SVEN LAUX & HARRY TOWELL – UNTIL WE FALL
Until We Fall is a collaboration album by Sven Laux, a composer and musician from Berlin, and Harry Towell, also known as Spheruleus, from Lincolnshire. After discovering that they both were expecting to become the father of their first child, they decided to share the experience by working together on this album.
“Until We Fall is a dove in music form, bringing a peaceful lullaby to the ears of their children, tracing the long weeks and longer months which led to the arrival while also walking with the two artists in the run-up to the birth.”
It is, indeed, a very calm and peaceful album: “both musicians want to welcome their children into the world with a calming fanfare, a soft-clothed ambient and a place of security to rival that of a womb from which they have fallen.” Apart from being young fathers now, the two musicians obviously also share their vision on music.
There are no further details about the births of both children, but I assume that they are born now (expected in July and September 2019; the release is from November 30). The brand-new fathers and mothers are probably just becoming a bit used to their new roles in life.
I wonder how often their kids have been soothed asleep with this playing in the background. It definitely works for me (and I mean that in a positive way, of course)!
Until We Fall is one of those limited releases on the Fluid Audio label in a very special handmade package, the kind that sells out immediately on pre-order… So never mind about that, let’s just focus on the digital download (which has the same music after all, just not the package).
BUT WAIT! As an exception to the rule, it seems that there are just a few remaining copies available from Sven Laux’ Bandcamp page. So if you’re into physical, don’t hesistate to get the ‘handmade book edition’. The digital edition can be found there too, as well as on Spheruleus’ Bandcamp page, or from Facture.
JAZZDEFECTOR & SLOW CLINIC – GREEN ECHO
Apart from being a musician (and father), Harry Towell also runs the Whitelabrecs label, “set on the creation of rare artefacts with no set musical genre.”
Green Echo is one of those artefacts: a collaboration between James Armstrong (Slow Clinic) and Sebastian Buccheri (Jazzdefector). The latter is not to be confused with the Jazz Defectors or even the Jazz Defektors, which are totally different acts. In his own words, Buccheri is “trying to slow the world down”, and for that, he definitely found a perfect partner in Slow Clinic.
It is a great match indeed: the soft swell of “varying drones, full of peaks and troughs which ebb and flow through moments of solitude and more epic bursts”, interspersed with Sebastian’s signature (warm and soft) guitar sound. A warm example of ‘1+1=3’!
KALTE – PHAGES
Kalte is the name of the duo formed by Deane Hughes (Akumu) and Rik MacLean (Mara’s Torment).
They have been releasing music since 2008 – Phages is their sixth album – producing “eerie and expansive soundscapes in electronic sub-genres such as zero-bpm, music concrête and deep ambient, created from natural sources that have been digitally altered and re-assembled.”
Phages is a relatively short album (27 minutes in three tracks) with a nice clean, somewhat industrial deep ambient sound representing “alternative biology, improbable terrain, and unfathomable climates are all present in this latest work, combined with the classic sounds of glacial movement and xenomorphic disturbances.”