A CLOSER LISTEN weekly #30
Spring Music Previews!
Dear Listeners! Joseph here, once again, for another ACL newsletter. I’ve been writing furiously these past few months, as I have to send a complete draft of my dissertation to my advisors by this Sunday. So with that let’s get right to the point. This week we’ve got a lovely new mix from Julia E. Dyck and Stefan Christoff, Gianmarco Del Re reviews Bratislava’s NEXT Festival, and we’ve got a whole bunch of exciting new music in our 2023 Spring Music Previews. As always, check the blog for daily reviews and more.
Julia E. Dyck and Stefan Christoff present A Silver Moon Mix
Tiohtià:ke / Montreal musician and community organizer Stefan Christoff has featured on this site many times over the last decade, including in his collaborations with Sam Shalabi, with his brother Jordan Christoff (as Anarchist Mountains), and with Nick Schofield (as rêves sonores). He’s also produced mixes for us as well, both solo and with Jordan, often highlighting his extended network of activist musicians based in Montreal and around the world. Julia E. Dyck is a musician who splits her time between Brussels and Tiohtià:ke / Montreal, as well as member of the collective which co-hosts the long-running community radio program ffiles (fka XX Files). The two have joined forces for their debut release, A Silver Moon X, out now on Aural Canyon records in Texas. To celebrate the release, the duo have created this special mix for A CLOSER LISTEN that features some work from their album and also works by friends and artists they enjoy.
A SILVER MOON X is about fantasy and storytelling, about the imaginary in the real, an experiment with sound and work to create space for reflection within the chaos of life. The record is a collaboration that was born at CKUT 90.3FM in Montréal. Thank you for listening !
Read more, including an interview and tracklist, here.
Next Festival review
if you are making a music festival, radio or any cultural program and not inviting Ukrainians or vicitims (sic) of the Russian violence, dunno, what you are doing [eastbloc af sound alliance pinned tweet]
Music festivals in 2022 have not been able to bypass the issue of Ukraine. And considering there is currently no end in sight to the war, the same will apply for the year ahead, unless war fatigue sets in, and signs are, this has already happened. That said, some festivals have addressed the changed landscape more openly than others.
The Ephemera Festival 2022, for instance, curated and produced by the team of Unsound, gave prominence to Ukrainian artists. But it’s not just numbers, a certain sensitivity is also required.
When talking to Heinali, who opened the Next Festival in Bratislava, he was quick to praise the organisers. As a general rule, he told me, “Even when playing at festivals where Russian artists who have condemned the war are present, it is important that we don’t share the bill, as placing Ukrainian and a Russian artists together just reiterates the myth of the ‘brotherly nations’”. And any Ukrainian who ends up finding themselves sharing the bill, is duley castigated.
At times, though, on the global arena, having a Ukrainian act in the line-up can seem tokenistic, with the Guardian hailing the presence of “Ukrainian techno” at Glastonbury 2022 as one of “30 acts not to miss”. But is highlighting Go_A (hardly a techno band) an attempt by the Guardian to make up for its scant coverage of Ukrainian artists in its music pages since February 2022, or just evidence that Ukraine is now seen as sexy?
SPRING MUSIC PREVIEWS
2023 Spring Music Preview ~ Ambient
By now, most people in the northern climates are preparing for spring; but spring is more than cherry blossoms and returning flocks. Spring is a state of mind: a warming, a flowering, an emergence. Spring is a feeling that, to quote Kate Bush, “something good is going to happen.” And even if that hoped-for thing doesn’t materialize – new love, political stability, an end to war – in our minds we can imagine it, and our imagination propels us into the new season.
When summer is the biggest season for movies, and autumn for books, spring and fall share the crown as the biggest seasons for new music, evidenced by the hundreds of albums we’ll be introducing over the course of the week. With some huge names on the spring slate, as well as many promising newcomers, we’re confident that everyone will find an album to fill them with anticipation – maybe a handful. Welcome to our Spring Music Preview, which begins with our quietest but most popular genre.
Read the entire article.
2023 Spring Music Preview ~ Drone
Our definition of drone has continued to expand, and now includes everything from steady hum to walls of sound, from cello drone to factory noise. Sustain and decay are typical elements, as emphasized in Owen Coggins’ book of the same name. Psychedelica and mysticism may be present, as visited by Harry Sword in Monolithic Undertow. Even thunderstorms and electrical wires can produce their own brand of drone, as illustrated by SELVEDGE’s cover image. Drone labels have also broadened their horizons, releasing works that inhabit the porous borders between drone, ambient, metal and more.
2023 Spring Music Preview ~ Electronic
Our Electronic music preview contains twice as much music as every other category. Sub-genres continue to shift, but the overall categories remain the same, from ambient-electronic to industrial. This is a good time to point out that most of the nearly 300 releases in our Spring Music Preview will be released in the next five weeks: over 50 releases a week announced before the season has even started! As the weather warms, the windows are opened, the parks are visited and the festival announcements begin to appear, this will be our soundtrack; even so, it’s only just the beginning!
2023 Spring Music Preview ~ Experimental
This season, listeners can travel to a distant village to hear the reminiscences of centenarians; wander into the forest to encounter lost tribes; rail at the machines of politics and industry, who have marginalized races and classes; or simply sit back and let the machines take over. This season’s experimental music slate is one of the most diverse we’ve ever heard, in both theme and execution. Whatever you don’t know you’re looking for can probably be found here! Welcome to the cutting edge, where the most fascinating stories are told.
2023 Spring Music Preview ~ Modern Composition
Once again, spring is turning out to be an incredible season for modern composition, as a wide variety of releases are sharing space in the garden. We’re also fortunate to have a quartet of remarkable videos to whet our appetite for the spring slate. From solo works to small orchestra, harp to trombone, these selections work as a new score to the Little Golden Book Animal Orchestra, highlighted in last year’s article Best Children’s Books on Music. If this season’s seeds sprout early, we’ll be overjoyed.
2023 Spring Music Preview ~ Rock, Post-Rock, Folk & Jazz
The Arrowounds album pictured here boasts some incredible artwork; read below to discover how to turn the digital image into a physical artifact. This is just one of dozens of releases in our most expansive category, running the tonal gamut from reflective to rocking. Next week, we’ll take a deep dive into the spring slate and start to cover some of these prime releases in greater depth.
We also want to tip our readers to our next big series, which will highlight music that sounds like spring; look for our list of the all-time Best Spring Albums, coming this April! In the meantime, we hope you enjoy our final installment of 2023’s Spring Music Preview.
UPCOMING RELEASES
(complete list with Bandcamp links here)
ACL gets 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 launched us into the release slate, but for even more, a massive streaming preview is found 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!et
Katie Lou McCabe ~ innersense (23 March)
Mark Ginsburg & Ryan Grogan ~ Oceans Together (Earshift, 23 March)
Plaster ~ Obscura (Textvra, 23 March)
Sermons by the Devil ~ Pro-Life (23 March)
Ylang Ylang ~ Only by moonlight (Personal Records, 23 March)
Andy Loebs ~ Hyperlink Anamorphosis (JOLT, 24 March)
Anlor ~ Fragments of a New Past (Ombrelle Concrete, 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)
Fabrizio Modenese Palumbo ~ ELP (Dissipatio, 24 March)
400 Lonely Things ~ Mother Moon (Cold Spring, 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)
Julian Klaas ~ Impromptu (Squama, 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)
Paddy Fitzgerald ~ Book of Boobook (Earshift Music, 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)
Tripataka ~ Gliese 667C (Earshift Music, 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)
Virke ~ II (Flora & Fauna, 30 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)
Jack Prest ~ The Risk of Hyperbole – Vol. 2 – Object (Art As Catharsis, 31 March)
Mammal Hands ~ Gift from the Trees (Gondwana, 31 March)
Masahiro Takahashi ~ Humid Sun (telephone explosion, 31 March)
Milanku ~ À l’aube (Folivora, 31 March)
Old Saw ~ Sewn the Name (Lobby Art, 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)
Steve Barry ~ In the Waves (Earshift Music, 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)
Good Weather for an Airstrike ~ In the Blink of an Eye (Valley View, 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)
Leo Wolf ~ Shapeshifter (Dead Letters Archive, 7 April)
Lorenzo Abattoir ~ Disincarnazione (Flag Day Recordings, 7 April)
Marc Codsi ~ Songs from the Aftermath (Discrepant, 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)
Oliver Alary ~ Apparitions Vol. 1 (LINE, 7 April)
Peter Manheim ~ In Time (Northern Spy, 7 April)
Radboud Mens & Fernando Jose Pereira ~ The Inoperative Suspension of a Stoppage (ERS, 7 April)
Rok Zalokar ~ Spaces VIII (7 April)
Sean Harold ~ Kinderstück (7 April)
Sleep Research Facility/Llyn Y Cwn ~ Cargo/Posidonia (Cold Spring, 7 April)
Suki Sou ~ Notes on Listening (Curious Music, 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)
Grant Cutler ~ Garden (Aether Sound, 13 April)
Macgray ~ Collapse (Les Yeux Orange, 13 April)
The Creative Technology Consortium ~ Panoramic Colorsound (Dark Entries, 14 April)
Entidad Animada ~ Pruebas de Existencia (Umor Rex, 14 April)
Erwan Sene ~ JUnQ (PAN, 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)
Lucie Antunes ~ Carnaval (InFine, 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)
We’re Not Afraid of the Dark ~ Glossolalia (Room40, 14 April)
The Dead Bell ~ A Moment at Dawn (Whitelabrecs, 15 April)
Ümlaut ~ Same But Different (Audiobulb, 15 April)
Volruptus ~ Moxie (Herrensauna, 15 April)
Yuya Ota ~ Dramatic Syndrome (Whitelabrecs, 15 April)
Mark Barrott ~ 蒸発 (Jōhatsu) (Reflections, 17 April)
Akhiro Sano ~ Shadow’s Praise (IIKKI, 20 April)
V/A ~ Spectrum (Cruel Nature, 20 April)
Alessandra Rombolà ~ Out of the playground (SOFA, 21 April)
Chaz Knapp & Mariel Roberts ~ Setting Fire to These Dark Times (figureight, 21 April)
Desiderii Marginis ~ Serenity/Rage (Cyclic Law, 21 April)
dragonchild ~ S/T (FPE, 21 April)
Euan Dalgarno ~ ZasquintE (Not Yet Remembered, 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)
Pascal Savy ~ Simulacra (Cyclic Law, 21 April)
Push for Night + Jon Mueller ~ Lapsed Gasps (Room40, 21 April)
Stefan Węgłowski ~ Smooth Inertia (Glacial Movements, 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)
Nathan Hanson ~ We Sick (28 April)
Sam C. Roberts ~ After the Collapse (28 April)
Tim Brady ~ Symphony in 18 Parts (Starkland, April 28)
V/A ~ yet (Tresor, 28 April)
Manja Ristić ~ water memory: mnemosonic topographies of the Adriatic (1 May)
V/A ~ Magnum Opus Collectio Series: Rubedo (Undogmatisch, 2 May)
Alva Noto ~ Kinder der Sonne (NOTON, 5 May)
Asher Gamedze ~ Turbulence and Pulse (International Anthem, 5 May)
Éliane Radigue ~ Naldjorlak (Saltern, 5 May)
France Jobin ~ 10-33CM (Room40, 5 May)
Kjell Bjørgeengen & Chris Cogburn ~ Fear of the Object (Sofa Music, 5 May)
Peter Zummo ~ Deep Dive 2 (TAR / MM / UOH, 5 May)
Philip G. Anderson ~ Always Present (5 May)
Specular-D ~ You Do You (5 May)
Svoboda/O’Connor/Green ~ Time Together, Time Apart (577 Records, 5 May)
upsammy ~ Germ in a Population of Buildings (PAN, 5 May)
Aria Rostami ~ PSALM012: Allegory (Phantom Limb, 12 May)
Helen Money/Will Thomas ~ Trace (Thrill Jockey, 12 May)
Oval ~ Romantiq (Thrill Jockey, 12 May)
Johan Arrias ~ Self-Portraits (ausculto fonogram, 13 May)
Nonturn ~ Jellybeans (Audiobulb, 13 May)
Roel Meelkop ~ Viva in Pace (Cronica, 16 May)
Matthew Herbert ~ The Horse (Accidental Records, 26 May)
Sarah Pagé ~ Voda (Backward Music, 2 June)
Samuele Strufaldi, Tommaso Rosati, Francesco Gherardi ~ t (Elli Records, 2 June)
David Toop & Lawrence English ~ The Shell That Speaks the Sea (Room40, 5 June)
Werner Dafeldecker ~ Neural (Room40, 9 June)
Werner Daleldecker & Valerio Tricoli ~ Der Krater (Room40, 9 June)
Night Gestalt ~ Staring Light (Bigo & Twigetti, 13 June)