Ecluses de Fonserannes

Shoe-horning in a raft of welcome new work from Stephan Mathieu: not only the striking riches of the Radiance dozen he recently Kickstarted for delivery over the next year, including a powerfully evocative soundtrack collaboration with France Jobin, but also the heavyweight showdown of his Zauberberg (Shelter Press) alongside Kassel Jaeger & Akira Rabelais - "an idea not driven by the narrativity of the book (Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain), but by the traces and the aura invoked in it: an audible auratic journey through the memories of a place lost in the heights of the Swiss mountains". 

Radiance's 12-strong programme includes Alap for Steel Needle, Record & Theorbe (its first volume). The piece is dedicated to Arnold Dolmetsch, while two more are commissions for the 90th birthdays of Earle Brown (To Have Elements Exist in Space, volume 8) & Morton Feldman (For Morton Feldman, volume 9). 

Full list: 

So far, though, The Answer is the only glimmer of the Radiance to come. Volume 2 in the series, it sounds as reflective & unrushed, as naturally paced & gradually unfolding, as the canal journeys it embodies...



Background: Eymenier's history of the film. 

Zauberberg, meanwhile, stands out as one of the year's deepest listening pieces - a kind of soundtrack to an imaginary film or restaging of wisps around Mann's fiction... 

More blurb: "A century after the events depicted in the book, we went where the story took place, trying to capture the remaining sounds that could have been heard at the time, and the ghosts who might have still wandered around.

Zauberberg is based on these captures, on recordings of the music played by Hans Castorp (the novel’s main character), on acoustic/electronic instrumentation and digital processing. The result is an evocation of time and duration, an exploration of what remains and what is lost, a meditation of the dissolution and persistence of the aura surrounding everything."

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

Carved presidents

"Wounded Knee is empty and quiet. No visitors come to remember. Yet there would be no United States without the persecution and expulsion for which Wounded Knee has become a symbol."

Laced with loss & ghosts, Stephan Mathieu's Sacred Ground soundtrack (out recently on his own Schwebung label) is - sorry for the bombast - about as profound as music gets. 

While the claim is both grandiloquent & a bit banal, since all of his work has enormous depth, SG seems a special case all the same. Mathieu's empyreal, gathering sound takes on even more weight within (& in the service of) a sustained enquiry into persecution & expulsion. 

The music's insistence, a kind of fierce ethereality, underscores the film's themes - the forgotten slaughter of Native Americans, the juxtaposition of the Wounded Knee & Mt Rushmore sites (made even more painful by the Black Hills' spiritual resonance for the indigenous people), the descendants' shocking poverty. 

The fit of sound & subject is strikingly apt - you could almost say it makes Mathieu a co-author of SG... 

With more aptness, the release is dedicated to Herzog soundtracker Florian Fricke, incidentally.


Sacred Ground Trailer from Ludwig Schmidtpeter

"What do the Native Americans think about this perennial mass tourism that is happening on their own ground? Do the visitors know that the granite spires of the Black Hills into which the presidents were carved are sacred to the Indians of the Midwest? 


What happens when the perspective is reversed? When a Lakota Indian becomes the director of Mt Rushmore? When white Americans stand at the sober mass grave of slaughtered Indians? How do the tourists confront the abject poverty of the victims’ descendants?

How do people live with the presence of the past in the present? 

Is it possible for America to come to terms with its history?"









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

Millions of gods

Two gilded Touch-related treats from a pair of mitteleuropaische artists so distinctive & irreducible their surnames are all the marker needed. Fennesz's new AUN - the beginning & end of all things soundtrack (Ash International) yields the lullingly reflective Hikari, while the glowing tones of Sinus 5 append to Steinbruechel's Tapeworm cassette Sinus. 



Blurbs: "‘AUN – the beginning and the end of all things’ follows the strings of thoughts the late Claude Lévi-Strauss revealed in his anthropological essays throughout the 20th century, as well as those of Japan’s unique Shintoism who’s millions of gods inhibit and preserve nature. The film focuses on the dichotomy man/nature and envisions a future world where life will be nothing but sensual. It contains references to Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, Italian anthropologist Fosco Maraini and the Japanese writer Yoko Tawada."


"A simple synthetic-based, sine wave generating freeware program was used as sound source for creating single pulses and long static tones in several different tonal pitches. No additional sound design or other analogue or digital processing was used during the creation of the sounds. The single sound elements were layered and sequenced into different movements of varying shapes and colours focusing on the pure essence and aesthetics of sound. Each track interweaves longer, stretched, tonal segments and rhythmic patterns into sine-curved compositions.


The four Sinus tracks were sequenced at one hundred and twenty beats per minute in nineteen ninety nine by Steinbrüchel. They were previously released as a personal CD-R edition of 10 copies. "

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

Saihoji Temple

Footnote to yesterday's look at O: a brief revisit - inspired by their coming joint jaunt round Japan with flau - to Sylvain Chauveau's solo work. Still struck by swelling filmic strings, measured piano delicacy, a little glitch & crackle (more, please), & amazing, lambent space around every note...

Radiophonie No. 2

L'Approache du Nuage

Situation Initiale

Des Plumes Dans La Tête [re-up]

From Stone to Cloud

Stream Chauveau's Type releases in full: the highly recommended S, Nuage & Singular Forms...

YouTube aggregation page...

Sylvain Chauveau + 0 Japan Tour 2011 (via _flau)

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

Bus trip

A new Necks epic? On Markus Detmer's great Staubgold? Don't mind if I do...

Just under 30 minutes of untypically guitar-laced build form the centrepiece of the forthcoming Strade Trasparenti soundtrack. Snappy by Necks standards, the piece still summons real heft along the way - much supported by its raspy, filigree-ing augmentation (not quite as much of a broadening of the palette as the recent Silverwater, but still a notable expansion of the classic trio).

A little extract - & short streams from the rest of the album - below.

Blurb: "The film "Strade Trasparenti (Transparent Roads)" delivers the physical sensations of a bus trip - it's so realistic it becomes oniric at times - and portrays Brazil's human variety in a series of encounters. The landscapes seen through the windows, the restaurants on the road, the testimonies of common and awfully endearing people are so touching, because they don't correspond to the stereotypes we have about this country. The soundtrack was composed by prestigious musicians from different countries especially for the film.

"Strade Trasparenti (Transparent Roads) is part of a tetralogy of films that are set in Brazil and share the same ethic and aesthetic principles. This film is not a trip in Brazil. It's rather a trip into the depths of Brazilian land and people. It is about Brazil, but not only. Brazil is a mirror used to reflect visions and arguments that could be universally valid.

Strade Trasparenti (Transparent Roads) is a cinevoyage, a ritual of initiation to the journey, to the discovery of the unknown, the indecipherable and the irreducible. It's to go beyond the logic of one's own national, cultural, perceptive borders. (Augusto Contento, Director)"

In other news: two live sets from this time last year here & here (via Root Strata's fine frequent drool) & on Moshcam below, & the better late than never arrival of four Necks classics on eMusic...

The Necks > Transparent Roads [extract] (from Strade Trasparenti OST, Staubgold)

Band photos by Holimage.

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

Below sea level

Typical. You wait months for a new Simon Scott record, only for three to turn up in convoy...in the space of a few days, a contrasting trio of releases linked by their evident sincerity, their richness of detail & depth - an immense & hugely subtle soundtrack collaboration with Dag Rosenqvist (aka Jasper TX: most recent LMYE coverage) on Low Point, an intricate, beguiling solo release for Slaapwel (previously on LMYE) & a touching acoustic/sung 7" for Sonic Pieces (previously).

"‘Conformists’ is a soundtrack album to the short film of the same name composed by Dag Rosenqvist (aka Jasper TX) and Simon Scott.

The origin of the album occurred when Dag was approached by filmmaker Juriaan Booij to provide music for a film he was planning to shoot. Before a single frame was committed to celluloid, the overview provided to Dag was to score a film about how group mentality rules us as humans.

Equipped with only this simple brief, access to a handful of storyboard images and stills from the film set, Dag decided to ask friend and colleague Simon to collaborate on the project. Through the long-distance exchange of files, ideas and half-finished tracks, ten pieces were completed for the film score.

The resulting soundtrack is music rich in subtlety and nuance. Matching the overarching themes of the film, an undercurrent of menace is present throughout, evoking the feeling of half-forgotten memories and imagery drained of its colour.

It should be noted that one of the strengths of ‘Conformists’ is that unlike many film scores, the album also works as an entity in its own right. It was uncertain for a time that the film was going to be completed. As a result of the artists’ creative juices flowing thick and fast, the album was completed as a collaboration based on a film they imagined would be made..."

Dag Rosenqvist & Simon Scott > Conformists [Side A excerpt 1] (via Low Point)

Dag Rosenqvist & Simon Scott > Conformists [Side A excerpt 2] (via Low Point)

Dag Rosenqvist & Simon Scott > Conformists [Side B excerpt 1] (via Low Point)

The Spirit of Gravity

""I fall asleep in the sunshine quite a lot listening to music and this was my initial inspiration for composing 'Silenne'. When I played the guitar loop to Dag Rosenqvist, aka Jasper TX, who was staying at my house in Cambridge he suggested I send it into Slaapwel. I was flattered and pleased he'd heard the narcoleptic qualities within this music which I further developed by adding complimentary sine waves from SuperCollider alongside MaxMSP processed vocals that ebb and flow together in the final mix that Taylor Deupree mastered. It generally takes me 33 minutes to drop off so I cut the loop at this mark hence the length of the track".

NB: Silenne edit featured in this mix of Simon's for Fluid Radio.

NB: Simon contributes "electronics'/programmed textures" to SWWW, alongside the likes of Aidan Baker & Hildur Gudnadottir.

Simon Scott > Dissolving Memories

Simon Scott > process part 153 (Under Crumbling Skies) (via modyfier)

Recent interview. & another. modyfier process series comment.

Discogs.

Previous coverage (also here, here & here).

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

Glory be to

NB: edited re-up for of yesterday's post to get the track it was built around aggregated (26 others made it, but not the central, new one...). Apologies.

Typical. You wait years for an album of apiologically-oriented experimental ambient & suddenly, despite or conceivably because of Colony Collapse Disorder, two bumble through on near-matching flight paths - both outstanding & each enhancing their classic labels (see LMYE's 2009 pantheon)'s already strong years. With the blissy buzz of Koen Holtkamp's Gravity/Bees (Thrill Jockey; coverage) still reverberating, Brian McBride's ravishing, mournful The Effective Disconnect surfaces via the still firing - consider this year's output - kranky.

TED is from the soundtrack to the important documentary The Vanishing of the Bees (trailer below). You can still hear the serenity & hopefulness McBride aimed for originally. But the piece's fascination is in how these are entwined with & sometimes overcome by lament - appropriately, given the alarming subject. Although not one of the album's darkest moments, Supposed Essay below bears out this ambivalence.

Previous coverage (also here, here & here: BM & SoTL). Discogs (BM).

McBride: "When George and Maryam approached me to compose for their film they suggested I concentrate on four different themes: the gloriousness of the bees, the endurance and hardships of traditional beekeepers, pesticides and the holistic nature of non-industrial agriculture. I was especially intrigued with the idea of combining some of their mournful aspirations with something more serene. Composing began in May of 2009. I had decided to start fresh not using anything that I had already recorded. Preparing the music for the film, I knew that I needed to provide more built-in changes in the structure of the pieces to give George and Maryam more flexibility. As I worked, I purposely distanced myself from the more continuous architecture employed in my previous recordings in favor of several mini-suites. In the thinking about the music, I hoped that the pieces would do justice to the “gloriousness of the bees” theme, striving for a more overt hopeful quality. But old traditions die hard and the hopeful side of the music was eventually more subsumed by the lamentable.

I should also mention that if you have seen the film, this record will not contain all the music used and scored for this film.

I am incredibly honored to be a part of this project even if the final compositions turned out to be more appropriate for a different and more forlorn film. I know you have a lot to think about in this world but if you care about food or the world around us, you deserve to at least consider the arguments within this honest and real piece of film-making."

Brian McBride > Supposed Essay on the Piano [B major piano Adagietto] (from The Effective Disconnect, forthcoming on kranky)

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

Glory bee

Typical. You wait years for an album of apiologically-oriented experimental ambient & suddenly, despite or conceivably because of Colony Collapse Disorder, two bumble through on near-matching flight paths - both outstanding & each enhancing already strong years their classic labels (see LMYE's 2009 pantheon) are once again racking up. With the blissy buzz of Koen Holtkamp's Gravity/Bees (Thrill Jockey; coverage) still reverberating, Brian McBride's ravishing, mournful The Effective Disconnect surfaces via the still firing - consider this year's output leading up to this 150th release - kranky.

TED is from the soundtrack to the important documentary The Vanishing of the Bees (trailer below). You can still hear the serenity & hopefulness McBride aimed for originally. But the piece's fascination is in how these are entwined with & sometimes overcome by lament - appropriately, given the alarming subject. Although not one of the album's darkest moments, Supposed Essay below bears out this ambivalence.

Previous coverage (also here, here & here: BM & SoTL). Discogs (BM).

McBride: "When George and Maryam approached me to compose for their film they suggested I concentrate on four different themes: the gloriousness of the bees, the endurance and hardships of traditional beekeepers, pesticides and the holistic nature of non-industrial agriculture. I was especially intrigued with the idea of combining some of their mournful aspirations with something more serene. Composing began in May of 2009. I had decided to start fresh not using anything that I had already recorded. Preparing the music for the film, I knew that I needed to provide more built-in changes in the structure of the pieces to give George and Maryam more flexibility. As I worked, I purposely distanced myself from the more continuous architecture employed in my previous recordings in favor of several mini-suites. In the thinking about the music, I hoped that the pieces would do justice to the “gloriousness of the bees” theme, striving for a more overt hopeful quality. But old traditions die hard and the hopeful side of the music was eventually more subsumed by the lamentable.

I should also mention that if you have seen the film, this record will not contain all the music used and scored for this film.

I am incredibly honored to be a part of this project even if the final compositions turned out to be more appropriate for a different and more forlorn film. I know you have a lot to think about in this world but if you care about food or the world around us, you deserve to at least consider the arguments within this honest and real piece of film-making."

Brian McBride > Supposed Essay on the Piano [B major piano Adagietto] (from The Effective Disconnect, forthcoming on kranky)

Bonus: it's none too difficult to hear McBride's fine solo debut When the Detail lost its Freedom (samples here, here & here) or his decade-plus of drowsy, lulling Stars of the Lid brilliance (try this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this & this to be going on with...).

But you may not have come across his other work. To these ears, this mournful piano piece from a group that also contributes to WTDLIF is the best of it:

The Pilot Ships > The Lazy Swimmer (from The Limits of Painting and Poetry, BlueSanct)

Finally, something from McBride's new avant-pop Bell Gardens - less to LMYE's taste, but completism & willfulness dictate including it anyway...

Bell Gardens - Through The Rain (Audio Parade Mix)

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