Detroit with the frenetic but average acid of the fourth track, they drop a slice of full blown gorgeous house. Probably the simplest of the eight selections, their jiggered electronics don’t appear to be working as well as the simple melodies and structure used here. For those worried that Richard Youngs has been seduced by the dark side of synthetic music, this appears to be more a one-off stop than a destination – take the single-take vocal/guitar genius album for the Volcanic Tongue label or his accapella piece for the recent Root Strata single as evidence. As an exercise in recording this may be a journey into the new for the duo, but as a listening experience this is more of an entertaining but average journey. Now, if only they’d commit to their House album." Scott McKeating (writing for The Quietus)

New Faces...

2010-12-28T10:26:00.000-08:00

Coming soon... and in no particular order...

I. Sindre Bjerga - Live in Warsaw
II. Clutter - Live At The Bombed Out Church
III. Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine - It's Gonna DISCO (tape)
IV. ILK - Orchestral Works (vinyl)
V. Sky Station Z4: The Second Coming - Andrew Paine (3")
VI. A Band - tbc (3")
VII. Zero Map - tbc
VIII. Astral Social Club - tbc

The Retirement Home

2010-12-28T10:08:00.000-08:00

The following items will be 'retired' from the 1st January 2011...

I. Lambent - Brian Lavelle
II. Guide to Music - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
III. Tokyo Garden Suite - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
IV. Earthrod - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
V. The Great Level - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
VI. Panegyric Territories; Volume I - ILK
VII. English Channel - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
VIII. Snapshots of Rural England - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
IX. Hot Canyon Butter - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
X. Collodion Positives: Volume 3 - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
XI. Treenails - Alistair Crosbie & Andrew Paine
XII. Collodion Positives: Volume 2 - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine
XIII. Mekonium Reaktor - Andrew Paine
XIV. The Starling Post - Andrew Paine
XV. Roman Concrete: Volume I - Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine

XII for MMX

2010-12-24T11:00:00.000-08:00

The music that moved me or just made me smile. I salute them all...

1. Alistair Crosbie - I've Never Had A Face
2. Autechre - Oversteps
3. Boris & Ian Astbury - BXI
4. Buddha on the Moon - Between Seasons
5. Fougou - Atlantis (for John Michell)
6. IEM - Complete Box Set
7. Susan Matthews & Clint Newton - Harme
8. Toshimaru Nakamua - Egrets
9. Suckle - Against Nature
10. Richard Youngs & Simon Wickham-Smith - Songphase
11. Richard Youngs - Atlas of Hearts
12. Sorley Youngs - I Am The Music Guy (e.p. 1/1)

Corner of the Season

2010-12-03T07:22:00.000-08:00

Over a period of six years (2000 - 2006, I think), Andrew Paine & Richard Youngs would meet in October / November and record a xmas single.

The a-side would be an original composition, the b-side a take on a traditional English carol or 'folk' song.

Each single was released in a very limited edition to family and friends.

'Corner of the Season' was the first and I think the best of our original compositions and is still a favorite with the 'kids' at the holiday season.

It appeared on the 'Glasgow Wassail' compilation (Sonic Oyster Records (SOR15) in 2007, in a limited release of 100 cdrs.

All proceeds from sales of the CD went to the Yorkhill Children's Hospital in Glasgow.

Download and enjoy.

http://andrewpaine.bandcamp.com/track/corner-of-the-season

And Here's Norman With The Weather...

2010-12-02T05:30:00.000-08:00

"I like the name Space Weather. If nothing else 'cos it reminds me of the weather guy from Family Guy who shouts "space weather" in one of the Star Wars episodes. If you've not seen it there's possibly nothing funnier than watching a large black man shout space weather at you really loudly. Anyhoo Space Weather are a bunch of Scottish experimentalists who knock about with the Sonic Oyster lot, Richard Youngs etc. from what I can tell. On this cutesy 3" CD you get bass and electric guitar and the now obligitory synth. This is kinda spacey sounding as well... Bits of it remind me of Plight & Premonition (Holger Czukay & David Sylvian) with its weird sounding radio noises and occasional melodic tones. I reckon if you lived in space and took loads of drugs this would be what you'd hear all day and that's a good thing!" Phil from Norman Records

Space Weather - The Weather's Maiden - SOLD OUT

2010-11-25T08:12:00.000-08:00

Apollolaan Recordings have just released 'The Weather's Maiden' by Space Weather.

Matthew writes:

"As we approach the Solstice, and are faced with frosts and snow, a wonderful display of the bright moon and stars lighting up the night sky we give you Space Weather as your soundtrack.

The Weather's Maiden" comes in the format of a 3"cdr with original hand painted covers on all 60 hand numbered and assembled copies.

Space Weather are;

Alistair Crosbie - electric guitar
Brian Lavelle - synthesizer
Andrew Paine - electric bass guitar

Scott McKeating has previously described the Space weather sound...

"With Space Weather’s music you can either choose to descend into the gentle flicker patterns of Lakia’s cabin or float above the nightscapes of Scotland’s glittering and smoky towns."

"Keep watching the skies...." x

Please visit http://apollolaan.blogspot.com/ for information on how to pick up your copy of 'The Weather's Maiden'.

Soliloquy Sun

2010-11-22T12:06:00.000-08:00

Soliloquy Sun is an ambient and experimental outfit comprised of varying members and instruments. It was created out of an idea Will Klingenmeier (Burning Shutter, Still Light) had to gather various musicians to play improvised music based around simple chord progressions and/or spontaneously create music.

These recordings drift out into the room: sombre, reflective, nocturnal, deeply personal: this is a highly original work, owing much to the techniques of jazz improvisation and the early pioneering minimalist composers.

Recorded in Spring 2010, this is simply one of the most evocative recordings Sonic Oyster has put out to date.

STRICTLY limited to 50 copies, 'Soliloquy Sun' is available from 29 November 2010. The CDR release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

'From the Sun', which features on 'Soliloquy Sun' can be heard by visiting www.soliloquysun.com

Space Weather: Low Earth - High Praise

2010-11-19T04:54:00.000-08:00

"There seems to have been some rough stellar conditions at the Space Weather satellite for the recording of their second album. Where their bass, synth and guitar debut, “Untitled,” was a relatively warm melancholic drone affair with plenty of clear night sky in its sights, the instrumental Low Earth takes things down a few clicks on the Celsius scale. This Glasgow/Edinburgh-based trio have turned their hand to a much darker record this time around. It’s what you’d imagine the soundtrack to the deep low moods of space station downtime to sound like – the “low” part of the record’s title is right on the money. Where “Untitled” was certainly cut from a similarly instrumental blanket of stars, Low Earth’s five tracks feel a little icier in direction. With “Tramsmute The Black Rock,” a gloriously prog title if ever there was one, there’s even a journey into the instrumental melodic tundrascapes between The Cure’s “Faith” and “Pornography” albums. The introductory “How Far Is It?” sits in a cold orbit around a colder Earth, the sense of a distance come and a distance to go running deep through the track’s minimal electronics. As it fades out into the distance, the closing shots of Silent Running in a forever-loop are the only appropriate visuals. Still too short at nearly nineteen minutes long, the vast “A Brief Swansong” is a wash of drone waves against the mind’s shore. An open space of eddies and bass notes lost in water, the track is a rootless piece of minimalism brooding against the horizon line. Bleaker, but better than their debut." Scott McKeating (writing for foxy digitalis)

Norman Gets Old Skool...

2010-11-18T08:20:00.001-08:00

"Andrew Paine & his little-known chum Ricardo Youngster have released a tape! A REAL old-skool DIY tape wot looks it woz made it in a skool for a project to please Miss! Except Miss has had to go home with a suspected borderline mind-aneurysm after she put it on the tape player, like REALLY freakin' loud cause it started all quiet like, then transformed into a load of whacked-out screeing frequency manipulation & lo-fi feedback. Then she started screaming as the distorshun became, like, really evil-loud, like some doom style sludge nightmare. Miss had to cover her ears even harder but then blood and bits of brain started spurting horribly from between her fingers and then she kollapsd all over the floor and we laughed then we got a bit consurned. So we rang Mr Bowers the music teech. He came along & giggled and said he'd sent it to Miss as a joke but it may have backfired. "It's not like this all the way through kids, if you persist it gets real churchy, but in a Satan kind of way" he then said. "But Mr Bowers.." we replied "We're all scared now, what do we do?"..... "There is nothing you can do, children" he solemnly intoned. "You're all damned to hell now". So I'm actually afraid to go home this evening, just in case my Mum & Dad have turned into demonic wolves...." (Brian... at Norman Records)

Volcanic Tongue Cracks the Seal

2010-11-14T12:26:00.000-08:00

Edition of only 50 copies cassette from the duo of Richard Youngs and Andrew Paine. This is some of the most aggressive and brutally a-formal of their work together, moving from semi-static blocks of black drone to crude electro-wrassling and the kind of blunt circuit exchanges that characterised the early Akita/Null duos. Comes sealed inside a wraparound paper sleeve – but are you brave enough to crack it. A classy old school release from these two. Very limited supply, obviously.

Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine - 4trackcassettemachine (SOC001) - SOLD OUT

2010-10-31T15:51:00.000-07:00

'4trackcassettemachine' is the new album by Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine.

This latest collaboration puts aside the ‘bleeps’ and ‘beats’, which dominated ‘Robot’ and the recent ‘Urban Parable’ sets for something a little more organic. Four distinct tracks of lo-fi experimentation, abstract synth, minimal electronics, slabs of dark stabbing riffs and screaming guitar, make for a highly stylistic release.

STRICTLY limited to 50 copies, '4trackcassettemachine' is available from 15 November.

Andrew Paine - The Earth Remains Unshattered

2010-10-27T12:35:00.000-07:00

Siren Wire will be releasing a new solo project from Andrew Paine in November 2010.

'Siren Wire Editions' is a series of limited edition releases by carefully selected artists from around the globe. Launching November 2010.

Siren Wire Editions 001

Andrew Paine 'The Earth Remains Unshattered'

i) The Earth Remains Unshattered
ii) Matter & Space
iii) Forsake the Sky
iv) So Long As My Pincers Hold
v) Sceadu
vi) A Pulse Around A Circle
vii) Brilliant White
viii) The Storm is Overpast

Recorded in Glasgow, July - September 2010

For more information on Siren Wire and ordering this release http://sirenwire.webs.com/sweditions.htm

"Quietly and without fuss, Andrew Paine has established himself as one of the UK underground’s most progressive thinkers and most diverse operators, his modes ranging from solo voice, through layered howling guitars, gentle piano interludes, oblique electronics and wherever he likes in between. He initially broke cover collaborating with Richard Youngs in their progressive rock group project Ilk. Following their second album “Canticle” (VHF, 2005), he became particularly prolific, releasing many collaborative titles both with Youngs and with fellow Glasgow resident Alistair Crosbie as well as several solo titles. He founded his own Sonic Oyster Records in 2006 to release much of his work and has recently co-founded, Blue Tree, with Matthew Shaw (Tex La Homa, Fougou) and progressive kraut-rock power trio, Space Weather, with Alistair Crosbie and Brian Lavelle."

Norman Goes to Metherell

2010-10-22T04:38:00.000-07:00

"This is a really nice piece. 45 minutes of contemplative piano drones which have been recorded in such a way as to render them beautifully ambient. This manipulation removes the occasionally twee & annoying plink of the ivories and instead leaves us with just the sustained drifting waves of the notes in a gorgeous Brian Eno-esque fashion. With just intermittent chirrups of an evening bird chorus to enhance the mood, this is a true minimalist gem. It's a wonderfully emotive & ponderous music we've got here that will almost definitely enrich the lives of fans in awe of Celer's more cerebral works & latter-day Stars of the Lid. Very affecting indeed." Norman Records

Matthew Shaw - Metherell (SOLD OUT)

2010-10-11T05:25:00.000-07:00

"Moss, Trees, Lichen, twigs, dead leaves, soil, insects, birds, the wind, the rain and sunshine. Bracken basks in the shade and reaches upwards and outwards. My vision of the horizon broken by forest, the silence broken by birdsong, space, peace and quiet but never complete silence. For now this is my home."

Matthew Shaw (Tex La Homa, Fougou, The Blue Tree) offers us a meditation on place; a quiet valediction to his beloved South West England.

'Metherell' is music born of a perfect moment, the repetitious swell and pitch of piano, our witness to the simple pleasures found in ancient woodland, seen through the half-light.

The reference to geographical place puts one in mind of earlier environmental music; the style and easy posture of the composition owes a quiet word of gratitude to Eno and Basinski. This is all for the good.

Wonderful Wooden Reasons seeks out the Shadow Walker

2010-10-05T16:20:00.000-07:00

"Let me start off with an admittance that I wasn't (and indeed am still not) overly taken with the opening track here. The birds are too high in the mix and the music too overtly reminiscent of Current 93 at their most bucolic for me to fall into. It's not bad by any stretch it just isn't for me. The rest of the album on the other hand is fantastic.
This is the first time I've heard Susan follow an entirely instrumental path and (with all due respect to her singing) it's something I'd certainly like to hear more of. She has a fully developed and thoroughly engrossing composition style that, aside from occasional brushes with the familiar (track 4 - Broken - would be perfectly at home on the soundtrack to Amelie), is an absolute delight. She weaves heavy, weighty, almost gothic, tapestries around delicate melodies and a prismatic exoticism.
A beautiful album" (Wonderful Wooden Reasons)

Norman Records shakes the Mighty Hand

2010-10-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

This is a limited CDR in a run of 50 and it's 3 tracks running into 34 minutes of free folk madness. My ears can hear people clapping, weird electronics, flutes, bass guitar, bongos, whistling and more things I can't distinguish. I reckon this would be good to see live as it sounds like feral insanity. I also think there would be nudity if you see these guys (and gals?) live as anyone who makes music like this normally gets naked on stage. If you're into free folk jams by people who are just getting up there and doing there own thing then this is for you. It's nothing but entertaining. (Norman Records)

Volcanic Tongue on the Mighty Hand

2010-09-29T17:14:00.000-07:00

Edition of 50 copies CD-R on Andrew Paine’s Sonic Oyster imprint with a new blat from Brighton’s Bolide aka Bolide Awkwardstra. Bolide play freak free jazz in the tradition of The Art Ensemble, Le Forte Four and The Mothers Of Invention with a goofy communal style that moves from cosmo-shakedowns through wall-destroying breakout brass.

Bolide - The Mighty Hand

2010-09-20T03:26:00.000-07:00

Bolide deliver three slabs of spontaneous accept-and-build with an album that celebrates the notion of 'mind and breath', albeit with a lysergic acid diethylamide chaser and a pint of speckled hen.

Every wrinkle, squank and poot is accepted with the kind of feral energy early 'Mothers' once gorged on before squandering it all on titties and beer with Eddie and that annoying Phlorescent Leech.

STRICTLY limited to 50 copies, 'The Mighty Hand' is available from 27 September. The CDR release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

http://www.thebolide.tk/
http://www.myspace.com/bolideawkwardstra
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bolide/285710746803?ref=ts

Chapel of Stars - Free Download

2010-09-07T09:50:00.001-07:00

I've recently uploaded a new e.p. to my bandcamp site: www.andrewpaine.bandcamp.com

The 'Chapel of Stars' ep was completed over two days at SOR Mansions, Spring 2010.

Nebulae
Fall of Acre
He Was a King

I think my original intention was to record approx. 45 minutes of material and link the pieces with some 'third crusade' conceptual hogwash - hence the title 'Fall of Acre'.

Having recorded five pieces and leaving the material for a week, I took my lack of new ideas or willingness to do battle with the 'axe' as a sign to leave it gathering dust and move on.

Move on I did... recording 'Haunts of Ancient Peace' the following month.

I came back to these 'Crusade' pieces recently and discarded two of them immediately - for they were tosh of the highest order.

However... three slabs of guitar have survived.

I gift to those who are interested in such things, a free download... which welcomes the listener with repeating riffs, looped phrases, scorching guitar melodies over a timeless space drone stasis.

I hope you enjoy it - please let me know what you think

Onward!

Urban Parable - Reviews

2010-08-17T07:10:00.000-07:00

Norman Records... hitting the nail on the head

"Couldn't tell you much about the work of Richard Youngs and Andrew Paine as they've kinda passed me by... You probably know their stuff better than I. What we're treated to here is thirty minute astral jam utilizing elements of electro, house, techno, hip-hop, coffee table jazz, drum 'n' bass and freeform improv to create a strange party mix tape that goes on into infinity. The majority of what I've heard so far is relatively tranquil and atmospheric making the most of warm vocal tones and semi-freeform loops and beats but occasionally it kicks off in a relatively vague and inconsistent ways which makes for fun yet frustrating listening. These guys are basically teasing. I guess that's the beauty of this piece, it's a euphoric exploration of dance music and it's technologies without all the usual pay-off moments you'd expect as a punter. Slightly frustrating but worth sticking with for the magic moments." Business Lady

" Where do we even begin with this one? Anyone who thinks they might have finally got their head around the prodigious arc of Richard Young’s recent catalogue is gonna have to throw their hands in the air: Urban Parable is a new group project from Richard and Andrew Paine that masquerades as a mysterious unit coming out of the 90s rave scene (?!?) – think Ilk playing the dance tent dressed in white jump suits, sucking on menthol inhalers and waving glo-sticks. Or don’t. Richard’s soaring vocals are married to euphoric techno, brokedown drum and bass, primitive house and block rocking beats in one of the most unlikely recordings of his entire career. If you thought Ultrahits was a bold step into the pop void then this is really going to confuse you, 90s techno completely misconstrued. Obviously, you need to hear it. Edition of only 50 copies though, so better make it quick. Highest possible confusion." (Volcanic Tongue)

" Urban Parable... I mean, what the fuck?" (Alistair Crosbie)

Taking Stock - Currently Available

2010-08-15T14:43:00.000-07:00

Urban Parable - SOLD OUT

2010-08-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" Newton's Third Law of Motion

Urban Parable is a new album and unit by Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine.

It has been said there can be no manual for experimentation and yet... and yet... Youngs & Paine appear to have found one for this project.

Moving on from where 'Robot' left off, 'Urban Parable' takes a sharp left turn down a hidden corridor to reveal euphoric electro stabs, violent techno, swaying rhythms, yearning vocal samples and insane, unexpected drum 'n' bass beats.

'Urban Parable' is SOLD OUT

Terrascopic Rumbles Part 2

2010-07-13T15:46:00.000-07:00

Functions of Hedgerow - Andrew Paine

"The EP "Functions Of Hedgerow" by Andrew Paine of Scottish label Sonic Oyster Records is an all-too-brief excursion into minimal, spectral sonic tapestries. Opening with the title track, the mood is very eerie; ghostly piano chords haunted by whispering voices. 'Scent Of Green' matches resonant bass notes with whistling synths (or sounds - difficult to tell, which is a good sign), while 'Year Of Rabbit, Year Of Cat' sounds like an out-take from Tangerine Dream's "Atem" - an outstanding track.

'Walk the Field' features heavily effected voices over a spooky soundscape, while EP closer 'Corners Of Canterbury' sounds like an audio description of a macabre nocturnal world. This is an evocative and peaceful work, notable not least for the track titles. Highly recommended for those into the ambient side of things." www.terrascope.co.uk

Terrascopic Rumbles Part 1

2010-07-13T15:39:00.000-07:00

Tex La Homa - Driebergen Zeist (SOR32)

"Coming home from work after having a shitty day, feeling down, putting on the one-tracked CDr “Driebergen-Zeist” by Tex la Homa and the rest of the day was saved. Exactly what my inner tensions needed. 30 minutes of reflective, melancholy light, kind of accordion-drone. Those days, do I know it’s an accordion? No, it could be an electronic trick, but I don’t care, it’s mighty beautiful and rich in sound; wide chords flavoured with sampled voices, sounds, treatments and other stuff, just like spices here and there. Tex la Homa could also be recognised as Matthew Shaw, a guy involved in a lot of various collaborations in 230 Divisadero with Nick Grey, The Blue Tree with Andrew Paine, Fougou with Brian Lavelle, Cat Lady with Michael Tanner and Grand Feast of the Dead with Mark Fry. And if that wasn’t enough he’s also the head of Apollolaan Records. Anyone familiar with that label immediately realise we’re talking about a guy who care for quality. And he’s avoiding the narcissistic trap of releasing it on his own label." www.terrascope.co.uk

Andrew Paine - The Haunts of Ancient Peace

2010-07-10T14:04:00.001-07:00

'The Haunts of Ancient Peace' (SOR40) is the result of a one hour session at my piano, recorded directly onto an iphone mic.

Free and indeterminate in nature, these simple compositions chart loss and friendship through quiet, slowly evolving patterns.

The album is dedicated to AKN 1963 - 2010.

Track Listing:

Island of Oak - The First Path
Ghost Knight
Island of Oak - The Second Path
April Cast A Broad Shadow
Island of Oak - The Third Path
The Haunts of Ancient Peace

'Island of Oak - The Third Path' is available for a limited period at http://andrewpaine.bandcamp.com/

The piano needs tuning :-)

STRICTLY limited to 50 copies, 'Haunts' is available from 19 July. The CDR release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

Susan Matthews - In Search of the Shadow Walker

2010-07-10T10:40:00.000-07:00

'In Search of the Shadow Walker' is Susan's first solo release for two years and is described as an album of 'classically inspired vignettes and piano compositions'.

Susan Matthews meditates on ancient landscapes & personal histories with a keening cragged honesty - beautiful and sad.

Haunting harmonies, melancholic piano patterns, violent stabbing entreaties all unfold with unresolved tension, drama and subtle poignancy.

The album is STRICTLY limited to 80 copies and is available from 19 July. The CDR release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now.

This release is likely to sell out fast and will not be reissued on SOR. Pre-order now to avoid disappointment.

Susan has uploaded four tracks from 'In Search of the Shadow Walker' on http://www.myspace.com/susanmatthews

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

Uncut Robot

2010-07-05T05:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jon Dale for this recent review of 'Robot' in Uncut magazine.

Learning to Draw - Review

2010-06-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

A well deserved review for a great album - Scott McKeating gets out the wax crayons and learns to draw for foxy digitalis.

"Alistair Crosbie is a musician better known for soundscapes and guitar dronework, and rightly so as he does them well. So when he releases something that he claims as being ‘the most experimental album I've made’, the big money might well be on that album being something utterly bizarre and industrially heavy. Instead, Crosbie has recorded an album of his own songs, y’know guitar, chorus, melodies and lyrics stuff, which is not something you might readily expect for a dabbler in aural alien art. There are a few deviations throughout (acapella and post-punk kraut vibery), a few sparks of other sound but the central elements are always voice and guitar. No need to worry about how Crosbie handles the gulf between these disciplines though, “Learning To Draw” is an unqualified success and in no way does he get (or need) any kind of pass for being an artist more well known for being from a different musical world. While Crosbie’s songs here work within a certain structural formula, relatively brief songs (17 songs in 38 or so minutes) relying on limited pedal fx, acoustic guitar and keyboard, these are not the fumblings of a beginner.

The blurb that accompanies “Learning To Draw” mentions its origins in some snowbound and electricity-free sessions, but it feels like the record’s true origins are in something deeper and more internal. The whole record feels deeply personal, and its fairly bare bones style really supports its tone and manner. This is definitely heartfelt, lyrically downbeat and personal pop, its lack of a wide instrumental palette not affecting its melodies. Many of the songs seem to fit in with the idea of Crosbie talking/confessing/advising someone, in many places seemingly himself, and lyrically he's singing about personal confusion, loss and moments of occasional redemption. Things do turn a little chilling with some of the disturbed and empty imagery on “Husk”, but it’s followed immediately with “Summer” and the title track, the record’s most positive moments, so this fuller descent is short-lived. “Learning To Draw” is a principally melancholy pop record, but Crosbie’s shaft-of-light optimism comes over loud and clear. Take the gorgeous minute-long piece of positivity “Chinese Handcuffs, one of several slices of simple Glasgow/Creation guitar pop, which rivals any of the usual suspects with its “more you struggle the tighter it becomes” line. As an overall concept and album, this is a very brave, very personal record and reveals Crosbie as having a talent for both the abstract and the traditional. 10/10"

Fougou - Atlantis (for John Michell) - Reviews

2010-06-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

Wonderful Wooden Reasons reflect on the Fougou:

"Fougou is the collaborative project of Brian Lavelle and Matthew Shaw. It's my first exposure to Shaw but Lavelle is a regular to these pages and a very welcome one at that. Atlantis is an introspective and ephemeral listen filled with melancholic sighs and slow washes of breathy sound. It's dedicated to John Michell who is described in the sleeve notes as a 'writer & dreamer'. I cannot comment on how the former noun is referenced in the music but the second is all pervasive and the music maintains a satisfyingly oneiric character throughout that I'm sure he would have approved of."

Writing for foxy digitalis, Scott McKeating reviews the latest Fougou release on SOR:

"Fougou make journeys. The kind of journeys that see the owner sinking into a soundscape. And while it’s certainly not uncommon for experimental music to seek to take its listener somewhere on a journey, Fougou make the Fantastic Voyage movie look like a paper boat sightseeing trip in six-inch puddle. Starting with the measured swell of waters, like waves through alloy aqueducts, there’s an underpinning of delicate structures ringing – picture the construction of aural sugar cages through fog (if you know what I mean). Fougou’s subtle sunken psychedelia is a descent into, and through, the watery world of this 3”s title – moving through a society that’s unaware of the listener’s presence. This, only their second release, is truly a halcyon slice of music and layered like dust mites in intermittent sunshine. Their blending together of denseness, visual/aural trails and finger dab rushes beckons the kind of worlds usually found on new age/SF book covers - a world of verdant green and silver crystal. Their sound id anything but new age though, there's a gracefulness and an obscurity that's far beyond that sonic garishness. Atlantis is a interswirling of the normally disparate ‘istics’ – the mystic and futuristic. 9/10 -- Scott McKeating (2 June, 2010)"

Book of Shadows - Tea in the Sidhe... SOLD OUT

2010-05-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

Well done everybody... onward!

Buddha on the Moon - Between Seasons - SOLD OUT

2010-05-28T04:33:00.001-07:00

Nothing else to see... move along, please

Buddha on the Moon - Norman Speaks!

2010-05-28T02:37:00.003-07:00

Norman Records writes:

"Buddha On The Moon were about when I was obsessively buying 7"'s back in the
mid-90's. Back in the heydays of Wurlitzer Jukebox and Earworm etc.... Buddha On The Moon were tinkering around then, tackling the world with small low-key releases and a name to worry Buddhists. Here they are with a brand new album on Sonic Oyster, limited to a paltry 50 copies and it's their 1st album for 12 years. Craziness! It's pretty immense sounding stuff and I'm sure by the time you read this they'll have all gone. Beautiful drones and ambience mingled in with proper instruments and proper songs. Remember all that drifty space rock from the late 90's ala Windy & Carl, Fuxa etc?? There's elements of that here but it's well epic-sounding in scale. I can't believe there's only 50 of these!"

Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine - Collodion Error

2010-05-28T02:25:00.000-07:00

Richard Youngs and Andrew Paine have a free download available courtesy of the good people at Workbench Recordings. http://www.workbenchrecordings.com/

Daniel Spicer writes:

"Just how close to the edge is it possible to get? Zeno's paradox would suggest that no matter how hard one tries, it can never be reached. Achilles spends eternity trying to catch a tortoise but only ever getting part of the way, the distance between the hero and the reptile shattered into an infinitude of tiny spaces to be traversed first one then another, with no ending in sight. Just the same, there's a whole universe to be travelled before we get truly close to the edge.

Glasgow-based musicians Richard Youngs and Andrew Paine keep on trying to reach that edge - separately and together. Youngs is a humble bastion of UK experimental music: as a solo artist of dizzying diversity, as an erstwhile member of underground free-music originals The A Band and, more lately, as bassist in Jandek's live trio with drummer Alex Nielsen. Paine is a quietly determined generator of avant-sounds, documented and distributed through his CD-R label Sonic Oyster. The two have recorded together since the end of the 20th century, sometimes under their own names, and sometimes as Ilk, a project that takes the baroque narrative stylings of classic British Prog as a starting point from which to explore psychedelic Noise, drone and Improv.

With Collodion Error, it's as though they're trying to sneak up on the edge, pretending not to look as they spiral round, trying to catch it on the outswing, the outer arm of the Golden Mean. The galaxy spins down into a beach-stranded mollusc shell, into an atom of stone, down further into a galactic supercluster, You can hear the energy thrumming as your identity slips away. A minute and a half can be enough to see it all. Time enough to get close to the edge, anyway."

Tea in the Sidhe - Reviewed by the One True Dead Angel

2010-05-21T15:56:00.000-07:00

Book of Shadows -- TEA IN THE SIDHE [Sonic Oyster Records]

More whole-grain psychedelic drone goodness, this time featuring two lengthy workouts and three shorter ones. "Terrastock Tea Party," clocking in at over 31 minutes, is one of their more chaotic offerings -- the bedrock drone and ghostlike, wailing vocals are present as always, but there's a lot more activity happening in the background, in the form of springy guitar lines that come and go, erratic bursts of percussion, and a plethora of strange, usually unidentifiable noises that point the song perilously close to the land of improv free jazz... except this is the slowest and most sporadic free jazz you'll ever hear. Some of it sounds like a free jazz combo workout that's been slowed down to half speed and swaddled in gauzy sheets of drone. Screeching, wailing noises that might be a saxophone or something sampled from a keyboard rise up through the fog now and then as well. The density of sound ebbs and flows over time, as does the intensity. The considerably shorter five-minute title track is one of the most peculiar tracks I've heard from the band -- what sounds like a kazoo or wheezing keyboard provides a sawtooth drone over which discordant voices babble while squeaks and skronks abound. "Midsummer w / Verdi" is another long one (over 27 minutes), and this is closer to what most would expect from the band -- long, swirling drones, beatific disembodied vocals, and pulsing waves of cosmic sound. The volume increases as the piece goes on and the playing activity grows more restless as well, but eventually gives way to a more languid sensibility that continues to the end, with a sound that's still heavy on the cosmic vibe but far more spacious and restrained, at least up until the end (where there's a brief burst of electronic frippery designed to roust you from your tranced-out bliss). "Ion" is another short one -- just four minutes exactly -- and one of the more esoteric ones, filled with bass-heavy rumble and sci-fi noises, like a snippet from a soundtrack to an obscure science fiction B-movie; the twelve-minute "Major Cerridwen" continues the sci-fi theme, sort of, with the occasional bits that sound like alpha waves bouncing off satellites, but this is rooted more in their traditional affinity for dreamy, floating dronescapes. This is certainly one of their more enigmatic and unusual albums, but fans of the band (and of cosmic drone-rock in general) will nevertheless find this a worthy addition to their album collections.

Buddha on the Moon - Between Seasons

2010-05-15T15:23:00.000-07:00

Simply put, "Between Seasons' is one of the most uplifting and beautiful albums I've heard in years.

It is the third album from Buddha on the Moon, a Texas-based sonic escapist exploring and obfuscating the gray boundaries of song, drone, and soundscape.

BotM's previous album, ‘The Last Autumn Day,’ came out in 1998, and the near-dozen intervening years should have been sufficient for at least a half-dozen more albums; but not existing as a proper band, with no time tables for rehearsals, shows or tours has a way of stretching time and so conventional norms of schedule or agenda become obsolete.

 As such, 'Between Seasons' came about at its own pace, on its own time and space, recorded, sampled, processed and tweaked, mixed and remixed, forgotten and rediscovered over a period of four years using a wide array of digital and analog media, mountain dulcimer, kantele, guitars and basses acoustic and electric, various synthesizers, and a collection of 'modestly-priced microphones'.

The album is STRICTLY limited to 50 copies & available from 24 May. The CDR release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now.

I have uploaded 'When They Were Close (for friends estranged)' on to andrewpaine.bandcamp.com for a limited period only.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

Fougou - Atlantis (for John Michell)

2010-05-15T14:44:00.000-07:00

'Fougou' are Brian Lavelle (Space Weather, Richard Youngs) and Matthew Shaw (Tex La Homa). The name derives from a peculiar type of subterranean structure only found in Cornwall in the extreme southwest of the United Kingdom.

'Athantis (for John Michell)' released on Sonic Oyster Records on 24 May is the next stage in Fougou's sonic descent into subterranean chambers.

Following on from their stunning debut "Reversed Dreams of this Nature', the duo offer up a meditative love letter to the English writer, John Michell, using dense textural electronics, processed acoustic instruments, vocals and field recordings conjuring up a kind of megalithic valediction to Michell's vision of fortean phenomena.

'Atlantis' is available on 3" CD-R and strictly limited to 50 copies. The CDR release costs 4GBP and is available for pre-order now.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

The Quietus Review: Robot

2010-05-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Scott McKeating for this review recently posted in 'The Quietus':

For such a near-mythic (and allegedly reclusive figure), Richard Youngs still manages to be a very busy man. From the mid 80s onwards he's played a pivotal role in the diy/experimental underground moving between exploratory improvisation, drone, gorgeous songscapes and post-pop pieces. Having long since graduated from the legendary A Band collective, Youngs is known as both a solo artist and a discerning, but keen, collaborator via his releases with Skullflower's Matthew Bower and drummer-in-demand Alex Neilson.

Robot is Youngs' twentieth collaboration with fellow Glasgow based musician Andrew Paine since 2005 (not including their well-received prog rock project Ilk), and it's one of their most instant and unusual so far. To those unfamiliar with the workings of the diy experimental underground, 20 might sound like an insane amount of music. Where other improvisatory-sourced acts, for example the harsher, bleaker but very prolific Wolf Eyes, releases can be read as a kind of documentary process, Youngs and Paine seem to treat each release like a mini project of sorts – an idea investigated.

In essence, Robot is a concept release created using Brian Eno's infamous oblique strategy card system and a further exploration into the duo's chemistry. For a pairing that's been so effective with the ideas of musical improvisation within a small dose of self-imposed direction, their choice of Eno's concept/direction of random selected choices/instructions on Robot might seem a little peculiar. Usually employed in aiding over-emotive stadium rock acts that have hit the skids break the shackles of their own success, Youngs and Paine have adopted this system for Robot more in the spirit of playful exploration.

While the duo are more familiar playing at the left-hand edge of something akin to post-world/post-structure music, the five pieces here are moving beyond even those already hazy limits. Taking in disassociated spoken word, hollow-legged Kosmische, the musical 'summing-up' of landscapes in endless melody lines and more than a dash of prog-rock's audio dalliances, Robot seems to have pushed the pair beyond improv – if such a thing can actually happen. Where improv is often seen as an anything goes environment, it still has the constraint of what a particular artist is comfortable and the added bonus of treading hitherto unexplored paths. The nature of integrating the unknown into this project's working method has undoubtedly pushed the duo into new territory.

Paine and Youngs may have dabbled in synth-work previously but there has never been anything as joyously weird as the classic Acid Techno of 'Bad Shark'. Thanks to The South Bank Show's footage of plastic-bed sheet stadium behemoths playing dreadful sub world music grooves, the oblique strategy series is more of an amusing idea than a system that's produced a massive amount of great music for anyone other than Eno himself. Where many would flounder at directions like commands like "Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify them", Youngs and Paine have adapted perfectly to these leaps into the dark.

Robot - SOLD OUT

2010-04-19T16:21:00.000-07:00

'Robot' by Andrew Paine & Richard Youngs is now sold out at source. However... copies can be found at Norman Records, Volcanic Tongue, Eclipse Records & Alt.Vinyl.

"New edition of 50 copies CD-R from the tag-team of Richard Youngs and Andrew Paine. Reflecting on the extended electro/prog strategies of their 3” on La Station Radar, the music was created through a series of oblique strategies chosen at random, with vocal narration cut up to the point that it sounds like interrupted shortwave broadcasts, primitive acid house squiggles, vocoder F/X, guitar jams and cheap drum machines. Another perplexing entry from these two cosmonauts." (Volcanic Tongue)

Robot

2010-04-11T10:12:00.000-07:00

Sonic Oyster Records presents 'Robot', a new release from Andrew Paine & Richard Youngs.

'Robot' is the result of adhering to every 'oblique strategy' card randomly chosen from the deck.

No compromise; no quarter... no matter how painful, no matter how against the moment, we worked with it and the music flowed through us... a strange new sound, at times liberating... at other times totally ridiculous.

Ultimately, it was a very enjoyable album to make... riddled with surprises... taking the construct and process we first started on ' The Horizon Project' and moving forward to a new experimentation. A progression, if you will.

The album is STRICTLY limited to 50 copies & available from 19 April. The CDR release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

Book of Shadows - Tea in the Sidhe

2010-04-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

Book of Shadows began in 1999 when Carlton and Sharon Crutcher began seeking an experimental, magickal outlet from their duties in legendary Austin Texas Space Rock band ST 37 which Carlton founded in 1987.

The artistic vision for Book of Shadows was to combine the best aspects of psychedelia, improvisation and experimental music mixed with a spiritual and magickal life perspective. Each time Book of Shadows gets together to play, music is documented by a recording of that particular magickal and musical experience.

Carlton and Sharon were joined by guitarist, composer Aaron Bennack in 2002 and guitarist Jonathan Horne in 2004. In the last 10 years Book of Shadows has played an endless number of recording sessions and shows with countless musicians in the effort to document the beauty of the eternal present.

Sonic Oyster Records is proud to present 'Tea in the Sidhe', Book of Shadows latest incantation of psychedelic drone and mysticism.

The album is limited to 50 copies & available from 19 April.

The CDR release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

Brian Lavelle - Lambent

2010-03-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

SOR is delighted to announce the release of 'Lambent' by Brian Lavelle: a haunting, minimalistic and mystical dream-narrative inspired, very loosely, by Viscount Samuel's book 'An Unknown Land' (London, George Allen & Unwin, 1942).

Guitar, electronics, field recordings: recorded in Edinburgh, Autumn 2009

The album is limited to 50 copies & available from 22 March.

The CDR release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now. POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

Scott McKeating Visits Driebergen-Zeist

2010-03-03T15:20:00.000-08:00

Tex La Homa "Driebergen Zeist" CD-r
Sonic Oyster

While “Driebergen Zeist” might be named after a place in the Netherlands, the record itself doesn’t so much offer a sense of place – as a sense of senses. This record is a diary of a journey captured in sound, taste and sight, and a release that delivers these ideas through audio. Commencing with the sound footsteps through snow, Tex La Homa (aka Matthew Shaw) reveals a kind of European air across the record. Or maybe more specifically there’s a Gallic tone here, created by the affectionate tones of an accordion. The instrument is lightly buttered and coaxed in reverb, moving the tones of the accordion out of the ordinary into the hinterland of memory or into the peripheral. There are trails of less easily identifiable sound too, snaking tones and the waft of chimes that colour the record - the music here moves with a charming insouciant swoon along its hazy course. Unlike many other artists who incorporate field recordings into their records, the sources here don’t jar the listener back to reality – they’re stitched into the fabric of this new other reality that Tex La Homa have created. And that’s one this record’s main feats; it feels much more like a creation than a construction. “Driebergen Zeist” ends as it began, with the crunching of snow underfoot. Take a trip… 9/10 -- Scott McKeating (3 March, 2010)

Space Weather - Low Earth

2010-02-21T09:07:00.000-08:00

'Low Earth', the eagerly-awaited second album by Scottish astral voyagers, Space Weather, is released on 1 March 2010 again on the band’s own label, Space Weather Recordings (BwbW 02).

Following on from last year's eponymous debut, the trio of Alistair Crosbie (electric guitar), Brian Lavelle (synthesizer) and Andrew Paine (electric bass guitar) build upon the strengths of that earlier stellar outing to create a darker, more dense album in 'Low Earth', which is truly progressive in nature.

The album is limited to 100 copies only and comes in a pro-printed colour sleeve with pro-duplicated colour disc-print. The CDR release costs 5GBP and is available for pre-order now.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk.

Functions of Hedgerow - Andrew Paine (SOR31) - Norman Speaks!

2010-02-11T15:09:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Norman Records for this recent review on 'Functions of Hedgerow' by Andrew Paine

"Spooky CDr from Andrew Paine. Occasionally employing a muted take on spoken word performance within the realms of these haunting, screeing & whirring tendrils of drone modulation, in the process creating a sinister but utterly captivating backdrop. I've always been a fan of spooked sounds and 'Functions of Hedgerow' doesn't remotely disappoint. The track 'Scent of Green', for instance, sounds like Broadcast creeping through a seriously haunted wood at the dead of night, wavering, quivering analog keys being enveloped by dark spectral shadows. I'd love to listen to this in the dark with just some flickering candles for company! Utterly beautiful, menacing stuff!"

Andrew Paine & Richard Youngs - Guide to Music (SOR33)

2010-02-08T00:03:00.000-08:00

Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine - Guide to Music (SOR33)
CDR - Strictly Limited Edition (Numbered) 100 Copies £5.00

Richard and Andrew provide you with another 'singular release' - a range of oblique and idiosyncratic references from the musical spectrum. The whole thing represents a collision of popular styles, providing an energetic, exciting tour of undiscovered musical hinterlands. Released on 15 February : available for pre-order now and shipping on 12 February 2010. The CDR release costs 5GBP.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk. This is also the address if you wish to make contact for any other reason.

Tex La Homa - Driebergen Zeist (SOR32)

2010-02-07T23:54:00.000-08:00

TexlaHoma - Driebergen Zeist (SOR32)
CDR - Limited Edition Edition 50 copies £5.00

Tex La Homa is the songwriting and recording project of Matthew Shaw who also makes music with 230 Divisadero with Nick Grey, The Blue Tree with Andrew Paine, Fougou with Brian Lavelle, Cat Lady with Michael Tanner and Grand Feast of the Dead with Mark Fry.

Matthew also runs the label apollolaan recordings, releasing music by Kawabata Makoto, White Hills, The A Band, Andrew Paine, Plastic Crimewave, Plinth, Brian Lavelle, Directorsound & many others.

Recorded between December 2009 - January 2010 Texlahoma's 'Driebergen-Zeist' offers the listener a perfect distillation on a corner of a season - a valediction on mindfulness:

"Snow turned to ice, followed by Fresh snow. Ponds turned to ice,
children skating. Old years eve, fireworks, and a new dawn, a new
year, a new decade. A Birthday celebration, family, friend and
good times. A warning, a test warning, only to be used if something
really terrible happens…..but for now calm almost complete
silence, just the faint sound of accordion, children’s toys and wind
chimes. The birds and red squirrels searching for food in the
forest and gardens, a beautiful clear sky and the sound of
laughter. Then the train to the airport, and onwards to home."

Driebergen-Zeist is now available for pre-order and will start shipping on 12 February 2010. The CDR release costs 5GBP.

POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more. Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk. This is also the address if you wish to make contact for any other reason.

Tokyo Garden Suite

2010-02-03T17:29:00.001-08:00

Richard Youngs & Andrew Paine "Tokyo Garden Suite"
Sonic Oyster

Tokyo Garden Suite is quite unlike most other collaborations between Richard Youngs and Andrew Paine, and it definitely feels like their most Frankenstein work to date. This single 31 minute piece has an air of conscious construction despite its assortment of weird ingredients. At its heart Tokyo Garden Suite is a bewildering soliloquy, one that’s touched by a slight shift in time or space. Words and phrases appear out of the blue, taken from their context and jumbled up. As the piece progresses the text is switched between narrators, and ends up making a form of exquisite corpse cut-up sense. With vocals handled by Youngs, Paine and Steve Todd (a Youngs collaborator from way back), this is a tale told and retold across the airwaves. The track’s roots can be tracked back to the duo’s 2009 release “Earth Rod”, its closing track “Tokyo Suite (Intro)” a brief taste of what was to come (and adding to the release’s endless/always was feel). There are perhaps imagined, perhaps tenuous connections with the constructs of some of the word visions of some of England’s other sons. Though the revelations here are more tied up and weirdly interlinking, it’s less oblique and Blakeian perhaps - but there is a strand of Englishness here. It’s very much an odd out-of-state piece musically too; the worlds that are usually invisible between sepia piano (an instant reconnect to the past), the jagged blunt/raw tones of feedback from Youngs and the sounds of the shakuhachi are linked across this narrative. Youngs and Paine playing instruments that makes for unlikely bedfellows in an unexpected but very effective musical menage-a-trois. 8/10 -- Scott McKeating (2 February, 2010)

After Wednesday

2010-02-01T23:51:00.001-08:00

Scott McKeating recently reviewed 'After Wednesday' for Foxy Digitalis:

Where much of Andrew Paine’s solo work has a progressive rock/experimental bent, this is probably the most pure ambient/scape piece he’s released to date. Just shy of 27 minutes long, “After Wednesday” is a gorgeously skeletal blend of both being-alone and loss formed from the seeds of empty room piano, gentle free percussion and bird sound field recordings. Paine has made a record that somehow feels outside of everyday reality, somewhere outside of real life but still connected through melancholy and remembrance. It’s also a record that finds itself placed between two different aural environments. With bird recordings sounding like they’re taken from deep in a wood, the artwork pushes the mind towards the idea of post-dawn drifting across a lake. There’s a kind of inward-looking detachment here, (making it tempting to want to get in touch and ask if everything’s ok), “After Wednesday” is a man’s quiet moments filtered through a sparingly glitter-flecked fug. 9/10

Functions of Hedgerow - Andrew Paine (SOR31)

2010-01-17T16:15:00.000-08:00

Functions of Hedgerow - Andrew Paine (SOR31)

"Functions of Hedgerow... overgrown... structurally diverse... have been found to support large populations of breeding birds... providing song posts... nesting and feeding sites... functions of hedgerow... six hundred plant species... fifteen hundred insects... sixty-five species of birds and mammals... functions of hedgerow... food... medicine... shelter."

Sonic Oyster is delighted to announce a new album by Andrew Paine; the final part of a loosely structured trilogy which began with the release of Five Perspectives (On the Same Event) on Apollolaan Recordings, continued with Weekend World on the Bellshill label and concludes with Functions of Hedgerow on Sonic Oyster Records.

The cost of the CD is £5.00 plus postage & packaging and is released on the 25 January 2010 and can be pre-ordered now.

(In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more).

Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk. This is also the address if you wish to make contact for any other reason or you can message me here.

'Functions of Hedgerow' is a strictly limited edition of 50.

A Brief History: Phosphorous

2010-01-13T03:19:00.002-08:00

Alistair Crosbie & Andrew Paine - Phosphorous

Processed & Edited in Glasgow: January - August 2006

Instrumentation: Farfisa Organ & Computerised Organ

A Brief History: 1958

2010-01-13T02:59:00.002-08:00

A Brief History: Part 3

Andrew Paine & Richard Youngs - 1958

Recorded in Glasgow: June - July 2006 Instrumentation: Electric Guitar, Electric Bass Guitar, Keys, Percussion, Shakuhachi

A Brief History: Santos

2010-01-08T02:51:00.001-08:00

Santos

Recorded in Glasgow, March to May 2006. Instrumentation: cymbals, drums, gongs, percussion, ring modulation, shakuhachi and shortwaves.

A Brief History: Collodion Positives Volume I

2010-01-06T05:52:00.002-08:00

"In lieu of more traditional means of communication, I imagine Richard Youngs and Andrew Paine engage in otherworldly sonic conversations.

The excellent 'Collodion Positives' CD-R is the first of several 2006 artifacts to deliver, what I presume to be, transcripts of their musical exchanges. This particular session captures two near 20-minute episodes of a shifting, drunken waltz. Somehow (well, with great skill), the duo manages to employ a mess of distinctive instruments yet still perfect a singular aura. Both tracks on the album carry an eerie sense of cool: like a score for swirling threads of silhouetted cigarette smoke. But this isn't a mere soundtrack, Youngs and Paine's sphere of sound will damn near swallow your senses.

Meet the main characters: a punch-drunk guitar, a totally lost electric bass, and the meanest flute I've ever heard. The first track, 'Collodion Blues,' begins with the sustained whisper of Youngs' shakuhachi, a beautiful Japanese bamboo flute, which soon expands into a delightful sputter and squeal that'll remain front and center for the whole odyssey.

The persistence of the shakuhachi is contrasted by Paine's half-crazed guitar picking and the bleary electric bass. The instrument combination results in a full-on invasion of your psyche. This is the type of skilled improv that can be both consuming and atmospheric (foreground and back). Track two, 'Collodion Positives,' is the least playful of the couple; it's less about narrative and more about the moody overcast.

Nagging, ear-perking punctuations of piano complement the less prevalent bass and guitar, while Paine's whoozy Theremin swish-swashes around the whole mix. Youngs' shakuhachi reappears as well; its presence serves to loosen the alien tension a bit before it dips from the scene.When everyone in a crowd is trying to tell their own version of the story, no one comes across perfectly clear. But taken together, it's obvious that the scene is busy with independent thought. That's basically how Youngs and Paine collaborate. The two distinctive multi-instrumentalists forego their individualism in search of some higher cohesion.. (Youngs does edge upon spaz-out flute soloing during track two.)

The songs are at their best when there's no clear beginning, and no clear end: just one spooked interzone. When 'Volume 1' reaches its pinnacle of cohesion, it's hard to tell whether sounds are coming or going.

Thanks to Paine's nascent, but ultra-productive imprint, Sonic Oyster, I'm assured my ears will again be privy to one of these long, strange, and brilliant collaborations."

9/10 -- Andrew Meehan (16 October, 2006: Foxy Digitalis)

Paineful Feedback

2009-09-28T14:35:00.001-07:00

"A Scotland / US postal collaboration that sounds like it captured a piece of the sky while it was going on from one continent to the other. Some huge but transient (if you can call 31 minutes transient) processed psychedelic / drone thing.

Each to Each... sees the two Paine's circling the sky and smelted into one. There are passages that gently open tears in this solid cloud of swirling sound, pipe parts and feedback that come around again and again - making the parts into a somehow flickering whole." Scott McKeating / Rock a Rolla

"Collaboration album between two different guys with the same name, one an artist based in the USA and the other the CEO of Sonic Oyster and frequent Richard Youngs collaborator. One 31 minute track, recorded in a series of back-and-forth mail shots. The guitar has some of the Japanese amp worshipping form of Paine’s Mekonium Reaktor, albeit processed through the bedroom fuzz-monster style of UK units like Spacemen 3 and Flying Saucer Attack. Electric guitar, bass, keyboard, radios and subliminal vocals." (Volcanic Tongue)

Weather Reports

2009-09-19T16:11:00.000-07:00

Space Weather (Space Weather Recordings, BwbW 01) - Space Weather

"With Space Weather’s music you can either choose to descend into the gentle flicker patterns of Lakia’s cabin or float above the nightscapes of Scotland’s glittering and smoky towns. Alistair Crosbie, Brian Lavelle and Andrew Paine, a trio of Glasgow/Edinburgh experimentalists, have created a disc of synth/bass/guitar works that summon up (the best parts of) mid 70s Eno back with an affecting centre. The most striking element here is undoubtedly the synth work, and even with Lavelle credited solely on synthesizer, it’d still be presumptuous to place that instruments melodies as his sole creation. “Space Weather” has the feel of a truly collaborative effort, neither of the players overwhelming the project’s music with ego or easily identifiable contributions. With much synth lead stuff that’s doing the rounds nowadays, it’s possible to become inured to predictable passages of sound; this isn’t an issue here. The title track brings to fulfilment a sea-shanty ambience, synths shifting from true string instruments and back again – even the track’s drum machine can’t settle the virtual roll of the waves/sounds. There’s more observable guitar drone work on “Ardrahan Battalions”, but it owes more to the blissful end of progressive than pretension. They also make way for motornik fuzzed-out-pop on “They Turned Left”, Andrew Paine doing a gentle bass line that positions the piece and its momentum. “Another Green World” might well be a comparatively distant relative, but there’s little anyone/thing can do to pull the stars from this album’s trails."
(Scott McKeating, Foxy Digitalis, 17 September 2009)

"Space Weather is a different kind of collaboration entirely, the debut from an improvising trio with [Alistair] Crosbie playing guitar alongside Brian Lavelle's synthesizer and Andrew Paine's bass, making weightless space-Prog reminiscent of Ash Ra Tempel's more dreamy excursions, such as 'Traummaschine'."
(Daniel Spicer, The Wire, Issue 308, October 2009)

"Debut album from a new psychedelic Scottish trio featuring Andrew Paine (of Sonic Oyster Records and frequent Richard Youngs collaborator), Alistair Crosbie and Brian Lavelle (another one-time Youngs collaborator). This project has more of a ‘group’ atmosphere than anything the three have done before, with Crosbie on electric guitar, Lavelle on synth and Paine on electric bass. The feel is of hazy, synthesized space rock, with aspects drawn from early-Coil colliding with the soft, padding style of Neu circa ’75 and devotional Popol Vuh."
(Volcanic Tongue).

After Wednesday

2009-08-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

My good friend Brian Lavelle is to release a recent project of mine called 'After Wednesday' on his excellent dust-unsettled label. Brian writes:

"This new release from Andrew Paine will surprise those who've heard his other releases - either as a solo artist, or recording together with Richard Youngs, Alistair Crosbie and others.

'After Wednesday' is a single composition, a contemplative, yet haunting, soundscape, composed only from several layers of minimalistic piano and subtle, processed field recordings. Recorded in Glasgow and on Holy Isle, it represents a turning point, a looking-outwards-and-onwards, and not just in musical terms. A very personal release, stunning in its simplicity."

One track.
Running time: 26:49

Catalogue number: DU05.
Release date: September 2009 (TBC).
Limitation: 100 copies.
Photography by Andrew Paine Design by Brian Lavelle. Professionally duplicated colour print disc, packaged in a printed 4 panel colour and black and white booklet, inside a plastic outer sleeve.

You can find more details, and a 4 minute excerpt of the piece, here:

http://www.dust-unsettled.com/du05.htm

You can also pre-order the disc here:

http://www.dust-unsettled.com/shop.htm

Copies will be available in a week or two and pre-orders will be sent out before the official release date.

It's just £5.00 in the UK; £6.00 elsewhere, including postage. Payment is by PayPal and you can send payment to bjlavelle@gmail.com rather than go through the website, if you prefer. Contact Brian if you're interested in taking a few copies for distribution at trade rates.

New Releases

2009-08-17T16:04:00.000-07:00

‘Learning to Draw’ - Alistair Crosbie (SOR28)

A fantastic 17 track song based album from Alistair Crosbie:

"I have always written songs but it didn't really occur to me to make an album of them until earlier this year - sent home from work due to a heavy snowfall (which was causing intermittent power shortages), I blew the distinctly non-metaphorical dust from my acoustic guitar and wrote "Count Your Quiet Homes".

Over the next week or so, this and a further 4 songs were recorded, two newly written and two from the pile I had accumulated. I mentioned this in passing to Andrew Paine and he expressed an interest in hearing the results.

So, over the following three or four months, "Learning To Draw" was created with my usual succession of rejects, re-recordings, re-workings, remixes, remasters and the like - the change in musical format certainly didn't change my recording habits...There are 17 songs and they pass in a little under 39 minutes.

In a way, this is the most experimental album I've made."

‘Learning to Draw’ is available from Monday 24 August 2009

‘Each to Each… Exclaims’ - AP / AP (SOR27)

I came across the artist and musician, Andrew Paine, on my space in 2008: a serendipitous encounter which led to an emailed conversation and the offer to collaborate on a musical project.

The idea seemed so… naughty, that I couldn’t really resist it and over the last 12 months or so, we have traded pieces of music and processed accordingly.

Earlier this year, Andrew sent over a CD of remixes and edits to evaluate, including what he referred to as a ‘horrendous guitar noise’. Well… I was intrigued.

The ‘guitar noise’ was anything but horrendous: blasting it out through my headphones, I was instantly smitten by its energy, verve and freshness. I decided to put the other material we had completed to one side and began working on producing something which might frame this torrent of six stringed fizz and feedback.

‘Each to Each… Exclaims’ is the result: it’s not pretty and it’s not particularly clever. It’s heavy and I might argue, one of the more cohesive pieces I’ve completed. Think ‘Mekonium Reaktor’ with band.

Brian Lavelle calls it ‘ferocious and psychedelic’. Brian Lavelle is a very wise man.

‘Each to Each… Exclaims’ is unleashed upon this world on 24^th August.

Tracks from 'Learning to Draw' and 'Each to Each... Exclaims' can be heard at www.myspace.com/sonicoysterrecords

PAYMENT

The CDR releases cost 4GBP each.

IMPORTANT - as CDRs can be copied very easily, SOR does not offer a money-back guarantee but we will, of course, replace faulty product. NEW POSTAGE & PAYPAL INFORMATION - CDRS - In the UK, please add 50p towards p&p for one disc, £1 for 2 or more. Outside the UK, please add £1 towards p&p for one disc, £2 for 2 or more.

I always get proof of posting for my parcels but I cannot be held responsible for anything that goes missing in the mail - UK customers can add 85p onto the total cost for recorded delivery if they wish. Overseas customer’s who want insurance etc on their parcels, contact me in advance to arrange this. If you require a quantity of any title(s), please contact me.

Paypal is preferred - the address is sonicoysterrecords (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk. This is also the address if you wish to make contact for any other reason or you can message me here.