BCL052223

A Transient Life

https://soundcloud.com/thenewhuman

For our next release, we welcome the enigmatic producer, 'The New Human', to the label with his stunning album, "Proximity Mantra".

"The New Human" isn't afraid to wear his influences on his sleeve. Proudly incorporating the late 90's/early 2000's IDM methodology into his own techniques to create a curious blend of ambient, glitch and twisted yet mellow electronica.

The eight tracks on show here provide us with a myriad of ever evolving and crunchy percussion. Beats that stretch, warp and turn. Each pattern waiting to uncoil and mangle into the next.

Then there's the dark and deep basslines that provide the ideal backdrop for these shuffling and effervescent soundscapes. But it's not all bass and complex beats. There's a whole host of technicolour and expressive melodies in the quieter moments that allow 'The New Human' to showcase his knack for exploratory synth work. Glacial harmonics intertwine with classic IDM bleeps that succeed in carrying the tracks into evocative territory.

The album is rounded out with two remixes. Inverness based producer, Beira, provides her own spiky and chaotic take on "Phoenix" before label boss, Fragile X, dissolves "Thought Patterns" into an ambient electronica journey to close out the release.

Available @ https://bricolageglasgow.bandcamp.com/album/proximity-mantra-bc087

Proximity Mantra

The New Human - Impermanence (from the "Proximity Mantra" album)

Our next offering comes from the Highlands of Scotland as Beira presents her debut, “Scry”.

Beira is a producer from Inverness that draws influence from occultism, mythology, paganism and Wicca.

The blueprint and construction of this release is a little different than usual….

Beira came up with the idea for the “Scry” project whilst doing a deep dive through the Bricolage catalogue looking for inspiration.

Her idea was to take stems/samples from eight different producers on the label and rework them into and alongside some of her own 'WIP' productions that she had been struggling to find further motivation for.

Adding these extra potions to an already simmering cauldron of her own sounds and breathing new life into what she describes as a "dormant elixir".

The result is a fascinating collections of disintegrated and mercurial soundscapes that conjure up all manner of moods but also leave room for the imagination. Atmosphere and woven textures take precedence in the process.

The more ambient numbers that begin the EP bring a raw and abstract tension before the pace picks up and we're introduced to some dark and dubby, bass driven, rhythmic tracks. Hacked apart beats that get stitched back together and swirled around. The surreal and otherworldly tension remains in the second half but now with a late night fire burning and an invitation to dance around it.

There's a strong nod to feminism and Scottish mythology throughout that tells a tale of Witchcraft and days gone by. The perfect soundtrack for the Halloween season.

"Scry" melts, bubbles, froths and crackles. It's a beguiling record from a nascent producer that gives us a peek into the past and the present. Into the potential that's yet to come. Into the future. Into oneself. Thus, to scry.

https://bricolageglasgow.bandcamp.com/album/scry-bc088

Scry

Beira - Yggdrasil (from the "Scry" EP)

From the "Loam" EP

https://fragilex.bandcamp.com/album/loam-gp022

Rhizome

CTRPLR_Ref

@belial-pelegrim

https://bricolageglasgow.bandcamp.com/album/the-astronauts-last-polaroid-bc089

Almost 5 years to the day since his Bricolage debut, "Imitation of Faith", the prolific Belial Pelegrim returns with his latest musical escapade, "The Astronaut's Last Polaroid", and t's a very special one indeed.

This album tells the story of Jack Hawthorne. A 68 year old former NASA astronaut that is now grappling with the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Once celebrated for his groundbreaking lunar missions, Jack now finds himself lost in the uncharted territory of his fading mind.

Alzheimer's disease is a subject that is no doubt close to the hearts of a lot of people and it's a subject that Belial has carefully mapped out with the utmost respect.

The music itself is 15 tracks of lucid and harmonic experimental soundscapes that set a transient stage for what feels like a dark yet beautiful dream. There's a tinge of anxiety laced throughout as you would expect with such a theme but it never becomes foreboding. It's more like giant swirls of memories and relics of the past that drift in and out of view.

Belial expertly maps out the journey through hypnagogic tones that resonate with the heart and mind. Fleeting glimpses of rhythmic patterns, flashes of brooding strings and sprinkles of melodic dust. Taking us on a trip through not only Jack's consciousness but also our own. The depth and emotion that burrows its way into each track is of grandiose proportions. At times it feels like we're witnessing a one man orchestra as we traverse through various realms of classical, glitch. ambient and electronica. A reverie of sonic tapestry.

"The Astronaut's Last Polaroid" serves as a woozy yet visceral reminder that time is not always on our side when it comes to memory but also that the mind is a beautiful place regardless.

The Astronaut's Last Polaroid (bc089)

Belial Pelegrim - Symphony for the Birds Trapped in Glass (from "The Astronaut's Last Polaroid")

Taken from the "Vestige" album.

Available on digital and CD format on the See Blue Audio label.
@seditiondjs

Out in full on January 31st.

fragilex.bandcamp.com/album/vestige-leit-motif

Welcome Home

https://fragilex.bandcamp.com/album/vestige-leit-motif

"The word vestige is rich in nuanced meaning: a trace, a reminder, a residue, a fragment or relic of something that has been left behind, an echo from the past perhaps. There’s a time-stretching quality to this idea and things may not always be as they seem in the moment. As the artist explains, “This album is influenced by the many thousands of connections we have with so many people throughout our lives, big and small. These connections may be ephemeral and transient, or they may be long lasting and fulfilling. That all depends on the nature of the relationships we create and sustain throughout life, but either way we display a bit of ourselves in each interaction we have and leave behind a trace. A remnant. A vestige.”

Across its eight tracks, this concept is explored and imagined in musical form to superb effect. The trademark Fragile X production techniques of swirling and enveloping swathes of sound punctuated by moments of calm for reflection are fully utilised to create a powerful, at times almost theatrical, depiction of our journey through life. Waves crash against the rocks, the shoreline is weather beaten and battered, but then the heavens open and the light pours down.

There's something timeless and mysterious, even mystical, about the audio landscapes of 'Vestige' as there is with life itself. This is also reflected in the track titles. At times the mood can be brooding – 'Anam Cara', for example – while at others tingling with excitement as with 'Welcome Home'. The beatless aesthetic of See Blue Audio is also well represented on tracks live 'Seva' and 'Roots and the Tree of Life'. As 'Veni Vidi Amavi' closes the album, we're left with a sense of the wonder of life and how we are all just microscopic parts in the grand cosmos of existence."

BCL052223

Yumi Iwaki

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