HS42 is a tour of studio creations from St. Petersburg, Russia and Los Angeles, California, allowing an easy going jungle-bird themed extended moment which takes you right into special light synth-shimmer and home-studio shaken/stirred collage places, to ease your atmosphere.
Experimental electro-acoustic electronica kosmische
Rain drops, jungle birds, mallets, flowing in a comfortable synthesizer fog. The sound matures and forms a broth with chunks of interesting suspended textures. The cover art is also a simple form, with a sense that there is a human hand here, not a machine that creates thousands of units for sale anywhere. Handstitched*, and you are lucky to find this one. The sound? Experimental electro-acoustic electronica kosmische. Who makes this? Our clues are the acronym, X.Y.R. and Danny Scott Lane with his collection of six sweet striped short selections. And who is behind all that?
“We prefer to remain a mystery…” Imagination is ours to coax. Mystery is cool.
Handstitched* specializes in bespoke, handmade packaging, edging towards electro-acoustic and drone-like elements and has a series of evolving limited-editions, released on both mini CD and C45 cassette, called a split release because each edition has a focus on two artists—limited to 50 copies per release. Each of the formats have hand-crafted packaging, unique, hand-printed covers for the CD and hand-made cassette sleeves for the pro-dubbed tapes. The CD version is packed inside mango cotton rag envelopes. After all these years of evolving marketing strategies, it is refreshing to simply let the music and packaging speak for itself. Envision making things for the listeners who discover this tactile as well as audible unusual work. This consists of comfort, calm, and composed soundtracks using older instruments with minimal involvement in the production. Perhaps to keep it limited means it’s somehow more desirable, and yet it is not pretending to be a NFT fad piece. What is this studied lo-fi sci-fi archaeologica at the edges of a path seldom trampled? The answer is not pushed in your way.
Studied lo-fi sci-fi archaeologica ::
In my humble opinion, curiosity is something of a motivating virtue in a kinetic arena. I had to find out more, so I reached out to Handstitched* in the UK, and this is what I found out. “Nearly everything I release is hand-made, whether it’s hand-printed, lino cut or gel printing, I like to make every issue of every release slightly different, it’s nice seeing the imperfections in print design and hand-made works, it adds a human touch to it, I believe.” The entrepreneur’s name is Tim “Diagram” Martin, and he used to run the label Cactus Island, back in 2002-2010, featuring limited runs of 50/100 eps on mini CD. “They were sold out in minutes once going on sale and appearing on Ebay and Discogs the next day for stupid money. That’s the way it was back then, we had a great run of releases on the label, focusing more on IDM and Electronica – then I slowed things down in 2010 as musical evolution and other things carried me on to more electro-acoustic and drone vibes…” Handstitched*. One of a kind. Tim also appeared on the world-famous John Peel show amongst other radio broadcasts, both online and in the real world. Tim is involved in audio-visual commissions, including art gallery installations and music videos for a global clothing brand. As well as Maps and Diagrams, Tim also records music under the Atlantis name and works in collaboration with Genoveva Kachurkova as Bluhm, with Charles Sage as Hessien, alongside Rob Lyon as Somme and in the neo-classical quartet, Black Elk.
Tim said that anything else he can find to make each release special and unique is his objective, his goal is to “keep things organic, a lot of the newer releases are focusing more on printing each cover by hand, using ephemeral items and making things special for everyone involved from the artists, whose art I am representing through to the people buying the releases. I try not to be too generic and rigid with designs too. I’ll collect leaves and plant matter for use in the printing, these make great impressions on the print block with inks and paper and the printing process is quite unpredictable too, that makes things more interesting during the production process. The artwork I have been working on this week for a forthcoming release has wool fibres and strands for the artworks, the effects are interesting and definitely not what you’d think it was when looking at it.”
The physical presence combines with the audio art itself to create the total experience, assembling two artists for one go. Vladimir Karpov is a prolific electronic musician and producer operating under the pseudonym X.Y.R.. He creates sounds that are immersive and hypnotic, and has previously released an impressive back catalogue of music which includes releases on the California label Not Not Fun and the Oakland Constellation Tatsu, amongst others. He released waves t*pes vol.1 on Handstitched* in 2015, see Alan Locket 10/4/2015 “3VIEW :: Maps & Diagrams/ x.y.r.”
“Temple Of Solitary Reflections” was originally created, but subsequently modernized for one of the audiovisual installations on the subject of a human / megalopolis collision with nature, made for an exhibition at the Vinzavod Gallery in Moscow, Russia in 2020.
Karpov in the past has reflected a historical theme, be it Robinson Crusoe, early Arctic exploration, or the myth of El Dorado, and crafted understated tonal zones that might invite you in with their warm, organic vibe. I came upon an interview in Tiny Mix Tapes with Jasonc that I found to be most informative. As is his creative possibility as an artist, Karpov had planned doing all this anonymously, choosing three letters representing a Russian phrase, in English: Temple Of Solitary Reflections. “I like one of the characters in Gogol’s Dead Souls, who gave that name to a little summer house where he’d sit alone and ponder the world. I thought the same phrase would suit me, too. Now it’s used both for my music overall [and the HS42 project]. Everything was used to build a fixed image in my head and that is what I tried to transmit via the Handstitched album.” X.Y.R. has around 30 albums on Bandcamp, starting with the Robinson Crusoe lost soundtrack. “There were fragments of children’s fantasy movies, bits of music from TV science shows, and books I’d once read.” So is he a billowing history buff? “Not at all. I actually prefer inventing my own stories.” He continues, “I’d be inclined to associate my works less with a time or place, and more with a mood or atmosphere… I enjoyed the music used in Soviet children’s sci-fi films and animation, composers like Eduard Artemyev, Yevgeny Krylatov, Alexander Zatsepin, Aleksey Rybnikov, and others. I’ve simply taken some ingredients from each direction and mixed an ‘ideal cocktail’ for myself.”
Most musical movements are fleeting, and pioneers often work hard to stay clear of easy genre boxes. “Temple Of Solitary Reflections” (20:41) is a sustained peaceful cloud with alternating slow steps, deep drone analog synthesizers (formanta-mini, korg m1), loop station and field recordings of crackling raindrop rhythms merging with jungle birds and synthesizer glow, sometimes spiced with groove-minded marimba xylophone mallet action.
An engaging and easy breezy relaxing texture ::
The split format combines two artists, Danny Scott Lane has six tracks, lush yet minimal, collectively titled UNTITLED which to me have an engaging and easy breezy relaxing texture, some simple quirky recordings of life moods, sometimes with musical instruments employed, mostly bass and keyboards, bringing a sensation of ease and confidence.
I found a quote on the Tappan collective website, “I see boredom as an opportunity. I want to capture the mundane, while never missing a moment of chaos or bliss.” Natural, relaxed, relatable and working from his home studio in Los Angeles, he has written music for pop artists, fashion shows, art exhibits, short films, commercials and many other weird things. His camera is his other breadwinner, his work has been featured in Vogue Italia, Playboy, I-D, Hunger, Schon, MyDomaine, Coveteur, Brooklyn, among print and digital publications. They say that his play of color and the human form explore loneliness and rebellion in isolation, and I concur with a mighty nod.
“NEESH” (3:16″) to me says easy and free with no pretending virtuoso hiding here, vocal utterances and hesitant keyboards doing the beat. “GENTU” (4:45) and now the bass brings us in smoothly, those birds arrive with keyboards and a windchime beat, floating hearts rolling around congas. “JUME” (3:56) brings back birds in the jungle, with a nearby night peeper chorus, overall a cautious slow texturescape. “KUNDA” (2:58) features plucked stringed instrumentalism with dry reed pipes and our lovely jungle birds; “SHIIP” (2:51) deeper in the jungle, in the den, a dancing breeze, a hand conga, a light keyboard; and then “IMPTI” (2:49) eases in a melodic hesitancy, more wave than dance, but it has motion (it does not sit still and you can just soar) as it sails into the breezescape.
The big picture ::
HS42 is a tour of studio creations from St. Petersburg, Russia and Los Angeles, California, allowing an easy going jungle-bird themed extended moment which takes you right into special light synth-shimmer and home-studio shaken/stirred collage places, to ease your atmosphere. No tense techno-puzzles, you’ll find an amusing bit of colorful paper umbrella ease and occasional drifting feathers. The package is hand-made and immersive, made for human appreciation, not for stockrooms. Exotic birds make interesting escapes.
Temple Of Solitary Reflections / UNTITLED is available on Handstitched*. [Bandcamp]
