A CLOSER LISTEN weekly #77

Reviews Reviews Reviews

Dear Listeners, Joseph here from my dad’s apartment in New York, briefly passing through to see the fam before I head home after a productive residency in the south of Spain and a week in capital. I’ve got to run to the airport soon, so I’m going to keep this brief. I’ll share more about the work I was doing during my residency soon once the works are ready to share. I’ll also send out a mid-cycle post full of mini-reviews within the next week, but I don’t have time to finish them at the moment. So to keep it brief, this installment has a ton of reviews, pretty equally distributed among our various categories. Our Upcoming Releases list is starting to grow again as 2025 takes off, with a lot of great releases just on the horizon. I’ve been especially digging Child Actor and August Fanon’s new split vinyl Here & Now, which was just released. Two of Backwoodz most interesting and prolific producers deserved something more formal than a beat tape showcasing their work, and their divergent but complementary styles have kept this on repeat the last few days. And, on a very different register, I’ve been enjoying Parallell Aesthethics by Ivo Perelman & Tyshawn Sorey, some of the finest sax and percussion playing around. Lastly, the ACL internet radio show will again be live over at CAMP, airing every other Sunday at 6pm CET and available on their Mixcloud soon after. Tune in this Sunday to hear a mix of the reviews featured in this very newsletter. Until next time, happy listening.

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.

Chandra Shukla ~ Hima हिम
Hima हिम is the latest release in VISUALS Wine’s ongoing Ceremony of Seasons series, and it’s the one release that almost didn’t happen. On September 28, Hurricane Helene devastated Asheville, NC just prior to a planned musical festival. Since then, the artistic community there has been engaged in efforts to help their neighbors, many of whom lost homes and even loved ones. While burning the incense, sipping the wine and looping the cassette, one begins to feel that everything is part of a larger tapestry. The snow outside only adds to the impression. The same water that was once a flood now falls as snow on a quiet earth. The snow will melt into fog, flow into rivers and streams, feed the clouds and return to nourish the land. The same water, tamed by taps, enters our bodies, once again drinkable, and flows through our bloodstreams. Incense and wine, music and snow, all are one, part of the great cycle that feeds the ceremony of seasons.

Catholics ~ Synonyms of Void
Welcome back, Catholics! In 2017, the Charleston, South Carolina post-rock/math rock band launched with a bright sound, wide eyes and a future filled with promise. They released a single, then a split EP, then a half-hour album, amusingly titled Guilt. And then the pandemic happened, crushing their tour and festival plans, sending original members flying in all different directions, leaving only guitarist-composer Tyler Beall to pick up the pieces. Fortunately new friends came along – a lot of new friends – and the band was able to return, preserving the “extra” elements of strings and brass that made the band stand out in the first place. Tyler hasn’t sounded this happy since his debut track; one might say he’s been revived, like a certain person who is also important to Catholics in general. Fans of Human Pyramids definitely should be checking this out, and if the bands lived closer, we’d suggest they tour together.

Drum & Lace ~ Tempora
On Mercury Falling, Sting includes a song for his daughter Eliot, observing that “she can be all four seasons in one day.” This year, Sofia Hultquist (Drum & Lace), releases Tempora, which contains all four seasons in one EP. To listen is to fast-forward through the year – although the music itself is measured – and to reflect on the meaning of seasons and cycles. Tempora (Time) allows one to enter where one wishes, to receive sustenance, and to remember that while one waits for one’s favorite season, unforeseen pleasures will emerge.

Evgeny Grinko ~ Winter Moonlight
Winter Moonlight is a perfect accompaniment to cold, crisp winter nights under a full moon with a cover of newly-fallen snow. On this release, Evgeny Grinko circles all the way back to his 2011 EP Winter Sunshine. A lot has changed since then, including Grinko’s move to Istanbul and Berlin after his arrest in Russia for protesting the invasion of Ukraine. It’s fair to say that Russia has lost one of its national treasures. The expatriate existence can be heartbreaking, but Grinko doesn’t show it here; he still believes in beauty, and perhaps connects the snow and moon of his new locations to his childhood in Zukhovsky. Poignantly, some of the compositions even date back to his prior existence. Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of Winter Moonlight is that it transcends its circumstances. No matter what is happening below, the moon is still beautiful, a reassurance in the winter sky, a metaphor and a friend. Grinko may have changed locations, but he still has the soul of a poet.

Laura Cannell ~ A Compendium of Beasts – Volume 1
Having just completed her incredible 12-month, 12-EP series A Year of Lore, Laura Cannell has immediately launched into a new series. A Compendium of Beasts, described as “a Medieval Bestiary in Sound,” begins with a tribute to four different beasts, suggesting that the total may reach 48, enough to compile a Medieval Chapbook come December. The music is sublime, but the fun is the identification: which creatures are real, which are imaginary, and which have been classified as imaginary but may in fact be real? We’re looking forward to hearing how this compendium develops, to meeting new creatures along the way, and to speculating on the existence of beasts who, if they really do exist, deserve credit for eluding us for so long.

Maria Teriaeva ~ Sayan – Savoie
Maria Teriaeva left her childhood home in Siberia’s Sayan Mountains and relocated to the French Alps in Savoie, where she now considers herself an exile. On Sayan – Savoie, she recognizes common threads: “what unites us, rather than divides us, especially now.” Her new home begins to remind her of her old home, sparking a sense of security, connectedness and joy, as seen in the playful, energetic video for “What Is To Be Done?” The artist is on a flatbed truck, cruising past fields of cows, then through groves of evergreens. She adjusts her Buchla, bobs her head, and cuts to images of friends dancing, lolling and rolling. During the break(down), she takes a nap. Then the jam really begins – congratulations for not falling off the truck! The final twenty seconds of the video (not the track) is just cowbells; Walken would be proud.

Noémi Büchi ~ Liquid Bones
The title seems oxymoronic, but Liquid Bones refers to “the transience of body and nature.” As the graphic designer Sharon Ritossa writes of her cover art, “the interplay between textures creates an eerie beauty.” The same can be said of Noémi Büchi‘s music, which thwarts expectations by jumbling genres, the piano of “In the Heat” like a playful modern composition piece laid atop an electronic workout; or is it the other way around?

Park Jiha ~ All Living Things
Park Jiha‘s last album, The Gleam, was experimental in tone, focusing on permutations of light. A unique combination of traditional Korean instruments: piri, saenghwang, yanggeum and glockenspiel, opened new sonic worlds to the listener, like blinds being opened to the sun. Despite sharing a similar sonic palette, All Living Things is calmer in tone, an ode to the cycles of the natural world. The addition of electronics has a soothing effect, sloughing off the rougher edges. Yet both releases share an engaging positivity. The artist seeks the connections in All Living Things, attempting to give her listeners hope. The album comes across as a series of mantras, a meditative exercise perfect for the morning, but suitable for any time of day.

Patricio Fraile ~ My Eternal Summer (OST)
What seems on the surface to be a wistful coming of age story about a teenaged girl on summer vacation turns out to far more resonant when the full plot is revealed. Fanny’s mother is terminally ill, and this will be their final summer together. Copenhagen composer Patricio Fraile must have been honored when he learned that music would hold an integral role in the feature. Mother and daughter both play the piano, and Schubert’s ‘Du bist die Ruh” (heard here in two versions) is crucial to the plot. The family’s love for music forms a physical connection which soon will be transferred to the spiritual. The memories of music, as well as the love of music, are seen as transcending time and even death. As expected, these pieces, written for piano and cello, are tender and at times melancholic. We expect that those who see the film will come away with an appreciation of music as connective tissue: a gentle binding of generations across the seas of time. Fraile’s score is perfectly tailored to these expectations; even his last name suggests the fragility of life.

Rauelsson ~ Niu
Given our penchant for referring to Sonic Pieces releases by color, we were happy when label owner Monique Recknagel expressed curiosity about what we might call the hue of Niu. We must admit that it has stymied us, as the closest matches we can find are phrases: magical mauve, mystical mauve and mystic mauve. Those phrases conjure comparison to The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour, while the color yields tinges of lilac, pink and grey. But as it turns out, this chameleonic nature is fitting, as Rauelsson‘s set is more than one thing; it’s modern composition, it’s electronic, it’s poetry. Depending on one’s point of entry, it may seem like different animals when it is instead a single creature. The tapestry of sounds forms a harmonious whole.

Sara Persico ~ Sphaîra
Sometimes an artist introduces us to a sound we haven’t heard before, and sometimes to a place we haven’t visited. On Sphaîra, Sara Persico does both. The album honors the aptly named Experimental Theatre, one of eighteen concrete buildings designed to showcase the Rachid Karami International Fair in Tripoli. Unfortunately, when civil war broke out, the project was halted, the buildings left to the mercy of the sea. A UNESCO Heritage site, the domed theatre continues to beguile, though entry is guarded, which makes Persico’s access all the more precious. If we cannot see the dome, we can experience it through her artistic vision. Sphaîra is not only a reflection of the present, but a tribute to history and a sonic story of what might have been.

ummsbiaus ~ Hydroelectric Suite No. 4, Op. 9
Over the past two years, Kyiv’s ummsbiaus has been quietly amassing a number of suites, which now total four. Hydroelectric Suite No. 4, Op 9, like the previous suites, is an electronic work constructed in the mode of modern composition. As the third suite to address Ukraine’s “energy genocide,” it also forms a trilogy with the Enerhonor and Metro suites. ummsibiaus has carved out a unique sonic space in which the sounds of crumbling infrastructure are mixed into industrial-toned suites. While most industrial music implies sci-fi, her music is an ongoing documentary reflecting a real-time apocalypse. As the invasion lurches toward its third anniversary, are we yet unmoved?

Various Artists ~ For LA Vol. 2
The fundraising event of the season now enters its second stage, with a third still to come. Hollie and Keith Kenniff’s For LA will soon be offered in an expanded edition from Nettwerk Records, but the needs of the mourning, displaced and rebuilding are immediate. All proceeds from both volumes support “We Are Moving The Needle” and “GiveDirectly”. The second volume contains 31 tracks in all, an ambient fan’s delight. While ambient music is meant to soothe, it can also provide solace. The generous crown jewel of the current collection is a pair of pieces from the estate of Ryuichi Sakamoto, which launch and close the set. Many more discoveries await the curious and generous listener. But perhaps the most soothing discovery is the realization that the world cares. When disaster strikes, we are reminded of our shared human fragility. A chord struck in one location resounds in another.

Various Artists ~ Now That’s What I Call Already Dead!
We can’t believe Josh Tabbia’s Already Dead Tapes is 15 years old, because we can remember when it was born and now it’s almost old enough to drive! Moving around a bit, from Chicago to New York, the imprint is now in L.A. and has hundreds of releases under its belt spanning dozens of micro-genres. Now That’s What I Call Already Dead! is a super-fun entry point to the label, a mix of instrumental and vocal tracks, with an instrumental midsection that casts a spell for nearly the length of a classic album. The cassette is like an amazing mixtape from a friend who knows all the cool bands: the ones who avoid mainstream ideas, while remaining accessible and appealing. The cover art is perfectly chosen, both homage and commentary, positioning the tape as an alternative to the long-running series. which went dormant after its 89th release, a year and a day before the Already Dead compilation. The biggest difference: the original series collected songs people already knew, while the new series introduces listeners to songs appearing nowhere else. In all, 21 artists are presented, representing nearly an hour and a half of music.

UPCOMING RELEASES

(complete list with Bandcamp links here)

That’s Terje Isungset in the photo, making music on ice instruments. CD and vinyl versions of Ice Quartet are expected this spring after the instruments melt. For those of us who are surrounded by ice and snow, but not as good with our hands, there’s still plenty of great music to look forward to. We’re tracking hundreds of midwinter releases, many of which are already available in pre-order, with links below. We hope you’ll find your next favorite album right here!

Amba Downs ~ kinjarling studies: soundtracks (five years on) (Room40, 14 February)

Be My Friend in Exile ~ Meanderer (14 February)

Benjamin Fulwood ~ The Stars Are Very Far Away From All This (Room40, 14 February)

Expedient Self ~ Speaker EP (Submarine Broadcasting Company, 14 February)

Gaiko ~ S/T (Nous’klaer Audio, 14 February)

Jean-Claude Vannier ~ Jean-Claude Vannier et son orchestre de mandolines (Ipecac, 14 February)

Joke Lanz & Thomas Rehnert ~ Combination Without Repetition (Dumpf Edition, 14 February)

KALI Trio ~ The Playful Abstract (Ronin Rhythm, 14 February)

Marshall Allen ~ New Dawn (Mexican Summer, 14 February)

Noémi Büchi ~ Liquid Bones (~OUS, 14 February)

Park Jiha ~ All Living Things (Glitterbeat, 14 February)

Stephen Davis Unit ~ The Gleaming World (577 Records, 14 February)

Various Artists ~ Scale, Vol. 2 (Bigo & Twigetti, 14 February)

Yama Warashi ~ At My Mother’s Piano (PRAH, 14 February)

Jacek Doroszenko ~ Environmental Practice: Resin Arpeggio (Audiobulb, 15 February)

Bartosz Dziadosz ~ Theme (Dronarivm, 21 February)

Kunrad ~ Kleine Geluiden (Cronica, 18 February)

Guy Buttery ~ Orchestrations (20 February)

Julek ploski ~ Give Up Channel (mappa, 20 February)

Banha de Cobra ~ Lava Love (Discrepant, 21 February)

bod [包家巷] and Æthereal Arthropod ~ parabrutality (Drowned by Locals, 21 February)

The Cabalists ~ S/T (Watusi, 21 February)

Cleartran ~ Voyage to the Other Side (21 February)

Enxin/Onyx ~ In Rupture (Other People, 21 February)

Haswell & Hecker ~ UPIC Diffusion Session #23 (Editions Mego, 21 February)

Impérieux ~ Rezil (Macro, 21 February)

Jason Calhoun + Foresteppe ~ a four part cure (Foresteppe, 21 February)

Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim & Joey Chang ~ Muzosynth Orchestra Vol. 1 (21 February)

Laura Cocks ~ FATHM (Out of Your Head, 21 February)

Laurie Torres ~ Après coup (Tonal Union, 21 February)

Martina Bertoni ~ Electroacoustic Works for Halldorophone (Karlrecords, 21 February)

Maya Bennardo, Etienne Nillesen & Kristofer Svensson~ For Violin, Snare & Kacapi (kuyin, 21 February)

Nina Garcia ~ Bye Bye Bird (Ideologic Organ, 21 February)

Rafiq Bhatia ~ Each Dream, A Melting Door (Anti-, 21 February)

Ryan James Mawbey ~ Nature Mirror (Cruel Nature, 21 February)

Tim Hecker ~ Shards (kranky, 21 February)

Tumeric Acid y Bardo Todol ~ Sonopædia (Strategic Tape Reserve, 21 February)

Winterwood ~ To the White Sea (Cruel Nature, 21 February)

Wrekmeister Harmonies ~ Flowers in the Spring (Thrill Jockey, 21 February)

The Young Mothers ~ Better If You Let It (Sonic Transmission, 21 February)

Modern Silent Cinema ~ Passages XXII-XXXII (for Solo Piano) (24 February)

Raed Yassin ~ Phantom Orchestra (Morphine, 24 February)

Philippe Petit ~ Emperor Tomato Ketchup (Sublime Retreat, 25 February)

Blendreed ~ Tales of Tides (Tenorio Cotobade, 28 February)

Daniel Carter, Ayumi Ishito ~ Endless Season (577 Records, 28 February)

Devin Maxwell ~ Selfies (Infrequent Seams, 28 February)

Graintable ~ Music to Watch Seeds Grow By 003 (Music to Watch Seeds Grow By, 28 February)

Grup Ses and Gökalp K ~ S/T (Souk, 28 February)

kilboure ~ If Not To Give A Fantasy (Hammerhead, 28 February)

Le Motel ~ Odd Numbers / Số Lẻ (Balmat, 28 February)

Matt McBane ~ Buoy (Gradient, 28 February)

Max Cooper ~ On Being (Mesh, 28 February)

Om Unit ~ Acid Dub Studies III (28 February)

Saffron Bloom ~ S/T (Delicate, 28 February)

Soft Suns ~ Cycles (28 February)

Thierry Holweck ~ Giraffes (Ombrelle Concrete, 28 February)

Tom Avgenicos x Delay 45 & Ensemble Apex ~ Ghosts Between Streams (Earshift Music, 28 February)

TU M’ ~ Monochromes Vol. 3 (LINE, 28 February)

Mads Kjeldgaard ~ Empty Cloud (Exformal, 1 March)

Darcy Gilkerson ~ Acteon (3 March)

Ciccio & 2mo ~ Live at Meakusma Festival 2024 (Meakusma, 4 March)

Dennis Egberth ~ The Dennis Egberth Dynasty (577 Records, 4 March)

Alaskam ~ Fusion (7 March)

anthéne ~ frailty (Home Normal, 7 March)

Believers ~ Hard Believer (Shifting Paradigm, 7 March)

Emily Jeanne ~ Call of the Sea (quỳnh, 7 March)

Grand River ~ Tuning the Wind (Umor Rex, 7 March)

Hainbach & Ensemble Modern ~ Primer (Ensemble Modern Medien, 7 March)

A Journey of Giraffes ~ Emperor Deco (Somewherecold, 7 March)

Left Hand Cuts Off the Right ~ Every Movement (Brachliegen Tapes, 7 March)

MODUL ~ Pyramids (NOIDED, 7 March)

Mohammad Mostafa Haydarian ~ Noor-e Vojood (Centripetal Force, 7 March)

Nicole McCabe ~ A Song to Sing (Colorfield, 7 March)

Patrick Shiroishi & Piotr Kurek ~ Greyhound Days (Mondoj, 7 March)

tenebrous LIAR ~ Hell Never Called (7 March)

Violeta García ~ IN/OUT (Les Disques Bongo Joe, 7 March)

OdNu & Ümlaut ~ Mitochondria Johatsu (Audiobulb, 8 March)

Serpentskin, Zanies ~ Serpentskin EP 1 (Fleisch, 10 March)

Whatever the Weather ~ Whatever the Weather II (Ghostly International, 12 March)

Yumiko Morioka & Takashi Kokubo ~ Gaiaphilia (Metron, 12 March)

a.MIDI ~ an interplanetary adventure (14 March)

Amp ~ Ambient Love Darkness Share (14 March)

Amphior ~ Disappearing (Glacial Movements, 14 March)

Autodealer ~ Draper Point (Somewherecold, 14 March)

Dead Bandit ~ S/T (Quindi, 14 March)

dream brigade ~ dream brigade (Infrequent Seams, 14 March)

Evan Gildersleeve ~ Wake (Mesh, 14 March)

Golem Mécanique ~ Siamo tutti in pericolo (Idealogic Organ, 14 March)

Hekla ~ Turnar (Phantom Limb, 14 March)

Inturist ~ Tourism (Incompetence, 14 March)

Kate Carr ~ Rubber Band Music (Flaming Pines, 14 March)

memotone ~ Pruning (Discrepant, 14 March)

Owls ~ Rare Birds (New Amsterdam, 14 March)

Zoë Mc Pherson ~ Upside Down (SFX, 14 March)

Yves De Mey ~ Force Over Area (Totalism, 20 March)

Bertrand Gauguet / Jean-Luc Petit ~ Radiesthésie (UNRec, 21 March)

Broken English Club ~ Songs of Love and Decay (Dekmantel, 21 March)

dogs versus shadows ~ Ghost Artery (Flaming Pines, 21 March)

François J. Bonnet ~ Banshee (Portraits GRM, 21 March)

Igor Cavalera/Shane Embury ~ Neon Gods/Own Your Darkness (Cold Spring, 21 March)

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma ~ Gift Songs (Mexican Summer, 21 March)

J.H. Guraj ~ The Flip Side (Maple Death, 21 March)

Macie Stewart ~ When the Distance Is Blue (International Anthem, 21 March)

Nick Storring ~ Mirante (We Are Busy Bodies, 21 March)

Nørbak ~ Casa (HAYES, 21 March)

Puce Moment ~ Sans Soleil (Parenthèses, 21 March)

Sarah Davachi ~ Basse Brevis (Portraits GRM, 21 March)

V/A ~ Radar Keroxen Vol. 5 (Discrepant, 21 March)

Various Artists ~ Shorts (Bigo & Twigetti, 21 March)

Yoko Ono/The Great Learning Orchestra ~ Selected Recordings from Grapefruit (Karlrecords, 21 March)

Collateral ~ Flickering Cotillion (Cassiar, 28 March)

Dawn After Dawn ~ Home is where You Are (577 Records, 28 March)

Gagi Petrovic ~ Music for Dance and Theatre 2011-2024 (Moving Furniture, 28 March)

Natasha Barrett ~ Toxic Colour (Persistence of Sound, 28 March)

Pierce Warnecke ~ Music from Airports (Room40, 28 March)

Reptile Reptiles ~ All Things Return to One (Constructive, 28 March)

Sullivan Johns ~ Pitched Variations (Moving Furniture, 28 March)

Use Knife ~ État Coupable (VIERNULVIER, 28 March)

Philippe Petit ~ Closing Our Eyes (Cronica, 1 April)

Andreas O. Hirsch ~ The Salamander Treaty (makiphon, 4 April)

Barker ~ Stochastic Drift (Smalltown Supersound, 4 April)

Bodil Rørtveit ~ DJUPNA (Rainshine, 4 April)

Calming River ~ Macdui (4 April)

Cameron Knowler ~ CRK (Worried Songs, 4 April)

David Cordero & Rhucle ~ So Far, So Close (Home Normal, 4 April)

David Wunder Brägger ~ Séance of Sleep I: The Saraswati Dreamcraft (The Parlour Recordings, 4 April)

Gūsū ~ The Ending Was a Typical Part (Subject to Restrictions Discs, 4 April)

Hüma Utku ~ Dracones (Editions Mego, 4 April)

Lea Bertucci + Olivia Block ~ I Know the Number of the Sand and the Measure of the Sea (Room40, 4 April)

Penelope Trappes ~ A Requiem (One Little Independent, 4 April)

Simon Heartfield ~ The State of Social Movement (Machine Records, 4 April)

Sissy Spacek ~ Entrance (Shelter Press, 4 April)

Katarina Gryvul ~ SPOMYN (Subtext, 9 April)

Big Hands ~ Thauma (Marionette, 11 April)

Riccardo La Foresta ~ ZERO,999…. (OOH-sounds, 11 April)

Sonic Chambers Quartet ~ Kiss of the Earth (577 Records, 11 April)

Stephen Roddy ~ Corpus/Mimesis (11 April)

Theresa Wong ~ Journey to the Cave of Guanyin (Room40, 11 April)

Out of Context ~ Live at the High Mayhem Festival 2006 (20 April)

David Handler ~ Life Like Violence (Cantaloupe Music, 16 May)