Really great piece of musical archeology - I hadn't heard a lot of these songs but damn a lot of the riffs and rhythms from them seem awful familiar - somebody was listening to these -and it's damn fine playing too. Got it on CD, no MP3 I'm aware of.
Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place - (Asthmatic Kitty Records 2011)
"Julianna Barwick's Asthmatic Kitty Records debut, The Magic Place, is a nine-piece full-length album of magic and solace, bursting joy and healing tones. Julianna's mostly-a-capella music is built from her voice multi-tracked through a loop station. There's more backing instrumentation on this one than on previous albums but it's the vocalssoaring high in reverb-drenched, wordless harmoniesthat matter most here. It's the layered fragments and pieces that become an intricate pattern through technology; it's the sound of a rising thing, a big group harmony as a splash of sunlight through a car window, a sound that feels like hope and ascendance and patience and intimacy.
Her inspiration here is the a capella church hymns she grew up singing; the way a roomful of diverse voices can join together to fill up a space. Says Julianna about her church singin' days, You could really hear all the layers, harmonies, rounds, the men and the women, the claps... everything. Some of those hymns are so beautiful.
Like Sigur Rós's ethereal glossolalia, there's a very particular joy in listening to Julianna's music. Free of the constraints of narrative and traceable language, it's the same joy in giving yourself over to opera in a foreign language, of letting go of your pesky rational mind and allowing the feeling to come through in the voices and performance. The title track is next, a reverb-y beauty queen that soars to Promethean heights and builds its own kind of safe haven in the clouds. Even the gaps between songs are essential to the album's listening experiencea sigh between stories or silence-as-drone, each second important. The New York Times called the pauses between Julianna's songs, the small pleasure of a chance to breathe between the greater pleasures of not wanting to have to. Meet The Magic Place. It's a great place to be..."
21 degrees celcius in Maribo/Denmark and increasing by the hour . . .
Streaming some Africa inspired stuff from Bandcamp:
"Stefan Schneider returns with his third album as Mapstation, 'The Africa Chamber'. Using his trademark synthetic arpeggios that have found a home on records by his other project To Rococo Rot and collaborations with [/b]Saint Etienne, Stefan takes a turn towards to the aformentioned African continent for a digital approximation on African life, from dusty pathways through loud speakers and into the calm of the Ghanaian countryside. The record also features contributions from Nicholas Addo-Nettey (Fela Kuti's Africa 70), Annie Whitehead and Thomas Klein (Kreidler).!"
It's already mid 20s plus here, with prediction of 30 later, BN. Yesterday's hot weather almost certainly heading your way, but thunderstorms due later...
Comments
Bummed that Nicolas Bernier's new release is vinyl only and thus inaccessible to me. Turning to this earlier free collaboration instead.
Asthmatic Kitty Digital Sampler, April 2011
From the free thread. Listening on Bandcamp.
Mystified - The Night
Really great piece of musical archeology - I hadn't heard a lot of these songs but damn a lot of the riffs and rhythms from them seem awful familiar - somebody was listening to these -and it's damn fine playing too. Got it on CD, no MP3 I'm aware of.
For some reason Far Away Eyes was in my head when I woke up this morning. So I ran ten red-lights in his honor.
I had about a 1/3 of these tracks - still good value for the other 2/3 (and most of the 1/3 were on vinyl or CD)
Now:
Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place - (Asthmatic Kitty Records 2011)
"Julianna Barwick's Asthmatic Kitty Records debut, The Magic Place, is a nine-piece full-length album of magic and solace, bursting joy and healing tones. Julianna's mostly-a-capella music is built from her voice multi-tracked through a loop station. There's more backing instrumentation on this one than on previous albums but it's the vocalssoaring high in reverb-drenched, wordless harmoniesthat matter most here. It's the layered fragments and pieces that become an intricate pattern through technology; it's the sound of a rising thing, a big group harmony as a splash of sunlight through a car window, a sound that feels like hope and ascendance and patience and intimacy.
Her inspiration here is the a capella church hymns she grew up singing; the way a roomful of diverse voices can join together to fill up a space. Says Julianna about her church singin' days, You could really hear all the layers, harmonies, rounds, the men and the women, the claps... everything. Some of those hymns are so beautiful.
Like Sigur Rós's ethereal glossolalia, there's a very particular joy in listening to Julianna's music. Free of the constraints of narrative and traceable language, it's the same joy in giving yourself over to opera in a foreign language, of letting go of your pesky rational mind and allowing the feeling to come through in the voices and performance. The title track is next, a reverb-y beauty queen that soars to Promethean heights and builds its own kind of safe haven in the clouds. Even the gaps between songs are essential to the album's listening experiencea sigh between stories or silence-as-drone, each second important. The New York Times called the pauses between Julianna's songs, the small pleasure of a chance to breathe between the greater pleasures of not wanting to have to. Meet The Magic Place. It's a great place to be..."
- Emusic.
ETA:
(An interview)
- Not bad . . . Not bad at all !
Cutting, pasting, trippying, soulful girly singing, windy, Ukrainy. For Tru Thoughts fans. Free.
Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place
Thanks, Brighternow for reminding me that I wanted to check out this album.
- A very moving listening experience . . . . . This guy is a genius.
A great album.
A free half hour live ambient mix by loscil. Very beautiful.
Time I played this again
Already at 9.00am here it is a hot summer's day and getting hotter by the hour, so some 'summer' music needed
Streaming some Africa inspired stuff from Bandcamp:
"Stefan Schneider returns with his third album as Mapstation, 'The Africa Chamber'. Using his trademark synthetic arpeggios that have found a home on records by his other project To Rococo Rot and collaborations with [/b]Saint Etienne, Stefan takes a turn towards to the aformentioned African continent for a digital approximation on African life, from dusty pathways through loud speakers and into the calm of the Ghanaian countryside. The record also features contributions from Nicholas Addo-Nettey (Fela Kuti's Africa 70), Annie Whitehead and Thomas Klein (Kreidler).!"
It's already mid 20s plus here, with prediction of 30 later, BN. Yesterday's hot weather almost certainly heading your way, but thunderstorms due later...
(url=>amz)
Argyle spats? Awesome.
- Brilliant . . . . and free @ Bandcamp.