Track: Mark Shippy & Alex Cunningham – ‘Clear Walkway’: US Maple guitarist brings the improv for guitar and violin
AFICIONADOS of the free music, this way please: Mark Shippy, former guitarist with the legendary Chicago noise-rock voyagers U.S. Maple, has got together with St Louis, Missouri violin improviser Alex Cunningham for a real exploration of what the two stringed instruments can achieve together in and of the moment. They’re releasing a two-handed album, Ghost …
Track: Mattia Cupelli reveals a dark ambient aesthetic with the eerie prayer call of ‘MONOLITH’
ROMAN composer Mattia Cupelli likes to play on the borders of modern classical, electronica, ambient and soundtrack elements, which has stood him in good stead over nearly a decade of composing scores for more than a dozen films. He’s now embarking on a non-filmic exploration of dark ambient, with an album, RUINS, coming out in …
Track: Trippers & Askers – ‘Chance’s Wake’: warming, spiritual Americana lays out the path towards an album drawing on the near-dystopian classic, ‘The Parable Of The Sower’
OCTAVIA E. BUTLER was a Californian African-American science fiction author whose 1993 novel, Parable Of The Sower, has rippled out with staying power across culture, with its tale of the marginalised attempting to survive a (really, very) near-future ecological and economic collapse. it was only written less than three decades, in the lifetime of many …
See: Ólafur Arnalds and Benjamin Hardman’s short film for the cyclical beauty of ‘New Grass’, capturing the macro wonder of moss
Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds has collaborated visually with the photographer and film-maker Benjamin Hardman to produce a short film full of natural wonder to accompany the track “New Grass”, taken from his beautiful and contemplative album from last year, Some Kind Of Peace; and you can glory in that collaboration below. Using a macro lens, …
See: Eartheater – ‘Volcano’: a tenebrous, glittering, elemental pop gains dramatic visuals
THE QUEENS-based multimedia artist Eartheater has shared the stunning and elemental visuals for “Volcano”, a track taken from her critically acclaimed album examining rebirth, life, death and all points in between from last year, Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin. Wholly self-written, arranged and composed by Eartheater herself, the album seeks to draw a …
Track: Machinedrum – ‘Star (feat. Mono/Poly & Tanerelle, Shelley FKA DRAM Remix)’: tweaked and tucked with sultry results
WITH his latest album, A View Of U, for home of all things glorious and wonky and beat-driven, Ninja Tune, being lauded across the wide sphere of electronic music, North Carolinan Travis Stewart has dropped a big, smooth bomb of a remix of “Star”, the second track, featuring the vocal honey of Tanerélle and Mono/Poly …
Track: Tape Waves – ‘Tired’: beguiling dream pop outta North Carolina making all the right noises
TAPE WAVES are a rather lovely dream pop duo hailing from Charleston, South Carolina, who are leading a slow and sleepy dance for us towards their June album with a lovely, airy single, “Tired”, which you can play right here. It does all the correct things for a shoegazey tune; Kim Weldin’s voice is breathy, …
See: Throwing Snow – Halos: generative, organic visuals and chattering electronica connect
ROSS TONES, the electronic voyager who records for Houndstooth as Throwing Snow, has dropped a video for new single “Halos”, the latest intelligent bodymover to be lifted from his forthcoming album Dragons. Dragons will be Throwing Snow’s fourth album and seeks to explore the space between science and ancestral wisdom, connecting modern electronica back to …
Track: Cloud of I – ‘Sail Away’: gliding West Coast-style psych from Tel Aviv – a 12″ EP follows in July
COULD this be the year we see a real breakout of excellent, psychedelic music from Israel? The year’s already been graced by Tamar Aphek’s fiery debut album for Kill Rock Stars, All Bets Are Off, in which Tamar and her power trio really kicked out the jams (it may be one of those albums that’s …
Track: Bored At My Grandma’s House – ‘China Doll (demo)’: Leeds dreampopper drops lo-fi confession ahead of Come Play With Me’s new compilation
EN ROUTE to Come Play With Me’s new compilation album, Side By Side, which is out in a month, the grassroots Leeds organisation which is doing the good work in tending to the West Yorkshire music scene has dropped another teaser track, which you can come play right here. It comes from Leeds’ own dream …