Category Archives: Review

Reblog – Kate NV ~ WOW — a closer listen

Thanks to A Closer Listen for todays escape from a drab Tuesday : )

pop, electronica, synthpop

Ridiculously happy, relentlessly upbeat, WOW is a sonic sugar rush, a candy-coated confection topped with syrup and sprinkles.  Kate NV‘s energy never seems to flag, nor does her creativity ease.  Breaking with previous recordings, her voice is diced, chopped and splattered; her prior guise as singer-songwriter is almost completely obliterated.  Whenever her words are discernible, they […]

Kate NV ~ WOW — a closer listen

Reblog- Deborah Fialkiewicz – Daughters Of The Industrialists — Aural Aggravation

Thanks to Aural Aggravation for tonight’s reading and listening.

14th February 2023 Christopher Nosnibor Having first encountered Deborah performing as one half of dark ambient noise duo Spore, I’ve discovered she’s nothing if not prolific, and having hit the classical charts with one recent album and released not one, but two new albums in the last few weeks, it’s hard to keep up, not […]

Deborah Fialkiewicz – Daughters Of The Industrialists — Aural Aggravation

Reblog – Nyokabi Kariũki ~ peace places: kenyan memories — a closer listen

The first major release from Kenyan sound artist Nyokabi Kariũki follows a beguilng pair of videos and a number of works for everything from choir to marimba trio.  peace places: kenyan memories is not only a reflection on her home, but on all homes, echoing the writings of Pico Iyer.  Travel restrictions locked her in Maryland, unable […]

Nyokabi Kariũki ~ peace places: kenyan memories — a closer listen

Reblog – ACL 2021 ~ The Top 20 Albums of the Year — a closer listen

And if you can’t find anything on the I Don’t Do Lists , try this collection from A Closer Listen-

If 2020 was the most surreal year in recent memory, 2021 was the runner-up.  A rollercoaster of emotion was supplanted by a mountain of malaise.  And yet, many artists broke through with the finest albums of their careers.  Some of these were direct responses to the world as it was, while others were simply written […]

ACL 2021 ~ The Top 20 Albums of the Year — a closer listen

REBLOG – Cheryl E. Leonard ~ Schism — a closer listen

Thanks again to A Closer Listen for pointing me towards this weeks longlisten and as always a very eloquent review for a very immersive listen.

“If your home were on fire, what item would you rescue first?”  In 2019, the top answer was the laptop. During the pandemic, we became even more attached to our electronic devices.  It’s hard to imagine getting through our lockdowns without them.  Like many of us, Cheryl E. Leonard spent a lot of time online over the past […]

Cheryl E. Leonard ~ Schism — a closer listen

Reblog – Xyla ~ Ways — a closer listen

Can’t better the review….Thanks ACL for pointing me in the right direction again : )

Electronic music is cold and soulless. You’ve heard this truism from an acquaintance. They are wearing a Pink Floyd shirt. They refuse to believe that knobs and buttons have the same emotional capacities as strummed guitars. Point them to this debut album from San Francisco’s Xyla. This gorgeous record serves a kind of sonic affogato. […]

Xyla ~ Ways — a closer listen

Reblog – Amy Cutler ~ Örö Tape: Fieldtrips of the Damned / Marina Rosenfeld & Ben Vida ~ Vertice — a closer listen

Reblog – Amy Cutler ~ Örö Tape: Fieldtrips of the Damned / Marina Rosenfeld & Ben Vida ~ Vertice — a closer listen

What is the purpose of recorded sound? As music lovers, we live and breathe it. But what is its raison d’être? Recordings transport us into distant places or timeframes. They prompt emotional and intellectual responses. The aural can complement visual and spatial arts. It can be raw material for further sonic explorations. Perhaps multi-disciplinary artists […]

via Amy Cutler ~ Örö Tape: Fieldtrips of the Damned / Marina Rosenfeld & Ben Vida ~ Vertice — a closer listen

Listening to…

Chimères (pour ondes Martenot)
by Christine Ott

Alternative, cinematic, electronic, experimental, ambient, avant-garde, contemporary, electronica, ambient minimalism, modern classical, neo-classical, noise, ondes martenot, soundtrack

Lovely review here at A Closer Listen

My short review –  How fresh and new sounding is the wonder that is the  ondes martenot on this beautiful release : )

 

Listening to…

Lament by Patricia Wolf

Experimental, dark ambient, drone, field recordings, noise, sound art

I came across this beautiful ethereal release via this review in A Closer Listen 

Beatriz Ferreyra ~ Echos +

At the moment, like many, I find myself taking a step back and reflecting on how to move forward but not sure how my little journey in sound will progress.
In the meantime I am using my time to catch up and revisit sites and reviews I have missed, this being a case from A Closer Listen.
Actually, I spent this afternoon listening in full to Echos+ and it seems sonically to reflect the mood.

a closer listen

There’s a memorial aspect to acousmatic sounds that can lead towards a conceptual end-point usually avoided by Schaefferian humanism: the severing of the sound from its source is a kind of death. Echos + is an in-depth exploration of their afterlife, the composer turned into a caretaker (without the apocalyptic overtones of the famous project of the same name) dedicated to the consideration of sounds’ new state. Like a written document, the recording marks an aural element’s transition from life into its other, a technological aid that turns preservation into an art of re-signification. To care for these sounds in death is not to simply reproduce them, nor is it to circumscribe them in a narrative about mourning for the loss of a certain world, but to help reconfiguretheir meaning in a context that is no longer their own.

Echos +is made up of three pieces that work precisely…

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