Last Foundation is a relatively new imprint curated by Gábor Lázár, operating from the burgeoning Budapest electronic music scene. Though you wouldn’t even know it, since their roster includes stars of the international noise and experimental scene including Ekoplekz or Russell Haswell, which they release on tapes, usually as split releases with their local affiliated producers. Aside from the sonic side, there is also the bold visuals by Gergo Szinyova. Here we asked them about the ins and outs of their imprint, and most importantly, you can listen to the music, as mixed by one of the label founders and artist Gábor Lazár.

How did Last Foundation come to being?

Gergo: At the begin Gabor and Martin (Mikolai, S Olbricht) started a label in 2008.

This was the first idea and physically we have released 2 zines. It was a zine with my drawings and music CD included by Gabor’s and Martin’s music. We made two issues only. Three years later in 2011 I was thinking about this label idea more and more. Finally I just wrote them a mail with the subject Let’s start a label. That time Martin started to make house and synthesizer music and said he is thinking about something else, so he started the Farbweschel.

So, finally Gabor and I started to work on it in Summer 2011 and we have made the first release in February 2012, Albert van Abbe’s album, called Patch For Series.

 Gabor: As Gergo said; working together was not new situation to us. That fanzine thing just stopped. We don’t know exactly why; maybe all of us have changed a bit and that was the time to think about how to continue, how to implement our ideas and passion into a new way. And finally we found. It started with Albert’s stuff and then eight months passed until the split CD of Ekoplekz / Omne came out. The beginning was quite slow and relaxed. Now the communication with musicians, distributors, retailers and sometimes customers accelerated at my end and the manufacturing process became easier. It is on good way towards a proper balance.

Your backgrounds are in music and art, respectively, how is this translated in the concept of the label?

Gabor: I think there is a lot of connection between very different sounds therefore I think we do not have to translate anything because all of these pieces are already translations of each other through the connections. I would like to present a wide spectrum of creative people who, for example, represent different approaches, unique compositional techniques or people who apply new solutions in the field of music technology. The final purpose is to enrich the culture of music and visual art as well.

Gergo: It is about focusing to the newest music too. Personally in my artistic approach the music were really important and still is. I am not musician, but i feel really strong connections between these fields. It’s quite inspirational.

The cover art is also very prominent, is there a concept behind it? In a way, it is reminiscent of PAN’s bold visual aesthetics that goes hand in hand with the music.

Gergo: Yes, every cover artwork made for each release. I am working in 2 dimensions. Basically my artistic practice is based on the same. I really respect Bill Kouligas and Kathryn Politis’ label but there is no connection between our work. Basically PAN is using photo and graphic layers. The Last Foundation sleeves are simpler, black and white compositions.

Can you tell us about your A&R policy, what artists are released on Last Foundation?

Gabor: I can’t see barriers around music and there is no reason to limit the perspective. It is rather run by passion not policy. I pull people together who affected on me years before or just yesterday and I strongly believe and hope that these editions we release with these artists will affect on other people tomorrow or just years later.

Answering your question about A&R, a few of them were already friends of mine or I met them few times before they collaborated with us like Dirk Dresselhaus aka Schneider ™ who I’ve met in 2011 in Macedonia first and then in Berlin few times when I played there or like Russell Haswell who I met in Bratislava on the 13th Next Festival and then in London few months later. I think to meet people is very important to establish a circle of friends who trust in each other, become friends and work together in order to promote this culture we believe in.

Can you tell us more about the Hungarian artists you release?

Gergo: The first Hungarian is Gabor, but we are not afraid to release other Hungarian productions.

Gabor: For example, a friend of mine Raymond Kiss plays on guitar and makes long compositions of sequences of motives using precise delay setup in order to overlap different variations of different motifs. I really like his stuff, I hope he will record something of it.

What are your future plans?

Gergo: Continuing the work what we started and parallel making other projects too. The forthcoming release will be Jefre Cantu-Ledesma’s new album. He is the founder of the legendary Root Strata label.

Gabor: Same. Long-term existance and flexibility. A bit more computer music.

Last Foundation label podcast by Easterndaze on Mixcloud

12z is an improvisational project from Budapest, whose regular weekly sessions in their Buda flat overlooking a park and the famous Gellert hill, have lead to a full-fledged album, recorded not in Budapest, but in a countryside hut. 12z’s Marci Kristof has told me that he doesn’t think music that is aimed at live contexts, should be statified on record. This has, nevertheless, happened now, surprisingly courtesy of the Budapest label Farbwechsel, which usually focuses on more 4/4 type of music. 

Their self-titled album is a psychedelic meddley, manouvering through various sonic territories - art/rock/ambient/free/jazz/experimental/electronics. A syneasthetic soundtrack to hazy faded afternoons, with a dash of Eastern nostalgia, but essentially, uncategorisable, and good that way.

The song-titles are onomatopoeic, such as “White Mountain Apache Knows No Fear”, and seemingly arbitrary, it’s instrumental music, in the end. The 16 tracks are diverse, and somehow, in spite of being recorded live and by a project that essentially, favours the fleeting rather than the material, it works. 

There are also more traditional “songs”on the album, such as “Reflecting Bean”, which features vocals.

You can listen to the interview with the band in our weekly Radio Wave show Vychodiska - in Czech, but featuring music here.  

Route 8 emerged from the sprawling Hungarian lofi scene that mostly encompassed guitar-driven and quirky electronic acts. Route 8’s sonic trajectory verged towards the dancefloor, the dancefloor of slow, hypnotic tunes made on analogue hardware. This was already apparent during his live set we put on for him in Budapest a year ago, and comes more pronounced on his latest EP, out on the great Budapest label Farbwechsel.

Mental Murder is almost raw, jacking house music, with lofi hisses and atmospherics, but remains quirky enough, just check the ending of the title track. This is not clean-cut house for yuppified dancefloors, but rather a hazy, melancholic exploration of the fringes of 4/4. And then there’s that remix, yes Miguel Flaco nailed it.

Gloryhole is a Hungarian indie garage/pop band, whose songs are perfectly accessible and radio friendly in The Smiths kind of way, even your mum would like them. Enter “Heavenly Remixes”, a collection of beat-driven remixes, mostly by local producers, which have ended up completely recontextualising the original, turning it into at times harrowing, menacing offering. Highlights include Zoltan Solomon’s Reverse Vocal Dub Remix,  Farbwechsel’s S Olbricht’s melancholic acid refix or The Stanley Maneuver’s dreamy quirky version.

We featured the Hungarian beatsmith Zomblaze on our first compilation back in 2011. His sample and bass-heavy abstract hiphop was released by Chi Recordings last year. Now he is back with 6 more tracks.

New Age EP presents a more mellow side of Zomblaze’s production, with lush, almost jazzy vocals on the first track Breath Deep, followed by smooth and deep grooves of the cinematic Stratosphere, pulsating night-time uncertainty of the Lynch Theme, culminating with the emotive and nostalgic banger Hundian with Zomblaze’s trademark messed-up and twisted synths rising and falling from a Hungarian folk song.