As another year folds out, it is time once again to look back and take stock or the highs and lows, before a fresh year rolls in. 2011 has had its moments and has overall been a rather good year, and trying to extract a list of twenty albums from the hundreds, thousands possibly, that I have listened to, loved, hated, reviewed or not, tried to make sense of or misunderstood seems a pretty restrictive effort at best. Still, it is always good to look back and realise that some records have made more of a mark than others, some almost imperceptibly. So, here is, in twenty records, what 2011 was made of…

1.

JENNY HVAL
Viscera
Rune Grammofon

Review:
There is such urgency throughout this record that it is quite astonishing how Hval manages to retain any lightness in her music, but she does, and [Helge] Sten picks up on just enough to bring it all to life in sprightly bright colours and tones.

2.

HAUSCHKA & HILDUR GUÐNADÓTTIR
Pan Tone
Sonic Pieces

Review:
So truly individual are their respective work that the inspired pairing of Volker Bertelmann, a man with a penchant for purposely tempering with his piano with all manners of props to alter its sound, and Hildur Guðnadóttir, whose exploratory work takes the cello out of its usual remit to experiment with textures and loops, was always likely to deliver something totally unique. And unique this never-to-be-repeated performance was on more than one level.

3.

EMIKA
Emika
Ninja Tune

Review:
Tightly blending elements of electronica, dubstep and techno together, Emika creates here a particularly pertinent modern urban soundtrack, propelled by ground-shaking grooves and incisive electronics to serve bitter sweet melodies and lyrics.

4.

FABIO ORSI
Wo Ist Behle?
Boring Machines

Review:
Wo Ist Behle? is an uncompromising record which sees Fabio Orsi moving away from using field recordings and experimenting with documenting his environment with artificial sounds instead. The result is, quite simply, nothing short of breathe-taking.

5.

SEEFEEL
Seefeel
Warp Records

Review:
The music is as hypnotic and ethereal as it was in the nineties, yet, it relies on much grittier sound sources and appears dirtier and more abstract. Still, this album is unmistakably Seefeel.

6.

FIRE! with JIM O’ROURKE
Unreleased?
Rune Grammofon

Review:
With Jim O’Rourke, Fire! have found the perfect companion, and as this is very likely to be a temporary arrangement, it would be utterly foolish not to savour every second of it to the full.

7.

KING MIDAS SOUND
Without You
Hyperdub

Review:
Each reinterpretation is a personal statement from Martin’s contributors as they stamp their mark on these compositions.

8.

DANIEL THOMAS FREEMAN
The Beauty Of Doubting Yourself
Home Normal

Review:
Despite its dark origins and extremely personal nature, The Beauty Of Doubting Yourself is a truly inspiring, and inspired, record, which manages to keep its audience totally captivated and, crucially, completely part of the experience.

9.

ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER
Replica
Software Label

Review:
With this album, Daniel Lopatin has refined his sound by giving it a wider spectrum, and whilst he remains faithful to the overly synthetic aspect of his music, it is the way he accommodates his expanded palette which binds this album together.

10.

ÆTHENOR
En Form For Blå
VHF Records

Review:
At times, Æthenor play nicely, reigning in most inclines of discordance [...], but there are at others sombre shadows lurking beneath the surface which push the level of tension.

11.

HÅKON KORNSTAD
Symphonies In My Head
Jazzland Recordings

Review:
With his solo records, Håkon Kornstad is slowly devising a universe away from his collaborative work, where he can experiment with subtle musical touches and experiment freely with his instruments.

12.

MIKA VAINIO
Life (… It Eats You Up)
Editions Mego

Review:
Released on Editions Mego, the guitar-based Life (… It Eats You Up) explores some of the man’s recurring themes from a somewhat fresh angle. The resulting soundtrack is not ultimately that different from the majority of his output, although it throws up some interesting oddities.

13.

ZWISCHENWELT
Paranormale  Aktivität
Rephlex

Review:
Fueled with tales of paranormal activity, premonition and clairvoyance, this album distills somber themes on dystopian electronic backdrops, sounding like Kraftwerk’s Radio-Activity experienced through the negative space of a black hole.

14.

AFRICA HITECH
93 Million Miles
Warp Records

Review:
Pritchard and White never chose the easy route to progress through this album, but this is exactly what makes it such a thoroughly enjoyable listen.

15.

JOHN CHANTLER
The Luminous Ground
Room40

Review:
Chantler alters the emotional aspect of this record by simply working on specific tonalities and continuously moulding them, each piece displaying subtle variations in its own scope, while all sounding very distinctive and unique.

16.

HUMCRUSH with SIDSEL ENDRESEN
Ha!
Rune Grammofon

Review:
Endresen’s earthy voice occupies the extremely volatile space between keyboards, drums and electronics with aplomb. Her great capacity to listen and instantaneously adapt to whatever her collaborators throws at her are clearly thrilling to Humcrush who take her on a chaotic journey through fragmented pieces of varying density

17.

PEDRO SOLER & GASPAR CLAUS
Barlande
InFiné

Review:
While Barlande is the meeting of a father and his son, it is above all the meeting of two musicians with very different outlooks who meet on a level beyond their respective work.

18.

AUTECHRE & THE HAFLER TRIO
ah3e0 & a3oe (ae3o3)
Die Stadt/Simply Superior

Review:
The detailing is extreme here as Auteche and The Hafler Trio work from microscopic particles, painstakingly building up layer after layer to create incredibly complex, yet minimal, sound structures.

19.

DADAVISTIC ORCHESTRA
Dokument.02
Dust Science Recordings

Review:
Dadavistic Orchestra create here a particularly rich and effective soundtrack, built around deeply atmospheric soundscapes which are in turn processed into impressive textural pieces and adorned with varying degrees of melodic structure.

20.

VLADISLAV DELAY QUARTET
Vladislav Delay Quartet
Honest Jon’s

Review:
Formed of Sasu ‘Vladislav Delay’ Ripatti (drums and percussions), Lucio Capece (bass clarinet and soprano sax), Derek Shirley (double bass) and Mika Vainio (electronics), the quartet operate at the murkier end of the music spectrum.

JOHN CHANTLER
The Luminous Ground
RMV442
Room40 2011
06 Tracks. 39mins50secs

Can music be ‘created by machines’? This is often the starting point of one of the main arguments hailed by detractors of electronic music, who see electronic synthesis and computers as the cold and inhuman antithesis to music played on ‘proper instruments’, by human beings. Yet, machines can’t work on their own. They cannot power themselves, have no natural creative will and depend on human interactions to even exist. Machines have to be programmed in some way, and, like musical instruments, are only as good as their users.

This is what John Chantler investigates with his latest album, published on Room40. For the last three years, he has amassed a handful of electronic devices into a modular set up which now regularly serves as a platform for live experimentation, and is here put to extensive use to create a rather intriguing soundtrack where human interaction and accidental machine input both play equally important roles. The six untitled improvised pieces are incredibly dense, forever morphing into new forms, switching from randomly generated sound formation to rhythmic motifs with no apparent order or rule. Under Chantler’s control, the machine becomes alive with rich tonal sequences which, while always evolving in totally unpredictable ways, do so with great fluidity. There aren’t any melodies as such here, the generated patterns never materialising in anything substantial enough to qualify as a fully developed theme, yet the repetitive characteristic of these patterns create accidental musical fragments which often vanish as quickly as they appeared as the synthesis process continues. And this is as much these fleeting moments as the auto-generated sounds which continuously fascinate here. While Chantler undoubtedly understands out to create these sequences, there is something totally ephemeral in the resulting recordings as sound clusters continuously disintegrate. None of these patterns can ever be reproduced in that exact same sequence.

While the sonic range can appear somewhat narrow on first impression, it is actually quite vast, extending from deep rumbling low ends to extremely high-pitched piercing high ends, and from clear and sharp to extremely saturated and distorted. The mood follows, at times harsh and abrasive (A1), austere and introspective (B2) or sombre and oppressive (B3), at others peaceful and dreamy (A3) or surprisingly pastoral (B1). Chantler alters the emotional aspect of this record by simply working on specific tonalities and continuously moulding them, each piece displaying subtle variations in its own scope, while all sounding very distinctive and unique.

There is a strong correlation between the machine’s random sound and pattern generation and the human control to which it responds. Chantler actively seeks the incidental aspect of what his machine is capable of creating, yet he is ultimately in charge of what is happening and constantly influences the end result, making this record a truly hypnotic aural feast.

4.9/5

John Chantler | Room40

TUJIKO NORIKO, LAWRENCE ENGLISH & JOHN CHANTLER
U
RM435
Room40 2008
08 Tracks. 38mins57secs

Room 40 captain Lawrence English, musician John Chantler, and chanteuse Tujiko Noriko tumble together and tug apart over the course of U, inexhaustibly stitching the strong physicality of melodic lines to acoustic nuance, whilst crisp, agile, insistent digital tattoos envelop them and insinuate into every interstice.

Far from the jerky, skewed cut-ups of some of Noriko’s earlier work, U develops a judicious restraint to create a space for listening.  The album, though hardly esoteric, and sometimes lacking the edge of discovery honed by a confidently individualized voice, is thus easy to get lost in. There’ s a reasonable spread of material, from spacious pieces, where layered loops become extended rhythmic units and the hidden harmonies of drones are highlighted, turning static approaches into fluent, open-ended ones, to others which feature nodding rhythms and still others that are haunted by mutant guitar outbreaks.

A certain vitality is present in this approach.  The trio steamroll their way through loose jams without meandering or gushing.  Most of the tracks are edited to run seamlessly into one another, heightening the sense of organic momentum generated by the group’s thick, murky textures, subdued grooves, and swirling keyboards.  Though it goes without the experimental edge of past works, then, it represents Noriko’s finest melange of pop songs.

Opener 12 O’Clock On The Highway is anchored with a heavy, nearly dub-like density, which keeps things rolling, as discrete events get tacked on like barnacles and Noriko’s voice begins to hypnotize.  In some of the shorter pieces, a guitar cuts through the fat sound with jabbing precision, directing the content of these works to the melodramatically lurid and grim.  The group then picks up the pieces and reassembles their musical shards into intimate forms that remain reasonably consistent with what came before, but which stretch out into other abstract sound worlds.  Compositions thus form an implicit and vague unity.  Rather than one of artifice, though, it’s largely characterized by a certain sensitivity, demonstrated in the themes and moods canvassed and the relations that characterize the players on a whole.  In this manner, U is a white feather in Noriko’s colorful cap.

3.7/5

Tujiko Noriko | Lawrence English | John Chantler | Room40
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