Review: Carrying the torch for bittersweet post-punk introspection like few others of her generation, Carla dal Forno has always captivated through the strength of her songwriting. That she also successfully channels the sound of the DIY 1980s is a bonus. On her third album, dal Forno has settled in rural Australia and the album reflects a drastic shift in her circumstances since being in the cut and thrust of Berlin and London. There's space for more open, light-touch songs to match the brooding, low-register tracks she made her name on. But in essence, dal Forno remains true to her muse, meaning returning fans will be more than satisfied with the latest step on for one of the finest singer-songwriters in contemporary post-punk.
Review: Take it from us - you want to get to know Denovali Germany on an intimate level. The label has been putting out tearjerking contemporary classical and far-reaching electronic compositions since 2005, lays claim to its own festival of forward thinking music and generally doesn't put a foot wrong. Home to the likes of Electro Guzzi and Les Fragments De La Nuit, it's an imprint and then some, to put it mildly.
Dalhous' The Composite Moods Collection is another one for the ages - the kind of album that you're bound to come back to for years because each play through seems to reveal new layers and elements that may not have presented themselves immediately. While for the most part this is all ambient, there are elements here that take us into much more muscular and ferocious ends, from 'Everything Is Bleeding' to the cinematic tension of 'Open As A Glade Unfolding'.
Review: With an artist name like Dali Muru & The Polyphonic Swarm, and an EP title of Murmer of The Bath Spirits, the fact at least part of this record features a narrative about spiritual awakenings in bath houses, set to an eerie, atmospheric ambient soundscape, will surprise very few people. A 15-minute trip into the ether, noises and tones are as wet as they are warm, and the experience like heading out to uncover a faery land mystery.
Things get a little less specific on the appropriately christened 'Track 2', which moves us on from the dreamy quiet into a place that's more forceful, purposeful, harsh, perhaps even darker. Hypnotic loops set above staccato beats, grabbing hi hats and other elements as the track grows in ear worm qualities with each second.
Review: The long-gestating follow up to 1992's initial instalment, Black Aria II would finally arrive in 2006 after years of discussion from Misfits/Samhain horror-punk visionary Glenn Danzig, and further his exploration into the cavernous realms of modern classical dark ambience. Conceptually based around Lillith, the first wife of Adam, the material here is far more minimalist and starker than its gothic predecessor, while utilising a more varied array of instruments on top of the pre-established organ and strings, with more Eastern sonic influences to conjure a mercurial vision independent of the preceding volume. Complete with eerie chimes, chants and esoteric lamentations, the project marks one of Danzig's most intriguing works when compared to, say, his Elvis covers compilations, and offers a transportive, biblical, haunting narrative delivered almost exclusively via instrumental atmospherics and insidious gloom.
Review: With 'Long Gradus', Sarah Davachi seizes the opportunity to take one idea and explore it from as many angles as possible. The celebrated composer and ambient artist is consistently investigating musical possibilities from a learned, authoritative perspective and so this latest project finds her expanding on an initial invitation to the Composer's Kitchen residency in the Netherlands. Fundamentally scored for a string quartet, Davachi's intention with the stirring, sustained tension of 'Long Gradus' was that it could be performed on a number of different instruments, and this expansive four-CD edition on her Late Music label presents the piece performed on woodwinds, brass and organ and choir and electronics alongside the fundamental string version.
Review: Sarah Davachi's latest record, The Head As Form'd In The Crier's Choir, is a septet of compositions, written between 2022 and 2024, that form a conceptual suite and album-length observation of the mental dances that we construct to understand acts of passage. Transient in both name and sound, this stunning, droning set of compositions will work as timely quellers for those currently in a migratory state of mind, literally and/or figuratively. Often basking in the impure associations evoked by pure harmony and tonality, all the pieces are slow-moving, suggesting a lowered existential frame rate. Drawing inspiration from the classical myth of Orpheus and Eurydice - in which Orpheus ventures into Hades while living, dodging the usual psychopompic rites applied to those who have actually died, in a wager with the gods to resurrect Eurydice, his love - Davachi's record is a worthy intertext, bringing stygian drones of egress - woodwinds and electronic stretchings most notably - to the theme.
Review: To mark the one-year anniversary of Reveries, Sonic Cathedral drops a new two-tracker that brings a Detroit reimagining to 'Vale' and 'Cadere'. Produced by John Hanson, aka Saltbreaker, the project features live improvisations by saxophonists Yali Rivlin and Thalamus Morris and cellist Jordan Hamilton. Each of them did their thing in a single take with Hanson composing around their performances, and the result is a graceful blend of serene melancholy and rhythmic sophistication. Oodles of warmth and organic textured is added to the originals and these interpretations act as a fine tribute to Detroit's enduring uniqueness.
Review: World class dronesmiths Zach Frizzell, Marc Ertel and Damien Duque unleash their first joint effort in several years, delving deeper into the patented 'dronegaze' formula characterising their first outing 'Liberamente'. Landing somewhere in a soothingly liminal zone between the lighter and more introspective tone floats of La Monte Young and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's roomy feedback washes, the trio extract a vast array of sweet, soporific and unconventional timbres from instruments both acoustic and electrified to meditative effect. A perfect soundtrack to studious introspection and languid bliss-outs alike.
Review: Belgian jazz singer Melanie Di Biasio first came to light around 2007 on Igloo, but she's since fostered a steady relationship with indie giants [PIAS] which has resulted in two subsequent albums, No Deal and Lilies. After a six-year gap, she returns with a new set which finds her edging into intriguing new territory. Il Viaggio is framed as 'a quest for musical, physical, and spiritual renewal, born from an emotional memory awakened'. Make of that what you will, but the music contained within finds her voice framed by a broad spectrum of sonics as she leads us through two distinct halves across two discs - Lay Your Ear To The Rail and The Chaos Azure.
Review: Although he initially broke through decades ago as a talented keyboardist- a role he still performs alongside his work as a solo producer - Mark de Clive-Lowe has always been much more than a prodigious musician-for-hire. That was particularly evident on 2021's Hotel San Claudio album, a musical meeting of minds with Shigeto and Melanie Charles. It shines through loud and clear on Past Present (Tone Poems Through Time)', an inspired collection of 'tone poems' - musical pieces that draw direct inspiration from the landscape - created using an electric piano, an enormous list of mostly vintage synthesisers, and field recordings captured on a trip to his father's native Japan. Sitting somewhere between ambient jazz, the epic synth-scapes of Tangerine Dream and the most vivid movie soundtracks, Past Present is emotive, immersive and effortlessly evocative.
Review: This is the latest album from Berlin-based French producer Cosmo Vitelli and California-based Dutch experimental electronic musician Truus de Groot, who is well known for her work with Plus Instruments. Following their successful collaboration on Vitelli's 2022 album Medhead which featured de Groot's lyrics and vocals on several tracks, the two artists decided to join forces once more and the result is a blend of Vitelli's production skills and de Groot's distinctive voice and lyrical style. It is another fresh, experimental approach to modern electronic music.
Review: Described as an ecstatic ritual singer, pianist, and ambient composer, Maroulita de Kol demonstrates the rapturous breadth of her vision with Anasana, her latest LP on Phantom Limb. Channelling her Greek heritage into a fusion of Hellenic folk-musical traditions and cinematic electronic/ambient composition, this is an arresting catharsis in just five tracks, boasting classical piano mastery and huge attention to textural detail.
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