The despicable tape mages of Nasty Wizard Recordings are feeling particularly smug about their second release for 2017, a split EP that juxtaposes sonic frequencies and different locations on planet Earth. Lopez + Petit / Liberate Haze brings together artists from China, France, and the U.S., pairing experimental bass with hypnotic drones on a tape that is delightfully perplexing yet in no way glum. Just as the creep-tastic character on the cover smirks from ear to ear (illustrated by Stephan Hayes) this tape will make you cackle like somebody’s dodgy uncle after his fifth glass of gin before lunch.

On Side A we are introduced to two individuals who hail from opposite sides of the Atlantic ocean but share a gift for bass molestation. There’s Maxime Petit, the Lille based musician who plays everything from jazz to funk to outsider noise, having studied with musicians such as Olivier Benoit and Jean-Luc Guionnet and collaborated with the likes of Will Guthrie, Ava Mendoza, Julien Desprez, and Daniel Carter. Then there’s Brandon Lopez, a New York based musician, who by day digs beds for the eternal slumber of the recently departed and by night stirs the hearts and souls of the living with his contrabass skills. In December of 2014 the two recorded the nine tracks found on this release in New York city. Nine improvisations, nine journeys into the possibilities of their instruments, somewhere between Charles Mingus and Les Claypool it’s definitely not lounge jazz yet it isn’t odd for the sake of it. Simply put, it’s the sound of two guys who can really blow weaving a magic carpet of sound. Take a ride why don’t you?

On Side B we find another duo, this time two artists in Beijing, China who are going under the moniker of Liberate Haze. The project is the meeting of Sheng Jie aka. gogoj(盛洁) an audio/visual artist and founder of Shan Studio who previously studied at Ecole Supérieure Des Arts Décoratifs De Strasbourg in France , and Doctor Xin(丁昕), a fabricator of electronic noise and films who also plays in the Beijing experimental ‘super group’ Liquid Palace. In Liberate Haze the pair combine treated cello with a modular synth set up to create a soundscape that is both haunting and beautiful, moving slowly but deftly, building to a mesmerizing crescendo of wailing strings and static buzz. Like it’s counterpart on the other side of the tape Liberate Haze take you on a journey, albeit one of a very different flavour, like a ship sailing across an ocean of swirling frequencies to a far off land filled with strange and fantastic phantoms that lurk only in depths of our dreams. Beijing has cemented itself as an international hub of intriguing off-kilter sounds over the past few years and the Nasty Wizards are most excited to share Liberate Haze’s concoction of sound with the wider world.

Check out an interview with gogoj right here: www.aweh.tv/posts/interview-with-gogoj

We live in strange times and perhaps that calls for strange music. Actually it calls for direct action against all the madness in the world and this tape isn’t going to fix anything (in fact it’s just making our carbon footprint in Mother Nature’s wilted garden even deeper). Still, maybe some small solace can be taken in the spirit of artists from three different corners of the globe coming together through a shared love of making batshit-strange sounds. Lopez + Petit / Liberate Haze will be released on glorious magnetic tape in a limited run of 50 copies as well as the digital version on Bandcamp. Let us not forget the majestic artwork by Stephan Hayes, an architect, father, and singer in a "cool tortoise influenced post-rock/electro band" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=62D0IrUzCKg).

The Nasty Wizards are pleased they are able to do their bit to keep music weird and to draw people together, not push them apart. Unity in strangeness and obscure audio formats, forever and ever.

[Despite no tapes being listed here we might actually have some copies. This is because shipping tapes out of China is a bit of headache and can be expensive, so if you'd like to buy a copy of this release on tape the easiest thing would be to email us at nastywizardrecordings@gmail.com and we'll figure something out]