Having already named the four projects falling outside normal 'release' boundaries that complete our list, we press on somewhat arse about face to present LMYE's Festive 33-1/3 in full. Clunky though it clearly is, our approach remains the same: two sets of 2018 releases (15 each) that meant especially much to us over the year, selected
independently with both sets 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 our additional quartet.
In all of this, our goal is always 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 is an attempt to
acknowledge & respond to year-end lists'
inevitable partiality.
It's never comfortable to reflect on how different ours might look
on another day or in another mood, given every year's surfeit of compelling music..
Moreover, some labels' outstanding output forces unpalatable choices. Notable releases like Jana Winderen's Spring Bloom in the Marginal Ice Zone, Triac's Departure & M. Geddes Gengras's Light Pipe (all ineligible because of labelmate selections) are clearly still core parts of the year's best...
Note that a number of fine labels regrettably unrepresented here, such as ACR, Polar Seas & Schwebung, will feature in a follow-up piece on the year's key compilations.
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)...
Still clunky, still well intentioned: the formula for our annual Festive 33-1/3 is, once again, no more than one pick per artist/label by each of us.
We then augment the resulting list (two sets of 15 releases selected independently, meshed & supplemented when doubles necessitate a bit of horse-trading...). The addition comes from four further projects that fall outside the normal 'release' boundaries - bigger &/or more ambitious (in multiple media, for example), or unexpected collaborations.
The rationale remains 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 is an attempt to acknowledge & respond to year-end lists' inevitable partiality. How different ours & others' might look on another day or in another mood, given the vast amount of great music every year brings...
As previously, the striking quality of some labels' output forces unpalatable choices. Outstanding releases like Lawrence English's Cruel Optimism, Kassel Jaeger & Jim O'Rourke's Wakes On Cerulean, Robert Crouch's Sublunaror Marc Kate's As If We Were Never Here didn't make the cut here only because something else on their particularly strong imprints (Room40, Editions Mego, Touch & Dragon's Eye, respectively) meant even more to one of us. But in any broader sense they are clearly core parts of the year's best...
As always, for a more inclusive picture of our listening pleasures please check out the monthly Lend Me Your Radio series on SoundCloud, al's Mixcloud & jl's Bandcamp (collection & wish list).
Olli Aarni :: Nielu (Florabelle) Olivier Alary :: Pieces for Sine Wave Oscillators (Line) Anjou :: Epithymía (Kranky) Aquarelle :: Leave Corners (Debacle) ASC :: Trans-Neptunian Objects (Auxiliary)
Andrea Belfi / Taylor Deupree & Marcus Fischer / Masaya Ozaki & Kaito Nakahori - Alveare / Lowlands / Mythologies (Iikki) Benoît Pioulard :: Lignin Poise (Beacon Sound) Celer :: Plays Liberace (Celer) Dominic Coppola :: Golden Blonde Air (Boudoir) Dramavinile :: 7 (Unknown Tone)
drøne :: A Perfect Blind (Pomperipossa) Endurance :: Echoic Architecture (Polar Seas) / Molecular Shrine (ACR) Forest Management :: The Elevated Quiet (Constellation Tatsu) David Fyans :: Subscriber Series (Erstlaub)
IJO :: Melancholika Vol. 2 (ACR) The Inward Circles :: And Right Lines Limit and Close All Bodies (Corbel Stone Press) Hannu Karjalainen :: A Handful Of Dust Is A Desert (Karaoke Kalk) Steven Kemner :: Gradation Movements (Fluid Audio) Moon Zero :: Relationships Between Inner and Outer Space (Denovali)
poemme :: Soft Ice (Polar Seas) the prairie lines :: eyes down slowdown (Whitelabrecs) Steve Roach :: Nostalgia for the Future (Timeroom) Claire M. Singer :: Fairge (Touch) Sontag Shogun & Moskitoo :: The Things We Let Fall Apart / The Thunderswan (Home Normal)
Thet Liturgiske Owäsendet :: Hafvet (Low Point) The Transcendence Orchestra :: Modern Methods for Ancient Rituals (Editions Mego) Various Artists/Jon Wozencroft :: Movements (Touch) Velleitie :: Scheming the Afterimage with God Herself (Sounds Against Humanity)
Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.
Ineptitude or high-mindedness? Either way (both, really), LMYE's Festive 33-1/3 - a selection of the releases that meant most to us in 2016 - again emerges on the last day of the year... The song remains the same too: a clunky but sincere attempt to acknowledge how much more great music was released over the year, even just in our narrow corner of endeavour, than an inevitably partial list like this can begin to embrace. To spread the love as far as possible the two of us select 15 releases each, but no more than one per label or artist. After a bit of jostling & horse-trading over duplicates (though barely any this year, when we've evidently been further apart in our listening than previously...), we supplement the 30 with four projects that fall outside the normal 'release' boundaries - bigger &/or more ambitious (in multiple media, for example), or not strictly new - to derive our 33-1/3.
This year's list has been unusually challenging since a number of key labels were in overdrive. Grand projects have multiplied too. So our self-constraining methodology became even more masochistic. How, to take an especially painful example, to choose between Bethan Kellough's Aven & Claire M. Singer's Solas? Two exceptional releases that each expanded notions of sound palettes & what could be done with them, but both on Touch (about whom more shortly...). & that's to exclude Yann Novak's Ornamentation, Simon Scott's Floodlines, Anna von Hauswolff'sKallan (Prototype)& Fennesz's Mahler Remix, despite all four clearly demanding recognitition as part of the year's 'best'. Ditto conflicts between multiple pieces of outstanding work on Dragon's Eye, Editions Mego, Line, Room40, Sonic Pieces & Students of Decay - to highlight the concerns of only one pair of LMYE ears. Note to self: a follow-up without the hair shirt may be needed to honour all these exclusions.
At the very least, for a less partial picture of our listening priorities please check out the monthly Lend Me Your Radio series on SoundCloud, al's Mixcloud & jl's Bandcamp (collection & wish list).
2016 Festive 33-1/3: Jeremy Bible - Music for Black Holes (Aole) [jl] Dirty Hope/Graham Dunning/David Fyans/Mark Lyken/Orphax/TVO/Arne Weinberg - li series (Broken20) [jl] Stephan Mathieu - Radiance series (Schwebung) [jl] Abul Mogard - Works (Ecstatic) [al]
1991 - No More Dreams (No More Dreams) [al] Chris Abrahams - Climb (Vegetable) [jl] anthéne - Black Carbon (Assembly Field) [jl] Beautumn - Bordeaux (Infraction) [al] Benoît Pioulard - Thine / Radial (self-released) [al] Bruised Skies - Guide (Blank Editions) [al] Celestino - Beyond Enemy (A Guide To Saints) [al] Dominic Coppola - Ladylike EP (Overview Ltd.) [al]
drøne - reversing into the future (Pomperipossa) [jl] Drottning Omma - Iris av is (offworldcolonies ltd.) [al] Christian Fennesz & Jim O'Rourke - It's Hard For Me To Say I’m Sorry (Editions Mego) [jl] Francesco Giannico & Giulio Aldinucci - Agoraphonia (Dronarivm) [jl] Billy Gomberg - Slight at that Contact (Students of Decay) [jl] Tobias Hellkvist - Vesterhavet (self-released) [jl] Chris Herbert - Katushki (Low Point) [jl]
Braeyden Jae - Fog Mirror (Whited Sepulchre) [al] KETEV - I Know No Weekend (Portals Editions) [al] Bethan Kellough - Aven (Touch) [jl] L’eoscombu Couti - Five Cambridge Utilities (Constellation Tatsu) [al] Sophia Loizou - Singulacra (Kathexis) [al] Sana Obruent - Prince of the Air (Blackjack Illuminist) [al] Marsen Jules - Shadows in Time (Oktaf) [jl] Moss Covered Technology - Speicherbank (Eilean) [al]
New Rome - Nowhere (Room40) [al] Nils Quak - Ad Interim (Phinery) [jl] Alex Smalley - JAN SBR 15 (Rural Colours) [jl] The Swifter - Wall Sailor (Sonic Pieces) [jl] Triac - Here (Line) [jl] Willamette - Diminished Composition (Scissor Tail) [al] Uwe Zahn/Porya Hatami/Darren McClure - Veerian (Eilean) [jl]
Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.
It's hardly a surprise from the home of Cosi, Ielasi,Orsi & Ratti, of course. But so much ravishing music emerged there in 2016 that if we were indifferent enough to the category's absurdity Italy would surely be LMYE's Country of the Year... As our Festive 33-1/3 - out tomorrow, allegedly - will show, some of the 2016 releases that mattered most to these ears are by Italian artists. A number of those that fell victim to our hair-shirted methodology (only one release per label/artist) are too. This, ahem, renaissance embraces a host of styles - from post-rock to ultra-minimalism. Given that, is there anything distinctively Italian threading them together beyond nationality? Perhaps. Many of the artists below manifest notable care & restraint over their sounds - a commitment to selection & balance that seems rooted in the country's broader culture. Che figata!
Bonus:
Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.
"June 12, 2016 — I have been working on this piece for a while but it always just felt so dark. Darkness is what I feel today. This work is dedicated to the victims of all violence against LGBTQ people. 100% of the profit from sales/downloads of this work will be donated to: THE GLBT COMMUNITY CENTER OF CENTRAL FLORIDA + PULSE TRAGEDY COMMUNITY FUND may love prevail over hate in all its forms, richard chartier PS: please also consider donating directly to the links above to help the community as well as the victims' families." Prompted by tragedy but also in support & celebration of its maker: darkness & a little light in an array of gripping, mostly recent work by Line-lord Chartier - largely in his "more emotional, dare one say musical" Pinkcourtesyphoneguise...
NB: Photos from 3particles.com/pinkcourtesyphone.com. Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.
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'sDivertissement(Important), Celer'sHow 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(alsohere); 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.
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.
