It’s a good month for those who’ve been awaiting vinyl editions of classic noise albums (all 12 of us).

Following Hospital Productions’ release of Kevin Drumm’s Imperial Distortion on 3xLP (read more about that here), we’re pleased to learn that Florian Hecker’s 2003 masterpiece of digital abrasion, Sun Pandämonium, is being issued on vinyl for the very first time by PAN.

Originally released by Mego on CD in 2003, the album was hailed as a modern classic virtually from the get-go, and it scooped the prestigious Award of Distinction Digital Music at that year’s Prix Ars Electronica. Since then, Austria’s Hecker has become an increasingly respected sound artist, collaborating with the likes of Russell Haswell and Yasonao Tone, releasing records on labels as diverse as Rephlex and Warner Classical, and exhibiting at internationally renowned galleries like Sadie Coles HQ, Chisenhale and Bawag Contemporary.

Canonical Sun Pandämonium might now be, but as a listening experience it’s no more accessible today than it was in 2003 (Whitehouse’s William Bennett described it at the time as “one of the most beautifully recorded bits of unpleasantness I’ve ever heard”). In pursuit of non-standard musical structures and genuinely new sonic realms, Hecker’s computer-generated frequencies scrape, screech, sear and scour; they do not soothe.

The new LP edition comes courtesy of Bill Kouligas’s PAN label, which is home to recordings by Keith Fullerton Whitman, Trevor Wishart and Joseph Hammer among others. The record was mastered and cut by Rashad Becker ad D+M in Berlin, and has been pressed on 140g vinyl with poly-lined inner sleeve, limited to 800 copies and packaged with six monochrome lacquered sheets housed in silk screened PVC sleeve replicating the original cover art by Hecker and Tina Frank. Copies available here.

Tracklist:
1. bsf°tyk 5
2. Stocha Acid Zlook
3. Jxean-z Character Generator
4. Iulliski sim con
5. Protog-Eepp-Forma-Quack
6. Δ chant / Δ p.groy
7. Quantum Spark Reality
8. Vi Retrospect