Natural Snow Building is a French duo formed of Mehdi Ameziane and classically trained cellist and pianist Solange Gularte, who met over a decade ago in Paris and whose records, often released in very limited quantities, have gained much praise and respect since. Opening the hostilities for this performance at St Giles in the Fields church, niched in the heart of London’s West End between Soho and Covent Garden, Natural Snow Building spent the major part of their set weaving layers of distorted guitars into a tapestry of dissonant drones, Ameziane and Gularte apparently evolving in their own universe, but converging to a central point. Ameziane provided the bulk of the cloud of noise, Gularte knitting faux melodic features over the top, until the distortion dissipated unexpectedly to leave just a few guitar textures floating in mid air. A ghostly voice then rose from the debris of the previous twenty or so minutes, feminine in aspect, yet belonging to Ameziane, who over the last few minutes of the set blew a gentle breeze over a rather stunned audience.

An Autumnal chill came down on St Giles with the next set, as a persistent wind engulfed the venue, catching distant vocals in its grip while shadows of leaves blown in all directions were projected onto the back of the church.  Rising from this seasonal setting, a lone guitar materialised for a moment before a gentle loop took its place, providing the backdrop for the voice to lie in. Continue Reading »

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Musique Pour Statues Menhirs
ARBOU026
Arbouse Recordings 2009
21 Tracks. 123mins59secs

The musée Fenaille, in Rodez, South of France, is an archaeological museum which has in its collection a wide array of ‘statues menhirs’, or carved stones which are the first known life-size representations of man. Local record label Arbouse Recordings commissioned a number of artists to create a soundtrack for the museum collection, each providing one track to the project, and three of them were later invited to perform live in the museum.

The panel of musicians and sound artists invited to take part to the project is extremely diverse, with the likes of Fennesz, Benoît Pioulard, John Hughes, Sylvain Chauveau, Greg Davis, Schneider TM, Mapstation, Mira Calix or Jasper TX, rubbing shoulders with less known contributors such as ww.lowman, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Astrïd, Serafina Steer, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma or Orla Wren to create a truly evocative and sumptuous document Continue Reading »

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Touch 25
TONE25
Touch 2006
25 Tracks. 79mins43secs

With a solid twenty-five years at the forefront of contemporary music, releasing music by artists as diverse as The Hafler Trio, Sweet Exorcist, Sandoz, Oren Ambarchi, Chris Watson, Scala, Philip Jeck, Mika Vainio, Biosphere, Christian Fennesz, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Ryoji Ikeda or BJ Nilsen to name but a fraction, Touch have collected one of the most impressive and inspired catalogues around, encompassing a wide array of genres, from noise to post-modern classical, ambient and electronic.

To celebrate this massive slab of work, the label, founded in 1982 by Jon Wozencroft Mike Harding, Nevelle Brody and Andrew McKenzie, of Hafler Trio fame, have put together a collection of twenty-five exclusive tracks from the likes of Biosphere, Fennesz, Pan Sonic, Chris Watson, Mark Van Hoen, Rafael Toral, Mother Tongue, BJ Nilsen, Philip Jeck and many more. Touch 25 doesn’t intend to document the label’s history, and only seems to give a vague and short insight into the various musical grounds covered by these artists, yet it is true to the label’s ethic in every way, from the instantly recognisable cover artwork, by Wozencroft to the depth and reach of each one of the tracks featured. Continue Reading »