Elsewhereness revisited is an occasional feature documenting the drift at the margins: ambient gasbagging and blurb blah, ’tube-d, ’cloud-ed, ‘n’ ’camp-ed up, complete with companion mix, Elsewhereness revisited #12.
You obviously needed more Kyle Bobby Dunn, with the dust after the cold rush of the 4LP From Here to Eternity (‘gloo-view here) having settled. Eschewing homophonic fidelity, that Dunn was clearly not–done, that is–is attested to by FHTE-B. It’s billed as essentially a collection of material culled from the many recording sessions involved in the process of that album spanning 2012-2019 that turned out leaving its creator happy enough to leave it unedited, even incomplete, for the purposes of this release. So, here’s what Dunn homie, Wayne Robert Thomas, calls ‘another three hours of sheer blissful hellish drones that drags you into your grave and puts you to sleep for all of eternity.’ Dedicated to ‘all our lost souls living and dead,’ with special mention for Richard Lainhart–sadly qualified for the latter designation in 2011, and credits for Isaac Helsen, Maryam Sirvan, Devin Friesen, Conor C. Ellis, Scott Morgan (Loscil) and Matt Rogalsky. Dunn over.
Still on KBD, his FHTE was first on the radar from Past Inside the Present, since when a veritable stream has come out of Indianapolis. A cherry-pick flick-through yields Songs of an Empty Room from Iran’s Maryam Sirvan, one half of NUM, with ‘a static inner journey into infinity, a story of a secluded room on a dull, grey summer evening,’ delving into detachment from the outer world–otherworldly being and hallucinatory exploration of perception beyond space-time via guitar manipulations and vox samples. Distant | Spirals, two captures from Hilyard‘s late-night sessions, and In Him, I Saw Me // We’re Here. We Will Die, ‘richly layered drone movements incorporating delicate guitar billows, subtle manipulations and reticent swells with an emphasis on superior tone and atmosphere’ from Chicago droner, NAAL. And Dawn Chorus And The Infallible Sea‘s s/t debut repress sees Marc Ertel and Zach Frizell of Pillars peddle ‘restrained ambient compositions with a sense of impenetrable mystery’–slow-mo micro-symphonies, whose appeal is only added to by an appropriation from the sadly unsung Willamette‘s “Escaping the Memory.”
Google Translate renders 扎克 as Zach, an entity initially as ineffable as their s/t debut album‘s contents–that is till discogs came along to reveal ‘an ambient artist, sound sculptor, and founder of the PItP label.’ Busted! 4 tracks, 3 short, first, “Radiance,” lo-fi hush surface skimmed by a warm presence, last, “Minaret,” long, liminal, outfolding into a steepling wall of sound–a radiant peak of pitched drone, a rush of wide-sky cadence. Then the latest in PItP’s Director of Artist Relations Isaac Helsen‘s projected 8-part series, Remnants Vol. III, resumes documentation of his mental health struggles, while seeking to ‘deconstruct the idea of an album, creating a new series of sounds by collecting broken pieces of varying styles and in scattered stages of completion.’ The contextual byline reflects an uneasy psychology: ‘Looking back, feeling the heaviness of disconnect between reality and projection of memory. The warmth of nostalgia fades quickly into detachment and isolation.’ Last, there’s Seven Fixed Dreams | Seven Ghost Years, two ‘intersecting trapezoids […] using guitar, tape and effects, concerning very large objects and very slow movements’ by Viul, whose Bright Decline on Benoît Pioulard‘s Disques d’Honoré, was seen on ER#11.
Drone can cover a multitude of sins, but with Tobias Hellkvist it’s more a case of a shedload of virtues following his pursuit over the years of variations on a theme of harmonic drone across Evolutions (Home Normal, 2010), Everything Is Connected (Home Normal, 2012), Turquoise (Small Fragments, 2013), Cay (Dronarivm, 2014), Pause (Dragon’s Eye, 2015) and Forest Psalms (Dragon’s Eye, 2017). The Swedish DroneMeister’s first for Bristol’s artisan ambient drone peddlers, Fluid Audio, latest in its Notebook Series, Annoying Tyrannies, sees him dig out another meticulous work. Those who may think a drone is just a drone, leave the drone room now, and come back having inducted yourself into the vertical color of sound (Tamm, 1989*) to properly hear Hellkvist’s harmonized expanse, dense swathes and sustains transportively tweaked. Elsewhere his mastering voice helps Purl and protoU‘s Sub Life (Dronarivm) rise above the drone herd, as it ‘grows out of a blend of nature inducted ambiances as the artists conduct an emotional exploration of the natural world.’
*Tamm, Eric (1989) Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound. Boston: Faber & Faber.
Constellation Tatsu bring their Spring/Summer batch–somewhat late in the day, like the laggard Spring-Summer transition here. Interior Currents‘ predilection for lo-fi and detail exhibits Andrew Tasselmyer and Patrick Spatz‘s regard for early as well as late-period ambient, their debut collab starting from traded cassette tapes loaded with entirely analog and acoustic sound–voice, piano, organ, guitar, and field recordings, original tapes then processed and further treated with live overdubs added. Tasselmyer’s work with Hotel Neon, Gray Acres, and Mordançage has been seen across Shimmering Moods, Fluid Audio, Eilean Records, and Hibernate, while Spatz, aka Before Flags, has previous on PItP and his own label. The tape’s organic nature is audible, imperceptibly decaying, etiolated over its mossy ambient textures; with source material captured in the winter-spring transition, it makes for a meditation on evolution and progression. Next, Lifeforce from James Michael aka Arrowheads, who’s communed with Patrick Spatz and had Discovery Plane out on Digitalis as Pan. it’s billed as feeling ‘like a video game,’ moving into Kosmische, fantasy, entire worlds explored for the first time. Melodic, ludic, experimental fun for the ‘Ambient, New Age, Gemini, Synth, Video Game’ generation, mastered by Leaving‘s Matthewdavid. Next, the debut collab between Asheville NC’s Mike Johnson and Corey Parlamento aka Livingdog, CRO$$, on which each track was structured using a different combo of instruments, field recordings, and household objects, with narratives based on photos created to dictate direction of travel, then ambient and avant-garde elements used to fashion a sonic landscape for each–from meditative through playful to chaotic. Last, Hunter P. Thompson takes you through the looking glass with warmth and wonder into the glo-fi world of Opaline with Thought Texture‘s nostalgic retro-futurist vistas heavy with synth wrangling, liquid with sequenced rhythms, designed to delight Panabrite and Emeralds fanciers alike.
Rafael Anton Irisarri reckons we’re living in a swell of solastalgia–day to day, a vision of what might come to pass building, one dystopian impression after the next, epistemological and existential ruptures constant over centuries. With this fractious nexus of unpredictability and absence of control as creative locus, his latest, Solastalgia, builds on vestiges of geographies from his previous Room40 editions, tracing as yet unknown possible endpoints. Use of a range of unexpected variables, automation, and uncontrolled systems issues in dense layers of texture and saturated harmony, distant melodies emerging, listening focus repeatedly shifting in their wake. While the skeletal form of such as “Coastal Trapped Disturbance” may remain stable, its body is constantly transformed, unconscious variation morphing from within, making for a record of sublimation dwelling in states of transition and becoming. Recorded in two suites (one LP, one cassette), each a distorted reflection of the other, it bids us stay unsettled, in the moment, prompting deeper listening, imagining what lies beyond.
Yann Novak‘s back with more 901 Editions after Blue.Hour (2013), Undefined (w/ Richard Chartier) (2013), and Liminality (w/ Fabio Perletta) (2014). Stillness is a multimodal document of the eponymous installation’s history, one deriving inspiration from the two climates Novak has inhabited–subtropical LA, oceanic Seattle. Constructed from numerous photos of the horizon and static-tuned shortwave radio signal in each location, capture of a literal portrait of these climates sought to explore their meteorological states and the emotional effect on their inhabitants, with enough source material left to guide and define, abstracted for digital alteration to create a zone for reflection. Halajian’s Unbound Time explores how the works interrogate our understanding of time, not being measurable, containable, or even expressible; Patuto’s Stillness at The Broad expands on the choice of Stillness as first exhibit in LA museum’s 3rd floor gallery. The book includes photos documenting three iterations, one in London, two in LA. The audio captures abridged versions of sound elements from “Stillness.Subtropical” and “Stillness.Oceanic” mastered by Lawrence English.
https://youtu.be/MFuqKPdSDDI
A couple of Boards treaders: First, Dalham with a set of doom-draped electronica on Castles in Space, evoking Scarfolk-y ’60s public information films and ’50s brutalism with shards of light shafting through the concrete, following the previous Waves and Janus. Heat Death has a broad narrative following a lifeform from genesis through developmental stages and on to degeneration in targeting a plane beyond our immediate experience and perception. Intended to sound scorched, reflecting sometimes violent existential elements, while still letting some light in, Jon Michaelides’ rearing in the Suffolk countryside and current residence in London doubtless inspired some of it. “NGC 4993” fuses Aphex Twin and BOC, Carpenter and Vangelis stalk the pulsating “Genesis,” while “Perihelion” shows that despite the dystopianism, heavy synths, and darker sound, he hasn’t dispensed with his more pastoral side. Next, a homonymous 4-tracker from Brick Reds, Black Mauves, behind which nom de disque is Alex Ander, better known as half of Dalhous, of Blackest Ever Black fame, here on Lapsus Records. Along with Marc Dall, the Edinburgh duo’s work, e.g. An Ambassador For Laing (2013) and Will To Be Well (2014), led to participation at the first Lapsus Festival, and connection with Head Technician, Pye Corner Audio, on dual release, Run For The Shadows. Finally, Dalhous remix “Cabochon,” maximizing ambience and melodic motion–a more introspective atmosphere with distant squeaks of Boards.
Somewhere in Indiana the soft glow of a computer screen bathes the face of low profile producer, BAKGROUND. His Grey World on Reserve Matinee put him on our radar, before which a strong background (pun intended) in jungle is evidenced, while such as saved data I and II show a subsequent drift towards ambience. Video game and VHS tape samples predominate, but it’s a certain emotive archaeology that sets his work apart, most recently Memory Card on Pure Life. Billed as ‘a portal of computer generated memory and time emerging from fading simulations, systems and interfaces of cherished consoles, the widescreen textures imprint a feeling of ethereal longing…’ Recursive motifs evolve in a vaporwave haze recreation of flickering menus, shopping lobbies, opening themes and sequences of Playstation games. More from the sponsor: ‘The drenched melodies conjure images of nights spent connected to a virtual plane, building memories in imaginary worlds. Filtered through a hyper-color, neon sadness, to be immersed into new dreams.’
Cambridge ambience-chaser Samsuo brings The Other Gold Side to Harry Towell’s Whitelabrecs. He has previous on Recycled Plastics as Demi Odessa, and we’re told he draws on looping techniques to create revolving drones, with Jan Jelinek, SotL and Chihei Hatakeyama referenced. Much of TOGS is built round guitar and synth improvisation, looped with added overdubs, aleatory elements, time-stretched with additional processing techniques. Apparently after a hectic summer in a quiet Autumn when everything seemed to feel as if it were fading out, Samsuo was drawn to loops and drones to lighten the longueurs, watching the trees and nature change. Starting out large and drawn out before branching off, the slightest sonic detail formed into myriad minutiae whose potential complexity is depicted in the cover art. Murky as it is fragile, restful as it is haunting.
Sonic narratives from Bay Area modular-Meister, r beny, on Echo’s Verse for Belgium’s Dauw, cue taken from US author Mark Z. Danielewski’s quote: ‘Myth makes Echo the subject of longing and desire. Physics makes Echo the subject of distance and design. Where emotion and reason are concerned both claims are accurate. And where there is no Echo there is no description of space or love. There is only silence.’ Drawing from this the essence of echo in communication, r beny–Austin Cairns to his Mum–explores the theme of presence. ‘If you play a simple piece of music through a delay, the original sound echoes around itself and creates a beautiful new sound. Without the echo, the sound is just by itself. A lonely sound,’ he says, targeting ‘how the complimentarity between an echo and its its initial sound creates new elements of hope and joy.’ Exhibit A: the echo rebounding round the wistful “Crushing,” with foggy memory in its string-y drones. B: “Felt,” a detritus-strewn tract of tintinnabulating hiss and crackle in woozy motion, like a chewed up tape. C: “Loma,” blurred and bathed in static, mirroring misty mood. To say nothing of “If I,” oscillating loops slowly unveiled, spilling into pure drone and the title track, purest expression of the keynote, and the fragmented ending that is “And Fall, Standing Alone Again,” sounds rebounding, mutated, rippling over each other.
See Through (Gizeh) captures the results of Aidan Baker (Nadja), Faith Coloccia (Mamiffer, Mara, Sige Records) and percussionist Jon Mueller mixing up some arcane medicine down in the studio-lab. Born from Baker exploring textural rhythms created by sampling small, sharp and abrupt sounds on the electric guitar, then sequencing them in a drum machine to form the bedrock, Mueller adding his signature intricate, hypnotic percussion, compositions beginning to take shape. Feeling the need for a more human touch, the pair co-opted Coloccia to contribute looped tape manipulated vocals. High-end rhythmic meditations with measured, pounding drums twixt tattoo and techno. Tranced out, otherworldly, ambient immersions in somnific flux, draped with ghost vox and electronic curios, ritual echoes; homage to O Yuki Conjugate, Muslimgauze, and DCD, albeit completely sui generis.
https://youtu.be/x1jIsYWPBDc
Last Orders: Anthony Brown fiddles with tape loops and stretches VHS samples into an audio-collage of refreshed sounds on an old portastudio in secretflowers‘ s/t debut for Athens GA’s High Grade Media; for long glazed daze in oceanic elsewhereness. Hand-made fractal fusion direct from the mixer of Vancouver Island-based Patrick Dique and Jordan Christoff aka PJS with full-length, Ears, a set of post-Kosmische cuts created live sans ‘puter screens or presets for Edmonton’s Kudatah. And English-accented Room40-type ruminations from lo-fi no-profile ambient-noisenik, Cub Mud, on A Low Culture Manifesto on CA tape label, Casement Exchange, in the sulky ambient-electronica deep bass-‘scape and big synth-wash style of previous Noises, Silences on London’s OSC. London’s oliviaway stows a slew of sad-happy micro-symphonic self-issues on bc; Dancing Clouds is gorgeous, but Area, Pauses in Words or Nothing Except of late vintage would see you right for doleful elegiacs. Carlo Giustini‘s Le Voci dal Balcone on ACR, follow-up to debut, La stanza di fronte, is an alluring mix of lo-fi drones and ambient textures wrought from manipulated field recordings, tape and samples, capturing objects, people, weather and creatures, as he moves around, sitting on his balcony, playing records, absorbing environs.
Last Last Orders: Greece’s Sound In Silence brings Prowess from Western Edges, new ambient-electronic project of Richard Adams (Hood, The Declining Winter, Memory Drawings); made to soundtrack the surroundings of Saltaire and the Aire Valley, deemed too different to release as The Declining Winter (TDW blog). Brazil’s Mount Shrine has Secluded Loops–a compilation from the time of debut Winter Restlessness (Cryo Chamber, 2018), incl. rejects from initial track listing drafts–as a bc nyp by way of a thank you to listeners who helped him after he got cleaned out in a burglary. The missing link between Rothko and shoegaze, Dominic Coppola, has two mid-form axescapes under the title Elegant Confusion (cassette on Sound Holes). Coppola also teams up with Cody Lobbestael as Ambre Antique for Meltwater In Early Spring on Winnipeg’s Male Activity. Alec Critten aka Evergreen Avenue has amassed 60-ish sets of ‘wondrous drones and meditative soundscapes’ out of Burlington VT, Fluorescent Dreamscape and Fluorescent Negative the most recent. The first collab of Chihei Hatakeyama and Belgium’s Stijn Hüwels of Slaapwel fame, Jodo, is accompanied with the enigmatic byline ‘a whisper-like, fine-grained analog synth sounds like an empty can thrown away on a longing road.’ Last, Touch issues a live recording of Fennesz–what sounds like swathes of the recent Agora–at Jazz Cafe, Camden, London in March, evocatively titled Live at the Jazz Cafe.
