A CLOSER LISTEN weekly #45
Ukraine, Unsound, and many Reviews
Dear Listeners! November already. Can you believe it? We’re already starting to plan our end of year lists, and I’ve got quite a few reviews to finish and get on the publishing queue before then. As I mentioned in the previous newsletter, I’ve also got a review of AKOUSMA, including an interview with Aho Ssan. And finally, my long promised first installment of Out of the Box. But why talk about the future when we’ve got so much for you right now in the present. We’ve got the latest installment of Gianmarco Del Re’s Ukrainian Field Notes, my review article of Unsound, a whole lot of Recent Reviews, and our ever-growing Upcoming Releases.
UKRAINIAN FIELD NOTES XXVII
For the current episode YurcSa discusses how the war has influenced his sound, Noirnor sends us her interview from Berlin, JmDasha founds herself having to move to Ivano-Frankivsk from Mariupol, Dima K. gets overwhelmed by Koloah’s “Breath”, Kurl go deep into their anticolonial analysis and Dariia Kornieieva (alias Zahvat) reflects on her podcasting experience. Finally, Mirek Trofymuk compares the Ukrainian to the Polish music scene.
Coinciding with the current episode, we also celebrate the release of the Ukrainian Field Notes book and fundraising compilation out on система | system comprising all 170 interviews that appeared on ACL over the course of the first year of the full-scale invasion. 567 pages, also available as an ebook [both in Pdf and ePub versions], and over 8 hours of music with proceeds going to Musicians Defend Ukraine.
A number of tracks are introduced by the artists themselves in the current episode of our podcast on Resonance FM.
A CLOSER LOOK: UNSOUND 2023
“Demand the sound of paper! Echoes of our REAM-IFY binary! Dada laughter in every perforation, Nietzschean yodel in every typewritten stroke. Dance, my friends, dance within nonsense stanzas and absurdist sonnets. REAM-IFY, mummify the rational!”
The Infinite Manifesto
Among the best parts of DADA, a very successful edition of the UNSOUND festival in Kraków, Poland, which ran from 1-8 October, were those moments that embraced the theme of Dada in spirit rather than in explicit dialogue with Dada as a historical movement. Much of this turned on the element of surprise, often in the form of short interventions of about 10 minutes between the longer sets. Not for nothing, but many of the festival’s most humorous moments came in this form, adding much needed levity to what could often be self-serious and heavy, particularly as more traumatic themes lurked in the background. Afterall, we are still recovering from a global pandemic and living in the shadow of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poland’s neighbor, to say nothing of the latest violence in the Levant which broke out during the final days of the festival. That said, the explicit historical references, when they cropped up, were also significant and proved to be equally memorable, particularly when contemporary artists provided new soundtracks to historical films.
The actual shadow theme of the year, however, was DATA, with so-called Artificial Intelligence and machine learning a recurrent theme, tool, and topic of discussion. Various artists deployed AI as part of their practice, creating generative sound poetry, insane mash-ups, and poignant works of sound art. As part of the discourse programming, several panels featured frank discussion of the opportunities, risks, and ironies of the current explosion in machine learning and the subsequent development of (often) exploitative attempts at cashing in. And we cannot forget AIAD, the festival’s slightly tongue-in-cheek Artificially Intelligent Artistic Director. AIAD (ostensibly) made various suggestions to Unsound’s human directors, some of which were taken—for instance, the In(ter)ventions—while others were not—such as the suggestion that co-founder and co-director Mat Schulz should sing his opening remarks accompanied by an acoustic guitar. AIAD also produced daily write ups throughout the festival, as well as The Infinite Manifesto quoted in the above epigram, and curated a playlist for Freak Zone for BBC’s Radio 6, before being (un)ceremoniously fired at the end of the festival for overstepping their bounds (allegedly offering spots on the all-AI 2024 edition without authorization).
Prior to the start of the festival, I broke down the programme in fine detail, highlighting my preferences and outlining a kind of schedule for myself (and anyone else who might happen to have been in Krakow for this edition). During the festival, I posted daily recaps and commentary via this newsletter [as you all know very well] … Now that the marathon is over and I’ve had a bit of time to process everything that occurred, allow me to offer some more general reflections, reviewing the most significant performances and meditating a bit more deeply on this year’s theme.
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.
Chrisman ~ Dozage
Congolese producer Chrisman spoils his listeners with 35 tracks and 94 minutes of music. Even the press release admits “there’s almost too much to absorb in one sitting,” but that’s okay, because the album deserves multiple plays. Amazingly, all of the tracks are radio-length; it must have been difficult to settle on an opening single. “Late Siren” was the winner, a smart choice as it is one of 28 instrumental pieces, resisting the temptation to choose one of the seven that feature vocalists. The video is a fine introduction to the heady, club worthy nature of Chrisman’s work. While many global styles appear on the album (Afro-Portugese tarraxo, gqom, amapiano, drill), the dominant texture is industrial. This has as much to do with the factory setting as it does with the metallic clanks, reminiscent of Depeche Mode’s “People Are People.” The dancing styles beg imitation, especially the transition from fast to slow; although few are this flexible.
Depatterning & Delphine Dora ~ The Country Hospital
Save for the occasional reissue and older people’s record collections, the current generation will glimpse only a hint of what was once a joyful and mysterious tradition: opening physical releases to discover copious liner notes and intriguing ephemera. Opening The Country Hospital, one finds a healthy supply of mysterious photographs, a bonus CD3″ and the story of the Weyburn Mental Hospital, located not far from where Mentanko grew up. The facility was founded on a philosophy of patient and therapist working together to cure mental illness, sharing LSD as a tool. Timothy Leary and Aldous Huxley each stopped by, to no one’s surprise. The album, recorded as a joint venture with Delphine Dora, is based on the writings of Weyburn patient and nurse Kay Parley, who is still alive at the age of 100, although it’s not mentioned if she still takes hallucinogens.
Hauschka ~ Philanthropy
Positive and optimistic, highlighting the best of humanity, Philanthropy offers a shot of essential encouragement. After the pandemic, Hauschka writes, “I felt the urge to release a record that would help open the windows a little.” The titles serve as reminders of humanity’s greatest values, including “Diversity,” “Generosity,” “Magnanimity” and “Altrusism.” Throw in “Nature,” “Science” and “Inventions,” and Philanthropy is a recipe for rejuvenation, a panacea for daily woes. The album returns Hauschka to his roots in prepared piano, while numerous guests are invited to join the fun: cellist Laura Wiek, violinist Karina Buschinger, and múm drummer Samuli Kosminen. Synthesizer plays a major role, lending the music an electronic sheen. Jubilant opener “Diversity” even contains hints of Orbital’s classic “The Box;” it’s his most upbeat piece since “Late Summer.” “Altruism” (one of the two tracks to feature Kosminen) yields bright bells and laser synth, an organic-electronic hybrid that connects the past to the present.
Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective ~ Many Voices: Ensemble
How best to encourage young musicians? One might teach them how to play the classics, or even provide them with a modern score (I recently heard middle schoolers playing the theme from The Avengers at a park festival). Even better, one might co-compose with them, and in so doing find their exuberance. This is what ten U.K. composers have done on Many Voices: Ensemble, writing music with and for 8-10 year olds, to be played by musicians grades 2-6. The results – played by the Kaleidoscope Music Ensemble, are playful and fun, sporting such kid-friendly titles as “What’s for dinner?” and “Lullaby and Waddle for Puffin.” The score will be published digitally by Composers Edition so that all can have access.
Mute Frequencies ~ Svalbard Soundtracks
Music criticism has historically under-valued the role context and framing play in influencing the space of listening— knowing a piece of music was composed in relationship to images inevitably colors how one interprets its sound. The horn-like drone that enters in the second minute of “Further North There Is Only the North Pole,” the second track on Mute Frequencies Svalbard Soundtracks, for example, might be heard entirely differently if one knew that the composition in which it is embedded is meant to serve as the soundtrack for a 1976 Soviet film documenting the workers at a Soviet mine. Ditto the rhythmic beeping that follows. With that knowledge the horn might become that of a work-site or a mining ship, the beeps the sound of a signal. Mute Frequencies is the sound art project of Ilia Rogatchevski and Laura Rogatchevskaia. The three pieces that comprise the duo’s latest album, Svalbard Soundtracks, were each “inspired” by a short, silent documentary about the remote Svalbard region of Northern Norway.
Siavash Amini ~ eremos
Having already released the brilliant album Eidolon and the brooding, seething follow-up EP, The Sweat of Earth earlier this year, Iranian composer, musician and sound artist Siavash Amini now releases eremos on the American Dreams label. It’s a stunning continuation of his ever-expanding process. Amini has never been averse to drawing on the work of other artists to help realize his visions. He has collaborated with contemporary philosopher-pessimist-poet Eugene Thacker and explored the complex 13th century tuning systems of Safi-al-din Urmavi. Now on eremos he references passages from 12th century Iranian philosopher-poet Ibn Sina’s allegory, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (The Improvement of Human Reason). While the range of sources reflects a frustration Amini has expressed with the limitations of standard Western tunings, it also indicates a larger intellectual hunger and restlessness. It’s to Amini’s credit that his reach is matched by his grasp: his engagement with his materials is deep, his willingness to explore is consistent, and his results are boldly challenging.
Sophie Hutchings ~ A World Outside
Until now, Sophie Hutchings has been associated with the coastline, but A World Outside stretches her geological boundaries to mountains and deserts and her colors from the deepest blue to burnt umber. The album is the result of a road trip deep into the heart of Australia, where she encountered indigenous history and was inspired to invite Yolngu songman Rrawun Maymuru and others to participate in the process. The result is a warm and inviting travelogue, as if the listener were a passenger in Hutchings’ backpack.
Ulrich Krieger ~ Aphotic II – Abyssal
If one were to imagine a musical approximation of the ocean’s aphotic depths – the zones beyond the reach of sunlight and photosynthesis, where fish are luminescent – the first instruments that come to mind might not be saxophone, accordion, or cello. Ulrich Krieger, saxophonist, composer, and intrepid transcriber of Lou Reed’s endlessly divisive Metal Machine Music for the Zeitkratzer Orchestra, chose those very instruments for his speculative dive of an album, Aphotic II – Abyssal, released on Lawrence English’s Room40 label. Joined by Ben Richter on the accordion and Derek Stein on the cello, Krieger’s results are satisfyingly rich and strange. The album’s three 20-minute tracks are all versions of the same piece, divided into “acoustic,” “delay,” and “electronic” approaches. Krieger’s exploration of these divergent methods draws out and amplifies intriguing distinctions, while creating a totality that beguiles and fascinates.
UPCOMING RELEASES
(complete list with Bandcamp links here)
November is upon us, and year-end lists are right around the corner. Labels and artists are already submitting albums with release dates of 2024. Late-year releases are often lost in the shuffle, which is why we have gathered them here for your listening pleasure. This is the most music we’ve ever seen on a November slate, stretching into early December. There’s something for every taste! New previews are added to this page daily; we hope you’ll find your next favorite album right here!
Amor Muere ~ A time to love, a time to die (Scrawl, 3 November)
Anagrams ~ Blue Voices (Balmat, 3 November)
Anatolian Weapons ~ Earth (Subject to Restrictions Discs, 3 November)
Anthéne & David Cordero ~ Lost Under the Sea (Home Normal, 3 November)
Anthony Gatto ~ Small Subversions (Gold Bolus, 3 November)
Anthony Pirog ~ The Nepenthe Series Vol. 1 (Otherly Love, 3 November)
Beatriz Ferreyra ~ UFO Forest + (Room40, 3 November)
Below a Silent Sky ~ Walls of Light (3 November)
Better Corners ~ Continuous Miracles, Vol. 2 (the state51 Conspiracy, 3 November)
Bios Contrast & Nilotpal Das ~ Black Box EP (3 November)
Christine Ott ~ Eclats (Piano Works) (Gizeh, 3 November)
CHROMB! ~ Cinq (Dur et Doux, 3 November)
Daniel Carter et al ~ Open Question, Vol. 2 (577 Records, 3 November)
David Cordero & Rhucle ~ Summer Chronicles (Home Normal, 3 November)
Euan Dalgarno ~ A Short Dream About Jupiter (Not Yet Remembered, 3 November)
Eugene Carchesio & Adam Betts ~ Circle Drum Music (Room40, 3 November)
Gabriel Birnbaum ~ Nightwater | All the Dead Do Is Dream (Western Vinyl, 3 November)
Guentner | Spieth ~ Overlay (Affin, 3 November)
Henrik Meierkord ~ Förnimmelser (Audiobulb, 3 November)
Honour ~ Àlàáfía (PAN, 3 November)
James Heather ~ Reworks: Vol2 (Ahead of Our Time, 3 November)
J.WLSON ~ Slipped (Room40, 3 November)
Leonardo Barbadoro ~ Musica Automata (Helical, 3 November)
Lisa Lerkenfeldt ~ Halos of Perception (Shelter Press, 3 November)
Low End Resorts ~ Dungeons of Miami (Megastructure_, 3 November)
Mark Solotroff ~ Today the Infinite, Tomorrow Zero (3 November)
Marta De Pascalis ~ Sky Flesh (light-years, 3 November)
Matmos ~ Return to Archive (Smithsonian Folkways, 3 November)
Merzbow ~ Cafe OTO (Cold Spring, 3 November)
Michael Pisaro-Liu ~ A room outdoors (Elsewhere, 3 November)
Nicole Rampersaud ~ Saudade (Ansible Editions, 3 November)
The Offline ~ La couleur de la mer (DeepMatter, 3 November)
PoiL ~ Yoshitsune (Dur et Dox, 3 November)
Prins Emanuel ~ Diagonal Musik II (Music for Dreams, 3 November)
Resavoir ~ S/T (International Anthem, 3 November)
Samu Hietainen ~ No One Will Save You, No One Will Ever Even Find You (3 November)
Sick Boss ~ Businessless (Drip Audio, 3 November)
Sign Libra ~ Hidden Beauty (RVNG Intl., 3 November)
Six Days of Calm ~ My Little, Safe Place (Midsummer/Cargo, 3 November)
Skyphone ~ Oscilla (Lost Tribe Sound, 3 November)
Société magique ~ Fantôme sinusoïdal (3 November)
Staraya Derevnya ~ blue forty-nine (Blue Tapes, 3 November)
tellKujira ~ S/T (Superpang, 3 November)
John Garner ~ Movie Night (Difficult Art & Music, 6 November)
Atrium Carceri ~ Forgotten Gods (Cryo Chamber, 7 November)
Devin Kroes ~ There Is Growth Here (The Rust Music, 7 November)
V/A ~ Synthetic Bird Music (mappa, 7 November)
Abby Downs ~ Ngunmal (Room40, 10 November)
Asha Sheshadri ~ Whiplash (Recital, 10 November)
Brian Wenner ~ Age of Execution (Grind Select, 10 November)
Bruce Brubaker ~ Eno Piano (InFine, 10 November)
Cloud Management ~ V.A. (Altin Village & Mine, 10 November)
David Bird ~ Wire Hums (Oxtail Recordings, 10 November)
David Lee Myers & Toshimaru Nokamura ~ Elements (Surface World, 10 November)
Dijf Sanders ~ SUPRA (Unday, 10 November)
Hana Berg, Joanna Knutsson ~ Exquisite Corpse (UFO Station, 10 November)
Hior Chronik ~ Theory of the Dawn (Bigo & Twigetti, 10 November)
Jiří Horák ~ Portrait of the Soul (Bigo & Twigetti, 10 November)
Jos Smolders, Guido Nijs & Koen Delaere ~ Smolders / Nijs / Delaere (Moving Furniture, 10 November)
Lau Nau ~ Aphrilis (Fonal/Beacon Sound, 10 November)
Moritz von Oswald ~ Silencio (Tresor, 10 November)
99LETTERS ~ Zigoku / 地獄 (Phantom Limb, 10 November)
One Million Eyes ~ Iris (Past Inside the Present, 10 November)
Ordeal ~ Vätterns Pärla (Aguirre, 10 November)
Patrick Shiroishi ~ I was too young to hear silence (American Dreams, 10 November)
Philip Daniel ~ As Rare As This (Bigo & Twigetti, 10 November)
Rich Hinman ~ Memorial (Colorfield, 10 November)
Sébastien Guérive ~ Obscure Clarity (Atypeek Music / The Orchard, 10 November)
SHOLTO ~ The Changing Tides of Dreams (Root Records, 10 November)
Slow Draw ~ The Mystic Crib (10 November)
Swartz et ~ Leviathan II (10 November)
Theatre of Delays ~ Monochrome (10 November)
Timelash ~ Feral Lands and Forbidden Cities (Aguirre, 10 November)
Was-u ~ Prayer for Dawn (Biodiversity, 10 November)
Werner Durand, Amelia Cuni, Uli Hohmann ~ Clearing (Aguirre, 10 November)
Poltrock ~ Aulos I & II (Whitelabrecs, 11 November)
Pruski ~ Private Language (Whitelabrecs, 11 November)
V/A ~ Radar Keroxen Vol.4 (Discrepant, 11 November)
Aiko Takahashi ~ It Could Have Been a Beautiful (IIKKI, 13 November)
Spray ~ OT Rails (Spray, 13 November)
Olivia Louvel ~ DoggerLANDscape (15 November)
ZÖJ ~ Fil O Fenjoon (Parenthèses, 15 November)
Driftmachine/Komodo Kolektif ~ The Encyclopedia of Civilizations Vol. 5: Babylon (Abstraksce, 16 November)
Andreas Gerth and Carl Oesterhelt ~ Music for Unknown Rituals (Umor Rex, 17 November)
Anenon ~ Moons Melt Milk Light (Tonal Union, 17 November)
Arrowounds ~ The Honeycomb Labyrinth (Lost Tribe Sound, 17 November)
Bassoon ~ Succumbent (Nefarious Industries, 17 November)
Beifer ~ Constant Transition (tunnel.visions, 17 November)
Cécile Seraud ~ XAOS (17 November)
Cindytalk ~ When the Moon Is a Thread (LINE, 17 November)
CoLD SToRAGE ~ wipE’out” – The Zero Gravity Soundtrack (17 November)
Daniel Bachman ~ When the Roses Come Again (Three Lobed Recordings, 17 November)
Danny Daze ~ :BLUE: (Omnidisc, 17 November)
Dead Cosmonauts ~ Parasomnia (Trepanation / Do It Thissen, 17 November)
Drazek / Fuscaldo / Drake / Aoki / Jones / Abrams ~ June 22 (Astral Spirits / Feeding Tube, 17 November)
Eddie Prevost et al ~ The Secret Handshake with Danger, Vol. 2 (577 Records, 17 November)
enchanted forest ~ Semele’s Tryst (Jolt Music, 17 November)
Fabio Perletta ~ Nessun Legame con la Polvere (Room40, 17 November)
Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy ~ Near Rudiment Candidates For Snare Drum (Dinzu Artefacts, 17 November)
Joshua Van Tassel ~ The Recently Beautiful (Backward Music, 17 November)
Kate Carr ~ A Field Guide to Phantasmic Birds (Room40, 17 November)
Nick Joliat ~ Casio Music 2 (people | places | records, 17 November)
Nico Matti-Ahti ~ Looking for a Ruler (Dinzu Artefacts, 17 November)
PRGRPHS ~ Light Refracts, Flickers Back (17 November)
Richard Hronský ~ CLOSURES (Warm Winters Ltd., 17 November)
Richie Culver ~ Scream If You Don’t Exist (Participant, 17 November)
Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe/Lichens ~ Grasshopper Republic (Invada, 17 November)
salad ~ Riverside Ishiyama (Dinzu Artefacts, 17 November)
Shipwreck Karpathos ~ Being Human (A Thousand Arms / dunk!, 17 November)
Simonel ~ Colmena (LINE, 17 November)
Spencer Zahn ~ Statues II (Cascine, 17 November)
The Telescopes ~ Experimental Health (Cold Spring, 17 November)
Vic Mars ~ The Beacons (Clay Pipe Music, 17 November)
Gianmaria Aprile ~ Losing your bearings in the middle of the day (Torto, 22 November)
Inturist ~ Off-Season (Incompetence, 23 November)
Adam Coney ~ Ashwin & Above (Trestle, 24 November)
Corrado Maria De Santis ~ Over a Long Time (Lost Tribe Sound, 24 November)
Diaspora Unit ~ Hiraeth (Filigran, 24 November)
Grand River & Sofie Birch ~ Our Circadian EP (Melatonia, 24 November)
Hand to Earth ~ Mokuy (Room40, 24 November)
Kirk Barley ~ Marionette (Odda Recordings, 24 November)
Liz Helman ~ The Colour of Water (Flaming Pines, 24 November)
Massimiliano Cerioni ~ Inner Landscape (Elli, 24 November)
Mister Water Wet ~ Cold Clay from the Middle West (Students of Decay, 24 November)
Mount Maxwell ~ Littlefolk (We Are Busy Bodies, 24 November)
Nicolas Bernier ~ Structures et formes d’ondes (Label Formes-Ondes, 24 November)
Silent Servant ~ In Memorium (Tresor, 24 November)
Sun Electric ~ Live at Votivkirche Wien (Arjunamusic, 24 November)
V/A ~ Common Ground vol.3 (Safe Ground, 24 November)
Acasta Gneiss ~ Glimmer (Anterior Insula, 26 November)
General Magic ~ Nein Aber Ja (GOTO, 30 November)
Toada ~ Slow-Paced Tangents (Pluma, 30 November)
Ensemble 1 ~ Delay Works (Halfmeltedbrain, 1 December)
Ghost Marrow ~ earth + death (The Garrote, 1 December)
GiGi FM ~ Kiwi Synthesis Diary Vol.2 (Sea~rène, 1 December)
Hochzeitskapelle + Japanese Friends ~ The Orchestra in the Sky (Alien Transistor, 1 December)
Jim Perkins ~ Imprints (Bigo & Twigetti, 1 December)
Joshua Marquez ~ Dirt (1 December)
JWPaton ~ Structures (Room40, 1 December)
Lavatone ~ Lunar Mining and Excavation (Lost Tribe Sound, 1 December)
Lea Bertucci ~ Of Shadow and Substance (Cibachrome Editions, 1 December)
Meitei ~ Kofū III / 古風 II (Kitchen, 1 December)
ni ~ Fol Naïs (Dur et Doux, 1 December)
R.A. Sánchez ~ L’Ottava Sfera (Lost Tribe Sound, 1 December)
Samu Hietainen ~ Withered Flowers (1 December)
Sons of New Soma ~ Fluxus 2071 (Tonzonen, 1 December)
Xqui ~ melting ice with ice (1 December)
Christian Kobe ~ Aare (Cubus, 3 December)
Eric Moe ~ Strenuous Pleasures (New Focus, 3 November)
Henrik Meierkord & Ni! ~ Ekosystem (Ambientologist, 5 December)
Emil Friis & Patricio Fraile ~ The Expected Sounds of Minor Music (Fatcat/130701, 8 December)
Ben Richter ~ Aurogeny (Infrequent Seams, 22 December)
Trem 77 ~ Vivid Vibration EP (1 January)