Mirroring - Foreign Body

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Genre: Drone, Ambient, Folk

Label: Kranky

Grouper and Tiny Vipers make an alliance to do one of the most beautifull records of this year. Covering all the songs with layers of melancholy and gliding vocal textures they have created  six delicious compositions plenty of magical sensations. 

Alexander Turnquist - Hallway of Mirrors

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Genre: Folk, Experimental

Label: VHF records

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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.

James Blackshaw - Holly Ep

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Genre: Experimental, Folk
Label: Important

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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.

Motohiro Nakashima - We Hum On The Way Home

Genre: Neo Classical, Ambient, Folk
Label: Schole

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We Hum On The way Home is a delightful mix of pastoral sounding acoustic neo classic lovelyness. There's guitars, pianos, trombones, violins, cellos and percussion all hanging around together making a beautiful mix of loveliness. It's well constructed thought out instrumental music which is really emotive and moving. I thought this was gonna be more electronic as I'm sure some of the earlier releases by him I'd heard were electronic. My memory is shocking... I really can't remember. Anyhoo this is lush. The acoustic guitar and trombone work really well together like they're related (not like their married though as they wouldn't get on at all...). It's a thoroughly charming and delightful listen and I'd heartily recommend it to anyone who wants to have a really enjoyable 56 minutes of their life.

Alexander Turnquist - As the Twilight Crane Dreams in Color

Genre: Folk, Americana, Psychedelic
Label: VHF

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Second full length from NY based guitarist Turnquist, who defies expectations with a set of hypnotic epics that owe more to classic minimalism than current notions of solo guitar. Forgoing most of the extended techniques of his debut, Turnquist concentrates on laying down a thick blanket of 12 string that sets up persistent loop-like patterns in the music. Simple and lovely strings, piano, and percussion accompaniment provide the melody, carrying most of the movement in the pieces. The palette of sounds and styles here is used with extraordinary control and restraint - the orchestrations are as reductionist as possible, with no cringe-inducing "string drama" or unnecessary virtuosity. The almost monomaniacal tremolo thrum of the guitar dominates the album, but there is a lengthy ambient breakdown that occurs midway through the 18 minute "The REM Cycle - Dream Phase" that is a thing of elliptical and drifting beauty. "As The Twilight Crane" is a bold statement even in the context of the frequent micro-parsing of styles in the sub-underground - there's really not much else out there like it.

Kiila - Tuota Tuota

Genre: Folk, Psychedelic, Experimental
Label: Fonal

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Tuota tuota is the third full-length album by Kiila. Its songs were born of peaceful, focused work and intense rehearsals with friends, interspersed with sleep and mealtimes. The album features an eight-strong core line-up but, as always, the composition of the group varies effortlessly according to need. At this table, there is room for everyone.

As musical form, songs have always been important to Kiila, and consequently Tuota tuota develops around its songs. On the other hand, the album consists of many details: the sound is full, the web of instruments more varied and carefully orchestrated than before. It is unnecessary to separate the electronic from the non-electronic components. Different traditions of folk and pop music intermingle with electronic music and improvisation, tones and sound itself. This way, the album also poses questions about songs and songwriting.

The motifs in the songs are not easy to render in English, but one can at least attempt to translate some of them: master of the house, elk antlers, tree bark, sound of rapids, fog, letters, calves, fingers. The list, however, doesn’t make the songs easier to understand in a foreign language. The words sound archaic, anachronistic or timeless, the language of the myth. But can they be something else, too? And how transparent do we want the myth to be? At the risk of sounding dull, I suggest that the songs do speak to their age, our age, the nature of knowledge and work, the fluctuations of inspiration and threat. Unfortunately, it is mostly only the Finnish-speaking listeners who will be able to assess the validity of this idea.

The name of the album, Tuota tuota, translates roughly as “well, well” and signifies a thinking pause, a moment of contemplation. The language alone is likely to give pause to an English-speaking listener, but I hope the idea will convey itself in more ways than just that. And a pause for thinking is, of course, never a waste of time.

Boduf Songs - There Is Something Hanging Above You Ep

Genre: Folk, Slowcore
Label: Under The Spire Recordings
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Litle 3"Cdr with handmade and handnumbered packaged. It's a edition of 100 copies and comes with a wonderful teenie weenie tiny booklet. The first track is a brooding soundscape that makes way for the creepy folk/ drone of 'Deathbed Triumphs of Eminent Lackwits'. 'Down Among The Mashers Pt. II' is a sad piano track, quite a touching little piece actually. It prompted a conversation between Brett and Imeabout when Dumbo gets taken away from his mother. It's so not fair. Bloody good stuff.

Hanne Hukkelberg - Blood From A Stone

Genre:Folk, Pop, Jazz
Label: Netwerk Records
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BLOOD FROM A STONE is the third album for the Norwegian artist best known for her imaginative use of found sounds and eclectic array of instrumentation. While Hukkelberg spent her formative years playing in various metal bands, the singer admits she lingered over other influences for this collection, most notably post punkers like Sonic Youth, Cocteau Twins, Pixies, Einstuerzende Neubauten and P.J. Harvey. You can also hear a bit of Siouxsie through the glass darkly.

Although it's immediately apparent that this album rocks more than Hukkelberg's previous releases (Little Things [2005] and Rykestrasse 68 [2007]), the results are still undeniably idiosyncratic. The bulk of her vocals are first takes, and her lyrics are more direct and less introverted than on previous albums. Musically, the songs continue Hukkelberg's penchant for combining traditional and unusual instrumentation to form a soundscape. Though a self-described rock album, BLOOD FROM A STONE manages to include field recordings of flagpoles, train doors, seagulls, clogs, rocks, kitchen utensils, freezers, stoves and a school desk - with no traditional drum kit to be found. All instruments were tuned by ear; digital tuners were banned from the studio.

While was recorded in Hukkelberg's regular studio in Oslo, the songs themselves were written during the seven months she spent living in a tiny coastal village on the Norwegian island of Senja, 300 kilometres north of the Polar Circle. This starkly contrasts with a similar period of time spent ensconced in Berlin while writing her previous album. Hukkelberg explains: "In the north of Norway it is way more quiet. It has been interesting to experience composing in both a busy city and in a quiet village. I noticed it affected me in very different ways. I felt a need for composing more quiet songs in the noisy city, and more noisy music in the quiet village."

This record is co-produced by Hukkelberg and her long-term collaborator Kare Vestrheim. Several of her regular musicians appear on the album, including Henning Sandsdalen, Lena Nymark, Erland Dahlen and Kare Vestrheim, while other contributors are Bent Sæther (of Motorpsycho) Ivar Grydeland (Huntsville), Martin Langlie (Gate, Valkyrien Allstars), Mark Jowett (Nettwerk Cofounder), and the unusual rhythm section Hurra Torpedo (on freezers and stoves). Hukkelberg herself plays bass, guitar, drums, percussion, piano and various bric-a-brac.