Monique 2024

2024 has been a bit of a rollercoaster, but I want to focus on the positive aspects here. Firstly, I would like to thank Ben Eshmade and Daylight Music, as well as Mich Leemans at Ancienne Belgique, for giving me the opportunity to curate Sonic Pieces showcases as part of their concert series. It was a beautiful and memorable way to celebrate the label’s 15th anniversary, and in particular the last event at The Hot Tin in Faversham, UK, was magical.

Also a big thank you to Raúl Pastor Medall for collaborating on a third solo album for Sonic Pieces and furthermore for taking me to his mum’s country house in Castellón, Spain - the place where he grew up and which provided the imagery for “Limestone Gravitas”, the publication that accompanies his new record. It was a truly special moment to be there together, compiling the book and working on the layout.

In general, I really enjoyed continuing the mi - so editions art book series and, in addition to “Limestone Gravitas”, I worked on two more publications during the year. At the beginning of 2024, I completed “Poetry” with Frank Schültge (F.S.Blumm), a collection of his drawings that we had already started working on in 2023. And it was a pleasure to collaborate with Morgan Cuinet on a publication as well as exhibition of a series of his collages entitled “Ekotopia”.

And this place. An absolute favourite that I love to return to every year, regardless of the season.

I’m grateful for all the amazing in-store concerts we’ve had at mi - so this year. And while they were all special in their own way, the mini-residency with Peter Broderick at the end of October definitely stood out. It somehow added another layer to the experience, almost spiritual. And it was wonderful to see Peter again after many years and even play a round of Carcassonne like in the old days.

We also continued our exhibition series at mi - so and I very much enjoyed being more involved in the curation. What was new was that sometimes small details or objects remained after the exhibition ended. Thanks to Franziska Lutze, we were able to refine our space with some colour accents. And we started displaying and selling pieces by ceramic artist Deborah Metherell. Her porcelain is simply beautiful and fits perfectly with our aesthetics.

Last but not least, heartfelt thanks to everyone who has supported us this year by purchasing our releases or a piece of art, visiting our shop or attending an event, as well as everyone who has written about us or our releases or supported us in other ways. Without you, what we do would not be possible!

- Monique Recknagel, December 2024

Erik 2024

2024 was a trying year in a way, but it also had many positive things happen. I saw two scores I had been working on a lot come to fruition, with both the thriller / horror film “From Darkness” and the docu / drama “Afterwar” being releasesd in Sweden / Denmark and many film festivals. “Afterwar” was also released as a mini-soundtrack, as my only musical output this year.

I had the pleasure to release two very special albums on Miasmah. Fiasko! by Kaboom Karavan. It’s always a pleasure to work with Bram and to get his unique, bizarre soundworld out there. We also made a super LTD triple screen print edition of this with original artwork by Tim Trenson. I managed to see Kaboom Karavan perform twice in Belgium this year, once as a trio and once as quartet edition; which was absolutely brilliant.

Then, perhaps the most significant release I’ve worked on finally made it into the world: “The Last Sunset of the Year” is made as a final musical statement from my friend and Miasmah artist Marcus Fjellström, whom passed in 2017 right after finishing work on the tv-series “The Terror”. This final release is also partly a soundtrack to this series, and I had the pleasure to work with show creator and screenwriter David Kajganich for many years to finalise this work. We’re both very proud of this, and hope that Marcus would approve. The official release / listening session of this 2LP/2CD happened in December at After, which was a very memorable event.

Our little shop / gallery space mi - so in Berlin had another great year of events, both in-store concerts and exhibition openings. It’s a true pleasure to work on and see both audience and artists appreciate it in such a way. I feel lucky to be part of this and to be able to host so many great artists and people in our own house, so to say. I feel we had an especially strong lineup this year. Sitting outside our store in the summer evening and sharing a drink with people after the shows is one of the true highlights of the year. Also special thanks to our regular customers and followers - many of whom come from far away to to visit us.

Sonic Pieces turned 15, and this was also a big part of our year. Deaf Center came out of hiatus with the first concerts since 5 years. Performing at Morphine Raum was sound wise an especially beautiful experience - and one which we will have some news regarding, sometime in 2025. Deaf Center also performed in London and the small village of Faversham - which was a unique experience in one of the most special places I’ve played - The Hot Tin, a converted tin chapel.

Although I don’t get many live performance requests anymore, the few times I do, I realise more and more how I love performing live. Solo, it was mostly in Berlin this year, at the Galiläakirche during Drone day and a rather noisy gig at Hinterraum. Both really great experiences. I also performed solo in Brussels for the SP 15 with another drone set and an opening set at St John´s Leytonstone in London. Looking forward to more in 2025.

The year ended with a surprise, I had been nominated for best original music for the film “From Darkness” at the Swedish “Goldbaggen” awards. The awards will happen mid January 2025, and I will release the score early January in connection with this.

Lastly, huge thanks to Monique, for upholding our store, setting up some great shows during 2024 and for creating beautiful works that take a lot of effort and time.

- Erik K Skodvin, December 2024

In-store concerts 2024 :

017 : Sylvain Chauveau
018 : Margaret Hermant
019 : Jasmine Guffond
020 : Mike Majkowski
021 : Takeshi Nishimoto
022 : Otto A Totland
023 : Peter Broderick
024 : Andrew Pekler

Exhibitions 2024 :

- Affordance and Feedback Withdrawal by Tim Tetzner
- ultra-minimal by Sylvain Chauveau
- Blaudruck by Franziska Lutze
- ekotopia by Morgan Cuinet

Top records played in our store 2024 :

- Peter Broderick - One Hear Now (Self released)
- Hanno Leichtmann - Outerlands (Discrepant)
- Triosk meets Jan Jelinek - 1+3+1 (Faitiche)
- SG - For lovers only / Rain suite (Faitiche)
- Melos Kalpa - s/t (Hands in the Dark)

Miasmah releases 2024 :

- Kaboom Karavan - Fiasko! (LP / Special edition LP)
- Marcus Fjellström - The Last Sunset of the Year (2LP/2CD)
- Erik K Skodvin - Afterwar (DL)

Sonic Pieces 2024 :

- Sylvain Chauveau - ultra-minimal (CD/LP)
- Sylvain Chauveau - Le livre noir du capitalisme (CD/LP)
- Rauelsson - Niu (CD/LP)

- Sylvain Chauveau - The Line Compositions (art book)
- Sylvain Chauveau - Graphic Scores Book (art book)
- F.S.Blumm - Poetry (art book)
- Morgan Cuinet - ekotopia (art book)
- Raúl Pastor Medall - Limestone Gravitas (art book)