• Music

    Niobe Poitier – Poemas Perdidos (To J. L. Borges)

    Today’s wee sonic adventure comes from a Berlin-based composer called Niobe Poitier.  What fascinated me about this release was that she was using the voice of my favorite author, Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, his voice and his works as his source material.  The feel of the tracks, especially The Other (El Otro), are otherworldly.  Some of the most satisfying headphone listening I’ve had in a good, long while.

  • Music

    Jeff Gburek – Five Broke Downe Homesick for the Open Road Medley Blues

    Fresh recordings have been delivered by Jeff Gburek, and there are a few more in the pipeline, apparently, so 2022 will be a busy year for one of the blog’s favorites.  From Jeff’s Bandcamp site: “Five Broke Downe Homesick for the Open Road Medley Blues came to me as the title for tracks I recorded in October bounced off of various field recordings from the Summer 2022 . They are all recorded spontaneously at various locations. One can hear domestic and wilderness noises in the backgrounds (1), campfires, foxes or wolves, crickets (3). The tracks are mostly raw juxtapositions of…

  • Music

    Various Artists vs Chris Watson – Star Switch On

    Once an Industrial music icon during his time performing in Cabaret Voltaire (pre-disco), Chris Watson now records natural sounds with such skill that he makes something that goes well beyond ‘ambient’ music.  As a tribute to his work, Touch Records commissioned several artists, including recently reposed ones like Philip Jeck and Mika Vainio, and supplemented by Fennesz, Biosphere and Watson himself.

  • Music

    Esa Ruoho – Collage

    Esa Ruoho is a project out of Finland who works with really long, sinewy drones and atmospherics to get lost in on a headphone trip.  Fine ambient music, something rare in a time when the term is so badly abused.

  • 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

    Jeff Gburek – Tamarind Winds: Songs for Javanese Rebab, 2022

    Tamarind Winds has to be the best album of 2022 for me to get lost in.  Composer and friend of the blog Jeff Gburek continues to awe with the magic he imbues in each instrument he touches, spinning haunting drones, field recordings and soothing the senses with his rebab.  From his Bandcamp site: Various parts of the traditional Javanese rebab are made of tamarind wood, hence the flavor, the aromatic suggestion of the title. These are spontaneous compositions, duets and trios created in thye studio among me, myself and I. There are no effects or plug-ins used other than reverb…

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    Midori Hirano – And I Am Here

    According to Midori Hirano’s Bandcamp site, “this album was initially released on staaltape by Rinus Van Alebeek in 2015 as a very limited edition of cassette tape.” It’s a gem of experimental music because Hirano’s background blends a classical music, a commercial music background, and what would end up being termed as “Japanoise,” the beautifully violent experimental music which exploded in Japan and worldwide throughout the late 80s and early 90s.  Hirano crafts 24 sound vignettes on this album, and the end result is something akin to John Cage going mushroom hunting with Aki Takahashi while listening to Hijokaidan on…

  • Music

    Various Artists – Blackford Hill: Transmissions / Volume One

    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…

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    E.U.E.R.P.I. – Timid Memories

    We have a new band to follow, and they’re out of Bulgaria.  E.U.E.R.P.I. produce a sonorous and pleasantly dark ambient music that sounds heavily influenced by the works of Steve Roach, Matthias Grassow, or even Lustmord.  E.U.E.R.P.I. have proven to be as masterful at using field recordings, blending them into their live performance as documented on this record.  One to watch out for.