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.

Shirt listing

A quick supplement to our recent Festive 30: from 30 releases that particularly mattered to us in 2013 (each co-author restricted, as noted with tedious if sincere scrupulousness, to a single pick per artist & label...) a playlist from the 15 available on Spotify - 3013. 

Drawn roughly half & half from each co-authorial selection, the line-up comprises William Basinski & Richard Chartier (jl), Boards of Canada (al), Dalhous (al), Eluder (al), Bruce Gilbert & BAW (jl), Tim Hecker (al/jl), Jon Hopkins (al), Kiln (al), Main (jl), Mohammad (jl), Tomas Phillips & Kenneth Kirschner (jl), Orphax (jl), Pausal (al), Slow Walkers (jl) & Savvas Ysatis & Taylor Deupree (jl). 












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

Wykehamology

These ears are burning. "Despite its size and the presence of a university and an art college, [] has relatively few music venues and very little in terms of catering for experimental music" could just as well be said of Bath (except that the art college in LMYE's home town is part of a second university. So even less of a leg to stand on...). 

The only real difference from the quote's real object is that Winchester is blessed with The/Ologies - two gents (Joe Evans of Runningonair Music & Matt Poacher of Mountain*7/The Liminal) with the gumption to make something happen locally. 

This Saturday brings their second happening, Seismology, following last September's Phrenology. With the great John Chantler, Pausal (part of our Furtive 30 - 2012 releases that mattered most to us), Seth Cooke & Dominic Lash, & Regolith's 'sound manipulist' Grohs all on a bill justly blurbed as "ranging from remarkably original analogue synthesis, classically influenced ambient artists  and live improvisations...highly contrasting work, both within and between each event", LMYE is girding for the trans-Wiltshire trek. Hope to see you there.

Seismology - Gig CD Excerpts

Aurora, Dancing... by John Chantler

John Chantler - Untitled #2

gLASSsHRIMP live session on Resonance FM by John Chantler

Pausal - Forms (album preview) 

Fdbckjm050313 by Grohs

Seth Cooke & Dominic Lash - Cafe Kino, Bristol, 090113

Phrenology - Gig Companion CD

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

O Come LMYE Faithful

Furtive30version by Albient on Mixcloud

A bit like a low-rent Pop Ambient, it’s become an annual tradition for LMYE to pop a peck of its Festive picks into a homespun cloud-mix (see 2010 and ’11), but with JL going over to the spotty side, you might wonder if rdio killed the mixcloud star. Well, we're keeping the cloud flag flying in this wing of Earslend Mansions with an alternative Furtive 30 version (n.b. leaning towards al picks as missing half of JL’s).

albient furtive30version (track list)
Lee Gamble - Digbeth
Heathered Pearls - Left Climber
Damian Valles - Movement III
Kyle Bobby Dunn - Diamond Cove (And Its Children Were Watching)
Drape - Solo in High Dreary
Gimu -You're No Longer On Sertraline Hydrochloride
Erstlaub - Marconi’s Shipwreck
Kane Ikin - Compression Waves
Silent Harbour - Aquatic Movement
Stephan Mathieu & Caro Mikaleff - Radioland [Panoramica]
Alex Cobb - The Immediate Past
Pausal - Fertiliser/Horticulture/Mower
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Blood Variations II
36 - Deluge
En - Elysia
Ian Hawgood - The Shattered Light
Radere - Good Evening, Ghosts (Version)
Fescal - Alchemical Wanderings
Thomas Köner - Novaya Zemlya 2
Robert Hampson - Antarctica Ends Here

Mix note: composed mainly of edits of long tracks seguing from one to another, sympathetic fades and felicitous overlaps were sought, 1 part design to 2 parts indeterminacy; final section diverges, running 2 tracks in parallel rather than in series to play Köner lows off against Hampson highs, the similarity of theme of geographical extreme providing further pretext for convergence.
Track sidenote: seeing as ’tis the season to be jolly and all, those with ears properly lent will find a seasonal note provided by Fescal, whose Ambient Drone recon of “Silent Night” starts at 1:13:30. 

Quick Yuletube: 



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

Austere embrace

2012 brought many more great releases than 30, obviously. But after some increasingly expansive Festive 50s LMYE has embraced the austerity of the times. This year each co-author was confined to a more modest 15 picks, with no more than one going to any artist or any label & no smuggled expansion by throwing in multiple releases from the same name. 

Although these constraints could - & did - still accommodate two choices from the same stable across the co-authorial divide (policed by a strict Chinese wall, naturally...), they ended up regrettably harsh on some outstanding music - like Below Sea Level,  Portraits, Secret Photographs or Superstorms. All might well have bludgeoned their way into these ears' top 15 if the rules hadn't restricted 12k, Important & Experimedia to a single release each. The same goes for LINE, Low Point & Touch's output, incidentally. 

Similarly, even allocating his ravishing David Sylvian remix album Wandermude (out next month, but downloadable now...) to next year's list, a case could credibly have been made for including several Stephan Mathieu pieces. With the possible exceptions of Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and (as The Liminal point out, ditto Marc Masters) Oren Ambarchi, it's challenging to think of an artist who had a more impressive year - though each of Kane Ikin's releases also resonated powerfully with us. 

Still, accepting that all such lists are a bit arbitrary, our goal was to distribute recognition as widely as possible. We'll anyway be back soon(-ish) with a more capacious supplementary list to try to capture everything else that stood out over the year.  

For now, though, & subject to the restrictions rehearsed above, these are 30 releases that particularly mattered to us in 2012. Each co-author is identified with their 15 picks, though note that both of us nominated Already Gone, I'll Make You Quiet, Novaya Zemlya & Radioland [Panoramica] originally...

36 - Lithea (3Six; al)
Alex Cobb - Passage to Morning (Students of Decay; al)
Charlemagne Palestine & Janek Schaefer - Day Of The Demons (Desire Path; jl)
Damian Valles - Nonparallel [In 4 Movements] (Experimedia; jl)
Drape - An Idea And Its Map (Infraction; al)
Duane Pitre - Feel Free (Important; jl)
En - Already Gone (Students of Decay; jl)
En/Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Split (Constellation Tatsu; al)
Erstlaub - Marconi’s Shipwreck (Broken20; al)
Fescal - Alchemical Wanderings (Time Released Sound; al)

Gabriel Saloman - Adhere (Miasmah; jl)
Gareth Hardwick/p jørgensen - S/T (Low Point; jl)
Gimu - All The Intricacies Of An Imaginary Disease (T.O.C; al)
Heathered Pearls - Loyal (Ghostly; al)
Ian Hawgood - The Shattered Light (Komu; al)
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Visiting This World (EN/Of; jl)
Kane Ikin - Sublunar (12k; al)
Kyle Bobby Dunn - Bring Me The Head of Kyle Bobby Dunn (Low Point; al)
Lee Gamble - Diversions 1994-1996 (PAN; jl)
Mike Shiflet - The Choir, The Army (Under The Spire; jl)

Pausal - Forms (Barge; al)
Radere - I'll Make You Quiet (Futuresequence; al)
Robert Hampson - Repercussions (Editions Mego; jl)
Silent Harbour - Silent Harbour (Echocord; al)
Steinbruchel & Cory Allen - Seam (Quiet Design; jl)
Stephan Mathieu & Caro Mikaleff - Radioland [Panoramica] (LINE; jl)
Steve Peters & Steve Roden - Not A Leaf Remains As It Was (12k; jl)
Tetras - Pareidolia (Flingco Sound System; jl)
Thomas Köner - Novaya Zemlya (Touch; al)
Various Artists - 30 Years And Counting (Touch; jl)

Fescal - Alchemical Wanderings

Gabriel Saloman - 03

Ian Hawgood - The Shattered Light (album preview)

robert hampson - repercussions (album preview)

Moitié et Moitié - kyle bobby dunn

mike shiflet - the choir, the army (album preview)

Pausal - Fruiting Bodies / Liberty Capped

lee gamble - diversions 1994-1996 (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.

Big Long Now Then Now Then

LMYE and Pausal engage in an orgy of reciprocity, as Pausal check LMYE checking Pausal, giving further pause to check further Pausal.

Pausal: "Autumnal" by Students of Decay

You'll recall it was their Autumnal cassette on SoD last time we checked the Pausal pulse, and in the meantime Alex has snuck out a visually-seasoned slice of "Side A".

Pausal - Autumnal Side A (edit) from Alex Smalley on Vimeo.

The lads now have a blog, through which we learn of another new track here, while hearing of Thorsten Sideb0ard of Highpoint Lowlife's latest project. Thorsten was a smart enough cookie to give us their debut Pausal ep for free (later reissue covered by your scribe pre-LMYE in another place). Alex writes: "The Pausal track ‘Afar’ has been contributed to the final ever Highpoint Lowlife release ‘Physic or Surgery’. We have followed this label for years and will miss it’s output greatly, it has been an honour to work with them and now be included in their final release. ‘Physic or Surgery’ is a compilation of all the different artists who have been involved with the label over the years, it also comes with a PDF comic created by the label owner Thorsten SidebOard. Be sure to follow his work in the future here."

Physic Or Surgery Mixtape by sideb0ard



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

The Power of 'Al'

Pausal's hymnal, orchestral, tidal "Autumnal" enchants, the appeal of all these 'als' perhaps subliminal - esp. to a Guy Called Al. Gorgeous and expansive, “Autumnal” trails a forthcoming cassette release of the same name by the cuddly but unfluffy Hampshire duo - due in June (6/7/2011) on Alex Cobb’s Students of Decay (Edition of 100, so look sharp).

Pausal: "Autumnal" by Students of Decay

Their set at The Cube last May was great, putting Chihei Hatakeyama, whom they effectively warmed up for in a somewhat chilly shade.


Hanging halfway-house with Hampshire homies, however briefly, I mentioned to Alex and Simon, not critically, but discursively, talking trajectories of influence and this'n'that'neverything, that their sound had about it more than faint resonances of Stars of the Lid. This was somewhat muttered into (metaphorical) beard, as SotL had kind of become the default knee-jerk referent deployed by Every Reviewer And His Wife in seeking soundalikes for the slow-and-low neo-symphonic upwellings of a new wave of ambient-drone-crones, and it was tired (like SotL's sounds), I knew. But they were happy (tape hiss made them?) to acknowledge SotL’s status as lowlight legends. And undeniably reminiscent this “Autumnal” is, it has to be said, of the cadences of some of SotL’s early-mid period (circa The Ballasted Orchestra / Avec Laudenum).





"Autumnal" sounds very much still in the vein of their acclaimed Barge debut, Lapses (review), and its older smaller relative, Pausal ep (review) (plus, incidentally, see prefiguring autumnal cover below)





While we're here, worth noting that one half of Pausal, Alex Smalley, with sometime string-y contributor, Svitlana Samoylenko, make up Olan Mill, whose fine Pine (on Serein!) is still fragrant.

Olan Mill - An Obedient Ear from Serein on Vimeo.

Olan Mill - A Heavy Leg Cycle from Serein on Vimeo.

Gorgeous Pausal-curated mix (tracklist here) as a bonus for reading this far!

Pausal - Pausal Mix by _type

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