XELA WITH GREG HAINES AND DANNY SAUL – The 12th Chapel

New bespoke Type Records offshoot Rite opens its account with this highly limited one-sided 22 minute LP documenting an incredible session by Xela (Type’s John Twells) alongside guitarist Danny Saul and Miasmah’s Greg Haines. The recording is an impressionistic representation of the trio’s set at Manchester’s Cross Street Chapel – I say impressionistic since the whole affair has undergone a bit of post-production saucery, although it’s near impossible to tell what happened when, and how it came about. Despite being sourced from instantaneous, unrehearsed performance, the various components all hang together beautifully – the sounds seem to merge together, enveloped in a kind of spectral fug, yet thanks to some deftly underplayed effects all the instrumental elements of the piece are established without ever over-asserting themselves. For the sublime opening Haines strikes up a few loose piano phrases while Saul’s acoustic guitar infuses with the reverberant ambience of the location, paving the way for some occultish vocal howls from Twells. Thus far the music is characterised by a weightless, ethereal quality, although it’s soon hit by an almighty headrush of noisebound gravity. The piece rapidly accumulates density, embracing a euphoric ascent into clamorous feedback and primal synth oscillations through its mid-section. All of a sudden the more ambient, folkish tendencies of the set’s early phase has been annihilated by plumes of fuzz. It’s all a far cry from the brittle IDM compositions of Xela’s debut “For Frosty Mornings And Summer Nights” – heck it’s even a pretty radical departure from the morbid psych infusions of “The Dead Sea”. This improvisation is suggestive of far freer, more experimental work from Xela and his collaborators, material that manages to bridge the gap between caustic sound sculpting and ghostly aloofness. Upon reaching a triumphant crescendo, the music dies with a few waves of distortion and Haines’ mournful cello strokes, leaving the sound to fizzle out in the echo of the chapel’s hallowed frame. And all this on consecrated ground? I can only hope they salted the earth afterwards. Quite a remarkable record indeed.

—–LINK—–

Need More Sources – Shed

Review from Almost Cool: Need More Sources is the performing name for the UK-based artist Chris Stewart, a somewhat unknown fellow who was signed to the Moteer label based only on the strength of the music he sent them. As it turns out, the ten track release is easily one of the best things I’ve heard on the young label, as it combines stringed instruments, piano, guitar, and occasional percussion into delightful little bedroom symphonies that play out sort of like a cross between Max Richter and Helios.

The titles on Shed are simple, and pretty much leave all explanation to the understated songs themselves, which slightly invoke each given title in simple and subtle ways. “Morning” opens the album with see-sawing strings that weave over the top of murky filtered tones and deeper swirls that sound like something culled from a Philip Jeck release. Eventually, the clouds part as brighter tones make their way to the front of the mix. One would be hard pressed to connect “Storm” with any sort of actual musical storm, but as one of the louder songs on the release it is a slight sort of peak. On it, multiple layers of bowed strings fill in the space around a simple bass line and some live drums while plucked notes dance melodically and take the edge off.

Other highlights on the release include the twinkling piano melodies and almost insect-like programming on “Snow,” which in turn builds to a more string-drenched section with deep bass hits. At just over six minutes, “Spring” might be one of the most successful tracks on the entire release, as it builds with soft quivers of strings and warm piano before multiple string parts duel with one another and a slew of percussion (including some well-done handclaps) slides in to push things forward.

With ten songs running about fifty-five minutes, Shed probably could have used a touch of slimming-down in places, but this is one of those nice little instrumental releases from a fairly unknown artist (like Halfset’s Dramanalog or Gojogo’s All Is Fair) that’s perfect for playing in the background while cleaning the house on a nice weekend day or even reading. It’s nothing that knocks you over the head, but it’s well-constructed and sublime in places, and that’s really all you need sometimes…

—–LINK—– 

HERIBERT FRIEDL – TRAC[K]_T

 

Description:
“This is the final work in the series of works-encompassing ataraxia, bradycard, trans~, and back_forward-using the cymbalon as source material. The process of working with this hammered stringed instrument for this series has been a “discussion” between the instrument and myself, an exploration of traditional playing, digital processing, and mixtures of both.

I feel that trac[k]_t should convey the scope of using an instrument without losing both its intrinsic nature of engagement as well as the sound of how it is played. Being a conceptual work, rather than a kind of ³tract,² the process of this recording has become a kind of instruction for myself to understand not only my work with this instrument in of itself but also its communion with digital processes.

The work is to be continuation in sound from my previous works. While not a repetition of ideas and sounds, rather it has become more of a search for the essence of this instrument. The way of working with it to come to a satisfiable conclusion and summation.

Heribert Friedl lives in Vienna where he studied sculpture at the University of Applied Arts. In his exhibitions he has been working with scents and its non visual phenomenons – sometimes in combination with sounds. He has had exhibitions, sound performances and projects in Hungary, Germany, England, Italy, USA, Cuba and Austria.

Since 1998 he has worked solo and in collaboration with artists such as Bernhard Gunter, John Norman (Radian) and Dale Lloyd. In addition to the utilization of digital sounds and field recordings, Friedl been using sounds of cymbalon and zither in his most recent series of works.

Friedl follows the kind of minimalist aesthetics that composes with few sounds, small events, and nearly imperceptible movements. Despite its seeming simplicity, Friedl’s is a very delicate kind of music: each and every sound bears enormous significance and have to bear the responsibility for the whole work.

After numerous mp3-releases and albums on such labels trente oiseaux (Germany) and and/OAR he founded his label nonvisualobjects with Raphael Moser in 2005. Nonvisualobjects releases works by such reknowned minimalist artists and composers as: Steve Roden, Richard Chartier, Roel Meelkop, Bernhard Gunter, among others. “-Line
Label: Line

Personnel: Heribert Friedl-cymbalon
Track Listing:

0.1 3:40

0.1.2 3:58

0.2 5:14

0.2.1 5:38

0.3 2:23

0.3.1 4:31

0.4 7:32

0.1.3 4:51

0.1.4 :46

0.1.5 1:44

0.5 3:55

—–LINK—– 

Taylor Deupree and Christopher Willits – Listening Garden

Taylor Deupree and Christopher Willits – Listening Garden

PRESS RELEASE

Listening Garden was developed as a sonic alteration of two quiet indoor/outdoor tea spaces installed at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media in Yamaguchi, Japan in June of 2004. The audio installation was designed to heighten visitor’s senses and alter the sonic space as they sat, read, or had quiet conversation amongst the trees. Taylor Deupree and Christopher Willits composed a number of short, randomly sequenced multi-channel soundworks using guitar and electronics. The fragments of sounds, while both gentle and subtly rich, are intentionally weathered, eroded and understated, generating a sonic bridge between the digital world of sound and the audiosphere of nature.

The audio on this CD is built from location recordings taken in the garden over the course of a week during the exhibit. The environmental and incidental sounds played a large part of the physical work and are captured and utilized in the recording. Listening Garden is meant to enhance the experience of simply sitting and enjoying one’s place in time.

This CD is best heard in a similar situation and at a low background level. Headphones are not recommended.

—–LINK—–

 

Murcof – Cosmos (Proper album ADVANCE)

 

Fernando Corona aka MURCOF is one of the few truly important and original electronic composers around. As the title implies, Murcof’s third album is grandiose in it’s scope, taking his characteristic panoramic gloomy spiritual music all the way to it’s fullest bloom. “Cosmos” will glue itself to the CD player for the rest of this year, and without a single moment’s doubt this is the only electronic music CD you will need this year. Not only will “Cosmos” be listened to in awe by the scattered post-electronica kingdoms worldwide, it will also appeal and attract acoustic doomers and Southern Lords who worship Boris, Sunn0))) and Earth. Murcof is a singular composer, and “Cosmos” is his masterpiece.

Fernando Corona’s long-awaited third album as Murcof marks a dramatic departure from previous works. Truly monumental in scale, “Cosmos” is composed almost entirely of recordings of classical instruments, a process which Corona describes as “expanding the possibilities of acoustic instruments through electronics.” It’s a move away from the micro-programmed sound he helped to pioneer, and his seamless integration of these apparently opposed forms is almost unprecedented.

These new recordings were inspired by a very simple motion, the act of tilting the head towards the skies, or as Corona puts it: “Cosmos basically comes from that state of wonder and mystery and joy and humbling that you get when you let your mind wander freely on a starry night, away from the contamination of city lights. From the realization that there’s an infinite universe outside the man-made world and how silly this latter one seems in comparison.”

Originally intended as an EP, the early “Cosmos” tracks were so mesmerizing that those around Corona encouraged him to make it a full-length. His past approach involved mixing disembodied orchestral passages amidst microbeats, letting a song shift and mutate in a minimal environment. With “Cosmos”, he has progressed towards a more sophisticated compositional mode. The immensity of tracks like the monolithic twins ‘Cosmos I’ and ‘Cosmos II’ draw to mind the work of the German electronic pioneers of the ‘70s or the Hungarian composer György Ligeti as much as the visceral, low-end rumblings of SunnO))) or Coil. Murcof’s compositions have always been as much about the absence of sound as what you actually hear, and these techniques are further refined here.

Corona’s previous record, “Remembranza”, was a tremendously personal work, dedicated to his mother, who tragically passed away in 2005. The pieces were requiems, mournful and evocative, and carried the solemn strains of deeply valued memories.

In the period since the release of that album, Corona has collaborated with pianist Francesco Tristano (at this year’s Sónar festival, and on Tristano’s latest album), Erik Truffaz and Talvin Singh (at the 2006 Montreux Jazz Festival), and video artist Saul Saguatti at the Geode IMAX in Paris. Corona has now scored three feature films, including the forthcoming La Sangre Iluminada (Enlightened Blood), with further soundtrack work in the pipeline. Murcof’s music has been used in countless film, TV and even dance productions worldwide (some of the short films that have used his music can be found at his YouTube page – see link above.), and he scooped a Qwartz Music Award in 2006.

Now resident in Barcelona having relocated from his native Tijuana, Mexico, Corona is set to appear live in Europe more frequently around the release of “Cosmos”, with a European tour of planetariums currently being scheduled.

“This album took me one and a half years to finish,” the quietly-spoken Corona says. “I like to leave the tracks there to stand the test of time before I put them out, and I generally don’t like rushed jobs.” Corona’s care and precision is very evident on Cosmos, a brilliant, powerful recording that charts his musical destinations completely off the map.

Tracklisting:
1. Cuerpo Celeste
2. Cielo
3. Cosmos I
4. Cometa
5. Cosmos II
6. Oort

—–link—– 

MACHINEFABRIEK & SOCCER COMMITTEE – Clay

 

Has it really been over a month since the last Machinefabriek release? Where’s the guy been? We’ve all become addicted – it’s like heavy narcotics, you can’t start limiting the flow at this crucial Point! But then this extra special 3″ release has been seriously worth the wait. The first big difference between this and Rutger’s previous releases is the absolutely gorgeous hand-made packaging – a far cry from the usual tidy plastic packs we’ve become so accustomed to, ‘Clay’ comes in a lovely brown stock sleeve, hand painted in the most sublime fashion… it also happens to be a collaboration with the wonderful soccer Committee (aka Mariska Baars) who we all fell hopelessly in love with last week on the release of her debut album ’sC’. Phew… a pretty important meeting of minds then, but Rutger Zuydervelt couldn’t rest easy co-producing a piece of abstract pop, rather he takes Baars’ voice as the backbone and starting point for the twenty-minute piece and proceeds to morph it into a haze of slow-burning ambience, building from almost nothing into a shimmering fuzz of breathy, vocal noise until hitting near silence again for the glacial conclusion. So maybe this is more obviously linked to Machinefabriek stylistically than Miss Baars’ measured output, but knowing its her voice underpinning everything you are hearing gives the track a humanity and a soul that’s all too often lacking from experimental music. This is the sound of life slowed down to a crawl, like one of those three dimensional freeze-frames that allows you to absorb your surroundings with intimate detail and awareness. “Clay” is another deeply impressive chapter in Machinefabriek’s acclaimed catalogue, he is quickly developing into one of the most interesting and engrossing artists we have had the pleasure of stocking here at Boomkat and you can’t help but get the feeling that these releases are going to be regarded a bit like early material from collectable painters and artists who go on to achieve much wider public acceptance. Once again, you already know the deal with these – we have 70 copies only and they ain’t gonna last so hurry to secure yourselves a copy.

—–LINK—–

Marsen Jules – Golden

 

Close followers of these pages will already be intimately familiar with the work of Marsen Jules, responsible as he is for two of the loveliest albums we’ve had the pleasure of stocking these last few years. His debut album “Herbstlaub” strolled into an autumnal tundra of layered strings and neo-classical arrangements that best brought to mind the work of Arvo Part, attaining both critical and commercial acclaim from all quarters of the music scene. His dense follow-up “Les Fleurs” approached similar terrain but with a more colourful sound-pallette, creating an aural bloom of dense orchestral reductions that kept the minimal composure intact despite the rays of aural sunlight allowed to seep into Jules’ unique, inspiring studio. This long awaited new album “Golden” takes little time in declaring its place as a worthy successor to both its predecessors – it’s a breathtaking collection of pieces that begin from the same neo-classical starting point and unfurl in different directions, taking in acoustic guitar, barely audible electronic pulses, dense orchestral reductions and heavy filtering along the way. You’d find it difficult to get past the album’s incredible opening track “Birkengefluster” without finding yourself incredibly moved by what’s in front of you – another shimmering weave of elongated midnight strings and subliminal melodies consorting to force you to abandon all resistance in the face of its relentless beauty. By the time second track “Wharend” wheezes into life with its prepared piano passages and other-worldly washes of sound, you’ll be unable to acknowledge anything else in your surroundings bar the music. Marsen Jules is just one of those rare artists who manages to achieve so much with such limited material at his disposal – it’s both the simplicity and timeless quality of the 7 long tracks here that make “Golden” not only one of the most beautiful albums you’ll hear this summer, but also one that you’ll find hard to let go of come autumn. Sublime music – essential listening.(Boomkat)

—–LINK—— 

The Michael Flower Band – The Michael Flower Band

 

Review from Outer Space Gamelan.

—–LINK—–

SPACEHEADS AND MAX EASTLEY – A Very Long Way From Anywhere Else

 

Spaceheads are the trumpet and drums improvisational duo of Andy Diagram and Richard Harrison, the former being one of David Thomas’ Two Pale Boys, and the latter a graduate of the Hot Air label and drummer with Manchester groups Homelife and Toolshed. For this album they’ve teamed up with sound artist Max Eastley (for a second time) to create a sprawling work of experimental jazz and obscure soundscapes. The resultant set of recordings make for a strange listening experience: ‘The Dream That Murdered Sleep’ is one of the closest brushes with conventional free jazz, the squealing rapid-fire trumpet linking up with some outlandish percussion workouts to great effect. Like much of the rest of the album, this piece seems to be haunted by strange room reverberations and almost imperceptible drones that hover statically over everything, like a coating of frost on the more recognisable instruments. A fascinating meeting of surreal improv strategies and electronic abstraction, A Very Long Way From Anywhere Else, is, as the title suggests, a pretty unique piece of work. Recommended.(Boomkat)

—–LINK—– 

William Basinski – El Camino Real

From Boomkat: Background information is typically scant with this latest release from William Basinski’s 2062 label, but what we do know is that it features re-discovered tape loops that have been delicately re-crafted for a recent performance at the Montalvo Arts Center. Clocking in at just under 50 minutes, “El Camino Real” is another one of those breathtaking aural tapestries that Basinski seems to have such an intuitive feel for – effortlessly piecing together elements that bring to mind everything from Arvo Part through to the Cocteau Twins without ever letting go of his own signature sound. Because the source material for these loops has been de-graded and layered so heavily, it’s hard to imagine where they could have come from or how they could have been made – all that we’re left with are mesmerising remnants of a ghostly female voice dominating the undulating mix to almost harrowing effect. There’s also something about this recording that brings to mind more recent contemporary musical experimentations, and in particular the work of Liz Harris under the Grouper moniker – its the same archetypal shoegaze aesthetic that dominates this extended piece and it has a similarly overwhelming effect on the senses : lulling you into a deep state of drift before reminding you that behind the velvety wall of sound lies an uncertain, complex world. “El Camino Real” is certainly one of Basinski’s most absorbing pieces and, for us at least, offers the most contemporary re-interpretation of his own archive recordings to date. We just can’t imagine anyone not being overwhelmed by this music – take a listen and sink in while you can…

—–LINK—–