Juno Recommends Leftfield November 2020

Review: So, how long have you been waiting for this one to drop? The answer really depends on two things - whether you've just been waiting for new long form material from the UK IDM legends Autechre, or whether you've been waiting for Autechre to put a proper album together that stays true to the principles and format of a 'proper album', as this does.

Either way let's just say Sign has been some time in the making, and it's definitely a case of payoff for patience. For the most part it's the waves of space age melody that really stand out, tracks like 'Esc Desc' seem to fill the room with bands of sci-fi harmony. Of course there's plenty of glitch and bleep here, too - the stepping 'Au14' is a case in point - alongside rumbling, bass-heavy business like 'Si100', where playful drips of percussion create a juxtaposition of innocence and menace.

Review: Past Inside The Present are on a mission to make you slow down and enjoy the now more than we do in modern life. They do so with this latest 12", which features four accompaniment programs "designed to give the stasis user a pleasurable experience in extended hypersleep." This is hi fidelity listening music that is as cathartic and escapist as it comes. Each track is like tuning into and endless continuum of sound that ebbs and flows infinitely. Celestial and delicate, if you can't relax in the company of these then you got real problems.

Review: So, how long have you been waiting for this one to drop? The answer really depends on two things - whether you've just been waiting for new long form material from the UK IDM legends Autechre, or whether you've been waiting for Autechre to put a proper album together that stays true to the principles and format of a 'proper album', as this does.

Either way let's just say Sign has been some time in the making, and it's definitely a case of payoff for patience. For the most part it's the waves of space age melody that really stand out, tracks like 'Esc Desc' seem to fill the room with bands of sci-fi harmony. Of course there's plenty of glitch and bleep here, too - the stepping 'Au14' is a case in point - alongside rumbling, bass-heavy business like 'Si100', where playful drips of percussion create a juxtaposition of innocence and menace.

Review: A collaborative project involving Marc Ertel, zake and Damien Duke, Dawn Chorus & The Infallible Sea's music certainly matches the intriguing name the team decided to come up with. Tunes are deep, immersive and easily capable of conjuring some pretty wild dreams of fantastical places and mythical things.

Sheets of shimmering synths seem to glint like the sun is hitting them as they weave through tracks like 'Dormi Bene, Spirito', 'Silenzio Potente' and 'Caduta Del Cielo'. 'Lontana' drowns us in submerged note refrains, ebbing and flowing like the tides, a hidden symphony that washes over and through the listener. It's meditative stuff but nothing here lacks direction - you just need to pay close attention to hear the movement in the arrangements, making for a different kind of aural journey, the destination what you make of it.

Review: Up until his death in 2003, Hiroshi Yoshimura spent decades offering up immaculate albums that blurred the boundaries between ambient, new age and minimalism. For those not versed in the Japanese ambient pioneer's vast catalogue, 1986's "Green" - which is here reissued by Light In The Attic - remains one of his most impressive works. Created using a minimal number of instruments (mostly synthesizers and electric pianos), the set is as quietly jazzy as it is relaxing. Highlights include the meditative, Terry Riley influenced bliss of "Feel", the pulsing organ stabs and blissful electronics of "Sheep", the garden-ready musical hug that is "Green" and the swelling opener "Creek".

Review: Meitei is a Japanese artist who started out as a freelance composer and made all sorts fo weird and wonderful sounds across the whole musical spectrum. After eight years he stared working on his own music and now we get to hear the results. Kwaidan is a style of Japanese ghost stories and this album aims to translate that mood into music. It does so perfectly well, and hugely evocatively, with skills compositions and unsettling darkness sitting next to lush ambiance that keeps you enchanted throughout. Check out the awesome artwork, too, which is perfectly spooky as we head into witching season.

Review: Past Inside the Present is pleased to present an extraordinary compilation titled, 'Geneva', showcasing the works of some of the most prolific and prominent ambient artists of our time. Intentionally chosen for their positive impact in the genre and influential previous works; nine artists exhibit their masterfully crafted sounds based off a simple loop that was provided to them. Each artist on 'Geneva' used a loop created by zake and then in turn reworked, manipulated and expanded upon the source material resulting in their own unique creation.

Review: London record store Low Company may have closed its doors, but the affiliated label still remains in operation. Their latest release follows up a series of archival releases by the enigmatic Civilistjavel!. Generalstrejk represents the first contemporary offering from the Swedish producer to appear on vinyl. The 20-minute-long title track is a glacial and cavernous expression in ambient techno, derived from live performances given in London and Stockholm in 2019. On the flip, the textural dub aesthetics continue on the Basic Channel influenced 'Bransle For Elden' in between two haunting and introspective soundscapes. Edition of 250 copies, no re-press.

Review: The seventh album from South London-based producer and experimental maverick Darren Cunningham and it's a beauty. The last time we heard from him, in 2018, he was collaborating with the London Contemporary Orchestra and improvising a score for a Stockhausen opera and he's taken an element of that work with him and married it to disorientating, otherworldly electronics. 'Karma & Desire' has a real feel of escapism, almost to the extent of feeling like an out of body experience, as dislocated and disembodied melodies float around in the ether. There are the first proper vocal collaborations he's undertaken here, but the two tracks are no pop bangers, songstress Zsela's efforts sounding more like some beguiling abstract poetry. Travelling further and further, creatively, from the normal environs of dancefloor culture, he's not lost any of his spellbinding musicality or sonic storytelling skills.

Review: A career retrospective release featuring music over the last 50 years by American born musician Beverly-Glenn Copeland. He started his career as a folk singer, incorporating jazz, classical and blues elements, and performed on albums by Ken Friesen, Bruce Cockburn, Gene Murtynec, Bob Disalle and Kathryn Moses. Features 'In The Image' first released in 2004 under the moniker Phynix , 'Sunset Village' first released on the Keyboard Fantasies album in 1986, 'Colour Of Anyhow' (CBC q live version) recorded by the Canadian Broadcasting Commission 2011, 'Deep River' recorded live at Le Guess Who? in Utrecht 2018, 'The Netherlands and Montreal Main' (The Buddha In The Palm) first released on At Last! EP in 1983. All tracks remastered by Guy Davie at Electric Mastering.

Review: The seventh album from South London-based producer and experimental maverick Darren Cunningham and it's a beauty. The last time we heard from him, in 2018, he was collaborating with the London Contemporary Orchestra and improvising a score for a Stockhausen opera and he's taken an element of that work with him and married it to disorientating, otherworldly electronics. 'Karma & Desire' has a real feel of escapism, almost to the extent of feeling like an out of body experience, as dislocated and disembodied melodies float around in the ether. There are the first proper vocal collaborations he's undertaken here, but the two tracks are no pop bangers, songstress Zsela's efforts sounding more like some beguiling abstract poetry. Travelling further and further, creatively, from the normal environs of dancefloor culture, he's not lost any of his spellbinding musicality or sonic storytelling skills.

Review: Kaoru Inoue's Chari Chari project returns with a new age-tinted album that fuses a multi-instrumental palette with delicate ambient electronics for a truly immersive sonic experience. 'Of Mystic Dreams' plots a course through dreamy distant lands with a steady rhythmic undercurrent, while 'Esfera De Agua' lingers in a playful and inquisitive hinterland of organic percussion and expressive synth voices. 'In Exotic Haze' nods to African high life in its sprightly guitar lines, and 'Suburban Archaeology' eschews beats altogether in favour of lingering chimes and trickling water FX. Throughout the album, a global outlook informs the sonic character of the record, while a meditative mood pulls together Inoue's diverse influences with arftul poise.

Review: New York art-house outfit Gray might not be the most famous to come from America's biggest, loudest and proudest city, but their oeuvre is definitely worth taking the time to discover. Fronted by the more recognisable name of Jean-Michel Basquait, as this two-tracker goes to show the outfit can teach us all a thing or two about how to encapsulate the life that exists on your doorstep.

Comprising previously unreleased and very rare work, the centre point is 'Never Gonna Leave New York City', which could almost be seen as a counterargument to LCD Soundsystem's 'New York, I Love You'. There we had James Murphy lamenting the loss of the old dirty side of the Big Apple, but here Basquait is celebrating that chaos and intensity as it still existed back in the 1980s. A vivid spoken word homage to scenes we all know from movies, if not reality.

Review: 'Orchestral Studies Collectanea' consists of seven previously unreleased orchestral movements (Tracks 1-7) in addition to remastered variations of arrangements that originally appeared on, 'Orchestral Tape Studies' and 'Orchestral Tape Studies [Tyresta Reworks]'. Orchestral Studies Collectanea is a compilation arranged and produced by zake with additional production by close friend Tyresta. OSC is a group of richly layered movements of fragmented orchestral loops, paying homage to minimalist symphonic composers and orchestras. zake and Tyresta incorporate field recordings and faint drone billows to accompany these selected samples of orchestral loops. With an emphasis on tone and recurrent murmurs, these arrangements offer approximately 48 minutes of delicate repetition, reticent sound treatments, and subtle manipulations. OSC is intended for low-volume listening.

Review: Oliver Coates is a London-based cellist, composer and producer. He has contributed to the recordings of Radiohead, collaborated on composition with Laurie Spiegel and John Luther Adams, and performed as an improviser with Dean Blunt and Micachu. His in-depth understanding of the relationship with classical cello is met with his exploration and pleasure in electronic audio and synthesis. Two years after the previous full-length Shelley's on Zenn, he returns to RVNG Intl for his third release entitled Skins N Slime. The 11 compositions pursue an experimental direction influenced by the architecture of Gordon Matta-Clark, the musical numerology of Hanne Darboven and the electronics of Enno Velthuys, as well as the experience gained during the numerous live shows in support of Thom Yorke.