Summer Extras – 1
Summer Extras: browsing through releases that somehow stuck to the bottom of the promo pile but are definitely worth hearing!
Featuring: Earthen Sea, Anthéne, Stereo Hypnosis/Christopher Chaplin and Ehsan Banitaba
Summer Extras: browsing through releases that somehow stuck to the bottom of the promo pile but are definitely worth hearing!
Featuring: Earthen Sea, Anthéne, Stereo Hypnosis/Christopher Chaplin and Ehsan Banitaba
Another treat from the Kranky label: a new Loscil that may prove to be one of his very best *** Hakobune makes you remember a melody that didn’t exist before.
Juha-Matti Rautiainen‘s second album is dedicated “to those who carry humanity within their hearts in the middle of a conflict” – while Julie ‘Less Bells’ Carpenter finds her inspiration in the quiet expanse of the Joshua Tree desert.
No surprise in the title: “No. 2” is the follow up to Christina Vantzou‘s “No. 1” from 2011.
The follow-up to a succesfull debut is often referred to as ‘the difficult second album’ – but not really difficult for Christina Vantzou it seems: the album feels like a natural progression, while at the same time a firm step forward.
Grouper (Liz Harris) is quite “Hot”.
And with that, I am not referring to the fact that she is female, which obviously is a rare feat in the male dominated world of ambient music (listeners, as well as musicians).
She’s ‘hot’ because she manages to appeal to a (relatively) large audience by merging different backgrounds, combining sleepy bedroom folk with laptop lo-fi and electronic minimalism.
Her recent performance (in my hometown) sold out quicky and raised a relatively fair amount of buzz. In her performance she did not touch any guitar, did not sing any tune – she just shuffled and mixed some cassette-tape recordings into an uncompromisingly minimal, William Basinski-like set of “Sleep” (from “Violet Replacement“).
Looking around and watching a silent (!) crowd (of about 150) listening to this slowly deteriorating piece, most of them with eyes closed, I could not help but wonder why I did not see most of these people at other ambient music performances.
Two days earlier I enjoyed a brilliant performance of Machinefabriek, Celer and Kleefstra-Bakker-Kleefstra – with only some 20 other people in the audience. Which was a shame, because this deserved to be heard by a lot more – I realised that most of this Grouper audience definitely would have enjoyed that performance too!
Most of Grouper’s previous recordings are not as minimal as this performance of “Sleep”. The fact that she’s crossing over from hazy bedroom electronics may very well be the reason why she guides her audience into the deep and sleepy realms of minimalist ambient music. Almost unnoticed..
Until yesterday, I had some doubts about reviewing “Foreign Body”, a new release by Mirrorring (a duo featuring Liz ‘Grouper’ Harris and Jesy ‘Tiny Vipers’ Fortino (these two names together should obviously raise attention), because it’s not an ‘ambient’ album as most on this blog.
But with these thoughts about the recent Grouper performance in mind, I decided this album was well worth the attention, because it will probably appeal to a lot of ambient music listeners, too.
So – how’s that for a lengthy introduction?
This is a great time for those that like the instrumental orchestral music of the Stars of the Lid school.
Fairly short after A Winged Victory for the Sullen (Adam Wiltzie + Dustin O’Halloran), Kranky releases another beautiful album: Christina Vantzou‘s “No. 1” .
Christina Vantzou‘s name may not immediately sound familiar.
With Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie she has released the The Dead Texan album (2004) – which quickly became a favourite for Stars of the Lid fans. She has also toured with Sparklehorse shortly.
Apart from composing and performing music, she’s also a prolific visual artist. (In fact she also designed the ‘Nips and Lips’ cover for A Winged Victory).
A lot of the beautiful videos she created for related artists and friends can be enjoyed on her Youtube channel.
The fact alone that Brian McBride is one of the founding core members of Stars of the Lid (along with Adam Wiltzie), is enough to raise a lot of interest about this new release on the Kranky label.
Or maybe I should say “buzz”, considering the documentary this soundtrack was created for.
Inevitably, this record bears the mark of Stars of the Lid music: the use of extended string chords combined with electronic, the melancholic, “lamentable” overall sound – anyone familiar with the Stars OTL will immediately recognize this.
But this is not a SOTL album: it is a Brian McBride solo-album (his second, following 2005’s “When the Detail Lost its Freedom).
And this means there are some noticeable differences, too.