Icarus Records
Vinyl & Tapes
Order now: Matterhorn Well-Sketches For Francis
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In colab with Consouling Sounds
Release Date: 20 Jan 2023
In the field of tension between height and depth, Imre De Cauter (on cello) and Matthias Dewilde (on Fender Rhodes) create their own universe in which, with a purified acoustic and electronic palette of sounds, they take the listener to another dimension, averse to time and space.
With the help of effect pedals and various playing techniques, Imre De Cauter (Myrddin & Imre De Cauter) and Matthias Dewilde (Nagløed) merge the acoustic and electronic sound worlds. Coincidence, improvisation and minimal compositions are the starting point for this. The end result is a breathtaking experience, where, with your eyes closed, you can transcend reality for a moment on an intense inner journey.
Between the twists and cracks of the mountain, a human, round shape has emerged, stretching into the depths. The resulting sound focuses outwards and blends with the echo of its surroundings. In this created tension between height and depth, Matterhorn Well searches for its form, which translates live into ever-changing, new improvisations.
This album emerged on the occasion of a photography exhibition by Belgian visual artist Francis Vanhee, on whose work the cover is inspired. ‘Four Sketches for Francis’ arose from the improvisation sessions of Matthias Dewilde and Imre De Cauter who, struck by Vanhees’ carefully mutilated images, managed to perfectly reinterpret the colour and texture of his work musically. This pure and uninhibited primal form of the work has been preserved as much as possible and further developed into this release.
“While I was listening to Sketches For Francis, this is what I saw: Up north landscapes delicately sharpened with steel while a fresh breeze is blowing on your cheek” - Otto Lindholm
Releases 20.01.2023 as Icarus Records i11
Pre-Order Mirek Coutigny - Through Empty Landscapes and New Beginnings
Pre-order LP/CD
In colab with Consouling Sounds
Release Date: 10.02.23
Available on:
- Limited Signed Crystal Vinyl
- Limited Crystal Vinyl
- CD
- Limited bundle including The Further We Ventured (RED LP), Through Empty Landscapes And New Beginnings (CRYSTAL LP) and Digital album Reworks #1.
What kind of society would we build if we were given a blank page? It is the question to which Mirek Coutigny offers a dazzling musical answer with the album ‘Through Empty Landscapes And New Beginnings’.
Inspired by Emily St John Mandel’s book ‘Station Eleven’ and the world around us during the lockdown in 2020, Mirek Coutigny started writing new music. Our current society is characterised by fragmentation and polarisation, the apocalypse is just around the corner and fear rules the world. Coutigny responds musically against that dystopia with a story of connection and resilience in which he contrasts hope as a positive force against fear.
He sought that connection himself with his band members, with whom he spent months together in the studio, even more than on his previous records, honing both songs and sound. Jolien Deley, Jonathan Bonny and Klaas Tomme are musicians who have been part of Mirek Coutigny’s live band for more than 10 years, so they intuitively sensed the bigger story Mirek was looking for.
‘Through Empty Landscapes and New Beginnings’ thus became a true group record that literally screams to connect with the listener through a grander and more electronic sound with room for drums, guitars and even voice. Coutigny breaks out of himself, shifting the focus from his world, the piano, to the group, bringing a record that goes beyond his previous work. Bolstered by his group, Coutigny comes off more confident than ever.
Releases 10.02.2023 as Icarus Records i12
Theodore Wild Ride
Theodore Wild Ride (Christine Ott, Mathieu Gabry, Ophir Levy)
in colab with Consouling Sounds.
Release Date: Oct 2021 on CD + LP
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Theodore Wild Ride started from the collaboration between French keyboardists Christine Ott (regular collaborator of Yann Tiersen, Tindersticks, Oiseaux-Tempête...), Mathieu Gabry (Snowdrops) and Oed player Ophir Levy. Theodore Wild Ride celebrates musical freedom and redefines the relationship between space and time with a special, unexpected orchestration.
"An ideal soundtrack to enjoy at dawn!" - Gonzo Circus
"If you have a liking for widescreen cinematic soundscapes, then lace up your dessert boots, .. you are off into the dunes. 8/10" - Martin Burns, Dprp
"Ode Alla Libertà" - Radioaktiv
"An excellent and very pleasant listening" - Progrockjournal
"Theodore Wild Ride's self-titled album unfolds like a magical film"- Echoes And Dust
"Un tapis d'herbe sous vos pieds nus qui se sentent bien" - NMH
Theodore Wild Ride started from the collaboration between French keyboardists Christine Ott (regular collaborator of Yann Tiersen, Tindersticks, Oiseaux-Tempête...), Mathieu Gabry (Snowdrops) and Oed player Ophir Levy. Theodore Wild Ride celebrates musical freedom and redefines the relationship between space and time with a special, unexpected orchestration.
Theodore Wild Ride - Album Teaser from Icarus Records on Vimeo.
Record Store Day 2021:Reworks #1, by Mirek Coutigny
Buy
This very limited Record Store Day pack contains the original vinyl album The Further We Ventured + the new Reworks #1 album, containing 6 beautiful reworked tracks Mirek released during the last year. Reworks by Mirek, Outer, Uma Chine, Elias Devoldere, Ides Moon.
This digital only album comes with a download and a limited, handnumbered print ( high quality print on Munken Pure Rough paper).
Includes unlimited streaming of Mirek Coutigny-The Further We Ventured via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Mirek Coutigny - The Further We Ventured LP (Vinyl Album+DL+Insert)
Mirek Coutigny - Reworks #1(Limited Print + Reworks #1 album)
Edition of 25
Mirek Coutigny - The Further They Ventured
Ltd Edition: dark red vinyl, numbered 1-100
Black Edition: regular black vinyl
All versions include a CD/DL/Insert
i008/VV037 Icarus Records / Vynilla Vinyl
Listen - Buy
In recent years, pianist and producer Mirek Coutigny has worked on his own world of sound with electronic
and acoustic instruments. He improvised on sketches that he wrote over the last 10 years and reworked them for piano, strings, percussion and electronics.
The common thread running through “The Further We Ventured” is a fascination for the “suburbs”, more specific, the contrast between the often similar facades and the diversity of stories behind those facades.
This is also reflected in the contrast between the acoustic elements of the record (the “Safe Gray” of the neighborhood in which you grow up) and the slumbering electronics (the “Colorful Danger” that typifies a child’s raving imagination).
This second album sounds a lot more intuitive and organic: where debut album “Revisions # 1” was a record of thoughts, “The Further We Ventured” is a record from the heart. Sometimes complex, sometimes
amazingly accessible; comparisons with Jóhann Jóhannsson or Ólafur Arnalds are never far away.
After the first album, a live set was worked out with Jonathan Bonny (percussion) and Jolien Deley (cello). In this formation they won a few months ago both the audience prize and the jury prize for “Fresh Fish”, a competition for young talent from the Leffingeleuren festival. Coutigny also worked with Spectra Ensemble and Gabi Sultana and he was with his collective “Headliner” curator as well as organizer of the contemporary music festival “En Avant Mars”.
Release i008: BOW (2019)
DL/MC
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Icarus Records proudly presents ICARUS TAPES #1: BOW.
Icarus Live Session #59: Bow is a live performance recorded forour Icarus Radio Show.
Bow’s live session is the first one of a new series of limited Icarus Tapes, with artwork and pictures of the session by Jeroen De Wandel. Over the years, more than 60 Icarus Live Sessions have been recorded, and the library is still growing. After several vinyl releases, the label has now decided to release some of the best live sessions (initially recorded for radio broadcasting) on limited tape.
One afternoon in March 2019, a Ghent studio at the edge of an arm of the Scheldt river, the 5 musicians of BOW settled down and got ready. After a glance and a deep breath, the 5 fellows leap into the void.
BOW takes the gamble for this recorded radio session to improvise its music entirely. With five years of shared musical experience under their belts, the musicians know each other well and understand how to compose in real time. A contrapuntal cell is improvised, a texture sculpted, unexpected sounds arise, the musicians exult and focus on keeping the tension alive without ever breaking it. Immobile, they travel. Experienced, they know what they play. Improvising, they discover, along with the listeners, what they will play.
Icarus Live Session # 59 by BOW is a true allegory of the string: tightened to its proper tension to both sound correctly and respond subtly to the attacks of the Bow.
BOW is an ensemble made up of the musicians Margaret Hermant (Echo Collective) and Benoit Leseure on Violin, Jean-François Durdu on Viola, Marine Horbaczweski on Cello and Cyrille de Haes (Otto Lindholm) on Double Bass
Recorded and Mixed at Urgent Fm studio by Chaitanya Bhagwat.
Mastered by Dead Cow Studio - David Goetheyn.
Artwork by Jeroen De Wandel.
Release date: 1/12/2019
Shipping as from 06/12/2019
PressKit
Cassette version offers a BONUS B side Track - Live at Icarus (Part II) + Art box and signed photo.
Four different pictures of the session will be randomly included, every cassette gets one picture.
Collage and graphic design by Jeroen De Wandel
Review Aural Aggravation
Release i007: Otto Lindholm (BE) - Buy
Official release date: 27/05/16.
Limited release, edition of 220-black vinyl only.
Mastered by Fred Alstadt
Artwork by Jeroen De Wandel for Bless You
Screen Print by Marijke Loozen
Double bass player and electronic producer Otto Lindholm comes to light with his project and debut LP simply called ‘Otto Lindholm’, set for release on Icarus Records | Vynilla Vinyl in May 2016.
In the mood of bands and projects as Mohammad (PAN) or James Ginzburg & Yair Elazar Glotman’ Nimbes for Subtext, Otto Lindholm debut LP proposes an intense and noir three track LP, comprised by stand-alone experiments coming from a unique producing process elaborated by the artist where each track was played and recorded in one shot. The double bass dialogues in the dark with blinking analogue machines creating beatless but dynamic music, fully habited by plate-shifting bass drones.
The debut-album by Otto Lindholm is released on a limited vinyl edition by Vynilla Vinyl/Icarus Records, mastered by Frederic Alstadt. Photographer Jeroen De Wandel designed the record sleeve, resulting in a beautiful silkscreen by Marijke Loozen.
« At once dangerous and stunningly beautiful » (FACT magazine)
« An absolutly incredible piece of music » (Mary Anne Hobbs / BBC)
« An incredible odyssey. A great year for classical deconstruction/detonation/disintegration with records by Roly Porter, Paul Jebanasam and Otto Lindholm » (The Bug)
« Stunning » (Rob Booth / Electronic Explorations)
« WOW » (Throwing Snow)
Release i006: Kevin Verwijmeren (NL) - Those Glorious Heights - Buy
First 50 orders get an exclusive riso-print fold out: sold out
Coloured vinyl: 20€: sold out
Black vinyl: 18€
Click here to order LP 'Those Glorious Heights' (incl DL)!
Kevin Verwijmeren is a 23 year old science student, living in Delft, Holland.
Since 2013, he creates musical patterns and melodies, which he combines into contemplative landscapes of sound.
Inspired by the sound and emotion of Loscil, Tim Hecker and Pan American, Verwijmeren constructs a musical cocoon to imagine a vision of a different world. Through his dark but beautiful soundscapes, he tries to break daily routine and accept the dark side of life.
His debut album ‘Those Glorious Heights’ will be released on (date) in a limited edition on Icarus Records/Vynilla Vinyl, with artwork by Jan Van Der Kleijn. The album was mastered by Stephan Mathieu (Schwebung Mastering).
His first production ‘Never Ending Tape’ was released in 2013 on the online label Future Sequence. With this release he got noticed within the ambient scene and was asked to contribute the label’s compilation cd ‘An Introduction To Soft records’. Verwijmeren’s first full album ‘It’s The Colour Of A Cloud Covered Sky’ was released in 2014 by Soft Corridor Records and got a lot of positive feedback.
This album also triggered the attention of American movie director Maazin Kamal who asked Kevin to write a score for his short movie ‘The Wolf And The Wayfarer’.
in 2015, Kevin played several successful live shows in Iceland while composing his new album ‘Those Glorious Heights’, which will be releaesed by Vynilla Vinyl/Icarus Records in 2016.
Releaseshow: 26/02/2016, S.M.A.K., Jan Hoetplein 1, Ghent . Review
Icarus Mixtape: Listen
Icarus Live Session: Listen
At his live session at Urgent FM:
Last - Those Glorious Heights from Kiara Bracka on Vimeo.
Review:
De Mening****
Enola
Stationary Travels
Music Won't Save You
The Attic
Hearfeel
Release i005: Sofar-Sofar i005 Buy
Four years after their debut Circus, Ghent (Belgium) based band Sofar (previous name Little Elmo) release a new album Sofar. The band worked hard on their own sound and their new name expresses this evolution.
Sofar refers to 'The Sofar Channel’, a layer in the abyss where sound moves in a special way. Soundwaves move slower but reach out much further. They play atmospheric and melancholic Indie music, pop noir balancing between light and dark, wandering between dream and action.
'Sofar combines the soft, dark moment of daydreaming with introverted, recalcitrant guitars. You hear the low key threat of The National with a romantic touch of Belle & Sebastian' (Isbells)
"Superb arranged songs with an own face (The Antler King)
David Decraene: voice, keys
Bram Gringhuis: voice, guitar
Pieter-Jan Van Den Berge: voice, guitar
Koen Degand: drums, percussion
Hans Debucquoy: bass
Release 21/10/2015
Icarus Records/Vynilla Vinyl
Distribution: NEWS
**** review on Cutting Edge
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Press
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Press English pdf: Here
Press Photo: Here
Release i004:Stray Dogs-Wasteland i004 - Buy
Stray Dogs aka Koenraad Ecker (cello, guitar, electronics) and Frederik Meulyzer (percussion, electronics)
have been on an exciting musical journey ever since their debut album 'Intangible States' (2010).
Balancing between electronica, dub and experimental music, they've constructed their own sound
universe, in which attention for detail and texture is combined with a physical intensity that you not only
need to hear but feel as well. Stray Dogs take you along on a menacing post-apocalyptic trip through a
disintegrating no man's land.
'Wasteland' was recorded in a desacralised church in Antwerp (Belgium), making it more strippeddown,
industrial and ritualistic than 'Intangible States'. The acoustics of this space were exploited to a maximum, after which all elements were merged in the recording studio.
Percussion, cello, guitars and analogue hardware lead to a sonic result situated at the crossroads of
ritual drums, dubby reverberating echoes and disintegrating orchestras.
'Wasteland' will be released on a limited edition of 250 vinyl copies (100 silver-colored). Later on in
2013 other work by members of Stray Dogs (also involved in Lumisokea) will be released on the Digitalis,
Opal Tapes and Eat Concrete labels.
Release 14/09/2013
Icarus Records/Vynilla Vinyl
Distribution: NEWS
Played on The Wire Radioshow, Klara Late Night, Sterrenplaten,...
5 star reviews in Gonzo, Rif Raf, Enola, Kwadratuur.
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Press
Press contacts: Mail us!
Press Dutch pdf: Here
Press English pdf: Here
Press Photo: Here
Release i003: Ecila-The Sofa Managements i003 - Buy
Originating from Belarus, Ecila (Sveta Shljachova) has been residing for many years in Belgium. Involved for the last 15 year in different musical projects with life-long partner Nikita Chudjakov,, they founded the breakcore-oriented STREFF and Elements Of Sci-fi amongst others. Last year saw the release of 'Stories', under her alias Alice in Kosmoland. Ecila will be presenting her debutalbum 'The Sofa Managements' at the forthcoming Icarus Night with Raime (24th of May) in Ghent's arthouse cinema Studio Skoop. The album includes both crackling electronica as a vast ambient atmosphere.
Ecila took an angelic quote by Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides to summarize the album's inspiration :
"...This leads Aristotle in turn to the demonstrated fact that God, glory and majesty to Him, does not do things by direct contact. God burns things by means of fire; fire is moved by the motion of the sphere; the sphere is moved by means of a disembodied intellect, these intellects being the 'angels which are near to Him', through whose mediation the spheres [planets] move... thus totally disembodied minds exist which emanate from God and are the intermediaries between God and all the bodies [objects] here in this world. " Guide for the Perplexed II:4.
The Sofa Managements is produced by Sveta Shlachova (Ecila) and mastered by Nikita Chudjakov. It is released on a limited numbered edition of 200 copies (clear vinyl) including downloadcode.
Release date: 24/05/2013
Icarus Records/Vynilla Vinyl
Distribution: NEWS
Listen
Buy
Vinyl on Bandcamp
Digital on Bandcamp
Press
Press contacts: Mail us!
Press Dutch pdf: Here
Press English pdf: Here
Press Photo: Here
Reviews
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Enola Review- 7/10 Liefhebbers van de meer experimentele elektronica hebben aan The Sofa Managements dan ook een knappe en vooral coherente kluif die doet uitkijken naar meer. En benieuwd hoe dat vertaald wordt naar de livecontext.
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Release i002: Echo Beatty-Dirty Beaches 7", i002 sold out
Echo Beatty will release a 7" with two new songs on it (Dirty Beaches/Ravel Ravel-i002).
Limited to 200, with for RSD exclusive 100 coloured vinyls.
In collaboration with Vynilla Vinyl, Screen Printing by Smeraldina-Rima.
Release date: 20/04/2013
Listen
Release i001:Echo Beatty-Tidal Motions i001 - Buy
Release date: 28/01/2013
in collaboration with Vynilla Vinyl
Buy it now on iTunes.
Buy the vinyl on Bandcamp.
Press Quotes:
'Great debut album' Mauro Pawlowski (dEUS)
'Annelies has a voice like Beth Gibbons' (RifRaf)
'Belgium's next big thing' (Radio Scorpio)
'Stunning clip' (Select, Studio Brussel)
'****' (De Morgen)
Hailing from Antwerp, Echo Beatty are multi-instrumentalist Jochem Baelus and singer Annelies Van Dinter. It is
February 2011, and Echo Beatty is the first-ever band to record an Icarus.fm livesession for Ghent-based radio
station Urgent.fm. Consciously and continuously exploring their own musical limits, they use a wide array of
homemade instruments, ranging from knitting needles and haircombs to musicboxes, to create their unpredictable and subtle trademark sound. Fragile yet sometimes aggressive. Light in some places, dark in others.
Following the release of their first EP 'Tiny Organs Of Trust', and a small tour playing venues in Germany, The
Netherlands and the Czech Republic, they temporarely move to Montreal in the spring of 2011 to work on new
songs. There they join forces with producer Jeff Mc Murrich, known for prior collaborations with artists as Sandro
Perri, Owen Pallett and Tindersticks.
Mc Murrich succesfully manages to capture Echo Beatty's characteristical sound, that can be described as electric
folk drenched in a subtle 'Twin Peaks'' atmosphere. 'Tidal Motions' is Echo Beatty's very first full album. The
mastering is done by James Plotkin, who previously worked with the likes of Sunn O))), Khanate, Earth and Isis.
You can listen and order the vinyl here:
PRESS
Press contacts: Mail us!
Press Dutch pdf: Here
Press English pdf:
Here
Press Photo: Here
Reviews
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Enola-Review Album 8/10 "Het begin van het Vlaamse rockjaar zou, dat wisten we al langer, gedomineerd worden door o.m. The Germans en Reiziger, die met nieuw werk op de proppen komen. Kan wel zijn, maar dan moeten ze wel het gezelschap dulden van Echo Beatty, een duo dat spookachtige folk combineert met filmische ongedurigheid en een resem attributen uit moeders keukenkast, die samen voor een verrassend inventief en coherent album zorgen."Read More |
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De Standaard-Punch List |
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Indiestyle "Live zet Echo Beatty een erg betoverende en boeiende set neer. We waren dus erg benieuwd naar hoe dit Antwerpse duo het zorgvuldig loopjesmaken en geluiden uit onorthodoxe objecten kloppen in een debuutplaat zou gieten. Zet je koptelefoon alvast op, want de eerste release van het Gentse Icarus Records is er eentje waar aandachtig naar geluisterd moet worden."... |
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Rif Raf, jan 2013 "De eerste release op het gloednieuwe Gentse Icarus Records is (in samenwerking met het al even Gentse Vynilla Records) meteen een heel verzorgd werkstuk. (...) |
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Enola, Review Concert "Hoe duidelijker het wordt dat er in Echo Beatty niet alleen een eclectisch folkduo, maar ook een avant-garde project schuilt, zo gepaster lijkt het dat de eerste van twee albumvoorstellingen plaatsvond in het wat aparte Salle Jeanne dat, verweven in een meubelwinkel en voorzien van een achterzaaltje, zowel een onderkomen leek te bieden aan een familiereünie als aan trendy jong volk dat ook eens wat anders wil. Voor een mooie opkomst speelde Echo Beatty een concert dat voortdurend heen en weer laveerde tussen experiment en toegankelijkheid." Read More |
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Humo, ***1/2 "Er vallen stippellijntjes te trekken tussen 'Tidal Motions' & Portishead's' 'Dummy', of Opals cultklassieker 'Happy Nightmare Baby uit 1987, tijdloze platen van eigenzinnige bands die-net als Annelies Van Dinter en Jochem Baelus- zo slim waren om hun tracks vol popsplinters te stoppen, zodat de plaat ook bij daglicht moeiteloos overeind blijft." |
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De Morgen, **** "Hier verkeren liedjes net zo lief in de kringen van Portishead (de titeltrack) als in die van Pj Harvey (Guests)" |
Select Live Session, Studio Brussel:
RELEASE CONCERTS
14/02-Kultuurkaffee-Brussels
15/02-Trix-Antwerp
SPOOR 8 Session:
