Built entirely from source material supplied by zakè, Brian Grainger, working as Coppice Halifax, has somehow teased rhythms, melodies and entire compositions from recordings that contained no beats or obvious musical framework to begin with, uncovering possibilities that feel both surprising and strangely inevitable.
The result is Tree Grid, a collaborative LP that sits somewhere between reinterpretation and reinvention, never losing sight of where these sounds came from but constantly pushing them into unexpected territory. It’s also the first glimpse of what looks set to become a deeper collaboration between two artists whose approaches seem to complement each other remarkably well. If this doesn’t make my end of year shortlist I will be astonished.
There’s a whole lot of interesting music out today, but I spent the morning listening to Sasha & Digweed’s seminal Northern Exposure mix which everyone’s currently losing their minds about thanks to the recently announced 30th anniversary Redux edition, so I’m perhaps more even open to progressive, trancey offerings than usual. Step forward Danny L Harle and his new Crystallise Divergence EP, which includes this floaty little gem in collaboration with Doss.
Functions’s new LP Aeternum (Existenz) brings to a close a body of work that began with 2019’s Existenz. Written between 2016 and 2019 during an intensely productive period in the studio, the six-track release explores ideas of transformation and renewal, taking inspiration from the seven stages of alchemy. It also serves as a tribute to Sumner’s friend and longtime collaborator John Mendez aka Silent Servant. If there’s a track that encapsulates the record’s atmosphere, it’s City Of Luz. Running for close to 13 minutes, layers of synth and texture gradually emerge before dissolving again, sitting somewhere between ambient electronics and hypnotic techno. Just how I like it.
I’m biased of course I as pretty much love everything that 36 does, but I do think that even among a discography of almost pathological prolificness and quality, his latest album stands out as one of his very best.
Hardcore, Static: Pirate Transmissions From The North Of England, 1990-1994 is Dennis’s celebration of a unique period in the UK’s musical history, when primitive pirate stations run by enthusiastic kids delivered a continuous stream of experimental sounds to Bradford, Leeds, and the surrounding towns of West Yorkshire. Spread across four expansive tracks blending fragments of ambient, drone, jungle, uk hardcore and peppered with the spectral voices of long forgotten pirate DJs, the result is utterly compelling.
This is taken from Spacious Heart the debut solo album from Los Angeles-based musician Anthony Calonico who I was introduced to last year through his work as part of the trio Total Blue. Spacious Heart is a collection of songs and instrumentals, all of them lush, and expansive, but it’s when he sings that the record really comes to life. There’s something about his voice that is just so inviting; timeless and yet familiar, as if he’s been unearthed and dusted off from a previous, purer time.
landscape 05 is the latest entry from Alex Gold’s fields we found moniker, released via his own quiet details label. Created through a deeply meditative and intuitive process, the piece is built from modular drones and repeating patterns recorded to multiple tape machines before being captured in a single live take, with analogue oscillators, magnetic tape and freely tuned textures drift gradually through the recording, As with every release in the landscape series, landscape 05 is available as a name-your-price download over at the quiet details’ Bandcamp page.
The Lebanese artist on the haunting quality of a Fennesz classic
The premise of One Track Mind is pretty simple: I ask artists to pick one track that means a lot to them – either something they’ve discovered recently, something that’s been with them for years, or one that reminds them of a specific time in their life or career – and tell me what makes it so special to them. I get to talk to the artists I love, and they get to talk about the artists they love. Love all round!
Lebanese musician, performer, visual artist and composer Charbel Haber has spent more than two decades at the forefront of Beirut’s experimental music community. Whether composing for multidisciplinary projects or developing his own solo material, Haber has built a reputation for creating immersive, emotionally resonant works.
His latest album, May a soft sun bless your sky while you wait for the inevitable, was written following his move from Beirut to Paris and reflects on themes of distance, exile, mortality and the search for tenderness amid uncertainty. Recorded in Paris and completed through collaborations spanning Beirut and Montreal, the album unfolds through slowly evolving compositions built from layered guitars, loops and electronic textures.
For his One Track Mind, Haber has chosen a haunting track from Fennesz’s 2004 album Venice.
Charbel Haber on Fennesz – Transit feat. David Sylvian
The track I pick would be Transit from Christian Fennesz’ record Venice, with David Sylvian singing. That track haunts me since I discovered it more than 20 years ago. It’s a traveller’s song.
The loneliness of Europe’s airports when I’m on tour, the acceptance of the idea that we die alone and the cigarette that is kept for last. The melancholy reflected by sylvian’s voice and fennesz’s glitches, the last human talking to the last machine, in conversation about the end of mankind caused by alienation and digital isolation. The fall of empires but not in a blaze, just out of boredom and detachment from each other. It reminds me a lot of Paul Auster’s novel In The Country of Last Things.
This track is best when walking in the quiet Venetian streets, away from the tourists, feeling like the last of your kind, on your last stroll through the ruins of civilization.
Chabel Haber – May a soft sun bless your sky while you wait for the inevitable is out now
The entire Be The Mountain EP from STS is absolutely brilliant, especially the title track which strongly evokes the beatless techno excursions of Barker, and this closing track, which is one of the most beautiful electronic pieces I’ve heard this year. The Detroit-based producer wrote the EP “during a period of sustained physical and mental strain” and while that sounds deeply unpleasant, the results are extraordinary.
It’s a sunny Friday, and after possibly the most intensely stressful ticket buying experience of my life yesterday (for which I hold more contempt for Ticketmaster than is healthy), I needed something soothing to guide me into the weekend. Described as “A poetic, dream-like story born from a period of creative stillness”, Lithuanian ambientist Teatre’s new album All Constellations Weaving Into One fits the bill perfectly.
The Predatory Wasp 