with God Herself

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 Sublunar or 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)
 




Jake Muir :: Acclimation (Dragon’s Eye)
The Necks :: Unfold (Ideologic Organ)
Ogive :: Folds (Room40)
Orphax :: Somniātōrēs (Orphax)
Pausal :: Avifaunal (Dronarivm)
 



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.

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.