Fortresses guides a pensive, ethereal meditation on the passage of time with his debut release, Eve, on Dragon’s Eye Recordings. 

A day may be observed by exact moments, counted down by the hands on a clock; or, its progress might be witnessed through less immediate means—a shift in shadows, the sky’s hue, the air as it warms and cools. 

In this sense, Fortresses both measures the day with exactitude, and honors its slower unfoldings. Each of Eve’s three carefully crafted compositions allow the listener to hone in on a singular element, or lean back into a wider gentle drone. One can pinpoint a hint of static, or drift with a melodic looping hum as it phases in and out again. 

In his own words Fortresses offered us some insight into the making of Eve: 

Eve formed slowly during a self-reflective and transformative period in my life. The songs stand as a personal document of the time they were made and the rituals that gave shape to them—watching the seasons change from my studio window, letting the colours and qualities of light inspire the compositions; and long walks in East London’s natural and urban areas where I would listen to rough edits of the tracks and record open-air sounds that blended well with the music. 

With this music, the process is compositional and very deliberate, as opposed to improvised or open-ended. The tracks are manipulated guitar and synth lines, meshed with both raw and processed field recordings, and broken chords and melodies made with a Mellotron iPhone app.

Fortresses - June

from 'Thawlines' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den372
available on all formats at https://denovali.com/johnlemke

Unfamiliar landscapes, dampened by snow and fog, frozen waterways, ghostly forests: in equal parts unsettling and rich with possibility - such is the world of ‘Thawlines’, the third solo album by John Lemke. Carved out at a glacial pace over six years, it distills the memories of a deeply impactful journey to Finland in 2011 into John’s most personal album to date.

During a time of inner turmoil, John’s first encounter with the harsh Finnish winter while visiting an old friend in Helsinki, served as the backdrop and catalyst for pivotal change. Inspired to write an album based on the experience some years later, a second trip with a residency near the Arctic Circle followed. Gathering field recordings and reflecting the original voyage, John experimented with first sketches in the solitude of the icy woodlands, before beginning to flesh out tracks in his Glasgow studio.

The practice of turning memories of places, situations and atmospheres into music, slowly evolved into a complex mosaic of textures and tones, sparking near endless permutations of each piece. About the process John says, ‘I always liked the idea of time as my main collaborator. Or put differently, collaborating with slightly different versions of myself over time. Most of the pieces on ‘Thawlines’ were crafted over a number of years, with long gaps in between recording, letting the ideas ferment somewhat in the meantime, or at least my notion of where they could go. The process let me look at each track from a multitude of angles and come at it with contrasting frames of mind, before understanding what the pieces truly needed to be. It was just a very natural way to work and let ideas grow. In many ways the album turned out as a celebration of the art of getting lost.’

The increasingly slow progression, partly due to John’s many soundtrack commitments, meant that more and more current experiences started seeping into the work as well. As John explains, ‘A lot of life has been digested in this record. From losses of loved ones to becoming a parent and everything in between.’ From a production point of view, John kept feeling drawn to sounds that evoked a certain childhood nostalgia in him such as the mellotron, unruly synths, reverb drenched vocals and era specific recordings of cello, drums and guitars.

Abandoning the rather electronic feel of People Do (2013) and Nomad Frequencies (2015) for a more band oriented sound, John enlisted the help of some of his favourite musicians in the form of Pete Harvey (Modern Studies) on cello, Clive Deamer (Portishead, Radiohead, Robert Plant) on drums and harpist Urška Preis (rouge-ah) to realise his vision. As John says, ‘The music somehow needed to run through the hands of others, which gave a sense of catharsis after such a drawn out, solitary process. It was exactly what was needed to bring the journey full circle’.

As a long odyssey comes to its conclusion, the yield can finally begin a life of its own.

Thawlines

Apparition

John Lemke - Apparition

Today, I'm excited to share with you a new piece by the Icelandic composer Snorri Hallgrímsson, whom I've been closely following since his debut, Orbit, released by Moderna in 2018. Even back then, I could somewhat predict the trajectory of this young artist, who, as I said, has been drinking from the same pool of Icelandic inspiration which has quenched the thirst of some of the world's renowned composers, like Ólafur Arnalds and of course, the dearly missed Jóhann Jóhannsson. Hallgrímsson's sophomore release, I Am Weary, Don’t Let Me Rest, which I am playing right now as I prepare this writeup, was a particular favourite of mine, even as I recognised some of the subtle influence of the above master of the modern classical genre. In this specific case, that should be acknowledged as an enormous compliment - if Jóhann continues to be here through the music of others, I feel slightly better and not so forlorn. This spring, Hallgrímsson returns to Moderna with an original soundtrack for Guy Davidi's documentary called Innocence. "The film is a harrowing insight into what it's like to grow up in a heavily militarized state where military service isn't only compulsory but is seen as a moral and cultural obligation as well." I think the cover of a little girl handling a machine gun tells it all. And yet, it's Hallgrímsson's gorgeous music that takes it to a whole new level.

Innocence (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

The Girl in the Dark

TRACK PREMIERE : Snorri Hallgrímsson - The Girl In The Dark

09 - Valanga Di Ferro

Simplicity. A sine wave, a saw wave. Transients, sustained notes. And the human voice.

Moment

Taken from Airmid

https://slowtonecollages.bandcamp.com

Airmid (named after the Irish goddess of healing), is my first ever piece composed as a sort of ambient sound bath. I went on tour last month and performed this piece live as a sound bath - participants laid out on mats on the floor and experienced the wash of sound and vibration for 90 minutes, as a meditation. Before leaving for tour, I recorded two versions of the piece in my studio, which I have worked/re-worked into this album. 

Airmid is built upon a binaural beat that I created in Max/MSP, using 285hz + 285.4hz and modulating the .4 slowly down to .1 to create variations in the beat. The first part (Restoring), uses layers of synthesizer, guitar, and 4 longform field recordings along with the binaural frequency to create an immersive, swelling journey. The second piece, (Resting), is nearer to what the live version sounded like. I brought in my singing bowl to signal the start and end of the sound meditation, and used an additional supposive healing frequency (741hz) that fades in and out throughout the track. The second track also features dulcimer and 3 more field recordings.

Releases September 12, 2024 

Written and produced by Nicholas Maloney 

STC 051 
Slow Tone Collages 2024

Blanket Swimming - Airmid (Restoring) (Slow Tone Collages)

It makes sense to kick off this TRACK PREMIERE with a quick [re-]introduction to Malcolm Pardon, who, although appeared on these pages as a solo artist with his debut album Hello Death (The New Black, 2021), may be more familiar to you as one half of Roll The Dice, along with Peder Mannerfelt. Unlike the Swedish duo's gorgeous sonic onslaught that captivated these pages (see In Dust and Until Silence from over a decade ago), Pardon's solo musings are more in the vein of deconstructed melancholia, with the solo piano progressions held up by cinematic atmospheres and themes. "Like the romantic notion of the orchestra on board the Titanic playing their repertoire as the ship went down, on The Abyss, he looks past the bleak or macabre to observe death as a multi-layered, lifelong acquaintance." On "Side Effects", we are faced with a pseudo-neutral message of a neo-classical nature, at times evoking echoes of Radiohead, at others creating a false sense of optimism, with a darker undertone lurking just beneath the veil. This becomes more evident as you progress through the album, followed by "The End", landing upon "Enter the Void" (you can check out an unsettling video by the Swedish director Oskar Wrangö here - be warned that it includes images that some viewers may find distressing), and finally concluding with the "Aftermath". The music on The Abyss is celebrating our demise, and just like the distressing notion of your own inevitable passing, it is disquieting, beautiful and final. For now, enjoy the "Side Effects".

The Abyss

Side Effects

TRACK PREMIERE : Malcolm Pardon - Side Effects

House in the Key of Jazz (Lofi)

Night Sky (Lo-Fi Beat)

A new piece made with Crumar Performer synthersizer + Roland Space Echo RE-201 + Count To Five. Small melodies drifting ~* One take recording ~*

Lluvia de estrellas

Filmcomposer by day - genre surfer by night. This is my channel for cutting out my inner censor and commiting to whatever comes out.
A lot of the time, that seems to be ambient and glitchy music.

Moment

keinseier