Hello everyone. I took brief hiatus from blogging to concentrate on releasing my debut full-length album, which you can read about in the previous blog post. Anyway, I'm back now to bring you some of my latest non-musical recommendations...
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.
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Amby Downs - Ngunmal
(Room40, 2023)
Amby Downs is the musical pseudonym of interdisciplinary artist Tahlia Palmer who creates predominantly place-based sound works to creatively engage with processing trauma to further decolonise mind, spirit and body. She is of Murri and European descent, and lives in Naarm/Melbourne.
'Ngunmal' is her latest release. It's an album consisting of two longform compositions, and two short excerpts from each.
The title track 'Ngunmal' begins with a series of dark ominous metallic-sounding swells, mechanical vibrations and the distant echo of steel clangs, which fills the soundscape with dense layers of desolate industrial ambience. Within the wind-like whooshing sounds, deep rumbles and eerie distortions, you will hear all kinds of vague shuffling, haunting reverberations and strange sonic phenomena.... along with a constant yet unpredictable clanging noise, which sounds to me like a metal fence or gate that's been left to rattle in the breeze. As the piece progresses, you will gradually hear a range of different tones, textures and frequencies emerge out of the vastness of this steel cacophony. You will hear low frightening gurgles, shimmering reverberations, atmospheric scrapes, faint tingling bells, ambient fuzz, manipulated birdsong, sinister drones and erratic bursts of ambiguous noise. There are also these constant gong-like resonances drifting and floating throughout this entire composition...
'I Am Holding My Breath' begins with a thick atmosphere of foreboding and tension. The soundscape slowly comes alive with mournful drones, menacing rumbles, ghostly howls and gloomy ambient noise. Then you will hear dark vibrations, creaking steel, somber echoes, low frequency moans, cawing birds, environmental ambience, some kind of unwinding spring (?) and other weird sonic abstractions. Around the midway point, things die down and become a bit quieter and softer... but the atmosphere remains unsettling and tense as you immerse yourself in the sound of these intriguing field recordings. For the final stretch of the composition, the intensity and ferocity ramps up as it gradually builds towards the album's wonderfully noisy crescendo...
'Ngunmal' is a hauntingly captivating album of heavily-processed field recordings, atmospheric drones, unnerving distortions, ambient noise and environmental sound phenomena. Palmer's skilful audio manipulations and ambient steel cacophonies makes for such a dark and mesmerizing listening experience.
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A ∩ D - Two Years
(Perceived Sound, 2023)
A ∩ D is the collaborative experimental duo of Angela Frances Wilson (modular synth) & Devin Sarno (Bass Guitar & FX), who have both released large bodies of work as solo artists.
'Two Years' is their latest release. It consists of four improvised live performances, recorded in two different L.A venues - Coaxial Arts & Face Guts.
In these four long sprawling soundscapes, you will hear a series of slow unfurling ambience, hypnotic pulses, shimmering fuzz, haunting swells, ominous rumbles, airy feedback, Lynchian drones, cavernous reverberations, grainy textures, stuttering vibrations, drifting white noise, eerie howling tones, distant bangs and some subtle yet beautiful free jazz improvisation. The glacial pace at which this music moves makes me think of a thick sinister fog, slowly making its way across the sea, engulfing everything its path... and despite the album's length - it somehow never gets boring. The textures and tones of these abstract sonic environments are constantly shifting and evolving, with layer upon layer of drifting sounds merging and mingling in the air, blurring into solemn waves of dense spectral noise...
'Two Years' is a long mesmerizing album of dark cinematic ambience and haunting sound experimentation. The deeply immersive atmospheres and exquisite dronescapes that Wilson & Sarno have skilfully sculpted in these live performances make for a calm, meditative and utterly spellbinding listening experience.
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Sarah Ruth - Fellowship of the Arid Plain
(Sawyer Spaces, 2023)
Sarah Ruth Alexander is a diverse sound artist, multi-instrumentalist, performer, music instructor and radio producer that lives in Denton, Texas. She performs frequently both solo and with multiple bands and improvisational ensembles in the North Texas area.
'Fellowship of the Arid Plain' is her latest release. It's a 13-track album of experimental soundscape compositions and free improvisations recorded at her family farm. According to the artist - it's a place of both solace and harshness. The titles and credits of these tracks (see Bandcamp page) will give you a solid idea of what you might be in for...
The album begins with the mechanical chirping of an insect, along with rhythmic breathing vocalizations by the artist, while an ominous windy drone rumbles away in the background. Then we hear the howling wind batter and buffet a tractor shed. The noise is so wild and vivid - it instantly transports you to that building where you're surrounded by metallic banging and clanging, and the squeaking of rusty hinges... followed by improvised scraping and banging off a propane tank with tractor parts (Hank Hill would be horrified) while the wind continues to blow into the mic...
Track 4 introduces some beautiful melody in the form of an a'capella duo, singing in wonderful soulful harmony against a backdrop of buzzing insects, twittering birds, and soft whooshing winds.
Throughout the rest of the album, you will hear a series of improvised percussive pieces with various objects, people walking and talking, the intense cacophonous buzzing of bees in a wall, an avant-garde musical jam session, bizarre vocalizations, didgeridoo improvisations, cattle mooing and lowing, humans mooing and lowing, beautiful birdsong, high-pitched screams, religious choral singing and sinister cracks of thunder...
'Fellowship of the Arid Plain' is a uniquely bizarre and strangely fascinating album of intriguing field recordings and avant sound experimentation. Sometimes amusing and fun, sometimes poignant and moving, sometimes haunting and unsettling... this album makes for a wonderfully unpredictable listening experience.
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Andrew Weathers - Different Wind
(Sawyer Spaces, 2023)
Andrew Weathers is a composer and improviser based in the Llano Estacado region of northwestern Texas. His work is equally concerned with the disjunction of duration and place, as well as improvisation’s prospect as a vessel of discovery and collective practice. His projects and performances span the idioms of field recording, prepared guitar, surrealist soundscape, and minimalist composition rooted in repetition and drone.
'Different Wind' is an album consisting of four (exactly) 10-minute long sound compositions, based on field recordings from different counties in Ireland - Mayo, Galway, Clare, Kerry & Cork.
The album begins with a series of intimate rustling/shuffling sounds in the foreground (likely recorded during a SoundWalk), while in the background you can make out the distant hum of trickling water, soft breezes and pretty birdsong. Then you will hear field recordings taken onboard the Shannon Ferry - a private Irish ferry company. You will hear P.A announcements, the faint thrum of a motor engine, busy sounds of locomotion, whooshing traffic, snippets of conversation, rumbling urban drones and an overwhelming cacophony of twittering birds that just builds and builds as the track progresses...
In the second half of the album you will hear a low rumbling atonal drone accompanied by manipulated gurgling water sounds and airy environmental ambience. I think you can hear ocean waves crashing in the background, but I'm not totally sure. There's also some kind of fuzzed-out ambient noise, and various abstract distortions. Eventually you will hear a glistening metallic-like sound, almost like the creaking of an old gate. Along with this you'll hear various howls of wind, and other ambiguous rumbles and trickling noises...
In the final composition, you will hear more glorious birdsong against a backdrop of vague outdoor ambience and big lapping sea waves. Listening closely, you will hear a series of other environmental noises, such as barking dogs, the murmur of human voices, determined footsteps, and the unmistakable vrooming sound of large vehicles passing by or unloading their cargoes. There's also a repetitive mechanical squealing sound of some sort, but that could be a synthesizer for all I know... and the album ends with the hum of a tranquil seaside soundscape...
'Different Wind' is a delicate, peaceful and intriguing sound journey through a variety of beautiful locations in Ireland - some quiet and rural, some more busy and urban... but one consistency is that all these vibrant field recordings and Weathers' skilful manipulation of certain sounds heard within them makes for a soothing and contemplative listening experience.
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Norman W. Long - Re-Membering/Re-Presencing
(Rural Situationalism, 2023)
Norman W. Long is a sound artist/designer/composer based in Chicago, Illinois whose current work focuses on sound art production within the larger context of landscape. The processes involved in his practice lie within the area of field recording, electro-acoustic composition and dub technique.
'Re-Membering/Re-Presencing' is his latest album on the new Texas-based sound art label
Rural Situationism. It consists of one 46-minute long composition based on field recordings taken from three different locations in Chicago - namely Big Marsh Park, Calumet Harbor, & Jeffery Manor.
It begins with the sweet tranquil twittering and cawing of various birds, along with the ambient buzz of insects - possibly summer cicadas? After a few minutes you will start to hear an array of gentle ruffling/scratching noises using small objects, and what sounds like spinning spokes... almost like some kind of mechanized hamster wheel. This all comes to a gradual stop, and you will hear a series of bird sounds in hypnotic syncopated rhythms. Then there's an abrupt change in atmosphere and texture, as the soundscape fills with ambient noise and atonal drones from (what sounds to me like) air ventilation systems and mechanical jet engines. The effect is rather unnerving, and makes for some interesting juxtaposition of sounds. After this you'll hear layers of static noise, perforated with the tweeting of birds.
At around the midway point of the album, things take an intriguing turn as Long introduces some musicality and melody into the piece. First you will hear some eerie spectral tones swirling round the soundscape, followed by wave upon wave of beautiful fuzzy synth ambience. Throughout the rest of the composition you will hear watery gurgles, babbling brooks, chirping crickets, shimmering fuzz, segments of lo-fi electronica and new age ambience, mechanical chugging, repetitive banging noises and a plethora of bizarre sonic abstractions. It all ends with the sound of crunching footsteps, pretty birdsong and environmental drones...
'Re-Membering/Re-Presencing' is a highly captivating and deeply immersive album of beautiful nature recordings, intricate sound collaging, subtle ambience, environmental noise and abstract sonic phenomena. Such a mesmerizing and rewarding listening experience.
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Richard Chartier - on a continuous form
(LINE Imprint, 2023)
Richard Chartier is a Los Angeles based artist / composer, and is considered one of the key figures in minimalist sound art. Chartier’s works explore the inter-relationships between the spatial nature of sound, silence, focus, perception, and the act of listening.
'on a continuous form' is an album consisting of four parts. It's a sonic study of the spaces in between sounds, and of the repeating patterns that occur - both in music and in daily life.
In these compositions you will hear a series of slow fuzzy pulsations, subtle wavering drones, low windy rumbles, soft cavernous gurgles, atonal hums, swirling noises of varying frequencies, fluttering abstractions, soothing environmental ambience and occasional electronic bleeps. There's an immense and intoxicating beauty to be found within the spatial nature of these sounds, and Chartier's unique ability to re-contextualize and transmute them into abstract and surreal audio environments never ceases to amaze me.
'on a continuous form' is a mesmerizing album of minimalistic soundscapes. Ominous and austere, slow and haunting, abstract and slightly unnerving... this music requires patience and time to unfold and unravel, but if you allow it to - it will slowly engulf you in the most wonderful way. An utterly hypnotic and meditative listening experience.
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Heavy Cloud - Anamnesis
(Human Geography Records, 2023)
Heavy Cloud is the solo music project of prolific 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.
'Anamnesis' is an album consisting of two 15-minute long compositions which ''attempt to capture the overflowing senses related to postmemory experience, across a migratory suite of electronic textures, musique concrète and turntable inspired manipulation.''
Side A begins with a flurry of human activity, tremulous vibrations, swirling synth ambience, environmental sounds and some wacky improvised turntable noises. This goes on for the first couple of minutes, as the whole soundscape seems to be gradually disentegrating. You hear crackles and splutters of tape decay before a sudden change in atmosphere occurs, and the soundscape fills with low gurgling tones along with some kind of plastic substance being squashed and squeezed, while the background fills with environmental whooshes and bursts of wind. At around the midway point, a haunting mechanical-like chugging noise takes over the foreground of the mix, which is really mesmerizing. The latter half of the track consists of fragmented vocal samples and radio frequencies, distant bangs, improvised noises, subtle drones and possibly a hoover (?)...
Side B begins with another flurry of objects being clicked, clacked, shuffled and scraped. Then some ambient white noise and turntable improvisations emerge through the mix. Things start getting more intense and frantic and we hear various kinds of atonal drones accompany a lot of mad crashing and shuffling of objects. Eventually things die down and there's an abrupt switch in texture and tone, as laser-like zaps and electronic bleeps emerge out of layers of beautiful rippling ambience. This particular ambience sounds like manipulated field recordings, warbling away to create a freaky atmosphere. Around the midway point, you will shimmering metallic drones and more warped radio transmissions before we come to a (kind of) serene section of sweet tingling bells and pitchshifted electronic tones. In the final stretch, the background fills with outdoor environmental ambience. You can hear cars revving, breezes blowing and a wonderful airiness that feels so open and free compared to the previous sections that had quite a clautrophobic feel to them, while the foreground is alive with more sound experimentation and decaying radio frequencies.
'Anamnesis' is a wonderful and woozy album of abstract audio collages, intriguing field recordings, hallucinatory sound art and avant-garde noise experimentation. Hooper's uniquely bizarre collaging methods and intelligent sound sculpting makes for a hypnotic and rather wacky listening experience.
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Road To Saturn - Light Nearing
(Human Geography Records, 2023)
Road To Saturn is the free improvisational psych noise duo of Estonian-Latvian singer and avant-garde vocalist eleOnora (Eleonora Kampe) & experimental folk group Lost Harbours founder RT.
'Light Nearing' is their latest release, which consists of four compositions...
'Light Steps' begins with a series of abstract vocal hums and sighs floating over a soft fuzzy dronescape. From there you will hear fragments of arpeggiated guitar melodies and further layers of trippy vocal ambience drifting in and out of the mix...
'Light Conversation' begins with some more strummed guitar patterns in some strange unconventional tuning. These dissonant chords ring and echo throughout the soundscape as EleOnora performs a series of visceral toots, hums and howls... which creates a demented and ominous atmosphere.
'Light Sigh' begins with some minimalistic free-form guitar improvisation and eerie vocalizations, which makes me think of flying over empty deserts. The glistening sound of the guitar strings creates its own haunting ambience, while the fragile vocal hums feel like some kind of ritualistic prayer or incantation. Towards the end of the piece, some (what I think are) synth drones and layers of crashing noise create an unsettling cacophony...
'Light Formation' begins with a low atmospheric drone, creepy guitar melodies and distant howls. The atmosphere is thick with tension and suspense as some ethereal howls, strangled cries and bird-like chirping sounds emerge through the mix. I find this track to be more mellow and tranquil than the previous ones. It sucks you in with its beautiful and meditative allure... transporting you along to some other distant (perhaps otherworldly) plain.
'Light Nearing' is an album of hallucinatory soundscapes, avant-garde improv, abstract vocalizations and psychedelic noise experimentation. Its demented atmospheres, woozy ambience and bizarre vocal abstractions makes for a hypnotic and cathartic listening experience.
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elizabeth veldon - passing the dark house (ost)
(Black Circle Records, 2023)
Elizabeth Veldon is a Scottish sound artist & composer mainly working within the fields of minimalism, improvisation, drone and field recording whose works focus on stillness and silence, and embrace the interpretation of literary and religious texts, landscape, faith and women's experence.
'passing the dark house' is a soundtrack for a horror movie that doesn't exist. As a huge fan of both horror movies and atmospheric sound art - I knew I had to check this out...and I certainly wasn't disappointed.
This EP is split into five compositions - starting and ending with ''the main theme'' of the fake movie. In these compositions you will predominantly hear a series of eerie fluttering tones - drifting and swirling through vast emptiness of these minimalistic soundscapes, creating tense and unnerving atmospheres filled with abstract terror and creeping dread. These ghostly tones and distressed aural textures interweave and mingle with each other in the air, resulting in dissonant ambience, tremulous vibrations and ominous noise patterns. It's a wonderful slab of avant-garde minimalism. Veldon never feels the need to overlayer or overcomplicate the sounds she creates. The music is constantly ebbing and flowing, with the silences and emptiness you hear between the notes being just as important as the sounds themselves, leaving a good amount of room for the imagination to create its own horror story...
'passing the dark house' is an EP of stark and haunting atmospheres, filled with unsettling ambience and quiet foreboding terror. Veldon's skilfully-crafted drones and minimalistic sound design makes for a patient yet rewarding listening experience... and a fantastic horror soundtrack!
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Manuel Carbone - Leipzig 21/10/23
(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.
'Leipzig 21/10/23' is one 26-minute long recording of a Manuel Carbone live performance at the Relatives Schoensein 2 exhibition at Aquarium Leipzig, Germany. It begins with fluttering tingling sounds, trembling drones, ambient fuzz and gentle swells of deep rumbling noise, swirling slowly throughout the soundscape. After a couple of minutes, the intensity ramps up and you will hear glistening metallic whooshing noises and all sorts of dissonant howls, drifting around and interweaving... After a while things become quiet, in a slightly unsettling kind of way. You will hear peaceful field recordings, dreamy bell-like melodies, eerie echoes and other sonic abstractions. This plays out for a few minutes and lulls you into a gentle state of serenity. Around the halfway point, you will hear minimalistic dissonant feedback and a variety of strange gurgling sounds. For the secondof the piece, you will hear haunting bursts of broken radio transmissions, mysterious bleeps, unnerving thumps and low rumbles... until the final section when the soundscape once again fills with a peaceful ambience, driven by beautiful woozy arpeggios that ring out into the air...
'Leipzig 21/10/23' is a captivating recording of a superb live performance. The way Carbone skilfully weaves layer upon layer of sound to create these immersive vibrant noisescapes makes for an intriguing and atmospheric listening experience.
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Tossapol - a garden
(self-released, 2023)
Tossapol is an experimental sound artist that lives in Bangkok, Thailand. He makes minimalistic sound collages using small objects and field recordings.
'a garden' is his latest self-released album. It consists of one 34-minute long sound composition, created from field recordings taken within the small garden of the artists's childhood home.
It begins with a rhythmic pulsating bleeping noise and some pretty melodic birdsong against a hissing backdrop of lo-fi environmental ambience. You will also hear the distant hum of passing traffic on the street below, as the artist toils away at some light gardening. You will hear the various sounds of his body shuffling about, digging into the soil with some kind of trowel, and the hollow rattle of ceramic pots and other empty containers being lightly banged and scraped...along with some bags or sacks being crunched. Maybe they were used to discard dead plants, rotten leaves or invasive weeds?
Meanwhile, there's a mesmerizing phaser-like sound effect going on in the background which adds an element of surreality to the piece. After a while, the rhythmic bleeping noise from the start of the track emerges through the mix again, while the artist continues to scrape leaves, dig soil, and rearrange the small garden landscape. The composition gets particularly quiet and serene around the midway point. The only sounds to be heard are the tiny objects being softly banged, and the gentle environmental drones... disturbed only by the occasional tweeting of birds.
The piece ends with a long gradual fade out, in which you will hear (what I assume to be) the artist finishing up his work, lightly running water, putting his tools and equipment away, and eventually walking back inside the house...
'a garden' is a beautiful and poignant recording of a place chock full of memory and meaning for the artist. The delicate field recordings, gentle textures, lo-fi ambience and minimal sound processing makes for such a peaceful and captivating listening experience. A gorgeous audio composition.
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