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1 / 2
Separate Ways
Order-Nr.: DOMO1S
Angebot : 9.50 Euro

nur 8.50 EURO
(incl. 19% Mwst.)

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7inch / Domestica Records / 2013


Edition of 240 numbered copies. Includes download code of 2-track album.

So much can happen in three years time. For 1/2, it seems like a long
way. Emerging onto the so-called "bedroom synth-noir" scene in January
2009, 1/2 immediately grabbed attention from other DIY enthusiasts
abroad. Using various internet sources discreetly promoting his work
gained him friendly acquaintance and support, which is without doubt a
surprising (if not unexpected) launch of a mini-career that successfully
enters its fourth year span, already summing up a variety of releases
on the singles, mini-album and EP front, including compilation
appearances and collaboration/remix work.

"1/2" is the moniker of Sol Ist - who, along with his long-time friend
and collaborator Robi, once fronted the experimental duo Narrow. Prior
to this, Sol Ist was recording shortly under the name of "Mekanismo Va
Morir", which coalesced into a duo that became Narrow.


In their early period of 1997-98, Robi and Sol Ist started a tiny DIY
imprint they called Aside Thorns, in order to present their,









 


then-still undefined-by-name body of work. At the time, Robi was still
experimenting with other friends of his, under the simple name KRD - the
latter was largely infatuated by the work of Current 93, Annabelle's
Garden, Death In June and the like (Sol Ist included some of KRD's rough
sketches on Aside Thorns' very first compilation cassette - "Unexploded
Tickets").

Formed in 1998, Narrow operated in isolation, using only cassettes,
improving their manual overdubbing technique to create something that is
now regarded as "tape-industrial". Varying between free improvisation
and melody, some of their early cassettes merely count a few physical
copies each, until the duo, encouraged and inspired by some of their
close friends, finally stepped out of their obscure world, into the
public and presented some of their work on a more proper scale, also
featuring very few of their live performances (the first one actually
being as early as 1999, in the legendary Lapidarij Club in Zagreb,
supporting Ivan Krželj's then-known "Wave FM" radio programme).

Narrow weren't meant to be a "live act" as such and this somewhat
tempting urge to perform somehow pointed out to both, the highs and lows
of what they did (not) want from such an experience. By mid-2000s
however, they were still a strong creative force, making most of their
quite large catalogue of home-made recordings available to the public
for the first time ("Cassettes" remaining the most extensive
representation of their entire early output up to 2004). The following
period between 2005 and 2009 was equally diverse and somehow pointed
Narrow towards the more melodic electronic pop sound. While delivering
two more mini-albums and a couple of singles with Narrow and inspired by
other acts (Monofonik, Ilegalne emocije and Margita je mrtva), Sol Ist
started his first proper solo-manifesto in 2006, called "Umrijeti za
strojem" (now a parallel world to 1/2, with equally extensive
discography so far). Immediately appealing in its own right, UZS in a
way echoed spelling the end of Narrow, which finally concluded in 2009.

By 2009, 1/2 was already underway, starting to record new material.
Deliberately chosen the numeral name, "1/2" symbollically stands for the
"remaining half" after Narrow ceased their operation. Unlike Narrow's
unbrushed but appealing tape material, 1/2 turned more towards achieving
aural sophistication through technological modesty. At first, the
cassette overdubbing was still used to record, but 1/2 started
experimenting with other devices pretty quickly, in order to achieve a
more polished sound. The result is a number of test recordings (most of
these being covers of other people's songs), singles and EPs plus
already three mini-albums under his wing. The latest effort being
"Everyone Is Lost Behind the Headlines", released under the fictious
group name of "Split Personalities". In parallel to all this, 1/2
started a new DIY label affair, 0.5 (numerically paraphrasing his
musical "half"). 0.5 expanded its catalogue pretty quickly, including
other people's work as well. In addition to this, he started a
periodical called "Small Doses", with the intention to inspire a dormant
underground scene, by presenting its fragments, not necessarily in the
music field alone. In conjunction with other artists, the 0.5 catalogue
also features music by Alone In Heaven, Videododir, Hemendex,
Popsimonova & Zarkoff, Simon Fisher Turner and Colin Lloyd Tucker
(Tucker provided a stunning vocal solo on one of 1/2's recent songs,
"Analogue Dreaming In the Digital World").

Throughout the last couple of years, some of the international
independent labels expressed interest in releasing material by Narrow,
Umrijeti za strojem and 1/2 respectively. The first who have achieved
this were (T)Reue um (T)Reue, a small German experimental imprint with a
cult following. In 2010, TuTRuR - on recommendation from Nitkov of
Ilegalne Emocije - contacted Sol Ist, in order to propose an LP release
of Narrow's work. The end result is a selection of pieces, called "From
DIY With Love" which gained positive reviews among the obscure music
lovers' circles. In 2012, TuTRuR also released a ltd double cassette of
Umrijeti za strojem's work.

Alongside TuTRuR, another label - Genetic Music, also from Germany,
proposed a split 7" single release, featuring Umrijeti za strojem. This
idea actually came about after Rainer Di Meo of Genetic Music heard
another song 1/2 was involved in - called "Against" - which was made in
collaboration with erehwoN (electronic music enthusiast from Sisak,
Croatia, who records under his pseudonyms "Cable Bends Steel" and
"X_trackT"). 1/2 and erehwoN exchanged some of their ideas and "Against"
was the result - ending up on the Genetic split 7" single with UZS,
which was greeted among some people as one of the finest releases of
2010. Of course, "Against" needed a name to be released under, so
erehwoN and 1/2 decided over "Neither/Nor" to present this collaboration
work with.

Somewhere along the way, 1/2 was commissioned to do remix work for
Bodystyler, one of Dessau's Electric Tremor label protegés. His
"Pointless Cut" of Bodystyler's piece called "Trouble" was included on
the group's ltd cassette/CD-R package.

In Vienna, a group of people started organising "Future Echo" nights,
centered around Michael Giebl and the DJ team called "Crazy Hospital",
presenting artists from the recent underground scene, which led to
inclusion of both, 1/2 and Umrijeti za strojem in Future Echo's live
repertoire, as well as featuring them on both promotional cassette
compilations, called "The Future Echo Tapes" (the recent one being a
double treat, released in conjunction with another impressive imprint -
Aufnahme + Wiedergabe, from Berlin).

In 2013, Sol Ist will feature his eighth international exposure - third
as 1/2, this time for Domestica Records, based in Barcelona. Earlier
last year, Jordi Serrano of Domestica contacted 1/2, expressing interest
in releasing some of his music. The initial idea was to release 1/2's
second mini-album "Analogue Cuts In Digital Ways", but during a period
of scheduling this release, the final choice became the EP "Separate
Ways", originally released in 2011, now to see the light of day as a 7"
single, and also marking the first contemporary artist's debut on
Domestica Records label.