Gideon Wolf – Year Zero

Year Zero is Gideon Wolf’s 4th album since 2012. It’s a solo album, in a way, but it could not have come to life without the contributions of a small ensemble of artists that played improvisations or ‘incoherent and strange phrases/notes’ that were later reassembled into the resulting pieces.

Working the other way around – composing pieces from instantaneous improvisations and a collection of short phrases – has given this music a refreshing element of surprise.
And it’s exactly that element that makes this album stand out among many others.

Various Various

Preserved Sound, Dronarivm, Home Normal and Taâlem present their label compilations that look ahead at 2017, look back at 2016, or (in the Taâlem case) overview their 15 years of existence.

All of them are generously offered as a ‘Name Your Price’ download!

DreamScenes 2017-1

Let’s kick off a brand new year of monthly DreamScenes with a selection to tickle your inner eyelids.

A selection to induce a variety of images: some movie/series/game soundtrack tracks, a bit of drone, post-classical piano, and some pieces that are a bit harder to classify.

Elektro Guzzi – Parade

The ‘human-machine-universe’ of Elektro Guzzi is not exactly ‘ambient’ music. But why not step out of the ambient box every once in a while?

Especially when the drum/bass/guitar trio adds the sound of three trombones to their exciting sound!

Jeffrey Roden – Threads Of A Prayer, Volume 1

Jeffrey Roden’s contemporary classical music for solo piano and string ensemble leaves enough room for many moments of silence.

In this unhurried meditative focus, the link to the work of Arvo Pärt and possibly Erik Satie, Morton Feldman and, to lesser extent, John Cage is obvious.

It’s Jeffrey Roden’s sole purpose to take the listener to “the other place: a place within oneself where there is a deeper awareness of many things both emotional and spiritual.”