For Nihon


For Nihon

If you are remotely interested in this kind of music you’re probably familiar with this release already. 
But in case you’ve missed it: 

Shortly after the Japan earthquake on March 11th this year, Keith Kenniff (a.k.a. Goldmund/Helios) and his wife Hollie decided to ask ‘a few friends’ to participate in a compilation album to help raise money for the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund, set up by New York’s Japan Society.

The ‘few‘ friends quickly became ‘many‘, and the list of artists contributing to the (38) tracks featured on “For Nihon” reads like an impressive who’s who in popular ‘pop ambient’:  
Arms and Sleepers, Dustin O’Halloran, Peter Broderick, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Biosphere, Hammock, Olafur Arnalds, Jon Hopkins, Nils Frahm, Alva Noto, Ryan Teague, Max Richter, Goldmund….And this is only just one-third of the full tracklist!
I guess it’s best to check the full list on the release page and order your copy immediately!

Maps and Diagrams – Get Lost

The traditional record industry is still having major trouble finding its place in the new age of music distribution.
But while they’re fighting what seems to be a death struggle, the artists that did not rely on this business in the first place seem to have settled for two different kinds of distribution.
The first is of course DIY independent digital distribution: you may have noticed that most of the releases mentioned here are distributed through Bandcamp.
On the other hand, there are the ‘labour of love’ labels, run by people definitely not into it “for the money”, releasing extremely limited physical releases mostly packed in hand-crafted artwork so delicate and complex that it would be impossible to create more than 50 copies of a release. 

One of these labels is Time Released Sound  –  “a lovingly hand made, limited edition release music label that is as much an art project as it is a musical outlet”. 
“Focusing primarily on classically infused and folk based ambient and electroacoustic sounds by the artists we know, love and admire, we will be striving at all times to produce visuals and packaging for these fine releases that are as original and uniquely beautiful as the music itself.” 

If you take some time to look at the TRS Releases, you will understand why most of these releases sell out very quick!
This may be frustrating for collectors that find out too late … but fortunately the limited releases are followed by a less limited digipack release.

Such as this particular example: Maps and Diagram‘s “Get Lost”  (which was TRS’s fifth release).

Lukanov & Mytrip; Leonardo Rosado; Jonathan Read; Desert of Hiatus; Aria Rostami

In this “shortlist” section, I will mention some of the albums that I enjoyed listening to, but couldn’t find the time (or the right words) for a “full” review for.
Still, I think they deserve your attention (use the links to find more info and hear previews).

Two

Martin Lukanov & Mytrip – Two
With strict timings (10’01”, 0’10”, 1’00” etc. ) and titles that indicate timings and position of each (ml-s mt-e, mt-l ml-r), Martin  Lukanov (classically trained pianist and sound artist) and Mytrip (“negative dark ambient/drone project from the not so developed Bulgarian ambient scene”) present “a minimalist walk beyond and within the boundaries of drone ambient, accompanied by a gentle and melancholic piano on the verge between isolation and loneliness.”

Opague Glitter

Leonardo Rosado – Opague Glitter
After publishing 1.5 hour of music as “the Opaque Glitter Sessions”, Leonardo Rosado (who is also the curator of the FeedbackLoop label) asked his listeners to vote for their favorite 8 songs from this collection, thus compiling FeedbackLoop Label’s first ‘official’ CDr. As an extra, the release also includes a photograph with a poem of choice: 8 photos and 8 poems = 64 unique combinations!

Neue – The Planets


The Planets

Electronic music has always been closely related to (outer) space – scientific astronomics as well as sci-fi fantasy themes.   

Sometimes quite literally, such as in the 12-CD series created by Dr. Jeffrey Thompson from the original NASA Voyager I & II Space Probe Recordings that was released around 1990.
Although there has been a lot of discussion about the extent of manipulation of these recordings, these ‘pure space sounds’ are about the deepest, most soothing and timeless ambient drones imaginable.

“The Planets“, recently released by Neue – not from Germany as you might think, and not related to the legendary Krautrock band Neu, but an alias of musician and designer Mike Lemmon from Portland, USA – continues this tradition.

Postcards from Hibernate!

The Hibernate recordings label continues to release a steady stream of great music.

One of their project series is the ‘Postcard Series’ – beautiful music on EP albums (about 20 minutes each), attached to limited edition numbered postcards.

One thing you’ll have to get used to, however, is that the physical editions sell out at the speed of light!
But, luckily, download versions of the releases stay available when the physical releases have run out!

[Check the links below for full streams of the album tracks]

Jan Linton – Buddha Machine Music

I guess most readers will be familiar with the Buddha Machine concept by now.
Not only because the Buddha Machine itself now exists in four generations (including the Throbbing Gristle edition), but also because various artists (most notably Robert ‘Monolake’ Henke) have included the recognisable lo-fi samples in their recordings – or created completely new music using them.

One of the latest Buddha Machine-inspired releases is “Buddha Machine Music” by Jan Linton – English musician/composer, working from Tokyo, Japan since 1990.

In the past, he has been working with people like Leo Abrahams and Richard Barbieri . But for his latest project, he chose the (first two incarnations of the) Buddha Machine as source of inspiration.

In the Bleak Wilderness of Sleep


Bleak Wilderness of Sleep

Apart from releasing music as Spheruleus, Harry Towell also curates the Audio Gourmet netlabel, well-known for their now 40+ releases that all can be downloaded for free from Bandcamp (or from Archive.org when the Bandcamp credit runs out, but in that case I’d suggest donating a few dollars to keep them running).

Apart from these “tea/coffee-break” EP’s (all of them somewhere around 15 minutes in length), Audio Gourmet also has released a few full length albums (such as “Hidden Landscapes”). 

“In the Bleak Wilderness of Sleep”  (released may 2011) celebrates the first year of Audio Gourmet existence. And considering the contents of this compilation, Audio Gourmet has definitely found their place between the yop netlabels in the ambient/electronic/soundscape field!

Mathon – Terrestre

Mathon - Terrestre

With their new release ‘Terrestre’, Mathon takes a further step in creating their own unique genre.

Their music is, as always,  consequently linked to geographical locations, describing “the coexistence of nature and civilization and also the contradictions between the two”.
It is mainly created with acoustical instruments and stylistically closely related to the impressionist music known from the ECM-label.

Discouraging Intruders (Mix)

The main theme for this mix (as well as the title “Discouraging Intruders” ) came from the spoken word track by the Dwindlers: “What the Wolves Said”:

“No two of us on the same note, we sound bigger…our harmony discouraging intruders…”

Although generally not sounding like a pack of howling wolves, sometimes the purpose of ‘ambient’ music also is also is to ‘discourage intruders’ (such as unwanted sounds) to invade your environment..

From the opening, this mix slowly dwells into long drone soundscapes – some discouraging, others comforting – only to be interrupted by a climactic eruption from Siddhartha Barnhoorn‘s cinematic ‘Artifacts‘ directly following the enchanting vocals of Fovea Hex, a choir arrangement that seems to be coming directly from heaven by Franz Liszt (from ‘Via Crucis‘, 1879!), followed by a Sibil’La Catalana string theme from the 15th century – and finally to be concluded by the acquiescent vocals from the Terje Isungset track.   

Whether you prefer to be on the inside or the outside is up to your imagination…

Image with kind permission from the Panopticons project.