Good Friday (waag_rel026)

by Stephen Briggs

Good Friday was inspired by observing the power of crowds … how the spirit of a crowd can change a person … take over them … make them do things they wouldn’t otherwise consider doing. This spirit … the spirit that can turn a respected school teacher into a looter grasping for a TV in a riot … was evident on the first Good Friday … a day when the crowd took over.

Good Friday was also inspired by the spirit that exists in a room or a building … be it an incense-rich 15th century church in rural Spain or a grease-filled garage near my home in New Zealand.

Take, for example, the room I live and work in … it is full of the memories of souls and conversations … thousands of them. From day old babies to 90+ year olds. Somehow I channel their thoughts and feelings into my music. Just as I try to revive their tired life-force and help them to get better from their injuries … they help and inspire me to create and express what is inside me.

My music comes from my soul. I hope … in handing what is inside me over to you … that this will act as a catalyst for you … that you may be inspired too.

– Stephen

Marsen Jules – Beautyfear – Oktaf

With “Beautyfear” the German electronic musician Marsen Jules (CCO, 12k, Kompakt) delivers one of his most outstanding albums so far. Mastered by no one else than 12K-labelboss Taylor Deupree and with a coverpicture taken by the highly acclaimed photographer Erik Madigan Heck from NYC, the best conditions are laid for a lasting experience of abstract musical poetry and touching soundscapeism. Jules has never been this dense, subtile and fragile before.

All twelve tracks on “Beautyfear“ were created during a week stay in a theatre workspace on one of the hills of Lisbon. The panoramic view over the dusty city in spring seemed to have been the perfect surrounding for this cloudy soundscapes, which at some points remind of Angelo Bandalamentis‘ work for David Lynch‘s “Mullholland Drive”. “It‘s an album on the fragility of beauty“, as Jules describes briefly. Music that can neither be described as ambient music or experimental sound art, but more likely delivers a poetic approach to music, live and sound itself.

With “Beautyfear“ Marsen Jules makes a great start into 2014 and with the already announced cooperation with Swedish filmmaker Anders Weberg and an upcoming release of his works from a residence at the legendary GRM studios in Paris, one should definitely keep an eye on what is coming next.

credits

released 24 January 2014
All music by: Martin Juhls
Mastering: Taylor Deupree
Cover-Photo: Erik Madigan Heck
Layouts: Noah McDonald

	1.	Beautyfear I 03:40
	2.	Beautyfear II 03:32
	3.	Beautyfear III 04:56
	4.	Beautyfear IV 03:55
	5.	Beautyfear V 02:03
	6.	Beautyfear VI 04:28
	7.	Beautyfear VII 02:49
	8.	Beautyfear VIII 07:12
	9.	Beautyfear IX 04:32
	10.	Beautyfear X 04:04
	11.	Beautyfear XI 06:07
	12.	Beautyfear XII 05:37

Lithea_Inner

A 2nd, mini-mix/EP, drafted from the aural pages of Lithea.

01 Chris Russell – Twilight Woods
02 36 – Reunion
03 Fabio Keiner – Paranoia 7
04 36 – Cocoon
05 Somnarium – Afterglow
06 36 – Leviathan
07 Eugene Kha – Harmony (interpolating ‘World After April’)
08 Speedy J – Sabina Seat
09 36 – Clear
10 Zeitgeber – Before They Wake (echoing ‘Clear’)
11 36 – 1983
12 Tosca – Pearl Off