Ciao!

Nothing like a whiff of summer and an XL bank holiday to put some cheer in your bones eh? Whether you’re spending your long weekend wisely doing life admin or frittering the days away foolishly and fabulously, hope you’re having a good’n.

Plenty to report in this edition of HOOT, including an interview with our favourite techno/trance/make-you-dance DJ Carl_H, last spotted round these ends putting on a killer Studio Sova session last year with a crew from his Sub:System parties. We chatted about how he carved out his sound, the ethos behind Sub:System and his Animals on Psychedelics label, and asked him for five albums he thinks you should listen to right about now.

Also here: a blissful new Studio Sova session by Daniel from Above Below festival, a chat with our founders George and Tzveti about the origins of Sova Audio for Trommel magazine, some music recommendations from our own team, and an exciting record fair/demo day we’re putting on at Sova HQ in a few weeks, featuring legendary sellers House of Dog records and a whole heap of Funktion-Ones.

Phew! Scroll down to read all the news and check out the recommendations - head-twisters and pulse-quickeners await.

Til next time x

Sova Audio x House of Dog records

Hard to believe as it might be, the next bank holiday will upon us in just a few weeks, and we’ve concocted a perfect way for you to spend it. On Saturday 30th April, we’re hosting a record fair and Funktion-One demo day at our warehouse in East London. Downstairs, renowned Discogs/Instagram sellers House Of Dog will be bringing a rich smorgasbord of records for you to rifle through (including stuff you won’t spot on their site). They’ll be joined by a load of other friends and fellow vinyl pushers, adding up to a dangerously alluring feast for all you wax addicts out there.

Upstairs in the loft, meanwhile, we’ll have our full range of compact Funktion-One systems available for you to experience. This includes both home and studio set-ups, plus a custom home cinema arrangement we’ve put together just for the day. Book in for a free one-on-one session using the link below and you’ll have 30 mins to do what you like with, so you can pick up a fistful of rippers at the fair downstairs and then blast them out to your heart’s content on a club-grade sound system upstairs - nice!

Chuck in some delicious craft beers from our friendly neighbours The East London Brewing Co. and you’ve got a shindig well worth a chunk of your precious long weekend. Schedule a demo slot here:

Book now

and see more details about the whole day here:

Visit the event page

Sova Audio: Coming through loud and clear

Sova Audio founders George and Tzveti recently sat down for a chat with dance music outlet Trommel Music. They discussed how and why they started Sova Audio in the first place, the consequences (both good and bad) of the pandemic, and what the future may have in store. A must-read for any self-respecting Sova Audio fan!

Read the article

SOVA LABS x COMMUNITY LEARNING: Live Streaming!

If you’re over 19 and a permanent resident in Waltham Forest we invite you to take part in our weekend live streaming course!

You will collaborate with artists invited to perform on our Studio Sova stream to create the conceptual framework and learn about the basics of sound, visual considerations and technical requirements in relation to live-streaming.

The course will culminate in a real live-streaming event delivered by you and overseen by the Sova Labs team.

It’s free and there are only a few spaces left - applicants will be selected on a first-come-first-served basis.

Hurry up and join!

Register

Studio Sova - Above Below Livestream

Last month we hosted Daniel from Above Below festival for a 3-hour session of ambient drifters and slo-mo heaters intended to set the scene and get y’all hyped for their 4-day party in the Chiltern Hills this summer. Above Below (I can say from personal experience) is a small-scale, large-fun festival with a focus on sustainability, intimacy, inclusion, and all that good stuff. Daniel’s set captures the dreamy, introspective atmosphere perfectly and the rest of this year’s line-up definitely gets our sign off too, with our close pals Ario, Nathalia, o.utlier and Avsluta all due to play. Peep Daniel’s set below.

Carl_H interview

Somewhat endearingly, Carl_H doesn’t try to play it all cool or nonchalant when you ask how he ended up as a DJ: “You know how some people say that they never really had thoughts of wanting to be a DJ and that it all just happened naturally and things like that - for me it was quite the opposite.” Now, with his heady n heavy sets in high demand at clubs, festivals and grungey raves across the UK and Europe, it’s fair to say that enthusiasm has paid off.

The desire to mix may have always been there, but it took a little while for Carl to hone in on the sounds he wanted to work with. His hometown of Cleethorpes didn’t offer many options to a fresh-faced 16-year-old with a pair of turntables and a hankering for dance music. “There was a local night called Freedom where they used to have Tony De Vit and some other hard house DJs play,” he recalls. “I didn’t look old enough to get in but my friend did so he would go and find out about all different labels and producers and sort of feed it on to me.”

Hard house provided a formative platform, but as Carl was exposed to a wider range of styles he felt himself gravitating towards the more complex, cerebral end of the dance music spectrum. “I remember going into a basement record shop in Amsterdam and finding some like acid techno stuff,” he recalls. “For me, being used to hard house records that would mostly pretty much just do the same thing, this still had that sort of energy and pace but just sounded more interesting.” A more significant evolution came when a friend introduced him to minimal techno through the records of OG head Pier Bucci. “I wouldn't say it was even really the minimal techno sound, because the stuff I play has changed quite a lot from that,” Carl says. “It was just the moment where this sort of constant searching and learning about music properly started. From then on I’ve been studying it more, finding out about different labels and producers, their background stories and stuff like that.”

If Carl’s Studio Sova set from the end of last year (available to watch below) is anything to go by then it’s true that his sound is a little removed from the elastic bump and wiggle that Bucci and the mid-00s minimal scene around him specialised in. Carl’s selections share the intricacy and progression of tracks from that era, but his set is driven along by a much heavier pulse, dotted with acid, trance and tribal inflections that lend a spacey, wide-eyed feel. To my ears, somewhere between the far-out wobble of Goa trance and the drum-tight groove of tougher European styles, with a bit of Northern English oomph mashed in for good measure maybe.

Carl was joined at Studio Sova by a crew from Sub:System, a party series he started with his pal Tom (AKA Remove Me). “We began maybe six, seven years ago because there weren’t really any parties, that we knew of anyway, that were focusing on trance, progressive - that sort of sound,” Carl says. Sub:System events are run with a fiercely underground, near clandestine attitude. You won’t find much mention of them online, certainly no tickets on RA, and they use temporary locations that provide a safe and malleable space for expression, as Carl explains: “We've always tried to use off the grid venues, whether it's indoors or outdoors. It gives us that freedom to create our own sort of space and environment and to keep our own crowd there - everyone's a mixed bag of ages, gender and everything.”

Alongside his work as a DJ and promoter, Carl also disseminates his preferred brand of pineal dance music through his label, Animals on Psychedelics. Artists featured on the label so far include Miro Sundaymusiq, Invisible Menders (the duo of Jane Fitz and Dominique Ahtuam) and Vladimir Gnatenko. “I try to only have people that I've either met or have got some sort of extension to through a friend,” Carl says. “That's not just with the music, it's also the visual side.” That visual side he refers to is the artwork accompanying each release which, logically, features an animal set amongst some kind of twisted DMT-scape. It’s trippy in that classic sort of Fear and Loathing way, but for me it’s the determinedly friends-, family- and inclusivity-oriented approach with which Carl runs the label (and his parties) that really embodies the psychedelic experience - peace, love and universal happiness yo!

Carl_H’s five albums worth sharing

• OB 1 - Anubismatist

  “This is an album but it’s only on CD and all the tracks are mixed together into one. I’m happy that it’s like that now but when I first bought it I was hoping it was single tracks because there’s stuff on there that I’d love to play out. It’s sorted me out on many a trip from A to B though. It’s a great mind-melter, definitely helps if you wanna just escape and get somewhere quicker and not think.”

• The Future Sound Of London - Accelerator

  “This is one that everyone should have. It’s just got loads of great acid house tracks that feel incredibly clever and way ahead of their time. Everytime I listen to it I can really put myself in a big arena watching them live, even though they were playing way before I was into this sort of stuff. Obviously you can watch performances on YouTube now but for me it’s not as effective - I can really picture what it was like when I listen through this.”

• The Fugees - The Score

  “This is the first record I ever owned. Don’t really need to say too much about it - just a classic.”

• Sun Electric - Kitchen

  “For me this is an album where it feels like the machines are doing the work. Whether it’s the ambient tracks or some of the gnarly, dark trancey techno tracks, it all feels really mechanical.”

• Mathuresh - Link 

  “This is something I came across pretty recently. It’s not an album I’d take for a deep listen necessarily but it’s just full of really great trancey techno tracks for the dance floor.”

Hoots from Team Sova

• Nala Sinephro - Space 1.8

  “A beautiful concoction of interstellar ambient, deep cosmic jazz and avant garde afro-futurism, accentuated by Sinephro’s dreamy harp playing.” - Tzveti

• Hidden Rivers - Golden Age of Dereliction

  “Unspeakably beautiful, melancholy-tinged electronica from a Welsh producer I discovered just earlier this month - what a treat!” - Lucie

• His Name Is Alive – All The Mirrors In The House (Home Recordings 1979-1986) 

  “Revisited this from a few years back. Devastating, lonesome and gorgeous tape music made when Warren Defever was a teenager. Sounds like time and memories slipping irrevocably away.” - Oscar

• Avsluta & Alicia B2B on Kindred Radio

  “The best hour I’ve listened to this month. A spacey adventure through deep forests and froggy ponds. Avsluta (AKA our dear Lucie) and Alicia have just started a bi-monthly party together, Terra Obscura. Keep your eyes peeled for the next one.” - Tzveti

• Life as a tankboy by Richard D James  

  “Funny 1995 article written by RDJ (AKA Aphex Twin) about driving his tank around Cornwall - “It's like a womb...with a gun.” Can’t really tell if it’s fact or fiction, think that’s part of the fun.” - Oscar

Hey, hope everyone’s having a fine and dandy 2022 so far.

This month’s HOOT features an interview with Aboutface, who you may know from his regular appearances on NTS and Netil Radio or his recent album on the excellent AD93 label. We caught up with him to reminisce about the series of events exploring ‘The Perception, Philosophies and Poetics of Sound’ that he presented for our Sova Labs series last year, and to ask him to recommend five albums that he thought you good people should know about. Scroll down to see his choices and watch the full video of the last event (featuring a live performance), and click through to our blog here to read the full interview, featuring TS Eliot, hypnopompic states, and a radical potential solution to the climate crisis - nice!

This month we’ve included some bits and pieces that the team here have been digging in recent weeks. There are albums, singles, mixes, gigs, articles - basically anything that got us hot under the collar and that we reckon will have a similar effect on you.

We’ve also put together a video documenting the weekend-long ambient seance-rave that we helped organise with Astral Industries this winter just gone. We rigged up a remote castle up in the wilds of Scotland with a litany of Funktion-Ones and let the impeccable music do the rest:

Lastly, a quick nod in the direction of our online Funktion-One hire shop and recently-launched sound system store.

sovaaudio

A post shared by Sova Audio (@sovaaudio)

House parties aren’t always cool (in fact some are criminally uncool), but if you’re gonna have one then make sure it sounds right and hire or buy a sound system from Sova Audio. Use the discount code WKND30 to get 30% off on hires for Friday through Monday.

Till next time x

Buy Funktion One Home Systems

Rent Funktion One Sound Systems

Aboutface

Last year, Ben Kelly (AKA Aboutface) conceived and presented three lectures for our Sova Labs series that addressed ‘The Perception, Philosophies and Poetics of Sound.’ The first two events took the form of conversations: Ben spoke with spatial audio specialist Dave Haydon about ‘sonic reception and perception,’ then got deep into sonic philosophies and transcendental events with Funktion-One founder and sound system sage Tony Andrews.

For the last event, Ben took the concepts explored in the previous talks, incorporated insights gleaned from his research as an ecomusicologist, and channelled the result into a live improvised performance that aimed to demonstrate sound’s ‘poetic’ potential and explore how it might be utilised in the context of the climate crisis. As you might have guessed, it’s heavy, multifaceted stuff, and while Ben was considerate enough to follow up the performance with a lecture outlining the theories that informed the work, we thought it would be worth having a chat with him to get an even deeper lowdown.

Watch a recording of the event below and read the full interview here.

Aboutface’s five albums worth sharing

• Cluster – Zuckerzeit

  “This seminal 1974 electronic music album introduced me to a free form of electronic music with live instrumental one-take performances. It also introduced me to the solo work of Hans-Joachim Roedelius, especially his Selbstportrait (self-portrait) series, which if you haven't listened to, definitely check out.”

• Terry Riley – A Rainbow In Curved Air

  “Another seminal electronic music LP (1968). The cascading, transcendental overdubbed synths and instruments evolve over a long period of time, with two pieces across its 40-minute duration (and some people say my music is too long!). The cover alone makes this record worth purchasing and the piece is a huge, formative influence on my music. Loads of second hand copies available on Discogs, grab it!'“

• David Borden ‎– Music For Amplified Keyboard Instruments

  “1981 LP which is so beautiful in it's tonal simplicity but cultivates complexity with its rhythmic form. When listening it sometimes feels polyrhythmic, with new patterns forming from the same musical sequences, although this may be some kind of transcendental audio hallucination due to repetition, a little like if you listen to Terry Riley's In C. It definitely got me into heterophony in composition: the simultaneous variation of a melodic line with multiple voices.”

• Philip Glass ‎– Glassworks

  “Glass' 1982 neo-chamber orchestral music to me is like music that has been distilled into a much stronger, more powerful substance, like a spirit. ‘Floe’ especially takes over my mind and body and all I can do is submit to it.”

• Thom Yorke – Eraser

  “Thom Yorke's 2006 exploration into electronica felt like a departure, or a progression, from Radiohead's previous album, Hail to the Thief. For me it was one of the most transformative albums of any musician's career and arguably at the time was the most influential album in my progression as a musician. In the 90s/00s, growing up I had played the guitar but was massively into jungle and drum n bass, and I had been too much of an explorer to fit into a band environment - I'd often spend time tapping my delay-soaked guitar with pebbles to a 160+ bpm amen break which would piss everyone off. Then in the 2000's, when I had been listening to and producing some electronic music and was becoming disinterested, Eraser (along with Burial's breakout self-titled LP, released around the same time) reignited my love for electronic music with it's glitchy, textural melancholy, combined with real musicality, which spoke to me much more than the trance-minimal-prog continuum of preceding times. It also influenced my favourite Radiohead album, In Rainbows, which found a delicate balance between experimentalism and musicality. The electronic focus in Eraser formed a legacy of Yorke's future explorations into the electro-acoustic spectrum, including the Can-like rhythms of King of Limbs and his incredible soundtrack for Luca Guadagnino's remake of Suspiria.”

Hoots from Team Sova

Here’s some stuff that’s been buttering our biscuits recently. Hope you enjoy them too.

• William Ørbit ‎– The Best Of Strange Cargos

  Maybe it’s the new year or something, but I’ve been having some back-to-basics moments with William Ørbit’s Best of Strange Cargos, a compilation of the producer's work 1987-1993. The opener, ‘Water From A Vine Leaf’, has always been a particular favourite of mine. It's fascinating how Ørbit, similarly to Brian Eno, can navigate the underground while also producing some incredibly influential and commercially successful acts like Madonna and U2.” - George

• Human Lessons #042 - Scav

  “I’ve been enjoying this live set by Scav recorded at Artmosferic Festival 2020, an independent festival on a naturally occurring balcony on top of Old Mountain in Bulgaria that I used to go to religiously. Scav is a good friend and a really good acoustician turned producer, and the mix is a total head cleanser.” - Tzveti

• Various Artists - Listening to the Anthropocene

  “Beautiful compilation album put together for the Coventry Biennial 2021’s HYPER-POSSIBLE exhibition. Features nu-skool ambient pros like KMRU, Kate Carr and Lamina Fofana playing with field recordings scavenged from Coventry and the surrounding area.” - Rupert

• Lucinda Childs and Philip Glass - Dance at Sadler's Wells Theatre 

  “Really looking forward to these upcoming performances of Lucinda Childs and Philip Glass’ landmark contemporary dance piece, originally created in 1979.” - Lucie

• ​​The Detroit Escalator Company - Soundtrack [313] + 6

  “Stunning, sky-high ambient techno album from under-appreciated Detroit don ​​Neil Ollivierra, now lavishly reissued by Mental Groove Records. Multilayered but sparse and delicate; light-as-aether melodies above flitting percussion and limber basslines. Dope.” - Oscar

• Pitchfork's 50 Best IDM Albums 

  “Unsure what I was after but stumbled across this article outlining the best IDM albums of all time. To be honest I wouldn't put some of them into that music bracket, but I guess that’s the odd beauty of IDM. Here’s your monthly music sorted.” - George

• Felicia Atkinson & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Un hiver en plein été 

  “Beautiful new release on French label Shelter Press. It’s their third collaboration, check the others too.” - Lucie

• mu tate - Let Me Put Myself Together

  “An album that left a mark in the past month. I imagine listening to it in the open air at dawn must be the perfect trip.” - Tzveti

• Sean McCann – The Games of the Leaves Vol. 2

  “Mix of ruff tuff grubby dub (plus some sound poetry) put together by Recital boss Sean McCann for Cafe OTO. Heavy, heartfelt and triumphant.“ - Oscar

• Mr. Fingers - Cerebral Hemispheres

  “This has been getting some much-deserved love - basic, soulful, technical, essential house music.” - George

• Eusebeia - Ryoko 04

  “Luuush new jungle release on Ryoko by the amazing Eusebeia.” - Lucie

• The Many Worlds of Enough

  “Cool essay relating the Many Worlds theory in quantum physics to human ambition and greed. Cute cartoons too.” - Oscar

2021 was an interesting year. Like every business that relies on people moving and/or grooving, the constant ebb and flow of restrictions were a blow. However, we saw it as an opportunity to evolve and improve, a chance to broaden our horizons and see what more we could do to spread the word of Sova far and wide.

We’ve put together a short video featuring our highlights of the year which you can watch below.

We also have some exciting news to round out the year - we’ve just launched our online shop, where you can buy Funktion-One sound systems and other high-end audio equipment for your own home (Beta, UK Only).

The way things are going, clubs might not be a consistent bet for scratching your dancefloor itch throughout 2022, so why not make sure you never miss a beat and sort yourself a setup that can’t ever be silenced!

VISIT SHOP

We also had a chat with our good friend Nathalia, the founder of the immersive audiovisual event series Experiment Intrinsic, to hear how her year has been and what she has planned for 2022.

Nathalia Petkova is the mind, body and spirit behind Experiment Intrinsic, an immersive event series that combines ambient and experimental music with visual art, deep listening and meditation. The events began back in 2014 as invite-only gatherings held in an abandoned London water reservoir replete with speakers and projection mapping gear. Artists would then unfurl rich, slow-burning soundscapes alongside intricate live visuals, teasing apart the healing powers of sound and exploring how they could be enriched with novel sights and sensations. At that time, Nathalia was growing tired of late nights spent DJing on the London techno circuit and Experiment Intrinsic enabled her to explore the gentler textures and tempos she increasingly found herself drawn to.

While the experience is multisensory, a flawless audio setup is clearly of the utmost importance for something as delicate and forceful as an Experiment Intrinsic event - and that’s where Sova Audio come in. “Sova have been a big part of Intrinsic since the second event,” Nathalia told me when we caught up recently. “I’ve always been precious about sound systems and as a DJ I’ve had lots of issues where the promoters weren’t taking care of the basics or the sound engineer just had no idea what they were doing. But then once we started working with [Sova founder] George it was such a relief because I knew that I had someone next to me who would take care of everything as if it were his own project.”

Since that first collaboration, Sova Audio have worked on every Experiment Intrinsic event Nathalia has conjured up, and when she decided that it was time to step things up a level and curate a four-day festival in France, naturally Sova were right there with her. The resulting event, set within the grounds of a historic villa in Dordogne, built upon the original concept, retaining the rich array of music and visual art (from renowned artists like Roedelius, Jan Jelinek and Nicholas Lutz) but adding yoga classes, guided meditation sessions, and voice and mantra workshops.

Arrangements were in place for a follow-up edition of the festival at the same location in summer 2020 but these were scuppered for obvious reasons, as were plans to rearrange it for 2021. Nathalia remains unperturbed though and she now has her sights set on a spectacular new location in the mountains of her (and Soca Audio’s) homeland - Bulgaria. The move comes with plenty of upsides, as Nathalia explains: “Bulgaria is a very beautiful place to visit, but it’s also easy and cheap which opens the event up to a lot of people. Also, my idea moving forward is that after the festival we can organise a hike to the Seven Rila Lakes which is one of the most energetic spots on earth. So we can make it even more of a full experience.”

Experiment Intrinsic’s development into a more holistic, spiritual and wellness-focused platform mirrors a similar change in Nathalia, both in her life and her art. “Recently my focus has changed more to yoga, meditation, mantras and different kinds of self-awareness, and I’m trying to bring this more and more into my mixes,” she tells me. “I take original recordings of mantras or talks and build on them, adding an ambient track, some drums or shamanic sounds, then some nature sounds, like birdsong, for example. I’m always mixing like this, between three or four channels - it’s more fun and you can build this kind of journey.”

This approach has seen Nathalia move away from purely musical or performance-based environments, and she has recently been commissioned to create soundscapes specifically for yoga studios. The idea of crafting sounds that act more as meditative tools than music seems a fitting reaction to the interminable state of numbed anxiety we’ve all found ourselves in over the last two years. For Nathalia, though, this progression was just as much about doing something new as it was about doing something more cathartic. Her advice for dealing with these times is typically positive: “You just have to learn to step back and take a breath. Maybe find another hobby, maybe get inspired by something else, because it's all a learning process - the thing is to flow with life.”

I think after the years we’ve all been through, you could do much worse than to listen to that advice.

Perhaps that’s a little easier said than done, but when platforms like Experiment Intrinsic are back up and running life becomes much easier to flow with.

Lastly, we’d like to say a big thank you to all of the friends and family we’ve collaborated with over the last year. You guys inspire us, amaze us, teach us, and make everything we do feel worthwhile.

See you next year!

Hey all! We hope you’re enjoying your summer wherever you are. Here are the latest updates from us.

Sova Lab pres Tony Andrews is now archived and available to watch on demand on our website:

Watch now

We will be premiering “Sonic reception and perception: what is immersive sound?” With Dave Haydon

In this edition of Sova Labs, we will be exploring spatial perception, psychoacoustics and their effect in our perception of immersive sound, with spatial audio pioneer Dave Haydon, the director and co-owner of OutBoard TiMax – spatial audio specialists.

Developed for Ravensbourne University, hosted by Sova Audio and presented by ecomusicologist and conceptual artist Ben Kelly (Aboutface). Recorded on 7/06/2021

Supported by Arts Council England

The event is free, please sign up to get the streaming link:

Sign up

Leah Floyeurs

By Oscar Allan

When Leah Floyeurs landed in London she was a budding newspaper journalist and rad heavy metal fan who’d never even heard of Kraftwerk. More than 25 years later she’s still in the English capital, except now she’s a renowned presence on the European techno circuit with a lethal stack of records (see her Studio Sova set below for evidence) and a passionate interest in ancient Greek Hellenistic astrology. So what happened? We sat down with her to find out. 

Leah (then known as Susan) came to the UK from Australia at the age of 23 for a year-long holiday, but that trajectory changed with her first exposure to a London dancefloor. “When I came over here I had the intention of continuing my journalism,” she tells me, “but in that first year I also got a job at HMV records and I met a woman there, Theresa, who introduced me to electronic music. She took me to my first club at the end of 1993 which was Lost.” That thumping little corner of Brixton - the kind of space of which sadly so few remain - had an irreversible effect on Leah, and not long after her first trip she threw her return plane ticket in the bin.

More than enough words have been written about the halcyon days of early 90s club culture, but sometimes it takes a first-hand account to hammer home the novel and truly transcendental power of that era. “I know that there’s a lot of reminiscing generally,” Leah tells me, “but what we were tapping into at that time felt almost like a portal. It was a new consciousness, a new way of being in society. It was like something was happening there that has happened all through history and we were at a point of this new entry of electronic music.” 

Was it the sense of community that made it so special, I asked. “It was the speed with which it happened as well,” Leah replies. “It was an explosion. And yes it was that communal aspect, of course, but there were so many things that were being born out of that space at that time. It was held in everybody’s dreams and hopes and wishes. Everyone’s positivity and hopes for a better future were just crammed into these spaces with this music.” As dancefloors gingerly re-open her words feel all the more poignant.

For Leah just listening wasn’t enough though, and the next step was obvious: get herself in the booth. “There was a friend of mine who had some decks and some records and I decided I had to teach myself how to mix. So I quit my job and spent literally a month playing records for hours and hours every day until I got it.” The intense training paid off and soon enough she was playing out, with her high-octane, Detroit-influenced style soon earning her a residency at Freerotation Festival and London’s 50arc. Since then she’s continued her ascent and she’s now a regular fixture at clubs and festivals around Europe, with Dimensions Festival in her sights this September.  

Leah is now looking to incorporate more than just DJing into the Leah Floyeurs moniker (an anagram of ‘heal yourself’ which she adopted in the early 00s). Over the last decade or so she has become increasingly interested in ancient Greek Hellenistic astrology and in 2019 she began studying it formally. She sees it as intrinsically linked to all aspects of her life, including her musical exploits: “It’s a holistic thing. Astrology is basically the source of all philosophy, all maths, all geometry, all cosmology - everything comes from it. And I’m not talking about the interpretations necessarily, I’m talking about the fact that everything comes from the sky as far as the development of the consciousness of the human species goes. So music is totally linked to astrology. Of course you have The Music of The Spheres and stuff like that, going right back to ancient Greece, if not before, so it is all very much connected.”

The Music of The Spheres is a concept explored by Plato and other ancient Greek philosophers that attributed musical tones to the planets in our solar system based on their orbits and the proportional relationship between the length of a vibrating string and the note produced. This idea of a less material, more etheric approach to music fits nicely with Leah, who was a skilled pianist from a young age but found the route of classical training and grades restrictive and unsuited to her talents. “I’ve been playing piano since I was about five,” she tells me. “I’d just play as I hear, always learning by ear. So I think it was a natural progression for me to end up going down a route that took me to astrology. Because I’ve always been in this otherworldly realm, there’s always been more than just the physical existence for me, that’s a no-brainer.”

Reconciling the disparate energies of astrology and techno might seem like a tough ask on paper. After a chat with Leah Floyeurs though it doesn’t just make sense, it feels like a necessity.

Five albums worth sharing by Leah Floyeurs:

SHED - SHEDDING THE PAST

Shed - Shedding The Past (2008, Vinyl) | Discogs

Shed - Shedding the Past (The Final Experiment) [Full Album] - YouTube

I discovered Shed when I was turning a huge corner in my life.  I had spent several years becoming increasingly disillusioned with the relentless 2-bar loops and sample-heavy techno of the early 2000s, and had given up playing records.  Then I heard a mix by Marcel Dettman on RA, and immediately bought a copy of Ben Klock’s Napoleon Hill.  In October 2009, I visited Berlin, experienced Berghain and ended up rummaging through Hardwax.  It was the title “Shedding The Past” that caught my eye.  This album encapsulates everything I love about electronic music – delicateness, precision, melancholy and perseverance.

BNJMN – BLACK SQUARE

BNJMN - Black Square (2011, Vinyl) | Discogs

Black Square - YouTube

I found this masterpiece in March 2016, thanks to fellow DJ Sabine Hoffman, who worked at OYE Records in Berlin. Every track is sublime. BNJMN is one of my favourite producers and his musicianship is exceptional.  His music brings light and joy from the darkest places. I can’t describe it any other way. I think I have almost everything he’s made, so this album has a lot to answer for!  

ROD MODELL - CAPTAGON

Rod Modell - Captagon (2019, Vinyl) | Discogs

Rod Modell - Captagon - YouTube

Yes, I believe Basic Channel was the best thing that ever happened to electronic music, and if a track sounds like Deepchord, it probably is.  I’ve played this album the most through lockdown. It has really helped to maintain an active state that is not an anxious one. The wizardy that is required to produce such frenetically fast, yet meditative music is otherworldly to me. Rod Modell is a genius.

STEVE RACHMAD – NEO CLASSICA

Listening to Steve Rachmad’s/Sterac’s productions is like sitting in a kaleidoscope.  The purity and delicacy of his compositions is non-comparable, and, just like Basic Channel, he owns a sonic signature that underpins the essence of classic(al) electronic music.   The consistency and dedication to his art is extraordinary - from 1995’s gamechanger “Secret Life Of Machines” to “Aeras” released a quarter-century later.   This triple-pack is one of my treasures.

FEVER RAY – FEVER RAY

Fever Ray - Fever Ray (2009, Vinyl) | Discogs

I bought this album as soon as it was released 11 years ago and it has become my favourite album in my collection. For me it epitomises the ongoing transformation and revealing of the feminine archetype.  The affronting power of Karen’s Dreijer’s voice seems to carry an ancestral lineage of inherent feminine wisdom.  Her voice is archaic, commanding and utterly mesmerising, the production is superb and I could not tell you my favourite songs.

That's right - we're halfway through 2021. Crazy! Thanks for all the positive feedback on our newly developed audio hire system - we decided to extend the Beta for another month for some finishing touches. Saying that - you can still use the 30% promo code until the end of august - Beta30.

Book here

Sova Labs

The second lecture of the Sova Labs series is a discussion with the seminal sonic-thinker and founder of Funktion-One sound systems, Tony Andrews. We will be covering the philosophies of sound such as sound and spirit; deep listening; sense hierarchy– hearing as a marginalised sense, and the pursuit of sonic-fidelity to facilitate ‘a transcendental event’ –  a shared altered state of consciousness that can lead to societal change, as historically demonstrated in Tony’s intrinsic influence on the UK’s 80’s rave scene and subsequent counter-culture.

We will be premiering the event on the 19th of July - sign up to get the link:

Sign up

Studio Sova

June's edition of Studio Sova featured a takeover by Third Ear - a label that's always been very close to our hearts. Many thanks to Guy Mccreery for putting this together, and shout out to the artists: Lorca, Saint Thomas Ledoux, Sam Watson, Marija and L’Aubaine. The sets are now available to live stream in both HD video and WAV audio.

Casting the runes

We collaborated with sound artist Ewa Poniatowska (@__.ewa.__ ) to create a spatial audio installation, part of ‘Casting the Runes’ exhibition. It is on for a month at 108 Fleet Street.

The exhibition is curated by Arthur Poujois @arthurpoujois
Hosted by @harlesdenhighstreet in partnership with Underground Flower

Included artists:
@colombedhumieres@miranda.keyes@josephkadow@____malyna____@samlangrigg@hwirgman@jenkinvanzyl@stefankartchev@yasmina___________@tomhardwickallan@marie.lueder@joe_hi1@_inanina_@aeubelen@finlayabbottellwood@arthurpoujois

Five albums worth sharing

Last year we invited the Free Movements crew down to Studio Sova for a proper multisensory hoedown. Dan Nicholls and Michael Knight, playing together as String Figures, provided a gently throbbing and swaying soundtrack of live electronics, augmented by a recording of an Ursula K. Le Guin interview (taken from the Between The Covers blog) in which she laments our rapacious pursuit of new technologies and advocates for a more holistic and loving attitude to nature and objects. There was plenty on offer visually too, with ((ZON)) layering live imagery and Elisa Vassena performing interpretive dance in response to the music.

We caught up with Dan Nicholls ahead of the release of his album Mattering and Meaning and asked him to share some music with our readers. Here we go:

Alice Coltrane - Journey In Satchidananda

From my early days at music college, discovering a whole load of subversive new music from the comfort of my student halls, to whatever place I'm at now, Alice Coltrane has always been a big and beautiful presence for me. Her sound feels at once earthy and cosmic – which is the way I love things to be. On this record her harp has this stunning radiance and she feels like a powerful feminine presence guiding the other musicians into some very deep places. 

Julian Sartorius - Hidden Tracks 

It feels important to have a friend or two on this list. I've worked with Julian for a few years and he's one of the most natural and inspiring people I know working with sound. These sounds were collected during a hike from Basel to Geneva, stopping at different locations along the way and playing found objects in the landscape. To listen it feels like being there on the journey with Julian, who seems, through sound, to be so playful and attentive to an emergent world. 

Joshua Abrams and Natural Information Society - Magnetoception

This album is a journey of warm and earthy minimalism, from a really special group led by Chicago bassist and Guimbri player Joshua Abrams and featuring Hamid Drake, who will feature on our first Free Movements label release next year. This group has such a strong energy and communality, a joyful example of one of my main interests – instrumental trance and dance music which incorporates improvisation. 

Elin Franzén and Andreas Tilliander - Japan

'...hundreds of Tokyo ravens in Yoyogi park, an old song found in an old man's small shop in Kyoto, the bird-like traffic signals in Naha...' – some of the sounds which create the profound sense of many places diffracted by this album. I first heard Japan during a period of big change a few years back, when I was discovering a lot of amazing new ideas – including those of people such as John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Donna Haraway and Tim Ingold – and starting to bring together my interests in improvisation, rave and deep listening.

Atom™ - Dots

My friend Ario runs Astral Industries, a label which has carved out a really special sound with its immersive, warm and intergalactic explorations! I have been in so many dreamy situations when the track Spinout Segment was played, that it has taken on a certain nostalgia for me that I don't often experience (I'm generally not one for reminiscing!). Hearing this on top of a mountain in the Spanish Pyrenees with some of my closest friends at Parallel festival was a bit of a life highlight! 

Hello, June!

To celebrate the summer we’ve launched a limited edition t-shirt campaign. Organic cotton tees in four colours, lovingly designed by Asta Studio.  If you would like to get one - hurry up as there are only 7 days left to pre-order from Everpress. 

By only printing exactly what's sold through pre-orders, Everpress are able to avoid unnecessary waste ending up in landfill; it also makes printing cheaper, helping independent creatives get seen by people like you.

Buy now

Sova Labs

Moving on - we started a new project called Sova Labs - The Perception, Philosophies and Poetics of Sound.

Sova Labs is a series of lectures featuring vanguard sonic professionals to explore the dialogical relationship between the perception, conception and reception of sound performance, and its potential to facilitate transcendental experiences that influence collective consciousness. The series explore psychoacoustics and how we perceive spatial audio; how sound-induced altered states can shape technology and counter-culture, and how these perceptions and philosophies can be considered and applied through a poetic-sound performance.

The first three lectures are developed for Ravensbourne University, produced by Sova Audio and presented by ecomusicologist and conceptual artist Ben Kelly (Aboutface). The lectures featuring Dave Haydon from Outboard TiMax, Tony Andrews from Funktion One and Ben Kelly himself will be publicly available in the second part of June.

Follow @sovaaudio to get the update.

Five albums worth sharing: Avsluta

Avsluta plays in the liminal zones. Those between ambient and rave, between improvisation and composition, between life, objects and the environment. Her productions are suffused with a mystic atmosphere made of soft live acoustics, arcing tones and oblique nods to the dancefloor. She explores similarly ambivalent sonic territories through her radio show and platform, Introspective Electronics, however, the live environment is where her ideas are captured most acutely, as she had the good grace to demonstrate when she posted up for a mesmerising two hours at Studio Sova last year.

Marking a year since her appearance at Studio Sova, we asked Avsluta to share five albums with our subscribers:

Nordvest - Grøndal

Released on the legendary American IDM-flavoured Suction Records, this album is basically an ode to arpeggios in all their tingly, icy glory. Being a huge arpeggio lover, this was an incredibly powerful find. I first heard this album coming back from one of our journeys to the countryside when my partner blasted it out on his car stereo and it became one of the most precious wonders of my record collection since. You might not believe it, but the person who made this beauty actually goes by the name of Sleeparchive too. 

Jonathan Fitoussi - Pleil Soleil

This is another arpeggiated masterpiece, this time rendered in much warmer timbres, soaked in sunrays, courtesy of the French composer Jonathan Fitoussi. I discovered his work thanks to his 2016 release ‘Imaginary Lines’ out on Further Records and I knew this was a crush for life. Since then, every new release made it’s mark but ‘Plein Soleil’ from last year had that something extra special. A perfect balance of richly woven drones, gentle marimba and piano tingles and West coast arpeggios makes for a real far-reaching introspective journey. 

PLO Man & D3D-E - public static v.

As far as live performance records go this would be one of my all-time favourites. Originally presented as an audio-visual performance in Milan during the autumn of 2019 this continuous piece is a masterclass in creating emotional complexity through creating sparse, seemingly simple arrangements. The attention to detail and balancing suspense and flow are incredibly powerful. The sonic palette is reminiscent of the contemporary electronica coming out from Australia embellished with a pinch of the good old dose of classic hazy stripped-back IDM nostalgia. 

https://www.phonicarecords.com/product/plo-man-c3d-e-public-static-v-lp-acting-press/171566

mu State - Let me Put Myself Together

This record is an unmissable masterpiece, an instant classic in the endless pool of new ambient coming out in recent years. Navigating that mystical space in-between dreamy soft-cushioned harmonies, hazy club-tinged percussion and precise, organic sound design, it paints a picture of a world that is at the same time tactile and untouchable. Each listen brings forth a new perspective with details emerging and morphing one listen at a time. This is a shapeshifter of a record meant to be listened to on a loop. 

https://www.phonicarecords.com/product/mu-tate-let-me-put-myself-together-lp-experiences-ltd/173661

Vision of 1994 - Concrete Memories

This is a record very close to my heart, especially for its truly masterful portrayal of nostalgia quite specific to the post-communist coutry I have been born in, the Czech Republic. An ode to the dystopia of the aftermath of the communist regime, it is rich with emotions that are familiar from my childhood: playing basketball at our communal pitch, smoking my first cigarette behind the concrete bus stop around the corner from my house and walking towards the forest at the end of town laced with plattenbau buildings at sunset. This is a beautiful amalgam of downtempo, trip hop and breakbeat nostalgia that brings tears to my eyes everytime I listen, longing for those memories of living as a youth hungry for discovery and wonder. 

https://www.phonicarecords.com/product/vision-of-1994-concrete-memories-lp-harmless-youth/169510

Thank you, Lucie ❤️

48 hours of Rapture Network @ 9128.live

That’s right! 48 hours of some of the finest electronic music one could find tucked away in the dark corners of the internet. The event was broadcasted over the course of two days in early May, and the perfectly curated lineup featured many of our friends and favourite artists.

Thanks, Ed (auratekh), all the performers and the 9128 team.

Sun’s been out on a regular basis last month and coupled with the easing of the lockdown it all feels much brighter these days in East London. To make things even nicer, here’s a soundtrack to get you through May - a dive into Laylla Dane’s music recommendations and a heavyweight eight hours mix from governor Jane Fitz, live-streamed from our studio back in September 2020, and never released as an audio file to date. First things first, let’s have a skim through what’s been happening at the Sova HQ lately.

Our news

We have just launched our online audio rental shop (BETA) and we’d love to hear what you think.

Our aim is to make hiring high-end audio equipment as straightforward as possible. Our fully online process is designed to give you the expert information you need to match a sound system to your specific needs. 

There are options at different levels, from private parties for up to 30 people to events with audience sizes of 500, plus optional DJ equipment to ensure we’re a one-stop audio rental shop.

For those looking to hire a sound system - we offer a 30% discount voucher valid until 31 July 2021. However, there’s no limit on the booking start date - even if it’s a year ahead.

Promo code: BETA30

Browse sound systems

#FutureCreatives

Sova Audio joined the Future Creatives programme as a local partner, providing week-long practical workshops in areas such as live streaming, videography, photography, audio engineering, editing and reformatting content. 

The programme’s aim is to provide a unique opportunity that will help young people ages 16-25 years from the borough to build the experience, skills and networks that are vital to navigating and influencing the creative, startup, tech and green industries. 

Future Creatives: Digital Content is a career programme born of Waltham Forest London Borough of Culture 2019 and additionally supported through Sova Audio’s Arts Council Recovery Fund.

To Sova and back to beat prostate cancer

Sova’s chief George (he’s not of the athletic sort) is taking up on the challenge to cycle 108 miles this May to raise funds for Prostate Cancer UK.

If you’d like to learn more and feel moved to support the cause, please visit his fundraiser page.

Support

Five albums worth sharing: Laylla Dane

This month the focus is on Laylla Dane - it goes without saying - her selection is splendid. Check it out in her own words:

Giraffe — Desert Haze, Marionette, Marionette12

Probably the most abstract LP on my list here. Experimental atmospheres, low-key melodies and minimalistic tribalism evoke pictures of shamanic rituals. A mysticism I couldn’t resist. Still cannot locate the giraffe in this sonic play, though…

Haruomi Hosono & Tadanori Yokoo — Cochin Moon, Light in the Attic, LITA174

Sometimes I go through all-new weekly releases on Juno. That’s how I stumbled upon this stunning creation, originally issued more than 40 years ago by the Japanese prolific artist who is considered as important in electronic music history as Kraftwerk and Brian Eno. Listen to the LP once and you’ll understand why.

Malasod — Tomorrow Has Been Canceled, Mirror Zone, MZ006

I’m always on the lookout for new releases on voodoo master Spekki Webu’s own imprint. This fresh addition traverses most of the contemporary musical directions that I find meaningful at present — from techno & trance to downtempo & ambient. Hence, it could be placed in both club-oriented and alternative sets.

Puma & The Dolphin — Indoor Routine, Invisible Inc., INVINC028

This acetate was a buy-on-sight. I thought ‘Okay, it’s by Nikko (a fellow Bulgarian) plus the artwork is nice — I should have this.’ And I did right! It hits a button of sweetness with its playful, though hypnotic rhythms, sounds of a friendly jungle and a fair dosage of psychedelia. I say we keep an eye (ear) on this guy and his future releases.

Shit & Shine — Malibu Liquor Store, Rocket Recordings, LAUNCH208

This album was a random find as I was previously not familiar with S&S. Strangely enough, I wasn’t convinced if I liked it that much, yet I frantically searched for a copy online. My future self must have sent me signals that the release was worth it. Now, the more I listen to it, the more I like it. It could well be the soundtrack of an intriguing film about existential drama, tension & internal chaos, but also about exploring altered states of mind, blissfulness, adventure & flirting. In other words — it’s dope! And it’s getting a repress .)

Thanks, Laylla ❤️

Laylla is a hard worker and the last few years saw her adding another item to her extensive skill set: the ability to curate a festival. Wake up Stran-Jah, named after the beach venue hosting the event and the Bulgarian mountain in close proximity is one of the highlights in our annual party calendar. Sourcing mainly local talent, Laylla manages to compile a sixty-hour journey of organic happiness.

This is her playing as the sun is rising ⬇️

In addition to the dance music area, this summer Wake Up Stran-Jah will be hosting an alternative ambient stage, featuring Sova Audio’s head honcho George aka Suspension of Disbelief.

Check out George’s 4 hour set from last year’s edition of the event.

In case you missed Laylla’s live set from the Sova HQ, here it is:

Or if you’re up to date with Studio Sova you may want to hear her recent mix for the Mudd Show. Either way, you’re in for a treat.

Monster eight hour Jane Fitz mix

September 2020 marked Sova Audio’s 4th birthday. While we might not have been able to celebrate with the rowdy ensemble of friends and family we might have hoped for, it did give us an excuse to lure someone rather special down to Studio Sova: international club hero, general good vibe curator, and close personal friend, Jane Fitz.

It remains a mystery why, but we never released the audio-only material from that epic 8 hour Jane Fitz marathon. Yes, we know - it took us an embarrassing amount of time to put it up on our Soundcloud but it was worth the wait - the full set is now ready to listen in high-quality WAV.

Go get it

Music from our Bandcamp feed:

“A journey into the singularity of the London underground scene”

A 16 page A5 full-colour zine, curated by Edward Keef (thanks, Ed for sending this over) and Henry Harrington, featuring works by photographers, deeply embedded in Londons thriving underground scene. Support local independent art and journalism - get yours for only £3 (mixer not included)

Buy now

We’ll hit your inbox again next month. In the meantime, feel free to comment, share and reach out to us. ❤️

The Sova Team

It’s been an exciting month, topped by the news that we will be receiving a grant from the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund, allowing us to continue and expand upon our community-based projects. We are so grateful for the opportunity, and can’t wait to get moving!

There were two incredible Sova Studio takeovers, with Astral Industries and One Seventy both blowing our minds. See below for the full audio.

On the stereo, we had music from Masayoshi Fujita, State Azure, Monolake and System Revival, and Luca from E2-E8 had some fantastic tips to check out too.

We also read some fascinating stuff, including articles on the influence of brutalism on post-punk, the pre-acid warehouse scene in London and the legacy of Scott Walker.

So please kick-back, enjoy the journey and let us know what you think!

Events:

Astral Industries feat. Hems, Lynne, O.utlier & Eight Fold Way… @ Sova Studio

One Seventy feat. DB1, The Vision Reels, Alexander, Rob Vanden & Chris Inperspective… @ Sova Studio

Recommended Listening-

Fragments by State Azure- a gorgeous meditation that moves like a weather system, undulating and evolving in a vapour cloud…

Bird Ambience by Masayoshi Fujita- the vibraphonist and percussionist incorporates marimba into his lush, experimental explorations…

System Revival pres. Zero Hunger- not many releases pledge to “end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture,” but that says a lot about System Revival. When the music and the message are this good, and this pertinent, you’ve got to get behind it.

Interview: The making of Gadi Sassoon's 'Multiverse', with Andy Gillham - an immersive conversation that takes in supercomputers, the physics of instruments, musical maths and simulated universes. From A Strangely Isolated Place.

Recommended by Rupert Earl:

Edited invites samb_rules to compose a mix for their Correspondence series. Sam glides between ambient soundscape, and drones, for a contemplative, unwinding listening session. 

The Correspondence mix series invites artists to put together sounds that they'd want to memorialise. Once the series reaches 100 mixes, they will be stored in the time capsule and buried, in the hope that they may be found in the years to come.  

What’s inspiring Luca from E2-E8 right now….

Recommended Reading-

The creative influence of brutalism on post-punk…

London Warehouse Parties Pre-Acid House: An Oral History by Bill Brewster and Terry Farley…

Prince 1958–2016: It’s time someone programmed you by Kirk Digiorgio…

Remembering Scott Walker- probably the most important and influential iconoclast of the late 20th Century and beyond…

Lou Ottens, inventor of the cassette tape, dies aged 94…