We have another elegant experimental/electroacoustic album by violinist Karolina Ossowska and her partner in this release, Jeff Gburek. There is a Nurse With Wound-meets-György Ligeti vibe to this release, maybe even references to Krzysztof Penderecki’s earlier avant-garde works, but given a gritty, ghostly treatment. Another glorious release.
From Jeff Gburek’s Bandcamp site:
“None-sense Opera is what I will call it. It’s not noise, not merely musical soundscapery nor just anything rushing in to fill the 4/33 gap. My selections are operant, intuitive but their sense often only dawns on me later in the twilight when I become another kind of listener.
Mindful mindlessness comes to mind. Some mistakes and glitches remain to speak for the unknown necessities of being.All these pieces were performed from Sept 9 thru 15 upon various instruments with the shifting ground of the sound stem composed of field recordings tapped this July and August (including hydrophones and VLF radio) in Czech Republic, Hungary & Romania. Check the album titles for instrumental details.Schizophony, geophony, biophony, phonography in a laminal swirl, geothermal, lomographical, dragging geomagnetics (VLF and radio pulses) into the mess that organizes (composes) itself. I cannot perform anywhere but only draw the global signage of distances together (in this virtual here and now where you, the creative listener, exist also) to symbolize the taxis of a future interplanetary signalling cascade. If these words could actually mean or communicated what I’m trying to do with my work I would not need to execute this compression of files. So give it all a hearing, y’all.
It’s all-sense possibilia music but it’s phaneron computes what at first blush registers to sense and senses as not really existing there as such — it’s a nothingness, an anti-grammar– but, as it’s flight from reality takes off, it collapses into mirror shards of reflective capacitance and charges the atmosphere with curiosity. I’ve been working to make a Gaian polyspheric music for many years now. The orchestral players are everywhere and they always show up for rehearsals. “Sortie” in French: output, exit, outlet, release, outflow, outing. “Sept” because it’s September and the Latin root word for seven because there will be seven pieces upon completion of the cycle. I wanted, still want to, maybe call it “Sept Saties”, owing to the fact I was thinking whimsically of the composer, Erik Satie, these first days of Autumn, with the chestnuts and leaves beginning to detach.
Jeff Gburek
back in the crow’s nest
in Lazarus, Poznan”
Karl Willebrant released an EP’s worth of meditative music that would be appealing to fans of groups like Embryo and Popol Vuh. The tunes are gentle, a bit on the kosmische side, and well-balanced in terms of its sonic character. This is a rather fine little release.
We find music in the strangest of places. This release from Jesse Paul Miller is proof of it. From his Bandcamp site:
“These tracks consist of a series of sequential “sound collages”, based on recordings I gathered in Southeast Asia, between 2008 and 2017.
There is NO Multi-Tracking or “Over-Dubbing” on these tracks.
Original artifacts of these recordings are self apparent and un-alterated.
Five of these tracks were initially made in 2014 as potentials for release on my Sublime Frequencies album entitled “A Distant Invitation”
(Tracks 1, 2, 5, 16, and 21). These didn’t make the cut and weren’t included, but now they can be listened to in this mix.
They were overlayed only at the beginning and end of each original recording. These single trackings were compiled sequentially.
Also included are a group of similar, singular recordings, of which, made up these kind of “sound collages”, edited to compliment the original series, and included in late February 2024.
This group of recordings isn’t intended have a full-album flow, it is more of a compilation. Hopefully each track can be enjoyed for its own qualities, perhaps a fun or interesting addition to any mix you might be listening to.
All together, you can hear a feeling for cosmic radio anomalies, human voices, interactions, and ceremonies, from locations in these magical parts of the world.”
Touch Records introduced many experimental and post-industrial music fans to some of the most crucial artists of the past 40 years or so. This compilation originally came as 28 single tracks which were available via subscription only, but since that option was shut down, the label thankfully compiled these tracks into one album.
Mississippi Records released a collection of field recordings covering local music from Yogyakarta, Indonesia. These were recorded between November 1976 and January 1978.
Many honorable composers of note were fascinated by radio static, and as someone who owned a shortwave radio in my youth, I happily admit to having the same fascination with such crunchy sound. Our friend Jeff Gburek uses radio sounds for his latest release. From his Bandcamp site:
“This album combines a recent sequence of Shortwave radio capture performances from late April (tracks 1 – 11) and two VLF recordings from the X class solar flare and geomagnetic storm day May 11. Inspired to put this album out quickly after hearing what seemed to be a call for newly recorded radio morsels from Radio is a Foreign Country (RIAFC) on of my favorite music blogs. Even if my interpretation of this open call is perhaps mistaken, there is here, or, here it is, nevertheless, some new material of interest to “strange” radio signal enthusiasts. Enjoy and share.”
This is some of the best late-night listening I’ve heard in a long time. Neither Jeff Gburek nor Karolina Ossowska ever fail to please my ears, whether it be with a deep intellectual piece or compositions which teeter on the edge of being mournful, but this one deserves a special place in the collection. From Jeff’s Bandcamp site:
“Inspired in part by a recent renaissance in listening to dhrupad and other music of the Indian subcontinent and early European music, I transformed my standard GDR zither into a swarmandal, developing a full moon raga scale. When I invited Karolina to play with me, we discovered the violin had to drop half a step or so deeper to catch the root tone. The dynamics became more concrete as other voicings defamiliarized our instruments, necessitating fresh improvisational approaches. Microphones were set up close to catch textures and accentuate acoustic timbres. I played the zither with my bare fingers, a folded paper-towel, sometimes a plectrum, a glass jar became a make-shift slide as I’d left my guitar slide behind accidentally and the e-bow is introduced mostly on the sly, where it’s not entirely obvious. Recorded in the village of Głęboczek, Podlasia, near the Bug river on December 25th and 26th (full moon), 2023. Thanks to our hosts Krystoff Lang and Katarzyna Król Modrak.”
Brotha Lok is a French producer and DJ of Vietnamese extraction, and he has produced a wild album with no solid focus, but it listens are more of a travelog. Bits of hip-hop, ethnographic recordings, field recording, spoken interludes (including a bit of laughter here and there) are brought together into a very personal album.
Jolanda Moletta is an Berlin-based experimental vocalist who used to sing for the group She Owl. This album features her gently eerie, comforting vocals and not much else. To add to such glorious tones would be a crime. Her voice is delightful as is.