Category Archives: Recommends

Bandcamp, Reblog, Recommends, Review

Review Reblog – Valentina Villarroel ~ Mares

Since first hearing “Paisajes Sonoros” near the beginning of this personal sonic journey, I’ve had a love for the quiet, understated sound of Valentina Villarroel, so was so pleased to see this new release, thanks to ACL.

postrockcafe's avatara closer listen

Valentina Villarroel is one of the most unassuming artists we’ve even encountered.  Content to let her work speak for itself, she provides only sparse descriptions. In a single sentence, she writes that Mares was recorded at “different locations around the region of Bio Bio, Chile.”  The rest is up to us.

This is her second release of the season on Sonospace, arriving on the heels of the recently reissued Pequeñas Composiciones, an experimental set comprised of field recordings, found sounds and studio manipulations.  Mares is more straightforward, a collection of crisply mastered recordings captured where land meets sea. It’s the best recording of its kind since Chris Silver T’s Salty Spots, and pairs nicely with Simon Šerc‘s Bora Scura: one set wind, the other one waves.

For those who can’t get to the beach, Mares makes an evocative sonic companion.  The nine numbered tracks rise in…

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Focus, History, Reblog, Recommends, Reviews

Reblog – The Secret Life Of The Inaudible by Annea Lockwood x Christina Kubisch

TJ Norris's avatar

Gruen_180

Recorded between 2016-17 here we find two longtime experimental composers at work, and both women have pioneered new sonics at every turn over five decades. Released via the Soundscape Series (Gruenrekorder; 2xCD) New Zealander Annea Lockwood and German Christina Kubisch deliver The Secret Life Of The Inaudible. The record consists of four tracks, two from each artist, separated on the two included disks. Starting off with Wild Energy (with Bob Bielecki) Lockwood darkens the room with a earthly rumbling, maybe she’s a storm-chaser? The atmosphere is cavernous with sudden broad bass. As she conducts this muffled noise symphony tiny starry electronic blips emerge and disappear quickly. At 70-something she is still sculpting soundscapes with intuition and a greater understanding of minimalism. As the storm moves out a tiny watery ‘thwack’ grows into what sounds like distortions derived by nature. A rustling whistle plays audibly on the…

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Focus, Introducing, Listening to..., Reblog, Recommends, Review, Reviews, Web Focus

Focus – A Closer Listen – The women of pan y rosa discos

 

This warms my heart. –
” The percentage of women on the pan y rosa discos label is equal to the percentage of women in the world. This makes the label a true find: their dedication is impeccable, their selection superb. Stay tuned as the next release is never far away.”

 

postrockcafe's avatara closer listen

Many labels make an effort to raise the profile of female electronic musicians, but pan y rosa discos goes all out.  Of their fifteen releases so far this year, eight are by women.  Their music demonstrates an incredible variety of styles and is drawn from a wide variety of countries.  Incredibly, all of the downloads are free!  Our respect for label head Keith Helt continues unabated as quality music comes our way multiple times each month.

When listening to the first few seconds of attractive synthesis by Latvia’s Līga Smirnova, one thinks, “oh, it’s just another club-based synth track.”  But listen just a little longer, and all preconceptions will be destroyed.  The five-part piece eradicates all traces of club culture on its way to becoming a thick, drone-based suite.  Part two alone begins like a cyclone and ends like a forest fire.  By the fourth segment, the cycle has…

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Bandcamp, Focus, History, Introducing, Listening to..., Recommends

Listening to –

 

“Lena Platonos is a Greek musician, pianist and music composer. She was one of the pioneers in the Greek electronic music scene of the 1980s, and she remains active today. Lena was born on the island of Crete and grew up in Athens. She began learning how to play the piano at the age of two and became a professional pianist before turning eighteen. Soon afterwards, she received a scholarship to study in Vienna and Berlin, where she was exposed to jazz, rock, and Middle Eastern music. She returned to Greece in the late 70’s and began working with the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation. She released three collaborative albums between 1981 and 1983, but it was her “triptych” of solo albums, Sun Masks (1984), Gallop (1985), and Lepidoptera (1986) that would lead many to call her the “Greek Laurie Anderson” or “mother of Greek electronica”.

https://www.facebook.com/LenaPlatonos/

#IWD, Bandcamp, Focus, International Women's Day, INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY, Introducing, Recommends, Soundcloud

hashtag International Women’s Day pt2

To try to get as many artists some visibility I have been posting compilations. Again, this is not an exhaustive list and are just suggestions of starting points . I may add to it in future.

In no real order or preference and yes, some are diverse….

 

Latin American sound explorations.

 

Experimental noise, noisecore, speedcore, harsh noise, noise wall, power electronics Vancouver

 

A monstrous compilation but only a fraction of french contemporary sound creativity.

 

Inspired by the new scene of independent female artists and electronic music producers from South America.

 

An experimental music compilation featuring ten female composers from far east Asia (Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, China).

 

This multi-genre compilation was inspired by Ionesco’s play ‘Rhinoceros’ with various artists voicing their protest via sound.

 

Experimental, ambient, electroacoustic, industrial, noise, ritual.

 

 

Bandcamp, Focus, Interviews, Reading, Recommends

If you like reading…..

In the words of Liquid Architechture “…Take some time to read this insanely productive and purposeful conversation between musician, activist, writer…”

“inter/multi-disciplinary art practice. She dwells in multiple fields, as DJ (DJ General Feelings), writer/ researcher (currently a PhD candidate at Monash University), installation artist, a mother, a co-conspirator in interrogations of whiteness and patriarchal dominance.”

Beatriz Ferreyra: Making Music with all the Sounds in the World

Words: Geeta Dayal

Image: Adriano Ferreira Borges

 

An illustration of a modular synth

Modular Synthesizer Videos Are the YouTube Rabbit Hole You Won’t Want to Leave

by Philip Sherburne
Contributing Editor / Pitchfork

Here’s an example by Anne Annie

 

 

 

Bandcamp, Introducing, Listening to..., Recommends

Listening to….

 

I have a huge admiration and love of Game Music and this encompasses all the great things about the genre. Good Game Music should be that which you can listen to without a controller…….

I came across this release via the Bandcamp interview with Lene Raine. You can find out more here –

High Scores, Celeste

Bandcamp, Introducing, Listening to..., Reblog, Recommends

Reblog – ICEBERG THE DRIFT on Sublunar Society

There are an awful lot of modular synthesizers and also releases out there at the moment, but Ch. Webster always manages explore subjects that I wish to find out more about and creates something sonically interesting with the technology….

 

 

You can find ICEBERG THE DRIFT here on Sublunar Society

Bandcamp, Listening to..., Recommends

Listening to…….

 

 

https://www.serein.co.uk/

Articles, Focus, Reblog, Recommends, Spotlight

Reblog – The Top Ten Sounding Out! Posts of 2017!

I don’t like lists but this is an exception – thoughtful and wide ranging .

j.l. stoever's avatarSounding Out!

For your January reading pleasure, here are the Top Ten Posts of 2017 (according to views as of 12/28/17). Visit this brilliance today–and often!–and know more fire is coming in 2018!

***

10). Unlearning Black Sound in Black Artistry: Examining the Quiet in Solange’s A Seat At the Table

Kimberly Williams

On May 18th, 2017, Solange Knowles took viewers on an expedition as she glided, danced and “agonized” in a “joyful praise break” on the floor of New York City’s Guggenheim museum. Drawing from the museum’s narrative of introspection and multi-sensory connection, Solange’s performance of “An Ode To. . .” prompted viewers to relearn and reorient the melodies of A Seat at the Table (2016). Solange’s performance in this setting hearkened listeners to new concepts and emotions in the record they didn’t catch before as they consumed it. This begs the question– what other sonic elements have we neglected to identify in A Seat…

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