There are some records I like because they challenge me. There are some records I like because, from the first notes, I feel like I’m at home. This record falls into the latter category. Which is not to say it’s uninventive, ‘cos it’s far from that… just that this combination of modern classical, ambient effects, […]
Tag: genre_ambient
I’m pretty excited about this record, which is doing something genuinely new with the modern classical / ambient form (which, while basically my favourite thing in the world a few years ago, was starting to show signs of becoming just a little bit tired recently). This is collaboration, recorded over two years, between Diana Yukawa on […]
This record isn’t exactly going to be a surprise to anyone who knows Basinski. It’s basically three or four bars of a simple piano melody, looped and recorded and re-recorded and allowed to decay, so that the interplay of the imperfections slowly builds. This is less monumental and less freighted with meaning than my last […]
From about a minute in, it’s pretty clear we’re in for a treat here. The Xerrox project has always been at the lush ambient end of Alva Noto’s output, so different from the razor-sharp glitch of, say, Unitxt. But this he’s outdone himself here: there is a huge depth of emotion just humming out of […]
This one is right on the cusp of the modern classical / ambient thing. Strings and electronics blend seamlessly together to shimmering, atmospheric effect. The sleeve notes explain that the title refers to “an ancient Chinese tradition… of a fundamental tone that relates to society’s place in the cosmic order”: while I don’t think there […]
This is an improvised collaboration involving, seemingly, two guys, two guitars, and an awful lot of amps and effects and pedals to distort and loop and generally diffuse into a blissed-out haze. This is dense stuff, it kind of washes over you until your attention is caught by some flash of colour several layers deep […]
I’ve had a few odd experiences listening to this record on headphones. Once, for example, travelling on the tube, I felt lifted out of time and space. This metal box we were in wasn’t a carriage hurtling down the Northern line, but some kind of pocket of stasis where position and movement had no meaning. […]
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Bvdub: Tanto (CD, Quietus, January 2015)
I think this might be the record where Brock Van Wey finally jumped the shark. But the thing is, I think it might also be kind of genius. I first encountered him with 2009’s White Clouds Drift On And On, a swirly synth ambient job which sounded exactly like it you’d expect from the name: […]
I’ll be the first to admit that my tastes are inconstant and my feelings about music contingent on all sorts of other stuff other than what’s on the disc. There are plenty of records which I listen to and I kind of recognize that me-of-N-years-ago would have loved it, but now-me doesn’t quite have space […]
This record was quite a surprise to me. I associate Christian Fennesz with a kind of ambient drone. On The Black Sea, for example, his guitar is mostly looped and processed beyond recognition to create a richly textured fuzz; on his collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto, he provides a similarly fuzzy backdrop to Sakamoto’s delicate piano […]
dogrando writes about some records 