Monday, 5 May 2025

Non-Music Roundup (April 25)

Hello people.

Here's my latest roundup of some of the latest greatest sound art that I've been listening to, and thoroughly enjoying. A non-musical feast for the ears...

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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Mountain Laurel - Visions 


(Blorpus Editions, 2025)

Mountain Laurel (a.k.a Grace Papineau-Couture) is a Canadian artist that's currently based in Chicago. Working across sound, performance and installation - Mountain Laurel conjures haunting audioscapes through disintegrating tape loops, field recordings, handmade instruments and live audio mixing.

'Visions' is an electroacoustic drone album consisting of eight sound compositions, focusing on themes of ritual and mind-bending acoustic ecology.
It begins with a series of eerie shuffling sounds and dark rumbling noises that eventually morph into puttering rhythmic patterns, low fuzzy groans and tortured squeals from (what I think may be) a violin, creating an atmosphere of damage, destruction and slow decay...
After that you will hear a static machine-like drone, accompanied by ominous saw-like scraping noises that ring out in long desolate echoes.
Throughout the rest of the album you will hear mesmeric crunching textures, deep growling noises, ghostly wails, sinister rumblings, windy whooshes, menacing booms, decaying frequencies, shimmering bells, atonal drones, percussive sistrum rattles, eerie water trickles, metallic scrapes, fragile audio glitches, steel chimes and haunted ambiences - floating and swirling through these unsettling barren environments... The sound and overall effect of Mountain Laurel's work is pretty abstract and impressionistic, allowing the listener's imagination to paint their own individual images and stories, which I love...

'Visions' is an album of dark ominous drones, spectral ambience, lo-fi field recordings, mesmerizing sound art and ritualistic noise experimentation. Papineau-Couture's hypnotic sound sculpting and drone-building makes for such a wonderfully bleak and cathartic listening experience. I love how she creates these menacing and cacophonic noisescapes using such minimalistic approaches, and without the whole thing crossing into that sickening (and tiresome) harsh noise territory. A hauntingly beautiful work of art.

Stream/Buy/Download :

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Greg Hooper - inside 


(leaf /// wave sound, 2025)

Greg Hooper is an Australian experimental musician, sound artist & retired neuroscientist whose work tends to focus on drone-based soundscapes, field recordings and free improvisation.

'inside' is a release consisting of one (almost) 40-minute long sound composition, created from field recordings and various methods of electroacoustic improvisation.
It begins with the sound of distant footsteps and objects being moved around an empty indoor environment, which is soon accompanied by a series of atmospheric atonal drones, rippling frequencies, quiet muted thuds, and miscellaneous bursts of soft noise. This ghostly ambience almost gives you the sensation of something that's alive and breathing...
After that (and throughout the rest of the piece) you will hear other subtle audio phenomena, such as fragments of TV broadcasts, shimmering bell-like tones, human shuffling, twittering birdsong, various room tones, airy ambiences, glitchy electronics, vocal murmurs, objects being scraped along surfaces, mysterious vibrations, soft rattles and low rumbling drones...

'inside' is a fascinating and immersive sound collage comprised of delicate indoor field recordings, eerie ambiences, ominous low-frequency drones and haunting environmental sonic phenomena. Hooper's subtle yet intriguing sound sculpting, and the ghostly atmospherics he's able to capture within this quiet and confined space makes for a beautifully mesmerizing listening experience.

Stream/Buy/Download :

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a.hop - a tape 


(presses précaires, 2025)

a.hop is the collaborative sound collective of nine different sound artists from around the world. Instigated by Verónica Cerrotta and Anne-F Jacques in Valparaíso (Chile) - the collective expanded to include Lynette Quek, Bonnie Han Jones, suzueri, Elizabeth Millar, Valentina Villaroel, Ryoko Akama & Liew Niyomkarn.

'a tape' consists of two longform sound collages, comprised of exchanged audio scraps and fragmented field recordings that were exchanged within the group. Scores were written with these generated materials, and then performed live Valparaiso by Verónica Cerrotta and Anne-F Jacques.

'Side A' begins with warped fragments of rhythmic trip-hop style music, spoken word samples and television sounds. Then you will start to hear a field recording of some kind of urban street environment, with snippets of conversation, bicycle spokes rotating, vrooming traffic noises and airy ambiences. Throughout the rest of the piece, you will hear a collage of frictional sounds, atmospheric slide guitar, strange fluttering noises, tape warbling, bits of percussion, melodica (?), faint distant strains of music, sweet birdsong, chirpy crickets, barking dogs, vocal fragments, ambiguous drones, vibrating objects and all kinds of unidentifiable rattling textures and stuttering tones...
'Side B' begins with the rhythmic croaking of some kind of exotic insect, ubiquitous cricket sounds and peaceful environmental ambience. Then you will begin to hear what sounds like tiny objects being shaken and rattled within a hollow receptacle, as static noise and whooshing traffic sounds paint the backdrop, intensifying more and more as the piece progresses. The soundscape gradually fills with nice environmental sounds, such as buzzing flies, gentle breezes and beautiful cacophonous birdsong.
Throughout the rest of the piece, you will hear rapid metallic rattles, dissonant ambient tones, body movements, various objects being played with, steel clatters, papery crackles and a series of murmured voices, religious chants, wailing sirens and atonal drones - all within the familiar (and sometimes unfamiliar) sounds of urban hustle bustle... 

'a tape' is an intricate yet delicate album of skillful audio collaging, created from vibrant field recordings, fragmented performances and mesmerizing sonic experimentation. It's very easy to identify Anne-F Jacques's creative involvement in this project, but it's wonderfully colored and fleshed out by all the other talented contributors - most of who I'm personally unfamiliar with. 
The sprawling range of intriguing textures, tones and frequencies found amongst the airy environmental ambience makes for a strangely compelling listening experience.

Stream/Buy/Download :

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Koenraad Ecker - Raw Materials 


(LINE Imprint, 2024)

Koenraad Ecker is a belgian sound artist based in Berlin. He is fascinated by the dialectic interplay between the acoustic environment and the social relations contained within it ; by the magic of the ordinary and the ordinariness of magic. 
Characterized by an unorthodox use of foley, extensive field recording and a love for electro-acoustic hybrids, his work attempts to make the empty spaces in between things heard & felt, and to find a delicate balance between the fragile and the visceral.

'Raw Materials' is an album consisting of three sound compositions, centered around recordings of (as the title suggests) raw materials...
'Transparent Bodies, Submarine Roots' begins with a haunting splash of crashing water, coated in cavernous reverb. Then you will begin to hear layers of dark ghostly drones, slowly drifting around the soundscape, along with some eerie crackling textures. As the track progresses, you will be fully engulfed by monstrous crashing sea waves, subtle electronics, warped vocalizations and lots of gurgling liquidy tones - dancing dreamily within this strange oceanic audio environment.  
'Furniture Rebellion' begins with the sound of quiet footsteps, tinkling keys, soft creaking noises and static ambience. Then you will hear a series of frictional sounds, dial tones and a chaotic collage of objects being shuffled, scraped and dragged over surfaces... 
'Heart of a Stone' begins with the delicate crunching sounds of rocks being rubbed against each other. Then you will hear the emergence of some deep ominous drones, desolate reverberations, scraping noises and cold howling ambience...

'Raw Materials' is an album of brooding dronescapes, haunting sound design and mesmerizing sonic experimentation. Throughout these three pieces - the depth, richness and vibrancy of the sounds that Ecker has collated and electronically transformed makes for such an atmospheric album cinematic listening experience.

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E.Jason Gibbs - Fish Point


(Unfathomless, 2025)

E Jason Gibbs is an experimental guitar player and field recordist. His compositions are built from field recordings, and explore the relationship between the built and natural worlds and how humans impose themselves on environments.

'Fish Point' is his latest album, released as part oF the Unfathomless series. It consists of two longform sound compositions, created from recordings collected at the Fish Point waterfront in Portland (Maine) and its surrounding drainages, vent pipes, docks, electrical boxes and surfaces of steel & concrete structures...
'1' begins with the cacophonous sound of warped birdsong, twittering in a dizzying delirium of shrill cries, which is quickly replaced by close mic'd recordings of gurgling water in (possibly) some kind of piping system, along with electrical glitches, distant metallic knocks and faint industrial ambience. Other sounds constantly weave in and out of the mix, including murmured voices, busy harbor sounds, low atmospheric rumbles, steel clangs, ghostly resonances and a sonic plethora of watery tones and liquidy frequencies from various settings... 
'2' begins with the slow quiet emergence of eerie atonal drones, soft crackling textures, electrical static and tiny frictional noises. Then you will hear a series of squeaking sounds, creaking objects, dark underground trickles and squawking seagulls. As the pieces progresses, you will also hear the subtle sounds of machinery, passing traffic and the familiar bustle of human activity... which all ends with some quiet shortwave radio experimentations.

'Fish Point' is a compelling album of vibrant site-specific field recordings, hypnotic drones, atmospheric sound manipulation and exquisite acoustic ecology. Gibbs' skillful collaging techniques, along with his keen attention to the subtle details found within this unique Portland waterfront environment makes for a rich and mesmerizing listening experience... 


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IVY NOSTRUM - Your in My Heart


(Minimal Resource Manipulation, 2025)

IVY NOSTRUM is Paul Margree - a sound artist and experimental improvisor from London. He blends explorations of everyday objects with feedback systems to explore ideas of instability and stasis. His work produces uneasy states of listening verging from deep, haunting drones to the delicate and nuanced exploration of daily minutiae.

'Your in My Heart' is his latest release, consisting of six sound experiments created from electronics, tapes, objects, feedback, guitar and field recordings.
It begins with a singular tone of high-frequency feedback. At first this tone seems to be static, but the longer you listen to it - the more you realize it's actually subtly fluctuating. Then you will start to hear some intimate shuffling noises and room sounds, which constantly fracture and glitch, along with quick bursts of miscellaneous noise, like something trying to burst through the surface... 
Eventually you will hear a distant looped guitar melody, trembling away continuously... and towards the latter section of the long opening track - more layers of squealing dissonant feedback weave in and out of each other. The whole ends with a gentle cacophony of tinkling bell-like percussion - possibly coins or miniature toy bells...
Throughout the rest of these pieces you will hear frictional wooden rattles, stuttering vibrations, soft swells of feedback, languid guitar plucks, tape hiss, clanging bells, hollow percussion, quiet airy field recordings and bizarre sonic manipulations.

'Your in My Heart' is a restrained and minimalistic album of hushed improvisations, eerie electronics and quiet sound experimentations. Margee's ability to create these hypnotic atmospheres using very little is pretty incredible. An intriguing and strangely soothing listening experience.

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Eleonora Kampe - Breath. Play.


(Cruel Nature Records, 2025)

Eleonora Kampe is a voice artist and avant-garde singer living in Latvia and Estonia. She has been practicing voice art since 2009 and uses her voice as a versatile instrument in various formats, including sound art, installations, free improvisation, noise music, and as a singer in an avant-garde blues duo.

'Breath. Play.' is an album consisting of six compositions, created as ''an attempt to explore and pass one through voice art emotional states and how they exist in the body.''
It begins with atmospheric swells of shimmering vocalizations, eerie growls and textural breath sounds. As the piece evolves, it gradually intensifies and mesmerizes with its interweaving layers of unsettling and animalistic vocal sounds, filling the soundscape with an eerie spacious ambience...
Throughout the rest of the album, Kampe slowly lures you into her strange world of dark abstract atmospheres, in which her voice is the central (and only) guiding force. 
Sometimes upfront and intimate, and at other times distant and ghostly - Kampe's spellbinding vocals swirl, drift and ricochet throughout these desolate environments. You will hear all kinds of humming, growling, droning, whistling, sighing, whispering, tortured choking sounds and deep guttural noises strewn throughout these ambiguous compositions...

'Breath. Play' is a mysterious album of haunting vocalizations, physical performance art, primal expression and abstract sound experimentation. Kampe's stunning vocal range, and the deep raw emotion she's able to conjure up from within her own body during these performances makes for tense eerie atmospheres, and a strangely cathartic listening experience.

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Quantum Sufficit - The Winds of Winter 


(self-released, 2025)

Quantum Sufficit is the artistic moniker of Katja Babicz. It's an amalgamated information entity that explores the effects of various waveforms & quantum indeterminate noise on the organic processing brain. Abstracted experience has led to a necessity for sonic experimentation, ranging from dark ambient and noise to extremely experimental field recordings...

'The Winds of Winter' is her latest release, consisting of four experimental noisescapes.
It begins with the airy ambience of an outdoor field recording that's been subtly manipulated and processed with delay, and some sort of swirling phaser effect. Then you will start to hear some gathering swells of whooshing noise and ominous rumbles, which ebb and flow in various states of intensity...
Throughout the rest of these pieces, you will hear a series of howling winds, decaying drones, crunchy explosions, ambiguous noises, and a variety of other weather-related sounds and environmental sonic phenomena - all caked with the same constant and continuous effects, which creates such an immersive and mesmerizing atmosphere...

'The Winds of Winter' is a short and fleeting yet riveting album of wonky field recordings, hypnotic drones and damaged ambience that sucks you into its unique whirlwind of atmospheric atonal noise. A captivating and trance-inducing listening experience.

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Cody Shaffer - A good place for it  


(un poco fría, 2025)

Cody Shaffer is a Chicago-based experimental musician & sound artist interested in perpetual care, objects, intention and ghosts.

'A good place for it' is an album consisting of two sound compositions, which were comprised from field recordings captured at two locations within The Windy City (Chicago).
It begins with a cacophony of murmured voices in an indoor public setting, which gradually intensifies into a fuzzed-out soundscape of squalling noise and rippling howls of high-frequency distortion.
Throughout the rest of the album, the sonic harshness ebbs and flows, and you will hear a series of rhythmic knocks, unsettling bangs, various room sounds and manipulated voices desperately trying to pierce through the layers of squealing noise and rumbling atonal ambience. 
The last few minutes of the album ends with windy whooshes that are violently booming the mic of the recorder, crunching footsteps and dizzying tones of beautiful birdsong.

'A good place for it' is a simultaneously peaceful and frightening aural excursion through the unique bowels of The Windy City. Shaffer's ability to transform and transmute these simple field recordings into growling/terrifying soundscapes of brutal harsh noise never ceases to amaze (and appall) me.

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Amit Kalra - Eulogiae 


(self-released, 2025)

Amit Kalra is a transdisciplinary audio/visual artist - born near San Francisco and currently based in Brooklyn, New York.

'Eulogiae' is a 1hr & 15min long sound composition. It begins with the captivating sound of ominous quivering drones and slowly-swirling frequencies, which creates a uniquely confined and cavernous space for the listener to be immersed in its eerie stillness. 
Throughout the duration of this lengthy composition, nothing much happens on the surface, but if you listen closely and allow your mind to drift within its haunting atmosphere - you can hear slight fluctuations and variations in the subtle harmonics of the piece. There are mysterious dissonances and beautiful overlapping tones within the slowly-evolving waves of abstract shimmering sound. A great soundtrack for deep uninterrupted thought patterns. A quietly mesmerizing and captivating listening experience.

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Peter Wullen - Master Of Inertia 


(self-released, 2025)

Peter Wullen is a Belgian poet, writer, sound artist and field recordist. He has released a variety of works (both solo and collaborative) - independently and through various labels.

'Master of Inertia' is a kind of (if I understand correctly) a cross between a sound art experimental and a one-man/one-act stage play, based on Samuel Beckett's ''Knapp's Last Tape''. The album consists of seven tracks, created from field recordings taken on Zebrastraat in Gent, Belgium. It's worth reading the descriptive text on Bandcamp before listening to this, in order to have a better understanding of what you're hearing...
It begins with a quiet eerie soundscape filled with rapidly stuttering drones, hissing electrical static, distant knocks and ominous vibrations that swirl slowly and moodily around this dark abstract environment.
Different sounds and textural layers weave in and out, and if you listen closely - you will hear a variety of intriguing background noises, all of which make the whole thing rather trance-inducing...
After that you will hear wooden creaking noises, mechanical ambience and the faintest wisps of some kind of beautiful distant music emerging through the mix...
Throughout the rest of the tracks, you will hear a series of mesmerizing rattles, altered frequencies, wailing police sirens, soft crunching noises, atonal ambience, trembling tones, haunting drones and subtle environmental sounds...

'Master of Inertia' is a spellbinding album of eerie field recordings, atmospheric dronescapes, haunting vibrations and abstract sound manipulation. The mood of these pieces are lonesome and troubling, yet oddly comforting. A wonderful slice of absurd realism, and a highly engrossing listening experience...

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Makhun - Episodes From An Ensuite  


(self-released, 2025)

Makhun (a.k.a Ronilia Makhun) is a Filipina sound artist living in the UK that practices intriguing audio experimentation with minimal field recordings.

'Episodes From An Ensuite' is an album of nine raw sound compositions, based on a collection of field recordings that the artist captured in and around a hotel they were staying at in the south of England, while waiting for news about her delayed flight out of the country. 
It begins with the lone mechanical churning of some kind of machine located somewhere in the aforementioned hotel, of what kind - I can't say... but it sounds like some sort of mechanical rotary device that's attached to a hollow device, with something rattling around inside it. Very intriguing...
Throughout the rest of the album, you will hear nine fragmented audio collages comprised of fuzzy waves of static, moaning traffic sounds, airy ambience, crunching sounds, growling atonal drones, quiet water drips, whooshing winds, clattering bangs and lots of crackling, crunching, rumbling textures that drift, swirl, haunt and mesmerize...

'Episodes From An Ensuite' is a strange sound documentation that strangely (and effectively) depicts the boredom and frustration of waiting in a hotel room for news of a delayed flight. These raw lo-fi field recordings and Makhun's atmospheric audio manipulation techniques makes for a bizarre yet evocative listening experience. 

Stream/Buy/Download :
https://makhun.bandcamp.com/album/episodes-from-an-ensuite

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at 1 comment:

Friday, 2 May 2025

Fletina - Vesun & Louise

*SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION POST*

I just thought I'd put up a little post to promote my latest two releases - 'Vesun' & 'Louise', which were both self-released in last couple of months...

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Fletina - Vesun


(self-released, 2025)

'Vesun' is an album consisting of nine abstract sound collages that were created from archived field recordings of various mundane work environments.  

In these collages, aural fragments of industrial machinery, churning mechanisms, overheard conversations, radio broadcasts, elemental noises, room tones and outdoor ambiences overlap and interweave to form surreal yet strangely familiar atmospheres...


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Fletina - Louise


(self-released, 2025)

'Louise' is a 36-minute long abstract sound composition filled with puttering vibrations, haunting drones and field recordings of a barn fire...  

Louise : a burning blaze, a betrayal...

Stream/Buy/Download :

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at 1 comment:

Monday, 3 March 2025

Non-Music Roundup (Mar 25)

Hello everybody. I'm back with my first roundup of new/newish non-musical recommendations in quite some time..

I was on a fairly lengthy hiatus from blogging for several reasons, but I've recently felt the burning itch to get back into it, so here I am. I really do love writing about my latest non-musical discoveries, so I've decided that I'm going to try my best to carry on maintaining this blog for the meantime... but as all music writers will tell you - it's a (mostly) thankless task, and the only way I'm going to do it without completely burning myself out is to take a completely selfish approach to it and do it at a much slower and more manageable pace...

Anyway, without further ado - here are a bunch of new (or relatively new) sound art albums that I've been enjoying lately...

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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Houser/Jacques/Montiel/Salinas/Weathers - Light Flies Out of Us 


(Editions Glomar, 2015)

'Light Flies Out of Us' is a collaborative album between five different sound artists that resulted from a guided sound walk and recording session at an art farm outside of Lubbock, Texas. The artists were Justin Houser, Anne-F Jacques, Ernesto Montiel, Veronica Anne Salines & Andrew Weathers - all of whose individual work I was already familiar with, so checking this out was a no-brainer...

The album consists of two lengthy sound compositions, inspired by the sound of the wind in that area from the perspective of tumbleweeds, and performed on a multiple of different objects and instruments.
'Tumbleweeds' begins with some airy room tones, soft windy howls, distant creaks and quiet squeaks and squeals from brass instruments, with lots of emptiness, miniature movements and subtle environmental sounds coloring the background. As the track progresses, you will hear swirling echoes, metallic shimmers, crackling electricity, small objects being bounced and rattled and scraped, ambient synth notes and gentle bell-like sounds resonating and ricocheting off the walls in this unique creative space...
'Wind Index' begins with a series of quiet crackly bursts of electrical noise, haunting rumbles and soft windy melodies, which is eventually accompanied by a variety of brooding drones, tiny rattles and vibrations, muted percussive knocks, airy ambience, rippling tones, and all kinds of strangled frictional sounds... creating a tense yet delightfully meditative atmosphere to lose yourself in...

'Light Flies Out of Us' is a fragile and spacious album of minimalistic sound art, hushed improvisation, rich acoustic ecology and dreamy environmental ambience. It's amazing that there can be five talented sound artists performing in one space, yet no one person hogs the spotlight for themselves - quite the opposite, really. The whole thing is so subdued and restrained and minimalistic. A delicate and mesmerizing listening experience.

Stream/Buy/Download :

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Laura Not & Andrew Hulme - Almost Something 


(Infant Tree, 2025)

Laura Not is an artist, sound collagist and DJ. She hosts (x)=musik on Lyl Radio, co-runs the label Final Image and has released music on various experimental record labels.
Andrew Hulme is an experimental musician, and one half of the English post-industrial/ambient duo O Yuki Conjugate.

'Almost Something' is a collaboration album between these two artists, consisting of two longform sound compositions that were based on recordings taken in both London and Berlin.
'In The Course of Events' begins with the busy sounds of locomotion and public transportation. The sonic backdrop fills with police sirens, whooshing traffic noises, rumbling drones and environmental sounds, while in the foreground you can hear some kind of repetitive tinkling, like someone stirring ice cubes in a glass... after which you will start to hear shimmering metallic tones and dissonant frictional ambience, causing squalls of resonant feedback...
Throughout the rest of the piece you will hear airy environmental drones, shuffling noises, glistening high-frequency tones, rumbling traffic, grainy textures, the screeching sound of (what may be) some kind of stringed instrument, quiet eerie ambience and a variety of bizarre sonic abnormalities and ambiguous abstractions. Near the end of the track you will notice the initially tinkling sound returns, against a background of subtle musical flourishes...
'Finding Midday At Two' begins with some quiet haunting ambience, gong-like bell tones, surreal gurgling textures and slow swells of abstract noises. As the track progresses, you will hear the soundscape fill with beautiful ethereal ambience with soft dreamy echoes and long swirling reverberations. For the rest of the piece, you will hear rapid fluttering/drilling noises, resonant bells, ghostly howls, mournful melodies and soft warbling drones...

'Almost Something' is a wonderful album of rich vivid field recordings, surreal dronescapes and beautiful sound experimentation. I'm not sure who does what in these pieces, but they blend together in such a fluid and seamless way. A strange and intriguing aural journey, and an exquisite listening experience.

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Marie Rose Sarri / Bruno Duplant - deux études


(Ftarri, 2024)

Marie Rose Sarri (a.k.a MonoLogue, a.k.a Moon RA) is an Italian musician and sound artist who makes skillful use of both analog and digital instruments, field recordings and all types of sounds in composing and creating works of music.
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.

'deux études' is a recent collaboration album of theirs, consisting of two longform sound compositions.
'étude no. 1' begins with stuttering layers of trippy textural noise, accompanied by swirling field recordings of unknown source. You will also erratic bursts of mechanical puttering, surreal reverberations, electronic gurgles and a plethora of other fleeting sonic abstractions. There are moments of discernable rhythmic patterns strewn throughout this piece, but they're very short-lived, as the piece continues to evolve at a rapid pace.
Throughout the rest of the composition, you will hear strange haunting drones, fuzzy ambience, ghostly rattles and vibrations, glitchy electronic tones, crackling textures and squalling bursts of ambiguous noise. At around the halfway point you will unexpectedly hear quiet guitar harmonics playing out a sweet melody amidst the surrounding chaos of collaged sounds...
'étude no. 2' begins with atmospheric layers of stuttering noises, warped field recordings and melancholic ambience, before the sounds evolve into strange hypnotic polyrhythms, glitchy electronica and repeating patterns of sonic weirdness. 
Throughout the rest of the piece you will hear (what sounds like) mechanical insects, eerie whooshing drones, otherworldly bells and chimes, haunting whistles, gurgling liquid-y drips, spacious guitar plucks, dark echoes and strangled bursts of erratic noise.

'deux études' is a spellbinding and mysterious collaborative album between two uniquely skilled experimental artists - both of whom I'm already a big fan of. There's A LOT going on in these pieces, much more than I can describe in this little capsule review. Having spent quality time thoroughly listening to both Sarri & Duplant's individual creative outputs, I can easily identify both in the sound of this album... which proves how both these artists bring an original musical (and non-musical) stamp with them, wherever they go and whoever they get involved with. A captivating and absurdly beautiful listening experience.

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Phil Maguire - faint red / pencil lines 


(farpoint recordings, 2024)

Phil Maguire (1989) is a Cork-based Scottish artist and composer, producing microscopic sound works for synthesiser and computer that explore emptiness and emergence, of self and of machine. These works are informed by his experience composing, performing, and presenting works across the gamut of Minimalism.

'faint red / pencil lines' is his latest album, consisting of two longform minimalist drone compositions. It's a study in endless yet microscopic electronic music...
'Untitled1 (Morning)' begins with a slow and softly-pulsating drone that quietly emerges out of the background, engulfing the listener in its constant rippling motion. Within these minimalist waves of synth notes and computer-generated sine tones, you will hear a faint melody and shimmering harmonies that ever-so-slightly fluctuate and intensify as the piece pushes forward...
At about the midway point, you will notice that the drone starts to gather a bit more power and mass. An additional fuzzy textural drone emerges out of the mix, ebbing and flowing within this continual sound...
'Untitled 0 (8)' begins with a higher-frequency singular electronic drone that contains very subtle undulations, if you listen closely, like some kind of slow mechanical breathing...
As the pieces progresses, more tones enter the mix, creating lovely dissonances and barely-perceptible variations in frequency, and feel...

'faint red / pencil lines' is an album of subtle, quiet, glacial-paced electronic dronescapes that entice and mesmerize with their meditative frequencies and shimmering stillness. Maguire namedrops the abstract painter Agnes Martin as an inspiration and influence on his work - both sharing a similar stark minimalism and ''sense of infinity'' in their approach, and both of their outputs (in my opinion) go hand-in-hand... Such a serene and immersive listening experience. 

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seah / susan drone - split


(Somnimage, 2024)

Seah is an experimental sound artist, musician and visual/performance artist who has released a number of solo works, as well being one half of the experimental noise duo post doom romance. 
Susan Drone (a.k.a Susana López) is an electroacoustic composer, sound and visual artist based in Murcia, Spain.

This is a 2-track split release between both of these exceptional drone artists - available to purchase on 7'' lathe cut vinyl...
seah's track 'hypogean' begins with the rising swell of a haunting cello drone, surrounded by swirling winds of airy noise. As the track progresses, you will be sucked into a dark howling soundscape of slowly-rippling ambience and dissonant tonal tensions. A very cinematic and mournful composition.
susan drone's track 'Immanence' begins with a ghostly shimmering drone, accompanied by some ambiguous environmental sounds. You can hear the faint muttering of distant voices, metallic whooshes and reverberated clatterings, clanging away as the central drones gather intensity and momentum, creating dense layers of hypnotic sounds that could listen to for a long time...

This is a short but immersive split release between two expert sound sculptors. The way these two experimental artists are able to manipulate and transform field recordings (or however else they gather their source materials) into these noisy melancholic atmospheres makes for an eerie and beautiful listening experience.

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Jacob Kirkegaard - Snowblind 


(Helen Scarsdale, 2025)

Jacob Kirkegaard is a sound artist & composer from Denmark who works in carefully selected environments to generate recordings that are used in compositions, or combined with video imagery in visual, spatial installations. His works reveal unheard sonic phenomena and present listening as a means of experiencing the world.

'Snowblind' is his latest release, based on a failed attempt for a team of Swedish explorers to reach The North Pole by balloon in the late 19th century.
It begins with a slow, cold, ominous dronescape that swirls around like a strong whooshing wind of bleak noise. This icy hostile audio environment is punctuated by (what sounds like) swells of a brass horn and other electronic abstractions. Then you will start to hear eerie metallic tones, ebbing and flowing in an empty lonesome place. These tones overlap with each other and create a spellbinding dissonance...
Throughout the rest of this album, you will hear a series of sinister drones, freezing ambient textures, shimmering timbres, brief melodic flourishes, desolate echoes, cavernous reverberations, rumbling percussive knocks, mysterious crackling tones, rippling environmental sounds and cacophonous swells of haunting noise.

'Snowblind' is a cold and doom-laden album of bleak nature sounds, ominous drones and isolationist soundscapes. Kirkegaard's haunting sound design and immersive sonic experimentation makes for a dark, tense and atmospheric listening experience.

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Kate Carr and Matt Atkins - Organelles


(Flaming Pines, 2025)

Kate Carr is a London-based composer and field recordist whose work uses sound to explore the spaces we create together. She is particularly interested in shared public spaces, and the ways we deploy sound to connect, occupy, immerse and remove ourselves from locations, events and each other. Her live work is centred on objects, chance events and textures.
Matt Atkins is a prolific sound and visual artist based in London. He works with percussion and found objects, and uses tape manipulation techniques to create intriguing sound collages and his own unique brand of musique concrete. 

'Organelles' is a collaboration between both artists, inspired by the tiny processes and interactions that occur within cells.
The album begins with layers of sizzling textures, quivering static, puttering thuds, windy moans, shimmery howls, crackling swells of noise and soft ambient chimes ringing slowly and eerily around this unique inner soundscape. 
Throughout the rest of the album you will hear all sorts of atmospheric percussive hits, audio pops, tiny gurgles, crunching sounds, miniature vibrations, quiet rumbles and moments of beautiful glistening ambience, which adds a lovely dream-like quality to these strange and constantly-fluctuating sonic environments.

'Organelles' is a woozy and hypnotic album of microscopic movements and delicate sounds that wonderfully capture the life and activity that occur within these unique tiny inner worlds. The atmospheres that Carr and Atkins skillfully sculpt throughout these pieces really ignite the imagination, and paint vivid aural landscapes through intelligent and delicate sound experimentations. A dreamy and captivating listening experience.  

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Ian Wellman - Can You Hear The Streetlights Glow? 


(Room40, 2025)
 
Ian Wellman is a sound artist, field recordist, and an IATSE 695 Y-1 sound mixer who combines slowed and distorted tape loop textures along with field recordings to create dynamic landscapes.

'Can You Hear The Street Lights Glow?' is an album that was created from recordings of mercury-vapor streetlights surrounding the artist's new home in Pasadena, California. Wellman placed various types of microphones and electromagnetic sensors on metal sensors, which resulted in a series of fascinating sound compositions.
The album begins with an ominous droning mass of fluttering rumbles, rattling textures and ghostly howling sounds. Then you will start to hear walls of fuzzy static, mechanical drones and squalling layers of electromagnetic noise experimentation. Throughout the rest of the album, various tones and frequencies disintegrate and decay, atmospheric field recordings engulf, and unsettling environmental ambience fills these rich vivid soundscapes with a feeling of thick unknown dread...

'Can You Hear The Street Lights Glow?' is a short but stunning album of evocative sound art, haunting dronescapes and abstract electronical noise experiments. An incredibly immersive sound journey, and a wonderfully atmospheric listening experience.

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Raphael Malfliet - Tracce Di Luce


(self-released, 2025)

Raphael Malfliet is a sound artist, composer and performer based in Antwerp Belgium whose work revolves around the attempt to translate characteristics of generative art to the composer/performer role. In doing this he withholds himself from creating in a certain style but will use any means possible to support, challenge and question the subject of the research.

'Tracce Di Luce' is a sound dramaturgy and short audio documentary that captures the intricate layers of memory, history, and atmosphere in the village of Castelnuovo Al Volturno, in the Molise region of Italy. You can read the full story/description at the Bandcamp link below...
It consists of one 20-minute long sound composition, which begins with a series of body movements, shuffling sounds, crackling textures and metal scrapes against a tranquil background of quiet airy ambience. Then you will start to hear some joyous whistling, crunchy footsteps and lots of solitary indoor house sounds. The segment ends with a brief interview with one of the local residents of Castelnuovo, who recalls his own personal memories of living in the village during the 80s, when it was far more populated. This interview is punctuated by the languid ringing of church bells and gentle winds...
Throughout the rest of the piece, you will hear local stories and commentaries (in both English and Italian), radio static, frictional noises, beautiful birdsong, rumbling thunder, heavy rainfall, singing, the pounding of hollow receptacles, running water and many erratic bursts of noise.

'Tracce Di Luce' is a beautiful and delicate audio documentation of a small rural place that has a rich and vibrant history. The love and care that Malfliet has put into researching this project and crafting this sound work comes through very clearly. The field recordings and spoken excerpts are so captivating, and paint a vivid image of the atmosphere of Castelnuovo. A quiet, serene and emotional listening experience.

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Wohnen - Puddles


(self-released, 2024)

Wohnen is the sound project of Beth Robertson. It's an inter-disciplinary enquiry into the entangled hybrid worlds of the more-than-human. Her practise comprises different conceptual and practice-led projects, investigating collective listening as a form of activism and sounding out the symbiotic relationships we have with the world within, amongst and around us. She asks how we can learn to listen to the voices of those silenced, othered or disappeared...

'Puddles' is a 22-minute composition of sounds from beneath, above and around ponds, puddles, tide pools, streams, flushes and potholes. You can read more specific details at the Bandcamp link below...
It begins with the sound of a soft subtle gurgle of water against a backdrop of cavernous reverberation and haunting wind noises. You can hear lone solitary drips and the gentle crackle of water flowing over small pebbles and rocks, causing soft frictional knocks. Then you will begin to hear the muffled murmur of voices, hurried footsteps and distant traffic sounds emerging from the background. Throughout the rest of the piece, you will hear environmental drones, seagulls squawking, and more water - of course... water being softly sucked through drains, gurgling in small puddles and pools, dripping eerily from above, rumbling at dark depths and streams flowing in full spate... interspersed with the artist's ambiguous sonic abstractions.

'Puddles' is a soothing and meditative audio collage of watery soundscapes, environmental ambience and raw minimalistic sound experimentation that highlights and celebrates the activity and flow of these special little bodies of water that are located everywhere, yet as the artist says herself - they give us little time to marvel. A beautiful and hypnotic listening experience.

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Sara Retallick - Sift 


(self-released, 2024)

Sara Retallick is an artist, composer, and researcher living and working on Wurundjeri Country in Naarm (Melbourne). Her work explores multisensory listening as a core concern by creating tactile sonic encounters in audio and object-based installation, multichannel sound system arrangements, sound design and performance. 

'Sift' is a collaborative exhibition between artists Liv Boyle and Sara Retallick exploring material exchanges and relations in contemporary jewellery and sound art practices. This sound study consists of two recordings...
'Side A' begins with the gentle scraping and percussive rattling of some sort of hollow object/receptacle, accompanied by a frantic and mesmerizing cacophony of steel tinkles - possibly jewellery?
As the piece progresses, you will start to hear a variety of different textural layers and electronic manipulation sounds. Small objects churn away in an almost-mechanical rhythmic pattern, caked with erratic bursts of warbling reverb, and listening closely you can hear all sorts of subtle vibrations and frictional noises...
'Side B' begins with a series of haunting bangs and scrapes, like some large piece of furniture is being slowly dragged across the room. Reading the album blurb on Bandcamp - this might have something to do with a floor tom...
Eventually you will begin to hear more glistening metallic clinking noises, like miniature bells knocking into each other. Throughout the rest of the piece, you will hear strangled breaths blowing through some kind of thin flute-like instrument and airy drones, creating a series of stifled choking noises, high squealing frequencies, low fuzzy moans, soothing ambient tones and an all-round pretty eerie atmosphere... 

'Sift' is a short but fascinating album of minimalistic sound art, playful improvisation, subtle electronics and abstract sonic experimentation. The delicate and restrained performances by these two skilled artists capture the tensions and interactions between these unique materials, which are made up from a selection of materials that Boyle uses in her work as a jeweller. An intriguing and strangely meditative listening experience.

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Andy Fray - Scrapes 


(self-released, 2025)

Andy Fray is a reductionist sound artist & field recordist who practices abstract minimalism. He also releases stark atmospheric compositions of abstract surrealism under the name Vorval.

'Scrapes' is a longform sound recording of paint being scraped off the walls of a quiet corridor in the artist's apartment building. Although the idea may seem quite laughable and ridiculous, it actually makes for a strangely captivating recording.
The piece is split into (roughly) two lengthy sections - the first being the actual scraping off the walls with some kind of tool - a chisel or a knife, I'm assuming... and the second being the remnant mess being swept off the wall. In the background you can hear subtle room tones and background noises in the apartment building - the odd faint murmured voice, soft bangs from the heating system, doors being opened and closed... but apart from that - all you hear is the ambient stillness surrounding this mundane chore. A strangely relaxing and hypnotic listening experience.

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Saturday, 1 March 2025

Fletina & Freight Cell (*shameless self-promotion post*)

Hey everyone. I thought I'd publish a little self-indulgent post about my own non-musical output since I went on a blog hiatus...

Down below you will find info on the latest Fletina release. And for those of you who aren't already aware of it - I have a little side project called Freight Cell, and have put out three releases so far, which you can stream/buy/download at the links below...

Fletina - Courtyard Barrel

(self-released, 2025) 

Courtyard Barrel' is a 15-minute long environmental sound collage, based on field recordings that were taken from the courtyard outside a friend's apartment building.  

This piece is primarily centered around the resonant gong-like sound of a wooden mallet striking a steel barrel, but you will also hear a plethora of surrounding noises (some manipulated, some raw) that were used to build the atmosphere and create a distinct sense of location and space...

https://fletina.bandcamp.com/album/courtyard-barrel

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Freight Cell focuses on minimal, repetitive, abstract dronescapes that slowly evolve and fluctuate over long durations...


Freight Cell - Damaged Projections From An Abstract Source


(self-released, 2025)


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Freight Cell - Surrounding The Room


(self-released, 2024)


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Freight Cell - Adhesion


(self-released, 2024)


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Monday, 24 February 2025

A Retrospective Non-Music Roundup (Feb 25)

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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Parts 2 & 3 of the 'MICRO' trilogy can be found here and here.

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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.

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