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…
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…
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.
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,…
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.
Mirt, a Polish experimental artists, offers up sound recordings from Thailand. From his Bandcamp site: “This is another part of an ongoing series of recordings made on Tarutao island. This time, the entire album focuses on the overall soundscape of the island and is a collection of random recordings I made during last trip to Tarutao National Park. Tracks 1 and 3 are recorded from a drop rig with no human presence on site and seem particularly interesting. Although these are not binaural recordings, I recommend listening with headphones.”
Igor Yalevic has produced some of the most gentle and relaxing field recordings and ‘ambient’ music to come out of Ukraine in recent memory in his latest album, Etudes. From his Bandcamp site: “Etudes is Yalivec’s sophomore album. His 2021 album Still Life came out on Polar Seas Recordings and has long since been sold out. Yalivec’s more esoteric electroacoustic project with guitarist Sergey Yagoda is called Gamardah Fungus and exorcizes a more cosmic and heavier consciousness. Etudes is remarkable in it’s ability to walk a middle path between the overtly melodic and arpeggiated Still Life and the heavy duty…