Dub Mentor’s warm, peeled-down arrangements, comprised of loping drum loops, chocolatey bass and treated field recordings for texture, lend these tunes the intimacy of late-evening jazz. In its pursuit of optimal clarity of sound, Tel Aviv label EnT-T has been compared favourably with ECM. The Manfred Eicher of this operation is Lior Suliman and his [...]
Post Tagged with: "Ambient"
Asonat :: Love In Times Of Repetition (n5MD)
A very picturesque musical journey through introverted winter-like soundscapes which deliberately bring to the fore a certain sense of mysteriousness and sentimental brilliance. [n5Mailorder] Love In Times Of Repetition is the first full-length release of a dream pop / electro ambient duo newly formed by two musicians from Island. This astonishing and deeply moving collection [...]
Five questions for RecordLabelRecords
RecordLabelRecords‘ own Robbie Martin (aka Fluorescent Grey) takes the Five questions spotlight to new levels with an in-depth historical overview of the label and its spawning. Central RLR theme’s generally hover around “layers of custom-cut sounds, derailed electronics, distorted audio warfare and a virtual smorgasbord of unique electro-acoustic fragments.” Igloo Magazine :: When did RecordLabelRecords [...]
Nimh :: This Crying Era (Synästhesie Schallplatten)
This Crying Era is a gorgeously cinematic and ominously bewitching album that will ravish fans of the most uncompromising facet of the dark ambient genre (masterful works from Lustmord, Raison d’être, Never Known…). Absolutely recommended for beginners in Nimh’s dark ambient and mystical droning minimalism. Nimh is an avant-garde deep ambient industrial electronic project formed [...]
Mirt :: Artificial Field Recordings (Cat Sun)
His sound has the aural texture of a daguerreotype, the mid-nineteenth century photographic process that makes every nuance, every pore so sharp and visible, though eerily, silvery. The trumpet he plays is a very wise choice as it adds some carnal juice. Wooden rhythms, fizzling wires, springs and flywheels and dub echoes bouncing off bare [...]
Jeff Pils :: Useless (Digital Gadget)
Useless dives headfirst into subtle fusions of electro, ambient and light melodies without being overtly in your face. Slithering around loosely crafted bells, pops, cracks, plunks and shades of emotion, each piece doesn’t rely solely on twisting itself around tangled data bursts. Jeff Pils’ self-released Useless sheds light on the uncompacted soil of electro, its [...]
Celestino :: Protector’s Tea (Love All Day)
Six very ecumenical, very clear, consecrated spaces. Just about every belief system has very simply criteria for the creation of sacred space anywhere, anytime—by convening a quorum, smudging the air, or drawing a circle on the ground. The solo debut of Gabe Celestino, an American in Korea, is a meticulously crafted set of six ambient [...]
4Play :: The microsound of Line
The four latest updates come from an impressively august roster led by post-industrial pioneer, Asmus Tietchens, and Lord of lowercase, Steve Roden, with luminaries Stephan Mathieu (+ Caro Mikalef), and France Jobin in strong support. Over the last decade Line has become synonymous with leading edge inquiry at the interface between digital minimalism and microsound. [...]
Nothing But Noise :: Not Bleeding Red (Future Noise Music)
Without ever dropping a drumbeat over its hour-and-forty-minute runtime, Not Bleeding Red still keeps the listener engaged and entranced. Analog synth, Berlin-school ambient from the founders of Front 242? Sign me up. Nothing But Noise is the name of this new project, put together by Daniel Bressanutti and Dirk Bergen, the latter of whom left [...]
Ignatius :: Strays (Buried In Time)
A strong collection of lightly dusted stray tracks of heavy bass, beats and astute sound design. Fans waiting for Gescom to get back together for their infrequent ventures in the studio will be comforted by Ignatius‘ knack for creating parallel distortions of submerged exp-electro—a strong collection of lightly dusted stray tracks of heavy bass, beats [...]
aMadoo :: Matsunoo Grand Shrine – Roumon LIVE (Somehow)
Playing at an eighth-century Shinto shrine in Kyoto, the musicians, led by Yuuji Hiromoto, first eye each other inquisitively, violin, muted trumpet, electronics, tabla, as kids with restless legs run up and down a path through the audience. A genuinely startling performance which grows from ambient meditation into electrifying jazz-funk. Playing at an eighth-century Shinto [...]
Christina Vantzou :: No. 1 DVD & Remixes (The Numbered Series)
Subjecting such a frugal piece to deconstruction by remixers is unexpected, though Vantzou certainly has enlisted an impressive roster. All show the original great respect by exercising vivid imagination under the same tight leash of restraint. Artist and musician Christina Vantzou released No. 1 on Kranky in October of 2011 and shortly thereafter, released this [...]
Superlauncher :: Catalysm (UNOIKI)
As these mutating pulses of bass, noise and hypnotizing dub cycle through the ears, one can’t help but become entranced by these unusual sounds—both stripped and engulfing. [Release page] A mixture of granulated digital rhythms reminiscent of the aura left behind by the Clicks’n Cuts movement is ever present here—crisped blips, snips and snaps from [...]
Zoon van Snook :: (Falling from) The Nutty Tree (Mush)
Snook has a bottomless treasure chest of beats, samples and melodies, but rather than just throw them all up in the air and see where they land, he selects them with aplomb and crafts a fast-moving, cohesive forty-five minute album. Zoon van Snook is the guy you want to do your remix. He possesses that [...]
Reef Project :: Aquaculture (System)
As synths melt on a seabed of highs and lows, Reef Project reveals a wide stereo-field lending itself to either headphone consumption or home audio listening as each pair of ears dives into the depths of Aquaculture‘s nebulous pulse. We’re pretty sure reviews for Aquaculture will inherently include aquatic descriptors—an ebb and flow of visual [...]
Ian Boddy and Erik Wøllo :: Frontiers (DiN)
Frontiers is a deeply moving , cerebral and constantly charming spacey musical adventure largely made of majestic floating synthesized waves, sinuous drone textures, hypno-ish rhythmical punctuations, programmed drums and frantic synth-like guitar tones. Part of the collaborative projects directed by Ian Boddy for his musical laboratory and independent label DiN, Frontiers features the presence and [...]
Fabrics :: Refabricated (From A Tree)
Shards of twisted bass, left field tape recordings, broken synthesizers, blistered techno wrangling and an affinity for surreal auditory manipulation keeps Refabricated on its edge as it leans on mysterious iterations of past and future. Skimming our review from July 2011 of Fabrics and the same duo (Greek purveyors of music technology, Vasilis Kesalidis and [...]
O’Leary – Louhivuori – Hauta-aho :: Astral Fishing (TIBProd. Italy )
In its unassuming way, however, this ambient darkhorse recorded with relative unknowns stands out due to its majestic demeanor and excellence of execution. Outwardly the dourest land in Western Europe, Finland happens to have one of the liveliest “out” music scenes anywhere, with its singular spin on neo-folk psychedelia, a taste for sophisticated jazz and [...]
Tomoroh Hidari :: Some Stars Not Yet Black Holes (Record Label Records)
Some Stars Not Yet Black Holes is an absolutely brilliant, deeply cerebral and moving effort that will ravish fans of electro-acoustic researches, kosmische synthesized minimalism (70′s Berliners) and absorbing dark ambient realms—an astonishingly profound, sonorous and evocative collection of slowly evolving meditative electronics. The Viennese based artist Tomoroh Hidari made a reputation thanks to the [...]
Clark :: Iradelphic (Warp)
Three years of traveling around the world, learning new instruments and his first real collaborations with more conventional vocalists have all gone into the rich tapestry of Iradelphic, and have truly bought Clark’s sound back down to earth with a rich self awareness and an audible hunger to really explore new things. It’s always a [...]
Tomoroh Hidari :: The Black Star Variations (Laridae)
Energized minimalism balanced across a heady mix of bass-thumps and tribal transformation keeps this veritable dose of electrons en route. Variations are the spice of life. The endless pursuit of re-creating, adjusting, mutating, altering and fine tuning form the basis for this extended (remix) player, a fractured yet beautiful foray into exp-electronics. Rather than remixing [...]
Bleupulp :: Small Places (Pertin_nce)
Bleupulp conjugates dub and techno in his own special way, fastidiously and inquisitively. [Release page] Maxime Tanguay from Lévis, just across the St. Lawrence River from Québec City, has a substantial amount of music available online, most of it under the name Bleupulp, his abstract dub project. Abstract, but far from haphazard or sloppy. Bleupulp [...]
Listening Mirror :: Resting In Aspic (Hibernate)
The music collected here is anything but dispiriting. It is the sound of a garden turning toward the morning sun and listening to itself—birds chip, a brook burbles, dew evaporates. Children play nearby. A duo for the first two years of its existence, consisting of Jeff Stonehouse and Kate Tustain, the former of whom now [...]
Musculus :: Not In (Dokuro)
Ruomu Guo, Alex Obal and Michael Tau of Musculus claim to have discovered a buried cache of cassettes with a metal detector, which they have spun into a curious, creepy opus. [Release page] Ruomu Guo, Alex Obal and Michael Tau of Musculus claim to have discovered a buried cache of cassettes with a metal detector, [...]
Kayla Painter :: Self-Titled (Self-Released)
A gentle and subtle journey of quirky samples, floaty ambience, interesting rhythms, sultry vocals and the odd bit of low end to keep you on your toes. It is a laid back affair that is suited to end of the day listening, or maybe a lazy Sunday afternoon in the sun. Kayla Painter has just [...]
The Caretaker :: Patience (After Sebald) (History Always Favours The Winners)
Patience (After Sebald) may well appeal to a different audience than An empty bliss beyond this world, or Persistent Repetition of Phrases, so if you didn’t quite get previous offerings it is well worth investigating this one, a sterling addition to the canon that continues The Caretaker’s trend of applying his formula in new ways. [...]