• Music

    Jeff Gburek – The Perfect Storm: Collected Acousmatic Works with Voice 2020​-​2022

    Our friend Jeff Gburek continues to release astounding experimental music, with this release being a collection of scattered acousmatic works which flow together surprisingly well. If you can imagine John Cage’s Roaratorio, calm spoken word and field recordings which make you forget you’re in front of your stereo rather than enjoying the sounds of nature in some Eastern European lake area.  You feel a sense of sublime calm, with a guide and friend, your own Virgil,  perhaps, chatting with you as you walk in the fields rather than into the bowels of the inferno.

  • Music

    Ilir Lluka – Twelve Years of Nihilism

    Ilir Lluka, a composer out of Tirana, Albania, is one of the best active experimental musicians in the Balkans.  He works in the mediums of electroacoustic music, electronic, drone and sound art.  From his Bandcamp site: The title of Ilir Lluka’s new digital album “Twelve Years of Nihilism” refers to his period of creativity and musical productivity of Ilir Lluka. The artist considers himself a realist but agrees that his feeling of pessimism about mankind can somehow come close to the semantic concept of the nihilist when regarding it from the object of inspiration point of view. The four tracks…

  • Music

    Abadir – Mutate

    SVBKVLT is a label based in Shanghai, China who have an international outlook.  A perfect example is this band, the Egyptian artist Abadir, who works in the field of experimental electronic music and glitch.

  • Music

    Yamila – Visions

    Mexican composer Yamila produces music similar to Rock-In-Opposition legends like Art Zoyd, Univers Zéro and fellow countrymen Decibel. The music is heavy, brooding, and dense. From her label, Umor Rex’s Bandcamp site: “Her voice and music –sometimes torn and others buoyant– could resemble the score for a biblical passage (ie. visions of the Apocalypse), for they are overflowing with physical ecstasy and sounds that one can touch. Visions is composed of different forms and rhythms. Pieces like “Visions V” evolve intensely with sharp and systematized hits ––powerful layers that bring us closer to Alessando Cortini’s Forse era. “Visions II”, for…

  • Music

    Y Bülbül – Fever

    What a charmingly weird discovery this is!  Yiğit Bülbül is a London-based musician whose roots are in Turkey, and this mini-album combines the experimentation of artists like Holger Czukay with the dulcet sounds of Serge Gainsbourg’s backing band in their calmer moments.  A surreal release this one…

  • Music

    noemienours – The Dry Path

    It’s hard for me to make out the influences of this album, but I can say with certainty that listening to this rather weird album was a pleasure.  From noemienours’ Bandcamp site: ““The Dry Path”, noemienours’ 5th LP, developed around a Gobi Bear narrative of barren edge conditions as an access point to supra-natural realities, is definitely a turning point in the noemienours discography, notably because of its introduction of harpsichord in the noemienours instrumentarium, but also because of its recourse to a widened approach of its lo-fi musical approach, by creating a new musical form somewhere between Swedish post-black…

  • Music

    Rodion G.A. – Misiunea Spatiala Delta (Delta Space Mission)

    This gem is from one of Romania’s strangest composers.  The music sounds made by Rodion Roșca range from a more industrial-era Cabaret Voltaire and Suicide to the wilder music of Giorgio Moroder.  He passed away in March of 2021 at the age of 68, but he left a truly unique body of work behind, including this wonderful record.  Derek Anderson of Derek’s Music Blog wrote a long and deep tribute to Rodion, and Derek was responsible for helping get his name out to the international public.  A commendable article and truly, a commendable record.

  • Music

    Savvas Metaxas – Music for Dance Performance

    Greek experimental composer Savvas Metaxas has scored music for a choreography project that sounds more like a very relaxed version of electroacoustic music.  It’s sumptuous headphone listening, I have to say.  From his record label Noise Below’s Bandcamp site: “Savvas Metaxas’s music for the choreography/action ‘who knows where time goes – potential destination #1’, slightly modified for this release without losing the sense of experiencing its first steps and its ongoing development, making the listener feel like they are participating in the action. With a cover photo from Sofia Tolika’s amazing ‘mundus’ photobook, that toys with stasis/motion, and artwork by…

  • Music

    Naujawanan Baidar – Khedmat Be Khalq

    N.R. Safi is the leader of the band psychedelic rock/drone band The Myrrors, yet this side project goes off on into a rather personal trajectory for him.  This particular release combines the drone and rock he’s mastered, but it’s also layered with tapes from Afghanistan, where his roots are.  Imagine Throbbing Gristle and Amon Düül II jamming in the outskirts of Kabul with local musicians, and maybe you’d get close to the vibe this album is giving.

  • Music

    Otomo Yoshihide (大友良英) – We Insist?

    I had the pleasure of watching Otomo Yoshihide perform live about 30 years ago in Los Angeles, and his turntable wizardry made me a lifelong fan.  It pleases me to see that labels are still carefully releasing his body of work, and this album is among my favorites.  The album is full of short snippets, records mixed together, sound samples layer one on top of the other, blended, stirred and shaken to make one of the best experimental music albums of the late 1990s.  A must for turntablists.