A compilation of some of our favourite tracks since our inception in 2009.  Have we missed anything? 

www.secondlanguagemusic.com

Second Language Music 2009 - 2024 (work in progress)

Adieu À L'Écurie - D.Rothon

From the album, 'Public Flowers,' out now on Second Language Music  : http://www.secondlanguagemusic.com/


Robin Saville - In Konik Mokkin

Future Conditional - Demolitions(feat. Bobby Wratten & Beth Arzy)

Settle Down / The Here And Now CD / SEM 023 

CD and digital available here: http://semlabel.com/the-here-and-now/

Segue - The Here And Now - 05 Settle Down

Cédric Pin/Glen Johnson - Prick

Lost In Daydreaming

Music from the forthcoming EP by Luke Abbott and Jack Wyllie of Portico. 

Released via Buffalo Temple (BFFT003) on 25th September available on 12" vinyl and digitally.

Xantako

Opening track + track two from the ambient album 'This is soon too late'. 
FDL#05.

Support independent music?
https://federleicht.bandcamp.com/album/this-is-soon-too-late

Herbstlaub - Tijd als beloven / Du nahmst ganz einfach meine Hand (FDL#05, 2016)

Dawn Chorus recorded for International Dawn Chorus Day, 1st May 2016, at Wild Park in Brighton, UK.
1 hour (4-5AM), edited down to 10 minutes.

Dawn Chorus Wild Park Brighton 010516 (10min edit)

Site Specific

Point of Departure [Full Length]

Map 165 is a collaboration between Martin A Smith and Tim Hooper exploring disorganised sound, atonality, beauty and evocation. Following on from 2014’s The Fatigue of Sunlight and Wine (Voxxov) and their collection of live recordings A Foreign Country, we are pleased to announce the release of their latest album Of Adam Sleeping in the Lap of God. 

An ambient work in four movements inspired by the north portico of Chartres cathedral Of Adam Sleeping in the Lap of God melts stone into music using a series of field recordings, synths and guitars. 

Of Heaven and earth: 
The formless becomes formed. A swirling coalescence of themes and sounds. Through repetition a pattern appears. Order is created. Across a slow shimmering, four notes call out bridging the void. 

The deepest midnight blue 
The sound from the lowest point of the lake 
The silence of the space above the Earth 
The beat of the heart 

Of the firmament: 
A blissful disorientation. Shimmering, confusing, a wrapping inwards of time and rhythm with multiple refraction of the same themes overlaid but still apparent. 

It is the clangour of bells reflected off stone walls in an old town 
It is the beat of wings over a lake 
It is the confusion of walking in to a dark interior out of the brilliant sunshine 
It is the clamour of foreign languages in the market place 

Of the Sun and the Moon: 
Reflective and contemplative, with a receding sadness. Watching the last sun of Summer set knowing that Winter will be coming. 

Wind between the fingers of trees 
Dust settling in corners until Spring 
Hands resting upon the table 
Valleys filled with fine rain 

Of Eden: 
Neither afraid of night or morning. Each day welcomed; each day passing as easily as water in a river. The security of knowing what you like and trusting your judgement. Equal with all, afraid of none. Night comes blissfully again. 

The comfort of time passing 
The first moment of sleep 
Closing the door once home 
A friend’s voice 

Written and recorded by Martin A. Smith and Tim Hooper 
Assembled and Produced by Martin A. Smith 
Choir at Chartres Cathedral recorded by Helen Smith 
Recorded at Flying Boat Studio, Cambridge, UK 
Sleeve artwork by Katie English 
This is Rural Colours 84

Map165 / Of Adam sleeping in the lap of God (Snippets)

Mashup made  in a sleepless night, two songs merged together and it comes a new, intriguing and fascinating song, I hope you enjoy!  Deep ambient,  for open-minded listeners .

Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto & Jack DeJohnette -  Disturbed Anatolia

From the forthcoming album, 'I Feel Nothing Most Days,' out 26th April 2019 on Second Language Music.  Pre-order here : https://olivercherer.bandcamp.com/

Oliver Cherer - Weight Of The Water

from 'Cycle and Reveal' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den319
available on all formats at http://denovali.com/mariodiazdeleon

Denovali is pleased to present Cycle and Reveal, the fourth full length LP of contemporary classical works by acclaimed composer Mario Diaz de Leon. Featuring bold performances by a cast of longtime collaborators, this compilation is an essential chapter in his celebrated series of recordings for acoustic instruments and electronics.
 
The output of Mario Diaz de Leon defies easy categorization, spanning the worlds of contemporary classical composition, experimental electronic music, extreme metal, and creative improvised music. Working extensively with an inner circle of close collaborators (ICE, Talea, and TAK Ensemble, among others) his classical works have been celebrated over the last decade for their “hallucinatory intensity” (New York Times), “snarling exuberance” (Pitchfork), “helter-skelter, electronically enhanced cadenzas” (New Yorker Magazine), and coupling of “crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex” (Wire Magazine). 
 
The A-side features two works written in early 2017, which colorfully embrace hypnotic repetition alongside dynamic contrasts and distinctly embody the electrifying post-minimalism that Diaz de Leon is known for. Opener Sacrament is written for a trio of musicians from Talea Ensemble and features the composer’s shimmering, bass heavy electronic production. This energetic piece, driven by the virtuosity of marimba player and Talea executive director Alex Lipowski, makes use of rapid-fire arpeggiations and heavy rhythmic unisons. These are starkly contrasted with moments of reverberant echo, bursts of noise in the flute and electronics, and ecstatic rhythms. Labrys, written for ICE bassoonist Rebekah Heller, builds on the celebrated legacy of solo + electronic works heard on his 2015 album The Soul is the Arena. Built around virtuosic interplay between bassoon and synthesizer, Labrys features shifting and hypnotic repetition alongside expansive melodies and sub-bass frequencies.
 
The B-side consists of two works composed in July of 2016 which draw from primal, incantatory, and improvisatory sonic landscapes. Irradiance, a collaboration with cellist Mariel Roberts, begins with a series of spacious riffs exploring the extremes of the cello’s register and transforms over time into a climactic frenzy of noise loops. Tuning the cello’s low C down to a growling G, Roberts interpreted the sounds of each pre-recorded loop by ear.  The piece gradually builds from cavernous depths into an ecstatic climax of anarchic noise. Concluding track Mysterium is written for the ICE trio of flutist and ensemble founder Claire Chase, clarinetist and artistic director emeritus Joshua Rubin, and bassoonist and current artistic director Rebekah Heller. Archaic melodies, improvised heterophony, spectral transformations, echoes of Klang-era Stockhausen, and the colorful noise of Moog and Ciat-Lonbarde synthesizers combine to create an expansive and wildly ritualistic atmosphere.
 
Cycle and Reveal was recorded in vivid detail by Marc Urselli (John Zorn, Laurie Anderson) at East Side Sound, Stephen McLaughlin at EMPAC, and mastered by Ryan Streber at Oktaven Audio. Diaz de Leon invited Melbourne-based visual artist Yuria Okamura to design the cover image and inner sleeve symbols. Sharing Diaz de Leon’s interest in the reinterpretation of spiritual art, Okamura’s cover “maps and reconfigures geometric patterns and symbols that reference esoteric symbolism, occult diagrams, religious architecture and decoration.”

Cycle and Reveal

Mario Diaz de Leon & Talea Ensemble - Sacrament

With Bird Ambience coming out on May 28, Masayoshi Fujita makes a lateral leap from his signature instrument the vibraphone to the marimba, which takes centre stage on his new album alongside drums, percussion, synths, effects and tape recorder. The balletic arabesques of his third single ‘Morocco’ show both instruments unite and dance from twinkling filigree, to a cascading crescendo.

“The way of playing the marimba is similar to the vibraphone, so it was kind of a natural development for me and easier to start with, yet it sounds very different”, explains Masayoshi. “The marimba bars are made with wood and it has a wider range than the vibraphone, which gives me a bigger sound palette with more possibilities. I play the instrument with bows and mallets, and sometimes manipulate it with effects.”

Bird Ambience brings several fresh changes for the artist. Until now, Fujita would separate his acoustic solo recordings, the electronic dub made under his El Fog alias, and his experimental improvisations with contemporaries such as Jan Jelinek. The new album sees him unite all these different facets for the first time into one singular vision.

Arranged with a perfect Kanso-like balance, the unhurried pace of Bird Ambience allows each sound and phrase enough time to be mindfully absorbed and savoured. This subtle but affective work carries ethereal remnants of Midori Takada’s minimalism, the static atmospheres of Mika Vainio, To Rococo Rot’s organics and the bucolic electronics of Minotaur Shock. Fujita vaporises contemporary and classical, ambient and dismantled dub, controlled noise and fragments of jazz into an atmospheric, static mist, which he skilfully coerces into new forms.

Bird Ambience will be released on Erased Tapes in 2LP, CD and digital formats on May 28.

Bird Ambience

Morocco

Stream & pre-order

Masayoshi Fujita - Morocco

This one has been a long time coming.  In 2014, debut album in the can, Silver Servants, a loose collective of Second Language artists, commenced work on a Winter-themed recording.  For one reason or another, what was meant to be one, gapless sonic tapestry, never made it to full fruition but you can hear the fruits it did produce, here on ‘Drifts & Flurries.’  With the creative success of the ‘Avenue With Trees’ album, we decided to take those Silver Servants tracks as a starting point for a new compilation, inviting old ghosts and new friends to contribute.

Mark Brend aka Ghostwriter, was one of the very first artists to release something on Second Language – ‘The Continuing Adventures Of The Strange Sound Association album,’ came out in 2010, when we were less than a year old.  His specially-commissioned work here forms pillars throughout this record, accompanied by Katie English (Isnaj Dui, Littlebow, Silver Servants).  The Declining Winter featured on our first ‘Music & Migration’ compilation from the same year.  Here, in true ‘Servants style, they collaborate with Clay Pipe fellow, David Rothon and Glen Johnson, a Servant, himself.

ISAN first featured on a Second Language compilation in 2011, if only for a minute (‘Minute Papillon’).  You can also find them on our second ‘Music & Migration’ compilation and the duo’s Robin Saville released his solo album, ‘Public Flowers,’ on the label in 2013.

Oliver Cherer (in his Dollboy guise) was also an early 2L attendee.  He’s omnipresent here, voicing Ghostwriter tracks, moonlighting as a Silver Servant and offering an icy take on Nico’s ‘Frozen Warnings.’  Newer to our fold are the London-based Japanese composer, Yumi Mashiki and Paul Tornbohm’s Alter Later project, voiced here (on a splendid Yazoo cover) by Amanda Butterworth of Mücha.  The French field recordist, Marc Namblard, exposes the secret sounds of frozen lakes, Scot electronicists P60 team up with Finnish guitarist, J. Luneburg for a secular dance and Sea Glass, formed from the ribs of The Leaf Library and Firestations, take on Movietone’s ‘Blank Like Snow.’ David Rothon offers a beautiful paean to the Welsh hill and battleground, Bryn Glas.  

‘Drifts & Flurries’ includes a bonus disc, ‘The Frosted Pane,’ by Johnson and the Bulgarian violist, Raisa Zapryanova.

This is SL042.

www.secondlanguagemusic.com

Sea Glass -  Blank Like Snow

Independent record label based in London.  2009 - present day.

Robin Saville - In Konik Mokkin

Second Language Music

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