TienYinMen are a collection of composers and musicians based in Hong Kong who release a lot of thematic soundtrack music played on traditional instruments and electronic instruments. They have a healthy body of work to choose from, and I found this one to be the best out of a great lot. I can see why they would be in demand for scoring TV programs as well as theater.
After a few dark albums, I thought I would share something that, while also a bit darker than normal, shows shades of the Berlin School and rather gentle Industrial soundscapes. Kaelin Bougneit is a composer and label owner (Subviolet Records) based out of Portland, Oregon, and this particular album has elements of not only classic ambient music, but of tones I tie to old TV programs like “In Search Of…” with Leonard Nimoy. This triggered some pleasant memories for me, indeed.
Our dear friend Zumaia has reached the mid-century mark in his life, which is, of course, a wonderful milestone. We at Music You Need To Hear celebrate his birth, and the exceptional work he does with his label, the Bordeaux-based Kalamine Records. In honor of this milestone, Linn Friberg, composer and curator of the INTENT series on the label collaborate on a sonic birthday present for fans of the label. The music is cavernous, full of post-industrial and dark ambient soundscapes. I would compare the sound to early experimental cassette-based musicians, but the sounds are so utterly crisp that it…
It’s been a while since I had the pleasure to feature Robert Scott Thompson on our blog, though you will be seeing releases from a label he plays a large role in, Aucourant Records, in the future. Through Circle and Shadow is a 7-and-a-half minute piece of gentle ambient music which is dark and reminiscent of some Berlin School-related artists, and others like Robert Rich and Steve Roach. There’s something more cosmic in this release, however, and it sounds magnificent on a set of good headphones.
The second release from Raffaele Pezzella’s Unexplained Sounds Group’s latest acquisition, the magnificently dark Reverse Alignment record label. This is a different affair from yesterday’s compilation, which was more extreme in sound. New State of Flux doesn’t have the same reach in terms of geography, but it covers music which is more focused, more intense, and gives a feeling of being part of a film-noir soundtrack. Of particular interest to me was the piece done by Vongoiva called Palovankka, which you can hear below. Well done, as always.
The first of two releases related to our friend Raffaele Pezzella (who performs under the name Sonologyst) for today. This release from Unexplained Sounds Group is part of a series of compilations of experimental and dark ambient music concentrated in different regions. This one is particularly special to me as, though my birth city is Los Angeles, those who know me well know that the Balkans has served as a second home to me over the years. Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania all seem to be well-represented, and musically, each track is up…
Source: The Guardian. By the time Jon Hassell became a revered figure – the kind of determinedly non-commercial, avant-garde artist whose ideas are … Jon Hassell Profiled in Memorium
If you haven’t heard the name Max Brody before, you probably know a lot of the bands he’s worked with: Ministry, the Test Apes, the Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, the Big Boys, Lubricated Goat and so many others. He was a powerhouse drummer in the Austin Industrial music scene, but has since moved to the state of Washington in the Pacific Northwest, where he has been working on projects such as a rock documentary/travel blog which is, sadly, no more. Of particular interest is the project Fried Smiling which includes my old friend, business partner and a fine video director,…
This is quite a momentous occasion for me, as áMARXE Records out of Galicia, Spain, release an album by Hungarian composer László Hortobágyi which has been shelved since 1989. The album was programmed specifically for vinyl, and áMARXE are releasing a small edition of 250 copies, no doubt of high quality. The story with László Hortobágyi is quite an interesting one, as I used to work many years ago as an A&R manager for Tone Casualties, a record label run by the animator Gábor Csupó, he of Klasky-Csupo, who released such cartoons as The Rugrats and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, among…
It’s one thing when you’re the impresario of a record label who consistently delivers astoundingly good quality. It’s quite something else when you make music yourself that is as solid as any of the releases you so lovingly curate. RHaD (Research for Historical Audio Documents) is a side project of Raffaele Pezzella (better known as Sonologyst), and head of so many incredible boutique record labels. This collection of tracks pulls together influences like radio transmissions, telephonic conversations, hi-fi test signals, old and forgotten documentaries, unknown field recordists, and threads these bits together into wonderfully coherent compositions made for late-night black-and-white…