Thanks to Stefan Knappe of Drone Records and Distribution, who posted this note on the venerable experimental music label’s new batch of releases:

Cyclic Law Newsletter – December 2011 Retail

Out Now!

PETER BJÄRGÖ “The Architecture Of Melancholy” CD / Digital (41st Cycle)

Peter Bjärgö, the man behind the now legendary groups ARCANA and SOPHIA is back with his second solo album. On his first solo release “A wave of Bitterness”, we got a glimpse into the mind of a thoughtful person. Now this new release, “The Architecture Of Melancholy”, we are sent onto a journey to the darkest depths of Peter’s mind and thoughts. Melancholy was once a disease, a mental statement of chronic depression, we are now facing this illness again around the world and this album is a real journey with the melancholic mind. Titles like Bitteresque, Apathy and The Death Of Our Sun give us an idea of the aural voyage ahead. The delicate blend of soft guitars, engulfing dark ambient and the sheer power of Peter’s voice make this album a shining diamond among stones. Hope is all that is left…

Edition of 700 copies in 8 panel digipack. 7 Tracks. Running Time: 40:30

Out Now!

THERRADAEMON “Den Mørke Munnens Språk” CD / Digital (39th Cycle)

“Den mørke munnens språk”, translating to “Language of the dark mouth” is a new aural venture from Hærleif Langas (Northaunt), and definitely his most massive and ominous dark ambient project to date. Designed to open beneath you as a trapdoor, the 4 mammoth tracks on this first album are a reflection of a more sinister side of the psyche made from deep ambient structures and constantly evolving drones. Atmospheric and slowly moving it taps into the hidden maelstrom of the mind.

Edition of 500 copies. In gatefold Hub pack. 4 Tracks. Running Time 57:00

To Be Released Early January 2012

KARJALAN SISSIT “Miserere” CD / Digital (37th Cycle)

Re-issue of the second album by Karjalan Sissit, originally release in 2002 on CMI, with completely redesigned artwork and 2 additional tracks. A close follow up to their 2001 self-titled debut. Blending unsettling string arrangements and ambient passages with thundering percussion and screeching vocal passages, this second installment in the Karjalan Sissit discography definitely deserves to be made available again and be rediscovered.

Hate, humor and disintegration really have established themselves as the essential elements fueling this unique project.

Edition of 500 copies in A5 Gatefold Sleeve. 11 Tracks. Running Time 49:30

To Be Released Early January 2012

KARJALAN SISSIT “Karjalan Sissit” CD / Digital (36th Cycle)

The 2001 debut album by the legendary Karjalan Sissit, originally released on Cold Spring, is now available again with completely redesigned artwork and 2 additional tracks. This gem laid the foundations of Karjalan’s unique sound of massive orchestral arrangements and pounding percussion. A bombastic yet solemn album that laid the ground for a whole scene with it’s hard-hitting Martial / Industrial anthems. We’re honored to present once again this lost classic celebrating Karjalan Sissit’s 10th year anniversary.

Edition of 500 copies in A5 Gatefold Sleeve. 12 Tracks. Running Time 47:40

Recent Releases

VORTEX “Rockdrill” CD / Digital (35th Cycle)

Vortex is a German sound art project from :Golgotha: and Aeterna member Marcus Stiglegger, challenging the boundaries of ritual and dark ambient music. After the critically acclaimed debut album “Phanopoeia” (2008) out on Tesco Organization and the media book/soundtrack “Silence” (:Ikonen: media 2009), the new full-length album ‘Rockdrill’ continues on the same path and mobilizes acoustic instruments (guitar, percussion, piano), voice, electronics and samples to create a unique and very epic sound monument in 11 parts. Vortex is named after a modernist British art movement of the 1920s called Vorticism, headed by Ezra Pound and Wyndham Lewis. The new album ‘Rockdrill’ is especially inspired by a sculpture called ‘Rock Drill’by the Vorticist artist Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959). It was built according to his sketches in 1913-14 to symbolize ‘the terrible Frankenstein’s monster we have made ourselves into’. The sculpture had a huge influence on the Vorticist movement and inspired several cantos >by Ezra Pound (LXXXV–XCV, Section: Rock-Drill, 1956). It was destroyed during the war and cast again in bronze in 1962. Epstein himself did not like the sculpture and decided to “save” only a part of the actual figure – not the rock drill itself. The concept of this album is to reconstruct the history, mood and allegory of this piece of sculptural art as well as its impact on modern art movements. A 12 page booklet adds rare visual documents to the whole.‘Rockdrill’ by Vortex is consciously caught between archaic and modern energies, between history and present. This truly complex album transcends the frontiers of ambient soundscapes in order to awake a nearly forgotten sense of beauty and grace within modernist avant-garde by using twisted rhythm patterns, pounding industrial percussion and fragile organic ambiance.Fans of Northern European post industrial acts will appreciate this album for it sheer power and atmospheric strength while sound art listeners will slowly uncover layer after layer of this many faced composition.

Edition of 500 copies in 4 panel digi sleeve with 12 page booklet. 11 Tracks. Running Time 53:50

NEW RISEN THRONE “Loneliness Of Hidden Structures” CD / Digital (38th Cycle)

New full length album by Italy’s New Risen

Throne which marks a welcomed return to Cyclic Law. “Loneliness Of Hidden Structures” is the latest chapter of a series that began with “Whispers Of The Approaching Wastefulness” (Cyclic Law 2007) and continued on with “Crossing The Withered Regions” (Cold Meat Industry 2009). The first of this series is explained as the annunciation of the end, while the second part was expressing the advent of this end. Now this third chapter speaks of rebirth. Within the caves and ruins left by the destruction, there begins to form the first foundations and structures of a reconstruction that is in turn in constant evolution. The album’s track listing is structurally organized in order to evoke that evolution:

1. The echoes of the end that travel through the empty regions (“Into Lungs declining structures”, “Echoes from the loss”)
2. New forms listening to the “silence” of a new world (“Loneliness”, “New Risen Throne”, “Lands filled with silence and grief”)
3. Structures evolving and coming out from the shadows (“A vision of the hidden”, “Breath of growing structures”)

Filled with New Risen Throne’s now trademark sound of deep cavernous drones, processed voices and percussive moments, this new album is a superb follow up to his now impressive discography. Features exclusive remixes by Nordvargr and Northaunt.

Edition of 1000 copies. Enhanced CD with a special Video Clip of the track New Risen Throne (I), comes in a 4 panel A5 folder.

9 Tracks. Running Time 60:00

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Michael Robertson, former CEO of MP3.com and owner of MP3Tunes, I service I happen to enjoy quite a lot, writes for TechCrunch on Amazon.com defying the major labels regarding MP3 lockers. For those who don’t know, these lockers are a source where purchasers of MP3s can store their purchases and play them back in a number of devices and locations.

Some years ago, I ran a small label called Falçata-Galia (RIP), which specialized in experimental music, some of it from the ex-Soviet Union. It was utter stress, and lots of hair was lost because of it. Yet the man who brokered the label, Michael Sheppard, has mananged to soldier on with his imprint, Transparency. Crawdaddy salutes his efforts in this article here.

The headline’s a shame, as those same execs have done much to ruin the business, peddling crap to people who don’t get a chance to hear what else is out there to listen to. Still, if it keeps the RIAA and their ilk from harassing students and housewives who download a couple of tracks, so much the better.

Kathy Sandler of the Wall Street Journal reports that Virgin is working on a partnership to try to end music piracy.  Good luck.  At least they can be commended for trying out new business models, because, let’s face it, the old models are dead.

Zack Whittaker of ZDNet points out the RIAA’s atrocious behavior in harassing kids who download music. It’s getting so bad that some of the targets of this treatment are contemplating suicide.

Digital8track links to a PBS program on how the music industry fell apart.

Gogoyoko posts a link from Digital Wire on the common sense that was shown at Midem this year. The indie labels get it. They’ll be the ones with the future. If the majors wake up, they can stave off their own extinction.

The industry is one filled with scoundrels and cowards running the upper echelons into the ground. They’ve battled against any sort of change against their dominance of the business, and I don’t see them pulling their heads out of their collective arses any time soon. Still, Kate Holton of Reuters writes that many are trying to prod the music industry into accepting its fate. I’ll believe it when I see it.

When I bought for Aron’s Records some years ago, I had the pleasure of ordering some of the most amazing cassettes and LPs of experimental music from Ron Lessard of RRRecords. Rita Savard does a piece on his shop’s 25-year anniversary, and I wish Ron another 25 years of success in noise!

HT: David Cotner.