Kajsa Lindgren | Everyone Is HereWarm Winters Ltd (DL/CD/CS) In the (not necessarily) experimental music ambit, a recent surge of political correctness in regard to gender equality has generated mixed results. If on the one hand a few interesting talents were indeed brought to light, and old pioneers were rescued from unmerited anonymity (Else Marie Pade just […]
Illachime Quartet | Soundtrack (for parties on the edge of the void)Solchi Sperimentali Discografici (CD) Illachime Quartet is one of those bands who, always being faithful to their experimental nature, never completely endorse a genre or style and tirelessly crawl through the underground, breathing new life into the creative musical life of southern Italy. Soundtrack […]
Gianfratti + Scarassatti + Yoshihide +Hartmann Psychogeography, An Improvisational Derive | Not Two Records (CD) Antonio Panda Gianfratti: Percussion, Drums Marco Scarassatti: Viola de Cocho, Self-made instruments (Kraiser, PássaroCocho, Tromp Kirk Roland) Otomo Yoshihide: Electric Guitar and Bass, Turntables Paulo Hartmann: Prepared 3rd Bridge Guitar, Freteless prepared Chiquita, Gambelão + Effects Captured live at Improfest […]
Jacob Kirkegaard | Black Metal Square Important Records (LP) Based on the sculptural installation, Black Metal Square (2015), these three pieces are the latest work by field recordist and sound ‘alchemist’ Jacob Kirkegaard. This is a limited edition of one hundred copies. “The installation refers to Kazimir Malevich’s famous painting Black Square (made one hundred […]
Hot Gills | Faceless Tales Emailing While Intoxicated (CS/DL) Martin Høgild is Copenhagen-based producer and electronic artist behind Hot Gills. The album Faceless Tales contains ten movements and features prominently bassist Joel Illerhag playing harpbass (upright bass w/added harp strings), and then also sampled by Høgild. At first it sounds like one of those water […]
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 […]
Niklas Adam | Undulate Sofa (CD/DL) Oslo-based multimedia artist Niklas Adam‘s new Undulate is a bit of a head-turner. The ultra-minimal Gestures, Percussion Solo, Jungle reminds me of incidental sounds you might encounter in a instrument or toy factory. With umpteen stops and starts this pops and flails in seconds, then turns to hard silence, […]
Tapage & Gareth Davis | STATESMoving Furniture Records (LP/DL) Tapage (Tijs Ham) is a composer and researcher from Holland, based in Bergen (Norway). During his long activity he has built a strong aesthetic identity and has been working with the exploitation of chaotic elements in algorithmic composition, to develop responsive and generative systems with a […]
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 […]
Magnus Granberg & Skogen | Nun, es wird nicht weit mehr gehen Another Timbre (CD/DL) ‘Well, it won’t be much longer’ or ‘Now, there won’t be much more walking‘ – roughly translated (depending) breathes certain light into this latest composition by Magnus Granberg as performed by Swedish group Skogen: Anna Lindal & Angharad Davies – […]
Anthony Pateras | Collected Works Vol. II (2005-2018)Immediata (5xCD/DL) The pure musical relationship between Anthony Pateras and me has always been somewhat incomplete. Despite having listened to some of his albums as an improviser and some of his piano works such as Errors of the Human Body and Ataxia where he plays trio with Sean […]
Rubén D’Hers | Bolero Transparente Vertical Music (CS/DL) Off the new Milan-based label comes the first of an interesting, fresh tape series. This is Rubén D’Hers‘ Bolero Transparente (recorded in Berlin). In three tracks this sound-sculpting builder of installation-based musical settings offers a pensive, chord-driven work. Romantic Chord Puzzle glows in elongated and warped reverb. […]
Eric La Casa + Eamon Sprod | Friche: TransitionSwarming (CD/DL) Borders, frontiers, boundaries. These words have gained a certain relevance in today’s western society. With a fearsome diffusion of nationalist movements and sovereign ideologies, the medieval sense of fixed land division obstructs the path towards liquidity and permeability and towards the establishment of a real […]
Markus Reineke | Was soll schon passieren Pan Y Rosas Discos (DL) These are improvisations over other erased recordings, giving you the feel of the olde Rauschenberg/de Kooning sleight-of-hand, portions removed, portions obliterated, nonsensical, chance traces remain. Lots of breathing via flute, very organic in combination with the percussive rustling and spacy effects. Markus Reineke‘s […]
Robert Lippok and Kaan Bulak | Kubus Feral Note (DL) In these six tracks, Kubus I-VI, the Berlin-based first-time collaborative duo of composer Robert Lippok and (augmented) pianist Kaan Bulak flex their newfound synergy from light to dark, and back again. We begin in a fairly ambient sweet spot, with only a half-sweetened tinkling of […]
Siavash Amini and Matt Finney | Second ShiftOpal Tapes (CD/DL) Three albums into their collaborative series, Siavash Amini and Matt Finney have developed a reputation for concocting thematically and aesthetically dark worlds that meld awkward characters with oft punishing soundscapes. Although Second Shift’s spoken narrative certainly points to this being a fair assessment of their […]
Paal Nilssen-Love | New Japanese Noise & New Brazilian FunkPNL Records (2xCD/DL) In 2018 the Roskilde Festival in Denmark commissioned two exclusive performance to the Norwegian free-impro drum veteran Paal Nilssen-Love. Playing with the concept of contamination between music traditions and calling in some really outstanding musicians, he was able to contrive two radically different […]
Beni Giles and Colin Alexander | AddelamBig Ship (CD) Comprised of composers Beni Giles and Colin Alexander, Addelam offers a series of site-specific cello-based compositions that both eagerly point to some notable and challenging reference points, and succeed at enouncing their ideas in a novel and exciting manner. Although in no way replicating such luminaries, […]
Lori Goldston and Judith Hamann | Alloys Marginal Frequency (CD/DL) In two long-form pieces Melbourne-based Judith Hamann and Seattle teacher Lori Goldston both bring a new language to their common instrument, the cello. The first piece seems an ‘amalgam’ of several shorter works: Silver | Amalgam | Mother of Pearl | Felt | A Thin […]
A.F. Jones | Bourdon Du Kinzie Unfathomless (CD/DL) Recorded in a post-industrial area of Port Townsend (Washington state) the newest in a long-running series from the exceptional limited edition Belgian imprint Unfathomless is from A.F. Jones, the man behind Marginal Frequency. The disc Bourdon du Kinzie is made up of a single forty-one minute composition, […]
Phill Niblock | Music for CelloImportant Records (CD) This record sets together three works for cello that Phill Niblock composed between 1974 and 1981, all of them performed by the cellist David Gibson. It is very interesting to investigate backwards in Niblock’s works to find traces of the gestation of drone music as a genre […]
Ulex Xane | Stances/Semblance Cipher Productions (CD) Stances/Semblance (edition of 300) is both a forty-year retrospective of musique concrète and electroacoustic works of Ülex Xane (1975-2015) and my personal introduction to his work. Though I’ve been listening as long as he’s been making my tastes have shifted and evolved over time, as has his sound […]
Alvin Lucier | Ricochet LadyBlack Truffle (CD) Alvin Lucier’s I am Sitting in a Room is one of his most associated works, the concept of which uses the room itself to process and reform sounds. The notion of different spaces impacting on the quality of the sounds inside has been explored often in the world […]
3 REVIEWS/3 RECORDS: It demonstrates the versatility of both contemporary composition and the instrument in question, to arrive in the New Year with three very different, modern piano works up for review. Although operating in different fields, and with different scopes and intentions, these three albums have been reviewed together, so as to showcase their […]
Éliane Radigue | Geelriandre/Arthesis Important Records (LP) Released tomorrow, this welcome reissue is the first vinyl pressing (1000 ltd ed; black + clear) of this work by the lauded French composer Éliane Radigue which was originally recorded back in 1972-73 (previously released in 2011 by Senufo Editions on CD). They have put each singular, lengthy […]
Luigi Turra | Fukinsei mAtter (LP/DL) Two years after his “Alea” release on the LINE imprint, Luigi Turra returns with a collection of new explorations in microsound on the Tokyo-based mAtter label. Fukinsei finds the Italian sound artist continuing his investigations into abstract structures of lowercase sound, silence and the delicate balance between the two. This […]
Reinier van Houdt | Igitur Carbon CopiesHallow Ground (LP/DL) Reinier van Houdt’s Igitur Carbon Copies is not so much one album as two – what is ostensibly a somewhat heavy-handed exercise in gothic aesthetics, hides beneath its surface a nuanced exploration of compositional structure that, like many complex works, only reveals its true beauty with […]
Marc Behrens | Mut Att Narc Imm aufabwegen (CD/DL) In a title without any easy translation comes the latest from German artist/composer Marc Behrens, Mut Att Narc Imm (Edition: 300, digipak, 3 tracks). Opening with Imm (A), we are immediately transported to a setting will with soft industrial exhaust. The press information and all located […]
eRikm | Mistpouffers empreintes DIGITALes (CD/DL) Mistpouffers is a selection of three compositions completed between 2014-16, composed by French artist and improviser eRikm. Each piece runs approximately 17-18 minutes in length with two based on 8-channel fixed medium and one in stereo. Opening with Draugalimur where, poof like smoke, the setting is a quiet distant […]
Andrea Neumann + Mads Emil Nielsen | Refound Arbitrary (10″/DL) Here are two accomplished and interesting artists, Andrea Neumann (Germany) + Mads Emil Nielsen (Denmark), collaborating (since 2014) on a new surprising 10″ on Nielsen’s Arbitrary imprint. This recording was already on my review list when along came the new Sichten 1 compilation on […]
toneshift.wordpress.com 