Saturday, 1 July 2023

Non-Music Roundup (July 23)

 











Greetings Non-Music lovers,

Here's a roundup of the latest spectular sound works that I've been listening to these last few weeks.

And as always, if you like what you see/hear, please considering supporting these tremendous artists & labels by buying their albums and following them on Bandcamp and/or social media.

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MonoLogue and Matt Atkins - Homework


(Flaming Pines, 2023)

MonoLogue (aka Marie Rose) is an Italian composer, musician and sound designer. Her work moves between soundtracks, sound design for TV series and other sound experiences. 
Matt Atkins is an improvising percussionist and visual artist who uses electronics, objects and tape loops in his work. 
They are both prolific artists in the field of experimental music and sound art, and have released many works - both independently and through various labels.

'Homework' is their new collaboration album. The idea behind this album was for Atkins to record a series of textures and rhythms (derived from his collection of bells, gongs and rattles) onto magnetic tape, over which Rose conducted a series of alchemic experiments involving water damage, chemical acids and the physical acts of breaking, stretching and re-joining. Very intriguing...

In these improvised lo-fi recordings you will hear a vast array of shimmering gongs, warbling bells, glistening steel cymbals, hollow wooden vessels, crispy clicks, ghostly murmurs, miniature rattles and other hypnotic percussive sounds being scraped, shuffled, rattled and banged - vibrating and softly resonating off various surfaces...while magnetic distortions and tape degradation provide erratic bursts of brittle tortured noise. I think the damage, disentegration and glitchiness of these recordings actually enhance the performances, and add layers of creepiness and distress to these otherwise serene acoustic environments. It's a very physical, crunchy kind of ambience, and a sussurating kind of noise. The final track is simply beautiful.

'Homework' is an album of fragile woozy soundscapes that feel simultaneously peaceful and sinister, mesmerizing and strangely unnerving... meditative improvisations hovering over a foundation of raw tape hiss and audio decay. A very unique sound experiment, and a gorgeous listening experience.

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Kate Carr - Fever Dreams


(Mana Records, 2023)

Kate Carr is an Australian-born, London-based sound artist & field recordist whose work is focused on the links between sound, place and affect, and she works across composition, performance and installation. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wire, The Quietus, and The Guardian. She also runs the sound art label Flaming Pines.

'Fever Dreams' is an album that was composed during one of the winter lockdowns in London, where she lives. In her own words, it is ''a fantastical, speculative take on high density living''. 
Consisting of seven dark claustrophobic compositions, the tones and textures that Carr has created in this album evoke images of bleak concrete structures, grimy apartments, dark sewer systems and mysterious subterranean networks. These quietly unsettling soundscapes are permeated with the feeling of confusion, uncertainty, despair and resignation.
In these recordings you will hear scintillating gongs, haunting swells of atonal ambience, flickering electricity, low evolving drones, swirling rattles, watery echoes, fragmented shuffling sounds, manipulated choral singing, mechanical humming, muddy electronica, fleeting pulses, distant crashes, shimmering steel, and a vast array of glitching noises and other weird sonic abstractions. The sound is constantly and rapidly evolving, and the atmosphere is suffocating and dense.

'Fever Dreams' is an album of bizarre textural dreamscapes filled with claustrophobic confinement, Lynchian surreality and urban gloom. The eerie and unnerving atmospheres in this album make the city sound like a living breathing being, with a mind of its own. It feels like you're observing strange airless rooms and creepy passageways through a floating camera lens. The images are flickering and the power is short-circuiting, yet you're unable to leave. An unsettling yet entrancing listening experience.

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Patrick Corcoran - Stasis


(self-released, 2023)

Patrick Corcoran is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Limerick, Ireland, whose practice includes painting, sculpture,​ installation, photography, print, drawing, moving image, sound & the written word. He has independently self-released a number of albums under his own name, which can all be heard on Bandcamp.

'Stasis' is a conceptual space-themed sound art album. According to Corcoran, it deals with the notion of coming back (down) to earth and "coming home" after a kidney transplant and medical treatment that Corcoran underwent a couple of years ago. It also encapsulates his eagerness to get going and travel again after the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, along with his own personal interest and fascination with space, space travel and the cosmos.

In these recordings you will hear subsonic rumblings, desolate echoes, cosmic winds, authentic NASA field recordings, alien ambience, fluttering noises and deep space drones. The atmospheres that Corcoran has created/assembled in this album are undeniably dark and eerie...but they're also so mesmerizing, immersive and trance-induing. It really takes you out of your surroundings, and leaves you feeling like you're drifting in deep space.

'Stasis' is a dreamy and meditative sound journey through the dark cosmos. It's best enjoyed alone, in a quiet environment, free from all earthly distractions and noise. A wonderful sound art album, and a relaxing and fascinating listening experience.

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Manja Ristić - tailless tarantella lifted its head 


(self-released, 2023)

Manja Ristić is a violinist, sound artist, field recordist, published poet, curator and researcher from Belgrade, Serbia. She is mostly active in the field of electro-acoustics, instrumental improvisation & experimental sound related arts, and has released many albums - both independently and on reputable record labels.

'tailless tarantella lifted its head' is a collection of five sound works based on poems that Ristić wrote on the themes of love and loss. It's part of an ongoing series called 'Stories Untold'.
Track 1 (Dubrovnik) begins with a mournful sustained organ drone, slightly undulating, rippling sadly along... until you eventually hear the sounds of a luscious field recording emerging out of the mix. Twittering birdsong, human movements and other environmental noises reverberate beautifully within this sombre soundscape, until the rapid pitter-patter of rainfall fills the foreground. As the track comes to its end, you will also hear the faint sound of male singing coming floating in from the distance, and then the sudden crack of thunder...
Track 2 (Avala) begins with beautiful ethereal ambience and swirling abstractions. That quietens down and you will hear soft tranquil underwater crashes before the ambience gradually returns with a bit more intensity. Around the midway point you will hear some flickering electricity, accompanied by broken radio transmissions and scratching sounds, before the running water comes back into the mix with a softly pulsating ominous drone, and then it all eventually fades away...
Track 3 (Zemun) begins with crunching footsteps, an ominous drone and some singular ambient tones, rising and falling. There's also some brooding wind-like noise blowing in the background. Then the footsteps stop and it's just a ghostly soundscape with some faint steel percussive hits, echoing and resonating eerily. Towards the end of the piece, the windy noise increases and dissonant ambient tones shimmer away...
Track 4 (Zadar) begins with the ebbing and flowing of some instrument or device I'm unable to distinguish. This is accompanied by distant wails of feedback and (what sounds to me like) fire crackling, or possibly more rainfall? More watery sounds emerge as the track progresses, and the intensity of the noise builds and builds and becomes more intricate and complex. In the latter half of the track, things become gradually quieter and more peaceful, but the atmosphere remains unsettling and rather mournful...
Track 5 (Mostar) is the longest track of the album and it filled with wonderful water sounds. These serene recordings of water lapping gently over rocks and pebbles are so immersive and meditative. There's also the faint subtle accompaniment of something crackling, which sounds like static electricity.
Ristić has also added some gorgeous reverb to the sounds (along with some other subtleties) to create her own personal (and surreal) audio environment.

'tailless tarantella lifted its head' is an album of minimalistic ambience, beautiful field recordings, plaintive sound art and abstract noise experimentation. These immersive audio collages will enrapture and envelope you, and leave you wanting more. A marvellous listening experience.

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Jane Rigler & Nathan Wheeler - Inflorescence 


(Dasa Tapes, 2023)

Jane Rigler is a Colorado-based flutist, composer, educator and producer who's known for her innovations in new flute performance, techniques and unique musical vocabulary.
Nathan Wheeler is a Colorado-born composer, improviser, choreographer, media artist, and educator whose work focuses on hybridizing the contemporary, the traditional, and the imaginary to synthesize stunning new approaches to art making and community building. 
'Inflorescence' in their collaborative album for the experimental Dasa Tapes label. 

Inflorescence is defined as the arrangement of flowers on a branch or a system of branches. It is determined by how the flowers blossom on a stem, the arrangement on the stem, how many blossom together, and the timing of the growth.

This album consists of nine improvised performances, titled after technical/botanical terms related to inflorescence. Both players are very respectful of the open space and natural ambience of the sounds and textures they create, which gives the performances such a relaxed and dream-like quality. The radiant flourishes and magical trills of Rigler's flute (sometimes organic and raw, sometimes heavily processed through an Ableton Live patch) drift delicately through the soundscape, mixing and merging with Wheeler's intriguing array of experimental noises that come from a Sidrax organ, a Volcra drum, various effects pedals and a Monome Norns Shield. Throughout the course of the album you will hear muted flutters, shuddering swells, hollow rumbles, shimmering chimes, surreal rattles and crackles, airy resonances, atmospheric vibrations, trembling drones, windy ambience, rapidly fluctuating frequencies, digital bleeps, eerie echoes, erratic electronic glitchiness and other bizarre sonic abstractions. I can't claim to understand the technicalities of how this music was made, but the tranquil textures and fascinating sound experimentation had me hooked from beginning to end.

'Inflorescence' is an album of wonderfully minimalistic, quietly meditative and achingly beautiful soundscapes created by two skilled and disciplined artists. These spacious audio environments and serene atmospheres are so soothing and restorative, and makes for a gorgeous and unique listening experience.

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A Vibrant Struggle - Static Fever 


(Grisaille, 2023)

A Vibrant Struggle is the experimental noise trio of Norwegian musicians Sindre Bjerga & Jan-M. Iversen, and Dutch sound artist Steffan de Turck, who are all respected and reputable solo artists in their own right. 

'Static Fever' is their latest release on the wonderful experimental tape label Grisaille, and falls under the umbrella of 'The Molten Snow Tapes Vol. XII'. It honestly took me a few listens to get into this album, but when it clicked - it clicked hard. It consists of four parts, four immersive noise improvisations...
Track 1 starts with frantic machine-like stuttering noise, which subtly shifts, evolves and fluctuates as the track progresses. The frequency and intensity of this distorted noise increases and decreases, while drone-like rumbling slowly emerges out of the mix. At times it sounds like the primary noise is thinning out and disentegrating, while the background is alive with tremulous feedback and shimmering resonances.
Track 2 begins with a bouncy demented sounding metronome-like clicking, which is accompanied by an eerie scratching, static humming and soft wails of high frequency feedback. As the piece progresses, the clicking changes into a techno-esque rhythm, and you will hear some kind of groaning-like noises, and muted pulses enter the soundscape, which eventually fades away and all you're left with is these lonely scratching sounds...
Track 3 begins with some raw lo-fi environmental noises. You will hear sounds of human activity - walking, shuffling, shifting, etc... Eventually, undulating waves of feedback and mechanical grinding can be heard... and something being violently rattled. I have no idea what that is. The piece ends with the faint and gentle sounds of tingling bells and/or chimes, echoing and reverberating away... 
Track 4 is the longest track of the album. It begins with an array of dark dissonant sounds and erratic bursts of distorted feedback with ominous silences in between. Eventually the feedback becomes more prominent and there's some kind of bizarre creaking sounds occuring. Then you will hear a warbling synth (or maybe an organ?) emerge like something out of an old 50's sci-fi movie. As the piece progresses, the noise intensifies and becomes more aggressive and desperate sounding until the entire  environment is shimmering and glimmering. In the second half of the track you will hear (what I think is) nasty wailing electric guitar distortion, which almost sounds like a grass strimmer, while a deep ominous drone gradually comes into focus. This quietens down into an unsettling stillness before the noise builds up into a fierce and shuddering intensity towards the abrupt ending.

'Static Fever' is a weird, haunting and compelling record of improvised noise and sound art experimentation. Constantly fluctuating from quietly unsettling to frighteningly fierce - this album is a baffling yet brilliant album to get lost in. 

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Adam Zuckerman - The Hand, The Grid, And The Red Breeze 



(NCTMMRN, 2022)

Adam Zuckerman is an experimental musician based in Los Angeles, CA.  He works with acoustic, electronic, and environmental materials in the creation of scores, recordings, performances, and installations. At the core of his work is an understanding of music as having a uniquely immediate connection with the pure sensation of sound. 

This album consists of two long-form compositions in which Zuckerman amplifies the internal dynamics and slow transformations of a single, typically very quiet sound - namely an e-bow on the acoustic guitar. 

Track 1 starts off with a series of long-sustained frantic string vibrations, backed by a single fluctuating drone. The rapid rattling is totally mesmerizing. It almost sounds like a screw being loosened by a power drill. As the piece progresses and evolves, you will hear slight subtle shifts in the tones and timbres being produced. Zuckerman achieves this bizarre sonic effect by sitting by the guitar and gradually slackening the strings, which subtly changes the orientation of the e-bow. 
By the midway point of the composition, the vibrations have gradually decreased in speed and intensity, and the overall tone has changed to a lower pitch. This transformation continues, and these microscopic sounds get slower and slower towards the end of the track, creating a slightly unnerving and sinister atmosphere, before it ends abruptly, and you're left with the hushed sounds of a serene nature field recording.
Track 2 kicks in with similar vicious and erratic vibrations to Track 1, but this time higher in pitch and frequency, and delivered with more of a sting...occasional bursting into high whining feedback, as opposed to the low drone feedback of the previous composition. It feels like having my ears attacked by mechanical bees. By the midway point it sounds like screaming white noise...until a distinct change in tone and frequency gives out a noise comparable to an electric buzzsaw for the second half of the piece. As the track starts rushing towards its end, a strange but welcomed harmony starts rising out of the harsh dissonance. I don't know if this is intentional or not, but it's pretty amazing. And like Track 1, this composition ends with another serene nature field recording.

'The Hand, The Grid, And The Red Breeze' is a uniquely captivating mixture of experimental noise and avant-garde sound art. In this album, Zuckerman has tapped into an intriguing method of producing such a wild and powerful sound from this quiet and gentle musical instrument. A rich and intriguing listening experience.

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Nicholas Maloney - Three Phases 


(Open Colour Imprint, 2023)

Nicholas Maloney is a prolific sound artist currently based in Nashville, Tennessee. He holds a MA in Experimental Sound Practice from University College Cork (Ireland) and a BA in Recording Production from the University of Southern Mississippi. Working across a variety of aesthetics, Maloney’s work seeks to engage an expansion of perception through focused interaction and communion with medium. He has released a lot of works - both independently and through various small record labels.

'Three Phases' is an album consisting of three long-form abstract sound compositions. The source material for these compositions came from field recordings that Maloney took on his daily post-lunch walks to the nearby Sevenmile Creek field. Due to its close proximity to a busy road, the beautiful sounds of nature aurally blend with the not-so-beautiful sound of traffic and general noise pollution. In this album, Maloney has transformed and transmuted these recordings (through various generative processes) into surreal/imagined abstract soundscapes in which the listener can fully immerse themselves in, wherever they happen to be. 
In these recordings you will hear minimalistic stretched-out plains of rippling sound, blankets of soothing shimmering noise, low-end rumbles, fluttering hums, ambient audio hiss, soft gurgling drones, undulating waves of dream-like tones and textures, and flickering bursts of static...over which (if you listen really closely) you will hear a river flowing, distant traffic sounds, crunching footsteps, gusts of wind, shuffling body movements and various other subtle sonic abstractions.

'Three Phases' is a beautiful album of serene and meditative soundscapes that transports the listener to imaginary dream plains. A mesmerizing and immersive listening experience.

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Grisha Shakhnes - This is not where it ends


(Gertrude Tapes, 2023)

Grisha Shakhnes is a Moscow-born composer & sound artist. He's lived in Israel since 1992 and currently resides in the city of Holon. His work has been issued both privately in limited handmade CD-R editions, and internationally - independently and through various record labels.

'This is not where it ends' is an album of abstract sound collages - each one dedicated to a writer or poet that inspired Shakhnes through strange times. Recorded during the tail end of lockdown in Israel, this album is filled with the sounds of an urban environment.
It starts off with a deluge of rainfall and passing traffic sounds. Soon you will hear a shimmering accordian-like drone drifting into the mix. This melody disappears after a couple of minutes, and more watery noises and various background rumblings being to occur...
Throughout the rest of these compositions you will hear different types of rotary devices and (possibly industrial) mechanisms - rattling, grinding and pumping away, quiet snippets of human conversation, beautiful birdsong, vehicles honking and whooshing past, percussive rumbles, wooden rattles, indistinguishable noise, distant murmurs of street singing (or possibly a nearby radio playing?), a cellphone vibrating, an engine chugging and water splashing and swirling, all against the aural backdrop of the hustle and bustle of city life. 

'This is not where it ends' is an intriguing and remarkable album of urban field recordings and abstract sound experimentation. If you listen closely, there are many interesting things going on in these rich and lively soundscapes - both big and small. This album forces you to pause whatever you're doing and pay close attention to it. A fascinating listening experience.

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Yoshitake Kawai - Bussei


(tsss tapes, 2023)

Yoshitake Kawai is an experimental musician and sound artist from Kyoto (Japan) who mainly works with avant-garde noise and modular synthesis. 'Bussei' is an album of four abstract, improvised sound experiments, recorded in Sapporo and Kyoto in 2020.

On Track 1 you will hear layers of percussive gurgling, tiny rattling and soft ambient crackling that pan around an empty soundscape. The subtle reverb and electronic processing makes it very hypnotic, and rather beautiful. As the piece progresses, it gains volume and intensity, creeping its way back and forth across your brain.
On Track 2 you will hear windy pulsations and ominous vibrations bursting forth in erratic rhythms, before more high-frequency noises come hissing and squalling through the mix. Eventually things calm down a bit and the noise element starts to sound more like broken radio transmissions. The sound patterns never repeat. It really does sound like some device that's intermittently trying to come back to life.
On Track 3 you will hear layers of muted rumbles and thumps on the far left and right - some soft, some violent...whilst the centre of the soundscape is taken up with a variety of steel scrapes and thin whistling type noises - some of which sound like they come from hollow vessels. Towards the end of the track there are random bleeps of glitchy melody. Very interesting.
On Track 4 you will hear a bubbly trembling texture, surrounded by hissy scrapes and bizarre sonic crackling. Again, it sounds a bit like broken radio transmissions...but maybe a bit too abstract and organic sounding. As the track progresses, the scraping noises change frequency and pitch, permeating the track with a more surreal aspect.

'Bussei' is a minimalistic and fascinating album of raw abstract sound collages. It feels totally spontaneous and free, yet it also displays a lot of discipline, intelligence and restraint. This is a fine example of beautiful avant-garde sound art.

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Lee Hannah - Summer Solstice


(Healthy Tapes, 2023)

Lee Hannah is a Naarm-based librarian, musical artist, field recordist and educator whose practice involves a hybrid of field recordings, new age synthesis and ecological composition. Whilst Hannah's previous album 'Mirror Reflections' was more of a musical/ambient affair, 'Summer Solstice' focuses more on field recordings and sound collage.

In this album, Lee Hannah captures a fluid landscape of 35° heat during summer solstice. It was recorded on the lands of the Peramangk, Kaurna, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people.
In these recordings you will hear tranquil cacophonies of summer birdsong, murmurs of human conversation, passing traffic noises, flies buzzing in the heat, crunching footsteps, beautiful ocean sounds, the familiar rustling and shuffling of various kitchen utensils and appliances, the ticking of a metronome, fragments of radio samples - all against a backdrop of sweet ambient tape hiss, which varies in frequency and intensity throughout the course of the album. Although a lot of this album is definitely non-musical - these sound collages are broken up by delicate minimalistic piano pieces, which adds more emotional weight to an already beautiful album.

'Summer Solstice' is a warm, hazy and dreamy album of tender musique concrète, meditative field recordings and sweet languorous ambience. This is wonderful ecological sound art, and such a soothing listening experience.

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Wednesday, 28 June 2023

Fletina - Causal EP

*SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION* 

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Fletina - Causal EP


(Here Free Press, 2023)

I'm thrilled to announce that my debut 3-song EP is out now on the great experimental label Here Free Press. The EP is called 'Causal' and is available to buy both digitally and on (very) limited edition CD.

For fans of subtle, abstract, non-musical sound art.

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From HERE FREE PRESS :

We're proud to present this delicate and beautiful crafted debut collection of work from Fletina.

Fletina is a Scottish sound artist & field recordist who creates raw abstract sound collages using found objects, room sounds, environmental noises, household items, mechanical devices and various electronic manipulation techniques.

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Sunday, 18 June 2023

Non-Music Roundup (June 23)













Greetings ladies and gentlemen,

I hope you're all having a nice summer. I bring you my latest roundup of all things non-musical and great.

As usual, they're all available to stream and purchase on Bandcamp. Please consider supporting these talented artists & labels. They deserve it.

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Micaela Trombini - Target 


(Rata Sorda Rec, 2023)

Micaela Trombini is an Argentinian experimental electronic/noise artist. This is her debut solo album - out now on the Chilean record label, Rata Sorda Rec.

'Target' is an album of hypnotic pink noise generated from the data transduced from different fruits. Specifically, ''the electrolytes present in the juice of lemons, kiwis and strawberries generate frequencies of the pink noise spectrum in real time". I find this to be such a fascinating idea and method for creating an interesting noise record.
I can't talk about the technical details about this album, or speak about the creative process in the correct terminology... but what I can say is that this album really blew me away! 
It consists of three fairly long-form noise compositions (note : you will only see two tracks displayed on the Bandcamp page, but you get an extra track if you download it) which are filled with vast thunderous rumbles, haunting drones, small explosions, rippling ambience, hissing static, strange sonic fluctuations, swirling winds, dissonant flutters, howling signals, deep dark gurgles and various other electronic abstractions. All the noises, textures, timbres and tones that you hear within these exquisite soundscapes are constantly shifting shape, frequency and pitch... which makes you feel like the atmosphere is alive and breathing. These immersive noises permeate right through your system, and penetrate you right at the core. It's incredible that these sounds were derived from such humble fruits!

'Target' is an outstanding debut album of haunting and mesmerizing noisescapes that'll leave you suspended in a dark yet wonderful trance-like state. The surreal and abstract audio environments that Trombini has created within these compositions provide a powerful ambient soundtrack to deep introspective thought. A fascinating listening experience.

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Nichola Scrutton - Interzone 


(Nonclassical, 2023)

Nichola Scrutton is a Glasgow-based award-winning composer, vocalist, sound and visual artist who works across a range of mediums and processes including sound art and soundscape composition, performance, radio art, improvisation, writing and drawing. She has extensive experience as a collaborator in interdisciplinary and participatory contexts.

'Interzone' is an album inspired by the state between consciousness and unconsciousness, at the border between daytime and night... created using field recordings, archived materials and Scrutton's own vocal experimentations. It constantly shifts between stark, raw, bare minimalism and more melodic, cinematic, ambient soundscapes.
The core of this album's sound is primarily focused on Scrutton's intricate and atmospheric vocal work. You will hear waves of dark choral voices - swelling and distengrating, undulating waves of melodic vocal ambience - ebbing and flowing with a shimmering dissonance, and at times a gong-like resonance. The rich vocal layering and the constantly shifting and evolving movements of it has a very dramatic and beautiful effect.
These segments are strangely juxtaposed with the more erratic, gutteral, non-melodic vocalizations. Throughout this album you will hear vocal shuddering, crackling, fluttering, rattling, rasping, choking, squeaking, humming and eerie breathing. It really sounds like the artist is speaking in tongues... or some psychedelic dream language.
Aside from all things voice-related, you will hear fragmented bursts and blips of glitchy electronica, fragile radio static and eruptive cracklings, gurgling ethereal ambience, sinister rumblings, ominous drones and a vast array of subtle field recordings, such as dripping water, airy birdsong, room sounds, environmental acoustics and mysterious bodies of water.
 
'Interzone' is a mesmerizing and captivating work of experimental sound art. These haunting and beautiful soundscapes of layered vocals and various immersive noises effectively capture the dream-like twilight state that marks the end of the day, and also heralds the coming night...

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Adam Matschulat - Formosa


(Calling Cards Publishing, 2023)

Adam Matschulat is a Brazilian experimental composer, sound designer and mastering engineer based in London. His diverse output of sound works have included composing for film, sound installations, electroacoustic composition, musique concrete, dream pop, synthwave, field recording, and structural noise music. He composes through the exploration of psychological states, rendering sonic experiences that are psychological investigations in and of themselves.

'Formosa' is a deeply personal sonic exploration of Marschulat's family history in the south of Brazil, mortality and his relationship to Formosa's rich magical landscape. Formosa has always been Marschulat's safe place, and the place that he calls ''home''. This album is comprised of two long compositions, simply titled 'Side A' & 'Side B'.
Side A begins with fragments of church singing and distant murmurs of conversation, buried within a crackling bed of tape static. This morphes into a shimmering, ghostly, bell-like ambience for a while. Then you will eventually hear some snippets of hymnal singing and intimate familial conversation. After that things quieten down momentarily, before we hear the distinct and haunting sounds of the forest coming alive at night. The entire soundscape fills with the cacophonous sound of insects chirruping and trees rustling, before the drone of Marschulat's grandfather's accordian cuts through the mix and we hear him singing a bit of an old German song. I think I also hear some farm sounds in there too. This soon becomes replaced by the noise of flies buzzing and distant animal howls. You can get a really strong sense of how hot and sticky and humid this environment must be. The insects gradually get more and more intense, and the atmosphere becomes rather ominous before there's a sudden and abrupt silence...
The piece ends with more accordian and hymnal singing, and Marschulat's grandfather talking in Portuguese, and singing some soulful a'capella. A gorgeous recording.

Side B is a much more quieter, grounded and intimate affair. It begins with the sound of boiled eggs being rattled in a bowl of water, which aurally signifies the Marschulat's love for his grandmother's potato salad, and the sound of its making. Then you will eventually hear a variety of unmistakable domestic kitchen sounds - the sink running, dishes and plates clattering, the phone ringing, and all the various noises of busy preparation for this delicious potato salad. You will hear the peeling of eggs, the squelching of mayonnaise, the grinding of salt & pepper, the mixing of the salad, and the inevitable washing up of all the dishes and utensils used in this process. I really love potato salad, and it makes me hungry just listening to this. It's so peaceful and soothing.

'Formosa' is a beautiful, meditative and heartbreaking album of experimental sound art and electro-acoustic manipulation. It's full of unique insights into Matschulat's rich family history, and his deep love and admiration for the pious people and bountiful nature of this unique and magical place. A rich and intriguing listening experience. Musique Concrète at its finest.

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Tossapol - no plot, only landscape 


(Presses Précaires, 2023)

Tossapol is an experimental sound artist that lives in Bangkok, Thailand. He makes minimalistic sound collages using small objects and field recordings.

'no plot, only landscape' is his latest album, which is out now on Presses Precaires. It consists of two compositions - simply titled A & B.
'A' begins with the ominous booming bellow of an approaching thunderstorm over an airy urban environment, while at the forefront of the mix you will hear a variety of small shuffling sounds, eerie thumps, frantic micro-movements and little tingling bell-like rattles within some kind of hollow vessel. Then you will start to hear the static humming of some sort of mechanical device, creating a soft pleasant ambience. As the track develops, the soundscape starts to rumble dramatically while an unidentifiable object/s are being dragged around, creaking and squeaking as they go...
Around the midway point, the volume and intensity of the piece quietens down to just the sound of a lone object being dragged along a surface...before the background ambience emerges back into the mix, along with (what sounds like) a tiny teacup vibrating, as if it's on a speeding train. As you get towards the very end of the track, the intensity builds up and you'll hear some interesting pitch shifting and noise experimentation going on.
'B' begins with the clattering and scraping of small objects against a backdrop of distant traffic sounds. Whether these sounds were layered on top of another in the studio, or if they just naturally/organically occured at the same time, I don't know. After a minute or so, you will hear a sinister drifting drone come in. This is accompanied by some dark reverberations and whooshing white noise. Eventually you'll hear some percussive knocking and atonal feedback, before the thunder returns and signifies the end of another segment. And like the previous composition, there's a peaceful middle section of small objects being shuffled, clicked and dragged. Then you'll hear a plastic bag/sack of something being crunched, and a variety of high frequency squeaking, which may be trying to emulate the sound of bird song? After this quiet section has passed, we hear once again the sound of passing cars, along with a wall of audio hiss, very faint human voices, and more small objects being moved, squeezed and banged in unpredictable and ever-changing ways. The track ends with low broken murmurs of a voice coming through cheap speakers and more environmental noises and audio hiss.

'no plot, only landscape' is an album of bizarre and fascinating lo-fi sound collages, full of tiny objects coming to life and oddly dancing along abstract surfaces, while the familiar environmental sounds of every day Thailand provide a peaceful and intriguing background ambience. This is proof that small things can create a work of such powerful noise.

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Christian Schiefner - Februar + Folgendes 


(Titre, 2023)

Christian Schiefner is a sound artist from Marseille (France) and the owner/founder of the Falt tape label. 
'Februar + Folgendes' is the only work of his I have explored. It's a quietly enticing work of exquisite, minimalistic musique concréte. The album consists of two long-form sound collages, made up from both familiar and unfamiliar sounds. 

'Februar' begins with soft sustained gong-like bells, ringing out and creating beautiful meditative drones over a bed of wonderful crackling noise, which then transitions into more of a percussive backdrop of gentle clicks, shuffles and plops. After that you'll hear an array of subtle rustling movements, audio drone and high-frequency feedback within a wall of tape hiss, before all the noise dies away and the soundscape is filled with the bare sounds of little steel/wooden objects. As the track moves towards its end, we are aurally taken back to where we at the start - to the sound of gong-like bells and delightful hiss.
'Folgendes' starts with the frantic glitchy sounds of tape manipulation and (what sounds to me like) fragmented shortwave radio transmissions. These noises gradually build up in volume and intensity, and we are introduced to the sounds of larger objects moving, banging, squeaking and breaking...and snippets of human voices, accompanied by some high-frequency squeals and plenty of audio hiss. After that you will hear abstract field recordings of some kind of wide open public place, with busy sounds of industry going on. Many more frantic rustling movements take us to the end of the track, and the end of our audio journey.

'Februar + Folgendes' is a highly immersive, utterly ambiguous and strangely beautiful album of avant-garde sound collage, intriguing noises and ambient tape hiss. Highly recommended for all fans of experimental sound art.

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David Wallraf - Santé Et Efficacité 


(Falt, 2023)

David Wallraf is a noise artist, author, theorist & researcher from Hamburg, Germany. He has released a number of works, both independently and through various small labels.

'Santé Et Efficacité' is an album that was recorded during a summer heatwave in Hamburg, 2022. This was also a period of quarantine during Wallraf's second Covid infection. It's maybe a bit more musical/melodic than the majority of releases that I write about in this blog, but it's noisy and unconventional and intriguing enough for me to make an exception.
In Track 1 you will hear a series of arpeggiated and detuned Slayer-esque guitar chords that ring out with shuddering dissonance, warped metallic drones that swell and fluctuate in their frequency and intensity, squealing waves of feedback and sinister percussive pulses - sporadically thumping through the mix. A haunting and dramatic opener.
In Track 2 you will hear some kind of manipulated steel clanging sounds, warped electronic tones, dancing bell-like percussion, erratic bursts of tortured noise, squalls of resonating distortion swirling around the soundscape, bending detuned drones and some melodic synth melodies towards the end. A whirlwhind of warped tones and engulfing noises.
In Track 3 you will hear an industrial soundscape full of dark, fuzzy, drill-like drones, eerie guitar notes, haunting metallic noise, abstract hissing and some emotional synth ambience. This one has an emotional and pretty apocalyptic vibe to it.
In Track 4 you will hear a variety of industrial sonic abstractions, shimmering white noise, high whining feedback, steel cymbal hits, monstrous drill-like sounds and some sort of electronic bleeping. A short, bizarre, absurd yet somehow fitting ending to this dark noise record.

'Santé Et Efficacité' is a powerful and haunting post-industrial noise album. The soundscapes that Wallraf has created are bleak and claustrophobic sounding... yet they're immersive, fascinating, unpredictable and rather cathartic. Highly recommended to fans of interesting experimental noise.

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Paul Nataraj - The Night Is Young 


(Hard Return, 2023)

Paul Nataraj is a sound artist, audio maker, teacher & lecturer from Blackburn, Lancashire. He holds a practice led PhD in Sound Studies from the University of Sussex and has released a number of works through various record labels, as well as having his sound works featured on a bunch of prominent radio shows.

'The Night is Young' is an album of sounds sourced from Nataraj's grandparents' records and gramophones, which the artist then manipulated and processed and looped through various experimental techniques. 
The album begins with the repetitive clunking sound of the gramophone starting up, followed by the unmistakable crackling of vinyl spinning and fragments of old-time piano music.Then we're introduced to more surreal aspects of Nataraj's atmospheric sound design. You will hear an ominous drone coming drifting in, along with dark spacious reverb, while the mechanical clunking rings on, and the snippets of music deteriorate and become more fractured and broken.
Throughout the whole of this album, these pieces of music are looped to give a really hypnotic and demented effect, while minimalistic drones ring on, and shards of indistinguishable rustling movements, sinister rumbles and crackling sounds bring more intensity and urgency to these unsettling soundscapes. The way these cut-up bits of music and sounds are manipulated also bring a wonderful type of ambience to the forefront, which is really immersive to listen to, and undeniably atmospheric.

'The Night is Young' is a beautiful and fascinating sound experiment. This album as a whole is dark and unnerving, emotional and fragile. Excellent sound art. 

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black_ops - Hallucinated Music


(Mahorka, 2023)

black_ops is an experimental noise/soundscape artist from the UK. He also hosts and curates the black_ops radio show - ''sound-tracking the darkness with experimental sound art, drone & psych, spoken word, found and manipulated sound.''

'Hallucinated Music' is his latest album, released on the experimental Bulgarian label Mahorka. The album begins with the haunting and hypnotic sounds of ritualistic cult activity - visceral singing, tribal percussion and other gathered noises, which have been electronically manipulated and echoed, over which lies a mysterious voice sample, heralding the darkness to come...
Throughout the rest of these songs you will hear the familiar mixed with the unfamiliar, the mundane mixed with the surreal... a series of dark hallucinatory soundscapes filled with raging wails of distortion, unsettling drones, tremulous grainy textures, swirling voices, empty building sounds, desolate reverberations, industrial mechanisms grinding away, fractured white noise, eerie synth melodies, creepy ambience, rhythmic thumps, watery tones, trembling electronica, groaning rumbles, dissonant atmospherics and other abstract sonic phenomena. 

'Hallucinated Music' is a dark, troubling and utterly intriguing listening experience. It constantly makes me wonder about the original source material for these field recordings. It also makes me marvel as to how seamlessly these manipulated field recordings blend with all the twisted sound samples and fragments of dark, eerie music. This is brilliant experimental noise.

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Coagulant - KNEPS​\​The Driftworks 


(self-released, 2023)

Coagulant is the experimental sound art project of Fabio Kubic, who is an Italian-born artist based in London. Since 1998 he has been creating experimental sounds and abstract noisescapes using a variety of environmental microphones, electronic manipulation techniques and audio-feedback editing.

'KNEPS/The Driftworks' is the latest self-released Coagulant album, split into two long-form reworked sound experiments from recording sessions from 1998 to 2002. These sound works were recorded using primitive techniques and means, and were electronically re-processed and mixed with tape, micro tape, cut- up feedback, TV, shortwave radio, environmental microphones and computers.

On Track 1 ('Wölfli Morphophonemics') you will hear rapid stuttering signals of some sort, swelling feedback tones, a muddle of indistinguishable voices, swirling waves of whooshing noise, shuffled objects, watery trickling and gurgling, wavering static, eerie low frequency drones, intense pulsations and mysterious reverberations. About halfway through, the sheer intensity and fierceness dies down and various voice samples start rising to the surface of the mix, but never become clear or distinct. Then things gradually start ramping up again. The abstract noise builds and builds and entrancing feedback fills the soundscape. The rest of the track is filled with fluttering fuzz, metallic shimmers, monstrous noise, deep echoes, more voices and bursts of various other sonic abstractions.

Track 2 ('Harkening Forms') begins with a kind of metallic gong-like resonance surrounded by slowly shifting sound patterns, followed by some undulating waves of high sustained feedback and dark cacophonous noise, gaining more and more power and intensity as the track develops, completely enveloping you in its wild psychoacoustic madness... until around the halfway point when you will hear a rain-like pattering along with an array of mysterious environmental sounds. There is cavernous echoes, objects being shuffled and/or banged, and unknown abstractions ricocheting off unknown surfaces...while the noise shudders on in the background. It all gets quieter and calmer towards the end, yet no less haunting or atmospheric. 

'KNEPS/The Driftworks' is a brilliant sound journey into surreal and abstract environments, full of dark tones, hypnotizing drones and constantly-evolving noise. An utterly powerful sound work.

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Heavy Cloud - Interior Monologues  


(Difficult Art & Music, 2023)

Heavy Cloud is the project of Cornwall-based artist/musician Ryan Hooper. His works are inspired by memory and internal and external landscapes, often in tandem with collage-based artworks and textual explorations. He has released many albums - both independently and through small record labels.

'Interior Monologues' is a deeply personal collection of textural/granular soundscapes, which Hooper created using his voice, his body and various environmental and material field recordings. It's an improvised representation and reflection of both personal and national anxiety.
In these recordings you will hear warbling tape noises, snippets of improvised (mostly non-verbal) spoken word poetry/ prose - manipulated and mangled beyond recognition, granular synthesis, unnerving breathing sounds, shuffling body movements, fuzzy rumblings, warbling mechanisms, erratic tape hiss, environmental abstractions, subtle drones and layer upon layer of grainy white noise. These compositions are fragile yet wild, unsettling yet fascinating...

'Interior Monologues' is a poignant, abstract sonic expression of the confusing and tumultuous state of being here and now in the world. These sound collages aurally depict the anxiety, confusion and dread that comes with trying to process and cope with the pressures that weigh us down on a daily basis - personally and globally. It's certainly not easy listening, but I don't think it's meant to be. This album is jarring and unsettling, yet strangely fascinating and engaging. 

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Luciano Maggiore & Louie Rice - Three Things 


(adhuman, 2023)

Luciano Maggiore & Louie Rice are two long-term experimental collaborators. Their outputs (which are often filled with humour and absurdity) are described by the duo as 'unrewarding task-based actions' or simply 'two people in a room, doing something’ and has resulted in an ongoing performance practice based on prompts actions and scenarios, which they continue to explore.

'Three Things' is an album consisting of three long-form non-musical sound experiments. 
Track 1 is a recording of a drive around London, and is ''punctuated by loud hissing whenever their vehicle passes an unwitting participant in the street, their footwear acting as a prompt for the vocal intervention''. In this recording you will hear the unmistakable sounds of busy city traffic and urban environmental noise, over which Maggiore & Rice can be heard hissing at regular intervals in various rhythms, speeds and levels of intensity. It's unpredictable and absurdly hypnotic. You will also hear the metronomic ticking of the vehicle's indicator. Whether the pair are indicating to pull over and hiss at people, or simply just turning left or right, I don't know... 
If you listen closely, you will also be able to hear low-end rumbling drones in the background of the piece. I'm not sure if it's environmental urban ambience, or if it was added and layered in the studio... but either way - it has a rather haunting effect...
Track 2 is ''a sequence of voice recordings exchanged via WhatsApp where they mimic each other's contributions until all memory of the original has been lost. The results are set to synthesiser in a nod to the duo's long-standing interests in electronic music as solo artists.''
In this recording you will hear a series of electronic pulses and feedback, bounced back and forth between left and right speakers, along with the mimicked voice samples of Maggiore & Rice - spoken and growled in repetition. Some of these vocal fragments are raw and organic and bare, and at other times they've been electronically manipulated, pitchshifted and mangled in a cartoonish frenzy of psychedelic wackiness.
Track 3 is ''audio derived from EMS Stockholm's Buchla synth is played back and re-recorded via mobile phone speakers in the duo's pockets as they attempt to walk in sync with its pulses''. In this recording you will hear the looped mechanical synth pulses, along with a constantly-shifting series of shuffled body movements and crunching footsteps... all working in a strange and mesmerizing rhythm with one another. Around halfway through the piece, you begin to notice changes and variations to the synth loop... and the whole soundscape evolves and grows with a fiercer volume and intensity as you come to the end of the track.

'Three Things' is an album of spontaneous absurdity, humourous performance art, bizarre audio experimentation and avant-garde sound collage. It's a baffling yet entertaining listening experience that'll undoubtedly make you scratch your head in confusion/frustration while it's playing out... but if you have a good sense of humour and an open mind, it should also make you smile. 

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