ambient
Track: UNKNOWN ME’s ‘Open The Sense’ is a rainbow ambient bonbon
YOU QUITE possibly haven’t come across UNKNOWN ME, a Japanese collective with a very particularly glimmering, space-age approach to the the business of ambience; in fact, if their moniker is anything to go by, maybe even they haven’t. But if trippy electronic sound is your bag, and it oughta be, then perhaps now is an …
Album review: Field Works – ‘Cedars’: Stuart Hyatt fuses cosmic Americana and Arabic sounds; the results are luscious
Cedars is quite a record – two records really; the first more orange and various other colours of the sun’s framing of the beginning and the ending of the day, alive with a heartfelt yearning and cosmic sonic thrill. The second is far more verdant, deep green, homespun, and focuses in very much in on the wonder of the simple; the moments we all return to, perhaps, at least us rural dwellers. If you’re at all conceptually familiar with the work of William Blake, his Songs Of Innocence And Experience, you’ll see; the twining and correspondences. Climb into Cedars, join the two worlds for yourself; the album is long on thought and also on beauty.
Album review: Neil Cowley – ‘Hall Of Mirrors’: A love letter to a city and an instrument
Neil Cowley has been on a journey away from, and returning to, the piano; Hall Of Mirrors is a striking love letter to the instrument, and also to his adopted city of Berlin. But all these conceptual asides fade away beneath the main thrust: it’s a truly bloody great record. Buy.
TRACK: Balmorhea – ‘The Myth’: Texan duo reveal a first track from their forthcoming album for Deutsche Grammophon
BALMORHEA, the Texan duo of Rob Lowe and Michael A. Muller, whose particular take on the modern compositional form nods to the American West, have signed to Deutsche Grammophon for their seventh album, The Wind, which record will be out at the end of April. That The Wind should be released by Deutsche Grammophon, which …
NEWS: Chihei Hatakeyama announces a beautiful new ambient album for Gearbox; hear ‘Sound Of Air’
CHIHEI HATAKEYAMA is one of those sonic voyagers who have the muse whispering seemingly constantly. He’s one of those artists, like The Fall, Sun Ra, John Dwyer and the spiral arm of Thee Oh Sees/Oh Sees/Osees, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, who who produce, produce, always have an album due, a musical iron in …
TRACK: Field Works – ‘Ḥalaqah ’Azaliyyah’: a beyond-pretty exploration of Americana and Arabic poetry
FIELD WORKS is less a band, more a collective exploration of the various musics that cross over and find each other out on the edges of their respective stylistic disciplines, fuse, enter the wider sphere of the ambient. It’s all helmed by Indianapolis producer Stuart Hyatt, who began the series – the forthcoming album is the …
Album Review: The Superceded Sounds Of…The New Obsolescents
A brand new deep space travelogue from the collective minds of DJ Food and Howlround from an Improvised live session at the Museum Of London in 2016. This album began life four years ago when the trio of Strictly Kev, Robin The Fog and Chris Weaver were tasked by Jonny Trunk with providing an all-night …
SEE: Rachika Nayar – ‘Losing Too Is Still Ours’: a fiery, otherworldly study in processed guitar and voice
THE BROOKLYN-based ambient composer and audio-visual artist Rachika Nayar, who we’ve covered in these pages previously when we took a look at her previous single drop, “The Trembling Of Glass”, has shared a hazy, impressionistic video for new single “Losing Too Is Still Ours”, which features the poet YATTA; take a dive below. Along with …
SEE: Art & Spencer – ‘Caravan’: guitar soli steps into ambient atmospheres
ART & SPENCER is a newly forged collaboration between Juan Martínez Pérez, aka Elson Complex, a fingerstyle acoustic guitarist of Andalusian and Catalonian heritage who loves soundscapes with acres of space – it’s the space between the notes that interest him just as much; in which he’s fusing a new direction with Belgian multi-instrumentalist Marc …
SEE: Nick Schofield – ‘Ambient Architect’: modular retro-futurism full of light and grace
NICK SCHOFIELD is a Montréalais composer in love with modular synths, and who has a new album, Glass Gallery, coming out early next month, composed entirely on the legendary Prophet 600. And it’s very beautiful; uplifting, even, music for a bright future we’ve yet to realise. By day he’s a member of singer-songwriter Devon Welsh‘s …