Category: other-music

Human Greed – Fortress Longing

When waiting for this album to arrive, I have wondered about its strange subtitle: “The internal campaign for the safe and complete return of the sleeping egyptian to the desert”. 

How to prepare for an album about a sleeping egyptian craftsman, waiting endlessly in the British Museum, dreaming about his return to find rest under his lost ‘blanket of sand‘…?

I had no real doubts, of course, considering the preceding Human Greed albums, and Michael Begg‘s contribution to the Fovea Hex projects,  as well as his ‘Fragile Pitches’ collaboration project with Colin Potter.

But, to be honest, I was somewhat reserved about this album’s mythological theme and the effect it might have on the music.

Mathon – Terrestre

Mathon - Terrestre

With their new release ‘Terrestre’, Mathon takes a further step in creating their own unique genre.

Their music is, as always,  consequently linked to geographical locations, describing “the coexistence of nature and civilization and also the contradictions between the two”.
It is mainly created with acoustical instruments and stylistically closely related to the impressionist music known from the ECM-label.

Various Artists – Kanshin

Kanshin

It’s a kind of a reviewers no-go to write something like “If you buy only two albums this year, let it be these”.

But in fact, if I could only recommend two albums to you, I’d recommend these two 2-CD compilation sets.

One is “For Nihon“ – curated by Keith ‘Goldmund’ Kenniff and his wife Hollie. This set has been available as digital download for some time, but I’ll be reviewing this later as I have to wait for the physical CD to arrive. 

The other is called “Kanshin”  and has been released this week. 

Both these double CD-set present an unbelievable array of contemporary artists contributing their music to help raise money for the current recovery in Japan following March’s terrible earthquake.

Johann Johannsson – The Miner’s Hymns

Created as a soundtrack for the Bill Morrison movie depicting the disembling of the North East England’s mining community (the movie DVD will be released in june), this CD version is recorded live at the Durham Cathedral with a surprising cast of a 16-piece brass ensemble, church organ, percussion and electronics (the latter pre-recorded to catch the reverberation of the cathedral itself and use it in the recording).
No string section – in instrumentation and style Johannsson returns to the time of “Virthulegu Forsetar” (Touch, 2004).

Fovea Hex – Here Is Where We Used To Sing

The music that is presented on “Here Is Where We Used To Sing” is not the kind of music usually presented here on Ambientblog.
But ever since their impressive debut release “Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent” I have a weakness for all things Fovea Hex. 

Apart from that, they are closely connected to the ambient music scene because of the musicians involved in the project, and expecially for the extremely mininal drone remixes that come with the special editions of their albums.

Erik Satie et les Nouveaux Jeunes

Erik Satie et les Nouveaux Jeunes cover

I guest most people listening to ambient and ‘post-classical’ music also have a special place in their heart for the music of Erik Satie. Or at least they should have.

The eccentric genius composer, or “phonometrician” as he called himself,  “the laziest student in the (Paris)Conservatoire” (where he was labelled untalented by his teachers) has left the world some of the most impressive (and introspective) compositions – of which the Gymnopédies and the Gnossiennes are the most famous.
With his ideas about Musique d’ameublement (‘Furniture music’), Satie was one of the real predecessors of ‘ambient’ music.

So any double CD set offering reworkings of his music by some of the best artists in the contemporary experimental ambient/electronic genre immediately has my full interest!

Antonymes – The Licence to Interpret Dreams

Although it is his debut for Hidden Shoal Recordings,  the new album by Antonymes – “The Licence to Interpret Dreams“ – is in fact his second full album following up “Beauty Becomes the Enemy of the Future” (or third, if you also count “31: Before the Light Fails”, which was a special project in a limited edition of one (!), and only partly available as a digital download after that).

“The Licence to Interpret Dreams“  fits in perfectly with the best of the recent ‘post-classical’ releases and will have immediate appeal to listeners that also enjoy releases by artists like Johann Johannsson, Max Richter, Peter Broderick and Dustin O’Halloran. 
But to leave it at that description would not do justice to the versatility of this album. It is not “just” a collection beautifully constructed post-classical chamber music.

Arno Peeters – The Peeters Principle (Mix)


Arno Peeters

When I started working on this ‘single artist mix’ featuring music and sounds from Arno Peeters, I did not realise that creating a mix-collage based on soundscapes would be more difficult than one based on single tracks.

A soundscape is a collage in itself – and using fragments from soundscapes to build another soundscape is like ripping up a collage and presenting the fragmented details out of their original context, rearranging them to create a new caleidoscopic image.
The original context gets lost, and the result feels like an aural stream of consciousness that may not exactly be “easy on the ears” …. but may prove to be a fascinating exploration of imaginary territories..

Visionary Hours – The Road to Basho


The Road to Basho cover

From the first bars of the opening track “Everyday is a Journey“, one could get the impression that “The Road to Basho” might fit in perfectly with the post-romantic classical chamber music releases so popular nowadays. 

But after a while things start to sound a bit different: although the music sounds like it is created with acoustical instruments, the theme itself does not really seem to change..it gets looped over and over again – until it’s as hypnotizing as Gavin Bryars’ “Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet” (or as a William Basinski recording without the tape deterioration).

In fact, the only way to know your player is not stuck on repeat, is by recognising the (slowly increasing) phasing effects in the background.