E▲SY & C.O.U.
Aryayek Machine
LP / digital download album
Harmönia (HRMN-25) / Metronomicon Audio (norway)
Release date: 2nd of September 2013 www.soundcloud.com/orientskweee
Can be ordered from www.harmoenia.fi
or here:
Ever wondered what Omar Souleyman’s band would sound like played through a gameboy?
- Boomkat
The roots of the norwegian duo E▲SY & C.O.U. (Center of the Universe) are based in the electronic funky sound called skweee, but expands it in many directions; oriental music, central asian music, balkan and even bhanghra. On the Ayayek Machine-album they are using vocals for the first time with the help of singer Zahangir Alam. Some of the tunes also include drums by Kjell-Olav Jørgensen from the krautrock cult-band Salvatore, and also the finnish electro-producer Mesak has been adding some flavours to the mix.
E▲SY & C.O.U. is not just throwing exotic spice on a dry bread. This audio-børek is rather well-baked and spicy all the way through. As opposed to producers getting lost in introvert knobtwiddling, the band open up their windows to let the air from the outside world in.
Where recent development in electronic music shows a tendency to bomb the listener with mashed sound, on this album it’s taken to another direction: there is space to breathe, there is time to think and they’re not trying to impress anyone making something too fast or too complex.
While the music on Aryayek Machine is danceable and joyous, the title implicates a What if? A contrafactual musical history of what music would sound like if it persians invented the drum machine, or if the first synthesizer was made in Baku. The album is a hoax crystalball that reveals musical events that might happen in a different future.
E▲SY (Jon Platou Selvig) was musically educated through various bands inspired by krautrock, dub and a strong focus on rhythms. He started playing solo in 2008 and is currently working with music for theatre and films.
C.O.U. a.k.a Center of the Universe a.k.a. DJ Sissyfus (Jørgen Skjulstad) is a stayer in the norwegian DIY scene having released tons of music on his own Metronomicon Audio label and elsewhere.
Hanny: Uncanny Twilight
Release: 15 June 2013 (Out now!)
Music for a fluorescent summer
If you want to hear the soundtrack of Oslo’s light and rainy summers, or the complexity arising when instruments like harp and Solina-synth are blended with metropolitan rap, do look forward to Hanny’s new 7″ vinyl. The release is a firework of epic and soulful music, coupled with electro and windy texts in English and French. An animated sleeve and fluorescent vinyl, created by the renowned designers of Yokoland, mirror this atmosphere.
These are catchy songs both touching the dark and holding on to high-spirit vibes, says lead singer and songwriter Marie Therese Kvamme.
The band has played shows on most of Oslo’s venues, released two celebrated albums and taken part in countless side projects. Hanny has evolved by collaborating on this EP with the Chicago-based rapper Malik Kvamme. Producer Jon Platou Selvig aka E▲SY has previously produced Metronomicon artist Ergo’s record Mountaineering.
Release Concert:
Live: Hanny + Le Corbeau
DJ: E▲SY
15 June 2013 at 21.00h, Deichmanske bibliotek, Schous plass, Oslo.
Cc: 100,- including vinyl.
CyranoArmageddon: Dear Listener: Grow up up up up up Up
The album “Dear Listener: Grow up up up up up Up” by Cyrano Armageddon is a thematic attempt to create Adult Contemporary Music. The album is recorded completely live in the studio with real musicians. In addition some orchestrations and vocal overdubs have been added to enhance the expression further. The entire production is aimed at giving an «adult» feel. Whether we have succeeded is up to the listener to decide.
The album is released as a letter that can be ordered here
There will be a releaseparty at Café Mir where the bands performs live with a bonus-show by Who is DG Hans Ice? More about this here and here
When two of the most overproductive artists in the Norwegian independent scene are supposed to make something together, one could easily assume that they will assemble some sort of megalomanian gesamtkunstwerk quite quickly. But with this constellation it took over two years to destillate four short songs and one bonus track, and the output is quite joyous, melodic and simple.
Andre Borgen is a well-known figure in the Norwegian experimental scene, and has taken with him some influences from there into his laidback and beautiful songwriting on the albums “Staying Old” (2009) and “Todays” (2012). The latter earned him a nice review in The Wire Magazine.
Center of the Universe is constantly oscillating between acoustic and electronic music and has released several albums alone — and in various collaborations, the last one being “Astral Harrasment” (2012)
Mvha will play first, then Dogs of Dehli will play a Dj-set with tapes from india after the concert.
