Decayed end

New Year's Eve ebbed away? Check. Frantic last-minute hunting & listening? Ditto.

Hair shirt? On.

Painfully clunky though it obviously is, our approach remains the same: two sets of 2019 releases (15 each) that resonated especially with us over the year, selected independently with both selections limited to no more than one pick per artist/label. Once overlaps have been horse-traded into a final 30, the list is supplemented with a previously announced quartet of projects (three exceptionally rich & ambitious compilations, plus Ben Vida's monumental 4-hour Reducing the Tempo to Zero) that fall outside normal 'release' boundaries. 

 

In all of this, our goal is as ever to spread recognition as far as possible: over & above LMYE's desire to embrace - rather than limit - the multiplicity of sounds & artists we love, this remains an attempt to acknowledge & respond to year-end lists' inevitable partiality. It's never comfortable to realise how different ours might look on another day or in another mood, given every year's surfeit of compelling music..

Moreover, the depth of some labels' output forces unpalatable choices. Outstanding releases like Corey Fuller's Break & Live in Tokyo, Stephen Vitiello & Taylor Deupree's Fridman Variations, Marcus Fischer + Burke Jam's Vanitas, Sublamp's Sister Maps, Felicia Atkinson's The Flower & The Vessel, JAB's Erg Herbe, Fennesz's Agora, Bana Haffar's Genera, Simon Scott's Soundings & Flux [as Index] (all ineligible because of labelmate selections, as were a notable if rather all-male run of Room40s - Siavash Amini, Todd Anderson-Kunert, John Chantler, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Kevin Richard Martin, Rafael Toral, Ian Wellman & more) are clearly still core parts of the year's best...

As always, for a more inclusive picture of our listening please explore the monthly Lend Me Your Radio series on SoundCloud, al's Mixcloud & jl's Bandcamp (collection & wish list)...
 

Anyway, in all its flaws, lapses & lacunae we present LMYE's 2019 Festive 33-1/3: 

ASUNA & Jan Jelinek :: Signals Bulletin (Faitiche) [jl] 

https://asunajanjelinek.bandcamp.com/album/signals-bulletin



A Winged Victory for the Sullen :: The Undivided Five (Ninja Tune) [al]

https://ninjatune.net/release/a-winged-victory-for-the-sullen/the-undivided-five

Mariska Baars / Rutger Zuydervelt :: eau (self-released) [jl] 

https://machinefabriek.bandcamp.com/album/eau

Benoît Pioulard :: Sylva (Morr Music) [al]
https://pioulard.bandcamp.com/album/sylva

 
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma :: Tracing Back The Radiance (Mexican Summer) [jl]

https://jefrecantu-ledesma.bandcamp.com/album/tracing-back-the-radiance
 

 

Kate Carr :: City of Bridges (Longform Editions) [jl] 

https://longformeditions.bandcamp.com/track/city-of-bridges

Celer :: Xièxie (Two Acorns) [al/jl]
https://celer.bandcamp.com/album/xi-xie



Kyle Bobby Dunn :: From Here to Eternity (originally Past Inside the Present) [al] 

https://kylebobbydunn.bandcamp.com/album/from-here-to-eternity

First Tone :: Reactions (Spectrum Spools) [jl]
https://spectrumspools.bandcamp.com/album/reactions

Forest Management :: Passageways (Whited Sepulchre) [al] 

https://forestmanagement.bandcamp.com/album/passageways


 

Chihei Hatakeyama :: Forgotten Hill (Room40) [al]
https://room40.bandcamp.com/album/forgotten-hill



Hotel Neon :: Vanishing Forms (Archives) [al]
https://archivesdubmusic.bandcamp.com/album/vanishing-forms

Kassel Jaeger :: Le Lisse et le Strié (Latency) [jl]
https://kasseljaeger.bandcamp.com/album/le-lisse-et-le-stri



Motionfield :: Always There (Databloem) [al]
https://motionfield.bandcamp.com/album/always-there

Not Glass :: Forma / Ήθος (Ecstatic) [jl]
https://ecstaticrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/forma



Yann Novak :: Slowly Dismantling (Room40) [jl]
https://room40.bandcamp.com/album/slowly-dismantling

Offthesky :: to break is something sacred (Handstitched) [jl] 

https://noise.offthesky.com/album/to-break-is-something-sacred

OHIO :: Interludes (12k)
https://12kmusic.bandcamp.com/album/interludes [jl]

oliviaway :: Blueberry Hill (self-released) [al]
https://oliviaway.bandcamp.com/album/blueberry-hill


 

Orphax :: Live Circles (Moving Furniture) [jl] 

https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/live-circles

O Yuki Conjugate :: Sleepwalker (Auf Abwegen) [al]
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/sleepwalker



poemme :: Frozen Passages (Stereoscenic) [al]
https://shop.poemme-ambient.com/album/frozen-passages

Julia Reidy :: In Real Life (Black Truffle) [jl]
https://blacktruffle.bandcamp.com/album/in-real-life

Rime Trails :: Dusk Embers (self-released) [al]
https://rimetrails.bandcamp.com/album/dusk-embers


 

Scott | Paul | Skeen :: Touch Live in California 2019 (Touch) [jl] 

https://touch333.bandcamp.com/album/touch-live-in-california-2019

secretflowers :: secretflowers (High Grade Media) [al] 

https://highgrademedia.bandcamp.com/album/secretflowers



Shasta Cults :: Shasta Cults (Important) [jl]

https://shastacults.bandcamp.com/album/shasta-cults

 
Wayne Robert Thomas :: Well Now You Know, Unfurled (Healing Sound Propagandist) [al]
https://healingsoundpropagandist.bandcamp.com/album/well-now-you-know-unfurled

Various Artists :: Place Language (Fluid Audio) [al/jl]
https://facture.bandcamp.com/album/place-language

Various Artists :: (eilean 100) (eilean) [jl] 

https://eileanrec.bandcamp.com/album/various-artists-eilean-100 

Various Artists :: CRXSINGS (self-released) [jl]
https://crxssings.bandcamp.com/album/crxssings-fundraiser-for-city-plaza

Ben Vida :: Reducing The Tempo to Zero (Shelter Press) [jl]

https://shelterpress.bandcamp.com/album/reducing-the-tempo-to-zero

VIUL :: Bright Decline (Disques d’Honoré) [al]
https://viulsound.bandcamp.com/album/bright-decline



Ian Wellman :: Susan's Last Breath Became the Chill in the Air and the Fog over the City's Night Sky (Dragon’s Eye) [jl]
https://dragonseyerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/susans-last-breath-became-the-chill-in-the-air-and-the-fog-over-the-citys-night-sky

  

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

Thirty-three & two-thirds

Once more into the hair shirt, dear friends: staying with our sincere though inevitably clunky attempt to spread recognition as widely as possible without devaluing it too much, LMYE’s co-authors each independently pick 15 releases that particularly mattered to them during the year – but under two constraints: no more than one selection per artist & one per label. 

Duplication across our 2015 line-ups was limited. Only William Basinski & Richard Chartier's Divertissement (Important), Celer's How could you believe me when I said I loved you when you know I've been a liar all my life (on his own Two Acorns) & Triac's Days for Chartier's Line featured on both initial drafts. 

This year we again expand the resulting master list to a 'Festive 33-1/3'. This blatant wriggling inside the hair shirt is meant to also celebrate a quartet that each amount to rather more than a single release: the welter of intense 'ritual' sounds in D.Fyans' own name since his last appearance as Erstlaub; Dauw & Eilean's often thrilling pairing & repairing of artists across their Dialog Tapes (also here); Headphone Commute's admirable, anonymous 'Undisclosed' series; & the bucolic conclusion of Duane Pitre's "unplanned trilogy" in Bayou Electric. 

Mandatory health warning: as always, plenty of other artists & labels than those featured here made great music this year. We regret not being able to include more of it...






Oren Ambarchi & Jim O’Rourke – Behold (eMego) [jl]
William Basinski & Richard Chartier - Divertissement (Important) [al/jl]
Christopher Bissonnette – Pitch Paper & Foil (kranky) [jl]
Celer - How could you believe me when I said I loved you when you know I've been a liar all my life (Two Acorns) [al/jl]
Alex Cobb – Chantepleure (Students of Decay) [jl]
Donnacha Costello - Stay Perfectly Still (self-released) [al]
Robert Donne, Stephen Vitiello & The OO-Ray – Nuvole (Geographic North) [jl]



Eating Flowers - God Was A White-Tailed Deer (Reckno) [al]
D.Fyans – Various (self-released) [jl]
Tobias Hellkvist – Pause (Dragon’s Eye) [jl]
High aura’d & Mike Shiflet – Awake (Type) [jl]
The Inward Circles – Belated Movements for an Unsanctioned Exhumation August 1st 1984 (Corbel Stone Press) [jl]
Philip Jeck – Cardinal (Touch) [jl]
Johan Johansson with Hildur Gudnadottir & Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe – The End of Summer [Sonic Pieces] [jl]



Ken Karter - Monad XXI (Stroboscopic Artefacts) [al]
Le Berger – Music for Guitar & Patience (Home Normal) [jl]
Moon Zero - Moon Zero (Denovali) [al]
Offthesky & Pleq - A Thousand Fields (Infraction) [al]
Yui Onodera - Sinkai (Arctic Tone) [al]
Pact Infernal - The Descent [Chapter 1] (Lucy Remixes) (Samurai Horo) [al]



 


Periskop - Immerse (Kabalion) [al]
Benoit Pioulard - Stanza I & II (Baro) [al]
Duane Pitre – Bayou Electric (Important) [jl]
Akira Rabelais – the little glass (self-released) [jl]
Ryuichi Sakamoto/Illuha/Taylor Deupree – Perpetual (12k) [jl]
Gabriel Saloman – Movement Building Vol. 2 (Shelter Press) [jl]
Simon Scott – Insomni (Ash International) [jl]



Shuttle358 - Can You Prove I Was Born (12k) [al]
Sons of Melancholia - Silencer (diametric.) [al]
Sustainer – Radiolas (Room40) [jl]
Triac - Days (Line) [al/jl]
Various Artists – Dialog Tapes (Dauw/Eilean) [jl]
Various Artists – Undisclosed (Headphone Commute) [jl]
Chris Weeks - The Cloud (self-released) [al]







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

Thirty-three & a third

You may know the drill by now: in a sincere though inevitably clunkily artificial attempt to spread recognition as widely as possible without devaluing it too much, LMYE’s co-authors each independently pick 15 releases that particularly mattered to them during the year – but under two faintly hair-shirted constraints: no more than one selection per artist & one per label. 

Duplication across our 2014 line-ups was very limited. Only Lawrence English’s Wilderness of Mirrors (a highlight of another stand-out year for his Room40 imprint, our 2012 Label of the Year), Fennesz’s Bécs (eMego), Stephan Mathieu’s Sacred Ground (Schwebung) and Janek Schaefer’s Lay-By Lullaby (12k) featured on both initial drafts. 

This year we expand the resulting master list to a Festive 33-1/3. In particular, we throw in two epic collections that were too significant to exclude, even if they weren’t strictly speaking new music: Chris Dooks’ The Motherlode & The Otherlode (Broken20) & Kenneth Kirschner’s Imperfect Forms (Tokafi). 

In addition, a wry part-vote for Le Berger’s Interwoven Sonic Tapestry – formally released at a minute to midnight (EST, presumably) today “to ensure avoidance of any 2014 and / or 2015 'top' lists” – rounds out our initial 2014 roll-call. 

Mandatory health warning: plenty of other artists & other labels than those featured here made great music this year. As previously, we’ll acknowledge the broader universe of releases that resonated with us in a follow-up post…

Anjou – Anjou (Kranky) [jl]
Thomas Ankersmit – Figueroa Terrace (Touch) [jl]
Andrea Belfi – Natura Morta (Miasmah) [jl]
Nicolas Bernier – frequences (a / fragments) (LINE) [jl]
Alex Cobb – Marigold & Cable (Shelter Press) [jl]
Robert Curgenven – SIRÈNE (Recorded Fields) [jl]
Dalhous - Will To Be Well (Blackest Ever Black) [al]
Deaf Center – Recount (Sonic Pieces) [jl]
Loren Dent - Anthropology Vols. 2 & 3 (Infraction) [al]
Chris Dooks – The Motherlode & The Otherlode (Broken20) [jl]

Kyle Bobby Dunn - Kyle Bobby Dunn & the Infinite Sadness (Students of Decay) [al]
Lawrence English - Wilderness of Mirrors (Room40) [al/jl]
Lawrence English & Stephen Vitiello – Fable (Dragon’s Eye) [jl]
Fennesz - Bécs (eMego) [al/jl]
Chris Herbert – Constants (Room40) [jl]
The Inward Circles - Nimrod is Lost in Orion & Osyris in the Doggestarre (Corbel Stone Press) [jl]
P Jørgensen – Gold Beach (Low Point) [jl]
Kangding Ray - Solens Arc (Raster-Noton) [al]
Sima Kim - Debris (Soft Corridor)
Kenneth Kirschner – Imperfect Forms (Tokafi) [jl]

Le Berger – Interwoven Sonic Tapestry (in the key of) (self-released) [jl]
Stephan Mathieu – Sacred Ground (Schwebung) [jl/al]
Neel - Phobos (Spectrum Spools) [al]
Duane Pitre & Cory Allen – The Seeker & The Healer (Students of Decay) [jl]
Abdulla Rashim - Unanimity (Northern Electronics) [al]
M. Sage - A Singular Continent (Patient Sounds) [al]
Pascal Savy - Adrift (Eilean Records) [al]
Janek Schaefer – Lay-By Lullaby (12k) [jl/al]
Shifted - Arrangements in Monochrome (Part 1 & 2) (Avian) [al]
Nicholas Szczepanik - Not Knowing (Desire Path) [al]






TCF - 415C47197F78E811FEEB7862288306EC4137FD4EC3DED8B (Liberation Technologies) [al]
Tegh - Night Scenes (Inner Ocean) [al]
Mike Weis – Don’t Know, Just Walk (Type) [jl]
Cody Yantis / Nathan McLaughlin / Josh Mason / Joe Houpert – Line Drawings (Desire Path/FET Press) [jl]



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

Hair skirt

Weeks into the new year but still, er, partying like it's 2013 (fretting ludicrously over inclusions even now, more like...), we finally get round to highlighting 50 more releases that particularly mattered to us last year.

Listed below, they provide a companion to & expansion of last month's Festive 30 - & together form this year's Improbably Late 80 (successor to last year's here & there). 

Though you'd probably appreciate never hearing more of it again, please note that these releases were selected after shedding the 'no more than one pick per artist or label' hairshirt in which each co-author was clad when determining our initial group. Like them, these 50 have their own playlist - tracks below are from the 18 releases unavailable for that list.

Disclaimer: inevitably, 2013 brought many more great pieces of music than the 80 we've managed to highlight. But these were the ones that really resonated with us during the year...



36 :: Shadow Play (3Six)
Aquarelle :: August Undone (Students of Decay)
Anne Chris Bakker :: Tussenlicht (Somehow)
B/B/S :: Brick Mask (Miasmah)
Ben Fleury-Steiner :: Clearings (Rural Colours) 
Bengalfuel :: Keewadin (self-released)
Celer :: Climbing Formation (Entropy)/Radish (Commune)
Chris Abrahams :: Memory Night (Room40) 
Chris Watson :: In St Cuthbert’s Time (Touch)





Cindytalk :: A Life is Everywhere (eMego)
CMKK :: Gau (Monotype)
Dadub :: Untitled EP (Stroboscopic Artefacts) 
Dalglish :: Niaw ot Vile (PAN) 
Daniel Menche :: Marriage of Metals (eMego)
David Sylvian & Stephen Mathieu :: Wandermuede (samadhisound) 
Duane Pitre :: Bridges (Important)  
Erstlaub :: Twenty Paces Outward in a Spiral (Broken20)
Fabio Orsi & Pimmon :: Procrastination (Home Normal) 
Faures :: Continental Drift (Home Normal)





Gabriel Saloman :: Soldier’s Requiem (Miasmah)
Ithaca Trio :: Music for Piano & Patience (Home Normal)
Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier :: Dark Morse (Shelter Press)
John Davis :: Ask the Dust (Students of Decay)
Kangding Ray :: Tempered Inmid EP (Raster Noton)
Keith Berry :: Towards the Blue Peninsula (Infraction)
Koboku Senju :: Joining the queue to become one of those ordinary ghosts (MIE Music)
Kwaidan :: Make All the Hell of Dark Metal Bright (Bathetic)
Machinefabriek :: Attention, the Doors are Closing! (self-released)/Vergezichten (Alien Transistor)





Mark Templeton :: Jealous Heart (Under The Spire)
Miko Vainio & Joachim Nordwall :: Monstrance (Touch) 
Mountains - Centralia (Thrill Jockey) 
Nils Quak :: Infinite Folds (self-released)/Und Unsere Häuser Sind Särge (SicSic)
Phill Niblock :: Touch Five (Touch)
Pillowdiver :: Bloody Oath (Dronarivm)
Quiet Evenings :: Impressions (Aguirre)
Rachad Becker :: Traditional Music of Notional Species Vol. 1 (PAN)
Rafael Anton Irisarri :: The Unintentional Sea (Room40)





Richard Chartier :: Interior Field (LINE)
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Taylor Deupree :: Disappearance (12k)
Simon Fisher-Turner & Philippe Petit :: A Ti Dou Li Dum A Ti Dou Li Dum Ti De (hellosQuare) 
Stephan Mathieu :: Un Coeur Simple (Baskaru)
Stephen Vitiello & Molly Berg :: Between You & the Shapes You Take (12k)
Svarter Greiner :: Black Tie (Miasmah)
Tobias Hellkvist :: Turquoise (Small Fragments)
William Basinski :: Nocturnes (2062) 
Yann Novak :: Blue.Hour (Farmacia901)
Yann Novak & Richard Chartier :: Undefined (Farmacia901)







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

Shirt listing

A quick supplement to our recent Festive 30: from 30 releases that particularly mattered to us in 2013 (each co-author restricted, as noted with tedious if sincere scrupulousness, to a single pick per artist & label...) a playlist from the 15 available on Spotify - 3013. 

Drawn roughly half & half from each co-authorial selection, the line-up comprises William Basinski & Richard Chartier (jl), Boards of Canada (al), Dalhous (al), Eluder (al), Bruce Gilbert & BAW (jl), Tim Hecker (al/jl), Jon Hopkins (al), Kiln (al), Main (jl), Mohammad (jl), Tomas Phillips & Kenneth Kirschner (jl), Orphax (jl), Pausal (al), Slow Walkers (jl) & Savvas Ysatis & Taylor Deupree (jl). 












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