A CLOSER LISTEN weekly #89
An interview with Jorge Espinal
Dear Listeners, Joseph once again for our bi-weekly best of the blog. As always, we’ve got a bunch of reviews of great new records, as well as my latest 15 recommendations, this batch focusing on new beat tapes and hip hop records.
I also want to encourage everyone to check out the latest open call from Cities & Memory, which has some particularly exciting details for those in or close to the UK:
And here’s my regular announcement to check out my bi-weekly internet radio show for CAMP, playing some music from our recent reviews. Listen on CAMP this Sunday at 6pm CET, and available on their Mixcloud soon after. I’ve also begun uploading some of these to the ACL soundcloud, where so far you can download my Palestine mix and my tribute to Riccardo La Foresta (about whom more very soon).
But let’s begin this newsletter with David Murrieta Flores’ conversation with Jorge Espinal!
A Bizarre One-Person Orchestra ~ An Interview with Jorge Espinal
We’ve covered Jorge Espinal‘s music before, when he was part of Ricarda Cometa, with whom he surprised us through a chaotic, kinetic approach to musical processes. As we looked forward to Espinal’s debut album for Peruvian label Buh Records, we conducted an interview via email. It was edited collaboratively by both the interviewer and the artist. You can find the result below.
David Murrieta Flores (ACL): Hello Jorge! Could you please talk a bit about yourself and your projects for readers unfamiliar with your work?
Jorge Espinal (JE): Hi David, nice to talk to you again. Thanks so much for having me.
I’m a Peruvian experimental guitar player and improviser based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, since 2007. My work centers around prepared guitar, with a strong emphasis on the role of the body in creating music. I often combine noise, extended techniques, and rhythmic approaches rooted in Latin American traditions. I usually collaborate with other musicians, mostly in free improvisation contexts. I’ve been involved in two long-running projects: Ricarda Cometa, a duo exploring noisy, rhythm-driven improvisation, and Calato, a quartet focused on graphic scores and explosive group interaction.
More recently, I’ve been working on Barriga, a duo with Yoto, with an album on the works and on a new project with Gabriela Areal. They’re both great Argentine musicians. Alongside these collaborations, I’ve been developing a solo setup that involves prepared guitar, kick drum, cowbell, pedals, a foot MIDI controller, and a laptop, all played simultaneously. It’s an ongoing exploration of rhythmic independence and layered, noisy textures.
ACL: To get into the matter, I’d like for you to talk about your perspective on technique, thinking about instrumentation as a kind of technology. To you, what is an instrument?
JE: I think that any object can become an instrument. What makes it one is intention. Once there’s a purpose, a technique emerges or is developed. You start discovering what kinds of sounds it can make. This applies to traditional instruments as much as to something as simple as a rock.
I approach music from a study-based perspective. Even though most of the time I’m improvising without fixed ideas, I spend a lot of time exploring my practice and developing a personal technique and vocabulary. The arbitrary decisions you make along the way, related to your personal sound, tend to shape other aspects of the music. I don’t believe this is the only valid way to make music, but it’s what interests me.
For me, technique is about your relationship with the instrument, investigating it, discovering it, getting to know it, and pushing its limits. It can be extremely personal.
I think of instrumentation as a technology in itself. Needs generate solutions, and every variable affects the whole. The body becomes the interface. This technology is variable. It changes over time, shaped by needs, creative explorations, and the questions that emerge through playing.
Read the entire interview here.
Recommendations
Beats &/or Rhymes
I don’t have time to annotate all of these but suffice to say there’s a lot of great hip hop records out right now. Child Actor beats turn up on new records from Open Mike Eagle and Earl Sweatshirt. And ShrapKnel have done something remarkable with a trio of solo-producer albums. Their swords are sharp.
Earl Sweatshirt ~ Live Laugh Love
Gabe 'Nandez & Preservation ~ Sortilège
GDP & Fatboi Sharif ~ Endocrine
Loud Life ~ Plays Double Standards
Murs ~ Love & Rockets 3:16 (The Emancipation)
Nicholas Craven & Boldy James ~ Late to My Own Funeral
Open Mike Eagle ~ Neighborhood Gods Unlimited
ShrapKnel & Raphy ~ Lincoln Continental Breakfast
ShrapKnel & Mike Ladd ~ Saisir Le Feu
Vel Nine ~ A Beautiful Day To Die
Wino Willy & FOHDH Matthew ~ Matthew Gets Sick Off Cheap Wine and Prefers Gruaud-Larose 1945
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.
Galya Bisengalieva ~ Polygon Reflections
With Polygon Reflections, Galya Bisengalieva has become the latest artist to release an entirely remixed and reimagined version of her latest album ~ virtually a new work ~ joining Glacier, The Cure and Hatis Noit, the later who also appears on this set. This is not only a great way to draw welcome attention to the original compositions, but to amplify subtle nuances and add fresh perspectives. But first, it’s important to remind listeners of the album’s original intent: to focus our attention to the ravaging of sacred Kazakh land by the Russians, who irradiated the steppe known as the Polygon with 456 nuclear tests, destroying the local ecosystem, taking what they claimed was “uninhabited” and turning it into the uninhabitable. … The musicians, poets and writers who once lived there may be gone, but their witness remains.
Harbors (Hollie Kenniff & Goldmund) ~ When We Are Free
The music is calm, the cover is calm, the effect is calm. After releasing four singles over the course of spring, Harbors (Hollie Kenniff & Goldmund) is releasing When We Are Free in the heart of summer. But from what does one yearn to be freed? The answers may vary from person to person, from the physical to the emotional. Having unveiled the stellar For LA project earlier this year, the Kenniffs are keenly aware of the threats posed by prejudice, callous government and fire. Their music – whether solo or duo – has always promoted peace, but has seldom been so intentional. The liner notes suggest the music as the backdrop to everyday activities, while promoting the practice of mindfulness; and the moniker implies safe harbors. Nothing will hurt you here.
Jack Herscowitz, Nick Ginsburg ~ Lullaby
Lullaby is a single, 25-minute piece written for French horn and subtle electronics. Jack Herscowitz is the composer, while Nick Ginsburg is the soloist. Multi-tracking makes the composition soar; layer upon layer are added until the very speakers seem to bloom. One must credit Spencer Adams for the intriguing artwork, which features a flower that is growing upside down and hands collecting marbles or seeds. This matches the intent of the recording; in Herscowitz’ own words, “This is comfort music: not a comfort to pacify, but to reinvigorate: a kernel cradling the promise of transfiguration.”
Nao Kuroda ~ Stillness (Zen Gardens in Summertime)
Nao Kuroda‘s debut EP is a reminder of the soft spaces to which one might retreat to find restoration and rest. Stillness is a series of vignettes, separated by silent intervals, which allows each vignette to act as a koan. Recorded at “the stone gardens (karesansui) of the temples Taizō-in, Tōfukuji, Ginkakuji, Ryōanji, Konchi-in, Ryōgen-in, and Myōshinji” in Kyoto, the recordings skip like a stone from garden to garden, bequeathing a different lesson or feeling at each. Stillness does not mean silence, but the brief pauses between presentations are important. The intent is not simply to reflect stillness, but to create it; and this stillness is not simply one of physical spaces, but of the soul. While we would have enjoyed longer takes, the effect is similar to that of leaving a series of holy places and reflecting on each one. The fact that these recordings are made in summertime offers an alternative to the typical bustle of the season: fireworks and festivals and blockbuster films. The soul needs more than these.How long does it take to find Zen? Can one be moving, yet still? If one cannot get to a Zen garden, can one plant one in one’s own soul? The answers are hidden in the raindrops, the laughter and the silences in-between.
Takahiro Kido ~ Insomnia
What if insomnia were a great black black ball of smoke, drifting above thoroughfares, slowly unfurling into ovoid shapes before spreading its tentacles across the land? What if it were to descend upon the general populace, creeping insidiously lower and lower until it cloaked local buildings and was inhaled by those below? What if it became virtually indistinguishable from the night? Yuki Murata’s video for Takahiro Kido‘s title track may be seen as a metaphor, but the subject might be extended to depression, apathy, or even the state of the world today. The music follows suit: foreboding, patient, enveloping. On this track, Kido is joined by other members of Anoice, who will reappear throughout the set. Insomnia contains tracks with the full band and tracks with string quartet, but Kido’s piano is the central instrument, seeking to reflect not only insomnia in general, but a state of dis-ease and disconnect. The monochrome puzzle that comes in the physical box is a further manifestation.
Zhao Cong ~ blow, blow, blow, blow, blow
blow, blow, blow, blow, blow is the latest album by Beijing-based experimentalist Zhao Cong, recorded entirely with balloons, detailing the processes of inflation and deflation with minimal edits. This “naturalistic” approach grants the album what microscopic imaging grants to a photograph: the chance to mechanically enhance our senses, digging deep into the crevices of a reality that often seems innocuous. Expanding latex becomes a soundscape, aleatorily arranging an aural performance of materiality beyond any sort of musical guiding principle, complicating even the terms of naturalist procedures such as field recordings. The artifice resides not in the studio or in the instrumentation, but in the application of force of various kinds upon a certain object.
Various Artists ~ Household Objects (and sundry massed gadgets)
Pink Floyd‘s official follow-up to Dark Side of the Moon was Wish You Were Here, but there was also an unofficial follow-up that was never released. The concept was to record an album using only ordinary household objects: bottles, rubber bands and the like, with no “real” instruments involved. One can hear the germ of the idea in “Time” and a snippet of the shelved project on both Wish You Were Here and in “Wine Glasses” from the Immersion box set.
Fifty years later, producers Barry Lamb and William Hayter have teamed up for an extensive reimagining of what the project might have sounded like had it been carried to completion. While household objects have not changed as a whole (despite new objects being added), recording technologies have vastly improved, reducing the human hours needed to produce such an effort. A wide variety of artists were invited to contribute their own experiments, resulting in the double disc Household Objects (and sundry massed gadgets), which has received the wistful blessing of Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, who looks back on the original project, which he refers to as a “desperate attempt … to follow up on the extraordinary success of Dark Side of the Moon,” and calls Lamb and Hayter’s tribute “far more interesting than anything we created.”
Various Artists ~ X
On August 31, 2015, Glasgow’s Bricolage label introduced itself with Bricolage: VA Volume 1. Exactly ten years later, many of these same artists, along with new ones who arrived along the way, return to celebrate the imprint’s tenth anniversary. With every track exclusive to this release, the two-hour, forty minute compilation is a perfect way to enter Bricolage’s sonic world. The label was self-described back then as “covering a diverse range of ambient, glitch, techno, drone and experimental sounds,” and has held true to its vision. As John the Founder writes, “X marks the spot and X marks the years. Community and music. Always.” A wide variety of styles is on display here, all within the electronic realm. The collection starts off in subtle ambient fashion and follows a loose trajectory to the swift and upbeat, with a few curve balls along the way. As there are 27 tracks, we’re going to zero in on our favorites, but suffice it to say that the entire roster is of high quality and should send listeners down numerous rabbit holes as they seek to hear more of these artists ~ especially the names new to this release.
UPCOMING RELEASES
(complete list with Bandcamp links here)
Suddenly, the local kids started to disappear. No, it’s not the movie Weapons, they just went back to college. Vacations are ending, school is starting, the nights are getting cooler and we know the days are numbered. Fortunately there will be some great music around to ease the fall; a sneak preview is below. We hope you find your next favorite album right here!
Maestro Dekula & Dekula Band ~ Slavery is crime (sing a song fighter, 27 August)
V/A ~ Ping Volume One (Different Circles, 27 August)
Florian Stéphant ~ La sympathie des horloges (TONOT, 28 August)
offthesky ~ Nocturnes (LAAPS, 28 August)
Benny Nilsen ~ True than Nature (Ideologic Organ, 29 August)
Christian Wallumrod ~ Percolation (Sofa Music, 29 August)
C.R. Gillespe ~ Island of Women (sound as language, 29 August)
Dan Rosenboom ~ Coordinates (Orenda, 29 August)
Eliot Krimsky ~ I Made My House (Moon Glyph, 29 August)
Galya Bisengalieva ~ Polygon Reflections (One Little Independent, 29 August)
Gvantsa Narim ~ Happiness Is Found in the Soul’s Immortality (Cruel Nature, 29 August)
Mast Years ~ Mast Year (29 August)
The Peel ~ In the Ferns (Sun Cru, 29 August)
BBJr ~ The Antique Heartbeat (No Part of It, 1 September)
Daniel Gall ~ Exit Paradise (1 September)
Lorenz Weber ~ Coordinates of Existence (1 September)
David Lee Myers ~ Terrenus (Cronica, 2 September)
Jetski ~ The Radiant Radish (Hausu Mountain, 2 September)
Richard Hronský ~ Pohreb (mappa, 2 September)
Alessandro Bosetti ~ Carnaval 2 (three:four, 2 September)
Bryan Eubanks ~ Songbook (Sacred Realism, 3 September)
Ben Chatwin ~ The Sleeper Awakes (2025 Edition) (5 September)
Chip Wickham ~ The Eternal Now (Gondwana, 5 September)
Chris Cochran ~ unhinged (Gold Bolus, 5 September)
The Color of Cyan ~ As Human (5 September)
Emil Fris ~ Moving Images (FatCat, 5 September)
Etceteral ~ Kimatika (Glitterbeat, 5 September)
Eventless Plot | Savvas Metaxas | Spyros Emmanouilidis ~ Undertow (Innovo Editions, 5 September)
Flur ~ Plunge (Latency, 5 September)
Gwenifer Raymond ~ Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark (We Are Busy Bodies, 5 September)
Illustrious ~ Mesmerine 111 (Cold Spring, 5 September)
Kaukolampi ~ Synestopia Variations 1-4 (Öm-Sound, 5 September)
Liv Andrea Hauge Trio ~ Døgnville (Hubro, 5 September)
Lyndhurst ~ Tapes (5 September)
lynyn ~ Ixona (Sooper, 5 September)
Matthew Putman, Hill Greene, Francesco Mela ~ Believe That Was Me (577 Records, 5 September)
Matthew Ryals ~ Exalge (Infrequent Seams, 5 September)
Melted Form ~ dyschronometria (5 September)
mems ~ For Real Life and Other Worlds (Shiny Boy Press, 5 September)
Okkyung Lee ~ just like any other day (어느날): background music for your mundane activities (Shelter Press, 5 September)
Ørdop Wolkenscheidt ~ The Years of Rain and Thunder (5 September)
Per Bloland ~ Shadows of the Electric Moon (New Focus, 5 September)
Secular Music Group ~ Volume 2 (Love All Day, 5 September)
Shall Remain Nameless ~ Oh, I didn’t know it was you! (5 September)
Shrunken Elvis ~ Shrunken Elvis (Western Vinyl, 5 September)
Stephen Thelan & Markus Reuter ~ Rothko Spaces, Volume 4 (iapetus, 5 September)
Torpa ~ New Low (5 September)
Treen ~ Kaikō (Sauajazz, 5 September)
Seth Thorn ~ a curious doubling of terms (Audiobulb, 6 September)
dj sniff ~ Turntable Solos (Discrepant, 7 September)
Rutger Zuydervelt ~ The Wonder of It All (music for a performance by Daniel Linehan/Hiatus) (9 September)
Ujif_notfound ~ Postulate (I Shall Sing Until My Land Is Free, 9 September)
Jansen Interceptor ~ Interception (International Chrome, 11 September)
Arnold/Schwer ~ Terra Formica (12 September)
David Occhipinti ~ Camera Lucida (Elastic Recordings, 12 September)
Dun-Dun Band ~ Pita Parka, Pt. II: Nim Egduf (We Are Busy Bodies, 12 September)
Emery Dobyns ~ Improvs (Hammock Music, 12 September)
Holly Palmer ~ Metamorphosis (Colourfield, 12 September)
Ida Urd & Ingri Høyland ~ Duvet (Balmat, 12 September)
Isambard Khroustaliov / Ben Carey ~ Field Recordings From Other Constellations (Not Applicable, 12 September)
Katharina Ernst ~ EXTRAMETRIC II (Extrametric, 12 September)
Kety Fusco ~ BOHÈME (A Tree in a Field, 12 September)
Lawrence English ~ WhiteOut (Room40, 12 September)
Mark Vernon ~ Memento Mori: Brussels (Flaming Pines, 12 September)
Matt Bachmann ~ Compost Karaoke (Orindal, 12 September)
Modeselektor ~ DJ-Kicks: Modeselektor (!K7, 12 September)
Oren Ambarchi & Frederik Rasten ~ Dragon’s Return (Viernulvier, 12 September)
Tomas Fujiwara ~ Dream Up (Out of Your Head, 12 September)
Venera ~ Exinfinite (PAN, 12 September)
Verses GT ~ Verses GT (LUCKYME®, 12 September)
Vicki Chow ~ Frank Horvat: The Banff Suite (Redshift, 12 September)
Phenomenal World ~ SAME (13 September)
The Dwarfs of East Agouza ~ Sasquatch Landslide (Constellation, 15 September)
Marta Forsberg ~ Archeology of Intimacy (Warm Winters Ltd., 15 September)
SANAM ~ Sametou Sawtan (Constellation, 15 September)
Tristan Honsinger, Riuichi Daijo ~ We Met Tomorrow (DPS Recordings, 15 September)
arid landscapes ~ S/T (19 September)
Arvin Dola ~ O Ghost (Dragon’s Eye Recordings, 19 September)
Brunhilde Ferrari ~ Errant Ear (Persistence of Sound, 19 September)
Kieren Hebden & William Tyler ~ 41 Longfield Street (Temporary Residence Ltd., 19 September)
Oasis Boom ~ Cactus Dust (Dur & Doux, 19 September)
øjeRum ~ Drømme I Langsomt Stof (Glacial Movements, 19 September)
Patrick Shiroishi ~ Forgetting Is Violent (American Dreams, 19 September)
pdbq ~ Sermons of the Electrifying Messiah (Synaptic Cliffs, 19 September)
Rafiq Bhatia ~ Environments (Anti-, 19 September)
Weston Olenki ~ Broadsides (Outside Time, 19 September)
Wonderful Aspiration of the Source ~ S/T (Centripetal Force, 19 September)
Danek Lipko ~ Eclipsoid (Somewherecold, 24 September)
Annette Vande Gorne ~ Tutti Frutti (Persistence of Sound, 26 September)
BABON ~ Tropical Desert (Wonderwheel, 26 September)
Bruno Duplant & Judith Wegmann ~ Univers Parallèles – Des Nuits Et Des Jours (Moving Furniture, 26 September)
Donny McCaslin ~ Lullaby for the Lost (Edition Records, 26 September)
Early Fern ~ Wetland Interiors (sound as language, 26 September)
Fani Konstantinidou ~ Undertones (Moving Furniture, 26 September)
Gideon Broshy ~ Nest (New Amsterdam, 26 September)
Grandbrothers ~ Elsewhere (_and_others, 26 September)
Hatis Noit ~ Aura Reworks (Erased Tapes, 26 September)
Heirloom ~ Familiar Beginning (Shifting Paradigm, 26 September)
Nastia Reigel ~ Identity (Infrastructure New York, 26 September)
Nobukazu Takemura ~ knot of meanings (Thrill Jockey, 26 September)
Pulse Emitter ~ Tide Pools (Hausu Mountain, 26 September)
Sam Prekop ~ Open Close (Thrill Jockey, 26 September)
Spyros Polychronopoulos & Yorgos Dimitriadis ~ Nearfield (Room40, 26 September)
Sven Wunder ~ Daybreak (Piano Piano, 26 September)
SYBAX ~ TWIN (TC Prog, 26 September)
Webber/Morris Big Band ~ Unseparate (Out of Your Head, 26 September)
Call Super ~ A Rhythm Protects One (Dekmantel, 28 September)
Ben Horton ~ Flowers Made of Light (Wayside & Woodland, 29 September)
Free Country (IV) ~ Liberty Now! (Corner Store Jazz, 1 October)
Anna Högberg Attack ~ Ensamseglaren (Fönstret, 3 October)
Blue Lake ~ The Animal (Tonal Union, 3 October)
DNA?AND? and Lampeknusekontoret ~ Hot, Hot, Hot (Den Pene Inngang, 3 October)
Eva Novoa ~ The Freedom Suite, Novoa/Carter/Mela Trio, Vol. 2 (577 Records, 3 October)
Hekura ~ Two Lonely Space Pilots (Hegoa, 3 October)
Iiris Viljanen ~ So much of you was sleeping (sing a song fighter, 3 October)
Lophae ~ Imagine More (3 October)
Marta Forsberg ~ Archeology of Intimacy (Warm Winters Ltd., 3 October)
Sergio Merce ~ Archipiélago (Room40, 3 October)
Širom ~ In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper (Glitterbeat, 3 October)
The Corrupting Sea ~ Symphony of a Radical II (Somewherecold, 4 October)
Mateusz Kowal ~ T-Bop: Prologue (Lamour, 7 October)
Ellen Fullman and the Living Earth Show ~ Elemental View (Room40, 10 October)
Luca Formentini ~ I Am Ghosts (Curious Music, 10 October)
The Necks ~ Disquiet (Northern Spy, 10 October)
Richie Culver ~ I Trust Pain (Supernature, 10 October)
V/A ~ TD10 (Timedance, 10 October)
Melvin Gibbs ~ Amasia: Anamibia Sessions 1 (Hausu Mountain, 14 October)
Dylan Henner ~ Star Dream FM (Phantom Limb, 17 October)
Fatan Kanan ~ Diary of a Candle (Fire, 17 October)
Joe Harvey-Whyte & Paul Cousins ~ in a fugue state (None More, 17 October)
Jon Camp ~ Proceed (Centripetal Force, 17 October)
Orphax ~ Embraced Imperfections (17 October)
Steve Hauschildt ~ Aeropsia (Simul, 17 October)
Travis Laplante & JACK Quartet ~ String Quartets (New Amsterdam, 17 October)
William Covert ~ Dream Vessel (Coup sur Coup, 17 October)
will sōderberg… ~ let the machines sing… [2] of desire to salvage (Machine Records, 17 October)
Yuhan Su ~ OVER the MOONs (endectomorph music, 17 October)
Zane Trow ~ Ibis (Room40, 17 October)
Faith Coloccia + Daniel Menche ~ Smelter (Room40, 18 October)
Alex Kozobolis ~ Assymetry (24 October)
Many Pretty Blooms ~ They Still Sing Songs About You (It’s Only Me, 24 October)
Alister Spence ~ Within Without (Room40, 31 October)
claire rousay ~ a little death (Thrill Jockey, 31 October)
Richie Culver ~ I Trust Pain (Supernature, 31 October)
Beckton Alps2 ~ Side (Machine Records, 7 November)