The Seaman and the Tattered Sail – Light Folds


Light Folds

“Why wait 25 years to release a Special DeLuxe Anniversary Edition when you can release such an edition right away?”

Something like that must’ve been the thought of the people at Fluid Audio/Fac-Ture when they were planning this incredibly voluptuous Light Folds release by The Seaman and the Tattered Sail (Craig Tattersall and Bill Seaman).

In these times of ongoing discussions about the decline of the music industry’s physical distribution, it seems like a daring adventure (and a somewhat ironic provocative statement) to release a single package containing:

  • 2 clear (see-through) heavyweight vinyl albums in gatefold covers
  • 2 CD’s
  • 1 Audio DVD (together with CD’s in a six panel cover)
  • Two 12″ prints, 4 A6 prints, and an A2 poster

… All in twelve different design varations…

When I first read about this release, I assumed that there were various configurations of the original material to be chosen from: Vinyl, or CD, or DVD, or Digital download…
But that was not as it was intended: the artists decided it was to be released the way it is: as one single package – meaning this package contains more than eleven hours of their music scattered over all these different kind of physical media.

Mirrorring – Foreign Body

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?

Peter Broderick’s Flickr Album

Peter Broderick is not afraid to try out some new directions. With his music (ranging from minimal electronics via minimalism to new-folk), as well as with the ways to distribute them.
Some of his records were released on fairly wellknown labels as Type and Kning, or on lesser known labels as Slaapwel Records and Fang Bomb. But also on cassettes, freely available mixtapes, and now even using Flickr (the  web 2.0 photo sharing site).

As far as I know, he’s the very first artist creating a ‘Flickr Album‘ this way.

Peter Broderick & Machinefabriek – Blank Grey Canvas Sky

These artist names are probably familiar to everyone even remotely interested in ambient/electronic music.
Multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick (from Oregon, now living in Berlin) released quite a few impressive albums under his own name, and is currently touring as a member of Efterklang.
The number of albums Rutger “Machinefabriek” Zuydervelt (from Arnhem, now living in Rotterdam) has released can hardly be counted any more (quite some of them are featured on this weblog).

So when two such great artists start working together expectations are quite high!

Wixel’s 2009 Project

clouds cover

Wixel sometimes refers to the small group of musicians surrounding the Belgian artist Wim Maesschalk. When I recently saw them performing at a dutch festival (CrossLinx), I felt they sounded like Sigur Rós but without the vocals. Which is meant as a compliment, because when listening to most of Sigur Rós’s music I always wonder if I would like it better without the odd vocals. 

‘Wixel’ is also used as Wim Maesschalk’s artist nickname.
Wim ‘Wixel’ Maesschalk is a prolific artist, working very hard to find ways to get his music exposed to the world. (not unlike Rutger ‘Machinefabriek‘ Zuydervelt, though their musical angles are different).

Slowly, the world starts to find Wixel’s music too.

Machinefabriek & Soccer Committee – Drawn

Drawn

‘Opposites attract’. That’s quite appropriate when talking about Machinefabriek and Soccer Committee working together.

Their music seems quite incompatible at first: intimate acoustic folk vs. gritty electronics.
But Mariska Baars (Soccer Committee) and Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek) have been playing together more often in the past.

Wouter van Veldhoven – Ruststukken

RustStukken

Wouter van Veldhoven ‘s Ruststukken is recently released on the new Belgian label ‘Slaapwel’.

Slaapwel means Sleep well.; Label owner Wim Maesschalck tells us:
“I set out, looking for people that would be good at making mind-soothing songs. I ask them to write a sleep-inducing record, I listen to it, and when I fail to reach the end because I fell asleep, I release it as a musical record with whatever means are available to me.”
Well that’s a heart-warming concept to me!