March 4, 2010
Martin Buttrich's "Crash Test" Album on Desolat
We’re excited to announce that renowned composer and producer Martin Buttrich will release “Crash Test” on Desolat this month! Whether listened to while driving on the highway or on a massive speaker stack at next summer’s festivals, one thing is for sure: Crash Test will splinter preconceptions. The album is a compilation of tracks, picked from among many works he has created over the last 15 months at his Hannover studio and various spaces and places worldwide. Each song pays testament to this Grammy-nominated artist’s fluid approach to music composition - an ability to converse with machines, and dive deep into the circuitry of a song. Buttrich has spent recent years developing a sound that appeals to both sides of the brain: having dropped records on labels such as Planet E, Four:Twenty, Cocoon, Poker Flat and Desolat that encompass the entire spectrum between dreaminess, intuition, warmth, melancholy, and highly calibrated dancefloor precision. Meanwhile his catalogue stretches round some of the most influential dance tracks heard around the globe since 1992. Crash Test is a long player, a four to the floor album that can be listened to from start to finish; an organic sequence of shifting moods to sublimate existing minimal house or techno paradigms. The LP is shaded with bass weight: a reflective, meandering interpretation of the grooves that have always inspired Buttrich: echoes of hip hop, jazz, reggae and soul. Emotive tangents hover, punctuated with found sounds and textures recorded in public spaces. This album is intended as an expression of a certain time and space: a collection of tracks that could only have been woven together at this turbulent point in history. The album contains more acoustic and analog instruments than Martin Buttrich usually uses, and attempts to bridge a gap between imagined and audible worlds. A bridge from the cosy confines of a studio to the outer spaces, in which each tune is re-contextualised.
February 22, 2010
Kasper Bjoerke fantastic new Video out now:
Long expected , now Out: Bjoerke finally unleashes"Efficient Machine", one of the best singles of the recently released LP/CD "Standing on Top of Utopia".
The overall very promising album and artist are right up our alley for the this winter drives into Spring season.
The Perfect Soundtrack to go out again hear the ice crackling beat the melancholy and see the sun come out!
Check out the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW5JkZo-F1w
February 11, 2010
and.id back to back on mobilee
Mobilee is back-or perhaps we should say back to Back to Back-with the fourth installment of its compilation and DJ-mix series. mobilee’s Back to Back compilation series has evolved significantly since its inception, with the second disc of each compilation presenting a unique take on mobilee’s music. Back to Back Volume Four, compiled and performed by And.id and B.A.N.D., continues this evolution with a two-disc extravaganza that is unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. While Disc 1 compiles highlights from mobilee’s discography over the past year, Disc 2 consists of jazz interpretations of classic mobilee tracks, all of which have been painstakingly recorded, arranged, and re-edited by And.id. These refreshing takes on some of mobilee’s best tracks over the years were recorded during live studio sessions with jazz musicians, whose use of real instruments in performing mobilee tracks-not to mention And.id mixing and arranging-breathes new life into these time-tested anthems. The tracks selected for the first disc do well in showcasing mobilee’s current musical diversity, with hard-hitting techno from Pan-Pot ("Confronted"), forward-thinking house from GummiHz ("Sleepless Nights") and experimental downtempo from Exercise One ("No News Today") being among the tracks that make the cut. Recent signees Dan Curtin and Hector rub up against new tracks from old-timers, amongst whom Anja Schneider, Marcin Czubala, and Sebo K are also included. An exclusive track courtesy of And.id also makes it debut on this disc. The second disc is a ride entirely of its own as And.Id takes classic mobilee tracks and filters them through the lens of jazz with the help of his B.A.N.D., comprised of both recent Berklee College of Music as well as seasoned studio musicians. But don’t be fooled: these aren’t just jazz covers. And.id has gone one step further, editing and arranging the recorded instrumentals into an incredibly unique final product.
January 4, 2010
was says happy new year!
wordandsound is wishing you a fantastic, healthy, save and fulfilling 2010!
Finally we are in our teens and back to business! We want to say THANK YOU for all the support you gave us in 2009 and are looking forward to working with and for you in 2010 - stuffed with so many great releases, artists and labels - that much we can promise!
We are back now from our holidays and are ready to take your orders again!
December 1, 2009
WAS exclusively distributes Slices DVD Mag
WAS from now on distributes the highly acclaimed quarterly electronic music DVD magazine SLICES.
Please also note that WAS is the worldwide exclusive distributor for the Tartelet label of cover stars Whomadewho as well as for featured label Smallville and the imprints of featured artist DJ Sneak ( Zmag ), Jesse Rose ( Made to Play ), Solomun ( Diynamic ), Kasper Bjoerke ( HFN ) and Mathias Kaden ( Vakant ) among many others.
Slices will be shipping from December 10th, 2009 onwards
November 27, 2009
The 10th Season of Cocoon
Sven Väth is a DJ. The turntables are his medium of choice. But his fans and followers rather perceive him as some kind of a magician, a spirit, a shaman. Although Väth's work transcends into performance art, architecture and design, his preferred way of communication is music. Techno and House are his inborn language, his most immediate way of expression. Like few other musicians, Väth manages to push his music beyond the limitations of certain musical styles. He opens up towards his crowd in a deep and profound way: Mysteriously, Väth builds an incredible connection with everybody in the room.
The past season was a very special one for Cocoon. Väth has just won the Ibiza DJ Award as best DJ and the award for the best set of the summer for a faboulous back2back set with Luciano. Sven and his collaborators celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Cocoon Parties at Club Amnesia in Ibiza. During these ten years him and his dedicated crew made the Cocoon Nights one of the most beloved electronic events on the island. People from all over word visited the place to celebrate the most exciting musicians of today. A Cocoon season is not completed without the concluding Mix-Album, on which Väth merges all facets of the club sound of today into a double CD. With the tenth volume of the Season-Series, he finalizes the first decade of Cocoon's activities on this very special place. Väth always emphasized the island's unique atmosphere in the Mediterranean Sea. Ibiza can be quite dark at times, is a frequently repeated comment of his. You might climb the highest mountains or travel to most remote beaches, but this might not be it. The Cocoon parties' ecstasy turns them into some sort of modern man's pilgrimage. Väth invents Ibiza as a place where one discovers the delights of electronic music. Väth's journey into music enables to open up emotionally, to our deeper self. Ibiza is the place to leave everyday life behind turning into another form of reality: beauty and madness created by the reality of electronic music.
The Sound of the Season-Series is the most enduring series of Mix-CDs of a single artist. It tells the story of the second decade of Techno and House in ten chapters. The tenth season might be Väth's most surprising mix so far. Not only summing up the highlight of 2009's clublife but also an outlook of what will happen in 2010 - and maybe in the whole new decade. The hitmakers of the zero years are hardly present on this album. In his visionary mode of thinking, Väth introduces a whole new generation of artists, who might accompany him through the second decade of Cocoon in Ibiza. Musicians like Alejandro Mosso from Argentina, Marc Marzenit from Spain or Ilario Alicante from Italy form an international network of talented young artists who have left the formative distinction between Techno and House behind. Some of Väth's Season-Mixes are divided into a night and a day chapter. The new night-mix might be the most subtle and quiet one in the series. Väth does not compete with the new house lovers, rather seduces them with tender grooves and charming sounds. As one of the very few DJs, Väth manages to cover all shades of electronic music: he fuses subtle electronic sounds with epic breaks, tribal chants with futuristic beats. “The Sound of the Tenth Season” captures moments of beauty and madness, of elegance and intensity. And it reaches beyond the musical level: A DVD will be also part of the pack. It documents the second Cocoon that Väth created in the unique place. It contains a 45-minute-long live-mix of the master, a series of interviews containing Sven himself, Richie Hawtin, Ricardo Villalobos, Loco Dice and Johannes Goller, promoter of Cocoon Ibiza, as well as a cut of Underwold's live performance and several “Making-of” trailers.
