Posts Tagged ‘instrumental’

Hanrath & Fialkiewicz – LOVE

Posted: 30 August 2024 in Albums
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
0

Petroglyph Music – 25th August 2024

Christopher Nisnibor

Deborah Fialkiewicz, who I first encountered performing as one half of her noisy dark ambient duo SPORE, is one busy and highly prolific creator, who not only manages to whip musical work spanning contemporary classical to ambience from out of the air at a remarkable pace, but clearly thrives on collaboration. This latest one, with German sound sculptor Wilfried Hanrath, is a further example of the way in which the coming together of artists with slightly different background and musical bents can make for unexpected – and brilliant – results.

As the accompanying notes explain, ‘the album starts with Deborah’s wonderful piece ‘Love’ and ends with Wilfried’s interpretation of it – ‘Love in other words’… The eight tracks in-between are based on noisy, dark ambient drones Deborah provided. Wilfried, inspired by a short trip to the sea, added to these by playing his synthesizer in the beautiful seaside resort. The result is a melange that combines the influences that both bring into this project to something larger than its components.’

Having recently returned from a week by the sea – on the Cornish coast – I can certainly vouch for the replenishing, refreshing, and inspirational qualities of the sea. Living inland and in climes which are perpetually humid and polluted, one immediately notices the difference in air quality when in the presence of a sea breeze.

As collaborations go, this is a particularly interesting one, not only musically as of and in itself, but it’s difficult to separate out what each of the contributors has brought here.

Fialkiewicz’ opening composition is gentle, combining tweaks, tweets, and twitters over the picked strings of a chamber orchestra of sorts, and a billowing wind which fills the background. It’s simultaneously sedate and mournful, and ends feeling unresolved.

Fialkiewicz’ capacity for conjuring dark drones is well-documented, primarily with her work as one half of Spore, but just how much manipulation they’ve been subjected to at the hand of Hanrath – which should really be an album title for a future collaborative / remix work of his – is impossible to determine. This is how collaborations should be, really: the aim should be to achieve a blend, to, and to conjure something which is neither one party nor the other. LOVE fits this criteria: it’s not about who does what, specifically, but the overall listening experience being something different, which is neither one artist or the other, but what they create in combination.

Following ‘Love’, ‘Oneness’ marks a complete shift in every way: it’s a bubbling quickfire electro piece that pretty much brings Kraftwerk together with Gershon Kingsley’s ‘Popcorn’. This numerical sequence of pieces, which runs from ‘Oneness’ to ‘Eigthness’ is an evolutionary, exploratory series, the majority of which are an expansive seven or eight minutes in duration and really mine a deep seam of bubbling, squelchy electronica which becomes increasingly engrossed in the quite granular details of the interplay and interaction between tone and texture, but without venturing fully into the dots-in-front-of-the-eyes details of the truly microtonal.

Slow winds and wide washes define the soundscapes offered here, and I suspect these are the foundations Fialkiewicz provided before Hanrath began to add his spin to them, with stabbing strikes and all kinds of digressions and generally unpredictable incidents which change both the course and the mood of the pieces.

‘Threeness’ is a particularly layered piece, ominous and brooding at first and subsequently, but interrupted by wibbling bleeps, a hint of an R2D2 seeking escape from the haunting confines of the track’s opening. Nothing is quite as it seems, and nothing feels quite right here.

‘Fourness’ is a torturous mess of oscillating drones and groans pitched against a mangled sampled vocal loop, and as one of the album’s darkest and most uncomfortable pieces, it’s very much in the vein of Throbbing Gristle. But suddenly, emerging from the frothing tempest of noise emerges a piano which brings tranquillity to provide balance. And this is where LOVE exceeds. There is a lot going on, and it’s an album which really revels in its contrasts and its manifold depths. This means that overall, and in context, LOVE is a standout work which conforms to no set parameters, doesn’t really sit anywhere, not least of all within the realms of expectation.

AA

a0291842123_10

Bistro Boy – Ambient Short Stories

Posted: 21 August 2024 in Albums, Reviews
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

Möller Records – 9th September 2024

Ambient Short Stories is the tenth album by Frosti Jonsson, who records as Bistro Boy. As selected monikers go, this isn’t one of the best in terms of what it connotes, at least for me. While I accept that there’s an element of personal perception involved here, there’s little escaping the fact that there’s a strong whiff of middle-class superiority in the mix here, a late-nineties / turn of the millennium snobbery with a hint of contemporaneous IKEA-tinged cool.

Cut back to 1997, my then girlfriend and I bought our first flat, a cardboardy newbuild with magnolia walls and magnolia carpets, which we stuffed with pine units and furnished the dining part of the open-plan kitchen-dining space with a trendy bistro-style circular table and chairs. On the other side of the same room, we’d sit on the IKEA sofa and watch Friends. I’ve actually got no beef with Friends, but fuck me, talk about cliché. We actually thought we were cool, and our friends did, too.

Ambient Short Stories contains eleven instrumental – and as the title suggests – ambient works, which are pleasant, mellow, easy on the ear. Fair enough. The compositions aren’t the sort of thing you’d actually hear in a bistro, or any other social setting for that matter, although the style is very much background when it comes to the level of attention the album demands. From amidst the generally gentle drifts and rippling waves pipe up some unexpected incidental bits and bobs, and these interjections – whether they’re woodwind or some dominant lead synth or something else – feel a bit out of place, a fraction loud in the mix, a bit wrong, and also a bit dated, a bit post-Tubular Bells 80s / 90s New Age.

Ambient Short Stories isn’t bad, by any stretch: in fact, as a gentle ambient work, it brings almost exactly what you’d probably want: it’s slow, supple, soothing, spacious, and quite soporific, to the point that it almost feels like AI has conjured the perfect balance of light and dark. It isn’t particularly gripping, but I don’t think it’s intended to be, instead sowing seeds of ponderousness.

AA

Ambient Short Stories - Ambient Short Stories - Bistro Boy

Paul K – Hyperobjects

Posted: 11 June 2024 in Albums, Reviews
Tags: , , , ,
0

19th April 2024

It’s been out a little while now, but some releases have a slow diffusion. Hyperobjects is one of them, and it seems fitting, given that Paul K’s latest work is an immersive work which is ‘a study in musical simplicity with a stripped-down sound creating a space where the listener can both listen to the album and imagine the worlds created by each track’s individual atmosphere’. Paul’s long-shown a fixation with space, as his last album The Space Between, evidenced. But Hyperobjects does something different, and heads in a different direction.

Space. And it’s immediate relative, time. We never seem to have enough of either in the present, or overall. We live in a state of perpetual future-placement, eternal postponement, dragging ourselves through endless days of drudge while promising ourselves a brighter future, be it a holiday, breaking free from a bad relationship, leaving the awful job, or retirement. Gratification is always over there, the aspiration is forever just over the horizon, on the other side of the next hurdle, an inch beyond reach. And we find ourselves entrapped within the special confines of our limitations, the four walls of our homes, the constraints of being unable to go places because of needing to be up and at work the following day, confined by affordability, and so on and so forth. Horizons shrink, and time passes in a blink and suddenly, time and space have both evaporated. What have you done, and what have you got to show for it?

‘Hyperobjects’ is a gentle work, and while much of it is electronically-created, many of the sounds replicate conventional instruments. As such, it’s a moving and mournful piano which leads the first track, a four-part neoclassical composition, ‘Diaspora (Movements I-IV)’.

It’s the sound of a soft, rolling piano which dominates this album, which is in equal parts classical and post-rock, with ambient elements interwoven throughout. ‘Döstädning’ sounds a little like an instrumental outtake by Talk Talk. Ethereal whisps and traces of voice swish around the piano and occasional strings which trace the supple structures of ‘Hyperobjects’, but in the main, it’s showcase of the most minimal compositions.

On ‘Hyperobjects’, the tracks drift into one another to create a continuous, mellifluous whole. Its power lies in its simplicity, its purity, and in doing so, Paul K has achieved something new, artistically, as well as attaining a new peak.

AA

a2391105810_10

Listen: ‘October’ by Maybeshewill

Posted: 17 April 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

With the release of the 10th anniversary edition of Fair Youth landing next month, UK instrumental rock act Maybeshewill have shared a new stand-alone single ‘October.’ Originally slated for their 2021 album No Feeling is Final the band felt the song didn’t quite sit on the album tonally, feeling more of connection to Fair Youth.

Bassist Jamie Ward comments, “One of the first songs written when the band tentatively began exploring the idea of creating together again, ‘October’ has its roots in a voice memo jotted down in vain hope during the band’s rehearsals for their final tour before they disbanded in 2016. ‘October’ is a song about the creative spark, about rekindling friendships and an ode to keeping trying to explore your artistic passions even when that might seem futile. A rare piece of Maybeshewill history that has its significance despite ultimately not ending up being included as part of a larger body of work.”

Listen to ‘October’ here:

Maybeshewill celebrate a decade of their ‘Fair Youth’ album with a brand new 10th anniversary edition, available on the 3rd May 2024 (Superball).  Released as a special limited edition opaque hot pink & black marbled LP, as well as digitally, this version has been newly remixed & remastered by the bands own Jamie Ward. The band had this to say:

“Looking back on Fair Youth with a decade of hindsight, it holds a particularly special place in Maybeshewill history – not least because it was the first record that, start to finish, was a product of all five of us. It took us very literally around the world to play for so many new audiences, but was also the last record we made before taking an extended break. It was intended as an overwhelmingly positive record, and I think sonically, that remains true. It’s a record we all remain extremely proud of, and are delighted that it’s getting a beautiful new pressing courtesy of our friends at Superball.”

Jamie Ward comments of the new mix & master: “With 10 years more mixing experience under my belt I feel a bit better placed to conquer the wall of sound and get a little more separation between the instruments to really bring out the details of those arrangements. In general I’ve tried to make things hit a little harder and be bit a more vibrant and technicolour.”

Fans can hear the newly remixed version of the track ‘All Things Transient’, as well as pre-order the new edition here: https://maybeshewill.lnk.to/FairYouth-2024Mix

The band will also head out on tour in the UK in May, joining forces with Bossk for a co-headline run, before playing two European festivals this summer. Find the full list of shows below:

15th May – The Fleece, Bristol, UK*

16th May – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, UK*

17th May – Gorilla, Manchester, UK*

18th May – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, UK*

19th May – The Garage, London, UK*

26th June – Resurrection Fest, Viveiro, Spain

31st July – Rockstadt Extreme Fest, Brașov, Romania

*with Bossk

msw

Photo credit: Fraser West

Watch: ‘Luminescent Bridge’ by Blood Incantation

Posted: 17 April 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

Get lost in Blood Incantation’s interstellar new video ‘Luminescent Bridge’ – available today ahead of their performances at Roadburn Festival. ‘Luminescent Bridge’ pivots to the introspection of infinity. Created entirely in the studio, the nine-minute track plays out like a dying star—ominous, forlorn, yet hopeful of rebirth.

Blood Incantation tells, “Originally conceived as an acoustic interlude in the tradition of ‘Meticulous Soul Devourment’ and ‘(Mirror of the Soul)’, ‘Luminescent Bridge’ quickly became something entirely different upon entering Rocky Mountain Recorders in March 2023. Compelled by a tangible air of creativity, we forwent acoustic instruments entirely and ended up implementing several spur-of-the-moment ideas – such as drums, grand piano and even trombone – to create a vast, dynamic tapestry of textures both alien and familiar, yet remaining quintessentially Blood Incantation in feeling and atmosphere. Drenched in analog and digital synthesizers, multiple tape echoes and soaring electric guitar, this intended outro to a subsequently abandoned 7” EP became a towering landscape of otherworldly sonics, earning its place as the title track for our latest maxi-single release.”

“With this expansive energy in mind, we knew the eventual music video would similarly have to be something completely new for us, further evolving our imagery and aesthetic into new realms as we make our way towards our imminent third album. Thanks to the masterful VFX and cinematography of our friends Miles Skarin and Alex Pace who also worked on the music videos ‘Inner Paths (to Outer Space)’ and ‘Obliquity of the Ecliptic’, and the ‘Timewave Zero’ live Blu-Ray, respectively  – we are able to present to you the official video for ‘Luminescent Bridge’."

Of the video, director and visual effects artist Miles Skarin says, “When the Stargate Research Society asked us to help visualise a recent extrasolar communication they had received, we knew this would be a project of epic proportion. The data packet they sent to us from Colorado contained footage of Blood Incantation’s interstellar expedition to a distant star system. What we saw after decompressing the video stream blew us away, not only had they captured a beautiful cinematic exploration of the exoplanet’s sand dunes, but we can see their journey across the expanse of space was successful. Alex Pace’s cinematography from this location was stunning and provided us with everything we needed. Due to the solar radiation exposure, the data from the interstellar voyage was difficult to decipher, so we have used our artistic abilities in VFX and 3D animation to reconstruct the visual of crossing the Luminescent Bridge, first depicted by the artist Steve R Dodd."

Watch the epic video for ‘Luminescent Bridge’ here:

AA

Blood Incantation

Listen: ‘Ritual Control’ by sleepmakeswaves

Posted: 13 March 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , ,
0

Australian instrumental post-rockers sleepmakeswaves have released another single from their forthcoming album "It’s Here, But I Have No Names For It" following the addition of two more US shows to their growing world tour dates.  The band took to social media to tell fans about the new single: 

"’Ritual Control’ was first demoed as ‘Dr. Riff Has Arrived’. I still wonder whether we were mistaken to have not kept the old title.  Otto originally presented the song skeleton to us with the concern that maybe the riffs were "too dumb". In fact, Tim and I responded, they are the *perfect quantity* of dumb. Sure, these riffs aren’t going to earn a PhD. But they will hold down a full-time job, get the kids to school on time and read the occasional piece of challenging non-fiction on weekends. Courageous and heartfelt conversations like this are the core of what effective post-rock songwriting is all about.  New album out next month!"  -Alex

Listen to ‘Ritual Control’ here:

AA

The new album It’s Here, But I Have No Names For It, released on 12th April, was produced by the band themselves, at Golden Retriever Studios in Sydney, Australia. Written during the pandemic, it was originally recorded during 2022 just before the band embarked on a 3 month tour for their previous EP trilogy ‘these are not your dreams.’ Further recording was completed in 2023, including string arrangements by Simeon Bartholomew (SEIMS). The record was then mixed by Andrei Eremin (Closure in Moscow, Tash Sultana, G Flip, Luca Brasi) in Philadelphia USA and mastered by Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice at Peerless Mastering in Boston USA.

The first single ‘Super Realm Park’, prefiguring the record as a whole, is a majestic return to the classic hallmarks of the band’s melodic post-rock sound, whilst introducing new production and arrangement elements. Fans of the band’s heavy bombastic aggression will resonate with tracks such as ‘All Hail Skull’ and ‘Ritual Control.’ They also shine with invigorated melodic and emotive performances and arrangements on tracks like ‘Black Paradise’ and ‘Terror Future.’ Retaining their signature approach to heavy dynamics and crescendos the band are still at their unmatched peak when they turn their hand to cataclysmic emotional epics such as the title track and the album closer ‘This Close Forever.’

The band released a statement to fans, saying: 

"The mysterious phase of nothingness, crucial to the smw creative process, is over: our new album is finally done. Thank you so much to all our listeners for your patience. It has been a slow but intense labor of love and we are proud of the songs on this record, and grateful for the many people who helped bring it to life. Hope to see you on the road in 2024, more show announcements to come, and we truly hope the new music we’re about to release resonates with you in the same way it does with us.   Love smw”

SMW

Elizabeth Joan Kelly – LF17/Edinburgh

Posted: 25 February 2024 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , ,
1

Mortality Tables are blasting out the second series of LIFEFILES releases at quite a pace, and LF17 is the seventh release in the season.

Describing LIFEFILES as ‘creative exchanges’; the premise is simple: ‘Recordings of places, people, objects, moments in time, environments and quotidian events are shared with a range of artists working with sound. Those artists are then free to respond to the recordings in any way they like, either through manipulation or composition.’

LF17/Edinburgh is Elizabeth Joan Kelly’s response to a set of recordings made in Edinburgh in August of 2021 by Mat Smith, namely Emeka Ogboh ‘Song Of The Union’ installation, Calton Hill (24.08.2021), Princes Street Gardens (24.08.2021), and Car on Calton Road cobblestones (25.08.2021).

The titles are plain, factual, locational, without any sense of the temporal or any indication of connotation, association, or resonance. And this is fitting, since the three compositions – ‘Calton Hill’, ‘Princes Street Gardens’, and ‘Calton Road Cobblestones’ are gentle, electroambient works which speak little of either the time or the place. These pieces are very much responses to the recordings themselves, rather than their location. Based in New Orleans, and purveyor of ‘post-apocalyptic junkyard drone pop’, Kelly has brought her own perspective to the source materials. Of course, this is precisely the spirit of the project – to see how each artist interacts with the material to forge something new, and the fact that each artist will have a completely different approach is what makes this so interesting. Because when given material and parameters, however much freedom an artist has, those parameters will also have a bearing on the output alongside the variables of the input itself and the artist’s methodologies.

In Elizabeth Joan Kelly’s hands, the sounds of a vibrant city are rendered, smoothed, with cross-hatching, delicate shading, some light smudging, a soft blending, by which everything clamorous is faded out to leave a slow hazing. There is, ultimately, no sense of Edinburgh itself here, and we find ourselves adrift, drifting on slow tides of sound with no connection to time or space. It’s not an unpleasant experience, by any means.

LF17/Edinburgh couldn’t be further removed stylistically from Ergo Phizmiz’s release, The Tin Drummer Has Collapsed, which came out only the week before. Where there was collaging, there is blending, mixing, reshaping, and where there was noise, there is calm. Neither release is in any way ‘better’ than the other – just different. And these differences are to be embraced.

AA

a2155768596_10

ZAHN – Adria

Posted: 19 November 2023 in Albums
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Crazysane Records – 24th Nov 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

The press release describes Zahn as a ‘German post–modern noise rock ensemble’, while their bandcamp bio offers ‘A bold escape from your daily life through technicolor transmissions of post–rock, krautrock, dark jazz, noise–rock, post–punk and electronic music. Influenced by the likes of TRANS AM, THE JESUS LIZARD, METZ, THE MELVINS and TORTOISE’, adding that ‘Adria is a compelling soundtrack to a 1980’s anti–utopian road movie!’

As a prospect, it’s head-spinning, sounding like an everything-all-at-once hybrid, and the actuality isn’t much different. There are plenty of driving grooves, largely propelled by solid bass and insistent drumming, but there are also some angular riffs and big splashes of noise.

The first track, ‘Zebra,’ boasts a bulbous bass with some big low-end and some easy, noodly synths which wibble and wander agreeably and mellifluously… and then towards the end it builds and distorts and things get altogether more twisted and less pleasant. And this is a feature characteristic of the compositions on show here. They don’t mash everything into every second simultaneously, and there’s none of that jazz / Beefheart kind of stuff that sounds like each band member is playing a different tune in a different key and time signature all at the same time. There are times where that kind of avant-gardism most definitely has its place, and works, but this isn’t what Zahn are doing here. In keeping with the road movie concept, the pieces are constructed around transition.

The ten-minute ‘Schmuck’ is a magnificent example of their ability to do mellow, with clean sounds and even a tinge of a country twang, it swings along breezily and evokes sunshine and expansive vistas. Then, near the seven-minute mark, the bass steps up to a crunching grind and things get a whole lot noisier, from where it builds into a big, driven riff which crackles with energy. ‘Yuccatan 3E’ is another colossus of a cut, running to almost nine and a half minutes and manages to take it time in pushing outwards and working a single passage for a fair while, but equally packs in at least three or four songs’ worth of ideas.

The changes feel organic, and sometimes emerge gradually, and at others there will be a sudden and unexpected swerve, and there’s so much happening that the absence of vocals barely registers.

Because the mood, tone, and tempo differs so radically between songs – and between sections – Adria very much does feel like a journey, through space and time. ‘Apricot’ is a sparse synth work with crispy vintage drum machine snare cutting through quavering analogue synth sounds – then, without changing the instrumentation or the simple repetitive motif, it goes massive. A post-rock Depeche Mode chronically undersells it, but it’s as close as I can get, at least off the top of my head. The final minute is an extravagant climax, and truly magnificent.

The majority of the album’s eleven tracks run past five minutes, with the majority sitting more around the seven-minute mark, but the eleven-and-a-half-minute ‘Faser’ is the album’s megalithic centrepiece. It blasts hard with a fuzzy, scuzzy repetitive riff cycle with stoner rock tendencies, and it’s dynamic and exhilarating. Dropping down to bubbling synths in the breakdown around six minutes in, the threat of a re-emergence of the heavy lingers suspensefully. When it does land, it does so with a vengeance, before transitioning once more into something altogether different again, skittering its way into Krautrock territory.

The power blast of ‘Tabak’ hits square between the eyes and feels unexpected however expected it actually is. These guys are absolute masters of the unpredictable and varied structure, and conjure some highly evocative and atmospheric passages, and while the playing is technical, it’s not technical for its own sake: there’s nothing showy or extravagant, and the focus is very much on the compositions, the structures, and the impact. ‘Amaranth’ piledrives a full-on doom riff, slogging away at it for what feel like an eternity. It’s a heavy trudge, and really hits the spot – again, when you least expect it.

Adria straddles many, many genres, and does so in a way that’s incredibly imaginative. The key to its success is its execution, which balances precision with passion.

AA

a0822649105_10

Listen: ‘Schmuck’ by ZAHN

Posted: 2 November 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
0

German post–modern noise rock ensemble ZAHN will release their second full–length album Adria on 24th November. Adria offers a bold escape from your daily life through technicolor transmissions of post–rock, krautrock, dark jazz, noise–rock, post–punk and electronic music. Influenced by the likes of TRANS AM, THE JESUS LIZARD, METZ, THE MELVINS and TORTOISE. Adria is a compelling soundtrack to a 1980’s anti–utopian road movie!

Adria was mixed and mastered by Magnus Lindberg (RUSSIAN CIRCLES, CULT OF LUNA) at his Stockholm studio. The cover artwork, based around photographs by Lupus Lindemann(KADAVAR), was designed by Fabian Bremer (RADARE, AUA).

The album is a testament to the incredible power of this trio and its ability to effortlessly ensnare your attention for the duration of a ten minute–song of purely instrumental music. Over the course of the album’s 11 tracks ZAHN emerge as a form of PINK FLOYD of noise rock, relentlessly pushing the envelope on what’s already accomplished while remaining tasteful and tasty at every corner.

Listen to ‘Schmuck’ here:

AA

ZAHN band

Listen: ‘Etreintes’ by Christine Ott

Posted: 22 October 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
Tags: , , , , ,
0

Two years after Time to Die, French composer Christine Ott returns to Gizeh Records with her fifth album, Éclats (Piano Works), a collection of twelve pieces for solo piano, twelve impressionistic miniatures, instrumental and cinematic fractals celebrating the beauty of life.

‘Étreintes’ is available on all streaming platfroms now and Éclats (Piano Works) is out November 3rd.

Listen to ‘Étreintes’ here:

AA

a1066363075_10

Older Entries
Newer Entries