JAMES MURRAY – WEEDS
The Quiet Details label started off in 2023 (at least that is where the catalog numbers began – they were preceded by a digital release by Fields We Found in 2022), but is now rapidly becoming one of the most active labels in the ambient music field. ‘Ambient’ may not be the right label exactly: the label describes itself as a place for ‘each artist’s own unique interpretation of that phrase’ (‘quiet details’, that is).
James Murray is no stranger to the label: in March this year, Slow Reels (his collaboration project with Ian Hawgood) released Everyday Exotic on the label. Weeds is Murray‘s latest solo album.
If you know the work of James Murray (and I think you should), you probably also know what to expect. Murray is a master in subtle music, full of quiet details indeed, presented in an immaculate production. However, according to Murray, the music on this album is somewhat ‘less sculpted and less formal’ than that on its ‘sister album’ Soundflowers (2023): “I’ve dialed back some of the intentionality and let generative methods take more of the lead compositionally and in terms of textural, granular detail”.
Each track is celebrated a different weed – ‘the understated, overlooked, so-called inconvenient or arbitrarily maligned’. It’s a different way of looking at plants that are mostly unwanted but have their own beauty
“James has a way of creating ambient music that is engaging and demands close listening, and at the same time meditative and powerfully hypnotic”.
Weeds is available as a digital download as well as on CD. The latter also includes a fine art print of the label artwork ánd a special long-form edition of the (38-minute) album, which can be downloaded after purchase (just ask the label).
CLEARED – HEXA
Cleared is the Chicago-based duo of Steven Hess and Michael Vallera. Hess is a percussionist and Vallera a guitarist – but that’s not something you’d directly guess when listening to Cleared. Both work in various settings as well as as solo artists, but as Cleared the duo has released albums since 2011. Hexa is their sixth album, and the third on the Touch label.
Although both artists are based in Chicago, Hexa is the result of a ‘classic’ collaboration – with Hess sending his recorded sessions to Vallera to further add and manipulate them. In the process, almost all of the references to the original instruments are lost and morphed into new sounds.
Some of the tracks are based on drones, but there are also deep pulsations and heavily dubbed rhythmic patterns. The short intermission-like track 53S, on the other hand, is built from a field recording from a train station that was recorded by Chris Watson (I assume you remember his masterpiece El Tren Fantasma?).
There is a lot to be explored on this album. All tracks are full of details but at the same time have a nice ‘gritty’ sound (as in ‘not too over-produced’ – although I realize that it takes a lot of production skills to create this sound).
These almost industrial soundscapes may be a bit too intense to be called ‘ambient music’ in the classic definition. So: “if you need to identify a genre locale, put Hexa on the side of the street where current electronic music lives”.