Fall is one of our favorite times of the year here at Fiction Lab. It’s the most colorful season with many sonic facets that come upon us gradually, descending in delicate shades of shimming gold. After a busy summer of music festivals, we are looking forward to Fall that is set to tie a bow on a strong run of vibrant new releases.

From Iron Curtis, LOR, Thomas Fehlmann, Mattheis, Lawrence to Francis Harris, Inland, Idealist and Shinichi Atobe, plus a long-awaited album by Map.ache, we compiled a list of the most anticipated releases of the season.

Iron Curtis
Upstream Colors
Tamed Musiq

The Berlin-based producer and DJ Iron Curtis forged a unique sound blending dance-floor oriented deep house with elements of abstract ambiance and hazy electronica. Following on from his 2012 “Soft Wide Waist Band” album and a string of releases on labels like Mirau, Hudd Traxx, Retreat or Uncanny Valley, the prolific producer will return to Rafael Ripperton’s Tamed Musiq imprint with a long-overdue sophomore album “Upstream Colour”.

“Seven years down the line,” describes the label, “and Tamed Musiq is proud to present its first-ever album release: "Upstream Colour“ by Iron Curtis. This long overdue follow-up to "Soft Wide Waist Band“ represents a milestone for the Berlin-based producer and easily ranks as his most accomplished work to date. Similar to an impressionist painter, Iron Curtis portrays a well-known subject (House Music) in a dream-like setting by employing a palette of ethereal sounds, subdued melodies and bass-heavy beats. “Upstream Colour” is a beautiful musical experience that never strays too far from the dancefloor yet requires multiple listens in order to unlock all of its mysteries.”

The album is set for release on September 24, via Tamed Musiq

Lawrence
Illusions
Dial Records

Dial Records co-founder Peter Kersten, better known as Lawrence, is due to release his new dancefloor oriented long player on his own imprint. Inspired by Lawrence’s real-time live project Sky Walking and numerous international underground club gigs including Japan and Mexico,“Illusions” marks Lawrence’s first solo full-length since 2013’s “Film and Windows” and is said to be “blessed with a typically delicate touch” blending field recordings, acoustic instrumentation and electronics with artist’s distinctive sophisticated deep house sound. In Dial own words:

“A deeply resonant, melodic and altogether transcendent trip, a full-scale but understated soothing of the body and mind, Illusion finds Lawrence reflecting inward, back where he began."

The album is expected to be out on October 5th

Francis Harris
Trivial Occupations
Scissor & Thread

Ever talented New York producer Francis Harries embarks on a beautiful and highly personal musical journey with his third studio long-player, “Trivial Occupations”, on his own Scissor & Thread imprint.

The album is set to see the light on October 29.

With “Trivial Occupations” LP, Harries “dives deep into a new sound palette - bringing the listener on a journey through various states over the almost one hour run time. The album was made over the course of four years in various studious with an array of notable players, bringing a diversity of perspectives and approaches encompassed within Harries stunning artistic studio approach.”

The ten-track journey features an abundance of special guests such as Kaïssa and Genevieve Marentette (vocals), Leah Lazonick (piano), Will Shore (vibraphone), Greg Paulus (horns), Dave Harrington ( guitar), Emil Abramyan (strings), and Robb Reddy (sax).

map.ache
Vom Ende biz zum Anfang
Giegling

Map.ache comes to the cult Weimar powerhouse Giegling with a new full-length LP titled 'Vom Ende biz zum Anfang' translates to “From The End To The Beginning”. The long-awaited album was released on September 19.

Music produced by map.ache is always an exquisite musical journey. On his latest highly-anticipated LP, the KANN co-founder and one half of the DJ duo Manamana has stepped beyond the realm of impressions and harmonies to create a diversely cosmic pastoralism, a gorgeous sound-seducing world of house and techno that was only hinted at on “Dream Awake”, the album’s first teaser.
Find out more and order via Giegling.net

Shinichi Atobe
Heat
DDS

With no warning, the elusive Japanese producer Shinichi Atobe surprises his fans with unexpected new album, “Heat”. Released through the Demlike Stire’s DDL outlet, it follows last year’s “From The Heart, It’s A Start, a Work Of Art” and 2016’s “World”. Atobe posses the artistry and raw talent to create an intoxicating elixir of sound. “There’s no sonic fiction involved - this material really does just turn up on a CD sent by air from Japan to Manchester, spare info, no messing, pure gold,” describes the label in a press-release. “This Music takes you elsewhere almost immediately; that fan of your desk is basically a summer breeze. In fact, this whole album is absurd; completely effortless; a total classic. Convince us that there’s a more life affirming electronic album this year and we will buy you an ice cream.....”

LOR
Lunar Orbit Rendezvous
LOREC

With releases on prominent labels such as Cin Cin, Exit Strategy and Get Physical, Belfast’s rising star LOR (Lunar Orbit Rendezvous) takes his artistic gift and vision to a higher realm of creativity. In July, he has launched his LOREC record label by revealing imprint’s inaugural release, a single from his newly released self-titled debut album “Lunar Orbit Rendezvous”.

The album features ten “bold, both in content and sounds” tracks which ignite an instant rush of excitement within the listener with its vibrant grooves, vintage kraftwerk-esque electronic sounds, raw captivating energy and genre-bending refinement. Without a doubt, this cutting edge musical endeavor will open the door into new, unchanged un-charted areas of musical realm that embrace both avant-garde and style.

Lunar Orbit Rendezvous was released on Sept 4 via LOREC

Andre Loddemann
The Deeper You Go
Best Works Records

With twenty years of DJing and outstanding collection of exquisite productions on many of the underground’s top labels, veteran producer/DJ Andre Loddemann continues to flesh out his artistry with a new album “The Deeper You Go”.

The nine-track melting pod of sophisticated deep house and techno is a culmination of six years of work. “The Deeper You Go is mostly instrumental with two features by the British singer and songwriter Huw Costin, bandleader of Torn Sail,” described in press release. “Lodemann's sound is deep, warm but aggressive at the same time. It explores the less chartered end of the soundscape. His songs generally feel like a narrative. They build and grow as they progress and climax past the halfway rewarding you for your time invested. At the climax the tracks sometimes morph into what feels like a whole new song. This is his signature sound.”

Spread across four sides of vinyl, “The Deeper You Go is Andre Lodemann’s artistic vision of modern electronic music using all possible means to create emotional sound sculptures..”

The Deeper you go’ was released on September 5th via Lodemann’s own Best Works Records.

Inland
Invitation To Disappear
A-TON

Ed Davenport brings his techno moniker Inland for a debut album “Invitation To Disappear” on Ostgut Ton’s sub-label A-TON. Release day is set for September 28th.

The new LP, which originated from Inland’s soundtrack for a video installation by the conceptual artist Julian Charrière, “recast the material and field recordings into 8 tracks of rhythmically intricate electronics and spectral, ambient techno, inspired by Charrière’s striking, 76-minute tracking shot through an Indonesian palm plantation toward a totemic soundsystem on full blast."

The concept project was developed in response to the 200th anniversary of the eruption of the Mount Tambora volcano in 1815 which killed thousands of locals, damaged crops on a wide-scale and resulting in the worst famine of the century.

Inland, who has previously contributed soundtracks to various art installations by Julian Charrière, decided to adapt “An Invitation To Disappear “ for an LP release. The label describes the album as “eight tracks of rhythmically intricate electronics and spectral, ambient techno."

The premiere of the full audio-visual performance of An Invitation To Disappear (with both the installation and live soundtrack) is scheduled for September 26th at Berghain.

Mattheis
Thin Sections
Nous’klaer Audio

Dutch quality imprint Nous’klaer Audio is launching a new series of albums, and the fist album comes from the Rottedam based musician Mattheis. The forthcoming “Thin Sections” LP is set to hit shelves on October 7th.

“Thin Sections” is a second solo album from the multitalented artist. Continuing his exploration into a synth-driven complex sonic textures, and expanding on the rich sound palette charted in his first 2015 full-length album, “Kindred Phenomena”, this new chapter presents “over fifty minutes of excellent minimalist synth explorations”, taking the listener ever further into the enigmatic digital realm of Mattheis.

Thomas Fehlmann
Los Lagos
Kompakt

Lighting strikes for the forth time with Thomas Fehlmann’s seventh full-length album, ‘Los Lagos’, released via German powerhouse Kompakt.

Electronic music alchemist Thomas Fehlmann makes magic with the same sense of effortlessness as he is recognized for. After stepping away from his co-partnerships duties on the influential ambient house outfit The Orb, the multitalented Swiss musician embarks on the solo journey with an utterly gorgeous new album. Entitled “Los Lagos”, it’s Thomas Fehlmann’s seventh solo full-length album, his forth for Kompakt, and first, since 2010’s “Glue Luft”. In artists own words it’s all about “checking the juice”. Thomas Fehlmann is also adding here:

“To techno is to deconstruct and rebuild again, to set up an area of tension and lose it in the flow of grooves. It’s magnifying a detail out of proportion, or slowly knitting a texture. I wanted to find a structure that’s surprising, disruptive and rewarding, so I switched off the control and followed my intuition. I’m trying to expand my vocabulary and bring out a new beauty. It’s a complex process of search and destroy.”

Idealist
Mind Field
Echocord

Idealist once again flexes his artistic influence to immersive dub techno and hard hitting house with new album Mind Field, set to be released through Echocord in October 19.

Zurich-based producer has been considerably prolific in releasing a sophisticated dubby house and techno material over the last five years on the various labels such as Pro-Tez, Lackrec, Ber Audio, Echocord and his own Idealistmusic and Details Series labels. He continue to sparkle on his impressive second long player “Mind Field”, following 2016’s “Firewood Street”. Across the eight tracks, Idealist indulges the listener with a deep dubby house vibe creating a hypnotic effect with a raw bewitching brew of dub-leaning house and percussive techno.