Det Blaser En Vind Genom Varlden, Och Det Har Det Alltid Gjort (6:54)
Review: An experimental techno hexagram in LP form from Stockholm artist Evigt Morker. Without so much as a hint of context, the techno dark-shooter here drops his third LP for resident label Northern Electronics as a surprise, and the result is rather stunning. A bleary set of impressions, some tunes on this record clip the top edge of the mix, chinking our emotive armour. The effect is gastric, dehiscent, exuding bile: 'Hemilga Eldar' leaves us dumbstruck by its ambient eventidal winds and strangely sprawled drum shapes, while 'Sokaren Hittade' combines nyctophile cantos with electric twangs. The closer 'Det Blaser En Vind...' is a headland of humility, letting in much longer gusts of tuned air.
Review: Oren Ambarchi and Eric Thielemans' latest collaboration emerges from a recorded performance in Poitiers, France, in November 2023, showcasing their extraordinary duo chemistry. The single continuous performance, spanning over 45 minutes, encapsulates their shared language and willingness to push boundaries, blending meditative calm with unexpected melodic and rhythmic moments. 'Kind Regards' (Beginning) opens with Thielemans' entrancing tom patterns, which provide a steady undercurrent for Ambarchi's guitar, transformed into swirling tones by a Leslie speaker. As the music unfolds, it moves between introspective calm and more forceful bursts of energy, with Ambarchi's guitar eventually taking on an electric organ-like quality, echoing the soulful depth of Alice Coltrane. Later, 'Kind Regards' (Conclusion) takes on a more jazz-oriented direction, as Thielemans' delicate rhythmic shifts showcase his mastery of accents and cymbal work. Ambarchi counters this with jittery delayed tones, and a more active use of his fretboard, weaving through dissonant harmonics before concluding with a massive, yet detailed, climax of distorted guitar and crashing cymbals. The performance, free from any flashy tricks or filler, draws power from the deep intuition between the two musicians, and their shared commitment to exploring the limits of their instruments.
Review: Jacob Long's fourth full-length LP for Kranky hears the artist otherwise known as Earthen Sea expand his repertoire to an almost full reimagining, taking to the now longstanding Earthen Sea moniker from the fresh incarnation as a "piano trio", rather than a solo production effort. Though we gather this might not genuinely be the case, all it took was a simple shift in self-imagining to fashion a completely different take on a still so far meditative sound. Here elements were chopped and resampled, then layered with bass, drums, percussion and additional keys; the result is a fusion of live band acoustics and downtempo loops, sculpted into nine smoke-and-mirror dubs of fractured jazz, soft-focus noir and trip hop dust.
Hollow Dream (feat Annie Barker & Joseph Shabason) (3:26)
Around The Fire (feat Nightlands) (2:51)
Corner Of The World (feat Nat Birchall & Thore Pfeiffer) (4:02)
Amazing (feat Nubo) (2:23)
Ancient Love (feat Jamael Dean, Nat Birchall & Sharananda) (3:50)
The Will Of The One (feat Jonas Knutsson, Laraaji & Oceananda) (4:27)
North Star (feat Green-House & Nubo) (3:08)
Understanding (feat Miguel Atwood-Ferguson) (4:07)
Review: The absorbing Crescendo album is the fruit of a collaboration between Swedish producers Emil Holmstrom and Peter Wikstrom of Ecovillage. They are joined by a talented ensemble of musicians who all share a passion for improvisation and experimentation. Recorded between 2019 and 2022 in Los Angeles and Umea in Sweden, the album explores a fusion of jazz and ambient and as it goes it aims to break new ground and challenge conventional ambient music. Featuring ten tracks, each of which offers a unique mood and style, Crescendo ranges from uplifting and energetic compositions to mellow and dreamy soundscapes. With vocals spanning soft whispers to powerful chants, the artists' creative vision and spirit is well reflected.
Review: Stockholm-based composer Isak Edberg's second release on XKatedral - arguably the finest contemporary classical label in the Swedish capital. This time round we're given two extended pieces, running towards 30-minutes each, both of which are instrumentals and focused largely on minimalist piano notes, meaning the use of space and emptiness is also prominent. The title track, which opens the package, sets the tone and pace well, with each key allowed to breathe, refrains hanging on by a thin echo fading into the deep expanse of nothingness that seems to sit behind the instrument itself. 'Vestiges' complements this perfectly, again ensuring there's plenty of what's not happening in between the staccato off-keys. Fully committing to a more experimental side of the new classical spectrum, it's one you'll want to keep revisiting again and again.
Review: Like so many projects, Electric Taal Band has its roots in the pandemic. Specifically, when a box of Punjabi records was found for sale at the Bollywood Music Centre, on Gerrard Street East, in the Little India neighbourhood of Toronto. This inspired a deep dive into a spectrum and school of music that's largely been overlooked by Western ears, and a mission began to try and develop new variations on the era-spanning formula that ran through those random pieces of wax. Electric Taal Band proves how valid the endeavour was. Ten truly transportive tracks that invoke the heat and exoticism of the sub-continent through incredibly immersive, complex and - at times - experimental arrangements, achieved with the assistance of a vintage Radel telemeter and electric Tanpura. Two instruments originally design for practice purposes, here affording an unarguably unique sound you're unlikely to encounter anywhere else.
Review: Lawrence Englsh's new album was born out of a commission by curator Jonathan Wilson to create a sound environment for the Naala Badu building at the Art Gallery of NSW. It is a deeply atmospheric album that explores the relationship between sound and architecture and reflects the building's design, with its name meaning "seeing water" in the Gadigal language. The piece was crafted with a collaborative spirit by incorporating contributions from a diverse group of artists including Amby Downs, Claire Rousay and Jim O'Rourke. The resulting composition blends ambient textures and long-form sound prompts that capture the essence of place as an evolving, subjective experience. It's a work that highlights the porous nature of sound, and as a standalone work also succeeds in sinking you in deep.
Review: Last year, Brian Eno served up his latest critically acclaimed album in the form of FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE. Now he follows it up with the much anticipated instrumental version. Despite his advancing years and the sheer scope of what he has already accomplish dint he ambient world - not least devising the genre in the first place - Eno still manages to excite and intrigue here. The artwork alone is beautiful, and the music inside is similarly lush - widescreen cosmic soundscapes with subtle melodies and shifting timbres, pregnant empty space and a knack for sounds designs with meaning few others can match.
The Secret Place (with Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno) (3:21)
Brian Eno & Fred Again - "Cmon" (5:09)
Ho Renomo (4:56)
Sky Saw (3:20)
Brian Neo & John Cale - "Spinning Away" (5:25)
Brian Eno & Tom Rogerson - "Motion In The Field" (3:43)
There Were Bells (4:48)
Third Uncle (4:44)
Brian Eno & David Byrne - "Everything That Happens" (3:44)
Stiff (3:22)
Emerald & Lime (with Leo Abrahams & Jon Hopkins) (2:58)
Hardly Me (3:41)
Brian Eno & David Byrne - "Regiment" (feat Dunya Younes) (4:09)
Fractal Zoom (6:21)
Lighthouse #429 (5:41)
Brian Eno & Roger Eno - "By This River" (live At The Acropolis) (3:37)
Review: A true enigma, an artist that represents all that was fascinating and romantic and alluring and intriguing about 20th Century sounds, Brian Eno was always going to need a feature length documentary, when the time was right. Premiering at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Eno, Gary Hustwit's ode to the man, myth and legend, wowed critics and blew audiences away. Not least because it uses a computer programme which selects footage and edits the movie so a different version is shown at every screening. Innovation befitting Eno, removing the visuals and focusing on the sounds readjusts our vision to bring Eno into greater focus. The breadth of what's on this soundtrack is remarkable, from upfront indie on 'Stiff' and the weird folk-pop of 'Spinning Away', a John Cale collaboration, the ghostly post-rave of 'Cmon' with Fred Again, spectacular pianos of 'Motion In The Field', ethereal ambient vocals on 'There Were Bells', the angular punk dominating 'Third Uncle' - we could go on, and on, and on.
Review: When The Ship was released in 2016, Brian Eno was comfortably settled into a rhythm with Warp Records which had yielded multiple albums with Karl Hyde amongst other projects. The Ship was notable in that it was Eno's first solo record with vocals since 2005's Another Day On Earth and its widespread acclaim saw it make an impression on the UK charts. Loosely based around the rich thematic thread of the Titanic, but it's as much an exploration of Eno's older, lower register vocal. There's also a choice cover of The Velvet Underground's 'I'm Set Free', which brings this majestic album to a close. Now it's seeing a re-release via UMR pressed on Coke bottle green vinyl.
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: Roger and brother Brian Eno have already assured their legacy as pioneers of experimental ambient music. Mixing Colours was their first album on Deutsche Grammophon and this reissue reminds us why the par are so well known for revolutionising music-Brian through innovative pop treatments and Roger with ambient synth/piano works. This collaboration reflects their shared genius and guides you through rich soundscapes blending mood and place into immersive auditory experiences. Crafted over several years, this poetic collection highlights the brothers' mastery and is a deep dive into ambient sound.
Review: Originally conceived to accompany an installation at the 2022 Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Selkie Reflections is very much a thing of beauty, and a work in two parts. On the A-side, you have Alliyah Enyo re-working the original tape loops used at the show into a strange, enchanting, and immersive series of hypnotic and occasionally haunting vocal calls. Flip to side B, and Florian T M Zeisig, under the alias Angel R, takes all that and turns it inside out, onto its head, and down into the depths of the selkie's world - a mythical creature capable of shapeshifting between seal and human form which features heavily in Scottish folklore. Beguiling and enchanting, prepare to be submerged in a place of beauty, bliss and mystery.
Review: DJ and live electronic musician Erika is a force of nature, having built an entire alternate universe around her own sound. If you're keen on world-building and conceptronica, then hers is almost entirely built around themes from astronomy, physics and cosmology. A techno album through and through, 'Anevite Void' centres on the idea of "the irregular life cycles created by three suns circling over a planetary organism that presents two major biomes: rocky crystalline desert, and deep layered forest, each of which exists above and/or below ground, depending on what phase the suns are in." The result is a shapeshifting foray through both relaxed and driving soundscapes, seasonal as they are ecstatic.
Review: A collection of electroacoustic works exploring the intersection of Moroccan tradition and Western avant-garde, this release features 'Toubkal', 'Sultane', and 'Lectures pour bandes magnetiques', each showcasing the North African composer's unique approach to composition. 'Toubkal', inspired by field recordings of Berber music, pulsates with traditional rhythms and melodies, reimagined through electronic manipulation. 'Sultane', reflecting on themes of land and conflict, alternates between dense rhythmic textures and ethereal vocal passages. 'Lectures pour bandes magnetiques', a setting of poems by Rilke and Mandiargues, highlights the connection between the human voice and musical expression.
Review: Edvard Graham Lewis and Mark Spybey's collaboration fuses electronic rhythms, layered field recordings and ambient soundscapes into an album with striking depth and cohesion. Both artists bring decades of experienceiLewis from Wire, Dome, He Said and Spybey from Zoviet France and Dead Voices on Air. This project, however, ventures into fresh territory, blending experimental sounds with surprising grooves and sly hooks. Crafted remotely, each track unfolds a textured sonic landscape, offering listeners a unique glimpse into the creative synergy between two pioneers of boundary-pushing music.
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