A CLOSER LISTEN weekly #69

RIP Achim Szepanski, Unsound, UFN, Reviews

Dear Listeners, Joseph again for our fortnightly blog roundup. Krakow’s UNSOUND festival in on the fourth day of their 2024 festival, whose theme is NOISE this year. I wish I could be there again, but alas I’m still recovering from last year’s excursion, which was called DADA and explored themes of AI and machine learning alongside a playful engagement with dadaism and the historical avant-garde. While there last year, I interviewed Negativland, Dreamcrusher, and Antonina Nowacka. The first episode of the Sound Propositions podcast was dedicated to UNSOUND’s 2018 edition, and featured interviews with Resina and Lea Bertucci. So it felt right to wrap up season 4 of the podcast with this two-part UNSOUND special. Those will be up on the blog in the coming week, but for now we have a bumper crop of fall reviews, the latest from Gianmarco Del Re’s Ukrainian Field Notes, and more.

RIP Achim Szepanski

In the summer of 2011, while browsing through the book selection in the back of Perditempo, a small record store, bar, and venue in Napoli, I picked up a copy of the collection Millesuoni: Deleuze, Guattari a la musica elettronica, which included an Italian translation of an essay by Achim Szepanski entitled “Musica elettronica, media e Deleuze.” Oh of course, I remember, thinking, the guy behind the Mille Plateaux. That makes so much sense. As an academic and critical theorist myself, I was drawn to the label Mille Plateaux, which took its name from Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s Thousand Plateaus (1980), but I didn’t realize until then how deep the connection went. I was not surprised that the liberatory experimentalism of electronic music in all its guises would resonate with Deleuzian theory, or that Deleuze himself, late in life, found spoke with admiration for the repetitive, minimalist, clicks and cuts style of digital production that became associated with the label. After Deleuze’s death, Szepanski curated Mille Plateaux’s tribute CD, In Memoriam Gilles Deleuze.

After that I became a follower of Szepanski’s writing for NON, rizosfera, and others, always impressed by his theoretical rigour and political clarity, even his curmudgeonly tone, which seems to match the intensity attributed to the man by those who knew him in person. Recent English editions of his books include Financial Capital in the 21st Century: A New Theory of Speculative Capital (2023), Capitalism in the Age of Catastrophe: The Newest Developments of Financial Capital (2024), and In the Delirium of Simulation: Baudrillard Revisited (2024).

Achim Szepanski (1957-2024) was best known, however, as founder of the influential labels Mille Plateaux and Force Inc., labels which shaped the careers of some of my all-time favorite artists including Vladislav Delay, Tim Hecker, GAS, Mike Ink, Oval, Frank Bretschneider, Ultra-Red, Thomas Köner, Porter Ricks, Terre Thaemlitz and so many others, not to mention their essential Clicks + Cuts compilations. In an Instagram post, Mille Plateaux/Force Inc. co-director and DJ Lain Iwakura remembered Szepanski as "a force of negativity that no matter how futile found ways of resisting, of putting non into the game. This cold world just became a little more cold."

Over at his newsletter Futurism Restated, Philip Sherburne reflects on his own long history with Mille Plateaux, including writing the liner notes for Clicks & Cuts 2, which he reprints in this post.

I bought Oval’s Systemisch the year it came out, in 1994, from Providence’s Fast Forward, the record store that introduced me to the very idea of experimental or leftfield electronic music. I don’t recall the day I bought the CD—it might have been playing in the shop, or perhaps that matte gray cover caught my eye and I gave the CD a spin on the in-store CD player and headphones—but I vividly remember being at home in my living room, sitting in front of my slate-colored mini stereo system, with its futuristic angles and sleek beveling, and trying to wrap my mind around what I was hearing: the telltale clicks and chirps of a skipping CD, set against voluminous bass throb and looped into elliptical patterns. A feast of textures spread before me: nubby, shirred, wavy like patterned glass. For all its obviously digital essence, it was also soft and warm and almost powdery, a cottony snowdrift of artifacts.

That description captures the humanity that comes through despite how alien so many of the textures, tones, and rhythms of these records sound.

Marc Weidenbaum at Disquiet also shares some foundational mid-90s sound memories around Mille Plateaux:

The record label Mille Plateaux meant the world to me back in the mid-1990s, and it still does. [Their artists and compilations] were central and defining to my listening, especially in regard to glitch and ambient techno. The label’s founder, Achim Szepanski, died this week at age 67. I interviewed him once, in 1996, back when I was an editor at Tower Records’ Pulse! magazines, for an overview of electronic music labels, when the sheer number of them was exploding, often creating myriad sublabels in the process. “Our label gives the artists the possibility to control the production from the beginning to the end,” Szepanski told me at the time. Read the full piece here.

I’ll just leave this excerpt from Marc’s old piece, but encourage you to read the whole thing at the aforementioned link:

Various explanations exist for the indies’ domination of the electronic music scene. The strongest theory, like the music itself, is founded on technology: Electronic music has collapsed the distance between musician and audience. Music created digitally is ready for transferal to compact disc whenever the musicians think their work is complete. This is in contrast with rock, jazz and classical, where one must negotiate the progression from composition to performance to recording to CD production.

“That is one of the reasons,” agrees Mille Plateaux’s Szepanski. “Our label gives the artists the possibility to control the production from the beginning to the end. They go to studios and do the cuts and the mastering and everything. The second reason is that the independent-distribution market is very different from the major-distribution market. And the third is that the bureaucratic structure of majors, this big infusion [of money and publicity], is not the right way to promote this type of music.”

[…]

The world of independent labels is a jumble, but it’s an exquisite jumble. It’s worth noting that Szepanski named Mille Plateaux after a book, translated A Thousand Plateaus, by late philosopher Gilles Deleuze and psychoanalyst Felix Guattari, which suggested a theory of decentralization, of the kind of chaotic network epitomized by the world of indie electronic music. In this world, materials commonly perceived to be defunct, such as vinyl LPs and out-of-date synthesizers, prosper; musicians thwart popularity with shifting pseudonyms; rampant collaboration further confounds our notions of authorship; and thievery, however artful (in the form of sampling), is the norm. The book’s subtitle: Capitalism and Schizophrenia.

Ukrainian Field Notes XXXVI

Bumper episode after the Summer break. Unfortunately, there was no respite in Ukraine with at least 184 civilians killed and 856 injured in August alone, making it the month with the second highest number of civilian casualties in 2024, after July. And once again, the number of musicians being drafted or volunteering has also been steadily increasing.

This month Ross Khmil talks about moving to an all-DAW setup, Dalek confesses to having had maaany different synths in his teenage engineering years, while Kate Lizzered is beyond happy to be deejaying.

Meanwhile, Iris Forest makes her first EP about war, Potras23 bemoans the fact that there are almost no fans of electronic music in his regiment, НІХТО makes individual tracks for different military units setting his goal at 40, Trinidad Shevron realises the helpless nature of any art before the threat of destruction, and некрохолод explores empty houses frozen in mournful sadness.

Moreover, Anatoly Belov passes his English Integration Course for Ukrainian Refugees level A1, while Oleksandr Rybalko speaks in tongues, Rewind goes digging the archives, Pallas Athena makes music as a ritual, POTROX recharges his inner batteries with sports & sleep, whereas Vladyslav Putistin has hot flushes, and Andrii Ushytskyi has goosebumps while listening to music.

There are many gems in the new releases section, including impressive offerings by Heskbo, Eazypoluse, Oleksii Podat, Revshark, Ternocore, hjumən, Корисні Копалини, Tetyana Haraschuk, Kojoohar, Wiseword.Nidaros, Monotonne, InnerLicht, Tongi Joi, ummsbiaus & Difference Machine, Foa Hoka & Fedir Tkachov, and Lectromagnetique, alongside two compilations by KYIVPASTRANS, Vortex and Hybrid Moment.

Whaler

But to begin with our monthly podcast for Resonance FM where we talk to Whaler about resistance, fundraising and the music scene in Kharkiv, Kyiv and Lviv. This is followed by our regular Spotify playlist.

tracklist:

• NINA EBA – DOVES (Whaler Remix)

• Whaler – Unity

• Whaler – Tanok

• Whaler – Underwater

• Whaler – Викид

• Potras23 – Kotuky (feat. Sofia Leshyshak)

• Whaler – The Event Horizon

• Whaler, Хор “Осоння” – В темную нічку

• Група Б – Нічні кімнати

Read the entire piece.

RECENT REVIEWS
Reviews are at the heart of ACL. Here are selections from a few of my favorite reviews we posted on the blog in the last few weeks.

Başak Günak ~ Rewilding
Those familiar with the work of Başak Günak as Ah! Cosmos may be caught slightly off guard by the sound of Rewilding, which eschews beats in favor of intricate textures.  But there have always been other influences in Günak’s productions, for example Büşra Kayıkçı’s guest piano on “Things We Miss, People We Lose,” from Bluets, an album that also incorporates field recordings from the artist’s Istanbul birthplace.  Her approach to Rewilding is described as “foraging,” which is also the name of the lead single: the search for intriguing sounds no matter what their genesis. Three tracks originated as sound installations. It’s rare for an artist to release effective albums in multiple genres, but this is exactly what Günak has accomplished here.  One is hard-pressed to conclude which has the greater appeal.  Fortunately we don’t have to choose; nor do we feel that the artist is limited to only two genres.  An appearance on next month’s Cybernetics, or Ghosts?, also on Subtext, will only increase our appreciation of her range.

Dalton Alexander ~ Please Take Nothing But Memory
This spring, the LAAPS label brought our attention to Yukon artist Dalton Alexander with Almost Home If I’m Still Alive, combining tracks from two previous releases.  This fall, the artist justifies the attention with a short but memorable set of new material. We’re well past the era in which families invited each other over to watch home movies; it’s questionable whether this was ever really popular, or just tolerated. But something has been lost when the best one can do is hold someone’s attention for a 30-second video clip. A third option is sound.  Please Take Nothing But Memory, the title reads, suggesting a walk in a protected nature preserve. Sound evokes memory as well as any photo or film, and in some cases is even better, as the mind creates its own images.  Alexander is making photo books of sound, and we’re happy to flip through them again and again.

Erland Cooper ~ Carve the Runes Then Be Content With Silence
Erland Cooper has already received a great amount of publicity for the backstory around his latest album. Our fear is that the backstory will obscure the fact that this is a rather excellent work. Carve the Runes Then Be Content With Silence takes its title from George Mackay Brown’s poem “A Work for Poets” (1996), the preceding line being “Here is a work for poets-“.  Mackay was known for “the interrogation of silence,” which is also the title of his biography.  This fascination has much to do with the recording, which might itself have fallen into silence save for a fortuitous intervention.  Cooper buried the recording three years ago, disposed of all other existent copies, and invited fans to search for the treasure.  One year later, it was unearthed in Stromness by Victoria and Dan Rhodes, and returned to the composer, remarkably intact.

Farah Kaddour ~ Badā / Andy Aquarius ~ Golla Gorroppu
Whatever culture we come from, plucked strings are somewhere in our musical DNA. Classical poets and heroes; prehistoric ancestors; divine visitors from above: all might be evocatively depicted with a stringed accessory. Even the futurism of Detroit techno has the “Strings of Life” in its backstory. From the lyre to the oud, strings embody our spiritual and cultural lives more than any rival family of instruments. The simple sound of a plucked note can transport and elevate. Two albums from 2024 carry the legacies of their respective instruments, whilst cataloguing new possibilities and combinations.

In the words of her website bio, Farah Kaddour “attempts to rediscover and experiment” with the sound of the buzuq. Combining a backward and forward glance, she specialises in “a new, yet rooted music”. Her interview for “QuarterTones: Music from the Arab World” gives technical and cultural explication of this instrument, a long-necked lute with multiple courses of strings. As she explains, improvisation is the bedrock of Badā. The first track settles in gradually, nudging into possible shades of melody. Kaddour starts to carve out a space. After a touch-and-go three minutes, she is off and flying. Across her improvisatory tracks, we find frantically controlled picking and fret work. Kaddour temporarily returns us to reassuring ground, then races away, exploring the sonic range of the buzuq. On the longest track (“Khuzāma”), Kaddour showcases the articulation and timbre of her strings, striking metallic and startling notes, rallying them into organic flurries of sound. The music evolves over seven minutes, as phrases are introduced, chewed over, and digested by the greater body of music.

Andy Aquarius has a penchant for tapping into the rich sonic and cultural legacies of his instrument. A self-described “sonic alchemist and devotee of mystical folklore”, Aquarius explores stories and myth by blending the folk and classical legacies of the Celtic harp. Strong leanings into New Age and ambient music also figure. This is a music which speaks of ancient powers, but is never “olde-worlde” in its approach. His instrument has a long, fabled history in the Celtic nations. Its shape is instantly recognisable as the national symbol of Ireland. Irish harping even appears on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Fittingly, Aquarius makes tangible a long-lost quietening of the spirit. But he is equally unafraid to take the Celtic harp into new territory. After all, Golla Gorroppu is a mystical journey not into the Emerald Isle, but into Sardinia’s Gorroppu Gorge.

Farewell Phoenix ~ The Angels In These Fields
Imagine receiving a wooden box in the mail, stamped with a branding iron, with letters stained in wine.  Inside the box, a bottle and a tape, nestled in soft sponges that look like burnt orange coral.  The contents build a bridge across the seasons: music to soothe the mind, an apéritif wine to relax the body.  The leaves are only beginning to turn, an occasional early victim falling from the tree.  We cling to summer as long as possible; The Angels In These Fields teaches us to let go. The wine sits in the glass, grateful to be breathing, exhilarated at the contact with the afternoon air.  Hints of cranberry and pepper waft from the crystal.  The light chill of the breeze is matched by that of the glass.  There is breath in the music as well, late in the opening side, that of Lynn Fister (Farewell Phoenix), sheparding the listener across a double bridge of mind and earth.  This is the fall release from Ceremony of Seasons, in conjunction with VISUALS WINE: a continuation of the Ritual of Senses Wine Club, Abstractions of Earth division.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor ~ “NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD”
Godspeed You! Black Emperor has been around long enough to see most of its societal fears come true.  No longer prophets – because what is left to prophecy? – they continue to be truth-tellers and agitators.  More than a quarter century after their formation, GY!BE has much in common with war correspondents and whistleblowers; they’ve seen, protested, and spread the word, and yet in many ways, little has changed. This lends their every album a world-weary aura enhanced by an earned gravitas. On “NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD,” the band seems rejuvenated by anger. As the liner notes declare, “NO TITLE= what gestures make sense while tiny bodies fall? what context? what broken melody?”  The ten-strong collective (including Karl Lemieux and Philippe Léonard on 16mm film projections) was recorded in the “winter of bombs 2024,” and since then, the barrage has grown ever louder and more fatal. The album holds only six tracks, three of them behemoths at the eleven and thirteen-minute marks.  This is some of the strongest music GY!BE has released in ages, a fitting reflection of their live performances.  The first distorted guitar melody seems bright and hopeful, a mood soon to be dashed. The tonal contrast is crucial to the album, as it exposes the wide gap between hope and reality.

Marcus Fjellström ~ The Last Sunset of the Year
When is a soundtrack not a soundtrack?  Seven years ago, Marcus Fjellström recorded the score for the first season of The Terror, based on Dan Simmons’ novel of the same name, published a decade before.  On the surface, the plot line is the search for the Northwest Passage, the ship caught in the ice, the long winter night.  Below the surface, it is allegory and monster tale.  Sadly, Fjellström passed away during production, only in his mid-thirties, a sturdy discography behind him but decades of possibility eradicated. For the past seven years, Terror screenwriter David Kajganich and composer Erik K. Skodvin have pored over the music their friend left behind for the series, 75 pieces in all, many of which were never heard on the show.  Their intention: to honor their friend with a final, elegiac set.  And so, while one may hear snippets of The Terror in The Last Sunset of the Year, the double album is a deeper tribute with a real-life subject.  The movements all feature the word “last” ~ “Last Morning Watch,” “Last Draughts, Last Best Efforts,” “Last Fixed Position,” “Last Heat, Last Exertions.”  The album is named for a moment in the show when the crew watches the last sunset of the year, but for the listener, Fjellström is the sun.  This final album is not, as the series was, an exercise in fear, but one drenched in farewell.  The viewers did not know what would happen next; the listeners do.

MF Clarke ~ Arrays
Many of us wish that we could be in two places at once.  Either we have too much to do, and would like to divide ourselves, or we are in one place, dreaming of being in another.  MF Clarke offers a reflection of this wish in aural form, combining data sonification material from the Hudson River with related data from the Arctic and Antarctic and field recordings from Greenland.  To this she adds her own glass instrumentation, guitar and voice, creating a “third location” that exists only in the mind: a latitude and longitude in which different seasons can co-exist. One of the oddest things that the mind forgets is the reversal of seasons in opposing hemispheres. While it’s easy to remember that it’s cold at the equator and warm at the poles, it’s harder to recall that one nation’s autumn is another nation’s spring.  Arrays is a kind reminder.  In the same way, “Cities 1-4” returns a sense of wonder to city environments by concentrating on field recordings and collected data.  Not that Clarke is suggesting another ice age, far from it; instead, she invites her listeners to hold multiple scenes in their minds simultaneously, and intuit the connections.

mHz ~ Material Prosody
One of the season’s most fascinating projects is also a piece of physical art, and well it should be, as Material Prosody examines the materiality of sound.  Whether one holds the physical edition or simply views it, one can grasp the concept in an instant: matter affects sound.  The materials used in mHz‘s USB-powered sound sculpture are aluminum, brass, copper, steel, concrete and wood.  An 8-step DIP switch controls the rhythmic sequence, while a simple dial controls the tempo; the patterns become electrical impulses which are transferred to the solenoid and beamed into the block.  While this may sound complex, most people are familiar with room acoustics and the different ways a music box can sound if placed on concrete or the top of a wooden dresser; mHz is much more intentional, but the experiment is similar.

Ryuichi Sakamoto ~ Opus
No-one can do simplicity as beautifully as Ryuichi Sakamoto. Over the course of his career he crafted countless melodies that managed to sound timeless and wholly original at once. His gift for creating music is lovingly documented on Opus, the aptly named final album from the Japanese master. A greatest hits album of sorts, Opus is also a concert film directed by Sakamoto’s son Neo Sora. The project is haunted by the awareness of Sakamoto’s mortality. He passed away from a long battle with cancer mere months after the film’s release late last year at the age of 71. Both the album and the film refuse to shy away from the reality of performance. The sound of the piano’s pedal is audible throughout, as are Sakamoto’s breathing and the occasional murmur of exhaustion. The gesture recalled last year’s 12, an album in which Sakamoto aggressively foregrounded the other sounds of music—the room in which it is performed, the heavy breathing of belabored performance—in a stripped down set of piano pieces.

Snorri Hallgrímsson ~ Longer shadows, softer stones
Hot on the heels of his soundtrack to Innocence on Moderna Records, Snorri Hallgrímsson presents a gorgeous EP on Deutsche Grammophon.  The young Icelandic composer has made a name for himself through original scores, EPs, collaborations and an album, and is still growing by leaps and bounds.  String players from the Reykjavík Orchestra, conducted by Viktor Orri Árnason, enhance the piano melodies and reinforce the EP’s theme of “hopefulness despite the horror,” an attempt to balance the tone of the ongoing news cycle. The music is indeed soothing, starting with “Three Hour Cloud,” which begins wistfully, even mournfully, on a layer of cirrus strings.  The cloud thickens in size and timbre; one can almost hear the rain.  The piano takes a while to arrive, but adds grounding.  Gently, as the orchestra recedes, Hallgrimsson begins to sing, his words a short poem in the middle of the cloud.  With a sense of peace established, the composer turns to the main theme: “With Love Despite the Pain” contrasts two forces, but leaves no doubt which one will win.  The music is slow and steady, drenched in a sense of perseverance.

V/A ~ Inner Demons Records Batch 2024B ~ Part One
Inner Demons Records has done it again, releasing 33 EPs and albums in a single day!  This will be the last physical batch before a switch to digital, so act now to procure a copy of your favorite 3″ or 5″ CD-R! We’re going to stretch our coverage over three days to allow more time for the music to sink in, but with this many releases, fans are sure to find some favorites. The best way to enter the batch is through the sampler.  When the batch was first released, we noticed again the seeming discrepancy between the weather in Tampa, Florida and the tone of the music, dominated by drone and noise, with industrial flavors.  Then Hurricane Helene slammed into the area as a Category 4 storm, flooding the streets, causing power outages and fatalities.  Suddenly the music became startlingly relevant.Sometimes music is released at the right time, in the right place, and although unintentional, this happened with Batch 2024B. Parts Two and Three of our coverage will arrive soon!

UPCOMING RELEASES

(complete list with Bandcamp links here)

Hundreds of amazing fall albums have already been announced, with many linked below, more in our Fall Music Preview and even more to come.  Fall is the best season for music, a consolation for the end of summer.  We’re particularly excited about this year’s crop, as it has as much color as the soon-to-fall leaves.  From big names to fresh discoveries, there’s always something new on the horizon; we’re adding new albums daily, and hope you’ll find your next favorite album right here!  Happy autumn, everyone!

Jessie Kleemann & Søren Gemmer ~ Lone Wolf Runner (2 October)

Plake 64 & the Hexagrams ~ Ultima Materia (Ingrown, 2 October)

Gaudi Kosmisches Trio ~ Torpedo Forward (Curious Music, 3 October)

Juliana Day ~ lull (New Jazz and Improvised Music, 3 October)

Alien Alarms ~ Utopia or Dystopia? (4 October)

Andrew Tholl ~ The River Above, The River Below (Populist, 4 October)

The Bug ~ Machine (Pressure, 4 October)

Cape Canaveral ~ Ghost Rips (Machine Records, 4 October)

CIGVË ~ Lore (MMLI, 4 October)

Civil Service ~ /// Light (Ripcord, 4 October)

Daniel Majer ~ Time for No Memory (Vaagner, 4 October)

Daniel Szwed ~ Sun’s Mother (Instant Classic, 4 October)

Estelle Schorpp ~ In My Ears (for Maryanne) (LINE, 4 October)

Glacis ~ Innocence (Oscarson, 4 October)

Guentner | Spieth ~ Overlay Reworks Pt. 2 (by Pole and Abul Mogard) (Affin, 4 October)

Jibóia ~ Salar (Discrepant, 4 October)

Leo Genovese ~ Forward (577 Records, 4 October)

Mattias De Craene ~ A House Where I Dream (Viernulvier, 4 October)

mHz ~ Material Prosody (Room40, 4 October)

Michael Santos ~ Defocus (Home Normal, 4 October)

Nicholas Maloney & Yama Yuki ~ Live at Parking Lots (Flaming Pines, 4 October)

Nichunimu ~ Calados (577 Records, 4 October)

Nonconnah ~ Nonconnah vs. the Spring of Deception (Absolutely Kosher, 4 October)

øjeRum ~ Ikke En Sjæl (Vaagner, 4 October)

rand ~ III (4 October)

Samuel Reinhard ~ Movement (Hallow Ground, 4 October)

Sam Underwood & Graham Dunning ~ Beaux Timbres (Accidental, 4 October)

Unicorn Ship Explosion ~ There’s a Rhinoceros in the Mega Church (Sound Records, 4 October)

V/A ~ Cybernetics, Or Ghosts? (Subtext, 6 October)

Edu Comelles/Sergi Palau ~ About Berlanga (Oigovisiones, 7 October)

Matilde Meireles ~ Loop. And Again (Cronica, 8 October)

Versioning ~ Cloud Plateau (Ingrown, 8 October)

boycalledcrow ~ eyetrees (Hive Mind, 11 October)

Brad Shepik ~ Human Activity: Dream of the Possible (Shifting Paradigm, 11 October)

B.Visible ~ Life Is My Hobby (Matches Music, 11 October)

eldritch Priest ~ Dormitive Virtue (Halocline Trance, 11 October)

Evan Chapman ~ Reveries (Better Company, 11 October)

Folke Nikanor ~ Melodianien (sing a song fighter, 11 October)

HMOT ~ There Will Come Gentle Rain (Warm Winters Ltd., 11 October)

Hualun ~ Scene (Gezillig, 11 October)

Mitch Gerber ~ Drifting Clouds (Everest, 11 October)

Mukqs ~ Eye Frame (Orange Milk, 11 October)

Prawit Siriwat ~ Blueberry (11 October)

Qais Essar ~ Echoes of the Unseen (Worlds Within Worlds, 11 October)

Sam Wilkes ~ iiyo iiyo iiyo (11 October)

Trem 77 ~ Eyelid Movie EP (11 October)

Verstärker ~ V (11 October)

Vica Pacheco & Pak Yan Lau ~ Aquapelagos Vol. 3 (Discrepant, 11 October)

Gianluca Ceccarini, Alessandro Ciccarelli, Tetsuroh Kinishi ~ Yugen (Disasters by Choice, October 14)

squncr ~ Eight views of a summer (Facture, 14 October)

Andrea Giordano ~ Àlea (Sofa Music, 18 October)

a0no ~ Revolving Lantern (ato.archives, 18 October)

Anna Webber ~ simpletrio2000 (Intakt, 18 October)

Bodzan Raczynski ~ You’re Only Young Once But You Can Be Stupid Forever (Disciples, 18 October)

Brandon Seabrook ~ Object of Unknown Function (Pyroclastic, 18 October)

Bryan Perri ~ Few Words (18 October)

Chihei Hatakeyama & Shun Ishiwaka ~ Magnificent Little Dudes, Volume 02 (Gearbox, 18 October)

Guy Blakeslee ~ EXTRAVISION (Leaving, 18 October)

Isaka ~ Elytra (SFX, 18 October)

Kinkajous ~ Nothing Will Disappear (Running Circle, 18 October)

Marysia Osu ~ harp, beats & dreams (Brownswood Recordings, 18 October)

Masahiro Sugaya ~ Overflowing Signs (ato.archives, 18 October)

The Necks ~ Bleed (Northern Spy, 18 October)

Nzʉmbe – Ardor or Entropy (Drowned by Locals, 18 October)

Oliver Coates ~ throb, shiver, arrow of time (RVNG Intl., 18 October)

Pat Thomas ~ This Is Trick Step (577 Records, 18 October)

Rubbish Music ~ Fatbergs (Persistence of Sound, 18 October)

Saagara ~ 3 (Glitterbeat, 18 October)

SO SNER ~ The Well (TAL, 18 October)

Svaneborg Kardyb ~ Superkilen (Gondwana, 18 October)

Ueno Takashi ~ ARMS (Room40, 18 October)

Various Artists ~ VINT (Lapsus, 18 October)

Yengo ~ Unaesthetic Harmony (ato.archives, 18 October)

Zachary Paul ~ Calendar (Recital, 18 October)

Cephas Azariah ~ Joy Paradox (Reflections, 21 October)

Érick d’Orion & Martin Tétreault ~ Cisterciennes (No Type, 22 October)

Acid Rooster ~ Hall of Mirrors (Cardinal Fuzz, 25 October)

Alma Laprida ~ Pitch Dark and Trembling (Outside Time, 25 October)

Angelo Harmsworth ~ Without Blinking (Warm Winters Ltd., 25 October)

Black Aleph ~ Apsides (Art As Catharsis/Dunk, 25 October)

Body Meπa ~ Prayer in Dub (Hausu Mountain, 25 October)

Charlotte Jacobs ~ a t l a s (New Amsterdam, 25 October)

Craven Faults ~ Bounds (Leaf, 25 October)

Cruel Diagonals ~ Calcite (Beacon Sound, 25 October)

Daniela Huerta ~ Soplo (Elevator Bath, 25 October)

Eunhye Jong ~ End of Time / KM-53 Project, Volume 2 (577 Records, 25 October)

Felicia Atkinson ~ Space As An Instrument (Shelter Press, 25 October)

Flock ~ Flock II (Strut, 25 October)

Foudre! ~ Voltæ (Chthulucene) (Nahal, 25 October)

Ghosts of Glaciers ~ Eternal (Translation Loss, 25 October)

Giacomo Merega & Joe Morris ~ Opus Dichotomous (Infrequent Seams, 25 October)

Gneiss ~ Ruthless (Tripalium, 25 October)

Hammock ~ From the Void (Hammock Music, 25 October)

Mouse on Mars ~ Herzog Sessions (sonig, 25 October)

NFL3 ~ O Days (Prohibited, 25 October)

Righteous Rooster ~ Fowl Play (Shifting Paradigm, 25 October)

Snowdrops ~ Singing Stones (Volume 1) (Gizeh, 25 October)

SUUMHOW ~ 5ILTH (n5MD, 25 October)

Tachycardie ~ Musique pour structures sonores Baschet (un-je-ne-sais-quoi, 25 October)

These Liminal Days ~ Empty Spaces 2 (25 October)

Toma Kami ~ missed heaven (mb studio, 25 October)

V/A ~ HoxV-1: ECDYSIS / 5 years of Amniote Editions (Amniote Editions, 25 October)

Yenisei ~ Home (25 October)

V/A ~ Resistance: Compilation of experimental music from Ukraine (Flaming Pines, 26 October)

Daniel Scheide ~ Seduced by a Vampire (Original Soundtrack) (Infrequent Seams, 29 October)

OKRAA ~ La Gran Corriente (A Strangely Isolated Place, 30 October)

Diaries of Destruction ~ DoD II (31 October)

Rich God ~ Unmade (Somewherecold, 31 October)

ADRA ~ Music for Psychiatric Wards and Fluid Structures (1 November)

Alan Lamb ~ Night Passage (Room40, 1 November)

Andert Tysma ~ Hana (Apollo, 1 November)

Blurstem, Elijah Bisbee ~ Mirage, Vol. 1 (Bigo & Twigetti, 1 November)

Caleb Wheeler Curtis ~ The True Story of Bears and the Invention of the Battery (Imani, 1 November)

Cybotron ~ Parallel Shift (Tresor, 1 November)

Dean Drouillard ~ Mirrors and Ghosts (1 November)

Mike Cooper ~ Slow Motion Lighning (Room40, 1 November)

Philip Clemo ~ Through the Wave of Blue (1 November)

Philippe Petit ~ A Reassuring Elsewhere, Chapter 3 (Oscillations, 1 November)

Sarah Neufeld, Richard Reed Perry, Rebecca Foon ~ First Sounds (Envision, 1 November)

Scrimshire ~ Music for Autumn Lovers (Albert’s Favourites, 1 November)

Lifting Gear Engineer ~ Recovery (Machine, 2 November)

Andrea Belfi & Jules Reidy ~ dessus oben alto up (Marionette, 8 November)

BANTAR ~ This Heat Is Exhausting (8 November)

Bit Cloudy ~ The Visitation Plays (8 November)

Black Rain ~ Neuromancer (Room40, 8 November)

Leo Okagawa ~ Lower the Tonearm (Flaming Pines, 8 November)

Lili Holland-Fricke & Sean Rogan ~ Dear Alien (Melodic, 8 November)

Rafael Anton Irisarri ~ FAÇADISMS (Black Knoll, 8 November)

Vazesh ~ Tapestry (Earshift Music, 8 November)

mastroKristo ~ Passage (Lost Tribe Sound, 14 November)

Baldruin ~ Mosaike der Imagination (Quindi, 15 November)

Blake Lee ~ No Sound in Space (OFNOT, 15 November)

civic hall ~ the trembling line (Lost Tribe Sound, 15 November)

Lara Sarkissian ~ Remnants (btwn Earth+Sky, 15 November)

Murcof ~ Twin Color (vol. 1) (InFiné, 15 November)

Nizar Rohana ~ Safa (Worlds Within Worlds, 15 November)

Oöhna Call ~ Bauerngarten (L’octuple lunaire, 15 November)

Pleizel ~ Primal Touch (Mesh, 15 November)

R Grunwald ~ Iterations (15 November)

Samuel Rohrer ~ Music for Lovers (Arjunamusic, 15 November)

Various Artists ~ Have Faith (Faith Beat, 15 November)

Zacc Harris ~ Chasing Shadows (Shifting Paradigm, 15 November)

numün ~ Opening (Centripetal Force, 20 November)

Brueder Selke ~ Stimmen in Prague (oscarson, 22 November)

Chloe Lula ~ Oneiris (Subtext, 22 November)

David Evans ~ Can You Hear Me (Flaming Pines, 22 November)

Eva Novoa ~ Novoa / Carter / Mela Trio, Vol. 1 (577 Records, 22 November)

Kristen Roos ~ Universal Synthesizer Interface Vol. III (We Are Busy Bodies, 22 November)

Lia Bosch ~ Polar Code (Glacial Movements, 22 November)

Driftwood ~ S/T (Room40, 25 November)

Ben Lukas Boysen ~ Alta Ripa (Erased Tapes, 29 November)

Evan Parker ~ The Heraclitian Two-Step, Etc. (False Walls, 29 November)

Kenneth Kirschner ~ April 27, 2023 (Room40, 29 November)

Rikuko Fujimoto ~ Distant Landscapes (FatCat/130701, 30 November)

Rosales ~ Half-Light (Home Normal, 1 December)

Ava Rasti ~ The River (Fatcat/130701, 6 December)

indek ~ Cringe Wold (Rubber City Noise, 6 December)

Pope John Paul Van Damme ~ Disinfamy (Gearbox, 6 December)

Glim ~ Tape I (Room40, December 13)