experimental
Album Review: M.Takara & Carla Boregas – Grande Massa D’Agua : exhilarating earth-beats and electro-acoustic energy from the Sao Paulo duo.
You might remember a couple of years ago the first offering from this pair of Sao Paulo experimentalists Linha D’Agua ‘ which sneaked up from the underground and demanded attention with its fluidity, inventiveness and dynamism. This was the sound of sustainable energy, a musical relationship thriving on an intuitive connection with the synth circuitry …
Track/Video: Surveying at the edges – DAAM presents ‘bivouac of the avant garde vol 2’.
Lewes/Brighton based experimental music label Difficult Art And Music (DAAM amongst friends) are certainly setting the pace with their alternative countdown to the festive season. In October, as part of their expansive rummage through the contemporary fringe music scene, they revealed the first instalment of this vital review ‘bivouac of the avant garde vol 1’ …
Album Review: Pie Eye Collective – ‘Tangential City’ : a fresh, forward thinking soundtrack for today’s metropolis.
The city of today inspires so much music. For many musicians it brings on the panoramic, where a wide-eyed trip over the urban landscape gets imagined in sweeping soundtracks. But some are less in in awe of the enormity; they zone in closer, moved by the meshed lives of the people, the crossing paths, the …
News/Track/Video: Felipe Vaz – ‘The Well Frozen Piano’: inspirational connections with the La Monte Young masterpiece.
For Difficult Art And Music’ s latest intriguing release, Brazilian sound artist Felipe Vaz presents ‘The Well Frozen Piano’. A reconnection with American experimentalist La Monte Young’s seminal sixties centrepiece ‘The Well -Tuned Piano’, Vaz here explores both the intention and the internal workings of the original, seeking the spirit of ‘endless music’. Rarely ‘performed’ …
Album Review: Christina Vantzou -‘No. 5’: astonishing ambient-classical story telling.
Visual artist, experimental film-maker and ambient classical composer Christina Vantzou works with a method. Following her beginnings as one half of ‘The Dead Texan’ with Adam Wiltzie (Stars of the Lid), she has devoted herself to a series of lengthy projects lovingly documented on the seminal Kranky label. These recordings have revealed themselves with careful …
Track: Death Grips delivers ‘Life is an experiment’ from ‘Remix The Universe’, new perspectives on Scratch’s last offering.
It’s inevitable that the mercurial genius of Lee Scratch Perry will live on both in spirit and in some physical form. Dial back to November 2021 when the legendary Upsetter performed as inspirational touchstone on New Age Doom’s ‘Guide To The Universe’, the album that unexpectedly became his parting shot. Perry’s wisdom, fearless flair and …
Album Review: Maral – Ground Groove : global big beats with vision.
The fine art of sampling is less about cut and paste or stitching together, it’s much more than finding that funky line or hipster phrase and building from there. The best sampling becomes part of the overall story, not an add-on or slot-in but entrenched in the overall soundscape, a part of the music’s roots. …
Track/Video: DAAM announce ‘bivouac of the avant-garde’, a stunning three part excursion through experimental soundscapes.
What makes for the best small labels? A clear identity, enthusiastic curation, independence and endurance are good for starters. Well Difficult Art And Music (DAAM) gives you all of these plus heaps of creative ambition. Focusing steadfastly on the experimental and specialising as they say in ‘short-run, research-orientated, art-objects’ DAAM releases come as music tapes, …
Track/Video: Eminent composer and film-maker Christina Vantzou previews album ‘No 5’ with the radiant ‘Reclining Figures’.
If you are looking to explore a ‘body of work’ rather than a plain old back catalogue then Christina Vantzou’s CV will see you right. The composer, artist and experimental film-maker has been engaged in the refinement of sound and vision since her 2004 collaborative release ‘The Dead Texan’ with Adam Wiltzie (Stars of the …
Album Review: Jessica Moss – Galaxy Heart: art-rock atmospheres with an enduring soul.
What will we think of lock down records when we listen back to them in years to come? Introspective music from a time of looking inwards because the outside world just stood still? Or maybe there was more space to dream, to take more risks, to break free from constraints because everything ahead was unknown. …