Woob – Sense – 8m2 Stereo

WOOB – AMBIENT DISASTER MOVIE
After having released two timeless albums on the now legendary EM:T label (“1194” and “4495”), Woob (Paul Frankland, also known as Max & Harvey and half of Journeyman) took some time off from making music (to work in the advertising industry) – returning in 2010 to release a string of new albums on Bigamoebasounds.

On “Ambient Disaster Movie”, the sound (sometimes referred to as ‘post-rave ambient’) is still as bright and recognisable as it was in the beginning – presented with a refreshing (tongue-in-cheek) sense of humour.

Kleefstra-Pruiksma-Kleefsta – Deislieper

Deislieperis the third release in what I like to call the Kleefstra Wire Trilogy“.
In fact, there’s no real ‘trilogy’, but three separate albums that were presented by three independent labels on one single advertising page in Wire Magazine: “Wurdskrieme(on Experimedia). Tongerswel”  (on Home Normal), and now Deislieper(on Hibernate).

“Deislieper”, by the way, is a Frisian name for the nightjar and literally it means ‘day sleeper’

Rooted firmly in the improv scene, core members Jan (poetry) and Romke (guitar, effects) Kleefstra never work alone.
With Piiiptsjilling, most of the contributors were Dutch fellow musicians (like Rutger ‘Machinefabriek’ Zuydervelt, Mariska Baars, Chris Bakker), but soon they also started playing with an international cast of musicians like Peter Broderick, Nils Frahm, Greg Haines (on the Seeljocht project).
Tongerswel presented their work together with saxophonist Gareth Davis, and now Deisleeper features the incredible percussion music by Sytze Pruiksma.

Leonardo Rosado – Mute Words

However deep and fascinating ‘classic’ (drone) ambient music may be, listening too much of the same kind can get a little eh… same-ish. The borders and boundaries need to be stretched in some ways, and that’s where the adventurous music tends to start.  Even though, by strict definition, this may or may not be called ‘ambient’ music at all (such as with a lot of the post-classical or improvised acoustic music lately). 

I don’t really know, but this may very well have been one of the reasons for Leonardo Rosado, also known as the curator of the Feedbackloop label (with its impressive catalogue of ambient/experimental music), to start a new label with a somewhat different concept: Heart and Soul.

Heart and Soul  will focus on combining poetry and music, and will release albums in physical formats only (so NO downloads!): a paperback book combined with the CD in this particular case.
Editions are “totally homemade” – but unlike many others not ‘strictly limited’, because they are made on demand. 

The very first release on this Feedbackloop sister label is Rosado’s own Mute Words

Piiptsjilling – Wurdskrieme

On the debut release in 2008, Piiptsjilling was the name of the album performed by Machinefabriek & Jan Kleefstra, together with Romke Kleefstra and Mariska Baars
Following this remarkable debut, the original contributors have kept working together and performing in as well as outside Holland – to growing critical acclaim.

Now, Piiptsjilling is used as the name of the band.

One might think this kind of spoken word music, spoken in the Frisian language (Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands) would be of local interest only.
Luckily, the opposite prove to be true: the message of their music came across widely outside Friesland too. 

The new Piiptsjilling album, called “Wurdskrieme(Cry of Words) is now released on Experimedia.net
Compared to the original Piiptsjilling album, it’s a quite different view of the same concept.

Loscil – Endless Falls

In the last ten years, Scott “Loscil” Morgan has built himself quite a reputation in creating fascinating ambient music.
“Endless Falls” is the follow up to 2006′ “Plume” (not counting last year’s EP “Strathcona Variations”). 

The cover image immediately takes us to the main theme of this album: Rain.
Pictured through a bright glass window. Not too dark – fresh – welcome even, to settle down the dust.
That’s in fact a description of the atmosphere of the album,  too.

Charles Spearin – The Happiness Project


http://www.happiness-project.ca/about.php

It’s not ambient, and it’s only remotely electronic.
Still, when I discovered this album last week (it was released in march this year), it left me completely speechless and utterly fascinated.  
 
The Happiness Project is a concept created by Charles Spearin from Toronto, known by some for his contributions to Do Make Say Think and Broken Social Scene.

For this project he has been interviewing some of his neighbours in downtown Toronto, and used their recorded voice to create the musical track.
In these sample-laden times that in itself  does not sound very spectacular, but Spearin focussed on the melody of the voice and doubled it with a musical instrument fitting the voice. The pitch of the voice is never changed, but rhythmic and melodic patterns are created by repeating some of the phrases. Thus resulting in a sparkling and engaging kind of experimental jazz music.