We at MYNTH wish you and yours a very Merry Gregorian Christmas, and please stay safe with your loved ones. For the eve of the birth of the Lord, we offer a charming secular song done ably by post-punk legends the Cocteau Twins.
Tag: Ethereal
What a strikingly good album this is. Autumn Tears is a collective of musicians from Billerica, Massachusetts who make an ethereal sound that blends the best of bands who would have fit well on 4AD Records during their 1980s heyday and progressive rock, especially for those who are fans of the Russian symphonic group iamthemorning. Zeresh are beloved friends whose work has been reviewed on this blog in the past, and Tamar Singer’s vocals sound utterly sublime here. This crosses neofolk with a restrained but foreboding metal vibe. Dark, but magically so.
Of special note, the mastering on this album was done by Peter Bjargö of Arcana, who seems to have ears made of gold, as I’ve head the pleasure of hearing his other mastering work, and it’s always on point.
Welcome to the first proper release promotion of 2022, and it’s quite a lovely way to begin the year. Blackford Hill is a record company out of Edinburgh, Scotland, and they offer up a compilation of ethereal independent music from bands like Ultramarine, Emily Scott, Kate Carr, Jake Tilson and a host of others, providing 31 tracks.
From the Blackford Hill Bandcamp site:
The prospect from Blackford Hill is wide-ranging and far-reaching. This recently established label, curated by designer/publisher Simon Lewin, is based in Edinburgh and shares its name with a prominent topographical feature of that city. This compilation, ‘Transmissions / Volume One’, is a mapping of interests and affinities, a setting out of current coordinates, a taking of bearings but also a projection of possible routes of travel.
The duo Ultramarine channel the tangy atmosphere and languid cyclical pulse of an English estuary through their distinctive ambient techno. Poet Liz Lochhead recites a sonnet in celebration of love while Andrew Wasylyk’s piano scans the measures of an enraptured heart. A vocal ensemble led by Hanna Tuulikki performs new music that reverberates not only with the history of Gaelic song, but also with calls and cries of shoreline birds once imitated within that tradition. The fertile imagination of Lomond Campbell unlocks a spacious looking-glass world, a virtual zone that stretches out beyond his piano’s keyboard. Bow Gamelan Ensemble, metropolitan adepts of bricolage, discover sounds that lurk within saws.
Through Blackford Hill, Lewin and co-curator Tommy Perman extend a warm welcome to a selection of musicians, singers and artists in sound they have encountered and befriended across the years. Invariably they are individuals who deeply value their creative independence and approach their work in a spirit of exploration. Their own passionate involvement, integrity and excitement transmits. Often these artists are also highly responsive to the particularities of place. They prefer immersion within specific landscapes and the various histories they embody, to the abstraction of ideas and theories or the demands of a certain style. Their projects and their recordings are personal and grounded; they have character and context and that transmits.
With ‘Transmissions / Volume One’, Blackford Hill welcomes receptive listeners in search of a fresh outlook and new perspectives. From the luminous voices that glow from Simon Kirby, Rob St John and Tommy Perman’s ‘Sing the Gloaming’ to the wah-wah scintillation of Richard Youngs’ ‘Thought Plane 2020’; from the psychogeographical resonance of Kate Carr’s ‘The Owls Were Calling That Dark, Dark Night’ to Jake Tilson’s tantalising acoustic snapshots of instrumental music heard on the streets of Paris and New York, or to the reedy tones generated by water flowing through Sam A Mcloughlin’s homemade river harp in Healey Dell near Rochdale, the prospect from Blackford Hill is indeed wide-ranging, far-reaching and warmly inviting.
All profits from the sales of ‘Transmissions / Volume One’ will be donated to Shelter.
There is a book attached to this compilation, marrying gorgeous images with equally sumptuous music.
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Circuit des Yeux – -io
The name Circuit des Yeux has come across the laptop several times over the past year, and each review and interview (see this one at The Quietus) raved about her work, so I decided to give it a listen. It was, undoubtedly, a rewarding experience.
Haley Fohr is the singer and the Yeux in question. With a four-octave voice and the most lush production values I’ve heard out of an album that isn’t ethereal or prog rock, I have to say that this left me floored. It is as if Fohr has the husky, dusky voice of a female Scott Walker, and the vocal range of an elegantly restrained Diamanda Galás backed by a very heavy indie band. I need to do a full dive into her back catalog, as this is very, very good.
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Fallen – Ljós
Italian artist Lorenzo Bracaloni composes under the name The Child of A Creek / Fallen, and this release on ROHS! Records is quite a treat for fans of ethereal music. It reminds me deeply of when Harold Budd collaborated with the Cocteau Twins, but in an instrumental form. A truly calming release.
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Rapt – None Of This Will Matter
This Z Tapes release left me floored. Rapt are a folk band out of London who have an ethereal sound which reminded me of musicians like Nick Drake fronting a band on 4AD. Think, perhaps, of a more airy-sounding This Mortal Coil gone neofolk. The sound is folky without being stale, and adding elements like shoegaze and dreampop make for a rich, rewarding listen. I really like this.
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HIEMIS – La Chose
Gradual Hate Records has had a stream of excellent releases this year, but this album by HIEMIS, an artist out of Spain, is the best of the bunch. This is dark, gothic (in the original sense, not the bad makeup sense), ethereal and would compare well to artists who made their mark with labels like Projekt Records, Cold Meat Industry or 4AD (think Dead Can Dance).
What pleases my ears the most is the heavy, almost liquid-like sound that resonates so deeply in my speakers that I feel like I’m inside of a cave enjoying almost pure isolation. It’s quite a magical, meditative release, and I look forward to hearing more from HIEMIS in the future.
First, a debt of thanks goes to Dimitris Tsironis who took the time to send me this compilation for review. His label, 1tracktape, is doing a great service exposing Greek experimental and avant-garde music to the world, and the quality of this compilation is superb. What’s more, the label is unique in that it releases albums every New Moon and (most of) Full Moon dates. I can’t say I’ve heard of any other labels maintaining such a specific schedule, so each moon that pops up will be an opportunity to check out what new releases Mr. Tsironis has in store for us.
What is pleasant about the album is that it doesn’t stick to one format. One can hear electroacoustic music, ethereal music bordering on gothic (think Dead Can Dance), offered by Death Of Codes. Field recordings and ritualistic music reminiscent of 1980s and 1990s cassette culture about here. It’s a label definitely worth exploring.
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trajedesaliva – Ultratumba
It’s so nice to see new music come from Galicia, where my paternal ancestors hail from. trajedesaliva are from Vigo and seem to be influenced by dark ambient, ritual music and post-Industrial soundscapes, though it doesn’t try to overwhelm the listener. Something I really liked about this album is that it sounds, in parts, like 1970s Kosmische Musik (think of Tangerine Dream in their 70s prime), which makes this unique among darkwave or dark ambient bands.
Dead Can Dance singer and multi-instrumentalist Brendan Perry is absolutely enamored with Greek culture, and it’s obvious because a lot of DCD’s work has an affinity towards it. Perry is especially appreciative of rebetiko, the local variant of the blues in Greek culture. This album is his paean to his adoration of rebetiko, and is perhaps the first time some of these ballads have been recorded in English. This disc is a labor of love.