We've started this year a new section on the site, with each month a selection of records (vinyls, CDs) that labels, artists and distributors sent to us. Contact us is you want to be listed in this section next month.

Our monthly selection always has a bit of space to feature friendly labels such as (this time) BBE Music, Perfect Toy Records, Numero Group, Soundway Records and Ninja Tune, who all kept on sending us regularly their treats. Thank you all!

Record of the month has to go to Boddhi Satva and his addictive soulful house, and Reissue of the month in our book is the upcoming Funkees compilation on Soundway, Nigerian 70s afro-rock at its finest. And we hope you'll make some other damn fine discoveries along the way!

Burnt Friedman - Bokoboko
(CD/2LP/Digital) Nonplace NON33, 2012-02-03

You won't find any of the 4 exclusive tracks from the Zen' Aku 12 inch released last summer in this new album, but you'll get 10 new instrumentals, recorded and mixed in Burnt Friedman's Berlin studio during the past three years. The sound is mesmerizing, with prepared oil barrels/steel drums, all kinds of wood and metal percussion, gongs, monochord, a home-made rubber-band guitar, organ, synthesizer, electric guitar and some appearances of wind instruments, bass and sarod, a traditional Indian string instrument. The music itself is hard to describe, the only comparisons that comes to mind are from Burnt Friedman's previous albums with Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit, this entirely instrumental recording is so hard to pinpoint to existing genres of music, it literally fits its 'Nonplace' label! This is jazz, world music, krautrock, with a 21st Century Sun Ra spirit. Try it if you're looking for something different.

Burnt Friedman - Zen Aku EP
(12") Nonplace NON31, 2011-06-10

Burnt Friedman rattles the pots and pans and also presents his latest technological breakthrough in the form of the rubber band guitar. He is careful to provide in his orchestrations the outer-rational sound of things banging into other things, or scraping across them, or being struck by a human hand. Guest appearances come from Joseph Suchy, electric guitar, Daniel Schroeter, bass, Hayden Chisholm, reeds and Takeshi Nishimoto, Sarod. The limited edition sleeve artwork was created by Berlin artist Theo Altenberg. Expect a rhythmic journey of percussion, guitar, sarod, steel pan and rubber band box. Housed in limited edition sleeve artwork.

Various - Nonplace 10th Anniversary Edition
(CD/Download) Nonplace NON28CD, 2010

With this 10th Anniversary exclusive instrumentals CD Edition, Nonplace celebrates ten years of labeldom. It's not merely a wild mixture of adventurous quality grooves, but an assembly of tunes from extremely different sources. The contributions come from Flanger (Atom™ and Friedman), Burnt Friedman, Jaki Liebezeit (Can), Hayden Chisholm and The Embassadors, Root 70, Rashad Becker, Mark Ernestus (Rhythm&Sound/Hardwax), Joseph Suchy and Prof Psygrooves. Notoriously not fitting into any category all formations present dubwise instrumental tracks or remixes of the label repertoire, making ambitious musical forms accessible but at the same time enabling the experience of utter foreignness.

Friedman & Liebezeit - Secret Rhythms 4
(CD/Download) Nonplace NON30CD, 2011-04-15

The fourth album release in the Secret Rhythms series by Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit results from a ten-year collaborative project encompassing live performances and studio sessions. What began as a rehearsal for a concert delivered at Cologne Triennale 2000 turned into a long-term exploration of the laws governing rhythm. Therefore, this fourth CD is based, like its predecessors, on a variety of rhythms seldom heard elsewhere. While the three preceding albums were dominated by guest contributions, the new production is devoted almost exclusively to Liebezeit's drum set and the Friedman-typical combination of keyboards and string instruments, all kinds of percussion and the computer. There are two appearances (tracks 1, 3) by Joseph Suchy, whose unmistakable guitar sound has left its mark on all the Secret Rhythm releases. Rashad Becker has been responsible for mastering all Nonplace titles since the first production in 2000. For the first time, Friedman and Becker co-mixed one of the album titles, a spin-off from Entsafter (Secret Rhythms 3), a track whose groove was previously used in Obscured by 5 and The Librarian (Secret Rhythms 1 and 2). The story ends with two unworldly musicians who make music for music's sake, while others, using the benefits of technology, have "moved on" and know what they want to sell with their music.

Burnt Friedman - Con Ritmo (reissue)
(CD) Nonplace NON26, 2009-03-06

The first Nonplace CD, "Con Ritmo", originally released in 2000, remastered, edited and redesigned - it contains 4 extra tracks from the late 90s electronic jazz-dub production period... Strongly advised if you haven't heard it!!

Flanger - Nuclear Jazz (Templates/Midnight Sound)
(CD) Nonplace NON21, 2007-03-30

Tracklisting :
01. Intro 0:55
02. Music To Begin With 1 3:10
03. Music To Begin With 2 4:59
04. Endless Summer 4:54
05. Options In The Fire 3:12
06. Short Note With A Few 6:20
07. Studio Tan 6:00
08. Full On Scientist 5:50
09. Lata 5:47
10. Nightbeat 1 3:52
11. Bosco's Disposable Driver 5:15
12. Midnight Sound 3:26
13. We Move 4:44
14. Human Race Race 3:53
15. Angel Of Love 3:26
16. Nightbeat 2 3:44
17. Stepping Out Of My Dream 5:43
18. Tangram 3:59 Flanger Golf Club Remix (bonus track)

Note : Total time 79:20 min. Remastered and edited re-issue of the first and second Flanger albums.

Links :
Atom™
Burnt Friedman
myspace.com/nonplace

Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit - Secret Rhythms 2
(CD/2xLP) Nonplace NON19, 2006-01-27

Tracklisting :
01. Sikkerhed (4:21)
02. The Sticks (8:16) | RealAudio
03. The Librarian (8:15)
04. Mikrokasper (3:38)
05. Niedrige Decken (8:10) | RealAudio
06. Broken Wind Repair (4:58)
07. Fearer (6:54)
08. Caracoles (4:29) CD only
08. Wirklich (3:19) LP only

Flanger - Spirituals
(CD/LP) Nonplace NON18, 2005-09-12

Burnt Friedman et Uwe Schmidt (Atom Heart, Atom™, Señor Coconut, etc.) ne lâchent pas l'affaire. Le premier vient de sortir un splendide EP/mini-album avec Jaki Liebezeit (ancien batteur de Can) et David Sylvian, avec qui il prépare un album, sur son label Nonplace, le second vient de sortir pas moins de 3 albums, "CYMK", "iMix™" et "Acid Evolution" (voir le best of 2005 pt.1), et en a deux autres de prévus pour la rentrée: un "Los Negritos" dans la lignée des "Los Samplers" et "Señor Coconut" sur son label Rather Interesting et une compilation de titres "electro-latino" sur Essay Recordings intitulée "Coconut FM". Tout cela en sans compter le 4ème opus de Flanger, le groupe réunissant les deux compères pour le plus grand bonheur des audiophiles.
En effet comment en pas reparler du choc qu'a été le premier album de Flanger, "Templates" sorti en 1999 sur Ntone/Ninja Tune? Tout d'un coup le jazz et l'électronique se mariaient sans aller contre nature. Tout d'un coup on découvrait toutes les nuances possibles dans la programmation de musique électro-acoustique. Le second album, "Midnight Sound" est celui qui a le moins bien vieilli, car trop classique, trop jazz dans sa forme. Pas assez surprenant par rapport à ce quoi nous avions pris l'habitude d'attendre des deux allemands. En 2003 sortait, toujours chez Ninja Tune, leur troisième album "Inner Space/Outer Space", véritable chef d'oeuvre de jazz-dub perdu dans l'espace de la jungle amazonienne digitale, et je ne connais encore personne qu'il l'ait usé, celui-là.
Leur nouvelle production, "Spirituals", sort elle chez Nonplace cette fois, après 3 ans de boulot à s'envoyer des pistes de Cologne à Santiago du Chili. Et elle risque d'en surprendre plus d'un, faisant la part belle à une musique d'avant-guerre, du dixieland, du ragtime jazz et du blues, du swing des années 20 à 40, des chansons acoustiques et enchanteresses, enregistrées avec tout l'éventail technique disponible aujourd'hui, que Burnt Friedman et Atom Heart maîtrisent sur le bout des doigts et mieux que quiconque. La surprise vient aussi de la présence d'un chanteur (!), Richard Pike, un australien venant d'un trio rock, accompagné par son frère Laurence, batteur de Triosk et collaborateur de Jan Jelinek, et de Hayden Chisholm au sax et à la clarinette, par ailleurs membre du groupe accompagnant Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit dans leur projet commun. Au final on tient là une nouvelle merveille de jazz, à la Cole Porter cette fois, très accessible et addictive. Vivement le concert...

Tracklisting :
01. Flanger - Funeral March
02. Flanger - Crime In The Pale Moonlight | Go Download MP3
03. Flanger - How Long Is The Wrong Way ? | Go Download MP3
04. Flanger - Down The River
05. Flanger - Music Is Our Secret Code
06. Flanger - Tiny Tina
07. Flanger - Hope To Hear From You Soon, Honey
08. Flanger - Peninsula | Go Stream Track
09. Flanger - In My Car (single version)
10. Flanger - In My Car (bolt mix)
11. Flanger - How Long Is The Wrong Way ? (extended)
...

Shank - "Do"
(Nonplace 2004)

Un sextet (batterie, basse, guitare, percussions, trompette, samplers et effets, en gros) berlinois qui enregistre un disque en une semaine en partant de zéro, que Burnt Friedman assemble en 3 mois... ça donne un petit bijou de world-dub-jazz électronique, par moments jazz-post-rock-dub, pour ceux qui aiment la foultitude des zolies zétiquettes.

links :
• Download MP3 : Shank - "Oust" extrait de la compilation "Difficult Easy Listening"
• Stream 3 tracks from the album "Do"
...