Nova Kitty is sitting between my arms as I compile today’s eList. It’s the morning of the eve of my much-needed 4-week vacation. 4 weeks in which I stop working at Projekt so I can begin working on the Kickstarter for my Terrace of Memories collaboration with vidnaObmana, and I’ll get around to other oft-neglected Black Tape For A Blue Girl tasks. Before I go, I wanted to catch you up on Projekt activity. Shea and I have been quite busy (me in Portland / Shea in Los Angeles); there’s been a bunch of interest in our recent releases, and we’ve been setting up new releases out into the fall. In case you missed the announcement earlier this week, Projekt will launch all of our 2023 releases at Bandcamp as Name-Your-Price. It’s going to be a lot of amazing music! I can’t wait to tell you about it when I get back in August. For today…. here’s some cool press on our cool recent releases… Stay Cool, Sam (and Nova)

🐚 Attrition have UK, Belgium, Germany & Italy shows soon, Details. 🐚 Forrest Fang’s unreleased track, “Busywork,” appeared this month on a 4-CD international compilation of electronic music, Touched By Music 2, supporting the UK charity, Macmillan Cancer Support. The box set, also available in digital form, is available through Touched Music’s Bandcamp 🐚 The world premiere of multidisciplinary work BÁRBAROS at the Adelaide Festival Centre, of which Sean Williams (theadelaidean) was co-creator and lead composer, was both well-attended and -reviewed. Critics praised the music as “absorbing” (Adelaide Advertiser), “relentless” (Stage Whispers), “ominous” (InReview), and a “psychological king hit” (Barefoot Review). Stream an excerpt from theadelaidean’s score here. 🐚 Steve Roach’s “Structures from Silence” was added to Spotify’s Ambient X Takeover playlist which is taken over by Italian electronic artist Caterina Barbieri. 🐚 “Honoring Projekt Records’ Darkwave Dynasty with Goldmine.” Alternative Press wrote an article about Goldmine writing about Projekt.

A bunch of Press about DELREI’s Desolation and Radiation It’s name-Your Price at Bandcamp. 🎸 Italy’s Radiocoop writes: Instrumental album, with enveloping and evocative melodies that draw from the Italian Spaghetti Western cinematography of the Sixties, with Morricone in the lead as an inspiring beacon. Alongside, the languid tex mex atmospheres of Chris Isaak but also Calexico or the “Paris, Texas” model Ry Cooder. The sounds are refined and researched and always strictly pertinent to the artistic world of reference. Optimal. 🎸 Journey Into The Melancholic Abyss: Discover Delrei’s Haunting Post-Nuclear Soundscapes at Evol Radio. 🎸 A review from Belgium’s Luminous Dash, excerpt: In short, Desolation and Radiation is an absolute winner and a must for anyone who likes it a bit darker. DELREI may have written and played the surprise of the year. 🎸 Album release announcement by Marc Urselli at Chain DLK. 🎸 Album release announcement at MK Ultra Magazine 🎸 The song “Get Lost Blues” is in radio rotation at Italy’s Antenna Web. 🎸 Delrei Drives Down a Lost Highway in the Video for the Gothic Cowboy Tune “Get Lost Blues” at Post-Punk.

🐚Aarktica added to many Spotify playlists. Here are highlights: “Gymnopedie No. 1” on Ambient Soundscapes, “Arcturan Transmission” on Slow Music Movement’s Slow Psyche, “Elegaic” on Nordic Atmospheres, “Golden Hour at Pyramid House” on Pure Ambient and Zen Chill and Ambient Daily. While Last Day Leaf writes about the recent Paeans album, “As you delve into this epic and melancholic composition, reminiscent of Labradford’s magnetic album Mi Media Naranja (Kranky, 1997), prepare for a profound and introspective musical journey.”

Frederick Key Smith, Ph.D., Musicologist, writes: I’ve been a fan of Jeff Greinke’s music for several decades now and am always excited when he releases a new album – not to hear more of what he’s been doing, but to hear what direction his music is now going. I say this because every single one of his albums is different, each in its own unique style. Such is certainly the case with A Thousand Year Flood, which I feel safe saying is the most meditative, reflective, and introspective of his over two dozen albums. It is rather minimalistic, featuring slowly-drifting piano melodies accompanied by strings and ambient electroacoustic treatments. At times the strings provide harmonic support, while at other times sedate screeches in the violins mix with droning cellos to create a haunting, lonely, almost dreamlike atmosphere. The occasional inclusion of deep clarinet embellishments on some tracks adds additional texture to an already rich and dark tapestry. But as words are rarely enough to describe an album, it’s often safe to turn to its cover art. Such is certainly the case here, where the grey monochromatic photograph of a rough lonely road heading into a forbiddingly dark storm describes perfectly the music’s mood – we’re not in the storm yet, but it is approaching. Or, rather, we are approaching it. CD also available from Amazon, if you want to pop it into your prime order.

I did a joint interview with Patrick Ogle and host Matt Muchowsk on Lumpen Radio. Listen to the full episode on Mixcloud. Pat was Projekt’s promo director in the classic 1995-1999 era; it was fun to hear his memories of Projekt, the artists, and what-ever-all-else we talked about.

Fine Print:

1 Sale applies to everything in Projekt’s Bandcamp PHYSICAL ITEMS tab except the first two items:

2 Sale does not include these recent releases: Jeff Greinke A THOUSAND YEAR FLOOD and Steve Roach MYSTIC CHORDS & SACRED SPACES 4CD edition

3 Use code “ julysale “ during checkout

4 Last I heard, discount codes still don’t work on the mobile app; you need to use the web browser to redeem codes. That’s something Bandcamp really needs to fix 😊. Let us know in the comments here if the code worked for you at mobile.

5 Sale ends at Noon (West Coast USA Time Zone) Wednesday July 5, 2023.

Projekt welcomes new artist DELREI to the label! Stay tuned for his debut album later this month. The shadowy twang of electric guitars, the dusty spectral melodies, the driving orchestral timpani, the rural instruments like harmonica & mouth harp… with these elements DELREI orchestrates a mythic dystopian western of the future. Italy’s Alessandro Mercanzin plays with genres, avoiding and embracing the cliches of Italian Spaghetti Westerns, Americana, & blues rock. Follow DELREI: Facebook / Instagram

Projekt Records turns 40. I was interviewed for the On the Edge Radio show, the first hour is Projekt music and me reminiscing; the episode streams here (at the bottom where it says “Sunday May 28th with Zuul”) and a 12-minute excerpt at Soundcloud. I did an interview with Sound & Shadows, at their webpage & YouTube video. Shea & I did our first-ever joint interview with DJ Nocturna for The Queen of Wands podcast; watch on YouTube and playlist & podcasts webpage. I was interviewed on Dark Entries radio show for World Goth Day, streaming on their website.

Here’s a cool flashback! I was interviewed with Lisa Feuer on Bob Westphal’s The Shape of Things to Come radio show back on July 27 2001. So many lifetimes ago! Listen to the full show on Mixcloud.

Download at Bandcamp • Great review from the Dusted Website: One of the most distinct and striking things about Jon DeRosa’s work as Aarktica has always been the way he blends more ‘pure’ ambient material with songs, both his own and others (everyone from Danzig to Peruvian shamanic songwriter Artur Mena). The new Paeans actually marks the first Aarktica LP without DeRosa’s vocals since his debut, 2000’s No Solace for Sleep. Coming on the heels of last year’s magnificent We Will Find the Light, this record could have just felt like a post-banquet digestif, but instead it’s a reminder of the beautiful, clear atmospheres DeRosa can make with just his guitar (here ably assisted by Henrik Meierkord on cello and viola). Whether it’s going Ashra-stratospheric on “Arcturan Transmission” or drifting towards Stars of the Lid on “Golden Hour at Pyramid House,” the result is a reminder of how vital his ambient work is.

CD & 2-CD bundle at Projekt • CD, 2-CD bundle & download at Bandcamp • CD at Projekt’s European Webstore. Tomorrow, June 9th, Dialogue will be available at all digital streaming and download platforms. Watch the video for “Cave Chasm Recall (Radio Edit)” at YouTube. The third collaborative work from Italian artists Alio Die and Lorenzo Montanà. The eight electro-acoustic pieces move through pure ambient streams, almost ancestral, evolving out of time. It’s a fluid, beatless territory that drifts, in the course of seventy minutes, through pure ambient vistas and the call-to-prayer feel of sacredly inspired music.

♬ Steve Roach’s Facebook Page has video excerpts from his fabulous Los Angeles concert last weekend.< ♬ Loren Norell interviewed on the Tones and Drones podcast. It’s available on Spotify, Apple, and here as well. ♬ Athan Maroulis’ NOIR have a new 6-song EP on Bandcamp and Spotify. Among other great tracks, it includes an acoustic version of the PsychFurs “Love My Way.” idieyoudie.com says: “A very nice slice of North American Darkwave.” ♬ Arin Aksberg’s It Flows Between Us reviewed at Expose.org: “(The fact that his hometown is) so far north and relatively isolated probably has a good deal to do with the nature of the music here on It Flows Between Us, Aksberg’s first release, where introspective minimalist piano shares a space with reflective ambient pieces, often together, with hints of experimentalism and dreamlike surrealism.” Available from Projekt’s Bandcamp or stream at all streaming sites, including YouTube.

1 Steve Roach: Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces (complete edition) (4CD) 2 Aglaia: Along the vast ancient river (download) 3 Alio Die & Lorenzo Montanà: Dialogue of Water (download) 4 theAdelaidean: Hyperaurea (download) 5 Stratosphere: Cyclus (name-your-price download) 6 Steve Roach: Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces (name-your-price download) 7 Aarktica: Paeans (download) 8 Alio Die & Lorenzo Montanà: Dialogue of Water + Threshold (CD 2-pack) 9 jarguna: Granular Day in the Blue (download) 10 Alio Die & Lorenzo Montanà: Dialogue of Water (CD

at & Soundcloud & Pandora Projekt > Italian Groto playlist at Spotify and AppleMusic

From Projekt’s Sam Rosenthal.   

#1 selling CD the past 30 days at Projekt. Name-your-price download & CD at Bandcamp. CD at the Projekt European webstore.

Dave Aftandilian writes at Bandcamp: I have been transfixed by Jeff Greinke’s moody gray-sky keyboards for decades, so it’s a real treat to hear him return to Projekt. In his music I feel the ebb and flow of deep emotions drifting just beneath the surface like briny ocean waves surging in one’s heart. Heather Bentley’s lovely cello adds warmth and texture: sunlight bathing the surface of these deep waters. Chamber music ambience for melancholy wide-eyed explorers of inner and outer weather.

Chuck van Zyl writes at Star’s End: This Ambient Music builds and shapes, breathes and sighs, blooms and sleeps, then detours into unexpected zones, tones, textures and states – leaving behind nothing more than a mysterious human trace… rom the vaporous, melodious piano, synths and strings, to the sonic shapes at the edge of perception, it reduces geometries while transforming the phenomenon of sound into another, finer reality.

Download at Bandcamp.

Peter Thelan writes at Exposé: The sounds of his solo flute improvisations are at once mysterious, graceful, refined, and captivating, the sound surrounding the listener like a warm blanket on a cold starlit night from the top of a precipice, the waves of shimmering sonic beauty wafting across the sky.

Interview with Peter at Volume One. “These antique flutes have been around a long time, and they were owned by many people before me,” he explained. “I believe each one has its own spirit like each human being has its own personality.”

Peter Phippen live this weekend, collaborating with Victoria Shoemaker: Horizon Flute School Summit, April 14 – 16 in Hiawatha, Iowa. Details at Peter’s website.

♬ Steve Roach’s Rest of Life is release of the month at Musique Machine. “… find (yourself) immersed in a kind of time that is both present and eternal, where you are both fully cognizant and yet totally freed from any specific object of contemplation.”

♬ Voltaire live in Portland & Seattle this weekend. Friday April 14 @ The Coffin Club, Portland, OR. Saturday April 15 @ El Corazon, Seattle WA. All Ages show.

♬ Lorenzo Montanà contributes a track to Silent Records’ digital compilation, 80 Years of Sunshine, release date is this Friday, April 14.

♬ Sean Williams (composing as “theadelaidean”) invites listeners into ambient spaces inspired by his voyage to Casey research station as the 2017 Australian Antarctic Divisions’ Arts Fellow. Thursday 22 June 2023 at Flinders University Museum of Art. His tenth album for Projekt Records, Hyperaurea: Echoes of Antarctica reflects on his experiences during the fellowship and, fittingly, is as vast and mysterious as the continent that inspired it, running for just under four hours. This presentation includes the album in its entirety, with a visual response created by Shane Bevin that references in part the diaries of Professor John Long, transforming the FUMA gallery into a celebration of Midwinter’s Day that the audience can enter and leave at will.

Steve Roach returns for his first Los Angeles show in 4 years. Following his filled-to-capacity 2019 Pasadena cathedral event, on June 3rd Roach takes us on a sound journey at the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles in the Westlake neighborhood. The Reflections Concert event sees the church come alive with two hours of truly sublime, otherworldly music, accompanied by immersive, architecturally-mapped light projections.

First Congregational Church of Los Angeles 540 S Commonwealth Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90020 7PM Doors / 8PM Performance Event & ticketing

#1 Jeff Greinke: A Thousand Year Flood #2 Chuck van Zyl: Live On Star’s End 2021-2022 (3CD) #3 Cosmic Ground: Entropy #4 Cosmic Ground: Soil 3 #5 Steve Roach: Rest of Life (2CD)

Two new videos on Projekt’s YouTube playlist:

thank you for supporting independent music

From Projekt’s Sam Rosenthal.

A lot of excitement over at Projekt around Steve Roach’s recent 2CD release, Rest of Life. It’s been getting phenomenal feedback from fans, selling like hotcakes, and was selected as Echoes Radio‘s March CD of the Month. John Diliberto (of Echoes) posted his interview with Steve & Linda as a podcast he writes: “In 1984 Steve Roach released what remains one of his two best known recordings, Structures from Silence. Now, nearly 40 years later he returns to that sound on the album, Rest of Life. It’s a double CD of mostly quiet and deep ruminations. There’s no digeridoos or modular synthesizers, but there is the electric violin of his wife, Linda Kohanov. From their home in the Arizona desert, they talk about revisiting the spirit of Structures, and horses.”

Steve Roach Live in Los Angeles

Steve Roach returns for his first Los Angeles show in 4 years. Following his filled-to-capacity 2019 Pasadena cathedral event, on June 3rd Roach takes us on a sound journey at the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles in the Westlake neighborhood. The Reflections Concert event sees the church come alive with two hours of truly sublime, otherworldly music, accompanied by immersive, architecturally-mapped light projections.

First Congregational Church of Los Angeles 540 S Commonwealth Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90020 7PM Doors / 8PM Performance Event & ticketing

Steve Roach Live in Tucson @ Ambient Lounge

The next Ambient Lounge on April 4 features sets by electric-ambient violist Linda Kohanov, atmospheric electro acoustic artist Chris Meyer and artist-in-residence Steve Roach. This night in the monthly series in the elegant Century Room at the historic Congress Hotel in downtown Tucson is going to be a dynamic experience within the deep end of all things immersive. Linda will be expanding her recent contributions to the album Rest of Life, while Steve continues to use the lounge to expand and develop new as well as established pieces for the live experience. Tickets here, and at the door if any are left.

💌 This is your last call for a name-your-price download on It Flows Between Us, by Arin Aksberg. Genres: Neo-Classical, Post-Rock, Ambient, Minimalism. Lisamary Wichowski writes on Bandcamp: A great deal of depth and maturity here. Complex and emotionally (but not musically) raw at times, lovely throughout. I look forward to more.”

💌 I (Sam) edited a lovely & romantic visual representation of Erik’s stellar new single, “Le Paysage.” Watch at YouTube.

💌 Peter Phippen has an upcoming show collaborating with Victoria Shoemaker: Horizon Flute School Summit, April 14 – 16 in Hiawatha, Iowa. Details at Peter’s website.

💌 theAdelaidean (with his writing hat on) has a new season of The Word Docs beginning right now. This podcast, produced and edited by him with co-presenters Amy and Alex, explores the publishing industry through multiple lenses, and is a lot of fun! First episode here.

💌 “Diva” from Alan Elettronico’s 2021 Projekt album Electric Mind laid over a scene from Wednesday. Watch at Facebook or Instagram. Alan writes, “The song was heavily influenced by Crystal Castles, one of my favourite bands for the use of synthetized speech in music.”

💌 Cherry Stars Collide – Dream Pop, Shoegaze & Ethereal Rock 1986-1995. This is a really stellar 4CD Compilation for England’s Cherry Red Records. Release date is March 31. It includes tracks from four Projekt releases. Disk 1, track 3, Area’s “With Louise.” Disc 3, track 3, Lycia’s “Ionia.” Disc 3, track 14, Love Spirals Downwards’ “Stir About The Stars” (name on cover, as well.) Disc 4, Track 16, This Ascension’s “August Rain.”<

💌 Episode 26 of French radio show Solénopole includes tracks from Steve Roach and Erik Wøllo. Their website links to the many places you can stream the show, including Mixcloud.

From Projekt’s Sam Rosenthal. Hi all….. middle of February already, wow! This year is coming on fast! Lots of new Projekt musicfor you to enjoy…so much to talk about…

☀️ This is your last call for a name-your-price download on Amongst Jungles, the recent collaboration between Jarguna and Nicola Serena. Grab it during these final days.Tango Mango writes on Bandcamp: “It’s chilled and intricate at the same time. Have to say, Vegetal Sculpture took me way back to Gong/Hillage albums. Bless their socks.” Styles: Electronic, ambient, space music. Dave Aftandilian writes on Bandcamp: “Fascinating ambient visions of a future when the worlds of nature and society become so intertwined that the borders between them disappear. There is some darkness here: shadowed places with unknown, unsavory denizens. But mostly the feeling is exploratory, hopeful, and transformative: warm tears of rain glossing a leaf, dropping to the dirty pavement, then moistening a seed in a crack that becomes a green shoot shining amongst the gray.”

☀️ Last weekend’s Hearts of Space radio show included four tracks from Erik Wøllo’s new album the Shape of Time, as well as a track from Blue Radiance. HOS has an Online subscription thingie.

☀️ Steve Roach’s “Towards the Blue — 2021 Remastered” (from Quiet Music) is the opening track on Spotify’s Ambient 1980s playlist.

☀️ KKUP’s Contemplation Connection played music Peter Phippen, Ivar Lunde, Jr.’s Into the Ancient, Forrest Fang’s Forever Cascades, and Steve Roach’s Ambient Church.

☀️ Peter Phippen has an upcoming show collaborating with Victoria Shoemaker: Horizon Flute School Summit, April 14 – 16 in Hiawatha, Iowa. Details at Peter’s website.

☀️ Phippen, Crawford & Lunde Jr’s Galaxies is available from the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire, WI, as part of their Sawdust City Sounds program. Check it out (literally!) here.

☀️ 80’s-alternative-themed Sirius XMshow Slicing Up Eyeballs posted about Black Tape For A Blue Girl’s Mesmerized by the Sirens Kickstarter, which is almost to the goal with two weeks to go! Support the CD, LP (in two color variations) & MiniDisc.

☀️ An in depthtribute to classic Projekt artist Soul Whirling Somewhere at Svmusica.

☀️ Ashkelon Sain of Trance to the Sun has launched a new darkwave instrumental project named Solara Obscura. A digital single is available, and theyperformMarch 11 at Portland’s Coffin Club.

☀️ Wonderful review of Deepspace’s The Blue Dunes at Exposé Online. “…uniformly excellent, tapping into that subconscious wonderworld of sound that guides the listener along on an explorative floating ambient journey. The Blue Dunes represents a glacial moving sonic sculpture that will quite intentionally alter the listener’s mood and consciousness.”

☀️Erik Wøllo’s the Shape Of Time in Darkroom magazine, Italy

☀️ Great review of Byron Metcalf & Shane Morris’s Ancestral Resonance at Exposé Online. “…dreamy and quixotic, each of the eight long tracks offering a shadowy path through the dark moonlit night, with echoes of mysticism and exotic power that echo primal and hypnotic emotions from deep in the soul. Every additional spin offers further insights into a hidden secret world known only to our distant ancestors. A brilliant and epic journey through the past.”

☀️ Italy’s Hic Sunt Leones released Eight Parts of Reality by AGLAIA, at Bandcamp.

☀️ Peter Phippen’s new album Ghosts is name-your-price at Bandcamp.Samedited avideo with footage of Peter performing “Inside the Underworld” in the studio integrated with cool imagery. video at YouTube:

☀️ Pavel Zelinka’s posted his “40th Anniversary Projekt!” Radio Show. It’s on Český Rozhlas, the public radio broadcaster of the Czech Republic operating since 1923. It is the oldest radio broadcaster in continental Europe and the second oldest in Europe after the BBC! Listen to the Projekt episode of Art Cafe.

Listening Booth

Playlists at Spotify and Soundcloud and Pandoraand YouTube.

Out & upcoming Projekt releases:

Jarguna and Nicola Serena: Amongst Jungles Byron Metcalf & Shane Morris: Ancestral Resonance Peter Phippen: Ghosts Erik Wøllo: The Le Paysage Single Arin Aksberg: It Flows Between Us • March 3

From Projekt’s Sam Rosenthal. Welcome to the ProjektList, my somewhat regular round-up of Projekt-related press, streaming, releases, and concerts.

🚀 Projekt Records turns 40 years old in 2023!

🚀 Projekt Records’ tracks had over 67.5 million streams in 2022!

🚀 Over the past 20 years, Projekt has manufactured 315,920 CDs at Disc Makers. Wow, you all still love physical things!

🚀 Erik Wollo’s The Shape of Time is Projekt’s best selling CD and download this month. Can you do me a favor? Would a few purchasers pop over to Amazon and write a review of the album? It doesn’t need to be journalism, just some positive comments that encourage shoppers to add it to their cart. Write about your reflections on what you like about the album, the mood, how you feel listening to it. That word-of-mouth helps us out. Thanks.

🚀 Erik Wøllo has a video for “The Shape of Time 2” at YouTube.

🚀 Marco of Jarguna opened a label to release music from around the world. His first bandcamp album is Burkina Faso collection Vol​.​1, with singers he recorded in 2008.

🚀 Peter Phippen has two upcoming shows. Peter and Rahbi Crawford: Heart of Winter Concert, January 27 in Viroqua, WI. Peter and Victoria Shoemaker: Horizon Flute School Summit, April 14 – 16 in Hiawatha, Iowa. More details at Peter’s website.

🚀 Schallwende nominations! The soundwave is the German prize for musicians and active people in the field of electronic music. Erik Wøllo nominated in 3 categories and Steve Roach in 1.

I asked Lorenzo Montanà about “Sentiero,” the closing track on his name-your-price album Decorar Silenzio

He replied: ‘Sentiero’ is Italian for ‘Path.’ It’s a mysterious track, a way of inner research, a dreamlike journey inspired by the surrealist atmospheres of David Lynch. In my mind, the song begins walking along an overgrown path in the woods, making one’s way through the branches of trees. At a certain point everything stops, you hear what seems to be footsteps and an indistinct voice speaks but we do not understand. The sense of disorientation increases, until, as in an awakening, a subtle music arrives from far away which takes us back; we awaken far away on a terrace where I imagine two figures dancing on the rooftops to the tune of a melancholy waltz. We are left like this, no longer knowing how to distinguish a vision or a memory from reality.

Listening Booth

Playlists at Spotify and Soundcloud and Pandora and YouTube.