Good morning! Today I have a track premiere for you from the wonderful INNI label out of Reykjavik, Iceland. As a quick reminder, I’ve previously featured their releases by Christopher Royal King & Nico Rosenberg, Atli Örvarsson, and Rose Riebl, the latter two of which have then showed up on my Best of the Year selections – so you can tell that I’m a fan. Today I’m honoured to introduce you to another very interesting project (and, more importantly, fantastic music) born out of a collaboration between Jónsi (of Sigur Rós), Sin Fang (of Seabear), Alex Somers and Kjartan Holm, who’ve come together to create a soundscape that parallels a perfumery in Reykjavik, owned by Jónsi’s family, called Fischer. You can check out a Financial Times article covering this shop as the essence of Iceland, titled “Cult Shop: the scents of Sigur Rós“. But fandom aside (who hasn’t fallen in love with everything from Iceland yet?) the nine tracks of the first entry on INNI, titled Sounds of Fischer Vol. 1, are delicate, tender, and exquisite in their fragility, creating soft atmospheres for mornings and for nights. I can’t say anything about the perfumery, although the above article describes one fragrance using terms such as “smoke in the air, tarred telephone poles, mowed grass, a beached whale and tobacco leaves with notes of black pepper and Icelandic Sitka spruce.” I particularly like the following sentence: “Jónsi’s experimental approach to scent composition is comparable to his avant-garde musical process, both resulting in peculiar notes and enveloping overtures.” I wonder if that line can be inverted. I’ll let you be the judge. And now, let’s hear the music!

"Fischersund from Iceland is a family-run business that harnesses a collective of artisans at the intersection of scent, shop, gallery and art. Fischersund sells fragrance products inspired by the clean, unique nature of Iceland using herbs and oils harvested in the Icelandic wild via the most environmentally friendly solutions and materials for the modern lifestyle. Jonsi is the nose and has a passion for perfumery following a self-taught journey of learning (one of his fragrance organs is in the Reykjavik shop)."

Sounds of Fischer Vol. 1

Beitilyng

TRACK PREMIERE : Jónsi, Sin Fang, Alex Somers, Kjartan Holm - Beitilyng

London-based Slowcraft continues to craft... slow, and quiet, beautiful music... the type of music that I love waking up to and observing the dark sombre sky open up to the world for another short day. For the latest release on this boutique label curated by James Murray, we are gifted with a six-piece album by a Czech composer and field recordist, Tomáš Šenkyřík, titled Hajú, which is an old Moravian word that loosely translates to “hush hush”. Today's track premiere of "Advent" is as appropriate as ever, with the seasonal preparation for the holidays, which began yesterday, November 27th. The word is a Latin adoption of "adventus" which means "arrival," and whether you are of Christian faith or not, the approach towards this time is sensed by everyone. For me, it's like a ramp down off the highway of the year, about to enter through the tunnel, where night and quietude surround a slow transition in-between, before a ramp-up into busy January, where somehow everyone exhales anew. This journey is perfectly soundtracked by Hajú, with its "subtle weaving together of acoustic elements, soft synthetic manoeuvres and evocative field recordings to spellbinding effect." These gentle, minimal, and fragile sounds are cradled further by warm strings and piano keys, concluding with a lovely lullaby, with vocals by Marie Puttnerová, "a modern-day framing of Moravian folklore guided as much by ambient minimalism as the ghosts of Dvořák and Janáček, one in which the family hearth forever glows with unmistakable warmth and generosity of spirit."

Hajú

Advent

TRACK PREMIERE : Tomáš Šenkyřík - Advent

A beautifully ethereal track from the Antonina Car album, Immersed Sensibilities.

Immersed Sensibilities

Antonina Car, Immersed Sensibilities, "Fluttery Critters"

Somehow I feel that artists of all media [and particularly, musicians] have always dealt with the concept of the "end of time". Whether it's through the destruction of our own planet, some unknown apocalypse, or the universe as we may never know it, post the inevitable human existence [it all will end, after all, right?]. These thoughts, and the resulting output, are then brought on by a blip in our own very linear timeline that makes us wake up for a moment from the cycle of being and ask, "Is this it?" Perhaps a bit of existentialism never hurt anyone to refocus their energy on what truly then matters. [What truly matters to you?]. We've all experienced this, especially with our own latest global crisis, which still continues to ripple, mutate, and destroy, even as I type out these words [my friends in Shanghai are particularly distressed]. It's no wonder that so much latest output from musicians across the globe has been reflecting this temporary state of humankind [just check out the themes of the many new posts on Headphone Commute, like this Requiem or We Will Live On]. So I'm not surprised, and indeed, a bit delighted, to be bathed in an expression of human extinction by the Montréal-based Tunisian composer, multi-instrumentalist and sound designer Haythem Mahbouli, with his second album for the Japanese Schole label, titled Last Man On Earth. Across the eight pieces, "the album envisions man's final journey on our home planet and invites its listeners to immerse themselves into his last harrowing conquest." This is a beautifully produced and orchestrated journey, which leaves me aching with memories of Jóhann Jóhannsson again [and I do not just mention his name lightly], with its cinematic tendency to blend elements of electronic and modern classical genres, featuring synthetic and organic instrumentation, including a choir by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra. Today I'm giving you a taste of what you can experience on the entire album with this short track, titled "The Great Flood."

Last Man On Earth

Last man on earth

TRACK PREMIERE : Haythem Mahbouli - The Great Flood

Taken from upcoming DR-85 : anthéne - Shelter CD / DL
due out on February 28th
dronarivm.bandcamp.com

Shelter

Artifact

Buy In the Octopus Pond: 
https://arrowounds.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-octopus-pond

Buy the 4 album series:
https://arrowounds.bandcamp.com/album/therianthrope-series

Lost Tribe Sound proudly introduces 'In The Octopus Pond', the first album in a series of album from Arrowounds, titled, the 'Therianthrope Series.' With previous works, Ryan Chamberlain has taken us through personal lows and bleak watery worlds in disrepair. However, 'In The Octopus Pond' sheds much of that skin and sets course for lush, green environments steeped in the bizarre. That said, this new material sounds more accessible than ever. The first entry in the trilogy draws from a range of musical influences, Can, Bark Psychosis, Young Gods, Slowdive, Durutti Column, Seefeel and much of early 4AD.

Rather than tackle some inner monologue or global crisis with the album, ITOP is instead accompanied by an obscure short story and visuals just as fitting. As both Arrowounds and LTS would prefer to take some time away from heavy realities and make up our own.

For here it begins and circles back into itself…
In the days before the great boil, the earth was lush and green, cared for by a race of mystic octopoed. In acts of preservational instinct, many chose to build their temples high on top of engineered tumuli, weary of prior flooding and wildfires that drastically disfigured the landscape. It was here that these priests of arms who carved ornate reliefs into the great pillars of obsidian and bone, dug down seeking mineral deposits in the earthen abyss and found a gestating world beneath the below... to be continued

In the Octopus Pond

Blue Entombed (Edit)

Arrowounds - Blue Entombed (Edit)

Tracklist

01. Tomotsugu Nakamura - Heliotrope
02. Suisen - Sunken Moon
03. Tapes and Topographies - Reflections in a glass eye
04. The Seaman & The Tattered Sail - Dusk
05. Andrew Tasselmyer - Perspectives
06. Ciro Berenguer - Lago
07. M. Grig - Form
08. r beny -  Echo's verse
09. Simon Scott - Nigh
10. Rafael Anton Irisarri - Daybreak Comes Soon
11. Stijn Hüwels - Tomodachi (patrick)
12. Foresteppe - s01e04

351. Sleepy Sunday Podcast (Elm Records)

This track was born from the Bargaining chapter in “While They Were Sleeping” a moment where the main character pleads with a shattered world, begging to save those trapped in silence. But he can’t. This song is for them.

It’s for every voice that was buried too soon. for the peoples of every land suffering. For every girl who was silenced. For every boy who was forgotten. For the ones who screamed and were answered only by dust.

Musically, this is not a song. It’s a grave. It’s a prayer. It’s the sound of trying to carry an entire people’s suffering in your chest, and realizing that no melody will ever be loud enough to resurrect them but still trying. Still playing. Still lighting the candle.

“Can’t You Hear Their Voices” is for the ones who were erased, but never truly gone. It’s for the ones whose echoes live in the fire of every story we dare to tell. Listen closely. They’re still here.

Can’t You Hear Their Voices

I began this piece around 3 years ago, when I had hit rock bottom mentally and emotionally.  I had only created the intro portion and had forgotten about it, only to resurrect and finish it this year. This is part of a series of deeper, more moody, but uplifting pieces that I plan to release as an EP.  I hope you enjoy the journey, and stay tuned for more!

And as always...
~Thank you for listening~

*I do not own the artwork and do not know the artist.  Let me know if you do.

Broken But Alive

Meditations with a twist - some movement and some experimentation!

Summon Your Calm

Here are some original solo piano pieces...  some mixes from my podcast... some exclusive track premieres...  and some tracks from the albums I review on Headphone Commute... Enjoy!

TRACK PREMIERE : Tomáš Šenkyřík - Advent

Headphone Commute

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