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.
Anyone who's heard his immense Live at the Exchange, Cornwall - one of the highlights of the Touch Radio series (#93, trainspotters...) - needs no persuading about Robert Curgenven's powers at the pipe organ. Even so, it's hard to keep the jaw undropped at the flaunting of those powers on the recent SIRENE (on his own Recorded Fields). Curgenven, a Cornish re-immigrant from Australia with organ scholarship seemingly on his complex CV too, welds his field recording & duplate sonics on to gripping workouts at this improbable, highly site-specific instrument ("16-foot pipe organs recorded in Cornwall at the churches of St Paul (Ludgvan), St Winnow (Towednack), St Uny (Lelant), St Wyllow (Lanteglos), St Cyrus & Juliette (St Veep). Unprocessed pipe organ recordings, equalisation only"). The result is as tempestuous as its rich back story (The Tempest & late Turner) & sea-pounded Cornish setting implies. Curgenven as a new Prospero? Certainly there are spell-binding moments here, both ones of gathering, swelling force & others of beautiful becalmed resolution after the storm... Robert Curgenven - Ressuscitant de l'étreinte de la Sirène from The Wire Magazine on Vimeo.
The first part of SIRENE (Ressuscitant de l'étreinte de la Sirène) is reworked from a section of a second new self-release. They tore the earth and, like a scar, it swallowed themcomes with a very different back story: it "traverses the historical dynamics of the settler colonial trope through the eyes not of the invaded but of the invaders to a harsh, remote land...a very physical negotiation of territories voided by history".
Finally, a recommended live date: Curgenven heads the Ologies' latest Winchester weigh-in, Dendrology, on November 1.
Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.
No one can accuse Yann Novak & Robert Crouch of aiming too low. Their Fata Morgana, part of last year's AxS Festival & released on Murmur this week, "mirrors the rare and complex mirage phenomenon which hauntingly inverts the boundaries of figure and ground over both desert lands and seas."
This exquisite, heat-hazed piece - a distant shimmer, a wispy chimera- is "a kind of fragmented travelogue, reconstructed through field recordings from the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah and Lake Mead in the Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada".
Below hear a stereo mix "recomposed for home listening". Or stream the full 45 minutes (Spotify).
To these ears Simon Scott's Below Sea Level package for 12k is one of the year's key releases - not just a stand-out album of glowingly warm, densely textured excursions into landscape & memory (stream the radiant __Sealevel 2 below), but also a hugely impressive 80-page book of thoughts & photography that shore up an increasingly fragile environment, if only by expressionist preservation. Out today...
"The inspiration behind Below Sea Level, including its music, title, artwork and photography (see accompanying journal) originally derives from Scott’s desire to musically explore the desolate and controversial environment of the Fens in East Anglia, UK. The memories Scott has of visiting this area as a child make this a poignant and highly personal project that explores nostalgic familiarity with a desire to capture the musicality of the landscape. For two years Scott ventured into this former wetland with hydrophones and self-built recording devices to explore the land that is cartographically below mean sea level, trace the devastating history of this environment caused by the drainage of the land, and arrange it into conceptual musical and visual project.
Below Sea Level explores the aesthetics of active listening and, via a self-built MaxMSP patch, digitally disects the natural and man-made recordings Scott discovered within the Fens. The juxtaposing of analogue and digital timbres and textures, the man-made and natural world sounds, create epic interwoven soundscapes that blend the recognizable (eg.: birdsong) with undistinguishable sounds, sometimes confusing what is natural and synthetic. Scott presents an abstraction of a place that is arranged and manipulated for aural contemplation outside of the Fens (in alien environments) where the music collaborates with each unique listening environment. For the final stage of Scott’s process he played the mixed songs out of portable speakers and re-recorded them in the wide open spaces and natural ambiences of the Fens to capture the collaborative nature of Below Sea Level. Having these field-recorded sounds; the crows, the passing trains and tractors, recorded in real time with the mixes rather than multi-tracked in the studio provides a strong sense of place and immediacy..."
Talking of Line, as we were, ahead of Richard Chartier's revived William Basinski collaboration comes a showdown with Robert Curgenven. Built Throughfeels like a further instalment of the earlier Oltre'saustere, challenging beauty, but though also on Line that was solo Curgenven(with a little help from Joerg Maria Zeger, his partner in TSU).
In contrast, all but one of BT's four pieces of industrial hum & whisp are based on previous Chartier work between 2000 & 2005 - then duly processed (through a 16-foot pipe organ in invariance strata's case & "a matrix of pieces for nine turntables, linear dubplates and ventilator" in acquisition eviction's...). Only displacement takes Curgenven material (Australian field recordings) as its point of departure - on through "an improvisation for binaural microphones, wine glasses, two turntables and linear series dubplate".
Blurb: "
The acoustic architecture of Robert Curgenven and Richard Chartier forms a delineation of space built through dismantling the constitution of internal and external. Beyond dividing space, creating a façade or habitable zone, the perceptibility of the surface is turned back in on itself and with it a shift in the ideological and social context of the space. A seamless integration of digital and analogue, a suffusion which creates a mutual modulation, transforming purpose chosen materials—dense, undulating foundations through to stratified filaments and needle-point framework—defining the approach, the entry, the walk-through, the departure." So there...
Both collaborators have valuable solo offerings out too. Honorary Cornishman Curgenven splits a Winds Measure 12" with Will Montgomery. His share is the richly crackling "impossible topology" of Looking for Narratives on Small Islands - an extract of which loomed out of futuresequence's first mega-compilation last summer.
Meanwhile, at the opposite end of his admirably broad spectrum Chartier's pinkcourtesyphone alter ego ("the sonic essence of some nicely dressed 1960s housewife wistfully peering out her window while reclining on some lovely couch or divan, with, of course, a slowly sipped cocktail and perhaps half of a Valium") surfaces with a playful, deviantly post-pop debut "formed from places, plastics, and particulars during 1997, 2004, and 2011".
Foley Folly Folio is also a debut for the sub-label Line Segments. This "will highlight some, perhaps, very non-LINE-like works. Works that stray from the norm... more maximal, maybe... louder, maybe... noisier maybe... beat-oriented, maybe. So many possibilities... a chance to showcase some things LINE loves."
Other voices populate the indisputably more maximal (though none too beat-oriented) FFF, particularly wishful wistful wanton's woman-child. Chartier's tongue features too - wedged firmly in his mouth, terming the release "lugubrious" & himself "considered by some to be quite fancy" & characterising the possibly punning pcp as "dark but not arch, with a slight hint of humor".
You could make too much of it, clearly. But still it seems significant that LMYE’s Labels of 2011 (like our picks in 2010 & 2009, for that matter) base themselves in somewhat out of the way locations. Geography surely helps explain these exemplary curators'distinct, even singular aesthetics.
So too do the double lives of this year's double choice (linked by one exceptional artist). Neither is simply a conventional label. One is also a leading global organiser of events, festivals & exhibitions; the other one of the most significant sellers & distributors of experimental music. The artist who links the two is Lawrence English, founder of Room40(Red Hill, Queensland) and maker of the compelling, genre-defying/redefining Peregrine for Experimedia(Ravenna, Ohio). Both labels have shaped LMYE's listening in 2011 in important ways. Even with their decade-long journeys beginning to diverge - Room40 powering on, Experimedia at a cross-roads - each demands some recognition here.
A diverting, challenging interview with Experimedia founder Jeremy Bible follows shortly. But first some characteristically thoughtful, engaging reflections by Lawrence English as Room40's 10th anniversary draws to a close...
Named for an assemblage of creative code-breaking talent, as English explains below, the label’s first decade has seen it emerge as a key sponsor of less obvious music - shrugging off its physical remoteness as an Australian label to delivercherished 'Sound Parcels from the Antipodes’
Notwithstanding the label's rich history, this year marked a peak for Room40. Despite the decision to have Experimedia handle The Peregrine – arguably English's masterpiece, though competition in that category is tough (most of all from Kiri Ni Oto, another external release) – the label unleashed what to these ears was its strongest set of releases yet.
In addition, Janek Schaefer's National Portrait enlarged & enriched Room40's output - in its full form a 24-hour album embedded (appropriately but also fabulously) in a TV remote control, plus 1,000 MP3s on a circuit board, & all wrapped in a TV listings page...
Moreover, English's commitment to field recording & hearing yielded his Brisbane 'site listening' project & book to again expand the label's scope & range of operation.
Several of this year's releases feature in LMYE’s forthcoming Festive 50 – 50 releases that particularly mattered to the blog’s co-authors in 2011. Several more are among 50 further commendations that help make up a celebratory century…
Below read English's further thoughts on the label’s longevity, its landmarks, prospects & challenges.
How has Room40 developed this year (has this been your biggest year for new releases)? Have you done anything different in 2011? Anything new you want to keep doing now it's started? 2011 has been a fairly interesting year for us. 2010 was the tenth anniversary (although technically finished in the first part of 2011....) and in some respects a marker for what room40 has been and continues to be. It was great to take stock and get a sense of part of the journey we've been on. In 2011 we started to make a few changes for the next phases of room40 - things like John Chantler's LP and Janek Schaefer's Remote Control edition is more something we want to move towards - special objects that take on a great meaning than simply 'releases' as such. I mean we've always had a pre-occupation with making 'editions' rather than releases - specialised packaging, design aesthetics etc - but in 2011 we've started to take steps more into a new way of approaching these ideas.
Did you always expect to make it to your 10th anniversary? Do you anticipate following Touch's lead & making it to your 30th? It's a good question. These kind of celebrations remind you how quickly time flies. I think, at least in my mind, Room40 is an ongoing organisation. I guess this is heightened by the range of activities we undertake - everything from releasing editions to curating festivals and performance series and putting together sound art exhibitions.
Is being an Australian label significant for Room40? How do you assess the state of Australian 'experimental' music currently? It's significant in that there's not many of us down here I guess....especially older labels. There's been some amazing labels over the years, but a great many of them have ceased or have really cut back on their release schedules. At the same time there's an amazing crop of new younger labels starting up - some really killer labels putting out all kinds of music. In terms of experimental work, I think we're blessed with some amazing artists here, working at all levels - there's your longer serving artists like Oren Ambarchi, Robin Fox and Philip Samartzis, and then a younger generation too - all of whom are active and creating some pretty special sound!
Do you see yourself & the other Room40 artists as working in any kind of tradition? Is there a Room40 sound or typical artist? I think everyone and every label fits into a kind of 'ecology'. We all fit together in different ways and the degrees of separation in this area of work aren't so huge and I love that. There's a real sense of community, in a global sense, and that's something I value and try to foster in whatever small ways we can.
I'm not sure there's a typical artist as such, but I do like to think all the artists on the label are equally concerned with delving deep into the work they're doing and creating in a deep and personal way.
Any Room40 artists you believe merit more attention than they've had so far? Quite a few of them. I'm just glad to see many of them doing well and being in a position to continue creating their work. That's one of the most important elements for me - ensuring we don't see attrition. I think we've lost some great musicians over the years due to the lack of consistency and support etc.
Suspect you've been asked this before, but why have your own releases have often come out on other labels - as with this year's superb The Peregrine on Experimedia? To be honest there's only a certain number of slots available for us to release editions this year and I feel it's important for me not to occupy those. Occasionally if there's some addition income to cover the production costs - for example, the recent Site Listening Queensland edition - then it's possible me to me publish the editions via room40, but I feel it's important that the labels focus lies with the artists we want to support and not my own work.
Will Lonely Women's Club be releasing on Room40? Or anywhere else? The first record in that series will be published by Important Records. I'm very pleased to have the chance to work with them.
How soon can we expect the new Chris Abrahams - & can you persuade him to release some of his many solo piano recordings? Actually in 2012 we will be re-issuing both his solos and I know Chris has been working away solidly on a new solo LP, so there's a chance that might also be ready in 2012. He's such an incredible musician - truly one of our great musicians in Australia.
How do you see Room40 developing in the future? Any new artists you can mention &/or forthcoming new releases from established Room40 artists? There's quite a few new projects on the boil. For example in the first quarter of 2012 we're venturing into some concrete territory with editions from Thembi Sodell and Anthea Caddy, ErikM and a wonderful pulsing work from Andrea Belfi - really something amazing. There's a swag of new editions on the way in 2012....a good few from artists we've worked with before, plus some new artists. There's going to be a series of editions from Eugene Carchesio - a collection of all his amazing electronic works - I'm very excited to have the chance to published these wonderful editions.
Will you be releasing more vinyl? Cassettes? Other media (DVDs/TV remotes/etc)? I think it's all pretty well open for comment. I want to encourage the artists to think about what might make sense for their works and we can collaborate on coming up with unique ways to create an object with which their sound might work alongside.
Best thing anyone's said/written about Room40 music? Worst? At one of our shows, a bar staff member remarked 'I'd rather be fucked in the ear by a cheese grater than listen to more of this.' Needless to say I'm very friendly with this person now - I respect anyone who has such an articulate way of enunciating discomfort!
How important is artwork to your releases? Who decides it? I think one of the elements that ties together the catalogue is the print work and style we've developed. The monochrome artwork, matt celo covers and also the type face and font size are all basically deal breakers for us, but at the same time they lend a linkage between releases that I think feels great when you hold up the releases next to each other. I guess this was a centre theme for me when we started out - making sure we weren't just making regular cds in jewel cases, but unique objects (via the diecut for example) that people could see as something different from what else was around.
How challenging a time is this for labels? Are you tempted to go digital-only? Or the opposite? I think for some labels it a very challenging time, but for us it's not a question of either/or. Honestly I think some music is best served digitally - as the quality can be much higher than cd. A great example is Reinhold Friedl's new edition which we offer in a 24 44.1 format. Other music sounds pretty damned amazing on cassette in my opinion. Other works really work best on vinyl - for example the Grouper 7" last year really works for me on wax. The cut added something a little special to the sound. So I think it's about finding the fit for the artist and looking to create something special with them. I honestly feel the most important thing we can do as label directors is honour and respect our artists work - I know, as an artist, how much of yourself you pour into the works - so it's important to true and realise the best fit and space in which the artists work can be presented.
PS Where does the label's name come from? It's actually based on the Room40 of Bletchley Park fame. It resonated with me in terms of what I want from Room40 - a place in which many different artists from all over the place came together to explore a similar theme - sound. To me it still very much fits what we're trying to do and foster.
Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.
Revelling in one day's plenty while trying not to drown in it, a quick & dirty acknowledgement of thrilling new music from five distinct, diverting voices - Chris Herbert, talkingmakesnosense, Seaworthy, Tone Color & Dentist. Second & last in this list have not featured on LMYE before, but will again...
