Ever prolific netlabel Kikapu decides to take a holiday from its consistent release schedule for a few months and, to keep us occupied gives us the ambitious Wein, Weib und Gesang MP3 compilation. Roughly translated from German to English as “Wine, Women and Song,” Kikapu claims to give us all we need to be happy. At a marathon 4 hours 45 minutes long, they left out extended battery life for our MP3 players to experience all the extended-length high-bitrate beauty in its entirety. I’m sure the fact that this is a free netlabel release will no doubt allow us to forgive them.

The list of artists featured reads like a guest list to a mixer party for the who’s-who of Kikapu, with some new, but familiar names added for interest. Mar.ch begins the festivities with “They Are Looking For A Country Of Their Own,” a delicate minimalist drone filled with warm layers of chords that reveal a taste of the various experimental ambient flavors explored on the 33 remaining tracks.

Jason Sloan and Matt Borghi, whose excellent improvisational collaboration Guilford lurks in Kikapu’s early-2004 releases, each contribute absorbing drones. Jason Sloan’s “From February (Live In Seattle 02.27.04),” with its initial washes of gong-like noise that melt into echoing space, is the sound that might have been achieved if Vidna Obmana had put his fingerprints on Steven Stapleton’s mixing desk when he remixed Coil’s “How To Destroy Angels.” Matt Borghi’s “This Moment Feels Frozen, But Really We’re In Another Time And Place” offers a chance to experience a fathoms-deep stasis environment rich with repose and serenity.

Autistici, still perfecting the definition of his own genre demonstrated on the A Moment Of Incidentals EP, gives us the glitchy, dark ambient-tinged “Locations Marked On A Map Of Silence.” The title says it all ­ brilliant noodling with digital clips of found sounds, beeps, clicks, static and sped up voices all mapped out to resemble a game of Battleship between sound and silence gone inconceivable.

As for some of the new names, Caddis’ “...And We Were Led To Pools Of Light” is an epic narrative beginning with bright analog synths coloring the path leading to the light, only to be muted by the arrival at the pools with ethereal tones which are also eventually muted by the concluding look back at the path’s bright beginning. Spark takes time away from his recently busy release schedule and makes a welcome appearance with “Celebrate.” Filled with textures ranging from fine to gritty, the friction that created them must have been a traumatic brush with intense emotion that left an impression lasting enough to be painted from memory.

Kosik brings the gathering to a close with “Lastly Empty,” a gentle track with a simple repetitive pulse sprinkled with muted acoustic guitar that is fitting for the close of an all night long listening session. With Wein, Weib und Gesang, Kikapu has shown that an epic release doesn’t have to set you back a day’s pay, and that even a netlabel can have a moment of clarity, even if it does take almost 5 hours to experience.

Wein, Weib und Gesang is out now on Kikapu.

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