Åyusp | Åyuspself-released (CD) The Sheffield (UK) duo isn’t shy about their shared kosmische influence. They (Graham McElearney and Paul Mills) have put together a cosmic joy-ride of uniquely blended stylings with the self-titled album, Åyusp [“Oy-usp”]. An overall concept isn’t readily exoteric. However, the October 7th release is made-up of five heady tracks which cumulatively […]
Just as the temperatures begin to cool some, the ears begin to warm to what’s coming next. Four phenomenal experimental electronic albums from around the globe all release on Friday October 25th, 2019, oh – that’s today! Giulio Aldinucci | No Eye Has an Equal99 Chants (CS/DL) No Eye Has an Equal by Giolio […]
Dans les arbres | VolatilSOFA (CD/DL) Volatile may refer to this single track album’s recording situation – live, a first for Dans les arbres. The prolifically touring quartet offers a recording set of fifty three minutes and change. Though the structured improv is airy, spacious and largely sparse, there isn’t a dull moment. Right away […]
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 […]
Seth Nehil | Skew / FlumeV A N I L L A (CD/DL) This release comprises two EPs: Skew (2014) and Flume (2017) from multimedia artist Seth Nehil. Having worked with Nehil over the years (as presented, as observer, as collaborator) I’ve realized that what really makes him stand-out as a singular artist is his […]
Andrey Kiritchenko | OvertSpekk (CD/DL) Alright, so I am breaking one of my own rules here, though with good reason. This album was released back in 2017 but I’ve not had it in my hands and ears until recently, so I wanted to pontificate a little, so please indulge me as this is one of […]
Adrian Corker | Music for Lock GroovesSN Variations (LP/DL) Mechanical arrangement met with organic live instrumentation casts a hazy blur of cognitive dissonance about Adrian Corker’s latest, ‘Music for Lock Grooves.’ There is, in the perfectly crafted mix, a presence of both human chaotic as well as machine chaotic. What the under-spelled atmospheres grant as […]
E Millar | no instrument machine, airMystery & Wonder Records (CD/DL) A groaning din–heavy bass undulating tone-field sets the mood for what ensues as a horrific animus industrialite in-dwelling that is Montreal-based Elizabeth Millar’s no instrument machine, air. Within seconds of its twenty-two minutes the listener must confront how to approach what they are experiencing. […]
David Rosenboom | Brainwave Music Black Truffle (LP) Derived from his 1970’s experiments in biofeedback, Brainwave Music is both an academic exploration of a compositional system, and somewhat of a novelty. The last few years has seen a renewed interest in biofeedback and its utility in synthesis, so it is perhaps fitting that Black Truffle have […]
Torba | Musica Convenzionale Edizioni Aaltra (CD) Mauro Diciocia is Torba, and Musica Convenzionale is his eighth or ninth solo recording (but his first official CD release), give or take some collaborations along the way. It is also my personal introduction to the Italian sound-collagist’s work. Here he has produced a singular thirty-nine minute track […]
Satoko Fujii | Stone Libra Records (CD) Celebrating her sixtieth birthday, Japanese pianist/composer Satoko Fujii releases her latest, Stone. She presents fifteen mostly short pieces here with a ton of atmosphere and named for the elements and natural phenomena. Her playing is sparse and the setting is quite ambient. The notes slightly tickle ones perception […]
Pierre Bastien | Tinkle Twang ‘n Tootle Marionette (LP/DL) French composer Pierre Bastien has been recording since the late 80’s, solo as well as in ensembles and other collaborations. I’ve only been exposed his his work scantly over the years, and listening to this I wonder why I haven’t dug in much deeper. His sound […]
Rod Modell | Captagon Tresor (CD/LP) With Captagon, Rod Modell offers up some more of the minimal, dub-inflected techno for which he is known. Fans of his prior work will no doubt recognise the mode in which he’s working – a faintly gloomy electro-work-out mushed together with a liberal coating of compression, such is the […]
Ehsan Banitaba | In Parallel Focused Silence (CD/DL) In an attempt to make spiritual electronic music Iranian composer Ehsan Banitaba brings his own spin to the genre on In Parallel. The recording is broken into two tracks that run just about a half-hour in length. Banitaba invites the listener to question “if we are in […]
Rosalind Hall | Drift Cassauna/IMPREC (CS/DL) Australian musician and composer Rosalind Hall‘s newest tape is called Drift (mastered by Alan F Jones/Laminal Audio) including three microtonal compositions of sax reverberations, synths and field recordings. On Burden (part of the Avant Whatever festival in Melbourne, 2016) she offers a submerged atmosphere. It is a gray space, […]
Todas Las Anteriores | Mis ojos arden en el espacio ciego Pan y Rosas Discos (DL) Chicago-based netlabel Pan y Rosas Discos once again releases a really nice surprise from Todas Las Anteriores (Piaka Roela & Libertad Figueroa) described as a “Mexican ensemble of sound improvisation and experimentation with electronic media. A conversation between live […]
Gerald Fiebig | Gasworks Gruenrekorder (CD/DL) From what looks like an intensely researched recording by sound installation artist and composer Gerald Fiebig comes five live pieces (2010-16) relating to the former gasworks in Augsburg-Oberhausen (built in 1915 to turn coke coal into gas for the town) in collaboration with EMERGE and Christian Z. Müller. The […]
Anthony Burr + Charles Curtis | Chamber Music: Alvin Lucier & Morton FeldmanImportant (CD/DL) The pairing of Lucier and Feldman is a curious one. On the one hand, they operate within fairly different compositional ground, yet on the other, they each rely upon an ostensibly similar aesthetic, that of temporality. Ostensibly is the key word […]
Nathan Corder and Dylan Burchett | Hum-Colored Tendrils Flaming Pines (DL) Hum-Colored Tendrils is a composition for tea pot, water jugs, metal sheets, glass jars and fans recorded at the Center for Contemporary Music (Mills College) by the Bay Area duo Nathan Corder and Dylan Burchett. This is their first full album together, and is […]
Oyvind Torvund | The Exotica Album Hubro (LP/CD/DL) It may seem initially surprising that a record like ‘The Exotica Album’ is doing the rounds of experimental music websites, not least because it is not, by any conventional measure, the least bit experimental. This caveat aside, however, Oyvind Torvund has constructed a work that rests upon […]
Régis Renouard Larivière | Contrée Recollection/Editions Mego (LP/DL) A former teacher of electro-acoustic music at CFMI in Poitiers (1990-99) this is only Régis Renouard Larivière‘s second full-length recording, and his previous, Futaie/Tchernoziom garnered him the Ars Electronica Prize in 1996 and was released in 2000. The album, full of quizzical musique concrète abstractions, is dedicated […]
Ellicist | Point Defects Morr Music (LP/DL) Springs have sprung on the opener, Hennepin, and the duo Ellicist (Thomas Chousos & Florian Zimmer) is off to an eventful start on their latest Point Defects. Their murky, quirky sound combines elements of abstraction, noise, electronics and synthetic nature. There’s is a swampy universe where engines don’t […]
Maryanne Amacher | Petra Blank Forms Editions (LP/CD/DL) Maryanne Amacher (1938-2009) was a sound/installation artist known for her “psychoacoustic phenomena called auditory distortion products” where she coupled tones to create experiential situations. This recording of Petra (1991) was originally commissioned for the ICSM World Music Days and is the first time the late composer’s instrumental […]
Quest | Yesternights st.an.da. (CD/DL) Frans de Waard‘s long-running aka Quest has been consistently putting out quizzical electronics over the past few years, nearly one per annum. On Yesternights (edition of 100 on the Silentes sub-label) we are engaged with symphonic swelling synths that are like molecules of mist. The seven tracks open with the […]
Forest Management | Passageways (Whited Sepulchre Records) Deaf Center | Low Distance (Sonic Pieces) Evelyn Glennie & Roly Porter | One Day Band (Trestle Records) Li Yilei | 0:00 (Ferric:Flux) This short lot brings about some of the most current nuances in contemporary electronic music, on the ambient side of things. It’s sometimes hard to […]
Annabelle Playe | Geyser DAC Records (12″/DL) Geyser is from French multidisciplinary sound artist Annabelle Playe and is her third full-length effort — it’s one to keep an ear out for. It offers something solitary, about infinitesimal fragments slowly expanding toward the far corners of the horizonline. It’s a balance of soft and hard […]
These four new releases represent some distinctively innovative directions in electronic music at the moment. From delicate sound design to nu-dub to multi-layered and restrained techno oscillation, each with its own distinct take on the medium. Belief Defect | Remixed 01 [ Raster – 12″/DL ] Efdemin | New Atlantis [ Ostgut Ton – LP/CD/DL […]
Bionulor | Bionulor Oniron (CD/DL) Here we revisit the 2009 debut of Sebastian Banaszczyk (Bionulor) out on Oniron, the artist’s own imprint, which has been remastered and extended with two additional tracks (both previously released on other compilations). This is described as “100% sound recycling” and was originally recorded between 2006-09. We also recently […]
Jeremy Sharma | Mangkhut or John Cage Blues Self-Released (DL) Singaporean artist Jeremy Sharma opted to create a surreal album in a Hong Kong Hotel during typhoon Mangkhut (w/additional recordings from trips to Kuala Lumpur and Vietnam). This teeters between field recordings, old records (or live performance?) and electronic vibes (as in the instrument, not […]
dj. flugvél og geimskip | Our Atlantis Geertruida Records (LP/DL) What has been described as “electronic horror music from outer space” is Icelandic musician dj. flugvél og geimskip‘s work, and she’s (Steinunn Eldflaug Harðardóttir) just getting warmed up! Oh, if you don’t believe me, you can click here for a related game of loops […]
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