pilole 2023 febbraio/marzo

FEBBRAIO 2023	MARZO 2023
BLACK DOG "Music for real airports" Music for Real Airports is a multimedia art project by musicians the Black Dog and interactive artists Human which is presented in art galleries. It is also a new CD of music by the Black Dog. It is a response to the reality of occupying the semi-public space of an airport, and a contemporary reply to Brian Eno’s work from the ‘70s. Composed in large degree of drones there is little in the way of beats until half way through - but rhythm is plentiful within the buzzing synthetic warmth. This record is not necessarily a comfortable listen. [ file under: ambient music for ]		AFTAB, IYER, ISMAILY "Love in exile" Love In Exile asks you to step inside its sense of time, to stretch out alongside these delightful and unhurriedly unfolding songs. Profound impact is achieved with minimal instrumentation: Vijay Iyer on pianos and electronics, Shahzad Ismaily on bass and Moog synth, and Arooj Aftab’s exquisite Urdu vocals. Subtle musical interrelationships build into moments of deeply felt drama. Shimmering keyboard melodies and stirring vocals, earthy basslines, and hypnotic drones: together they create an album of stunning gravitas and beauty. [ file under: world music ]
HAMMOCK "Love in the void" Breaking from the strange monotony and abnormal norms that took hold during two years of pandemic life, Hammock returns with Love in the Void, an album that looks to the future, seizes the present, and unabashedly relishes the experiences and bonds that bring meaning to our days. Known for crafting orchestral works of stirring cinematic ambience, on Love in the Void the Nashville-based duo of Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson bring guitar-forward, heart-pounding urgency to songs that shout through and shatter the static of complacency. [ file under: alt post 'gaze ]		LUCINDA CHUA "Yian" YIAN means swallow in Chinese, and is part of Siew Yian, the name given to Chua by her parents to preserve her connection with her Chinese heritage. Just as the migratory songbird lives between places, so did Chua, the artist living in the in-between of the English, Malaysian and Chinese cultures that make up her heritage. In the absence of Mandarin as a mother tongue, music became a way to express the parts of herself that couldn’t be described in words; YIAN emerged as a way to heal. A deeply introspective and fully realized vessel of creative expression (Chua self-produced and engineered eight of the ten tracks), YIAN emerges as less an album than a worldview, a commitment to learning and uncovering one’s own selfhood honed over Chua’s lifelong reconciliation with her own personal history and identity. [ file under: contemporary ]
KELELA "Raven" In an age of constant engagement, silence and introspection can seem like the most daunting thing. For Kelela it was a necessary step, and a rewarding one. Her highly acclaimed 2017 debut album Take Me Apart helped to build a music world celebrating Black and queer club culture, and the following hiatus was a palpable one. Now, the wait for Kelela’s much anticipated return is over, with her second album Raven documenting not only her withdrawal, but also her magnificent rebirth. [ file under: new warp sounds ]		DECLINING WINTER "Really early, really late" For over 30 years Richard Adams has been quietly documenting his own particular corner of the English countryside both with Hood, the post-rock band he formed with his brother in 1991, and since 2007 with The Declining Winter. Recorded over a five year period and inspired by rustic alternative treasures such as Talk Talk and Robert Wyatt, The Declining Winter’s latest work ‘Really Early, Really Late’ is a collection of beautiful songs, immersed in a richer sonic spectrum incorporating strings, horns and lush electronic textures, alongside Adams’ own unique guitar tones and characteristic dubby bass. [ file under: alt post-rock ]
LADYTRON "Time's arrow" Driven by analogue synths, distorted chimes and hallucinogenic soundscapes, Ladytron crash-landed into electroclash at the turn of the century, using the dancefloor as a bridgehead to the collective unconscious. On Time’s Arrow the group add new richness, distant shimmers and a shoegaze-adjacent glow with Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo’s trademark understated voices now inhabiting a space somewhere between cloudscape and dream. [ file under: electro pop ]		YASMIN LACEY "Voice notes" Debut album Voice Notes is yet another record of those moments. It follows on from three stunning EP’s; Black Moon (2017), When The Sun Dips 90 Degrees (2018) and Morning Matters (2020), a trilogy of sorts, named in part by the settings in which they were written. Voice Notes is similarly inspired by something that helped the album spring to life. A long-held tool of her music-making and way of sharing melodies with collaborators, it’s a method of communication deeply special to her. “For me, a voice note represents an immediate reaction to something,” she says. “[It’s] unfiltered and raw in the way that you can hear it. [ file under: nu soul ]
LOSCIL & LAWRENCE ENGLISH "Colours of air" The union of composers Lawrence English and loscil aka Scott Morgan is seamless, sublime, and long overdue. Born of a conversation centered on the notion of “rich sources” as a forge for electronic music, Colours Of Air is a collection of recordings of a century old pipe organ housed at the historic Old Museum in Brisbane, Australia, which were then processed, transformed, and elevated into eight majestic electro-acoustic threshold devotionals. [ file under: ambient drone ]		NOSAJ THING "Continua" Los Angeles producer and artist Nosaj Thing AKA Jason W. Chung returns with his fifth album, Continua, featuring a stellar ensemble cast including Toro y Moi, Kazu Makino (Blonde Redhead), serpentwithfeet, Sam Gendel, Coby Sey, Julianna Barwick, Mike Andrews, Slauson Malone, Pink Siifu, Panda Bear & Eyedress. [ file under: downtempo ]
NECKS "Travel" Travel, the 19th studio album by Australian improvisational trio The Necks, documents their recent practice of starting each day in the studio with a 20-minute trio improvisation. The recordings offer some of their most ecstatic and captivating music cut to tape. As bassist Lloyd Swanton puts it: “It’s a really nice communal activity to bring us together in focus each day, and some lovely music has resulted from it.” Although a straight “live” improvisation has never been recorded in the studio by the band, these tracks (save for some light overdubs and post-production) feel closest to their 30 years of celebrated live performances. [ file under: experimental ]		BRIX SMITH "Valley of the dolls" After many years making music with other People, Brix Smith (The Fall, The Extricated) has finally made a solo album. This vivacious album mixes garage rock, power pop and grunge, nodding in the direction of bands such as The Breeders and Hole. Includes guest appearances from The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs and former Shakespeare’s Sister and Bananarama member Siobhan Fahey. [ file under: alt indie pop ]
BIANCA SCOUT "The heart of the anchoress" Bianca Scout's innate sense for narrative has been the guide for every sculpting gesture. Incidental sounds (the creaking of the pump organ, the sirens of the metropolitan police) are prized and serve to ground us in place, while Scout’s emergent, mantra-like songs succeed in opening portals to heavenly vistas, where scenes of golden-hour/after-hour intimacy softly unfold. [ file under: modern classical ]		TREES SPEAK "Mind maze" Mind Maze is, amazingly, Trees Speak’s fifth album to be released on Soul Jazz Records in the space of little over two years – an output matched only by the intensity of their music created during this short time. // As with all their previous releases, Mind Maze is a mind-boggling tightrope walk across an array of musical influences that seamlessly create the unique present-day world of Trees Speak. The band’s sound is characterised by a combination of German krautrock motoric-beat rhythms, angular New York post-punk attitude, 60s spy soundtracks, psych, rock, jazz, and 70s synthesizers and vocoders. [ file under: experimental ]
ANDY SHAUF "Norm" Norm is the eighth studio album from Canadian singer-songwriter Andy Shauf, who with each record seems to get ever nearer to critical mass in terms of both popularity and artistry. Conceptually based around the titular character ‘Norm’, its themes are introduced with shiny, clean-cut tones that gradually unravel and become more sinister. For fans of Sufjan Stevens, Mac DeMarco and Joanna Newsom. [ file under: indie pop ]		DWIGHT TRIBLE "Ancient future" Today, the inimitable jazz vocalist, activist, and nominal godfather of the LA jazz scene, Dwight Trible, returns with the announcement of his new album “Ancient Future”. Out 17th March via London jazz aficionados and analog specialists Gearbox Records , the new record follows his critically acclaimed album “Mothership”, which was released in 2019 and saw him collaborate with the likes of Kamasi Washington, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, and more. New album features special guests Kamasi Washington, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Greg Paul, Megashia Jackson, G. E. Stinson, Andrew Gouché, John Beasley and Rene Fisher. [ file under: space jazz ]
SUNROOF "Electronic music improvisations vol. 2" Electronic Music Improvisations Vol. 2 is the second collection of improvised modular pieces recorded by Sunroof, aka Daniel Miller, the Founder and Chairman of Mute, and Gareth Jones, a producer and engineer, notable for working with Depeche Mode, Einstürzende Neubauten, Erasure and Yann Tiersen. The album was recorded through 2022. [ file under: xxxxx ]		KALI UCHIS "Red moon in Venus" Grammy Award Winner, Kali Uchis’ 3rd studio album Red Moon In Venus out March 3rd on Geffen Records. The album features new single I Wish You Roses. Love is the message. Red Moon in Venus is a timeless, burning expression of desire, heartbreak, faith, and honesty, reflecting the divine femininity of the moon and Venus.” [ file under: hip & soul ]
TENNIS "Pollen" “We name the album Pollen. It is about small things with big consequences: a particle, a moment, a choice. It is me in a fragile state; sometimes inhabited freely, sometimes reacted against. It is striving to remain in a moment without slipping into dread. It is about the way I can be undone by a very small thing.” Tennis is Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley. Pollen is their sixth album. [ file under: dream pop ]		NICK WALTERS "Padmasana" Trumpeter, composer, bandleader & producer, Nick Walters delivers his 2nd studio album of the year for D.O.T. Records, an exquisite mix of jazz fusion, electronic and traditional Indian sounds. Padmasana is inspired and constructed from experiences and samples he encountered whilst travelling around the Indian subcontinent. It was all pieced together at his studio in East London, featuring live contributions from Tenderlonious on flute, Kieran McLeod on trombone, Tim Carnegie on drums, and Walters himself on trumpet and synthesisers. Padmasana was mixed by Sam Interface at More Time Studios. [ file under: spiritual jazz ]