Mar 1, 2015

Sundaze 1509

Hello,

Today's Sundazers are treated to a Greek producer that has been active for more than 18 years, with 6 full length albums and 12 EP/LP releases on Chain Reaction, Vibrant Music, Resopal, and Echocord. His releases have been remixed by Deadbeat, Thomas Fehlmann, Rod Modell, Morphosis, Convextion amongst others. Fluxion’s music includes different genres of electronic music, ambient, dub, experimental, techno, with sound design. His music has a characteristic of slowly evolving parts and contemplating elements which form lengthy musical pieces. His sounds are heavily processed to a point where the origin of a sound has little to do with the end result........N'joy

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Since 1998 Konstantinos Soublis aka Fluxion has been releasing music on a variety of labels.Fluxion's output had been referred to as a cornerstone in the Techno/Dub/Ambient genders.Born October 26, 1973 in Athens Greece, he studied music technology in the U.K. between 1993–96, where he came in touch with the processing of sounds and the electronic music of John Cage, Philip Glass as well as futurism and music concrete.

His approach of liquid live-organic productions, incorporating techno, dub, ambient, sound design, has formed a signature sound that is point of reference for many producers. His textural environment shifts and harmonic blends, alongside strong rhythmical bursts, create an intelligent motion-picture landscape. Hidden melodic elements alongside sound manipulation form a narrative that everything happens in a smooth transition, like melting one element onto the other to form one big picture.

Similar to many of the other artists surrounding the Hardwax-affiliated record labels in Berlin, the Greek artist shrouded himself in anonymity despite releasing a handful of wonderful downtempo experimental techno releases on the Chain Reaction label. Epic in scope with a bit of the clicks + cuts approach synonymous with artists such as Vladislav Delay, much of Fluxion's best Chain Reaction work was compiled on two Vibrant Forms albums.

He went silent for a few years but resurfaced with a somewhat bolder approach on 2009-2012 releases Perfused and Traces through Echocord. At the end of 2013 Type reissued Fluxion´s "Vibrant Forms" with 10 tracks that had been released in 1999 on the legendary Berlin imprint Chain Reaction and 2014 he makes his briliant com back with releasing a new album (CD + 2LP) called "Broadwalk Tales" on Echocord, featuring the Jamaican vocalist Teddy Selassie.

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A full-length album compiling Fluxion's first two Chain Reaction EPs -- Lark and Largo -- Vibrant Forms is a showcase for the artist's elegant application of the classic Basic Channel sound. Like those early-'90s releases, and also like the Maurizio and Vainqueur records, the tracks compiled on Vibrant Forms sound as if they are hollow; Fluxion emphasizes low dub basslines, the crackling of sparse high-hat loops, and nearly inaudible synth washes that ambiently hover in each song's exterior, leaving nothing poignant in between. This approach to techno composition has a mesmerizing effect. The lack of midrange percussion and more apparent synths make the tracks seem ambient, as does the distant hovering ambience. The crackling high-hats, though sparsely sprinkled onto the tracks, and the liquid dub basslines, though subtle and non-intrusive, move along at a modest tempo. Fluxion's approach produces many variations on a techno style that seems ambient yet, when one considers the driving sense of tempo underlying every track, is actually mobile. But this isn't music to think about or analyze; it's intended to be felt, both physically via the bass tones and emotionally via the haunting dark ambience. The ten tracks on this full-length illustrate variations in Fluxion's patented style, just as Vibrant Forms II accomplishes to a further degree. Some may find this album's epic tracks both repetitious and rather monotonous, yet this is half their beauty; if not for the seemingly endless track lengths and the sense of indolence, the sounds wouldn't be nearly as effective. It's best to experience this album first before moving on to Vibrant Forms II, which doubles the amount of music and takes a slightly more minimal approach, slowing down the tempos a bit and stripping away some of the sounds. Vibrant Forms II is a bit more challenging, although Vibrant Forms is by no means an accessible listen to anyone unaccustomed to the minimal Chain Reaction sound.



Fluxion - Vibrant Forms  (flac 407mb)

01 Lark 8:53
02 Hiatus 7:14
03 Lapses 2:03
04 Largo 8:26
05 Atlos 10:32
06 Cyclops Machine 0:47
07 Fovea Centralis 9:28
08 Pendoulous 6:02
09 Influx 6:51
10 Opaque 8:48

Fluxion - Vibrant Forms (ogg  151mb)

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During the several years that passed without a single Fluxion release, Konstantinos Soublis was nonetheless privately prolific, evident from a sudden burst of releases across 2009-2010. Following a 12” and album on Resopal, and a 12” for Echocord, Perfused -- also released on Echocord, featuring both sides of “Inductance”/”Elation” -- is the fifth Fluxion album overall. Through 2001, Soublis continually refined and pared down his sound, but the tracks here are among his most varied and vibrant to date, fueled by a newfound buoyancy and a reduction of shadowy textures. And yet, what Soublis produces here unquestionably remains dub techno -- a decidedly less monochromatic and downright colorful strain when compared to that of their Basic Channel/Chain Reaction forebears. “Elation” and “Fluctuations,” two of the album’s most dynamic tracks, dispense with austerity altogether and are filled with glinting details; the latter, with its bounding four-note bassline and swarming FX, seemingly whisks Maurizio’s M series from its abandoned warehouse habitat and drops it in the middle of a sun-baked meadow. Dub techno, even at is most evocative, has never been known for gorgeousness, but Soublis shrewdly does what he can to change that perception here.



Fluxion - Perfused  (flac  297mb)

01 Horizons 6:14
02 Waves 8:27
03 Tantalizer 5:09
04 Inflection 7:59
05 Wabbler 6:32
06 Elation 5:42
07 Fluctuations 8:11
08 Inductance 8:24
09 Perfuse 8:32

Fluxion - Perfused  (ogg 146mb)

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Fluxion serves his 2nd album on Echocord, his fourth since those classic Chain Reaction sets in 1999-2000. With 'Traces' he continues to subtly plane the contours of Dub Techno into ever more fluid, spectral shapes and spaces, building on the legacy of Berlin's CR and BC cornerstones with an individual sense of soul and effortless, frictionless motion. Most notably there's an unreleased vocal appearance from Dennis Brown here on the Rhythm & Sound styled 'No Man Is An Island', providing a lighter counterpoint to the heavyweight Techno throbs of 'Eruption' or the tribal House gait of 'Motion 3' and the tunnelling 4/4 dub 'Memba', but overall the album is neatly balanced between those hydraulic basslines and moments of blissful serenity like the magical 'Stations' or the plunging, plangent chords of 'Burst Mode'. It's this refined compositional virtue and vision of his style within a style which makes Fluxion a preserve of Dub Techno connoisseurs.



Fluxion - Traces  (flac  360mb)

01 Motion 1 6:21
02 No Man Is An Island (Voc Dennis Brown) 7:09
03 Desert Nights 8:10
04 Eruption 8:50
05 Stations 8:39
06 Motion 3 8:32
07 Memba 5:58
08 Burst Mode (Edit) 2:51
09 Butiama 7:02
10 Migration 6:24
11 Motion 2 (Edit) 2:44

Fluxion - Traces  (ogg 149mb)

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4 comments:

  1. Hi, you recently posted that there's been no requests for re-ups. Any possibility you could repost the Fluxion material, please? Many thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Vibrant Forms - still available in ogg - Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Rho, kindly requesting re-ups of these three Fluxions. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Rho, following up on the request a few months ago for these three Fluxion releases. Thank you for all you do

    ReplyDelete