OP3 & Runess – AWSS

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Track List

1. Falling
2. Siren
3. Again
4. Forest
5. Hazel

OP3 & Runess - AWSS

‘AWSS’ (Autumn.Winter.Spring.Summer) is a collaboration between OP3 & RUNES (Manchester, UK) that features vocals for the very first time.

Minimalistic piano themes, a beautifully haunting string quartet and some well structured electronics became the perfect basis for some deep, heartfelt and ethereal at times vocals by the amazing RUNES.

With Op3 mainly focusing on composing the music, RUNES took over the lyrics and made the tracks come to life by delicately using vocals, voices and poetry.

The concept of ‘AWSS’ takes the listener to a journey as the passing of the season occurs through a story of love, pain, loss and recovery. Five songs, one year, one story, many voices.

FLTTRY128
Release Date: March 03, 2017
© Fluttery Records

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Liminal Digs – Dragonfly

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Track List

1 - Thunder
2 - Intoxicate Me
3 - Unwritten
4 - Dragonfly

Liminal Digs - Dragonfly

Liminal Digs is the name of the collaboration between indie singer-songwriter and vocalist, Mama Crow, and producer, Daniel Lofredo Rota. Dragonfly is Liminal Digs' first release. Its a short EP of collaborative songs which were recorded in a series of 3 hour recording sessions. The album is effusive and emotional, and also sublime and filled with lessons and wisdom. Mama Crow's lyrics are imbued with a sense of virtue in the face of adversity, and they are carefully woven into a backdrop of spacious atmospheres and meticulous detail. The album is full of light, and is a sort of mantra for a spiritual restoration; a release of past burdens. It rings true and delicate and speaks elegantly to the beautiful adversity that makes life such an incredible and challenging adventure.

Mama Crow and Daniel Lofredo Rota began collaborating in late 2013 after a brief chance meeting at an Oakland coffeeshop. They planned a series of recording sessions, and, after the first 3 hours, had created their first track, "Unwritten." This piece of music is a fusion between Lofredo Rota's Andean roots, and cinematic tendencies, and Mama Crow's lyrical versatility, her love of harmonies, and her deep flowing lyrics. The Track is a mantra of hope and recovery and feels like a melancholic bird's eye view of a past now gone, and would set the tone for the rest of the EP.

A deep genuine melancholy resides in their sound. it evokes the nostalgia and deep emotion of the sensitive soul infused with a sublime love of life, and true appreciation of the beauty of existence. This is at the core of this release. Genuine appreciation, beauty and poetry, space and sound, love. In a display of experimental fusion, acoustics, Latin-Folk and Haunting Indie-Alternative; this mini-album is an expression of triumph; finding and holding onto self-love in a world which can be very cold at times. This collection of music was created out of pure authenticity and in-the-moment writing. There is nothing contrived here. Dragonfly is profoundly honest compilation that speaks clearly to the soul.

FLTTRY068
Release Date:  May 21, 2014
© Fluttery Records

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The Widest Smiling Faces – Rituals

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Track List

1 - Green (For Piet)
2 - When We Were Perfect
3 - Beach
4 - Water Underneath
5 - Strange Animals
6 - Sponge

The Widest Smiling Faces - Rituals

Rituals sees a shift to electric guitars and perhaps more solid colors. Less imagery wrapped around the brown and gold of acoustic and more pictures coming from within the strings. Because acoustics so often seem to sound like just acoustics (not always, I do use an acoustic on this EP and I think it works quite well, you can really smell it), while electrics can sound more like pure colors and images. Also, indie electrics can sound so soft, while acoustics tend towards hardness, and I greatly enjoy eating soft foods, and for the same reason enjoy soft music (not soft as in "light" or" "weak", but soft as in the texture).

The recording is a little bit different perhaps, somewhat clearer? It's really not about the melodies, it's about the images (sometimes smells), "I suppose if you can't see or feel the images or smells you can hopefully enjoy the melodies." says Aviv.

The album starts on land, moves to the sky, down to the beach, into the sewers and bedrooms and bathroom floors and back to the ocean.

"I seem to write about the water a lot but it's not my fault, I was born near there. Just to sit like a sponge in my room at the bottom. This is also my first release composed as a unit, rather than being a collection of recordings from various periods as my debut album was. I hope you like it."

REVIEWS

Gezeitenstrom / André

Wonderful Sounds invite you to dream

As the temperature outside slowly drops it's not wrong to dream about the summer again. From these dreams come wonderful sounds from the band The Widest Smiling Faces and Aviv Cohn, a young and talented musician from NY.

Aviv Cohn invites all of us for daydreaming about dancing butterflies under drifting clouds in the style of the British July Skies with his new EP "Rituals". In 2009, Aviv published his debut album, which was actually a compilation of all of his singles published up to that point.

With nods to shoegaze and distinctive arrangements in lo-fi, "Rituals" is a real pleasure to listen to. The gently tinged singing is seamlessly integrated for absolutely first-class imagery. It is different from the previous album which had more acoustic songs and the New Yorker has preferred now to use more electronic sounds. The song "Sponge" has particularly impressed me with its strong feelings and emotions. Aviv marked the EP with his own words: "The recording is a little bit different perhaps, somewhat clearer? It's really not about the melodies, it's about the images” I entirely agree with this statement. "Rituals" is showcase piece from a young and talented musician. For anyone who likes daydreaming and needs a soundtrack to accompany it , "Rituals" is highly recommended. It's got some good warmth for those who need it these days.

Sirens Sound

The Widest Smiling Faces is one artist that truly baffles me to bits, it’s more of a mind boggling listen that keeps you wondering how on earth did lo-fi tunes end up so beautiful and charming. And by charming sound I mean so inspiring that you can’t even concentrate on the sound as your mind ponders in all directions. What’s even trickier is that you’ll find yourself one step closer to the sound on each and every listen.

Rituals is an EP I’ve heard over 15 times since the release date and every time I played Rituals, let it be lonely during dark hours through a big headphone or channeled via a complete stereo sound system with a few of my friends, either way I’m tending to grasp the entire concept of lo-fi deeply as the excessively tender or overindulgent tunes express beauty through ambiguity.

This six track EP holds an absolute vagueness cherished with strong words and unreasoning feeling that nourishes and conveys an array of emotions from its root. In the end you’ll come to understand that [ Rituals EP ] is “not an attempt to capture” but it’s literally capturing visuals through sound and seizing emotions that can take you back to your childhood memories.

The best way to listen to Rituals is laying down at night on top of a roof while gazing at the starry skies and allowing the subtle sound to slowly invoke the tiniest beauty that hide beneath the surface of the bigger picture. PHENOMENAL."

Beach Sloth

If vulnerability ever needs a soundtrack, The Widest Smiling Faces should suffice. ‘Rituals’ is a whispered from far away. Aviv never raises his voice, not once. This works to his benefit. By keeping the whole thing at a hushed whisper, he’s able to basically tug at the heartstrings. The Widest Smiling Faces is a tender, touching work, dealing with the morbid curiosity of childhood.

Maybe it is Aviv’s voice, but the vocal style is reminiscent of a morbid child. It is hard to completely explain. Even the instrumentation behind these songs is sparse. Nothing is particularly ornate. Yes, the work is informed heavily by post-rock (you can hear Explosions in the Sky influencing the opener ‘Green (for Piet)’ and the dreamy, mellow closer ‘Sponge’.

Benoit Pioulard would be another close comparison. Unlike Benoit’s work though, The Widest Smiling Faces isn’t particularly experimental. Instead, the music benefits from Aviv’s straightforward approach to songwriting. The best two songs are the simplest in execution: ‘Water Underneath’ which is tragically beautiful and ‘Strange Animals’. ‘Strange Animals’ is as low-key as a song can possibly get. This is probably what so many Emo artists tried doing years ago and failed. Everything is so simple and low-volume’ the vocals whisper and mumble, the guitar goes at the pace of molasses. It is the most touching piece on the whole EP.

‘Rituals’ is a delightfully low-key affair. The Widest Smiling Faces seems to be a strange name for the group, especially with the tragic mood going on in most of the pieces. This reflects the hope after sadness, the release after crying.

Caleidoscoop / Jan Willem Broek

I have already written about American label Fluttery Receords and their post-rock catalog with the artists all over the world while I was reviewing Mooncake. In addition, they often release different kinds of music, mostly from experimental. And sometimes it is a mix of everything. An entirely unique way, that is the case with the New York, The Widest Smiling Faces, the solo project of Aviv Cohn. At its eponymous debut in 2009, he still brings an extrovert combination of shoegaze, noise, experimental music and post-rock. Now there is the mini CD Rituals , which he strikes a very different way. You can still hear the patchy aforementioned genres back in six tracks, but the pace is down, the intensity is gone, and the vocals are intimate. The music leaves more to the imagination of the listener. But the overall sound tends more towards cross-fertilization of an introverted singer-songwriter music, lo-fi, folk, rustic post-rock, dub and ambient guitar. This is also great. He overwhelms this not by volume but by energetic, attractive and mostly melancholic songs with fragile vocals. It is a kind of subtle emotion bombs, deep under the skin crawls. To get an idea listen to it, this also falls somewhere between The Declining Winter, Jessica Bailiff, Yonlu, His Name Is Alive and Mazzy Star. Big by staying small and therefore very pleasing gem.

FLTTRY024
Release Date:  September 20, 2011
© Fluttery Records

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KRAPP – A Void On A Cradle

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Track List

1 - Artefact
2 - Hole
3 - La Porte
4 - Passe Passe
5 - Nursery Tales
6 - Mary Marches
7 - Les Vieilles
8 - Papiers
9 - Slope
10 - Cicada
11- Lost Flight
12 - Misogyne

KRAPP - A Void On A Cradle

Indie band KRAPP releases their debut album “A Void On A Cradle” on Fluttery Records. This duo create music influenced by different artists such as Zu, Portishead, David Sylvian, Alain Bashung, Bela Bartok or 31 Knots. Their music style might remind jazz, rock, electro, pop or classical music but they don't fit any of those categories.

This twelve pieces collection turns around poetry in English and in French that swings between surrealistic tales and non-sense joke. The almost kinetic sounds on this album approach both industrial music or ambient soundscapes where ordinary life objects take their place in the instrumentation as electronics, guitars, cello, saxophones, bass, piano or drums.

Laura G. / Coxerfly :

“Krapp, a name that can make you smile or be confused as the sound they produce is in opposition with the faeces you're waiting for!! It's a poetical and soft music, sometimes bitter or troubling. Olga Svobodova's voice seems like a gentle murmur that can remind Björk and that give to this pieces in english and in french an unusual tone with the music composed like movements around the lyrics by Kevin Brosse. It seems like a strange atmosphere or an unique color in which you can loose yourself with words and musical events. (…) Krapp makes you thinking and dreaming as you're swept away by this tunes in poetry.”

REVIEWS:

I'Oreille à l'envers

KRAPP, French-british duo rich in hearing colors, where the tawny and björklike voice of Olga Svobodova releases all her beauty on musical poetry of Kevin Brosse, based on jazz, electro, rock and other experimental soundscapes.

A dense and light kaleidoscope music, with flexible emotional ambiances, that you can appreciate on the first album " A void on a Cradle" recently available. Twelve tracks to savour where the duo have been surrounded with a couple of guests, most of them members of the collective Naxoprod from Rennes as Cédric Bouvet (saxophonist in heraclite), Florent Garnaud (guitarist in Flying Penguins), Elodie Nicolas (drummer in To Melema), Safya K. (cellist), Samuel Anger (guitarist in Olgoj Korkoj) et Vincent Hollier-Larousse (drummer in ENGINe).

KRAPP : a striking hearing universe, multifaced, to be dicovered as soon as possible!

Les Biscuits Dalice

I'm crazy about experiences-projects, innovative, that is brought up on an literary heritage, ingested and altered. So when I discovered Krapp, I directly wanted to introduce this project. But who's Krapp? From the foundations, It is an old man, born from the quill of Samuel Beckett in his short play Krapp's Last Tape (1958/1960). Krapp, younger, recorded his thoughts, soliloquized and loneliness. A couple of years later, he listens again his own story, confronted to the void that surronds him. Krapp and I, we know each other well. We have spent much time together, when I was student : My final project for my degree in theatrical studies was about the invention of a scenography for Krapp's Last Tape. I think I fed enough with silences speaking about Beckett, to have left an indelible trace in my way to apprehend mine.

That's not directly about Beckett's character that I want to talk about here, but about the musical band Krapp, mainly directed by Kevin Brosse and Olga Svobodova. I invit you to listen to their album A Void on a Cradle which was inspired by the Beckett's work.

Intrigued, I asked Kevin to explain the origin and the sequence of their process. Here is his answer :

"From the origin, the Krapp project was born with the envy of exploring a musical heritage. The idea was to start with already existing music, music that we like or liked and that have left something on our own, that have influenced our approach to the music, refined our tastes and created our demand on originality, spontaneity and curiosity. These rock music ( for the most of them) form a part of us even if a distance afterwards have been imposed with the discovery of new sounds, new musical approach. This distance allows a replaying. The discovery of Beckett and in particular Krapp's Last Tape have deeply left a mark on mebecause I saw inthe approach of Beckett's character some similitudes with the envy of replaying (the fact that he listens to old tapes again that he has recorded in the past and to comment them with all that the life he had between these points in the past and the present involves in the question of his own existence).

FLTTRY022
Release Date:  June 21, 2011
© Fluttery Records

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Liminal Digs gives indie-rock & folk experimental hugs

Liminal Digs is the name of the collaboration between Singer-Songwriter and Vocalist, Mama Crow, and Producer, Daniel Lofredo Rota. The duo brushed hearts at an Oakland coffee shop and soon thereafter began to produce a series of tracks, the first of which, “Unwritten,” was the beginning of their debut EP, “Dragonfly.” Combining Meticulous production and […]

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Our email traffic with AL_X

We haven’t recevied any news in the last two months from Manchester’s electronica hero AL_X (a.k.a Alex Dunford) and we decided the ring his bell. We started the conversation in a funny way, making a reference to another Alex who is a sexy female indie pop singer (written as AL-X).   I think we succeded […]

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“signalsundertests” release Nascent on Fluttery Records

Richard (Ricky) Graham is a highly inspired and enthusiastic musician and music producer originally from Northern Ireland, now based in the USA. His music productions encompass everything from ambient to experimental to progressive music. Graham has toured extensively throughout the UK, Europe, Asia and US promoting various music releases since 2006, recorded various sessions for […]

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