Happy New Year everyone! Here's my first roundup of great non-musical recommendations of 2024...
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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Conducive - Vanterwood Industries, Inc.
(Veinte33 Records, 2023)
Conducive is an experimental sound artist and from the UK who uses field recordings, audio manipulation and sound collages to create interesting and immersive noise pieces, against a very subtle backdrop of minimalistic textural ambient music.
'Vanterwood Industries, Inc.' is Conducive's latest full-length album, and it's an epic stunner of an album. It consists of three compositions - two sprawling longform pieces with a short interlude sandwiched in between. It's an album based on the fictional story of a small-town individual exploring a mysterious industrial complex at night...but something is encountered along the journey and returns home to haunt them.
In this album you will hear haunted field recordings of large factory noises, grinding machinery sounds, metallic drones, rattling pipes, hissing steam, vibrating conveyor belts and dark industrial ambience... accompanied by subtle yet eerie musicality and frightening noise experimentation, which only thickens and intensifies the already ominous atmospheres and mysterious soundscapes... There's also an undeniable sadness and resigned bleakness to this album.
Despite its vagueness and ambiguity - it fills you with unshakable feelings of worry and dread. Something I've loved and admired about all of Conducive's work is his ability to create these impossibly noisy and intense sound compositions that somehow never tread on that horrible ''harsh noise'' territory. It shows an undeniable discipline, restraint and intelligence on the part of the artist. The album is fiercely noisy, yet totally immersive and easy to listen to at the same time.
'Vanterwood Industries, Inc.' is an utterly haunting and mesmerizing sound journey through dark industrial landscapes. It's a dystopian nightmare, full of frightening atmospheres and surreal noise. A bleak and eerie yet wonderfully immersive listening experience.
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Banana - Some Kind of Telling
(Infant Tree, 2023)
Banana is the collaborative duo of two sound artists/musicians living and working on unceded Wangal land in Sydney, Australia - Alexandra Spence & MP Hopkins.
Through her practice, Alexandra Spence attempts to reimagine the intricate relationships between the listener, the object, and the surrounding environment as a kind of communion or conversation. Her aesthetic favours field recordings, analogue technologies and object interventions.
MP Hopkins uses voice, feedback, recording/playback devices, and text scores within different acoustic environments, which are deconstructed and presented to the listener in delicate and degraded ways.
'Some Kind of Telling' is a mini-album consisting of four compositions - two main longform pieces, an interlude and a coda.
In these stark and minimalistic compositions you will hear a series of slow ambient blowing noises into various wind instruments, overlapping and integrating with each other within the hollow soundscapes. These blowing noises range from high whistling sounds to low resonant drones to trembling flourishes to short fleeting trills to dying chokes... creating suspenseful and meditative atmospheres to lose yourself within. The raw organic ambience along with the sheer emptiness of the silences in between the notes is so dreamy and languorous. Alongside the blowing noises you will hear strange and erratic bursts of whining feedback, environmental sounds, ambiguous clicks, fluttering scrapes and hallucinatory male and female vocalizations.
In between the two longform compositions, there's a haunting ambient interlude made up of moody drones and dissonant noise, which breaks up the atmospheres of the longform pieces nicely. And the album ends with a little coda of dissonant windy squalls and ambient fuzz.
'Some Kind of Telling' is a bizarre and beautiful album of avant-garde sound experimentation, meditative ambience and atmospheric reverberations. The music that Spence & Hopkins have skilfully created both enables and occupies a certain kind of calm and reflective headspace in the listener, and makes for a fascinating listening experience.
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Amy Cutler - TAKE WARNING RAIN - rain dance redux for the Anthropocene
(Human Geography Records, 2023)
Dr Amy Cutler is an artist, cultural geographer, and live cinema artist who works with ideas of geography and nonhuman others. She has released a number of albums through various experimental record/tape labels.
'TAKE WARNING RAIN...' is her latest album, based on nostalgic ideas of rainwater’s purity and purification, completing an unofficial trilogy with her earlier albums connected to meteorology, melancholy, and pathetic fallacy.
In these 22 compositions you will hear incessant rainfall, ominous thunder, demented ambience, fragments of warped music samples (nostalgic songs that feature rain in the lyrics), tape manipulation noises, unnerving stings, sullen church bells, beautiful birdsong, reversed voices, fractured choral singing, fuzzed out drones, pitchshifted squeaks and squalls, cavernous reverberations, hypnotic metal scraping, rumbling distortions, howling winds, haunting pianos, swirling echoes, dreamy bells and all other kinds of abstract sonic phenomena...all against a backdrop of lo-fi ambient tape hiss.
Throughout this trippy audio excusion, Cutler skifully conjures up memories of innocent past days, while also reminding us of current environmental catastrophies, and possible perils of the future... yet the journey as a whole is undoubtedly a joy to behold.
'TAKE WARNING RAIN' is a strange and mesmerizing album of wonky tape manipulations, twisted atmospheres, warped nostalgia, mysterious field recordings, watery deluges, cacophonous lo-fi noises and avant-garde sound experimentation. It's simultaneously haunting and fun, unsettling and amusing... A bizarre yet rather beautiful listening experience.
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Claude & Ola with Immara - Glimmers of Quintessence
(Steep Gloss, 2023)
Claude & Ola Aldous are two experimental musicians residing in the northern reaches of New York state in the US.
Trained in classical guitar, Todd Lent is a multi-instrumentalist who incorporates influences and elements from a diverse range of global musical genres into his writing and performance.
'Glimmers of Quintessence' is their new collaborative album. It's quite a bit more musical than most albums I tend to review on here, but I decided to make an exception for this one..
In these compositions you will hear segments of breathtaking jazz piano, fuzzy drones, wild bursts of fractured noise, squalls of distorted feedback, wacky audio manipulations, frantic bleeping sounds, the metallic crescendo of cymbals, the violent crashing of percussion, beautiful dark ambient sections and Ola's haunting vocalizations, soaring over the soundscape...
There's a really impressive range of atmospheres and emotions contained within these pieces. Sometimes it's quiet and unsettling... sometimes it's dreamy and beautiful...and sometimes the whole thing becomes a batshit cacophony of demented noise, never letting any section become predictable or wearisome...
'Glimmers of Quintessence' is an album of stunning avant-jazz instrumentation, glitchy electronica, damaged sound art, atmospheric ambience and abstract noise experimentation. The wild trippy improv along with the haunting sound design that this talented trio have created in this album makes for a unique and compelling listening experience.
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Rebecca Goldberg - Presence in Distance: Live at Imbue 9.0
(Great Corner Sound, 2023)
Rebecca Goldberg is a producer, live performer, DJ and graphic designer from Detroit.
'Presence in Distance: Live at Imbue 9.0' is an album consisting two longform compositions that are based on Detroit field recordings that she blended for a performance on April 6, 2023.
Side A begins with the repetitive chirping of crickets, murmured conversation, P.A accouncements, locomotive drones and other environmental ambient noise. The first few minutes of this piece will have you immersed in the sound of a chugging train and a variety of atonal drones and urban sound phenomena, all whooshing and whirring past in this mesmerizing noisescape.
As the piece progresses, the tones, frequencies and textures are constantly shifting and evolving...with snippets of conversation drifting in and out of the mix. In the latter half of the composition, you will hear a lot of crunching footsteps, buzzing flies, airy drones and city ambience...
Side B begins with the whirring and rumbling of transport noises, which creates an interesting tension and dissonance, overlaid with the ubiquitous chirping of crickets. There are all kinds of faint sounds to be heard on top of that - church bells chiming, vocal fragments, music played through tinny speakers, individuals coughing, rustling body movements, police sirens blaring and other audio fragments zooming past...
'Presence in Distance: Live at Imbue 9.0' is a rich and intriguing album of beautiful field recordings and atmospheric sound collage that transports you through this unique and hypnotic environment. A vibrant and captivating listening experience.
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post doom romance - prairie transmissions
(Somnimage, 2023)
Post Doom Romance is the collaborative audio/visual project of sound artists Mykel Body & Seah. Together they explore inner and outer soundscapes, and create love letters from the abstract language of granular synthesis - a communication through particles. The process creates an aesthetic - the third "thing" that arises when two objects presence each other.
'prairie transmissions' is their new album. It's a 13-part audio cycle which explores the inner / outer vibrations of the landscape the artists inhabit. These recordings were captured, processed, layered, manipulated and composed in the prairies around their home (in Bradley, Illinois) over the course of one year...
The album begins with a singular rippling drone, softly pulsating away in a serene yet slightly ominous manner, in absolutely no hurry to go anywhere. Eventually you will start to hear slight atmospheric shifts and wavering dissonance enter the mix, making the ambience come alive and shimmer with suspense. Sometimes the tones mingle and harmonize with each other, before seperating once again.
Throughout the rest of the album you will hear airy outdoor field recordings, menacing drones, surreal modulations, metallica swells, fuzzy static tones, granular synth ambience, churning mechanisms, eerie signals, dark emotional electronica and all sorts of weather-related sound phenomena, such as howling gusts of wind, deep frightening rumbles, trickling rain, etc...
'prairie transmissions' is a slow unfurling album of dark brooding atmospheres, haunting drones, strange vibrations, industrial noise and intriguing nature sounds from the prairie. The juxtaposition of the rural field recordings with the abstract almost sci-fi noisescapes makes for a surreal and fascinating listening experience.
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Manja Ristić - Voyages
(Dasa Tapes, 2023)
Manja Ristić is a prolific violinist, sound artist, field recordist, published poet, curator and researcher from Belgrade, Serbia. She is mostly active in the field of electro-acoustics, instrumental improvisation & experimental sound related arts, and has released many albums - both independently and on reputable record labels.
'Voyages' is one of her most recent releases. It consists of two longform compositions, influenced by the poetry of Birgitte Lyregaard.
Side A ('Voyages') begins with the sound of a soft tremulous metallic drone, which is eventually accompanied by the aggressive sound of either a revving engine, or something that's trying to replicate the sound of it. The intensity and momentum builds into a rather orchestral cacophony, which slowly fades and makes way for the gentle sloshing of water and an array of delicate crunching sounds, when all of a sudden you will hear sustained keyboard chords ringing out into the ether...
Eventually some low sinister rumbling and other strange sound phenomena gradually cut through the mix. At around the midway point, you will hear more mesmerizing watery gurgles against a backdrop of ambient fuzz and tranquil environmental noise. This is followed by a soothing and gorgeous collage of different nature field recordings, and the broody plucking of some kind of stringed instrument I can't identify... maybe a sitar or sarod? In the final stretch of the piece you will hear (what I think is) birdsong - manipulated into trippy trembling dissonance, and the unnerving barking of dogs. The journey ends with the recording of a child talking and playing with small objects, while squealing violin notes and plaintive ambience fill the background...
Side B ('Wizard Dreams of Roses') begins with some low grinding sounds and ominous vibrations, before you hear birds twittering, crunching footsteps and some ruffling noises. The next few minutes are a gentle immersion in this beautiful natural soundscape, until some atonal ambient noise takes over... Then you're eventually transported to a completely different audio environment, in which you will hear train P.A announcements, mechanical whirring, locomotive noises, snippets of chatter and a dark, sinister, shimmering drone. When this oppressive atmosphere comes to a gradual end, we return to the freedom and openness of some kind of public area that's filled with the sound of adults conversing and children playing. The final few minutes of the album are spent steeped in this setting, listening to the murmur of distant voices, passing sirens, lovely birdsong and ambient reverberations.
'Voyages' is dreamy and beautiful sonic exploration of settings, and how they change and morph as we constantly moving between them. Ristić paints such vivid images of these voyages using lush field recordings, exquisite sound sculpting techniques and atmospheric electronic experimentation. A calming and powerful listening experience.
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Fangyi Liu - foley for something that was and wasn't
(self-released, 2023)
Fangyi Liu (a.k.a Chih-Ting Liu) is a Kaohsiung, Taiwan-based improviser and sound artist. He utilizes acoustic objects, electronics, field recordings, cassette tapes and his voice in his performances and compositions.
'foley for something that was and wasn't' is a live recording of a multiple-channel sound installation that took place in the Fotoaura Institute of PhotographyTainan, Taiwan.
It consists of one 25-minute longform piece and a short 3-minute piece of minimalistic free improvisation and voice experimentation.
On 'like a parrot' you will hear Liu perform a series of repetitive sonorous vocalizations against a raw backdrop of various whispers, hisses and insect-like chirrups. Eventually the vocalizations become more intense, and transform into tremulous, trance-inducing murmurs and growls - like the artist is possessed and speaking in tongues. Around the middle of the track, you will hear deep drones through one sound channel and animalistic hisses, gurgles and squeaks through the other, before a momentary silence falls...
During this brief silence, the artist clears his throat and continues with this physical performance. Constantly ebbing and flowing, the voices pitter and patter like rain, and gargle and choke in quiet desperation...as quiet lonely whimpers take us to the end of the track.
On 'like a cow' you will simply hear a series low, lazy, cow-like vocalizations, while the lone tweeting of distant birds paint the background of this strange empty soundscape. Towards the end of the track, the cow noises become a bit more animated and lively, getting higher in pitch before the album comes to its abrupt end....
'foley for something that was and wasn't' is a patient and fascinating piece of avant-garde sound experimentation. The minimal usage of equipment and the animalistic expressionism of these recordings make for a bizarre but rewarding listening experience.
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Guesswork - Head Crash
(Tool Use Imprint, 2023)
Guesswork is the hardware-based music project of Jack Chuter - an experimental artist/musician who lives and works in Bournemouth, England. Chuter is the founder of ATTN:Magazine (an exploration of new experimental music and sound art), host of the Crucial Listening podcast, and founder/operator of the Hard Return record label.
'Head Crash' is an album consisting of one 55-minute long ''soft noise'' composition. It begins with a soft puttering granular drone. It slowly churns away and hovers broodily within its own abstract environment, sounding like some decaying radio frequency, or a disintegrating mechanical signal. To describe this piece as repetitive would be an extreme understatement, but it really sucks you into its strangely haunting atmosphere, and if you listen closely - you will hear slight morphs and deviations in the tones and textures.
Around the midway point, you will hear another subtle layer of rippling, slowly-pulsating atonal ambience emerge through the mix, adding more richness and depth to this ambiguous soundscape, making the whole thing even more hypnotic...
'Head Crash' is a fragile and minimalistic sound composition of raw mesmerizing drones, faint sonic abstractions and slowly-evolving noise. The subtly-fluctuating tones and brittle textures makes for an immersive and strangely atmospheric listening experience.
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Eventless Plot - Schemata
(tsss tapes, 2023)
Eventless Plot are the experimental Greek trio of Vasilis Liolios, Yiannis Tsirikoglou and Aris Giatas. From free improv and noise to new electronica, electroacoustic composition and jazz - they borrow elements from different genres and aesthetics to build their own hybrid of sound.
'Schemata' is an album consisting of two longform improvised recordings...
Track 1 begins with a mechanized rumbling/grinding sound. This is soon joined by a succession of lone percussive gong-like hits, resonating eerily against a background of atonal ambient noise. This comes to an abrupt end and you will hear shimmering drones and a series of ambiguous shuffling noises, along with some unnerving percussive hits and haunting choral vocals. You will also hear a lot of squeaking/squeezing noises, creating a bizarre kind of tension. There's subtle electronic manipulation occuring constantly throughout this piece, so that it's constantly shifting and evolving, never getting too repetitive or predictable. At around the midway point, the sounds go dead and the atmosphere changes completely, and a tranquil kind of ambience enters the mix, while all kinds of abstract noise phenomena fills the foreground of the soundscape. Then ghostly howling sounds, metallic undulations and frantic crackling noises bring the piece to its end...
Track 2 begins with a pulsing electronic drone, percussive bangs on some kind of small hollow vessel, and weird frictional noises... Then the percussive sounds and rustling noises become more frantic and mesmerizing, while jarring knocks and mysterious echoes resonate throughout the soundscape. This is followed by a series of haunting environmental drones and deep rumbling noises. The latter half of the recording is filled with squealing high-frequency dissonance, along with gentler synth ambience, crackling noise and stuttering percussion.
'Schemata' is a bizarre and intriguing album of experimental noise, abstract ambience, free-form improv and avant-garde sound art. The intricate textures and ambiguous atmospheres that this trio have created and crafted makes for a highly immersive listening experience.
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Jeff Gburek - the radio & the sea
(AKASHIC, 2023)
Jeff Gburek is a guitarist, composer, sound designer, field recordist & shortwave radio poet who blends electro-acoustic, electronica, spectral comp., cracked circuits, sounding organic objects with an ear towards earth voices.
'the radio & the sea' is an album that's based on ''atmospheric phenomena as witnessed by radio waves recorded in shortwave and middle and vlf bands along with hydrophones and coastal recordings of the surf'' during the artist's excursion to Kraimaryuu (small resort town near Burgas, Bulgaria). You can read the full story/blurb on the Bandcamp page...
This album begins with the tranquil sound of ocean waves lapping, watery gurgles, fragmented bursts of shortwave radio transmissions and bleeping morse code signals. Throughout the rest of these compositions you will hear a series of eerie atonal drones, ghostly whooshing noises, stuttering pulsations, mysterious (extraterrestrial?) signals, unsettling vocalizations, rippling tones, fuzzy textures, warbling static, environmental sonic phenomena, intimate rustling sounds and strange modulating frequencies... all to a beautiful ambient backdrop of serene seaside field recordings.
Listening through these compositions evoked a mixed brew of emotions within me, and lifted me out of my surrounding environment, and into some weird abstract plain...
'the radio & the sea' is an ominous and alluring album of mysterious radio transmissions, intriguing field recordings and haunting sonic phenomena. The juxtaposition of natural sounds with the unnatural makes for a bizarre and alluring listening experience.
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