Akira Kosemura – It’s On Everything

 

From Boomkat: Akira Kosemura is amongst the current wave of Japanese artists working in the field of minimal yet melodic electroacoustics. Much as is the case with the recent batch of Spekk releases, “It’s On Everything” manages to be at once a rigorous exercise in sound design yet also a delicate, highly musical listening experience. Kosemura takes recordings of acoustic performances (most notably piano) and merges them into a softly spun soundscape of high frequency electronics, field recordings, glitching beats and all manner of laptop squeaks and pops. There are comparisons to be made to The Boats, or even the recent Fennesz + Sakamoto album, such is the skill and composure of Kosemura’s touch. While some pieces are heavily based around simple, emotive phrases on the keys (‘Solace’ brings to mind the stark economy of Swod, for example) others, such as ‘Pause’, rely almost exclusively on digital instrumentation and location recording treatments. In either case Kosemura manages to sustain the same degree of elegance and intimacy, making for an album’s worth of highly captivating contemporary electronica. Gorgeous stuff.

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Stuart Busby – ‘Breathe’ & ‘Drift’

From his MySpace page: Stuart, a native of Brisbane Australia, generally plays trumpet layered with effects, but also ventures into other instruments including glockenspiel, ukulele, keyboard, recorder and voice. Stuart is also a member of the Deadnotes and Fractions.

About “Breathe”, Fozy Digitalis folks said: Stuart Busby is one of the little known artists on Brisbane’s Kindling imprint that, if more people were aware of his music, would be receiving a lot of praise from the experimental community. On “Breathe,” Busby is in top form. This 20 minute EP is a beautiful exorcism of death and fear. It’s like the days after a loved one has died and all the pressue feels like too much to bear. Your friends assure you, things will be okay, just “breathe.” It is apt that the opening track is called “Sorrow.” Hushed keyboard drones roll in like waves on a beach under grey skies. You can’t help but feel a certain melancholy when the environment is the physical emobidment of the emotion. Never before has the sound of a person working through such intense emotions been so beautiful. “Sunken” turns up the saddness another notch to the point where it’s almost too much to bear. But it’s for this reason that it works so well. Muted trumpets cascade toward the open sky, begging you to set yourself free. If you have ever gone through this experience, you know that at some point you feel like you just can’t take it anymore. There’s an overwhelming sense of “What do I do now?” And it feels like there are no good answers. This is perfectly embodied in “A.H.” It is a heartbreaking piece constructed of only Busby’s beautiful trumpet playing. “Breathe” is possibly the best 3″ disc to be released all year. Its impact is underscored by its beauty. Busby is a true sculptor, and everyone would be well advised to check this out. Stunning.

LISTEN TO BREATHE

LISTEN TO DRIFT

Pulga – Pulga Loves You

 

Pulga is a collaboration between Valerio Cosi of Taranto, Italy and Vanessa Niwi Rossetto of Austin, Texas.
Valerio Cosi seems an unstoppable force in the experimental underground these days, lending his ultrapsychedelic free jazz stylings to Uton, The North Sea and other projects – as well as compiling a very impressive list of recordings under his own name. The equally creative Vanessa Niwi Rossetto is best known for her project The Mighty Acts of God. She has also performed with Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood at Terrastock 6 and has collaborative projects with Michael Donnelly (Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood), Salvatore Borrelli (Etre) and others.
As impressive as their accomplishments are, Pulga Loves You marks a creative peak that will be hard to top in the experimental music realm. Self described as an otherworldly freakedelia unit influenced by freedom, ethnomusicology, chaos, drugs, horns and strings; these reference points can only begin to give you an idea of the majestic listening experience that awaits one here.

We love Pulga back, and know that you will as well after giving their disc a listen!

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SYLVAIN CHAUVEAU – S

 

From Boomkat: Following on from his hugely acclaimed “Un Autre D�cembr” for Fat Cat offshoot label 130701, and a number of collaborations with Steven Hess and friends under the “On” moniker, Chauveau has amassed a sizeable following with his pristine blend of electro-accoustic minimalism and piano-based composition. Type have quite a mouth-watering release schedule lined up from this exceptional artist (including a number of key reissues of scarcely available albums originally available via the DSA imprint), but this opening 21 minute salvo gives us a glimpse into Chauveau’s current modus operandi and will surprise even those of you who have followed his career closely. “S” opens up with the quite magnificent “Composition 8″, a threadbare electronic hum that builds up an expectant tension that leaves you unsure as to what exactly might happen next, at what frequency, and to what effect. After a couple of minutes the threads begin to fray and what could so easily have turned into an ear-splitting fragmentation soon dissolves into a delicate, moving, slow motion berceuse that brings to mind Oren Ambarchi, Ry Cooder’s Paris Texas and Donato Wharton’s most fulfilling material in one fell swoop. This remarkable piece just about falls within the brackets of modern day soundtrack music we love so much, but something in the technique and realisation gives it an unnerving edge that’s quite removed from the soothing recitals you might expect. Second track “P.” shifts back to Chauveau’s more familiar Piano work, with nominal elements yielding the fullest sonic ramifications. Like Alva Noto / Ryuichi Sakamoto’s much loved “Vrioon” without the digital tempering, or a compacted Morton Feldman shed of much of the academic baggage, its another sweeping gesture realised with an immense attention to detail that never fails to engage the listener absolutely. It’s this aural scarcity and assured minimalism that’s the most rewarding and impressive aspect of Chauveau’s work, overcoming the clinical, sterile impact of so much material of its ilk with an emotive underlay that’s not hidden so far beneath the surface as to become impenetrable. On the closing piece “A_” many of these archetypal elements become entwined, with a warm fuzz of digital detritus becoming surrounded by a wistful hue of acoustic tempering and even a dismembered narrative, inserted to remind you that flesh and bone reside behind, and control, these wonderful machines. Maginficent stuff – and a huge recommendation. …

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Rolan Vega – Documentary

Label release: A beguiling, classic new release comes to Community Library this spring: Documentary , the debut album by solo artist Rolan Vega . Synthesizer expert, art-film aficionado, and enthusiastic upstart of Chicago ’s vibrant electro/synth scene, he has compiled years’ worth of his favorite synthesizer vignettes into a comprehensive debut album. We first heard his stuff as a handful of mp3s from friends in Chicago a couple years back; track-swapping and culling ensued, resulting in this final collection.

Is Documentary a collection of works for actual short films and media, or an attempt to pay tribute to the synth epics of media music’s past? The answer is, ultimately: both. Most of the music in Documentary was written as live scores for short films, including Vega’s own Super 8s. But at the core of this effort one finds his love for ‘library music’ (the anonymous, public-domain music composed for UK media in the 60s and after), as well as the synthetic, futuristic theme music of 1980ies American Public Broadcasting programming.

But like all ComLib artists, Vega is too individualistic to simply be re-enacting musics of the past: all kinds of extra elements leak into Documentary , making it a work that straddles the line between classic and alien. Vega’s ambiguous, dream-like presentation and tendency to shift between shorter, passing pieces- as we think of them, vignettes - gives a sense of constant motion and change. These vignettes are not TV-studio enabled audiophilia; rather, these are home-recorded, four-track-tape inflected morsels of sound. Vega has collided the melancholic, low fi aesthetic of early 90ies Bristol artists like Flying Saucer Attack with the epic, arpeggiating ambience of synth maestros such as Michael Stearns, Richard Pinhas, Biosphere, and TONTO. A few of his tracks even resemble the sand-blasted melodic noise of composers like Tim Hecker or Chris Herbert

Rolan Vega’s mixed-up revisions of anonymous media music, and his recombination of lo-fi experimentalism with synthesizer majesty hits a perfect spot for us, and we hope it does for you as well. Vega is perpetually working on new material in this vein, as well as yet-to-be-released pop electro. Stay tuned for more great music from this new artist, ComLib associate, and Chicago scene-motivator.

Tracklist:
1. Painted By Children
2. Motion Crisiis
3. Surface Cleanse
4. Viva Myria
5. Skypoint Fall
6. Playlite
7. Bells of York
8. Lense Flare On
9. 4 Autiim
10. Nether
11. Surface Cleanser
12. Morning Call
13. Something Wrong with Today
14. Guiitav
15. Documentary

Almost Cool Review

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Black Dice – Load Blown

‘mind blowing’

About This release, ban-member Eric Copeland wrote,  “We spent almost a year and a half, off and on, doing this record. So there was less of a goal in mind for the album as a whole; we tended to focus on each song individually. We wanted to make strong singles.

“Consequently, none of us really knew what to expect until we finished the sequencing, just a few weeks ago. I think it’s a pretty upbeat record for the most part. I don’t think anyone expects our records to sound like anything else we’ve done, but this one seems pretty different from the last. I hope everyone’s always surprised.”

Load Blown:

01 Kokomo
02 Roll Up
03 Gore
04 Bottom Feeder
05 Scavenger
06 Drool
07 Toka Toka
08 Cowboy Soundcheck
09 Bananas
10 Manoman

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