Grisha Shakhnes | Being ThereUnfathomless (CD/DL) Recorded in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel the new recording from Grisha Shakhnes is uniquely set apart from other field recordings in that it is that of both indoor and outdoor sounds, contained and free. These sounds penetrate through personal space and were sometimes incidental. Shakhnes explains his making of Being […]
Iain Chambers | The Eccentric Press Persistence of Sound (DL) The Eccentric Press occupies that middle ground between classical composition and Musique Concrete – a deftly arranged series of non-musical sounds that nonetheless are treated, from a structural perspective, with a resoundingly musical sense of timing and pace. It is not exactly novel, nor does […]
Coppice | Head Turning Songs futurevessel (DL) A year ago to the month I reviewed Coppice‘s Green Flame which was quite and exciting record. Noé Cuéllar & Joseph Kramer are back with their latest, Head Turning Songs, and I hope for that exact result. We open with a minimal setting on Dense Day Cooling, a […]
Jared Sagar | Tombland + BRB>Voicecoil | Reclaim Here are the two latest editions from the always rightly curated Brussels-based Unfathomless, focused on phonographies, field recordings and other microsounds — both available on CD (limited + special editions) and downloadable via Bandcamp. Reclaim is broken into three parts. brb>voicecoil (Kevin Wilkinson) collected his organic source […]
Marja Ahti | Vegetal NegativesHallow Ground (CD/DL) There is something wonderfully structured about Marja Ahti’s emotive ‘Vegetal Negatives’. A warm and organic tableaux that courts both the familiar and the strange, each of its elements appears rendered with a loving and meticulous hand, an approach that feels on the surface as if it should be […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Bardo Todol & Devid Ciampalini | El Origen Del Pensamiento MágicoIkuisuus (CS/DL) “Architectural musique concrete” Bardo Todol is an experimental music project hailing from Argentina and consisting -as I read- by either Pablo Picco with Nico Picco or Pablo Picco with Atilio Sanchez. Devid Ciampalini (Metzengerstein, Holy Hole) is an Italian musician and experimentalist, working […]
Pauline Oliveros | Reverberations 1 Important Records (LP) It is always hard to speak the right words when it comes to talk about classics. The work of Pauline Oliveros has been seminal for the experience of every composer, listener or simple aficionado who put their interest in electroacoustic music. Being part of that new group […]
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 […]
Åke Hodell | Verbal Brainwash and Other Works Fylkingen Records (3xCD/DL) “A life-manifesto split in pieces” Åke Björnsson Hodell (1919-2000) was a Swedish poet, author, text-sound composer, and visual artist. He was also trained as fighter pilot, but after a crash during a practice flight (1941) and few years of hospitalization, he became a dedicated anti-militarist; […]
Philip Sulidae | Petrification and Strife Hemisphäre の空虚 (CS/DL) Australian composer Philip Sulidae has released a delicate minimal work titled Petrification and Strife, encompassing two lengthy pieces for the imprint he manages, Hemisphäre の空虚. Like other label releases, the simplicity is in pure black and white, like the uncomplicated cover art that spells out its […]
Andrea Borghi | Superelief Hemisphäreの空虚 (CS/DL) Wielding a prepared turntable, electroacoustic device and a computer Andrea Borghi offers one of the years most micro and exploratory tapes on Superelief via Australian imprint Hemisphäreの空虚. Borghi developed this piece over an art residency in Florence. At first it sounds as if he’s popping corn, there’s this infectious […]
Michael Beharie and Teddy Rankin-Parker A Heart From Your Shadow (Mondoj; LP/CD/DL) Polish imprint Mondoj brings together two Americans who met a decade back at Oberlin College for their fresh debut, A Heart From Your Shadow. Electronic sound artist Michael Beharie and cellist Teddy Rankin-Parker have come together with purpose here. These ten tracks open […]
New Zealander Sam Hamilton is a multidisciplinary artist now residing in Portland Oregon describing to me as to what he does as being “about the intersections between sound, ecology, art, and the fundamental structures and construction of existential life“. Coming from a fellow artist, it’s a deep perspective. In his latest sound-based project, Super Positions, […]
OUT JUNE 29: When this record kicks off it’s a bit like changing channels on the radio dial as Cuck Rock invades the space in a jumbled hip-hop, rock and operatic overture. Berlin’s Nicolas Wiese is a chameleon artist and Unrelated (Karlrecords; LP/DL) may be his most sly effort to date. The vinyl is clear […]
Stridulations (LP, Digital) is released tomorrow from French sound artist Pali Meursault on UK’s Discrepant label. The composer has been recording since 2002, though this is my introduction to his work. With one track per side the musique concrète rattle and tick of pour chaque solution il y as un probleme kicks things off. This […]
Released in just a few days time (3/26) is a fiery electro-static collaboration between Luca Buoninfante (field recordings, mics) and Anacleto Vitolo (electronics) from the Italian manyfeetunder imprint. Life Forms is collection of ten distinctive tracks that scale sonic waves with a copious balance of found street sounds and an industrial edge (as heard on […]
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