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.

Language of the unheard

From a super-spare palette, pared-back martial rage from Gabriel Saloman - a key part of Miasmah's outstanding run over the past year (besides his fiercely poised, affecting Adhere, a highlight of LMYE's Festive 30 last year, & the forthcoming Soldier's Field, the label has also knocked out essential listening from B/B/S, Svarte Greiner & Kaboom Karavan lately...). 

Gabriel Saloman - Boots On The Ground









Gabriel Saloman - Mine Field (clip)

gabriel saloman - adhere (album preview)

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

Fifty-fifty balls

After Monday's first instalment, a further 50 exceptional artists/releases to complete LMYE's 2011 Festive 50 + 50. Not, of course, that our centurions' were the year's only worthwhile sounds - we're intensely conscious (particularly after relishing others' deeply-felt - & very different - lists, notably Anti-Gravity Bunny's, Gacougnal's, The Liminal's (& its contributors'), The Milk Factory's, Suborno's, Fluid Radio's & 5:4's) of how much more thrilling music 2011 had to offer & how partial even our expanded selection must inevitably be.


Still, as with our earlier batch, each of these artists/releases resonated greatly with one or both of us over the year. Some will with you too, hopefully...

Keith Berry - The Ear That Was Sold To a Fish (album preview)


Sublamp - Girl, Calling to an Empty House [via pdis_inpartmaint]


kreng - grimoire (album preview)

Further 50 (or so...)

3ofmillions :: Abstruction (Rufus) / a. d. l. r. :: Foam On The Waves Of Space-Time... (Non Projects) / Aquarelle :: A Shifting Visage (Low Point; split w/Alex Cobb)/Sung In Broken Symmetry (Students of Decay) / A Winged Victory for the Sullen :: A Winged Victory for the Sullen (kranky) / Keith Berry :: The Ear that was Sold to a Fish (Infraction) / John Chantler :: The Luminous Ground (Room40) / Chubby Wolf :: Turkey Decoy (Digitalis) / Cleared :: Cleared (Immune) / Dark Class :: Gendie/Music For A Destroyed Landscape (Heat Death) / Deep Magic :: Lucid Thought (Preservation) / / d_rradio :: Forecast (Heat Death) / Ensemble Economique :: Crossing the Pass, by Torchlight (Dekorder) / Erstlaub :: The Last Few Seconds Before Sleep/The First Few Seconds After Sleep (Broken20) / Keith Fullerton Whitman :: 101105 (Dekorder; split w/Alien Radio)/Regaining Composure, Negating Freedom (Ekhein) / Ellen Fullman :: Through Glass Planes (Important) / Steven Hess & Christopher McFall :: The Inescapable Fox (Under the Spire) / Ezekiel Honig :: Folding Live (self-released) / The Inventors of Aircraft :: The West Country (Rural Colours) / Ithaca Trio :: Quiet, Please (Coma Architects) / Jasper TX :: The Black Sun Transmissions (Fang Bomb) / Leyland Kirby :: Eager To Tear Apart The Stars/Intrigue & Stuff Vols 1-3 (History Always Favours the Winners) / Kenneth Kirschner :: Twenty Ten (12k) / Kreng - Grimoire (Miasmah) / Will Long :: Rosy Reflections (Avant Archive) / Loscil :: Coast/Range/Arc (Glacial Movements) / Machinist - Of What Once Was (Moving Furniture)

The Inventors of Aircraft - Calling Out My Goodnights


Dark Class - Music For A Destroyed Landscape


machinist - of what once was (album preview)

Marsen Jules :: Nostalgia (Oktaf) / Nickolas Mohanna :: Reflections (Preservation) / Moss :: Moss (12k) / Mountains :: Air Museum (Thrill Jockey) / Yann Novak :: Presence (Hibernate) / Oneohtrix Point Never :: Replica (Software/Mexican Summer) / Fabio Orsi :: Stand Before Me, Oh My Soul (Preservation)/The Theft of a Rose (Time Released Sound)/Wo Ist Behle? (Boring Machines) / Ous Mal :: Ous Mal Is Dead...Long Live Ous Mal (Preservation) /  Duane Pitre :: ED09 for string ensemble, live at The Stone (Basses Frequences) / Pleq & Spheruleus & Various :: A Silent Swaying Breath (Audio Gourmet) / Pollen Trio :: Peaks/Roll Slow (hellosQuare; also Austin Buckett (of PT) :: Stuttershine) / Raime :: Hennail (Blackest Ever Black) / Nicola Ratti :: 220 Tones (Die Schachtel) / Steve Roach :: Sounds From The Inbetween (Timeroom Editions) / Leonardo Rosado :: Opaque Glitter (Feedback Loop) / Sam Rosenthal :: The Passage (Projekt) / Ryuichi Sakamoto :: Flumina (w/Fennesz; Touch)/summvs (w/Alva Noto; Raster-Noton) / Pascal Savy :: Liminal (Feedback Loop)/Passing Light (Hibernate) / Martin Schulte :: Treasure (Lantern) / Sohrab :: Shouting At Dictators/You Are Not Alone/You Are Not Alone II (Touch) / Spartak :: Nippon (New Editions) / Sublamp :: In Our Hiding Voice (Hibernate) / Tape Loop Orchestra :: Maybe I Told A Small Lie (self-released) / Mark Templeton :: Scotch Heart (Sweat Lodge Guru) / VCV & Shinobu Nemoto :: Jovian Clouds (Install) / Vladislav Delay :: Vantaa (Raster-Noton)/Vladislav Delay Quartet (Honest Jon's) / Moritz von Oswald Quartet :: Horizontal Structures/Restructure 2 (Honest Jon's) / Christopher Willits :: Gold (self-released)

(al/jacl/joint)


Oh, & a log-rolling extra - albient :: PyschogeoGraphic Designs Vol. 1 / 2 (unreleased)...

Cloud Four - VCV & Shinobu Nemoto


Steven Hess / Christopher McFall - IV

alva noto + ryuichi sakamoto - summvs (album preview)

Photo above by Christopher Willits. 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.

Call off the search

Call off the search. Well, not quite - but two slots in LMYE's Festive 50 for 2011 can be confidently reserved for Tim Hecker's Ravedeath, 1972 (kranky) & Deaf Center's Owl Splinters (Type). Stream a hugely compelling first slab of each - Hecker's belligerently blissful organ swirls, DC's beautifully stately insistence - below...

tim hecker > hatred of music I

Deaf Center > New Beginning (Tidal Darkness)

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

Impromptu interference

A pair of reverberating, churning 'impromptu' collaborations between Fennesz & Festive 50er Rafael Anton Irisarri last July & September - the longer, more recent one eventually gushing out into a floodplain of partial resolution. The two emerge as Irisarri (a key part of one of LMYE's shows of last year, though he's too modest to acknowledge it...) makes a 'pay what you want' album of compelling live performances available via his Bandcamp.

While the London & Seattle shows were SoundClouded earlier (coverage here & here), the Milan & Krakow appearances are new - & striking. No bowed guitar judder, no lush swells - instead a lulling, crepuscular delicacy.

Fennesz + Irisarri > Live at Decibel Festival

Fennesz + Irisarri > Live at Interferenze Festival

Fennesz at Decibel Festival 2010, Seattle

Bonus (rated by Irisarri as one of 2010's best shows):

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

Cloud preformation

A footnote to a fret - a few survivors of an earlier curatorial attempt: there were twice as many tracks originally, but - in the way of SoundCloud - some are no longer available & I went off one). As before, not a mix but a segue curated from LMYE's SoundCloud stream into some kind of logical or persuasive or otherwise appealing sequence...

Featuring Juv, Pillowdiver, Andrew Hargreaves/Danny Norbury, Damian Valles & Keith Fullerton Whitman.

Juv > Rundgang (via miasmah)

pillowdiver > Drugged on the permafrost

Andrew Hargreaves featuring Danny Norbury > Confusion In Consequence (via Fluid Radio)

Damian Valles > Untitled A.2

keith fullerton whitman > 100911.hopscotch.outro

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

Practical dreamers

Arnolfini, you're spoiling us. Ahem. Sorry, but the shame of that woeful not-even pun won't stop LMYE relishing a rapid return to the Bristol waterside this week for Thursday's jaw-dropping line-up of Ben Frost & Tim Hecker (oh, & the improbably Paul Morley-approved Ekoplekz).

This not-to-be-missed "monolithic double bill featuring two true international masters of sculptured noise, deep rumbling and artful sonic contrast" is a compelling follow-up to our recent gig of the year - the only UK Room40 10th anniversary show outside the metropolis, & another laudable coup for Arnolfini.

Looking back, Rafael Anton Irisarri stood out as the Room40 night's most positive surprise. Lawrence English was magnificently intense (pump that harmonium...) & demanding of a prone audience he'd sent to the floor, while Andrea Belfi was inspiringly subtle in his agile gong & keyboard double-act. Grouper too was gripping as she floated skeins of what began as voice & guitar (but came out as whisps & shudders) over her soundtrack tapes. But, more unexpectedly, the darkly grand & resonant romance of RAI's bowed & looped live dronetronica has stayed with me.

It's tempting to draw out the links between Bristol & Seattle - a pair of soggy, slacking west coast ports - to explain Irisarri's exceptional showing, with Belfi at first providing welcome colour splashes that I'd have liked much more of (as I would of him generally & of the later LE/Grouper pairing). But the previous night's fairly similar show at Cafe Oto (stream below) gives the lie to that idea - in both cases a dronier, somewhat deprettified & foggy version of his recorded self, going beyond the fine North Bend & making me long for his next record...

rafael anton irisarri > LIVE AT OPENFRAME FESTIVAL (CAFE OTO. LONDON. UK. 2010)

Deception Falls

A Great Northern Sigh

Lit a dawn

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