Review: A release that honours the centenary of Alessandro Alessandroni's birth with a collection of previously unreleased tracks from the iconic composer and multi-instrumentalist. This album uncovers a hidden chapter of Italian film scores and library music, featuring Alessandroni's lesser-known work between 1969 and 1978 for war documentaries and films. Paesaggio Bellico isn't just a military march through battlefields but a deeply nuanced exploration of war's human and existential facets. Alessandroni expertly balances sweeping, cinematic themes with moments of tension and unease. His compositions juxtapose stark, unsettling imagery with softer, more hopeful tones that has a poignant counterbalance to the brutality of conflict. The maestro's signature whistle floats over gentle 12-string guitar melodies, while his fuzz-laden Fender Stratocaster electrifies more intense passages. The Cantori Moderni, Alessandroni's trusted vocal ensemble, contribute haunting vocals that delve into the psychology of warfare. An elegant string section adds layers of drama and sentiment, enhancing the album's orchestral weight. With 18 tracks in total, the release is visually enriched by Eric Adrien Lee's cover art, which reimagines the bold design of 1970s Italian war-themed records. With a tip-on hard cover and a unique inner sleeve, the vinyl is a fitting tribute to Alessandroni's enduring legacy, blending sonic and visual storytelling into a truly special release.
Review: Arv & Miljo conclude their decade-long journey of "noise-poetics" with a final album full of field recordings that serve as a tribute to underground culture and the experiences they've shared. Their work has been central to Gothenburg's music scene in its mix of ambient, drone and found sounds, all of which have contributed to a unique map of contemporary Swedish experimental. This self-titled long layer features some pieces that are among their most non-musical and focus on diegetic sound snippets to capture "endless summer nights, great people seeking more, and hazy underground encounters." It's a hallucinogenic, emotional form of storytelling that embodies the essence of their creative journey.
Review: Newly ordained keyboardist Volodja Brodsky, from Estonia, has described his music as an exploration of the transformative power of minimalism, the art form and compositional approach in which he is trained. Brodsky's second LP lacks the contextual elucidations that accompanied the first record that 2024, but we sense that this may be because the career ball is already rolling, and no further explanations may be needed for now. Raindrops is a precipitous record, as Brodsky wrenches piano and vibraphone motifs from romantic scale meanderings we didn't know possible; widescreen voicings and compound intervals help earmark these standout moments. Elsewhere, the mood is downcast, as on 'Fogbound Streets Of Maardu' or 'Raindrops'; the left hand basso is almost always moody in feel, while the right hand always produces tearful and romantic sound.
Review: Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's latest album Gift Songs has an omnipresent sound: a homunculus with both instrumentalist's and naturalist's ears, it works field recordings against phonic mudra, consummating Cantu-Ledesma's spiritual and musical practices, which have grown together in recent years. Recorded against the backdrop of the Hudson Valley, the record comes source-trickled by the now-streamable 'The Milky Sea', an oceanic, lactose ambient number which honours the luminous optic phenomenon known as the milky seas effect. Refractive, fading piano flurries underscore a 20-minute jazz-ambient sound-surf, as seafoam collects around our sand-caked earlobes.
Review: Andrea Cichecki - a German DJ, music producer and audio engineer based in Dresden - presents her debut LP for Castles In Space, building on an intense reflection on her past. Having been brought up on the precipice of countryside and woodland, Cichecki is a lifelong adherent to what she called the "edge effect", thriving on the boundaries of things both metaphorical and actual, rather than sticking within them. Bringing macro-cosmic scale to Moogish synthesis, each track weaves a personal story of an implicit, instrumental nature, unalloyed by words, and incorporates field recordings from the Ore Mountains and the wild, valleyed landscape of Saxon, Switzerland.
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.
Algumas Pessoas Olharam O Sul E Viram Deserto (6:04)
Um Som, Seguido De Uma Cena Negra E Malva (6:16)
This Is Music, As It Was Expected (11:02)
O Verao Nasceu Da Paixao De 1921 (10:37)
Review: Holuzam reissues Toze Ferreira's groundbreaking 1988 sound art LP Musica de Baixa Fidelidade long after it has been heralded as a pivotal release in Portugal's experimental music scene. It was created during Ferreira's time at the Institute of Sonology and plays with musique concrete, noise and abstract sound across masterful compositions like 'More Adult Music' and 'This Is Music, As It Was Expected.' With elements of piano, bells, and processed voices, it creates a tactile, immersive experience that challenges conventional music structures. This first-ever vinyl reissue includes the original artwork and a new insert with remastering done by Taylor Deupree. Ferreira's blend of technical skill and emotional depth is mesmerising here.
Review: Flutter Ridder is the collaboration between Norwegian artists Espen Friberg and Jenny Berger Myhre, and both are key figures in Oslo's contemporary art and music scene. Their creative bond formed during the production of Friberg's 2022 debut album, Sun Soon, and in November 2023 they recorded their debut self-titled album in a historic wooden church in Hvisten, Norway. The duo created a unique sound influenced by the flow of air and electricity by combining Friberg's Serge modular system and the church's pipe organ. The result is a whimsical, cinematic album that smudges liturgical, microtonal drones with unpredictable timbres that reflect their environment and vision.
Review: Elliot Galvin is a leading figure in UK jazz with four solo albums that have topped year-end lists in respected media outlets. He is also a member of the Mercury-nominated Dinosaur and has collaborated with key jazz cats such as Shabaka Hutchings, Emma-Jean Thackray and Norma Winstone. Known for his improvisational prowess, his latest solo album taps into that skill once more and is an entirely improvised record that takes in quiet beauty like the opener, more theatric drama on 'Still Under Storms' and world jazz sounds on 'High & Wide'.
Review: To say there's a meditative quality to Golem Mecanique's third album would be like saying air is something we breathe. The nom de plume of French multi-instrumental Karen Jebane, the album title directly quotes the final comments made by Pier Paolo Pasolini in his last ever interview, given just days before his body was found on an Italian beach after being brutally murdered. "We are all in danger", he quipped. From what, or who, we are still trying to figure out, 50 years on. Siamo Tutti In Pericolo doesn't look to answer the great mystery of what happened to the great filmmaker and auteur. But it does look to feelings of tension, quiet unease, and opaque mystery for its incredibly atmospheric tomes. This is deep dive stuff, reliant on a combination of refrained notes, echoes, and sombre, spiritual voices inviting us to push through into some other state of consciousness. Whether that will shed any light on anything is, of course, the real question we need to answer.
Review: Grand River's (Aimee Portioli's) fifth studio album (her first after the brilliant In uno spazio immenso, her debut for Caterina Barbieri's label Light-years label) began as an installation in 2022. Having since evolved into multi-channel, 4DSOUND, and stereo formats, the record has bridged every hurdle to live performances it could possibly face. The 36-minute composition is divided into two parts: Portioli recorded various winds and transformed them via layering and pitch adjustments, fashioning the wind itself into an instrument. Going so far as to align the gusts to a 440hz reference and tuning particular instruments to windward passages, Portioli went with the wind, yet still wound up more alive than ever. Wind and synthesizers merge seamlessly, erasing the line between natural and human-made sound; silent until it meets an object, air currents produce an array of tones, from whispers, to roars, to melodies.
Review: Orange Marmalade was originally released in October 2021 after being recorded by Evgeny Grinko at the Funkhaus in Berlin. The title holds a double meaning as it nods to Alice in Wonderland, a book Ginko was reading during its creation, as well as to his nostalgic childhood memories of life back home where metal jars were filled with marmalade. Musically this one picks up off where The Naive Album left off in that it showcases a composer in utter command of his voice and own unique style. It captures a range of emotions from sorrow to joy, triumph to introspective solitude, all with sweeping orchestral moments adding to the scale and drama.
Review: Evgeny’s work on this release marks an exploration into the intersection of minimalist composition and cinematic storytelling, blending the intimacy of personal experiences with sweeping sonic landscapes. Living amidst nature, his creative process draws deeply from his surroundings, with each track inspired by a narrative of quiet, evolving moments. Adding trumpet to his usual mix of orchestral and electronic textures, Evgeny continues to refine his sound, maintaining the evocative qualities that first gained him attention. His subtle use of brass on pieces like ‘Hunter in Love’ adds emotional depth, while shorter tracks like ‘Prologue’ and ‘Epilogue’ exhibit his ability to encapsulate entire stories in brief yet powerful bursts of melody. With these compositions, Evgeny invites listeners into a world where stillness and fleeting beauty reign, offering a glimpse into the delicate balance between nature and music.
Review: Big emotions often come in small, intimate packages. Initially at least. Judith Hamann opens her stunning contemporary classical-ambient meditation with the kind of hush that means music and sound creep over you without making themselves instantly known. Before we know it, the transformation - or, perhaps more accurately, transportation - is complete. Using field recording techniques, Hamman augments the electronic harmonies and refrains with au naturel noises, from the hubbub of distant conversation to an asthmatic's whistle, all of which places the plugged-in and synthesised in a very human place. The result is something that feels timeless, as crystalline and clear as it is water-weathered and sepia-hued. The overall affect is mysterious and adventurous, like walking down a serene empty beach only to realise you can't remember which direction you came from.
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