COLD SPRING NEWSLETTER

NEWS
+ SHIPPING UPDATES, SPECIAL NEWS ETC... +

OUR FINAL DARK FOLK BRITANNICA 2CD - OUT NOW!

A labour of love for over a decade, our dark folk series has come full circle with 'The Forme To The Fynisment Foldes Ful Selden', 13 years after the release of 'John Barleycorn Reborn: Dark Britannica'.

"In my beginning is my end... in my end is my beginning"

We are down to the last batch of A2 folded posters, only available when purchasing 'The Forme To The Fynisment Foldes Ful Selden. These will not be reprinted.

Watch the beautiful promotional video by Abby here.

UK > USA SHIPPING HIKE

A friendly reminder for our U.S. customers that the majority of Cold Spring label titles (inc vinyl) are available at domestic prices from our U.S. distributor Forced Exposure.

FREE DOWNLOADS WHILE YOU WAIT

All orders for ANY Cold Spring physical release will receive a free digital download code while you wait for your order to arrive in the post - including ALL pre-order titles above. Cold Spring webstore / Discogs - please check your email / order page for your code. Bandcamp - automatic.

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

ALL ORDERS ARE SHIPPING AS NORMAL!

• STAY HOME, STAY SAFE, LISTEN TO GOOD MUSIC! •

NEW IMPORTS
+ NEW ADDITIONS TO OUR MAILORDER CATALOGUE +

ALTERNATIVE TV - 'Dark Places' 12" (Fourth Dimension) - £15

Mark Perry formed Alternative TV either due to or as a response to punk in 1977. Not one to stand still, he has taken the group through a succession of lineup changes embarking on a wide spectrum of styles since then; the only truly unifying factor amounting to a sensibility that never once strayed from its original status. "Dark Places" introduces four songs cascading between full-on post-punk rock to a kind of abstract minimalist electronics approach, perfectly in keeping with Alternative TV's occasional traverses to the furthest reaches. Each track, pinned into place by Dave Morgan and Clive Giblin, arrives with its own distinctive approach, enhanced further by a guest appearance from the legendary Vic Godard (Subway Sect), once more encapsulating a vision as perfectly widescreen as it is bifurcated. "Dark Places" pays testament to deep metamorphosis both internally and externally. Ltd x 600 copies on grey vinyl.

BRIAN CONNIFFE Feat SIMON MORRIS - 'The Day And The Night Of The Body' CD (Lumberton Trading Company) - £12

New album from Ireland's Brian Conniffe, known for his work with Nurse With Wound. The first piece is a symphonic tapestry of colourful noise and alien-sounding drones, constantly shifting and avoiding monotony, reminiscent in places of the work of Labradford, The Hafler Trio, John Duncan, and Aube at their best. The second piece is altogether darker and more defiant of description and comparison, based around a long text written and spoken by the late Simon Morris (author and frontman of the Ceramic Hobs), which moves from its surreal yet possibly familiar beginning into an astonishingly breathless and tumultuous confessional, a true voice of the lost. The disquieting use of samples provided by Morris provides an intense sense of the uncanny. Comes in a digipak with artwork by Dolorosa De la Cruz.

CONTRASTATE - 'Recorded Evidence II' CD (Black Rose Recordings) - £12

Collection of rare and unreleased tracks by the influential English experimental group Contrastate. This follows on from the sold-out compilation "False fangs For Old Werewolves" showcasing a dark ambient realm of spoken and sung soliloquies, driven machinery, evolving drones and electronic minimalism to create juxtaposing imagery and dreamlike landscapes. Active from the late 1980s through to the present day Contrastate provide a sonic soundtrack to a hypnotic world full of dynamic sounds and emotional shifts. Their sound insinuates itself somewhere inside the dark ritual ambience of the electronic avant-garde shot through with a vein of experimental noise and sarcophetic vocals strewn amongst industrial surrealism. Includes a remix by Ralf Wehoswky "Contrastate achieve an amazing equilibrium between organic sound and brooding electronics" (Heathen Harvest). Gatefold oversized mini-LP sleeve with a four-page booklet containing detailed (mis)information on the history of each of the tracks.

DANIELE CIULLINI - 'Great Events Are Coming' CD (St.An.Da / Silentes) - £11.50

Italian 'mail artist' Daniele Ciullini was part of the forward-drinking TRAX collective and a member of early 80's outfits The Cop Killers and Oxidized Man. Ambient noises compounded by rhythmic timbres of toy instruments... the rustling and crackling of old vintage radios have been joined by snippets of miniaturized voices from the web. Over time, different sound elements have settled, coming to constitute a heterogeneous but at the same time subtly fascinating whole. The final work is a fil rouge that crosses all these elements joining them in an unconventional sound research hypothesis. Ltd x 200 copies in a digisleeve.

GIANLUCA BECUZZI - 'In Between' 2 x CD (St.An.Da / Silentes) - £14.50

A new double album from Italian electronic / electroacoustic composer and sound artist Gianluca Becuzzi (Kinetix, Limbo, ex-Pankow, ex-Kirlian Camera). "The shaman, the witch and the artist are three different figures, united by the desire for transcendence. Overcoming the material contingencies of one's context through the magic-creative gesture, which makes the will real, is their ultimate goal. The shaman, inducing the trance, seeks contact with the higher entities. Through the ritual, the witch intends to bend nature to man. The artist, through his work, creates allusions, images, hints of worlds hidden outside and inside the common perception... in this case the artist uses the voice as a mantra and the guitar drones as an element of alienating vertigo. "In Between", however, is not a spiritualistic work. On the contrary, it is an extremely materialistic work... In a present where the Real has gone beyond the Symbolic, it has become Hyper-real and the dystopias are now among us, for the artist the possibilities of expression have often become narrow. In an ultra-capitalist panorama he is ostracized and his position is marginal, especially if he does not adhere to a utilitarian and speculative perspective. The new witchcraft is the dissident voice, the unaligned gaze, the freedom that the experimenter can regain in another dimension that he creates himself, with his art" (Gianluca Becuzzi). Ltd x 200 copies in a 6-panel digisleeve.

GIANLUCA FAVARON & ANACLETO VITOLO - 'Overgrowth' CD (St.An.Da / Silentes) - £11.50

A critique on technology: its efficiency, its purpose, its future. "Italian musicians working with the grand legacy of musique concrète and everything that followed the '50s tradition; from tape manipulation to laptop processing, from analogue to digital electronics. Objects are manipulated with hands, shakers and movers and then fed into the line of processors... There is a great vibrancy in all of these pieces, reminding me of the best of glitch music from so many years ago, with excellent fragmentation of sounds, freely plundered from various sources or from crushing acoustic objects, organized into new pieces of music; with fierce bass sounds, brittle high-end and everything being on a constant shift and drift. It is both dense layered and yet very open, thanks to the excellent production of the music there is a fine overall clarity in the music... an excellent release" (Vital Weekly). Gianluca Favaron (Lasik Surgery, Maribor, Under The Snow, Vetropaco, Zbeen): Objects, Microphones, Laptop, Tapes with Anacleto Vitolo (AV-K, K.lust, X(i)NEON): Live Electronics - Laptop, Effects. Ltd x 200 copies in a digipak.

KLEISTWAHR - 'This World Is Not My Home / Over Your Heads Forever' 2 x LP (Fourth Dimension) - £23

Reissue of these now out of print albums (originally released on CD by Fourth Dimension in 2014 and 2016). Deluxe 2LP set in a gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeves.

"This World Is Not My Home": Gary Mundy (Ramleh, Breathless, S.P.I.T.E., Toll, Broken Flag) has been using the Kleistwahr moniker since the early '80s to further furrow the worlds of intense electronics, harrowing psychedelia and violent or claustrophobic atmospherics he is already known for. Less prolific than Ramleh, Kleistwahr began with several cassette releases on Gary's own much revered Broken Flag imprint and has subsequently been afforded more releases by labels such as Noise War, Noiseville and Harbinger Sound. This World Is Not My Home collects seven pieces recorded between 2013 and 2014 of mostly instrumental sprawling guitar and electronic works.

"Over Your Heads Forever": Eight solo works, at times taking on a slightly more tempered approach, this album still arrives stamped with Gary's own take on a descent into a black hole where screaming can definitely be heard. Kaleidoscopic noise has rarely sounded so triumphant or majestic whilst paradoxically resigning to the flaws of the human condition.

MAP 71 - 'Turn Back Metropolis' CD (Fourth Dimension) - £12

Map 71's fifth album shifts from the hypnotic ascent of the ambitiously minimal title track to the jabbing industrial pulse and social realism of 'Stitches', built around drums, electronics and vocals. "A stream of angst and agitation not seen since the anarcho-punk days of the eighties worms its way into the rhythm and voice of this Brighton based duo, which may account for the continual comparisons with contemporary political agitators Sleaford Mods... the sound of Map 71 is strewn with influences from post-punk, industrial and improvisation. But they also sneak in influences from dance music into their electronics, even if it is turned upside down" (Compulsion Online). As with the previous album, "Void Axis', from 2018, this album arrives adorned in wonderful, characteristic artwork by vocalist Lisa Jayne. Packaged in a digipak with 8pp booklet featuring all the lyrics.

MUSTA TOTEEMI - 'Alitajunnan Rihmasto' CD (Hiisi Productions) - £11.50

The second installment of the album trilogy from Finnish noise / drone duo Musta Toteemi - Veli-Matti "Läjä" Äijälä (The Kolmas, Vihan Miehet, Death Trip, Terveet Kädet) and Toni Kandelin (SSRI, Kolmas Ilmestys!). "Alitajunnan Rihmasto" offers one hypnotic and slowly progressing piece (45 minutes) with piercing electronics, hypnotic rhythms, meditative drones, and dark rumbling oscillator noises. The duo relies on the hypnotic power of minimalism and repetition, but beneath the layers lies another frightening and fascinating alternative reality. Ltd x 100 copies in a digipak with artwork by Äijälä.

MUSTA TOTEEMI - 'Musta Toteemi' CD (Hiisi Productions) - £11.50

Musta Toteemi is the collaborative project of Veli-Matti "Läjä" Äijälä (The Kolmas, Vihan Miehet, Death Trip, Terveet Kädet) and Toni Kandelin (SSRI, Kolmas Ilmestys!). "Musta Toteemi" takes the listener to the dark layers of the subconscious through hypnotic rhythms, meditative drones, and magical oscillator noise. The duo relies on the hypnotic power of minimalism and repetition - not everything is really what it sounds or looks like, but beneath the layers lies another frightening and fascinating alternative reality. Digipak with fantastic artwork throughout by Äijälä.

ORD - 'Avalokitesvara' CD (Status Prod.) - £11

The new album of Voronezh ritual / dark ambient project ORD. Avalokitesvara-bodhisattva is the embodiment of infinite compassion of all Buddhas. The Dalai Lama is considered his incarnation and regularly conducts Avalokiteshvara initiations. The material was recorded on 06.07.2019, the Dalai Lamas Birthday, at a private session at the Yunost music center, and was finalised with field recordings and modular synthesizers in the winter of 2019/2020. As a result, there were five compositions united by a common meaning, a meditative-trance sound, opening new facets of sound shamanism. Ltd x 108 hand-numbered copies in a fold-out poster, supplemented with a patch.

PETROGRAD DRONE GATHERING - '17022017' CD (Status Prod.) - £11

Members of Lunar Abyss Deus Organum, Uhushuhu, Mira Drevo, Neznamo, Snezhana Reizen, and Ogni Videniy create a unique atmosphere: sounds of winter ice-covered rivers, the rumbling of mountains and frozen forests in the snow are tightly intertwined with iron loops and electric current. Intertwined, tangled, rooted with age-old roots in the concrete walls... Petrograd Drone Gathering is an improvisational orchestra of experimental and ever-changing musicians from St Petersburg and beyond. All performances of PDG are distinguished by an unusual sound; a subtle interweaving of forest noises and urban hum, the unique charm of ambient and the strict rumble of drone. This album contains a recording made at a concert at the Museum of Sound (Art Center "Pushkinskaya 10") on 17.02.2017, St Petersburg. Ltd x 150 hand-numbered copies packed in a foldout designer cardboard, with a curly card-attachment.

ROD MODELL / MARIT WOLTERS - 'Cocoon' CD + Art Booklet (13 / Silentes) - £18

Rod Modell is a sound designer operating primarily from Detroit (with a base in Amsterdam). Marit Wolters is a Viennese artist who creates sculptures that speak. They generate their own world of micro-sounds. Here, Modell moulded the sounds of Wolters' works in the same way that she works her materials - creating a generative soundscape designed for museum playback during Marit's exhibitions, constructed with sounds of Marit's sculptures, drones, field recordings, and cosmic sounds. The result of this collaboration is COCOON, a 74 minute CD of music by Rod and Marit, with a 24-page 8" square booklet featuring Marit's work. The package also Includes an A3 poster that reproduces the original playbill from the debut exhibition of COCOON in Linz, Austria. A collector's item, limited and numbered to only 300 pieces. "As protected in a transparent cocoon that allows contact, we penetrate through the undefined throbbing of a heart that is constantly springing into action, witness to a life that uses field recordings capable of recalling past glitches. Absorbed in the liquidity of sound we slowly immerse ourselves in the majesty of the deep dronic breath, driven by the power of the ambient wave that iterates its eternal oscillation. We are in, here where everything is an unlimited reverberation, almost a song of seductive ethereal substance".

SCAPULAR - 'Devotional LP' CD (13 / Silentes) - £11.50

A collection of darkly-beautiful prayers. A late-night walk through an ancient city centre. Ceremonial bass-music, recorded in Mexico city. Alien-transmission crackle, whispered messages, and snippets of soulful vocals beamed from another dimension. An exotic melange of ambient, dub techno, drum n bass. Ghosts of another time and place float in and out. An ocean of emotion to swim in. Sounds that trigger memories of incense and exotic flowers in bloom. Menacing tones tempered with overwhelming beauty and depth provide a mystical listening experience. Introspective headphone music for rainy evenings. Digipak.

THIRDORGAN - 'Thirdorgan' CD (Abhorrent Creation Tapes) - £11.50

Brand new album from cult Japanoise act thirdorgan (aka Alienation label boss Akihiro Shimizu). "Thirdorgan has remained one of the most elusive yet constant figures in Japan's acclaimed noise and industrial movement. Despite having worked with nearly every cult label of the '90s cassette scene, Thirdorgan has scarcely been presented on vinyl and CD... challenging long form relentless feedback paths and synthesizer psycho erotic gain staging. Momentous appearances on classic labels such as Skin Crime's inimitable Self Abuse records, Harbinger Sound, and yet another on the influential "Japanese American Noise Treaty" edifice on Release Entertainment. Thirdorgan's base of synthesizer noise cemented him with a deeper connection to the European noise scene ahead of many of his peers. The emphasis on wild and insane analogue synth cacophony sets him apart from the more traditional Japanese noise pallet." (Dominick Fernow). 6 tracks spanning an hour. Ltd x 350 copies with ultra-minimal artwork.

TWIST OF FATE - 'Where The Dusk Has No End' CD (Oltrelanebbiailmare / Silentes) - £11.50

After "September Winds", Giuseppe Verticchio (Nimh, Hall Of Mirrors, Maribor, We Promise To Betray) and Daniela Gherardi are back with their newest offering entitled "Where The Dusk Has No End". Sounds and atmospheres constantly bordering shadows and light, in a sort of infinite twilight where thin rays of sun violate the looming darkness, drawing landscapes with fragile and indefinite contours, sound water colours swaying through Ambient, Shoegaze and 'drumless Post Rock', alternating atmospheres. Now darker and then brighter, in a continuous swell of emotions... Ltd x 200 copies in a digisleeve.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - 'Fury Of The Demon' CD (Hiisi Productions) - £10.50

"Fury Of The Demon" is a loud and twisted sonic journey in to the deep levels of subconciousness. It's not a typical compilation... it's a movie for your ears. A monumental 37 minute long track of total uncompromising Noise / harsh electronics mayhem from artists such as Kazumoto Endo (Killer Bug, RYKE), Scatmother, Veli-Matti "Läjä" Äijälä (Musta Toteemi, The Kolmas, Vihan Miehet, Death Trip, Terveet Kädet), Maskhead, Rotat, Kadaver, SSRI, Whiteswan and Sisyphean Men. Ltd x 100 copies in a sealed card sleeve with cover art by V-M Äijälä.

BACK IN STOCK!

ORD - 'Kamadarshana' 3" CD (Status Prod.) - £11

Special EP of the Voronezh ritual / dark ambient project ORD, presented in unique wooden packaging. "Spiritual sight as a gift was found, and the mind is enlightened by the light of revelation. A priceless glance of the divine grace, being released from hidden desires... Kamadarshana (Kama, Skt. "love", "sensual attraction", God

of love in Hinduism; Darshan, Skt. "contemplation") - can be translated as the Contemplation of the God of Love. Darshan is bilateral: the believer sees the object of worship, while the object sees the believer. The result of darshan is the blessing received from the vision of the divine. 3" CD packaged in a wooden structure, including folded paper insert, and a screen-printed bamboo mat featuring the art of Voronezh artist and tattooist Valeria Khanina. Ltd x 108 hand-numbered copies.

ORD - 'Sacra Mental Hypno Drone: Rituals & Revelations' CD (Status Prod.) - £11

Debut album by the Russian ritual / dark ambient project ORD, coming from the city of Voronezh. Mystics of shamanic rites, existential revelations and personal insights. "When the sun sets over the sacred river, when grasses fade with black soil, when forests freeze in silence - spirits speak through the mouth of a shaman...". Shamanic rhythms, ringing and droning of ritual instruments form the sonic mask of a shaman, taking the listener to the Lower worlds, then lifting to the Upper worlds. Only live instruments, samples and field recordings were used during the recording of this album. Ltd x 200 hand-numbered copies packed in a foldout craft paper poster.

RAMLEH - 'It's Never Alright / Kerb Krawler' 7" (Fourth Dimension) - £9

The first track on this double-A side, "It's Never Alright", with its city-destroying stomp attack, collides head on with the kind of untamed keyboard splurge the group is more generally renowned for exorcising. The flipside, "Kerb Krawler", helps to reel you back to a psychedelic orbit nobody but Ramleh know how to navigate. Typical for Ramleh as they stand now, both songs represent just two of the many sides they're now given to exploring. Bold, serious, playful and once again illustrating exactly how easily Gary Mundy (Kleistwahr, S.P.I.T.E., Toll) and Anthony Di Franco (JFK, AX, Ethnic Acid, Novatron), straddle the line of being great musicians never afraid to turn that notion on its head by rising to new challenges, this single pays testament to their current upward curve. Mastered by James Plotkin. Ltd x 500 copies on lurid green vinyl.

SHOCK FRONTIER - 'Mancuerda Confessions' CD (Malignant Records) - £11

Founded in 2010, Shock Frontier is the brainchild of Psychomanteum's Robert Kozletski. Born from an increasing interest in harsher industrial sounds, and aided by long time friend Kyle Carney (Defiantly Fading), "Mancuerda Confessions" is an expertly composed and finely honed collection of shape shifting, nightmarish emissions and radioactive tonalities, drawing inspiration from some of the early death industrial pioneers, but adding an unique, densely layered and atmospheric style. This is a soundtrack to a world that ends not in a cataclysmic, fiery fashion, but one that slowly decays and rots into oblivion, where swathes of ghostly textures, samples, and disembodied noises morph into murky ambient realms, and caustic frequency reverberations pierce through a bleak, post-apocalyptic haze. A must for fans of Megaptera, Steel Hook Prostheses, Soldnergeist, and the early CMI sound. Features a collaboration with Staalkracht. In 6 panel eco-wallet, designed by Brian Vdp, and mastered by John Stillings (Steel Hook Prostheses).