Decayed end

New Year's Eve ebbed away? Check. Frantic last-minute hunting & listening? Ditto.

Hair shirt? On.

Painfully clunky though it obviously is, our approach remains the same: two sets of 2019 releases (15 each) that resonated especially with us over the year, selected independently with both selections 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 a previously announced quartet of projects (three exceptionally rich & ambitious compilations, plus Ben Vida's monumental 4-hour Reducing the Tempo to Zero) that fall outside normal 'release' boundaries. 

 

In all of this, our goal is as ever 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 remains an attempt to acknowledge & respond to year-end lists' inevitable partiality. It's never comfortable to realise how different ours might look on another day or in another mood, given every year's surfeit of compelling music..

Moreover, the depth of some labels' output forces unpalatable choices. Outstanding releases like Corey Fuller's Break & Live in Tokyo, Stephen Vitiello & Taylor Deupree's Fridman Variations, Marcus Fischer + Burke Jam's Vanitas, Sublamp's Sister Maps, Felicia Atkinson's The Flower & The Vessel, JAB's Erg Herbe, Fennesz's Agora, Bana Haffar's Genera, Simon Scott's Soundings & Flux [as Index] (all ineligible because of labelmate selections, as were a notable if rather all-male run of Room40s - Siavash Amini, Todd Anderson-Kunert, John Chantler, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Kevin Richard Martin, Rafael Toral, Ian Wellman & more) are clearly still core parts of the year's best...

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)...
 

Anyway, in all its flaws, lapses & lacunae we present LMYE's 2019 Festive 33-1/3: 

ASUNA & Jan Jelinek :: Signals Bulletin (Faitiche) [jl] 

https://asunajanjelinek.bandcamp.com/album/signals-bulletin



A Winged Victory for the Sullen :: The Undivided Five (Ninja Tune) [al]

https://ninjatune.net/release/a-winged-victory-for-the-sullen/the-undivided-five

Mariska Baars / Rutger Zuydervelt :: eau (self-released) [jl] 

https://machinefabriek.bandcamp.com/album/eau

Benoît Pioulard :: Sylva (Morr Music) [al]
https://pioulard.bandcamp.com/album/sylva

 
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma :: Tracing Back The Radiance (Mexican Summer) [jl]

https://jefrecantu-ledesma.bandcamp.com/album/tracing-back-the-radiance
 

 

Kate Carr :: City of Bridges (Longform Editions) [jl] 

https://longformeditions.bandcamp.com/track/city-of-bridges

Celer :: Xièxie (Two Acorns) [al/jl]
https://celer.bandcamp.com/album/xi-xie



Kyle Bobby Dunn :: From Here to Eternity (originally Past Inside the Present) [al] 

https://kylebobbydunn.bandcamp.com/album/from-here-to-eternity

First Tone :: Reactions (Spectrum Spools) [jl]
https://spectrumspools.bandcamp.com/album/reactions

Forest Management :: Passageways (Whited Sepulchre) [al] 

https://forestmanagement.bandcamp.com/album/passageways


 

Chihei Hatakeyama :: Forgotten Hill (Room40) [al]
https://room40.bandcamp.com/album/forgotten-hill



Hotel Neon :: Vanishing Forms (Archives) [al]
https://archivesdubmusic.bandcamp.com/album/vanishing-forms

Kassel Jaeger :: Le Lisse et le Strié (Latency) [jl]
https://kasseljaeger.bandcamp.com/album/le-lisse-et-le-stri



Motionfield :: Always There (Databloem) [al]
https://motionfield.bandcamp.com/album/always-there

Not Glass :: Forma / Ήθος (Ecstatic) [jl]
https://ecstaticrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/forma



Yann Novak :: Slowly Dismantling (Room40) [jl]
https://room40.bandcamp.com/album/slowly-dismantling

Offthesky :: to break is something sacred (Handstitched) [jl] 

https://noise.offthesky.com/album/to-break-is-something-sacred

OHIO :: Interludes (12k)
https://12kmusic.bandcamp.com/album/interludes [jl]

oliviaway :: Blueberry Hill (self-released) [al]
https://oliviaway.bandcamp.com/album/blueberry-hill


 

Orphax :: Live Circles (Moving Furniture) [jl] 

https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/live-circles

O Yuki Conjugate :: Sleepwalker (Auf Abwegen) [al]
https://aufabwegen.bandcamp.com/album/sleepwalker



poemme :: Frozen Passages (Stereoscenic) [al]
https://shop.poemme-ambient.com/album/frozen-passages

Julia Reidy :: In Real Life (Black Truffle) [jl]
https://blacktruffle.bandcamp.com/album/in-real-life

Rime Trails :: Dusk Embers (self-released) [al]
https://rimetrails.bandcamp.com/album/dusk-embers


 

Scott | Paul | Skeen :: Touch Live in California 2019 (Touch) [jl] 

https://touch333.bandcamp.com/album/touch-live-in-california-2019

secretflowers :: secretflowers (High Grade Media) [al] 

https://highgrademedia.bandcamp.com/album/secretflowers



Shasta Cults :: Shasta Cults (Important) [jl]

https://shastacults.bandcamp.com/album/shasta-cults

 
Wayne Robert Thomas :: Well Now You Know, Unfurled (Healing Sound Propagandist) [al]
https://healingsoundpropagandist.bandcamp.com/album/well-now-you-know-unfurled

Various Artists :: Place Language (Fluid Audio) [al/jl]
https://facture.bandcamp.com/album/place-language

Various Artists :: (eilean 100) (eilean) [jl] 

https://eileanrec.bandcamp.com/album/various-artists-eilean-100 

Various Artists :: CRXSINGS (self-released) [jl]
https://crxssings.bandcamp.com/album/crxssings-fundraiser-for-city-plaza

Ben Vida :: Reducing The Tempo to Zero (Shelter Press) [jl]

https://shelterpress.bandcamp.com/album/reducing-the-tempo-to-zero

VIUL :: Bright Decline (Disques d’Honoré) [al]
https://viulsound.bandcamp.com/album/bright-decline



Ian Wellman :: Susan's Last Breath Became the Chill in the Air and the Fog over the City's Night Sky (Dragon’s Eye) [jl]
https://dragonseyerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/susans-last-breath-became-the-chill-in-the-air-and-the-fog-over-the-citys-night-sky

  

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

Decayed down-payment

As last year, sneaking in a first instalment of the Festive 33-1/3 before midnight...

Besides each selecting 15 releases that stood out especially for us over the year, subject as ever to the recognition-spreading/hair-shirted restriction of no more than one per artist/label, we highlight a quartet of works that go beyond the confines of a single album. 

Separating them out like this gives some additional prominence merited by their ambition & scale. 

 

This year's four comprise:

Various Artists :: Place Language (Fluid Audio) 

https://facture.bandcamp.com/album/place-language

Various Artists :: Various Artists (eilean 100) (eilean) 

https://eileanrec.bandcamp.com/album/various-artists-eilean-100

Various Artists :: CRXSINGS (self-released)

https://crxssings.bandcamp.com/album/crxssings-fundraiser-for-city-plaza

Ben Vida :: Reducing The Tempo to Zero (Shelter Press) 

https://shelterpress.bandcamp.com/album/reducing-the-tempo-to-zero

To be sure, the year brought other deeply worthwhile larger-scale projects. But these four resonated particularly vividly with our ears...

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

More Weekness

Some of these ears' listening from the past seven days...

Missed this ravishing :zoviet*france: piece, It's Been a While, in August - struggling to make room for anything else now...



"Created from original recordings made on location under a bridge in Wester Ross, & in a hawthorn glade in north Northumberland"

_

Lulling, somnolent...Forest Management's heavy-eyed The Dreamer: from Remain - inaugural release on FM's enticing new CDr label, Afterhours

_

Revelling in the 'Ambient Bedroom Noise' of Ceramic Flowers' C - 1995 01...



From forthcoming per aspera ad astra (Vienna Press)

_

Pure & deep... 

Gareth Davis & Rutger Zuydervelt on wandelweiser: 




https://www.wandelweiser.de/_sounds/ewr1810zuydervelt.mp3 
(20-minute 'snippet' from sileen II)

_

_

"The structure brims with materials that create a collage of associations & contrasts" 

Tremendous, wide-eared Provocations set by Chaperone "selected to interact with Rashid Johnson's work at ICAVCU (https://icavcu.org/exhibitions/rashid-johnson/)"

_

Exhibit A: Sleep Well



From Little Notes (forthcoming on Fluid Audio)...

_

"an aquatic atmosphere, perhaps suggesting an ironic take on ‘orientalism’ - down to the river’s delta" 

Untitled by Nicola Ratti & Giuseppe Ielasi's Bellows

 
[inaugurates ooh-sounds' 'decouple ][ series' https://ooh-sounds.bandcamp.com/album/georgia-bellows-decouple-series 

"metaphor for a world of surfaces"]

_

Predictably hot under the collar about KrysaliSound's remaster/reissue of øjeRum's The Forest Is Sleeping Within The Trees



"a sort of spiritual research...a deep combination of human desolation, devotion & fragility" 

[2015 original on Scissor Tail Editions]

_

"possessing time blurring & cranium clearing qualities that would wet the weepers" 

Withdrawn by Sean McCann



(h/t Brian Housman)

[from Fountains expanded reissue]

_

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

My Weekness

Some of these ears' listening enthusiasms from the past week...

"like a soundtrack to a solemn, ancient ceremony - with not-necessarily human participants" 

Kicking off November's Lend Me Your Radio with Aidan Baker's "steady, pulsing & eternal" Steep Uphill Climb - from Deer Park (Muzan Editions)

_

"music that enters your room as sunlight...that moves slowly through your room...a slow journey into silence": Martin Hoogeboom & Oberlin's Light/Well (Thirsty Leaves)

Especially keen to hear moody alien's 12-minute Light vs Well remix...

_ 

Much atmosphere & invention in this Precocious Mouse set from Thursday night - 'Type', live at Demerara Records' Vanishing Point Solo

_

Sending LMYE love - False Colors (Appropriate Savagery Remix) by J. De Sosa on Vaagner  

_

"spellbinding, uniquely decayed renderings of solo piano pieces, it forms a poetic farewell to the 20th century & a reluctant embrace of new technological possibilities" 

Believe the hype [for Akira Rabelais' Eisoptrophobia...]

_

"a take on sound as a representation of memory" 

Ultra-ready for Ultrafog's How Those Fires Burned That Are No Longer (Motion Ward)...

_

These ears never need much persuading towards new Piiptsjilling (Machinefabriek / Jan & Romke Kleefstra / Mariska Baars) - but champing at the bit for the quartet's 'concentrated yet playful improvisations' with Sylvain Chauveau, Annelies Monsere & Joachim Badenhorst

FEAN

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

Task-trained

Four cheers for Dronarivm's Illuminations II compilation (released today) - as sprawlingly gargantuan as its predecessor a year ago, but this time benefiting a disability charity: 4 Paws for Ability, which 'enriches the lives of children with disabilities by training and placing quality, task-trained service dogs'. 

As before, the collection is fat with contributions from artists in LMYE's pantheon. This geyser of generosity - & creativity - includes Giulio Aldinucci, Anne Chris Bakker, Hakobune, Chihei Hatakeyama, Jacaszek, Loscil, Machinefabriek, Maps and Diagrams, Aaron Martin, New Rome (Tomasz Bednarczyk), Olan Mill & Pausal.

Highlights are headed by the great Machinefabriek's richly detailed Home Choir & Aldinucci's insistent, shimmering Sereno. Loscil's stately Azimuth, Olan Mill's swelling Gray Panics, Pausal's bucolic Quillow, & Bakker's beguiling, whispered Make My Bed in Crystal Waters also stand out, along with subtle pieces by Halftribe & Stefan Wesolowski. 

NB: Pausal's Avifaunal (also on Dronarivm) featured in our recent Festive 33-1/3 - some 30 releases that stood out for LMYE in 2017. 

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