Welcome to the one year anniversary of Covid-Resolutions (who would have thought??!). Here's an hour of the freshest tunes I came across during Feb/March 2021 sprinkled with some older gems. Enjoy!

To download/stream the entire episode please go to: www.friskyradio.com/show/resolutions/03-09-2021 OR send an email for a private link to richwool@gmail.com

Voices of Valley - Valhalla's Gates
Jonas Saalbach & Yuven - Providence
Rondo Mo - Overflow (Gardens Of God Remix)
&lez - Somewhere Where
Vini Pistori - Macchina (EdOne Remix)
Rob Hes - Undivided
Lake Avalon - Initium Novum
Anden - Rewind
Moritz Hofbauer - Taumond
Artüria - No Resistance
D-Formation, Stephane K & Dj Koutarou.A - Sky Life
Rokazer - Naos
Simos Tagias - The Purge
Solee - Luft
Catching Flies - When the Sun Bursts (Grandbrothers Remix)
Holden, Zimpel & Jakub Ziołek - Tuesday

Resolutions 2021

resolutions [mar:2021] episode:128

Encased

taken from the album "Disengagement" 
to be released on 22.04.2023 
exclusive release at Moving Noises Festival 2023
https://movingnoises.com/

Disengagement

Withdrawl

midirarecords.com

Hellenica - Withdrawl

Nicola Fornasari was born in Cremona, Italy in 1977 Italy. He began his musical career as the bass player and singer for hardcore band Entropia in 1995. Over the following eleven years, he contributed to releases on various international compilations, a 7” vinyl record with Tenia Records (ITA), and a full-length CD with Six Weeks Records (USA), while playing over a hundred shows across Italy and Europe. Since 2007 he has embarked on new musical projects, including Xu(e) (a duo with Andrea Poli), Xu (his solo project), La Petite Vague (a duo with Diego Balconi), and That Which is Not (a duo with Pier Giorgio Storti / Belaqua Shua). He is also a member of Twyxu and Zero Wait Ensemble. His works have been released on numerous labels, including Fluid Audio, Shimmering Moods, Slow Tone Collages, Krysalisound, Eilean, Flaming Pines, Rottenman Editions, Rohs! / Lontano, Twice Removed, Cathedral Transmissions, Triple Moon, Thirsty Leaves Music, Audio Gourmet, Tessellate, Haze, Many Feet Under, Subterranean Tide, and Laverna. He has also released with Whitelabrecs previously, with ‘Embodying Formlessness’ (2019) and ‘Slicing Space-time Into Objects’ (2022).

Francis Gri is an Italian composer based born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1982 and is based in Milan. Co-founder in 1999 of the ethereal dark band All My Faith Lost (Cold meat industry, Projekt Records) he left the band to create electronic and acoustic sounds. His first works with under the moniker Apart have been published by the Italian label Final Muzik. Francis is the founder and curator of KrysaliSound, a record label dedicated to experimental Ambient music and active between 2011-2023. While most of his works can be found in the KrysaliSound catalogue, he has also released music with many other labels including Final Muzik, Slowcraft Records, Time Released Sound, Shimmering Moods, and Midira. His music for Whitelabrecs includes ‘Apart’ (2018), Home Diaries 015 (2020) and ‘Soolo’, a collaboration with Grotta Veterano (2022). Francis’ sound is in a constant state of evolution, encompassing various ambient styles and techniques that blend oneiric and emotional resonances. With the use of acoustic instruments and electronic textures, his focus is to create a balance between darkness and purity that cohabit within our souls, moving around abstract imperfections, poetry and meditation.

‘Valley of Languages’ is the brainchild of these two musicians who, despite having never met in person, found themselves sharing and understanding the same musical space; which became the inspiration for the album title and its concept. This album is not just a collection of songs; it's a collaborative exploration of diversity and emotional resonance. It serves as a metaphorical meeting point where diverse musical languages and techniques converge, creating a rich tapestry of sound that transcends geographical boundaries. This album comprises six tracks, each a testament to the harmonious collaboration between two minds separated by distance, but united by a similar way of seeing and perceiving things.

Written and produced by Nicola Fornasari and Francis Gri
Mastered by Francis Gri
Photography by Francis Gri
Art and design by Andrew Heath

Valley Of Languages

wlr160 Xu & Francis Gri - Valley Of Language

Braulio Lam is an artist and photographer from the border region of San Diego/Tijuana. His journey into music began at the age of 12 when he first picked up a guitar, before he progressed to formal music education from 2009 to 2012. 
Braulio’s debut album ‘Soundtrack For Vision’ was released on Static Discos in 2016 and in 2024 he released ‘Claroscuro’ with Dragon’s Eye Recordings. He has also released with labels such as Seven Villas Voyage, AvantRoots Records, the sublabel Akasha (Éter Editions) and Facade Electronics.

Drawing from a diverse array of influences spanning reggae, jazz, electronic, avant-garde, ambient, folk, world music, rock, afrobeat, and soundtracks, Braulio's compositions are informed as a reflection of his eclectic tastes in music. His creative process is as dynamic as his music, often changing methods and environments such as the time of day when producing music, in a quest to encounter different results. Whether crafting solo in his studio, fueled by morning coffee or late-night inspiration, or collaborating remotely with artists like FAX, Braulio's commitment to musical innovation remains unwavering.

In this album entitled ‘Redscale’, Braulio sketched a concept based around photography after settling on one of his own images as the cover artwork. The chosen photo was shot using Lomograpny Redscale at 50 ISO and each track has a title relating back to this particular shoot. 
For the music, Braulio aimed to use a small set-up of electric guitars and pedals, an OP-1, a field recorder and a mixer. He restricted the number effects and post-editing to a minimum, so that the resulting sounds stand true and intimate. In spite of the minimalism there is a variety across these 8 tracks; some pieces are deep and linear, others include environmental field recordings, and then there are sun-bleached ambient passages too. Each track was recorded at a different time of day and mood and reflecting back, Braulio describes the process as being like therapy.

Redscale

wlr162 Braulio Lam - Redscale

Daou is the music project of Paris-based architect, musician and multidisciplinary artist Georges Daou. Born in Beirut, he moved to New York in 2014, where he honed his guitar skills at the hands of renowned jazz guitarist Dom Minasi, all the while working as an architect and pursuing various artistic projects and collaborations. Daou's collage and photography work has been exhibited in Beirut, London, Washington and New York and his 3D art has been published in leading 3D magazines and websites. His music has previously been released on labels including Owl Encounter, Ruptured and Rohs! Records.

His debut album for Whitelabrecs is called Bluebird. It is a collage of sounds, a metaphor for the intricate puzzle of perception, portraying the myriad ways our experiences and memories can be reframed and reinterpreted, sometimes in a fictional way. It is an ode to the unpolished aspects of existence in a world where everything is relentlessly sanitised and filtered to a polished perfection. It embraces the cracks, the scratches, and the irregularities that weave a unique tapestry of authenticity into life's fabric. 

Tape loops, crackling hiss, and the distant echo of shortwave radios are essential components that meld into the core of the lofi aesthetic, which is central to this album's atmosphere. They serve as a reminder of the passage of time and the memories that accumulate in our surroundings. Synths and sinewaves provide ambient drones which serve as a backdrop for countless intricate layers of found sound and a resting bed of chaos.

Bluebird is a musical journey that embraces the beauty within flaws, the fleeting moments, and the forgotten stories. It serves as a testament to the elegance found in the worn, the weathered, and the discarded. The album is a call to resist the allure of a pristine facade and, instead, to value the inherent beauty that emerges from life's imperfections. The album was produced as a soundtrack to a fictional story in which someone is yet to accept the technological evolution of life and its trends, and is still stuck in the past, filled with nostalgia and longing for the much simpler days of old.

Written and produced by Georges Daou
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Artwork by Georges Daou
Art and design by Andrew Heath

Faint Structures

wlr163 Daou - Bluebird

Tracklist

01. Masaya Ozaki - Evening Regions
02. Glacis - From One Room To Another (So You Leave Me Now)
03. Seabuckthorn - The Lights All Out
04. Federico Durand, Pablo Picco - Nuevos colores
05. Luis Miehlich - Small Scores June
06. Slow Heart Music - Overflow
07. Braulio Lam - Skylight Filter
08. Waldgrenze + Nikita Vasilenko - Mist

375. Sleepy Sunday Podcast (Elm Records)

Fwerks

Slow Heart Music is a new acoustic side project that will have it's first release via Moonswing netlabel on Monday, with a four track EP entitled 'A Place To Forget'. It will be available for free download from here: https://moonswingnetlabel.bandcamp.com/music

Cover photo 'Horses In My Dreams' by Jennifer Leigh Evans
www.jennifer.evans.carbonmade.com

Slow Heart Music - 'Two' (from the EP 'A Place To Forget', available to download via bandcamp)

Ambient/Abstract/Experimental/Drone/Electronic

...humble tries, amateur sound design, home electronics, cheap mics and old acoustics, inherited keyboards, uncertain communiques, spaces between notes, deep rumbles, loose approximations.....

Due credit to Tim Hecker, Sean Mccann, Colleen, Abul Mogard, Oren Ambarchi, Ben Frost, Talk West, Duane Pitre, Ian William Craig, Maxwell August Croy, Lawrence English, Fennesz, M. Sage, hakobune, Dura and Daniel Lopatin.


Slow Heart Music - 'Two' (from the EP 'A Place To Forget', available to download via bandcamp)

Ben_Rath