Based in Rotterdam, Lama offers an unusual mix of sensibilities, a trio of Portuguese and Canadian musicians that works at the intersections of film noir, cool jazz, electronica, and free improvisation. Gonçalo Almeida plays bass, effects, and loops, and is the principal composer; Susana Santos Silva plays trumpet, flugelhorn, and electronics; they’re joined by drummerContinue reading “Lama. Oneiros.”
Genre Archives
Craig Hilton & Tomas Phillips. le gout de néant.
This beautiful recording is largely sourced from a performance of Craig Hilton playing the guzheng. The first track, Sans Mouvement I, is a relatively untreated sound recording of Hilton bowing the guzheng, with a slight reverb applied—creating a blissfully full sound that envelops the room. Only toward the end of the track does an insect-likeContinue reading “Craig Hilton & Tomas Phillips. le gout de néant.”
Summer 2012
Les Rhinocéros. Les Rhinocéros.
The eponymous debut album of the young trio Les Rhinocéros from Washington D.C. is a crazy, playful musical collage. On one track, birds sing, an elderly singer croaks a folk ditty, loops pulsate, a guitar’s spiky notes seem bent on puncturing a waterbed, a drumkit rolls and hisses, and then suddenly a klezmer tune emerges,Continue reading “Les Rhinocéros. Les Rhinocéros.”
Erdem Helvacioğlu and Şirin Pancaroğlu. Resonating Universes.
Resonating Universes is an apt title for this collaboration between electroacoustic composer Helvacioğlu and harpist Pancaroğlu. Each section of this disc-long composition teems with microscopic activity—flocks of muted plucking and granular shivers weave their way around resounding sheets of sound. Helvacioğlu has a found for his electronics a lovely balance with the natural acoustic andContinue reading “Erdem Helvacioğlu and Şirin Pancaroğlu. Resonating Universes.”
Toronto’s Standard Form.
Standard Form is a Toronto-based print shop that has been putting out books and music for the past five years, averaging a couple of releases a year that range from avant jazz to post rock, from the likes of Feuermusik, Canaille, and I Can Put My Arm Back On You Can’t. This last year hasContinue reading “Toronto’s Standard Form.”
Tim Hecker. Ravedeath, 1972.
Tim Hecker has been a prominent figure in the ambient electronic genre ever since his first recordings were released ten years ago by the Montreal label Alien8 Recordings. In past recordings, Hecker’s work has wrapped his digital manipulations into a fully organic sound. Ravedeath, 1972 is a deeply beautiful and moving new album that showsContinue reading “Tim Hecker. Ravedeath, 1972.”
Dolphins Into The Future. Two Romantic Landscapes.
On Two Romantic Landscapes Belgium’s Dolphins Into The Future offers up a new pair of sumptuous, sprawling pieces. Sweet and languid, both sides of this lovingly packaged, limited-edition cassette conjure a delicious summer-evening beach image. It’s a delicate balance of sated repose, mild disorientation and fever symptoms. Amid a cloud of soft tape-hiss, synth tonesContinue reading “Dolphins Into The Future. Two Romantic Landscapes.”
Freida Abtan. The Hands of the Dancer/The Temple of the Dreamer.
With her second release, Montreal-based composer Freida Abtan expands her very personalized idiom of abstract electronica. While she has assimilated the clarity of sound processing and the bold gestures of the Montreal acousmatic scene, her music is haunted by a resonant gothic murkiness that envelops the listener. This base of metallic reverberations is complemented atContinue reading “Freida Abtan. The Hands of the Dancer/The Temple of the Dreamer.”
Daniel Kernohan, Editor. Music is Rapid Transportation… From The Beatles to Xenakis.
I’m an avid music collector with wildly eclectic tastes, and this book spoke to me like few books have before. I instantly connected with the accounts by the seven individuals involved in the project. In the book’s first section, music enthusiasts and contributors Lawrence Joseph, Dan Lander, Donal McGraith, Bill Smith, Alan Stanbridge, Scott Thomson,Continue reading “Daniel Kernohan, Editor. Music is Rapid Transportation… From The Beatles to Xenakis.”