Giant Claw is the vapourwave–plunderphonics sound-collage pseudonym of musician, visual artist, and Orange Milk label-boss Keith Rankin, of Columbus, Ohio. Soft Channel, his new album, is a paradoxical object, at once one of the most fragmented and one of the most listenable variants on the vapourwave lexicon. Whereas vapourwave fellow travellers like James Ferraro andContinue reading “Giant Claw. Soft Channel.”
Genre Archives
Jamie Drouin & Hannes Lingens. Alluvium; The Holy Quintet. Borough.
Far from his Victoria, B.C., home base, sound-artist–composer Jamie Drouin helps animate notable improvisational landscapes on these European-recorded sets. Two extended tracks on Borough find Drouin’s suitcase-sized modular synthesizer and radio put to good use in The Holy Quintet, which is filled out by London-based David Ryan on bass clarinet, Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga on zither, bassistContinue reading “Jamie Drouin & Hannes Lingens. Alluvium; The Holy Quintet. Borough.”
Andrew Raffo Dewar / Andrea Centazzo / Anne LeBaron. Encantamientos.
Residing in a soundworld created from aleatory, signal-processed, and improvised music, the seven tracks of Encantamiento are performed by musicians who move easily from one genre to another without fissure. Percussionist Andrea Centazzo is known for his jazz and soundtrack work, harpist Anne LeBaron for her compositions and interpretations, while saxophonist Andrew Raffo Dewar isContinue reading “Andrew Raffo Dewar / Andrea Centazzo / Anne LeBaron. Encantamientos.”
Hans-Joachim Roedelius floats against the current
On an unseasonably warm night in October, Toronto’s Monarch Tavern was packed to the rafters for a living legend. German electronic and ambient music pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius—best known as a cofounder of 1970s experimental groups Cluster and Harmonia, renowned for their celebrated collaborations with Brian Eno—sat behind the bar’s piano with a pair of glowingContinue reading “Hans-Joachim Roedelius floats against the current”
The Sonic Transmissions of Geronimo Inutiq
Winter was ending. You could tell, because the sun had returned. Geronimo Inutiq borrowed his sister’s Ski-Doo and rode it past the Iqaluit city limit. The horizon stretched out in all directions: no trees, no buildings, just sky and ice, illuminated by light. “You feel quite small,” says Inutiq. “It’s a humbling thing.” Then, heContinue reading “The Sonic Transmissions of Geronimo Inutiq”
Michael Pounds’ “Breathing 2: Re/Inspiration”
Michael Pounds began his career as a mechanical engineer, receiving a B.S. from Ohio University. After working at the NASA Lewis Research Center, he returned to the academic world to study music composition with a focus on computer music and music technology. After undergraduate music studies at Bowling Green State University he earned graduate degreesContinue reading “Michael Pounds’ “Breathing 2: Re/Inspiration””
Joni Void. Selfless.
It’s hard to be lo-fi in the twenty-first century. Even the most rudimentary contemporary sound recorders—on a smartphone or laptop, say—lack the auditory artifacts so fetishized by connoisseurs of tape and vinyl and emulated by much contemporary sampling and plunderphonics, from hip hop to The Caretaker (who is ambient artist James Leyland Kirby). Inspired byContinue reading “Joni Void. Selfless.”
Artificiel’s “Three Pieces With Titles”
“I had never seen such new things before. I didn’t even know what a new object could be,” the poet and art critic André Salmon wrote, after visiting the studio of Pablo Picasso in the spring of 1914. Of particular interest to Salmon was Guitar, a wall-mounted 3-D collage of a semi-exploded guitar built withContinue reading “Artificiel’s “Three Pieces With Titles””
Malcolm Cecil and the History of TONTO
THE FOLLOWING STORY WAS PUBLISHED AS PART OF THE SUMMER / FALL 2017 FEATURE “INSIDE THE NATIONAL MUSIC CENTRE.” Malcolm Cecil’s interest in electronics began at age nine, when he became the youngest member of a ham radio club in England. His mother was an accomplished musician on piano, violin, and accordion, while his fatherContinue reading “Malcolm Cecil and the History of TONTO”
Inside The National Music Centre
The Original New Timbral Orchestra, known simply as TONTO, has been called “a synthesizer the size of Nebraska.” The appearance of this electronic monolith makes an immediate impression. Housed in a twenty-foot semicircle of six-foot-tall wooden cabinets with knobs, keyboards, blinking lights, and colourful wires sprouting from every inch of its curves, this legendary instrumentContinue reading “Inside The National Music Centre”