Beautiful cinematic electronix on this full length album by Lord Of The Isles inspired by the beauty of the islands of Scotland. Neil McDonald's love of the outdoors is a constant feature in his music, hence his Lord Of The Isles moniker, a direct reference to the Highlands and islands of his native Scotland. His vivid, effervescent and blissfully cinematic sound paints a soundtrack to unmade films, building imaginary worlds inspired by his childhood passion for science fiction. It is therefore no coincidence that the closing track 'Subtle Thoughts' samples the inimitable voice of Carl Sagan and is also the name of his forthcoming album on Lapsus Records. Subtle Thoughts' is an album of sumptuous melancholic electronica that, like all his previous works, avoids being pigeonholed. In it we find ambient and IDM, but also breaks and down-tempo 4x4 beats with deep ruminations, and even passages akin to new age and Balearic. In Neil's own words, the real concept behind 'Subtle Thoughts' is "The spaces in between. Listening to the quiet voices. Freedom of expression and being open. It also contains my hopes and fears for the future of our world, but mainly hope and love". Subtle Thoughts' will be released on 8 December with two advance singles: 'Open Mode' accompanying the album launch on 7 October; followed by 'Return to Yourself' on 4 November. More

'Night Of The Endless Beyond', the sophomore album by Lord Of The Isles AKA Neil McDonald for the ESP Institute, had almost become a mythical piece of work. The tracks very slowly crept into formation from the lowest depths of 2021, and once the completed album finally made the leap from creation into manufacturing, an entirely new onslaught of follies and delays awaited at the pressing plant. We began to laugh, for not only did Mario Hugo’s otherworldly sleeve artwork visually translate this music so well, but it was an uncanny premonition to the album being lost in space, falling through a black hole, evaporating into the aether like a dream that never really happened. But, at long last, ground control has confirmed contact! It did happen, it will arrive, and it’s not a myth. Listening to 'Night Of The Endless Beyond' now feels like the return of a strayed friend, one whose distance left us pining for an embrace. Although this Techno relies on unassuming means, there is a remarkably complex and persuasive emotional statement embedded here, insisting we learn to endure the long game and allow ourselves patience to investigate and appreciate the minutiae contained not only within the notes, but their negative space. From its introduction, through its mellow crests and valleys, there is a conveyance of restraint — subtle dynamics that quietly beg for attention, repetition so hypnotic that imaginary melodies are inescapable, transient peaks so deliberately scaled that we mourn the subsequent decay. In accordance with Neil’s ESP debut, 'In Waves', we never feel attacked by instrumentation but shielded from sharp edges, able to step inside the music, breathe the air it occupies and know its true intentions, whether bright or bleak.
Just prior to the album close, a film dialogue excerpt summarizes everything quite honestly by proposing, “The truth of the universe is waiting … the truth of what is … it’s all going to go away … everything … into blackness … the void … and nobody is in charge.” “…and what do you do with that?” We stare long into the 'Night Of The Endless Beyond' and answer… “You smile.” More

New record label set up by Lord Of The Isles. Inspired by the long summer nights of the northern hemisphere. Known as the ‘Gloamin’ in old Scots language. When the edges blur and colours become a white pink haze, the possibilities can seem endless. Melancholic thoughts of the past inspire unbridled optimism for the future. The unexpected is expected between sunset and the fall of night.

The first expansive motif laid down for the new Dusk Delay imprint is the Geoglyph EP by Lord Of The Isles himself. Clocking in at 39 mins across 5 tracks; It expertly fuses rare vintage instruments and effects with ultra-modern production techniques. Side A sees state of the art sequencers lead the antique machines on a merry dance through dub techno excursions and ambient jungle soundscapes. Side B utilises a more traditional approach, however, the results are no less beautiful or otherworldly. The creative inspiration here is the same - vintage meets modern - but this time it’s created using live improvisations woven into coherent arrangements to terraform a similar fictional landscape of sound that belongs to the same galaxy as side A.

Available in all formats 26 April 2021 – includes a limited-edition marble vinyl release with postcard. More

The third installment on the Lord Of The Isles DFSANT series. More

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Our man Neil aka Lord of the Isles drops another face-melter for his recently birthed label Dfsant. Don't ask us what that means by the way, we have no idea. Here on the second 12". the laird treats to a further three tracks of sublime techno / house hybrids: the opener "Synth Plus" is a kosmiche throbber with a lick of motor city melodrama, whilst "To Here" comes on like a decidedly less shit-scary Black Merlin, and to close things out we have a slo-mo acid disco cut in the form of "Heyta Hota". Real nice stuff folks.



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DSFANT is a new label from Lord of the Isles More

Lord Of The Isles, a.k.a. Neil McDonald, has spent the better part of a decade steadily producing and releasing beautiful music.The ESP Institute has always wholeheartedly believed in Neil’s work ethic and his journey as an artist who constantly refines his vision, and when we inevitably approached in hopes of working together, we were enamoured by the sheer breadth and depth of work he had 'in progress’. There are two types of artists. One internalises their process, endlessly perfecting their work while finding the endpoint a massive hurdle, in turn they produce immaculate yet very little art.The other is continuously inspired, so full of ideas they can barely work fast enough to articulate them all.The art becomes by-product of their larger trajectory and not just a collection of endpoints. Lord Of The Isles seems to be both, always in an evolving state of process where the work is constantly shed to make way for the new layer growing beneath, yet he holds his cards closely, cherry picking when and with whom he releases his art into the world. Neil is simply prolific. He shared with us a vast catalog of unheard beauty, which over a long span of time was collaboratively shaped into his debut album “In Waves”.The title speaks to Neil’s process both intimately and from afar, it speaks to the emotional ebb and flow of the music itself, and ultimately it speaks to the listener. This album will gift you with something new upon every listen, a concept that is
also gracefully interpreted into the album’s artwork by New York City artist, Hassan Rahim.The visceral aesthetic Neil portrays throughout these 15 songs is most certainly a landscape, an assemblage of intimate stories that, as a whole, give us this wider view of his intense drive, his multi-faceted quiver of skill, and his ultimate obsession... beauty. More

Lord Of The Isles, a.k.a. Neil McDonald, has spent the better part of a decade steadily producing and releasing beautiful music. The ESP Institute has always wholeheartedly believed in Neil’s work ethic and his journey as an artist who constantly refines his vision, and when we inevitably approached in hopes of working together, we were enamoured by the sheer breadth and depth of work he had 'in progress’.Ahead of the album’s release, we are proud to share with you the single ‘Weh-In’, a mesmerizing arpeggio melody that opens and closes, purrs and barks, and plays nicely with its percussive accompaniment over more than 10 minutes. This lengthy single version of the track is joined by a dark and stormy, exclusive non-album cut entitled ‘Pik’, as well as a big room rave remix by ESP Institute resident Ian Blevins, which take us to a slightly more frantic place while retaining the euphoric essence of the original. More

Scottish producer Lord Of The Isles surely dropped some jaws in the last couple of years with some widely praised releases on excellent labels such as Ene records, Firecracker, Phonica, Cocktail d' amore or his own label Little Strong. Permanent Vacation welcomes him now with an expansive five track ep that shows his talent in the full monty. Cinematic soundscapes between Planet E-styled Techno, Bubbling Electronica, floating ambient and analog warehouse roughness that fits into the amazon jungle as well as into the Scottish high lands. Strike your weapons resistance is futile. More

It's been nearly two years since the shadowy Lord Of The Isles began his own Little Strong imprint, and though this is only the second release on the label the man's been far from idle. With releases on ENE Japan, Phonica, and the Firecracker offshoots Unthank and Shevchenko, to name but a few, his name has earned plaudits from connoisseurs across the planet. Now he reappears with a package of delights showcasing still more of his signature sound, which simultaneously manages to evoke both colourful tropical climes and barren northern landscapes. 'Timeless' is a much misused word, but here it is truly applicable with the likes of 'Ossian's Hall' calling to mind ancient folk melodies and rhythms, post rave sunrise soundtracks, and utopian future visions. Meditative synth passages which are fast becoming the Lord's forte are present once more also, with 'Fey Folk' and 'Xatsiv' providing the calm which is so welcome in this world of quick fix rhythm tracks. Finally, 'Nustron' exists in that zone between the outer and inner worlds, between the dancefloor and the sofa, both very fine places to find oneself. More

REPRESS!
Firecracker present archival tracks from the legendary Scottish producer Being.

Downright essential for those who are grabbing the Ampoule reissues, the SW. album on Avenue 66 and whats the likes of Ex-Terrestrial and Ura are releasing on Naff and Temple.

Throughout the early and mid 90's, Being released a series of records on Weatherall's Special Emissions label. Collaborated with Claude Young and also produced the rare as hens teeth Two Lone Swordsmen And A Being 12" with Weatherall and Tenniswood, whilst his Tides album was remixed by Ectomorph, Insync and more. Years later he'd resurface as the Wee DJ's and releasing idiosyncratic electro on Daz Quayle's SCSI-AV label and Sativa's Gasoline imprint. More

From their native St. Petersburg, Square Fauna evoke a score for imaginary protoplasmic oceans, surreal, sepia-tinged space operas and Russian sci-fi folk tales; lush, green landscapes littered with the burned out husks of automobiles, military vehicles, and askew telephone poles no longer in use though marked by pools of water in which can be found the debris of modern society.

Primitive kosmische electronics and vintage spacescapes cascade around complex polyrhythmic percussion. Ethereal mists of gaseous reverb are scattered by windswept synths and white-noise striations.

‘Meet The Fauna’ is as much of a cheeky nod to The Residents and Coil (or even Haroumi Hosono and John Hassell) as it is to the likes of B12, Black Dog, Richard H Kirk.

A completely singular, modern sci-fi soundtrack for the discerning sofanaut.

Produced by Dices & Flaty.
Artwork by Al White aka Crud. More

Consisting neither of one lone woman, nor hailing from either the Eurasian country or the North American state, this Georgia is in fact comprised of two human males working out of China Town, N.Y.C., namely Brian Close and Justin Tripp. Together they form a creative partnership responsible for not just a slew of output upon such highly regarded imprints as Meakusma, Palto Flats and Emotional Response, but also for a kaleidoscopic variety of multimedia work with a whole host of clients, from the corporate to the counter cultural. With an all embracing, freeform and in some ways contradictory approach to production, their sound is at turns stimulating, terrifying, comforting and confounding. Separated from any visual representation, the audio on its own becomes a soundtrack for the listeners' own intense internal projection screen.
With 'Time', Georgia's vision is especially well realised as here, in collaboration with fellow intuitionists Firecracker Recordings, they release into this world an album which, with any luck, shall help you unlock your inner portals - should they need assistance in that regard anyway. Unquantisable polyrhythms knock against one another in an uncannily externalised, conflicting collage of half remembered dance ritual memories. Fragmented melodies, disembodied vocal snippets, a hint of ethnomusicality in places all give deep nods simultaneously to ancient experience and to post human intelligence, condensing past present and future into one eternal instant.
'Time' the album asks us: what happens when one removes ones expectations of where in time a piece of music or art must sit? And what of time itself as a construct, now that we have myriad ways of measuring it, even at the atomic level; but still its passing is completely relative according to the observer, and indeed may all be in our minds anyway? Equally, you can always just put it on - again, and again - empty your mind of such thoughts completely, and allow all of your particles to move around freely to this joyful noise... after all, that's the point, isn't it? We're gonna have to stop asking questions eventually. More

Our favourite bothy botherers Mac-Talla Nan Creag (comprised of Hoch Ma Toch, Other Lands and Lord Of The Isles) return to Firecracker Recordings, channeling ancient rites, the mysteries of the Scottish landscape and its elements through technologies both old and new for your listening pleasure.
This time round the archaeological work of Forestry Commission Scotland at Dun Deardail in Glen Nevis, and the links between that site and the ancient Celtic myth ‘The Sorrow Of Derdriu’ provided fertile ground for new exploration and response. Accompanying the music once again will be a lush booklet containing some of the stunning imagery that results from the work FCS have done there, all packaged and silk-screened with the usual finesse we've come to expect from Firecracker Recordings and their chief visionary House Of Traps, in conjunction with 12th Isle's Al White.
Captured in part in a high vaulted medieval church, then in home studios, bouncing ideas back and forth over the internet, MTNC have once again drawn on field recordings, traditional instrumentation, analogue electronics and the simple power of the human voice to create a shimmering and expansive song cycle.
Whereas the first album was borne out of an intense period of field trips and whisky fuelled jam sessions in brochs and had a loose approach overall, the second is perhaps more focussed in its themes relating to the ancient tale - love, war, beauty and tragedy all intertwined - and they arguably go deeper this time, conjuring up something of the Fourth World feel, by way of the Firth Of Forth.
With additional contributions from Professor John Kenny - whose primal Zummoesque playing on a range of horns including a giant conch shell and a replica of the ancient Deskford carynx underpins several tracks on the album - and Eva Sutherland (daughter of Other Lands) who provides a reading from the myth at the very beginning, this is an album that not only carries the heaviness of history but also looks to the light of the future.' More

Our favourite bothy botherers Mac-Talla Nan Creag (comprised of Hoch Ma Toch, Other Lands and Lord Of The Isles) return to Firecracker Recordings, channeling ancient rites, the mysteries of the Scottish landscape and its elements through technologies both old and new for your listening pleasure.
This time round the archaeological work of Forestry Commission Scotland at Dun Deardail in Glen Nevis, and the links between that site and the ancient Celtic myth ‘The Sorrow Of Derdriu’ provided fertile ground for new exploration and response. Accompanying the music once again will be a lush booklet containing some of the stunning imagery that results from the work FCS have done there, all packaged and silk-screened with the usual finesse we've come to expect from Firecracker Recordings and their chief visionary House Of Traps, in conjunction with 12th Isle's Al White.
Captured in part in a high vaulted medieval church, then in home studios, bouncing ideas back and forth over the internet, MTNC have once again drawn on field recordings, traditional instrumentation, analogue electronics and the simple power of the human voice to create a shimmering and expansive song cycle.
Whereas the first album was borne out of an intense period of field trips and whisky fuelled jam sessions in brochs and had a loose approach overall, the second is perhaps more focussed in its themes relating to the ancient tale - love, war, beauty and tragedy all intertwined - and they arguably go deeper this time, conjuring up something of the Fourth World feel, by way of the Firth Of Forth.
With additional contributions from Professor John Kenny - whose primal Zummoesque playing on a range of horns including a giant conch shell and a replica of the ancient Deskford carynx underpins several tracks on the album - and Eva Sutherland (daughter of Other Lands) who provides a reading from the myth at the very beginning, this is an album that not only carries the heaviness of history but also looks to the light of the future.' More

One of Firecracker’s Founding Fathers returns once more, this time shoving two fingers up to current DJ conventions smashing out a 150 BPM electrofunk hybrid. On the flip, two deeper cuts traversing ambient wormholes and reflecting that classic Linkwood sound.
Ultimately, a miscellany of unique, syncopated weirdo sounds, barely orbiting the outer regions of dance music; or, depending on how you look at it, three timeless cuts designed for the dance floor, the sofa and all points in between.
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Abandon all expectations ye who enter here, Other Lands (previous, druid-like incantations on FIREC015 Mac-Talla Nan Creag) got you covered with a truly compelling assortment of jazz snaz and post-armaggedon cosmo-disco oddities; occupying the space between alien-revisited exotica, classic jacking house workouts and a BoC 'Chromakey Dreamcoat' kinda vibe, seemingly elusive at first but definitely familiar to the ears of uncool survivors like you and I. One thing's sure, Other Lands could throw a balearic party at one of Berghain's most secret leather-friendly backrooms that it wouldn't feel out of place. Never mind the weird, inverse sun-tan lines. More

Periodica Records family member Filippo Colonna Romano aka Modula (Naples, IT) drops a weirdo, tropical, G’d up Yamaha PSS 780 fonk EP. RIYL Dam Funk, Prince B-sides, twisted dancers and cosmic oddities. First 10" format on Firecracker for some time!
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Whacked out from the whisky soaked bristles of Firecracker HQ, the Danish DonDaDa DJ Sports (he of Regelbau and Help Recordings fame) offers up a maiden LP of vast and varied sonic states. Get set for solid rave aesthetics aplenty - the double pack’s journey trudges over a musical milieu of broke-beaten, ambient driven house and techno, melancholy junglist and dubwise downtempo. One foot in the past, one foot in the future and killing the present - a perfect and timely addition to the Firecracker canon. More

Les Graciés is a collaboration in the truest sense between Paris-based sound artist Gaël Segalen and Deepblak co-founder Afrikan Sciences.
Segalen’s experiments in electroacoustic sound met the wider world this year via a debut LP for Erratum, an arresting work that showcases her ability to merge hypnotic murk ala Angus MacLise with the hard concréte of Parmegiani & Reibel. Segalen’s IHearU imprint / organisation is a platform for her various doings, including psychogeographical audio works and multi-media collaborations, as well as servicing as a reference point for other contemporary female artists working across various mediums. Eric Douglas Porter aka African Sciences has been deconstructing and re-building forms of contemporary Black music since the mid-2000’s, through releases on Deepblak (the label he co-runs with Aybee) and PAN. His musical universe is one of warping cadences and celestial melody, referencing the bold work of percussionists like Milford Graves & Art Jenkins, the dissonant chords of Motor City Techno and stripped back essence of early Chicago House matched with broken Hard Bop sentiments: all tied together with an aesthetic that sits somewhere between Sun Ra’s omniverse, Jean Giraud Mœbius and Dogon cosmology. Together as Le Graciés, Segalen and Porter make a wholly unclassifiable strain of music that, while containing recognisable elements of each individual's work, also creates a third entity in the process, which can be heard to stunning effect on their forthcoming debut LP ‘Low Doses’ for Firecracker Recordings.

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Les Graciés is a collaboration in the truest sense between Paris-based sound artist Gaël Segalen and Deepblak co-founder Afrikan Sciences.
Segalen’s experiments in electroacoustic sound met the wider world this year via a debut LP for Erratum, an arresting work that showcases her ability to merge hypnotic murk ala Angus MacLise with the hard concréte of Parmegiani & Reibel. Segalen’s IHearU imprint / organisation is a platform for her various doings, including psychogeographical audio works and multi-media collaborations, as well as servicing as a reference point for other contemporary female artists working across various mediums. Eric Douglas Porter aka African Sciences has been deconstructing and re-building forms of contemporary Black music since the mid-2000’s, through releases on Deepblak (the label he co-runs with Aybee) and PAN. His musical universe is one of warping cadences and celestial melody, referencing the bold work of percussionists like Milford Graves & Art Jenkins, the dissonant chords of Motor City Techno and stripped back essence of early Chicago House matched with broken Hard Bop sentiments: all tied together with an aesthetic that sits somewhere between Sun Ra’s omniverse, Jean Giraud Mœbius and Dogon cosmology. Together as Le Graciés, Segalen and Porter make a wholly unclassifiable strain of music that, while containing recognisable elements of each individual's work, also creates a third entity in the process, which can be heard to stunning effect on their forthcoming debut LP ‘Low Doses’ for Firecracker Recordings.

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When commissioning remixes, the best labels think outside the box. That's exactly what Firecracker's Lindsay Todd did when seeking out producers to rework tracks from Linkwood's excellent Expressions album. On this second 12" in an ongoing series, that faith has paid dividends. Whereas the original version of "Ignorance Is Bliss" was a warm, woozy, sun-kissed deep house affair, Healing Force Project has reinvented it as a stargazing chunk of 21st century space jazz, complete with twinkling chords, low-slung double bass and reverb-laden drum solos. The Musephased interpretation of "Love Lost" by Kimochi label head Area sticks closer to the ultra-deep, melancholic vibe of Linkwood's original, but adds a frisson of excitement via bubbling, Detroit-influenced electronics and hypnotic rhythms.
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Over 10,000 years ago, after the last Ice Age, humans began to explore and settle the place now known as Scotland. Evidence of our ancestors can be found in the various rock carvings, standing stones, tombs and dwellings still scattered throughout the lands today. Modern archaeological techniques can offer ever more detailed suggestions as to what these monuments might have meant, but it is still largely left to our imaginations to discern just what these spaces were used for. In this spirit, Firecracker Recordings were approached by Forestry Commission Scotland to make something that might capture the feel of these places. They assembled a crack squad of artists (Lord Of The Isles, Other Lands, House Of Traps, Wounded Knee) whom they felt would embrace the challenge, thanks to their shared interest in their own Highland ancestries. Visiting a handful of sites in an intense period of exploration late in 2014, they took field recordings, drank whisky, jammed in the ruins of brochs, studied rock art, sat in iron age forts, drank whisky, drove for many miles and generally began the process of channelling the shamanic forces (drank whisky) whose presence can still be felt all around. This album is the result of that brief adventure. The artists worked both together and in isolation, quickly and effortlessly, manipulating the recordings taken from the source and combining them with their own compositions, inspired by both the sights they saw in this time and those they have imagined from another. Here, they merge modern technologies with traditional instruments and the human voice to conjure up these ancient rites of celebration, ritual, offerings to long forgotten gods, changes in the features of the earth and the universe and the cycles of time. Accompanying the music is a booklet of archaeological images created by Forestry Commission Scotland, detailing some of the sites around which the music is based, again utilising modern laser scanning technology to see these mysterious relics in a different light.
• 2x12” LP & CD
• Ltd to 300 copies only
• Screen print and sleeve design by House Of Traps
• Bonus full colour booklet detailing laser scan techniques and ongoing archeological work by Forestry Commission Scotland
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Tears of Love began coursing through a crevice in the wall, dissolving the old mortar which had been so firm. From the realm beyond our interstice, the Lacrima of Yearning was met by a coruscating light, heavy with air. This luminance seemed to generate in a distant source, yet had always been present - as illusion hides eternity. In this New Open Channel, a possibility was forged. A golden opportunity for the future and a resting place for the past. Leonard Campbell's Much Less Normal was originally released as a tape on 1080p last spring, and has since become one of the Vancouver label's definitive releases. This welcome vinyl reissue on Firecracker is an invitation to see this remarkable album in a new light for those who already know it, and its new format should help it earn the attention it deserved the first time around. It's a record that sounds like the city that birthed it: overcast and maritime, gloomy and gorgeous in equal measure. Campbell's songs develop and grow with the steady pace of the tides, as if his sounds and melodies are being washed ashore.
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Tears of Love began coursing through a crevice in the wall, dissolving the old mortar which had been so firm. From the realm beyond our interstice, the Lacrima of Yearning was met by a coruscating light, heavy with air. This luminance seemed to generate in a distant source, yet had always been present - as illusion hides eternity. In this New Open Channel, a possibility was forged. A golden opportunity for the future and a resting place for the past. Leonard Campbell's Much Less Normal was originally released as a tape on 1080p last spring, and has since become one of the Vancouver label's definitive releases. This welcome vinyl reissue on Firecracker is an invitation to see this remarkable album in a new light for those who already know it, and its new format should help it earn the attention it deserved the first time around. It's a record that sounds like the city that birthed it: overcast and maritime, gloomy and gorgeous in equal measure. Campbell's songs develop and grow with the steady pace of the tides, as if his sounds and melodies are being washed ashore.

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Ah, yes! Finally some real flavours to sink our teeth into. The nose is truly a work of art. First the classic peaty smoke but so distinctly understated. Confident in it's maturity. The salty pineapple citrus is next coupled with a refined lemon- lime toffee tartness. And finally a whiff of fresh cucumber sprinkled with the loveliest of white pepper. Oh, yes. This is what we’ve been waiting for! The creamy mouthfeel is laced with intense black peppers but then mellows out to give you honey, lemon and chocolate with a dash of tobacco. The long peppery finish is fruity with a hint of limestone. These are the classic flavours that made Linkwood one of the top distilleries and Expressions should be on your list of malts to try before you die.

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Completely unique music in it's own cosmos, the first long player from the sibylline Panoram. Experiments in evocative soundscapes, minimal rhythms and mood. Hand printed sleeves.
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Completely unique music in it's own cosmos, the first long player from the sibylline Panoram. Experiments in evocative soundscapes, minimal rhythms and mood. Hand printed sleeves.


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