A CLOSER LISTEN weekly #29
New Podcast Episode, Ukrainian Field Notes, and recent reviews
Dear Listeners… Getting this one out early today. I’m pretty sick this week, so I’m gonna keep it tight. I haven’t gotten a cold since summer 2020 (benefits of working from home and masking in public), and while I’ve still managed to evade COVID, all these other respiratory things going around finally got me. So before I go back to bed, here’s a rundown of what’s fresh this fortnight.
Oh, actually a few shout outs before getting into that. Last time I recommended KING VISION ULTRA’s latest album SHOOK WORLD. KVU aka GENG PTP is also featured on the latest episode of the Next Movement Podcast talking about that project as well as De La Soul’s 1993 timeless classic, Buhloone Mindstate (to my ears, the best of their three albums produced by Prince Paul). I’ve mentioned Next Movement before, but hosts E & Rob produce my favorite podcast dedicated to hip hop culture, touching on social and political aspects of the art form like few others, formulating really deep questions while always keeping it grounded. Most episodes feature a guest who chooses an album that’s been important to them to discuss. Even when I don’t know the guest, sometimes especially when I don’t know the guest, I find their episodes incredibly interesting and engaging, and have discovered a lot of really great creative individuals as a result of their work. But of course, I know GENG, who has featured on two episodes of the Sound Propositions podcast, and loved hearing him dive deep into the process behind SHOOK WORLD and wax poetic about De La.
In our 2021 episode Food + Music, a tribute to the late MF DOOM, GENG also spoke on the influence of De La Soul, comparing them to KMD, a group that consisted of DOOM (then known as Zev Love X) alongside his brother DJ Subroc, whose tragic death in 1993 derailed the release of their second album, Black Bastards, and set Zev Love X on the path to becoming the beloved supervillain we all know and love. After decades long drawn out battles with their former label Tommy Boy, due to issues over sample clearances and royalty shares, De La’s catalogue is finally available on streaming services and will shortly be back on physical formats. But unfortunately MC Dave Jolicoeur aka Trugoy the Dove passed just a few short weeks before De La’s catalog hit streaming, making the moment bittersweet. I know many young folks are unfamiliar with their catalog, especially those classic records with Prince Paul, so now is a great time to tap in.
Listen to GENG talk SHOOK WORLD and De La on the Next Movement.
And in related news, GENG and a bunch of other friends of the site are featured in the latest issue of The Wire. Previous podcast guest Maria Chavez is featured in the cover story alongside fellow turntablists alongside Mariam Rezaei and Evicshen. This issue also featured a review of KVU’s SHOOK WORLD and of Patrick Nickleson’s new book, The Names of Minimalist: Authorship, Art Music, and Historiography in Dispute (about which more on a future episode of SP). But speaking of episodes of SP….
SOUND PROPOSITIONS
Episode 28: COGNITIVE DISSONANCE – with Archivio Diafònico
This episode features Giuseppe Esposito, a Neapolitan musician who runs the tape label Archivio Diafònico, an operation that mostly documents artists who are based in Napoli. The chaotic and bustling capital of the South of Italy undeservedly gets a bad reputation, and the city has a vibrant cultural scene and rich history that is sorely underappreciated. Through a chronicle of his own musical formation and the birth of the label, Esposito constructs a map of the Neapolitan underground scene, with particular attention to noise and improvisation. We also discuss Abidjan Centrale / Partono i Bastimenti, a podcast Esposito produces with Carole Oulato exploring the diverse musical traditions of Africa.
As Giuseppe explains in this episode, the autonomous collectives and DIY spaces he discusses eventually gave way to a period of institutionalization, of which the La Digestion festival is but one example of this evolution. (For more on that, check out Episode 6: MUSIC SELDOM HEARD, which is something of a companion to this episode, providing further documentation of the thriving Neapolitan experimental music community.)
Available on our Soundcloud page and in all the podplaces.
UKRAINIAN FIELD NOTES XX
On the anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine it’s time to take stock. The first episode of Ukrainian Field Notes came out on March 19, 2022, with the first interviews dating back to March 5, 2022. Over the course of a year we have posted 170 interviews and reached out to more than 200 Ukrainian artists. We also produced six podcasts for ResonanceFM.
We knew this was going to be a challenge, but we didn’t expect it to be such a rewarding endeavour with so many inspiring stories. A huge thank you to all those who entrusted us with their stories.
This month we discuss ambient with Mar’yan Kitsenko, electronic music with nightcourier, Surzhyk with Latexfauna, miniature furniture with Kirk Blunder, trekking with Bohdan, Mariupol with unfeeling, self-growth with lettertomypast, re-traumatisation with I.Krueger, Bangkok with Heskbo, Warsaw with Ssscreep, Berlin with le_na_mi, Mother War with Jabo Kritsky, and fashion with Katro Zauber.
We also feature a number of new releases and two new videos by Monotonne, “Експерименти над людиною” (feat. аппекс and taken from the forthcoming album 37) and Endless Melancholy, “Running” (feat. Bilyk).
But to begin with we’ve produced a video featuring all our interviewees as a recap of sorts.
RECENT REVIEWS
Reviews are at the heart of ACL. Here are (excerpts from) a few of my favorite reviews we posted on the blog in the last few weeks.
Francesco Fabris & Ben Frost ~ Vakning
Few field recording artists experience risk recording in urban, suburban and forest environments, but the Room40 roster revels in extremes: Antarctic storms, sub-zero temperatures, and now the boiling opposite. Vakning was recorded at Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall and pairs well with Alyssa Moxley’s Underdrift: Volcano Music, which we reviewed back in 2021. This time the dangerous trek is taken by Francesco Fabris and Ben Frost, who record magma and lava, seismic rumbles, the ruptured crust.
Kate Carr ~ false dawn
When is a field recording not a field recording? The dawn chorus arises from silence in a soft drone, followed by the sound of footsteps on gravel. Kate Carr is setting out in the forest, as she has so many times before, foraging for wood, scraping for scraps. A whippoorwill startles her; Carr freezes, but the microphone does not. The frogs begin to awaken and croak, announcing the return of the light, making their first mating cries of the day. And then the loon, calling across the bog, confident before the sun. We can hear the lapping of a stream, the early animals catching a bath. After five minutes, the neighboring birds have joined the chorus; and the drone, like the low hum of electrical wires, has continued to grow.
Lia Kohl ~ The Ceiling Reposes
he title is taken from a love poem by William Jay Smith. The full stanza: “Now touch the air softly / swing gently the broom. / I’ll love you ’til windows are all of a room; / And the table is laid, And the table is bare, / And the ceiling reposes on bottomless air.” The sentiments are sensical and non-sensical all at once, an inversion of expectation and natural law. From this starting point, Lia Kohl embarks on a “curious” journey, the word inextricably linked to Alice in Wonderland, curiouser and curiouser. The Ceiling Reposes may also be likened to Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise, as it recognizes that dialogue seldom takes place in a vacuum; conversations overlap and background noise intrudes.
Ô Lake ~ Still
We loved Refuge, Sylvain Texier‘s 2019 debut under the name Ô Lake, describing it is “deeply cinematic in a manner many artists aspire to, but few achieve”. If anything, this has been amplified in Still, an album in which big emotions are laid bare. Listening to the muted solo piano of the lead single, “Innocence”, you might be forgiven for thinking that this is another minimal neoclassical album, but if anything the opposite is true: arguably this is maximalist neoclassicism (is that a thing?) Album opener “Everest” begins with gentle string chords, but these are not sparse string quartet textures; instead Texier has employed a 40-piece orchestra. Those opening chords sound as if the titular mountain is shrouded in mist, but as the music climbs to its heady peak it becomes clear that Texier intends to make full use of his resources, layering the string with rippling synths and piano chords.
UPCOMING RELEASES
(complete list with Bandcamp links here)
We all get very excited at this time of year, because spring is a huge season for new releases. No matter what residue the winter has left, it can be washed away by a deluge of new music. Our Spring Music Preview will launch us into the release slate, but for those who can’t wait, a massive streaming preview is below. The bounty is so big that there’s bound to be something for everybody: a sonic embarrassment of riches, with albums in every category. There’s always something to look forward to, as new music is added here daily; we hope you will find your next favorite album right here!
Elsa Bergman Playon Crayon ~ Playon Crayon (Bergman Inspelningar, 9 March)
Andrea Belfi ~ Eternally Frozen (Bow, 10 March)
Bruno Sanfilippo ~ Ver Sanctum (ad21, 10 March)
Carlos Ferreira ~ Everything We Knew Was Wrong (Templo Animal, 10 March)
Cedric Vermue ~ PERPETUA (mylja, 10 March)
Fabian Guirard ~ La Prise Électronique (L’Histoire Inconnue Du Disque, 10 March)
Fatima Al Qadiri ~ Gumar (Hyperdub, 10 March)
Francesco Fabris & Ben Frost ~ Vakning (Room40, 10 March)
Julia Gjertsen & Juha Mäki-Patola ~ Dive EP (Bigo & Twigetti, 10 March)
Lei Liang ~ Hearing Landscapes/Hearing Icescapes (New Focus, 10 March)
Lia Kohl ~ The Ceiling Reposes (American Dreams, 10 March)
Ohr ~ Luma/Chroma (sound as language, 10 March)
O Morto ~ Dans la Gorge d’un Monstre (Discrepant, 10 March)
O Morto ~ Ifrits Habitent (Discrepant, 10 March)
Re:drum ~ New Folk EP (Tripalium Corp., 10 March)
Sbatax ~ Spires (Umlaut, 10 March)
Scree ~ Jasmine on a Night in July (Ruination, 10 March)
Secret of Elements ~ Rebuilding Notre Dame (InFiné, 10 March)
Tomo-Nakaguchi ~ The Long Night in Winter Light (Audiobulb, 11 March)
Efraín Rozas ~ Still (Futura Resistenza, 13 March)
Bill Seaman & Steve Vitiello ~ The Clear Distance (Room40, 14 March)
Early Fern ~ Perpetual Care (Métron, 15 March)
Lorenz Weber ~ earth beats (15 March)
Romain Perrot & Quentin Rollet ~ Le vieux fusible (ReQords, 15 March)
Aaron Leaney feat. Guy Thouin ~ Lockdown (Astral Spirits, 17 March)
APNM ~ Music from the Association for the Promotion of New Music, vol. 3 (New Focus, 17 March)
Blank Gloss ~ Cornered (Kompakt, 17 March)
Brady Matheson ~ Every dream in your head (17 March)
Fargo ~ Geli (Kapitaen Platte, 17 March)
Gerald Cleaver, Brandon Lopez, Hprizm ~ In the Wilderness (577 Records, 17 March)
James Emrick ~ Actoma (Students of Decay, 17 March)
Lizzitsky ~ Miasma Jester (Never Sleep, 17 March)
Niklas Paschburg ~ Panta Rhei (7K!, 17 March)
Primitive Motion ~ Portrait of an Atmosphere (Room40, 17 March)
Senestra ~ Stanford (17 March)
Simone Guidice ~ Alone (AFFIN, 17 March)
Esecutori di Metallo su Carta ~ 19+1 (19’40”, 20 March)
Mikkel Rev ~ The Art of Levitation (A Strangely Isolated Place, 20 March)
Luca Forcucci ~ Terra (Cronica, 21 March)
Tørrfall ~ S/T (Den Pene Inngang, 21 March)
Zosia Hołubowska ~ Singing Warmia (EXILES, 21 March)
Katie Lou McCabe ~ innersense (23 March)
Plaster ~ Obscura (Textvra, 23 March)
Sermons by the Devil ~ Pro-Life (23 March)
Andy Loebs ~ Hyperlink Anamorphosis (JOLT, 24 March)
Arhios ~ Miscible (24 March)
Blutch ~ Condate EP (Astropolis, 24 March)
Christian Rønn ~ Travel through Stones (Nische, 24 March)
Cruel Diagonals ~ Fractured Whole (Beacon Sound, 24 March)
CZIGO ~ Aishroo (Machine Records, 24 March)
Domotic ~ Palazzo (unjenesaisquoi, 24 March)
Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble ~ III (Astral Spirits, 24 March)
Gilroy Mere ~ Gilden Gate (Clay Pipe Music, 24 March)
Haarvöl ~ Seeking the intimacy of silence (Moving Furniture, 24 March)
Jamie del Adarve ~ Neu (piano and coffee records, 24 March)
Last Days ~ Windscale (n5MD, 24 March)
Les Dunes ~ S/T (Kapitaen Platte, 24 March)
Material + Object ~ Telepath (Editions Mego, 24 March)
Mats Gustafsson & Joachim Nordwall ~ Their Power Reached Across Space and Time – To Defy Them Was Death – Or Worse (Thrill Jockey, 24 March)
Neal Cowley ~ Battery Life (Mote, 24 March)
Oishi ~ once upon a time there was a mountain (Bezirk Tapes, 24 March)
Richard Orton ~ Hemlock Stone (Persistence of Sound, 24 March)
Robert Honstein ~ Lost and Found (New Focus, 24 March)
SELVEDGE ~ Capacity (24 March)
Staran Wake ~ S/T (Hands in the Dark, 24 March)
Uzhur ~ S/T (NAHAL Recordings, 24 March)
YoshimiOizumikiYoshiduO – To The Forest To Live A Truer Life (Thrill Jockey, 24 March)
Bendu ~ Portaling (Werra Foxma, 25 March)
A Journey of Giraffes ~ Empress Nouveau (Somewherecold, 31 March)
Andrew Land ~ Without You Here (Bigo & Twigetti, 31 March)
Arrowounds ~ In the Octopus Pond (Lost Tribe Sound, 31 March)
Avenue Azure ~ S/T (Ensemble Klang, 31 March)
Brokencandys ~ The Future Was Better (Vous Connaissez?, 31 March)
Bungalovv ~ Visited by Strangers (Genome & 6.66Mbp, 31 March)
Dilian ~ (Bmfr) Beam Former (Artetetra, 31 March)
Höhn ~ S/T (STNS, 31 March)
Mammal Hands ~ Gift from the Trees (Gondwana, 31 March)
Masahiro Takahashi ~ Humid Sun (telephone explosion, 31 March)
Pépe ~ Reclaim (Lapsus, 31 March)
Phil Minton, Pat Thomas, Dave Tucker, Roger Turner ~ Scatter: On a Clear Day Like This (577 Records, 31 March)
Piotr Kurek ~ Peach Blossom (Mondoj, 31 March)
Richard Skelton ~ selenodesy (Phantom Limb, 31 March)
Rob Mazurek – Exploding Star Orchestra ~ Lightning Dreamers (International Anthem, 31 March)
Scotch Rolex & Shackleton ~ Death by Tickling (31 March)
Survey Channel ~ Canvas Doubles (Werra Foxma, 31 March)
Tapes and Topographies ~ Microtones (Simulacra, 31 March)
Wadada Leo Smith ~ Fire Illuminations (Kabell, 31 March)
Blush Response ~ Neuroscape (Megastructure_, 4 April)
Bipolar Explorer ~ In the Hours Left Before Dawn (7 April)
Civilistjävel! ~ Fyra platser (FELT, 7 April)
Cliffdiver ~ S/T (-EV Records, 7 April)
Daniel Rotem ~ Wave Nature (Colorfield, 7 April)
David Edren ~ Relativteit Van de Omgeving (Not Not Fun, 7 April)
Fire-Toolz ~ I am upset because I see something that is not there. (Hausu Mountain, 7 April)
foil ~ On the Wing (Jolt Music, 7 April)
High Season ~ The Call (Permanent Vacation, 7 April)
Issei Herr ~ Distant Intervals (NNA Tapes, 7 April)
John Matthias & Jay Auborn ~ Ghost Notes (Cognitive Shift Recordings, 7 April)
Kiji Suedo ~ Hosek EP (Hobbes Music, 7 April)
Lorenzo Abattoir ~ Disincarnazione (Flag Day Recordings, 7 April)
Michael Sarian & Matthew Putman ~ A Lifeboat (Part II) (577 Records, 7 April)
µ-Ziq ~ 1977 (Balmat, 7 April)
Niko-Matti Ahti ~ Kaivajaiset (Students of Decay, 7 April)
Peter Manheim ~ In Time (Northern Spy, 7 April)
Radboud Mens & Fernando Jose Pereira ~ The Inoperative Suspension of a Stoppage (ERS, 7 April)
Sleep Research Facility/Llyn Y Cwn ~ Cargo/Posidonia (Cold Spring, 7 April)
Tim Hecker ~ No Highs (kranky, 7 April)
yaz lancaster ~ AmethYst (people | places | records, 7 April)
Secret Circuit ~ Green Mirror (Invisible, Inc., 10 April)
Macgray ~ Collapse (Les Yeux Orange, 13 April)
The Creative Technology Consortium ~ Panoramic Colorsound (Dark Entries, 14 April)
Eva Novoa ~ Novoa / Kamaguchi / Cleaver Trio Vol. 1 (577 Records, 14 April)
Grandbrothers ~ Late Reflections (City Slang US, 14 April)
Left Hand Cuts Off the Right ~ Free Time/Dead Time (Brachliegen Tapes, 14 April)
Martyn Heyne ~ Eight Reflections in Darkness (Tonal Institute / AWAL Sony, 14 April)
Matt Mitchell ~ Oblong Aplomb (Out of Your Head, 14 April)
Mute Duo ~ Migrant Flocks (American Dreams, 14 April)
Nashville Ambient Ensemble ~ Light and Space (Centripetal Force, 14 April)
Olivia De Prato ~ Panorama (New Focus, 14 April)
Ozmotic | Fennesz ~ Senzatempo (Touch, 14 April)
Penelope Trappes ~ Heavenly Spheres (Nite Hive, 14 April)
V/A ~ Random and emblematic: The sound of space (Modern Obscure Music, 14 April)
V/A ~ Utopia or Oblivion (Constructive, 14 April)
Ümlaut ~ Same But Different (Audiobulb, 15 April)
We’re Not Afraid of the Dark ~ Glossolalia (Room40, 14 April)
Akhiro Sano ~ Shadow’s Praise (IIKKI, 20 April)
V/A ~ Spectrum (Cruel Nature, 20 April)
Chaz Knapp & Mariel Roberts ~ Setting Fire to These Dark Times (figureight, 21 April)
Ken Ideka ~ Sparse Memory (Room40, 21 April)
KVL ~ Volume 2 (Astral Spirits, 21 April)
Lucaslavia ~ Furnace (Macro, 21 April)
Manuel Mota ~ XIX (Room40, 21 April)
Push for Night + Jon Mueller ~ Lapsed Gasps (Room40, 21 April)
Simeon Walker ~ Imprints 2 (21 April)
Terms ~ All Becomes Indistinct (Skin Graft, 21 April)
Ensemble Dedalus / Ryoko Akama ~ Elaine Radigue (Montagne Noire, 22 April)
Ayumi Ishito ~ Ayumi Isito & The Spacemen, Vol. 2 (577 Records, 28 April)
Bill Orcutt ~ Jump On It (Palilalia, 28 April)
David Prior ~ Descent (SN Variations, 28 April)
hÄK/Danzeisen ~ same (Karlrecords, 28 April)
Leagus ~ Flora Eallin (Is It Jazz?, 28 April)
Martyna Basta ~ Slowly Forgetting, Barely Remembering (Warm Winters Ltd., 28 April)
Matthewdavid ~ Mycelium Music (Leaving, 28 April)
Mushroom Giant ~ In a Forest (Bird’s Robe, 28 April)
Manja Ristić ~ water memory: mnemosonic topographies of the Adriatic (1 May)
Asher Gamedze ~ Turbulence and Pulse (International Anthem, 5 May)
upsammy ~ Germ in a Population of Buildings (PAN, 5 May)
Helen Money/Will Thomas ~ Trace (Thrill Jockey, 12 May)
Oval ~ Romantiq (Thrill Jockey, 12 May)
Sarah Pagé ~ Voda (Backward Music, 2 June)