Avant-garde
See: The ghostly soundtrackery of The Arteries of New York City’s ‘Capable’; the album’s on its way to a full release
NO, AND you’d be forgiven for thinking it with the name they trade under, but the experimental ambient duo The Arteries of New York City isn’t some semi-psychogeographical project arising from dérives across that city from Queens or Yonkers or somewhere in the Five Boroughs; the project instead has its roots our side of the …
Track: Spanish ambient explorers Suso Sáiz and Menhir combine for the deep, pristine drift of ‘Alike’ ahead of their album for Spirituals
HE MAY Not be quite as familiar a name on these shores, but in Spain Suso Sáiz is something of an Eno figure; a pioneer of ambient and minimalist music in the country, he’s released something like 28 albums of beautiful and exploratory music since his 1984 debut, Prefiero El Naranja (‘I Prefer Orange’). He’s …
See: New project from flautist Gina Izzo brings the listener “into what is wanted”
For many classically-trained musicians, performing at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Jazz Standard are the pinnacle of career success. Having achieved this before the age of 35, Gina Izzo has decided to do what great artists do best: push into a new direction. The audacious debut track from Izzo’s new project ladyybirdd, “into what …
See: The amazing short film about child refugees accompanying Hania Rani & Dobrawa Czocher’s autumnal duet, ‘Malasana’
INNER SYMPHONIES is the album that lifelong friends composer, pianist and singer Hania Rani and composer and cellist Dobrawa Czocher released in October for classical music imprint without parallel Deutsche Grammophon. Recorded together in their native Poland, this collaboration follows 2015’s Biala Flaga, but is their first album of original work; Hania and Dobrawa are …
See: Matchess invites us to embrace meditative drone and transcend the flesh in the practise of ‘Almost Gone (Excerpt)’
WHITNEY JOHNSON has been releasing albums exploring really gorgeous deep inner space in song and sound for a number of years now as Matchess. Her journey in this guise began in 2015 with the downtempo ambience of Somnaphoria, vocodered vocals, clock-ticking beats, swirls and aural glitter to put The Orb to shame in the cosmic …
See: NONEXISTENT pull you below the surface in the ink-black ambient murk of ‘UNTITLED 3 (AUBURN VACUUM)’
NONEXISTENT is the three-waters-meet of exceptional leftfield talents Astrud Steehouder, otherwise of Opal X and Paper Dollhouse; Alex Tucker, whose work as MICROCORPS and Grumbling Fur we’ve had occasion to be beguiled by elsewhere in these pages; and Mancunian-in-London Luke J Murray, known for his work as and with Grimescapes, Iceman Junglist Kru and Stonecirclesampler. …
News: Roedelius and Tim Story will enter into a four-handed piano conversation for Erased Tapes in January; hear ‘Spirit Clock’
A GENUINE, gilt-edged musical legend, German electronic and ambient music pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius, now into his eighth decade with us, is to enter into a two-way piano conversation with American composer and friend of 40 years Tim Story for Erased Tapes in January. The 11-track album, entitled 4 Hands, allows the pair to explore an …
Track: Former Zun Zun Egui sonic traveller Yama Warashi steps up and out with the space-jazz chant of ‘Dividual Individual’
BASED in Bristol for a decade and more, since she, Kushal Gaya, Matthew Jones and Luke Mosse first fell upon the complex high-life meets psych meets Deerhoof grooves sound of Zun Zun Egui, and with that band precipitously in the rear-view mirror, Yoshino Shigihara has, for a while now, needed to ring the changes. Come …
Live review: Paddy Steer, The Cornish Bank, Falmouth, November 12th, 2021: outsider electro genius charts a path to the future we were promised
THE ERSTWHILE packet port, maritime centre and now university hub of Falmouth-Penryn, down on the south Cornish Coast, has been consistently punching above its weight this past decade and a half in terms of really good venues with really eclectic music policies. The venues may have come and gone, but Falmouth was generally a little …
Album Review: Malcolm Jiyane Tree-O – ‘UMDALI’
Sometimes the narrative surrounding a record can make listening seem too intrusive. This prospect might have been a very real challenge for the revered South African jazz composer, Malcolm Jiyane as he put together his debut solo record UMDALI (available now from Mushroom Hour Half Hour) . The conflicting emotions following the death of a …