experimental
See: the video for Masayoshi Fujita’s ‘Thunder’; a flow of sonic delight for electronica and marimba on Erased Tapes
IF YOU like your music deliciously abstract, abstractedly delicious; arranged beautifully, an absolute world of evocative sound; fell hard, for instance, for the albums Ryuichi Sakamoto made with Alva Noto, or are like a kid at Christmas while waiting for the lusciousness of Chihei Hatakeyama’s new album, then attendez-vous, s’il vous plait; for Erased Tapes …
Track: Ueda Takasayu – ‘Every Clouds Calls My Name’: Phantom Limb debutante’s impressionistic, psychotropic odyssey
BORN in Hiroshima and raised partly in Germany and Austria, debuting Phantom Limb artist Ueda Takayasu says he spent his childhood feeling stateless, distant from his own cultural identity and curiously “un-Japanese”. Even now, in adulthood, having returned to Japan, he speaks English, German and Japanese at home. His internal response to this deep-rooted search for meaning …
See: Conrad Clipper – ‘Heron’s Book Of Dreams’: piano pastoralism from Berlin composer hiding in pseudonymity
CONRAD CLIPPER is the pseudonymous venture of a Berlin composer and multi-instrumentalist who has a focus on prepared, programmed and played piano. He’s lauded over at BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, whose presenters have called his work “a rare and tender sonic wonder.” His debut album, 2016’s Cycle of Liminal Rites, took the form of a …
Premiere: Christine Ott – ‘Landscape’: haunting modern compositional pastoralism
THE FRENCH composer and multi-instrumentalist Christine Ott can never be accused of running with the pack in her compositional aesthetic; down the years since her first release, Solitude Nomade, in 2009, she’s really pushed the possibilities of modern composition, not in experimenting for the sake of it, but in trying to express and elicit a …
See: The video for Matt Emery’s ‘Anxiety Mist’: a samurai waiting for battle as told by solo cello
BRITISH composer Matt Emery, who calls the lovely Injazero Records home, has launched a series of recordings focusing on one instrument at a time; and for his first EP in the series has chosen to shine a light on the cello, which is starting to find a bigger appreciation as a standalone instrument through the …
News: Secrets of Elements announces April album; hear the grand electronic sweep of ‘Cassini’
THE GERMAN composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Johann Pätzold, who records as Secret of Elements, has announced the release of his first album since 2011’s Minds. It’s to be entitled Chronos, and it’ll be with us come the back end of April; but today he’s dropped as a welcome the track “Cassini”, which you can hear below. It fuses …
Album review: Field Works – ‘Cedars’: Stuart Hyatt fuses cosmic Americana and Arabic sounds; the results are luscious
Cedars is quite a record – two records really; the first more orange and various other colours of the sun’s framing of the beginning and the ending of the day, alive with a heartfelt yearning and cosmic sonic thrill. The second is far more verdant, deep green, homespun, and focuses in very much in on the wonder of the simple; the moments we all return to, perhaps, at least us rural dwellers. If you’re at all conceptually familiar with the work of William Blake, his Songs Of Innocence And Experience, you’ll see; the twining and correspondences. Climb into Cedars, join the two worlds for yourself; the album is long on thought and also on beauty.
See: Tristan Welch – ‘I Live In Filth’: Washington guitarist presents icy dronescapes
WASHINGTON’S dark ambient guitarchitect Tristan Welch has announced a new album for the end of April, Temporary Preservation; and has released a first taster single in the twilit soundscapes of “I Live In Filth”. Take a listen herein. Tristan follows on from last year’s Capitalist Teeth and Ambient Distress and continues his sonic exploration of …
See: Tristan Kasten-Krause – ‘Dawn Looming’: delicious dronescapes for a new day
NEW YORK-based bassist and composer Tristan Kasten-Krause likes to mix it up, see a little of the creative world. As well as being active on the Big Apple’s DIY and experimental scenes, he’s also played in Oklahoma!, in a production running on Broadway, which gives you any idea of his breadth and scope culturally. He …
See: The incredible hand-drawn video to ’68’s ‘Bad Bite’: righteous noise proves less is so much more
ATLANTA noiseniks ’68 have a much-anticipated new album, Give One Take One, out on Cooking Vinyl at the end of next month; in advance of which they’ve unveiled a frankly excellent hand-drawn video for lead single “Bad Bite”, which you can watch below. It showcases how much cathartic noise you can make with just two …