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Avant Garde Electro-Acoustic Minimal Review

SEBASTIAN MULLAERT & HENRIK FRENDIN – HIND

Magical plucked, bowed, and granulated strings weave their way across compressed and weighty beats, in this gorgeous collaboration between Swedish Grammy-nominated musicians Sebastian Mullaert (of Minilogue fame) and Henrik Frendin (one of Scandinavia´s leading violists).

releases May 24, 2024

pre-orders at bandcamp now

Categories
Avant Garde Drone Experimental Minimal Review

MINING – Chimet

Crafted from weather data collected during a storm sequence off the south coast of the UK in October 2017, the album is a mesmerizing 74-minute journey through the elemental forces of nature. Craig Kirkpatrick-Whitby and PJ Davy’s sonification of the data, combined with Matthew Bourne’s intuitive piano and cello improvisations, results in a powerful, meditative, and immersive sonic experience. With each note, ‘Chimet’ encapsulates the ebb and flow of the storm, offering a captivating blend of tension and serenity that resonates on a primal level.

Released 8th March via Leaf Label

Categories
Avant Garde Experimental Minimal Synth

Benge – Forms 16

This is an album exploring the interplay between random events and deliberate human intervention, something which, in the electronic music field, I call cybersynthesis. I saw it’s creation as being analogous to creating pictures using the medium of Watercolour, whereby the various pigments are allowed to flow randomly in water with the hand of the painter guiding the proceedings with an eye on satisfying various criteria. These criteria define the artist’s intention. The work is the result

The music was made on the Serge Modular Paperface system, with most of the modules being made in the early-to-mid 1970s. However, one panel of the nine used is a modern unit formatted to the Serge standard, made by the British synthesiser manufacturer Loudest Warning. This panel was assembled on my instruction, a service happily provided by the manufacturer, and contains cybernetic functions that I felt were lacking in the other modules in my system, but which fit in with the spirit of the Serge. They were designed to aid in the composition of self-generating melodic and rhythmic patterns

These functions are as follows:

Two Gated Comparators, each one slightly different from the other. These modules take in pitch data, and hold it in memory to be passed out at a sequentially gated step, with up to 8 steps. They create a semi-random series of notes and gates and can be used in conjunction with other modules such as the Quantizer

Window Comparator: This takes a clock input and puts out up to 8 new gates based upon a range set by external CV. It can be used to create complex rhythmic patterns which again are semi-random in nature

And-Comparator. This takes multiple gate events and outputs a new gate only if all inputs fire together. It is useful for selectively thinning out complex events into simpler rhythmic events, also known as rhythmic quantizing

The Slope Detector takes any variable CV and generates various gates depending on the rise and fall time of the input

73 EG. A complex envelope generator based on the original Serge design from 1973. It allows voltage control over most parameters and also generates extra gate outputs under voltage control. In cycle mode it can be used as a complex VC-LFO

Having this extra panel added to my system has opened up the compositional potential of the instrument to a very large extent. All of the melodic elements you hear on this album were generated using what I call ‘cybersynthesis’ principles, which is a fascinating area of electronic music that I have greatly enjoyed exploring on this record

Download form Bandcamp includes full colour 10 page PDF booklet!

Categories
Ambient Avant Garde Electro-Acoustic Experimental Field Recording Minimal Review

Top Freqs of 2023

Another fine year for music here in the flatlands.
Here are our ten most frequented frequencies of the past 12 months. Go check them out and support the artists!

1. Tape Loop Orchestra – Onde Sinusoi​̈​dale Et Bande Magne​́​tique

2. S. Costa – The Radiant Point

3. Cate Brooks – Easel Studies

4. T.Jervell & ChromaDots – Faksfjord / Fragsfjord

5. Field Lines Cartographer – Tone Maps

6. Elia Piana – Sotto l​’​Albero Tutto Si Copre

7. Anagrams – Blue Voices

8. Night Gestalt – The Staring Night

9. VirusMoto –

10. Sundheim – Glades of Flowering Stone

Categories
Ambient Avant Garde Experimental Review Spoken Word

Maya Hardinge & David Louis Zuckerman – Penny (Original Soundtrack)

Very interesting spoken word narrative over synth, guitar and eastern instrumental ambient scapes. Each track on “Penny” resonates with emotional depth and musical richness, creating a compelling soundscape that captures the essence of Penny’s life.

Maya Hardinge & David Louis Zuckerman skillfully use a diverse range of minimalist arrangements to evoke the various stages of Penny’s journey, from the soulful melodies representing her introspective moments to the rhythmic beats mirroring the pulse of her adventurous encounters.

Categories
Avant Garde Experimental Review

Elia Piana – Sotto l​’​Albero Tutto Si CopreElia Piana –

Elia immerses listeners into a sonic odyssey, Sotto l​’​Albero Tutto Si Copre weaves a mesmerizing tapestry of avant-garde soundscapes that transcend the boundaries of conventional music. A daring fusion of esoteric instruments from makers like Ciat-Lonbarde and Monome creates an otherworldly atmosphere, transporting the audience to uncharted realms of auditory exploration. This album stands as a bold testament to the artist’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of sonic artistry, inviting us to embark on a transcendental sonic adventure.

Cassettes and digital at: Bandcamp

Categories
Avant Garde Documentary

the future is not what it used to be – Erkki Kurenniemi

A portrait by Mika Taanila of one of the unsung pioneers of early electronic art, Finnish scientist and artist Erkki Kurenniemi.

Categories
Avant Garde Experimental Field Recording Musique Concrète Review

T. Jervell & ChromaDots – Faksfjord / Fragsfjord

Gorgeous hand-printed cassette sleeves, which accompany the raw, crunchy dadaism of T.Jervell and ChromaDots with their magical wooden machines. Limited tapes available now at SteepGloss Bandcamp

Sounds from an old wooden house situated in the rural North Norwegian countryside, as heard by a Norwegian and an Irelander.

Field recordings, found sounds, and Tetrax recorded on a Sony M-670 microcassette recorder, in Faksfjord summer 2022.

On Faksfjord the source material is cut up and rearranged utilizing an 8-bit hardware sampler, in Gravdal, Lofoten.

A collection of hiss and crackles, textures, and sound.

Fragsfjord involves breaking down the sounds found on the Faksfjord tapes to their smallest form and organising these sonic fragments using sections of the original recordings as a source of triggers, while recapturing them within a new space, in Munich.

Categories
Avant Garde Electro-Acoustic Experimental Musique Concrète

Trond Jervell – 2nd Two

More Ciat-Lonbarde based experiments that we’ve come to know and love, from the Maestro, Trond Jervell. VERY Limited cassettes up now on Moonside Tapes bandcamp

Categories
Avant Garde Drone Electro-Acoustic Experimental

Phil Archer – Atalanta Fugiens I​-​X

First published in 1617, Atalanta Fugiens is a collection of 50 alchemical discourses, each with its own illustration, verse, and musical composition. This release is a realisation of the first 10 of these Fugues, performed using circuit-bent Yamaha home keyboards and a variety of acoustic instruments.