Sofa The latest album from Norwegian tuba player Martin Taxt, as well as being a continuation of the work started on 2020’s First Room, comes on like the ultimate in minimalist sound as architecture. His microtonal tuba carries single tones as if they were the most precious of cargo, listening intently for shifts in pressure and additions of further textures. Assistance comes in the form of another tuba, […]
Mr Olivetti
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PRAH The fourth moon-related release from Yama Warashi finds Yoshino Shigihara‘s band shifting to the Moshi Moshi offshoot PRAH and further stretching their legs with a unique distillation of gently fuzzy psych and that dreamy Japanese vocalising that gives them such an exotic appeal. Over eight lengthy and quixotic tracks, the album leads the listener through gentle foothills and mountain glades to more extreme terrain, switchback paths and […]
Thanatosis Produktion The list of groups of which reedist Martin Küchen is part is almost as long as my arm. A serial collaborator, his choice of fellow travellers is hugely varied and the number contained within the groups can be anything over two, the Angles projects and Fire! Orchestra perhaps being the most prolific. Here though, he has chosen a rare moment of solitude, and using alto and […]
Post 3 Electro Knights is a recent collaborative affair from members of Leeds band Bushpilot, who were active back in the nineties; here they have chosen electronic music as their jumping off point, an experiment in synthesis that finds the three members happily exploring the far reaches of their chosen instruments, usefully listed on the back of these two sprawling EPs. Recorded back in 2019/2020, the music travels […]
Out This is the final release in the UT back catalogue re-issue campaign and finds them arriving at perhaps their most fully realised iteration. A good number of the tracks here feature Charlie D on drums, leaving the opportunity for the trio to lend further texture to the already dense and at times claustrophobic sound. Interestingly though, installing Steve Albini in the engineer’s chair removed just a touch […]
Modulisme To celebrate the second anniversary of the Modulisme facility that Philippe Petit has established, he decided to forego the usual improvisation technique and attempt a series of compositions that would perhaps show another route for him and give some further impetus to the already exploratory process of a true world citizen.
Thanatosis Produktion Linnéa Talp‘s first album under her own name is all about exploration of the ambient splendour of the pipe organ; but also in combination with her recent discovery of the Buchla synth. Not necessarily obvious bedfellows, her subtle and intricate use of them, along with gently administered contributions from some fellow luminants, produces a series of .
Sofa For Propan‘s third album and their second for Sofa Records, they have dusted off a piece that was originally commissioned by Femme Brutal for the 2016 show at Oslo’s Parkteater. To produce these sprawling adventures, the duo has been augmented by six friends and fellow travellers on Swagger, and this seems to have pushed the scope of the album far beyond what the duo might have accomplished […]
Thrill Jockey Kid Millions, Oneida drummer, serial collaborator and sonic adventurer has chosen to release this current sonic curveball under his given surname; whether this is to put distance between his other projects, it is hard to know but it makes for another half turn in his scattergun career. Taking some hints from the recent Jan St Werner collab, the Colpitts album has a hint of the sort […]
Buried Treasure For Revbjelde‘s long-awaited follow-up to 2020’s Hooha Hubub, Buried Treasure supremo and long-term Zyklus member Alan Gubby has been joined once again by Tim Hill on saxes and Peter Hope on vocals, as well as various other one-track guests. Having listened to and enjoyed the recent Zyklus compilation, it is no surprise that the variety of styles utilised over these twelve pieces is pretty impressive and […]
limitedNOISE For the latest issue of his Climbing In Circles series, drummer Will Glaser has brought in long-time collaborator Matthew Herd on sax and piano and trumpeter Alex Bonney, here stretching his electronic legs. Coming into the studio and using the opportunity to improvise as well as see how the studio can perform as a fourth element has led the trio down some interesting alleyways, with each of […]
One Little Independent Not content with having issued his LÜP album back in 2021, soundscape artist and musical machinery constructor Lomond Campbell has chosen to release a cassette of those loops that were utilised on the album. Spread over ninety minutes, these brief snippets give the impression one might have of watching a collage artist at work in the studio, cutting up the separate ingredients without really knowing […]
Discus Ron Caines and Martin Archer reconvene here for their third Axis album, two years on from Dream Feathers and with a cast of collaborators that includes familiar faces and some new to the adventure, but all willing to lend their personal stamp to Ron’s suite of undulating shoreline visions. Spilt into three distinct suites, that sweet sax sound of his is ever present throughout Port Of Saints, […]
Crammed Discs This was quite a feat that Crammed Discs undertook to bring together Konono No1, Kasai Allstars, Deerhoof, Juana Molina, Wildbirds and Peacedrums and one of Skeletons to make an international supergroup melding that wild and evocative Kinshasa sound with some of the more esoteric of western alternative musical ideas.
KrysaliSound Apparently there are only forty copies of the latest KrysaliSound collaboration between regular colluder Wil Bolton and label head Francis Gri, which seems crazy considering the soothing quality of the sounds contained therein and the current need for them as the world lurches from one crisis to another.
Curling Legs Following on from this pair’s recent collaboration on John Derek Bishop‘s last Tortusa album, here they venture further into the outer reaches of sound construction with Svein Rikard Mathisen‘s deconstructed guitar reacting with or gently cajoling the found sounds and electronics that John draws upon. The ten song titles can be read as one poem, part of a longer effort that Svein wrote over lockdown, and […]
Warp Thankfully for fans of Broadcast, their cups runneth over with three simultaneous releases of hard-to-find goodness. Warp are giving official releases to a compilation of BBC Sessions, as well as two smaller but in some respects far more fascinating insights into what made the group tick when pursuing their more outré musical experiments. As much as it is great to hear nascent versions of tracks like “The […]
Hubro This latest release from Hardanger fiddle player Nils Økland has been six years in the making as it was originally prepared for the Vossajazz 2016 event. The interim period has found him compiling just the right selection of players to do the pieces commissioned for that event justice. His chosen instrument always evokes images of the wild Nordic landscape, with the spare arrangements allowing the listener to […]