Clot Magazine

Mixtape 58 The new mixtape instalment comes from Ale Hop(aka Alejandra Cardenas) and Laura Robles. Cárdenas is a Berlin-based artist, researcher, and experimental instrumentalist from Lima, Peru. Earlier this year, together with Laura Robles (a percussionist and bassist formed from a very young age in the rich Afro-Peruvian and Cuban musical traditions and who also grew up in Lima), they released one of the most exciting albums of the year so far, Agua dulce (Buh Records, 2023). This mix takes on and reflects on the artists' inspiration for and during the Agua Dulce album production. The album is titled after the most popular beach in Lima, agua dulce, near where both artists lived during their childhood, houses apart, without ever meeting one another. Years later, the pair met and joined forces, with Robles on a self-built electric cajón and Cárdenas on electric guitar and electronics. With this album, both artists explore rhythmical structures that form the backbone of the complex Afro-Peruvian music an

Our next mixtape comes from duo Brueder Selke, East Berlin-born, Potsdam-based, polyinstrumental composers Sebastian and Daniel Selke and also curators of the Q3AMBIENTFEST in Potsdam (Germany). The festival, taking place at the beginning of June, is a musical happening that brings together established and emerging artists from various genres and diverse origins. Sebastian and Daniel Selke became well-known as an award-winning cello-piano duo under their pseudonym CEEYS. Throughout the work that has come from this long-term collaboration between the two brothers who grew up on the other side of the Berlin Wall, the essential elements are encounter and exchange. The independent Q3A, invite open-minded music lovers to discover a wide, contemporary sound spectrum. Each year, Brueder Selke invite artists to meet on a common, physical stage, and, with performances that range between academic avant-garde and accessible pop, develop a kind of cinematic music that holds a mirror up to and makes audible the eclectic

Our latest mixtape comes from Hora Lunga, a composer, sound designer, and songwriter based in Zurich. With a passion for pushing the boundaries of electronic music, Hora Lunga creates a unique blend of traditional and experimental sounds that take listeners on a soulful journey. Having studied electroacoustic composition, the artist's practice focuses on extended instrumental techniques and improvisation. However, his versatile profile has taken him from pop music productions to experimental works and sound art in recent years. David, as Hora Lunga is also known, co-runs the Swiss experimental music label BlauBlau Records, which is also an artist collective. Hora Lunga's latest release, Wirren (BlauBlau, 2022), is the product of a collaborative artist residency at Dampfzentrale Berne & Südpol Lucerne, and was premiered at Gessnerallee Zurich. Otherworldly drones and chamber music, feverish free jazz, and serene soundscapes provided by a vast ensemble make it an ode to shared improvisational sessions. 'WIRR

Our Next mixtape lands from the Spanish composer, cellist, singer and producer Yamila, with a unique mix inspired by her last album and a soulful vision inside her art. Dancing between electronic and analogue music, tradition and experimentation. Yamila's artistic practice "looks over the precipice of pure emotion", which couldn't be more accurate. That passion and soulfulness manifest in many (if not all) forms of expression. In her most recent album, Visions (UMOR REX, 2022), Yamila revealed her most intimate catharsis. The album evokes the hallucinatory powers of music. Like an ancient herald, she announces the profound feminine mystique while crossing epic melodies full of pleasure and pain. The album is a journey that prodigiously unites baroque accents, Spanish folklore, such as flamenco, and contemporary electronic music. Pain and glory, lacerating religiosity, feminism cauterized by power, and hallucinations as a source (or pretext/tool) to be heard. All these elements were very present in the Spa

The next mixtape comes from the mighty DJ DTEKK, a Polish DJ, promoter and cultural activist, with a meditative mix inspired by the late Angelo Badalamenti.
 DTEKK (aka Jędrzej Dondziło and originally from Białystok in Poland) first stepped behind the decks in 2000. He's known for his relentless techno sets. DTEKK is also the originator and program director of the Up To Date Festival and co-founder of the Technosoul record label. The Up to date festival is a unique event that takes place in Białystok, the heart of north-eastern Poland, and which for over a decade, UTDF has been visited by over 10,000 guests from Poland and abroad. As true music lovers, UTDF supports independent music and is known for its unique creativity and strong roots in the local community. The festival always welcomes the current needs and trends, at the same time reminding the audience about the most important elements of life. A few months ago, the festival introduced Business Techno: The Game, a board game for two to six people in w

One hundred years after his birth, Berlin Atonal's special festival edition X100 was dedicated to the Romanian-born Greek, French avant-garde composer, architect, and mathematician Iannis Xenakis, who pioneered applying mathematical models to music, known as the designer of the UPIC, a computerised system with a graphical approach to musical composition. Studio LABOUR, who co-curated the happening with the OUTER team, share insights into their collaborative sonic practice, the origins of their collaboration sourced in the Xenakis's practice itself and also inspiration and motivation between their new work 'sungazing'

We open the festivities season with a very special mix from DJ, producer and musician Curses, with a dreamy compilation of cinematic elements, radio and tv samples from the 80s and 90s, and an extension of his passion for mixing Wave and the dark and weirder side of Italo Disco. Originally hailing from New York and currently based in Berlin, Curses is well known for blending his Rock & Roll roots with the darker side of Disco and Electro. In both his DJ and live sets. Curses also incorporate his ghostly vocals and guitar with flashes of EBM, New Wave, Post-Punk, and Psychedelic synth vibes. After his debut full-length Romantic Fiction in 2018 on Jennifer Cadini’s Dischi Autunno, this year Curses released his second album, Incarnadine, also on Dischi Autunno. His compositions blend Morricone-inspired guitars with elements from early 80s music genres like New Wave, Post Punk and New Beat, pushing the boundaries of these references with an emphasis on his own mysterious vocals and guitars. The album is a d

The next mixtape sees new output 33, aka Billy Bultheel and Alexander Iezzi, putting together a mix of music and musicians that surround them and create their daily musical landscape. Through their collaborative project 33, Billy Bultheel and Alexander Iezzi further consolidate a partnership which has taken many forms within a visual, artistic spectrum. Their practice envelops performance art, music and installation whilst pinpointing, developing and elaborating the most meaningful and poignant marriages of the disciplines. Their differing backgrounds have informed how their long collaboration works – Bultheel with his conservatory training and Iezzi coming from DIY punk and experimental music scenes. Their debut album 33-69 (C.A.N.V.A.S., 2022), aments and commemorates the interruption of the simplicities, beauties and charm of mortal life in full Baroque splendour, whilst also partaking in the final opportunities for carnal pleasure and orgiastic excesses in the earthly realm. 33-69 was conceived during

Our next mixtape comes from Luka Aron, a German musician and composer of electroacoustic and minimalist music, with a selection of tunes with unusual harmonics. Based between Berlin and Stockholm, Aron’s practice is largely focused in the spectral fusion of synthesised sound and acoustic instruments, combining the raw energy of power electronics with the fragility of the human touch. The framework of Aron’s compositions is often based on the observation of psychoacoustic phenomena and how they relate to just intonation. A careful selection of partials is presented, stimulating additional tones in the perception of the listener. Through this, a secondary structure is gradually unveiled: like light rays meeting the surface of water, partially reflecting back to air, and refracting at once as they pass from one medium to the other. As such, Aron employs methods of reverse-engineering auditory processes with the aim of invoking alternative listening modes. By putting the act of tuning at the centre, many be

A Line, a succession of points, a fine line, a route; or many, like when talking about LINE as a label, house, family and source of inspiration founded by sound artist Richard Chartier 22 years ago. Sometimes conceptual, sometimes abstract, sometimes somewhere between the two, or just out of any category, the works published by this label condense a vast and exotic catalogue of sound art, initially created as a division of the mythical 12k, to later become independent in its own search, permeated by a marked but broad vision of sonic minimalism. Among LINE’s catalogue, there are true jewels of experimental contemporary music and sound art, such as the legendary Series by Richard Chartier, the compilation Between Two Points, the tribute/non-tribute to John Cage by Lawrence English, and the special Forms of Paper by Steve Roden, considered one of the essential works of the so-called lowercase movement, characterized by music played at low sound levels and lacking in prominence pretensions, a sonic philosophy cl

Aeondelit, a Colombian music producer, takes us on our next mixtape trip into the sonic landscapes of anime and video games. Aeondelit has just released his second full-length album, Vestigios (Unguarded, 2022), which tells a lucid, captivating story of heritage, transformation, vulnerability and healing. The release will include the artwork created by Petra Hermanova and will be accompanied by limited textile pieces by Diane Esnault. Aeondelit practice explores themes related to technology and the human condition in sound while focusing on the creative use of sample manipulation techniques and digital sound synthesis to deepen the idea of a dialogue between computer and human and how both influence each other. Listening to Vestigio enthrals you in a net woven with the fourth-world meanders of Jon Haswell and the dramatic serenity of Vangelis. Aeondelit’s music is strongly influenced by the rocky surrounding of his hometown Manizales in Colombia and fuses electronic sensibilities, ambient streams and avant-

South-east Turkey-born DJ sound artist and producer, Banu is bringing the sounds for our next mixtape. The artist uses music as a political tool. For Banu, the strong message carried through sound is a vehicle to express emotions as well as a means of fighting against oppression. Coming from a conservative family, making music has been her lifelong dream. It was the moment she had the opportunity to work with the iconic Arp 2600 synthesiser (a younger sibling to Eliane Radigue's infamous 2500 machine) that all her interests came into place to create an empowering soundscape with the aid of analogue drum machines. In her artistic practice, Banu uses participation, social design, ecology, and feminist and queer theory to create multimedia installations with sound as the main element, making her practice closer to contemporary art and activist spaces than the club realm. Banu has also been exploring her approach to sound and composition through her PhD research, focused on how to include sound in the Urba

Our next Mixtape comes from Nanook of the North, the duo of composer and violinist Stefan Wesołowski and electronic producer Piotr Kalińsk, with a small introduction to their music and the music of their friends. Taking the name of a 1922 American silent film that follows the struggles of the Inuk man named Nanook and his family in the Canadian Arctic, the two Polish musicians merge compositional roles blending as seamlessly as their use of acoustic and electronic sounds, with Stefan playing the violin and piano parts with additional synth touches and Piotr taking care of electronics, more synths and the final mix. Their first album, with an eponymous name (published by Denovali), arrived after the pair were invited by the Sopot Film Festival in Gdansk to perform an improvised score to a film screening; they the classic silent movie ‘Nanook of the North and travelled to Iceland to record the album. Despite the icy expansive isolation captured from the movie, the album is also transferrable in scenario and e

Our next Mixtape comes from the Polish producer Cafe de la Jungle, where he has recollected some of his latest inspirations in terms of pace and rhythms. Cafe de la Jungle is Tomasz Zając, a Kraków-based producer who is using modular synthesis, field recording and sampling techniques to build mystical worlds on twelve-inch discs. He’s recently released Tuvan Spirits EP (Dans de la Desert, 2022), where he explores his fascination and interest in shamanic practices in highly dynamic sound environments. His excellent debut Dancing with Cicadas was rife with dangerous and mysterious rhythms, but Cafe de la jUngle takes a more laid-back approach in the new EP. Built around cavernous ambience and bass notes, sounds that paint a picture of a dance ritual so subtle, it’s visceral and highly narrative at the same time. We were enthralled with his rhythms and track unfoldings. For the mix he has prepared, He shares that It’s an extension of his latest inspirations and direction of music in terms of pace and rhy

Next on our Mixtape series is by the one and only Richie Culver. We published an interview with him a few weeks back, and he so generously offered us a mixtape. A selection of drifty suggestive tracks of artists he's been recently interested in, and the perfect companion for the entertaining read that his interview is. Culver has been this semi-outsider, self-taught artist figure in the UK and a few capitals scattered around the world, gaining recognition with his pungent view of "existence" and observation of human behaviour (a lot of it autobiographical). Conceptual, but at the same time direct and full of a minimalistic force, a big part of Culver's work lies in his relationship with technology, the advent of social media, and how antagonistic forces around these affect human interaction, new forms of linguistics and communication, and new levels of cultural symbols, signs and signifiers. A frustrated musician, as he frequently recalls himself (and who isn't, I may dare to say…), music and sound is w

Barkum Deer are Louis Giannamore and Jenny Ames, two talented musicians who met in a London house share and bonded over their love of early Renaissance music, black metal, and Björk. Amid the bleak reality of a winter lockdown, the pair found a space for creative collaboration unencumbered by deadlines or expectations, fuelled by the catharsis of experimentation. Jenny graduated from the RCA, and as a classically trained viola player, has performed with Björk, Floating Points and Mica Levi, while Louis is a drummer, producer, and graduate of Berklee College of Music who’s collaborated with the likes of Gang of Youths, Master Peace, and First Light Records labelmate Kinn. Earlier this year, they released their debut self-titled album Barkum Deer (First Light Records, 2022), a dense half-hour trip into bass-rich drones, anxious strings and skittering electronic flourishes. Viola, drums, Jenny’s voice, and found samples (creaking doors and dusty footsteps) all come together to form a beautifully cinematic and

The next mixtape comes from Akusmi, the new project moniker of French-born, London-based composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Pascal Bideau. It's a dive into Indonesian sounds territories, following his recently published album Fleeting Future (Tonal Union, 2022), which was partly inspired by the artist's journey to the east-Asian country. In Indonesia, Bideau immersed himself in traditional Gamelan and gong music, and many of the themes, motifs and melodies on Fleeting Future stem from the 'Slendro' scale, one of the essential tuning systems used in Gamelan. However, it is not musical scales but scales as in the size or extent of things that most fascinates Bideau. Specifically, he explains the compelling way things dramatically change when you shift from any given scale to another." From the atomic to the celestial, the micro and macro universes of dizzying complexity co-exist within each other. Bideau, who also teaches music production and sound/visual installation at the Roundhouse and the Unive

The next mixtape comes from Italian artist Anor Londo (aka Marco Fasoli). Dedicated to drumming for a long time, the artist has more recently moved into more introspective electronic territories. With an artistic name that recalls a fictional city in a series of action role-playing games, Anor Londo is deeply fascinated by alchemical esotericism, philosophical hermeticism, cosmic horror and cyber-decadence. His speculation in the audio-visual field is bound up with the search for timeless perfection, an opportunity to understand the true nature of the cosmos a contemplation of the transcendent, which constitutes a form of esoteric ritual. Transmutations are one of the founding elements of his creative method. He reinterprets in a technological key the broader meaning of alchemical philosophy, which - as the eldest form of chemistry - is committed to the fascinating task of shaping and moulding matter. Anor Londo wants to understand the very nature of the fabric of the universe. Last April Anor London p

The next mixtape comes from musician and composer Remo Seeland, who is behind the Swiss experimental label Hallow Ground. He’s presenting a selection of the label’s music, partly in response to the label's recent publication, their first ever "concept-compilation" Epiphanies (Hallow Ground, 2022) released earlier in March this year. Founded by Remo Seeland, Hallow Ground was created in 2013 and has been instrumental in launching the careers of artists such as Kali Malone and FUJI||||||||||TA as well as recently releasing albums by Lawrence English, Norman Westberg, Maria W Horn and Siavash Amini, as many of Seeland’s composition as well. More than a record label, Hallow ground is a platform for Music and Art that leads to ‘Visions’, also acting as We act as publishers, hosts and performers. For the label's first ever compilation, the artists were commissioned to pursue a non-rational creative process in approaching the phenomenon of epiphany through sound. The results, whether long-form, short vignettes, p

The next mixtape arrives from V-stock, aka Valentin Doychinov, an electronic musician, guitarist, producer and film score composer. With an interest in nature, mathematics and of course music, he finds inspiration in a diverse set of influences that range from the fringes of experimental club music, noise, and ambient to instrumental genres such as jazz fusion and post-rock. 
 V-stock has released several EPs and albums for several experimental labels, and he has just published a new LP, Liminal (Position Disposition, 2022) where he combines his recent jazz fusion influences with the noise, ambient and broken electronics sound he developed during the last LPs. Incepted during pandemics, the album title Liminal refers to a state of ‘occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold’ and very trivially, the spark of inspiration came from a Facebook group called ‘Liminal Spaces’ which I came across at some point over the lockdown period. In this group people generally post pictures of cities