thomas köner “novaya zemlya” compact disc

• novaya zemlya (1) (11:15)
  
• novaya zemlya (2) (12:46)
  
• novaya zemlya (3) (12:20)

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to:85 | thomas koner - "novaya zemlya" cd - jewel case + booklet - 3 tracks - 36:36 mastered by denis blackham artwork & photography by jon wozencroft the artwork includes an essay by thierry charollais, "thomas köner's novaya zemlya: towards a metaphysical geography"... of course we find the unique koner-esque glowing drones that we know from his previous works. but we will also be touched by an unrevealed, barely perceptible sense of melody and harmony that köner gradually developed since kaamos (1998) and nuuk (2004). novaya zemlya (lit. new land), also known in dutch as nova zembla and in norwegian as gåselandet (lit. the goose land), is an archipelago in the arctic ocean in the north of russia and the extreme northeast of europe, the easternmost point of europe, lying at cape flissingsky on the northern island. thomas köner (b. 1965) is a pioneering multimedia artist whose main interest lies in combining visual and auditory experiences. over his long, much celebrated career, he has worked between installation works, sound art, minimal soundscapes, and as one half of porter ricks. he attended music college in dortmund and studied electronic music at the cem-studio in arnhem. until 1994 he worked in the film industry as editor and sound engineer. thomas has extended his concept of time and sound colour to images, resulting in video installations, photography and net art. his point of departure was composition of sound in which aspects of a performance and visual language were gradually integrated. at first in the collaboration with film artist jürgen reble and the live performance alchemie (1992). following this, he started to compose film soundtracks and music to accompany historic silent films for the louvre museum and the musée d'orsay, paris, who called him a major innovator in the contemporary music scene, as well as noted his collaborative practice which has led to his working with musicians, filmmakers and visual artists on installations and sound performances, and to his creation of six video works produced in two cycles, starting in 2003.

porter ricks “biokinetics” compact disc

• port gentil (12:26)
  
• nautical dub (5:49)
  
• biokinetics 1 (5:20)
  
• biokinetics 2 (8:30)
  
• port of call (9:12)
  
• port of nuba (8:05)
  
• nautical nuba (8:56)
  
• nautical zone (12:06)

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“biokinetics” by porter ricks the holy grail of dub techno from thomas koner and andy mellwig. techno isn’t a genre that has birthed many consistent albums, and the dub techno subgenre even less so, but one indisputable classic is porter ricks’ debut ‘biokinetics’. originally issued on the legendary basic channel sub-label chain reaction in 1996 following a trio of 12”s, ‘biokinetics’ was the first of the label’s album releases, and still stands as its crowning achievement. the duo was made up of dark ambient pioneer thomas köner and sound engineer andy mellwig, and between them they re-framed the techno sound, imbuing the spacious ambience pioneered by label bosses mark ernestus and moritz von oswald with a frosty, isolated experimental bent, and combining it with the sort of haunted minimalism of early plastikman. what separated ‘biokinetics’ from other albums at the time was its unwavering narrative – the exact sound has been interpreted countless times since, but the immersive qualities of this singular record have rarely been touched. maybe it is down to the silvery underwater concept that ties each track together – the bubbling pads, sub-aquatic basses and muffled kick drums. but as with any great album, it’s hard to exactly put your finger on what makes it a classic. simply put ‘biokinetics’ is one of the most important records in the genre, and it’s pleasure for us to make it available to the world once more.