Stroboscopic Artefacts, the techno label responsible for great full-lengths last year from label head Lucy (Wordplay For Working Bees) and Xhin (Sword) has announced a new series of lavishly packaged vinyl editions, entitled the Stellate Series.
Billed as "sounds gathered from the experimental frontiers and outer edges of electronic music", each release in the series will feature exclusive material from four producers, and will find them pushing their music in new directions. The first, released on 15th March, includes music from Lucy, Perc Trax boss (and maker of one of our favourite albums of last year) Perc, Borful Tang and Kevin Gorman. Where Lucy’s music often tends towards dark, desaturated techno, his contributions are largely beatless synth pieces that recall early electronic music. Similarly, Perc’s pieces are a divergence from the hard-edged industrial feel of his dancefloor material and Wicker & Steel album, near-ambient compositions that suggest intriguing future directions for his music. Kevin Gorman’s two ‘Frequency Phase’ tracks make reference to Steve Reich, all watery harp figures shifting in and out of phase with one another. You can watch a trailer for the series – the first of three, below. It gives a decent musical and visual idea of what to expect, and watch out for more over the coming days.
The label are paying a great deal of attention to packaging, too: each addition to the Stellate Series will come on a pair of transparent 10" vinyls, boxed in a circular metallic tin and separated by a typographic prints on recycled paper. Each vinyl release comes with hand-numbered limited artwork by Oblivious Artefacts and a download code, and comes in a limited edition of 300. Lavish stuff – take a look below.
