Hello,
Digital versus analogue is a recurring theme in this week's selection, which has an illustrious duo leading the way: German glitch pioneer Alva Noto and Oscar-winning Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto have joined forces once again, and the resulting album is one of the finest works we have heard from either of the two to date.
They are not the only musicians of prominence in this newsletter however as Infiné releases an excellent new Murcof album, Editions Mego compile early works of legendary Wire guitarist Bruce Gilbert, Tocotronic's Dirk von Lowtzow contributes a new solo EP to Dial, and The Notwist team up with Themselves as 13 & God. |
FEATURED RELEASE
'Summvs' is the fifth collaboration album of Carsten Nicolai / Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto and surely marks a highpoint in the two artists' extensive history of working together.
Comparing this to their first joint effort, 'Vrioon' from 2002, it becomes immediately apparent how much Nicolai and Sakamoto have attuned their methods of music making to each other's distinct styles.
Never before have Nicolai's digital glitch and micro-sampling techniques integrated as tightly with Sakaomoto's piano playing.
Not only in a rhythmical, but also in a harmonical sense, with hypnotic bleeps and finely tuned drones alternately enveloping and contrasting the album's piano parts. It is this interplay of the digital and organic that Nicolai and Sakamoto have perfected on 'Summvs', building a 'sum' from the 'versus' just as the title suggests.
The album's stand-out moment is perhaps its longest track, the magically emotive 'Naono', but also the sparse rhythmical finesse of 'Pioneer IOO', or Sakamoto's use of a rare microtonal piano on the 'Microon' pieces prove equally memorable.
Whether you have followed the works of Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto closely or you are in fact new to their music, 'Summvs' will strike you as a fantastic album bringing together digital and analogue music. Essential listening.
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MORE ELECTRONICA ESSENTIALS
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Album released 09-05-2011 on Infiné
Originally composed for the Mexican film 'La Sangre Iluminade' directed by Ivan Duenas in 2009, Fernando Corona aka Murcof's soundtrack has been specially re-edited for this release. A journey of finely balanced emotive drones and textures, poignant and absorbing with a stunning video to boot.
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Guitarist of seminal post-punk band Wire, Bruce Gilbert gets a much-deserved re-release of his second solo album from 1984 on Editions Mego. Astounding creations of rhythms, noise and distorted electronic textures with obscured synth and song fragments, still sounding incredible today. Highly recommended.
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Scott Herren's latest album explores a female theme with a cast of vocalists including Zola Jesus, Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond and the late Trish Keenan of Broadcast. It is also one of the boldest Prefuse 73 albums to date, delving deep into electroacoustics and experimental song writing. Highly intriguing.
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The album's full title, 'A Young Persons Guide to Mark McGuire', is quite ironic, given the artist in question is only 24 years old. This double volume compiles some of the best work of Emeralds member McGuire: stunningly melodic guitar pluckings and drones, previously only available on limited editions CDrs and tapes. Great!
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Album released 03-05-2011 on 12K
Fourcolor is the solo project of Minamo's Keiichi Sugimoto, constructing warm and harmonic ambient compositions from fractured layers of guitars. Gently plucked, subtly glitched or processed into shimmering drones, Sugimoto elicits a wide range of sounds from the instrument, always with a rich and organic quality. Beautiful album.
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Maxi-Single released 02-05-2011 on Dial
Dial maintains its famous experimental edge with this album-sized two tracker by Dirk von Lowtzow (Tocotronic, Phantom/Ghost). 'Tod in Theben' consists of two of instrumental solo guitar pieces that meander through subtle drone fields and dense forests of plucked distortion. Nice.
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A reissue of Sven Weisemann's 2009 epic 'Xine', modern classical piano motifs augmented with finely carved out textures informed by techno and dub techno. Its cinematic depth is its striking feature, with his grandiose and emotive creation of spaces making it still an utterly moving listen.
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Miami's electro stalwart Shad T. Scott (a.k.a. Gosub) returns with a new album under his Dcast Dynamics guise. 'Vile Vortices' showcases the deeper and more electronica-infused side to his productions of subaquatic electro. Ten accomplished tracks from slow-grooving spacious synth epics to deep acid techno.
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Germany's The Notwist meet Anticon's Themselves again as 13 & God, the second album since 2005's ace self-titled. The indie-electronica sensibility of The Notwist less tightly fused with Doseone's lyrical agility and Jel's broken beat science this time, though still making a diverse and interesting listen.
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After reissuing his 'Cyanide Sisters' EP on Ghostly, Com Truise releases 'Fairlight'. The title-track is thick and soupy synth-wave bliss, with a slow-funking bassline, 'Beta Eyes' with L.A.-leaning squashed bass and trippy drum programming and 'Polyhurt' rounding things off in a dreamy synthtopia. Lush.
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NHK's Kouhei Matsunaga follows up his recent collaboration album with rapper Sensational with another full-length for Skam. Kouhei frequently uses the compressor as an instrument, creating interesting dynamics across 19 tracks of abstract hip hop that occasionally take cues from electro and even dub techno. Recommended.
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Burnt Friedman and Jaki Liebezeit team up for the fourth volume of their 'Secret Rhythms', inspired by outernational percussions, dub techniques and spaced-out tones and textures. Sparse and hypnotic, this is yet another great album of high-tech voodoo.
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After a successful turn as the 20th release of Punch Drunk and a cassette-only follow-up album on Mordant Music, Bristol-based dub/electronica experimentalist, Ekoplekz, return to Mordant with new material further expanding upon their improvised, analogue, dub-infused sonic vision. Dive deep!
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German collective Tied & Tickled Trio, with members of The Notwist and Lali Puna, combine forces with legendary jazz drummer Billy Hart (who has played with the likes of Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis). 'La Place Demon' is a stunning album of free-flowing jazz with diverse influences.
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The heavily-distorted sounds of 'Latatan' may have been a bold decision to introduce the debut full-length from Yu Miyashita on Mille Plateaux, but as a statement it might read something like 'this is my sound, take it or leave it!' Twisted and construed noise permeates throughout this electrifying, if not stupefying debut.
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