Apollolaan Mix One by Apollolaan on Mixcloud

Just discovered this superb mix from Apollolaan Recordings including artists Cheer, The Driftwood Manor, Brian Lavelle, Still Light, Andreas Brandal, texlahoma, Benjamin Wetherill and Peter Delaney. Most definitely a label to watch out over the coming months and we will be making sure to review all forthcoming material as and when it arrives…

www.apollolaan.co.uk

Recluse events, run in association with label FBox Records, aim to host divergent live performers who traverse the musical tightropes between the analogue and the digital, the past and the present…

Specialising in showcasing performers too idiosyncratic to fit into any one genre, Recluse events offer performers and the audience an open-minded event characterised by stylistic variation and live vitality.

Live acts:

Hybernation – sublime electronically manipulated found sounds and objects
Tom White – floating surround sound textures from the Smallfish/Hibernate artist
Vlk – textural noise using Max MSP processed cello, found objects and electronics
Katzgraben – delicate electronica tinged post rock textures
Rome Pays Off – two basses and treated laptop steel guitar flowing effortlessly between static textures and intense swathes of sound
Ten – laptop treated guitar, percussion and field recordings
Secret Pantone – guitar loops and primordial electronics
P Jorgensen – atmospheric minimalism and crystalline tones

DJ sets from Coldstream

Visuals from FBox Records

Recluse all-dayer, Sunday September 26th
Wilmington Arms, 69 Rosebery Avenue, EC1
3pm-10.30pm £4 in advance, £5 otd www.wegottickets.com/event/80355
Free Live CD of Recluse Recordings available to first 25 people

www.myspace.com/reclusenight

A tantalising taste of what’s to come, ‘Unter | Über’ is a rather microscopic affair and yet a record that perfectly captures the last days of summer before winter sets in…

The under two-minute song twins must be one of the shortest singles released this year. Recorded on Nils’ own piano in his Berlin studio flat, these are two of the most personal and optimistic pieces of music we have heard in a long time. Entwined impeccably these are tracks you can listen to over and over again.

‘Unter’ received a remix by Dutch experimental music maverick Rudger Zuyderveldt aka Machinefabriek. The A-Side also inspired German filmmaker Ralph Etter to take his camera with him out on a field and shoot a stunningly simplistic video of barley flowing in the wind. Both, the remix and this entrancing piece of cinematography will accompany ‘Unter’ and ‘Über’ on their digital release, out August 23rd, 2010. – Erased Tapes

Order from Erased Tapes here

www.erasedtapes.com
www.myspace.com/nilsfrahm

Audio Gourmet return with AGN016 ‘Recalling’, by Danish duo Small Things On Sundays…

The Small Things On Sundays project is spearheaded by the Copenhagen based Henrik Bagner and Claus Poulsen. This artist has several releases available, varying in style across each album and over several weeks, we’ve been in discussion about getting together an atmospheric ambient EP depicting the quintessential characteristics of this talented duo’s work.

Finally, here it is in all its glory: ‘Recalling’, three tracks of high quality otherworldly and cavernous ambient drones. This is a thoroughly atmospheric listen from start to finish and although it has the typical short timeframe that comes as standard with Audio Gourmet releases, this record seems to draw out time through this short duration. – Audio Gourmet

www.smallthingsonsundays.dk
www.audiogourmet.co.uk

Release Date 06.09.10: Following the beautiful Twig and Twine (November 2009, Own Records), Michael Cottone returns with Prismatic, his latest work under the moniker The Green Kingdom. The Detroit based sound artist has once again mixed many disparate influences and ideas into a wonderfully creative album…

Opening track Bonfire sets the tone of what’s to come. Unhurried sound manipulation and complex melodies contrast with guitar which at times sounds slightly reminiscent of Fennesz and conjures a similar optimistic spirit which is present on Fennesz’s Endless Summer, but in Cottone’s unique way.

Crystalline chimes open Bells And Thoughts, which then evolves with unconventional beats and delicate guitar, leaving the listener uplifted.

Claudes Ghost is a slow burning number which features a beautiful keyboard riff complemented with field recordings, the effect hypnotic. Mid-way through, the pace changes and the piece begins to ascend, a cacophony of sound seeing out the remainder of the track.

Radiance Reflected begins with an enchanting melody, the wide stereo image helping notes to echo in each ear. Though there’s no simple hook to the track, the artist delights with inventive uses of an arrhythmic beat.

The Largest Creature That Has Ever Existed is characterised by an array of instruments joining the delicate guitar and swelling drones. There’s an array of separate instruments and ideas present yet a feeling of space remains throughout.

Woven is a lush number driven by chorused keyboards and a long drone, the beautiful guitar present again. The piece builds as many elements add to the song, giving a feeling of momentum.

On Wetlands, Cottone performs a haunting piano part backed by cello, static and field recordings, the cinematic track ending on a mournful note.

Thoughts And Bells (3.07 am dub) is beautiful, the remix fusing glockenspiel with glitchy beats and melancholic strings. The track swells up and down majestically.

With its shimmering guitar pushing forward, Bonfire (tec) washes over the listener with intelligent arrangements before slowly deconstructing at the finish.

A Prayer opens with a haunting piano melody which loops over and again, each time more parts added to the mix. Evocative and moving, this piece provides a strong close to the album.

An eclectic album to be released soon through the Yorkshire-based Home Assembly Music, Prismatic is an aural delight of many instruments and ideas, with each track focusing on a different approach. – Review by Adam Williams for Fluid Radio

Pre-orders now available from Home Assembly

www.homeassemblymusic.com
www.myspace.com/thegreenkingdom
www.thegreenkingdom.wordpress.com

Rural Route No.4 is the latest release in the Rural Route 3″CD series by Toronto based printing, publishing and record label Standard Form, which on this occasion features Alex Durlak in his first return to solo work after a prolonged absence…

Durlak has delivered a long form guitar piece which was performed during the depths of Winter in a single improvised take. Durlak processes and samples his guitar in real time using a series of granular patches until the source is barely recognisable, the end result sounding more synthetic than acoustic.

Durlak’s guitar playing is claustrophobic and ominous, long mechanistic notes contrast with heavier riffs and loops. There is an intimacy to the work and the recording is of excellent quality, it is easy for the listener to imagine being present in the room while this is recorded.

The 3″CD format necessitates brevity and this time constraint appears to do the music present no harm. Indeed, while Durlak explores different phrases and rhythms, his wanderings do not settle on one theme for too long, all the while compelling the listener to pay attention.

Available now from Standard Form in a limited 3″CD or digital download, Rural Route No.4 is another worthwhile release in this fruitful series.

- Review by Adam Williams for Fluid Radio

www.standardform.org

As you may have noticed the Fluid Radio web site has been rather quiet of late. Myself, Jess and the boys decided to take a 3 week break and headed off in the campervan for a trip to Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We did our best to head out into the unknown and spent the majority of time wild camping making sure to give the over crowded camp sites a wide berth.

The first week and a half was spent touring the spectacular West Coast of Ireland before we headed over to the West Coast of Scotland to spend a week with family on Loch Creran.

The last few days was spent visiting the Lake District and then on to North Wales.

Below is a small snapshot of what we did…

Released in an edition of 100, this split album finds Ithaca Trio and Machinefabriek working as pen pals to create a cohesive work, assembled with fine detail and nuance…

Par Avion is an album that belongs in the category of “music from another room”. Music of this nature, built on subtlety, has the effect that what your hearing is actually coming from another room, as it exhibits qualities of vast expanse and separateness. After putting on the record and allowing it to fill the space with its presence, the minutia becomes apparent after closer listens but the overall effect is distant and far away. It seeps into corners, into the cracks of the wall, hides underneath floorboards, and comes to rest in thin air; the dust finds company. In this manner, Par Avion makes its fragile nature known through repeated listens, in after thoughts, as it will haunt the listener for some time after hearing it. While never in the foreground, it begs the listener to move inward, through the cracks, the floorboard, the thin air.

Ithaca Trio work in a similar vein to Zelienople, except that in addition to the three members, there is a fourth member whose presence is felt throughout: silence. It seems that as most bands will begin with noise, and use silence when at rest, Ithaca Trio begins with silence, harnesses its power, and works to fill in places with sound where it is absolutely necessary. I am reminded of the note accompanying Sylvain Chauveau’s 10” release on Type Records, S, which states “For a more realistic listening, please play this recording at low volume.” In a similar manner, Ithaca Trio craft their four pieces around this idea, and, played a low level, the music speaks volumes. On “Orca Towards Ground”, the pitter-patter of drums intersects assorted screeches and organic groans. The freeform approach reaches a pinnacle with “For Ailing Health”, marked by a slow rumble that defines the somber title.

Machinefabriek submits two pieces to close out the album, both with clever, alliterate titles “The Desolate Delay” and “The Harmer Harp”. The barely there and brilliant ominous drone that runs throughout the former, finds a fulcrum in the heavy-handed harangue of unidentified, unilateral sounds sequenced in a stifling space. The loneliness felt from the delay is all-encompassing and the fade out moves the listener effortlessly into “The Harmed Harp.” More obtrusive than its predecessor, the harp is tortured by some kind of device that gives the piece a more forceful and unsettling presence before it seems to become accustomed to the torture and begins to emit more comfortable sounds. The build-up of tension quenches the listener’s appetite as they are drawn from the “other” room towards the speaker where the volume must be turned up.

- Review by Michael Vitrano for Fluid Radio

www.myspace.com/ithaca
www.machinefabriek.nu

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of reviewing a reissue of Celer’s ‘Engaged Touches’ on Home Normal – that album was, for me, something of a revelation as I had never before heard their work and was astonished by its sheer elegant beauty…

I was, then, thrilled to have before me a new album to review – ‘Dying Star’ on Dragon’s Eye Recordings.

From the outset, it’s clear that ‘Dying Star’ is an entirely different approach to ambient music than that found on ‘Engaged Touches’. The sonic palette is reduced to the most minimal of elements – a single vintage synthesiser and mixing board (so the accompanying notes tell me). Gone too is the epic musicality of ‘Engaged Touches’- which was reminiscent of Stars of the Lid’s best work- and in its place are washes of vague and almost illusory ambience – undefined and restless, creating a forever morphing, ebbing and fading field of sound.

Owing to the structural and sonic similarity of the tracks, ‘Dying Star’ creates the impression of being a single piece of music rather than an album composed of individual tracks. The album flows, one piece into the next with indistinguishable beginnings and endings, feeling like an intentional aural modelling of the imperceptible liminal boundary of night and day alluded to
in the album’s title. The results are, needless to say, mesmerising and haunting.

The apparent simplicity of the music should not be confused with a poverty of ideas, nor should it be assumed that such sparse arrangements betray a lack of musical nous. Celer have proved, over their extensive discography, that they have a rich and certain grasp of the conceptual terrain of ambient music and have explored every inch of it. ‘Dying Star’ should be taken as
but one exploratory emission from within their oeuvre rather than a definitive statement of intent.

To my mind the album isn’t as strong as some of their other output, but I feel that, somehow, “strength” isn’t what is intended to be conveyed here. The hazy ganzfeld-like experimentation delivered through the album’s eight tracks is to be consumed almost incidentally as a subtle augmentation of naturally occurring waking dreams. This is true ambient music – to be enjoyed as an integrated part of the surroundings rather than attended to with focussed intent – and in this context, you couldn’t ask for a better example of the art.

- Review by John McCaffrey for Fluid Radio

Available soon from Dragon’s Eye Recordings

www.dragonseyerecordings.com
www.artificialcolors.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/celersite

The work of the solo pianist has gained momentum of late and certainly within the ambiguous genre that is modern classical music…

Whether it be the emotive vignettes of Goldmund and Akira Kosemura, the improvised notation of Nils Frahm, Hauschka’s prepared piano or the ambivalent work of Chris Abrahams, one could be forgiven for thinking that the piano is an instrument that is at a point of saturation at present. While this is a fair assessment in many respects, there is of course always room for quality and in this instance the debut recording ’Becalmed’ by Sophie Hutchings is a welcome addition to a flooded pool of musicians.

A trained musician since her childhood, Sophie Hutchings’ writing began to take on serious form during her teenage years. Produced in two settings: one in Syndey by Tim Whitten (a long time collaborator with The Necks) and one in New South Wales by Tony Dupe, or Saddleback as he is perhaps better known, ‘Becalmed’ comes courtesy of the Preservation record label.

From the album’s opening track ‘Seventeen’ – a sprawling eleven-minute epic of melodic bliss- it appears clear that Sophie’s music possess a narrative quality similar to that of music scored for film. Her solo compositions underline the quality of her key play, which whilst intimate in construction appear grand and vivid in execution.

Other tracks on the album see her collaborate with family and friends who support her piano play with the addition of cello, violin and percussion. These add a further dimension to the music with tracks like “Sunlight Zone” – whose echoed string play recalls the work of Peter Broderick – or “Falling Sea” which accompanied by drums sounds not to dissimilar to the recent work of Olafur Arnalds.

‘Becalmed’ is certainly a noteworthy debut. It is difficult I feel to come away from this album without drawing comparisons to other contemporary artists. This is not so much a criticism of the artist, but perhaps more a reflection of the sheer volume of pianists of this ilk that are currently performing. Nonetheless, this should not deter one from investing in ‘Becalmed’ as the music provides a strong narrative force, with the listener’s imagination the limit to creating pictures for this filmless score of compositions.

- Review by Josh Atkin for Fluid Radio

Available through Preservation Label
Also through Experimedia

www.myspace.com/goldenbooksmusic
www.preservation.com.au