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Lena Platonos – Balancers LP
Greek electronic music legend Lena Platonos returns to Dark Entries with Balancers, an LP of previously unreleased material recorded between 1982-1985. Athens-based Platonos has worked with the label previously to reissue her three solo LPs – Gallop, Sun Masks, and Lepidoptera – as well as to release three accompanying 12” EPs featuring modern remixes of her work. She is renowned for her forays into cutting-edge electronic experimentation as well as her striking, impressionistic poetry and lyrics, always recited in Greek.
The twelve tracks on Balancers reveal a murkier side of Lena, one draped in tenebrous washes and oneiric utterances. Ragged analog rhythms feature on several tracks, even breaking into a brooding electro groove on “A Cat in the Corner”, but the predominant tone is sparse and somber. Mournful instrumental “Phaethon” swells to mythological proportions, while “In September” feels small enough to fit in your pocket. Lena’s poetry sits amidst lush pads and Radiophonic Workshop-esque squiggles, her voice setting an intimate tone in the shifting electronic sea. Inspiration is drawn from Greek mythology and architecture, and lyrics evoke a soft sorrow, an ambivalence towards love, life, and the passage of time. Although the material here spans 3 years and features a range of recording fidelities and synthesis techniques, the collection possesses the heft of a singular artist’s vision.
Balancers was remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. Eloise Leigh designed the sleeve, which features a doubled Lena in washed-out burgundy hues, channeling the femininity and mystery of the album. Also included is an insert with lyrics in both Greek and English.
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The Hacker – Le Théâtre des Opérations LP
Dark Entries: We are honored to announce the latest album from Michel Amato aka The Hacker, ‘Le Théâtre des Opérations’. Michel began making music in 1989 at the age of 17 in Grenoble, France. He grew up listening to New Wave bands like Duran Duran, The Cure and Depeche Mode as well as the darker side of electro Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire and D.A.F. In 1990s he released a series of 12” singles and an album of cold, calculating and relentless techno. In 1997 he teamed up with Caroline Herve aka Miss Kittin and to release landmark singles and albums of effortlessly channelling the carefree spirit of 80s electro pop which we released an EP of lost demos from in 2015. Michel’s new live project sees the enigmatic artist go back to his roots, performing a 100% analogue set directly inspired by his first true loves of New Wave and dark, powerful techno
‘Le Théâtre des Opérations’ is 8 new tracks spread evenly across 2×12”s cut at 45rpm for maximum sound quality and DJs. The title comes from a metaphysical journal by French-born Canadian science fiction writer Maurice G Dantec. Passionate about avant-garde techno, The Hacker has weaved his influences (Jeff Mills, Drexciya, early Aphex Twin) into a unique sound on this album that can best be described as a walking homage to the power of the synthesizer. Songs veer from gritty, raw EBM to dark, subterranean electro, effortlessly channelling the strains of the Michel’s musical DNA: Front 242, Jeff Mills, Dopplereffekt, SPK. The only vocal track features an appearance by longtime friend and collaborator Miss Kittin named “Time X” after the French science fiction television series Temps X. All songs have been mastered and lacquer cut by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Cover artwork features a collage by London-based artist Anthony Gerace and each copy includes a postcard featuring a photo of teenage Michel from 1989.
15 November 2017 / Dark Entries
A1. Underwater Sequence
A2. Frozen Voices
B1. Time X (Feat Miss Kittin)
B2. Dancing Mekanik
C1. Dark Neon
C2. Body Diktat
D1. Complicated Dances
D2. Camisole Chimique
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Lena Platonos – Hoping By Shopping (Kim Ann Foxman Remix)
Greek electronic pioneer Lena Platonos’ “Sun Masks” Remixes EP, which includes four finely crafted remixes by Kim Ann Foxman, Avalon Emerson, Lena Willikens and Borusiade, is out now on Dark Entries. Buy it here.
Premiered via LAGASTA.
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Video: Lena Platonos – Bloody Shadows from Afar
For several months, filmmaker, art director and teacher Diego Barrera has been creating this official video for Lena Platonos, pioneer in the experimentation with synthesizers in Greece, and angular stone in the New Wave scene since the 80s.
This videoclip is born as a celebration of the success that is gaining this reissue of her cult album “Gallop” under the carefully selected curatory of the record label “Dark Entries”, considered as a jewell for the synth-pop pickers.
“This piece is born as the continuation of my studies in the so-called androgynization rites, rites of symbolic offering of “masculinity” that operate in the abstract, such as the offering of milk in streams, the rite of the Hijras in India.
The endless pursuit of the Alchemical Androgyne, the return of the unity of the forces, the original androgyny, a bio-man walks a journey into the moist, feminine principle, through the mercurial waters – spiritual and purification waters.
After the unity, the origin, comes the division, the duality in which we are immersed, the phallus supporters, of the male, do not understand the coexistence of these forces.
Let’s drive the male element towards the sacred womb.” – DIEGO BARRERA
SERIALGK 