Author: Luca Bevacqua

Hello Spiral :: Detached Objects (Moonside Tapes)

Hello Spiral’s Detached Objects (Moonside Tapes) blends noise, dark ambient, computer music, and musique concrète to defy easy categorization. By severing sounds from familiar meanings, it creates an unsettling atmosphere of estrangement, embodying Viktor Shklovsky’s idea of “making the stone stony” and challenging passive listening.

Akhira Sano :: D-R (laaps)

The strength of D-R is that, like much of the best ambient music, it can be approached as the perfectly balanced backdrop which will subliminally change your state of mind, or as a full immersion, disclosing one more detail at each listen. In both cases, the album rewards the listener, and inspires them in its tranquillity.

Ben Frost :: Under Certain Light and Atmospheric Conditions (Mute)

Unlike the usual live record, Under Certain Light and Atmospheric Conditions refuses to offer the listener a concert experience by proxy, to be had in the comfort of one’s own headphones. The inclusion of these field recordings, and the fact that over half of the tracks are soundcheck improvisations and unreleased compositions, distances the album from a simple celebration of his past catalog.

Nazar :: Demilitarize (Hyperdub)

Like Nazar himself in the lyrics, Demilitarize appears inaccessible at first, using its abstraction and deconstruction as a shield. But a strong light still shines through this shell and sinks in a bit at a time, first with circumspection, then with warmth, until opening itself to repeated listens and blooming in all its beauty and intention.