Wednesday 24 May 2023

Non-Music Roundup (May 23)











Hey everyone. I'm back again with another roundup of excellent sound art, musique concrète, field recordings and experimental noise for you to immerse yourself in.

If you like what you see/hear, please considering supporting these tremendous artists & labels by buying their albums and following them on Bandcamp and/or social media.

-

R. Pierre - Canyon (Los Angeles)


(Here Free Press, 2023)

R. Pierre (Caleb Dravier) is a Los Angeles based sound artist and composer exploring “absolute music” through reductionism and the recontextualization of small-sound phenomena in processed field recordings and microelectronics.

This album consists of two long-form compositions, created using field recordings taken from two different spots in Los Angeles - Griffith Park and Angeles National Forest.
In 'Part I' you will hear the crackling and rustling movements/micro-movements of (what I gather to be) some form of greenery being swayed by the breeze. The quiet earthy textures and shifting timbres of this natural environment creates a rather hypnotic and undulating effect. The movement of the winds, along with the crackling of foliage and grass almost sounds like heavy rainfall on the ocean. The only other sound you will hear in this composition is the occasional tweeting of a lone bird. At one point I thought I heard a distant car horn, but I'm totally sure about that. A very gentle and soothing composition.
'Part II' is a slightly more abstract affair. It starts off with the sound of what I originally thought was a kettle singing...but as the composition slowly develops, I figured that this is possibly the sound of the breeze/wind that's been electronically manipulated and pitch-shifted. This sound eventually dies down a bit and makes way for some beautiful bird song, which has some kind of trippy echo effect on it. The accumulation and volume of these various twitterings builds and intensifies as the piece progresses.
Near the halfway point, you will begin to hear the unmistakable sound of vehicles passing by...reminding us of the strange juxtaposition of the natural and the unnatural. However, these distant motor sounds somehow don't ruin or pollute the peaceful and natural serenity of this soundscape. 

'Canyon (Los Angeles)' is a stunning album of exquisite field recordings and mesmerizing non-musical ambience that aurally transports you to a beautiful natural haven, and makes you not want to leave. I really admire how reductive and minimalistic these sound collages are, which takes a certain amount of discipline and restraint on the part of the artist. It's a marvellous listening experience, best enjoyed through headphones in a quiet environment with minimal distraction.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Alëna Korolëva - Marble Route


(self-released, 2023)

Alëna Korolëva is a Toronto-based artist and curator, who works with sound, photo and video. Her sound work is focused on field recordings, acoustic ecology, soundscape studies and acousmatic composition. Her technique employes elements of documentary storytelling and experimental music.

'Marble Route' is a (nearly) hour-long sound composition inspired by Korolëva's stay at the Obras art residency, which is located in the Evora district in south-central Portugal. It's been hugely affected and transformed by industrial mining over the course of the last century. You can read more about what the artist has to say about the Marble Route on her Bandcamp page.

This recording begins with the sound of human hustle and bustle amidst cacophonous birdsong and cathedral bells. This suddenly transitions into the familiar sounds of public transportation and heavy rainfall on various ceilings and surfaces, which eventually morphes back to the sound of human activity and children at play, before police sirens and the busy sounds of industry take over...
Then we find ourselves in a cafe or restaurant, hearing the unmistakable clanging and clattering of plates and cutlery, with some snippets of Portuguese conversation intertwined. As this piece develops, you will notice that each segment is constantly broken up by the sounds of travel locomotion. It's very likely that the artist captured this audio while moving between these different locations, and all along the way you will hear some strange and interesting sonic abstractions, and a wide variety of constrasting textures and tones. 
We are constantly bouncing back and forth between busy crowded environments (possibly from guided tours through the marble quarries?) to the quieter, more tranquil sounds of sweet nature. You can hear the slow hypnotic rhythms and splashes of the sea, bicycles whizzing by, roosters crowing, flies buzzing furiously, insects chirruping in the night, lots of sweet birdsong, and the natural ambience of the countryside. Sometimes things become very quiet and still, to the point where you can only hear the sound of lone footsteps, grass rustling, shuffling movements, birds singing, animal noises and the quiet crackling of fire. There's one amusing segment where you can hear the intimate sounds of (what I think is) a boar or hippo sniffing about, grunting and splashing in water. 
As we near the end of the album we come full circle, back to the sounds of busy human commotion...and in the final few minutes we are treated to another cacophony of glorious birdsong, over which you'll hear some beautiful singing by Eki Shola... signifying a communion with nature, and the surrounding environment in this unique part of the world.

'Marble Route' is a wonderful and immersive sound journey that transports you to a special place with such a rich and fascinating history. Korolëva has skilfully collaged her exquisite field recordings into this magnificent tapestry of unique soundscapes, which makes for a intriguing and rather soothing listening experience.

Buy/Stream/Download :

-

Peter Wullen - Shapes 


(Gipsy House Recordings 2018 / self-released, 2023)

Peter Wullen is a Belgian poet, writer, sound artist and field recordist. He has released a variety of works (both solo and collaborative) - independently and through various labels. 'Shapes' was originally released on the now-defunct Gipsy House Recordings record label back in 2018, but has recently been re-released on his own Bandcamp page.

This album consists of one 55-minute long composition, divided into three parts. It was based on field recordings, which have been manipulated and processed beyond recognition. 
This composition begins with a kind of rhythmic metallic ticking, over which swirling noise and a faint tremulous drone can be heard. The effect is rather mesmerizing and haunting. 
This starts to quieten down and dissipate towards the 10-minute mark, before disappearing completely. Then you will hear a softer pulsating noise, kind of like the hum of an industrial freezer, or some other huge mechanism, which is both ominous and soothing. As the piece develops you will hear slight variations and fluctuations in the sound, and a very subtle shimmering noise starts to rise to the surface, along with some kind of indistinguishable bangs, which resonate eerily. It all slows down and fades down to gentle white noise again by roughly the 35-minute mark. 
For the final segment of the composition, you will hear more looped percussive metallic sounds and whirling noise...with some subtle low-end darkness rumbling the soundscape.

'Shapes' is a wonderfully hypnotic, minimalistic noise composition. It's paced brilliantly, and the atmosphere that Wullen creates with this piece is dark, immersive and strangely beautiful. He makes 55 minutes seem like 5 minutes!

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Nichola Scrutton - Night Vision (2023) 


(self-released, 2023)

Nichola Scrutton is a Scottish sound artist, composer, vocalist and visual artist. She works across a variety of different mediums and processes, including sound art, soundscape, voice, radio art, improvisation, writing, drawing and interdisciplinary collaborations.

'Night Vision' is Scrutton's latest album, and it's centred around a bunch of spoken word excerpts, written in a semi-conscious state, and performed by an ensemble of vocalists, against a backdrop of atmospheric soundscapes.
At the forefront of these recordings you will hear Scrutton's abstract spoken word poetry, delivered with dramatic urgency, which paint images of hypnagogic and somnolent surrealism, while the background is subtly occupied by haunting swirling vocalizations, ambient drones and crackling radio transmissions. These mysterious whispers and eerie echoes help bring the bizarre poetry to life, and make the words shimmer and dance before your eyes, as the night journey unfolds...
Sonically, these pieces constantly ebb and flow with intensity, sometimes winding down to hushed (barely-audible) whispers and sighs, and at other times build up into cacophonous walls of fuzzed-out noise, which the voices are buried within.

'Night Vision' is an absurb and haunting yet endearing work of surreal avant-garde sound art. The abstract and impressionistic poetry blends wonderfully with the minimalistic ambient vocal soundscapes, and makes for a strangely engaging listening experience. An excellent album.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

mapped out in lights - longform one 


(Somnimage, 2023)

Mykel Body & Daniel Burke are both experimental sound artists. Mykel Boyd is from Bradley, Illinois. He has released many works under his own name - both solo and collaboratively, and is also one half of post doom romance. Daniel Burke is from Elgin, Illinois and has been releasing works under the moniker Illusion of Safety since 1983.

In this one hour long-form collaborative composition you will hear slow pulsating drones, swirling tones, fluttering noises, garbled voices, eerie sirens, menacing rumbling and a variety of fuzzy frequencies...dancing and intermingling within this abstract and haunting soundscape.
The piece begins with a quiet (barely audible at first) broodiness which gradually intensifies over the course of the hour into something monstrous and fierce, peppered with snippets of distant field recordings, bizarre sonic abstractions and subtle shimmery ambience.

If this release is anything to go by - mapped out in lights is certainly an intriguing collaborative duo, and 'longform one' is a long, fantastic, atmospheric piece of noise art to completely immerse yourself in.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

seah - topography of a tree


(self-released, 2022)

seah is an experimental sound artist, musician and visual/performance artist who has released a number of solo works, as well being one half of the experimental noise duo post doom romance

I usually avoid writing about individual (short-form) tracks on this blog, but this one was a bit too delicious to resist. I couldn't help myself...
'topography of a tree' is an atmospheric sound recording inspired by the artist's experience of revisiting a childhood tree, and deciding to climb it. Instead of para-phrasing, here's the artist's own statement about the piece...

''Frog Park in Oakland, CA was a sort of crossroads for me for the duration of the 20 years that I lived there. I passed through it often on my bike as an art school student, fell in love with a tree that I climbed with a friend regularly, and then later would go there with my child. One day I climbed the tree with my phone taped to my chest to capture the closeness of my body to the tree's body. This was before I knew what a GoPro was. From that video, I extracted 12 images that I've managed to hold onto for nearly a decade. The images are in the book. This track is made to accompany the images. However, you can enjoy it's delicate textures without the book as well.''

This 6-minute recording consists of deep dark rumbling drones, rich watery gurgles, distant wind-like whooshing sounds and wavering crackling noises. 
It's an abstract and vague sound collage, and I have no idea where the source material comes from... but it undeniably reminds me of the sound and movements found in natural environments. Maybe it's meant to represent the inside of a tree? Whatever the case, this is a beautiful and mysterious drone piece. I only wish that it was at least 10 minutes longer!

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Natalia Beylis - Library of Sticks 


(Artsy Records, 2023)

Natalia Beylis is a highly-prolific Irish sound artist & musician whose work revolves somewhere between sonic story-teller, composer and multi-instrumental musician. In her recordings and performances she layers seemingly incongruous sounds atop of each other to spawn strange juxtapositions and garbled parallels. She has released a huge variety of works, both independently and through experimental labels.

'Library of Sticks' is an experimental audio collage of found sounds and field recordings, consisting of four different parts.
In Part 1 you will hear a series of fuzzy manipulated voice recordings, weird rattles and (what I believe to be) crickets chirping against a backdrop of slow, broody, ominous drum patterns. The overall effect is rather sinister sounding.
In Part 2 you will hear predominantly creaking/moaning wood sounds - possibly a door or cabinet of some sort being opened and closed... which creates muted thumps and eerie flutterings. The only accompaniment to this sound is some sparse swells of musical notes. An extremely minimalistic track.
In Part 3 you will hear the unmistakable splashing, sloshing and gurgling of water. Judging from the title 'New Potatoes', I'm gathering that these sounds were sourced from a pot of new potatoes being boiled. The layers of manipulated watery noise is delightfully soothing to listen to.
Part 4 is the longest track, and begins with some soft, muted metallic banging and rattling with some extremely subtle and barely audible ambient noise in the background. As the piece developes, you can clearly distinguish the sound of sticks whacking off various objects and surfaces, manipulated and produced in a way that makes the atmosphere rumble, echo and vibrate...gradually building up and gaining intensity and volume as it moves towards its end.

'Library of Sticks' is a bizarre and immersive work of experimental sound art. It's a quiet and inventive study of captured sounds in fleeting moments. Another brilliant work from Beylis. 

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Lalén Ríos Luna - The Structure of Silk 


(Porous Collective, 2023)

Lalén Ríos Luna is a prolific experimental artist, electro-acoustic musician & avant-garde improviser based in Fresno, California. He has released a lot albums under various monikers. His musical style tends to be a complex and bizarre mixture of experimental electronica, avant-garde electro-acoustic improvisation, ambient soundscapes, sound collage and free-form jazz.

'The Structure of Silk' is his latest release, and it's fairly non-musical compared to a lot of his other releases, so I felt that it'd be a good one to write about on this blog.
In these recordings you will hear fluttering cut-up noise, creepy reverberations, glitchy electronica, unnerving pulsations, fuzzed-out brooding ambience, gurgling atmospherics, stretched-out guitar chords, beautiful bursts of jazz improv, siren-like bleeps, howling frequencies, soft background explosions, rippling piano tones and frantic bursts of eerie noise...punctuated by some barely audible segments of a tranquil yet unsettling quietude.

'The Structure of Silk' is all about atmosphere. The shadow-filled soundscapes just suck you in and don't let go. It's an album full of tensions, dissonance and complex noise experimentation, which makes for a satisfying and spine-tingling listening experience.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Manuel Carbone - Coral Melodies 


(Adventurous Music, 2023)

Manuel Carbone is an Italian sound artist and electroacoustic enthusiast, currently based in Berlin, with an abstract approach to composition through manipulation of field recording and found-objects, as well as synthesized sounds and tape loops, resulting in works that often range from musique-concréte to ambient and noise. He has released a variety of works under the moniker Cravune, but has recently taken to releasing stuff under his own birth name.

'Coral Melodies' is his new 2-song EP. In the two minimalistic soundscapes that comprise this release, you will hear wavering drones that gather and build towards a pretty sinister intensity, soft ominous crackling, tremulous feedback, ghostly ambience, wind-like rumbling and rippling howls of abstract noise. Both these compositions are immersive and dark, yet it remains mysterious and impressionistic. The feelings conjured up in these soundscapes are vague and confusing, but it's such an intriguing and rewarding listening experience. A subtle, eerie and gorgeous little EP.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Müller / Doskocz / Gordoa - Aural Accidents (2023) 


(Tripticks Tapes, 2023)

Matthias Müller is a trombonist from Berlin (Germany). Paweł Doskocz is a guitarist from Poznań (Poland), and Emilio Gordoa is an electroacoustic multi-instrumentalist from Berlin (Germany). These three improvising musicians met each other for the first time onstage at the Spontaneous Music Festival in Poznań. This album is the recording of their unique ad-hoc performance, on the evening of the last day of this event.

'Aural Accidents' is an album consisting of two 15-minute (ish) pieces of avant-garde free improvisation. 
In these recordings you will hear rumbling drum patterns, shuffling snare hits, frantic tom fills, steel clangs, fluttering pick scrapes, stuttering electronics, swells of soulful trombone notes, manipulated guitar feedback, breathy squeaks, dramatic brass drones, frantic insect-like scuttling sounds, walls of cacophonous noise...punctuated by abrupt stops and transitions, and ending with some beautiful birdsong ambience.

'Aural Accidents' is a strange, unnerving and undeniably exciting avant-garde sound journey into wild and wacky sonic territories. These two improvised sound collages are constantly shifting and evolving - the only consistency being their inconsistency. The overall effect is rather dark, eerie and unsettling... yet it's also a fun, immersive and explosive listening experience. Highly recommended.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Andrea Ermke + Anaïs Tuerlinckx - Stadthaus Ulm 


(Scatter Archive, 2022)
 
Andrea Ermke is an experimental Austrian musician whose work tends to be of a very personal and uncompromising style of collage working with mini-discs, field recording, sampling & hands-on sounds.
Anaïs Tuerlinckx is a Brussels-born pianist and teacher of improvisational music in Berlin. Her work explores the inner piano whose work tends towards a more physical and expansive way of playing, her performances are characterized by noise and harsh sounds, but also seek the more elegiac, airy and wide spaces. 
'Stadthaus Ulm' is a radiophonic improvisation for a special edition of the program “Entartet” broadcast live from the Stadthaus Ulm by Radio Free FM in September 2022.

In this hour-long collaborative duo live performance/recording, you will initially hear an ambient backdrop of voices and human activity - its cavernous reverberations indicating that it might be some sort of airport terminal or large cathedral, which is subtly and hauntingly accompanied by deep swelling drones, gradually getting louder and more imposing as the piece evolves. Then we start to hear the atonal shimmering of strummed piano strings, short bursts of rainfall and birdsong, eerie and sparse viola notes, the honking of a car horn, a selection of bells and other glistening metallic noises ringing out, fire crackling, doors creaking, watery gurgles, nature sounds and a large variety of found objects being rattled, rumbled, plucked and shaken.

'Stadthaus Ulm' is an astonishing and alluring recording of subtle yet brilliant improvisation, and a dazzling work of art. Highly recommended.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Eric La Casa - Barri​è​res Mobiles


(self-released, 2023)

Eric La Casa is a French sound artist who has worked in the field of sound creation since the early nineties through recording, record production, installation, radio and various types of publications. 

'Barri​è​res Mobiles' is a sound story told from the perspective of a series of mobile metal barriers that were put up around Paris after the 2015 terrorist attacks. These metal barriers were placed at the entrances to public buildings (schools, churches, mosques, synagogues, museums, town halls, police stations, etc...) which become the symbol for low-noise security in daily life. These recordings were captured by environmental contact microphones.

In these dark and muted recordings you will hear eerie steel clangs and the vast mysterious echoes that follow, metal barriers shuddering and rattling, low frequency rumblings that swirl through these ominous soundscapes, the distant cacophony of human voices - talking and screaming away, howling wind noises, the hollowing shimmering of objects making contact with steel, some sort of mechanical chugging, industrial grinding, random rustling movements, crows cawing, spooky ambience, very faint traces of some type of music playing and a variety of abstract noises and drones that haunt this dark sonic environment.

'Barri​è​res Mobiles' is an eerie and haunting audio portrayal of a troubled world from the point of view of an inanimate object that's used as a symbol and a reminder of the violence and tragedy that plagues our existence on a everyday basis. 
It is also a fascinating sound journey, and a mesmerizing work of art. The natural creaking and rattling of these metal barriers that are left outside and exposed to the elements, along with the (maybe) not-so-naturally-occuring accompanying sounds makes for a very interesting listen.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Olli Aarni - Suontee, 23112021


(self-released, 2022)

Olli Aarni is a sound artist, multi-instrumentalist and linguist from Helsinki, Finland. He has released a diverse range of albums through various record labels, as well as self-released recordings through his own Bandcamp page.

This album is a collection of linear field recordings taken from the lake of Suontee over a 12-hour time span, using four different environmental microphones. It began as the lake started to freeze over. Throughout the course of the day the ice gradually melted away and the lake became liquidy again, until it eventually froze over again during the night.
In these recordings you will mainly hear the cracking and shattering of ice, the lapping of water and the low rumbles of wind - sometimes in the far distance, sometimes directly hitting the microphones.
As Aarni states on the Bandcamp page, this particular sound of wind making contact with microphones is often an unwanted (and mostly deemed unprofessional) sound, but it's the raw and authentic sound of the lake, and the organic sound of weather, and nature doing its thing on a grey windy November day in Finland.  

'Suontee, 23112021' is a charming and fantastic sound documentation of a specific time and place. Some may consider this album to be samey and repetitive, but I find it very meditative and calming, and would gladly listen to this over a long period of time.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Monday 1 May 2023

Non-Music Roundup (May 23)


 











Hello Hello Hello fans of sound art, musique concrète, field recordings and experimental noise. Here's another roundup of non-musical recommendations for you. Been listening to so much great stuff lately. This list barely scratches the surface...

Anyway, as always, if you like what you see/hear, please considering supporting these tremendous artists & labels by buying their albums and following them on Bandcamp and/or social media.

-

Coagulant - Map of the Dusk Until Its Replacement


(Antenna Non Grata, 2023)

Coagulant is a conceptual sound art project devised by Fabio Kubic, who is an Italian-born artist based in London. Since 1998 he has been creating experimental sounds and abstract noisescapes using a variety of environmental microphones, electronic manipulation techniques and audio-feedback editing. He has released a range of albums, both independently and through various labels that specialize in experimental noise art. This latest album of his was recently released on the Polish label Antenna Non Grata.

'Map of the Dusk Until Its Replacement' consists of two sprawling album-length tracks. The original source material for these tracks were sounds recorded in two different locations, during Nautical Sunset and Astronomical Sunset, which is reflected in the titles of these two pieces.
In the first track 'Nautical' you will hear a mighty build-up of some kind of powerful metallic whooshing, shimmering drones, dissonant feedback, motor-like humming and distant echoes that ricochet through this abstract sonic environment like some ghostly human wailing... all of which creates an utterly haunting and mesmerizing ambient soundscape of a vast oceanic quality.
In the second track 'Astronimical' you will hear trembling static, thunder-like rumbles and crashes, low gurgling drones, sinister weather noises, cacophonous cricket-like chirping, mechanical stuttering, ambient feedback, sustained metallic bell-like sounds and lots of other indistinguishable fluttering noises that drift and swirl around this surreal dreamscape. 

'Map of the Dusk Until Its Replacement' is a powerful and wonderfully hypnotic album of haunting sound design and surreal psychoacoustic phenomena. A highly immersive sound journey.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Kate Carr - False Dawn


(Flaming Pines, 2023)

Kate Carr is a London-based composer and field recordist whose work uses sound to explore the spaces we create together. She is particularly interested in shared public spaces, and the ways we deploy sound to connect, occupy, immerse and remove ourselves from locations, events and each other. Her live work is centred on objects, chance events and textures.

Her latest album 'False Dawn' is a foley forest, originating from a series of field recordings Carr created for various workshops, which (if I understand correctly) she then used for a series of live performances in London and Vienna. 
In these recordings you will hear a variety of whistles, horns, plastic bottles, squeaky toys, bags of rice, duck quackers, splashing water, percussive rattles, brushes and bells replicating the unique sounds of a forest at dawn - birds singing (both the familiar and the exotic), ducks quacking, frogs grunting, bugs rattling, insects scuttling, critters rustling, feet shuffling through detritus and creatures swimming and frolicking in the water... accompanied by Carr's signature eerie drones in the background, which gives the entire thing a rather dark, subtle and haunting atmosphere. And if you listen to this closely, in a quiet environment, you will hear a really beautiful background ambience emerge out of the mix at some point. 

'False Dawn' is an impressive and luxurious soundscape of exquisite forest noises. From the subtle crackling micro-movements of small beings, to the louder shrieks of bigger mammals - this album of fake sounds somehow manages to aurally encapsulate the rich and marvellous cacophony of this unique hidden habitat, and also makes for a beautiful and rewarding listening experience.  

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Kory Reeder - Self​-​portrait as a meditation on Somewhere Else 


(Sawyer Spaces, 2023)

Kory Reeder is an experimental composer/musician based in Denton, Texas. As well as having released a wonderful back catalog of contemporary classical music and improvisations under his own name, he also runs the record label, Sawyer Editions. And very recently he started up an imprint of the label called Sawyer Spaces, focusing on field recordings and soundscape composition. 

'Self​-​portrait as a meditation on Somewhere Else' is one hour-long (ish) soundscape composition, consisting of a combination of field recordings, acoustic instruments, sine tones and various noises taken from the Everglades National Park (Florida) during Reeder's stay there as an Artist In Residence.
This long-form recording begins with the natural hum and cacophonous chirping of the various critters, insects and birds of this tropical wilderness. The lovely natural ambience is soothing and meditative to listen to. Then a few minutes into the piece you will hear the faint distant drone of a motor, which gradually becomes louder and more prominent, at some point becoming clear that it's the sound of a passing helicopter (or possibly a jetski?), overwhelming all nature sounds entirely, and polluting the environment with its noise. You will eventually hear the unmistakable sound of human voices, rustling movements and splashing water, mixed in with subtle sine tones. Then there's the heavy and persistent trickle of falling rain (or dripping water) gently merged with soft swells of musical instruments - the occasional tinkle of a piano, and possibly a stringed instrument... leading into the ominous rumbles of tropical thunderstorm. You can almost feel the heat and humidity of the Everglades bleeding through the speakers. Halfway through the composition you will hear the grunting of some large reptile or amphibian, along with exotic birdsong and underwater gurgles, to the backdrop of more motorized traffic sounds.
As the piece moves towards its end, the noise and ambience dwindles back down into a peaceful and natural serenity, with Reeder's quiet and subtle acoustic flourishes giving the whole thing a more emotional and tender quality. 

'Self​-​portrait as a meditation on Somewhere Else' is a beautiful and captivating listening experience. The strange juxtaposition of the natural and unnatural, the ebbing and flowing of all the various noises in this hot sticky environment, and the subtle acoustic instrumentation peppered throughout the composition makes for an alluring and exquisite sound art album.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

María Alejandra Bulla - to be noise and dance 


(Sawyer Spaces, 2023)

María Alejandra Bulla is a music maker interested in the creation of flexible performance situations that allow individuals to experience art in a personal way. From the construction of miniature objects to oversized scores, instrumental pieces and field recordings, she attempts to create experiences in which music becomes part of everyday situations. Her artistic work lives comfortably at the intersection of sound, craft and design. 

This album 'to be noise and dance' consists of a series of SoundWalks in which the artist has collected, compiled and collaged field recordings from her aimless walks around various cities in America and Columbia. The purpose of this sound experiment was ''walking with no other purpose than recording what happens'' while thinking, remembering and reflecting on life and love.
In these recordings you will hear a variety of familiar busy city sounds - the beeping and whooshing of passing traffic, human voices, construction noises, distant helicopters, bicycles and bustling footsteps...which are seamlessly blended with beautiful nature sounds, such as birds tweeting and twittering, insects buzzing and chirping, along with all kinds of weather sounds - sometimes loud and heavy, sometimes gentle and distant. Lots of ambient rainfall. 
And over the cacophony of these strange soundscapes you will sporadically hear the soft humming and whistling of the artist, sparkly electric piano melodies, quiet somber drones, lonely music box notes and muted rumbles and swells of indistinguishable noise.

'to be noise and dance' is an absurdly captivating sound study of large urban environments that we walk through on a daily basis, and a fascinating sonic exploration of the elemental forms that make up our human existence, and city life in general. Such an intriguing and wonderful listening experience.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Heavy Cloud - Zennor 


(self-released, 2023)

Heavy Cloud is the solo music project of English experimental artist/musician Ryan Hooper. Hooper has released a vast number of works - both independently and through various small record/tape labels. He creates collage-based sound art and experimental textures inspired by memory and internal/external landscapes. 

'Zennor' is a village on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, UK. In this album, Hooper used Zennor as ''a metaphorical location for the Zennor Sound Group to workshop sonic ideas and share and cross-thread histories as a form of therapy, by way of a lofi radio play across timelines and ley lines.''

This album consists of 14 sound collages, which are made up from voices, texts, field recordings, found sounds, tape noises, snippets of musicality and turntable experiments. 
In these bizarre sound collages you will hear a variety of fragmented voice samples, snippets of found piano melodies, tape hissing, damaged drones, radio music, dramatic waves of immersive noise and the unmistakable sounds of turntablism...all cutup, manipulated, detuned and bashed beyond recognition to form these wacky, demented and dream-like excursions into twisted territories of inner and outer worlds... 
These minimalistic found sounds along with the noise of tape manipulation and audio disentegration create a unique kind of ambience, and a strangely cinematic listening experience. 'Zennor' is a surreal and satisfying album of avant-garde sound art.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Sylvia Hallett - Telescope


(Scatter Archive, 2022)

Sylvia Hallett is a multi-instrumentalist and composer moving between violin, Norwegian Hardanger fiddle, saw, accordion, electronics and found objects. She currently plays solo and with The London Improvisers Orchestra and The Heliocentrics. As a solo artist, she has released six solo albums.

This album consists of one 29-minute long sound collage of improvised tape loops and home field recordings taken during the 80s and early 90s. As Hallett states herself, this is the period of time that she felt like she was looking back on through a telescope while making this album.
If I understand it correctly, these found recordings of hers were done on reel-to-reel tape recorders and a high-speed Tascam Portastudio, played backwards and/or at a warped speed, and eventually recomposed on a computer.

There's a lot going on in this piece. You will hear natural room acoustics, manipulated detuned voices, cavernous reverberations, sinister sweeping drones, gurgling wind-like noises, reversed shuffling sounds, draining water, erratic rumbles, steel clanking, abstract pulses, fragments of slowly-stretched creepy electronica, some sort of tribal chanting, segments of dreamy ambience and a variety of other miscellaneous indistinguishable sonic textures.

'Telescope' is a baffling and intriguing sound collage of fragile tape loops, warped audio, abstract atmospheres and free-form improvisation using minimalistic (dated) equipment, and lovingly brought back to life using more modern audio treatments. A fascinating listening experience.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Mykel Boyd - What Is Behind Me Still Remains Ahead Of Me 


(Park70, 2023)

Mykel Boyd is an experimental sound/conceptual artist that lives in Bradley, Illinois. He is also the founder/owner of the sound art label Somnimage. By experimenting with aleatoric processes, Boyd creates work in which a fascination with the clarity of content and an uncompromising attitude towards conceptual and minimal art can be found. The work is aloof and systematic, and cool and neutral imagery is used.

'What Is Behind Me Still Remains Ahead Of Me' is an album of dark abstract atmospheres and textures, made from manipulated field recordings. It consists of two long-form pieces.
'Images of Absolute Truth' begins with the resonating echoes of a gong-like bell being hit slowly and repetitively against a background of static, which suddenly morphes into the more threatening sound of stuttering wind sounds. This gradually quietens down into an array of subtle sonic abstractions, pierced through with sinister bursts of squalling noise and ominous bangs, while the tension and atmosphere trembles away...
'Fall On Us and Hide Us' beings with distant banging, watery gargles, sustained ambient tones and various fluttering textures, every now and then ending with gentle explosions. There is also bizarre laser-like beams of sound, dipping and rising in frequency. Like the previous track, it has that haunting crackling static noise throughout...sometimes subtle, sometimes right up to the forefront.

'What Is Behind Me Still Remains Ahead Of Me' is a dark, eerie and fascinating listening experience, and a real atmospheric treat for fans of experimental noise and sound art.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

black_ops and The Creeping Man - Wound and Suture 


(Wormhole World, 2023)

black_ops and The Creeping Man are two noise artists that both work within the field of eerie experimental sound art. This is their debut full-length collaboration album, and the follow-up to an EP they released last year called 'Dust', which they called ''an audio apertif to whet the palate - a pledge of things to come''.

'Wound and Suture' is a dark collection of haunting soundscapes made up of sinister drones, fractured static, ghostly ambience and sweeping post-industrial noise... intertwined and interweaved with twisted audio samples that are a signature part of The Creeping Man's solo output. The more the album plays out, the more you find that these voice samples and manipulated audio excerpts are an integral and crucial part of the overall unique sound design of these compositions. The use of field recordings throughout this album are subtle and tasteful, smoothly blending into the eeriness of these dronescapes, whilst at the same time not being too much of a distraction. The source material of these recordings remain mysterious and abstract, and provoke feelings of confusion and unease.

'Wound and Suture' is a brilliant collaboration between two dark underground noise artists who have both individually honed their unique crafts to the point where you can clearly distinguish their separate contributions to the overall sound of this album, yet the styles are sonically blended together with such discipline and finesse. If you're a fan of ominous drones, manipulated field recordings and haunted sound art - this album's for you.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Emmanuel Mieville - four towers and a bridge


(forms of minutiae, 2022)

Emmanuel Mieville is a Paris-born composer, field recordist and scholar of musique concrète whose work focuses on aural perceptions of daily life, and field recordings with a special focus on sound topologies recorded around the world, musical objects and environment.

This album is comprised of four ambiguous sound collages. In these recordings you will hear rapidly pulsating tones, oscillating feedback, modulating frequencies, glitchy electronic bursts, erratic crackling, haunting drones, industrial machinery, mechanical whining and grinding, doors slamming, surfaces squeaking, atonal squalls of noise, steel clanging and a vast array of objects being shuffled, shaken and banged... all against a backdrop of outdoor field recordings from various locations in France and Portugal - sounds recorded in, on, and around technologies of crossing; from the Ponte Eiffel bridge in Viana do Castelo (Portugal) to the elevator and automated railway system of the BnF (the national library of France) in Paris. You will disctinctly hear the rush of busy traffic, P.A announcements, birds chirping, dogs barking, wind blowing and fragments of human voices.

'four towers and a bridge' is an album of abstract and haunting sound environments that are jarring and unnerving, and sometimes frightening... but it's also a wonderfully unique and highly enjoyable example of avant-garde sound art. Highly recommended.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-

Oishi - once upon a time there was a mountain 


(Bezirk Tapes, 2023)

Oishi is the collaborative duo of experimental improv artists Zheng Hao and Ren Shang from China, currently-based in London, UK. They tend to perform using samples from their own music/materials, as well as field recordings and found sounds. Their live set up includes mixers, laptops and cassette players.

On Side A Hao is on laptop duties while Shang is on cassette player. This performance is based on a field recording of Hao walking a friend's dog in Urbana, Illinois, which has been stretched and manipulated (both manually and digitally) to create bizarre sonic abstractions. Minimalistic laser-like zaps and bursts of whooshing noises lay the basic sound foundation, over which layers of other ambiguous sounds are built upon through the piece. You will hear soft high frequency drones, haunting gargling sounds, distant crashing noises, fluttering static, erratic audio glitches, crunching footsteps, bird-like squalls, cut-up feedback and shifting pitches... all short-lived and fleeting, constantly interrupted by abrupt stops and silences.

On Side B Shang takes over the laptop while Hao occupies the cassette player - the vice versa roles of Side A. This performance was inspired by the instability of the car radio, and poetically simulates the sound of a motorcycle engine. In this recording you will hear the low frequency rumbles, puttering mechanical humming, engine-like revving and vrooming sounds - both gentle and wild, cut-up and warped tape manipulations, various intriguing song samples and chaotic crescendos of blistering squalls of noise.

'once upon a time there was a mountain' is a strangely exquisite sound collage, full of mystery and intrigue. It's a simultaneously baffling and endearing album of manipulated field recordings and experimental noise techniques. It treads an absurd middle ground between mundate reality and playful fantasy. Highly recommended.


-

Stuart Chalmers - Suikinkutsu 水​琴​窟 


(Fractal Meat Cuts, 2021)

Stuart Chalmers is a Yorkshire-based improvisor, tape splicer and ''sound scavenger'' whose work tends to focus on natural sound environments. He uses field recordings and a variety of different instruments and audio manipulation methods to create gorgeous improvised sound art and avant-garde musique concrete.

'Suikunkutsu' (English translation : water harp cave) is an album that was performed and recorded in Dowkabottom Cave in the Yorkshire Dales (UK) back in 2020, which had the second wettest February and the driest/sunniest May since records began. With the aim and intention of discovering more about the world's natural beauty and wonder during such a tumultuous time, Chalmers used water drops inside the cave to strike various objects of different materials and tones to create percussive sounds, and an unpredictable yet immersive acoustic environment for an album to be made in.
Throughout these tracks, the frequency and intensity of the water drips vary with the changing of the weather and the seasons. You will hear metallic tinkles, hollow dongs, watery trickles, shrill tings, wooden clanks, percussive bangs and some musical flourishes akin to the strum of a zither, or the soft striking of a xylophone. This is a serene and meditative sound art album, and a beautiful ode to nature.

Stream/Buy/Download :

-