Catch-all for those things that don’t fit comfortably elsewhere, but are still welcome here.
Costis Drygianakis | The ApproachHxoi Kato Apo to Spiti (CD/DL) I read the accompanying text simultaneously to listening through The Approach by Costis Drygianakis. I can’t recommend experiencing this contemporary orchestra any other way. Created from January 2018 through January 2019, now presented in a limited pressing of 300 copies. The two-track (each over a […]
Still und Dunkel | AbandonedHallow Ground (LP/CD/DL) From the opening seconds of searing harsh noise rasp like a contact mic applied to a sheet of metal unto cat-claw-on-a-chalkboard effect, through electronic swells and resting in a spell of quick-clicking, Abandoned (English, ‘quiet and dark’) by Still und Dunkel rips through dynamic (d)evolutionary spaces. I should […]
Gabriele Mitelli | The World Behind the SkinWeInsist! Records (CD/DL) The release contains two poetic prose premises (written by Nicola Di Croce and Rob Mazurek) however, the four track album The World Behind the Skin by Gabriele Mitelli remains shrouded in suspense, harsh-romanticism, even with hints of passive-aggression. The self-aware sonic abstractions take on a […]
When | Jogging Housedauw (Cassette/DL) Although the limited and special edition packages are sold out, cassettes of Jogging House‘s When are available after a slight manufacturing mishap. Femke Strijbol’s graphic design for the album is a fine fit for the soothing and big-bass infused electro-ambient music. Dauw, a Ghent-based tape label, seeks to ‘create unique […]
Aki Onda & Paul Clipson | Make Visible The Ghosts audioMER. (LP) *TAKATAKATAKAKTAKATAKA* Shadow rakes across the pavement starts in medias res, unexpectedly, without any introduction and we are violently thrown into a hectic sonic situation where pulsing sounds, and deep dark drones manifest their presence in a sinister way. We are immediately acquainted with […]
Telefon Tel Aviv | Dreams Are Not EnoughGhostly International (DL/LP/CD) ‘Defiantly spaced-out post-wave…’ ‘Gravelly loops/samples.’ ‘Hydra; downtempo aesthetic.’ ‘Velvety and ghastly vox…’ etc. are some of my notes in reflection from listening to Dreams Are Not Enough. Even prior to the full-length release, the leader single track a younger version of myself has 22K+ streams […]
Lucas Norer | Dispositionself-released (BK/USB/DL) This latest recording from Austrian a/v artist Lucas Norer, Disposition, is a creative salute to the largest open-air instrument in the world: the Heroes’ organ (built in 1931) in Kufstein Fortress, Austria. Washes of hiss and synthetic ambient at the outset lead into splintered passages that are fairly chill. Orgelwind, […]
My Cat Is An Alien | Spiritual Noise__Vol.1 Antigravitational Records (LP+BK/DL) The return of prolific brother duo My Cat Is An Alien (Maurizio and Roberto Opalio), with two lengthy tracks making up their Spiritual Noise__Vol.1. Starting with Spiritual Apocalypse these outsiders bring the mysterious sound of effects and machines to new squeaky, howling silences. This […]
Alessandra Eramo is a Italian musician and vocal performer based in Germany. Originally from Basilicata, one of the most isolated and unreachable areas of continental southern Italy, and therefore still very authentic. She tells us a story of desertification and abandonment of this forgotten area and outlines with us an image of a place that […]
Michael Bentley | Archai The Foundry (CD/DL) The guiding light behind The Foundry, which was quite busy putting out a spectral range of quality recordings in the late 90s and early 00s, has returned. Michael Bentley‘s Archai, from the label runner himself is the imprint’s first since 2006 and is miles from leaving this re-emerging […]
Anemone Tube w/Jarl & Monocube The Hunter In The Snow: A Contemplation On Pieter Bruegel‘s Series Of The Seasons The Epicurean / Aufabwegen (CD/DL) SPLIT VISIONS: I’m always intrigued when artists are inspired by or in some way take their interpretation of a concept as disparate as art from another realm altogether. Here we have […]
Russell Mills + Mike Fearon | Still Moves|Three Slow Fuse Sound (BK+2xCD Set/DL) There are six volumes in the Still Moves series from Russell Mills + Mike Fearon, each complete with a limited edition full color and fully illustrated hardback book in addition to each enclosing a set of two CDs (half have been released, the […]
Angharad Davies / Rie Nakajima / Alice Purton | Dethick Another Timbre (CD/DL) An interesting trio combining a variety of instrumental practices meet in an old church in Dethick (Derbyshire) and develop ten works in two days, and this is the result. On the latest, Dethick by Welsh improvisational violinist Angharad Davies, Japanese installation/electronic artist […]
Peter Orins | Happened By Accident Circum Disc / Tour de Bras (CD/DL) The bellow of the drums opens like a ritual on Peter Orins‘ Happened By Accident. The recording, based solely on percussive elements, is broken into seven parts, the first six Happened By Accident Part 1-6. Orins utilizes layers of lengthy drone below […]
Recent Arts | Skin Non Standard Productions (LP/DL) Skin is the latest effort, audiovisual concert of video projections and experimental electronic music, from Recent Arts which is the duo of Chilean visual artist Valentina Berthelon and German musician Tobias Freund — here featuring Barbie Williams on vocals. It’s a steamy setting that slithers slowly on […]
Teho Teardo | Grief is the Thing with Feathers Specula Records (LP/CD/DL) “To me it sounds like the scratch of my pen on a page. Like the pitter patter scrape of bone-on-wood, an imaginary crow walking across a real stage. It is bird-like. It is children talking in their sleep. Teho’s music doesn’t sound like […]
This month, as Spring starts to slowly set, and my garden can use a re-tilling to kickstart the season, these half dozen recordings remind me of an aura of renewal, and they each bring with them of stirring of challenging the senses. These diverse takes on contemporary composition, et al, come from several foreign places […]
Exseind | Exseind Orion Network (Floppy Disk/DL) From Chile comes Exseind, the fusion of audio visual experiences between Lars Graugaard, Cristian Gallardo and Ce Pams. It’s a modernized psychedelic jazz engaging in the improvisation style they dub EXperiencia SEnsorial INterDisciplinaria. The five tracks here are a sneaky balance of so many things, and my attempt […]
IIVII | Obsidian EP Consouling Sounds (CD/DL) Josh Graham is IIVII and his latest effort is this elegant Obsidian EP which deconstructs the behind-the-scenes documentary, Mother! The Downward Spiral, offering a deeply atmospheric take on a cinematic soundtrack. From the pensive opening of Octagone the listener will be quickly lost in the labyrinth of stylish […]
Lorem | Adversial FeelingsUndisclosed Recipient / Krisis Publishing (BK/SD) There is something really quite unpleasant about ‘Adversial Feelings’, an album that invokes a feeling of digital sickness, a fashionable but misguided vapour-wave hell. Lorem has concocted the sonic equivalent of watching The Lawnmower Man on an endless loop, replete with the same fascinating but appallingly […]
Yann Novak | Scalar Fields Room40 (DL) Scalar Fields, available on March 8th is the latest from LA-based sound artist Yann Novak which consists of two 20-minute long pieces begun in 2013 as an exploration of extrapolating video output at its barest bones. As he explains: “I wanted to explore slowing down video to the […]
Corey Fuller | Break12K (LP/CD/DL) Corey Fuller has been a mainstay on the 12k label for a number of years, as one half of Illuha. Those albums explored a loose, free-flowing ambience and the duo’s live performances that I’ve seen owed a lot to improvisation. On this solo album, Fuller has created a meticulously crafted […]
Gintas K | M GK Rec (CD/DL) In following Gintas K‘s career trajectory over a decade plus I’ve noticed a keen focus on the conceptual bent of his approach, on M he’s in top form, delivering a slightly harder, more granulated sound overall. For all intense purposes, there are no overdubs here, and the record […]
Ian Fleming | Snowblind Curated Doom (DL) Munich-based Irish composer Ian Fleming‘s debut EP Snowblind has just been launched by Curated Doom with five exquisite ambient pieces, running just under a half hour. Opening with A desolate pinprick in a world of white, the listener is immediately drawn into a world of drone, crackle and […]
Dunning & Underwood | The Blow – Volume 5 Front & Follow (CS/DL) Dunning & Underwood‘s wildly interesting addition to The Blow series utilizes the Mammoth Beat Organ, that grinds and delivers a circus like feel as things start to take shape on Song for Chimney Stacks. Designed as “a modular, mechanical music contraption designed […]
Drekka | No Tracks In The Snow Dais Records (LP/DL) No Tracks In The Snow is Drekka, or Bloomington-based musician Mkl Anderson‘s compilation of “ritual ambient industrial” early works recorded between 1996-2002. This collection will be out on black as well as a super rare marble wax in case you had a preference. Since this […]
Cosey Fanni Tutti | Tutti Conspiracy International (LP/CD/DL) “My life is my art, my art is my life” In her solo follow-up to 1982’s Time to Tell is the latest from Cosey Fanni Tutti (Throbbing Gristle, COUM Transmissions, Chris & Cosey, etc.), Tutti. Eight tracks, grounded at first on the title track by a signature […]
Frame | The Journey Glacial Movements (CD/DL) Frame (Eugenio Vatta/Andrea Benedetti) deliver an all encompassing spacial record, a deep ambient dive with a lunar glow. The two have been creating electronic landscapes as far back as the early 90’s. The concept on The Journey has to do with the planets in our universe – and […]
Slumberland | Sea, sea, sea, drifter / See, see, see, drifter Consouling Sounds (LP/CD/DL) Belgian sound artist Jochem Baelus is Slumberland and Sea, sea, sea, drifter / See, see, see, drifter is the follow-up to 2014’s self-titled debut (on Dutch imprint Zesde Kolonne). This record wastes no time to move right from the point. Of […]
toneshift.wordpress.com 