Dronea, Dronea

News came recently of Dag Rosenqvist's intention to release his last album as Jasper TX early this year, and move on, in his own words, to 'new beginnings'. His project From the Mouth of the Sun with friend and fellow noise experimenter Aaron Martin is the first of these, with another to follow with Matt Collings and hopefully more. Whilst Woven Tide, released by Jeremy Bible's Experimedia label, may show glimmers of both artists recognised sounds - the album endeavours to achieve something altogether different. The result is immediately compelling; full of moments of painful melancholy, disarming emotion and intense bittersweet beauty.

Difficult to ignore is the stark juxtaposition of reverberated sound, and striped back instrumentation, delivered by guitar, violin, interjections of voice/choir, chimes and more. As an entry point to the album and sound, the one minuter The Crossing introduces this aesthetic perfectly, setting out the intent for the rest of the tracks. From here on in we are treated to a set of stories retold with a romanticised tenderness, full of rich imagery, and textures.

Color Loss left me speechless on first listen and continues to affect on subsequent sittings. Working around a relatively simple melody, Martin and Rosenqvist manage an aching mournfulness through repeated choral voices. In the second half, the voices give way to allow violins to continue the motif, establishing an even greater heart breaking melancholia. The same depth of sound is found in the violin notes of modern classical figure-head Richard Skelton, who works every vibration emanating from his strings into gloriously rich sculptural textures. The duo develop this surrounding noise, without ever losing the stark emptiness.

Shimmering cymbals, and a metallic reverberation of dust particles appear to penetrate via osmosis on My Skin Drinks Light That Has Passed Through Leaves - a fine mist of coloured light slowly changing, broken only by gently plucked guitar. Pinned piano leads the dramatical swell of strings and effected noise on Sitting In A Roofless Room, perhaps the albums most visceral and discordant moment, before fading into the distance.

The long introduction of A Season in Water holds us in suspense, as if drifting through murky water, before echoing strings emerge from out of the depths. The surge of sonics that develop is powerful and exciting. Throbbing electronics, synth cascades, washes of violins in heavy reverb, and at its height, and ending, music box chimes. At the end of this epic journey the emergent Snow Burial (While Blue Skies Gather) evaporates all heavy weights and sheds light on dark corners, climbing to its end.

These are tales of loss, cathartic euphoria, and hope from out of pain and despair. Rendered with such masterful artistry that I predict many will fall in love with Woven Tide. Mastered by Taylor Deupree and cover artwork by the always brilliant Chris Koelle completes the package and makes this a must have release.

Review from Futuresequence

The Caretaker - Patience (After Sebald)

2012-01-17T13:19:00.000-08:00

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Genre: Ambient, Drone, Electronic

James Leyland Kirby returns with a long-in-the-making soundtrack to acclaimed filmmaker Grant Gee's documentary about German writer WG Sebald. 'Patience (After Sebald)' is a multi-layered film essay on landscape, art, history, life and loss - an exploration of the work and influence of German writer WG Sebald (1944-2001), told via a long walk through coastal East Anglia tracking his most famous book 'The Rings Of Saturn'. Much like The Caretaker's oeuvre, Sebald's works are particularly focused on themes of memory, both personal and collective, making Kirby the ideal candidate for this score. Grant tasked him with soundtracking responsibilities, but rather than thrift shop shellac, the source material for 'Patience' was sourced from Franz Schubert's 1927 piece 'Winterreise' and subjected to his perplexing processes, smudging and rubbing isolated fragments into a dust-caked haze of plangent keys, strangely resolved loops and de-pitched vocals which recede from view as eerily as they appear.

Willamette - Echo Park

2012-01-04T05:34:00.000-08:00

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Genre: Ambient, Neo Classical.

Label: Infraction Records

Now this is going to look like lazy reviewing. I’m going to start with a comparison that will have all ambient heads groaning in sheer disbelief at the fact that yet another act/album is being compared to Stars of the Lid…but yes, it’s true. This album uses all the tropes associated with the widely acknowledged masters of the genre and it does so to such an extent that it practically screams ‘compare me to stars of the lid’. We’re all familiar with this comparison and it has become such a cliche that it’s essentially shorthand for ‘this is an ambient album’. Large numbers of flaccid, go-nowhere, uninspired albums have been allowed off the hook by this lazy comparison. Not only does this allow a large volume of shit to flood the market, but it also detracts from the genuine majesty that SOTL display and for which they are rightly acknowledged.

So with that aside, I am pleased to say that Willamette have managed to produce an album that is truly worthy of the comparison. ‘Echo Park’ is an album of diffuse splendour, plaintive sketches, and beautiful, wistful melancholia…all delivered with an acute sense of restraint and precision.

The 10 tracks are, on the whole, relatively brief for the genre (maximum of five and a half minutes) and, to my mind at least, this should be taken as a significant strength…ideas are not allowed to overstay their welcome but certainly never feel underdeveloped. Moods are swiftly evoked, allowed full expression and then softly dissipate. It would have been very easy to extend a few tracks here and there, drag out a sequence past it’s utility, and strive for a pseudo-epic scale for the album. The fact that the composer/s resisted temptation in this regard speaks volumes for their ability to prioritise artistry over posturing. This ‘just enough to do the job’ sensibility also informs the album’s melodic core. As with all essentially minimal music, it’s the parts that are left out that carry the greatest weight and here, each piece manages to convey a deep emotional resonance with the merest hint of ethereal melody.

The majority of the album is carried by gentle swelling pulses of hazy chords – and as such ‘Echo Park’ is clearly an ‘ambient’ album; easily listened to in the background – but when clear instrumentation comes to the fore (such as on the gorgeous ‘New York Heat’) it has a piercing effect that seizes the listeners attention and brings the music into sharp focus.

Albums of this calibre are, indeed, rare. So if there is to be any criticism levelled at ‘Echo Park’, it is probably that it wears its influences too clearly on its sleeve. Frankly though, if that’s the worst thing I can say about this album the message you should be taking away from this review is that Willamette have produced, with ‘Echo Park’, an album that could easily stand as one of the contenders for ambient album of the year.

Review from Fluid Radio

Sean McCann - Sincere World

2011-12-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

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Genre: Ambient, Drone, Experimental, Electronic

Label: Amethyst Sunset Records

Sincere World, which was due out almost a year ago as I understand it, has finally been released for the world to enjoy. Sean McCann has worn many various emotions and experiments on his sleeve through his musical output over the previous years. Some are wild and zany, some are more serious and solemn, some are exciting and vivacious, and others have many different nuances within the same album yet all with the same creative stroke of genius that makes McCann such a master. Sincere World is more of the serious and solemn persuasion. It’s borderline ambient, yet with the McCannian twist of personified drone. In the same vein as Fountains and Leave Today as far as subdued and quiet nature, but it has a living and stirring nature that isn’t quite as restful as those two others. This is a restless, tossing-and-turning, insomniac series of drones. They stir with a baggy-eyed longing for respite, counting sheep, tossing back a nightcap, whatever it takes to settle down and catch some Z’s. There is a calm and nocturnal nature to the ambiance, but I just don’t hear a settling down, a final stillness. To me, they kick the covers and lie staring at the ceiling in frustrated sleepless torture. Everything feels dark with only the slightest illumination that highlights the shadows on the wall. Not dark as in black or foreboding, just lightlessness. And all the anguished sleep deprivation is not anything felt by the hearer. I just call upon this descriptive metaphor because there is a stillness and gentleness that reminds you of the night, yet not all is at peace. There’s still life and movement that’s pregnant within these tracks. The best comparison would be the actions of one in bed who cannot seem to fall asleep. That said, the timbre of this album is fairly tranquil and great for midnight boredom or late night soul searching.

Grouper & Ilyas Ahmed - Visitor

2011-12-19T13:58:00.000-08:00

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Genre: Ambient, Drone, Experimental

Label: Social Music Records

Grouper's Liz Harris has just released a new EP in collaboration with shadowy freak-folkist Ilyas Ahmed. Titled Visitor, the EP is part of Social Music's Record Club subscription series. The opening track is everything you'd expect from Liz, an ethereal, dark beauty with the bleak shine of wet concrete.

Ólafur Arnalds - Living Room Songs

2011-12-05T05:15:00.001-08:00

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Genre: Neo Classical

Label: Erased Tapes

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Olafur Arnalds has always had a penchant for producing subtly immense and tragically beautiful minimalistic compositions. Approaching his music with an ear for getting a profound and grand sound out of as little as possible, Arnalds has become a contemporary darling. Since his humble beginnings somewhere around the middle of the last decade, the Icelandic artist has since rose to great prominence, with the full scope of his musical prowess becoming clear in last year’s exceptional …And They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness. In creating his boldest record yet, Arnald discovered the power of sonic expansion, and the brilliance in experimentation. Yet unexpectedly, Arnald has shied away from his bolder sound, instead opting to find the beauty in introversion.

Living Room Songs is Olafur Arnalds latest release, and perhaps his most focused to date. It differs from everything he’s done before, but it’s certifiably his own sound. One can’t help but notice the techno emphasis featured on his earlier work rear their head hear, as well as the more minimalist aspects seen there as well. Despite sharing a more retracted sound with Eulogy for Evolution, Living Room Songs features the same focused feeling of his previous work. It’s in this mixture that Arnalds has crafted some of his best material to date.

As indicated by the record’s name, Living Room Songs was recorded in the artists very own living room in Iceland. Over the course of a week, Arnalds released each song with a corresponding video of the recording. In many ways, the videos represent the music itself. Surprisingly large crowds of musicians piled into the confines of the rather small living room. This could metaphorically be seen as the musician pushing the boundaries of his more minimalistic nature by expanded the core sound as much as possible.

Living Room Songs excels because it’s everything Olafur Arnalds needed to have made; a beautiful excursion that has substance to back it up. Nary a moment goes by that he doesn’t use to the fullest. Whether it is the swelling strings or the somber piano, each minute of the record’s 24 is full of purpose and deliberation. The song selection, despite lacking the flow of some of his other works, is simply wonderful. From the opening moments of “Fyrsta” to the final seconds of “This Place is a Shelter,” Living Room Songs displays that is in no short supply of brilliant selections. “Near Light” is the album’s strangest track, feature more electronic/techno elements than any of the other songs. The lush soundscapes created from the dichotomy of warm strings and cold electronics is sublime. Arnalds’ restraint with either element makes for a perfect blending as well. “Film Credits” polarizes this, as it features a lonely solemn violin, accompanied by mournful cellos. It’s a piece that truly displays the musician’s ability to craft something beautiful out of something so tragic. The production is yet another exceptional aspect. The little creaks of chairs and the soft movements of bows add an incredible layer of immersion to an already absorbing album.

Andrew Pekler - Sentimental Favourites

2011-12-03T09:40:00.001-08:00

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Genre: Experimental, Electronic, Drone

Label: Dekorder

Pekler has been operating within forms of ambient, experimental and electronica since the late-'90s. As a solo artist he has no less than five full-lengths to his name, released through labels like Stefan Betke's ~scape and Chicago imprint Kranky. In collaboration, he's worked as a member of Bergheim 34, who put-out a string of release on Klang Elektronik during the early-'00s, and Groupshow, the trio which also includes Hanno Leichtmann and Jan Jelinek.

Sentimental Favourites brings together 14 tracks borne out of an interesting exploration. As is the case with much of Pekler's music, the album looks into "an abandoned genre or aesthetic trope," which in this case explores a "strain of late 60's/early 70's easy listening which melded the sophisticated songwriting pathos of Burt Bacharach, Jimmy Webb or The Carpenters with a post-psychedelic attention to sonic detail."

Max Richter - Perfect Sense OST

2011-12-03T08:12:00.001-08:00

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Genre: Neo Classical, Electronic, Ambient

Another stunning score from this english composer. Enjoy it.
There isn´t a buy link because there is no fisical release. If you want it you have to buy it on Itunes. Sorry.

Hauschka - Youyoume Ep

2011-12-02T12:45:00.001-08:00

Sorry but there´s no download till Serein has sold
the limited edition. Read their news and support them.

Genre: Neo Classical, Electronic

Label: Serein

The breadth of sounds that now make up Hauschka's palette are the result of years of experimentation with different piano preparations. Of particular note is his uncanny ability to conjure sounds from the piano most often associated with electronic instruments such as drum machines and samplers.

Anyone who's been following Volker's output of late will know that he's been creating some incredible compositions inspired by house and techno music. The first side of this new record is taken up entirely by one such composition.

'So Close' is a thirteen minute long piece of deep, earthy music. Perhaps never before has Hauschka's interest in electronic dance music been more plainly heard. The piece moves with a great sense of purpose; from scattered notes and the clatter of makeshift percussion there emerges a steady rhythm - a note in the lower register becomes a bass drum, its staccato bass pluck sounding four on four. Further up the register, sharps and flats become hi-hats and shakers.

The beat builds and breaks several times throughout the piece, vanishing altogether only to re-emerge with its syncopation subtly shifted. The final break-down of the last few minutes is the longest of all, a gentle piano refrain plays out the piece while the percussive elements sigh, rattle and whirr until their last breaths.

The two pieces on side 'B' of 'Youyoume' serve as a gentle reminder of just how versatile a producer Volker Bertelmann is. Gone are the unrelenting rhythms of side 'A' and in their place, thoughtful, cascading melodies which hark back to some of Hauschka's earliest output. 'So Far' is a solo piano piece for unprepared piano, while 'Paige and Jane', the final track, features prepared piano and cello.

In all, 'Youyoume' is a unique record in Hauschka's discography bringing together some of the styles and ideas which have come to define his unmistakable sound.

Richard Knox & Frederic D. Oberland - The Rustle of the Stars

2011-11-27T01:29:00.001-08:00

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Genre: Ambient, Drone, Neo Classical, Experimental

Label: Gizeh Records

Having met while performing in Europe with their respective bands, Richard Knox, one-half of ambient-modern classical duo Glissando and sometime live member of Sleepingdog (and Gizeh Records manager), and Frederic D. Oberland, founding member of the experimental collective FareWell Poetry and soundtrack composer, soon after decided to collaborate on an album and did so in accordance with a few simple guidelines: first, to imagine the album as representative of, in their own words, “a polar journey to the ends of the earth through the Arctic Sea”; to augment their own playing with that of others (string players Angela Chan and David Ramsay appear, as do Elly May Irving and Matt Clark, who contributed choir and ghost narration to the project); and to record the project in a church. No carefree cruise trip, The Rustle of the Stars instead focuses on the darker end of the polar expedition experience, one that finds madness and terror setting in over the course of a long journey that brings with it more than its fair share of hopelessness, anxiety, and thoughts of disaster. The first indication of the project's special character is the album title itself, The Rustle of the Stars being a reference to a phenomenon that occurs 450 km from the Arctic Circle and that specifically refers to a barely audible noise produced when the draught from a human breath generates collisions among ice micro-crystals in the air. But, of course, the album rewards one's attention for reasons that go far beyond an imaginative album title and concept.

Begun at their respective homes in Leeds and Paris, Knox and Oberland drew upon a wealth of instrumental sounds (electric guitar, bowed glockenspiel, and field recordings for Knox, and piano, electric guitar, field recordings, harmonium, dulcimer, and analog electronics for Oberland, to name just some of the materials used) in fashioning the initial sketches for the collaboration and then solidified them when they convened two months later in Leeds to record in the St Margaret of Antioch Church. Regardless of whether the piece in question features large, rolling swathes of rumble, guitar textures, and soaring strings (“Mist”) or places delicate pianistics against a sombre backdrop (“Le Passage du Nord-Ouest”), the material is elegiac and dramatic ambient-classical in style and features a heavy emphasis on strings and electric guitar. It's also at times desolate, with the music evoking the limitless and barren expanses of icy terrain and often cloaked in a shroud of haunting gloom. In certain moments, The Rustle of the Stars' material is sometimes so stylistically similar to FareWell Poetry's Hoping for the Invisible to Ignite it could be mistaken for new work by the band (e.g., “Sea of Bones” and “A Divide”); certainly the inclusion of a Super 8 projector's clatter (courtesy of FareWell Poetry member Jayne Amara Ross) on “The Wreck of Hope” collapses the distance separating the outfits even more, as does the track's sweeping guitar-laced atmospherics. Generally speaking, anyone spellbound by FareWell Poetry's recent Hoping for the Invisible to Ignite may very well find him/herself equally captivated by The Rustle of the Stars.

Review from Textura

Stephan Mathieu - To Describe George Washington Bridge

2011-11-26T07:06:00.001-08:00

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Genre: Ambient, Electronic, Drone
Label: Dekorder

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Hear

“To Describe George Washington Bridge” is Stephan Mathieu’s second Dekorder release in the 10″ format (reflecting his interest in old 78rpm records) after 2009′s sold out “The Key to the Kingdom”, and, we’re happy to say, again it features two of the composer’s most outstanding short pieces. Both are recorded utilizing similar methods as used on his most recent album “A Static Place” on 12K Records yet they are presented in an even more condensed and melodic way. As source material he used transcriptions made from the marvelous 25x 12inch 78rpm set G.F. Händel. “Twelve Concerti Grossi” performed by the Busch Chamber Players in 1946, and a Columbia 10″ record from 1912 with Händel’s usual smash hits from “Messiah”.

“Between 1928 and 1932 the earliest recordings of historically informed performances of music from the late Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque era were etched into 78RPM records. I used some of these records from my collection, playing them back with two mechanical acoustic HMV Model 102 gramophones. The initial soundwaves produced back then by period instruments like the clavichord, viols, lute, hurdy-gurdy are read from the grooves by a cactus needle to be amplified by the gramophones diaphragm housed in a soundbox. Those vibrations travel through the tonearm which is connected straight to the gramophones horn, which releases the music to my space. Here the sound is again picked up by a pair of customized microphones and send to my computer, to be transformed by spectral analysis and convolution processes. An imaginary room, inhabited by all the spatial information collected on the journey is created and will be projected in a final instance into the listeners space.”

Stephan Mathieu is a self taught composer and performer of his own music, working in the fields of electroacoustics and abstract digitala. His sound is largely based on early instruments, environmental sound and obsolete media, which are recorded and transformed by means of experimental microphony, re-editing techniques and software processes involving spectral analysis and convolution; it has been compared to the landscape paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, the work of Colorfield artists Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Ellsworth Kelly.

Review from Fluid Radio

Nest - Body Pilot

2011-11-20T06:38:00.001-08:00

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Genre: Ambient, Drone, Experimental, Abstract
Label: Serein

A fluttering “Stillness” dims the light; three notes turn six, over restful, droney string breaths; oh-so delicate tinkering lays soft quilt, easing vex. But try as you might to find its heart, the sense of loss, and icy depressiveness pervading the nooks and crannies of Huw Roberts’ and Otto Totlands’ pianism, becomes lavishness restricted, life jacket for low mood, conceptually meeting the flight theme they’ve adapted in minimalist repertoire. Played three times, Nest’s “Body Pilot” became a record I’d seemingly known all my life, like a catchphrase that existed subconciously; Mr. Chips returning to haunt one particular moment, penetrating. “Music without pretence”, in their past words.

Remaining homebound, sentimentally fearful of non-catharsis, “Charlotte” from “Retold”, platonic contrast to this 10′. “The engines are cut and we glide silently into the white”, is what Huw and Otto propose of “The Dying Roar” when the woodwind and brass exclude themselves, into their hallmark jigsaw-piece piano. It’s no wonder Hauschka is billed for this particular series. With modern musicians, environment, like Nest’s, plays an output discriminator, prohibiting you from saving a workload, or integrating a certain source for dubbing. In hindsight of Nest’s development: the hugely successful netlabel EP, and a comparatively sold-out-direct album, while “Koretz’s Meteor” leaning heavier on Totland’s synthesizer drone of Deaf Center reverie – a glowing proposition is harder to realise – how do you follow up lauded efforts in as timeless a manner?

Nest’s answer is seemingly to forget the premise of time, making it a continuum of last efforts, not a conscience-burdening approach that makes them think “what if I’d just done this”. Otherwise, minutes may go very slow normally, or lightning bolt anxiously. By retracting sensations that apply to a traditional chronology, too, not to mention having a loyal fan base, critical spikes, both internal and external, dissolve. Objectively so because the work is high calibre enough all the time. Even the Billy-no-instruments drone lapse of “The Ultimate Horizon” manages to escape throwaway straitjacket, sub bass undercutting the tinsel field recordings that metamorphosise, overlay and ebb. Part three of the “Seasons”vinyl and digital download catalogue on Serein, “Body Pilot” is the perfect edition to the series. It’s questionable depending on your entry point what you’ll rate higher – this or past Nest. One thing’s for certain though: you could do a lot worse than sampling your own camera, catching Huw and Otto’s flight further from base.

Review from Fluid Radio

Lee Noble - Horrorism

2011-11-19T05:54:00.001-08:00

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Genre: Experimental, Electronic, Ambient Pop

Label: Bathetic Records

Lee Noble blends droning lullabies into an artistic stew of eerie, yet inviting melody on his debut vinyl release, Horrorism. Deeply personal and wildly humbling, Horrorism is a vast chasm of introspective churning. Conjuring the spirit of some sort of homegrown and low-pass filtered Radiohead on downers, yet sewn to the hip of modern atmospheric-champions a la Grouper and Sean McCann.

This is entirely its own creature, caressing various spots in the brain; both abysmal and blissful. Noble has crafted a 100% viable album, a true masterpiece in its own world. With Horrorism, Noble brings his compositions to life with class and depth, molding a beautiful, emotional release.

Ben Fleury-Steiner - The Places That Find You

2011-11-10T05:26:00.000-08:00

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Genre: Ambient, Drone, Experimental

Label: Low Point

Ben Fleury-Steiner is a Delaware-based composer and owner of the Gears Of Sand label. Drawing upon his deep love of minimalism and influenced by the work of avant-garde composer Steve Reich, 'The Places That Find You ' was recorded over a two year period between 2009 to 2011.

The recording process made use of a mixture of instrumentation, including the use of the kalimba (the traditional name for a thumb piano) and the various sounds produced when played in the manner of a prepared guitar, coupled with more modern electronic instruments including effects pedals and synths.

First impressions pull closer, strings and fizzles fall, carrying you, reaching further and ending up in an all-new place. Time is simple and less than a moment, with the lasting habit of a worn-out keepsake but nonetheless you are still immediately there again, inside those open arms and a world you have always dreamed of.

In homage to minimalism and imagination, 'The Places That Find You' by Ben Fleury-Steiner embodies an ultimate trance, the ability to connect directly with the listener and the truth behind the feeling of music from the heart. Far away but incredibly close, the five tracks forming this album never return to the ordinary but move, invert and grow, through time-lapse expressions and faded visions.

Some listeners want to be transported to other places through music, whilst others hear the technical artistry and find inspiration to delve deeper into the creative process. Without any direction and by simply following your own natural instincts, 'The Places That Find You' is a guide that places you instantly, allowing each listener to find more, not only through the music but from inside themselves.

Nils Frahm — Juno 7"

2011-11-09T05:38:00.000-08:00

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Genre: Neo Classical, Instrumental, Electronic

Label: Erased Tapes

Hearing the first notes of For, the sound of Nils Frahm’s new composition comes strangely unexpected given his generally accepted image of a contemporary classical pianist. Along with his peers, Ólafur Arnalds, Dustin O’Halloran among others, Frahm prefers form above technical brilliance and swims in a flow of something what can be called post-minimalism. There are neither vivid and brave orchestrations in a vein of Arvo Pärt or John Cage, nor are Arnalds’ or O’Halloran’s arrangements as daring and provocative as John Adams’ or Henryk Górecki’s. Surely, the young generation doesn’t call the elders to a battle; they evolve a concept of simplicity and emotional clarity – something needed in nowadays overcrowded world.

That’s why For and Peter, two improvisational compositions from limited vinyl Juno , come bit unexpectedly. For consists exclusively of dark, organ-tinged analogue synthesizers imprisoned in never-ending harmonic loops and simple melodic loops. Frahm’s mind raises to a more hopeful, blue hills and descends back into sedated comfort of dusk. The reason why For deserves an attention is its liberation of all those clichés about synthetic music; Frahm preserves the composition from falling into cold, inhuman territories. I believe that he reaches this strange warmness either by the patience which is present in every harmonic modulation or in the calm evolution of the motive and in the very selection of the synthesizers which recall the embracing sound of pipe-organ. Finally, he has already demonstrated his affection towards electronics on 7fingers, his collaborative effort with cellist Anne Müller and Juno just follows the suite.

But this time, he’s alone with his synthesizers – no other instruments are put in the mix – and Peter Broderick as his recurring muse. After all, the mystery of the cozy nature of For may dwell in its devotion to a particular person and an underlying emotion: the classic source of beauty in music. You may perceive For (and the entire EP Juno) as a surprising experiment; but it’s rather an expression of a personal feeling through an automatized device controlled by human fingers and living, creative mind.
Review made by Tomas, from MusicAddicted

Leyland Kirby - Intrigue and Stuff Vol. 3

2011-11-08T13:31:00.000-08:00

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Genre: Experimental, Ambient, Electronic, Drone

This Time no reviews. I´m lazy, sorry

Leyland Kirby - Intrigue & Stuff - Vol. 2

2011-11-06T10:22:00.000-08:00

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Genre: Ambient, Experimental, Drone, Electronic

Kirby provides yet another facet of beautiful noise exploration here. Comprised of three songs, two of which clock in at roughly 12 and 20 minutes, respectively, there is a more grandiose framework to this second volume. However, as always in Kirby’s work, it’s the little details in songs that define this artist.

Embarking at 'Eventually, It Eats Your Lungs' we navigate the crests of swelling choral samples and strangely tactile blasts of blurry bass, delivered with a physicality not unlike being touched in a dream. The two elements tussle and tumble in this fluctuating mindspace, reaching irregular resolutions that still leave us baffled - in the best possible sense. After dilating our sense of time with this passage, we're briefly extruded through the cosmic chrono-chaos of 'Speeded Up Slow Motion', a piece that feels like gazing into localized miniature black hole. That's all preparation for 'Complex Expedition', one of Leyland Kirby's most breathtaking masterpieces to date. Spanning all 20 minutes of the B-side, the milk sea is curdling and we're stranded, eons away from anyone or anything.

Nicholas Szczepanik - Candor of Night

2011-11-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

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Genre: Experimental, Ambient, Drone

Label: Self Released

Soundcloud

Ante Algo Azul consists of 12 pieces; each will be released on a 3" CDr limited to 100 copies. The set will be sold as a subscription and each piece will be mailed individually, as it is finished. Each piece will be handwrapped in paper and, at times, a piece may also include other keepsakes like photographs, poetry, etc...

This is the third piece of this remarcable project.

Benoît Honoré Pioulard - Plays Thelma

2011-10-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

Link removed by request of the label

Genre: Ambient, Drone, Experimental
Label: Desire Path Recordings

Web

Thelma is best described as a place existing in between--a lake within a haze. Against its concave mirror, the sonic territory of Benoit Honore Pioulard--documented across three acclaimed LPs by Chicago's Kranky label--assumes the qualities of this place and all its ephemera, warm breezes, burbling shimmers and avian circlers. During his excursions to Thelma, Pioulard rested beneath the willow and wandered in the meadow, listening, absorbing, and recording. Glimpses are contained herein, where the solace and beauty of this mysterious place resonate in travelers who care to listen.

Should anything of significance be read into the subtle name change from Benoît Pioulard to Benoît Honoré Pioulard? Is the amendment designed to reflect a marked change in the sound captured on this six-track EP compared to that documented on the three full-lengths Pioulard issued on kranky (2006'sPrecis, 2008's Temper, and 2010's Lasted)? One can only guess, but this much is certain: Plays Thelmapresents a radically different side of Thomas Meluch's Benoît Pioulard equation. The trademark vocals, acoustic guitars, and rhythm-based song structures of the albums are gone, and the material instead assumes the form of scenic ambient instrumentals that were crafted using guitar, harmonium, voice, bowed bells, cello, music box, and field recordings, among other sound sources.

Available in digital and twelve-inch vinyl formats (the latter in an edition of 300 clear vinyl), Plays Thelma isn't the romantic paen to an artist's muse one might assume it to be but is rather Pioulard's evocation of a place, specifically a haze-enshrouded lake populated by warm breezes, meadows, and willow trees that that he wandered through and rested under while soaking in the locale's ephemeral sounds. That experience translated into twenty-three continuous minutes of ambient settings that both soothe with enveloping calm (“A Land Which Has No End”) and restlessly flicker (“Calder”). One more surprise comes at the recording's end when “Autochoral” closes the EP with the lulling swirl of a cosmic drone.

Review from Textura.

Alexander Turnquist - Hallway of Mirrors

2011-09-25T09:09:00.001-07:00

Genre: Folk, Experimental

Label: VHF records

Alexander Turnquist continues to forge his own radical style to create a very resonant and enveloping acoustic sound, full of beautiful harmonic overtone interplay, all instruments sustained. Alex’s guitar approach revolves around a prodigious right-hand technique and a minimalist slant on composition that separates him from the retro-styling endemic to most current acoustic guitar music. Hallway of Mirrors uses much of the tonal palate from his previous record (As the Twilight Crane Dreams in Color, vhf#118) – dense 12-string finger-picking with vibraphone and piano carrying much of the melody. On Hallway, the pieces are more concise with the added sweep of Christopher Tignor’s elegant violin punctuating Alex’s harmonics-laden forward motion and Matthew O’Koren’s immaculate vibraphone (played with both mallets and bow). The additional instrumentation, inspired in part by Steve Reich’s “Music for 18 Musicians,” provides an added focus in the music, signifying each change in tone and timbre. Recorded on analog tape using traditional automatic double tracking stereo mix techniques by engineers Henry Hirsch and Bram Tobey, the sound has an elegant soft focus that highlights Alex’s strong and sharp performance. The centerpiece of the album, the 16 minute “Waiting at the Departure Gate,” makes a sly nod in tribute to fellow VHF artist Jack Rose, who all too briefly explored similar techniques on his classic “Black Pearls.” A truly uplifting and emotional listening experience.

Talvihorros - Descent Into Delta

2011-09-10T06:18:00.000-07:00

Link removed by request

Genre: Electronic, Ambient, Drone

Label: Hibernate

The descent into delta is British composer Ben Chatwin’s map of the mind’s vibrational spectrum. The human brain emits waves at different phases, with gamma rays reflecting full alertness and delta waves reflecting the zenith of slumber. Much like a film can trace a character’s entire lifetime in a couple hours, Descent Into Delta maps the transition between complete lucidity and deep sleep in less than forty minutes.

While the title suggests a dropping down into peace or darkness, the guitar-driven ambience contains a lot of bright-cornered drama, suggesting that the mind is surprisingly active while on the path to losing consciousness. “Beta” sounds like our curiosity with dreams, as if it is a direct invitation to visit the other side. Washed out tremors of tremolo swim amongst disembodied conversations and sea-floor trowling guitars. A multitude of distorted and shimmering layers jockey for space like a crowded school of fish that instinctively knows when to turn. Listening to this track is as fascinating as watching a coral reef burst with chaos and balance: a vivid but relaxing experience.

Considering the significantly less busy layering in opening track “Gamma”, Chatwin’s explorations suggest that the dreamworld is more dynamic than the waking state. Further into Descent Into Delta the sounds spread out. Alpha waves, the official waves of wakeful relaxation with closed eyes, arrive in the form of lugubrious guitar respirations. Dulcimers waver like leaves in a tree, and sour the shine of day. With eyes closed, the tangible world starts to bend. Talvihorros attempts to float the listener’s mind on an earthen hammock while the atmospheric sounds occasionally go off key, as if the mind is remembering them incorrectly.

The release is meant to be a continuous exploration of waves emitted by the brain, but curiously the music stops halfway though before the cloud-painting “Theta” slumbers its way in. On an LP this makes sense, but it’s a shame Chatwin didn’t blend it all together for the digital release. This would have allowed the listener to fully indulge in the experiment. The Caretaker’s recent album also served as a mental experiment on vinyl, exploring the affects of Alzheimer’s disease and memory, but the nature of those song fragments warranted pauses and uncertainty. Descent Into Delta is very lush and was labored over intently. Addressing this snag would have improved the experience.

Chatwin seems to get better with each Talvihorros release, and Descent Into Delta is a fine example of the diverse ways in which a guitar can contribute to the crafting of a cohesive environment. Overall it has the sensibility of Aidan Baker and the real-time nocturnal features of Expo 70. Chatwin improvises much of his work and goes in to tweak it later. Yet despite the obvious amount of care, this release has the air of spontaneity. On the final track, “Delta”, a viola wanders like a ghost through the dead of night, clearly present, but without tangible form, like a lucid dreamer in the ether of sleep.

Review from The Silent Ballet

Leyland Kirby - Eager To Tear Apart The Stars

2011-09-03T05:42:00.001-07:00

Down

Genre: Ambient, Drone, Experimental

Eager To Tear Apart The Stars is as beautiful as you'd expect from a Kirby album, centred largely around piano, canned strings and a constant wash of static crackle.

These tracks are arrestingly clear-headed and sombre, with the requisite amount of emotional un-ease and a beguilling sense of ambiguity thanks to those perception-altering layers of fuzz and filtered detritus on the lens keeping things firmly hyperreal. How you decipher the meanings of these moods and atmospheres is where the beauty and longevity of these tracks lie, as patience and repeated listens will reveal new views of the landscape as the seasons change. Imagine if Roedelius had grown up in Stockport in the midst of a rave-o-lution, couple that with a sardonic yet discerning post-everything attitude 10 years before everyone else, and then wonder what that experience may result in - and you just might be quite close to imagining the treats this album holds in store for you...

James Blackshaw - Holly Ep

2011-08-31T11:38:00.001-07:00

Genre: Experimental, Folk

Label: Important

The two intimate and introspective pieces collected here were written and recorded during the first three months of 2011, during a break after an intense year of touring and the release of his eighth album "All Is Falling". In many ways, these songs more closely resemble his earlier work, with swirling, cyclical acoustic 12-string and nylon string guitar (a first for Blackshaw) being the focal point of the compositions. Charlotte Glasson also contributes some beautifully restrained clarinet, saxophone, flute and violin playing to the proceedings. There are echoes of French Impressionist composers Satie, Debussy and Ravel in the song "Holly", while "Boo, Forever" even sees a nod to the Takoma guitarists which first enthused and inspired him to start fingerpicking a decade ago, but - more than anything - the sound is unmistakably Blackshaw's own and ranks among some of his finest and most beautiful work yet.

Nicholas Szczepanik - Not Knowing (For Eliane Radigue)

2011-06-29T05:07:00.001-07:00

Label: Self released

Genre: Ambient, Electronic, Neo classical

Soundcloud

This is the first release of this serie

Marsen Jules Trio - Les Fleurs Variations

2011-06-23T05:11:00.001-07:00

Label: Oktaf

Genre: Ambient, Neo classical

Minimalist electronics and neo-classic drapes. The echo is not so distant. Five years ago, the German Marsen Jules ventured on the language of Molière. Noble and slight, his album Les Fleurs remains this day one of the most beautiful manners to observe the morning dew. Since, time inexorably changed. Marsen Jules took some years, went up its own label and left the solitude of the studio for the collective adventure. Laptop, violin and piano. The flesh returns stealthily. Accompanied with Anwar Alam and with Jan-Philipp Alamplein, Marsen Jules thus becomes trio. Tuned to this first tour of stoking, its universe of ice-cold winds wins at it obviously in heat and density. Everything takes place in the detail and the lighting there, only spaces of freedom were granted to the sources of origin. Certainly, the territory is already conquered but the flight is made this time of night, so modifying the perception and the firm memory of past. Without upsetting totally the bases of a centred music.

Nicholas Szczepanik - Amaranthine

2011-06-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

Label: Self Released

Genre: Ambient, Drone

Soundcloud

This is the fourth piece of this remarcable project.

Leyland Kirby - Intrigue & Stuff (Vol. 1)

2011-04-29T03:59:00.001-07:00

Genre: Ambient, Minimal, Experimental, Drone

Yet another curve-ball from oldskool Lancashire Raver Kirby. Changing colour like a confused chameleon, never blending in with its environment. This release was unannounced and comes as a minimally packaged hand-stamped white label which is a stark contrast to the breathtaking sleeves from his trilogy that were embellished with breath taking artworks from the highly under rated painter Ivan Seal. As with Kirby's recent out put this does feel very much like a journey of self-discovery and a magical roller-coaster of emotions. The tracks here sparkle with uplifting and vibrant tones with speckles of old new-beat and 808 State, David Lynch and way beyond influences, along with his more dreamy and cerebral direction. The general mood is difficult to quantify and comparing to other contemporary artists is practically impossible. This is very much electronic music at its most potent and soul stirring. Over analysis of these tracks would be dangerous but I can say there is a very "classic" electronic music spirit present.

Kaboom Karavan - Barra Barra

2011-04-23T05:54:00.001-07:00

Genre: Experimental, Drone, Jazz, Ambient

Label: Miasmah

With Kaboom Karavan it’s hard to know quite where to start – the Belgian collective led by Bram Bosteels have a history in theatre, film and contemporary dance, but that doesn’t really help shine a light on their music. They have collaborated with musicians all over the world including Miasmah’s very own Kreng, and released a debut album on Mexico’s Umlo imprint, but again this probably only gives a small indicator of what the collective actually sound like. There is something effortlessly surreal about the band, and surrealism is an aspect of art often attempted and very rarely perfected. Here Bosteels abuses his choice of instruments (and players) to the point where the listener would barely be able to place which instruments were being used at all, in fact at times you’d be hard pressed even to place what sort of music it was. Through a haze of pizzicato strings, clouds of sullen reverberation and clamorous percussion you get the feeling that you have been catapulted into a universe just outside of perception; somewhere cold and unforgiving where regularity is turned upside down just to toy with our strict ideas of reality. Jazz and Dadaism might be the cornerstones of ‘Barra Barra’ but these disparate influences are twisted and melted beyond recognition leaving only remnants on the finished product.

Bosteels and his band of collaborators have brought to life music steeped in surrealism which brings to mind This Heat’s classic album Deceit, but crossed with something different and yet more dark, like a musical version of cult television show The League Of Gentlemen.

The album, indeed each track within Barra Barra, weaves together many threads of sound and, occasionally, melodies, so that it is difficult for one to follow what instrument is being played most of the time. Opener Lentetooi is centred around a tune worthy of a child’s musical box, but this is offset with sinister mutterings, arranged with flute and strings in a method as to invoke a gleeful discomfort. Following piece Koboi is centred around relaxed guitar riffing in a slow and awkward rhythm. As the key refrain repeats again and again, the background is taken up by field recordings of indeterminate source, adding a texture and depth to a track which, if stripped down to just guitar, would be very minimal. Moving ahead a few tracks, the atmospheric Parka is more heavily led by captured sounds and the way in which they are employed brings to mind something of Graham Lambkin & Jason Lescalleet. It’s a beautiful piece and again highlights Kaboom Karavan’s knack for creatively bringing together many elements in a way which is anything but typical.

‘Barra Barra’ is a complex album which takes patience to navigate through; you could hear the German clanking pre-industrialism of Einsturzende Neubauten, the slow brooding doom of Bohren & Der Club of Gore and the stuttering abstraction of Black To Comm yet it still feels fresh and distinctly current. Unusually the most fitting comparison might be the work of the Brothers Quay, as the ticking, creaking, stuttering songs feel perfectly matched with these flickering, haunted images. This is what makes the album such an appropriate addition to the Miasmah canon, and one that will haunt your dreams (and nightmares) for months to come.

Antonymes - The Licence To Interpret Dreams

2011-04-22T11:25:00.001-07:00

Link removed by request

Genre: Neo Classical, Ambient, Experimental

Label: Hidden Shoal Recordings

There is no maelstrom, no swell of overwhelming sound. Antonyme’s first full-length work, The License to Interpret Dreams, is defiant in its fragility; in fact, the work is so over-wrought that it teeters on the point of collapse. It seems its purpose is to carry on a prolonged moment of respite despite the fact that it shudders under its weight and poignancy.

Each piece is a wonder, much like encountering different facets of the same being, finding something new to love about someone: an unintended twitch, a new wrinkle, freckle. To think you know something or someone so deeply and be surprised by what is still to be discovered. A guarded laugh may at times burst out into a full-fledged explosion. An undefined glance. I can also imagine knowing someone so deeply but encountering them in a store or street, without accompanying them, and seeing them exist outside of your life together, as if you’ve never met or known one another. Who is a person you care deeply about when they’re not with you? On this work, I began to look at people I’ve known and places I’ve visited in a new light, questioning everything I’ve ever known, and whether what I’ve known was conjured and an extension of myself. I listen to “Doubt” and I hear scattered words and experience an assortment of images, and I wonder whether what I see is me, or, as I understand myself to be.

A finite layer of gossamer shrouds the album from the start, as “A Fragile Acceptance” gradually seeps out of the speakers. A serene hush floats in and, intermittently, notes pick up out of the silence. A wave of strings emerges from the silence and shares a kinship with the sensation of an epiphany, of knowing everything all at once before it completely escapes you. I felt lonely in its absence, when it subsides, but became used to the emptiness so effortlessly filled in with the right note or the right shift, at the right time.

“Womb of the Great Mother” is barely there. I was directly connected to it without noticing; it was affecting what I was doing, whether I would stop and stare, entranced, while finishing some work, it began to inform my thinking and my doing. I suppose the purpose of some music is to barely exist and creep into your being. The many diluted definitions of ambient music try to express this point but what they fail to accept is that your mind moves with the music, you become aware, and it washes over you. Music should never exist at the perimeter and Antonymes’ work permeates your being from all angles. The listener plumbs the depths, occasionally rising for air on “Landscape Beyond an Open Window”; the wind cuddles around you before “Endlessly” wisps you away from the bracken, the charming foliage, and the shrubbery.

There is so much to experience and so much the music will conjure for the listener. The music on “The License to Interprete Dreams” can influence how one views the world, their inherent sensibilities, of knowing, and, finally, of returning.

Review from Fluid Radio

Mark Templeton - Inland

2011-03-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

Genre: Experimental, Drone, Neo Classical

Label: Anticipate

The allure of Inland begins right away, as a twangy, reverb-ed electric guitar melody is bathed in cascading delays, creating a hypnotic pulse and textured sonic vistas. From there, this latest album by Canadian experimental artist Mark Templeton continues to document an insular yet inviting journey, the composer’s hands-on, collage-like methods producing enigmatic mood shifts and plenty of textural surprise.

Templeton’s approach seems obliquely rooted in both folk song and film soundtrack music: there’s often a wide -open -spaces, lonely camp-fire vibe to his layered acoustic and electric guitars, his casually plunked-out banjo melodies. But these humble beginnings lead to complex sonic manipulations: cavernous reverbs; pulsing echoes and regenerations; fuzz and distortion; broken-sounding electronics; severe jump-cut edits.

Within these transiting events, other sounds are sometimes heard: static and hiss, accordion chords, gongs and deep-toned drums. All of this seems to occur organically, within tracks that preserve the relatively short duration and, somehow, the familiar narrative-like arc of folk or pop song structure. And while each piece seems to create its own voiceprint, there’s also a seamless and mysteriously unified sense to to the way the record unfolds as a whole. This is decidedly not trance or drone music: moods and timbres shift and juxtapose quite quickly, sometimes cinematically.

Templeton’s wordless, often gently falsetto vocals appear suddenly in quite a few places, and the effect of this is powerfully intimate and anchoring. Within all that sonic ebb and flow, all those arching views, we come upon the sound of someone singing to himself; helping us to experience, perhaps, the strangely comforting sense of sharing in another’s engagingly hermetic creative world.

Review from Dusted Magazine

Federico Durand - El Extasis de Las Flores Pequeñas

2011-03-11T04:51:00.001-08:00

Genre: Ambient, Neo Classical

Label: Own Records

After the superb La Siesta Del Ciprés released last year on Spekk, Buenos Aires-based Federico Durand returns with El éxtasis de las flores pequeñas, a 35-minutes subdued and beautiful evocation of time spent as a child with his grandparents to the woods in the Argentinean South. Using a reduced and evocative sound palette made of piano and acoustic guitar, augmented with field recordings collected in the gardens of Buenos Aires, Durand conjures memories of his lost grandparents’ home, in a delicate and poetic study of nostalgia and childhood.

As the rain pours outside, the gently reverberating piano notes of opener El pequeño huésped sigue dormidoslowly unfurl and are soon accompanied by a quiet acoustic guitar, suggesting a lonely day spent at home, flicking through a worn out photo-album of sepia-tinged pictures. Nothing mournful or sad, just vignettes of long-gone moments, resurfacing and transporting the listener to their own childhood. Subsequent numbers are somehow more oneirical – the melodic motifs being quite distant, suggesting fragments of memories that fold into each other, as in a super-8 film of past holidays. At other times like in Elin for example, the same piano phrase keeps looping, its meaning becoming all the clearer as the piece progresses, as if one could see at last why this particular memory had stuck for so long in our head, giving a sudden new insight into our own story.

Durand has taken great care when recording his instruments, conjuring a necessary distance that perfectly matches his intentions. The piano in La Casa De Los Abuelos is presented through a sonic veil that achingly underlines the nostalgic mood of the piece. In the title track, the guitar is processed through echo and delay-pedals in such a way it suggests faded-out memories, as seen in a shadowbox. Sounds of hands gliding between chord shapes on the guitar’s neck are isolated and amplified, and seems to remove themselves from the interwoven melodies.

Each track tells its story ever so slowly, like a poem being read out loud, progressing at its own unhurried pace. InAtardecer en las montañas, piano and guitar congeal into a droning mass of majestic beauty that drift ecstatically on the surface of a sunlit pond. The delicate touches of xylophone-like instruments add a very interesting contrast to the track that clearly stands out as the most blissful piece on the album. In the closing Kim, Durand’s reverberated guitar comes back in a simple and very evocative chord progression that loops atop processed field recording and gently saturated undulating drones, as a way of letting go of those long-gone memories of childhood, grateful that such moments ever existed.

El éxtasis de las flores pequeñas is a work of extreme sensibility that avoids unnecessary sentimentality or cliched evocations – Federico Durand unveiling its narrative through delicate strokes of unassuming beauty.

Review from Fluid-Radio.

Julia Kent - Green And Gray

2011-03-08T04:38:00.001-08:00

Genre: Ambient, Neo Classical, Experimental

Label: Important Records

The solo work of cellist Julia Kent deals in different ways with concepts of borders and of spaces which are neither one thing nor the other. Her first solo record, Delay, was based on that most modern (and Eno-esque) of limbos, the airport. Having crossed the globe in a number of different ensembles, most famously as a member of Antony and the Johnsons, but also with a range of more leftfield acts such as Rasputina, Burnt Sugar, Angels Of Light and Stars Of The Lid, she found she was spending rather a lot of time trapped in those places, and elected to use them to her advantage. She made recordings in airports, and used them as the foundation for Delay, naming the resulting tracks after the airports in which they were recorded. The title of her second album for Important suggests she has found the way out, but only to another place betwixt and between: the place where the grey of the city meets the green of the countryside. And exactly how much of an escape that turns out to be is open to question.

Green And Grey opens and closes with cicadas, stridulating in the evening air, with Kent’s looped cello building upon the samples to create the compositions. In between, there are tracks named after trees (“Ailanthus”), water (“Acquario”), landscape features (“Overlook”) and constellations (“Pleiades”), but also in one case, a building (“Spire”). It seems at first listen that Kent is outside, recording the sounds of the natural world, in order to inspire her work. The natural rhythms of those insects, the gurgle of water, the patter of raindrops, all find a musical echo in the tracks which follow them. So in a number of ways, the modus operandi hasn’t changed from Delay, it is just the location (or rather the locations) which is different. What is most telling here, however, is just how unobtrusive the recordings are. They are but brief snatches of very quiet sounds, the merest hints of the ambience of the outside world.

Leaving aside Eno (whether she draws from him intentionally or not), you have an album which takes similar cues as the likes of Johann Johannsson and Max Richter, or perhaps Hildur Gudnadottir with her more diaphonous cello work Without Sinking: modern, melancholic, minimalist, classical. However, in a sense trying to pigeonhole her records goes against their very essence: they seem to be born of a desire to break out, to escape. The short, churning rhythmic loops which underpin so many of these pieces act like an anchor, these ostinati counteracting the melody line’s desire to take the piece into different landscapes.

The more you listen, the more it begins to feel like, despite first impressions, this is less a record about the physical border between the city and the country, and more one about a mental border. The sound of echoing footsteps in “Ailanthus” suggest we haven’t even left the building, while the water heard in “Acquario” may even be the sound of a fishtank, rather than a stream. The cicadas are just as likely to be heard through an open window; let’s face it, you aren’t going to be plugging in a looping pedal in the park. As the surge of those song-like melodies is once more halted in its tracks, you feel that on Green And Grey Kent is as trapped in the city as she ever was in the airport. With the urge to escape to nature being defeated time and time again by more mundane concerns, sometimes all a city dweller can do is dream of leaving.

Review taken from The Liminal.

Emanuele Errante - Time Elapsing Handheld

2011-03-06T11:17:00.000-08:00

Genre: Ambient, Electronic

Label: Karaoke Kalk

A new offering from Italian artist Emanuele Errante sees him continuing his characteristic approach to musical texture – the pairing of electronics and acoustic instruments to achieve a consolidated whole. As simple on the surface this is, often the discrepancy in timbre, or perhaps the clashing connotations the instruments conjure up can make for an awkward or irritating listening experience. Fortunately for Errante, his release history displays ause of this technique that has shaped a largely successful outing this time around.

Errante’s music, first introduced to me through Apegenine‘s Migrations (2007), and then Somnia‘s Humus (2008), stands to be in its own sub-category of minimal ambient and experimental modern classical compositions. Lo-fi noises, scratching on the strings of a gently weeping guitar, clicking field recordings, and cascading ambient atmospheres, penetrate through the walls and carpet, raising dust and killing mites (perhaps I should lower the volume a bit). Whether consumed as a sonic installation or an abstract piece of sound art, Time Elapsing Handheld captures the moment with its seven titles, creating a path which is “Leaving The Nowhere”through the “Memoirs”, a bit “Counterclockwise”, sometimes “Later, Earlier”, and always “Inner”.

Lush soundscapes loop and breathe through organic piano tones, guitar strums, and harp plucks, drowning in a generous sweep of synthetic strings, sampled noise, and dripping effects. Centered around the theme of passing time (as the album’s title suggests), the music hypnotizes the listener, bringing him a little closer into the notion of now, and then subsides, letting him simply float among the sounds of rewinding moments. Be still… and feel that… that’s right…

The digital version of this release contains two more tracks, “Egostatsy” and“Hidden Sun”. Oh, and in case this review was not sufficient in piquing your interest, it is worth mentioning that Simon Scott appears on the album, collaborating with Errante on a track, “Made To Give”. Highly recommended for fans of Marsen Jules, Deaf Center, Rudi Arapahoe, and Rafael Anton Irisarri.

Dustin O'Halloran - Lumiere

2011-02-27T04:24:00.000-08:00

Genre: Neo Classical

Label: Fat Cat

Cinematic, you see, is an adjective that lends itself to O'Halloran's mode - even when divorced from the big screen - and it's a manner he's keen to flesh out having acquired the services of an assembly that includes the likes of Adam Wiltzie, mixer Jóhann Jóhannsson and sometime Grizzly Bear, Max Richter and Owen Pallet collaborators ACME Ensemble.

Lumiere, however, is no self-congratulating indulgence: from the very earliest strains of A Great Divide - a six-minute smoulder in which delicate piano flourishes contrast against ethereal drones and the most mournful of strings - there is an air of patience abound, an understanding that high order composition speaks for itself, and that the rich, layered qualities of ensemble neo-classicism are not mutually exclusive with O'Halloran's established less-is-more philosophy.

Opus 44, indeed, takes up the strand in solo fashion; O'Halloran, his touch light on the ivory keys, embarks on a gentle cascade that bears timeless qualities despite its brief stay.

But it is compositions like We Move Lightly that more fully encapsulate Lumiere's beauty. It is, in essence, a rather simple, swift and repeated piano melody, but one that resonates immeasurably further with the presence of the subtlest of string swells; a texture that replaces the measured silence of the soloist.

Similar interplay lends warmth to Quartet No 2, a movement whose minor key might otherwise court detachedness, while Fragile No 4 crescendos elegantly from youthful simplicity to the sound of world-weary grace. Each track seems to yearn to score a scene not as yet willed into existence.

Which is not to suggest that O'Halloran is simply playing John Barry to make-believe movies: there is exquisite technicality beneath the hood, with the album's axis pairing - Opus 43 and Quintette No 1 - indicating a willingness to introduce new patterns and sub-themes well after the establishment of initial melodies strong enough to see out the longest of passages. Such tinkering is tempered - no Gonzales-style missiles from leftfield here - but sufficiently pronounced as to prevent wholesale shifts into ambient mood music.

Still, such gorgeous-if-melancholic chamber music does not lend itself particularly well to out-of-sync listening, and one is not recommended to just dip into Lumiere: bereft of an implicit aural narrative, a number of the album's constituent parts lose identity. Snow And Light, for instance, becomes uneventful background music rather than the serene conclusion to a cohesive whole. Such gripes, though, matter not for O'Halloran, who in Lumiere has surely fashioned a classic of the genre and the finest of testaments to his considerable talents.

The North Sea - Never Stop It

2011-02-26T10:11:00.000-08:00

Genre: Drone, Experimental

Label: Hooker Vision

Sold Out

Brad Rose's output as The North Sea launches at quite a prolific pace. Whether a cassette of his will contain calm transmissions or piercing walls of feedback, it's somewhat difficult to infer what a release will sound like without the aid of an audio sample. Rest assured, though, that Rose's latest tape on the Georgia imprint Hooker Vision would be of the latter persuasion. Side A's "Destroy Her Blue Eyes" manages to keep a 20-minute manipulation of a single tone engrossing throughout; at times, it peaks at a shrill frequency and at others, it rumbles like a seismic abuse.

On the flip side, "Quiet Underneath," Rose's titles really seem to disconcert the listener, because it resembles death-- not the band, I'm just referring to dying; slowly being crushed by the largest boulder conceivable, and screaming for a hero that will never arrive. Physically, it's an awful experience-- but aurally, the saturation is pure ecstasy. Easily, it stands as Never Stop It's most climactic passage, and piques my interest to the point where I feel puzzled as to why I don't own more of Brad Rose's material. Though not as demanding as your average HNW recording, the uncompromising aura brings just as much unease to the senses.

Balago - Extractes D’un Diari

2011-02-26T09:57:00.000-08:00

Down

Genre: Ambient, Experimental

Label: Foehn Records

Myspace

If we look up a concept like “urban melancholy” in the dictionary, we probably won’t find what we are looking for. In reality, there’s no likely definition or category in which to place it, but everyone more or less knows what we’re talking about when we say that. There are artists, groups, composers, and producers who appear to have been born expressly to give voice, image, and sound to this idea.Burial, Fennezs after “Endless Summer”, the more ambient Brian Eno, Stars Of The Lid, and a long list of figures capture this explosion of intimate, interiorised emotion in their creations—almost in slow motion, unfocused—and they manage to integrate in into the context of a big city and all of the sentimental, personal issues characterised there. They have the gift of creating images, sensations, and moments of loneliness, tiredness, uncertainty, and sadness in the context of the immensity of granite and asphalt; they, and some others, are the real creators of the soundtrack of the present day, the ones who best know how to put sound and audio to our time.

The Catalan band Balago belongs, without a shadow of a doubt, to this line of solitary names—curiously all influences recognised by the band’s leader, David Crespo—who strike out on their own and, without even trying to, put music to interminable bus rides down long avenues, tense, uneasy walks down dark streets, sunrises seen through the front window of a taxi, required stops at 24-hour petrol stations or convenience stores, or angry bouts of late-night jogging. Contrary to what logic tells us, for getting powerful, danceable hits to increase your effort and motivation, few experiences this year can equal that of going out to burn shoe rubber on a dark night with “Extractes d’un Diari” on your iPod. Let’s mix bubbling endorphins, cold, knackered pedestrians on their way home from work, an acceptable rhythm per kilometre, and the modest ambient symphony suggested by this group from La Garriga in their comeback, and we will get one of those moments to keep in your musical memory, like the first time that you heard “Untrue” on the way home after an infernal working day, or the first time that you thought to put the soundtrack to “Solaris” by Cliff Martinez on to isolate yourself from the surrounding drunken hubbub of an underground car on any given Friday night.

In “Extractes d’un Diari”, Balago recover the support of some beats, inject more melodic weight into the songs, play more emphatically with synthesisers, and end up transmitting more life, body, and muscle to their discourse. And all of this without leaving that circle of ambient-soundtrack where they are so at home, ever since the best passages of “El Segon Pis”, a second album whose wake is taken up again here, insisting on the idea of establishing a linear plot from flashes and sparks lasting one to two minutes, totally contrary to the long tracks on “D’Aquii”. It doesn’t seek to be one, nor is it in reality, but in a sense the album works as a summary and compendium of the sound personality of David Crespo over the course of a decade. The meticulous mastery of drone and the ambient of “D’Aquii”, the capacity for emotive condensation of “El Segon Pis”, the intelligent use of melodies of “erm”, and the cinematographic, evocative, visual ambition—seemingly satisfied, by the way—of his soundtracks for films and plays. There are also some new things added to the mix: cosmic flirtations in some fragments, without stridency, but with a great deal of intention and a good nose for sound; the surprising rhythmic charge of some songs; or occasional dabbling in psychedelics give his formula colour and new possibilities, inviting one to think very well of the group’s future.

If someone had asked me a few months ago how I thought that Balago would sound in 2010, I couldn’t have come up with a better explanation than this album. And this is something that has happened, personally, with each one of the four albums that make up the band’s career. “Extractes d’un Diari” is ambient that is exciting, alive, moving, and relatively easy, accessible, just what we were asking for or what we needed at this exact moment. The (near) achievement of a sound ideal that continues to stand entirely alone within the context of Spanish music, and which in a fair world would have to have a British, American, or German passport in order to receive the international recognition and applause that it really deserves. A blessed anomaly

Úrsula - Hasta Que La Soledad Nos Separe

2011-02-20T04:40:00.000-08:00

Genre: Ambient
Label: Foehn Records

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Úrsula has managed to move finely between neoclassicism, ambient, minimalism and, enclosed, certain contemporary reminiscences. They have made a simple language which only object is to transport the public across a path replete with sensations in which their participation is going to be indispensable, establishing one dialog sutil and accurately between the musician and the listener. As one of their models, Górecki, Úrsula do not walk among complicated harmonys and have managed to absorb the essence of Bártok's Neoclassicism. Echoes are guessed to Terry Riley and Steve Reich, besides a distant inspiration in Cage, and have assumed perfectly Webern's sonorous economy at the time that they approach to the beginnings of Arvo Pärt. From the beginning they appreciate an extremely precise and imaginative use of the tremolo and the delay, among other effects, which are the base of the sound of the guitar, which constructs, without scarcely developments, clear and superposed textures. It´s here where more we perceive the influence of bands as The Sight Below, whose principal member - Rafael Anton Irisarri - has masterized the record.

Guillaume Gargaud - Lost Chords

2011-02-19T06:30:00.000-08:00

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Genre: Drone, Experimental

Label: Dead Pilot

French artist Guillaume Gargaud has in recent years been exploring experimental music through improvisation and audio/visual methods. 'Lost Chords' is his first release for Dead Pilot Records, following his first album “Le Lieu” in 2008 on Dirty Demos, and 'She' on Utech Records in 2009.

Here Gargaud acheives visceral noise with an Americana twist; contorted guitar twangs, dust bowl acoustic guitar plucks that might accompany a low budget indie film of travelling over the Mexican desert, rocky horizons in the distance. Similar to James Ferraro's, hazy Old English Spelling Bee release early last year - 'Last American Hero', but harsher in sound and significantly less restrained. These are a rough set of textures, worn sheets of chords, and at the same time beautiful medody.

Opening track Oeil Humide (the watery eye), and indeed the majority of the album flies between walls of noise, and other unheard-of noises from Gargaud's guitar. The density of the sound is almost overwhelming, thick and heavy. Seemingly erratic attacks at the guitar strings, somehow keep a coherency. Tracks 'Sortir' and 'Passerelle' fizz with pure electric energy, heavily treated through effects. Gargaud doesn't neglect any part of the guitar's range, from ground rumbling bass, to glowing single treble notes. Penultimate track 'Cesser' provides a respite for the listener, before ending on 'Rever de courier'; like being caught in a plane slipstream, the sun in our eyes.

Lost Chords is a glisteningly fierce piece, exciting and unpredictable. The thought that Gargaud may well have improvised large parts of this album makes for an all the more absorbing listen. A great kick start to the year for Dead Pilot Records, and a welcome introduction to Guillaume Gargaud if new to his work. I'd urge you to pick up this album now, you won't regret it.

Svarte Greiner - Twin

2011-02-12T05:40:00.000-08:00

Part 1 / Part 2

Genre: Drone, Ambient, Experimental
Label: Type

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The LP version of new Deaf Center album includes a bonus CD of new interpretations of the album from Erik Skodvin's Svarte Greiner project called Twin.

Benoît Pioulard - Valley

2011-02-06T08:16:00.000-08:00

Genre: Ambient, Drone, Folk Gaze
Label: Self Edited

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Gareth Davis And Machinefabriek - Grower

2011-02-05T17:26:00.000-08:00

Not the original cover art

Genre: Ambient, Experimental, Electronic
Label: Sonic Pieces