Michael Karoli – SIDE-LINE

‘Can Live in Paris 1973’ out in February

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 12:05:09 +0000

(Photo by Spoon Records) The second phase of the Can live series, “Can Live in Paris 1973”, is set for release on vinyl, CD and digitally on 23 February 2024 via Mute and Future Days (the new EU label created by Spoon Records).

“Live in Paris 1973” finds Can for a performance recorded at L’Olympia in Paris on 12 May 1973, marking the first of the live series to feature Damo Suzuki on vocals. From 1970-73 the core line up of Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit, Michael Karoli, and Holger Czukay were joined by Japanese improviser and vocalist Suzuki. They met after a chance encounter while Suzuki was busking in Munich.

Here is an excerpt of “Can Live In Paris 1973”.

This new album shows the band at a particularly important stage of their career, with two of their most important albums – “Tago Mago” and “Ege Bamyasi” – recently released. The recording itself was uncovered and pieced together from recordings within the Spoon Records vaults and those sent in by helpful fans, and brought into the 21st century by founding member Irmin Schmidt and producer / engineer René Tinner who have compiled and edited all the albums in this series.

The new release follows “Can Live in Brighton 1975”, “Can Live in Stuttgart 1975” and “Can Live in Cuxhaven 1976“.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Xqui and Dead Voices On Air connect on the ‘Pennine’ album

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 11:32:50 +0000

The collaborative album “Pennine” by Xqui and Dead Voices On Air will be released on July 25, 2023 through Re:Mission Entertainment, a label based in Oklahoma City. This marks the first collaboration between Re:Mission Entertainment and eMERGENGY heARTS, a label from Austin, Texas.

For those unfamiliar with the geography of England, the Pennines is a range of upland hills that run through various counties including Yorkshire and Lancashire. These hills are characterized by deep valleys and have played a significant role in shaping the country’s landscape, particularly during the industrial revolution when towns and cities emerged with chimneys, mills, and railway viaducts.

Xqui resides in Lancashire, while Spybey is based in Yorkshire, establishing a natural connection between them.

Since entering the “no underground” scene in April 2018, Xqui has gained recognition as an innovative and prolific artist, drawing comparisons to Eno, Basinski, and Mansell. Using a mobile phone, Xqui captures field recordings which are then manipulated using apps and combined with found sound clips to create his tracks. Xqui has garnered attention from peers and collaborated with notable artists such as Vince Clarke, Neil Arthur, and Mark Stewart.

Dead Voices on Air, also known as Mark Spybey, has continued his musical journey since his time with Zoviet-France in the 1980s and later as a member of Download. With over 90 releases to his name, Spybey has collaborated with musicians like Graham Lewis of Wire, Michael Karoli of Can, Faust, Robert Hampson, Simon Fisher Turner, and many others. After residing in Vancouver, he has returned to his hometown in the north of England. In recent years, Spybey has released his work through Emergency Hearts, a label based in Austin, Texas, featuring albums and remixes with artists such as Lee Scratch Perry, Mark Stewart, Coil, Corporate Uncle, and Muzlimgauze.

“Pennine” was produced between March and April 2023 in Lancashire and North Yorkshire, and it consists of seven tracks.

Below, you can listen to a preview of one of the tracks from the album and explore the various merchandise items available with this release.

Pennine by Xqui and Dead Voices On Air

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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CORRECTION: Dead Voices on Air and Snowbeasts release 2nd album ‘—-X—-‘ on Re:Mission Entertainment TODAY

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 07:40:47 +0000

Out today via Re:Mission Entertainment is the second album, “—-X—-“, in an ongoing collaboration between Dead Voices on Air and Snowbeasts. For this release the two bands took a slightly different approach during the recording. Most of the songs were passed back and forth via file transfer until the songs felt finished. “This resulted in a more composed, or thematic feel to the album, which features more lyrical content”, so the label emphasizes.

The release is out as a download and as a limited CD digipak (100 copies) via Bandcamp (where you can order it. A special T-shirt is also available for ordering.

Spybey’s lyrical content continues to be preoccupied by the political challenges of our time, believing that we have entered a new era of autocracy. He believes that we are in danger of being seduced by the incessant barrage of lies, half-truths, trolling and allegations. That we are being wilfully misled by petty tyrants, upper class twits, the filthy rich, pathological liars and narcissists.

The duo says: “We are oppressed through the weaponisation of fear, in a vain attempt to obscure the political and strategic ineptness of our politicians. The enemy is anyone who dares to think or act differently, or who challenges the kind of beliefs that have plagued mankind: hatred of others, hatred of minorities, hatred of those who seek to instil hope and compassion into our societies.”

Spybey specifies even further: “I’m 60 and I’m still pissed off. Perhaps more pissed off than ever. I confess I find it ever so hard to believe that with all of the advances that humans have made during my lifetime, all of the wonderful things we have achieved, that our countries (the USA and the UK) have ended up electing, being led and represented by people like Trump and Johnson. I can’t believe that anyone could be stupid enough to believe that the world is a safer and better place because of their contribution, or lack of it to the maintenance of peace, stability and wellness. To all of you who say that musicians shouldn’t get involved in politics, I have this to say. I make music because I am able to do it. It’s my right to create and by doing so I am afforded a voice and a platform. It’s one of the many privileges of living in a ‘free society,’ (whatever that means). I make music because I want to and if I didn’t think that by doing so that I couldn’t reach out to people and to respectfully challenge the status quo, in an attempt to make some kind of meaningful contribution to society, I’d quit tomorrow, pack up and go away. For Trump and Johnson, you can easily add another dozen or so ‘world’ leaders names to the list by the way. Politicians are not all the same, and if you think that, then I’d like to respectfully suggest that you might want to do something about it. We deserve better. So yeah, when I started to write lyrics for this record, I really couldn’t avoid mining some of these feelings and I’m kind of unapologetic about it. I don’t like to offend people but enough is enough folks, we deserve better.”

Simon Paul, a well known graphic artist from Toronto, Canada provided the artwork, which plays on a number of themes from the album. The CD was mastered by another member of the Dead Voices on Air family, Anatoly Tokee Grinberg from Moscow.

Here’s the album itself.

—-X—- by :dead voices on air: snowbeasts:

About Snowbeasts

Snowbeasts is the duo of Robert Galbraith and Elizabeth Virosa. The project was formed in 2014 in Providence RI after a series of heavy snowstorms. Earlier releases were cinematic modular landscapes and droning dark ambient while later tracks can be more beat oriented.

Snowbeasts has numerous releases scattered across their own Component Recordings and Paris’s MTronic. They have also recently completed a trio of albums with beat oriented noise artist, Solypsis including two for Ohm Resistance.

Along with Snowbeasts, Virosa and Galbraith produce techno under the name Obscure Formats and electronic dance as Pattern Behavior.

About Dead Voices on Air

Spybey started his career in the North-East of England with Zoviet France in the late eighties before moving to Vancouver. It was here that Dead Voices On Air were formed. Spybey also worked under the name Propeller and was an original member of Download, who included members of Skinny Puppy. Spybey was the voice of their 1996 release, “The Eyes of Stanley Pain”.

After leaving Download he started a series of collaborations, appearing on over 50 albums in a five-year period. Perhaps his most significant collaboration was being asked to be part of CAN guitarist Michael Karoli’s band Sofortkontakt! and appearing at the CAN 30th anniversary shows in 1999. Spybey was a close friend of Michael Karoli prior to his death in 2001 and had toured with him as part of legendary CAN vocalist Damo Suzuki’s Network in 1998 in North America, appearing in the German TV film by Peter Braatz, “On the Air”.

Spybey has recorded, toured and played live with numerous collaborators including Faust, Michael Rother (Neu!) and Dieter Moebius (Cluster), members of The Legendary Pink Dots, Mick Harris (Scorn, Painkiller), Jarboe (Swans), Simon Fisher-Turner, Richard Sanderson, James Plotkin (Flux, Old, Scorn), Robert Hampson (Loop/Main), Jochen Arbeit (Einzturzende Neubaten), Darryl Neudorf and Sugarpill (Abintra), Not Breathing, Pigface and Martin Atkins.

He has worked with a number of record companies, including Kranky, Nettwerk, Invisible, Cold Spring, U.M.P and Soleilmoon. Spybey was part of the band Beehatch with the late Phil Western of Download, who released three albums and toured Europe. In 2004 he formed Reformed Faction, a duo with founding member of Zoviet France and Rapoon mainstay Robin Storey. The band have released a number of albums and have played live in both Europe and North America. He now resides in his native Yorkshire, in the UK.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Finally out after 10 years: collaborative album by the experimental / industrial duo Jochen Arbeit and Mark Spybey

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 14:18:26 +0000

Out on December 14th via Re:Mission Entertainment is the album “The Camel Corps and Other Stories” by the experimental / industrial duo Jochen Arbeit and Mark Spybey. You will know Jochen Arbeit from his work with Einstürzende Neubauten and Automat, while Mark Spybey has been active with Dead Voices On Air and Download. Among others that is.

Mark was introduced to Jochen via Robin Rimbaud of Scanner. Mark then invited Jochen to contribute to a collaborative project whereby he teamed with various friends to create a number of 7 inch singles. The single was never released but the pair enjoyed the experience enough to go on to record enough material for a full length album.

That was back in 2011. Ten years elapsed before they talked about releasing it.

Mark explains: “Ten years seems like a lot of time and I guess it is. I can recall that we felt that the best way of finishing the album was for me to either send Jochen the project files so that he might do some of the finished mixes or that, preferably, I go to Berlin to spend time with him finishing up the project. In the end I guess life and experiences just took over and we didn’t manage to get together. Earlier this year I listened to the mixes, which I really liked and sent them to Jochen with a suggestion that we release the album, as is. Thankfully he agreed!”

Most of the material on “The Camel Corps and Other Stories” was assembled from sounds that Jochen sent to Mark: fractured rhythms, and textured processed guitars.

You can pre-order it already on Bandcamp.

The Camel Corps and Other Stories by Jochen Arbeit and Mark Spybey

About Jochen Arbeit

Jochen Arbeit moved to Berlin in 1980 and became part of the arts collective Geniale Dilettanten. In 1983 he joined the
instrumental band Die Haut, and recorded and toured extensively.

In 1997 he joined Einzturzende Neubaten and is still an integral part of this legendary band. His other projects include Automat, The Jever Mountain Boys, Alert!, Abq, Martin Dean, Richard Ruin, Latin Lovers and the arts project Stupid Green. He has collaborated with people such as Scanner, TM Schneider and members of Larsen.

About Mark Spybey

Mark Spybey started his career briefly working with Zoviet:France, before forming Dead Voices on Air and joining Download with members of Skinny Puppy whilst living in Vancouver. He was a member of Can guitarist Michael Karoli’s band, Sofortkontakt!

Over the years he has collaborated extensively with a wide variety of artists such as Damo Suzuki, Martin Atkins, Jarboe and works with ex-Zoviet:France member Robin Storey, from the band Rapoon in the project Reformed Faction.

He now lives in the north of England.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Can announce ‘Live In Brighton 1975’ to be released December 3 – listen to a first excerpt

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 15:20:10 +0000

(Photo by Spoon Records) Mute and Spoon Records have released details of the second in a series of Can live album releases. “Live in Brighton 1975” will be released December 3 on limited edition triple gold vinyl, double CD, and digital platforms.

Sleeve notes for the release were written by Can biographer, author, and editor Rob Young and British journalist Kris Needs. The latter was involved in several live Can shows at the Friars club in Aylesbury, England between 1973-1977.

The Can Live series has taken the best of the bootlegged recordings and – overseen by founding member Irmin Schmidt and producer / engineer Rene Tinner – run them through the wringer of 21st century technology to bring you these vital historical documents in the best quality versions possible.

Here’s an excerpt from what to expect.

About Can

Can was a German experimental rock band formed in Cologne in 1968 by the core quartet of Holger Czukay (bass, tape editing), Irmin Schmidt (keyboards), Michael Karoli (guitar), and Jaki Liebezeit (drums). The group cycled through several vocalists, most prominently the American-born Malcolm Mooney (1968–70) and the Japanese-born Damo Suzuki (1970–73), as well as various temporary members.

Coming from backgrounds in the avant-garde and jazz, the members of Can blended elements of psychedelic rock, funk, and noise on influential albums such as Tago Mago (1971), Ege Bamyasi (1972) and Future Days (1973).[7] Can also had occasional commercial success, with singles such as “Spoon” and “I Want More” reaching national singles charts. They have been widely hailed as pioneers of the German krautrock scene, and a considerable influence on subsequent rock, post-punk, ambient, and electronic music.

More interesting for many of our readers is that Jaki Liebezeit would go on to record with numerous musicians, such as Jah Wobble and Philip Jeck, with whom he produced an album for Jah Wobble’s 30 Hertz Records, and contributed drums and percussion to many albums as a guest musician over the years, such as the Depeche Mode album “Ultra” and Brian Eno’s album “Before and After Science”.

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Dark ambient act Dead Voices On Air joined by Snowbeasts on new album

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 08:01:56 +0000

“Dead Voices On Air : Snowbeasts” is the newest album by the dark ambient acts Dead Voices On Air and Snowbeasts. For those who might have forgotten, Dead Voices on Air is Mark Spybey’s experimental and industrial project formed after his departure from Zoviet France. Dead Voices on Air has collaborated with artists such as Not Breathing and cEvin Key of Skinny Puppy.

But back to the joined effort which started out when Dead Voices On Air’s Mark Spybey – who played at a festival in Providence RI – was helped out by Rob Galbraith from the band Snowbeasts. He drove Mark back to Boston to catch his flight home. It resulted in Rob and Mark eventually talking about working together.

During the first Covid lockdown, in the summer of 2020, the duo started working on a new Dead Voices on Air album. Rob and his partner Beth sent so much music to Mark that when he started to assemble the finished project, he worked out that it was at least a double album’s worth of material. He suggested that the bulk of the work that Rob and Beth had contributed might work as a Dead Voices on Air and Snowbeasts joint CD.

Even the artwork seems to have been a collaborative effort as the band’s artwork guy Marco Roberti assembled the sleeve for the CD from photographs by Rob, Beth and Mark. The CD was mastered by another member of the Dead Voices on Air family, Anatoly Grinberg from Moscow.

The album is out now via Re:Mission (inlcuding as a limited CD edition of just 100 copies), you can check it below.

:snowbeasts: dead voices on air: by :dead voices on air: snowbeasts:

About Snowbeasts

Snowbeasts is the duo of Robert Galbraith and Elizabeth Virosa. The project was formed in 2014 in Providence RI. Earlier releases were cinematic modular landscapes and droning dark ambient while later tracks can be more beat oriented.

Snowbeasts has numerous releases scattered across their own Component Recordings and the fine Paris based label M-Tronic. They have also recently completed a trio of albums with beat oriented noise artist, Solypsis including two for Ohm Resistance.

Along with Snowbeasts, Virosa and Galbraith produce techno under the name Obscure Formats and electronic dance as Pattern Behavior.

About Dead Voices On Air

Spybey started his career in the North-East of England with Zoviet France in the late eighties before moving to Vancouver. It was here that Dead Voices On Air were formed. Spybey also worked under the name Propeller and was an original member of Download, which included members of Skinny Puppy. Spybey was the voice of “The Eyes of Stanley Pain” in 1996.

After leaving Download he started a series of collaborations, appearing on over 50 albums in a five-year period including that of CAN guitarist Michael Karoli’s band Sofortkontakt!. Spybey was a close friend of Michael Karoli prior to his death in 2001 and toured with him as part of legendary CAN vocalist Damo Suzuki’s Network in 1998 in North America, appearing in the German TV film by Peter Braatz, “On the
Air”.

Spybey was part of the band Beehatch with the late Phil Western of Download, who released three albums and toured Europe. In 2004 he formed Reformed Faction, a duo with founding member of Zoviet France and Rapoon mainstay Robin Storey. The band has released a number of albums and have played live in both Europe and North America.

He now resides in his native Yorkshire, in the UK.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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R.I.P. Can co-founder Holger Czukay

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 08:47:09 +0000

Can musician Holger Czukay is no more. The Cologne musician and co-founder of the band Can died at the age of 79 years in his studio – an old cinema based in Weilerswist – which he had converted into the apartment in recent years. The cause of death is yet to be determined. , Czukay died only a few days after his wife Ursula, who died on July 28th on her 55th birthday.

Holger Czukay revolutionized the musical world from 1968 to 1978 with the band Can. Czukay founded Can in 1968 together with Irmin Schmidt. Both had studied with the Cologne composer Karlheinz Stockhausen and the duo was joined later on by the late Michael Karoli (he died in 2001 at the age of 53) and Jaki Liebezeit (he died in January 2017, 78 years old).

The band knew it’s international breakthrough in 1971 with the music for the Francis Durbridge crime drama “The Knife”. Through albums such as “Monster Movie” (1969), “Tago Mago” (1971), “Ege Bamyasi” (1972) and “Future Days” (1973), the band exerted a considerable influence on avant-garde, experimental, post-punk, ambient, new wave and electronic music.

After the end of Can, Czukay went on a solo endeavour – with the album “Der Osten Ist Rot” and the single “Cool In The Pool”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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CAN announces ‘The Singles’, a brand new collection of all of CAN’s single releases

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 18:00:24 +0000

Out on June 16, 2017 on triple vinyl, download, CD and streaming services is “The Singles”, a brand new collection of all of CAN’s single releases. This is the first time CAN’s singles will be presented together.

You can listen to the rare 1971 7″ single release “Turtles Have Short Legs” right below. This was the band’s third single, never appeared on a studio album and was recorded around the time of the “Tago Mago” sessions with the line up of Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit, Irmin Schmidt and Damo Suzuki.

In related news, on Saturday April 8th Irmin Schmidt will conduct the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in London marking CAN’s 50th anniversary year. He will be presenting the world premiere of an original orchestral work composed by Schmidt and Gregor Schwellenbach, “CAN Dialog”, which will include quotations of some of the band’s most well-known pieces. In addition Irmin Schmidt will also conduct the world premiere of the concert version of “La Fermosa, Ballett-Suite” by Irmin Schmidt. The second half of the show provides an entirely different experience of CAN material, as realized by The CAN Project, a specially curated supergroup brought together by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore featuring CAN’s first singer Malcolm Mooney, Steve Shelley, Deb Googe, James Sedwards, Pat Thomas, Valentina Magaletti and Tom Relleen.

And the CAN festivities will continue in 2018 as in Spring 2018, Faber & Faber are publishing a new book devoted to CAN, “All Gates Open”. The special edition will come in two volumes: one will be the first complete, authorized biography of the band written by Rob Young and the second, “CAN Kiosk” by Irmin Schmidt, is a collage of thoughts, visuals and interviews.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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