CLARO INTELECTO
Reform Club
92DSR
Delsin Records 2012
09 Tracks. 52mins55secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP US: CD | LP

Claro Intelecto’s Mark Stewart is quite an elusive figure of the British techno scene, but, in the space of nearly ten years, he has built a solid reputation amongst his peers through a steady flow of releases, first for the utterly excellent and sorely missed AI Records, then more recently on Manchester’s Modern Love, for which he notably delivered five critically acclaimed EPs, The Warehouse Sessions Vol. 1-5, which were later collected on a CD. His first album, Neurofibro (2004), showcased his taste for abstract electronica and Detroit techno, but with following releases he focused more solely on the strong blend of elegant techno which infused part of his debut, resulting in his second opus, Metanarrative (2008). Continue Reading »

EIVIND OPSVIK
Overseas IV
LLCD011
Loyal Label 2012
10 Tracks. 50mins30secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

Norwegian-born bass player Eivind Opsvik has spent the last decade living and working in New York where he has been a near-permanent fixture on the local jazz circuit. During that time, he has recorded three albums with guitarist Aaron Jennings, published on NCM, Rune Grammofon and Opsvik’s own Loyal Label imprint, and has regularly played with various formations, but it is with Overseas, the ensemble he set up ten years ago and with whom he has released three albums so far, that he is perhaps best know.  Overseas comprises Opsvik (double bass), Jacob Sacks (piano, organ), Tony Malaby (saxophone), Kenny Wollesen (drums, percussions), with the recent addition of guitarist Brandon Seabrook.

For their first outing as a quintet, Overseas are in resolutely inquisitive mood. Continue Reading »

COPPE’ + NIKAKOI
Rays
Mango & Sweet Rice 2012
13 Tracks. 61mins01secs

Amazon UK: DLD US: DLD Boomkat: DLD

Never one to rest on her laurels, the self-professed ‘legendary godmother of Japanese electronica’ Coppe’ continues on her own unique journey, this time with Georgian electronic Nikakoi with whom she teams up for the entirety of this latest album. Coppe’ has made a habit of confronting her sonic universe with that of countless musicians and sound artists from all over the world, from the famous (Plaid, DJ Vadim, Atomâ„¢) to the totally unknown, often bringing them together on a single album. Rarely has she taken a collaboration over a whole album; in fact, the last time it happened was back in 2002 with Mercury, which she recorded with The Program, and Papa, My Buddha with long term friend Ryan Breen. Continue Reading »

DEAN BLUNT & INGA COPELAND
Black Is Beautiful
HDB012
Hyperdub Records 2012
15 Tracks. 39mins16secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP | DLD

Having so far operated mainly as Hype Williams, a slightly enigmatic outfit which as spurted three odd and oblique albums on Carnivals, De Stijl and Hippos In Tanks in less than two years, Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland are now stepping out as themselves (if these are indeed their real identities) for their debut release on Hyperdub. But, apart for the name change, nothing has really changed for the pair. Black Is Beautiful is equally as convoluted, obsessive, schizophrenic and dreamy as its predecessors, and it is all the better for it.

Sounding like something half way between an amateurish mixtape and an odd lab experiment, Black Is Beautiful is pretty impossible to pigeonhole, its influences reaching far and wide, with no particular strand taking any precedence over any other at any point. Continue Reading »

MIRT
Artificial Field Recordings
CAT8
Cat Sun 2012
07 Tracks. 48mins31secs

A musician, he is member of experimental pop out Brasil And The Gallowbrothers Band, graphic designer and magazine editor, Tomasz ‘Tomek’ Mirt also heads Polish imprint Cat Sun and helps run parent label Monotype Records. With his solo project, soberly named Mirt, he has been experimenting with acoustic and electric instrumentation and electronic processing for over a decade, releasing his debut album, Rain In City Of Myrrh And Forget-Me-Not back in 2001, and he has since published a further four records, two for Cat Sun and two for Monotype.

Field recordings have always been an integral part of Mirt’s solo work, and this album, his sixth, is no exception, but his approach is slightly different here as he relies on electronics to create similar textures to those he would ordinarily collect in his surroundings and process into his music. Continue Reading »

CEZARY GAPIK
The Sum Of Disappearing Sound
KR008
Karlrecords 2012
04 Tracks. 54mins44secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD Spotify: STRM

Although he started as a punk activist in his native Poland in the early eighties, at a time when the country was facing the first onslaughts of the huge struggle to escape the grip of communism which would characterise the next few years, Cezary Gapik went on to widen his musical horizon greatly as he discovered Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle and Public Image Limited, and, later, the musical experiments of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Morten Feldman or La Monte Young. His own production, for the most part self-released, has been nothing short of prolific since 1999, but his official debut release came only last year on the excellent White Box Recordings with Contrast I, the first of three instalments planned for the label.

The Sum Of Disappearing Sound is quite an epic offering and is articulated around four atmospheric pieces clocking between eleven and sixteen minutes. Continue Reading »

GREG HAINES
Digressions
PRE034
Preservation 2012
05 Tracks. 55mins30secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: DLD iTunes: DLD Spotify: STRM

Since his first album was published on Miasmah six years ago, Greg Haines has become one of the most consistent modern classical composers and musicians, yet he has released relatively little music compared to the likes of Peter Broderick, Nils Frahm or Ólafur Arnalds for instance. Indeed, Digressions is only his third  solo album, yet, he has also released material recorded with Danny Saul, Peter and Heather Broderick, Machinefabriek or Xela to name but a few.

Following his debut, Slumber Tides (Miasmah) and sophomore effort, Until The Point Of Hushed Support (Sonic Pieces), Haines has joined the ranks of Australian imprint Preservation with his latest offering Continue Reading »

MARK HARRIS
An Idea Of North/Learning To Walk
CATMD195
n5MD 2012
05 Tracks. 44mins22secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: DLD iTunes: DLD

West Midland-based artist Mark Harris was originally primarily involved with visual arts, but a keen interest in generative systems led him to develop software applications which consequently used during live performances, and resulted in a spot on Birmingham Sound Matter, a compilation curated by Francisco López published on  Audiobulb in 2009, and in a first album, The Boy Observes The Ocean, released on Hibernate two years ago. Harris is also a member of Birmingham’s audio visual collective Modulate alongside, amongst others, Higher Intelligence Agency’s Bobby Bird.

The recording of this album came about when most of the UK faced an unusually cold and snowy spell over Christmas 2010. Harris found himself snowed him at home and, making the most of the situation, started improvising what would become the centre piece of the record, a sprawling nineteen minute atmospheric formation built from processed field recordings and acoustic instruments. Continue Reading »

CLARK
Iradelphic
WARP222
Warp Records 2012
12 Tracks. 39mins53secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP | DLD iTunes: DLD

It has been over three years since Christopher Stephen Clark last carved a hefty slice of electronic music for Warp. Following the lush abstract feasts that were Empty The Bones Of You and Body Riddle, Clark, having moved to Berlin, descended on the dance floor with his following two album, Turning Dragon and Totems Flare and smeared his heavily distorted electro-infused techno all over it, claiming once and for all his share of the club scene.

It is a very different Clark who is at the helm of Iradelphic. Ditching heavy-footed beats and hyper-active distorted electronics in favour of much more nuanced soundscapes, Chris Clark looks out towards the world and absorbs a rich palette of psychedelic hues Continue Reading »

LOVEDALE
Green Sounds
ILK187
Ilk Music 2012
09 Tracks. 48mins10secs

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Spearheaded by Danish reeds player Jesper Løvdal, with pianist Jacob Anderskov, who plays both acoustic piano and Würlitzer electric piano, drummer Anders Mogensens and German trombone player Nils Wogram, who, having performed as an additional member with the band for over two years, recently took his place as a full member in replacement of bass player Jonas Westergaard. Formed in the early 2000s, Lovedale released their first self-titled on Ilk Music in 2004. Their second, Grill Music, published two years later, earned them Jazz Release of the Year at the 2007 Danish Music Awards, and was followed by a third album, Coziness Kills in 2009.

In the past, Lovedale have regularly alternated between composed and improvised pieces, but with Green Sounds, they opt for an entirely improvised approach. In practice, it means that their sound has become much freer and more fluid. Continue Reading »

TONE ÅSE/THOMAS STRØNEN
Voxpheria
GIGA005
Gigafon 2012
09 Tracks.47mins40secs

 Amazon UK: DLD US: DLD iTunes: DLD Spotify: STRM

The human voice is an instrument like no other; in turn fragile or powerful, soft of harsh, ethereal or banal, it is, more than any other, a highly versatile tool, and it is one that Norwegian sound artist Tone Åse is keen to experiment extensively with, not only by processing it with electronics, but also by exploring largely uncharted vocal territories. A regular member of quite a few formations, including Bol with Ståle Storløkken and Tor Haugenud, or all-female vocal ensemble Trondheim Voices, she teams up with drummer and percussionist Thomas Strønen the time of Voxpheria, a hugely ambitious and challenging records which brings together fascinating vocal acrobatics, exquisite electronics and intricate drumming.

At times Ã…se’s vocals are not without recalling the soft silky tones of Susanna Wallumrød (Koloust) or the rawer textures of Wildbirds & Peacedrums’ Mariam Wallentin (Numb Street Cabaret, Chson), yet at others, she is much more reminiscent of Sidsel Endresen, not only in the slightly smoky quality of her voice, but also in her approach to words and non-words, and in her use of extremely syncopated buccal sounds. Continue Reading »

Although primarily a cauldron of jazz, noise and electronic experimentations, Rune Grammofon have never shied away from gentler musical forms, most notably with Susanna Wallumrød, with or her Magical Orchestra, or Hilde Marie Kjersem. Last year, the label opened its doors to two more Norwegian female singer songwriters, Ingvild LanggÃ¥rd, who officiates as Phaedra and Jenny Hval, who both delivered stunning, if very different, records (The Sea, a folk odyssey of sort, and Viscera, a much more angular and disconcerting project, respectively). After a false start last year due to a venue double-booking a date, the pair finally hit London this Monday evening at the Borderline in central London. Continue Reading »