drksd2

London-based keyboardist/producer Dan Nicholls (of Y-OTIS) introduces a new album project ‘Mattering And Meaning’ to be released by We Jazz Records on August 13th. Nicholls' music uses acoustic piano as its key element, transporting the instrument into new territories that sound remarkably natural and organic, whilst displaying a strong kinship with the world of abstract electronic music. The music utilises piano loops and field recordings as its key elements, forming what might be described on the surface as a fascinating ambient jazz record – but at the same time there's so much more at play here on deeper levels. Dan's music sounds at once otherworldly and immensely inviting.

With its uncanny landscape of fine sand drifts, juniper fields and pine, the ancient Beerze forest in the North-East of the Netherlands is a site of many unusual convergences of human and other than human stories. 'Papa' continues to unravel the threads of a deep artistic collaboration and kinship between pianist and producer Dan Nicholls and the Dutch filmmaker and anthropologist Louise Boer. These fuzzily collaged images and sounds represent a common love for finding the in-between places in which ideas can find deeper roots, channeled here through a dreamlike world which holds within it the location in which Louise’s father, Henk Boer, found his final resting place.

Mattering and Meaning

Exclusive Premiere: Dan Nicholls "Papa" (We Jazz Records)

Purchase: bit.ly/3ZkQcnk
Catalog #: GN70
February 17, 2023
CASS+DIGI

Over the past few years, Andrew Osterhoudt has quietly curated a slew of comforting kosmische musik that gazes deep into the stars while peering just as deeply inward. Now, the Brooklyn-based composer sets their sights on more tangible artifacts and nearby nuance with 'Out Together', an earthbound fit of maniacal mindfulness mixed with calm chaos.
 
Constructed on a scaffold of juxtaposed symmetry, the two sides of 'Out Together' foil and compliment each other in delicate harmony. Live collaborations with Ka Baird and John Also Bennett (JAB) colligate with manipulated found sounds from records and digital audio files from old broadcasting sound libraries, recontextualized into moments of ambient turntablism. The search for harmony shines throughout. Take the final tones of A-side closer “Runoff” drifting downstream with bubbly textures and arpeggiated bliss, trying to reach harmony with the initial tones of B-side opener “Frequency.” The latter ultimately spotlights a fortuitous flute duet from Baird and JAB born from Osterhoudt’s own graphic score.
 
The patient pointillism and avant assurance of “Crowds” balances out the opposite side’s “Everyone Arriving, Eventually,” a tone poem of sand-like textures flowing through melodic reeds and other sonic detritus. “Undergrowth” awakens in a steam-drenched run of modulated meditation, focusing on Ka Baird’s singularly enraptured vocal exorcisms which perfectly reflect its B-side counterpart “The Breathing Green,” engaged in a din of rustic psychedelia with waves of buzzing, ember-like tones and unseen fauna.
 
As a whole, 'Out Together' presents a vibrant spectrum of feelings ranging from magnified isolation to zoomed-out, wide-angled euphoria.

Andrew Osterhoudt - "Everyone Arriving, Eventually"

the disintegration of conversation between guitar and setar

setar rock

Liquidity

Why?

Why? (feat. Evicshen)

Walk Away

Follow James Pallister: instagram.com/jamespallister_
somekindofrecords.gumroad.com
james@somekindofrecords.com

Smile and Wave

Telepathic instruments Orchid , Hologram Microcosm, Hologram Chroma Console, Shitty 4-track

False Vacuum

beau·ti·ful

Existence in the Unfurling

Heatsick & Bassclef (HSBC)
The Blaue Stunde
abcdlp.com

HSBC - Blaue Stunde

Persona

Sun's Abandon

sound of sky

Sea Blue

Purchase: bit.ly/3oh8DpK
Catalog #: GN59
January 22, 2021
CASS+DIGI

Ever the aural adventurer, Carmen Villain has long traversed a boundless array of sounds, deftly moving from art nouveau pop to fog-laden avant-dub. Yet at every artistic turn, the Norwegian-Mexican’s chameleon-like charm seldom loses its alluring, organic beauty. Fresh off her contribution to 2020’s A Little Night Music… compilation, Carmen joins Geographic North’s Sketch for Winter series for its 9th installment. Perlita, named after Carmen’s grandmother living in Puebla, Mexico, is a sweetly somber reflection on the ever-present cycle of and hibernation and reemergence.

The A side begins with “Everything Without a Shadow”, a wide-angled and windswept vista of expansive permafrost and still-glowing embers of a recently extinguished fire. A sign of life in an otherwise desolate place. “Two Halves Touching” continues to drift through the frigid scene, lightly pulsing underneath a muted but vibrant tundra until coming upon echoes of voices chanted into the snowdrift. “Light in Phases” follows the cue with hurried hesitance, uncovering a sonic slush of radiant zither, blurred voices, and calm resolution.

“Things That Are Solid” begins to thaw the B side, strolling through newly uncovered verdancy, welcoming murmurs peeking out of the snow. With “Molina”, any last remnants of Winter have disappeared, leaving only a solemn suite of piano motifs breaking ground like seedlings bursting to life. With help from Johanna Scheie Orellana on flute and alt-flute, the album’s closer “Aqua Azul'' floats along with unencumbered motion like a happy stone skating across a tranquil pond.

Carmen Villain - "Agua Azul"

Meteora

A2. SSIEGE - Nebbia Spugna

Former host of #nerdlove on CHRW 94.9 FM/CHRWRadio.ca. Hellbound.ca writer, SWO event promoter. #CKFRNT co-conspirator. Rants, raves & everything in between. Artists/labels/PR flacks: send me your sounds.

Existence in the Unfurling

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

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