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.

End of an ear

Duty & provincial exile dictate LMYE missing both an enticing trip on the Otobahn tomorrow night, regrettably, but also an exceptional event further north. Still, if we can't be at Stirling's Le Weekend, we can at least reconstitute some part of the eclectic, electric feast (Bill Wells & Stefan Schneider, Tarwater, Murcof & Francesco Tristano, Ben Frost, Faust & more) it unleashes tonight...

"All things must pass. The thirteenth Le Weekend will be an occasion of high drama and mighty celebrations. For thirteen years the festival has brought a mind boggling array of musical mayhem to Stirling and this year its last breath will be drawn on Sunday night. But like most beasts of bewildering spirit it is hoped that what Le Weekend started all these years ago will transmogrify into something new in the years ahead. Like the music that the festival has championed the idea of stasis, of not moving, is alien to the festival’s ethos, so to bring the festival to a conclusion now and on a high point seems the right thing to do.

Considering the significance of the year we have pushed the boat out to try and capture the essence of Le Weekend..."

Bill Wells & Stefan Schneider > pntps 112 (via Arctic Circle Radio)

Murcof > Death Of A Forest (via theleaflabel)

Murcof > Mo (via rxtx)

Francesco Tristano > remixe Nicolas Herald The Melody (via DJ HERALD)

Eric Johnston feat Francesco Tristano > Near Harvest (extract) (via teclectic)

Ben Frost > Live from The Ancienne Belgique, Bruxelles Belgium 08.11.2009 [re-up]

Bonus:

Hauschka & Stefan Schneider > Common Exposure (via Arctic Circle Radio)

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

Belgian whales

Ben Frost & fellow Bedroom Community Whale Watchers (Nico Muhly, Valgeir Sigurðsson & Sam Amidon) - tremulous, splintering, somewhat jangling: apart from a couple of groaning/snarling minutes from around 6:30 & the occasional wolf howl later on, no match for the terrifying intensity of Frost live in Krakow at Unsound 08 - a highlight of last year when it emerged - but great to have all the same (& with a lovely yearning, clanking Leo)...

"More than just a series of concerts, this tour is an extension of the ongoing musicalexchange between these diverse artists. Disparate musical backgrounds will coexist and collide as Valgeir, Nico, Ben and Sam perform music from their catalogues, as well as introducing new and previously unreleased material (and a surprise or two along the way).

The program will be constructed in true Bedroom Community fashion, where all the artists will contribute to each other's music on stage, akin to their many studio collaborations. The set will flow undivided between Nico's restless modern compositions, Valgeir's surgical electro-acoustic pieces, Ben's haunting noise-scapes and Sam's apocalyptic folk songs (mixed perhaps with liturgical dancing, projections and stories that you never know whether are true or not...)

To aid the creation of this remarkable amalgam of genres on The Whale Watching Tour will be a quartet of extraordinary musicians; Nadia Sirota (viola), Una Sveinbjarnardóttir (violin), Borgar Magnason (double-bass), Helgi Hrafn Jónsson (trombone and vocals), all of whom have all recorded and toured with the four headliners."

Whale Watching Tour 2009 from Bedroom Community on Vimeo.

Concert excerpts:

Theory of Machines

Híbakúsja (both Ancienne Belgique Theater, Bruxelles 08/11/09)

Leo Needs A New Pair Of Shoes (Effenaar Theater, Eindhoven 09/11/09)

More Whale Watching to come this year...

Ben Frost Live from The Ancienne Belgique, Bruxelles Belgium 08.11.2009

Bonus (re-up):

The Carpathians by BenFrost



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

Gothic gravity

As immense as the 16th-century Gothic church in which it was recorded (St. Catherine's, Krakow, since you ask), it's no exaggeration to say that Ben Frost at Untold 2008 is one of the most stunning (& demanding) things I've heard all year -huge slabs of trembling, brooding, intensely physical sound, manipulated with great deftness into something monumental, beautiful &, at times, pretty fearful.

A number of people report it as the highlight of last year's festival. There's also a wry story around that it triggered a queue of priests complaining to Unsound's organisers...

Find a 10-minute LMYE hack below. The full thing is here. Note that the recording "was made from the audience seating area, rather than via the mixing desk, to capture a sense of the church's massive interior and acoustics."

Unsound have Biosphere & Stars of the Lid performing in the same space this year, making these ears wish they were trekking out to Krakow this time round. So too do the tribe of other tasty performers captured in Philip Sherburne's round-up mix of 2009's cast of thousands (fascinating background here, by the way) & in bshosa's crisp, urgent 08/09 package.

Frost's new By The Throat is out imminently. I've not heard it yet (apart from the The Carpathians giveaway featured below), but those who have rate it - no surprise, given the savage excellence of the earlier Theory of Machines. It & other fine Frost output (though not Steinbruechel's amazing, ultra-subtle Theory reworkings on Basis, regrettably...) can be streamed here.

Ben Frost > Unsound 08 (LMYE hack) > The Carpathians (from By The Throat, Bedroom Community)


Oh, & Unsound & ~scape finally unveiled the Connections free download album previewed here previously today. As reported & rehosted, its east/west collaborations feature both Pole & Pinch (will re-up separately)...

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