The American suburb is a battlefield for the American monoculture. I am currently half way through The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein, in which he complicates this notion that suburbs are the chaotic outgrowth of an urban center grown unsustainable, but rather a planned and heavily subsidized plot to keep the American monoculture white …
Combining a dizzying array of mallets, piano, surging ambient pads, human voice and electronic processing and auxiliary percussion, the London based duo of Zands and Louise Anna Duggan known as Minhi have crafted an impeccably precise and emotive world of sound on Recpatures out on Unperceived Records. While doing stints in the Royal Philharmonic and …
Two experimental composers use technology as a compositional tool for acoustic instruments, in the first of an exciting multi-part musical series. Composers Kenneth Kirschner and Joseph Branciforte aren’t satisfied with normal methods of composition. Their curiosity and sense of adventure branch out beyond the sounds they dream up and into the actual method of composition. …
KENNETH KIRSCHNER & JOSEPH BRANCIFORTE – FROM THE MACHINE, VOLUME 1 (GREYFADE, 2021) Read More »
Recording under Villages and under his own name, I’ve heard Ross Gentry’s work across a variety of mediums and labels including some GOAT American and European experimental documenters like Bathetic and Oscarson. Landing on Polar Seas Recordings seems like a natural fit compositionally and as a torch bearer for earlier boutique labels focusing on ambient …
ROSS GENTRY – PRISM OF DUST (POLAR SEAS RECORDINGS) Read More »
The latest album from Austin-based artist Samuel Chown, a.k.a. Shmu, sees him veering out into even more experimental territory – with often thrilling results. A peek into the discography of Samuel Chown, also known as Shmu, shows a voyage of intense creativity and artistic restlessness. On past albums like Bliss, Vish, Shhh!!!!, and Discipline/Communication, Chown …
SHMU – THE UNIVERSE IS INSIDE MY BODY (ORANGE MILK RECORDS, 2021) Read More »
“Mockingbird sounds like a shoebox full of old VHS tapes that have been taped over dozens and dozens of times with everything from old horror movies to unsent ransom notes.” The latest full-length from the Los Angeles based husband-wife duo Chestnut is one of those albums that refuses to leave you long after it ends. …
Reacting with the chance connections and neuro-landscape of the modular synth brain and watching these decisions branch and spread from their source, Bend by the Canadian artist Elmorea is a beautifully configured and highly generative piece of synth based composition. In it we hear the crackling of noise gates being turned on and off at …
The latest release from the Canadian composer sees him using classic architecture and a vintage synthesizer to create a collection of immersive, ambient beauty. The ambient and new age music that thrived in Japan in the ‘80s (lovingly compiled in Light in the Attic’s Grammy-winning collection Kankyo Ongaku) was, in part, a celebration of the …
NICK SCHOFIELD – GLASS GALLERY (Backward Music, 2021) Read More »
Drummer Jochen Rueckert revives his experimental (and drum-less) electronic project Wolff Parkinson White, and it’s another wild, adventurous ride. For more than a decade, the German-born, New York-based drummer Jochen Rueckert has enjoyed stepping away from the drum kit to indulge in what he refers to on his Bandcamp page as “hard-to-listen-to electronic music.” Indeed, …
WOLFF PARKINSON WHITE – VERITABLE RAPUNZEL (Self-Released, 2021) Read More »
The musical relationship between Andrea Dico and Francesco Carbone has been an incredibly fruitful one. Take the Long Way Home, however, reaches a new watermark that pushes their ability to create beautiful and challenging music into a new level. The impro electroacoustic duo was born in 2018 on a trip from Cape Town to Milan. …
DC – TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME (2020, SETOLA DE MAIALE) Read More »