No surprise in the title: “No. 2” is the follow up to Christina Vantzou‘s “No. 1” from 2011.
The follow-up to a succesfull debut is often referred to as ‘the difficult second album’ – but not really difficult for Christina Vantzou it seems: the album feels like a natural progression, while at the same time a firm step forward.
A few months ago I wrote some words about Anne Chris Bakker‘s beautiful album “Tussenlicht“, a self released limited edition CD-R. (If you haven’t checked this one yet: the digital edition is still available!)
It’s a pleasant surprise to find that his new (first “official”) album “Reminiscenses“ is now released on Dronarivm, the (Moscow-based) contemporary ambient and modern classical music label curated by Pleq and Dimitry Taldykin.
In the Shortlist sections, I will mention the albums that I enjoyed listening to, but couldn’t find the time (or the right words) for a “full” review for. Still, I definitely think they deserve your attention, with ór without extra words!
CELER – ZIGZAG
It’s quite hard to keep up with Will Long’s incredible output: the Celer discography counts over 100 titles now, of which 8 albums were released in 2013 alone! But it’s worth trying, because his releases (Celer is his solo project since 2009) have a constant quality and a personal trademark sound.
Currently living in Tokyo, it’s only fitting that his latest (or one of his latest) albums is released on the Spekk label.
With a real name for an album title, Kontakt Der Jünglinge (Thomas Köner and Asmus Tietchens – the name being a homage to Stockhausen) break with the naming tradition of the predecessor series released in 2001 – 2003: ‘0’, ‘1’, ‘-1’, ‘N’.
The black color of the cover (in contrast to the white sleeves of the earlier series) suggests that there a more differences: to begin with, “Makrophonie 1“ is not a live set recording but the duo’s first studio album.
Needless to say that the first interesting thing I noticed was the name: Stefkovic van Interesse.
A surname that sounds quite Dutch…
Or, on second thought, German: van Interesse comes from Leipzig, Germany (I was tricked by the ‘van’).
But apart from his name there’s a lot more interesting to this debut album “In the Fields“…
With core members Ian Hawgood (electronics), Danny Norbury(cello), Clem Leek (piano), and Tim Martin (Maps and Diagrams, electronics), Black Elk could be regarded as a post-classical/ambient “Supergroup”.
In 2012, their first album“Sparks“ was released, a beautiful collection of atmospheric tracks in various styles.
For their recent Japan tour (december 2013) a collection of “Sketches” was assembled on five different (CDR) albums, containing outtakes, unfinished tracks, live performances and … sketches!
“The Epic of Everest” is a classic documentary (from 1924!) about George Mallory and Sandy Irvine’s attempt that year to climb the Mount Everest. The fateful expedition was filmed by Captain John Noel in the harshest conditions:
“The pair were last seen when they were about 800 vertical feet (245m) from the summit. Mallory’s ultimate fate was unknown for 75 years, until his body was discovered on 1 May 1999 by an expedition that had set out to search for the climbers’ remains. Whether Mallory and Irvine reached the summit before they died remains a subject of speculation and continuing research.”
The film is also among the earliest filmed records of life in Tibet.
For the BFI restoration of this move, a completely new score was composed by Simon Fisher Turner.
And this score turns out to be an impressive sonic document by itself!
Whenever I listen to music by Arvo Pärt, I can experience a lot of different things. But one of the last things that comes to my mind is a mathematical analysis of the Tintinnabuli (Bell- ) compositional style Pärt often uses – a quiet, minimalist, and often meditative style that (quote from the Wikipedia Page): “is characterized by two types of voices, the first of which (dubbed the “tintinnabular voice”) arpeggiates the tonic triad, and the second of which moves diatonically in stepwise motion.”
For “Tintinnabuli Mathematica, Vol. I“, Guy Birkin has programmed algorithms to create generative music (random and thus relatively unpredictable music created following a pre-defined set of choices and rules) based on the Tintinnabuli style.
There is something special with the sound of passing cars, especially when recorded at night. They always bring a feeling of loneliness, of things passing by and leaving you behind. They make you think of where to go…
For “Lay-By Lullaby“, his latest album recently released on 12k, Janek Schaefer recorded the sound of cars passing by on the M3 Motorway (“Right at the end of the road where J.G. Ballard lived”)
