OM GOSSIP #17
Burn down the post offices / new tapes / black out the world
First of all: I haven’t send out a newsletter for some time, maybe it’s because time itself is so fucked up these days. In the meantime, en creux tapes finally arrived, as well “Healing Music” by Joachim Nordwall, which already is sold out - sorry. US customers might get some last copies over at our distributor The Business though.
Speaking of distros - as much as I detest Boomkat for their price policy - they pay the same price for every song sold, no matter if it's 5 seconds or an hour long - they have written a super nice review about Joachim’s tape: ”Severely desiccated dub wreckage from iDEAL boss Joachim Nordwall, pushing the aesthetics and tekkerz of his records as The iDEALIST to extreme degrees comparable with Ilpo Väisänen’s Kangaroo turns, starkest Rhythm & Sound joints or the most uncompromising gear found on SM-LL…”
And while we’re at it: DEAR AMERICAN CUSTOMERS - the german postal service Deutsche Post has made a huge paradigm shift and increased its prices for sending goods abroad by a good 400% - it now costs about 15 euros to send a single tape from Germany anywhere in the world. So please use our US distributor - and customers from other countries: feel free to contact me with distros you know! Otherwise I may well quit OM next year. But until then there will be some more tapes. Tomorrow this tape will be released:
BUCK MOON - BETWEEN THE TIDES - BUCK MOON is the duo of Julius Ménard and Julian Flemming, who, in their other lives, operate two of Germany‘s most prolific experimental tape labels, Grisaille (Julius) and Econore (Julian). As Buck Moon, they turn their attention more inwards, playing a soft, meandering form of ambient guitar music / shoegaze heavily influenced by the turn of the century free psychedelic scene.
The first time these songs were heard, back then yet unnamed, it was a cold winter night. Giant snowflakes amassed, bringing the world to a halt. While walking through the snow, the song „Tongue Whistle“ sounded as if it came directly from the sky. An orchestrated attempt of the united convocation of ice crystals.
Now, nearly 6 months later and frying on an urban heat island, „Between The Tides“ has lost nothing of its original appeal, and it‘s totally apt Julius and Julian decided to gave their recordings an environmental theme, because this set of songs creates an environment of its own. The level of intimacy of their collaboration is tangible - just listen to „Seashore“, which kind of feels like hiding under a soft blanket, watching the light play, listening to the crackling of the fabric wrapped around you.
The quiet, simple, yet intricate melodies filter their way into your ears, as if they have been there since forever. The sounds they extract from their instrumentation of singing bowls, bowed guitars, ethereal vocals, reversed guitar loops are like field recordings of the mind - abstract, but strongly relatable, they trigger a sort of universal memory, a strong presence of the things absent.
Speaking of ethereal moments - brother Nils Quak did a stunning video to one of Joachim Nordwall’s tracks. You should definitely watch this.
I hope you all make it relatively alive through these fucked up times. The world feels weirder and weirder with every day, sometimes I wonder if our music is an equivalent to this or if the world is already a much darker place.
Ghost hugs,
Ambassador Kaputt