OLLI AARNI – LOPUT 
Laaps Records claims that “each album starts with the end of the previous release”. Loput is the 17th release in what will become a series of 100, but until now I’m afraid I never really checked if the statement is true: if the end of the previous title can be recognized at the beginning of the following. If so, that must be a collector’s curse – you can’t permit yourself to break the chain!
But of course, you can also allow yourself to consider each title on its own.
Olli Aarni is a Finnish musician. Apart from his contribution to the Longform Editions (#41), I was not familiar with his work, even though he has released more than 20 titles since 2011. His bio is short and not very helpful: “He makes sounds, music, video, sound poetry and other things. Does tricks on a skateboard.” Apart from this, he works as a publishing editor.
His words about the music on Looput do not reveal much of what can be expected either: “Stopping to pull one’s pockets inside out and dusting them. The residue sparkles in the wind. It takes this to enter the next room. And then continuing to spin blue light and petals into yarn.”
But hey – it’s a Laaps release – no further introduction needed.
The sound poetry on Loput consists of two long-form tracks, each around 19 minutes: Aallokossa (On The Waves) and Huoneen Yllä (Room Upstairs). Not 100% sure about the translations, by the way, but they do seem to fit what is heard. (According to Google Translate, Loput itself means ‘the rest’).
Both compositions are built around field recordings that get a subtle reframing into soundscapes where their “residue sparkles in the wind” indeed.
MICHAEL OSCILLATE – HYPERBOLIC HYPNOSIS OF LUMINESCENCE
Hyperbolic Hypnosis Of Luminescence – that’s quite a mouthful of a title. It’s the latest release from Michael Oscillate, the Austrian musician/audio engineer “you never knew you needed to listen to.”
With his music, Oscillate “bridges the gap across the electro-acoustic divide; utilizing field recordings alongside generative processes on the modular synthesizer to lean into the mysterious nature of the dark ambient genre”.
Oscillate’s original approach covers many different angles: “the album tackles both chaos and order, and toes the line between melody and dissonance”.
Though he himself refers to the music as ‘dark ambient’, I’d prefer to describe these sounds as electro-acoustic music with a spacey ‘intergalactic’ atmosphere. Definitely worth drowning yourself in.