Catalogue

My Attention Has Always Caught My Attention by Suikeroom

Suikeroom consists of the duo Francesco Zedde and Lukas Simonis. They were caught playing weird sounds in the Worm Studio in 2019, initially without any bad intentions, but drifting off to good intentions with the kind of attention span they could provide was too much to ask. So what happened was a recording that attended to a submerged attention with an unattended form of ascension, did even look like an instigation for prevention. But what kind of prevention? There’s all kinds of pretensions, as soon as they have your attention. Now don’t get me wrong on this, but are we talking about music here? If so, could I please be more specific. Do I intend to be funny? Well, my intentions on this matter are that I try to attend in words what the music apprehends in sounds. Call it an amendment for attention, the kind of attention that has your attention.
I hope this promotion text will tell you all you want to know to obtain the CD we’re offering here. Or at least buy some invisible digital files. It will improve your life, that’s for sure.
About the two ‘musicians’; Zedde comes from Italy, is a drummer and electronic wizard, organizes lots of concerts that do improv and is a decent chap. Simonis comes from Rotterdam and drinks beer, preferably in cans. If you want to know more, try google.

credits

released June 1, 2021

francesco zedde – no input mixing
lukas simonis – guitar, blippoo box

distributed by underbelly.nu   and     clearspot.nl

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Coolhaven Mijn tijd sal t wel dure

In het kader van de aftakeling van verouderde lichamen en de daarmee gepaard gaande luxe besloot Coolhaven een geheel nieuwe kant op te gaan met haar muziek; would-be hiphop voor 50-plussers, hope you like our new direction. Wat hebben we aan dat geronk van de jeugd en hun neiging tot overdrijven van de eigen krachten. Wij, plus 50ers plussers, weten precies waar het om gaat. En we gooien onze papiertjes en RedBull blikjes wel netjes in de vuilnisbak. Dus wat valt ons te verwijten?

De B-kant gaat over de bewondering van de massa voor de massa, ook altijd leuk.

En dit alles in smakelijke hoes gestoken door de bekende nederlandse kunstenaar Peter J. Fengler.

Beperkte oplage ook nog!

En extra lage prijs opdat de arbeidersklasse kan meeprofiteren.

bestel! via email; klangendum@xs4all.nl

via bandcamp; https://z6records.bandcamp.com/album/coolhaven-mijn-tijd

of via; underbelly.nu

 

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Candlesnuffer & Lukas Simonis: Nature Stands Aside

record was made in 2010, only a few copies left.

review from chaindlk;

http://www.chaindlk.com

Artist: candlesnuffer & Lukas Simonis lukas {at} xs4all {dot} nl ]

Title: Nature Stands Aside

Unquestionably, curiosity for the sonic expectoration by this duo made up of two eccentric and inventive guitarists and performers with a remarkable background and an intricate web of collaborations and projects in different art/punk constellations like the versatile Dutch music “activist” Lukas Simonis, also known for his tireless work in the field of organization of music festival (he recently collaborated for the setting out of WORM, a multimedia centre for experimental arts in Rottardam), and David Brown aka candlesnuffer, skilled guitarist coming from the fertile Melbourne art-punk scene with a meaningful experience in film score composition, might be aroused by the intellectualist framework they find for their bizarre experiments on prepared guitars: while being aware of cultural diktat of the so-called capitalist civilization and neoliberalism’s pretensions to set a strict universal (and somewhat natural) order during an historical moment where anyone’s aware of its detumescence, they build a conceptual bridge with “Special Cases”, which is not the notorious song by Massive Attack, but an interesting art book by photographer and collage artist Rosamund W.Purcell about a peculiar human obsession with monstrosity which features an approach, remarkably differne tfrom the grotesque one pervading most of last century’s literature, where monstrosity is not related to external aspect, but it’s more something cognitive, so that a monster could just be something we don’t know and we don’t understand. The manifest lack of regular rhythmical and melodies structures, the abundance of jumps from one scale to another one and chaotic arrangement of cracks and nice sonic creatures (I particularly liked the moment when they jump from saturations of plinks, so that sometimes listeners could imagine guitar cases have been overfilled with marbles, to detonations and somewhat molecular sonic decay as well as those ones when disruptive scratches, cracks, rumbling thumps and other timbrical trifles look like jamming rusty mechanical cogs like in “Morph My Logic”, “A Happy Life At The Expense Of Others” and “Hottentot Venus”…and the final lovely divertssment “Mermaid Giving Birth To Twins While Kissing Her Consort”…what a title!!!) could have fed this conceptual link with those natural anomalies explored in that book (even if I’m more inclined to associate it to another art-book by the same author, titled Bookworm, where there’s a bizarre re-interpretation of a French economics text by imaginary termites!). Such an intellectual approach could eclipse the musical content of this release, which could sound like a frivolous oddity, but I’m pretty sure many listeners will discern in these abstract improvisational knick-knacks more marvels than monsters!

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los siquicos cenan con static tics

name of the cd; los siquicos cenan con static tics

name of the group(s); los siquicos litoraleños & the static tics

Recorded on different times in Rotterdam while touring- , this album finds Argentines Los Siquicos Litoraleños joining forces with experimental dutch duo Static Tics (Lukas Simonis & Henk Bakker). Flying high and on full psychedelic mode the sonic synergy of the two bands creates impossible and almost absurd tracks in which distorted melodies and weird growling vocals merge in a very unusual mix. The psylocibe madcaps laughter reverberates through the album with explosive dynamics in pieces like “Saber Mas” or the post-folklore “Desde Acá”. There´s even some kraut (with chorizo) action on jams like “Ritmo Abismo” and “El Baile del Pato”, the dry dub without echo of “El bruto” or the impossible cumbia & garage punk drunken fusion of “Soy un Troglodita” all with touches of the southamerican spicy mind-melting weirdness typical of this Argentine band. But In all the lunacy there´s always place to move your feet and dance with the flow even if gravity could not always be there or respect the physical laws of planet Earth.

distributed by underbelly.nu

BANDCAMP

Comes in a lovely ecopack card case, with artwork by Red Bol

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Cantos Deus I’m Your Child 7″

The second release of Cantos Deus. In this Corona year they thought it was appropriate to release a 7″ with 3 songs; the mouth harp-invested ‘I’m Your Child’ which sends chivers to our spines if we think of the consequences of this statement the singer makes us think to believe… (or believe to think) And then we have the Wally Tax meets Flamenco-with-a-wooden-leg stomp called ‘Regrets’, another highlight in the Cantos Deus story. And we end with the immortal ‘Valley By The River’, a heart breaking story about somebody who seems to be in the neighbourhood of deep water.

Deus Cantos is;

Jacco Weener – conscience

Bruno Ferro Xavier Da Silva – patience

Lukas Simonis – gratitude

 

Distributed by Underbelly.nu

 

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Prins & Simonis – Mothers of Exit

 

 

Animalistic high metal grooves…

a collaboration of these two veterans of improvised weirdness.

…was bound to happen sometime!

Prins, playing electronics and for this recording also back to animal skin drums ,

while Simonis is sharpening his guita and approaching a modular synth.

results into seven pieces of improv and minimal rock/jazz/noise…

where both players display, in healthy doses, all their specialisms and experience

this album is an energizing soundtrack to almost any activity, but preferably human ones.

Gert-Jan Prins: drums, cymbals, radio electronics, microphones

Lukas Simonis: guitar, effects, modular synth, blippoo box.

 

Check out the artwork on the sleeve, made by Prins, who makes beautiful mixed media 3D art.

 

Distribution; https://underbelly.nu

Label: Z6 Records / Z6934P15

Artist: Prins & Simonis

Medium: CD

Category: Records & Tapes.

Tags: Analog Synth, Experimental Rock, Guitar, Percussion.

limited edition of 200

some press;

“Gert-Jan Prins and Lukas Simonis create improvised and raw trip of a sound towards free jazz, glitchy and warped shape of something that is both refreshing and can be used in a way that helps you to understand the nuances and details through almost metal energy.” (felthatreviews)

“… It is an interesting work they offer here. The drums and guitar play a role, sure, but not exclusively. I would think Simonis use his guitar a more than Prins plays the drums, but when they do, there is a fine crude rock element to their noise music to be noted, tortured and demented, not some consistent rock approach. However, much of their other work is on the same noise trail but then electronic. The rhythmic element we know from Prins’ solo work is present here, touching upon broken cables and connections, where’s Simonis adds bleeps and blips from the synthesizer and, maybe, a bit of guitar, such as in shaky ‘Shadows And Tall Seconds’. While much of the music in these seven pieces and fifty-one seconds, is noisy, it is never the sort of conventional noise music which all screams and shrieks. There is some sense of this madness and I wouldn’t have expected this anywhere from these elderly statesmen of improvisation…” (vital weekly)

” korte recensie: geen behaagzieke of interessantige dronerij, (kramp in de) kloten, hangend aan een besmeurd hart, dat naar het verre hoofd roept: ‘ vergeet mij niet?!’ zorro vindt het mooi. om bij te werken ( als dichter of machinaal houtbewerker), of snags, in de nieuwe auto. lukas rotterdada simonis en gert jan prins: mothers of exit; dat helpt me er uit…. dank…” (hansko visser, plan kruutntone)

“…Opening on a highly experimental and avantgarde-leaning tip from the get go with a combination of super distorted guitar feedback Noize, brutalist Phonk and a combination of FoundSound, Cut-Up and Plunderphonics collage techniques all to be found in the warped, art-school’esque opener “Numb Lesson Stomp” which paves the way for things to come, be it the stripped down radio static improvisations of the subsequent follow up that is “Stories For The Babyface Ocean”, the raw, untamed and ear piercing Metal guitar solos in the title track “Mothers Of Exit” or the doomed Noize meets muffled and subdued background drums apocalypse aptly named “Twilight Out Of Control” which are all interesting pieces providing moments of sonic joy when one has finally adjusted to the albums intent and aesthetics (…) Not for the faint-hearted, though…”  (nitestylez.de)

 

and here’s a very well written review, our favorite until now;

Prins & Simonis – Mothers of Exit [Z6 Records – 2021
Prins & Simonis is the collaboration of veteran Dutch avant garde musicians Gert-Jan Prins and Lukas Simonis, on electronics and guitar, respectively. Mothers of Exit, released this year in 2021, is their first collaboration. The result is a dadaist cut-up noise rock album somewhere between Black Dice and Nurse With Wound’s Sylvie and Babs.
We are immediately introduced to blown out, sloppily improvised drum circle-esque beats from a drumset, sounding like a group of teenagers recording themselves banging on trash cans through a cellphone microphone, with reckless enthusiasm and bottom of the barrel sound quality to match. Rather than attempting clean production, Prins & Simonis cheekily indulge in clipping audio whenever possible, reveling in the harshness of the hiss as each heavy drum hit falls. Like a lot of mid 2000’s noise rock music (like Boris or Lightning Bolt),
the overloaded audio is part of the character of the project.
After the aggression of the initial track “Numb Lesson Stomp” we veer away from distorted rhythms into a kind of esoteric spaciness, with chirps and interference textures one might hear from an untuned radio, and a faint motorik pulse. In a similar way as Nurse With Wound, the music here could be seen as a very abstract form of krautrock, taken to the furthest extent of its far-out potential. This is the space reached during the headiest of deconstructed breakdowns on experimental 70’s LPs. Elements are arranged in an intuitive, tempo-less collage comparable to musique concrete or free jazz, with hints here and there of a drumset or a guitar solo. There are definite echoes of Can in the lurching, sluggish riff of closer “Daddy’s Gonna Pay For Your End of the World”.
The jaded, bitter shred of Simonis’ noisy solos is the closest thing to traditional musical satisfaction to be found on this album, with achingly cathartic bluesy bends and wails in dissonant churning clusters, sounding a bit like the busy bumblebee tones of Mick Barr’s atonal Orthrelm project. He only appears in short bursts before abandoning us again to the noise, cementing the discontinuous, unanchored feeling of the whole album.
Rhythmic tracks like the titular “Mothers of Exit” or “Twilight Out of Control” are balanced with the sputtering modulated static of “Shadows and Tall Seconds”, which is not unlike something you could find on the Merzbox. This prevents the distorted drumset material from becoming too fatiguing, as it invariably would have. Some, of course, will find the presence of distorted cymbal crashes unbearably bright as it is, and the general absence of substance or structure disconcerting or annoying. The drumset playing, while perhaps executed to some sort of hypnotic internal cadence, does not demonstrate much coordination or skill.
However, I sense a strange sort of magick charge to the idea-less non-structure they have conjured. The point, as it were, seems to be to sketch around a sort of hollowness or emptiness, so that one might see that is in fact there. The overbearing, vivid whiteness of ice or fluorescent lighting permeates the bright, sharp texture of the recording. The immediacy and enthusiasm that come with improvisation surely benefit the results here. There is a palpable sense of whimsicality and playfulness. It has the feeling of a sudden vision, witnessed and recorded all within a single day.
Like early Zoviet France material, Prins & Simonis’ Mothers of Exit straddles the line between esoteric ritual space and idle hedonistic self-amusement. What it lacks in rhythmic cohesion and conventional timbral beauty, it makes up in sheer psychic disruptive force, the erratic thrashing and mad scribbling of its movements serving to stir the neurons into manic awareness. Recommended to fans of “bands” like Black Dice or Caroliner Rainbow.
john landry/musiquemachine

 

 

 

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Ivan Palacky & Lukas Simonis:
Smet Het Bew Erf Left

The two long pieces on this CD consist of improvisations on knitting machine Dopleta 180 and guitar. On one hand the music is rough, edgy and uses a broad field of sounds that do not necessarily go into music-related atmospheres but border on concrete and field noises. On the other hand, the music can be listened to in an ambient context, as for some mysterious reason the musical landscape that unfolds seems to be located somewhere in between quite abstract free improv music and some sort of experimental ambient…
In October 2018, Ivan Palacký and Lukas Simonis met again as a duo after about 10 years for doing a little tour in Austria and Czech Republic. This was also the occasion that produced this CD, recorded in the wild village of Libusin, near Prague. Audiences & players were quite happy with the results so expect some more stuff coming up…
As for the title of the CD; Both performers have a rich experience with intuitive speeches during the performance and therefore usage of some random words into the abstract sonic structure is not excluded in the happening, although it will be hard to decipher them from this record.

(Lukas; it has also to do with the english of non-native speakers. They might be saying a whole of things but you don’t always understand what they are saying… stuff like Smet Het Bew Er Left?  and you just nod…)

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Smet Het Bew Erf Left
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Cantos Deus:
Interweaving

On first hearing this is a record that sounds lof-fi, rough, noisy, weird and does something with religion. You might even call it ‘the first reli-no wave’ record ever…Deus Cantos is a cooperation between theologist/performer Jacco Weener and Rotterdam underground musicians Bruno Ferro Xavier Da Silva and Lukas Simonis.The idea of the band (and the record) is not pro or anti religion, but it tries to make a statement about the language and musical expression of religion, and to be more specific, about the language and music of christian cults that exist in the USA but are winning grounds in Europe as well. And confront it/them with another form of aesthetics…Of course the record is not only about making statements, trying to be funny, or trying to save some souls… It is a work that was fun to make, fun to play live and that covers ground that hasn’t been touched before -as far as we know…

 

“Their skill, particularly Da Silva’s ridiculously fluid bass runs and Simonis’s clever pop flourishes, give Weener’s ecstatic visions a solid platform to perform on […] And perform he does, from the wobbling declamations on Get Yourself Ready to the pop dirge of Put Your Fingers On My Body a prospect which, given Weener’s impassioned address, is not as appealing as it first sounds. The funny He Didn’t Have To Do It could be a Sunday School take on PiL’s Fodderstompf. Weener enjoys himself a lot on Follow, which is a great slice of queasy funk with a vocal line that reminds this fried reviewer of Reginald Bosanquet’s Dance With Me whereas Interweaving With The Spirits could be an Al Bowlly vocal played on 17rpm. […] There are things that remind me of early Pere Ubu (not just the shrieks, gargles and groans in Weener’s vocals) but some of the way things are set up; namely brutal contrasts, the favouring of minor chords and abrupt silences. It’s got something of The Residents, too, especially the Mole Trilogy. Hellfire is a singalong of sorts that could be from an Armand Schaubroek record…”
(Richard Foster on Louder Than War)

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Interweaving
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Misha Feigin & Lukas Simonis:
The Squat

Guitarists Lukas Simonis and Misha Feigin are seasoned improvisers coming together across the punk-hippie generational divide.
Lukas has his musical and cultural roots in punk rock. His playing incorporates high energy noise, uncompromising directness, and refreshing ingenuity. Using electric guitar with numerous pedals and effects, Lucas skillfully creates a multiplicity of textural and harmonic possibilities. His phrasing is exact, minimal and expressive.
Feigin spent his formative years on the fringe of the Moscow hippie scene practicing the art of annoying authorities. Coming from a classical background, Feigin does not use electronics, instead exploring the sonic potential of his instrument – a classical guitar. He is constantly searching for unorthodox ways to create fresh sounds, new harmonics and overtones. At the same time, his playing tends to be melodic and meditative.
Feigin is also a poet and writer. Metaphysics and wry humor coexist in his texts, which are integral to the Simonis/Feigin performance.
Both Simonis and Feigin have produced and released numerous albums and were involved in a variety of cross-media projects with dancers, visual artists and writers.
Simonis and Feigin explore a musical space that cannot be rigidly defined and includes a multiplicity of styles. Their musical interaction is based on sensitivity and the support of ideas offered for improvisation. Dark humor – both musical and textual – is also is an important part of their collaboration. The sounds they make together are unique to their duo.

released December 2017

Listen on Bandcamp >

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The Squat
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Vril – Films

VRIL / Surf For The Unsporty

Special introduction offer !! Vril is the band with the fetish for surf & rock instrumentals, with Lukas Simonis. Chris Cutler, Bob Drake and Pierre Omer. Twanging guitars abound. This DVD features 17 short films by various filmmakers especially made to accompany a Vril music piece.

Vril was originally a studio project, instigated by Bob Drake, Lukas Simonis & Chris Cutler. After making their first album of instrumental guitar rock (inspired by 60ties surf/instrumental bands like the Shadows & the Ventures, but not with the vintage touch to it that a lot of ‘surf’ bands have nowadays) they asked english surrealist writer Frank Key to come up with the meaning for all that. And Frank did. He invented a story ( see the sleevenotes) & the names of the songs. Then VRIL made another album, two years later. And Frank did it again. Both albums were recorded & mixed at Bob’s studio in the south of France. For the second album they were helped by the swiss musician Pierre Omer (ao. The Dead Brothers) on guitar. So now there were two albums but until now no public performances whatsoever. Then -after reading the sleevenotes about the Ulm award- Lukas thought it might be a good idea to really ask people to make films to the music (NOT in a videoclip kinda way and NOT the other way round). So now we’ve asked 15 filmmakers to come up with a film that belongs to a vril song, the idea being that there will be a VRIL DVD with films & music. And there is.

Filmmakers we asked; Pieter Jan Smit, Nino Purtskhvanidze, Florian Kramer, Daniel Zimmer, Sander Blom, Stella van Voorst van Beest, Esther Urlus, Marit Shalem, Lenno Verhoog, Christine Bruckmeier, Chuck o’Meara, Annette Carle, Joost van Veen, Sandra Salter.

 

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