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Happy Birthday: Erased Tapes

Dan — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:22:28 +0000

Erased Tapes Records – home to Ólafur Arnalds, A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Rival Consoles, Nils Frahm and Peter Broderick, amongst others – celebrates its fifth birthday!

The label are offering a free compilation of eleven tracks available for everyone who registers to the brand new website. Fans simply need to log in/sign up for this little treat.

Erased Tapes Records has become a meeting point and melting pot for innovative and imaginative musicians who knew there had to be somewhere they could call home. As artist Nils Frahm says, the label is ‘a wonderful place for creating music and I couldn’t be happier in this family. And it is a family. There’s a great sense of freedom on this label.’ Positioned deliberately outside the fleeting trends that typify contemporary indie music, Erased Tapes Records has fostered collaboration between its artists, often fusing disparate musical forms and styles, rendering so-called genres like modern classical, post rock and electronica redundant.

Robert Raths, founder of Erased Tapes, explains: ‘I’ve always been most interested in a dialogue between two opposite poles, between traditional and contemporary, between digital and analogue. That cliff between electronic and acoustic, the pop and the classical world. In bringing these worlds together or at least start a conversation in how to utilise the best of both sides and make it into something exciting, something current and something that is of our time. In the beginning people might have found it hard to connect these dots between each of our artists, but throughout the years I think it has become more and more evident where the label is heading. Lots of good things have happened that I never dared to dream of. That’s what keeps it so exciting for me. And with what lies ahead, I daren’t even think where it might lead…’

Planned for 2012 are a number of label nights at clubs and festivals across the globe, beginning with a label night at this year’s Great Escape Festival. The year will also climax with the release of an exclusive box set of previously unreleased material by each of the artists signed to the label.

www.erasedtapes.com

12k Return: Quite A Way Away / Not A Leaf Remains As It Was

Dan — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:14:00 +0000

It’s just over a month since the incredible ‘Ballads of the Research Department’ by The Boats graced our midst…

Mr Deupree is on a serious mission for the new year as the 12k label present TWO new projects from Gareth Dickson and Steve Peters / Steve Roden. We have had the luxury of listening to both albums over the last few weeks and they are simply immense!

Some good news… Those that place early orders (pre-orders start Feb 7th from 12k HQ) will receive an exclusive three track EP (Noon) from Gareth Dickson… Result!

Comp… To celebrate the new releases, we are offering the chance for one lucky winner to receive both albums along with the bonus digital download EP. Simply answer the following question:

- Name the Japanese Tanka poet that featured in Illuha’s recent 12k album ‘Shizuku’.

The comp closes at the end of this week. Use the following contact form for sending in your answers.

…………

Gareth Dickson – Quite A Way Away

To say that the last few years of Gareth Dickson’s life have been tumultuous would be an understatement. In 2007 he fell in love with a girl from South America, packed up a few essentials from his life in Scotland, and moved to the Argentinian countryside. It didn’t turn all fairy tale at that point, however. While there he was shot at, attacked by dogs, and was involved in a very close call when the passenger plane he took to a little town in the Andes was forced down after an engine caught fire. The bullet missed, the aircraft landed, and the dog bites healed; he survived intact, albeit a little more aware of his own mortality, and a good bit more anxious.

“The bullet in all honesty was never meant to hit” he states calmly, it was a robbery gone wrong and he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The incident in the aircraft was far more terrifying because there was the agonizing time to think and reflect during the plane’s unintended descent. “It’s interesting to find out how you would react in that situation.” Dickson says. “Faced with the possibility that it’s really time up, I felt an overwhelming sense of this having been destiny, that it was impossible that I had boarded this aircraft by chance.”

These adventures are the reason that in the last 4 years Gareth has not managed to record a new album; the last two releases (Collected Recordings, Drifting Falling, 2009, and The Dance, Sleeping Man, 2010) being old material recorded before the trip. They are also the reason that a feeling of heightened alertness and anxiety pervades this new work. If Collected Recordings was in some way a study in melancholy, Quite A Way Away is a decidedly more anxious affair. “Adrenaline,” the first track on the album, opens with the lines “Distant beat, advancing feet, each of us wound within.” and in “Get Together” there is something of confusion, if not paranoia, in the speaker wondering “Who was here before now, were there only you and I all night?”

Given the episodes that lead up to Quite A Way Away it’s only fitting that the album lands on 12k, whose road from stark, synthetic post-techno, 14 years ago, to the textured electro-acoustic ambience of today has been a gradual but well-documented voyage. The label’s flirtations with song structures being fused into its experimentations have defined the label as one to skirt the edges of boundaries and genre labels. But no release has quite stepped out of 12k’s bounds like Quite A Way Away. Yet despite the fact that Dickson’s music is classified as “singer/songwriter” and there isn’t an electronic gadget to be heard anywhere on the album, it’s remarkable how well it seamlessly blends into 12k’s existing catalog. The minimal, fragile, and engrossing sounds of 12k’s well-established brand of experimental music is ever-present in Dickson’s quiet finger-picked guitar and breathy vocals that hang on the edge of disintegration. Quite A Way Away is somehow as much “12k” as it is a step in a totally new direction.

Dickson, who hails from Glasgow, often gets comparisons to Nick Drake but it’s important to mention the influence he takes from experimentalists like Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, Bert Jansch, and Glenn Gould. His music is characterized by an intimacy gleaned from his dream-like approach to singing and playing guitar as well as the immediacy of being captured shortly after being written by whatever recording device is closest at hand, be it a cassette machine, handheld recorder, or 4-track. His use of analogue delays and reverb add to this soft, spacey vibe. The lo-fi nature of his sound harbors all of the cracks, flaws and rough edges of humanity, soul, and the deeply personal circumstances that surround the creation of art.

Up until this point Gareth had been traveling as one of the mainstay’s in Vashti Bunyan’s touring band which took him around the world playing some of the great venues along the way, such as the Carnegie Hall in New York and The Barbican in London. Vashti invited him to join her after she heard one of his tracks on the FatCat records website. He was also asked by Max Richter to record some guitar for a film soundtrack and has recorded and toured with Juana Molina.

…………

Steve Peters / Steve Roden – Not A Leaf Remains As It Was

In 1995 Steve Peters and Steve Roden toured as a trio with singer Anna Homler; sometimes they would vocalize behind her, and they liked the way their voices blended together. They then spent about 15 years saying that “someday” they should record a voice-based project together. Aside from the physical distance between them, the problem was always: What would we sing? Neither wanted to write or sing lyrics.

Inspiration came in the form of a book of Japanese jisei – poems allegedly written by monks on their death bed – printed in both English translation and Romanized Japanese. Phonetically pronouncing the Japanese reminded Peters of the technique Roden has used of systematically chopping up the syllables in English texts to transform them into sound poems. Since neither of them speaks Japanese, it seemed like a good place to begin.

The two of them applied for a residency at Jack Straw, a non-profit recording facility in Seattle that gives grants of studio time. They had no exact plans other than they intended to avoid electronic instruments, or directly referencing the poems’ literal meaning, or imitating any Japanese musical idioms or “Zen” stereotypes. Culling some of the poems that made references to sound and noting them on 3×5 cards, Peters and Roden sorted the cards into four groups according to the seasons of the year that the poems represented, divided the cards between them, and taped them to their music stands. They then sang random fragments from the various cards – a word here, a line there, maybe backwards, maybe the English translation. They made no effort to keep the poems intact or retain any of their meaning, instead treating the material simply as phonemes to put in their mouths.

All of the music was improvised in the studio, built up one track at a time. They worked intuitively, with no structural guidelines beyond using the texts. Three days later they emerged from the studio, not quite sure what they had done. After letting the material rest for several months Peters and Roden determined that Doug Haire, who recorded the sessions at Jack Straw, was the obvious choice to do the mixing. The album was completed in the fall of 2011.

12k is known to be a label of understatement and restraint, however, Not A Leaf Remains As It Was is arguably the most hushed and delicate record in the label’s catalog. Every sound on the album’s four tracks, be it the artists’ voices, a pump organ or melodica hangs by a thread, played ever so slightly, with utmost care. Noises, created from turtle shells, leaves, and bells shuffle and flutter, as if they are quietly alive, in the background providing a textural backdrop to the sublime tones and ghostly voices.

www.12k.com

Valot kaukaa

Dan — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:38:59 +0000

Here’s a heads up for something new and rather wonderful from the Preservation record label. Below you can read up on the release information and check one of the tracks from the album whilst we get to work on a full review…

The Preservation label presents Valot kaukaa, the second album from Finnish producer Olli Aarni. Valot kaukaa is the first work for Aarni under a new name, Nuojuva, having previously appeared under the name Ous Mal.

As Ous Mal, Aarni’s 2010 debut album, Nuojuva Halava took the early promise of his CD-R releases into a beautiful realisation of a unique sound that evoked both a curious nostalgia and a sense of future pathways, combining classical overtures, narcotic beats and warm atmospherics into blissful song.

Aarni’s beguiling vision holds sparer focus on Valot kaukaa (the title roughly translates as ‘lights from far away’) for a more overtly ambient space filled with delicate instrumentation – including cello, piano, flute and violin – as well as a new interest in the possibilities of voice. Spacey and intimate with wintry and autumnal shades, its whispered melodies and open drift making for an heightened state still somehow grounded in downhome feeling.

The gliding vocal textures of Rachel Evans – aka Motion Sickness of Time Travel as well as one half of duo Quiet Evenings – is a recurring highlight, while Sophie Hutchings’ dazzling, rolling piano propels Laakso into a wonderful orbit.

Honing a special path explored on Nuojuva Halava, Valot kaukaa feels like one long, suspended, beautiful moment.

Available through the Fluid Radio store Stashed Goods and direct from the Preservation label

www.preservation.com.au

Ghedalia Tazartes…

Dan — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:47:05 +0000

Ghedalia Tazartes is a nomad. He wanders through music from chant to rhythm, from one voice to another. He paves the way for the electric and the vocal paths, between the muezzin psalmody and the screaming of a rocker (…) Ghedalia is the orchestra and the pop group all in one person; the solitary opera explodes himself into an infinity of characters. The self is multitude and others. The author and his doubles work without a net, freely connecting the sounds, the rhythms, his voice, his voices. The permanent metamorphosis is a principle of composition, it escapes control, refuses classification. Off limits music descends, cries and screams when it touches the ground. – Andre Glucksmann

2011 has been a busy year for Ghedalia Tazartes. A personal highlight was the live soundtrack to the 1922 silent film classic Haxan by Benjamin Christenson first presented at the Fondation Cartier in Paris in April and subsequently at the CCA in Glasgow and Cafe OTO in London back in December.

Not exactly a precursor of Ken Russell’s 1971 The Devils, Haxan suffered a similar fate at the hands of censors for its depiction of torture and nudity within a religious context. Based on Malleus Maleficarum, the film was intended as a study of how superstition and the misunderstanding of diseases and mental illness at the beginning of the XX century could lead to the same hysteria of the witch-hunts.

Aside from live performances there have also been two new releases in 2011 from Tazartes: a new version of his 2009 album Repas Froid released on vinyl by PAN and the collaborative project Superdisque by Tazartes, cult trumpet player Jac Berrocal, and Parisian based David Fenech on electric guitar, out on Sub Rosa.

On the 11th of February, Tazartèe, Fenech and Berrocal will be performing live at the Atelier Claus. Support comes from The Catamites: Stephen O’Malley – Sunn O))) – and Chris Brokaw – Come, Codeine.

“The album is like a music travel in sounds, somewhere beyond the borders of rock, jazz, punk, and sound poetry. The vocals seem to come from another planet, with lyrics in an improvised language. The winds are blown from Tibetan human bones and conch seashells.”

Saturday 11 February 2012 | 8 PM | Atelier Claus | Bruxelles

- Gianmarco Del Re for Fluid Radio

www.subrosa.net
www.lesateliersclaus.com
www.davidfenech.fr

Matthew Bourne…

Dan — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:42:34 +0000

The Leaf Label recently released five rather wonderful videos of pianist Matthew Bourne performing pieces from his upcoming Montauk Variations album (out February 6). The clips were filmed just before Christmas at Leeds College of Music, and give a sense of Bourne’s remarkable technique.

The pieces include Bourne’s version of Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Smile’ and a brand new composition, ‘Unloved’, unavailable elsewhere.

Bourne will also be performing a live show at London’s Cafe OTO on February 15th. Leaf alumni Icarus have been confirmed as support for the gig.

www.theleaflabel.com
www.matthewbourne.com

MayMay

Dan — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:15:09 +0000

Here’s a hauntingly beautiful video for MayMay’s upcoming self titled EP released through flau records. You may or may not (no pun intended) remember we reviewed MayMay way back in July, 2010 after they had come to our attention via the Portland Stories compilation, released through Sonic Pieces. The new EP looks like being another wonderful release for flau and comes highly recommended!

……………….

MayMay’s self-titled E.P. is a collection of 5 songs, written on a tattered lawn chair in the backyard…

Recorded during the fall and winter of 2008 in Portland, Oregon, MayMay shares a history through the sounds of fingerpicked nylon guitars, haunting vocal melodies and beautifully crafted string arrangements. With quietude and warmth, Laurel’s compositions flow full of emotivity and a natural sense of restraint. The music of MayMay transports us to a world in which we can dive to the bottom of the sea, ignoring the pressure of the water above us. – flau

www.flau.jp

Portbury Dock Line

Dan — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 01:43:23 +0000

The Portishead Railway was a branch line railway running from Portishead in Somerset to the Great Western Main Line in Bristol, England. It was constructed in the 1860s by the Bristol & Portishead Pier and Railway, which was incorporated to build a pier and a 10 mile broad gauge link to the Bristol and Exeter Railway at Bedminster Down. The line closed to passenger traffic in 1964 and freight in 1981. The line was rebuilt and reopened in 2002 for freight trains only from the junction with the Bristol to Taunton Line at Parson Street to the Royal Portbury Docks, via a new spur built in 2000/2.

Strom

Dan — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:13:51 +0000

As most of you know by now the recent Fluid Radio iPhone app is no longer in service. To cut a long story short the chap that designed it kind of went awol, leaving us with no way of updating to the current OS. It was a real shame as the app was rather nice and had a cool user interface. Those that originally downloaded the app can still use it for streaming the two broadcast channels, but will not be able to read any new content that is added to the web site on a daily basis.

The good news…

We still get daily emails from readers/listeners asking if the old app will be updated or, if we will be coming up with a new version in the near future. We can finally announce that this will be the case, and over the coming months a brand new design will be available for your listening/reading pleasure thanks to ERik (Humble Tune). ERik has also just launched a wonderful minimalist radio player (Strom) for the iPhone/iPad/iPod that comes with both Fluid Radio channels installed and can be streamed over 3G and wireless networks. I guess it’s a kind of taster for what’s to come when the main Fluid app is launched.

Make sure to head over to ERik’s web site for more information on the new Strom app.

Lastly…

ERik has also been kind enough to offer up some free promo codes for those that are interested in grabbing the app for free. Simply visit the app store on your device, click on the featured tab in the menu bar, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the ‘Redeem’ tab. The codes can only be used once so it’s a first come first served basis.

FLLYRFHFYMW3
E3HNWN46KYAX
AK6EYNKM6FMT
37K9YFWRWWRH
LLFPL4MPMNR7
LY74LR7TKJFT
ELWY7NRRFEWL
NTMKTF677LLY
WFW3YAF6YH33
947KHYH7AEXK

www.humbletune.com

Contrail EP

Dan — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:54:38 +0000

Contrail marks Kane Ikin’s debut solo release outside of Solo Andata and while the same sense of dark, warm space is present he returns to his roots and focuses more on shoegaze guitar experimentations, lo-fi sample manipulations and warped field recordings. He recorded everything through and onto old technology – aged analog consoles, reel-to-reel tape – and all heard through a hazy science fiction filter.

Steering away from the computer as a one-stop production tool, Kane’s recording process and mindset behind these songs makes for soft and lush sound. Pillow tones hover quietly over guitar plucks and warmly-distorted drones. “Sailing” finds a gentle, broken rhythm, made from found percussion looping underneath a bed of strummed acoustic and walls of inharmonic ambient texture while the title track bathes the listener in sleepy chords and touchable, organic field recordings.

Contrail comes packaged as a limited edition 7” pressed onto clear vinyl and includes a download card for the two vinyl tracks as well as two additional songs, thus creating a 4-song EP. The jacket is a heavy-weight chipboard stock printed with one PMS ink in the style of the previous 12k 7” releases. – 12k

12k.com

Thunder May Have Ruined The Moment

Dan — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:38:00 +0000

It’s a rare thing when we look to our readers for some kind of financial support in regards to other artist/label projects, but I hope you will agree this is an exception worth making! The excellent Lost tribe Sound label have set up a Kick Starter project to help raise funds for the next Vieo Abiungo album. We have had the privilege of listening to the project in full this afternoon and boy oh boy does it sound good! Please do head over to the web site and make a contribution if you can as there is something in return for your generosity from a free audio track right through to Ryan creating an original score for your own personal listening pleasure! Below is some information from Ryan…

The Project

My name is Ryan Keane. Andrew Sanchez and I run a small record label called Lost Tribe Sound. At the heart of this Kickstarter project is a breathtaking new album by Vieo Abiungo and Pete Monro, Thunder May Have Ruined the Moment.

We believe in music you can hold. Physical releases of music are more than a luxury; album artwork and inserts are (or rather, should be) more than just packaging to be thrown away. Lost Tribe Sound is trying to bring back the art in album artwork. By supporting this project, you’re supporting passionate artists, musicians, and filmographers.

The Background

A few years back, We met a musician named William Ryan Fritch, the artist behind Vieo Abiungo. Self taught since the age of twelve, he’s learned to play over forty instruments including cello, piano, flute, and a staggering variety of instruments from around the world.

Since that first meeting, Lost Tribe Sound has produced two full length albums of Vieo Abiungo’s music. Lush, rich, and redolent with tribal rhythms and familiar folk and pop structures, Fritch’s deftly woven music is breathtaking.

The Details – So. What exactly are you funding?

We’re releasing the full length album, Thunder May Have Ruined the Moment by Vieo Abiungo, along with a 20 minute DVD of two films directed by award winning director, Pete Monro (showcasing Fritch’s talent for music for cinema), a 6”x7” booklet of stunning artwork and poetry penned by Fritch, all housed inside a unique case which is styled to look and feel like a weathered, aged book.

The whole album was recorded using analog tape. All of the instrumentation and drumming is played by hand and not the work of some digital programming. If things appear to have an electronic sound it is an illusion, and simply the product of unorthodox recording techniques. William once mentioned to us, it is often his goal to use absolutely real and recorded instruments in unusual ways to at points mimic what many would consider electronic music.

In order to produce this album and its accompanying artwork, we’re asking for your support. Every dollar donated is a dollar that supports independent art, music, and the pursuit of beauty. Every friend you tell about this campaign is another heart working to promote creativity and uniqueness in the world.

Total Production Cost is: $5200.00

The money raised here will help to offset the total cost and allow us to do this deluxe presentation. We are dedicated to making this album accessible to others by keeping the price affordable. We would love your support in underwriting even a small portion of our expenses for this project.

All money above and over the $2500 goal will help to make it that much better. Promotion, posters, t-shirts, stickers, are among the many other extras we could add.

Plus, Pete Monro has another amazing film based on this project we would love to see come to life.
Our Thanks

From the bottom of our hearts, we at Lost Tribe Sound want to thank you for your support of our art and music. Any help you can give us in sharing this with others is greatly appreciated. – Ryan

www.Losttribesound.com
www.Williamryanfritch.com
www.daystogethermovie.com