• Music

    Midori Hirano – And I Am Here

    February 20, 2022 - By 

    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

    January 2, 2022 - By 

    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…

  • Music

    E.U.E.R.P.I. – Timid Memories

    December 2, 2021 - By 

    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.

  • Music

    Jeff Gburek – Works Within the Upright Ruins of the Kaszubian Piano, 2015​/​2021

    October 30, 2021 - By 

    Our first review on returning to Brno is a burner, naturally.  Our friend, man of the world, and experimental music composer Jeff Gburek comes by these pages again with a droning masterpiece. This is not the ordinary drone you hear reviewed on these pages, though, truth be told, nothing I review is even remotely ordinary.  The backstory is almost as impressive as these waves of hypnotic (in the best of senses) drones are. To catch the whole story, read Jeff’s writeup on how this fine album came to be.  When he advised me of the album the word Kaszubian brought…

  • Music

    Flora Yin-Wong – Holy Palm

    October 20, 2021 - By 

    After coming across an interview over at The Quietus with the London based composer Flora Yin-Wong, I wasn’t quite sure of what to make of her work.  The new album they discussed, Holy Palm sounded fascinating, less so by the interviewer’s rather tepid questions but more so by the evocative answers Flora was giving.  I cannot say that she is or isn’t a religious woman (though as a rationalist, perhaps she would enjoy the works of the Cappadocians), but her fascination with sacred spaces adds something interesting to this album, where drone, field recordings, and a warm take on something…

  • Music

    Alejandra and Aeron – España 1998​-​2004

    October 18, 2021 - By 

    Alejandra Salinas and Aeron Bergman have been working together as sound and multimedia artists since at least 1997, and perhaps farther back, though their prodigious corpus vitae isn’t so clear on when, exactly, they began recording together.  One can surmise that they have been collaborating on CD since 1998, if this compilation is anything to go by. What do we find from their oeuvre?  Electroacoustic music that has a hazy, dreamlike quality to it.  There are gentle rumblings, drones and bits of electronic music that have a nearly magical quality to them.  It’s pleasant music with which to daydream –…

  • Music

    Li Yilei – 之 (Of)

    September 9, 2021 - By 

    Li Yilei is a London-based sound artist based whose roots are Chinese.  Li’s latest album, Of (Chinese: 之) reminds me of some of the amazingly good Japanese new age ambient releases of the 1980s which seem to be gaining a lot of attention like Hiroshi Yoshimura and some of Haruomi “Harry” Hosono’s more eclectic albums outside of his work with the Yellow Magic Orchestra. The instrumentation consists of analogue synthesizers, vocal samples, field recordings and string instruments such as the violin and guqin (I was introduced to the instrument while teaching in China back in 2018), and Li is also…

  • Music

    Jeff Gburek – Diaphragmata

    August 25, 2021 - By 

    This release allows me to kill two birds with one stone.  First, it’s been a while since we’ve had a chance to review music by Jeff Gburek (one of the several venerable composers who always manage to find a welcome home on these pages), and this is a strikingly quiet and meditative album.  Second, I have sampled some of the wares of Muteant Sounds, a fine experimental label out of Florida in the United States, but I believe this might be the first album from that label I’ve had the change to listen to in full. Jeff explains the concept…

  • Music

    Various Artists – Lost Tribe Sound: Salt and Gravity Series

    August 7, 2021 - By 

    Readers who visit frequently know that I have a few artists and labels who I am happy to champion because they never let me down in terms of quality of music or their curating abilities.  I’m happy to add another label to this list: Lost Tribe Sound. The label is based out of Wisconsin, and if you enjoy rich, resonating dark ambient music which blends field recordings seamlessly into their compositions, this label is going to keep your attention for a good long while.  The label releases music by such luminaries as Seabuckthorn, William Ryan Fritch and Tony Dupé, and now,…

  • Music

    Various Artists – Gudelnaya Polyana – Solar Systo Togathering 2020

    July 30, 2021 - By 

    Good music and good new labels are easy to find if you apply yourself.  Zhelezobeton is not a new label, per sé, but a lot of the bands they work with will be new to listeners who don’t normally follow what is happening in the Russian sphere of influence. This compilation is three hours of live recordings made by a variety of artists, including, intriguingly, an ensemble of 12-year-old noisemakers.  The future, judging by the standards of this comp, is in secure hands over there. Also interesting is where this compilation was put together.  It was held on the experimental…