A CLOSER LISTEN weekly #10

72 Hours in Copenhagen, Matmos, and some recent reviews

Hello, dear Listeners! I’m writing you today from Copenhagen, where I landed yesterday morning. I’m heading to Italy early on Friday morning, where I have an academic conference and a residency and will be squeezing in some time for my first vacation since the pandemic began. Did I need a raincoat for just three days in Denmark? I wagered no, and instead brought only a light Zegna jacket I claimed in 2008. I could never have afforded such a jacket back then, and still can’t; it belonged to an ex of my girlfriend at the time.

I came to Copenhagen to meet up with my partner, who just finished a month-long ceramics residency here. So earlier today we went to visit Freetown Christiania along with two of her fellow ceramics artists from Montreal.

Christiania is an intentional community and commune in Copenhagen which has been occupied as an autonomous community since 1971, consisting of the former military barracks of Bådsmandsstræde and parts of the city ramparts. It was used an execution grounds until 1950, after which point it was abandoned, falling into disrepair. In 1971 inhabitants first claimed parts of the area to create a playground for their children. Just three weeks later Christiania was declared open by Jacob Ludvigsen, a journalist influenced by the Dutch anarchist hippie Provo movement. Ludvigsen was just shy of 24 years old at the time, but already well-known as a journalist, publishing the alt weekly Hovedbladet from 1970-72. The year before the founding of the Freetown of Christiania, he had helped found Thylejren, a farmer’s commune built on land originally purchased to hold a music festival inspired by the Isle of Wight festival and Woodstock. Both Thylejren and Christiania are essentially anarchist and have just a few simple rules: No weapons, no hard drugs, no violence, no cars, no theft, etc. Christiania became well-known for its “Pusher Street” and the prevalence of the sale of cannabis. That’s certainly how Christiania first came to my attention.

That brings me to another rule in Christiania: no photos. The locals don’t want to be documented. Fair enough. But of course my first thought was, well, there shouldn’t be any problem making audio recordings, right? And there wasn’t, but unfortunately we hadn’t paid close attention to the weather forecast, and so were caught rather unprepared when the light drizzle escalated into a full-fledged downpour. We took refuge in a vegetation-covered hut just in time to avoid a hailstorm! Nonetheless we quickly became completely soaked through, and we stayed sheltered in that hut much longer than we anticipated. I ended up ringing out my jacket so much that some stitching in the shoulder gave out. It’s finally time to retire Michael’s jacket. So in honor of all those years with this garment, here is a mini-soundscape documenting its last day of service. Listen to 72 Hours in Copenhagen (Michael’s Jacket) at Bandcamp. [Tracks 01 and 03 are binaural recordings, so headphone listening is very much encouraged.]

NEW PODCAST EPISODE

The latest episode of the Sound Propositions podcast is now available on our soundcloud or wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode 25: IRREGARDS – with Matmos

The long-running electronic duo Matmos have just released a gorgeous new LP, Regards / Ukłony dla Bogusław Schaeffer. Whereas their previous album, 2020’s The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises in Group Form, saw the couple collaging contributions from 99 friends recorded at 99 bpm, their latest is dedicated to the work of just one person: Polish polymath Bogusław Schaeffer (1929-2019). In this episode, we discuss how their reputation for conceptualism has often served to obscure the formal characteristics of their work. Can an object be a concept? Is “washing machine” or “plastic” a concept? With their signature blend of serious humor, the pair reflect on touring with a washing machine, the practicalities of licensing music, and the complexities of working with Schaeffer’s archive.

UKRAINIAN FIELD NOTES V

Gianmarco Del Re returns with another dispatch from Ukraine. For the current episode of Ukrainian Field Notes, we travel to Kharkiv, Kyiv and Lviv in the company of Yaroslav Lenzyak, Burning Woman, ноги руки, Heinali and Nina Eba. We also have a guest spot with the Eastbloc Antifascist Sound Alliance and we look at updates from Yurii Popov aka 58918012 and the Odesa label система | system, who released a fundraising compilation for the Kharkiv based lesbian-feminist organisation Sphere, uniting women regardless of age, marital status, origin, sexual orientation, religious, political and other beliefs. But to start things off, we open with a message from Valentin Silvestrov, one of Ukraine’s most prominent composers.

Read the entire piece here.

RECENT REVIEWS

700 BLISS ~ Nothing To Declare
“Is this even music?” is probably a comment you have heard in the past, whether it is from a friend, a parent, or an audience member. You may have thought it yourself, possibly around the time “Baby Shark” was taking off. It is possible, if you prefer our coverage of modern composition and ambient albums, that you may tear your headphones off after a preview of 700 BLISS and say the same thing. Producer DJ Haram takes no prisoners with her creations – sometimes it feels like she has cranked up all her instruments, so they live in the red rather than making the occasional visit for effect. It’s noisy and gnarly at times; the drums can feel relentless, the bass equally ferocious. There is a punk attitude to these tracks; Haram pulls in ideas from a myriad of influences – hip hop, noise, free jazz – to dazzle and bewilder the listener in equal amounts.

lillien rosarian ~ every flower in my garden
Three years have passed since a day in bel bruit, and lillien rosarian has used her time well.  The new cassette sings of the intricacy of spring, with tendrils of sound sprouting forth like shoots from the earth.  The blue and pink tape even looks like a baby’s play toy (but don’t let baby eat it!).  Spring, cribs and the cover art (culled from YouTube) combine to produce an impression of innocence and wonder. While not everyone will hear the tape as a tape (this being the digital era), there’s no escaping the sound of tapes as they spin forward and unspool, as the loops thread and repeat.  The buttons of the cassette player are also audible from time to time, producing a tactile feeling even when one does not own the tactile object.  A ceramic cat is also pictured (although not available separately), a reminder that even a tape can be a tchotchke.

Heather Woods Broderick ~ Domes
It’s not something people boast about, but we misremember things all the time. It’s not necessarily forgetfulness; it’s not quite experiencing false memories, but it is labouring under the illusion that we know something when we don’t. At least, we don’t know it well enough. Usually, we get away with it, as most information is only a couple of clicks away. So it was a surprise when our friends at Dauw sent us the press release for Heather Woods Broderick’s new album Domes – announcing it as her ‘first entirely instrumental work.’ Was it, we thought – don’t you want to check that? Surely, in our minds, she has released an instrumental album previously. Thankfully we cross-reference details like this before firing off correctional emails. For yes, Domes sees Broderick putting the lyric notebooks to one side and enveloping us in a rich, warm instrumental album.

MONO ~ My Story, The Buraku Story (An Original Soundtrack)
Lost beneath all the post-rock excitement is the fact that MONO can be delicate and subtle, as proven on their very first soundtrack.  The topic of burakumin ~ people segregated in Japanese society based on their “place of residence and bloodline” ~ is hushed as a nearly unspeakable truth.  And yet director Yusaku Mitsuwaka chooses to bring the subject to light in his new documentary, My Story, The Buraku Story. MONO will eventually grow to bombast, but most of their score is ambient and melancholy, beginning with the choral loops of the opener and tragic glissandos of “Watashi.”  By the time the piano enters “Kokyo,” the mood has already been set.  Something has buckled; something has broken.  One may imagine, through no fault of one’s own, being labeled, displaced, shunted away from the rest of society. When such things happen between nations, they are called war crimes; when they happen within nations, they are called “policies.”  The heartbreak of such situations is conveyed by the band through tender melodies and quiet orchestral flourishes.

Jo Montgomerie ~ from industry home
from industry home begins with a curious story, a blast from the past, the pre-history days before our site was a site.  Back then, Boomkat was all the rage, and the young Jo Montgomerie was tasked with creating all those little snippets that shop visitors played as they perused the recordings.  Coincidentally, Jim Haynes (now of The Helen Scarsdale Agency) held the same job over at Aquarius Records. Montgomerie started to wonder about the fragments that fell to the floor and were swept up at the end of the day: dust bunnies of sound and debris.  One can imagine her smuggling out the pilfered trash, taping the slices back together and threading them through a reel-to-reel recorder, a romantic image.  In a spiritual sense, she grew attached to the forlorn and forgotten sounds, such as the ignored or acclimated, the background and the seemingly superfluous.  from industry home becomes an inversion, the lead story buried, the back pages promoted to the front.

UPCOMING RELEASES
(complete list with Bandcamp links here)

At the equator, summer has already arrived, but for the rest of us, summer is just around the corner.  We are dreaming of beaches, vacations, and for the first time in years, international travel.  We look forward to driving around with the windows down and the speakers up.  Clubs are open, musicians are touring, and we’re preparing our playlists for what we hope will be a fantastic season.  There’s plenty to choose from on the summer slate, and more is on the way ~ new music is added to this page daily.  We hope this will be an amazing summer, and that you’ll find your next favorite album right here!

Aaron Turner ~ To Speak (Trost, 3 June)

Daniel Carter, Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Gerald Cleaver ~ Welcome Adventure! Vol. 2 (577 Records, 3 June)

Euan Dalgarno ~ Swimitrupl (Not Yet Remembered Records, 3 June)

Golden Feelings ~ S/T (Impermanent Records, 3 June)

Jim Perkins ~ Immersed in Clouds Reworks (Bigo & Twigetti, 3 June)

Modus ~ O Mira Novitas (Clay Pipe Music, 3 June)

Norman W. Long ~ Return and Recovery (LINE, 3 June)

Ralph Heidel ~ Modern Life (Kryptox, 3 June)

RedGreenBlue ~ The End of the Beginning (Astral Spirits, 3 June)

Savvas Metaxas ~ Magnetic Loops II (LINE, 3 June)

T. Gowdy ~ Miracles (Constellation, 3 June)

Voiski ~ The End of Fiction EP (Delsin, 3 June)

x.y.r. ~ Aquarealm (Not Not Fun, 3 June)

Yuzo Iwata ~ Kaizu (Butter Sessions, 3 June)

Nobuka ~ Miniatüre (Difficult Art & Music, 6 June)

Mario Salvadore, Marcos Morales, Yasel Munoz ~ MASINTIN (Orbit577, 7 June)

Method of Freedom ~ The Tape Sessions (7 June)

Flavia Massimo ~ Glitch (Audiobulb, 8 June)

Osheyack ~ Intimate Politics (SVBKVLT, 8 June)

Tetsu Umehara ~ Handwritten (Metron, 8 June)

Wilson Trouve ~ Endings, Beginnings (Bigo & Twigetti, 9 June)

Andre Bratten ~ Picture Music (Smalltown Supersound, 10 June)

Benny Bock ~ Vanishing Act (Colorfield, 10 June)

Blu Terra ~ Testo EP (Lapsus, 10 June)

Broken Shoulder/Expose Your Eyes ~ Parts Exchanged (Subexotic, 10 June)

Devin Brahja Waldman & Hamid Drake ~ Mediumistic Methodology (Astral Spirits, 10 June)

Firn ~ Rude Explorations (Natal, 10 June)

Geneva Nervi ~ The Disorder of Appearances (La Tempesta International, 10 June)

Jamie Leeming ~ Resynthesis (Sekito, 10 June)

Jason Del Campo ~ Sage (At Swim Music, 10 June)

Locked Groove & Gacha Bakradze ~ 3 Variations Sur Un Theme (Hotflush Recordings, 10 June)

Luke Elliot & Sycamore Willow ~ Hyper Nostalgia (Earth Works Outernational, 10 June)

Metavari ~ Soft Continuum (Studies Vol. 2) (10 June)

MimiCof ~ Distant Symphony (Karlrecords, 10 June)

Phill Niblock ~ Ghosts And Others (Room40, 10 June)

Sam Slater ~ I do not wish to be known as a Vandal (Bedroom Community, 10 June)

µ-Ziq ~ Magic Pony Ride (Planet Mu, 10 June)

The Utopia Strong ~ International Treasure (Rocket Recordings, 10 June)

Violet Mist ~ Cyberwave (Subexotic, 10 June)

Yamila ~ Visions (Umor Rex, 10 June)

Yann Tiersen ~ 11 5 18 2 5 18 (Mute, 10 June)

Yoo Doo Right ~ A Murmur, Boundless to the East (Mothland, 10 June)

Eric Maltz ~ Tappan Zee (14 June)

Origin ST ~ Dark Nights are Setting In (Ambientologist, 14 June)

Pierre Bastien ~ Sonic Folkways (Discrepant, 15 June)

Razen ~ Regression (Marionette, 15 June)

Aboutface ~ The water that glows like dancing glass cuts crimson (16 June)

Alberto Boccardi ~ Petra (Room40, 17 June)

Alex Oliverio ~ Sad Songs for a Sunny Day (Transitory Tapes, 17 June)

Andrew Tasselmyer ~ Music for Nonexistent Films (Somewherecold, 17 June)

Anteloper ~ Pink Dolphins (International Anthem, 17 June)

Burnt Friedman & João Pais Filipe ~ Automatic Music Vol. 1 (NONPLACE, 17 June)

Colin Stetson, Elliot Sharp, Billy Martin, Payton MacDonald ~ Void Patrol (Infrequent Seams, 17 June)

Giusepe Ielasi ~ The Prospect (12k, 17 June)

Grant Stewart ~ The Lighting of the Lamps (Cellar Music Group, 17 June)

Heroes Are Gang Leaders ~ LeAutoRoiOgraphy (577 Records, 17 June)

High Castle Teleorkestra ~ The Egg That Never Opened (Art as Catharsis, 17 June)

John Stein ~ Lifeline (Whaling City Sound, 17 June)

Loris Cericola ~ Metaphysical Graffiti (Artetetra, 17 June)

Maria Faust ~ MOnuMENT (17 June)

Matthew Ryals ~ impromptus in isolation (Sound as Language, 17 June)

Minamo & Asuna ~ Tail of Diffraction (12k, 17 June)

Patrick Jaffe, Aidan Filshie ~ Summit (17 June)

Revelators Sound System ~ S/T (37d03d, 17 June)

V/A ~ String Layers Vol. II (7K!, 17 June)

Wild Up ~ Julias Eastman Vol. 2: Joy Boy (New Amsterdam, 17 June)

Yenting Hsu ~ Flash (Touch/Ash International, 17 June)

Sermons by the Devil ~ Dope Fiend (19 June)

Stereo Minus One ~ Lodestone (Machine Records, 20 June)

Ametrom ~ Club Balkan (24 June)

CODE ~ Continuum (24 June)

Conrad Praetzel ~ Adventures into Somethingness (Paleo Music, 24 June)

CYRK ~ Freundschaft (Burial Soil, 24 June)

Family Ravine ~ Away & Instinct (Round Bale Recordings, 24 June)

FFT ~ Clear (Numbers, 24 June)

Finona Merivale ~ Tús (New Focus, 24 June)

Glenn Jones ~ Vade Mecum (Thrill Jockey, 24 June)

h e r e a f t e r. ~ This Life Is a Beautiful War (24 June)

Larkhall ~ Say You’re With Me (24 June)

pq ~ proprioception (Lapsus, 24 June)

Rolf Hansen ~ Tableau (Karaoke Kalk, 24 June)

syn∙the∙sis ~ still motions (Post.Recordings, 24 June)

Tommy Crane ~ We Are All Improvisers Now (Whirlwind Recordings, 24 June)

V/A ~ Alien Parade Japan (Morr Music, 24 June)

V/A ~ TARAXIA (GODDEZZ, 24 June)

Vongoiva ~ Jatuli Observatory (Flaming Pines, 24 June)

Chloe Alexandre Thompson ~ They Can Never Burn the Stars (SIGE, 27 June)

Bruno Duplant ~ Sombres Miroirs (Cronica, 28 June)

Jean D.L. ~ Zenaïde (Esc.rec., 30 June)

Subletvis ~ Not The Whole Truth (Ventil Records, 30 June)

Daniel Carter et al ~ Telepatica (577 Records, 1 July)

François Robin & Mathias Delplanque ~ L’ombre de la bête (Parenthesis Records, 1 July)

Jason Calhoun ~ ben c., this is for you (Lily Tapes, 1 July)

Julian Tenembaum ~ fragmentos (Schole, 1 July)

Mark Ball ~ Amplified Guitar (The Garrote, 1 July)

Matsumoto / Shiroishi / Watanabe ~ Yellow (Dinzu Artefacts, 1 July)

The National Park Service ~ Rescuers’ Loops (Lily Tapes, 1 July)

Yui Onodera ~ Too Ne (Room40, 1 July)

Antti Tolvi ~ Spectral Organ / Feedback Gong (Room40, 8 July)

Catarina Barbieri ~ Spirit Exit (Warp, 8 July)

Delay/Aarset ~ Singles (Room40, 8 July)

Timewitch ~ S/T (9 July)

Jolanda Moletto ~ Nine Spells (Ambientologist, 13 July)

Amanda Irarrázabal and Miriam Den Boer Salmón ~ Fauces (577 Records, 15 July)

Arp ~ New Pleasures (Mexican Summer, 15 July)

Blurstem & Elijah Bisbee ~ Geneva (Bigo & Twigetti, 15 July)

Caleb Wheeler Curtis ~ Heatmap (Imani, 15 July)

Gimmik ~ Sonic Poetry (n5MD, 15 July)

Helena Celle ~ Music for Counterflows (False Walls, 15 July)

Indian Wells ~ No One Really Listens to Oscillators (Mesh, 15 July)

Madeleine Cocolas ~ Spectral (Room40, 15 July)

Cape Canaveral ~ In the City I Can’t Sing (Machine Records, 22 July)

Galya Bisengalieva ~ Hold Your Breath: The Ice Dive (One Little Independent, 22 July)

Lifting Gear Engineer ~ Space Between (Machine Records, 22 July)

Rafael Anton Irisarri ~ Agitas Al Sol (Room40, 22 July)

Iceberg ~ Final Thaw (Astral Spirits, 29 July)

Jeremy Cunningham / Justin Laurenzi / Paul Bryan ~ A Better Ghost (Northern Spy, 29 July)

Mario Diaz de Leon ~ Heart Thread (Denovali, 29 July)

Black Sky Giant ~ Falling Mothership (Made of Stone, 30 July)

BI DA DOOM ~ graceful collision (Astral Spirits, 5 August)

Keefe Jackson / Oscar Jan Hoogland / Joshua Abrams / Mikel Patrick Avery ~
These Things Happen (Astral Spirits, 5 August)

Susie Ibarra & Tashi Dorji ~ Master of Time (Astral Spirits, 12 August)

Gregor Dys ~ riss (14 August)

Szun Waves ~ Earth Patterns (Leaf, 19 August)

Daniel Avery ~ Ultra Truth (Mute, 4 November)