Review: After four years of work fusing acoustic and electronic sound worlds, Rand finally unveiled the fruits of their labours with Peripherie. The duo of concert pianist Jan Gerdes and minimal techno producer Dr. Nojoke have cooked up urban and sensitive music for piano and electronics that was all recorded live with no overdubs back in 2019 at Berlin's Chez-Cherie Studios. It was made across three pianos with improvisation at the heart of the process. It's a great collision of worlds, from dark and intense pieces of pulsing techno to more light and hopeful and empty soundscapes that perfectly blur the edges between the different tools used. Fans of Nils Frahm, Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto will enjoy digging into this one.
Review: The celebrated 'Live from Studio S2' performance is now available on vinyl once more featuring all four tracks from the session, including the unreleased 'Hawaii Oslo' and 'Glass'. Premiered on the Gondwana Records YouTube channel back in 2021, this session has since picked up over three million views and captivated fans worldwide in the process. It was recorded this session at the Berlinale Film Festival's EFM sessions in Studio S2 in Warsaw, where Hania Rani had previously recorded for her debut album Esja. The set includes new arrangements of beloved tracks that are all sumptuous and beautiful.
Review: Ruffy & Tuffy were teenage twins when they dropped this one back in 1982. It might be one of the first recorded uses of a vocoder in reggae too as they served up their seriously heavyweight low ends and drenched them in synths in a rub-a-dub style. 'If The 3rd World War Is A Must' is one of only a few tunes this pair dropped and although they weren't prolific, they were influential. They were also in a film, Ted Bafaloukos' iconic 1978 Rockers, in which the twins are sparring in red Pony tracksuits. They were proud Rastafarians who remained symbols of defiance.
Review: The state51 Conspiracy label comes very much correct early on in the New Year with this two-track grey marbled vinyl 12" in a fancy spot-varnished sleeve. It takes the form of two fresh Santaka reworks of original compositions by Rytis Mazulis and avant-garde choir Melos Collective which were first released back in 2020. Santaka, which means "confluence" in Lithuanian, is the coming together of DJ and producer Manfredas and drummer and producer Marijus Aleksa and here they layer up disembodied vocals and dark jazz melodies on 'Ramybe' and then 'Autoportretas' is a textural ambient exploration packed with fascinating sound designs.
Review: It's fair to say Placelessness is the work of an Australian experimental supergroup. Oren Ambarchi has been a towering figure of hyper-minimalism since the mid-80s, most notably creating tense and elongated stretches of recordings and performance using guitar tone. Robbie Avenaim is an accomplished experimental drummer, and Chris Abrahams heads up The Necks. That's a very condensed biography for three incredibly accomplished musicians who finally make good on years of live collaborations and criss-crossed pathways to deliver a stunning album which brings their respective qualities into sharp relief, somehow fuller than their solo efforts without losing the vital subtlety and patience which has guided them to greatness.
Review: Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto dropped this one first back in 2006. It was the third collaborative album between the ambient maestros and the third installment of V.I.R.U.S.'s five albums series. It was remastered last year and now gets served up as a reissue alongside three all-new pieces, namely 'City Radieuse', 'Veru 1', and 'Veru 2'. The first of those was written for a short cinematic essay in 2012. The album centres around the pano with padded bass and electronic frequencies adding extra depth and texture. It is another classic in their oeuvre.
Review: Vrioon was the first ever collaboration album between Alva Noto and legendary synth man and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. 20 years after it became the first instalments of V.I.R.U.S.'s five records together it gets the full reissue treatment. The original tracks from the album are joined by an all new composition 'Landscape Skizze' which was laid down in 2005. The record is defined by alternate piano chords, lush electronic tones and quivering timbres that are delicate yet impactful.
Review: Hardanger is a collaboration between Mariska Baars, Niki Jansen and Rutger Zuydervelt. Named after Jansen's Hardanger fiddle, the album expands on Baars and Zuydervelt's established chemistry after beginning as Jansen's improvisations with Baars adding vocals and guitar, all later shaped by Zuydervelt into two long-form tracks-one an electro-acoustic collage, the other more meditative. Baars blends ambient and folk and is known for collaborating with artists like Peter Broderick, while Jansen is a folk violinist and Zuydervel's prolific output as Machinefabriek is well worth checking as are his film scores and collabs as Piiptsjilling and Fean with Baars.
Review: Truly living up to its name, Venusia - a word that has three meanings; a genus of moth, town in Italy, and the Roman goddess of love (who, as it happens, was named after the planet, Venus) - is essentially an homage to the fragile beauty of life, and the sense that our being present in this existence is something of a marvel. A one in a billion gamble that paid off without us even having to decide if the odds looked good enough to bet.
A collaborative work from four friends, with Henrik Meierkord on cello, Pawel Kobak playing flute, Marco Lucchi in charge of electronics, and Rocco Saviano on guitar duties, this atmospheric and cinematic ambient soundscape is grand and small, expansive and intimate, but overwhelmingly emotionally captivating in each of those modes. Complimented by gorgeous butterfly artwork by Valerii Bogorod, it's impossible not to fall for this intoxicating experience.
Review: Ambient legends Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri team up for new album Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close. Unfolding naturally after being booked to play at the same show in Madrid in 2023, the two ambient artists' dazzlingly warm, slow-progressing approaches to ambience fuse neatly together here. Just two long pieces, 'Piece Of Forever' and 'Waking Up Dizzy On A Bastion', titularly grasp at the theme of eternity, determinism, historical peaks and troughs: the supporting atmosphere is equally as impressively arresting, seeming to urge the listener to 'give over' and move with the flow of time, less than the flow of will. Such a paradigm shift can indeed serve to make distance and closeness seem irrelevant.
The Fantastic Life Of Mr Adonis The Peacock (3:04)
The Wheels Are Spinning (5:36)
Review: In a first-time collaboration, psychedelic trance godhead Simon Posford (best known as Hallucinogen and a founding member of Shpongle) teams up with fellow hippie and flutist Raja Ram (Ronald Rothfield) on a welling improvisatory record, Improvisations For Piano And Flute. Though both are highly esteemed artists in their respective micro-corners of the electronic music scene, Posford and Rothfield both depart significantly from their usually danceable ends for a living-room recorded set of ambiences. With a synth placed atop an antique Bluthner piano, Raj and Simon would join in after the other first begun playing, delivering a 44-minute effluence for the spontaneous soul.
Review: Pianist Rachel Grimes is Rachel's and their sophomore album Music for Egon Schiele was originally released in 1996 on Quarterstick Records as a live score for a theatrical production about the titular Austrian painter. The performance of it was premiered in 1995 by Chicago's Itinerant Theater Guild with Grimes and two string players. The music is intimate and emotionally rich material that is stripped down to chamber pieces that rise and fall with real intensity. More focused than their debut Handwriting, this album blends melancholy, romance and beauty into a deeply affecting narrative that lingers long after the final note.
Review: Recorded at the legendary Eglise du Saint-Esprit in Paris, Blue Veil is the very first time we've been given a record fully dedicated to the incredible solo cello work of Lucy Railton. A spectacularly talented composer who is a master of the world's most mournful-yet-beautiful instrument, this is as much of a heart-stopping performance as it is a concept work of art. In many ways, Blue Veil is an experiment in resonance. If it were synthesised, we might refer to it as drone, although by nature the label infers a level of dullness. Here, we're talking about the natural refrains of an orchestral sunrise, the ebb and flow of contemporary classical tides. We're invited in, hypnotised, lulled and then let go. Free to wander back into the world after a brief respite from its relentless pace.
Review: London promoters Sagome continue their evolution and expansion into an essential label with their third release. This one comes from Italian duo Rain Text which comprises Giuseppe Ielasi, a renowned mastering engineer and one-half of Bellows, and Giovanni Civitenga, who hosts the long-running Skyapnea show on NTS. Their new album III offers sequentially titled, intricately detailed electronic compositions that blend abstract techno, glitchy sound design and experimental electronica. Comparable to Mika Vainio's sonic manipulation yet more densely layered, III nods to the fractured sounds of Actress and the decay-driven textures of late-period Jan Jelinek. It's engaging and unique, to say the least.
Review: A Monster's Expedition + Earlier Adventures is a double disc collection of music from four different video games (namely A Monster's Expedition, Sokobond, Cosmic Express and A Good Snowman Is Hard to Build) all composed by Eli Rainsberry, Allison Walker, Nick Dymond, and Priscilla Snow. Each one is utterly unique to the game and each one comes laden with beautiful soothing atmospheres delicately coloured with ponderous and whimsical melodies that will distract you from whatever you are doing they are so gorgeous. This is music to get lost in and it comes with superbly serene artwork from Andre Rodrigues.
Review: Ghosts is the third solo album from Polish pianist and composer Hania Rani. It comes after an artist residency in Switzerland in an abandoned sanitarium amongst the mountains so is inspired by the numerous rumoured ghosts that inhabit the hills. Lead singles 'Hello' and 'Dancing with Ghosts' take drastically different approaches, with the former being an electro-ambient take on lounge jazz sensibilities and 'Dancing with Ghosts' being a moody and grumbling duet ballad with Patrick Whatson. The whole album has a lingering sense of finality and creeping doom, but with keys, strings and layered vocals making for a brilliantly atmospheric and moving listen.
Review: Hana Rani presents Nostalgia, a live album recorded at Witold Lutoslawski's Concert Studio at the Polish Radio in Warsaw, captured in breath-held detail, shortly after the release of her third solo album Ghosts. An homage to the Polish radio station, Rani describes the nine-piece record as a response to her visitation in 2018, just before the release of her debut record Esja. Soon establishing a recording studio in the proximate municipality of Mokotow, Rani channelled Polish Radio's historic broadcast energies into a locus of inspiration; Nostalgia builds on this in concert, in turn responding to a set of personal video recordings and photographs taken on a quiet, snowy day in the building. Weaving tinkling, clastic acoustic and electric piano around intervalent drones, and backed up by a string ensemble, Rani sound-paints a unique picture of Polish radiophonic history through a personal lens.
King Tubby & Sciientist - "Chalice A Fe" (Dyb) (3:23)
Roots Radios - "Opposition" (dub) (3:45)
Sly & The Revolutionairies & Jah Thomas - "Cocaine" (3:48)
Joe Gibbs & The Professionals - "Ghetto Slum" (3:39)
Roots Radios - "Storming The Death Star" (3:00)
Dennis Brown, King Tubby & The Soul Syndicate - "No Conscience" (2:53)
Scientist & Roots Radios - "Gunshot" (3:19)
Ossie & The Revolutionaies - "War Of The Stars (Mr Know It AlL)" (7" mix) (2:40)
Dennis Boveell & The 4th Street Orchestra - "Go Deh" (3:09)
The Revolutionaies - "Thompson Sound Incorporated" (3:32)
Joe Gibbs & The Professionals - "Pope Phyias" (The Selassie I Cup version) (3:02)
Sly & The Revolutionairies & Jah Thomas - "Marijuana" (2:43)
Review: Ras Jammy from Suns of Dub has curated a special release for Trojan Records that celebrates the deep cultural and historical ties between dub music and cannabis, all rooted in Jamaican music and Rastafarianism. This album, which arrives just in time for the stoners' best day of the year, 420, features iconic tracks from pioneering dub dons King Tubby, Scientist, Dennis Bovell and Roots Radics. These are the legends that helped shape the genre and this compilation highlights how they did it and what influence they had on the development of dub music. So, when the day comes, light up a fat one and turn this one up loud.
Review: Was there anyone who combined soul and synth pop this well with such expert instrumentation as this band?! This collection captures two iconic sessions for the John peel show recorded during the early 1980s, showcasing a beloved band at their creative peak. Remastered for a fresh listen, the album highlights their ability to craft memorable melodies and intricate synth-driven soundscapes. The funky, melodic opener boasts a strong chorus and infectious groove, setting the tone for an engaging journey through soulful pop. An upbeat, feel-good gem in 'Some People I Know To Lead Fantastic Lives ' follows, blending frenetic rhythms with shimmering synth textures that radiate warmth and optimism. An important hit for the band, 'Wishful Thinking' demonstrates clever songwriting and a catchy structure that's impossible to resist, solidifying its place as a synth pop classic. The collection also includes a stunning downtempo track with 'Watching The Rainclouds' , rich with soulfulness and unique instrumentation, showing the band's range and ability to evoke deep emotion through delicate melodies and expressive keyboard work. This compilation is a fantastic snapshot of their evolution and a reminder of their enduring influence. Fans old and new will find much to love in this expertly curated and beautifully remastered release. China Crisis continues to be more respected as time goes on.
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