It makes no difference if a release is coming from a major, or a small independent label, in some cases they all save what they consider as their best releases for the winter holiday season. In the case of these new albums by Yann Tiersen and Matthew Cooper (aka Eluvium) their respective labels have certainly […]
Robert Ashley | Automatic WritingLovely Music (LP/DL) Lovely Music is finally presenting a reissue of Robert Ashley’s classic 1979 album Automatic Writing. A 45 minute-long piece exploring the subtlety of unintended vocal materials and a precursor of ambient music. Ashley was an American composer known for his efforts in the field of experimental music, including the use […]
mpala garoo | Vaya AdelanteShimmering Mood Records (CD/DL) Dark aural movements comprise Vaya Adelante by mpala garoo. Compliments a la Shimmering Moods Records, the trio delivers an album whose titular meaning is drawn from a letter of William S. Burroughs to Ginsberg. Apparently, the beats were facing the identity crashing effects of mortality and Ayahuasca. […]
loscil | lifelikeFrond (CD/DL) Full of tenderly keyed minimalist melodies, the softly phrased tracks that fill Lifelike by Loscil explore flora, fauna, humanity and earthen structures. The similes evoke various contemplations, primarily of material subjects. From the onset, sweeping synths wash out understated electronic rhythms. There’s just enough beat to hinge the ambiences with subdued […]
Laurisilva by Laura Agnusdei and Mare di Dirac’s Ophite Diagram were both recently released. This pair of Italo acoustic-electronic releases offer strategic sound art which incorporates wind instruments, mixed with electronic processing. Agnusdei collaborates with several contributing artists who play traditional instruments. Mare di Dirac employs the use of handmade instruments. While the theme of […]
Reza Solatipour The GateEighth Tower Records (CD/CS/DL) Italy’s Raffaele Pezzella has slowly and methodically been making a name for himself in the experimental world. His labels Unexplained Sounds and its off-shoot, the more ambient focused Eighth Tower, have been issuing experimental fringe music, nearing cult like status in avant circles. Pezzella in recent years has […]
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 […]
Drowse & Amulets | Split | Whited Sepulchre Records (CS/DL) These two Portland artists share more than just a city they live in. Randall Taylor, probably better known as AMULETS has already been featured on these pages with his quite exquisite sonic excursions of tape loops and ambient guitar. Nothing much changes in that respect […]
Rites of Fall | Towards the Blackest SkiesLeidforschung (LP/DL) The latest from Warsaw-based solo project Rites of Fall is Towards the Blackest Skies, and its both harmonic and edgy in its dark passages and little nuances brought by guest performers: Jan Wierzbicki (double bass) on the opener Afterflesh. Elsewhere on the record you can also […]
At the very top of the month we offered a Autumn kickstarter with a piece outlining some of the more interesting releases expected this time of year. As we close the calendar for November, this is meant to be a short, sweeping follow-up to keep you in tune with some we missed, and five just […]
Rafael Toral | Constellation In Still TimeRoom40 (CD/DL) In nearly seventy-three minutes this new Constellation In Still Time by Rafael Toral openly unravels, paced like a prolonged short story (AER 7 G was originally written in 1992). With an ambient aura Toral rolls out melodic wave tones that sound like sonic strings and chime-like vibes […]
leastupperbound | domestic tapes Vol.IISecret Press (CD/CS/DL) domestic tapes Vol.II by leastupperbound is now released ten years aged and remastered with an extra bonus track! Saleverio Rosi teams up with Czechian imprint Secret Press to bring forth the cool ambient stuff once delivered by Laverna and Discreetrecords. These tapes, arranged numerically simply one through seven […]
Hosoo | MistLine (DL) Mist (유백색 안개) is a series of improvisations (as pages) made up of a combination of multiple instruments, samples and processes by South Korean duo Hosoo (Hohyun Baek and Woongsoo Byun). Their name is derived from 호수 which can mean both ‘lake’ and ‘room number’ in their tongue. This has elements […]
A duo of November releases show the strong and distinct presence by two interesting women who bring something new to the international experimental music circuit. The contributions herein addressed a diverse range from white-noise to trance-ambient and favor longer form tracks. Their spectrum runs from linear to repetitious in noteworthy serenity; electronic and highly processed […]
Jen Kutler Disembodied Eyevee (LP/DL) Jen Kutler is a multidisciplinary artist and performer from upstate New York. She uses sounds and objects that are sexual or feminine in nature for sound sources and then modifies and transforms these sounds using outside means of electronics. For her past works she has used a modified dildo fashioned […]
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 […]
Carlo Giustini | CustodiLontano/Rohs Records (CS/LP/DL) Trust me, I’m doing you a solid by telling you about this tape. The transgressively sublime signature of Carlo Giustini on Custodi is one for the ages. And while I often write about records I like, this one is that much more special. The warm drone is aided and […]
OCA | AgingMétron Records (CS/DL) Aging is the latest from Berlin-based producer duo OCA (Yo van Lenz and Florian T M Zeisig). This one is for ambient lovers who like their sounds gentle, mystical, bright, and melodic. It goes down real smooth. Oh, it’s nothing like smooth jazz or even new age, but veering into […]
Andrew Pekler | Sounds From Phantom IslandsFaitiche Records (LP/DL) Contemporary exotica, yet another newly created term so that certain music could be stuck under a neatly fitted category. Supposedly, that is where Sounds From Phantom Islands, the new Andrew Pekler album should be categorized. Ok, maybe. Actually, if anybody could be named as a progenitor of […]
Tomasz Bednarczyk | Fall Into the WaterSomewhere Nowhere (CS/DL) Perfect for cassette, the four track Korg Minliogue oriented Fall Into the Water by Tomasz Bednarczyk delivers waves giving a sense of sonic swimming. The artwork by Olga Loy communicates clearly a self-referential invitation. This nominally composited water music from Somewhere Nowhere / 2ystudio is lush and […]
Sofie Birch | Island AlchemyConstellation Tatsu (CS/DL) Copenhagen’s Sofie Birch is just releasing Island Alchemy – a work of contemplation, and readiness. A euphonic spin incorporating striations of ambient washes, and unique timbral modulation for the deepest of listeners. Myg gently unfolds and overlaps upon itself, as if simmering after combustible steam has been released, […]
Selvedge | Don’t Sweat Infinity (Wormhole)Jack Hyde | Lowlands (Whitelabrecs)Danny Scott Lane | Memory Record (Shimmering Moods) Falling as briskly as the dried multicolored leaves, three ambient records for mid November have arrived, and they are each intricate and lofty in their own right. These each are solo works (US + UK) and appear on […]
Tim Walters | Neither Here Nor ThereVauxflores Industrial (CD) Composed “on the bus” the latest from artist/composer Tim Walters, Neither Here Nor There, mastered here by the incredibly talented Thomas Dimuzio. Though this may be conceptually between places, it feels as though it has arrived, even from the very beginning of The Philadelphia Chromosome. Sure, […]
Two new releases just out from Stuttgart’s Cosmic Winnetou who have amassed a nice catalogue in the past seven years, however this is my intro to their world. These two are only reference points to what you might find while perusing their catalogue, and are quietly different, from Navel and Günter Schlienz respectively. Navel is […]
Here are two space-oriented experimental electro-ambient albums released in October. One follows in November. While each graft rhythmic beats and melodic undulations, the three conceptualize space very differently. Nonlin by Steve Hauschildt (released October 25) conveys a vacuum-effect at odds with nature’s patterned regenerations. Released October 13th, Collecting Space by QST (Frans de Waard) presents […]
Leo Okagawa | Something VeiledUnfathomless (CD/DL) This is a nice introduction to the world of Japanese sound artist Leo Okagawa with regards to Unfathomless. Something Veiled was recorded mostly within a set of caves around Fukushima, made from limestone. As such it’s got this watery cavernous feel, but given the site one cannot divorce it […]
Aidan Baker | The Forever Tapes Broken Spine Productions (CS/DL) Guitarist and composer Aidan Baker has one of those discographies that make you feel tired when you examine the sheer girth of it. Known primarily for his work with ambient doom duo Nadja, Baker has traversed just about every cranny of the experimental and ambient […]
AUME | The Tremblings of the AtmosphereSilent (DL) After interviewing AUME about a year ago I got an insider perspective on what they do and how they reach out for their vision. The duo of Scot Jenerik and Aleph Omega have a signature drone that will easily permeate any listening space, leaving a weightless foggy […]
The below recordings are some recent surprises that afforded more than a first run-thru, which is fairly typical when engaged with as much sound as we are these days – and I am not complaining! Though through some rhyme, reason or rhythm these particular selections made it back into the cycle, so I thought to […]
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 […]
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