Hellooo. I'm (sort of) back with a retrospective non-music roundup of ''older'' releases that I've been thoroughly enjoying lately...
I put quotation marks around the word ''older'' because these albums are not old - they all came out within the last ten years or so... but music (and non-music) seems to lose its freshness and relevance very quickly these days, which sucks for the artists who put so much time and effort into their works, so these Retrospective Non-Music Roundups are my own little way of informing and reminding people that they still exist, and deserve much more attention than they get.
I'm hoping to return with some reviews of newer releases sometime in the coming weeks/months, so stay tuned for that...
And 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.
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Leo Okagawa - Zapping (Station to Station)
(more mars, 2021)
Leo Okagawa is a sound artist based in Tokyo, Japan. He makes multi-layered collage works from elements of recorded sounds, analog machine noise and simple electric tones. He has also been working on an improvised performances since 2017. Using some electronic devices, he explores the structural possibilities of sound through the combination of simple tones.
'Zapping (Station to Station)' is an album consisting of two longform sound compositions created using field recordings from various metro stations and radio stations during the Covid-19 quarantine period.
It begins with the clatter of metallic locomotive noises and the familiar echoes and reverberations of surrounding railway station sounds. You will also hear the more subtle sounds of distant voices, P.A announcements and mechanical drones.
As the album progresses you will hear intense bursts of radio static, bodily movements, busy footsteps, electronic devices, sweet birdsong, weather noises and lots of unidentifiable abstractions. There are lots of frictions and tensions and dissonances found within these urban environments, on top of which Okagawa layers his unique noise experimentation methods - the combination of which results in a fascinating journey of overlapping tones, drones and textures... effectively painting a wonderfully vivid picture of distinct urban locations, and the methods of transportation to get from one to the other...
'Zapping (Station to Station)' is a rich and vibrant album of hypnotic audio collaging and tactile sonic experimentation. The way the different segments flow in and out of each other, ebbing and flowing all along the way makes for an enthralling and evocative listening experience.
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MonoLogue - STALLO
(Falt, 2021)
MonoLogue (aka Marie Rose) is an Italian composer, musician, sound designer and music art therapist. Her work moves between soundtracks, sound design for TV series and other sound experiences.
'STALLO' is the first installment of a trilogy of albums titled 'MICRO', and consists of two lengthy compositions that are of a quiet, subtle and delicate nature.
The title track begins with the abrupt sound of a tape player rewinding. From there you will hear the sound of various manipulated objects (of unknown source) being played with. You'll hear tinkling chimes that have been electronically processed, buzzing input feedback, percussive rattles, strange crispy textures, some shimmery drones, audio decay, ominous knocks, metallic clatterings, tiny papery flutters and moments of beautiful tender ambience - all punctuated by segments of dead silence which makes for such an eerie and unsettling audio environment. The noises and sounds featured in this piece emerge in such a creepy yet playful manner, like the frantic scurrying of digital insects...
The second piece 'HALLELUJA' has a dreamier ethereal aspect to it, with gentle melancholic ambience driving the formless sonic abstractions forth towards some unknown and mysterious (yet satisfying) ending...
'STALLO' is a playful and eerie album of fascinating tones and textures, subtle atmospherics and minimalistic sound experimentation. It's an album that's definitely best listened to through good quality earphones, in a quiet relaxing environment. An intriguing and mesmerizing listening experience.
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Vittorio Guindani - Jisei
(901 Editions, 2020)
Vittorio Guindani is an Italian non-musician interested in silence, soundscape and small sounds, which he creates with objects, loops and anything endowed with its own dust.
'Jisei' was his debut full-length album for 901 Editions, with its title referring to the traditional Japanese death poem, which is sometimes the last words, the last images or the last sounds before the farewell...
The album consists of nineteen sonic vignettes, created from fragmented field recordings and the minutiae of personal objects, memories and moments for the artist.
It begins with a series of barely audible scratching noises, which is slowly and gradually accompanied by long cavernous reverberations, drifting beautifully in the wake of the central sounds. Then you will begin to hear the emergence of eerie atmospheric drones, building up and shimmering away in the background...
Throughout the rest of the album you will hear intimate rustling sounds, airy tranquil drones, gentle crackling textures, barren echoes, miniature movements, crackling static, the sweet twittering of birds, soft rumbles, meditative bells, tiny whooshes, quiet flutterings, lone ambient tones and peaceful environmental sounds - punctuated by moments of serene stillness and beautiful emptiness.
'Jisei' is a tranquil and meditative album of delicate field recordings, soft textures, mesmerizing drones and airy ambiences. Constantly drifting somewhere in the empty spaces between light and darkness, Guindani manages to skillfully craft all these fleeting audio fragments into hypnotic sound collages that feel like some kind of beautiful (yet abstract) sonic diary. A quietly haunting listening experience.
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Ivonne Villamil - Portales
(self-released, 2022)
Ivonne Villamil is a visual and sound artist. Through her work she investigates the soundscape in an expanded sense, exploring the non-audible - to the human ear - to approach the interaction between species, materiality and atmospheric phenomena, as well as the universe of sound on a planetary scale.
'Portales' is the result of two months of sound explorations in the port of Valparaíso, Chile. Field recordings on land and sea, recorded with contact microphones, geophones and receiving meteorological weather charts broadcasted by Radiofacsimile, and consists of two longform audio compositions.
'4228kHz' begins with the thin sound of gently lapping water against of fuzzy textural noise, which is possibly a manipulated recording of the surrounding ocean. Then you will start to hear eerie underwater thumps and bangs, as the flow of seawater intensifies...
As the piece progresses, you will hear a variety of interesting tones and frequencies within the liquidy soundscape, accompanied by radio broadcast experimentations. Bursts of rhythmic static and fragmented noise patterns swirl around gurgling waters and the crackly textures of dry land recordings...
'Lancha' is a quiet, ominous, droning mass of dark sonorous noise that slowly and subtly evolves throughout its sprawling (nearly) 43-minute long duration. Its eerie atmosphere, shimmering stillness and ghostly ambience makes for a highly immersive sound work.
'Portales' is a quietly riveting sound composition of watery tones, oceanic frequencies, atmospheric dronescapes and site-specific environmental noise. A rich and compelling listening experience.
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jez riley french - dissolves
(self-released, 2015)
Jez Riley French is a sound artist, composer, listener, visual artist (photography / film) & microphone builder. Focusing on sound as both material and subject, his work uses a variety of formats to explore place, sounds outside of our attention and our response to located elements and experience. Threads and traces coexist, mapping passion, self trust, community and sensory, intuitive response...
'dissolves' is an album consisting of five lengthy recordings of mineral dissolves in Northern Italy during 2014, along the rivers of the Val d’Aupa and the hill paths of Udine...
'dolomite iron ore' begins with quiet layers of soft crackling textures, squeaking sounds and other miniature movements and frictional noises. The subtle fluctuations in frequency, and the multitude of rattles, scratches and pops is utterly mesmerizing...
'dolomite shale' consists of layered gurgling sounds, trickling tones, staccato movements and liquidy ambience, which creates such an intimate, tranquil and beautiful sonic environment that I could listen to for a long long time...
'dolomite limestone' is a marginally more intense piece than the previous one. You will hear a crackling mass of desiccated sound, gentle watery drips and some kind of natural fuzzy static that slowly shifts and evolves throughout its duration...
'dolomite' has an almost polyrhythmic aspect to it. You will hear these tiny mineral sounds ticking and clicking away against a backdrop of babbling ambience, while slight changes in frequency and the natural modulations of pitch gives the piece an almost musical quality...
'topolo snail shells' is probably the most watery soundscape of the album. Rapid gurgles and fast-flowing trickles create the sensation of leaning over the banks of a quiet mountain stream and almost submerging your senses in its sweet dreamy waters. Such a rich, vibrant and intimate recording...
'dissolves' is a quietly captivating album of delicate field recordings, geological sound exploration and environmental sonic phenomena that highlights the tranquil flow and beauty of nature that exists in this unique and specific part of the globe that (I imagine) goes largely unnoticed by human ears. The way these pieces subtly evolve (or devolve) over time, and the miniature audible variations that are found within them makes for a rather hypnotic and meditative listening experience.
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Anna-Maria Rammou - Easter-a
(Vice de Forme, 2022)
Anna-Maria Rammou is a sound artist interested in the relationship between the audible, the visible and the non tangible. Getting inspiration from cinema, poetry and photography she combines heavily processed field recordings, found sounds and DIY electronics.
'Easter-a' was an album recorded in Athens, Greece during Covid-19 lockdown. It consists of four recordings made during that time after a long improvisation set, made with a 555 astable oscillator that was passed through various guitar effects pedals. Then, further processed and coupled with some field recordings...
It begins with a gathering mass of crackling textures, rhythmic rattles and fractured static tones. The noise slowly oscillates while constantly fluctuating in its structural patterns. It sounds like something desperately trying to break through impenetrable walls of noise, and is being broadcasted through broken speakers. The overall effect is loud, aggressive and pretty damn frightening...
As the piece progresses, you will hear higher frequencies of squalling noise, hammering rhythms, stuttering tones and fluctuations in speed and intensity of sound.
Throughout the other four recordings, you will hear rippling granular synth ambience, fuzzy textures, sorrowful drones, screeching harsh noise, beautiful birdsong, sounds of religious worship, percussive rattles and layers of metallic grinding...
'Easter-a' is a strange and menacing album of blistering harsh noise, ominous dronescapes and hypnotic sound art. To be honest, I'm really not a fan of harsh noise, it's one of the only areas of ''non-music'' that doesn't sit well with me at all... but now and then I stumble upon an artist who does it skillfully, in a way that I enjoy, and I must admit that Rammou is one of them. This album is a powerful, unsettling and ear-splitting listening experience.
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Manja Ristić - Ateh & the astral ramblers
(self-released, 2018)
Manja Ristić is a violinist, sound artist, published poet, curator, and researcher from Belgrade, Serbia. Her sound-related research, beyond contemporary performance in the field of instrumental electro-acoustics, focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to sound, field recording, and experimental radio arts.
'Ateh & the astral ramblers' is an album consisting of six sound compositions. Ristić states on her Bandcamp page : ''Emerging from simple actions or positions, these sounds evolved within the textural environment, producing their sonic simulacrum, and were further articulated by almost organic structures defined by closer listening.''
The album begins with a series of human breaths and soft crackling textures against a backdrop of dissonant ambient tones and low pulsing drones. Then you will hear a variety of rippling frequencies, synthetic voices and (what sounds like) shimmering gong sounds slowly and eerily emerge out of the dark murky atmosphere. In the latter half of the track, other field recordings become more prominent - such as a thin trickle of running water, atmospheric room tones and electricity sounds...
In the second track you will hear airy environmental ambience, sparse violin plucks, swelling bass notes, shuffling movements, surreal echoes and weird electronic manipulations, creating an abstract yet rather unsettling atmosphere.
Throughout the remainder of the album, you will hear a sweeping variety of haunting drones, church bells chiming, glitchy electronics, warbling bass tones, crunching textures, liquidy hydrophonic gurgles, percussive bells, eerie squeaks, ambient electrical frequencies and ghostly sound phenomena...
'Ateh & the astral ramblers' is a fascinating album of meditative dreamscapes, exquisite sound collages, beautiful ambient music and abstract performance art. Ristić has such an uncanny talent for transforming and transmuting both familiar and unfamiliar sounds into these delicate sonic textures that captivate without overcrowding or overwhelming the spaces they occupy. A beautifully serene album, and a riveting listening experience.
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crys cole - Other Meetings
(Black Truffle, 2022)
crys cole is a Canadian sound artist based in Berlin, Germany who works in composition, performance, sound sculpture and installation. Taking a conceptual approach, she generates subtle and imperfect sounds through haptic gestures and seemingly mundane materials to create texturally nuanced electro-acoustic works that continuously retune the ear.
'Other Meetings' is an album consisting of two longform sound compositions - recorded during Covid lockdown, and comprised of field recordings taken from abroad, along with recordings of objects surrounding Cole in the minimal space she found herself confined to.
'The time between...' begins with a series of muted thuds, distant scrapes and soft bursts of atonal noise within a desolate empty soundscape. Then you will begin to hear some environmental outdoor noises and birdsong emerge out of the mix, along with some lone sprays (possibly a plant mister?), intimate shoveling sounds (again, possibly gardening-related...) and other eerie sonic abstractions.
Throughout the rest of the piece you will hear a variety of atmospheric gurgles, deep background rumbles, tremulous echoes, oil spitting in a frying pan, sparse ethereal synth notes, crunching textures, rippling drones, haunting reverberations, distant voices and layers of gathering static.
'Slices of Cake' begins with some airy urban ambience. You will hear the familiar street sounds of whooshing traffic, cacophonous birdsong and the hustle and bustle of everyday life... before it all quietens down and you will hear isolated textures of some sort of crunching and shuffling sounds, with some strange warbling effects on them...ebbing and flowing with different intensities. Then you will start to hear the rattling sounds of something hollow and ceramic, caked in some beautiful reverb.
During the remaining composition, you will hear a series of hypnotic vibrations, percussive knocks, ominous drones, dark ambience, shimmering metallic, dripping water, fragmented voices and various lone singular tones drifting slowly and unhurriedly around this stark audio environment, ending the aural journey in a quiet and peaceful place.
'Other Meetings' is a stark and meditative album of immersive field recordings, mysterious sonic phenomena, environmental ambience and minimalistic sound experimentation. It's a wonderful aural study of the intimate relationships and interactions the artist had with her given surroundings during a particular period of time, and the objects found within this minimal empty space. A dreamy, beautiful and unsettling listening experience.
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Tossapol - through the park in a summer night
(self-released, 2023)
Tossapol is an experimental sound artist that lives in Bangkok, Thailand. He makes minimalistic lo-fi sound collages using small objects and field recordings.
'through the park in a summer night' is one 14-minute long sound composition. It begins with a series of scraping, squealing and shuffling noises, against a backdrop of airy lo-fi night-time urban ambience. There is also the occasional deep sonorous boom of something reminiscent of a trombone...
As the track progresses you will hear some distant shouting and yelling, garbled conversations of passing pedestrians, the revving hum of scooters, wailing sirens, cars rushing past, birds awing, crickets chirruping, whooshing ventilation drones, vague footsteps, muted grinding sounds and tremulous layers of ambiguous noise, coming in and out of the mix.
In the last few minutes of the piece, the volume and intensity quietens down and you're left with a peaceful soundscape of rumbling traffic noise, tingling bells and fragile tape hiss.
The composition ends with (what sounds to me) like a steel wire being slowly scraped, along with some menacing thunder and whooshing wind noises.
'through the park in a summer night' is a simultaneously tranquil and unsettling audio collage of lo-fi field recordings, found sounds and abstract noise art. It's a short but immersive aural journey though a unique location, filled with strange and satisfying sounds. A soothing and compelling listening experience.
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Julie Andreyev & the multispecies studio - Bird Park Sessions
(Sawyer Spaces, 2023)
Julie Andreyev is an artist-activist, researcher and educator in Vancouver, located on the unceded, traditional and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish people whose art explores interspecies methods to investigate ethics of ecologization and kinship with nonhuman lifeforms. Her projects incorporate knowledge from ecology, cognitive ethology, critical animal studies, ecofeminism and indigenous methodologies, to create expanded human attention towards nonhuman creativity.
'Bird Park Sessions' is an album of exquisite field recordings taken from various locations throughout British Columbia, Canada.
The first three compositions were recorded in Woodland Park, Vancouver. In these compositions you will hear the serene and delicate twittering and cawing of various species of birds (specified on the Bandcamp page) against a calming backdrop of airy environmental ambience and distant locomotive sounds of passing vehicles. You will hear trains chugging, sirens blaring and motorized vehicles revving... which makes for such an interesting juxtaposition against all the natural sounds of the park. I love the soft, peaceful, whooshing ambience and quiet beauty of these tracks...
The next three tracks were recorded near various bodies of water. You will hear the gently hypnotic sloshing of Nicola Lake, the repetitive fluttery trills of The Spotted Towhee (large sparrow) and the wild rushing falls of Deep Creek...
The album ends at Vancouver's Bird Park Survival Station (a beautiful multiple-species climate emergency project located in Andreyev's rooftop garden) where you will hear a glorious cacophony of many birds perched there, both local and migratory - singing, communicating, bathing, frolicking, eating and drinking out of shallow vessels/ containers. A very fitting way to end this wonderful sound journey...
'Bird Park Sessions' is a beautiful and meditative ecological sound art album. The natural soundscapes, gorgeous environmental ambience and gentle sonic exploration of non-human life in these peaceful places make for a rich, soothing and intriguing listening experience. A must-listen for bird lovers.
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Selva Aimé - crujir, torcer, aplastar
(Sello Postal, 2023)
Selva Aimé is an Argentinian ambient musician and sound artist.
'crujir, torcer, aplastar' is a 19-minute long sound exploration of the small sonorous gestures of the artist's daily environment. It consists of a series of recordings that Aimé made (as part of a project in the Argentine Patagonia) of small objects found in the forest - specifically colihue cane, acorns, sorgus fruits and lunaria annua leaves.
These recordings were lovingly collaged into this singular sound composition. Throughout its 19-minute duration you were hear a series of crunching, rustling, rattling, scratching and tingling noises - sometimes exposed and completely alone, at other times overlapping and intertwining with the other sounds...
'crujir, torcer, aplastar' is a gorgeously immersive collage of tiny sounds. The different tones and textures that Aimé has produced from these little unassuming forest objects is fascinating, and a pure joy listen to. This composition is beautiful minimalistic sound art at its best.
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Alan Courtis and Ben Owen - Environmental Conditions
(Park70, 2023)
Alan Courtis (sometimes known as Anla Courtis) is an Argentine musician, artist, composer and sound artist. He is the founding member of the band Reynols, and a reputable musique-concrete artist.
Ben Owens is a Brooklyn-based multimedia artist whose work includes improvised and graphic score based performance, audio and video collaborations, and also stone litho printmaking.
'Environmental Conditions' is a collaborative album between both of these prolific artists. In the six sound experiments that comprise this album, Courtis & Owens used a variety of contact microphones, electronics, a duplex machine (yes, a floor cleaner) and manipulation/mixing techniques to create interesting and immersive noise collages.
In these recordings you will hear the mechanical whirr and unmistakable vibrating white noise of a duplex machine, walls of hissing static, the murmur of distant voices, rustling movements, room sounds, subtle electronics and various monotonous rumbles and thrums, punctuated by the occasional abrupt silence and moment of strangely tranquil stillness.
For such a minimistic setup, these sounds you will hear throughout 'Environmental Conditions' are surprisingly complex and intriguing. The range of frequencies and the subtle shifts that occur within the soundscapes make for a bizarre and alluring listening experience. It takes a certain level of talent and skill to be able to pull it off so successfully. A great example of avant-garde sound art.
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uncle-mum - A Strange Car Moves to Encounter a Greater Brightness
(Anticipating Nowhere, 2023)
Uncle-Mum is an experimental British artist. I literally don't know anything other than that... but what a fantastic album title! I love the artwork too...
'A Strange Car Moves to Encounter a Greater Brightness' is an album of atmospheric drones and eerie noisescapes. It's a conceptual album built around the story of being half-asleep in the back seat of a strange car, when suddenly the car moves into the light and you are transported to another dimension.
This is an album of fluctuating drones, eerie shuffling, fluttering noises, creepy muffled whispers, breathy growls, subtle static, ominous pulses, dark rumbles, lonely rippling ambience, cut-up sound fragments, muted thuds, howling dissonance, undulating tones and plenty of other eerie abstractions and unnerving subtleties at play in the background.
'A Strange Car Moves to Encounter a Greater Brightness' is a surreal and haunting noise record which tells of an eerie story without rational explanation. It's a dark, atmospheric and unsettling sound journey into a strange dimension. A marvelous listening experience which I enjoyed very much.
Stream/Buy/Download :
https://anticipatingnowhere.bandcamp.com/album/a-strange-car-moves-to-encounter-a-greater-brightness
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