Artifact 01

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“Artifact” is the newest from Novo Line, an album rooted in the anti-copyright tradition of “copyriot” harkening to the zines and album art by Winston Smith and John Yates in the 1980s punk and industrial scenes. Explores questions of authorship and artistic freedom in our current era of digital overload, instant remixes, it blurs the lines between creation and consumption that define our content-saturated world.

The project’s genesis was a live collage performance at the ListenListen gathering on Easter 2024, and this release captures the raw energy and spontaneity of that live experimentation. Encouraged by positive audience response, Novo Line devoted April 2024 to expanding this concept into a full LP. Using a turntable, maxi-single 12″s, two classic samplers, and two renowned drum machines – all era-consistent – Artifact reinterprets familiar pop hits into hypnotic, transformative soundscapes.

Recorded live direct to tape, the deliberate choice of vintage equipment reflects the sonic legacy: the reel to reel machine, the samplers, and these drum machines, present in the studios where the original tracks were crafted by producers, bring a unique sonic character and align with the textures and sound palettes of the original tracks. From “I’ve Had the Time of My Life” to “Heart of Glass,” ‘Artifact’ beckons listeners into a kaleidoscopic realm of sound, where familiar melodies fracture and our brains attempt to reconstitute them, where every warped note triggers a cascade of memories while our bodies instinctively respond to the rhythm. This record doesn’t just play; it unfolds like an auditory hallucination, warping perception and bending reality with each rotation of the vinyl.

But as you listen, you’ll also hear tribute and homage to the producers behind these iconic songs, particularly evident in the deconstruction and reassembly of Angelo Badalamente and David Lynch’s “Falling.” By playing with recognizable background elements, Novo Line explores and wrenches apart the nuances of these classic productions, creating a dynamic, agile, and monstrous new form of electronic music. One listener described this process as uncovering “the dark inner universe of Kenny G, suddenly splayed out into a whole new cosmos.”

The album’s production maintained a focus on quality and craftsmanship. Rude66, who mastered Novo Line’s “Zeit” EP on Osare Editions, brings his expertise to the tracks with shine and pump like the equipment is supposed to sound. In addition, all manufacturing took place in Berlin with personal attention: Novo Line provided feedback during the lacquer cutting process at Lathesville in Kreuzberg, collaborating with master cutter Helmut Erler who guided the project, as he taught the locked groove process to his lieutenant, Marta de Pascalis. With a completed lacquer disc sitting in the Novo Linemobile, same-day spedition logistics were in the house. A trip to Objects Manufacturing in Schoeneweide was a unique experience where the staff delighted in the unprecedented hand delivery.

The album cover, a fusion of art, data science, and music history, is influenced by the ‘Artifact’ algorithm by biologist and data scientist Claus Wilke. This visual representation integrates data such as song length, year of release, and catalogue number from the original sampled vinyl, transforming it into a visual representation of the album’s themes. Each cover is drawn robotically with a plotter printer, tracing a predestined path; however the human touch reveals itself on each individual cover with tiny offset inconsistencies and ink choice, resulting is a fractal-like artwork that beckons you to examine it closely.

As the stylus needle traces its own path, ‘Artifact’ peels back layers of musical consciousness, revealing hidden dimensions within well-worn pop hits. It’s an aural alchemy that transmutes the known into the profoundly strange, inviting deep dives into uncharted psychoacoustic territories.
Listeners may find themselves adrift on a liminal dance floor where time dilates and contracts, and the boundaries between past and present, memory and imagination, blur into a hazy reverie. ‘Artifact’ doesn’t merely suggest a trip – it becomes the vehicle, the landscape, and the destination all at once.

Tracklist:
A1. I’ve Had the Time of My Life 04:30
A2. Falling 05:09
A3. Here Comes the Rain Again 06:03
B1. Father Figure 04:36
B2. Smalltown Boy 03:51
B3. Games Without Frontiers 05:05
B4. Heart of Glass 05:09