Aaaaand drift….
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Ann Annie – Cottonwood
Tag: modern classical
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Actress – Hit That Spdiff ( b 8 )
LXXXVIII is the ninth Actress album, and is presented as “the very first presentation of [his] voyage into ‘luxury sonics’ – the culmination of 25 years’ honing mind-shorting, soul-igniting audio infusions for dance floors, rave dens, festivals, and concert halls”. I’m not even going to attempt to top that, other than to say that this is as meditative and immersive as Darren Cunningham’s music has ever been.
On the strength of its final 30 seconds alone, Blender in a Blender would be one of my favourite pieces of music this year. A collaboration with guitarist Roy Montgomery, the track was first drafted by Lattimore during an artist residency program in UCross Wyoming, and later evolved over the duo’s pen pal correspondence. Montgomery’s chords emerge from the harp-induced haze in the outro, and are completely and utterly mesmerising. It’s taken from Lattimore’s new LP Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, an album so obsessed with nostalgia it could have been tailor-made for me.
https://marylattimoreharpist.bandcamp.com/album/goodbye-hotel-arkada
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Vince Clarke – The Lamentations of Jeremiah
Synthpop royalty Vince Clarke recently announced his debut solo album, Songs of Silence alongside the lead single The Lamentations of Jeremiah. The album is described as “10-track lyric-less album of uncategorisable ambient beauty” and yes this is definitely true of the lead single, but “uncompromisingly bleak and foreboding” is another way of describing it. Situation it certainly ain’t.
https://mutebank.co.uk/products/vince-clarke-songs-of-silence-cd
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Gia Margaret – City Song
There is A LOT of amazing music out today (see: albums from Shirely Collins, Clark, Bayonne and others) but the one right at the top of my listening list is Gia Margaret’s Romantic Piano. Deeply atmospheric and with a tactility that grounds its otherwise dreamy, almost lullaby-esque qualities, the dozen songs are some of the most delicate and emotive you’re likely to hear all year. City Song is pretty much the only non-instrumental track on the album – save for a few crackly samples and textures found elsewhere – but even before the vocal arrived it had me in pieces. Welcome back Gia, we’ve missed you.
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Spencer Doran – Title Screen
It’s been a crunchy old start to the week after a genuinely blissful weekend, but this is deeply relaxing stuff from Spencer Doran that’s making me feel – if not brilliant – then a bit more chill about everything. Taken from his album SEASON: A letter to the future (OST) – a soundtrack to a video game about preserving the natural world – you don’t need the accompanying visuals to be fully immersed in its gentle, meditative atmosphere.
https://visiblecloaks.bandcamp.com/album/season-a-letter-to-the-future-original-soundtrack
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Gia Margaret – Cicadas
If I had a musical wishlist for 2023, Gia Margaret releasing an album called Romantic Piano would be very near the top of it. Due 26 May, the double A-side Cicadas / Hinoki Wood is out now, and follows in a similarly beautiful, subdued vein as her incredible 2020 LP Mia Gargaret. Roll on sad boy/girl summer.
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Steve Gunn, David Moore – Libration
I posted about the lead single from this album, Let The Moon Be A Planet – a collaboration between guitarist and songwriter Steve Gunn and pianist and composer David Moore of Bing & Ruth – back in January, and was very much looking forward to its arrival. It landed last week, and hasn’t disappointed. The album initially took form over a series of remote sessions and was completed once Gunn and Moore got together in Hudson, New York. If you’re feeling in any way stressed at all, this will help.
https://stevegunn.bandcamp.com/album/reflections-vol-1-let-the-moon-be-a-planet
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Steve Gunn & David Moore – Over the Dune
Announced today, the forthcoming Let the Moon Be a Planet is the first volume of Reflections, a series of contemporary collaborations between guitarist and songwriter Steve Gunn and pianist and composer David Moore of Bing & Ruth. Over The Dune is the first single, and guess what? It’s lush.
https://bingruth.bandcamp.com/album/reflections-vol-1-let-the-moon-be-a-planet
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Erik Hall – Canto Ostinato (Sections 17-30)
Canto Ostinato is the new volume of classical minimalism from musician and producer Erik Hall. Written for four pianos in 1979 by Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt, the piece is freshly framed as an intimate, hour-long solo performance consisting of multitracked grand pianos, electric piano, and organ, with Sections 17-30 out now ahead of the full album. For fans of Steve Reich, Philip Glass and meditative modern classical in general.
The Predatory Wasp 