Astor’s ‘live’ set from October 2014 is a strange melange of voice, field recordings, electronics, the concrete and the uncanny. 

Mark Harwood‘s third album under his Astor moniker slips away from the obtuse atmospheres and concrete field recordings of Alcor and Inland (released on Graham Lambkin‘s KKY label in 2012 and 2013 respectively). Lina in Nidasits more in a melodic electronic framework covering a wide range of sonic and emotional states. “The East” initiates proceedings as a proposed anthem for Britain during a potential invasion by ISIS. Things soon move into the uncomfortably claustrophobic “The Landowners,” where an oblique narrative by Estonian artist Kris Lemsalu spirals into a blurred fantasy of musical roads, nocturnal wanderings, and entrapment under floorboards. The B-side relocates itself further out as “They Cling to Each Other” hovers over uncharted ketamine lows while “The Sleepwalkers” lurches around a spider-like environment. “Amusement” tackles a cosmic music, but one that hurtles itself far beyond the outer regions of the cosmos, while “5:00am” contains within the greatest sound known to mankind. As a further shift from reason, Lina in Nida is a thrilling expose of intense atmospheres, emotional states, and ecstatic physics.

Originally released on Graham Lambkin's KYE, Alcor is the debut LP by a voice from the Australian wilderness - Mark Harwood. Alcor gathers together the prime of Harwood's previous CDR micro-editions and presents the material as a seductive and puzzling new whole. Field recordings of humble organic activity bend against a foundation of discreetly processed electronics/piano, creating sonorities that are as undefinable as they are unforgettable. Alcor is the ideal record for fans of fringe position electro-acoustic study, Delphic audio confusion, or anyone who pines for the days when Small Cruel Party still roamed the earth. Mastered by Graham Lambkin. --- Tracklisting: 1. Montenegro - 4:462. II - 5:193. III - 4:424. Q - 4:215. Trumpets - 4:42 6. Guns - 8:007. November - 6:25

Advancing the cause of 2012's 'Alcor' LP, 'Inland' finds Mark Harwood complicating reason with dark and circuitous audio constructs. Taking its inspiration from Gerard Murnane's 1988 novel of the same name, 'Inland' explores a personalized perception of space, both real and imagined, returning a fabricated dreamworld which teases logic and tricks the ear. Conceived with piano, bells, tapes, gong, autoharp, hammer, t.v., organ, and dry ice pellets, 'Inland' cuts the face of expectation to expose a 10 part fractal sonic geography, governed by its own laws, and flushed with all the beauty and horror of the natural world. Mastered by Graham Lambkin. --- Tracklisting: 1. Out - 2:142. Inland - 6:523. Summer - 3:334. Fire - 3:345. Space - 5:356. Eh - 4:347. Island - 6:258. Leaves - 5:249. Aliqua - 2:509. Mimosa - 2:40