Handstitched* have a new series, consisting of limited-edition issues and releasing on both Mini CD and C45 cassette. Two artists are allocated 22 minutes each, with one artist covering the CD and the other taking up the tape. You’ll need to grab them while they’re hot, as the run is limited to just 50 copies. The sublime hand-crafted packaging, including hand-printed covers for the CD edition and hand-made cassette sleeves on the tapes, adds to the experience.
The split release comes via The Green Kingdom and Maps and Diagrams, and both sides revolve around narratives. The Green Kingdom, aka Michael Cottone, is a Michigan-based sound artist who specialises in evocative ambient, and on Side A, he presents listeners with ‘Audioloom 1’, which, it is hoped, will develop further into a series. Cottone uses synths, samples, and a range of dislocated sounds, removed from their original context and yet sensitive to and tuned into their new habitat, to create a story, developing it page by page, track by track.
Electric and acoustic guitars flow easily alongside the gentle, almost-pastoral and benevolent tones. Passive but still moving forward, continuing to progress, the music retains a sense of inquisitiveness and curiosity, somewhat shy but taking on a new adventure step-by-step. A spacious, dusk-sprinkled atmosphere feels elemental and mysterious, gleaming like quartz. With the quality of mineral purity, the cleansed notes flutter like evening butterflies. The Green Kingdom’s ‘Audioloom’ winds through the trees, and its slim notes are ruffled by a slight breeze.
On Side B, Maps and Diagrams offers ‘Streams’, which concentrates more on the minimal side of things. The music feels open and alive, free from any interference or artistic control. The music is given the breathing space it needs to sustain itself, and while it is slow to the point of being glacial, serenity lines every sound.