Pulse 02(coloured vinyl 12"+ MP3 download code limited to 200 copies (comes in different coloured vinyl, we cannot guarantee which one you will receive))
Joachim Spieth - "Subtle" (Nitechord remix) (4:45)
Review: Past Inside the Present's 'Pulse' series is an investigation into ambient tech and beat-driven ambient sounds. Who better for the job on this second edition than master craftsmen ASC and Joachim Spieth? ASC opens up with 'Tidal Disruption Event', an understated, underwater rhythm with jittery percussive patterns and bright shards of melodic light piercing through the mix as more coarse soundwaves break over the top. Spieth's 'Subtle' is just as artful and delicate a mix of persuasive rhythm and melodic beauty. A classy Nitechord remix closes out this fascinating EP.
Review: The inaugural 9128.live label release came from the UK's Jo Johnson and Hilary Robinson, featuring subtle, harmonic drones and manipulated piano, originally aired as part of the duo's set for the CALMA (Madrid) takeover on 9128.live, April 2020. Released digitally in 2020, the set is now available on 12" vinyl, split into two long-form compositions.
Review: Few artists in electronic music have the serious musical chops of Mathew Jonson. The man has formally studied jazz and always brought famous invention to his synth-heavy sounds under whatever guise he has been working with. Here he is back under his own name on Deset and opens up with some delightful and mellifluous synth ripples on 'Dawn' and then soundtracks a cosmic voyage on scattered percussive sounds and alien effects on 'Artificial Intelligence'. 'SOS' is a broken beat jazz work out and with The Mole he crafts a deep, seductive groove marbled with more great melody on 'Feels So Good.' 'Got Bass' is playful cosmic electro to close.
Review: This record is named after Vedanta, an ancient philosophy based on the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of India. The music, originally composed and produced by Joseph S Joyce and later remixed by Sebastian Mullaert of Minilogue, was greatly inspired, after reading commentaries from Swami Rama Tirtha's biography "The Scientist & Mahatma" - Chapter 1 - Vedanta and The Secret of Success. Now, some nine years later, it gets served up as a remix EP. There's a dark El Choop Reconstruct, a gorgeous ambient version from Sebastian Mullaert, a minimal headscape from Van Bonn, Federson SF goes warm and dubby and then a crisp, tech-edged vibe from Paul 90 ends the EP in style.
Review: JS is an alias of James Zeiter and is also the name of his own label. This seventh transmission once again showcases his signature take on minimal, dub and techno. 'JS-07' rolls out with deep, pillow drums and well buried sub bass that slowly sweeps you up and locks you into a state of hypnosis. 'JS-07R' on the flip side is run through with slightly more warmth and light, like beams of sun piercing the surface of an ocean and catching microscopic organisms floating on the sea bed. It's a heady sound full of soul.
Sanderson Dear - "A Place For Totems" (extended version) (6:10)
Review: Sanderson Dear's Stasis Recordings released the original Time Capsule compilation in 2020 - a 20-track exploration of ten different ambient techno artists exploring two ideas each in compact form for a box set of 7"s. Now the label has revisited some of the project's standout moments and offered a chance to enjoy extended versions gathered on a single 12". From Maps Of Hyperspace shaping out atmospheric halls of synth work on 'Beta' to Glo Phase offering some gorgeous, sparkling grooves on 'Fire Flies', there's plenty of ground covered on this release. Of course the mighty John Beltran is a big drawer too, and his typically stellar 'The Descendent' doesn't disappoint in its full extended version.
Review: Verdant's tenth release is another meandering and mystic trip through ambient electronic sounds that leaves you a million miles away from wherever you started. All four artists here excel with electro producer Reedale Ris kicking off in languid, far-sighted fashion with their mournful synths and distant cosmic designs. Out.Lier's 'Track 2' is another one cast adrift on deepest space with smeared pads and floating aural details suspending you in mid air. Jo Johnson's cascading synth motifs are pure and innocent and cathartic and Romanticise The World's 'Track 4' is mellifluous and hopeful.
B-STOCK: Creasing to corners of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent working condition
Reedale Rise - "Track 1"
outlier - "Track 2"
Jo Johnson - "Track 3"
Romanticise The World - "Track 4"
Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corners of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent working condition***
Verdant's tenth release is another meandering and mystic trip through ambient electronic sounds that leaves you a million miles away from wherever you started. All four artists here excel with electro producer Reedale Ris kicking off in languid, far-sighted fashion with their mournful synths and distant cosmic designs. Out.Lier's 'Track 2' is another one cast adrift on deepest space with smeared pads and floating aural details suspending you in mid air. Jo Johnson's cascading synth motifs are pure and innocent and cathartic and Romanticise The World's 'Track 4' is mellifluous and hopeful.
Review: Josh Dahlberg is The Valley and the Mountain aka TVTM and is an artist who has made a big move recently from the deep westside of Detroit all the way across to the far reaches of the Pacific Northwest. He he arrives on Central Scientific for its inaugural release with Detroit-based producer and Akka & BeepBeep founder, Jo Rad Silver, taking care of the flip. Next to an array of hardware, there is plenty of improvisation with guitars in this EP - 'Experiment Obscura' is a widescreen and dramatic ambient cut with a meditative feel and 'Immersion Theatre III' is another empty but inviting piece with curlicues, wispy pads, distant guitar echoes and moodiness to spare.
Review: After numerous patches, Cyberpunk 2077 has come an astoundingly long way since Keanu Reeves himself announced it at the now-defunct E3 expo. Phantom Liberty is an expansion on the original game set in Dogtown, the ruins of an abandoned luxury development project that was forced to be scrapped when old military complexes, bunkers and labs were uncovered by construction. A tale of espionage and political intrigue ensues, scored by P.T. Adamczyk and Jacek Paciorkowski once again following the duo's Game Award-nominated original score. The highlight is, of course, 'Phantom Liberty', the title and credits track that features Polish X Factor winner and multi-diamond recording artist Dawid Podsiadlo, his voice booming in front of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Pressed on heavyweight 180gm vinyl and includes a double-sided insert with key art of Songbird for fans of the series to enjoy.
Review: The Disintegration Loops man William Basinski has linked up with acclaimed experimental composer Janek Schaefer for this new collaborative record on Temporary Residence Limited. What they cook up is a suite of very unassuming songs that are all dedicated to the late and great avant-garde composer Harold Budd. The record was eight years in the making and is as timeless as ambient gets with 42 minutes of gently undulating sonic terrain gently and quietly detailed with subtle skill and placid melodies. It is as beautiful as it is absorbing once you really give yourself over to the sounds.
Harmonies In Hesitation (feat Marine Eyes) (10:53)
Interactions In Isolation (8:20)
Halvings In Hypnosis (10:06)
Strategies In Struggle (9:03)
Lamentations In Light (8:18)
Formulas In Fathoms (9:25)
Review: Anyone who's cast even the most casual eye over their ever expanding catalogue will have realised that one thing Past Inside The Present do best is bring artists together for unexpected and inspired collaborations. Departing in Descent is the first collaboration between James Bernard and Bvdub but their creative conversation effectively started as far back as 1994 when the latter bought Bernard's Atmospherics album in 1994 when it was "mistakenly stocked" in his local house music store. He says it was and remains his favourite ambient album, so when the pair found themselves crossing paths for one night in LA years later, a collaboration was the only logical conclusion. The results are more organic and friendly on the ear than some ambient offerings, with real instrumentation meshed with walls of woozy synths and delays, but no less fantastical and ambitious for it.
Review: After an initial collaborative album released in 2019, French instrumentalist-producers JB Dunckel and Jonathan Fitoussi have reunited for a twin rumination on memory, and its necessary dialogue with the present moment. Namechecking such musical memories as the motorik beats and kosmische builds of the 70s, all the way through to Detroit house's signature 4x4 march, the pair offer a starkly minimal, Parisian, post-punky dance record here, mixed in with layered, industrial atmospherics. Active recalls of marimba minimal ('Marimbaloum') and Moogish doom liturgy ('Atlantica') also lay among the memory traces here, just waiting to be rediscovered by both listener and interpreter.
Review: Now here's a rarity for you. Not even many of the most committed megafans know that Brian Eno, Holger Czukay and J.Peter Schwalm, accompanied by Raoul Walton and Jern Atai, performed a secret live music show, outside the esteemed Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, situated in the city of Bonn, in August 1998. Forming a part of the opening party of Eno's Future Light-Lounge Proposal multimedia installation, this furtively-recorded album hears an exclusive slice of incidental "high-altitude food music", of course made during Brian Eno's airborne ambient era. Now reissued via Gronland, this five-piece cut of sophisti-ambi-krauttronica makes for a welcome surprise.
Review: Past Inside the Present label head and ambient powerhouse zake aka Zach Frizzell has collaborated with several of his renowned peers over the years, not least From Overseas aka Kevin Sery and James Bernard. Their collaborative album Flint showcases them all their peak with an immersive blend of their own sounds making for a rich soundscape full of subtle depth and warmth. Beginning with 'Conifer,' the record evokes autumn's crisp air with understated drones and field recordings while the title track layers electronics, bass and guitar into a lush, Fripp & Eno-inspired sound. Together with other widescreen standouts like 'Fir' and 'Thistle' they create a beautifully cohesive and reflective ambient trip.
Review: Two years ago, long-term musical collaborators Jules Maxwell and Lisa Gerrard, who first worked together during the latter's time with 4AD signed musical mavericks Dead Can Dance, joined forces with James Chapman to create Burn, a critically acclaimed exploration of "euphoric and inventive" sounds that blurred the boundaries between neo-classical, world music and ambient electronica. One Night in Porto captures the pair's performance - ably assisted by Chapman and a small pool of supplementary musicians - of the album's widescreen tracks at Casa Da Musica in Porto last November. With Gerrard utilising her voice to the full - one minute, soaring and operatic, the next singing more sweetly and soulfully in an entirely different language - and Maxwell playing a grand piano and synthesisers, it's a stunningly atmospheric, uplifting and entertaining affair.
Review: German pair Markus Guentner and Joachim Spieth rightly got plenty of acclaim for their 2023 ambient album Overlay and now it gets revisited with a top selection of remixes that breathe new life into the original compositions. Prominent ambient and experimental artists such as Hollie Kenniff, Rafael Anton Irisarri and Pole all show their class while newer names like Abul Mogard smears synths into a misty wonder on 'Scope', Galan/Vogt layer in angelic vocal tones to 'Valenz' and Leandro Fresco brings a lightness of touch that fills with optimism on opener 'Apastron. Guentner and Spieth themselves provide two alternate versions of their originals that bring new emotional and sonic depth.
Review: Two Johns unite: griot and kora master John Haycock, hailing from Manchester, and fellow multi-instrumentalist John Ellis, team up for the spiritual-visionary album 'Didymus'. Enlisting a ragtag band of musicians to produce something far beyond what the average folk artist can make on their own, the album centres on a single mantra: 'visions create'. The aim is to sonically chart a roadmap towards a bright future, a feat that seems impossible: the means are sequenced electronic, dub-psychs flourishings, solstice chants, and poetry from a band of wordsmiths such as Rob Dunford and Sunflower Bill.
Review: Back in the 1990s, the combination of Mixmaster Morris, Jonah Sharp (he of Spacetime Continuum fame) and Haruomi Hosono was the closest thing you got to an ambient supergroup (the Orb's collaboration with Robert Fripp and Thomas Fehlmann as FFWD not withstanding). The trio only recorded one album together, the sublime Quiet Logic, but it's an absolute doozy - as this timely reissue proves. For one reason or another, it was only ever released in Japan at the time, meaning this is the first time it has been available worldwide. As you'd expect with such masters of the art form at the helm, it is genuinely superb - a slowly evolving opus that moves between unfurling, dub-fired ambient techno ('Waraitake') to ambient jazz eccentricity ('Dr Gauss/Yakan Hiko (Night Flight)'), via deep ambient d&b ('Uchu Yuei (Night Swimming)') and deep space ambient.
B-STOCK: Record sleeve damaged, product in working order
But Not In This Room (3:36)
My Seat & Weep (4:16)
Yellow Leaf Flutters On A Nail (4:42)
Petals (with Emile Frankel) (4:23)
You Take Each Other's Breath Away By Doing Something Or Saying Something You Never Saw Coming (7:56)
More Room To Breathe In (with Angelina Nonaj) (3:36)
Picnic: Dyed In The Wool (5:43)
A Healing Tear (with Abby Sundborn) (4:47)
Review: ***B-STOCK: Record sleeve damaged, product in working order***
RECOMMENDED
Have you heard much as warm as 'But Not In This Room' recently? A subtly mesmerising introduction to a stunningly beautiful album, fans of DNTEL's lusher ends should take note, albeit in this instance we're talking endless notes and soft chimes rather than anything you might call a song.
Most of My Seat & Weep feels similarly like it's warming up, 'Yellow Leaf Flutters On A Nail', for example, is akin to stepping into a gong bath on a hot summer's day. Those who have will understand. In terms of musicality, 'Petals', featuring Emile Frankel, might take first prize here - its slowly emerging piano keys gradually finding one another to form a distinct arrangement that's neither forceful nor benign. Before you know it, you're in and never want to leave. Ever.
Review: Back in 2016, Jah Wobble offered up a two-disc trawl through the more dub-fired corners of his vast back catalogue, In Dub. While that set included dub tracks and self-made reworks that spanned the whole of his then 40-year career, this belated sequel concentrates on material made since 1990. As you'd expect given Wobble's track record, there's little straight-up dub reggae present, but rather a ton of hazy, delay-laden musical fusions that mix and match elements of ambient, electronica, post-punk, no-wave, traditional Indian music, trip-hop, psychedelia, jazz and even dense, tribal style drum tracks - all laden with the sometime Public Image Ltd member's trademark weighty bass. Throw in some never-before-heard mixes and previously vinyl-only versions, and you have another fine collection of heady, dub-wise fusions.
Review: John Also Bennett's new album Out There in the Middle of Nowhere came to him during a long road trip through South Dakota's desolate badlands. Inspirations from that journey were then taken into the studio along with a lap steel guitar, Yamaha FM synth and field recordings to elicit the same sense of emptiness but potential for menace that he felt in the middle of nowhere. It is a superb evocation of windswept plains, wide open vistas that sparkle under the sun and panoramic landscapes distilled into long-form drones. There is a great cinematic feel to this album - a story telling narrative that sets your mind into overdrive filling in the mental imagery that makes it as beautiful and poignant as anything we've heard for a while.
Review: Julien Jabre's Southwind comprises music taken from the new eponymous experimental film, directed by visual artists Mark Pozlep and Maxime Berthou, and released in 2023. Jabre's bold chordwork and Moogish harmonic progressions complement the art of the Franco-Slovenian duo, intertwining sublimely with the film's evocative imagery to portray an America between two crises. The project, which involved descending the Mississippi aboard a homemade steamboat, began only a few months after one of the largest floods in the United States and ended just a few weeks before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the end of Donald Trump's presidency. With these recent historical events held firmly in mind, the album remains fixated on what lies beneath, undiscovered, with titles such as 'Deep Under', 'Hard Soul', 'Stagnant', 'Sluice' and 'Mud' presenting a clear imaginary and message: however bullish it may seem, modern America is a contemporary psychic dustbowl, through which more fluent waters must be led.
Review: Bristol has a lot to answer for when it comes to atmospheric downtempo stuff. The birthplace of trip hop is still commonly associated with the genre decades after its inception, but this shouldn't make anyone think for a second the city has sat idly by gorging on the fatted calfs of Massive Attack, Portishead and the like without pushing further experimentations in the art of sombre, slow, emotional electronica. Jabu are a great case in point, and if the world were different, fairer, and less overwhelmed with band names you can bet your bottom dollar this South West England trio would be household treasures by now. Having released a number of genuinely mesmerising albums packed with meditations on loss, landing on exalted labels such as Blackest Ever Black, here they present a generous helping of unreleased and previously unheard bits and pieces that led to the back catalogue we now have. Tellingly, everything here was always worthy of release, so it's great this has finally happened.
Review: Arushi Jain is a Brooklyn-based modular synth artist and Indian classical vocalist who draws on the traditional music of North India for inscription. She grew up in Delhi and has some seriously high level turning behind her including studying at the Ravi Shankar Institute in Delhi though she also studied Computer Science at Stanford University. After her debut album With & Without impressed back in 2019 she now follows it up with her second album Delight, also on Leaving. It is an intoxicating blend of East meets West with widescreen ambient and classical sounds defined by their exquisite melodies.
Review: Pivotal electronic musician Jean Michel Jarre is venerated for his massive live shows, which incorporate projections onto the sides of big buildings, fireworks, and the like. According to Sony, Jarre was also the first 'western' musician to perform in post-Mao China, which led to a longstandingly solid relationship between him, his management team, and the tourism and events industries of Beijing and Shanghai, which led to him continually performing in those cities over many years. 'The Concerts In China', originally released in 2014, collects the live audio of all of these performances, and is once again set for a re-release.
Review: The original soundtrack composed and performed by Jean Michel Jarre for the 1973 French movie 'Les Granges Brulees' (The Burned Barns), directed by Jean Chapot, hears a reissue. The soundtrack was originally released in 1973 by Eden Roc and features experimental electronic music influenced by Jarre's work at the G.R.M (Groupe de Recherches Musicales). Now re-released by Transversales Disques, its various concrete meanderings and mysterious polyrhythmic resonances continue to beguile.
Review: This is surely one of the most classic electronic albums of all time and an oft-referenced inspiration for countless new generations of electronic music producers. It remains a pioneering masterpiece almost 50 years after its original release in 1976 which is why it now gets reissued once more. The album's six interconnected tracks evoke themes of space, nature and environmental fragility which make it as emotionally stirring as it is sonically innovative. Highlights like 'Oxygene Part IV' showcase Jarre's ability to create timeless, hypnotic rhythms that transcend genres and make this a visionary work demonstrating the enduring power of minimalistic yet deeply atmospheric composition. A true landmark in the history of sound design.
Review: Arriving five years after his seminal Oxygene long player, Jean-Michel Jarre's Les Chants Magnetiques again showcases his mastery of synths and his innovative approach to electronic composition. The album's five tracks weave a tapestry of pulsating rhythms, shimmering melodies and experimental textures that reflect Jarre's fascination with the interplay of nature and technology. 'Magnetic Fields Part II' and its infectious sequencer-driven groove became a standout hit while other parts explore ambient and avant-garde realms. Looking back now, the album bridges the gap between the cosmic explorations of Oxygene and Equinoxe and the emerging digital soundscapes of the 80s.
Review: The long-awaited Dialogo reissue of a true Italian library music gem, originally released in 1974. Made by renowned pianist and composer Amedeo Tommasi under the alias Jarrell, Industria 2000 is a little-harked avant-garde mantelpiece, fusing hypno-synth excursuses with industrial quizzicalities, presaging the works of John Carpenter and the noise and industrial movements to follow. Now available again in a limited run of just 300 copies, in a faithful replica of the original packaging, it forms part of a broader ecumenism by Dialogo to highlight the Italian arm of RCA's 'Original Cast' series, the imprint through which Industria 2000 was originally released. Long regarded as one of the most forward-thinking experimental library records, Jarrell was able to jerry-rig twelve tracks of mechanised environments and abstract synthesis, and offer a neat intro to Italian library music at that.
Review: Who doesn't love a good compilation? And a good compilation is exactly what we have here, as put together by the golf standard digger that is JD Twitch. Ever since he first head out to the land of the rising sun to DJ he has been bewitched by it. Sub-titled 'A Beginners Guide to Japan In The '80s' this assemblage of ambient, cosmic and electronic sounds is beautifully escapist, taking you right out the Far East in an instant with its curious melodies and gentle ear worms. There is a purity and beauty to the music that is utterly cleansing with all of Japan's most legendary names included.
David Sylvian & Hildur Gunadttir - "I Measure Every Grief I Meet"
Philip Jeck & Claire M Singer - "Sketch Two"
Jah Wobble & Deep Space - "Jeck Drums 2 Basses"
Drums Off Chaos - "Keep In Touch"
Gavin Bryars & Philip Jeck - "8 Piste"
Chandra Shukla - "The Ark Has Closed"
Jana Winderen & Philip Jeck - "Pilots"
Review: The late ambient turntablist Philip Jeck's life is triumphantly celebrated on this latest compilation from UK A/V label Touch. Rpm cycles through 16 unheard snapshots laid down over the course of Jeck's career, connecting the dots of his life through the works of both kindred spirits and Jeck originals. Whether it be a storied live performance with Faith Coloccia or the in memoriam live night recorded at Iklectik by fellow avant-gardist Chris Watson, this compilation refuses to think confinedly about whose work should be included; Jeck's touch left a lasting impression not just on his own music, but of those of his contemporaries and friends. Much of the new material on this record was made by Jeck while he was in a hospital bed, laptop used as the final means to edit and sequence these friend-sourced gems.
Review: Following fast on the scorched heels of his most recent record Kosmische Pitch, Jan Jelinek now releases a fresh one for Faitiche: a recorded issuance of his 2022 performance, The Carpenters. Held at Uferstudio 1 in Berlin on July 20, 2022, two pieces transform an irrecognisable Carpenters' sample (the original song name is asterisked for perhaps obvious reasons) into salivatory stretch-scape. The original source is slowly unveiled near the end of the first half, almost of a moment of awakening from hypnosis. Then in the second half, Jelinek re-blurs the material, as if to descend the trough of a sinusoid wave. The Faitiche edition series houses such captivations exclusively on cassette, whose deprecatory format matches the exclusivity of the performance (though tape deck owners can also request a free digital download code).
Review: Ilian Tape have tapped up Jichael Mackson here for a double album of expressive and forward thinking electronic sounds. The atmosphere generally futuristic and intriguing, with tracks like 'Shangri La' riding on gentle breakbeats amongst air pads, 'Banana Jazz (Quartett)' is a high speed and live sounding jazz-breakbeat workout, 'A Jichalicious Something' is dubby and IDM inflected lushness and 'Good Morning Sunshine' is an interplanetary trip with distant cosmic pads and organic piano chords soothing mind, body and soul.
Review: Canadian minimal veteran Tomas Jirku has been a little quiet of late, but now he makes a welcome and unexpected return with something quite different for Silent Season. You can hear echoes of his earlier work in the soundscapes he's sculpted across Touching The Sublime, as high-definition sonic manipulation draws on his experience and eye for detail in wielding music technology, but rather than creating pointillist rhythmic structures, he's more concerned with billowing clouds of ambience. It's easy to draw parallels with the likes of Tim Hecker, but there's space for more techno-oriented productions in the midst of the maelstrom. Epic in scope and powerfully rendered, this is an album that will feed your head for a long time to come.
Review: Many artists have tried their hand at rescoring the original soundtrack to the first sci-fi film ever, Metropolis. It debuted all the way back in 1927 in the era when films still had live orchestras - the film premiered with an accompaniment by composer Gottfried Huppertz - but its ultimate fate as a silent film have since led many artists from Giorgio Moroder to Dieter Moebius to Jeff Mills try their hand. Now comes a more contemporary take from Joakim, who conveys the dark descent into the film's futuristic underbelly with many-an industrial clank, atmospheric moan and metallic technoid scrape.
Eleven Thousand Six Hundred & Sixty-Nine Died Of Natural Causes (0:53)
They Leave Everything Behind (1:07)
They Fed The Sparrows Leftovers & Offered Grass To Scherfig's Turtle (2:32)
An Eiffel Tower By The Lakes (1:06)
Three Thousand Five Hundred & Ninety One Benches (1:42)
The Jewish Cemetery On Mollegade (2:36)
They Dream They'll Get There (1:20)
A Memorial Garden On Enghavevej (4:12)
A Six-Lane Highway (1:31)
He Hit Her On The Head With The Wind In The Willows (1:49)
He Says It's The Future (1:58)
There's No Harm Done (2:08)
They Had To Work It Out Between Them (1:04)
The Song About The Hyacinths (2:13)
It Will Take Some Time (1:42)
She Loves To Ride The Port Ferry When It Rains (2:54)
A French School On Vaernedamsvej (1:27)
Here, They Used To Build Ships (3:34)
They Imagine The City Growing Out Into The Ocean (4:28)
Review: Director Max Kestner's documentary film portrait Copenhagen Dreams is a tribute to the Danish capital. That also happened to be the place acclaimed composer Johann Johannsson was living at the time he was asked to score the movie. As always he does so with real aplomb and devastating emotionality. This now classic soundtrack features celestial keyboard sounds, emotive string quartets, clarinet, subtle electronic and plenty of melodic magic that both swells and breaks the heart. Academy Award winner Hildur Gudnadottir plays on the soundtrack with various other of Johann's favourite Icelandic talents.
A Model Of The Universe (The Theory Of Everything - Suite)
Domestic Pressures
The Orgins Of Time
Forces Of Attraction
Cambridge, 1963
Target (Sicario - Suite)
Desert Music
Melancholia
Review: Before he passed in 2018, the late, great Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson made a series of field recordings at Iceland's Ellidaar power plant which were inspired by the writings of Henry Adams. Those pieces inspired this new suite of music from Daniel Bjarnason and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra which also includes some of Johannsson's scores to Sicario and The Theory of Everything. It is a sublime work that joins the dots between all of Johannsson's work with soft drones, brass tones and chiming harpsichord all coming and going to make for emotional and dramatic tension. A fine reminder of one of the greats who sadly left us too soon.
Review: A founder member of Ultravox and all round synth pop godfather sits at the piano on his lonesome here, after many years of collaborating with Harold Budd and Ruben Garcia. The Arcades Project is a step backward into more refined, quiet artistry and minimal compositions with a candlelit late-night vibe and engaging and emotional flow. A text by Walter Benjamin formed part of the inspiration for the work and is "a sort of stroll through new ideas emerging from the city life of Paris in the 19th and early 20th century." The resulting sounds delightfully airy and inquisitive.
Review: Jo Johnson is a rising name in the realm of modular ambience; here she presents her latest four track mini-album for Mysteries Of The Deep. 'The Wave Ahead' is an implicit homage to the likeness of sound waves and the moon-guided waves of the Earth's oceans, producing a nighttime calmdown for polyphonic synth in five tracks. For Johnson, both kinds of wave are nearly one and the same - 'diaphonous' - and the realisation is made manifest here in a stellarly arpeggio-heavy, sinewave-surfing LP, which recalls the work of Steve Hauschildt or Hannah Peel.
Review: Building on a career's worth of 90s freeform punk, 00s underground techno and every minimalistic and healing sonic contour in between since then, Jo Johnson returns to the fore with her latest record Red, White & Yellow. "Waves" and "tidal forces" are the first verbal associations that spring to mind, as we're dunked into many a sequent swell and ruminant ripple of sound. In the hat-trick of tracks that is 'It Just Is The Love It Feels', 'Inside Eyes Sparks Fire Under Ice' and 'Unfolding & Folding', we hear a holy trinity of sorts, eschewing isolable tempi or affects for a deeply warming kind of minimalism.
Review: Whitney Johnson and Lia Kohl's debut album has evolved over several years. Its roots lay in their shared practice of free improvisation on viola and cello and flourished into a unique neophonic orchestral expression. That makes For Translucence both stimulating and soothing - a very alive form of musical meditation where layers of acoustic strings, wispy synths, evocative field recordings and radio and sine waves intertwine and grow while mesmerising you even more. Though always moving and shapeshifting the effect is cathartic as a fine balance is struck between experimentation and cohesion and the organic and the electronic.
Review: Guillaume Lespinasse should be a familiar name to fans of the Brothers From Different Mothers label and the alternative French electronic/dance music scene that has been in rude health for ages now. As one half of celebrated live duo The Pilotwings, regulars on said label, we can safely consider him a master of the immersive slo mo sound, veering towards a more cosmic, almost tropical end as oppose to the heavier, progressive tones many opt for at that tempo.
Here he's stepping out alone to offer this richly detailed collection of ambience and obscurity, packed with the kind of noises that really make you want to stay in a moment forever. In many ways, the arrangements opt for a maximalist approach to serenity. And tracks don't stand still - they evolve, and develop, switch and change things up, at times sounding like opiate drone, in other moments 1980s movie accidentals.
Review: Jonsi's third studio album, Obsidian, is now available on vinyl for the first time, following its initial release alongside his installation at the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in NYC. Co-produced and mixed by Paul Corley and Nathan Salon, Obsidian delves into darker themes compared to its predecessor, Shiver. The album features ten tracks with evocative titles inspired by ashen landscapes, taking listeners on a sensory journey through erupting flares. Jonsi's masterful layering of vocals over orchestral passages blurs the boundaries between senses, creating a profound and immersive narrative experience.
Review: 'Dwell Time' focuses on the moments in between. Expanding on Satie's Furniture Music, which explores the role of music as a backdrop, Dwell Time explores the moments in between active and passive listening. A sound that maintains a unique balance of properties can start as an active relationship that slowly dissolves into the background and accompanies a listener over its course. The Dwell Time signal remains completely analog, utilizing homemade tape samples and hardware synthesizers to encourage the listener to move between the different states of listening. Produced by Rafael Anton Irisarri and Mastered by Taylor Deupree.
Review: Dwell Time II is the second part of a three-part project on Past Inside The Present from T.R. Jordan. Each of the albums was made using the same material in the same time frame, and they are all part of one overarching and coherent suite that he refers to as "musical composting." This is the cassette tape version and it is full of grainy, fluttering howls, soft warbling pads, pastoral references like flowing streams and mossy rocks and plenty of grand spatial elegance that harks back to the likes of Hiroshi Yoshimura and early Brian Eno experiments. Another immersive offering from this fine label, then.
Review: The irrepressible Past Inside The Present is back with the second in a trilogy of tape loop experiments from T.R. Jordan. This is the limited and hand-numbered CD format and is another cohesive piece of this three-suite puzzle. All of the music was made by the same materials and methods and was all made in "a concentrated period of inspired experimentation with no energy wasted." The artist calls it a form of "musical composting" and the music is full of a sense of musical grace and elegance, peaceful pads and sonic versions of pastoral scenes like flowing rivers and mossy rocks under beautiful wispy clouds.
Krispy Kat Whack - "Live At The Lube Room" (26:32)
Review: "The Next World Sound Series is a collection of work by contemporary sound artists working in long form instrumental composition and translated to the tangible medium of vinyl. These modern day offerings capture the analog quality and experience of last century electronic recordings, presented to you with today's technological advances in home playback, for your environmental listening pleasure." Or so say heads at the iconic and truly enigmatic label Dark Entries of this latest addition to their catalogue. A collection of work that spans the strangely frantic sci-fi tones of 'Oberenginen 0930' to the almost monastic drone of 'Soma', dubbed and muffled drums and vocals on 'Lixsm', club-ready broken beats of 'Destruct', and the evocative futurist refrains and samples of 'John Gore'. As expansive as it is exploratory and adventurous, you'll need to set aside some serious listening time for your first play here.
B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition
Poeme Symphonique (1) (8:59)
Poeme Symphonique (2) (8:46)
Poeme Symphonique (3) (20:59)
Poeme Symphonique (4) (1:09)
Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***
Obliques unveils Poeme symphonique here on limited clear vinyl. Composer Jonathan Fitoussi reimagines Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1 "Titan" in a groundbreaking creation commissioned by Radio France. Recorded live at La Maison de la Radio's grand auditorium on November 18, 2023, in Paris, this concert epitomizes a fusion of classical and electronic music. Fitoussi's interpretation breathes new life into Mahler's masterpiece, enriching it with contemporary sensibilities while preserving its timeless essence. With this release, Obliques invites listeners on a transcendent journey through sound, celebrating the convergence of past and present in the realm of symphonic expression.
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