TALVIHORROS / DAMIAN VALLES
Monuments And Ruins
TEXTURA003
Textura 2012
03 Tracks. 48mins18secs

Amazon UK: CD US: CD

Delivering on average one album every couple of years has allowed Textura to be extremely selective in their choices. Following on from the excellent Kubla Khan collection (2008), which collected a handful of songs by The Retail Sector, Ryan Francesconi, Alexander Turnquist and orchestramaxfieldparrish, inspired by the nineteenth century poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Kubla Khan, Or A Vision In A Dream. A Fragment, and the equally delightful, if somewhat sparse, album by Canadian duo Mains De Givre, Esther Marie (2010), Textura got in touch with London-based experimental guitarist Ben Chatwin, who records as Talvihorros, and Canadian ambient and drone artist Damian Valles, and asked them whether they would consider collaborating on a split release. The result is almost fifty minutes of atmospheric experimentation split almost equally between Chatwin’s two part piece From Within A Hollow Body and Valles’s Hollow Earth Theory.

Whist the two evolve in slightly different spheres, their respective sound worlds have much in common and complement each other rather splendidly here. Continue Reading »

MAINS DE GIVRE
Esther Marie
TEXTURA002
Textura 2010
04 Tracks. 46mins28secs

Amazon US: CD

The project of Montreal-based violinist Emilie Livernois-Desroches and experimental guitarist Eric Quach, Mains De Givre is the first signing of the label set up by Canadian magazine Textura. Both already respected musicians in their own right, Quach for his ambient work as thisquietarmy and with instrumental rock band Destroyalldreamers amongst others, classically trained violinist Livernois-Desroches for projects spanning a wide range of genres, from metal to folk, the pair met over seven years ago while playing in two different bands, but only began working together a year ago. The result, Esther Marie, is a stunning collection of deeply atmospheric and dark experimental compositions. Continue Reading »

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Kubla Khan
TEXTURA001
Textura 2008
07 Tracks. 62mins02secs

Already a successful music magazine, Textura are now launching a new imprint, and releasing their first album. Kubla Khan takes its name from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s classic nineteenth century poem Kubla Khan, Or A Vision In A Dream, A Fragment, which was, according to Coleridge, inspire by an opium-induced dream. The poem also serves as a  thread to the seven tracks featured on the album, as each song takes a particular aspect of the poem and is built as a response to it, or an interpretation of it, by the respective artists. Continue Reading »