Review: For the first time on vinyl, P-Vine reissue one of the earliest works by Yellow Magic Orchestra founder and later film composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. Before the fame and notoriety, Sakamoto lent a hand to the avant-garde singer Taeko Tomioka, whose 1976 album he produced, both in the box and out. Tomioka only recorded the one album, and later went on to develop a career as a poet, novelist and literary critic. Few self-proclaimed Sakamoto heads know this, which is what makes this P-Vine reissue so special. Were it not for Sakamoto's touch, Tomioka's animalistic performances would likely not have taken on their extensible quality; Sakamoto's virtuosity was more than enough to rigorously challenge Tomioka, producing less of a debutant's declamation than a mixolydian nightwalk, bringing out the potent harmonic range of whatever the musical equivalent of a tightrope walker is.
Review: Laurie Torres is a Canadian musician and composer of Haitian descent and she spent years as a trusted collaborator for artists like Julia Jacklin and Pomme. In 2023, she shifted focus to her own solo work, resulting in her debut album Apres coup. Inspired by contemporary artists such as Tirzah and Valentina Magaletti, the album blends piano, drums, synths and field recordings to create a rich and meditative sound that was recorded at Studio Wild in Quebec. It reflects Torres' journey towards creative freedom and self-expression while exploring themes of introspection, marginalisation and the beauty of imperfection.
Review: Japanese duo Torso's latest on their Ozato label offers an immersive blend of cello, flute and tape that defies expectations of contemporary classical music. Featuring bowed strings, shimmering flute and rich reed instruments, the duo's compositions draw from indie-pop structures and 1980s cafe music to concoct stripped-back yet lush sounds that recall Arthur Russell and Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Torso subverts musical hierarchies with addictive, breathtaking results here and though this is refined, accomplished and innovative material, it is also free from pretension.
Review: Brighton-based Australian vocalist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Penelope Trappes shares her fifth album, requiescing ten captive ambient soundscapes, all of which share the aim of integrating dreamsand nightmares, grief and personal empowerment. Through the use of carnal, transcendent cello drones, Trappes explores historical and generational traumas in a chilling piece of gothic experimentalism. In a residential prelude, Trappes trapped herself in Scotland, eking remote studio solitude as a cranny in which to unleash personal demons, exploring and transmuting familial chaos and history. Raw and spiritually charged, the album offers a powerful meditation on loss; its threat, its meaning, and the process of coming to terms with it.
Review: Brighton-based Australian vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Penelope Trappes drops her fifth full length album and invites us on a bare bones, spiritual journey. Making herself incredibly vulnerable in the process, these are the kind of tracks that induce meditative and psychedelic trains of thought, haunting and beautiful, blissful and tense. Cello drones, gothic aesthetics, a king of futurist folk, at least some of the inspiration for which has come from time spent in isolated corners of Scotland. You can almost feel the wind blowing through the room as A Requiem lures and entices, breaks and mends hearts. Ambient, neo-classical, trance inducing works of wonder. This is the kind of record that can help make you see the world for what it is, and realise just how lucky we are to be here at the same time.
Review: London-based Australian vocalist, producer and multi-instrumentalist Penelope Trappe has always made immersive, enveloping and deeply atmospheric that sidesteps convention. It was that uniquely haunting and emotive approach to ambient and electronica that earned her deals with Optimo Music and Houndstooth, amongst others. Now signed to One Little Independent, Trappes has pushed the boat out further on Requiem, a mournful and bittersweet musical meditation in which her distinctively sweet-but-drowsy vocals rise above manipulated cello textures, hushed field recordings, ambient textures and intriguing electronic sounds aplenty. It's bold, beautiful and at times breathtakingly brilliant, once again marking Trappes out as an artist with a genuinely unique musical vision.
Review: Somewhere between Scotland, Leeds and the Welsh border, sometime in or around the year 2022, arose Tristwch Y Fenywod, the craven coven of Gwretsien Ferch Lisbeth (Guttersnipe, The Ephemeron Loop), Leila Lygad (Hawthonn) and Sidni Sarffwraig (Slaylor Moon, The Courtneys). Building on years of esteem accrued through their separate solo projects, Tristwch Y Fenywod still marks a stylistic curveball from any of their original works, not taking on a fusion of each, but rather presenting an entirely new triadic, spellbound sound. Tristwch Y Fenywod is an entirely Welsh-language affair, pairing sonic connotations of witch house and 'outsider' folk with otherwise subtle electronic elements and Celtic motifs, inviting instinctive comparisons to ravencore peers Kelora, electro-somnambulists oOOoO, or reverb-doused studio ident This Mortal Coil; but always eluding a facile reduction to any combo of these influences. Their name and eponymous title translating to 'The Sadness Of Women', these eight tracks land us somewhere in a no-go forest between two middle-of-nowhere roads, making for the best gloom-fest of the year.
Cherry Blossoms Fall On A Half-Eaten Dumpling (4:01)
A Poppy Blooms (2:27)
Empty Handed I Entered The World, Barefoot I Leave It (3:23)
Review: Twinkle3 are a trio made up of accomplished flautist Clive Bell and electronic experimenters David Ross and Richard Scott. Their latest project welcomes the legendary David Sylvian into the mix alongside Kazuko Hohki, who was in 80s synth pop oddity Frank Chickens amongst other projects. Their collective venture for Cortizona treads predictably unpredictable territory, where minimalism, sound design and free improvisation merge into a meditative, distinctive whole. The woodwind and electronics intertwine in sublime fashion, resulting in a compelling trip for anyone who appreciates delicacy and risk in their leftfield electronica.
Review: Yellowstone is an American neo-Western drama centered on the Dutton family, whose massive cattle ranch borders Yellowstone National Park, the Broken Rock Indian reservation, and land developers. Kevin Costner, Luke Grimes, and Kelly Reilly play the crossfire-caught Dutton family, and composer Brian Tyler, influenced by his experience in a Native American music group, evokes such turmoil and unchecked exploitation, through traditional Native American sounds and Western elements; percussion, woodwinds, and exotic instruments alongside cellos and basses are all incorporated, invoking the harrows of modern factionalism.
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