Review: Few artists have had such a global impact on electronic music than Thomas Bangalter, the legendary DJ, producer and songwriter who is best known as one-half of the former dance titans Daft Punk. He has many more skills up his sleeve though as he has proven since leading the duo. One is writing soundtracks such as this one, Chiroptera, for Acte 2: Retour a la Caverne, which was a JR creation with choreography from Damien Jalet. It was performed in Paris in front of the Opera de Paris (Opera Garnier) on November 12th, 2023 and involved more than 150 dancers. You can now relive it musically with this limited 12".
Review: September 23rd is the first release in William Basinski's new Arcadia Archive series. Recorded in September 1982 in his first loft in the DUMBO neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, September 23rd is a recently unearthed early entry in what has become a hugely inspirational and influential catalogue. Built from a piano piece that Basinski composed in high school in the mid-1970s, September 23rd quickly evolved into a vastly different work, upon its revisitation. Using the John Giorno and William Burroughs cut-up technique, Basinski fabricated an elaborate Frippertronics and feedback loop tape delay system, resulting in the quiet but dramatic set of sounds and resounds you hear here.
Review: California's James Bernard is a much-loved regular on this label as well as being a veteran of the wider ambient scene who has been hard at it for more than three decades. His latest outing on Past Inside The Present with Anthene (aka Brad Deschamps of Toronto) is Soft Octaves, an album that finds them crafting a series of sounds using electric six-string bass. It has a huge range from the deepest depths to the wispiest of highs and each of the tracks here was recorded in one single take. The results are spellbinding indeed and the range of the bass's sonic ability is astonishing as it sounds at times like a cello, at others woodwind and is always intriguing.
Review: After five years apart, Italian composer Eraldo Bernochi and Japanese violinist, electronica producer and current Tangerine Dream member Hoshiko Yamana return with a sequel to their much-loved 2020 album Mujo. Described by the pair's label, Denovali, as "a deeply cinematic experience", Sabi cannily combines the slow-burn, trance-inducing synthesizer sequences of Tangerine Dream, the intergalactic electronic expressiveness of ambient techno, the thematic movements of modern classical, Yamana's emotive violin motifs and the spaced-out ambient iciness often associated with Geir Jensson's Biosphere project. It's a genuinely brilliant album all told, with the pair smartly sashaying between hazy melancholia, string-laden creepiness and picturesque aural colour.
Review: Bersarin Quartett is the work of Thomas Bucker, who since 2012 has released his flagship ambient project via Denovali. The Munster-based artist employs a grandiose orchestral lilt to the compositions on Systeme, threading considered sound design touches in amongst the sweep and swell of strings that rise from his imaginary quartet of players. It's neo-classical with a plaintive, soundtrack-ready quality, but as ever Bucker weaves tension, dissonance and texture in amongst the foreground melodic content to make for a richly compelling listen.
Review: Fresh from curating a fine compilation marking 25 years of his admirable DiN label, Ian Boddy unleashes the latest in a long-line of collaborative works. He's previously released joint studio works alongside Chris Carter, Erik Wollo and Mark Shreeve, amongst others and here is in cahoots with Parallel Worlds member (and DiN semi-regular) Dave Bessell. In true ambient fashion, Polarity boasts a two-part, near 52-minute title track: an evocative, creepy and slowly shifting fusion of modular electronic bleeps, vintage analogue synthesiser melodies, immersive chords and - for shortish blasts amongst the aural weightlessness - bubbling beats. To round off the album, the pair drifts further into deep space ambient mode via the Pete Namlook-esque 'Confluence'.
Review: Berlin-based composer Andrea Burelli's new album Sonic Mystics for Poems (of Life and Death of a Phoenix) is an autobiographical work that draws on the vulnerability of the human existence. It takes the form of 15 pieces written for polyphonic voices, strings, and synthesizers and arrives on super limited, hand-numbered 180 g vinyl. The pieces are all intricately constructed with rich harmonic structures taking inspiration from experimental electronica, classical from both the West and the Middle East, plus folk from across all of Europe. It's a beautiful, confessional and thought-provoking work that makes a devastating impact despite its delicate artistry.
Review: On his return to China in 2019 after a period away, Brock van Wey noticed a "strange, sound emitting item" on the table. It was a handmade 'steel tongue drum', a unique percussion instrument associated with spirituality and meditation in Asian culture. A few days later, van Wey recorded an extended jam of himself playing it, and later overdubbed electronic sounds, melodies, chords and textures. The result is The Depth of Rain, the long-serving ambient and drone artist's second Bvdub album of 2024. Where some of van Wey's ambient sets can tend towards the intense and claustrophobic, The Depth of Rain is a genuinely melodious, evocative and spring-like affair that ebbs and flows wonderfully throughout, providing entertainment and sonic bliss in equal measure.
Review: Meg Mulhearn and Belly Full of Stars come together for this split release on which the former takes care of the first four tunes and the latter the other five. For her part, Mulhearn harnesses the power of fire and ice, sunshine and torrential rain in tracks that are occasionally gentle and sometimes harsh. The textures are fuzzy and grainy but synths and strings bring light and hope. Kim Rueger's Belly Full of Stars alias finds her going deep into subterranean worlds of cavernous sound detailed with the finest of wispy melodies on' Ebon Flow' while 'Perihelia' has a more organic and summery feel desire being so pressurised and tense. These are enchanting sounds for sure.
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