“Owl Splinters“ is Deaf Center ‘s much anticipated second full album, following 2005’s ‘Pale Ravine’.
Which doesn’t mean that nothing happened in the meantime: Erik Skodvin released his “Flare” solo album, and Otto Totland partnered with Huw Roberts as Nest, releasing the beautiful selftitled album (long time most-read article on this weblog!).
Premonition Factory is the name of the ambient-electronic music project by Sjaak Overgaauw, a dutch musician currently living in Antwerp, Belgium.
‘The Sense of Time‘ is his second full CD, the follow up to 2010’s ’59 Airplanes waiting for New York’.
It contains eleven tracks of different length, presenting an impressive hour of well balanced immersive ambient sounds. Most are ‘classic’ ambient: slow washes of drones, sparsely interspersed with background electrics – a very peaceful sound overall.
Relaxed Machinery: it’s a brilliant name for a netlabel presenting “organic ambient and techno music from scratch with only the purest of ingredients”.
John Koch-Northrup, label curator/coördinator, prefers to call it an ‘artist collective’, with a different business model: the artists ‘self-release’ their album, all profit is theirs, but the collective opens up distribution channels that are normally quite difficult to reach for a DIY-release: such as digital distribution via all major channels (by CD Baby), and CDR distribution by Hypnos.
From the first bars of the opening track “Everyday is a Journey“, one could get the impression that “The Road to Basho” might fit in perfectly with the post-romantic classical chamber music releases so popular nowadays.
But after a while things start to sound a bit different: although the music sounds like it is created with acoustical instruments, the theme itself does not really seem to change..it gets looped over and over again – until it’s as hypnotizing as Gavin Bryars’ “Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet” (or as a William Basinski recording without the tape deterioration).
In fact, the only way to know your player is not stuck on repeat, is by recognising the (slowly increasing) phasing effects in the background.
I guess it must be something in the water in Belgium!?
This self-released CD-R from Steiner (Stijn Hüwels), does not only look like it could be a new release on the Slaapwel-label, it also sounds like one.
Which may not be very strange, considering that Stijn and Wim Maesschalk (Slaapwel records label owner) live in the same city and obviously know each other.
The deepest grief can often inspire the most impressive art.
The albums of Dakota Suite are not the ones to celebrate the happier moments in life, as can be seen from their titles alone.
They commemorate sadness, loss, pain, fear and loneliness.
But the (mainly acoustic) instrumentation also always leaves room for hope, for acceptation of the way life is.
Previous Dakota Suite releases have brought some timeless masterpieces, like “The End of Trying” and its remix companion “The Night Keeps Coming in” (you can still stream the Folio Radio show compilation of these two albums).
Dakota Suite’s latest release “The North Green Down” may prove to be their most impressive work to date. But the foundations of this album is of heartbreaking sadness once again…
According to Pleq (Bartosz Dziadosz from Warsaw, Poland)“Ballet Mechanic” is “his most personal, abstract and intellectual work to date, never to be repeated.”
“Ballet Mechanic” contains six tracks, over 70 minutes in total, “inviting the listener to travel through crackle, screech, squeak, sizzle and subtle drones”.
Some of the tracks have a natural feel, like if it was created from field recordings instead of electronic sources. Other tracks sound like distant machines humming while doing their work.
All kinds of subtle shifts are happening in the immersive sound spectrum, but you’ll only become aware if you submerge yourself in the sound. The overall atmosphere is very calm and relaxing.
“Melting Loop Trip” by Shinobu Nemoto (from Kanagawa, Japan), should not be missed by anyone enjoying long-form drone music.
It is released as a handmade 4CDR release if you want a physical copy, but it can also be downloaded (for free!) from the Resting Bell netlabel.
It’s a massive download including sixteen loops, each loop between six and thirteen minutes long, totalling over two-and-a-half hour of deep drone listening.
A fairly extreme release in size ánd content.
Apart from running his excellent Audio Gourmet netlabel (check their beautiful compilation album “Hidden Landscapes” if you didn’t already), Harry Towell a.k.a. Spheruleus also releases his own music on different labels.
Resting Bell netlabel recently released his latest short (23 min) three track album called “Forgotten Outland“.
