RAPOON – TO WEST AND BLUE
Zoharum is a Polish label releasing experimental music since 2007, its catalogue boasting over 70 titles now, a wealthy collection to explore. It’s remarkable how flourishing the experimental and electronic music scene seems to be in Eastern Europe (Poland, in the case of Zoharum)!
Not all Zoharum artists come from Poland: among the many unknown artists and bands, Rapoon (Robin Storey, UK) might be the best-known.
NILS FRAHM – SPACES
Possibly the most well-known artist mentioned here is keyboard wizard Nils Frahm. Whoever has seen him perform live will definitely remember that performance clearly. His music can be extremely melodic, making it accessible to a wide audience, yet he’s not afraid to search for some extremes during the process.
After each performance, people often asked him which of his albums best represented what they had just witnessed. Since such an album did not really exist, “Spaces“ was specifically assembled with that question in mind. And indeed it perfectly captures a Nils Frahm performance.
Beginning his career in the early 80’s, Michel Banabila‘s albums covered many different styles.
So many, in fact, that his place in music was a bit difficult to pinpoint which sometimes seemed to confuse critics as well as potential audiences.
His albums presented world music, jazz, theatre play soundtracks as well as electronic music of the abstract or ambient kind – all kinds of genres which Banabila seems to be able to cross over with ease.
There’s a big different between ‘just music’ and ‘sound art’ – the latter requiring active participation of the listener/visitor.
A release on Richard Chartier’s Line Imprint label is not something you just take for granted, consuming it playing in the background while being distracted by many other things.
So, it may take some time and serious effort investigating the works presented on “Liquified Sky” before these audio-visual works can be fully appreciated. But it’s worth the effort!
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!
FEDERICO DURAND – EL IDIOMA DE LAS LUCÉRNAGAS
“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.“
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!
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”.
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!
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.”
RAFAEL ANTON IRISARRI – THE WITNESS
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.
DAVID WENNGREN & JONATAN NÄSTESJÖ – BEFORE I LEAVE
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“.
