experimental
Track: LYR share ‘Redwings’: unique and profound
LYR, an acronym of Land Yacht Regatta, have recently shared their latest emotionally evocative musical amalgamation Redwings, following the recent release of their collaborative track with Prefab Sprout’s Wendy Smith, “Winter Solstice”. The unique triumvirate – comprised of Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, musician and singer-songwriter Richard Walters, and producer and multi-instrumentalist Patrick J Pearson – …
See: Emma Houton – ‘Bow & Balance’: a Scots murder ballad reframed as soaring ambient folk
EMMA HOUTON, the ambient-folk artist based in New York who draws on the traditional songs we’re all surrounded by and those of her Irish ancestry, has released the video for a second track to be taken from her forthcoming debut album, The Bath. It’s her plaintive, bold reworking of the traditional murder ballad “Bow And …
News: claire rousay launches a new imprint through American Dreams; hear ‘Twin Bed’
WITH HER acclaimed album a softer focus only just in the rear-view mirror, San Antonio sound experimentalist claire rousay has announced a new imprint, Mended Dreams, in partnership with American Dreams Records; which she intends as an outlet for highly limited editions of both solo and collaborative work that will be available ony by subscription or through the …
Album review: Tomas Nordmark – ‘Exit Ghosts’: electronic landscapes that move from the amniotic to the apocalyptic
LIVING these days in London, but hailing originally from the small Swedish coastal town of Västervik, some 280km further down the coast from Stockholm, Tomas Nordmark is a electronica producer and soundscaper with a very complex and organic musical vision. His interest in the sonic avant-garde was brooked by the 1960s’ art scene in New …
News: Yann Tiersen announces an album for August, ‘Kerber’; see the video for a first track, ‘Ker Al Loch’
BRETON composer Yann Tiersen, the man behind the soundtrack for Amélie and Good Bye Lenin! and modern classical genius has announced he is to release a new album, Kerber, for Mute on August 27th, for which there’ll be a few lovely limited vinyl options (see below); and it comes with a first taster today, with …
Track: Mind Maintenance – ‘The Ladder’: Chicago legends Joshua Abrams and Chad Taylor bring percussive African contemplation
IF YOU’RE at all a follower of the Chicago music scene that erupted in so many directions back at the turn of the century, then the rhythmic adepts Chad Taylor and Joshua Abrams will probably need no introduction; given how, they were so deeply woven into intelligent, seminal albums by the Chicago Underground Trio and all its various …
Album review: Matt Robertson – ‘Enveleau’: analogue grandeur, ambience and acid
If old-skool British acid and ambient techno floats your boat, and let’s face it, it’s such a halcyon era for the genre, mostly never bettered; get yourself Enveleau. Maybe only the redoubtable Mr Hopkin is operating with this deliciousness in the field
Album review: Conrad Clipper – ‘Heron’s Book Of Dreams’: a pseudonymous, textural ambient gem
Heron’s Book of Dreams is glorious. It knows what to do, it knows what you need, and never aims for cheap and maximal when stripping back, excellent arrangement and contrast can do the job. Think a slightly more abrasively edged, more intimate A Winged Victory For The Sullen. A very beautiful record for people who love the interstices where ‘flesh and blood’ instrumentation gets it on with drones. Delightful.
JJJJJerome Ellis signs to NNA Tapes and shares the infinite music of ‘Fountain #3’
Composer, translator, poet, and performer, JJJJJerome Ellis has signed for Brooklyn’s curating imprint of the beautifully leftfield, NNA Tapes (a label which is also home to other artists we’ve delighted in in recent months, such as the absolutely gorgeous piano-meets-sounds of the world as it is aesthetic of Ben Seretan, and the brittle guitar experimenta …
News: Kevin Richard Martin of The Bug returns with a June rescoring of Tarkovsky’s ‘Solaris’; hear a taster, ‘In Love With A Ghost’
WORKING with huge acclaim in the shadowier textures of electronic music now for longer than we care to recall, Kevin Richard Martin – aka The Bug, King Midas Sound, Techno Animal – has composed a new score for Andrei Tarkovsky’s incredible 1972 sci-fi Solaris, which will be released on Phantom Limb on June 25th. Based …