Best known for his work as a collaborator and producer Valgeir has for the past decade provided a breeding ground for numerous local and international artists in his Greenhouse Recording Studios in Reykjavik, Iceland. He steps forward with the Bedroom Community label, and released his long due solo album titled Ekvílibríum in September 2007.
“...one of the most open-eared talents in that no man's land between experimental and potentially market-gratifying music” -Touching Extremes
“an album for all connoisseurs of recorded sound, marrying exceptional electronic detail with real instrumentation on a grand scale.”-Boomkat
"King Sigh" is a Belgian band, based in the small village of Scherpenheuvel. When drummer Koen Muylaert left the band, Peter Laermans & Zowie Vangeel decided to do some homerecording, an endless process which resulted in this eight song long album. Koen rejoined the band, this time to play the guitar... And together with new drummer Gaël Renier, these guys are about to do some damage:) Feel free to react, write down comment, listen to the songs, and have a great day!pretty enjoyable (d/l it here or from their myspace), thanks guys
This is the first splendid album of Ashram’s pianist solo. Crystal notes of piano, nostalgia of violin, grace of Cello brings one into a very intense feeling of emotion, moving & intimist. Like an original soundtrack, the music draws the most peaceful & celestial timeless landscapes one can imagine. Luigi Rubino started playing and studying piano and liturgical organ when he was 10, with both Italian and foreign teachers. Piano player with the band Ashram, he collaborated with bands such as Argine, Corde Oblique, Trees... Today he dedicates himself to original composition and loves 20th century classical music (Debussy, Poulenc, Bach, Pergolesi, Rachmaninov, Chopin, Wagner but also Satie, Keith Jarrett, Arvo Part or Morricone).from the label
Here's everything I love about modern classical and experimental ambient. Tiny sprinkles of noise and artifacts. Glitchy digital errors across strummed guitars. Chopped up echoes of piano. Timeless bliss... All making up some jigsaw puzzle of a melody that reveals itself only if you unfocus your mind, unplug the brain, and blur your vision. Let the sound saturate your thoughts, swirling forwards and back in time, seeking lost data across corrupted volumes of memories. Ah, there it is, that moment. Nope, gone again. Tokyo based Shunichiro Fujimoto's solo project under Fjordne moniker is a feat of subliminal time slippage consumed by the inevitable force of a black hole. Sourcing only acoustic instruments and some voice, Fujimoto digitally warps and processes the sounds into The Last 3 Days Of Time which gets picked up by a San Francisco based Dynamophone Records. And here's where owning a physical copy of this album really pays off: the 250 limited and numbered compact disk has a black lining (maybe that's what reminded me of black hole) and arrives in a small round tin container with a matted imprint of a bird sitting on a branch, revealing tiny mechanical gears beneath its feathers. A wind-up bird of time, approaching its last three days... And the clock ticks... It is no coincidence that the cover art resembles the theme behind The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by my all time favorite Japanese author, Haruki Murakami. Fujimoto's music is inspired by this and other Murakami works (which you absolutely must read if you read fiction at all!).Tracklist:-the music lobby
Collapse Under The Empire start their newest album systembreakdown with a little electronic feel. Synth-pads cause the obligatory, melancholic mood, whereon the song flows into a mellow bridge-part, until it appears for the first time on this CD: the notorious “wall of sound”. A post-rock phenomenon, which has attracted all possible adjectives - from outstanding to horrible. Well, on systembreakdown? The words melodic and tangible might apply the most here. Those are drawn through, from the first to the last second - for 42 minutes.good stuff guys danke!
Creating an album, which offers a central theme, aswell as the possibility to hold the listener’s attention for nearly three quarters of an hour is not easy for a band. The both guys from hamburg, however, handle things a little differently. By all means, the listener is allowed to drift away temporarily - sooner or later the band will take you back anyway. Oddly, it’s not the hit of the album, which is responsible for this, like usual, but single, crucial and convincing moments of this record.
Everyone has to decide on his own, whether it’s the climax of the yearningly depending on you, the moody, electronic ambience of quiet dimension or the casual playfulness of the drums on further than the end of the world. The important thing is, that Collapse Under The Empire have built a countless number of these key-moments into their CD - there is one for everyone.
Based around the unique howl of the Martenot (one of the scarcest instruments on the planet) and his choice of recording equipment - namely a 20 year old tape recorder, 'Reflecting' was once described as Basinksi's decomposing symphonies laced with the expansive nature of Vangelis' 'Bladerunner' score. Certainly, EL Heath's cavernous compositions, especially when he layers cascading drones, with obscured voices, piano, muffled guitar, the Ondes and violin, create warped, dream-like sequences of woozy melody and other-worldly peculiarity. 'Reflecting...' is an invigorating antidote to over-bearing digital manipulation and a celebration of nostalgia..Tracklist:
Opening with a text from Franz Kafka over a sparse piano melody, the album moves through gorgeous, heart-wrenching string swells of ‘On The Nature Of Daylight’ (which quotes a tune from ‘Memoryhouse’); through to sparse but lyrical piano pieces; hazy, swirling atmospherics, avalanche pulse-beats and partially occluded melodies that recall Aphex twin’s ‘Ambient Works’ albums; and to reverberant organ / choir recordings.highly recommended.
Utilising piano, cello, violin and viola, alongside electronic beats (made using a variety of antique electronics and Reaktor), spoken word passages and the occasional field recording, other sounds were generated via old guitar pedals and vocoders. The organ music was made for a chapel near Tourtres in South-West France, whilst the environmental sounds are mainly recorded around London. The tone of the album is generally domnbeat – a series of bittersweet articulations that seem suspended somewhere between a certain dreamy sense of wonder / awe and a heavy melancholia.
2009, new year and new projects
After this long silence, the band has just annouced that 2009 will be a full activity year, with great news...
+ New line up : the band is now Sandy, Olivier, Julien, Briac, Simon, Nelson et Cyrille.
+ New album : new titles are beeing rehearsaled, then the band will record their new album next spring 2009.
+ New videoclip : For the new title "The great Escape", a new videoclip is actually beeing made.
+ New gigs coming soon...
Heirs began as a solo project by Damian Coward (Maps, Love Like... Electrocution) in late 2006, founded by a importunity to create a personal sound and direction. Heirs expanded its lineup during 2008 and consists of Brent Stegeman (Whitehorse, Love Like... Electrocution) and Ian Jackson (Damn Arms) on guitars, Laura Bradfield on bass and Coward on drums.great sounds guys thanks and good luck with the tour
Heirs' debut full-length "Alchera" is a 43 minute movement of oppressive instrumental power, cyclic ritualism and bleak hallucinogenic revelation. Recorded at Head Gap Studios by Neil Thomason in the heat waves of Melbourne in Januuary 2009 and mastered by James Plotkin (Isis, Khanate, Burning Witch), the 6 pieces recorded capture the band's live volume - a blanket of sound traversing a rolling dynamic landscape.
Hi all,best album of this type (genre) I heard this year. This guy is already among my fave artists no doubt, incredible, hauntingly music. highly recommended this and his other release.
The Tumbled Sea's second album is here at last. It's called melody/summer, and it has eleven new songs. It's out on the wonderful label futurerecordings (there's a lot of cool stuff on the label--check it out if you have the time) and should be pretty cool.
For now, you can hear/download it there. We'll have some news about a physical release in the next few days, if all goes according to plan.
Cheers,
Sam
