Really enjoying this new one from Sara Serpa (vocals) with Ingrid Laubrock (sax) and Erik Friedlander (cello). Just released on Clean Feed last week and showed up in last day or two on eMusic. Should have some crossover appeal for both the jazz crowd and contemporary classical/vocal crowd here.
Released i 2000 on Sphalax and re-released in march 2018 on Urban Noisy (Urban Sax, Gilbert Artman) and Replica Recordings as "name your price"
Composer: Gilbert Artman
Sax soprano et baryton : Philippe Bolliet
Sax ténor et soprano : Fred Aquaviva
Sax alto et baryton : Alain Douchet
Sax alto et soprano : Sébastien Jalier
Percus électro : Bilgert Namtra
A cut-down quartet version of Urban Sax composed and directed by the visionary composer Gilbert Artman, fusing urban ambiance and electronics with his unique concept of minimalism and jazz. The musical result is perfectly illustrated by the that An exploration of minimalistic soundscapes and repetitive music designing a spacey odyssey through unknown territories. An ethereal meeting somewhere between Steve Reich, Magma and post-Daevid Allen Gong
ETA: From the same source, Released in 2018, but without release history as far as I have been able to work out.:
Another evolution of Urban Sax concept, composed and directed by the visionary composer Gilbert Artman, conceived as a double quintet of talented multi-instrumentalists (featuring Jac Berrocal, Bernard Weber, Frederic Acquaviva and Emiko Ota among others) players working over a compositonal control of sound spatialization
After making several films without music, director Jessica Gorter went
for a different approach for her recent film ‘The Red Soul’. Rutger
Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek) was brought in to make the soundtrack
for the documentary. They quickly agreed that the score needed to be
very subtle, and not cliché-driven or overdramatic. An old bakelite
record with a speech from Stalin and a few old LPs with Soviet songs
became the starting point for the music. Fragments of these were
sampled, transformed and combined with the saxophone of Ilia Belorukov
and percussion by René Aquarius (of Dead Neanderthals). The result is a
series of textural and tonal collages that evokes a sense of decay as
well as (false) nostalgia, perfectly fitting the theme of the film. On
the soundtrack album, the various parts of the score are assembled to be
heard as one seamless piece - as a story in itself.
The Caretaker - Everywhere at the end of time, Stage 4
Post-Awareness Stage 4 is where
serenity and the ability to recall singular memories gives way to
confusions and horror. It's the beginning of an eventual process where
all memories begin to become more fluid through entanglements,
repetition and rupture.
ETA: This comes along for free with the above from the very generous Leyland Kirby:
The Caretaker - Take Care, It's A Desert Out There Release date: 05 April 2018
A new album of exclusive, previously unreleased material
from The Caretaker released in memory of and for Mark Fisher, the
legendary writer, cultural theorist and pioneering blogger (k-punk) who
passed away on the 13th January 2017. Copies of this release were given
to all attendees of The Caretaker's Barbican performance for Unsound
Disclocation last week. There are now 400 more copies available - please
noite that ths edition isn't numbered or signed. 100% of proceeds from
this release will be donated to MIND, the mental health charity - so if
yr thinking of flipping these - please don't.
Ever since he wrote the extensive liner notes for The Caretaker’s Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia boxset
in 2005, Mark Fisher was instrumental in contextualising the complex,
abstract nature of The Caretaker’s music to beguiled listeners across
the world. Along with the music of Burial and Broadcast, for example,
The Caretaker’s output fell under what Fisher described as “Hauntology” -
a portmanteau of haunting and ontology which is rooted in
Derrida’s study of the failure of Marxism and the left - which Fisher
applied to contemporary culture, distinguishing merely “nostalgic” and
revivalist culture from hauntological art and culture which is typified
by its “refusal to give up on the desire for the future.”
The Caretaker’s work, including this billowing new longform
piece, has always resonated with and fed into Fisher’s ideas, so we
could hardly think of a more fitting send off from Leyland Kirby’s
cherished vessel. We wholeheartedly recommend this CD, and also reading
all of Fisher’s work - from his collected writings for The Wire and
other publications, to his daringly seminal Capitalist Realism: Is there no alternative?,
which proposes a direct link between increased diagnoses of mental
health problems and the incessant trudge of capitalism, and suggest a
way beyond the assertion that “it is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism”.
"Like
their namesake the 3-headed extraterrestrial planet-killing dragon,
that was responsible for the destruction of the Venusian civilization
and that began causing so much trouble for Godzilla and Mothra back in
1964, this trio comes from the Great Beyond with a mission of fiery
improvisation and a protocol take no prisoners in the process.
Featuring
Andrea Centazzo on percussion, Tania Chen on piano and Henry Kaiser on
guitar. Italian percussionist/electronics wizard Andrea Centazzo has
been collaborating with Kaiser, since 40 years ago in the late
seventies. Mr. Kaiser and Mr. Centazzo have kept in touch through the
years, recording a double duo LP with Toshinori Kondo in 1979, a duo CD
for Ictus Records (Centazzo’s label) in 2007 and a Derek Bailey tribute
CD in 2012.
For this new trio CD, Kaiser and Centazzo have added pianist Tania Chen,
who has recorded with Kaiser on two discs in the last few years (OCEAN
OF STORMS with Wadada Leo Smith) and another: MEGASONIC CHAPEL, that
blended Korean Court Music and Shaman music with free improvisation. On
Ghidorah they explore absolutely contemporary free improv strategies and
all 3 players radically push the vocabulary and expression of their
instruments beyond where they have gone before. Kaiser in particular
discovered new forms and sounds of electric guitar expression during the
recording of this album, like the continous creation that happens in
some remote corner of the multi-verse where space monsters are born."
Sonar’s fourth release Vortex reflects the sound of surprise. After three uncompromising quartet albums exploring the edges of minimalist groove, the Swiss group has partnered with renowned guitarist, composer and producer David Torn for its RareNoise debut.
The band, comprised of guitarists Stephan Thelen and Bernhard Wagner, bassist Christian Kuntner and drummer Manuel Pasquinelli have long been celebrated for combining the visceral power and dynamics of art rock with a minimalist aesthetic. Their previous album, 2015’s Black Light, attracted significant media and musician attention. Legendary avant-guitarist Henry Kaiser took a particular interest in the group and was determined to pair them up with Torn for their next album.
A master of the mixing board from the late '60s until the '90s, Bernard Estardy was the wizard of French musical recordings. As head of CBE studios, he shaped everything from Gérard Manset's concept albums to Claude François's hit singles, Françoise Hardy's delicate tear-jerkers and Michel Sardou's soul-stirrers. This "giant" had his hand in the whole range of mainstream French music by making his studio a veritable playground for experimentation. His legendary album La Formule du Baron, released in 1969, and the eight LPs of production music he made between 1974 and 1978 for Tele Music are vivid proof. Born Bad Records present Bernard Estardy's Space Oddities 1970-1982, a collection of his work.
On “Organism_evolution”, the follow-up to last year’s critically acclaimed “Organism”, AROVANE and PORYA HATAMI add elements of musique concrète and electro acoustic music to their experimental, field recording-based ambient sounds. ... “Organism_evolution”, as the title points out, develops further the aesthetics of “Organism” where the duo crafted sophisticated ambient music of timeless beauty. Their new album reveals influences of musique concrète and electro acoustic music that place the tracks in a more experimental field. Using techniques like modular synthesis, granular synthesis, spectral processing, granular synthesis, resynthesis and resonator / modal synthesis, AROVANE and HATAMI used many different layers of processed sounds and field recordings to create depth and complexity – with every new encounter, the listener will discover new sonic aspects and dive deeper into the multifaceted structures of the masterly sound-designed 23 compositions.
Arnold de Boer - Vocals, guitar, claps Terrie Hessels - Guitar Katherina Bornefeld - Drums, vocals Andy Moor - Guitar, baritone guitar - released March 22, 2018
The Ex started playing in 1979. Using guitars, bass, drums and voice as their starting point The Ex have continued to musically explore undiscovered areas right up to the present day: collaborations with jazz musicians and an Iraqi-Kurdish band, Kamagurka, Tom Cora, Sonic Youth, Han Bennink, Jan Mulder, Shellac and Wolter Wierbos. In 2002 The Ex set up a lively musical exchange with Ethiopia.
This is one of the albums that would have been on my 2017 list, if only I had known about it.
Martin Hall (piano, keyboards, electronics, tape material and balalaika) The Vista Dome Ensemble (orchestra) Lydenskab (ensemble) Konsort (choir) Michael Morelli (countertenor on ”Racing Cars”) Daniel Ostersen (boy’s voice on ”H”) Maiken Kildegaard (girl’s voice on ”H”) Christian Skeel (keyboards on (”Design”)
Recorded at Regent House, The Music Room, Herning Church, The Cisterns and at a set of random locations using mobile equipment.
The two records contain newly edited versions of the four major pieces of music Hall has recorded for Ingvar Cronhammar in the period 2001-2017.
The first time the two artists collaborated was in connection with the inauguration of the Elia steel dome outside Herning in 2001. Next time it happened was in conjunction with the ARoS exhibition Racing Cars in 2006. In 2015 their cooperation reached its preliminary culmination with the subterranean reservoir installation H at the Cisterns in Copenhagen, an event that was visited by almost 100.000 people and won great appraisal from both the audience and art critics all over the world (such as The New York Times).
It was in relation to the retrospective exhibition Ingvar Cronhammar Design at HEART (Herning Museum of Contemporary Art) in 2017 that Martin Hall wrote and recorded the fourth piece of music for the box set.
”H” was an installation at The Cisterns in Copenhagen, Denmark, made by Ingvar Cronhammar with original music written by Martin Hall. The site-specific exhibition took place from the 3rd of March until the 29th of November 2015, received a line of sublime reviews and was visited by more than 90.000 guests.
The featured piece of music is an excerpt taken from the composition “H” which lasts one hour in its full duration. It’s written and produced by Martin Hall and the selected seven minutes feature performances by Hall, Daniel Ostersen and Lydenskab.
Strange Paradise is the sophomore album from Brooklyn-based
composer-performer trio Tigue, following the group's widely celebrated
debut album Peaks (2015).
Tigue is a group of three percussionists with a fluid musical identity.
Praised for their energetic and focused performances, the members of
Tigue (Matt Evans, Amy Garapic and Carson Moody) have played together
since they were practically children — continuously making their own
blend of instrumental minimalism while simultaneously performing in
collaborative projects. Strange Paradise sees them building worlds as a
unit, pushing each other to transcend the limits and expectations of
their percussion instrumentation in the construction of long-form,
radiant hypnotic soundscapes the group describes as “rendered in
ecstatic complexity.”
The music on Strange Paradise flows directly from the hands and minds of
the members, the result of a deep human connection that can only come
from playing music together nearly a decade. The group wrote the music
with a sense of immediacy — everyone together in a room, with
vibraphones, drums, synthesizers, gongs and garbage — with every sound
maintaining an intimate connection to its creator. The members’ distinct
musical voices interlock seamlessly, and the pieces radiate with warmth.
As a result, Strange Paradise is a luminous, abstract, non-narrative
world that funnels inspiration from patterns, objects, and
relationships. Built on an intricate patchwork of tones where
instrumental lines and textures shift in and out of alignment to produce
a vibrating landscape, Strange Paradise is designed for a mode of
“extended listening” — asking listeners to explore slow gradations of
change between rhythm and texture. The album creates a sound environment
that envelopes the listener but continually defies expectation —
shapeshifting at each point it seems understood. Though the music floats
from the serene to the uncanny, Strange Paradise is perhaps most
notable for providing a distinct sensation of interconnectedness.
We're delighted to say that our latest project, Sound Photography, launches today, and it's a unique collection of sounds and images covering 34 countries across six continents.
More than 160 artists took part, creating sound pieces based on photographs submitted from around the world - the project examines the relationship between photography and sound in today's visually-dominated culture.
The sounds in the project are designed to be listened to at the same time as enjoying the photographs, to create a genuine multimedia experience that transcends the photography or music individually.
. . . The Parisian duo is made up of Stéphane Laporte (Domotic) and Olivier
Lamm (o.lamm), two musicians who have been active since the late 90’s in the
French post-electronica/avant-pop scene.
Sur Les Autres Mondes finds its title and a fitting visual inspiration
in a publication by French astronomer Lucien Rudaux (1937, Larousse) in
which he imagined the landscapes of other planets in our solar system
through scientific descriptions. Partly composed for a performance at
the prestigious Louvre museum in Paris, the album is the band’s first
full length output since 2012, and we can assure you that it has been
worth the wait. Their sharp ear for detail and the epic worlds evoked
through the album make for an auditory voyage which is as graphic as the
words inked by Rudaux.
The duo is bringing the 70’s kosmiche genre back to life in a very
fresh, bold way, offering a strong shot of pure analogue sound and a
fantastic, melodic approach to synth-based ambient music.
All music by M.A.L. Fender Stratocaster 1964, pedal Wah-Wah Cry Baby.
Recorded and mixed at home between 1972 and 1976 on a reel to reel recorder Sony TC-630.
Four decades after its release (on Orh, 1975), Inventions for Electric
Guitar, the solo debut byAsh Ra Temple guitarist Manuel Göttsching, is
now a classic, an undisputed worldwide reference. This album was made
using only an electric guitar and a simple 4-track tape recorder. So was
the challenge, and so was its impact. Göttsching recorded it in
July-August 1974 in Berlin, after a sudden technical revelation. The
original LP sleeve had the following printed on its back: Manuel
Göttsching (guitars only). Manuel played his guitar and used a 4 track
TEAC A3340, Revox A77 for echoes, WahWah pedal, volume pedal, Sola Sound
Fuzz, Schaller Rotosound and Hawaiian steel bar. The reaction was
unanimous: this was a significant innovation, in terms of both technique
and creativity. However, there are little-known facts to this case. In
early 1974, Göttsching's label received a tape sent by M.A.L. - same
design, same configuration, almost the same tracks. This is known by
only a handful of experimental musicians from the Charleroi area.M.A.L.
aka Daniel Malempréis the actual inventor of this technique, which
Göttsching reproduced a few months later. Given the above, I suggest
that we listen to both albums. As doubts are removed, the truth sets in,
forty years later. Here's hoping that this will ease the deep disgust
that made M.A.L. leave his guitar untouched for so long.
Don't let this one slip under the radar. It was formally released about a month ago on OA2, but only showed up today on eMusic. As such, you likely won't see it if sorting by "New This Week", etc. It's a very good album, and priced well on eMusic ($4.49).
(Aside: I've noticed that Origin/OA2 releases often are delayed 3-4 weeks before showing up on eMusic, so I periodically search by label on eMusic so as to not miss hidden gems like this one. Ironically, I think the ones held back by Origin/OA2 are the releases they expect to sell well, so they wait before releasing to discounters).
And while on the subject of delayed releases that you will likely miss if just looking for new releases by date, eMusic just made available a bevy of jazz releases from Unit Records from the months of March, April and May, most of which pre-date some very recent Unit releases already available on eMusic. (Again, not sure why the inconsistency - some are available on the true release date, some come with delay).
I haven't sampled all of these yet, but based on past experience with the label, I'm sure their are some gems here, and most are at a great price, too... (Stylistically, Unit Records tends to edge towards fairly traditional jazz with modern flourishes. So, less Hubro or Clean Feed, and more Sunnyside or Posi-Tone, but with a decidedly European flair).
It's been a good couple weeks for jazz and beyond on eMusic, including this songlines release that actually appeared on it's release date - wonders never cease: (also available on Bandcamp)
- "Let Night Come On Bells End The Dayfollows the release of her “sound-wheel” LP All My Circles Run, which examines the isolation of different instruments. recorded mainly with a Mellotron and electronic organ, feels like a return to the nest.Burrowed in the studio, Davachi was the only performer on this album.She both splays her compositional architecture and re-contextualizes the essence of her early output.She chiseled careful and shadowed hymns; anchors of emotion.
Two pillars of this album are “Mordents”, which to my ears drops hints of her love for Progressive rock music – and “Buhrstone,” comparable to a sombre funeral march of piano and flutes. These two examine punctuations of early music, gently plucking melodies and movements.The three other compositions are tonal works, blowing slow jets of lapping harmonics.
Writing this description now, I find it hard to separate “At Hand” from filmmaker Paul Clipson, who made a melancholic film for this piece of Sarah’s.A fitting title for Sarah and Paul’s relationship – frequently working in orbit of each other, meticulous and tactile.I cherish this track as a memory of Paul.
This is a lovely album to fill an evening living room with. A blanket, a cup of wine, a dim bulb, a wide window."
It was not available on it's release date (nor even this past Friday), but as of today the "new" (new release of an older live performance) E.S.T. double album, along with a slew of other new ACT Music releases, is up on the eMusic site:
And speaking of live jazz releases, another interesting new one on AUM Fidelity (available on eMusic, and likely a bargain in Europe... a bit of a surprise as the next most recent AUM Fidelity release on eMu is from 2015):
@soulcoal Thanks for the heads up with Seraphic Light. Just read a very positive review of the album in this month's Wire mag. That's my journey to work sorted.
Siberian band NYTT LAND presents
its new epic musical canvas. Working with the same unchanging 4
band-members, the musicians continue to revive the true magical sound of
the Ancient North.
NYTT LAND 'Oðal'
Oðal is inspired by the traditional music of the indigenous peoples
of Siberia, the Old Icelandic epic and the atmosphere of classic
Norwegian black metal.
This time the album was recorded without using samples; all parts of the instruments were performed live. All songs were recorded and mixed in one of the technical quality best Russian studios, "Radio Sibir", which strongly affected the sound quality. All the sounds of nature were recorded in western Siberia and northern Norway.
For the first time the 4-year-old son of Natalia and Anatoly, Yuri Pakhalenko, took part. By this they emphasise the concept of the album - heritage.
As in the previous album, Fimbulvinter (CSR234CD), Oðal features the traditional Siberian overtone singing technique "kargyraa", but the overtone singing by vocalist Natalia Pakhalenko gives a special character to the sound. This is very unique, since this technique is a almost exclusively a male singing practice due to its physicality.
Comments
Really enjoying this new one from Sara Serpa (vocals) with Ingrid Laubrock (sax) and Erik Friedlander (cello). Just released on Clean Feed last week and showed up in last day or two on eMusic. Should have some crossover appeal for both the jazz crowd and contemporary classical/vocal crowd here.
https://www.emusic.com/album/151276587/Sara-Serpa/Close-Up
ETA: From the same source, Released in 2018, but without release history as far as I have been able to work out.:
Emusers guide to Ilia Belorukov
The Caretaker - Everywhere at the end of time, Stage 4
ETA: This comes along for free with the above from the very generous Leyland Kirby:
The Caretaker - Take Care, It's A Desert Out There
Release date: 05 April 2018
A new album of exclusive, previously unreleased material from The Caretaker released in memory of and for Mark Fisher, the legendary writer, cultural theorist and pioneering blogger (k-punk) who passed away on the 13th January 2017. Copies of this release were given to all attendees of The Caretaker's Barbican performance for Unsound Disclocation last week. There are now 400 more copies available - please noite that ths edition isn't numbered or signed. 100% of proceeds from this release will be donated to MIND, the mental health charity - so if yr thinking of flipping these - please don't.
Ever since he wrote the extensive liner notes for The Caretaker’s Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia boxset in 2005, Mark Fisher was instrumental in contextualising the complex, abstract nature of The Caretaker’s music to beguiled listeners across the world. Along with the music of Burial and Broadcast, for example, The Caretaker’s output fell under what Fisher described as “Hauntology” - a portmanteau of haunting and ontology which is rooted in Derrida’s study of the failure of Marxism and the left - which Fisher applied to contemporary culture, distinguishing merely “nostalgic” and revivalist culture from hauntological art and culture which is typified by its “refusal to give up on the desire for the future.”
The Caretaker’s work, including this billowing new longform piece, has always resonated with and fed into Fisher’s ideas, so we could hardly think of a more fitting send off from Leyland Kirby’s cherished vessel. We wholeheartedly recommend this CD, and also reading all of Fisher’s work - from his collected writings for The Wire and other publications, to his daringly seminal Capitalist Realism: Is there no alternative?, which proposes a direct link between increased diagnoses of mental health problems and the incessant trudge of capitalism, and suggest a way beyond the assertion that “it is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism”.
Featuring Andrea Centazzo on percussion, Tania Chen on piano and Henry Kaiser on guitar. Italian percussionist/electronics wizard Andrea Centazzo has been collaborating with Kaiser, since 40 years ago in the late seventies. Mr. Kaiser and Mr. Centazzo have kept in touch through the years, recording a double duo LP with Toshinori Kondo in 1979, a duo CD for Ictus Records (Centazzo’s label) in 2007 and a Derek Bailey tribute CD in 2012.
For this new trio CD, Kaiser and Centazzo have added pianist Tania Chen, who has recorded with Kaiser on two discs in the last few years (OCEAN OF STORMS with Wadada Leo Smith) and another: MEGASONIC CHAPEL, that blended Korean Court Music and Shaman music with free improvisation. On Ghidorah they explore absolutely contemporary free improv strategies and all 3 players radically push the vocabulary and expression of their instruments beyond where they have gone before. Kaiser in particular discovered new forms and sounds of electric guitar expression during the recording of this album, like the continous creation that happens in some remote corner of the multi-verse where space monsters are born."
The band, comprised of guitarists Stephan Thelen and Bernhard Wagner, bassist Christian Kuntner and drummer Manuel Pasquinelli have long been celebrated for combining the visceral power and dynamics of art rock with a minimalist aesthetic. Their previous album, 2015’s Black Light, attracted significant media and musician attention. Legendary avant-guitarist Henry Kaiser took a particular interest in the group and was determined to pair them up with Torn for their next album.
My two cents: Sonar and David Torn is a match made in heaven.
Bernard Estardy 1939 - 2006
Arovane & Porya Hatami - Organism_evolution
New out on Karl records on double CD.
...
“Organism_evolution”, as the title points out, develops further the aesthetics of “Organism” where the duo crafted sophisticated ambient music of timeless beauty. Their new album reveals influences of musique concrète and electro acoustic music that place the tracks in a more experimental field. Using techniques like modular synthesis, granular synthesis, spectral processing, granular synthesis, resynthesis and resonator / modal synthesis, AROVANE and HATAMI used many different layers of processed sounds and field recordings to create depth and complexity – with every new encounter, the listener will discover new sonic aspects and dive deeper into the multifaceted structures of the masterly sound-designed 23 compositions.
- Once featuring the late Tom Cora ( on Scrabbling At The Lock and And The Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders )
Arnold de Boer - Vocals, guitar, claps
Terrie Hessels - Guitar
Katherina Bornefeld - Drums, vocals
Andy Moor - Guitar, baritone guitar
- released March 22, 2018
The Ex at Bandcamp Daily
This had not been available on eMusic (was released a couple months ago on RareNoise Records), but showed up today:
Jamie Saft - Sola a Genova (eMusic)
The Vista Dome Ensemble (orchestra)
Lydenskab (ensemble)
Konsort (choir)
Michael Morelli (countertenor on ”Racing Cars”)
Daniel Ostersen (boy’s voice on ”H”)
Maiken Kildegaard (girl’s voice on ”H”)
Christian Skeel (keyboards on (”Design”)
Recorded at Regent House, The Music Room, Herning Church, The Cisterns and at a set of random locations using mobile equipment.
The first time the two artists collaborated was in connection with the inauguration of the Elia steel dome outside Herning in 2001. Next time it happened was in conjunction with the ARoS exhibition Racing Cars in 2006. In 2015 their cooperation reached its preliminary culmination with the subterranean reservoir installation H at the Cisterns in Copenhagen, an event that was visited by almost 100.000 people and won great appraisal from both the audience and art critics all over the world (such as The New York Times).
It was in relation to the retrospective exhibition Ingvar Cronhammar Design at HEART (Herning Museum of Contemporary Art) in 2017 that Martin Hall wrote and recorded the fourth piece of music for the box set.
- Martin Hall.com - Emusic
This is a live recording of the 'Kiss Your Darlings'-release concert at Atlas. Featuring the band Røgsignal on two of the tracks.
Tigue - Strange Paradise
MATT EVANS - AMY GARAPIC - CARSON MOODY
Tigue is a group of three percussionists with a fluid musical identity. Praised for their energetic and focused performances, the members of Tigue (Matt Evans, Amy Garapic and Carson Moody) have played together since they were practically children — continuously making their own blend of instrumental minimalism while simultaneously performing in collaborative projects. Strange Paradise sees them building worlds as a unit, pushing each other to transcend the limits and expectations of their percussion instrumentation in the construction of long-form, radiant hypnotic soundscapes the group describes as “rendered in ecstatic complexity.”
The music on Strange Paradise flows directly from the hands and minds of the members, the result of a deep human connection that can only come from playing music together nearly a decade. The group wrote the music with a sense of immediacy — everyone together in a room, with vibraphones, drums, synthesizers, gongs and garbage — with every sound maintaining an intimate connection to its creator. The members’ distinct musical voices interlock seamlessly, and the pieces radiate with warmth.
As a result, Strange Paradise is a luminous, abstract, non-narrative world that funnels inspiration from patterns, objects, and relationships. Built on an intricate patchwork of tones where instrumental lines and textures shift in and out of alignment to produce a vibrating landscape, Strange Paradise is designed for a mode of “extended listening” — asking listeners to explore slow gradations of change between rhythm and texture. The album creates a sound environment that envelopes the listener but continually defies expectation — shapeshifting at each point it seems understood. Though the music floats from the serene to the uncanny, Strange Paradise is perhaps most notable for providing a distinct sensation of interconnectedness.
New Amsterdam - NNA Tapes - Emusic - Tigue at Emusers
Released May 4, 2018 on Touch
Sound Photography launches today!
We're delighted to say that our latest project, Sound Photography, launches today, and it's a unique collection of sounds and images covering 34 countries across six continents.
More than 160 artists took part, creating sound pieces based on photographs submitted from around the world - the project examines the relationship between photography and sound in today's visually-dominated culture.
The sounds in the project are designed to be listened to at the same time as enjoying the photographs, to create a genuine multimedia experience that transcends the photography or music individually.
You can experience the project in three ways:
• An interactive media player, where you search and navigate by country or artist
• A global map of images and their corresponding sounds
• An immersive, full-screen photo gallery experience
Egyptology - Sur Les Autres Mondes
Hands in the Dark - Emusic -Egyptology at Emusers
Sub Rosa - Emusic
(Aside: I've noticed that Origin/OA2 releases often are delayed 3-4 weeks before showing up on eMusic, so I periodically search by label on eMusic so as to not miss hidden gems like this one. Ironically, I think the ones held back by Origin/OA2 are the releases they expect to sell well, so they wait before releasing to discounters).
Two pillars of this album are “Mordents”, which to my ears drops hints of her love for Progressive rock music – and “Buhrstone,” comparable to a sombre funeral march of piano and flutes. These two examine punctuations of early music, gently plucking melodies and movements. The three other compositions are tonal works, blowing slow jets of lapping harmonics.
Writing this description now, I find it hard to separate “At Hand” from filmmaker Paul Clipson, who made a melancholic film for this piece of Sarah’s. A fitting title for Sarah and Paul’s relationship – frequently working in orbit of each other, meticulous and tactile. I cherish this track as a memory of Paul.
This is a lovely album to fill an evening living room with. A blanket, a cup of wine, a dim bulb, a wide window."
-Sean McCann / Recital
- Recital Program - Emusic - Sarah at Emusers here and here
Sarah Davachi
Siberian band NYTT LAND presents its new epic musical canvas. Working with the same unchanging 4 band-members, the musicians continue to revive the true magical sound of the Ancient North.
NYTT LAND 'Oðal'
This time the album was recorded without using samples; all parts of the instruments were performed live. All songs were recorded and mixed in one of the technical quality best Russian studios, "Radio Sibir", which strongly affected the sound quality. All the sounds of nature were recorded in western Siberia and northern Norway.
For the first time the 4-year-old son of Natalia and Anatoly, Yuri Pakhalenko, took part. By this they emphasise the concept of the album - heritage.
As in the previous album, Fimbulvinter (CSR234CD), Oðal features the traditional Siberian overtone singing technique "kargyraa", but the overtone singing by vocalist Natalia Pakhalenko gives a special character to the sound. This is very unique, since this technique is a almost exclusively a male singing practice due to its physicality.
- Cold Spring - Bandcamp