Crucial Listening #93: Yan Jun
Everybody against everybody, the left hand of the Qin master, tin can Beatles. The Beijing-based musician and poet talks about three important albums.
Jack Chuter
Crucial Listening #92: Olivia Block
Liturgical lullaby, canine concrète, a chess game that never ends. The Chicago-based media artist and composer talks about three important albums.
Olivia’s picks:
Alèmu Aga – Éthiopiques 11: The Harp Of King David
Beatriz Ferreyra – Huellas Entreveradas
Morton Feldman – For Samuel Beckett
Honourable mention: Kim Jung Mi – Now
Olivia’s
Review: Todeskino – Debutante
CRUEL NATURE.
The debut album of Düsseldorf’s Todeskino (which possibly translates as “death cinema”) opens with beauty and sadness in neoclassical widescreen: choir pads swirled in synthesised strings, piano notes like droplets into unstirred lakes, melodies that wring the emotive polarity of major and minor keys. The record continues
Crucial Listening #91: Emma Ruth Rundle
Spontaneous trips to Genoa, bloop speakers, big Tori energy. The LA-based musician and visual artist discusses three important albums.
Emma’s picks:
Sibylle Baier – Colour Green
Shape Of Despair – Monotony Fields
Tori Amos – Boys For Pele
Emma’s new album Engine Of Hell is out now via Sargent House. Head
Review: MonoLogue – MICRO
CONTROVENTO / STALLO / MOVIMENTO
Marie e le Rose remarks that this trittico (three-part operatic suite) is partly a tribute to their favourite GRM musicians and an attempt to channel their “compositional thinking”. This is apparent in the precise movement of electronic sound – how they dart around the listener’s head – with
Review: Phill Niblock – NuDaf
XI RECORDS.
NuDaf diverges from other Phill Niblock pieces I’ve experienced. I’m used to hearing a certain linear progression with his work – slow and inevitable, often manifesting as the microtonal melting of an opening chord, dragging the piece from unity into disarray. And while these 65 minutes become
Review: Elena Kakaliagou – Hydratmos
DASA TAPES.
The title of this record is the Greek word for “vapour”, and each of these one-take pieces for French horn is a contemplation on this transitional state between water and air. Just as in evaporation, this elegant concept disperses itself into many manifestations. Kakaliagou’s whispering acts as