AFTER INTR

Taken from 'Fringe' LP/Download (E064, Ecstatic 03/09/2021)

A gorgeous swell of intimate soundscaping from Felisha Ledesma on this simmering stunner for Ecstatic, despatching two extended, richly absorbing pieces weft from everyday detritius; synths, strings, voicemail, found sounds - hitting a similar spot for us as Ulla’s diaristic 'inside means inside me’ but with a more defined play of sound-as-light that gently and memorably tugs at the earlobes and heartstrings. 

Exploring a music of presence and ultra subtle inference, ‘Fringe’ is the 2nd release by Ledesma, student of Berlin's estimable Universität der Künste, following from a debut for Enmossed x Psychic Liberation earlier this year. Using AMQR - a software synthesiser built by Ledesma together with Ess Mattisson - both pieces here shimmer with elusive timbres that occupy a realm that feels lost between worlds - neither electronic nor acoustic, but more a sort of observational sound that radiates togetherness and warmth. 

Operating at insightful levels of synaesthesia, Ledesma poetically turns ostensibly humdrum sources into clouds of smoke - emails, voicenotes, walking along the water, a poem attached to an email, walking alone in New York during lockdown, going for a swim at sunset in the desert - all turn into a smudge of memory. When ‘Beamsplitters’ opens with a tangible human presence - a voicemail from a friend - it startles with its earthly pull, eventually getting lost in a tangled spool of found sound leaving just a trace of iridescent, intimate reverie. 

On ‘Golden Mirror’ Felisha gently diffracts a lonesome guitar phrase into a humming thizz with a steeply uncanny ability to jog the memory in a similar way to how olfactory stimulus can conjure feelings of nostalgia. It’s a trick familiar from an emergent new realm of lower case composers creating something like submerged, small scale symphonies that work counter to notions of classical excess or anodyne ambient, instead focusing on microcosmic, highly peronalised sort of worldbuilding that’s impenetrable, yet somehow entirely open.

Felisha Ledesma - Golden Mirror [E064]

London’s abundant waterways and parks provide an oneiric muse for Cucina Povera and Ben Vince’s resounding debut full-length collaboration, an engrossing suite of weightless sax, synth and disklavier-bedded, noirish nocturnes that land somewhere between Grouper and Terry Riley. 

Centred around Maria Rossi aka Cucina Povera’s muzzy vocal loops and the faintest melodic motifs, London-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Vince accompanies on saxophone, synth and piano, shrouding Rossi's vocals in swirls of dimly lit psychedelic smoke. As a newcomer to London, Rossi was "caught up in a sort of wondrous overwhelm” - a feeling that seeps through every movement of the almost hour long album. Working mostly at the Roundhouse, the pair find a musical confluence between Rossi's words - "fluid, dreamy, hazy ideations" - and Vince's shadowy renditions.

Vince's plasmic echoes and Rossi's aerial delivery form a poetic union, twisting and painting each sound in pearlescent shades. Rossi's folk roots shine through like cracks of dawn sunlight on 'Sumu Puistossa' ("fog in the park"), reverberating over organ and dream-zone sax; her words tip into muted surrealism thanks to the controlled chaos of Vince's bleak treatments. His grasp of jazz is transfixing: bending sax motifs like ghostly memories of music from another timeline, smudging them into the soundfield. It’s most effective on 'Siellä Näen Kaiken' ("there I see everything"), where sickly, dissonant notes flicker like an almost-extinguished candle alongside motorised furniture music courtesy of a Disklavier.

Born out of wonder, daydreaming innocence and creative discovery, 'There I See Everything ‘ is the sound of two exploratory collaborators swimming into each other's ideas. From the Terry Riley-esque transcendence of '∞' to the sacred incantation of long-form closer 'Pikku Muurahaiskeko' ("little anthill"), the pair expose a new layer of creativity with each turn, gradually zooming out from discreet, vulnerable beauty to encompass a gently orchestrated chaos of sustained, sublime tension.

Cucina Povera & Ben Vince - Sumu Puistossa

ulla - table

Luka Sambe - Sooti (Original Mix) [Armadillo Records]

This is Surroundings.

For our new series with Shure we follow three artists as they create new music from the sounds of their cities. Featuring Flava D in London, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith in Los Angeles and Honey Dijon in Berlin.

We travel to Los Angeles to meet experimental synth composer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. We followed Kaitlyn on a trail through Millard Canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains. Capturing the sounds of footsteps, birdsongs, rustling branches and much more, Kaitlyn then returned to her home studio and ran the recordings through synthesisers creating new shapes and tones. The end result is a blissful ambient track built entirely from sounds recorded on the hike with nothing else added.. Watch the full process here: crackm.ag/2w2TDCT

Kaitlyn recorded her surroundings using a Shure MV88 iOS mic which you can find out more about here: crackm.ag/2uznSk4

SURROUNDINGS002: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Sunset Ridge

Liverpool local ASOK hits rave euphoria by way of the ‘90s on his new EP for Lobster Theremin. 

Read more: https://hyponik.com/features/first-listen-asok-how-it-is-lobster-theremin/

@asok-four-triangles 
@lobster-theremin

First Listen: ASOK - 'How It Is' (Lobster Theremin)

The first Bitterfeld Musik sampler featuring the three artists to have already released on the label: Leipzig’s Interviews, Consulate and Guy Contact from Perth, Australia. Label co-owner, Carmel appears for the first time. 

@consulateultra
@bitterfeldmusik

Buy:
https://bitterfeld.bandcamp.com/album/for-a-bitter-tomorrow-band-1-bitterfeld-04

PREMIERE: Consulate - 67 Yaw Limit [Bitterfeld]

Taken from the upcoming album Both Lines Will Be Blue, out July 12th on Smalltown Supersound. Produced by Carmen Villain. Flute performed by Johanna Scheie Orellana. Mastered by Matt Colton.

Observable Future

Plafond 4 — Ulla Straus / Oceanic [LP]

Vinyl: https://clone.nl/item57897.html
Digital: bakk.bandcamp.com/album/plafond-4

A1 Ulla Straus — I Forgot to Take a Picture (12:03)
A2 Ulla Straus — Becoming Warm (6:24)
B Oceanic — Three Sides Of A Shell (19:21)
 ↳ 1. Aperture 
 ↳ 2. Columella
 ↳ 3. Sea If You Can Hear

The fourth Plafond sees fine-crafted contrasting pieces complement each other in courtesy of Ulla Straus and Oceanic. Along the wide arbitrary landscape of listening or 'ambient' music, it is a delight to have two artists, separated by the vast Atlantic, contributing quite opposite interpretations of such to the series. Perceptual time feels as a recurrent theme which binds them, albeit in a whole different modus operandi.

In her iconic tactile productions, Straus excavates levels of advanced musical complexity in the seemingly most simple. Throughout two tracks her crude and beautiful technique riffles, compositions that remain prone to the transient, combining field recordings with morphing saxophone and guitar. This is deeply evocative music that turns its recipient into a mode of contemplation. ‘I Forgot to Take a Picture’ breathes melancholic romanticism, ‘Becoming Warm’ feels lorn yet hopeful. Pastoral haze over a rouge-tainted barren, the crackling insides of a wooden forest house. Picturesque and minimalist, Pennsylvania’s Straus manages to temporarily stop the sand from gravitating downwards.

Oceanic antagonises Straus with the triptych ‘Three Sides of a Shell’, recalling different emotions adhering to the fourth dimension. As a performing artist, Oceanic masters the element of suspense. Here, over the course of nineteen minutes, a three-note sequence is explored within the producers imaginatory, chapterised, providing moments to navigate through his fictitious galaxy. Stuttering melodies across azure waters, synthesised bleeps as flickering stars over a moonlit mountain pass. Oceanic’s music feels advanced through actively incorporating contemporary futurism, whilst never losing the glacial glance that is so familiar to its early nineties foregoers. It is as if listening to ‘Three Sides...’ heightens the senses, towards possibility, innovation even, triggering illusions of time dilation, shattering the hourglass.

Comes in hand printed dreamy, pink sleeve, including Obi-strip, by the BAKK Innerspace Ink Station.

Music: @ullastraus / @oceanicocean
Design: Mike Kokken and Heer Badoux
Words: Luke Cohlen (@lukecohlen)

Plafond 5

BAKKPlafond4 | Ulla Straus / Oceanic (LP)

From the upcoming album "Pavel Milyakov & Bendik Giske" out March 26th on Smalltown Supersound / Le Jazz Non .

Pavel Milyakov & Bendik Giske - Untitled 2

All 5 tracks on ​12" Matas Flores y Algo Más ​were jammed and recorded between late 2018 and early 2019, with Juno 106, Yamaha DX7, Korg Wavedrum and Pearl SC40. 
A1. Self Similar Melodies
https://tulips-de.bandcamp.com/

Sound enthusiast and percussionist Tulips, plays with NASSSAU, as P.VEE with TRJJ (Stroom), and MONTEL PALMER.

Tulips - Self Similar Melodies

Get this + the original here https://carmenvillain.bandcamp.com/

So High You're Mine (2020 Rework)

READ >  https://inverted-audio.com/premiere-dj-kassir-dodik-pt-2/

Moscow-based experimental specialists @gost-zvuk-records line up 'Brown White', marking the debut long player from fellow Russian producer @djkassir.

Brown White

DJ Kassir - Dodik pt.2 [Gost Zvuk]

from the "Earth Mirage" CS (NNF370)
Not Not Fun / 2021

EARTH DAY:
https://dravier.bandcamp.com/album/earth-mirage
https://midheaven.com/item/earth-mirage-by-dravier

Dravier "Palm Dance"

Just before 2020 comes to an end, Berlin-based artist @leozylberberg graces this crazy (!) year  with an oddball of a track: “Sheshells” is a total earworm and at the same time a bit off, maybe. It’s chill, it’s haunted, and it might be the most appropriate end to 2020 one can imagine. “Despite its imperfections, it feels like some sort of antidote to something,” as the Australian artist puts it herself.

Sheshells is published as a digital single. It features an artwork from Paris-based graphic designer and art director Olga Prader’s Ftantasy series. The track is Präsens Editionen’s fourth audio release in 2020, following music by Remo Helfenstein, @samuelreinhard , and @damexlove , that is ranging from gospel and dark ambient-informed lullabies to proper sad-boy-reggaeton-heat.

Zylberberg is a mainstay at @sameheads , Berlin’s most infamous pub / fashion store / club / art space / what not. In 2017, she came to attention with a split tape realized with the wonderful Belia Winnewisser. Earlier this year, the Australian artist published Greatestings on @noisekoelln , a label that came back to life just for this highly limited 10” after a four-year period of inactivity. Zylberberg is part of Balance Crew alongside partner in crime @dane-close .

Sheshells

Buy the Track

L.Zylberberg - Sheshells (PE-022)

' While an ideal is static in reality, every step before and after is necessary and part of each perfect unique moment. With this album, we celebrate becoming and the wisdom that lies in the fundamental transience of everything. After reading the introduction, it is easy to understand the pride Armadillo Records takes in its 18th edition. In religion and literature, the Hebrew word for life (chai) has the value of 18. Conceptual and intelligent, Luka Sambe delivers the musical idea related to every living thing. The Fundamental Transience of Everything is a material that sounds like a soundtrack for a motion picture. It is a maze of background harmonies, relatable to everyone with spiritual awareness. The album takes its listeners on to journey through 12 chapters of epic proportions, where the 84 minutes of its length disappear in a single breath. Luka forms a universal soundscape built on the trance-inducing atmosphere where synthesizers are a tool for the ancient ritual that’s taking place in an era of a utopian future. The album is a timeless piece of magic. It is what the world of art appreciators has been anticipating for a long time. Treat this gem with respect!'

Follow: @luka-sambe // @armadillorecords

Dravier "Palm Dance"

NOT NOT FUN

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