Jazkamer (Jazzkammer)

Doolhof (Dutch for 'maze') is an experimental collaboration between Aaron Turner (Sumac, Old Man Gloom, ex-Isis) on guitars and effects, Will Brooks a.k.a. MC dälek of dälek on vocals and electronics, and Belgian audio-visual artist Dennis Tyfus on vocals, tapes and effects. Recorded live at Roadburn Festival 2019 in Tilburg and released by Turner's SIGE Records in 2020, it fuses abstract hip-hop, drone, ambient and noise into immersive, texture-focused long-form pieces.

Live At Roadburn Festival, April 13th 2019 (Excerpt)play in the dock

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Incapacitants are a foundational Japanese noise duo formed in Osaka in 1981 by Toshiji Mikawa as a solo offshoot from Hijokaidan. After relocating to Tokyo, Mikawa was joined by Fumio Kosakai (also of C.C.C.C.) to form the enduring duo, whose stated aim is 'pure' noise free of musical intention or human idea, built from feedback, vocals and electronics. Alongside Merzbow and Hijokaidan, they are pillars of the 1980s Japanoise movement.

Excepter are a Brooklyn experimental/noise group founded in 2002 by John Fell Ryan (ex-No-Neck Blues Band), released on Load Records and Animal Collective's Paw Tracks — often grouped with Animal Collective and Black Dice as part of a mid-2000s New York noise/psych "class of 2003." Their 2013 record Christisland was recorded in Copenhagen with an expanded, Escho-scene lineup that included Düreforsög's Nis Bysted and KLoAK's Niels Kristian Eriksen.

Hijokaidan are a foundational Japanese noise/free-improvisation group formed in 1979, the project of guitarist Jojo Hiroshige, who also runs Osaka's legendary Alchemy Records. With a lineup that has swelled from two to fourteen members, they pioneered Japanoise as an anti-music of chaotic feedback and notoriously destructive live performances. Regulars include Hiroshige's wife Junko and electronics player Toshiji Mikawa.

House of Low Culture is an American drone/dark ambient and experimental project fronted by Aaron Turner (Isis, Sumac), active since 2000 and named after a song from Isis's Sawblade EP. Its music marries warm cinematic tones with murky, sub-nautical textures, and its lineup has drawn on figures from the wider Hydra Head/experimental-metal orbit. Since 2010 the project has centered on Turner alongside his Mamiffer bandmate and wife Faith Coloccia, with Kevin Micka joining in 2020.

Zonal are the British duo of Justin Broadrick (Godflesh) and Kevin Martin (The Bug), a reactivation of their 1990s Techno Animal partnership trading in cavernous bass, cacophonous dub and ear-splitting drone. Their debut album Wrecked was released on Relapse Records on 25 October 2019, with Philadelphia poet-vocalist Moor Mother featured across its first six tracks. The record was mastered by Stefan Betke (Pole) and pairs industrial hip-hop menace with drone-metal weight.

System Error (ft. Moor Mother)play in the dock

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Bastard Noise is an American noise/powerviolence project founded in 1991 in Los Angeles by Eric Wood, Henry Barnes, and W.T. Nelson as a sister project to Man Is the Bastard; Wood has been its sole constant member since Man Is the Bastard's 1997 breakup. The project builds harsh-noise walls of feedback, crackling electronics, and low synth drones under guttural vocals, with Wood collaborating live and on record with artists including Merzbow and Keiji Haino. The band favors physical releases over streaming/digital distribution.

KTL was a drone/electronic duo formed in 2006 by guitarist Stephen O'Malley (of Sunn O))) and electronic musician Peter Rehberg (Pita, Editions Mego). The project originated as the score for Gisele Vienne and Dennis Cooper's theatre production Kindertotenlieder, which premiered in Brest, France, in March 2007. Working across drone metal, dark ambient, and noise, the duo released six drone-doom albums between 2006 and 2021 on labels including Editions Mego and Thrill Jockey.

Merzbow is the project of Japanese musician Masami Akita, the most prolific and definitive figure in harsh noise, working in distortion, feedback, synthesizers and homemade noisemakers since the late 1970s. His vast collaborative discography connects him deep into this atlas: he has recorded with Boris continuously since 1997 (Megatone, Gensho, 2R0I2P0), mixed the tracks "O)))Bow 1/2" on Sunn O)))'s Flight of the Behemoth (2002), and later performed live with Sunn O))) at Tokyo's Earthdom in 2007. His early-career work also included collaborations with KK Null.

Woodpecker No. 1play in the dock

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Lotus Eaters is an American experimental electroacoustic/drone supergroup formed around 1999, featuring Aaron Turner of Isis, Stephen O'Malley of Sunn O))), and James Plotkin of OLD and Khanate. Working in a minimal, guitar-and-electronics drone idiom, the trio released the CD Mind Control for Infants (Neurot Recordings, 2002) and Wurmwulv (Troubleman Unlimited, 2007). As the only project shared by Turner and O'Malley, it forms the shortest bridge between the Isis pole and the Sunn O))) pole of the atlas. (Not to be confused with the Liverpool new-wave band The Lotus Eaters.)