Federico Durand; Tobias Hellkvist; Chronotope Project; Da Pacem; Scott Lawlor

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!

El Idioma de las Luciernagas

FEDERICO DURAND – EL IDIOMA DE LAS LUCÉRNAGAS

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“El Idioma de las Lucérnagas” translates as “The Language of Fireflies”, which is a most appropriate description for this album full of environmental soundscapes and peaceful associations.
“When Durand opens up his music box, the crickets breathe through it. ‘El idioma de las luciernagas’ creates a place where wind chimes, stray guitars, and dropped thoughts fall like rain. The music makes me think of eyes as olives and wonder what they would see. These are microambient sounds because they puncture air holes in the glass jar of the world and we can breathe through it, pausing and passing through the punctuation that makes the language of fireflies a language of light.“

Akira Rabelais – Spellewauerynsherde X-Mas Gift

Akira

2014 will see the 10th anniversary of “Spellewauerynsherde“ by Akira Rabelais, released in 2004 on David Sylvian‘s Samadhisound label. After 10 years, the album still sounds as mysteriously and haunting as ever. It is one of the few albums that never seems to lose its magic – however much I play it. (If you don’t know it, be sure to find it and check it out!)

In 2009, I was proud to offer an exclusive Cristmasse mix of the same material on Ambientblog. It was available as a free download only for three weeks then, and deleted on december 26.

To celebrate Christmas and the forthcoming 10th anniversary of “Spellewauerynsherde“, Akira Rabelais has generously agreed to make this mix available as a free download Christmas gift again.

So if you missed it first time around, be sure to grab this exclusive free download now: the file will be deleted right after Christmas!

Anzio Green – A Day without Distance

Right after the light-hearted opener soundscape “Morning Tea”, “A Day Without Distance“ takes a somewat unexpected turn: “Fall Down” (with vocals by Kate Tustain) is a mysterious pop-oriented track that reminisces the sound of the 4AD label (or This Mortal Coil, to be more specific) in the mid-80’s.

After this track one would expect more ‘ambient-pop’ like this, but surprisingly the album takes a fairly radical turn into more experimental soundscapes.
But – even though Kate Tustain’s vocals are not reappearing – it never loses touch with the ‘accessible’ side. This is obviously what International DJ Magazine meant when they described the Rednetic label as “the subtle marriage of the adventurous with the accessible”.

December Drones

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!

The Unintentional Sea

RAFAEL ANTON IRISARRI – THE UNINTENTIONAL SEA
For his second release for the ROOM40 label (following 2010’s ‘The North Bend’) took his inspiration from the story of the Salton Sea, a failed Californian river redirection at the turn of the 20th century.
“During the1950s, this ecological disaster was seized and rebranded by corporate land developers, flipping it into a dream getaway destination for West Coast elites. Before long, record temperatures and a rising level of water mineralization led to the mass death of fish and other wildlife, and in turn so too did the resort town’s population, leaving behind a vast post-human deserted wasteland. This unintentional sea had given life and now has taken it away.”
Musically, the landscape is quite dark too, most of it deeply embedded in layers of sub-level low tones.
“It’s a record that sounds like staring at a vast ocean in light breeze – a rendering of the ocean calm before the inevitable storm.”

Also on Spotify

RAFAEL ANTON IRISARRI – THE WITNESS

Below

DAVID WENNGREN & JONATAN NÄSTESJÖ – BELOW
Beautiful atmospheric collaboration of David Wenngren (Library Tapes) and Jonatan Nästesjö (Sweden), featuring four slowly evolving tracks – the kind of soundscapes often referred to as “glacial”.
Starting soothing and almost unnoticeable, the tracks become “very present bodies of melodious sounds”, with organ chords slowly breathing in and out again.
“We wanted to do something dark and organic something that changes and grows very slowly – like the nature.”
They definitely succeeded: the music is as beautiful as the cover image itself. 

Also on Spotify


DAVID WENNGREN & JONATAN NÄSTESJÖ – BEFORE I LEAVE

Mark Polscher – The Pomegranate Tree

Imagine this:

A museum dedicated to the ancient Egyptian art, with thirteen rooms (“fields”), divided in seven “areas”, with a 64-channel soundscape accompanying the exibition combining abstract and somewhat haunting electronic sounds with partly edited, partly montaged texts spoken from ancient Egyptian poems (with titles such as The Book of the Dead, The Prophecies of Neferti, The Teachings of Ptahhotep).

Sounds like a soundscaper’s dream, doesn’t it?

Yet, this is exactly what Mark Polscher realised for(/with) the State Museum of Egyptian Art (Munich, Germany) for the project named “The Pomegranate Tree“.

Bionulor – Theatre Music

Compared to his previous album with reworkings of Erik Satie‘s music, Bionulor’s “Theatre Music” is spectacularly different in sound.
But not in approach, however, since for this music Bionulor also applies his “100% sound recycling method”, which means he’s strictly re-using pre-recorded material: classical instruments for “Coriolanus“, and voice recordings from actress Sylwia Oksiuta performing “SKAZAna”.
Although in both cases, the source is not easily recognisable.

Anne Chris Bakker – Tussenlicht

The name may not immediately sound familiar, but “Anne Chris Bakker“ should ring a bell if you carefully checked out the releases by Jan and Romke Kleefstra (internationally acclaimed for their Frysian soundscape poetry and Piiptsjilling collaboration with Machinefabriek and Mariska Baars).
Anne Chris Bakker has worked with them on various releases: “Wink“, “Griis” and a live performance cassette released in March 2012.

“Tussenlicht“, recently released on Somehow Recordings  (where the physical version is available), is Anne Chris Bakker‘s second solo project (after “Weerzien”, 2012). Its dreamlike poetic atmosphere is definitely resembling the Piiptsjilling/Kleefstra recordings, and yet there is something remarkably different…

Autumn Trumpets

This year’s fall sees the (somewhat) simultaneous release of three albums that feature the trumpet as their main instrument, pairing its sound to an (ambient-) electronic background.
And here’s this review’s spoiler: if you like one, you’d probably like all three! 

NILS PETTER MOLVAER & MORITZ VON OSWALD – 1/1
On his latest release, “Baboon Moon” (2011), Nils Petter Molvaer explored guitar-based soundscapes, but his latest takes a completely different turn. Of course, Molvaer‘s music has always searched for a delicate balance between the organic, emotional sound of the trumpet and abstract electronics – and Moritz von Oswald (of Basic Channel/Rhythm & Sound fame, to name just two of many) has previously ventured out into jazz areas, especially with the Moritz von Oswald Trio.
But this collaboration brings both artists’ music up to a completely different level.
‘1/1‘ sounds as if Nils and Moritz were destined to work together from the start.

Selaxon Lutberg – Simboli Accidentali

There is a remarkable discrepancy between the childhood excitement beaming from the cover photos, and the dark claustrophobic chords in the opening track of Selaxon Lutberg’s ” Simboli Accidentali“.

And it’s only about halfway into the album when the dark and gloomy atmosphere, created by almost unrecognisable sounds of guitar, cheap organ and worn tape/vinyl loops, gives way to a little bit more light, just before retracting again into a more comfortable darkness.

The liner notes reveal only slightly more about the purpose of this journey: