Altars Altars - Fragments (2019)

‘Most of the tracks are in mono because i recorded directly onto tape and did no post-processsing. Most of this is guitar and a loop pedal, some songs have synthesizers, others are sampled from worn out children's cassettes.’
- Words by Moritz Leppers (Altars Altars)

Much like the man himself, the music of Altars Altars is understated and humble to say the least. After randomly coming across his music a few years ago, we released his magical four track long player ‘Small Hours’ in 2016. Truth be told, not many people seemed to really notice. He doesn’t share his music much, and seems to prefer to just quietly produce very small edition cassettes for anyone who may care. But those that did latch on to his work so easily, clearly cottoned on to my personal feelings about his music. I received a handful of messages thanking the label for releasing his work finally into a slightly more public realm. Overwhelmingly, the emails connected to the magical emotion of memory and innocence the work was created and immersed in, and how they hadn’t felt this way about music for ‘years’.

I’ve since had conversations with artists and label owners alike about the music of Mortiz Leppers, and the divide is always people who have just not heard of his work at all, and those that have are shocked that people haven’t and just love his work. It is an oddity in such a small community, but those that do finally open the doors to his musical micro-universes are always stunned by the warmth and feeling of something that is effortlessly beautiful, belonging to another long-passed time.

‘Fragments’ was originally released on a tiny cassette run, with no track titles beyond the number of each piece and the side of the cassette it was on. It is quite simply one of my favourite albums of all time, by any artist in any genre. Altars Altars doesn’t seem to be making any new material anymore with his trusty reel-to-reel, and has (for now) left the ambient genre behind. Yet the music he has left us with is absolutely breathtaking, and really is made with such purity of spirit, the only words I can associate with it are ‘magical’ and ‘memories’. It really is as if this is beyond music, as if these sound parcels always existed somewhere in the plains of memories lost but never forgotten.

It is very rare to come across music of such purity, and something that really is the soundtrack to days gone by. I’m so glad we get to present yet another work by Altars Altars, even if this is music that is so quiet and restrained it may just pass you by. Give it the briefest of moments, and the magic will envelope you, I promise.
- Words by Ian Hawgood

Thank you.