30 июл. 2014 г.

Silva



Silva' is the debut release from Norwegian-based label Miasmah, yet it is by no means their first foray into the music scene. After working as a net-label releasing MP3 albums and EPs for years, they have already racked up over 60 releases, featuring artists such as Helios, Paavoharju and Deaf Center. No surprise then that holding the reigns at Miasmah is Erik Skodvin, one half of the aforementioned and always mysterious Deaf Center. While compiling this compilation, Skodvin asked artists he had worked with and who he admired to create a track with a theme in mind; theatrical and dark organic music. Hearing Deaf Center's most recent album 'Pale Ravine' would give you a good idea on this sound, yet Skodvin wanted to take it further, and in doing so he has managed to collect up some of the best artists working in the genre at the moment. Opening the compilation is newcomer Makunouchi Bento who contributes a solemn piano piece, before Type mainstay Julien Neto launches into 'Ninety Four', which is the first we've heard of him since his breathtaking debut album. City Centre Offices double act Yasume also make an extremely rare appearance with new track 'Wakare' (which for those interested means 'Farewell' in Japanese…), a Lynchian fusion of strings and digitally enhanced beats. Marsen Jules, also of City Centre Offices, offers up yet more of the droney orchestral goodness we have come to love with 'Rainy Days in Milan', and Type's Ryan Teague takes the orchestral theme even further with a dark violin piece, guaranteed to send shivers down your spine. As the record comes to a close, with the blood curdling tryptich of Dead Center, Svarte Greiner (Erik Skodvin's solo project) and Lampse's Jasper TX one thing is on your mind, to press play once more and re-live the darkly mysterious dreamscape that is 'Silva



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29 июл. 2014 г.

Optofonica



Can we give some kind of award to Line overseer Richard Chartier for ensuring that material of this rarefied and elaborately presented kind—especially in such fragile economic times—finds it way into the marketplace? Though issued in a run of only 1000 copies, the deluxe release perpetuates Line's high standards by packaging its DVD case and fifty-two-page full-colour booklet within an embossed slipcase—an embarrassment of riches, visually speaking. On Optofonica, Optofonica, a platform for art-science situated in Amsterdam and founded in 2006 by TeZ, presents two-and-a-half hours of twenty-three video-sound projects (involving forty-two artists from thirteen different countries) of the synaesthetic kind you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else. It also makes for an incredible headphones listening experience, especially when the Surround Sound option is selected. In some cases, a piece pairs a visual artist and a sound artist; in other cases, the work is the product of a single individual or outfit.

Some pieces naturally turn out to be more memorable than others, including Marcel Wierckx's “Black Noise White Silence,” a three-minute, achromatic blizzard of eruptive convulsions and rapidly fluttering forms; Otolab's “Animula,” which pairs animation suggestive of caged electronic fireflies and clangorous buzzing and combustion; and Rayxxxx's dizzying “Pulse,”  which conjoins jagged, stroboscopic shapes to rubbery techno-like rhythms. In the mesmerizing “Rhythm Exp.,” Frank Bretschneider brings his meticulous rhythmning to a beautifully spare display of snowy dot galaxies. In Quayola, Mira Calix, and Autobam's “Strata #2,” a spectral setting in a ‘holy minimalism' vein, piano and orchestral elements (horns, strings) provide a jarring but not unwelcome change in musical style from the release's predominating style; the piece is as striking visually in depicting shards extending out of stain glass windows and in synchronizing them to the electronic intrusions—a bold merging of the medieval and the modern in audio and video terms.

Also noteworthy is “Waterfall,” a collaborative piece by Ryan Jeffery and Scanner, which laces a mini-soundtrack by Robin Rimbaud of synthetic whooshes and Japanese voices with menace and paranoia while visually alternating between the illuminated interior of a night-time office and the amplified crackle of tree branches. Ulf Langheinrich's vaporous drone “It Would Have Been Fantastic” shows a dust storm of white particles morphing into a flickering blue-dominated colour field display; David Muth & Hiaz's “Counterclockwise” configures transluscent veils into fan-like displays; and Kanta Horio's “Em#3”—talk about minimalism!—deploys magnetism to direct tiny nail-like rods, whose rapid motion generates magnified noise, along hard surfaces. Relatedly, “Sonolevitation” by Evelina Domnitch, Dmitry Gelfand, and Chartier shows flat, vertically aligned shapes suspended in mid-air with a droning field of sine tones and whirrs as accompaniment. “Raindrops #7” by Jason Graham, Kim Cascone, and Tez pairs rivulets of rain on windows with the kind of creeping digital sounds—like factory sounds ricocheting through the galaxy—one associates with Cascone.

There's more, of course, with contributions coming from Skoltz_Kolgen, Martijn Van Boven, Ryoichi Kurokawa, Kurt Hentschlager, and Natalie Bewernitz and Marek Goldowski (whose “Life at the Witch Trails” deserves a prize for best title). In certain cases, yes, the audio portion delivers pretty much what one would expect—granular, glitch-laden material where melody is absent, rhythm surfaces rarely, and textural sculpting is paramount—but the release (whose works span three years) features enough captivating audio-visual synchronicities to earn its recommendation (in a perfect world, there'd be page numbers included in the booklet but even mentioning it seems churlish in light of what's provided).




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28 июл. 2014 г.

Music And Migration



In early 2010, Second Language released a compilation album called Music and Migration which proffered exclusive new songs by an eclectic retinue of left-of-centre artists including Danny Norbury, Carousell, Peter Broderick, Hauschka, Leyland Kirby and Library Tapes. Themed around issues of avian migration, and the many man-made threats to international ‘flyways’ as highlighted by the wildlife conservation charity BirdLife International’s Born to Travel campaign, the album proved to be both an artistic and public awareness ‘hit’, selling out its limited edition almost immediately but not before the migratory awareness ‘message’ had been widely propagated courtesy of healthy media coverage and supporting concert performances.

True to its name, Music and Migration II is that album’s sequel. Sadly, despite BirdLife’s International’s Herculean efforts, avian migratory routes continue to be threatened by the wilfulness and thoughtlessness of mankind. One particular hotbed of human migratory interference is the Maltese archipelago, located on one of the three main routes used by Europe’s breeding birds in their migrations to and from their African wintering grounds. The islands are particularly important as way stations in the middle of the Mediterranean and the spring and autumnal influxes offer spectacular sights; yet, rather than a haven for birds, Malta is a killing ground which can ‘boast’ the highest density of hunters and trappers in Europe, and probably the world.

Several of Malta’s breeding birds were wiped out by hunting: the Jackdaw in the ’50s, the Barn Owl and Peregrine Falcon in the ‘80s. Illegal hunters now target migratory birds, and an analysis of international ring recoveries reveals that birds of at least 75 species from 35 countries have been killed in Malta. While common birds such as Barn Swallows are often shot down for ‘sport’, rarer birds such as Black Storks are chased by vehicle around the islands and shot down for inclusion in private taxidermy collections — a practice facilitated by a local culture of ‘looking the other way’, an under-resourced police force and a lack of punitive anti-hunter legislation, as generally enforced in the remainder of the EC.

BirdLife Malta has been campaigning against the illegalities for close to 50 years now. There are signs of change: the courts have started issuing more serious sentences and law-abiding hunters and trappers are taking the first tentative steps to exposing law breakers within their ranks. Members of the public are becoming increasingly outspoken, and even active, against the illegal killing.

Music & Migration II aims to help support BirdLife Malta’s campaign against illegal hunting and raise awareness of the issues by once again inviting an international coterie of gifted musicians from across a panorama of styles and genres to contribute new, especially recorded songs. Migratory birds recognise no national boundaries, and nor does Second Language; so, here you’ll find music from Great Britain, Japan, Denmark, France, Germany, Australia and the USA, all of it united (even the instrumental tracks) by a respect and fascination with the avian world and a more than passing acquaintance with the resonances contained in the metaphor ‘free as a bird’.

International support is key to ensuring that the Malta chapter is just one of a volume, and not the final chapter, in the lives of many birds, so please lend your support to this noble cause. Find out more here: www.birdlifemalta.org or www.birdlife.org

‘Music & Migration II’ comes packaged in a fold-out 496mm x 744mm poster designed by Good Pilot and Jeff Teader. Limited edition of 500 copies.






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26 июл. 2014 г.

88 Tapes


Keshhhhhh Recordings is based in Cambridge (England) and is run by Simon Scott (you should know him as the ex-drummer from the shoegaze band, Slowdive). I'm not exactly sure what Simon has in mind for the future of his label, but I must say, he's off to a pretty good start. First of all, he's got Taylor Deupree to master the entire compilation in his 12k studio. That alone should give you a pretty good idea about the intent here. And the roster of artists also tends to speak for itself. The eighteen track collection of ambient vignettes and sound explorations all revolve around a central theme. This theme less of a melodic structure, but rather a concept around a particular selection of recordings recorded by Simon Scott on an audio cassette back in 1988. On the liner notes of the release, Scott elaborates: "In 1988 on another rainy Saturday afternoon, whilst looking for sonic inspiration, I decided to take apart and re-assemble my stereo that had a quarter inch input socket as well as a turntable and tape player/recorder. The result was a fantastic malfunctioning, stuttering and glitching piece of equipment that suddenly realized my ideas of creating new sound. I promptly pressed the record button and let rip on my electric guitar and promised myself to write a song from the results one day. In 2008 the tape was rediscovered purely by chance in a house move and the rediscovery of this TDK inspired me to contact a group of artists and composers who I feel are talented and relevant today. There was just a simple single track sent off via email to inspire them to compose a piece of work for this compilation if they had the urge. They did and I am forever grateful to everyone involved in deconstructing the tape track and creating this album." And what a spectacular group of artists it is! The compilation opens up with an sound sparkling interpretation by Yasuhiko Fukuzono as Aus flowing right into a beautiful vocals of Sanae Yamasaki, [aka Moskitoo - see her excellent album, Drape (12k, 2007)]. We then move into noisy guitar feedback and lo-fi acoustic glitch by Mark Templeton (see his numerous releases and appearances on Anticipate Recordings). The 12k roster continues to propagate this selection with contributions by Keiichi Sugimoto as Fourcolor, Sawako, and one of my favorites, Lawrence English. Besides above mentioned aus, a few more artists from the Japanese label, flau, show up later, like Orla Wren and John McCaffrey as Part Timer. Chicago based Kranky Records enters the circle of Scott's friends with a beautiful heavily reverberated breathy piece by Christopher Bissonnette. Further on a release we see his labelmate, Thomas Meluch contribute a track as Benoît Pioulard. We also see an appearance by Akira Kosemura, who previously secured a spot on Airport Symphony - Virtual Terminal, a free deigital companion edition to the Airport Symphony, compiled by the above mentioned prolific Lawrence English and released on Room40 in 2007. A third through the release, Simon Scott finally appears with his own interpretation. A sound artist and a label owner of and/OAR, Dale Lloyd contributes a sonic carpet of luscious frequencies, followed by a ghost-like echoes of gated guitar and vocals by Matt Robson recording as Random Number. Additional appearances include tracks by Greg Davis, Adam Pacione, Ateleia, and Hannu. An excellent roster, don't you think? Meanwhile, Simon Scott prepares for his upcoming solo debut, titled Navigare on none other than Miasmah recordings.



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25 июл. 2014 г.

Fug Gum



All new compilation of headscratch featuring tracks by Tom Recchion, Andrew Coltrane, Crank Sturgeon, Glands Of External Secretion, Graham Lambkin & David Payne, I'dm Thfft Able, Dog Lady, Loachfillet, The Tenses, Phil Minton & Dylan Nyoukis, F Ampism, Kuupuu with Bamse, Tomutonttu, Glyphs, Smack Music 7, Pod Blotz, Steve Kenney, Preggy Peggy and Reijo Pami. 76 minutes to tar and feather the inside of your cranium. Comes with insert of listening notes by Seymour Glass to help optimise your 'Fug Gum' experience.




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22 июл. 2014 г.

15 Shades of White



Dronarivm sums up the year 2013 with '15 Shades of White' CD compilation.

15 tracks that are different in atmosphere and sound are united by a common winter mood.

Winter is a favorite season of philosophers and introvert dreamers, a territory of remembrances and quiet reflections, where nonlinear time allows to bring together the disparate fragments of memories and create a multi-layered collage of pieces of the future, present and past.

Neoclassical pianos, hypnotic strings, light strokes and soft undertones leave a quirky musical pattern on the glass of eternity.

Following is the list of the artists involved in the order it will be heard: Anne Chris Bakker, Talvihorros, Kreng, Ben Lukas Boysen, Aaron Martin & Christoph Berg, Sophie Hutchings & Peter Hollo, Jacaszek (Pleq remix), Marsen Jules, Ian Hawgood & The Green Kingdom, Orla Wren, Kaboom Karavan, Marcus Fjellström, Strië, The Frozen Vaults, Olan Mill

+ 2 digital bonus tracks by Tobias Hellkvist and Zvuku.


Compiled by Bartosz Dziadosz (Pleq)
Mastered by Jason Corder (Offthesky)




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21 июл. 2014 г.

3m33s



3m33s is an ongoing and organically evolving compilation of drones all the same length. Coming from yours truly, friends and whoever wants to submit a track really.

If you purchase or donate money for the compilation, you get upcoming / yet unreleased tracks as bonus material. The compilation is 33 tracks total and all funds generated from your purchase will entirely be used to create a new artist collective / label. Your generosity is something we are incredibly grateful for.

If you are interested in submitting a track, it must be 3 minutes 33 seconds in length, something you consider to be drone and do not mind lending to this compilation under the CC by SA common creative licence. The track title will be the date of its release in the following format: YYYY.MM.DD and your bio and artist photo will be displayed on the track page.

3m33s is a very simple premise: I put out an open call for submissions asking fellow artists, friends and the world at large to make a drone of 3 minutes 33 seconds and lend it to a compilation that I would host and promote in order to raise some funds for an upcoming label / artist collective start up.

And come together, this world did! In less than two weeks I received more than enough submissions to fill up a first volume of the compilation (33 tracks each) and donations so far allowed us to ensure 2 years of hosting for the label's website.

Release of the compilation is handled a little differently than the usual, even though all tracks are in and selected at this point only one new track per day is made publicly available. The goal being to provide each contributing artist with an equal window of exposure. However, when someone donates or purchases the compilation, all upcoming / yet unreleased tracks come in as bonus material!

The influences behind the format are many, but I would like to cite two as show of gratitude: Marc Weidenbaum with his disquiet Junto community project, demonstating week after week how constraints and defined parameters can drive creativity. And then Futuresequence with their humongous compilations (of which I've been a proud contributor) allowing newcomers to sit alongside household names.

3m33s is yet another living example of connectivity as community, showing how furiously fast the world can now rally behind an idea, a project, a concept and help it crystallize into something concrete. Some may say the virtual world has uprooted the grass but I claim it's only spreading it to other pastures which we have yet only faintly discovered.

Contrary to your run of the mill kickstarter / indiegogo campaign there is no fixed defined goal for this fundraiser. The reason behind that is simple: we'll make due with whatever we end up with. Yet, the more the better, obviously. 3.33$ is not even enough for a pint of beer here in Montreal! And we all know the world is measured in pints of beer.

There are already 6 of us in the artist collective (to make this into more of a funraiser, one name will be revealed for every 100$ in contributions received) and we're looking towards a March 3rd official launch date.

As many may already know releases, especially beautiful ones, do not spring from the ground. They require effort, dedication, tools and unfortunately some cold hard cash. Nobody is delusional enough to pretend we're gonna be the next Ghostly, else we'd be on kickstarter asking for quadrillions of dollars. But we're a bunch of honest individuals starting from the ground up and quite humbly asking for everyone's help.

As such, 3m33s will keep organically evolving through new artists submissions, new listeners and the word being spread out into pastures yet unknown both virtual and real. And that is how you can help.
participation: Pleq, Maps and Diagrams, Porya Hatami and thirty others...  




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20 июл. 2014 г.

Porya Hatami



Porya Hatami (b.1981) is an experimental sound artist based in Sanandaj, Iran. Working in the field of ambient/minimal, his compositions explore the balance between electronics and environmental sounds, utilizing processed acoustic and electronic sources and field recording.

Interview







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