Hidden Bird’s Nest (3LEAVES 3L011), eh? Know what you mean…if this was an English folk song record it would be a collection of lusty songs about courtship. Instead this is actually a field recording record made by Hiroki Sasajima and Takahisa Hirao, pointing their microphones into the rich repository of wildlife that abounds in...
Fear and Loading On this day to agitate your molecules in time with the slow crawl of the universe, tune in to Yannick Franck‘s Memorabilia (SILKEN TOFU STX.15). Fine construction of ambient music in the noire-mode from this Belgian sound artist who wallows freely in the inexplicable ambiguities of life. For him, all mysteries...
Here is a round-up of many of the vinyl seven-inches to have reached us in 2011. The post is so long we present it in three parts. The Pitchshifters have two near-perfect pieces of intellectual Japanese synth-pop music on Goshen / 828 (MEEUW MUZAK 040). The A side is a romantic instrumental barely shading...
Some fine cassettes pulled out the boxes of late. Dead Girl’s Party is a Scott Foust (Idea Fire Company) side project where he teams up with Matt Krefting, who I think has occasionally played in live IFCO lineups. The Things I’ve Lost (ENTR’ACTE 106) combines droning synths, electronics, radio waves and guitar with vocal...
If you want to sharpen your wits with some good old-fashioned astringent modernism, the double CD On Tour (MUTABLE MUSIC 17544-2) by Ostravská Banda ought to be poured into your daily tub like a pouch of bath salts. This ensemble went on a tour of Europe in 2010 and took with them a strong...
Renewable Sources Energy (BIOMETRAX BIOM01) is the promise of Biomass, a Californian project put together by Walter Ovtha Woodz, and the title of a CD he released in September 2011. Tangible releases like this are probably just the tip of the biomedical iceberg; Biomass is more of an immersive experiment of sorts, involving meditation...
The Buddhas of Moscow We’ve had this Phurpha item on a promo CD since about June this year and then recently we were sent a vinyl edition of same (which remains sealed at time of writing). Trowo Phurnag Ceremony (IDEOLOGIC ORGAN / EDITIONS MEGO SOMA 001) is a double LP by a group of...
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade…tonight everything I pull out of the bags turns out to be ultra-minimal music in one way or another, so let’s round up these barely-there records and provide some appropriately minimal texts. Martin Neukom deals in puzzling synthesised tones on Studien 5-7 (DOMIZIL 35). This eminent Swiss musicologist...
The Seattle label Debacle Records kindly continues to keep us updated with creamy emissions from its bulging horn of plenty. I know I’m at least a dozen releases behind and I can’t keep up with their schedule, but here are two items from July this year. Karnak Temples has three long tracks of deep...
Always Prepared for Action Few have worked as hard as German composer and musician Reinhold Friedl to re-energise and update 20th century avant-garde music, most notably with his exciting Zeitrkratzer ensemble pieces. Here he is doing it solo on Inside Piano (ZEITKRATZER RECORDINGS ZKR 0013), an abundant double-disc set of his own piano compositions...
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