Tea Drips

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

My first patch exploring the Blukac Endless Processor module to create intertwining drones. The endless processor resynthesises audio you feed into the inputs to create infinitely sustained sounds.

In this case, I ran my single-stringed Diddleybow through the BoredBrain Injectr with a little bit of drive and the cab sim enabled and captured different notes and timbres into each layer to build up a droning chord in each of the two channels. Channel volume is being modulated by the Instruo Ochd and Ochd expander to create movement.

The Endless processor's outputs are routed through the Make Noise QPAS stereo filter with resonance set to 40%. Cutoff frequency is also modulated by the Ochd with a slow LFO. Smile pass outputs are then routed into the Intellijel Sealegs to add some reverb and vinyl crackle.

I thought I'd experiment with the BoredBrain Injectr's envelope follower, so I routed that to the QPAS's mystery input so whenever I pluck the diddleybow, a short envelope triggers a filter ping of sorts to create the underwater bubble sounds.

Modular sessions — Endless tide

Caterina Barbieri & Kali Malone - Glory (Final Movement)

The final movement of Glory is a slowly evolving canon for two electric guitars pouring landscapes of bliss from the pythagorean region of the harmonic spectrum.

Composed at EMS in Stockholm SE 2015.
Recorded at Villa Strozzi in Florence IT 2016.

Side A from XKatedral Volume III
Edition of 100
Released on October 6th 2016

Caterina Barbieri & Kali Malone - Glory (Final Movement)

→ http://shelter-press.org/tomoko-sauvage-musique-hydromantique-sp087/

TOMOKO SAUVAGE 'Musique Hydromantique' (SP087)
SAMPLE MIX

Musique Hydromantique is the second solo album by Tomoko Sauvage archiving many years of her performance-based practice on the waterbowls - the natural synthesizer of her invention, composed with porcelain bowls filled with water and amplified via hydrophones (underwater microphones). While her first album Ombrophilia (released on and/OAR in 2009) was studio-recorded /composed work, «Musique Hydromantique» is about experimentation and improvisation with the environment - acoustics affected by the architecture, temperature, humidity and the human presence. 

For more than ten years, Sauvage has been investigating the sound and visual properties of water in different states, as well as those of ceramics, combined with electronics. Water drops, waves and bubbles are some of the elements she has been playing with to generate the fluid timbre. Since around 2010, hydrophonic feedback has been an obsession for the musician - an acoustic phenomenon that requires fine tuning depending on the amount of water, a subtle volume control and interaction with the acoustic space. 

Calligraphy was recorded in a genuine echo chamber, with about 10 second reverbs, situated in a former textile factory. Like an endless exercise to draw perfect curves and forms floating in the air, the subaquatic feedback frequencies are pitch-bended with the mass of water sculpted by a hand changing its quantity. Fortune Biscuit is about the singing bubbles emitted from the pieces of ‘biscuit’ (porous terra-cotta). Depending on the texture of the surface, each biscuit makes different sound : insect and animal voices in a forest, motors, crying babies changing pitches and rhythms while absorbing the water… Clepsydra (meaning water clock) features Sauvage’s classical technique, a random percussion with dripping water. She tunes the waterbowls by adding and removing water, making flowing glissando, to find the balance point in ever-changing tonalities. 

Just as the flow of water is subject to a number of variables such as temperature and pressure, water clocks mark a time that is shifting and relative. However, slowness dominates throughout the album as a result of favoring the full resonance of the instrument, leading to a path to experiencing timelessness. 

Hydromancy is a method of divination by means of water. Unpredictable bubbles and water ripples become oracles. Evaporation and acoustic space constantly play a chance operation. Through primordial materials and ritualistic yet playful gestures, Musique Hydromantique questions contemporary divination.

All the tracks are live-recorded without electronic effects or editing. They were recorded during the night or very early in the morning and the whole album is to be listened to during that period of a day. 

—
LP edition of 500 copies with reverse board-printed inner and outer sleeve. Digipack CD edition of 1000 copies. Mastered by Rashad Becker at Dubplates and Mastering.

TOMOKO SAUVAGE 'Musique Hydromantique' Sample Mix (SP087)

2018 repress of the debut full length LP from Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile's Visible Cloaks project. Initially recorded in 2013 and issued on cassette by Sun Ark in 2014 (as Cloaks), this first offering uses conceptual processes to weave many of the same threads as their later work; synthetic FM tones, tuned mallet percussion, and electronically modulated voice, all arranged in a gossamer web, spun with neon electronics. On this release the duo set off on the sonic journey they are still on today, refracting their influences through East<>West feedback loops, augmenting traditions with technology. Remastered 45rpm DMM version with additional surprises!

BUY HERE: www.seance-centre.com/shop/visible-cloaks-st-lp

For EU distribution contact: info@rushhour.nl
For NA distribution contact: info@seance-centre.com

Repress by Musique Plastique.
Produced & Distributed by Séance Centre

Visible Cloaks - Escape Music From City To Paradise (excerpt)(MP001)

digital edition:
https://forestmanagement.bandcamp.com/album/remain

Forest Management - "Privilege of Remembering"

From AEST-033: Yolabmi “To Nocturnal Fellows” CS

多分僕たちは一人じゃない 

PA is pleased to introduce the first full-length by Yolabmi, Japanese-based artist explores beauty through abstract ambient music creating a sound collage of textural field recordings and unknown samples. Atmospheric and groovy set of tracks touching on so many areas, including noise, ambient and techno

https://www.yolabmi.com

To Nocturnal Fellows

Yolabmi - Phosphorescent

http://www.recitalprogram.com/dreams-of-india-china/
Limited LP Edition of 500
12-page color booklet with essays and photographs
OUT ON APRIL 19th

Purchase

R59 - Rip Hayman - Dreams of India & China LP excerpt

Stefan Fraunberger - Elegie
from the album "Quellgeister#3-Bussd" expected October 2019.

Composed, performed and produced by Stefan Fraunberger. 
Recorded in September 2016 except B3 and B4 in September 2018 in the fortified church of Bussd. Bellows pumped / interpreted by Johanna Magdalena Guggenberger except on track B3 and B4 by Nicolai Guta.
Mastered by Neel at Enisslab Studio, Rome
Cover Artwork by George Sowden - Designed by M-L-XL
Supported by SKE / Austro Mechana

doser034LP - Morphine Records 2019
All rights reserved to the respective owners.

Stefan Fraunberger's Quellgeister#3 Bussd is Recorded entirely on an abandoned church's organ in the village of Bussd, Romania, the album is the third installment of the series by Austrian artist and composer Stefan Fraunberger. His research on the influence of nature on culture touches on time, periphery, memory, and transience as evidenced in his Quellgeister research. The album is an archeological sonic research on the deteriorating Organ discovered in the saxon church in Transylvania.

Stefan Fraunberger - Elegie (doser034LP preview)

Accident du Travail. We fell in love with their album on Trilogy Tapes and after a coincidental (or not) meeting in Brussels, our 29th release and first ever live album slowly took shape. Recorded in the mythical London Cafe OTO in 2016, the outfit of Julie Normal and Olivier Demeaux explores a beautiful path of arrhythmic music, subaquatic sounds and celestial zones.

[vlek29] - Accident du Travail - live at Cafe OTO
Julie Normal_ondes Martenot + Olivier Demeaux_harmonium & machines.
Cafe OTO, Londres, 2016
enregistrement. Adam Matschulat 
mastering. Fred Alstadt 
artwork. Takahiro Kurashima
remerciements. Will Bankhead , Abby Thomas , Jean-Charles , Hugo Sanchez,  Hiro Abe
distribution. Crevette

Out September 27th.
Pre-order: https://vlekrecords.bandcamp.com/album/vlek29-accident-du-travail-live-at-cafe-oto

Accident du Travail - Ouverture All'Inglese (taken from the upcoming [vlek29]: live at Cafe OTO)

Julianna Barwick - Circumstance Synthesis (THERE002)

Julianna Barwick - night

https://green-house.bandcamp.com/album/peperomia-seedling
Green-House is the project of Los Angeles based artist Olive Ardizoni.

Approaching the project with an intentional naivety, they craft songs that find freedom through simplicity. As a non-binary artist, they hope to create a space with fewer barriers as both a performer and a listener.

Their first release as Green-House, “Six songs for Invisible Gardens” (out Jan 15, 2020) was written with the intention of transforming the listening environment and augmenting domestic space. The music is designed as a communication with both plant life and the people who care for them.

Green-House - Peperomia Seedling

FUJI||||||||||TA, iki, LP

Release date - April 3th 2020
Catalogue nr. - HG2003
Format - Ltd. Vinyl/digital

https://hallowground.bandcamp.com

Credits:
All music composed, played and Recorded by FUJI|||||||||||TA
Mixed by Makoto Oshiro
Mastering by Lawrence English at Negative Space

Tracklist:
1) keshiki (09:42)
2) nNami (09:20)
3) osoi (10:12)
4) sukima (07:03)

///
"FUJI|||||||||||TA has created a work that operates as a beautiful nexus between the material and immaterial qualities of music. 
It is a lived-in dreamscape of deep, rich tonality. A remarkable debut."
(Lawrence English)

///
FUJI||||||||||TA, real name FUJITA Yosuke, is a Japanese sound artist. After countless performances in different contexts either solo or along artists such as Yamantaka Eye of Boredoms and the legendary avant-gardist SUZUKI Akio as well as a slew of solo releases, his LP »iki« (»breath«) for the Swiss-based Hallow Ground label is his first in nine years. On these four pieces, Fujita explores the idiosyncratic sound qualities of the pipe organ he has built all by himself in 2009. This - quite literally unique - instrument features only eleven pipes, an air pump called »fuigo« which was modelled after a traditional blacksmith’s one and has no keyboard. Inspired by traditional gagaku, it was designed to evoke rich landscapes rather function as just another musical instrument. While his previous records saw FUJI||||||||||TA explore various modes of abstraction, »iki« is a highly emotive yet meditative album, musically restrained but full of imagination.

»keshiki« immediately sets the mood for this record with a long sustained note that is punctuated by the soft clicking of Fujita’s air pump. Once Fujita carefully starts bringing melodies into play, the interplay of the drone and the discrete rhythmic element gives way to a fuller harmonic whole. »keshiki« is an intimate piece that perfectly displays the artist’s knack for painting a rich sonic picture with only a reduced palette. »nNami« juxtaposes the sounds of two pipes that are out of tune with each other, creating a hypnotic sensation of ebb and flow (»nami« translates to »wave«) that is full of subtle friction. It’s a staggering artistic interpretation of the instrument’s material characteristics. Clocking in at ten minutes, »osoi« (»slow«) is an overall melancholic piece that explores the relationship between different tone colours through minute changes in pace. Finally, »sukima« (»blank space«) is the shortest and the most rhythmic piece of the four. Composed of only staccati, it is a masterful exploration of the harmonic qualities Fujita’s stunning pipe organ has to offer.

Recorded between September and December of 2019, »iki« marks the culmination of FUJI||||||||||TA’s ten-year-long work with the instrument that he had built without any prior knowledge and started to teach himself to play without a manual in sight. It is, in other words, the unique result of a unique musical mind paying his dues to the uniqueness of his own creation; introspective and welcoming at once.

FUJI||||||||||TA - osoi (HG2003)

warm light is green

just friends floom mode + mangrove as voices....same patch as this video here !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhkZ7DaWYB8

breakfast at night

Music page for the record label Recital, run by Sean McCann. 

R59 - Rip Hayman - Dreams of India & China LP excerpt

Recital

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