I can’t say I’ve ever had the pleasure of introducing Chihei Hatakeyama to my readers before, but he is a master of elegant sound design. These three compositions are based on his travel to Amami Oshima, north of Okinawa.
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Hail! to our friends at Kalamine Records in France for producing yet another fine dark ambient/drone/post-Industrial masterpiece. There’s a lot of drama and pathos in this recording by Christian Fiesel, sounding very much like it would be a fine updated soundtrack to any good expressionist film of the early 1920s or 1930s. An engaging listen.
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There’s little I can add to my dear friend, the Last American Poet, Shane Beck, and heir to the Berlin-School throne, Michael Brückner, so I will let the gentlemen speak for themselves. You can read further at this release’s Bandcamp site: In what turned out to be a spontaneous burst of inspiration, poet / lyricist / spoken word artist Shane Beck and electronica composer Michael Brückner created this circle of five pieces together that are based as much around the mystical splendor of nature as on the vast inner landscape of human longing for eternal love, spiritual transcendence and integration of…
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Pseudonym Records of of London, UK, publish hard and aggressive drum & bass, giving a nostalgic vibe for the genre’s heydey of the 1990s. Jurango and Glances offer up two utterly menacing tracks each.
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The ever-fantastic Wewantsounds is giving the gold-star treatment to Akiko Yano, wife of the recently departed Ryuichi Sakamoto and fine musician in her own right, collaborating with Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, David Sylvian, Mick Karn, Charlie Haden, Bill Frisell, Thomas Dolby, and a host of others. From the label’s Bandcamp site: “Wewantsounds continues its Akiko Yano reissue programme with the release of “Iroha Ni Konpeitou,” another superb Akiko Yano album and one of her funkiest, highlighting her unmissable singing and songwriting talents. Recorded in Tokyo and New York City, the album features a superb line up of the best musicians…
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Kuzman Markoski has produced a rather fine EP’s worth of soundtrack-style music. The composer, thereminist and sound designer offers a groove-filled, damn-near danceable disc. From his Bandcamp site: “Kuzman is a versatile musician and audio-visual artist based in Skopje, Macedonia. With a background in classical training, he has honed his skills as a composer, thereminist and sound designer. This highly anticipated release comes two years after his debut solo album “Collective Zero” that marked Kuzman’s first foray into the world of studio albums as a solo artist, after his successful tenure with the Berlin-based band The Protagonist and the collaboration…
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Our beloved friends at Russia’s finest indie music magazine, Meticulous Midgets, has released their annual compilation of weird experimental, lo-fi and avant-garde music. Featured artists include Russia’s own Assembly of Honey, the Italian ambient sound sculptor Marco Lucchi and Latvia’s Шумилов Бор (Shumilov Bor) among a host of talent worldwide.
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German trumpeter Axel Dörner recorded this interesting one-track album 13th of March 2022 in Brescia, Italy, mixing electronics with a very ethereal trumpet sound.
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Judging by the sole track available from AKP Recordings artist, the Brooklyn-based Palestinian-American Omar Ahmad, this album should be considered one of those albums you listen to at 3 a.m. in order to relax and be at one with God. The chilled out atmosphere of the track Lapses is shimmering, but not overly so. What won me over to this release was the interesting one-sheet I received with the promo kit: “At times recalling the emotional landscape of Fennesz and Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Cendre, Inheritance weaves an auditory narrative that evades genre constraints. Enveloping orchestral ambience gives way to hypnotic Arab…
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Too dense and sumptuous to be labeled ambient music, what Los Angeles’ own bu.re_ offers is a ride on the clouds on your way to something approximating Heaven. The drones emanating from these works are some of the warmest tones I’ve heard this year. Bravo.