Many voices tonight, at least for the first more than half of the show… with experimental treatments of all sorts.
LISTEN AGAIN because how else are you going to keep up? The stream on demand is from FBi, the podcast here.
Machinefabriek – II (with Chantal Acda) [Western Vinyl/Machinefabriek Bandcamp]
Machinefabriek – III (with Peter Broderick) [Western Vinyl/Machinefabriek Bandcamp]
Here’s an unusual, and wildly successful, new work from Dutch sound artist and frequent UFog feature artist Machinefabriek. Released on none other than Western Vinyl, it’s called With Voices, and that is indeed what it is – Zuydervelt asked 8 people to contribute vocal takes, some spoken, some sung, and reconstructed them into tracks in his own special way. Works not heard tonight include an excellent piece with Richard Youngs (heard last week on the show) and a beautiful 11-minute closer with Marissa Nadler. As with Nadler, Chantal Acda‘s voice ventures into melodic sections at times, while elsewhere it’s chopped up and rearranged; similarly with frequent Machinefabriek collaborator Peter Broderick, whose spoken and sung vocals casually inhabit Zuydervelt’s processing as if this was just normal life.
Building Instrument – Ta Regnet [Hubro]
Building Instrument – Sangen Min [Hubro]
This Norwegian trio is now on to their third album of unpigeonholeable songs – somewhere between jazz, world, postrock and experimental. With Mari Kvien Brunvoll on vocals (as well as zither and electronics) there are some pretty catchy songs. You don’t have to understand Norwegian to enjoy them.
Jarboe – Feast [Translation Loss Records]
Jarboe – Karuna [Translation Loss Records]
For many years one half of voice of the minimalist, gothic majesty of Swans, Jarboe has continued with a densely busy career collaborating with artists both prominent (in the metal scene, such as Neurosis and JK Broadrick) and obscure… But as The Cut of the Warrior proves, she needs no backup to create epic, evocative – and just slightly terrifing – sounds. There are some lovely remixes at the end of this release, but her four tracks, with keyboards, percussion and vocals, are where it’s at.
Stephanie Pan – Ron Adams [ARTEk Sounds]
Stephanie Pan – Bitter Dust [ARTEk Sounds]
Netherlands-based artist Stephanie Pan, on her new album Have Robot Dog, Will Travel, ranges from Meredith Monk-style extended vocal techniques to songs which somehow combine baroque composition, torch songs and glitchy beat-making. Very impressive stuff.
Alina Kalancea – Poisonous Girl [Störung/Bandcamp]
Italian sound-artist Alina Kalancea‘s debut album could easily initially be mistaken for a spoken word release – but as you proceed you’ll hear long instrumental pieces of throbbing, dark electronics, and beautiful song. This track features field recordings by Alex Gámez, and gorgeous cello work from Julia Kent.
Julia Kent – Sheared [Leaf]
Julia Kent – Conditional Futures [Leaf]
US cellist Julia Kent has been popping up all over the place lately. Since her last (fantastic) solo album in 2015, she’s collaborated with ambient/sound artists Jeremy Young & Shinya Sugimoto, experimental/ambient artist Jean DL, and recently with Sydney’s own pianist Sophie Hutchings. So it’s been 4 years since a solo album from Kent, and it was worth the wait – from rhythmic tracks even featuring subtle beats, to echoey ambient (with murmuring cello).
Pierre-Yves Martel – Diminutio [Tour de Bras Records/Pierre-Yves Martel Bandcamp]
Here’s some extremely minimalist, affecting viola da gamba work from Canadian artist Pierre-Yves Martel. He’s appearing at The Now Now Festival this coming week at 107 Redfern, which promises to be as challenging and life-changing as ever. Check the link for the full program.
Jónó Mí Ló – Guap Bae [unreleased?]
Also appearing at The Now Now is US experimental electronic artist Jonathan Lockhart, who goes by Jónó Mí Ló, and who has a kind of lo-fi approach to vaporwave rave nostalgia.
Ynaktera & Kenta Kamiyama – Notte [Notturno]
Rome-based experimental artist Ynaktera here collaborates, live and in-studio, with Japanese ambient artist Kenta Kamiyama, to build something which is not your usual type of piano+electronics post-classical ambient. Sure there’s delicate, pensive piano and electronic textures, but there are also pulsating bass timbres and glitchy beat-like structures. It’s a nocturne, but not a lullaby! The whole album is a worth a listen, and the physical copies are something special too.
Christoph de Babalon – Raw Mind [Alter]
Christoph de Babalon – Harakiri [Alter]
Not only is it awesome that Christoph de Babalon is still making music in 2019 – and at least some of it is still his brand of jungle/drum’n’bass-meets-dark ambient – but it’s also rather awesome to find this album released on Luke Younger‘s Alter label, known for noise, abstract electronics, postpunk and sometimes techno. De Babalon’s Bandcamp has in recent years featured three albums of The Haunting Past of Christoph de Babalon, collecting released and unreleased gems from the ’90s, so there’s a lot to explore even if you know his classic Digital Hardcore Recordings album If You’re Into It, I’m Out Of It.
Nature Rage & Dialup BBS – Nxt Lvl [Ohm Resistance]
Having spent a year putting out a subscription series of vinyl and digital releases, Ohm Resistance have capped it off with a compilation called Perihelion 2061, featuring mostly fairly new artists doing breakcore, drum’n’bass and industrial techno. It’s hard-hitting and pretty fun – this track peppers its intense jungle with just a hint of dubstep bass at times.
Listen again — ~191MB
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