Jozef van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - Concerning the Entrance Into Eternity
- "Beautiful new collaborative work from Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch. CD features an exclusive version of 'Continuation of the Last Judgment.' Concerning The Entrance Into Eternity is an extraordinary new collaboration between Dutch lutenist Jozef Van Wissem and American filmmaker and guitarist Jim Jarmusch. Jarmusch's previous collaborations with Wissem have not prepared the eager listener for the expressivity and emotional depth of his playing on these duets. Respectful of one another's space the pair weave layers of melody and waves of feedback while acoustic guitar and lute wrap together with a subtle depth exemplifying an austere understanding and compatibility. Jarmusch's guitar work is metaphysical, at times sounding like a hurdy gurdy and at other time sounding as if it is responding to the calls of the lute. The final piece, 'He Is Hanging By His Shiny Arms, His Heart An Open Wound WIth Love,' finds Jarmusch accompanying a solo lute composition with a reading from St. John Of The Cross. With three titles named after Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg's work, this record is extraordinary, new and arcane at the same time, modern but timeless."
- Important Records - Soundcloud - Soundcloud 2
- "Hotly tipped Danish producer Nick Eriksen, a.k.a. Taragana Pyjarama, follows up last years self-titled debut EP with his first full-length, Tipped Bowls, released on Kompakt. Decadently laden with textures, bass and beats, the album dances between styles - from the sonicscape of Tipped Bowls, dripping with echo and reverb to the ping-ponging arcade synths overlaying the laid-back beat of Ballibat. The LP also features a cameo from CHLLNGR on opener Four Legged as synths bubble and bleep beneath the surface, and Kicki Halmos lends vocals to the spacious ambient-pop of Growing Forehead amongst sparkling arpeggios. A fantastically engrossing listen.?"
- Bleep. Kompakt - Soundcloud - http://taraganapyjarama.com/
Maggi Payne - Ahh-Ahh - Music for Ed Tannenbaum's Technological Feets, 1984-1987
- "The music on this LP was originally composed by Maggi Payne from 1984 - 1987 for the performance group Technological Feets. Formed by video artist Ed Tennenbaum in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1981, the group combines dance, live video processing & music. This is the first time these recordings have ever been released on vinyl, and aside from the track Ahh-Ahh (Ver 2.1), the first time any of it has ever been officially released. Composed on an Apple II computer & various early sampling devices, Paynes compositions are a vibrant response to the call from the moving body. Populated with buoyant pulses, graceful analogue swells, dense fog-like drones and cascading rhythms that shift in space, AHH-AHH is a vital document of not only these early collaborations, but of computer based music as well.
Originally trained as a flutist, Payne was exposed to electronic music while studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana and later at the then newly established MFA in electronic music and recording media program at Mills where she is now co-director of the Center for Contemporary Music. She studied with many greats in the field, including Gordon Mumma, Robert Ashley & David Berhman (whos composition On The Other Ocean features her on flute). Her musical career is extensive, stretching back over 30 years in both solo works & various collaborations."
- Thrill Jockey.
MAGGI PAYNE - "Composer of electronic music, flutist, video artist, and recording engineer, Maggie Payne is known for the elegance and complexity of her sounds. Her awards include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Mellon Foundation ... Her work has been performed at Sonic Circuits IV, Next Wave Festival, eXstatic Project (Australia), Prix Ars Electronica, SoundCulture '96, Siggraph, Bourges ... She has been Artist-in-Residence at the Exploratorium in San Francisco.
She is professor and co-director of the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College".[/i]
- http://www.lovely.com/
"The worldwide 70s Afro revival in music has to be credited first of all to a few diggers and record collectors, who have ignited a flame all over the world that should be burning for many years. Miles Cleret is one of them, he launched the Soundway Records label 10 years ago whose influence cannot be denied (check our article). We wanted to celebrate this anniversary in a special way, with 4 exclusive mixes to be aired in the coming weeks on our podcast, starting with this Nigerian Rock selection by Miles himself. Mixes from Batida, Chris Menist and Quantic are to follow in the next weeks... So happy 10 years to Soundway Records and let's hope it'll last at least another 10 years!"
SUBLIME FREQUENCIES - "is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations. SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is focused on an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience inspired by music and culture, world travel, research, and the pioneering recording labels of the past including OCORA, SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS, ETHNIC FOLKWAYS, LYRICHORD, NONESUCH EXPLORER, MUSICAPHONE, BARONREITER, UNESCO, PLAYASOUND, MUSICAL ATLAS, CHANT DU MONDE, B.A.M., TANGENT, and TOPIC."
SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PO BOX 17971 SEATTLE WA 98127 USA
- http://sublimefrequenciescommunique.blogspot.dk/
released 16 June 2012
Commissioned by Ingun Bjørnsgaard Prosjekt.
Produced by Geir Jenssen.
- "The music is based on Claude Monteverdi´s opera of the same name.
L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea) is an Italian baroque opera first performed in Venice during the 164243 carnival season. The music, attributed to Claudio Monteverdi, is a setting of a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello. One of the first operas to use historical events and people rather than classical mythology, it adapts incidents from the writings of Tacitus, Suetonius and others to recount how Poppea, mistress of the Roman emperor Nerone (Nero), is able to achieve her ambition and be crowned empress. The opera was revived in Naples in 1651, but was then neglected until the rediscovery of the score in 1888, after which it became the subject of scholarly attention in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since the 1960s, the opera has been performed and recorded many times."
- "From England to the United States and back again... it all started as a simple drone project between LULL (aka Mick Harris of Scorn, ex-Napalm Death) and BETA CLOUD (aka Carl Pace), based on the concept of how insomnia can effect your thought patterns. Billows of powerful bass drones set to indistinct flourishes of temporary insanity. The original track is there, but also included is a fierce remix track by legendary sound artist Andrew Liles (NURSE WITH WOUND & CURRENT 93). Fans of Lull and Beta Cloud will really sink their teeth into this one; what Liles has created here is not a simple remix but a raging, deconstruction as only he can do. Originally released as a limited 3" CD in 2008, now proudly presented in a deluxe digipak edition with stunning new artwork. A captivating listen for dark ambient and harsh noise fans alike."
- Cold Spring Records
- Most intriguing and seriously weird, and new @ Emusic:
Tomas Phillips & Jason Bivins - Blau
- "Influenced by painter Barnett Newmans solid color canvases broken by vertical lines of various shades, Blau showcases two stimulating talents with a fair degree of success. One assumes that the method applied by the duo involves the use of Bivins unsophisticated instrumental matter as the source for Phillips treatment. In the opening minutes a guitar-generated crackle sticks out like a sore thumb, raspy and sour; apart from a vague comparison to some of Gary Smiths infinitesimal rubbings, I thought about a classic noise vs ambient kind of ho-hum, here-we-go-again release. On the contrary, after the engine is set in motion and the right level of flexibility is reached, the music shifts towards more concentrated settings. Marvellous droning materials are born from peculiar resonances interspersed with glitches, pops and other types of scratching interference and additional string filth, only not as pointless as in the beginning. The gorgeous Ohne Titel 3 which summons up memories of Robert Hampsons Main is an ever-welcome moment of profound fusion within sympathetic frequencies for a listener who has been there and done that a hundred thousand times. Even in places where the guitar is immediately recognizable at first, something that sounds almost sacred emerges in subsequent evolutions; elsewhere, as in Ohne Titel 5, its just you and a series of unfamiliarly shaped strata. The pair shows persistence, their substances scent slowly spreading to give the idea of a serious preparatory work behind the music as opposed to the typical frivolity of Lexicon-brandishing nobodies dispatching a nauseating somnolence for fine art."
- Touching Extremes - Dragons Eye Recordings.
Ha. I know Jason Bivins (and have presented him in concert), and he's the one that introduced me to Tomas Phillips (and iirc, I introduced Phillips to you, bn, though I'm not sure). Funny. Obviously I'll be checking this out!
- "Fata Morgana originated as an audiovisual performance commissioned by the Pasadena Arts Council for the AxS Festival 2011 and curated by Steve Roden.
Fata Morgana is a kind of fragmented travelogue, reconstructed through field recordings from the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah and Lake Mead in the Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada. The piece mirrors the rare and complex Fata Morgana mirage phenomenon which hauntingly inverts the boundaries of figure and ground over both desert lands and seas.
Fata Morgana is presented here as a stereo mix recomposed for home listening."
- Murmur Records.
Bersarin Quartett - II - "Opening with a low rumbling drone, the second release by Bersarin Quartett slowly evolves into a soundtrack for an enchanting fairy tale. And although magical may be a word that some may find a bit too trite, it is a first word that comes to mind. Perhaps majestic is a better word. These fantastical sounds on the appropriately titled II come from the imagination of Thomas Bücker, who seems to cross over the genres with courage and ease. Plucking only the best elements of ambient, modern classical, and even glitchy IDM, Bücker meticulously builds cinematic soundscapes that take the listener through hidden dimensions, with sonic vibrations, to strange unknown worlds.
- This is the music to fall in love with. Fans of Max Richter, Murcof, Rafael Anton Irisari, Deaf Center, Olan Mill, Marsen Jules and Jacaszek will agree."
- Edited from Headphone Commute - Interview with Bersarin Quartett @ Headphone Commute http://denovali.com/bersarinquartett/
- "The soundtrack to the film AUN by Edgar Honetschläger, is a film based on Faustian themes of the eternal quest for the future, the inexhaustible belief in progress and the inevitable effects and links to a current world in motion. With suitable vigour, Christian Fennesz ruminates over his scientific quest in hand - exploratory in nature and fleeced with meandering ambience and ample wanderlust."
- Bleep.
Intention: - "AUN the beginning and the end of all things tells the story of mankinds quest for the future, his desire to create the tomorrow, his fear of and loathing for the apocalypse. It spins the Faustian theme twice and lays bare open the inexhaustible Judea/Christian believe in progress, which by the 21st century has taken over the entire world and has succeeded in maneuvering the globe into a situation that cant be solved by means of economics and science anymore. Enlightenments merits have taken the Wests ability to sense what is not to be seen, what is only to be felt. Believes are so much more than religion, than monotheistic concepts. Souls and spirits exist not only in film. Denial and neglect of eternal laws lead to extinction of the individual and the entire human race. AUN invents rituals as well as mythologies and worships the creator of it all nature by playfully laying out its dichotomy with human culture. The film equals mankinds beauty with nature by announcing that everything mankind creates in nature. Sadly the hubris ends and gives the audience the chance to heartily weep for the world."
- http://www.fennesz.com/
- "Vladislav Delays EP Espoo features two new conceptual, rhythm-intense tracks. whereas the groove of the opener olari derives from a sound loop which is manipulated by filters and echoes and finally brings forth the intensifying beat, the reverse is done with kolari on the b-side. starting from an impulsive, staccato beat, a sound carpet is woven by means of modifiers which gradually shape a permanent vacation-like melody, close to terry rileys minimalistic concepts. both tracks share a linear increase in density, and because of their break with the common four-four time, they create a certain folkloric atmosphere. like with Vantaa (r-n136), the experienced music producer vladislav delay continues his search for dance-floor compatible, yet unique and fresh music."
- Raster-Noton
Edward Ka-Spel - This Saturated Land - "Composed and recorded over 5 days in the rainiest July I can remember.A slow sinking into an ocean that ultimately reclaims all.
....but there's always october.
Right now, this album is exclusive to the Dots' Bandcamp site.Enjoy , but wear a lifejacket."
- Edward Ka-Spel.
- "Timeless Waves originally composed for a 47 channel / 53 speaker diffusion system running on The Morning Line, is a sonic work based on six basic human emotions. The CD is a stereo version of this multichannel work.
The piece has been inspired by W. Gerrod Parrott's book "Emotions in Social Psychology" and has been commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-BA 21) for The Morning Line - an interdisciplinary art project by Matthew Ritchie, Aranda/Lasch and Arup AGU - and premiered in May 2010, when the project was exhibited at Eminonu Square in Istanbul. Sonically, Timeless Waves is based on the timbres of Togaman GuitarViol, Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, sine waves, various analog pedals and hardware fx processors. The music combines elements from genres such as electroacoustic, drone, noise, contemporary music blended with minimal melodies."
Erdem Helvacioglu
- "Was born in Bursa, Turkey in 1975.
He is one of the most renowned 'contemporary electronic music' composers of his generation in Turkey. His music has been broadcast on national radios such as BBC, ABC, WDR and Radio France, among others. He has received commissions from the 2006 World Soccer Championship, TBA 21 The Morning Line, Borusan Center for Culture & Arts, Arter "Space for Art", The Association for the Art of the Harp, Novelum Contemporary Music Festival, International Istanbul Biennial(IKSV) and the world famous new music ensemble Bang on a Can-All Stars.
His sound installations have been included at museums and galleries such as 10th International Istanbul Biennial, Los Angeles Track 16, Indonesia Soemardja, Köln Museum für Angewandte Kunst, London Menier Gallery. His film music has been heard at Cannes, Sarajevo, Locarno, Seoul, Sao Paulo, and Sydney film festivals and he received the 'Best Original Soundtrack' award in the 2006 Mostramundo Film Festival. He has received prizes for his electroacoustic compositions from the Luigi Russolo, MUSICA NOVA and Insulae Electronicae
Electroacoustic Music Competitions."
A new work from Jordi Savall and cohorts, this time one of his more narrative works. 2 hrs 15 minutes for $6.74 at eMu.
Thanks to numerous studies by eminent historians and researchers in France and elsewhere, the true story of Joan of Arc is nowadays accessible and, in general, quite well known throughout the world. It is a story which transcends the terms myth, legend and folklore that have so often been used in connection with her, for our knowledge about Joan the Maid is based on scrupulously authentic documents: chronicles, public and private letters, records of the Parliament in Paris, manuscripts signed by notaries, and the transcripts of the two trials she endured, one while she was alive and the other after her death, all of which have been meticulously sifted through using the most rigorous historical methods. Unfortunately, this has not prevented all manner of legends and false historical accounts being presented as hidden truths or even new discoveries. However, what has astonished me most during the preparation of this project is how easily even cultured people can overlook essential information, such as the signing of the Treaty of Troyes, which underlies the very origin and culmination of this long and ancient conflict in which the English and the French were violently pitted against each other. Without the senses there is no memory, and without memory there is no intelligence, recalls Voltaire in his Aventure de la mémoire (1773). That is why, important though it is, our individual memory often hinges on the facts, knowledge and experiences that are dear and close to us, or that have made a deep impression on us. The sum total of all these memories shapes the historical memory of a people, which in turn determines our ability to keep alive not only the memory of heroic and extraordinary feats accomplished by men and women of the past, but also the tragedy and suffering of individuals who have struggled often alone, as in the case of the Maid of Orleans against stifling ideologies and lethal fanaticism. Absolute evil is always the evil that man inflicts on his fellow man. Although we say nothing here that has not been said and repeated before, we echo the words of Régine Pernoud, who writes: the past offers no example of a destiny more extra-ordinary than that of this nineteen-year-old "Maid". Whether one regards her as an emissary from God or a heroine with a mission to liberate her people, nobody remains indifferent to her: from Voltaire to Schiller, from Anatole France and Renan to Péguy and Claudel, from Chartists to amateur historians, from Japanese scholars to Russian academics all have been fascinated by her.
As always, our CD-books are characterised by their presentation of a selection of music and texts which bear a direct relation to certain specific moments in history, a history to which we endeavour to give a spoken voice in this case, that of Joan and her contemporaries (witnesses and inquisitors at her trials) and its corresponding soundtrack. This soundtrack includes music from the period, as well as new music composed in 1993 to illustrate Joans epic story as told in two films directed by Jacques Rivette (Jeanne la Pucelle: Les Batailles and Jeanne la Pucelle: Les Prisons), and music written in 2011 for the concert given on 16th November at La Cité de la Musique in Paris. The music is accompanied by up-to-date texts and commentaries by leading specialists, enabling us to comprehend and gain greater insight into the rich complexity and relevance of the outstanding events of a story without equal. It is in honour of the six-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Joan the Maid and her amazing epic that we have prepared and carried out this project - a different perspective on the life of a young girl cruelly burned at the stake when she was only nineteen years old. It takes the form of a new CD-book, which contains and combines printed texts, recited texts, vocal and instrumental pieces and reproductions of paintings and miniatures from the period, illustrating the key events in her short life and the long conflict between the French and the English.
It is probably true to say that Joan of Arcs meeting with Dauphin Charles was a turning point in the modern history of France. And it was above all the epic career of this young peasant girl and her journey from her village in Lorraine to Rheims Cathedral, passing on the way through Vaucouleurs, Chinon and Orléans, which brought about the miraculous outcome leading to Charles VIIs reign. Illegally barred from succeeding to the throne by the Treaty of Troyes in 1420, challenged by the majority of his people, disowned by his mother, Isabeau of Bavaria, and with a mad king for a father, he ultimately drove the English out of his kingdom and brought the Hundred Years War to a conclusion, subdued the feudal lords, and reformed the justice system, the army, the economy and the administration, despite innumerable acts of treason and conspiracy against him. After Joans martyrdom, a people who had been torn apart by the feud between the Armagnacs and the Burgundians became a nation.
It is a much more straightforward task to reconstruct an historical approach to a period remote from our own on the basis of chronicles, texts and documents than to recapture the spirit and character of the music of that period, some of which has been lost forever, while some has survived in the form of compilations or manuscripts which bear no obvious relationship to what was once their everyday use and purpose.
All musical scores are merely more or less definite outlines of a piece of art which does not truly exist until the moment when it is given concrete form by musical instruments or the human voice. Therefore, all music inevitably bears the imprint of its age: immortal it may be, but it is never timeless.
To recreate a musical universe that would bring us closer to the fascinating and mysterious life of Joan the Maid, it was first of all necessary to take our bearings on the historical context and try to discover the different functions and uses that musical activity might have had in everyday life at that time: popular songs and dances, ceremonial music, court music, Church music and martial music.
Music always played an important role: sovereigns and nobles often travelled with their musicians. Armies were led into battle by trumpets and drums of war and by clerics intoning hymns. In the accounts of battles (1421), reference is frequently made to the air and the earth vibrating with the sound of trumpets and bugles. All celebration ceremonies involved the participation of numerous minstrels, singers etc ... the clerics welcomed them singing hymns and praises that they knew, and there was playing on the organ and horns, and all the bells were rung (1424). In 1435, numerous concerts were performed to mark the peace treaty signed in the town of Arras between France, England and the Duchy of Burgundy. On 29th July, the Duke of Burgundy entered Arras, followed by the ambassadors of the kings of France and England and the Papacy, and before them went seven trumpeters playing melodiously. However, according to Jean Lefèvre, the French delegation was even more sumptuous and comprised kings at arms, heralds, attendants, trumpeters, minstrels and chaplains, and all officers pertaining to the rank of princes. (Marix 82).
Several very different aspects are involved in the musical characterisation of Joan the Maid:
Joans village origins: Popular melodies from the period, Dufays Ce jour de lan, Rondeau La Tremouille, etc ...
The mystery of the voices that she heard (St. Catherine, St. Margaret and St. Michael): Dufays Veni Sancte Spiritus (symbolically sung by 2 sopranos and 1 countertenor).
Her warrior vocation: Melody of LHomme armé, which evolves into Ballade de la Pucelle in an adaptation of the lyrics of the song from the period, and which recurs throughout the evocation of the two years of conflict, until her death, when we hear it (with a cornet and a bell), superimposed on Planctus Jehanne.
Three very different approaches have been adopted in the functional pieces:
Fanfares for the Battles
In this section on the motifs and themes of the period, we have imagined a situation in which there is a semi-tones difference in the tuning of the English and the French trumpets; the two fanfares are also played in totally different ways (in binary and ternary rhythms, respectively).
Music for the Coronation ceremony, for which we either had to compose pieces in keeping with the spirit of the age (Marche royale, Te Deum, Fanfare royale, etc.), or make use of existing works appropriate to the staging of the coronation ceremony: Hosanna I & Il and Sanctus of the Mass from Dufays LHomme armé, completed with the anonymous hymn of the period celebrating and saluting the kings return, with two texts sung simultaneously: Rejois toy terre de France and Vivat Rex in eternam.
Pieces or motifs designed to create a specific atmosphere:
Rondeau Fortune, par ta cruaulté, Dit le Burguygnon, Fortuna desperata, Adoramus te / anonymous. Planctus Jehanne, sonneries, arpegios, drums, and the various motifs such as Le départ, Les Voix, Les Fanfares, Les Prières and La Marche pour lOnction, evoking the extraordinary wealth of situations which more or less cyclically succeed one another at different stages from the beginning to the end of Joans short life.
This functional relationship between music and events is particularly significant. Concert music is often detached from its context, set loose from its functional tethers, to become an independent act of interpretation. In the narrative of a heroic deed or epic, all music is creative and must bear a relationship that is genuinely expressive or descriptive (or both) to the events being highlighted. The cinematic mise en scène and that of our CD-book, consisting of music and declamation, are really not so different; both approaches begin with the search for an actual or imaginary link with real life, although we are forced to go about the creation or interpretation of the music in radically different ways, because in the medium of film the approach is determined by image, whereas in our historical-musical narrative it is shaped by texts and events. Without sacrificing any of their purity, word and music, sustained by emotion and grace, take on a sacred dimension to become an integral part of a global living spectacle, thereby allowing us to attain that magical dimension suspended between reality and myth.
The prominence of battles and prisons in our story of Joans life may come as a surprise, but the stark reality is that the Maids brief and dazzling epic from her encounter with the king on 6th March, 1429, to her execution on 30th May, 1431 can be divided in two distinct parts: a year of countless battles and a year of imprisonment. As Régine Pernoud so aptly puts it, she is the prototype of the glorious heroine, and at the same time Joan is the prototype of the political prisoner, the victim of hostage-taking and other forms of oppression against the individual which form part of daily life in the 20th (and 21st) century.
- Really remarkable stuff from Hidden Shoal Recordings:
Wizards of Time - Will The Soft Curse Plague On?
- "Step right up and let visionary frontman Andrew Hiller guide you through this glorious wilderness of incandescent melodies and hurtling rhythms. Throw yourself willingly into this rabbit hole of song; cascade around the tape machines endlessly spooling reels; emerge, blinking and transformed, ready to ride again. This is a world of sound and song...
Wizards Of Time came together in 2008 with the mutual aim to explore unfamiliar songwriting territory. Over the next couple of years, the band wrote, arranged, and performed live the songs that would be found on their debut album. In 2010, WOT assembled with engineer/producer Scott Solter to call down "Will The Soft Curse Plague On?" The rest is mystery."
- "Arizonas Wizards Of Time deftly unleash technicolour art-rock like lightning bolts from their nimble fingers. Progressive without being prog and pop without being pap, the Wizards debut release "Will The Soft Curse Plague On?" is a staggering and unique concept album that weaves a universe-enveloping tapestry of dizzying complexity and emotional depth. They are the music makers, the makers of music, the slingers of sound. They are the Wizards Of Time..." Hidden Shoal Recordings - Emusic
eRikms Transfall is a document of profound gesture. A collection of works that resolve his recent explorations into music and sound for performance, dance and theatre.
For almost two decades, eRikm has been a major force in contemporary musique concréte. He is a compelling improviser and forthright composer whose work taps into the central linage of sound-object oriented composition emanating from France. Developing a highly personal performance and compositional language, eRikms reputation and position within the emergent generation of concréte composers had led to numerous collaborations with icons such as Luc Ferrari (Room40 issued Les Protorythmiques in 2007).
Transfall is an archive of six works linked through new developments in eRikms compositional philosophies.
He notes: The time spent on the composition of some of these pieces gave me the possibility to break out, that is to get out of my usual processes of degeneration/generation of a body or of a multiplicity of pre-existing sound objects. Thus my gesture shifted, I have looked for and recorded my own sound materials.
When heard collectively, these compositions take on a presence much more than the sum of their parts. They collect unconventional approaches from an artist whose compositional methodologies are already deeply rooted in experimental traditions. The resulting pieces, and the album as a whole, represent one of eRikms most personal and resolved works to date. A vision of future explorations mounted within a frame of the artists previous sonic understandings.
- Room40 - Soundcloud
- "Konntinent is the solo project of London based musician Antony Harrison. Both as Konntinent and through his other project names Arev Konn and Paco Sala, Antony has a discography that lists Home Normal, Sonic Pieces, Humming Conch and Symbolic Interaction as labels he has worked with. His live performances have meant he has been able to share the stage with artists such as Machinefabriek, Ian Hawgood, Simon Scott, Library Tapes, Jasper TX, Danny Norbury, Boduf Songs and Talvihorros.
Kiruna is Konntinents first full length release for Hibernate and was conceived as a standalone piece of work. It is not to be considered in relation to previous or future Konntinent releases although the cold environment in which it was inspired also played a strong part in Nospelt, last years Arev Konn album on Humming Conch. Kiruna was conceived and recorded in January and February of 2011, against the backdrop of Londons coldest winter in memory. It is very much inspired by the depths of winter and the impenetrable nights of the town after which it is named. Recording took place over four improvised sessions, utilising analog instruments and a handfull of external effects units. The sessions were edited and sequenced specifically for vinyl. To date Kiruna is the last Konntinent studio work recorded."
- - Emusic.
- "Un Giorno Sospeso is the new album by Italian ambient electronica artist Elisa Luu.
As evidenced on recently released single Se Fosse Per Me, Un Giorno Sospeso is dense with chiming tones, buoyant beats, skittering horns and immersive drones. From the shimmering, levitating tones of Flussigirl to the rattling, dark drone-beat of Il Tempo Di Capire, Elisa Luus brilliant marriage of texture and composition is on virtuoso display.
Elisa Luus alchemical touch is in full bloom on this, her long-awaited second album for Hidden Shoal. Her uniquely crafted compositions carry a warmth and vulnerability that belies their digitally manipulated textures. The album takes the glorious blueprint of debut Chromatic Sigh and accentuates the highlights and shadows, making for a deliciously disorientating trip."
- Hidden Shoal Recordings
Elisa Luu (Elisabetta Luciani)
- "Is a Rome based composer. She begins her music career as a saxophone player, moving freely from fusion to jazz. Elisa Luu has been involved in many music projects over the years, including fusion quartet Prodotti Speciali and Shorts Monday Night Jazz Orchestra. She participated to Berklee Jazz clinics where she got a special mention as alto sax player. In 2007 she moved forward and started to compose ambient/electronic music. She is also the co-founder of La Bèl, an Italian netlabel offering free electroacoustic music, including her own EP The time of waiting. In 2009 she released her debut album Chromatic Sigh with Hidden Shoal Recordings. Now her new single Se fosse per me is out - taken from her forthcoming long-awaited second album with the same Australian-based independent music label, which is going to be released in June."
- http://www.elisaluu.com/home.html
- Emusic
Ancient Future is the second collaboration between composer and visionary pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto and electronic pioneer Christopher Willits. Built around a series of piano pieces that Sakamoto sent to Willits after the release of the duo's first record together, 2008's Ocean Fire, the six tracks that make up Ancient Future are entirely instrumental...The album opens with the restless energy of "Reticent Reminiscence", an energy that subsides into the introversion of "Abandoned Silence" and "I Don't Want to Understand" and, eventually, the cold disassociation of "Levitation". A certain warmth returns with "Releasing", its guitar arpeggios like washes of sunlight, and the album's journey finally resolves into closing track "Completion", a piece that's full of quiescent tranquility, perhaps reflecting the experience of finally coming to know oneself. Despite its conceptual coherency, contradictions lie at the heart of Ancient Future, as the album title might suggest. Even within the confines of each track, opposing forces are at playloops of static and feedback provide the backing for delicate melodies that develop and evolve like ripples on a placid lake. And yet the contradictions never feel like conflictsinstead, the diverging elements come together to create something with its own internal logic, perhaps reflecting the way that we are all the sum of our experiences, both light and dark, positive and negative.
- Dark folk / freak folk in the same vein as Volcano The Bear, and various solo projects by VTB frontman Daniel Padden, such as The One Ensemble, The One Ensemble Orchestra and The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden:
Father Murphy - Anyway Your Children Will Deny It
- "After excellent reviews and endless touring all over the world, supporting bands like Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu and Sic Alps, the Italian weirdos Father Murphy are back with a brand new album titled Anyway your children will deny it. It is the latest, boldest installation of an ongoing series of albums investigating the bands favorite themes: life, death, love, religion and even more death.
For this album, the Italian trio comprised of Reverend Freddie (vocals, guitar), Chiara Lee (vocals, keyboards, percussion) and Vittorio De Marin (vocals, drums, strings), took some time to craft and expand their sonic palette to almost epic proportions, unleashing an LP that is their most personal, sophisticated anddare I sayaccessible work to date.
The opener How we ended up with feeling of Guilt sets the tone with a distant rumble of crashing waves, introducing the desolate chanting of Reverend Freddie. Father Murphys amalgamation of noise and pop instincts collide with echoes of Henry Cow, Jacula and far-out contemporary classical music. It is funny, it is restful. Both came quickly is another sonic surprise. Its Father Murphy at their most black metal-isha fuzzy aural slab reeking of fury and desperation. In praise of our doubts continues with big, menacing orchestral stabs and tortured vocals.
But it is not all madness and desolation in Father Murphyland. The last two tracks are the bands most hopeful moments. In the flood, with the flood tackles celestial drones and ecstatic buzz while the closer Don't let yourself be hurt this time is a subdued call-to-arms, a hymn to personal responsibility sung and performed with a Young Marble Giants simplicity.
Recorded by the band and mixed by Greg Saunier of Deerhoof (who added an extra beautifully psychedelic shade to the songs), Anyway, your children will deny it is the groups definitive album: dark, uncompromising, yet still open to the future and its possibilities."
- Aagoo Records
- Emusic
Comments
Jozef van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - Concerning the Entrance Into Eternity
- "Beautiful new collaborative work from Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch. CD features an exclusive version of 'Continuation of the Last Judgment.' Concerning The Entrance Into Eternity is an extraordinary new collaboration between Dutch lutenist Jozef Van Wissem and American filmmaker and guitarist Jim Jarmusch. Jarmusch's previous collaborations with Wissem have not prepared the eager listener for the expressivity and emotional depth of his playing on these duets. Respectful of one another's space the pair weave layers of melody and waves of feedback while acoustic guitar and lute wrap together with a subtle depth exemplifying an austere understanding and compatibility. Jarmusch's guitar work is metaphysical, at times sounding like a hurdy gurdy and at other time sounding as if it is responding to the calls of the lute. The final piece, 'He Is Hanging By His Shiny Arms, His Heart An Open Wound WIth Love,' finds Jarmusch accompanying a solo lute composition with a reading from St. John Of The Cross. With three titles named after Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg's work, this record is extraordinary, new and arcane at the same time, modern but timeless."
- Important Records - Soundcloud - Soundcloud 2
- "Hotly tipped Danish producer Nick Eriksen, a.k.a. Taragana Pyjarama, follows up last years self-titled debut EP with his first full-length, Tipped Bowls, released on Kompakt. Decadently laden with textures, bass and beats, the album dances between styles - from the sonicscape of Tipped Bowls, dripping with echo and reverb to the ping-ponging arcade synths overlaying the laid-back beat of Ballibat. The LP also features a cameo from CHLLNGR on opener Four Legged as synths bubble and bleep beneath the surface, and Kicki Halmos lends vocals to the spacious ambient-pop of Growing Forehead amongst sparkling arpeggios. A fantastically engrossing listen.?"
- Bleep.
Kompakt - Soundcloud - http://taraganapyjarama.com/
Maggi Payne - Ahh-Ahh - Music for Ed Tannenbaum's Technological Feets, 1984-1987
- "The music on this LP was originally composed by Maggi Payne from 1984 - 1987 for the performance group Technological Feets. Formed by video artist Ed Tennenbaum in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1981, the group combines dance, live video processing & music. This is the first time these recordings have ever been released on vinyl, and aside from the track Ahh-Ahh (Ver 2.1), the first time any of it has ever been officially released. Composed on an Apple II computer & various early sampling devices, Paynes compositions are a vibrant response to the call from the moving body. Populated with buoyant pulses, graceful analogue swells, dense fog-like drones and cascading rhythms that shift in space, AHH-AHH is a vital document of not only these early collaborations, but of computer based music as well.
Originally trained as a flutist, Payne was exposed to electronic music while studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana and later at the then newly established MFA in electronic music and recording media program at Mills where she is now co-director of the Center for Contemporary Music. She studied with many greats in the field, including Gordon Mumma, Robert Ashley & David Berhman (whos composition On The Other Ocean features her on flute). Her musical career is extensive, stretching back over 30 years in both solo works & various collaborations."
- Thrill Jockey.
MAGGI PAYNE
- "Composer of electronic music, flutist, video artist, and recording engineer, Maggie Payne is known for the elegance and complexity of her sounds. Her awards include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Mellon Foundation ... Her work has been performed at Sonic Circuits IV, Next Wave Festival, eXstatic Project (Australia), Prix Ars Electronica, SoundCulture '96, Siggraph, Bourges ... She has been Artist-in-Residence at the Exploratorium in San Francisco.
She is professor and co-director of the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College".[/i]
- http://www.lovely.com/
Miles Cleret - Nigeria Rocks, from Soundway.
"The worldwide 70s Afro revival in music has to be credited first of all to a few diggers and record collectors, who have ignited a flame all over the world that should be burning for many years. Miles Cleret is one of them, he launched the Soundway Records label 10 years ago whose influence cannot be denied (check our article). We wanted to celebrate this anniversary in a special way, with 4 exclusive mixes to be aired in the coming weeks on our podcast, starting with this Nigerian Rock selection by Miles himself. Mixes from Batida, Chris Menist and Quantic are to follow in the next weeks... So happy 10 years to Soundway Records and let's hope it'll last at least another 10 years!"
released 16 June 2012
Commissioned by Ingun Bjørnsgaard Prosjekt.
Produced by Geir Jenssen.
- "The music is based on Claude Monteverdi´s opera of the same name.
L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea) is an Italian baroque opera first performed in Venice during the 164243 carnival season. The music, attributed to Claudio Monteverdi, is a setting of a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello. One of the first operas to use historical events and people rather than classical mythology, it adapts incidents from the writings of Tacitus, Suetonius and others to recount how Poppea, mistress of the Roman emperor Nerone (Nero), is able to achieve her ambition and be crowned empress. The opera was revived in Naples in 1651, but was then neglected until the rediscovery of the score in 1888, after which it became the subject of scholarly attention in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since the 1960s, the opera has been performed and recorded many times."
Lull & Beta Cloud & Andrew Liles - Circadian Rhythm Disturbance Reconfigured
- "From England to the United States and back again... it all started as a simple drone project between LULL (aka Mick Harris of Scorn, ex-Napalm Death) and BETA CLOUD (aka Carl Pace), based on the concept of how insomnia can effect your thought patterns. Billows of powerful bass drones set to indistinct flourishes of temporary insanity. The original track is there, but also included is a fierce remix track by legendary sound artist Andrew Liles (NURSE WITH WOUND & CURRENT 93). Fans of Lull and Beta Cloud will really sink their teeth into this one; what Liles has created here is not a simple remix but a raging, deconstruction as only he can do. Originally released as a limited 3" CD in 2008, now proudly presented in a deluxe digipak edition with stunning new artwork. A captivating listen for dark ambient and harsh noise fans alike."
- Cold Spring Records
Tomas Phillips & Jason Bivins - Blau
- "Influenced by painter Barnett Newmans solid color canvases broken by vertical lines of various shades, Blau showcases two stimulating talents with a fair degree of success. One assumes that the method applied by the duo involves the use of Bivins unsophisticated instrumental matter as the source for Phillips treatment. In the opening minutes a guitar-generated crackle sticks out like a sore thumb, raspy and sour; apart from a vague comparison to some of Gary Smiths infinitesimal rubbings, I thought about a classic noise vs ambient kind of ho-hum, here-we-go-again release. On the contrary, after the engine is set in motion and the right level of flexibility is reached, the music shifts towards more concentrated settings. Marvellous droning materials are born from peculiar resonances interspersed with glitches, pops and other types of scratching interference and additional string filth, only not as pointless as in the beginning. The gorgeous Ohne Titel 3 which summons up memories of Robert Hampsons Main is an ever-welcome moment of profound fusion within sympathetic frequencies for a listener who has been there and done that a hundred thousand times. Even in places where the guitar is immediately recognizable at first, something that sounds almost sacred emerges in subsequent evolutions; elsewhere, as in Ohne Titel 5, its just you and a series of unfamiliarly shaped strata. The pair shows persistence, their substances scent slowly spreading to give the idea of a serious preparatory work behind the music as opposed to the typical frivolity of Lexicon-brandishing nobodies dispatching a nauseating somnolence for fine art."
- Touching Extremes - Dragons Eye Recordings.
Re: Bivins, Benthic is a good experimental/free improv duo record.
Yann Novak & Robert Crouch - Fata Morgana
- "Fata Morgana originated as an audiovisual performance commissioned by the Pasadena Arts Council for the AxS Festival 2011 and curated by Steve Roden.
Fata Morgana is a kind of fragmented travelogue, reconstructed through field recordings from the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah and Lake Mead in the Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada. The piece mirrors the rare and complex Fata Morgana mirage phenomenon which hauntingly inverts the boundaries of figure and ground over both desert lands and seas.
Fata Morgana is presented here as a stereo mix recomposed for home listening."
- Murmur Records.
Bersarin Quartett - II
- "Opening with a low rumbling drone, the second release by Bersarin Quartett slowly evolves into a soundtrack for an enchanting fairy tale. And although magical may be a word that some may find a bit too trite, it is a first word that comes to mind. Perhaps majestic is a better word. These fantastical sounds on the appropriately titled II come from the imagination of Thomas Bücker, who seems to cross over the genres with courage and ease. Plucking only the best elements of ambient, modern classical, and even glitchy IDM, Bücker meticulously builds cinematic soundscapes that take the listener through hidden dimensions, with sonic vibrations, to strange unknown worlds.
- This is the music to fall in love with. Fans of Max Richter, Murcof, Rafael Anton Irisari, Deaf Center, Olan Mill, Marsen Jules and Jacaszek will agree."
- Edited from Headphone Commute - Interview with Bersarin Quartett @ Headphone Commute
http://denovali.com/bersarinquartett/
Fennesz - AUN
Vladislav Delay - Espoo
- "Vladislav Delays EP Espoo features two new conceptual, rhythm-intense tracks. whereas the groove of the opener olari derives from a sound loop which is manipulated by filters and echoes and finally brings forth the intensifying beat, the reverse is done with kolari on the b-side. starting from an impulsive, staccato beat, a sound carpet is woven by means of modifiers which gradually shape a permanent vacation-like melody, close to terry rileys minimalistic concepts. both tracks share a linear increase in density, and because of their break with the common four-four time, they create a certain folkloric atmosphere. like with Vantaa (r-n136), the experienced music producer vladislav delay continues his search for dance-floor compatible, yet unique and fresh music."
- Raster-Noton
Reviews'n stuff @: http://www.vladislavdelay.com/site/?page_id=3933
Edward Ka-Spel - This Saturated Land
- "Composed and recorded over 5 days in the rainiest July I can remember.A slow sinking into an ocean that ultimately reclaims all.
....but there's always october.
Right now, this album is exclusive to the Dots' Bandcamp site.Enjoy , but wear a lifejacket."
- Edward Ka-Spel.
- "Timeless Waves originally composed for a 47 channel / 53 speaker diffusion system running on The Morning Line, is a sonic work based on six basic human emotions. The CD is a stereo version of this multichannel work.
The piece has been inspired by W. Gerrod Parrott's book "Emotions in Social Psychology" and has been commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-BA 21) for The Morning Line - an interdisciplinary art project by Matthew Ritchie, Aranda/Lasch and Arup AGU - and premiered in May 2010, when the project was exhibited at Eminonu Square in Istanbul. Sonically, Timeless Waves is based on the timbres of Togaman GuitarViol, Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, sine waves, various analog pedals and hardware fx processors. The music combines elements from genres such as electroacoustic, drone, noise, contemporary music blended with minimal melodies."
A new work from Jordi Savall and cohorts, this time one of his more narrative works. 2 hrs 15 minutes for $6.74 at eMu.
Wizards of Time - Will The Soft Curse Plague On?
- "Step right up and let visionary frontman Andrew Hiller guide you through this glorious wilderness of incandescent melodies and hurtling rhythms. Throw yourself willingly into this rabbit hole of song; cascade around the tape machines endlessly spooling reels; emerge, blinking and transformed, ready to ride again. This is a world of sound and song...
Wizards Of Time came together in 2008 with the mutual aim to explore unfamiliar songwriting territory. Over the next couple of years, the band wrote, arranged, and performed live the songs that would be found on their debut album. In 2010, WOT assembled with engineer/producer Scott Solter to call down "Will The Soft Curse Plague On?" The rest is mystery."
- "Arizonas Wizards Of Time deftly unleash technicolour art-rock like lightning bolts from their nimble fingers. Progressive without being prog and pop without being pap, the Wizards debut release "Will The Soft Curse Plague On?" is a staggering and unique concept album that weaves a universe-enveloping tapestry of dizzying complexity and emotional depth. They are the music makers, the makers of music, the slingers of sound. They are the Wizards Of Time..."
Hidden Shoal Recordings - Emusic
eRikm - Transfall
Konntinent - Kiruna EP
- "Konntinent is the solo project of London based musician Antony Harrison. Both as Konntinent and through his other project names Arev Konn and Paco Sala, Antony has a discography that lists Home Normal, Sonic Pieces, Humming Conch and Symbolic Interaction as labels he has worked with. His live performances have meant he has been able to share the stage with artists such as Machinefabriek, Ian Hawgood, Simon Scott, Library Tapes, Jasper TX, Danny Norbury, Boduf Songs and Talvihorros.
Kiruna is Konntinents first full length release for Hibernate and was conceived as a standalone piece of work. It is not to be considered in relation to previous or future Konntinent releases although the cold environment in which it was inspired also played a strong part in Nospelt, last years Arev Konn album on Humming Conch. Kiruna was conceived and recorded in January and February of 2011, against the backdrop of Londons coldest winter in memory. It is very much inspired by the depths of winter and the impenetrable nights of the town after which it is named. Recording took place over four improvised sessions, utilising analog instruments and a handfull of external effects units. The sessions were edited and sequenced specifically for vinyl. To date Kiruna is the last Konntinent studio work recorded."
-
- "Un Giorno Sospeso is the new album by Italian ambient electronica artist Elisa Luu.
As evidenced on recently released single Se Fosse Per Me, Un Giorno Sospeso is dense with chiming tones, buoyant beats, skittering horns and immersive drones. From the shimmering, levitating tones of Flussigirl to the rattling, dark drone-beat of Il Tempo Di Capire, Elisa Luus brilliant marriage of texture and composition is on virtuoso display.
Elisa Luus alchemical touch is in full bloom on this, her long-awaited second album for Hidden Shoal. Her uniquely crafted compositions carry a warmth and vulnerability that belies their digitally manipulated textures. The album takes the glorious blueprint of debut Chromatic Sigh and accentuates the highlights and shadows, making for a deliciously disorientating trip."
- Hidden Shoal Recordings
Elisa Luu (Elisabetta Luciani)
- "Is a Rome based composer. She begins her music career as a saxophone player, moving freely from fusion to jazz. Elisa Luu has been involved in many music projects over the years, including fusion quartet Prodotti Speciali and Shorts Monday Night Jazz Orchestra. She participated to Berklee Jazz clinics where she got a special mention as alto sax player. In 2007 she moved forward and started to compose ambient/electronic music. She is also the co-founder of La Bèl, an Italian netlabel offering free electroacoustic music, including her own EP The time of waiting. In 2009 she released her debut album Chromatic Sigh with Hidden Shoal Recordings. Now her new single Se fosse per me is out - taken from her forthcoming long-awaited second album with the same Australian-based independent music label, which is going to be released in June."
- http://www.elisaluu.com/home.html
- Emusic
Oval - Sophioko EP
Released July 31 on Ghostly
Marco Lucchi - Abandoned Seashores
music
Father Murphy - Anyway Your Children Will Deny It
- "After excellent reviews and endless touring all over the world, supporting bands like Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu and Sic Alps, the Italian weirdos Father Murphy are back with a brand new album titled Anyway your children will deny it. It is the latest, boldest installation of an ongoing series of albums investigating the bands favorite themes: life, death, love, religion and even more death.
For this album, the Italian trio comprised of Reverend Freddie (vocals, guitar), Chiara Lee (vocals, keyboards, percussion) and Vittorio De Marin (vocals, drums, strings), took some time to craft and expand their sonic palette to almost epic proportions, unleashing an LP that is their most personal, sophisticated anddare I sayaccessible work to date.
The opener How we ended up with feeling of Guilt sets the tone with a distant rumble of crashing waves, introducing the desolate chanting of Reverend Freddie. Father Murphys amalgamation of noise and pop instincts collide with echoes of Henry Cow, Jacula and far-out contemporary classical music. It is funny, it is restful. Both came quickly is another sonic surprise. Its Father Murphy at their most black metal-isha fuzzy aural slab reeking of fury and desperation. In praise of our doubts continues with big, menacing orchestral stabs and tortured vocals.
But it is not all madness and desolation in Father Murphyland. The last two tracks are the bands most hopeful moments. In the flood, with the flood tackles celestial drones and ecstatic buzz while the closer Don't let yourself be hurt this time is a subdued call-to-arms, a hymn to personal responsibility sung and performed with a Young Marble Giants simplicity.
Recorded by the band and mixed by Greg Saunier of Deerhoof (who added an extra beautifully psychedelic shade to the songs), Anyway, your children will deny it is the groups definitive album: dark, uncompromising, yet still open to the future and its possibilities."
- Aagoo Records
- Emusic