Label Kim Myhr is such an avid collaborator, releasing an album a year since the dawn of time, that when something comes out under his own name, it is definitely time to sit up and take notice. Recruiting some fellow travellers and long-time recording artists like Hans Hulbækmo and Ingar Zach amongst others, this latest album takes the premise of 2017’s You/Me and seems to expand it, pushing some […]
Mr Olivetti
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10 to 1 It is always heartening to see a new release from Mark Kluzek‘s Doomed Bird Of Providence, because you know that something of historical significance will have piqued his interest and then has prompted him to gather around friends and collaborators to turn it into some sweeping musical extravaganza. This time around, The Doomed Bird consists of eleven musicians plus the fantastic artwork of Judi Dransfield […]
Leaf A welcome return from Szun Waves after a four-year break finds them in shimmering, dreamlike form; horns, synths and percussion in perfect unison, Earth Patterns conjuring up a journey through the kind of landscapes that are hard to focus on, wreathed in smoke or scattered with dry desert dust. Opener “Exploding Upwards” has the kind of slow drift that builds out of sight, with mournful horns sleepy […]
Discus This new trio, formed by Discus head Martin Archer along with pianist Pat Thomas and percussionist Johnny Hunter, seems to be as much about the spaces in between the notes as about the sounds and textures themselves. Spread over four pieces that hover in the hinterland between dreams and waking, the sounds in opener “Rotten Start” eke out of the speakers, hints of horn more breath than […]
Tenor-Vossa After the relatively recent reissues of Glass Bead Game and Between Happiness And Heartache, the time has finally come for new material from Breathless. Their gaps between album make the Blue Nile look prolific, but seriously each outing is worth the wait. Having prepared songs for this release, not only did they have to cope with lockdown delays but close to the time of recording, drummer Tristram […]
Happy Robots Barely six months since Mood Taeg‘s sophomore album Anaphora, the pan-continental collective returns with an album of mixes that uncover the hidden corners and unexpected perspectives of some of those tracks. A few have been dealt with in house, while others have been loaned out and then returned with a little electronic surgery that renders them familiar yet different, certainly enough to justify this little outing.
Discus It has been a long time since the previous Army Of Briars release; sixteen years to be precise, but it does feel as though they have never been away. Coalescing around the quartet of Julie and Tim Cole, Martin Archer and lyricist Keith Jafrate, they ply their unique blend of folk, jazz and impressionist abstraction on Made From A Broken Star, leaving the worries of the day-to-day […]
Kranky Jacob Long‘s third release for Kranky as Earthen Sea finds him further cocooning the listener in his simple but effective web of shimmering soundscapes, soundscapes sent from a distant outpost their lazy beats laced with tingling textures. A rush and a sigh, a sense of plaintive motion, slowly rippling air and a feeling of inexorable forward motion. Sometimes submarine, the bubbles passing a smoky porthole, that gauzy […]
Diatribe Dutch violinist Diamanda La Berge Dramm has been playing since she was four, and although classically trained and a member of various ensembles, her first solo outing is a rather personal journey through avant-minimalist pop, taking lyrical cues from the work of European Poetry Festival founder Steven J Brown. Accompanying herself with sounds that are generated solely by Moog and violin, she manages to strip the backing […]
Sofa The latest album from Norwegian tuba player Martin Taxt, as well as being a continuation of the work started on 2020’s First Room, comes on like the ultimate in minimalist sound as architecture. His microtonal tuba carries single tones as if they were the most precious of cargo, listening intently for shifts in pressure and additions of further textures. Assistance comes in the form of another tuba, […]
PRAH The fourth moon-related release from Yama Warashi finds Yoshino Shigihara‘s band shifting to the Moshi Moshi offshoot PRAH and further stretching their legs with a unique distillation of gently fuzzy psych and that dreamy Japanese vocalising that gives them such an exotic appeal. Over eight lengthy and quixotic tracks, the album leads the listener through gentle foothills and mountain glades to more extreme terrain, switchback paths and […]
Thanatosis Produktion The list of groups of which reedist Martin Küchen is part is almost as long as my arm. A serial collaborator, his choice of fellow travellers is hugely varied and the number contained within the groups can be anything over two, the Angles projects and Fire! Orchestra perhaps being the most prolific. Here though, he has chosen a rare moment of solitude, and using alto and […]
Post 3 Electro Knights is a recent collaborative affair from members of Leeds band Bushpilot, who were active back in the nineties; here they have chosen electronic music as their jumping off point, an experiment in synthesis that finds the three members happily exploring the far reaches of their chosen instruments, usefully listed on the back of these two sprawling EPs. Recorded back in 2019/2020, the music travels […]
Out This is the final release in the UT back catalogue re-issue campaign and finds them arriving at perhaps their most fully realised iteration. A good number of the tracks here feature Charlie D on drums, leaving the opportunity for the trio to lend further texture to the already dense and at times claustrophobic sound. Interestingly though, installing Steve Albini in the engineer’s chair removed just a touch […]
Modulisme To celebrate the second anniversary of the Modulisme facility that Philippe Petit has established, he decided to forego the usual improvisation technique and attempt a series of compositions that would perhaps show another route for him and give some further impetus to the already exploratory process of a true world citizen.
Thanatosis Produktion Linnéa Talp‘s first album under her own name is all about exploration of the ambient splendour of the pipe organ; but also in combination with her recent discovery of the Buchla synth. Not necessarily obvious bedfellows, her subtle and intricate use of them, along with gently administered contributions from some fellow luminants, produces a series of .
Sofa For Propan‘s third album and their second for Sofa Records, they have dusted off a piece that was originally commissioned by Femme Brutal for the 2016 show at Oslo’s Parkteater. To produce these sprawling adventures, the duo has been augmented by six friends and fellow travellers on Swagger, and this seems to have pushed the scope of the album far beyond what the duo might have accomplished […]
Thrill Jockey Kid Millions, Oneida drummer, serial collaborator and sonic adventurer has chosen to release this current sonic curveball under his given surname; whether this is to put distance between his other projects, it is hard to know but it makes for another half turn in his scattergun career. Taking some hints from the recent Jan St Werner collab, the Colpitts album has a hint of the sort […]