*estimated shipping around October 2023
*limited edition of 100 tangerine splatter vinyl
*printed inner sleeve
*artwork by Lily Clark
*layout design by Max Winter
Includes unlimited streaming of Habitat II
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
ships out within 5 days
edition of 100
Purchasable with gift card
$27USDor more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
*estimated shipping around October 2023
*edition of 400 black vinyl
*printed inner sleeve
*artwork by Lily Clark
*layout design by Max Winter
Includes unlimited streaming of Habitat II
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
ships out within 5 days
Purchasable with gift card
$25USDor more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
*shipping now
*edition of 5
*sealed & mint. approved 12" test pressings of Habitat II from GZ Media Czech Republic
Includes unlimited streaming of Habitat II
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.
ships out within 5 days
edition of 5
3 remaining
Purchasable with gift card
$35USDor more
Streaming + Download
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Subscribe
now to receive all the new
music
LEAVING RECORDS releases,
including this album
and 271 back-catalog items,
delivered instantly to you via the Bandcamp app for iOS and Android.
You’ll also get access to
subscriber-only
exclusives.
Learn more.
Habitat (what we might now properly refer to as Habitat I) arrived, fully-formed, in 2021—the product of a conscientious, exploratory, and decidedly Covid-era collaboration between two Berlin-based experimental musicians: the composer N. (Niklas) Kramer, and percussionist, J. (Joda) Foerster. Inspired by the Italian architect, Ettore Sottsass, Habitat’s simple, albeit beguiling conceit (following in the footsteps of canonical ambient releases like Music for Airports and Plantasia) was that each track ought to represent a room in an imagined building. Taken quite literally, tracks like “Curved Hallway” guided the listener through a kind of psychogeographic labyrinth, at once welcoming and slightly uncanny.
Habitat II operates on a similar premise. But if Habitat I charted the perplexing intricacies of an imagined, self-contained structure, Habitat II expands the conceptual realm. Think now, not only of rooms in a hypothetical home, but of the winding hallways and grounds of a mid-century structure—perhaps slightly past its prime, but not at all an inappropriate venue for a late-night soiree. How might these features be imagined, mapped, and rendered enticing for a listener? We begin, appropriately, with “Seating (Welcome),” which, in its fluttering, aetherial suite of static, winds, and percussive depths, gently hypnotizes in the vein of Terry Riley, beckoning our entry. The clarity here, the directional flow of air, recalls the dignity and gestural simplicity of the Bauhaus school.
Of significant note is the Wasserspiel (track seven)—”water fixture” (loosely translated), like the sculpture by Lily Clark, which graces the record’s cover. In an album grounded by analogies, Wasserspiel constitutes an especially mimetic highlight: a cascading, shimmering, font of radiance that does not (to its strength) rely upon a sample or found-sound reference to running water. Instead we are left with the distinct impression of the glimmer of flowing liquid, and of the attendant, refractory evening sunlight. Indeed, fountains (the most common and domesticated form of Wasserspiele)—their simultaneous kitsch and abundance—may very well epitomize the kind of cultivated, sixties home-shopping catalog aesthetic that undergirds the Habitat series. These habitats, wherever they are, however they appear to you (and there is indeed ample room for interpretation)—we can all certainly agree that they are vaguely utopian and achingly nostalgic.
Of their compositional process, Kramer and Foerster reference their mutual interest in improvisation, and, furthermore, a kind of “first thought best thought” approach to recording and indexing ideas. Relying primarily on a sampler with a 15 second limit, their process emphasizes the organic layering of asynchronous (though, crucially, harmonious — perhaps even “hospitable”) loops. Suffice it to say, many rooms have been lost to the aether, casualties of a mercurial recording process. Those rooms that remain in Habitat II have been cultivated, furnished, and decorated. And they eagerly await your entry.
credits
released September 15, 2023
Music by J Foerster / N Kramer
Mastered by Matthewdavid
Artwork by Lily Clark
Design by Max Winter
Bio by Emmett Shoemaker
Takes me
to a place
when
I might have altered course
what more can a Human ask for than to be
Heard? Listened to?
Dawn is birds, grateful for the cold, and the rising sun. First Moment of the Sun. of Knowing the dark has passed. wArmth and Light in my own invisible garden
of ancient and eternal delights
Without One there is not the Other. magoski
Short for "Ambient Resistance Music Against Urban Noise," this French saxophonist's project puts an avant-garde spin on spiritual jazz. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 23, 2024
Garbett's jazz trumpet co-mingles with Majkowski's lush ambient grooves on this texturally rich collaborative album. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 11, 2021