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Order Silent Noise Revolution - Icarus Tapes #2
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Release Date: 05.05.23
Silent Noise Revolution is the ‘nom de plume’ of composer Jan De Block under which he combines minimalist piano with abstract noise.
In May 2022, at the request of Icarus Radio, he recorded a live session with Luc van Lieshout (Flat Earth Society, Tuxedomoon) at Ghent’s Urgent.fm recording studio. That session is now reflected in Icarus Tapes #2, a second release from the library series of the Icarus Radioshow.
Since 2015, Silent Noise Revolution has been slowly building its reputation, resulting in a first album in 2021 on the Belgian Neumusik and the annual support of Nils Frahm in his ‘Piano Day Playlist’. That support should come as no surprise: the stillness of the piano combined with background noise, glitches and small electronic hiccups is, for both artists, a breeding ground for beautiful compositions.
Jan De Block’s music is a reaction to the imbalance in our daily lives: the hectic over-stimulation in our society contrasting with our inner voice and imagination. To that stillness, Luc van Lieshout on bugle adds a quirky, in-the-moment improvisational layer that takes the whole compostion to another level. He can be heard on 1984, Demons, Don’t Say Anything and Synapse Sync.
Together, they deliver a beautiful moment of stillness in seven tracks. The cover of Chopin’s Prelude n°4 perfectly fits the mood of this Icarus Live Session and completes the whole.
Piano and modular electronics: Jan De Block / Bugle & trumpet: Luc van Lieshout
Live Mixed by Chaitanya Bhagwat . Recorded at Urgent.fm | Mastered by Jan De Block / Picture & artwork by Jeroen De Wandel
Releases 05.05.2023 as Icarus Records i13
Order Mirek Coutigny - Through Empty Landscapes and New Beginnings
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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
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
Out on Icarus Records: 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 - 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
Icarus Records & Consouling Sounds join forces.
click for Dutch version: Pdf-Nederlands
After years of successful collaboration with Vynilla Vinyl, Icarus Records will join forces with Consouling Sounds as from 2021. A new, joint release is coming up in the autumn of 2021.
Ghent based record label Icarus Records, known for releases by Echo Beatty, Otto Lindholm, BOW, Sofar and Mirek Coutigny among others, has been specializing in contemporary classical and experimental music, electronica and everything that's out of the ordinary since 2008.
The Icarus team does this through a weekly radio show (on Ghent student radio Urgent.fm) and regular concerts (in collaboration with Democrazy) at which a whole range of national and international artists have already passed in review, such as Roedelius, Nils Frahm, Deaf Center, Raime, Tim Hecker, Andrea Belfi, etc.
For its record releases, Icarus has worked since 2008 with Vynilla Vinyl, the label linked to the legendary Vynilla record shop and its inspirator, Bob Driege. Since Bob has reached retirement age and is slowly winding down his activities, Icarus Records has been looking for a new partner to work with.
Icarus founder Jeroen De Wandel now found that partner in Mike & Nele's Consouling Sounds, the label that has been breaking through internationally since 2008 with releases by Amenra, Jozef Van Wissem and Jarboe, among others, and that is now also fully committed to avant-garde.
Both labels therefore complement each other musically perfectly and will therefore enter into a thorough collaboration while retaining the identity of both labels. A first fruit of this collaboration is planned for the autumn of 2021.
Our Live Sessions
Due to Covid, no new livesessions are planned. Please rediscover our massive archive!
We will have again some special lockdownsessions for you in 2021.
Disover the latest Lockdown Sessions: White Stains-Marc Neys-Hantrax
10.01.21: Nagløed: Live session + Mixtape!
Icarus Radio
Tune in every Sunday, Urgent.fm 105.3FM, 21h-23h! Or every Tuesday Night, 00h at Youfm, Mons.
Follow us on Mixcloud
Icarus Vinyl
Out NOW!
Mirek Coutigny - Safe Grey(Uma Chine rework) Listen - Buy (Digital only)
Mirek Coutigny - Atlas (ft Elias Devoldere) Listen - Buy (Digital only)
Mirek Coutigny - Ripples (OUTER Rework) Listen - Buy (Digital only)
Mirek Coutigny - As Birds Fly (electronic rework) Listen - Buy (Digital only)
This electronic rework of Mirek Coutigny's first single in 2018 is the first track of a rework project with also new versions of his music by Mattias Decraene (MDCIII), Tom Soetaert (Outer) and Nele De Gussem (Uma Chine).
"The reworks offer an opportunity to delve deeper into the original songs. In this case I investigated: what appears when the piano disappears from the foreground? In 'As The Birds Fly' I suddenly saw the many layers of percussion and atmospheric electronics in the foreground. As a drummer Jonathan Bonny was always a big part of the sound of the first two albums. So together with him I worked on a new version that highlights the diversity of this percussion".
Mirek Coutigny - The Further They Ventured (LP)
Mirek Live: Listen
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”.
Icarus Tapes
Icarus Records i008, DL/MC
Listen - Buy - 8€
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
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
Looking Back: 10 Years Icarus Radio
Interview with Enola Magazine: Read
Interview with Tumult: Listen
Icarus Night NTG, Gent, 2018
Our radioshow celebrated its 10th birthday and we celebrated this 08/03/18 at NTGent in coop. with Democrazy!
We were so happy with our line-up: Andrea Belfi, Greg Fox and Dictaphone!
Review by ENOLA
Call for demos
We are looking for experimental/electronica artists who want to release their album on vinyl. Do you think your music would be suitable for our label? Please send us a copy to Bromeliastraat 13, 9040 Gent, Belgium or send it digitally to jeroen(at)icarus(dot)fm.
Release i008: Mirek Coutigny (BE): Early 2020
Release i007: Otto Lindholm (BE)
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)
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