Jahtari Denizen of WaqWaq Kingdom, Kiki Hitomi and German clarinetist Volker Hemken have teamed up with Jahtari supremo and erstwhile disrupter Jan Disrupt as Cosmic Threat for a strangely removed journey into the outer limits. As if beamed in from some distant, forgotten outpost, Cosmic Threads merges dub reggae, electronica and gritty atmospherics with a soupcon of spiritual swing that leaves the listener constantly gaping at the imagery, […]
Album review
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Erototox This is a feathery snake of an album. The quality of drone hovers in there like a forgotten memory that ensnares. The first track’s clustering notes messing with your wiring in a good way, its perfume potently levitating in your skull, ominously glowing like the matt-black gloom of the stately artwork. The up close and personal of the instruments that adorn the cover giving material context to […]
Efpi The fourth album for the agile pigeonhole-dodging quartet Let Spin finds them mixing things up a little, taking ideas of pieces into the studio and working them into a lather over the course of a couple of last year’s late summer days. This way of working, attempting to bring the vivacity of their live show into the studio, has been a great success; plus their idea to […]
SOFA The latest releases from experimental Norwegian label SOFA are very much on the cutting edge of musical discovery, or how our environment or things we take for granted can be manipulated to provide entertainment or a new aural experience. Having recently listened to the new Sarah Davachi album and read the reviews of the new Greg Davis LP, the search for how minimal drone music can affect […]
Discus I often think that the purest format for improv is the duo where one of the players is a drummer. There is something about the interplay between two musicians, both questing for fresh knowledge, plus the space provided between the grounding of the percussion and the wind scattered revelations of the instrument.
Lava Thief Clean is a warm acoustic delight, sees known Thought Forms songs stripped back and reconfigured, born anew with fresh titles reflecting this. The slow creeping weave of “Hiding Beneath” invites us in, its spidering vocal spiral chased in recoiling twang and cello, attentively sweeps you off your feet for the words of “Our Ghosts” to vividly burn, buoyantly pull around that sinewed strum, shuffling percussion and […]
Computer Students™ Yet another discovery that I can’t believe has taken twenty years to cross my path. Cheval de Frise were a French guitar and percussion duo operating at the turn of the millennium, trading in the kind of tight, angular guitar rock that was coming out of Chicago. But they give it a neat twist by being a duo and playing around one another in a way […]
Retractor Persistence Is All After putting up with muffled audience recordings of this memorable experience for over twenty-odd years, this recent instalment from Thighpaulsandra’s Coil archive is a total godsend. Considering the strictness of the staff on the night in question, capturing a personal memento of the gig was nigh-on-impossible, so this crystal-clear souvenir of Coil’s second Royal Festival Hall appearance is way beyond expectation. Persistence Is All […]
April Danish sax player and composer Fredrik Lundin is quite the collaborator, his list of ensembles longer than my arm. For his latest series of genre straddling pieces, he has enlisted the far reaching capabilities of the Odense Jazz Orchestra, ensuring a blend of freedom and swing that suits his compositions which try to shine a positive light on the current state of things on It Takes All […]
Not Applicable The Covid break two summers ago found renowned experimental trio Leverton Fox taking their gear and a loose idea into a Sussex woodland, setting up two ambient mics, sitting back and allowing their improvisational magic to unfold amidst the fallen leaves, spreading boughs and hidden animal trails. The whole thing feels like an invitation; an invitation to descend into the undergrowth and to listen as the […]
One Little Independent For Ásgeir‘s fourth solo album, these strange times of introspection and separation have found him engrossed in the studio, pushing his ethereal brand of electronic folk-pop in fresh directions. Concentrating on his angelic vocals and layering swathes of perfectly produced sound around him, he draws the listener into his carefully constructed sonic world, images of his frozen homeland abounding.
Thrill Jockey After the two recent collaborations in which Marisa Anderson took part, it is now her time to tackle another solo album, and using the momentum from those, has turned inward to articulate her thoughts and emotions at a time when she has been able to play live for the longest period of her career.
Punkt Editions Punkt Editions is a new label curated by Jan Bang and Erik Honore. If you have any knowledge of those two names, then you will be expecting sound of a liminal nature that exists between planes with touches of jazz, electronica, ambient and more, but ever sounding like something coming to you from a dream.
Late Music For somebody so young, Sarah Davachi is incredibly prolific and for someone working in such a rarefied atmosphere, she has so many ideas and theories. Two Sisters, her latest double album, is an extraordinary collection of tonal pieces that take in strings, various pipe organs, trombones, voices, bells and electric organ and somehow manages to produce an inspiring and timeless journey that due to the long, […]
Greyfade Few labels have such a defined remit as Greyfade, who for the last few years have released a steady stream of thoughtful academic works concerned with precision, process and sonic nuance. Following the heady splendour of last year’s Rag’sma by Christopher Otto and JACK Quartet, as well as label-boss Joseph Branciforte and Kenneth Kirschner’s From The Machine, 2022 sees the release of two new works of minimal, […]
Discus Faith Brackenbury‘s violin playing is an absolute force of nature; at times like a dervish that seems to sweep straight from her heart and out in to the universe, unencumbered by structure or regime, just a natural flow like a river that heads onward. Her chance meeting with the jazz-inflected basslines and murmuring, rumbling drumming of drummer and bassist Tony Bianco has enabled a union that highlights […]
Constellation As Jessica Moss move further into her solo career, you can almost sense the natural barriers of artistic progress being lifted and set aside. Galaxy Heart feels as though she has discovered that musically anything is possible and with restrictions limiting personal interaction, it is down to her to do it; so apart from a couple of guest appearances, everything we hear on the album was played […]
Temporary Residence Regular Temporary Residence artist and intimate pianist Bruno Bavota met Dutch singer songwriter Chantal Acda some years ago, but immediately figured that their respective styles would make for a significant collaboration. As is often the case over the last few years, the pandemic intervened and forced them into their respective studios, but allowed for some inward artistic development; so the duo decided to prepare tracks separately […]