in - store events
2022 was a year of change for our little shop. After many ups and downs throughout the last 2 years, we finally calibrated towards our initial ideas of community, local connectedness and intimacy. From early autumn on we started our in-store concert series of intimate performances by artists we either work or connect with. It´s been a true highlight and something positive to focus on. We managed to set up 5 concerts through the autumn / early winter with Otto A Totland, Clarice Jensen, Simon Scott, Katrine Grarup Elbo and Kelly Wyse. On top of this we had a listening session for the new “To Move” album including a short piano performance by Alex Kozobolis, as well as our first outsourced event in form of the Field Notes organized KISSA listening bar, which also included Jan Jelinek´s Faitiche label. All beautiful experiences that have already created a small community of people who keep returning to our events. We hope to continue with this in 2023.
mi - so 2022 timelapse in pictures. music : To Move - “They said, we said”
art exhibitions
Another, rather new part of our store are the art exhibitions. As we are not really in the art business it´s been both a challenging and interesting new path. This year saw the Helga Raimondi exhibition of collages expanded until March after the start in 2021. Our second exhibition of the year was Erik K Skodvin´s "Pale Ravine" series of screenprints which we offered both as framed editions and stand-alones. We still have framed editions left for the ones interested. Lastly and perhaps the most special so far has been Monique´s re-covered exhibition of handmade collages using leftover materials from Sonic Pieces covers. These are all unique pieces which are standing until 3rd of February 2023.
2022 releases
mi - so releases of 2022 : As most of you probably know by now, producing vinyl has been quite a challenge the last years and it became more difficult to predict exact release dates. For Miasmah 2022 has been a year with unusually many physical releases, some of them have been in production for years and some arrived earlier than expected. The year started with a re-issue of Deaf Center´s debut release Neon City - the first LP apperance since 2004 - as well as another re-press of the 2016 Pale Ravine 2LP edition. The first new release of the year was Svarte Greiner´s darkly meditative album Devolving Trust (March) revolving around a live recording from the bunkers of Musikbrauerei some years ago. This was initially released as a CD only because of long LP production times. We can however mention that there is an LP edition on the way together with Mondkopf´s explosive new album Spring Stories which came out in May - also initially only on CD. These are both expected for spring 2023.
September saw the release of an album that had been in production for well over 2 years, namely the self-titled debut by the trio All That We See or Seem, created by producer Gruth while living in Brazil. This was made in collaboration with his Finnish sister on violin and UK based gothic singer Ellen Southern as two musical interpretations of poems by Eino Leino and Edgar Allan Poe. The same time as this saw a 10 year anniversary edition of Kreng´s (arguable) masterpiece “Works For Abattoir Fermé”, 4LPs of cult theatre music for the patient ear, available again in a new LTD edition. It wasn´t until November that we saw the first and only new Sonic Pieces release in 2022 : To Move, a new project by London trio Anna Rose Carter, Ed Hamilton & Alex Kozobolis. Another release that was for years in production and came into light as quite a success. Bound in the typical Sonic Pieces´ handmade covers, we are already low in stock on this one, so we recommend to pick one up if interested. Simultaneously came a re-press of Clarice Jensen´s debut album For This From That Will be Filled featuring co-compositions by Johann Johannsson and Michal Harrisson amongst others. This also coincided with Clarice´s new album “Esthesis” on 130701. To top off an already productive year, a last minute December release arrived : Erik K Skodvin´s soundtrack to Austrian thriller Schächten came just in time for the official release of the film, including 24 more or less short pieces of music for justice, revenge, division, friendship, freedom fighting and more as a kind of mixture of all of Erik´s various projects. As the very final release of the year, a re-press of Hauschka & Hildur Gudnadottir´s only duo album Pan Tone finally saw the light of day. This was Sonic Pieces´ first original LP release which is now available in a second edition packaging on white vinyl.
We would like to thank everyone who supports and follows us and our artists. We can already mention that 2023 will see some beautiful new releases, starting with a new Sonic Pieces PATTERN release which we will announce soon.
Miasmah + Sonic Pieces 2022 releases, re-issues and re-presses available to order :
Erik´s 2022 highlights :
Seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Working with Merja Kokkonen on her new album. Having my first proper solo exhibition of artwork. Releasing two (quite different) albums into the world - Devolving Trust + Schächten. Playing some shows again for the first time in 3 years: 1/3 Visiting and playing in the absolutely surreal and beautiful Belgian jungle in form of Bram (Kaboom Karavan)´s garden party. 2/3 Improvising with Erik Dahl & Donovan Von Martens in a small garden conservatory in the middle of Gothenburg, SE. 3/3 Blasting out drone mayhem using cello and electronics in Wroclav, PL at (before) Ambientalny. Traveling through southern Scandinavia with a car. Visiting the Danish island of Bornholm. Attending the film premiere for Schächten in Vienna. Last but not least, being involved in creating and upholding our little record store / event space in Schöneberg, Berlin together with Monique.
Musical highlights :
Clarice Jensen - Esthesis
Heather Woods Broderick - Dome
William Fowler Collins - Hallucinating Loss
Roméo Poirier – Living Room
Nick Mott - The Fall of the Human Empire
Biosphere - Shortwave Memories
Concert highlights :
Blurt live at Arkaoda, Berlin
Mazen Kerbaj, Tony Buck, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten trio live at Au Topsi Pohl, Berlin
Max Richter - The new four seasons live at Philharmonie, Berlin
Cassels live at Schokoladen, Berlin
Monk´s Casino live at Victoria Scene, Oslo
Kaboom Karavan live in the Belgian jungle
Zinc & Copper live at Galiläakirche, Berlin
Monique´s 2022 highlights :
Listen :
The Smile - A Light For Attracting Attention
> For long drives through summer in Scandinavia and for being “Free In The Knowledge”.
Monk´s Casino playing Thelonious Monk at Victoria Scene, Oslo
> An absolute joy to see these gentlemen perform live.
Read :
Mattias Desmet - The Psychology of Totalitarianism
> An in-depth perspective on our mechanistic view of the world, science, ideology and our current social crisis.
Watch :
Sonia Delaunay at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
> Not least an inspiration for my “re-covered” exhibition.
A brief black bird story (by Monique)
It isn’t easy to connect to nature when living in a city. But this past spring something special happened. A black bird couple was staying in our backyard, and I noticed that the female had put a small branch into the flower pot at our window bench. I got excited as I was hoping that she had chosen the spot for breeding, but then the two birds weren’t seen for a while, and I thought they found another place. We visited my family for some days. When we returned I couldn’t believe my eyes, the nest was finished, in the flower pot right outside our bathroom window.
From then on it took about four (exciting) weeks until the young birds fledged. In the beginning we were worried that we would disturb the birds when using the bathroom, but it seemed they rather felt comfortable with our company. A couple days after we discovered the nest the female laid the first egg, then another one followed each day until it was a total of five, small turquoise bird eggs with brown sprinkles. The female would only briefly leave the nest now to find food. Then the male bird would watch over the nest in the meantime. Sometimes he was also feeding her.
About 10 days later, the first four birds hatched, and the last one came the day after. The chicks looked like tiny, pink reptiles, very fragile with their eyes closed. Now the parent birds were very busy collecting worms to feed their hungry offspring, who would stretch their necks out of the nest with beaks open whenever they weren’t sleeping. The female was protecting them almost all day and night, keeping them safe and warm. And when the sun hit the nest during noon she puffed herself up to nearly double the size in order to protect the young birds from the rays of sunlight and to keep herself acclimatised.
The chicks were growing fast and their downy feathers turned more and more into a proper coat. Often we could notice a difference in size just from morning to evening. It was getting increasingly tight inside the nest. With each day they were looking a bit more like real birds, they started spreading their wings and grooming their feathers. Soon the nest became almost too small and the birds often had their heads hanging over the edge of the pot. It got impossible for the female to cover them completely. Only 12 days after the hatching the young birds left the nest. The first three jumped out during an evening, almost unnoticeable, and the other two followed the next afternoon. We could watch their first, clumsy attempts to fly and in between they were hiding in a corner. But it didn’t take long until they were not seen anymore.
Just before Christmas I was sitting at the kitchen table, looking outside towards the window bench where the birds had their nest. A black bird flew over and sat on the edge of the flower pot for a brief moment. One of these moments where everything else around is forgotten.