A brand new selection of recommended albums: a strikingly beautiful fundraiser from Loscil, washes of water from Olan Mill and Linear Bells, minimalist thrills from Fabio Orsi and altered dimensions from Alphaxone.
“Distant echoes of ancient monastery, choral voices of lost languages, and musical structures of shifting melodic an textural passages reveal that Holographic Codex is a secret code: a precise and skilfully crafted mantra of hypnotic sonic depth and symbolic fragments.”
Imagine Jeff Bridges – or The Dude, if you prefer – sitting right next to your bed, telling you stories like a granddad to his grandson would do … bedtime stories, memories he just seems to improvise on the spot, or even guided fantasies to help you doze off…
Would you be able to fall asleep?
Or would you fight off sleep to make sure you can listen to all he has to tell you?
“Cordolium” – literally: ‘Heartfelt grief’: from cor (“heart”) + dolor (“pain, sorrow”) – is a (digital download only) album presenting seven “Laments for the heart in flux”.
The basic material comes from field-recordings from all over the world but they are edited and processed in such a way that the track become true compositions:
“Audio poems of love, loss, longing and heartache in all its forms”.
The ink of the cover of his previous release “Sacred Grounds” had barely dried when Stephan Mathieu announced his new release called “Nachtstücke“.
(metaphorically speaking of course: these are both download-only releases).
The first thing to notice is that the full release of these “Night Pieces” is 260 minutes in length – that’s about a half night’s sleep!
For most – if not all – listeners, four hours and twenty minutes of extended droning is simply too much for concentrated listening. So that obviously is not what this music is intended for.
2015’s First ‘shortlist’ presents a dynamic collection of interesting releases ranging from calm to energising (somethimes both).
Check out new music from Hotel Neon, Hessien, Ricardo Donoso, Find Hope in Darkness and K. Novotny!
One of the most active and vibrant websites about electronic, experimental and instrumental music I know, Headphone Commute, has even found the time to start a new side-project called “Undisclosed”.
“The project allows each musician to explore a particular sonic territory, while remaining detached from all of the previous associations with their notable name. The series also invites the listener to strip away all of the predisposed concepts and instead focus on the only thing that really matters — MUSIC”
Sonae – from Cologne, presents her first full album on Gudrun’s Gut Monika label.
Ten tracks “dealing with reflections about friendship, growing up and everyday life – full of hope as far away is right around the corner”
It’s a hell of a comparision, I know, but Man Watching the Stars reminds me of the best work from the now-legendary Stars of the Lid.
Check out this album – you won’t regret it.
