Best of 2021
Winter Songs
8mm Records’ latest - Gate’s "Winter Songs" - gathers three long form works of hazy fuzzed out guitar drones from the The Dead C’s Michael Morley, that amount to engrossing meditative expanses at the borders of ambient music, minimalism, and stoner rock. Inward looking and delicate, while bubbling with fury and life, it stands among our absolute favorite releases from one of the most interesting artists working today, and rides high among the best albums of the year so far.
Situazioni del Terzo Mondo
** Edition of 100 Colored LP ** The world of Italian Library music surprises us again with an extremely evocative record. Released in 1972 with the name of Maria Teresa Luciani but really produced and composed by her brother Maestro Antonino Riccardo Luciani, Situazioni del Terzo Mondo ranks among the most important abstract soundscape records. Spontaneous tribalisms tainted with concrete sounds support the looming psychedelic vein, with different solutions from track to track.
The Great Wall / Chanta Khat
Michael Ranta has collaborated with Takehisa Kosugi, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Jean-Claude Eloy, Conny Plank, Mike Lewis, and Hartmut Geerken, just to name a few. He was also assistant to Harry Partch and performer in the Gate 5 Ensemble in the 1960s. Additionally, Ranta performed in Stockhausen's ensemble during the 1970 World Expo in Osaka. Ranta's resume also includes recordings by Helmut Lachenmann, Herbert Brün, Toru Takemitsu, Josef Anton Riedl, Mauricio Kagel, among others. Throughout his extensi…