Avian circlers

Slow off the mark, as ever, but finally registered the new Benoit Pioulard EP, Plays Thelma (on Desire Path), via the lulling, blurrily ruminative Calder (today's Track of the Day, for what that's worth). 


Blurb: "Thelma is best described as a place existing in between—a lake within a haze. Against its concave mirror, the sonic territory of Benoît Honoré Pioulard—documented across three acclaimed LPs by Chicago’s Kranky label—assumes the qualities of this place and all its ephemera, warm breezes, burbling shimmers and avian circlers. During his excursions to Thelma, Pioulard rested beneath the willow and wandered in the meadow, listening, absorbing, and recording. Glimpses are contained herein, where the solace and beauty of this mysterious place resonate in travelers who care to listen.


"The release is launched at tomorrow night's 'special evening of melancholy' in Toronto. M. Pioulard (aka Thomas Meluch) will play alongside the hefty combined talents of Kyle Bobby Dunn, A Winged Victory for the Sullen & Ken Camden - a gig of the year contender if these ears were somewhat nearer Ontario...  

Benoît Honoré Pioulard - Calder

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Ben and Cobb

Getting high on Ben Fleury-Steiner, Alex Cobb & Aquarelle’s heady deliveries on Low Point, LMYE label of 2010, the former with The Places That Find You, download here and white vinyl LP released tomorrow, the latter with a Split EP, download here, also with LP to follow.

Previously on LMYE, heads were upped to Ben’s Infraction gem, Keep a Weather Eye Open. Now, ‘drawing upon his deep love of minimalism and influenced by the work of Mirror, Jonathan Coleclough and Tim Hecker,’ with ‘a mixture of instrumentation, including the use of the kalimba and the various sounds produced when played in the manner of a prepared guitar, coupled with more modern electronic instruments including effects pedals and synths,’ we find The Places That Find You:

The Places That Find You (Album Preview) by Low Point

Celer’s Will Long words the blurb: “First impressions pull closer, strings and fizzles fall, carrying you, reaching further and ending up in an all-new place. Time is simple and less than a moment, with the lasting habit of a worn-out keepsake but nonetheless you are still immediately there again, inside those open arms and a world you have always dreamed of.
In homage to minimalism and imagination, 'The Places That Find You' by Ben Fleury-Steiner embodies an ultimate trance, the ability to connect directly with the listener and the truth behind the feeling of music from the heart. Far away but incredibly close, the five tracks forming this album never return to the ordinary but move, invert and grow, through time-lapse expressions and faded visions.
Some listeners want to be transported to other places through music, whilst others hear the technical artistry and find inspiration to delve deeper into the creative process. Without any direction and by simply following your own natural instincts, 'The Places That Find You' is a guide that places you instantly, allowing each listener to find more, not only through the music but from inside themselves.”

MDME#40 - Memory from Marco Douma on Vimeo.

The collusion of Alex Cobb & Aquarelle on Split LP is not their first association, with Students of Decay boss Cobb releasing the latter’s last waxing (see your LMYE scribe’s scribblings here, and, while you’re at it, there’s previous here). Aquarelle is sound artist and curator of Rest + Noise, Ryan Potts, originally from Wisconsin and currently a resident of Toronto, Canada. Alex Cobb, previously recording as Taiga Remains, under which alias he gave us Ribbons of Dust one of the finest ever minimal guitar drone albums (clips here, and here), originally separate 3”s on his own Students of Decay, then later collected as a full-length on Root Strata.

Split LP (Album Preview) by Low Point

Sam Landry, aka LMYE mucker Le Berger, with blurb verbiage: “Artists sharing a split record are akin to being roommates, with their share of common spaces yet separate headquarters. Such an undertaking tends to bring about elements of juxtaposition, contrast and union. This Low Point release from Alex Cobb & Aquarelle encompasses these and many more in a seamless fashion, breathing an ease of cohabitation throughout.
One side of the vinyl LP picks up where the other left off and there is a manifest impression of torch-bearing with a common decisiveness within these pieces. Their work may be seen not in opposition, but rather as an alternative to the otherwise microwaved and unimaginative drones steadily filling up the modern musical landscape.
Gracing upon themes of immanence, embodiment and metamorphosis, it embarks the listener into deeply immersive sonic territory. The shades and nuances are undeniably subtle but also rich and vast, which makes entering the dwelling of these artists both a mystifying, yet coherent experience all at once.”



Coming soon to a Low Point near you: another split LP, this from Jefre Cantu-Ledesma (previously) with another friend of LMYE, P Jørgensen; there’s also the promise of further Pointed Lowings from Kyle Bobby Dunn, Nickolas Mohanna. and Ex-Easter Island Head.


Hear some here:

Low Point 2011 Preview by Low Point

And for good measure here’s some more Aquarelle from the SoD release:

With Verticals by Students of Decay



Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Flame attire

Our provost of Cambridge, Simon Scott showcases long learning, a venerable past & ears sharper than a King's College spire on a Track of the Day exclusive to the vinyl version of his new Bunny for Miasmah (also stream the CD release in full below). Don't know quite how those halving colons fit into a badger's lair, but SETT::: :: : is a fuzzy, fragile soundscape of scudding clouds & reflective filigree. 


Bonus: Scott's delicate, somehow yearning Flame Attire remix of Isan's Eastside on his own Keshhhhhh label (previously featured here)....


SETT::: :: : by Simon Scott


Simon Scott - Bunny


ISAN - "Flame Attire" remix by Simon Scott

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Sometimes is orange

The grand intensities of Nicholas Szczepanik's symphonic drones seem to demand an equally grand critical response. This is about as far from that as imaginable - but his roaring, brink-of-unravelling epic Years Compressed into Minutes Without Any Concept of Self - a "track I recorded in 2010 for an as-of-yet to be released compilation on Experimedia" - is too arresting, too masterful & too ravishing not to at least acknowledge as a Track of the Day. 


Hear below the piece's stealthy accumulation (guitar jet trails on celestial hum on doomy tones...) to its vast, crashing but still shaped peak. 


Much more at Szczepanik's SoundCloud... 


Some really fine coverage at Mountain7 (also here) & The Liminal, by the way. 

Years Compressed into Minutes Without Any Concept of Self by Nicholas Szczepanik

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Swan vs gull

Delicious new Oneohtrix Point Never again paired with other Daniel Lopatin output - after FRKWYS last time out, his rich body of collaborations, remixes, live takes & offcuts (almost all downloadable, by the way). & while his self-made video for the new release's haunting title track puts a kind of self-mocking emphasis on neo-kosmische's cartoonish side (drawing on the "saddest version of the most violen soviet cartoon ever", according to one YouTube commenter) - oddly, in a way, since Replica is an affecting, sober meditation - another film technique stands out from his off-piste collection. 


The drama & impact of Lopatin's jump-cutting is most obvious on remixes like those for Antony & the Johnsons' Swanlight (a connection immortalised in last year's majestic take on Returnal, of course) & FRKWYS fellow traveller Laurel Halo's Metal Confection. But it also illuminates live performances (this London 'outro', for example, or this college radio work-out) & experiments such as The Martinellis Bring Home a Desire System...


Not that all is jump-cut. Streams below end with a trio of more trademark arpeggiated bliss-outs. As often with OPN/Lopatin, these - a Harold Grosskopf remake, an Emeralds collab &, especially, a "free looping" piece for radio - generate an unexpected emotional heft....





ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS - SWANLIGHTS (remix) by Oneohtrix Point Never



Swanlights by Antony and the Johnsons


LAUREL HALO - METAL CONFECTION (remix) by Oneohtrix Point Never


SEAGULLS OUTTAKE (GROSVENOR, LONDON March 18th, 2010) by Oneohtrix Point Never

RARE FREQUENCY LIVE JAM (WZBC July 23rd, 2009) by Oneohtrix Point Never


MASQVES - OCEAN OF TEARS (HAUSCHILDT / OPN COLLAB)


Masqves at Paris London New York West Nile (5/14/09)

TRAUMA 2010 by Oneohtrix Point Never

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Sons of Kent

A companion piece to yesterday's look at Experimedia's outstanding label sampler - previews of the seven released albums included in LMYE's picks, which if we're being completist also included future releases from Celer, From The Mouth Of The Sun (Jasper TX & Aaron Martin) & Sean McCann... 


Anyway, below hear Black Swan's wispily playful but more often saturnine 8 Movements (a movie score playing through a murky, gritty fog...); Jannick Schou's thundering, monolithic Act of Shimmering; Aaron Martin's richly textured Worried About The Fire, which summons unexpected intensities from its traditional palette; Keith Freund's sweetly bucolic Constant Comments (though its darker later pieces appeal more to these ears); & Charles-Eric Charrier's alarmingly twangy but also richly 'post-everything' Silver (Christoph Berg's mesmerising Field Rotation remix of 12 From must also be heard). 


Oh, & Lawrence English's jaw-dropping masterpiece The Peregrine, of course (but then it's a re-up, as is Piiptsjilling's still moving Wurdskrieme)... 

Black Swan - In 8 Movements (album preview)


Charles-Eric Charrier - Silver (album preview)

Aaron Martin - Worried About The Fire (album preview)


Keith Freund - Constant Comments (album preview)


Jannick Schou - Act of Shimmering (album preview)

Lawrence English - The Peregrine (album preview) [re-up]


Piiptsjilling - Wurdskrieme (album preview) [re-up]

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Men of Kent

Clearly you can't compare a compilation with a single release like the astounding Peregrine. But even if it necessarily lacks the same coherence & singular artistic vision the new Experimedia label sampler (which includes a chunk of Lawrence English's instant classic, incidentally) is still one of my albums of the year. 


I don't even know if the sampler 'exists' as a formal release. Perhaps its only life is digital -  as an online curation of streams from Experimedia's recent & coming albums, by label head (& very fine artist in his own right) Jeremy Bible. 


But in truth who cares (though obviously if there's a physical version around I crave one...)? What counts is the selection's breadth, its richness & its embodiment of an aesthetic distinctive enough to be immediately recognisable - dense, languid, reflective - but not so rigid that it can't accommodate interesting exceptions too (Charles-Eric Charrier's spacey post-jazz, for example).   


Bible "couldnt be more proud of this fine collection of music." Hear why below...

Lawrence English - The Hunting Life


Keith Freund - He Noticed I'm Alive... and Other Hopeful Signs


Celer - Bedded In Shallow Blades (Excerpt)


Black Swan - In 8 Movements (Part 1 & 2)


Sean McCann - The Flying Party


Jannick Schou - Then Filling Your Pockets With Stones


Piipstjilling - Unkrûd


Charles-Eric Charrier - 12 From


From The Mouth Of The Sun - Like Shadows In An Empty Cathedral


Aaron Martin - Water Tongue


EXPERIMEDIA.2011.LABEL.SAMPLER


Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Tote bundler

A minor-key piano figure makes its stately, affecting way across a sound stage of buzzing riffs, cloudy fuzz & squealing tones: the arresting restraint of Replica, the delicately balanced title track of the new Oneohtrix Point Never, contrasts markedly with the earlier Sleep Dealer's pot pourri of squelchy synth gestures...


Also, proving a point recently nailed on Disquiet, the live debut of Lopatin's chamber-kosmische supergroup FRKWYS 7 Ensemble is - enlightenedly - already up on SoundCloud for the global audience that would have loved to make it to Pittsburgh last Friday night... Hear its often compelling, sometimes grandiloquent set (mostly improvised, according to the "electronic jam band"'s intro) below too.


Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica


Oneohtrix Point Never - Sleep Dealer


FRKWYS 7 Ensemble - Live at VIA Festival (Oct. 6th 2011)


"Room audio from the debut performance of the FRKWYS 7 ensemble feat. David Borden, James Ferraro, Samuel Godin, Laurel Halo, and Daniel Lopatin at Carnegie Mellon University's Kresge Theater on October 7th, 2011. Part of VIA Festival 2011 in Pittsburgh PA."

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Lend Me Your Eyes

Destello from Ivan Villafuerte on Vimeo.

A certain juxtaposition of image and sound that gets into just the right zone of resonance and removal: videos by Ivan Villafuerte, stumbled on while researching d_rradio. The above features "The Atomium - Part Two" by Stars of the Lid and "Early Evening Reverie" by Auburn Lull.

More of the vision thing:

"Still In A Storm" and "Death Of The Fair Green Veil" by d_rradio

Opsin from Ivan Villafuerte on Vimeo.

"Void" : Chihei Hatakeyama, "The Daughters of Quiet Minds" : Stars of the Lid

Sprawl from Ivan Villafuerte on Vimeo.

"Early 80's Snowfall" : Epic45, "Ruins Of A Wall Of Sound" : d_rradio

Snow Avail from Ivan Villafuerte on Vimeo.

"Body Within Body" : Jefre Cantu-Ledesma

Vis Pneuma from Ivan Villafuerte on Vimeo.

"Returns" : d_rradio

Aether from Ivan Villafuerte on Vimeo.

"The Immense Quiet Of The Dark Blue" : d_rradio

Departure from Ivan Villafuerte on Vimeo.

"Close Forever Watching" : Deaf Center

Municipality 15 from Ivan Villafuerte on Vimeo.

"Cloister" : Loscil

Candela from Ivan Villafuerte on Vimeo.

"Net to Catch a Ghost" : Andrew Thomas and "Bending Dream" : Eluvium

Fiestaval from Ivan Villafuerte on Vimeo.

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.