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Thursday, 24 May
JHEREK BISCHOFF
The Leaf Label
CD // £8.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: BAY83CD
Bombastic but classy orchestral pop music from Seattle-based composer Jherek Bischoff, featuring vocals from the likes of David Byrne and Carla Bozulich, and recommended to fans of Nico Muhly, Dirty Projectors, Van Dyke Parks, Owen Pallett, Beirut, etc. Byrne is in particularly good voice on 'Eyes', sounding right at home amid marching band drums, banjo and sweeping strings. Bischoff channels Gerschwin on the Caetano Veloso and Greg Saunier-featuring 'The Secret Of The Machines', and Evangelista leader Carla Bozulich sounds for all the world like she's singing lead in a Broadway show, or tryin… Read more
JHEREK BISCHOFF
The Leaf Label
LP // £10.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: BAY83V
**Also includes the full album on CD** Bombastic but classy orchestral pop music from Seattle-based composer Jherek Bischoff, featuring vocals from the likes of David Byrne and Carla Bozulich, and recommended to fans of Nico Muhly, Dirty Projectors, Van Dyke Parks, Owen Pallett, Beirut, etc. Byrne is in particularly good voice on 'Eyes', sounding right at home amid marching band drums, banjo and sweeping strings. Bischoff channels Gerschwin on the Caetano Veloso and Greg Saunier-featuring 'The Secret Of The Machines', and Evangelista leader Carla Bozulich sounds for all the world like she's… Read more
HERMANN NITSCH
PLANAM
2cd + Book // £29.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: PLANA-N 4AKT.062
Recommended release
"Alga Marghen proudly present the documentation of Requiem für meine Frau Beate, which took place in the Chiesa di Santa Lucia in Bologna, Italy, in 1977 shortly after Beate Nitsch's death. This was not only one of the strongest and most powerful works by Hermann Nitsch but also a crucial point in the development of his art. Beginning in 1977, Beate Nitsch was travelling in Schwarzwald. She has been inaugurating a nursery-school and wanted to meet some relatives in Stuttgart when, near Ulm, she had a terrible car accident. Beate had supported her husband's art not only sharing the sentimental part of their life but also ac… Read moreMonday, 21 May
NICO MUHLY
BEDROOM COMMUNITY
MP3 Download // £2.99
FLAC Download // £3.40
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: SELUR02
Featured Download
Bedroom Community present the first of three 'Drones' EPs from Nico Muhly. The 'Drones' were originally commissioned by the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival and produced by Nico's fellow Icelander Valgeir Sigurdsson with Bruce Brubaker accompanying on piano and Nadia Sirota on Viola. Nico explains the concept best: "I started writing the Drones pieces as a method of developing harmonic ideas over a static structure. The idea is something not unlike singing along with one's vacuum cleaner, or with the subtle but constant humming found in most dwelling-places. We surround ourselves with constant noise, and the Dr… Read more
CELER
Celer
MP3 Download // £4.99FLAC Download // £5.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: CELER046
Featured Download
"Time passes quickly, and memories all but disappear. Some of the most intimate moments are shuffled aside, later sometimes discovered again only by accident. Merkin, possibly one of the most personal albums that we ever made, for one reason or another, never came to an official release. It was recorded in 2007-2008 in Las Vegas and California, and later mastered by John Twells. For about a year after it was sent and given to friends and labels. By 2012, nearly 5 years had passed since it's creation, Danielle had been gone for almost 3 years, and the album had passed through 3 different labels, in the end all dropping it for reasons such … Read more
CELER
Celer
MP3 Download // £6.99FLAC Download // £8.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: CELER031
Featured Download
Review to follow shortly…
CELER
Celer
MP3 Download // £0.99FLAC Download // £1.25
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: CELER-ON1
Featured Download
Review to follow shortly…
CELER
Celer
MP3 Download // £1.50FLAC Download // £2.50
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: CELER026
Featured Download
Review to follow shortly…
CELER
Celer
MP3 Download // £6.99FLAC Download // £8.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: CELER036
Featured Download
Review to follow shortly…
CELER
Celer
MP3 Download // £7.99FLAC Download // £9.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: CELER022
Featured Download
Review to follow shortly…
CELER
Celer
MP3 Download // £7.99FLAC Download // £9.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: CELER030
Featured Download
Review to follow shortly…Sunday, 20 May
BLAKE CARRINGTON + CHIHEI HATAKEYAMA + CELER TRIO
Live at Super Deluxe, Tokyo, Japan on 7.28.2011
Celer
MP3 Download // £3.95FLAC Download // £4.95
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: CELER045
Review to follow shortly…
DAVID THOR JONSSON
RADIO BONGO
MP3 Download // £6.99FLAC Download // £8.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: BROADCAST01
Review to follow shortly…
Thursday, 17 May
Eldritch, literate chamber-pop business from the UK's own Felix, new on Kranky. Originally the solo project of Lucinda Chua, Felix has become a two-piece since the release of 2009's well-received You Are The One I Pick, with Christopher Summerlin now contributing atmospheric guitar treatments to the brew. Though deeply atmospheric, this is definitely one of the more direct, reverb-light releases in the Kranky canon, with Chua's beautifully modulated vocals - not to mention her elegantly expressive piano and cello parts - coming through crystal clear in the mix. If you dig things like Peter Broder… Read more
Monday, 14 May
KONNTINENT
HIBERNATE
MP3 Download // £3.95FLAC Download // £4.95
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: HB40
Konntinent is by far one of the most interesting artists on Hibernate Recordings. 'Kiruna' follows in swift succession from excellent offerings on Home Normal in recent months. It's surely his most accomplished release to date, an improvised play-through suite in six parts, inspired by London's coldest winter in memory. Recorded in January and February of 2011, it's finely balanced between hard, frozen power-electronics and convective harmonics, taking the label's usually soporific aesthetics in a more visceral and by turns, affecting direction . All the recordings were improvised (at dead of n… Read more
GESKIA!
Home Normal
MP3 Download // £6.99FLAC Download // £8.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: HN033
A regular of Japan's Flau label, Geskia! makes a neat dent in the Home Normal schedule with the Hip-Hop-inflected electronica of '323 Sayonara Memories'. At once minimal yet rich with detail, his work here is lodged somewhere between the likes of Bola, The Remote Viewer and The Boats, a filigree weave of fractured, glassy glitch melody and organic Hip Hop head nod textured with ambient pads and effected instrumentation.
GESKIA!
Home Normal
MP3 Download // £6.99FLAC Download // £8.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: HN033B
Geskia!'s Hip-Hop-inflected electronica gets the rework treatment by his Japanese peers and likeminded producers: Moshimoss, Lycoriscoris, Flica, Fredricson, Pawn, Marihiko Hara, wk[es], Go-qualia, aus, Yui Onodera, Taishin Inoue, polar M and Hakobune.
Thursday, 10 May
NILS FRAHM
ERASED TAPES
LP // £14.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: ERATP021LP
**Limited edition on Erased Tapes - the first time this album has been available on vinyl!** After last week's amazing (and highly limited) Wintermusik disc for the Sonic Pieces label, Nils Frahm returns with a new album of solo piano improvisations. The Bells was co-produced with Peter Broderick, who wrote the liner notes for this release and sat in on the recordings, directing Frahm's playing with instructions and the imposition of certain rules and conditions. Broderick would say things like "Make a song that you could imagine me rapping over the top of" and even go so far … Read more
Recorded live at the Music Research Centre at the University of York, 'Leyfdu ljosinu' is the latest full-length from Icelandic cellist Hildur Gudnadottir, and follows 2009's phenomenal 'Without Sinking'. Again we are treated to Gudnadottir's delicate melancholia, but unlike its predecessor, 'Leyfdu ljosinu' is one single piece, recorded in one take with absolutely no post production to meddle with the sublime nature of the tonality itself. This gives the album a rare sense of levity and depth, and a pacing that many so-called 'experimental' artists attempt but few manage to truly mas… Read more
RICHARD KNOX & FREDERIC D. OBERLAND
Gizeh Records
CD // £9.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: GZH36CD
Lovely collaborative LP of rich string arrangements and electro-acoustically treated drones from Leeds-based Richard D. Knox (Glissando) and Parisian, Frederic D. Oberland of Farewell Poetry. 'The Rustle Of The Stars' is based on the pair's imagined concept that "450 km from the arctic circle, 'The Rustle Of The Stars' is a phenomenon of austere beauty, a barely audible noise that occurs when the draught from human breath causes multiple collision among the ice micro-crystals in the air." The music reflects their sentiment with a sensitive approach, using myriad… Read more
GESKIA
323 Sayonara Memories (+ Remixes)
Home Normal
2CD // £8.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: HOMEN033
**Limited edition of 500 including bonus remix CD** A regular of Japan's Flau label, Geskia! makes a neat dent in the Home Normal schedule with the Hip-Hop-inflected electronica of '323 Sayonara Memories'. At once minimal yet rich with detail, his work here is lodged somewhere between the likes of Bola, The Remote Viewer and The Boats, a filigree weave of fractured, glassy glitch melody and organic Hip Hop head nod textured with ambient pads and effected instrumentation. A remix disc features reworks by his Japanese peers and likeminded producers: Moshimoss, Lycoriscoris, Flica, … Read more
Monday, 07 May
HILDUR GUDNADOTTIR
Touch
MP3 Download // £5.99FLAC Download // £6.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: TO90D
Recorded live at the Music Research Centre at the University of York, ‘Leyfdu ljosinu’ is the latest full-length from Icelandic cellist Hildur Gudnadottir, and follows 2009’s phenomenal ‘Without Sinking’. Again we are treated to Gudnadottir’s delicate melancholia, but unlike its predecessor, ‘Leyfdu ljosinu’ is one single piece, recorded in one take with absolutely no post production to meddle with the sublime nature of the tonality itself. This gives the album a rare sense of levity and depth, and a pacing that many so-called ‘experimental’ artists attempt but few manage to tru… Read more
SOHRAB, JIM O'ROURKE, BJ NILSEN, ACHIM MOHNé, ZEROCROP, MAIA URSTAD & SARAH NICOLLS
Touch
MP3 Download // £4.99FLAC Download // £5.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: TONE42DR3
Continuing Iranian refugee Sohrab’s fight to get asylum in Germany comes this third charitable remix compilation. As with the previous two, all label proceeds will go to the legal fund to assist Sohrab in his appeal against German decision to send him back to Tehran, a worthy cause if there ever was one. And you should probably know that the music is of typically high Touch standards too – we have Jim O’Rourke, BJ Nilsen, Maia Urstad, Achim Mohne, Zerocrop and Sarah Nicolls weighing in giving their very personal tre… Read more
MATT CHRISTENSEN
Under The Spire
MP3 Download // £5.99FLAC Download // £6.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: SPIRE040
Gorgeous solo debut from Zelionople's Matt Christensen, with subtle assistance from former collaborator John Twells, aka Xela. 'A Cradle In The Bowery' is a clearly heartfelt tribute to Christensen's daughter, taking influence from indigenous Americana and the psychedelic soul of Spacemen 3 and Galaxie 500 to fashion a breathtaking and deeply evocative album. Each song is rendered with an exquisitely dreamlike quality, incubating the fragile form of Matt's melancholy vocals, six-string guitar, synths and organ with a blissful amniotic suspension. Only the coldest heart wou… Read more
Thursday, 03 May
CATHERINE CHRISTER HENNIX
Live at the Grimm Museum: Volume One
Important Records
CD // £12.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: IMPREC342
Sonic Acts' maiden release is a collaboration with Important Records presenting Catherine Christer Hennix's extraordinary live recording of 'Blues Dhikr Al-Salam', made on sunday 14th August at The Grimm Museum, Berlin. Swedish-American composer Christer Hennix is regarded among the elite of 20th and 21st century minimal composition, spending the 1960s studying the work of Iannis Xenakis and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and later becoming a noted disciple of Pandit Pran Nath and La Monte Young in the 1970s. Coincidentally, this piece was first premiered at Young'… Read more
Monday, 30 April
BERSARIN QUARTETT
Denovali Records
2LP // £25.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: DEN128LP
**Double LP in a heavyweight gatefold sleeve** One of Denovali Records' most prized artists presents the long awaited followup to Thomas Bücker's eponymous debut as Bersarin Quartett. These are quietly epic ambient compositions in the mould of Max Richter, Marsen Jules, Ulver or Stars of the lid: widescreen pieces imparting panoramic visions of majestic quality and intent. Since his 2008 debut, Berlin's Bückner enlisted two befriended guest musicians into the band in 2011 and the new experiences they've undertaken are fed into the twelve tracks on offer. Grandiose string arrangements are washed… Read more
SEAWORTHY
Preservation
MP3 Download // £6.99FLAC Download // £8.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: CIRCA112
The musical guise of one Cameron Webb, Seaworthy is his outlet for a certain type of blissful, shimmering guitar-based ambience. Imagine taking the base elements of dream pop and shoegaze and distilling them to a flavor rich syrup and you’ll have an idea of Webb has been taking his sound, and ‘Bellows & Breath’ might be his most successful deconstruction yet. The guitar is still the focus, but its sound has been stripped down to the bone, leaving only trace elements at times to hiss and thrum around trapped field recordings, melodica and broken tape machines.
Thursday, 26 April
EN
STUDENTS OF DECAY
LP // £10.99
NOW: £7.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: SOD96
Sun-dappled dream-drone miniatures of major scope from West Coast space cadets Maxwell August Croy ad James Devane. The follow-up to their 2010 debut for Root Strata (the label Croy co-runs), Already Gone finds En achieving incredible heights of emotion and psychedelic transport, most notably on the glistening, prismatic 'The Sea Saw Swell' and the title track, which has a liturgical sweep that makes us think of Fennesz as his most lyrical and expressive. It's divine stuff, no two ways about it, and highly recommended to fans of GAS, Motion Sickness Of Time Travel and Stars Of The Lid.
Eldritch, literate chamber-pop business from the UK's own Felix, new on Kranky. Originally the solo project of Lucinda Chua, Felix has become a two-piece since the release of 2009's well-received You Are The One I Pick, with Christopher Summerlin now contributing atmospheric guitar treatments to the brew. Though deeply atmospheric, this is definitely one of the more direct, reverb-light releases in the Kranky canon, with Chua's beautifully modulated vocals - not to mention her elegantly expressive piano and cello parts - coming through crystal clear in the mix. If you dig things like Peter Broderic… Read more
STEVE RODEN & MACHINEFABRIEK
EAT, SLEEP, REPEAT
CD // £9.99
HOME LISTENING / MODERN CLASSICAL / AMBIENT
Cat. Number: ESR201201
"'Lichtung' is a collaborative project centered around an audio-visual installation. Sound artists Steve Roden and Rutger Zuydervelt (a.k.a. Machinefabriek) composed the audio, while the video element was provided by the German visual artist Sabine Bürger. The installations exhibition was part of a series organized by Galerie Vayhinger revolving around the German concept of 'heimat' - the area in which someone was born or had their early formative experiences. Considering the artists' far-flung locations it was decided that the gallery's locale should provide them with a 'temporary… Read more
