It’s amazing to think that this EP is the latest (and hopefully not last) artifact released by former Strawberry Switchblade front-woman Rose McDowell. She had been active singing with groups like Current 93 and her own project, Sorrow, for many years, and this EP continues on that dark and eerie road. I get the feeling of hearing a very dark series of folk songs sung in the creepiest of Presbyterian churches. Brilliant.
Prepare yourselves for January 19, ten days from now! The legendary Scanner (Robin Rimbaud in real life) has a new album out, “…a tribute to the early 1960s library music culture, applying crude techniques of electronic composition, using a mix of hardware and software. It explores a kind of musique concrète, electroacoustic character, in an otherworldly cinematic fashion.” This will be a departure from his more experimental work, and should be a joy to listen to. It will be released on Alltagsmusik, “a new label to release Scanner albums.”
As Orthodox are still going through the process of Advent, we share our second post of the year in honor of the Birthgiver of God (Theotokos), as composer Scott Lawlor has titled this 2019 release. Time flies, but great electronic and ambient music maintains its station.
No wishes, no hopes for the year, just a pleasant way to gently slide into 2024. We launch with Jeff Gburek’s latest release, of which he provides notes on his Bandcamp site: “Still Life with a Question Mark came together as an album rather quickly after I discovered loops unused from an older project fit very well with the latest work I’d done in seclusion at Dom Sztuk, Kęszyca. Captures of VLF radio (ionospheric geomagnetic crackling impulses), hydrophone recordings from Solacz pond, frame drums, zither played with ebow, looped guitar and string passages, synthesizer, shortwave radio, textures of leaves, wood,…
Two masters of drone at their peak after two decades of collaboration. From the duo’s Bandcamp site: “Since beginning to work together as a duo in the early 2000s, Kang and Kenney have collaborated on sound installations, music for orchestra, choir, and mixed ensembles in addition to releasing numerous widely acclaimed full-lengths: Aestuarium (2005), The Face Of The Earth (2012), Live In Iceland (2013), At Temple Gate (2014), Reverse Tree (2016), Seva (2017), The Cypress Dance (2020). A hypnotic return to the duo’s unique expression of “unison music”, Azure is among Kenney and Kang’s most pared-down efforts in more than…
Post Doom Romance presents a new album of some of the gentlest “noise” I’ve ever heard. The tones are low, sparse, and somehow calming. Perfect for cold-weather headphone listening.
Valerio Cosi is an Italian composer I’ve had the pleasure of following for many years online, but this is the first time in a while that I have seen his work commercially available. It is a fine example of musique concrète, and is active enough to keep you engaged throughout it’s 30 minutes in length.
Jeff Gburek’s latest album is not a departure from his carefully crafter work, but a continuation of his honing sounds together, weaving them in a way that the early musique-concrète composers could not have imagined. Drones, pulses and the sounds of Burgas, Bulgaria, are blended to produce an immersive soundscape. Yet another fine work.
Our friends, the ever-amazing JOHN 3:16, come in with a track that clocks in at around 5 minutes and manages be blend cinematic ambiance with heavy tension. Quite a captivating listen.
A haunting release, this one. Imagine dark experimental music mixed with war-ravaged architecture in what was one of the most beautiful cities in the world during the 1970s, Beirut. This is the terribly beauty Mayssa Jallad offers. From Ruptured Records’ Bandcamp site: “The album comprises two parts. Part A: Dahaliz, is a stroll in the city, where Jallad tries (and fails) to follow an old map. Musician Youmna Saba is a companion in this journey of remembering the once winding corridors (“Dahaliz”) of the city, destroyed by new developments since the 1960s. Empty skyscrapers propel her onto a past filled…