Prostitune
. i .

Far over on the west coast of the USA we find a room full of drum machines, samplers and keyboards. Hard at work is Israel ‘Iz’ Gravning aka Tone Scientist, who’s been using this Seattle studio to produce genre-defying future music for more than 25 years.

We are delighted to present a raw, young talent from Copenhagen - the city of fairy tales. Indeed, Parks at Night, the debut album from 17 years old Teis Ortved, could very easily provide the soundtrack for a recently unearthed Hans Christian Anderson story. In fourteen moves, the devoted multi-instrumentalist tells us the tale of his relatively short journey so far with confidence that belies his age. There's no ego or showboating here as this modest musician brings together seemingly disparate technologies with apparent ease, marrying sequenced beats and plaintive pianos overlaid by ethereal vocals that take his very special music somewhere other-worldly.To fully appreciate Teis' universe we need to dip a toe into his upbringing, his wonder years and the family unit that has had so much influence on his fascinating musical output. Both his father and mother are musicians - the former having previously been a drummer in a danish band, and almost from birth, Teis would sleep backstage at his parents shows. Teis has been immersed in music his whole life - even his sister is a renowned violinist. There was no escape from the arts in the Ortved household, nor was there been any desire to do so, which probably explains the sense of calmness in Teis' productions. His music feels like a pleasure; a natural outlet; one that's never been stifled and always been encouraged.

Reconnected is compiled from Harold Lucious’ addictive 1990 release Connections, a visionary mix of soulful house, New Jack Swing and RnB, an American predecessor of street soul. Deeply connected to music from an early age, Harold started his music career in the early 70s at the age of 16. He sang in his first group, The Final Seconds, who pressed a 7” single in New York City in 1973. The group would go on to record a full album called Neo Cosmic Blues, but never had the chance to press it. They would continue to perform and write together throughout the 70’s and searched in vain for a label to work with. During that time, Harold landed a guest spot on the legendary Brother Ahh record Move Ever Onward, set up by his manager who was Brother Ahh’s sibling. Harold is listed as having played koto, but really he provided background vocals. Throughout the 80’s, Harold worked at WBI radio programming talk shows. On air, he would act out modified scripts to Richard Wright novels like “The Outsider”.Connections was his effort to finally release a record after years of recording and playing music. Experimenting with dance music he came up with an album that was inspired by his love of house music and RnB. He sold the record out of his backpack, ending up with boxes of copies that were eventually destroyed when he had to move from his long-time apartment in Brooklyn. Few of the original LP remain, and it has become almost impossible to find.Reconnected is a remastered redux with four songs taken from the original LP, and pressed onto a loud 45rpm 12” for maximum dance-floor potential. Mixed Signals is honoured to introduce Harold’s music to a contemporary audience around the world.