A CLOSER LISTEN weekly #60
Ukrainian Field Notes, Ólafur Arnalds's OPIA, and more reviews
Dear Listeners! Joseph here, back in my hometown of greater NYC where I’m helping my dad move apartments. I had mentioned last time that we’d have a podcast episode with C. Lavender up by now, but things in my personal life were especially busy and turbulent this last month and the episode hasn’t been published yet. My apologies. The episode is nearly complete, then I need to write up the post. It should be up next week, and hopefully the episode with the fabulous France Jobin will be finished shortly thereafter.
But my friend Gianmarco Del Re is much more reliable than I am, returning with the 33rd installment of his series, Ukrainian Field Notes. He’s recently been doing some events in support of the UFN book in Rome and Kyiv. Ukrainian Field Notes also has its own Insta page (our is here btw) if you’d like to follow us over there. So let’s get into it!
Ukrainian Field Notes XXXIII
Nowadays, an increasing percentage of musicians I get in touch with are currently serving in the army. This month we meet Cryptic Chorus, who found the time to talk to us about his debut solo album from an undisclosed location on the frontline.
We also get to talk field recordings with Volyn Field in Lutsk and orfin in Kremenchuk, while Bedroom Talks introduces us to darkwave in Lviv and Виставка Дисторшн tells us what it feels like being the underdog in Dnipro. To round things off, Soulcoholic is appreciative of his Chinese fans, Kateryna Kravchenko pays homage to Mariia Prymachenko, and TĒMNA RÁDIST salutes the brave spirit of Mariupol.
We also get to check out new releases by Monoconda, Revshark, Kadiristy, rupe tarpea, Revolt, Chocollab, Монтеск’є, Ragapop, User Kyx, Vlad Suppish, Difference Machine, Provoluk, Obskura, 58918012, Moon Projection, Emil Asadow, and r.roo. The new kid on the block is the label Telesma launched by Pymin with a skilfully curated and thoughtful fundraising compilation.
But first our monthly podcast for Resonance FM with Zlata and Katro Zauber talking to us from Ibiza followed by our Spotify playlist for May.
tracklist:
Marina Herlop – abans abans
Loslojic – Kyivskyi vechir
Katro Zauber – DNA
Тонка – Болить
k.e.d.r.o.v.a – Вечр
Andrii Barmalii – я нормально
Yansima – Tweede Cans
RECENT REVIEWS
Reviews are at the heart of ACL. Here are selections from a few of my favorite reviews we posted on the blog in the last few weeks.
Euro Herc ~ Segnali / Manja Ristić / Joana Guerra / Verónica Cerrotta ~ Slani pejzaži
tsss tapes‘ Spring Batch offers a pair of cassette collaborations that contain a world of intriguing sounds. These recordings connect nations, cultures and composers, constructing new friendships and modes of listening. On one, two recording artists mine a cornucopia of sources as Euro Herc; on the other, Manja Ristić, Joana Guerra and Verónica Cerrotta integrate field recordings and music.
Euro Herc is Chemiefaserwerk (who runs the Falt label) and Turmeric Acid (who once ran the Czaszka label and now runs the Molt Fluid label). As each has a love for cassette culture, it’s no surprise that they utilize tape recorders. tsss tapes’ owner Francesco calls it “turning discarded sounds into a form of stumbling poetry.” Segnali contains disparate finds from Michal/Tumeric Acid (a kitchen timer, a kalimba pattern, a Polish instructional tape, a Croatian field recording) ~ an aural thrift shop, pilfered by one artist and sent to the other for processing.
Slani pejzaži features complementary musicians who had not previously known each other, their common link being Francesco, who helped to bring the three together. The label owner writes, “Manja is a violinist, Joana a cellist, Veronica a pianist … (they) met in this place where (their) music somehow has the same feeling.” According to Manja, “we gradually built a sonic simulacrum of places and moments frozen in time.” Manja sent the initial recordings to Verónica, who added material and sent it to Joana, who sent it back to Manja. Piece by piece, three worlds became a shared and sacred space.
Jakob Lindhagen ~ Stages of Change
Fresh off Memory Constructions and its companion piece Memory Reconstructions, Jakob Lindhagen has tackled an even more ambitious project. Stages of Change teams the composer with fellow musician and video artist Sofia Nystrand (Vargkvint), a former label mate and one of the contributors to Reconstructions. The video EP uses abstract, stop-motion shapes and images to illustrate the already colorful music. The EP travels a great sonic distance in a short period of time, from solo piano to string quartet to electronic infusion, echoing the theme. Yet there’s also a subtle disconnect, since the music is meant to reflect both personal and global change, specifically the changes in the composer under the threat of pandemic and international conflict. The world has gone one way, but it seems that Lindhagen has gone another; or at least has imagined forward progress despite outward events. This hopeful trajectory lends the set a sense of buoyancy.
Kathy Hinde ~ Twittering Machines
Where do field recordings end and imitations begin? At some point, will imitations be all that remain? The creation of artificial audiospheres has been popular for centuries, ever since classical musicians started imitating birds. The latest wave of such recordings seems to have started with Kate Carr’s false dawn a year ago, but Twittering Machines, which began as an installation, precedes that. On this single two-sided composition, Kathy Hinde toys with interpretations of the live, the pre-recorded and the manipulated, using turntables and electronics to process samples from a wide array of sources. In so doing, she creates a rich meditation on the fragility of the ecosphere and the encroachment of environmental threats, gathering momentum as she goes.Hinde’s recording is part of an interdisciplinary chorus. The nightingale’s song is receding as the songs of sorrow and warning are rising. Will it be, as Keats wrote, just another “plaintive anthem (that) fades past the near meadows, over the still stream”
Pablo Diserens ~ turning porous
“If you don’t get out of the water, you’ll turn into a frog!” Children often hear this dubious scientific claim after spending long hours in an ocean, lake or pool. Pablo Diserens tests the theory during a two-month residency in Galicia, landing on the side of transformation. The artist’s findings are now the exhibition and publication “becoming amphibian” and an album titled turning porous. Throughout this residency, Diserens was submerged in the sights and sounds of the freshwaters and its denizens. The recordings take place above and below the water, include anuran and human-made sounds, and find Diserens playing bottles and oscillations to accompany the calls of the wild. The “shapeshifting” of the artist’s imagination is mirrored by that of the recording, which blurs the lines between species, as well as between the animate and inanimate. Even the cover photo plays with perspective: what seems at first to be a large school of fish, shot from an airplane, is “a tuft of algae floating on the surface of a pond,” with a water strider (also known as a water bug, pond skater or puddle fly) in the lower left.
Sofi Paez ~ Silent Stories
Silent Stories are the ones we hold closest to our chest, only revealing them to those we most trust. This is the topic of the debut album from pianist, singer and composer Sofi Paez, the first release from Ólafur Arnalds’ OPIA Community. “It’s very difficult for me to open up”, she writes in the press release, “I’m afraid of telling people too much. So these are the silent stories that I carry with me every day”. It’s a fascinating concept for a predominantly instrumental album because while the inspiration for the music might be the emotions Paez felt when emigrating to Berlin from Costa Rica or after the death of her beloved grandmother, we’re unaware of what event connects to each piece so we can hear the heartfelt music as the soundtrack to our own silent stories. Paez’s decision not to centre herself but instead to centre the emotion makes the music universal.
Various Artists ~ Opia Compilation 001
What makes a community? What is it that gives us the feeling that we belong? How much must community members have in common, and how different can they be? OPIA started out as a one day festival run by Ólafur Arnalds and has since morphed into an artist community and a promising record label. OPIA Collection 001 is its second release after Silent Stories from Sofi Paez, which we reviewed here.
Back in 2015 Richard Allen, our main writer, wrote a great article called How To Be The Next Ólafur Arnalds. If you read it again now, almost a decade later, it’s remarkably prescient, as if he’s anticipating the Opia project itself. Rule 2 is “Collaborate”; Rule 3 is “be friendly”; Rule 4 is “recommend other musicians”; 6 is “say yes to small projects”; 7 is “remember where you came from”; rules that that seems to sum up the philosophy of OPIA. This video explains the concept really well, and showcases the OPIA Festival, which takes place this week in Utrecht — sadly sold out!
The album features 14 artists from around the world and there’s an equally diverse range of tracks, ranging from the gorgeous organ and piano layers of the pseudonymous Martin Martyn’s “Entraide”, via the spectacular choral thrill of “Gossamer” by Sink, to the astonishing tenderness conveyed in the piano and field recordings of “I Promise” by Alex Kozobolis (who we’ve featured here many times). Album opener “Wisteria” by Josiah Austin combines felt piano melancholy in 5/4 time with a brief uplifting chorus, but while the piano does feature prominently here, the second track, “Leading” by CJ Thomas expands outwards into entrancing orchestral instrumentation and immediately does away with the idea that this is just a piano album.
Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan ~ Your Community Hub
Gordon Chapman-Fox, aka Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan has been training his focus for a few years now on a very specific bit of terrain, namely the “new towns” of Warrington and Runcorn. Developed in the 1960s, both were part of a larger effort across England to expand housing opportunities for folks still living in areas ruined by the bombings of World War Two. Through his prismatic vision, Chapman-Fox has made a series of evocative, warmly nostalgic, and bitterly scathing musical statements across four albums and an EP, concerning some of the recurring troubles associated with municipal stewardship – the ambiguous impact of industry on a community, the persistence of alienation and isolation, and the betrayals and broken promises of public policies. His latest album, Your Community Hub, released on the Castles in Space label, like all of his other WRNTDP work, continues his critical interrogations.
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UPCOMING RELEASES
(complete list with Bandcamp links here)
Depending where you live, summer is almost here or already in full bloom. In the northern climates, the ocean is still too cold for swimming, but the air is so warm that one wants to jump in! In the southern climates, the sweet spot is now; wait a month, and the water will offer little relief. Meteorological summer begins June 1; astronomical summer starts June 21. If you live in Australia, your summer is over; but no matter where you live, there’s always summer music. New previews are added to this page daily; we hope you’ll find your next favorite album right here!
Akira Kosemura & Lawrence English ~ Selene (Temporary Residence Ltd., 31 May)
Ancestral Voices ~ Forces of Consciousness (Horo, 31 May)
Andrew Land ~ (music for an unmade film) (Bigo & Twigetti, 31 May)
Bag of Bones ~ No One Gets Saved (577 Records, 31 May)
Basher ~ May Day (Sinking City, 31 May)
Basile3 ~ 43°C (InFiné, 31 May)
Benny Bleu ~ Banjo Meditations (31 May)
Corker Cowboy~ In Light of that Learnt Later (31 May)
Daniel Lentz ~ Lips (Unseen Worlds, 31 May)
DELTAphase ~ synced (31 May)
Ed Herbers ~ Upper Atmosphere (Passed Recordings, 31 May)
Ezra Feinberg ~ Soft Power (Tonal Union, 31 May)
FIN ~ Cleats (Hausu Mountain, 31 May)
FINAL ~ What We Don’t See (Room40, 31 May)
Finn Rees ~ Dawn Is a Melody (Mr. Bongo, 31 May)
HHY & The Macumbas ~ Bom Sangue Mau (Horror Vector, 31 May)
Hubble ~ S/T (31 May)
Jasmine Guffond ~ Alien Intelligence (OOH-Sounds, 31 May)
Kathy Hinde ~ Twittering Machines (TBC Editions, 30 May)
Kenneth James Gibson & Paul Carman ~ Murals for Immersion (Important Records, 31 May)
Lisa Ann Schonberg ~ Old Growth Playback (31 May)
Lorenzo Montanà ~ VION (n5MD, 31 May)
Mike Cooper & Jason Kolàr ~ Mauve/Pink (Mondoj, 31 May)
Pablo Diserens ~ turning porous (forms of minutiae, 31 May)
Peder Simonsen & Jo David Meyer Lisne ~ Spektralmaskin (SOFA, 31 May)
Snorri Hallgrímsson ~ Innocence (Moderna, 31 May)
Tobias Wilden ~ A Path to Open Air II (Kitchen, 31 May)
Fractured Wrist ~ Initial Sketches (1 June)
adaa ~ …img… (mappa, 3 June)
Pieter Kock ~ Bright Bars from the Stars (Meakusma, 3 June)
Pablo’s Eye ~ The light was sharp, our eyes were open (STROOM.tv, 4 June)
Reunion Island ~ Night Words (Tall Corn Music, 4 June)
Annelies Monseré ~ I sigh, I resign (Horn of Plenty, 5 June)
Jan Wagner ~ Energie Braucht Zeit (Quiet Love, 5 June)
Dalton Alexander ~ Almost Home If I’m Still Alive (LAAPS, 6 June)
Magic from Space ~ Of Ritual and Summoning (Istotne Nagr., 6 June)
Toada ~ Alta Onda 01 (6 June)
V/A ~ Lethe (Mnemosyne, 6 June)
Actress ~ Statik (Smalltown Supersound, 7 June)
A Journey of Giraffes ~ Retro Porter (Somewherecold, 7 June)
Akio Suzuki ~ Stone (Room40, 7 June)
Dani Scheffels ~ hi (tunnel.visions, 7 June)
David Cordero ~ Important Small Details (Home Normal, 7 June)
Drew Gardner ~ Cygnus A (Centripetal Force, 7 June)
Ecovillage ~ Crescendo (Lo Recordiongs, 7 June)
Elninodiablo ~ Infinitely Venus (Nein, 7 June)
Emma dj ~ Lay2g (Danse Noir, 7 June)
Fortresses ~ East (Flaming Pines, 7 June)
France Jobin + Yamil Rezc ~ Un día en México (LINE, 7 June)
GiGi FM ~ Movements (Sea~rène, 7 June)
Gollden ~ birds in september (7 June)
Janek Krukowski ~ Latent (Okła, 7 June)
julien bayle ~ the.collapse (Elli, 7 June)
Kresten Osgood Quintet ~ Live at H15 Studio (7 June)
Lara Sarkissian ~ Born of the Sea (7 June)
Mark Templeton ~ Inner Light (enmossed, 7 June)
Men Seni Suyemin ~ Believe (2MR, 7 June)
The Nausea ~ Requiem (Absurd Exposition/Buried in Slag and Debris, 7 June)
nicholas skalba ~ (circadian) ambience and soundscapes (7 June)
The Rhythm Method ~ Pastorale (New Focus, 7 June)
Sachi Kobayashi ~ Clouds in the Sky (enmossed, 7 June)
Tashi Wada ~ What Is Not Strange? (RVNG Intl., 7 June)
Van Boom ~ Nuborne (Cease 2 Exist, 7 June)
V/A ~ 10 Years Love on the Rocks – Sky Is the Limit (Love on the Rocks, 7 June)
Wojtek Kiwer ~ Disconnect (Okla, 7 June)
Alley Catss ~ m Helux (mappa, 12 June)
OrangeTone ~ Portal Opaque (Jolt Music, 12 June)
Om Unit & James Bangura ~ Rushing 1621 (Local Action, 13 June)
Brendon Moeller ~ Vacuum (Samurai Music, 14 June)
David August ~ Workouts (99CHANTS, 14 June)
Fireground ~ Love Letter (Tresor, 14 June)
Floating World Pictures with Ocean Moon ~ S/T (Lo Recordings, 14 June)
Giovanni Di Domenico, Pak Yan Lau, and John Also Bennett ~ Tidal Perspectives (Basilic, 14 June)
Halvcirkel ~ Vida (FatCat, 14 June)
Hess & Harrison ~ Rogue Signal (BlackCat, 14 June)
Kory Reeder ~ Everywhere the Truth Rushes In (kuyin, 14 June)
KRM & KMRU ~ Disconnect (Phantom Limb, 14 June)
Michael Griffiths ~ Things of the Dark (piano and coffee records, 14 June)
MONO ~ OATH (Temporary Residence Ltd., 14 June)
Otto A. Totland ~ Exin (LEITER, 14 June)
Piotr Dabrowski – Giacomo Salis – Paolo Sanna ~ Ahinsa (Dissipatio, 14 June)
Porta d’Oro ~ Cosi Dentro Come Fuori (Maple Death, 14 June)
Stumbleine ~ Deleted Scene (Monotreme, 14 June)
Tam Lin ~ bluelightnospaceflattime (Flaming Pines, 14 June)
Tot Onyx ~ Satire of Desire (Antibody, 14 June)
V/A ~ 10:10 Kasra V presents 10 years on NTS radio (V-sion, 14 June)
Daniel Carter ~ Telepathic Mysteries, Vol. 2 (577 Records, 15 June)
Neuro… No Neuro ~ Mental Cassette (Audiobulb, 15 June)
Stone Music ~ July 15, 2022 (Room40, 15 July)
Braille ~ Triple Transit (Hotflush, 20 June)
The Flame ~ Towards the Flame, Vol. 2 (577 Records, 20 June)
Illuvia ~ Earth Prism (A Strangely Isolated Place, 20 June)
Kate Carr ~ Midsummer, London (Persistence of Sound, 20 June)
Alessandra Novaga ~ The Artistic Image Is Always a Miracle (Die Schachtel, 21 June)
Black Decelerant ~ Reflections Vol. 2 (RVNG Intl., 21 June)
Blurstem ~ Ocelli (Western Vinyl, 21 June)
Cemento Atlantico ~ Dromomania (Bronson Recordings, 21 June)
Dave Brown / Jason Kahn ~ Terminal Analog (Room40, 21 June)
David Burchall, Kate Carr & Tullis Rennie ~ Zippered Time, Winged Dialogue (Flaming Pines, 21 June)
David Douglas & Applescal ~ Démarrage (Atomnation, 21 June)
d’Eon ~ Leviathan (Hausu Mountain, 21 June)
Fera ~ Psiche Liberata (Maple Death, 21 June)
GAF & the Love Supreme Arkestra ~ Ganzfeld (Keroxen, 21 June)
Guðmundur Steinn Gunnarsson ~ Stífluhringurinn (Carrier, 21 June)
The Lazy Jesus ~ UA TRIBAL vol. 2 (Shouka, 21 June)
Michael Eckroth Group ~ Human Geography (TRR Collective, 21 June)
Moon Diagrams ~ Cemetery Classics (No-Gold, 21 June)
Powers / Rolin Duo ~ Clearing (Astral Editions, 21 June)
Qoa ~ SAUCO (Leaving, 21 June)
Solpara ~ Melancholy Sabotage (Other People, 21 June)
Stephen Roddy ~ Stardust Sonata (21 June)
Sun People ~ Emotional Distortions (candy mountain, 21 June)
Terence Fixmer ~ The Paradox in Me (Mute, 21 June)
Voide ~ Milkwood (Less, 21 June)
Braulio Lam ~ Redscale (Whitelabrecs, 22 June)
Hedgewitch ~ Grass Cat (22 June)
Slow Heart Music ~ Hope (Whitelabrecs, 22 June)
Kenneth Kirschner ~ June 7, 2013 (Granny, 25 June)
Savvas Metaxas ~ New Relics II (Granny, 25 June)
Ainu ~ Ainu (Subsound, 28 June)
Bartosz Kruczyński ~ Dreams & Whispers (Balmat, 28 June)
Deron Johnson ~ Free to Dance (Colorfield, 28 June)
Gryphon Rue ~ 4n_Objx (28 June)
Marika Takeuchi ~ Wandering Notes (Bigo & Twigetti, 28 June)
Pijn ~ From Low Beams of Hope (Floodlit Recordings, 28 June)
Sun Araw ~ Cetacean Sensation (Discrepant, 28 June)
SUSS ~ Birds & Beasts (Northern Spy, 28 June)
Turiya ~ Bliss (28 June)
Unstern ~ Es Geht Der Tag (A L T E R, 28 June)
Zachary Mezzo ~ Proximity (cmntx, 28 June)
Sinnway ~ Nykloud Veil (30 June)
Federico Durand ~ Té De Flores Silvestres (IIKKI, 1 July)
Tomotsugu Nakamura ~ For a Fleeting Moment (IIKKI, 1 July)
Titanoboa ~ Seth (A-Musik, 4 July)
Antonia Nowacka ~ Sylphine Soporifera (Mondoj, 5 July)
Bologna Improvisation Group ~ BIG (Elli, 5 July)
David Vélez ~ Comfort Food (Flaming Pines, 5 July)
Fire-Toolz ~ Breeze (5 July)
Hypnodrone Ensemble ~ The Problem Is In the Sender – Do Not Tamper With the Receiver (Cruel Nature, 5 July)
John Reidar Holmes ~ Lost in Some Stream of Time (5 July)
Million Moons ~ I May Be Some Time (5 July)
Modern Silent Cinema ~ Anemic Music (5 July)
ZULI ~ Lambda (Subtext, 5 July)
Seamus O’Muineachain ~ Liminality (7 July)
ARK ZEAD ~ Niptaktuk (Glacial Movements, 12 July)
Colin Fisher ~ Suns of the Heart (We Are Busy Bodies, 12 July)
Patrick Higgins ~ Versus (Other People, 12 July)
Spyros Polychronopoulos and Jannis Anastasakis ~ Nyfida (Room40, 12 July)
Luke Elliott ~ Every Somewhere (AKP Recordings, 17 July)
JakoJako ~ Segments (Mute, 18 July)
Alberto Boccardi ~ Apnea (Room40, 19 July)
Droneroom ~ as long as the sun (Decaying Spheres, 19 July)
Elori Saxl ~ Drifts and Surfaces (Western Vinyl, 19 July)
Lilacs & Champagne ~ Fantasy World (Temporary Residence Ltd., 19 July)
Olivier Cong ~ Tropical Church (Room40, 19 July)
Jon Rose ~ Aeolian Tendency (Room40, 19 July)
Ayumi Ishito ~ Wondercut Club (577 Records, 26 July)
Passepartout Duo & Inoyama Land ~ Radio Yugawara (Tonal Unison, 26 July)
Andrew Wasylyk & Tommy Perman ~ Ash Grey and the Gull Glides On (Clay Pipe Music, 30 July)
David Pedrick ~ Arta (1 August)
Boris Hauf ~ CLARK# – from the edges tongues grow (shameless, 2 August)
Keiji Haino ~ Black Blues (Room40, 2 August)
Veins Full of Static ~ A House Wrapped in Sleep (Machine, 2 August)
Connor D’Netto x Yvette Ofa Agapow ~ Material (Room40, 9 August)
John Blum Quartet feat. Marshall Allen ~ Deep Space (Astral Spirits, 21 August)