In the End We Begin
Already in its title, Plume Girl’s debut thoroughly lets things go and takes them in – all at once. “In the End We Begin” is the first solo full-length from Sowmya Somanath, a Hindustani classical singer/composer and half of alt-pop duo Felt Out. Plume Girl’s music takes inspiration from the semi-regular musical form of the rāga (translated as ‘tinting’), invoking mood and atmosphere, each rāga thought to have its own distinct nature and personality, brought to life through improvisation. String…
Love’s Lesson
Fifth vinyl album (there have been four cassettes as well) by this Baltimore-based duo with international roots. Zomes began as a solo project by Asa Osbourne (ex-Lungfish, The Pupils), and recorded mostly solo drone-based instrumentals for several years. While performing at a festival in Stockholm, Asa met vocalist Hanna Olivegren, who shared his musical conceptions. Zomes's first record as a duo was 2013's Time Was (Thrill Jockey), and they have remained a two-piece ever since. The music on Lo…
The Wheel
Moon Bros. is more or less the solo project of guitarist 'Fred' Schneider and was brought to our attention by the Queen of Colorado herself (aka Josephine Foster). Fred appears on Foster's No Harm Done album, and she returns the favor by singing on one of the tunes here. Many of Fred's earliest recording efforts were done with a variety of Chicago-based post-rock/jazz-flecked combos (The Exciting Trio, HIM, etc.) But for the past few years, he has used Moon Bros. to explore contours of more rura…
First Aid Kit
Feeding Tube in collaboration with Ba Da Bing present: "She can be a real pain in the ass," is how Big Blood's Caleb Mulkerin and Colleen Kinsella describe having their daughter as a member of the band they formed in the wake of Cerberus Shoal's dissolution. A band made up of family seems like an ideal situation. You get to play with those you love, and practicing/recording is always just a matter of going into the next room . . . Quinnissa, who was 13 when First Aid Kit was recorded has skills …
♥ / Lamb
Soccer Committee has always been an consistent exercise in restraint, and offering space. And on ‘♥ /Lamb’, this approach has been taken to perfection. The arrangements are still minimal, with plenty of time for the tones and melodies to resonate with maximum impact. Mariska Baars still carefully selects each note, and lets the sound evolve with precise care. Her songs are definitely rooted in the folktradition, but at the same time very ‘ambient’, in the true sense of the word. And still: there…
A Lung In A Horn In A Horn
This 12" is the sonic result of a psychogeographic action which took place in Zurich's underground water system at the beginning of winter 2020-2021. This is a purely acoustic recording. Recorded and mastered by Rafal Skoczek. Photography by Mark Siumin. Design by Maximage
Galo
Tip! O Yama O return with their first full length LP since 2018’s self titled debut. Galo finds the duo of sculptor Rie Nakajima and vocalist Keiko Yamamoto firmly enmeshed alongside percussionist Marie Roux and violin player and visual artist Billy Steiger as a band, their project this time a proper four way entanglement - or five when you include the record’s powerhouse producer David Cunningham. Known perhaps already for their exploration of folkloric Japan and the ‘domestic and democratic qu…
Split: Les Crosièees Dolori / Awott
*2023 stock. Limited edition* Les Croisere Dolori & Awott (members from The Dreams, Mikhail Mineral, Le Renard, L'atelier d'éveil musical du centre social Raymond Poulidor and an impossible etc…) A International Audio Akellare to celebrate dissidence with Aloardi."Treasures of European subterranean scene...from France and Russia, we met them, some years ago, toutring with Krapooola) and Mouzik (PL) and fall in love with their sound, attitude and their engagement to music. Collaborative handmade …
Arc of Day
The bones of a bird, stripped of flesh and feather, give no sign of the heights and depths a living bird can reach, the lengths it can travel, or the songs it can sing. The same is true of the bones of the human hand. For all their strength and delicacy, seeing them skeletal and stark obscures our knowledge of the rhythmic energy with which they engage space, the burdens they can bear, the music they can produce. Yet, in both bird and hand, the foundation of grace and motion remain. Music above …
Bronze
*2023 repress* A giant step from abrasive pastoral into amped-up avant-folk. Hypnotic interludes, ranging from archaic, electrified stomps to enraptured harp and guitar duets, industrial spaces and fragile, ghostly vocal choruses, represent important development as well as a singular musical expression from one of Britain’s most unusual outfits. Mastered for its CD debut by Jim O’Rourke.
II (LP)
From the London based imprint, Hegoa, comes one of the most beautiful and striking records we've heard all year, the Basque trio, Carcáscara’s second outing “II”. Issued in a very limited vinyl edition of 300 copies, its elegant arrangements of tonality, texture, and cascading arpeggiations and drones, sculpt a stunning, acoustic middle ground between a number of Spanish folk traditions, American primitivism, and musical minimalism. A likely strong contender for more than a few year-end lists.
Dark Country Magic
Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records bring to you the much-anticipated vinyl pressing of Dark Country Magic from this wonderful Maine trio (Quinnisa making her first intentional effort with "Moo Hoo" on this release). Caleb Mukerin and Colleen Kinsella have been key personages of the Portland sonic underground as members of the cosmically-shifting Cerberus Shoals and the folkily psychedelic Fire on Fire before forming the more personal and hermetic Big Blood back in 2006. The band's multi-phas…
The Daughter's Union
*250 copies limited edition* "Recorded a bit before the last Big Blood slab we released -- Operate Spaceship Earth Properly (FTR 385CD/LP, 2018) -- The Daughter's Union represents the true introduction of Caleb and Colleen's daughter, Quinnisa as a full member of Big Blood. The Maine based duo had been using Quinnisa as their secret hard rock weapon for quite a while, so it is gratifying as heck to see her finally get her due! In their new fully-fledges trio guise, Big Blood puff themselves up l…
Operate Spaceship Earth Properly
*Edition of 250 copies* Comes with printed innersleeve. 2018 repress, on splatter vinyl. "Our last Big Blood release was the idiosyncratic Ant Farm, Colleen and Caleb's collaboration with the late composer Elliott Schwartz, which presented music designed for a museum installation. With Operate Spaceship Earth Properly, Big Blood return to the vast universe of strangeness they explore inside their own skin. Now fully incorporating the vocals and guitar of their daughter Quinnisa (previously a 'se…
Bocca D'ombra
"We entered the shadowy mouth of a new space, descending into a realm that precedes the underworld, the arcane, far from our time. We met beasts that gave us lessons about their language, which we started learning without grammar."
Calisthenics
Calisthenics is the first album by Institute for Certified Nomadic Illicit Sonic Practices (ICNISP), the Berlin-based duo of Brazilian musicians Marina Cyrino (flute) and Matthias Koole (el.guitar). With a mixture of electronic and acoustic sound sources, objects and preparations, inside amplification and no-input mixing, the duo leads guitar and flute towards a common hybrid terrain. Partly inspired by drawings of the Handbook of Calisthenics and Gymnastics: A Complete Drill-book with Music to …
As long as you come to my garden
As long as you come to my garden is a tribute to the Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova, through his lyrics and freely inspired by the cult movie about his life: "The color of the pomegranates" (Nrran Guyny, 1968, USSR) directed by Sergei Parajanov.The feature film tells the life of the poet, who lived in the seventeenth century, from childhood in the royal court, to retirement until his death in the monastery of Haghpat, through a series of episodes, static like paintings that do not tell but show,…
L'Herbe de Détourne
Tip! French folk experimentalist Ernest Bergez has spent several years bringing his signature, singular sound to life in solo mode. At the same time, and despite this individualist streak, he’s a musician with a deep appreciation for communal exchange and collaboration. It’s with this in mind that L’herbe de détourne, Bergez’s latest album, sees him expand his most prominent project Sourdure from a one-man band into a four-person force, and modify the name. Say hello to Sourdurent…
Bergez first …
Où Les Observer, Savoir Les Reconnaître
Vocalized electronics & intellectual kicks. Cervicals are shaking, neurons are chatting. Hello and thank you experimental France. The Americans envy us for having them. Decadent improvisations & raw virtuosity since 2006. 1803 concerts to their credit. 732,715 kilometers of road covered. A buttock forever and ever in the underground charts. Another one shamelessly coveting the MTV Music Award 2037. That's all, yeah.France Sauvage was banned from playing even before starting in the basement of th…
Lo Escucho, Lo Pinto
** Edition of 300 in handmade cover, includes A3 colour poster. ** Deep and immersive open-air Chilean trance-folk improvisations from members of KYE Records alumni Glorias Navales and Sholto Dobie. "The idea of applying free-music logic to rock structures came of age with the records The Dead C and Harry Pussy put out on Xpressway and Siltbreeze in the '90s. They created a method to follow. Keep the tropes and tools of rock and roll but ditch the formal constraints. All you are left with then i…