Hello ladies and gentlemen. Here's my latest roundup of non-musical recommendations for you.
As usual - if you like what you see/hear, please considering supporting these great artists & labels by buying their albums and following them on Bandcamp and/or social media.
-Simina Oprescu - Green Hermeticism
(self-released, 2023)
Simina Oprescu is a Romanian composer and sound artist based in Berlin, Germany, submersing herself in the intricacies of sound's acoustic and spectral properties.
Her compositions embrace a diverse array of instruments, spanning from analog synthesizers to computer music or string instruments. Simina employs acoustic artifacts from physical or natural spaces as recordings, showcasing techniques cultivated through an investigative electroacoustic composition approach.
'Green Hermeticism' is a mini-album consisting of three binaural compositions, based on a book of the same title. You can read the full artist statement/backstory at the Bandcamp link below...
'Various Are The Roads of Man' begins with multiple layers of metallic dissonance, howling singular tones, puttering rumbles and haunting pulsations. The whole thing creates a rather frightening cacophony of abstract noise. When the intensity dies down, you will hear a series of ominous drones, warbling ambient tones, eerie squalls of distortion and strange crashing noises... along with some spoken word vocals. As the piece progresses, the textures and frequencies of this abstract soundscape are constantly varying and evolving, never become stagnant or stale... while distant pulses, birdsong, room sounds, shimmering ambient noise, glitchy electronics, ghostly whispers, the occasional melodic flourish and various field recordings swirl around this strange environment...
'One Must Become Two' begins with a series of electronic chords, tones and drones against a backdrop of beautiful chirping birdsong. Then you will hear more shimmering pulsations, unsettling rattles and spoken word... creating an interesting juxtaposition of tranquility and dread.
'The Human Becomes Divine' begins with a sinister trembling drone, and quickly fills with atmospheric wailing noises, sparse percussive beats and rich watery field recordings... accompanied by more spoken word and dark environmental noises, which brings the the album to its end....
'Green Hermeticism' is a haunting album of ghostly atmospheres, ominous dronescapes, experimental electronica and eerie sound phenomena. Oprescu's exquisite sound sculpting and avant-garde noise experimentation makes for a mysterious and mesmerizing listening experience.
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Conducive & Manuel Carbone - The Mosgrove Facility
(Falt, 2023)
Conducive is an experimental sound artist from the UK who uses field recordings, audio manipulation and sound collages to create interesting and immersive noise pieces, against very subtle backdrops of minimalistic ambient music.
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.
'The Mosgrove Facility' is a split concept album about a mysterious building called 'The Mosgrove Facility'. The album consisting of two 20-minute long minimalistic soundscapes (one from each artist) that represent two separate vacant rooms within this facility.
In 'Server Room' by Conducive you will hear the eerie sounds of unmanned technology, computer data processing and power supply units humming together, along with the familiar airy sound of some kind of ventilation system. It suggests a large vacant data room with nothing going on inside it but the continuous operation of computer servers, and the haunting whoosh of an air conditioning unit. Eventually you will hear the emerging sound of some sort of chugging mechanical device, rising to the surface of the mix and making the whole thing even more haunting.
'The Hall' by Manuel Carbone mainly consists of a dark, shimmering gong-like drone, accompanied by resonant vibrating flutters of hiss...possibly as naturally-occurring sound phenomena?
Eventually you will hear subtle layers of rippling ambient tones and undulating textures - swirling hypnotically around this empty surreal soundscape, as the deep cinematic central drone evolves and intensifies more and more...
'The Mosgrove Facility' is a spooky and haunting yet strangely meditative album of minimalistic soundscapes that plant eerie seeds and unsettling ideas within the imagination. The bleak emptiness, the subtle tonal shifts and the slowly-evolving noise patterns of these compositions paint such an ominous image of this mysterious facility, and create an immersive and mesmerizing listening experience.
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mʊdʌki - Liptovská Lúžna
(Sawyer Spaces, 2024)
Polina Khatsenka (aka mʊdʌki) is an audiovisual artist, sound designer and sonic curator from Minsk, Belarus and based in Usti nad Labem, Czech republic. Her work is devoted to various aspects of sound with a focus on audio performance, site-specific installations and composing. Polina implies expanding the perception of both intimate and shared environment within her work, be it uncovering and operating with invisible but yet existing physical fields or addressing existential topics on a personal level.
'Liptovská Lúžna' is an album based on field recordings captured in the mountain area of Liptovská Lúžna - Low Tatras, Slovakia, June 2023.
It begins with the airy environmental ambience of a wide open mountainous location. The wind howls eerily and persistently, while the foreground of the soundscape is occupied by the muted thumps and rattles of (what sounds to me like) a cabin door left ajar, creating a dark and beautiful audio environment. This is eventually accompanied by the soft chirping of a nearby bird. After that you will hear crunching footsteps and keys tinkling within the pocket of the plodding artist, against a backdrop of tranquil outdoor ambience.
Throughout the rest of these compositions, you will hear sweet cacophonous birdsong, deep windy rumblings, the gurgling surge of a fast flowing river, the bleating of sheep, tingling farm bells, buzzing flies, more crunching footsteps and various other pastoral sound phenomena.
'Liptovská Lúžna' is a gentle album of tranquil nature noises, hypnotic weather sounds, vast near-silences and peaceful airy ambience. Khatenska's delicate field recordings, and the stunning acoustic ecology of this natural environment that she chose for her solitary retreat makes for a serene and meditative listening experience.
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Erin Demastes - Keys & Bells
(Sawyer Spaces, 2024)
Erin Demastes is an experimental composer, performer, and instrument maker. She uses everyday, household objects and hacked electronics for her installations and performances and subverts their use and perception with play and experimentation. By placing items in theatrical settings, Erin brings out the character of things we normally may not think twice about.
'Keys & Bells' is an album consisting of three sound compositions in which Demastes sonically explores the idea of performing small instruments in unique spaces around the LSU campus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the interaction that naturally occurs...
'Keys' begins with the gentle sound of serene outdoor ambience, which is soon joined by the warbling airy drone of a melodica. The artist then goes on to explore a series of varying tones, frequencies and harmonics produced by the instrument, against the soothing backdrop of the atrium in which it's performed. These melodica drones gradually build up to an intense cacophony of shimmering noise. As these layers of sound dramatically ebb and flow, you will hear simple chords and melodies emerge through the mix, creating a unique atmosphere containing moments of tranquil beauty, sheer dissonance and everything in between. You will hear a variety of different rhythms and timbres within the piece, which keep you constantly engaged, and if you listen closely - you will also hear small background sounds that are unique to this environment...
'Interlude' consists of the lonesome bumping and knocking noises of acorns falling onto a roof, which (according to the artist) is what Louisiana fall sounds like, creating a strangely peaceful effect...
'Bells' begins with a different kind of airy ambience, and some chirruping crickets. Then you will begin to hear soft tingling bells being performed next to a bell tower. The textures and tones that are produced from these bells spinning, knocking and shimmering away gives off a mesmerizing dream-like resonance, and the resulting melodic flourishes is rather beautiful... while the various weather noises and the chatter of people walking by provides an intriguing contrast.
'Keys & Bells' is an album of tranquil field recordings, fascinating audio experimentation, vibrant atmospherics and intriguing environmental sound phenomena. A strangely soothing and compelling listening experience.
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Seth Nehil/Bruno Duplant - (else)where
(aufabwegen, 2024)
Seth Nehil is an American visual, performance and sound artist. He started to work with sound around 1990 using found objects and instruments, old records, reel-to-reel machines, discarded magnetic tape and other detritus.
Bruno Duplant is a prolific French musical composer and sound artist living in the north of France. He has released a vast array of solo works on many different labels, and has collaborated with many musicians around the globe.
'(else)where' is the duo's third collaborative release, consisting of fifteen soundscapes that are placed in conversation with nineteen images from photographers TJ Norris + Harrison Higgs.
The album begins with field recordings of softly sloshing water, distant airplane motors and tranquil birdsong. Then you will start to hear flies buzzing past and objects being shuffled around, while beautiful shimmering piano chords emerge quietly and subtly out of the mix...
After that the soundscape abruptly transforms and you will hear something that sounds like spinning bicycle spokes, along with other crunchy textures, gurgling water sounds, faint murmured voices, twittering birds, high-frequency electronic manipulations, puttering engines and soft airy ambience.
Throughout the rest of the album you will hear whirring mechanical devices, rippling drones, scraping noises, minimalistic piano, room tones, tinkling percussion, softly lapping waves, ghostly ambience, whooshing traffic, chirruping crickets, fragmented vocalizations, sinister rumbles, crunching footsteps, ethereal electronica, squawking animals, crackling fires, weather sounds and lots of other environmental sonic phenomena. These fascinating soundscapes are wonderful to get lost in...
'(else)where' is a rich and vibrant album full of dreamy field recordings, buried musicality, subtle ambience and abstract sound experimentation. The vast array of sounds that these artists have managed to capture, create and collage are simultaneously haunting and comforting, and makes for a wonderfully surreal and deeply meditative listening experience.
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Beachers - Off the hook
(ineffectual suns, 2024)
Beachers is the project of London-based artist Daryl Worthington. He works in the crossovers between accidental and composed sounds, hi and lo-fi audio, with a particular interest in the beauty of the mundane. This takes an array of approaches, from explorations of the materiality and ritual of radio signals through to analogue synthesis, field recording and musique concrete explorations, cassette collages and sample-based computer music.
'Off the hook' is his latest release - an album consisting of eight fairly-short audio compositions based on the idea of ''phone sounds''.
The album begins with the familiar sound of a lone dial tone, which is soon harmonized with a series of other singular dial tones. You will also hear subtle background creaks, slight movements, empty room tones and soft ambient hiss... which creates a strangely soothing atmosphere.
Throughout the rest of the album you will hear short singular key tones being tapped, layers of tranquil ambient harmonies, sine waves, soft shimmering drones, subtle atmospheric rumbles, eerie pulsations, mysterious vibrations, distant birdsong, barking dogs, swirling bleeps, shuffling noises and electronic glitches in varying frequencies, tones and textures.
'Off the hook' is a peaceful and hypnotic album of bare minimalistic ambience and dreamy sound experimentation. Worthington's skill of transforming these mundane telephone sounds recorded in a stagnant office environment into something so artistically pleasing makes for a strange and quietly captivating listening experience.
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Bardo Todol - Canciones para la Luna
(self-released, 2023)
Bardo Todol is an Argentinian experimental music group comprised of free sonic experimentalist Pablo Picco and his two kids Nico and Cina. Their diverse set of musical ideas claim their own territory in the wider area of contemporary experimental music.
'Canciones para la Luna' is an album consisting of two 10-minute sound collages. It's described on the Bandcamp page as follows -
'Songs for the moon by Salsipuedes's chief sound voyager: Bardo Todol travels deep into the entrails of Argentina's earthly bounds to collect songs and secrets which invoke the magical rites of lunar chaos.''
'Side A' begins with deep thunder-like rumbles, soft crackling textures and distant explosion sounds that sweep across the lunar landscape. Then you will start to hear (what sounds like) decaying radio transmissions and some sort of mechanical buzzing noise. This album seems to be comprised of a lot of short fleeting segments of abstract tones and textures.
Throughout the rest of this piece, you will angelic choral music, ambiguous scraping sounds, gurgling alien-esque vocalizations, static drones, high-frequency wails, children's voices and noisy tape manipulations.
'Side B' is (slightly) more musical and psychedelic/cosmic than Side A. It begins with indistinguishable reversed sounds, bursts of atonal noise and some subtle electronic glitches. Throughout the rest of the track, you will hear dark eerie drones, ominous pulsations, sawing noises, mysterious signals, atmospheric reverberations, echoing bells, squeals of lo-fi distortion, haunting howls and warbling musical notes - ascending and descending, like the soundtrack to spaceships landing in an old sci-fi movie.
'Canciones para la Luna' is an album of mysterious sci-fi soundscapes, woozy frequencies, lunar drones and psychedelic sound experimentation. An atmospheric and strangely-mesmerizing listening experience.
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Coagulant - Spatial Extension Tape Archive
(Anticipating Nowhere, 2024)
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.
'Spatial Extension Tape Archive' is an album consisting of two sweeping 33-minute long sound suites.
'Homage To The Constellations' begins with a layer of slow, swirling, whooshing noise, accompanied by a suspenseful metallic drone. Then you will start to hear some distant environmental bangs and mysterious echoes. As the track gradually progresses and builds up in intensity, you will hear rapidly-shimmering vibrations, ominous squalls of processed noise, dissonant siren-like tones of varying frequencies, something that sounds like an industrial oscillator, dark reverberations, howling winds of ambient fuzz and haunting pulsations, until the lone shimmers slowly start to decay towards the end...
'Night Bayside Broadcast' begins with (what sounds like) a heavily-manipulated fragmented vocalization panning around the soundscape as an angry rumble of buzzing noise emerges through the mix like a swarm of mechanical insects descending on a barren wasteland. This build-up of sheer noise becomes incredibly fierce and intense, while various tones of glistening steel resonance and low pulsations violently shake the surrounding environment. You will hear strange haunting howls penetrate the air while the foundation remains pure chaos.
Around the midway point everything quietens right down and you're left with the sound of distant water drips, murmured voice and cavernous reverberations of an abstract world, while the lonely howls of atonal ambience continues to ring out. In the second half of the piece, it almost sounds like the interior of a railway station or airport hangar. You will hear faint distant clangs and human shuffling sounds, and what sounds like a droning whirr of a plane engine. The album ends with more insect-like buzzing noises filling the void...
'Spatial Extension Tape Archive' is a long and mesmerizing album of abstract dronescapes, heavily-processed environmental sounds and haunting noise experimentation. Kubic's abstract thematic concepts, along with his unique sound sculpting techniques makes for a surreal and wonderfully-atmospheric listening experience.
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Felicity Mangan - Tiefwerder Wiesen Wanderungen (Live at Swamps and Stars – On Planetary Listening 2023)
(self-released, 2023)
Felicity Mangan is an Australian sound artist and composer based in Berlin, Germany. In different situations such as solo performances, site-specific or collaborative interdisciplinary projects. Felicity samples and plays her field recording archive and found sounds to create quasi-bioacoustic music.
'Tiefwerder...' is a 20-minute long live performance inspired by the wildlife, terrain and daily activity of Tiefwerder Wiesen - a swampy grassland on the other edge of Berlin, Germany.
It begins with a fairly desolate soundscape of crackling textures (that make me think of bark wood), soft swells of wind and airy natural ambience, which is soon accompanied by eerie rumblings and soft atonal drones. Throughout the rest of the piece, you will hear a series of gurgling tranquil waters, sweet chirruping bird calls juxtaposed with garbled alien-esque ones, murmured human voices, crunching footsteps, siren-like wails, ominous whooshing drones, mysterious swirling flutters and melodic flourishes of minimalistic ambient synth chords. The piece ends with gently trickling water and a quiet cascade of single droplets...
'Tiefwerder...' is a delicate and intriguing sound piece of beautifully-manipulated field recordings, atmospheric drones and environmental sound phenomena - both earthy and surreal at the same time. Mangan's audio manipulation techniques and skilful soundscaping makes for a such a uniquely peaceful, soothing and captivating listening experience.
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Tossapol - closet in the
(Veinte33 Records, 2024)
Tossapol is an experimental sound artist that lives in Bangkok, Thailand. He makes minimalistic lo-fi sound collages using small objects and field recordings.
'closet in the' is a little EP consisting of two sound compositions, with a seven second interlude in between.
'Birdless' begins with a series of soft clicks, rumbles, distant bird calls and peaceful outdoor ambience. Then you will begin to hear faint voices, unsettling drones and some kind of object being squeezed that strangely resembles the squawking of birds. Throughout the rest of the track you will hear a variety of atmospheric vibrations, tremulous rumbles, soft percussive knocks, chirruping crickets and the deep sonorous sound of someone snoring.
'iii' is a 7-second long interlude of weird electronic glitchiness, before we're onto the final track...
'closet in the' begins with a cacophony of high-frequency insect-like noises, background chatter and a dreamy looped lo-fi keyboard melody. After that you will hear layers of indistinguishable tape noise, shuffling sounds, whiny bursts of whistling and distant bangs of percussion.
In the second half of the track, the background fills with fragments of television noise and vocal snippets, while the foreground comes alive with a multitude of bizarre sonic abstractions. In the final couple of minutes, the soundscape quietens down and you will hear the fading sounds of birdsong and passing motor vehicles.
'closet in the' is a strange and intriguing little EP of lo-fi field recordings, abstract sound collage and avant-garde noise art. The tones, timbres and textures of audio that Tossapol has captured and sculpted in this release makes for a mysterious and tranquil listening experience.
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Colonial Skyway - Until Satellites Collide
(Submarine Broadcasting Co, 2024)
Colonial Skyway is the lo-fi ambient/drone/noise project of Matthew Anderson. With his use of drone and found-sound-collage, Colonial Skyway realizes his vision of giving voice to ancient disused and abandoned machinery.
'Until Satellites Collide' is Anderson's sophomore album under this moniker. It begins with a bed of soft ambient hiss, which is soon accompanied by dark, haunting, rhythmic pulsations, electronic blips and long sustained reverberations of atonal swells of noise. Throughout the ten sound collages that comprise this album, you will hear a series of broody mechanical drones, shimmering noise, warped minimalistic ambience, crackling layers of fuzz, fragmented static, the whirring of (what sounds to me like) plane engines, soft rippling melodic tones, slowly grinding machinery, warbling signals, suspenseful dissonance, raw fuzzy textures, ghostly howls, fractured samples of manipulated old-time music, muffled voices and various types of weather-related sound phenomena. It's perhaps a bit more rhythmic, fuzzy and unsettling than the first album...but I really like the range of sonic territories of noise experimentation that are covered in this one, and the consistent crackling weaving throughout the entire thing...
'Until Satellites Collide' is an atmospheric and spellbinding album full of quiet desolate drones, industrial noise, haunting ambience, twisted musique concrète and other mysterious sonic abstractions. Anderson's disciplined and minimalistic approach to sound sculpting, and his methods of creating these abstract and lonely dronescapes makes for such a hypnotic and dreamy listening experience.
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Luke Martin / Noah Ophoven-Baldwin - Aperture
(Aloe Records, 2023)
Luke Martin & Noah Ophoven-Baldwin are two Minneapolis-based composers and performers. Luke Martin's work centers around the relation between music and truth, with a special focus on theorizing silence as such, and Noah Ophoven-Baldwin plays cornet and his work is a collage of field recordings, metronome and cornet.
'Aperture' is a collaborative album of theirs, consisting of two longform experimental sound compositions.
The album begins with slow gentle ambient hiss and some faint background noises, including the chirping of a lone bird. Then you will hear soft fragile swells of cornet, creating some singular wavering drones, followed by segments of silence. These segments of silence (or near silence) are a very prevalent and integral aspect in the sound works of both of these artists, which you get used to over time. You occasionally hear some distant rumbles and creaks from slight body movements.
Throughout the rest of this composition you will hear a series of evolving drones (of varying frequencies and intensities), rippling textures, undulating ambient tones, peaceful room sounds, languorous atmospheres, dizzying squeals, strangled whines, soft clicks, fractured radio transmissions, human shuffling noises, the whoosh of passing traffic, vocal snippets, shimmering dissonance, cacophonous birdsong, sustained singular guitar notes and some jazz flourishes on the cornet.
'Aperture' is a super quiet, slow and contemplative album of minimalistic sound compositions, delicate ambience, fragile musical instrumentation and beautifully airy atmospheres. The quiet interplay of Ophoven-Baldwin's cornet and Martin's guitar (along with the domestic/environmental field recordings) makes for a soothing and meditative listening experience.
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