opineonionated

[opineonionated]

#le son doublé #granular synthesis #avant garde #recommended

[opineonionated]

Spectral Evolution

After a two-decade interlude, Jim O’Rourke’s Moikai returns with Spectral Evolution, a major new work by Rafael Toral. Making his name in the mid-1990s with influential guitar drone platters like "Sound Mind Sound Body" and "Wave Field" (both reissued by Drag City in recent years), Toral has never been one to rest on his laurels repeating his past glories. In the early years of the 21st century, Toral laid the guitar aside, along with the focus on extended tones that had defined much of his music until that point. He began his ‘Space Program’, a thirteen-year investigation of the performance possibilities of an ever-expanding set of custom electronic instruments, played with a fluid phrasing and rhythmic flexibility inspired by jazz. Dedicated to honing his skills on these idiosyncratic instruments, Toral has performed with them extensively both solo and in many collaborations, including in his Space Quartet, where his mini-amplifier feedback integrates seamlessly into the frontline of a classic post-free jazz quartet rounded out with saxophone, double bass, and drums.   Since 2017, Toral’s work has been entering a new phase, often still centred around the arsenal of self-built instruments developed in the Space Program, but with a renewed interest in the long tones and almost static textures of his earlier work; he has also, after more than a decade, returned to the electric guitar. Spectral Evolution is undoubtedly Toral’s most sophisticated work to date, bringing together seemingly incompatible threads from his entire career into a powerful new synthesis, both wildly experimental and emotionally affecting.   The record begins with a brief ‘Intro’ that sets the stage for the unique sound world explored throughout the remainder of its duration: over sparkling clean guitar figures, Toral stages a duet between two streams of modulated feedback, seeming less electronic than like mutant takes on a muted trumpet and an ocarina. This segues seamlessly into the stunning ‘Changes’, where a dense array of Space instruments solo with wild abandon over a thick carpet of slowly moving chords, growing increasingly chaotic over the course of eight minutes yet always fastened to the lush harmonic foundation. On these and many other moments on the record, Toral manages the almost miraculous feat of having his self-built electronic instruments (which in the past he had seen as ‘inadequate to play any music based on the Western system’) play in tune. In an unexpected sidestep away from any of his previous work, the chord changes that underpin many of the episodes on Spectral Evolution are derived from classic jazz harmony, including takes on the archetypal Gershwin ‘Rhythm changes’ and Ellington-Strayhorn’s ‘Take the “A” Train’, albeit slowed to such an extent that each chord becomes a kind of environment in its own right.   Threading together twelve distinct episodes into a flowing whole, "Spectral Evolution" alternates moments of airy instrumental interplay with dense sonic mass, breaking up the pieces based on chord changes with ambient ‘Spaces’. At points reduced to almost a whisper, at other moments Toral’s electronics wail, squelch, and squeak like David Tudor’s live-electronic rainforest. Similarly, his use of the guitar encompasses an enormous dynamic and textural range, from chiming chords to expansive drones, from crystal clarity to fuzzy grit: on the beautiful ‘Your Goodbye’, his filtered, distorted soloing recalls Loren Connors in its emotive depth and wandering melodic sensibility.  The product of three years of experimentation and recording, and synthesizing the insights of more than thirty years of musical research, "Spectral Evolution" is the quintessential album of guitar music from Rafael Toral. 

released February 23, 2024

#rafael toral #moikai #jim o'rourke #guitar #experimental #bandcamp

[opineonionated]

Highly recommend pä's work. Lovely, fine art, and very considered.

#pä #electroacoustic music #spectralism

[opineonionated]

Rashaan Roland Kirk

Transversales Disques proudly presents Rahsaan Roland Kirk / Live in Paris (1970).

LOST ORTF RECORDINGS

Gifted multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk at the height of his powers, backed by his Vibration Society, including long-term cohorts pianist Ron Burton, powerhouse percussionist Joe Habao Texidor, Dick Griffin on trombone, drummer Jerome Cooper and Vernon Martin on Double Bass.

First ever official reissue of this rare ORTF recording performed live at studio 104, Maison de la Radio Paris, with the full permission and cooperation of the National Audiovisual Institute (INA).

credits:

released January 26, 2024

Rahsaan Roland Kirk And His Vibration Society Studio 104 - Maison de la Radio

- "Sweet fire" (15'52) - "The Inflated tear" (5'11) - "Three for the festival" (5'14) - "My cherie amour" (5'16) - "Volunteered slavery" (11'41)

Rahsaan Roland Kirk Strich, Soprano, Alto and Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet, Manzello Dick Griffin, Trombone Ron Burton, Piano Vernon Martin, Double Bass Jerome Cooper, Drums Joe Texidor, Percussions

Recorded live on February, 22nd 1970, Studio 104 - Maison de la Radio, Excerpts from the full performance.

#rashaan roland kirk #jazz #experimental #transversales #bandcamp #Bandcamp

[opineonionated]

Listen/download: 20231222 1828 by 20231222 1828

A holiday gift from Superpang!

#superpang #mix #experimental #nyp #bandcamp

[opineonionated]

On the decks

"This record is an alternate approach to the autobiographical 'confessional' – I wanted to stitch together some pivotal sketches in self-understanding and forgiveness. While their designs may seem affectively disparate, they are in fact quite interrelated. My intention (as with past recordings) is to task the listener with tracing the contours of the narrative (or lack thereof). Each track contains sound from video work, excerpts from writers I admire, ethnographic methods, recovered and recycled voice/text memos, photographs from personal and public archives, and research-driven fictions. These sources expand and collapse into each other, only to reveal the eponymous "whiplash". To me, the feeling of "whiplash" is the collision of: a refracted ambivalence towards what was once real, the endless cycle of reckoning with wherever "home" has taken place, the fraught process of anchoring one’s self in the wake of slow-release trauma, and how (if even possible) to translate all of this into artwork." —Asha Sheshadri, 2023

“Place is security, space is freedom: we are attached to the one and long for the other. There is no place like home.” –Yi Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience

released November 10, 2023

All tracks arranged & recorded by Asha Sheshadri; in bedrooms, living rooms, libraries, bars, airplanes, backyards and parks across North America.

Automatic Writing compiles three early Robert Ashley works from 1967-79 -- some of his most experimental works. Composed and recorded form over a period of five years, "Automatic Writing", originally issued on Lovely Music in 1979, is the result of Robert Ashley's fascination with involuntary speech. He recorded and analyzed the repeated lines of his own mantra and extracted four musical characters. The result is a quiet, early form of ambient music.

released 1979

#asha sheshadri #robert ashley #recital #lovely music #sound art #experimental #on the decks #bandcamp

[opineonionated]

No Plot, Only Landscape

While walking in the forest, through an abandoned village.

People moved out. something was left behind.

Left them deep inside, Those were sorrow.

Slowly picked them out carefully that they would not break. Laid them down on the floor.

The sound of sorrow that touched with the ground making a specific sound.

The Night covered, lighted a fire. Sound of the night insects, Sound of the wind. No one except you and the number of sorrow. Those sadness connected with your sadness. Became a soft light shining in the middle of the room. Insects wanted to fly in but got stuck at the window. Some unknown creatures stared behind the shadow. 

released May 28, 2023

recorded during february - july 2022, bangkok and some other places.

objects, field recording by tossapol

mastered and cover art stamp by anne-f jacques

#tossapol #no plot only landscape #presses précaires #bangkok #field recording #sound art #experimental #bandcamp #youtube

[opineonionated]

A Garden

“There is a small garden in my father’s house where I lived as a child. The garden is on the 3rd floor of the house. My father and mother always watered them until this year they got old and there are too many plants to care for. Moreover, the roots stretched out from their pots and their weight could break the floor. So my father asked me to rearrange the garden, move some plants and some empty pots out.

The garden has meaning to me. It’s a place that I often played and was a place to connect to my father, so I decided to record some sound while I did gardening there.”

released November 3, 2023

#tossapol #field recording #bangkok #sound art #experimental #bandcamp

[opineonionated]

One More Take

#lenny breau #one more take #documentary #jazz #harmonics #experimental #youtube

[opineonionated]

Daily Rhythms of a Pond

Musician and field recordist Action Pyramid finds magic in the everyday on Mardle, a compelling and confounding suite of hydrophone compositions revealing the sonic 24-hour cycle of the UK’s freshwater ponds.

Rooted in Jack Greenhalgh’s sonic research on pond biodiversity, Mardle brings to the surface the delicate sounds of aquatic insect stridulations, plant respiration and photosynthesis - an ecology of otherworldly rhythms and alien hyper-sounds that feel more like early synth experiments than biological processes.

As Greenhalgh explains, “It's so exciting that we've discovered the woodland bird song dawn chorus equivalent for ponds, in the form of nocturnal aquatic insect choruses at night-time, and the whining of aquatic plants as they photosynthesise like busy factories during the midday sun.”

In doing so, Mardle takes the daily cycle as its compositional cue. Beginning above water, the listener is plunged into a “strange and mysterious” world, peaking in the frenzied, pulsing activity of midday and midnight, before the calm of the early morning rain returns above. Inspired by Jana Winderen’s creative underwater soundscapes, the result is quietly breath-taking. “To actually consider the living presence of plants with direct sonic evidence is quite profound,” Action Pyramid says. “It's such an evocative way to capture people's attention and highlight these fragile and maligned habitats. There have definitely been moments where I think I can’t believe I'm listening to this.” Accompanied by detailed liner notes that explain Greenhalgh’s findings and the implications of acoustic ecology in freshwater monitoring, Mardle is a perspective-shifting, mind-expanding missive from the shallows of one the most familiar and overlooked ecologies on Earth. 

released October 24, 2023

Field recordings by Action Pyramid / Tom Fisher and Jack Greenhalgh Music and composition by Action Pyramid / Tom Fisher

actionpyramid.com www.jack-greenhalgh.com

#action pyramid #jack greenhalgh #mappa #experimental #field recording #bandcamp

[opineonionated]

Mutantes - Panis ET Circensis (1969)

#rita lee #os mutantes #mutantes #brazil #experimental

[opineonionated]

Sator Arepo

The Sator Arepo, or Sator Square, is an ancient word puzzle comprising five palindromes that's etched on various historical sites throughout the Western world. Its origins are unknown, but the square has long been thought to hold magical properties, used as a charm against illness and evil, to cure insanity or to determine whether someone was guilty of witchcraft. Self-styled "punk ethnomusicologist", acoustician and musician Julien Hairon uses this mystical symbol as the starting point for his debut Judgitzu album in an attempt to reconnect with his Celtic heritage, exploring how its hallowed messages might harmonize with contemporary Tanzanian dance music.

Hairon has been traveling across the world for over a decade, collecting field recordings from countries such as Indonesia, Australia, Cambodia, China and Bangladesh, and presenting them on his Les Cartes Postales Sonores label, re-issuing any curious cassettes and CDs he came across on the PetPets' TAPES imprint. It was during this time that he became fascinated by rituals that involved spirits, prompting him to examine his own ancestry when he returned to Brittany. "Many artifacts in the landscape remain," Hairon explains, "and the power of spirits is still palpable." He represents this Celtic mysticism on 'Sator Arepo' with murky drones and magickal synth tones, using xenharmonic scales (tuning outside of standard 12-tone equal temperament) that reach back to the ancient world. These sounds are augmented with fast-paced, sci-fi rhythms informed by his time in Tanzania; "Singeli has contaminated me," admits the producer.

The most astonishing example of this is 'Miracle', a thrusting soundsystem experiment that layers serpentine, bagpipe-esque electronic wails over extravagant clusters of blocky percussion. Driven by the frenetic 175BPM pulse that echoes through the streets of Dar Es Salaam - popularized globally by forward-thinking producers like Sisso, Duke and Jay Mitta - Hairon opens up a rare conversation, seeking to draw parallels between today's most urgent dance forms and the archaic rituals of antiquity. On 'Vitalimetre', Hairon drives his sonic palette into the red, harmonizing with Dutch hardstyle and gabber, and splaying distorted drones over maddeningly blown-out kicks and ratcheting percussion. 'L'or Des Fous' takes a more meditative route, prioritizing Hairon's eccentric tonality with expressive sheets of pitch-warped sound that ghost walk across energized, rattling beats.

If you heard Hairon's last Judgitzu release 'Umeme / Kelele', described by Boomkat as "one of 2019's deadliest dancefloor sessions," then you'll know how mindboggling this material can be. And with 'Sator Arepo', the French producer deepens his reach, grasping a world that we've almost forgotten and juxtaposing it with a landscape most of us barely comprehend.

#judgitzu #nyege nyege tapes #experimental #bandcamp #Bandcamp #Youtube

[opineonionated]

Fixed lights, Wandering Lights

For function generator, loops, effects.

Guitarist, environmental sound recordist and sound artist, Enrico Coniglio (Venice, 1975) is a musician with an interest in landscape aesthetics. Graduated in town and country planning (IUAV), his research aims at investigating the loss of identity of places and the uncertainty of the territorial evolution, paying particular attention to the context around the Venetian lagoon. His music draws from a wide range of stylistic influences, combining elements of ambient, drone, modern classical, field recordings and electro-acoustic drifting.

Luci Fisse + Luci Erranti translates to Fixed Lights + Wandering Lights. Like light, the sounds herein have the contradictory qualities of stillness and movement, warm and cool, meditational yet engaging. EP length at just over 20 minutes, the silence left behind leaves you wanting more.

#enrico coniglio #crónica #experimental #sound art #drone #2023 #bandcamp

[opineonionated]

It's gorgeous! Also worth noting the LP version has Richard Chartier on the flip:

A beautiful new piece by Félicia, dedicated to Georgia O​’​Keeffe.

Félicia Atkinson - Ni envers ni endroit que cette roche br​û​lante (Pour Georgia O​’​Keeffe) (Portraits GRM, 2023)

#félicia atkinson #richard chartier #portraits grm #experimental #sound art #2023 #bandcamp

[opineonionated]

Listened to this recently and agree, nicely chilled sounds on a label well worth checking out.

A wonderful chilled piece by Christina Vantzou, on one of my fav labels.

Christina Vantzou - Observations, edits, a cure for restlessness (Longform Editions, 2023)

#christina vantzou #longform editions #2023 #bandcamp

[opineonionated]

Roland Kayn's daughter, Ilse Kayn, has been releasing her father's archives with new mastering by Jim O'Rourke on the Reiger Recording Studio imprint on Bandcamp, the latest of which is here:

Recommended listening!

Roland Kayn and the Development of Cybernetic Music

http://socks-studio.com/2014/11/03/roland-kayn-and-the-development-of-cybernetic-music/

Roland Kayn (1933-2011) was a German composer who studied in Stuttgart at the “Hochschule fur Musik”, and at the “Technische Hochschule”  with Max Bense. He was a pupil of of Boris Blacher  at the “Hochschule fur Musik”  in Berlin from 1956 to 1958 and he lat…

Read more on: http://socks-studio.com/2014/11/03/roland-kayn-and-the-development-of-cybernetic-music/

computer, cybernetics, Art, Sounds, Technology

#roland kayn #cybernetics #Sounds #Art #experimental #composition #bandcamp

[opineonionated]

Recorded Xenoglossy 2

Water droplets are set to fall from suspended infusion containers, each at a different rate. A smartphone displaying a musical application is positioned under the falling water. The application reacts to the gradually accumulating water in unpredictable ways.

All recordings by Takahiro Kawaguchi

Watch an excerpt from the performance, here:

#takahiro kawaguchi #nick hoffman #pilgrim talk #sound art #experimental #bandcamp #youtube