A CLOSER LISTEN weekly #48
ACL 2023 (part one)
Dear Listeners, Joseph again. We’re officially into our End of Year lists, and though we haven’t even gotten to our genre lists yet (let alone our Top 20), we still have a lot to cover already. Do we have the best lists in the business? Not for me to say, but I can assure you our lists are like no one else’s. And as always I’ll have my own Sound Propositions year in review early in the new year, where I include record’s we haven’t reviewed and generally tend to skew a little wider.
Unfortunately, I injured my hand earlier today moving into a new studio space (slammed my hand in the freight elevator like a dummy), so since I’m typing with one hand I’ll keep this one brief and get to the point. Shortly before we hosted our open studio late last month (where I performed a live tape improvisation set, which you can hear as B1 on my latest release), our landlord told us he wouldn’t be renewing our lease in January, and since many of us our traveling for the holidays, it’s added a bunch of additional pressure in what’s already a stressful time of year. Happy Holidays…. But you know what’s not stressful? Looking back at all the great music that was released this year!
For each of our lists, I’m going to include the prefatory comments and the full list, but I don’t have space for the blurbs for each entry on the list, so please head over to the blog to read more.
And since it’s a long one, here’s a table of contents:
The Year’s Best Winter Music
The Happiest Music of the Year
Label of the Year
The Year’s Best Album Covers
The Year’s Best Ukrainian Music
The Year’s Best Music Videos
The Year’s Best Film Scores
The Year’s Best Videogame Soundtrack
ACL 2023 ~ The Year’s Best Winter Music
At A Closer Listen, we make a clear distinction between winter music and music that is released in winter. Winter music is evocative of the season and latitudes in which snow and ice take up permanent residence. The catch is that some of these places are melting, a disturbing trend highlighted by many of our artists. While winter music is the score to real times and places, one day winter music may be all that remains. For now, we look forward to feeling the crispness of winter, gazing at the landscapes of white, and believing that all things can be made new. As we sink into these sounds, we discover a sense of peace.
Brett Naucke ~ Cast a Double Shadow (Ceremony of Seasons)
Cicada ~ Seeking the Sources of Streams (flau)
Drum & Lace ~ Frost EP (Self-Released)
Eldbjørg Hemsing, Arctic Philharmonic ~ Arctic (Sony Classical)
Glåsbird ~ antarctica (Whitelabrecs)
øjeRum ~ Snow Is Absence Singing (Fluid Audio)
Philip Samartzis ~ Atmospheres And Disturbances (Room40)
Rob St. John ~ Örö (Blackford Hill)
Susan Schuppli ~ ICE RECORDS (BEK Centre for Electronic Arts)
Tomo-Nakaguchi ~ The Long Night in Winter Light (Audiobulb)
Read the entire piece here.
ACL 2023 ~ The Happiest Music of the Year
There’s never a bad time for happy music. Happy music comes in a variety of intensities, from peaceful and comforting to joyful and ebullient to silly and fun. The type of happy music one listens to can be tailored to one’s tolerance level and mood. When one is not yet ready for Ren & Stimpy’s “Happy Happy Joy Joy,” there are plenty of calmer alternatives.
One of the fun things about this year’s list is that the music often evokes childhood, but in more than one case involves actual children as well. When we were children, most of us loved playful music; now that we’re older, there’s no reason to leave such music behind. If these albums inspire one to take up toy xylophone or play wooden blocks, all the better!
Bex Burch ~ There is only love and fear (International Anthem)
Blue Lake ~ Sun Arcs (Tonal Union)
Carmen Jaci ~ Happy Child (Noumenal Loom)
Eleven Magpies ~ Two for Joy (Self-Released)
Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective ~ Many Voices: Ensemble (NMC Recordings)
Kate NV ~ WOW (RVNG Intl.)
Matthew Halsall ~ An Ever-Changing View (Gondwana)
Robin Saville ~ Lore (Morr Music)
Rumpistol ~ Going Inside (Raske Plader)
Tomáš Šenkyřík ~ Jaro (Spring) (Self-Released)
ACL 2023 ~ Label of the Year
Frances Castle’s Clay Pipe Music is our Label of the Year ~ an imprint so fantastic that every release is worth hearing and having. Not only is the music of high quality; it also occupies a distinctive niche in the industry. Not only does the label indulge in physical releases, but each is lovingly constructed.
Clay Pipe Music has been special from the start. The label’s first release, The Fields Lie Sleeping Beneath arrived in 2012, which was also the first year of our site. Recording as The Hardy Tree, Castle offered a vision of a benign, bucolic England, one that may or may not have existed in real life. Static and sample mingle with homespun music; the album itself was recorded in her attic. The striking cover art was a sign of what was to come; later sets would include postcards and a two-part comic book. Looking back on the catalog, some of the other physical highlights include the surprise cassette of Tyneham House, which seemed like a tag sale treasure; the fold-out bus of Gilroy Mere’s The Green Line; the snowflake vinyl of Jon Brooks’ How to Get to Spring; and the color-matched vinyl of Andrew Waswylk’s Balgay Hill: Morning in Magnolia. In addition, Clay Pipe Music offers re-releases of sold-out music with variant packaging, a gift to people who don’t read their emails quickly enough and miss out on the first run!
Whether celebrating trains, sailboats, lighthouses or swimming pools, the imprint casts the past in a kind light, with the hope that such times might return. Not that the music shies from sorrow; recent releases have also bemoaned the incursion of industry on pristine fields and peaceful villages.
This year the label continued its Mini CD series with David Boulter’s Factory, Zyggurat’s Broken Circle, Cate Brooks’ Easel Studies and D. Rothon’s just-released Lonesome Echoes. New full-lengths included Gilroy Mere’s Golden Gate and Vic Mars’ The Beacons. A new 2024 calendar, prints and t-shirts are also available. We caught up with Frances Castle to get a few words about the label, the process of creation and what’s coming next!
Read the entire piece, including an interview with Frances Castle, here.
ACL 2023 ~ The Year’s Best Album Covers
How important are album covers? While no one has the time to listen to all the new music being released, everyone has time to look through the covers. In the old days, they would be on display at a music store; today they are listed in grids on digital websites. As thousands of albums are released each week, artists and labels need an edge. Though one can’t judge an album by the cover, art is an invitation to listen; if the art is intriguing, the music may be as well. These ten covers caught our eye in 2023, and we found that the music was worthy of review, which means their art worked. Congratulations to all the artists involved!
We hope you enjoy our selection of The Year’s Best Album Covers!
Arrowounds ~ In the Octopus Pond (Lost Tribe Sound)
Collage, Layout and Design by R. Keane
Brueder Selke ~ Belka & Strelka (Oscarson)
Illustration by Lala Vaganova
Design by Brueder Selke
Cicada ~ Seeking the Sources of Streams (flau)
Woodcut Print by Muran
Desigh by Huang Tzu-Heng
Dronal ~ Whilst We Fall (Supple9)
Cover Design: Supple9
Gareth Broke ~ Conversations (1631 Recordings)
Artwork by Anna Salzmann, Garreth Broke, David Wenngren and Midjourney
Hanna Svirska ~ Yangola (Standard Deviation)
Artwork by Sana Shahmuradova
Jessica Pavone ~ Clamor (Out of Your Head Records)
Artwork + Design by TJ Huff
Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim ~ Starling
Album artwork by Nikki Pet
Kirin McElwain ~ Viriditas
Cover art: Jessye McDowell, Future Sets (After Ruysch) (detail)
Odalie ~ Puissante Vulnérabilité (Mesh)
Artwork by Alma Alta
ACL 2023 ~ The Year’s Best Ukrainian Music
Nearly two years after the invasion, the Ukrainian music scene has continued to flourish, responding to war with creative fire. We continue to be astounded by the volume, variety and vitality of the new music released by Ukrainian musicians, which we’ve been chronicling in real time on our website. Gianmarco Del Re’s Ukrainian Field Notes is now a 567-page book with an 86-track album, the go-to resource for anyone wishing to understand the scene. Amazingly, the book covers only the first year of the war. We’ve prepared this list as an entry point to the second.
These ten entries were selected from Gianmarco’s short list of 42. Five of these releases received full reviews on our site in 2023; the other five were first listed in Ukrainian Field Notes. Together, the albums and EPs create a tapestry of Ukrainian music composed in an impossible time: a testament to the continued resilience of the Ukrainian people.
Alexander Stratonov ~ Bucha: Final Destination
Hanna Svirska ~ Yangola (Standard Deviation)
Heinali ~ Kyiv Eternal (Injazero)
Igor Yalivec ~ Etudes (Whited Sepulchre)
Natalia Tsupyrk ~ do nestyamy
sophistication. ~ Ten Folds
ummsbiaus ~ enerhomor (Mystictrax)
Various Artists ~ Спадок (Gasoline Records)
Vera Logdanidi ~ Voices (Kashtan Records)
Waveskania ~ Braveland
Read the entire piece here.
ACL 2023 ~ The Year’s Best Music Videos
We miss MTV, specifically an after-hours show called Amp. If one were to stay up late on a weekend (or set one’s VCR), week after week one would experience a cavalcade of amazing sights and sounds. Today music videos are everywhere, even the old ones, streaming online. But what we miss is the curation. Every year, we choose a selection of our favorites, concentrating on the instrumental and experimental fields. But we do allow a couple cross-genre selections to sneak in, because some things just have to be seen. Vimeo is still our go-to source, but we also watch videos that arrive with new albums. Once viewed primarily as promotional tools, music videos are now an art form in their own right, as you’ll see in our ten selections below, listed in recommended viewing order.
Organic Flux
Director: Dirk Koy
Bravery in Battle ~ Wetico
Video Production : Acts of Love, supported by SCPP
Cassie Marin ~ Tonto
Director: King She
The Beatles Vs. The Stones Animation
Director: Dog & Rabbit
Music: Ollie DYG
Reid Willis ~ Conveyer
Visuals by V O L T A I N E
Little Taste of Joy
Directed by Jonathan Djob Nkondo
Music by Jan Pryputniewicz and Marian Dziubiński
Kleine Kantate (1979)
Kate NV ~ confessions at the dinner table
Created by Vladimir Shlokov
RARI ~ Ego Death
Directed by Alex Dossogne
Chemical Brothers feat. Beck ~ Skipping Like a Stone
Directed by Pensacola
Squid ~ Swing (In a Dream)
Director: Yoonha Park
ACL 2023 ~ The Year’s Best Film Scores
In 2023, Hollywood strikes and the lingering effects of lockdown slowed the recovery of the movie industry. Audiences showed signs of superhero fatigue, though much of this had to do with scriptwriting. Indie films continued to gravitate to screening, while the window between theatrical and streaming release continued to shrink. Despite such obstacles, success stories still broke through, starting with July 21’s Barbieheimer phenomenon: two movies released on the same day, each ending up in the global top three (with Super Mario Brothers between them).
Our year-end soundtrack picks are spread across genres and budgets, from an indie documentary to a global blockbuster. One is a reworked score; another is a composer’s final work. These albums work just as well as standalone works as they do in context. In some cases, they are even better than the films they accompany. We hope you’ll enjoy this year’s selection of The Year’s Best Film Scores!
Bobby Krlic ~ Beau Is Afraid (A24 Music)
Joe Hisaishi ~ The Boy and the Heron
Alexander Stratonov ~ Bucha: Final Destination
Robbie Robertson ~ Killers of the Flower Moon (Sony Masterworks)
Ludwig Göransson ~ Oppenheimer (Back Lot Music)
Jerkin Fendrix ~ Poor Things (Milan Music)
Eðvarð Egilsson and Páll Ragnar Pálsson ~ Skjálfti (Sono Luminus)
Rebekkah Karijord ~ Songs of Earth (OONA Soundtracks)
Gazelle Twin ~ Then You Run (Invada)
Mica Levi ~ The Zone of Interest
Read the entire piece here.
*Press A* 2023 ~ The Year’s Best Videogame Soundtracks
In a year full of horror and tragedy, the videogame industry was not spared. Great websites went dark, forcing journalists to move writing homes, and countless studios were shuttered or forced to endure substantial workforce reductions while executives and investors demanded (and usually saw) continued growth. We also had investigations into bad labor practices, an echo of last year’s reports of the VGM industry’s problems with uncredited work (mostly affecting women). We can no longer romanticize the videogame world nor divorce its excellent output from this internal strife.
Speaking of romance, it is striking that this year once again we have no entries in our Retro category. Nostalgic visual aesthetics might keep selling, but the corresponding musical field no longer attracts much interest ~ or at least noteworthy art.
In this sense, the big-budget productions of this year’s list, all sequels in very established franchises, opted to consolidate around renovation of older styles. This is not a “retro” approach as such, but a reformative current that underlines the need for new generations of musicians and composers to dialogue with the past without becoming consumed by it. Significant attention was put to recent musical developments without losing sight of contexts outside of VGM; games like Bomb Rush Cyberfunk and Hi-Fi Rush led this year’s charge of licensed music mixed up with an original score, and games like Fire Emblem Engage sought to engage with 2010s rock ‘n’ roll as much as with classic JRPG music.
As usual, however, it was indies that spearheaded innovative and thought-provoking VGM this year. There was a lot of experimentation with the orchestral format, as with Arcadian Atlas and Helvetii, but this year’s stand-outs are perhaps the genre-bending works of Thirsty Suitors, Clash and Gunbrella. They represent a recently articulated wave of eclecticism that we hope the scene maintains in the coming years, mixing techniques and styles in surprising ways. If this mutation-based approach comes to replace retro music, we’ll be happy to embrace it; it would signal an equally experimental trans-media approach to videogames themselves.
Two final notes: First, we’re extensive but we can’t possibly cover everything. We’d love to know which of the smaller soundtracks captivated you this year! Second, if any composers and musicians are reading this, please make your music as accessible as possible for audiences beyond the gaming world! Of course, bandcamp is still our favorite platform, but Spotify and YouTube Music work well too. Please don’t restrict yourselves to Steam or GOG to sell or stream your work ~ there’s an entire world of music enthusiasts out there ready to listen.
And now, by genre and in alphabetical order, we present the *Press A* best videogame soundtracks of 2023!
AMBIENT
Aslak K.H. ~ That Which Gave Chase
fingerspit ~ The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood
Guillaume Ferran ~ Jusant
Spencer Doran ~ SEASON: A Letter to the Future
ELECTRONIC
Adrien Larouzee & COLORSWAP ~ The Wreck
Britt Brady & Hyperstepp ~ Gunbrella
MODERN COMPOSITION
Dale North & Emi Evans ~ Helvetii
Manaka Takaoka, Maasa Miyoshi et. al. ~ The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Masayoshi Soken (with additional music by Takafumi Imamura, Daiki Ishikawa, Saya Yasaki, Justin Frieden) ~ Final Fantasy XVI
Yasunori Nishiki ~ Octopath Traveler 2
ROCK, POP, & ECLECTIC
Austral Music ~ Clash: Artifacts of Chaos
Beícoli ~ Laika: Aged Through Blood
Marskye ~ Thirsty Suitors
Mika Pikazo, Takafumi Teraoka, Hiromi Tanaka ~ Fire Emblem Engage
Nicolas Bredin ~ Under the Waves
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Alpha Something ~ Venba
Eli Rainsberry ~ Saltsea Chronicles
Maclaine Diemer ~ Firmament
Read the entire piece here.
NEXT WEEK, ONTO THE GENRE LISTS.