• Music

    Ani Zakareishvili – Fallin

    December 29, 2022 - By 

    Ani Zakareishvili has produced a work of genius – something that feels like it would have fit in the classic movie The Shining, with its surreal, hazy feel to it.  From Warm Winters Ltd.’s Bandcamp site: “Tbilisi, Georgia-based artist Ani Zakareishvili joins the Warm Winters Ltd. roster with a hazy, phantasmic EP titled ‘Fallin’. Centred around crackling piano loops and edited snippets of Eartha Kitt’s interview from 1982, Zakareishvili ponders on the meaning of “falling in love” and reveals a deeply resonant layer of her work. This is hypnagogic, hushed music, untroubled yet profound, which somehow waltzes past you in…

  • Music

    Pete Swinton – The Book Of Chuang-Tzu, Ch. 18

    December 21, 2022 - By 

    Zhuang Zhou is the pinyin transliteration of Chuang Tzu, the Chinese taoist philospher who lived some time during the 4th century B.C. during the Warring States Period, and was part of a movement where Chinese philosophy enjoyed an explosive period of development.  He is the subject of the album being reviewed, and it’s nice to have composer Pete Swinton bring his name up after such a long absence. Why he is mentioned in relation to the music is a mystery, as the first six tracks, according to Swinton himself, are meant to imitate insect sounds.  After a deep listening, I…

  • Music

    Methuzelah (Jeff Gburek & Pete Swinton) – First Album

    December 1, 2022 - By 

    Today is an auspicious day, as I’m proud to say that this is the 700th consecutive post this blog has produced since January 1, 2021.  The release is one I held onto for such an occasion, as Jeff Gburek, heavily featured on my site for the astounding quality of his work, pairs with Pete Swinton, a multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Java, Indonesia.  The music has a hazy, lo-fi psychedelic rock quality to it, and the pieces on this album feel alive.  You get the sense that you’re not only listening to the album, but it’s crawling inside of you. …

  • Music

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

    November 28, 2022 - By 

    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

    November 7, 2022 - By 

    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

    September 14, 2022 - By 

    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

    September 12, 2022 - By 

    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

    August 1, 2022 - By 

    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

    June 20, 2022 - By 

    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…