Sounds from the edges of culture and between the cracks of category
​20/01/2012 - 30/09/2021

Latest Releases- 
​Cassette Imprint

LOR173 - Laura Hills
​- Inside Out

It's rare that Linear Obsessional gets anything as singular and beautiful as Laura Hills' "Inside Out".
A collection of instrumental compositions centred around the piano, but positioned in a unique and personal world of Hills' imagination. The (largely) delicate and spacious piano pieces - think Satie, think Feldman, but somewhere else again - considered and well placed notes and chords in a silence punctuated by other sounds - creaks, buzzes, gamelan like bongs, possibly from field recordings, but ultimately mysterious. There is a lot of space, but not a second of it is wasted in these economic, gnomic and exquisite miniatures.
To be released as a cassette and DL. 
​listen or purchase here 

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LOR170 - laughingstock101
​-Thud & Blunder

Linear Obsessional presents two new tracks by laughingstock101 in which physical acoustic playing and electronics merge into a unique exploration of texture and timbre.
The two Wunderkammers on this release explore the outer reaches of extended technique on the trumpet and flugelhorn, surrounded by a gaseous, floating miasma of indefineable sound, sourced from field recordings and processing. A soft edged blur of sound, compelling and unique.
Recorded and produced by laughingstock101
Jonny Martin - Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Field Recordings and Processing
Available as a casstte in translucent neon green shell and download
Listen or purchase here

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LOR169 - Ola Aldous
​-Fork

Linear Obsessional is delighted that Ola approached us to release this, her first solo album - a mysterious and playful collection of pieces for no-imput mixer, piano and voice.
Composed, performed, recorded, and mixed by Ola Aldous in the autumn of 2020.
Mastered by Claude Aldous at Aldous Estate Mastering.

“Fork” came about as a reaction to the epidemiological and social unrest of 2020, but also as a deeper dive into no-input mixing board practice and, specifically, how does the unpredictability of that feedback instrument interact with improvised and composed piano and voice, the human element? The tiny 8-bit Bastl Kastle modular synthesizer, bowed banjo, and processed field recordings provide further variables to season the pot.
As a child Ola Aldous studied piano at the rigorous Kharkov Special School of Music for Gifted Children in Soviet Ukraine. Emigrating to the US with her mother during the collapse of the USSR, she began lessons with former-Soviet pianist and professor Eugenia Tsarov until she completed high school, then continued her studies with Eugenia at the Crane School of Music, earning her degree in piano performance. She would later complete a degree in fine arts, concentrated in both drawing and painting, continuing her commitment to the arts. Ola’s paintings have shown (and won awards) in numerous juried shows in NYC and beyond. She has contributed album art for her own releases as well as for the Infinite Resignation trilogy for the artist Phillipp Batz. Ola is a regular illustrator for TQ Zine and she illustrates the experimental music and sound art zine Deft Esoterica, which she publishes with her partner. deftesoterica.bandcamp.com
To purchase or listen please go the release page

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LOR160 - Paul Khimasia Morgan &
​Klaus Janek
​-Cocktail Party

A collection of extraordinary improvisations by Brighton based improviser Paul Khimasia Morgan (acoustic guitar body and electronics) and Berlin based Klaus Janek (double bass).
Intricate, alien and unique. The musicicians are communicating and listening intently - in a fascinating language of slippery and ecstatic sound.
Released as a cassette in a bright red shell, and colour cover in the Linear Obsessional cassette imprint and as a download.
​To listen or to order go here

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LOR164 - Paula García Stone &
Sue Lynch
​- Burning Cacti

Collaborative pieces made over lockdown, by each artist sending the other a composition to work on.
An electronic exchange.
In memory of Carole Finer.
Sue Lynch - Tenor Saxophone
Paula García Stone - field recording & electronics
The two collaborative pieces feature Lynch's plaintive, haunting saxophone improvisations alongside García Stone's microscopic and kinetic manipulated field recordings and electronic modifications. The result is an intriguing collision between the micro and the macro, indoors and outdoors, natural and unnatural sounds - frequently unsettling and spooky music for these strange times.
Sue Lynch is a mainstay of the London improvised music scene and plays in many ensembles, her solo album "These Lamps" was released by Linear Obsessional, and she also recorded two EPs with The Horse Trio. She co-runs the Horse Improvised Music Club.
Visual and sound artist Paula García Stone works with electronics and field recordings and recorded the solo CD "Undercurrent" for Linear Obsessional in 2019.
To listen or purchase please visit the release page

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LOR163 - Bettina Schroeder &
​Tony Irving
-Shatter Resistant

A fantastic, dynamic release by the duo of multimedia artist Bettina Schroeder (electric ukelele, lap steel and effects) and Tony Irving (possibly best known for the ferocious noise improv duo Ascension) on drums. 
A fiery and ever shifting collision of ideas and quick thinking, with a sound-world that is parallel to rock music, whilst being amorphous, fleet of foot and loose limbed. 
Recorded with characteristic clarity and punch at Tigersonic's studio in London, and mastered in Alchemix Studios in Brisbane - this is an aural delight.
Released as a cassette in an orange shell, with full colour artwork by Schroeder and a download with notes, biogs and more artwork.
To stream or purchase please visit the release page

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LOR155 - Bill Thompson &
Richard Sanderson
​-Summiting (repress)

 A collaboration between the British amplified melodeon player Sanderson and the Texan guitarist/composer Bill Thompson. "Summiting" consists of long sustained tones, blending into a landscape of slow evolution and mysterious incident. The cassette consists of a live recording from The University of Surrey, and a studio recording produced by Thompson. An additional download track records their first meeting.
The initial pressing sold out in record time, so this is the second edition.
To purchase please go to the release page

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LOR156 - Viv Corringham
-Here in Our Distant Corner We Wait

Linear Obsessional is very excited to release a new album from the extraordinary vocalist and composer Viv Corringham.
"Here in Our Distant Corner We Wait" is an engaging and fascinating collection - Viv uses her voice, both pure and treated, to create intimate explorations within a very human realm. It finds her making some her most personal and explorative music.
Viv Corringham is a British vocalist, composer and sound artist, currently based in New York, who has worked internationally since the early 1980s. Her work includes music performances, audio installations and soundwalks. Her ongoing project Shadow-walks has been presented in gallery shows from New York to Istanbul to Hong Kong. She is a certified teacher of Deep Listening, having studied with composer Pauline Oliveros.
This is Viv's third album for Linear Obsessional.
Available to stream or purchase now

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LOR159 - Dave Clarkson
​-A Pocket Guide to Wilderness - Deep Forests and Dark Woods of the British Isles - 2nd Edition Re-Press!

In his latest exploration of British audio psychogeography (following quicksands, seashore and caves) Dave Clarkson takes his tape recorder into remote woodlands - and works magic with the results. Some tracks could almost be works by the Radiophonic Workshop - the click-funk created from twig noises on the first track for example, while others are more desolate and eerie. This is an area of exploration that Clarkson has truly made his own.
Released as a cassette and download with PDF booklet.
​The first edition sold out within days, a new pressing will be shipping from 9th August!
​To purchase please visit the release page

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Latest Releases -
​Downloads

LOR175 - Ivy Nostrum
​- Outer Hebrides

The tenth release in the Linear Obsessional Single Series.
Field recordings of the Outer Hebrides, July-August 2021.
Side A starts with an opportunistic recording of the free church in Tarbet, Isle of Harris, followed by a walk around the disused RAF / NATO listening station at RAF Aird Uig, on the western edge of the Isle of Lewis. Ongoing harassment by sea birds prompted a careful but hasty exit.

Side B is a recording of the Stornoway to Ullapool Ferry. The heavy drone of the engines was audible throughout the ship, which was both disconcerting and comforting. Towards the end of this recording I get a bit impatient and start wandering around the ferry.
Listen or download here

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LOR174 - Marine Drouan
​- Breathing in the Lake

The ninth release in the Linear Obsessional single series (two sides, 7" single length, no music, classic single price! - design by David Little)
Two evocative recordings made by the musician, visual and sound artist Marine Drouan (who also records electronic music as Kritzkom)
​
Breathing in the Lake:
a very recent one from my first diving experience, breathing underwater in a lake around Berlin.
I found the loud breathing very impressive and creating a slow meditative rhythm in the same time.

Windy Night at the Harbor:
I always loved these sounds of stormy night, when the wind whistle in the masts. I recorded this last year, when I was sleeping in a boat in a harbor in Brittany in France

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LOR168 - Steven Ball
​-Standard Definition

The latest missive from Linear Obsessional's resident chronicler and experimental songwriter is a multimedia EP, featuing video, four songs and a PDF booklet.
"Standard Definition is a collection of four new songs written and recorded in 2021. 

Two of the songs, Landscape Painting and Terminal Passage, are the first of what will become an occasional series for which I write songs in response to video material that I captured in the first decade of the twentieth century. The songs describe the videos or extrapolate new narratives from them. The videos were originally shot on the miniDV digital video tape format, a technology that has become largely redundant since the development of High Definition formats. It is this Standard Definition media that lends its name to this collection. 
Of the remaining two songs Click and Catch Switch echoes children’s language development and the Romanian Surrealist poet Ghérasim Luca, in whose writing nouns often become verbs. No Blood, No Soil consists of a series of reflections on statements around the politically vexed notion of connection to place."
Available for free/name your price for the first month of release
Listen or download here

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LOR167 - St James Infirmary
​-Asozial Kessel Kaputt

The latest in the Linear Obsessional Single Series (download singles, 7" length, two sides, no music) is by St James Infirmary
“Whilst on a visit to the old Stasi HQ in Dresden in 2918, the atmosphere of unease was heightened by the harsh roar of a boiler.
That sound is captured here"
St James Infirmary are g w lang. Recorded by Jimmy Buxton for Mario’s Recording Services, Ashington, Northumberland.
Photo by Skip Doncaster.
Available to purchase here

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LOR154 - Christmas Split Single
​-Xmas Lights/Instructions for Christians

​The Linear Obsessional Christmas Single is the 7th in the series of download singles (2 sides, single length, no music).
A split single featuring Northern English sound artist/ musician Chris Whitehead and author, scholar, critic, editor, and arcane artist K.A.Laity.
On one side you will hear an electromagnetic recording of Christmas Tree lights cycling through their flashing sequences.
The other side is a field recording made on a cold day in Berne, NY featuring "Instructions for Christians" in the original Old English.
Download includes two front covers and one back cover designed by David "smallhaus" Little featuring photographs by the artists., and 9 colour location photographs by K.A.Laity
Happy Christmas!
Download here

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LOR153 - Argument Club
-​Solstice 2019 (51.455758, -0.003256)

Over the last year, during Covid, parks have become valued spaces in cities, as a place to escape to, to relax, to exercise and to breathe. These recordings by Argument Club (Paul Morris) were recorded last summer for a now abandoned Linear Obsessional project based around recordings from a park.
​I'm delighted to be able to include these geographically pinpointed, datestamped recordings as part of the Linear Obsessional Single Series. Download only, includes  a secret bonus track with the download.
The artist has also geo-cached a set of CDs at the co-ordinates in the title.
To download visit the release page

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LOR152 - Matt Atkins
-Two Keralan Scenes

Sound artist and improvising musician Matt Atkins provides us with our fifth installment of the Linear Obsessional Single Series (single length releases, A and B sides, no music)
"Two Keralan Scenes" was recorded in India in January 2020.
Released as a download at classic single price (75p) with front and back covers.
To listen or purchase please visit the release page

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LOR151 - Cravune
-Parc de la Ciutadella

​The fourth release in the Linear Obsessional singls series (two tracks, 7" single length, A and B sides, no music), the Naples born, Berlin based sound artist Cravune presents two recordings made in the eponymous park in Barcelona, Spain.
"The first track is an unusual way of singing (at least to me at that time) of birds. On the second track you can hear my steps on dry leaves as I go back home passing by the Cascada fountain. On that specific day I was in the park of Ciutadella to meditate and relax but also to collect material to be included in the soundscape for a contemporary dance project of a friend - hence the birds... but we ended up not using much of that crazy shrieking :) "
-Cravune
To stream or download please visit the release page

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LOR149 - Chris Whitehead
​-Vent

The third in the Linear Obsessional Single Series - 7" length download tracks, A and B sides, no music.

"Modern ventilators are designed to take over the breathing functions of patients in order for surgical procedures to be carried out or in those that cannot adequately breathe for themselves due to disease.
They have automated self-test sequences which check their various mechanical and electronic systems are fully functional.
Vent 1 is a recording of part of the test sequence of an anaesthetic ventilator typically used during surgical operations.
Vent 2 documents the full test sequence of a portable ventilator used for transferring patients from one area to another within the same hospital or during ambulance transfers to other hospitals."
-Chris Whitehead
To stream or download please visit the release page

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