#a-ton

[A-Ton, 2021]

Beyond The Yellow Haze is the debut release by Nigerian sound and installation artist Emeka Ogboh on Ostgut Ton sublabel A-TON. Combining subtle layers of ambient electronics, dance music and field recordings from the city of Lagos, Ogboh’s compositions reflect both the Nigerian city’s soundscapes as well as the artist’s increasing immersion in electronic music since moving to Berlin six years ago. Like his sound installation Ayilara for Berghain’s main floor in the current STUDIO BERLIN exhibition, Beyond The Yellow Haze contains a veritable atonal orchestra of honking, motors, sound systems, sidewalk sales pitches and various sonic artifacts of Lagos’s Danfo bus stations and beyond. These serve as both punctuation and swirling atmosphere within a kaleidoscope of bass and polyrhythms. The unpredictable result is at once place-specific and geographically indefinable. A city in situ – and processed in memory and rhythm very far away. The recordings were originally included as part of Ogboh’s 2018 exhibition No Condition Is Permanent at Galerie Imane Farès and self-released as a stamped and signed artist edition. Beyond The Yellow Haze will be released on A-TON as a 2x12'' LP on black vinyl and in digital formats.

Following 2019’s ‘New Atlantis’ LP under his experimental techno alias Efdemin, Phillip Sollmann’s ‘Monophonie’ is a project dedicated to uniting different strands of utopian music. His approach: combining and recontextualizing rare historical instruments of sonic research of Hermann von Helmholtz (19th century) with the self-designed, microtonal instruments of Harry Partch and metal sound sculptures of Harry Bertoia. The result is a psychedelic investigation into just intonation – alternative tuning systems that create unique sets of harmonics not found in conventional scales. ‘Monophonie’ recasts these sounds into new rhythmic environments where epic kosmische, polyrhythms, acoustic techno and microtonal glow are interwoven into a rare music. Over nine tracks, the album explores multiple forms of minimalism, from unwavering repetition to paired-down chords and sparse sonic environments. But it also seeks to expand the sound spectrum of Partch’s custom built organs and melodic percussion instruments as well as Bertoia’s sonambient singing metal rods into an atmospheric otherworldliness. ‘Monophonie’ was first composed in 2016 and premiered at Berlin’s Volksbühne theatre in 2017, before it went on to the renowned Ruhrtriennale and Kampnagel in Hamburg. It was performed by one of Germany’s premier neue musik collectives Ensemble Musikfabrik together with Sollmann himself on von Helmholtz’s original double siren, with set design by Michael Kleine and wardrobe by Peter Kisur of Honeysuckle Company.                                               

As Inland, Davenport has previously contributed soundtracks to other installations by the Swiss-born Charrière, whose artistic practice focuses on bridging environmental science and cultural history, often taking place in remote geophysical locations, including ice fields, volcanos and radioactive sites.

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Monday 🍒 //

‘Recompiled I/II’ is the first of two vinyl-only archive releases by Function on A-TON, which include previously unreleased tracks as well as music that has long been out-of-print. ‘Recompiled II/II’ is scheduled for release in October 2017. A-TON is a new edition and platform of Ostgut Ton, focussing on ambient, archive and alternative music, differing from the club-focussed records on the main label. “I remember in the early ‘90s when the music was changing so rapidly and it felt so revolutionary, separating my records into piles and thinking ‘I need more of this – there needs to be more of this kind of record.’”