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viewing 1 To 4 of 4 items
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ANTICIP 008CD
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This is Klimek's (Sebastian Meissner) second full-length release for the Anticipate label, the follow-up to 2007's Dedications. Movies Is Magic deals both directly and peripherally with ideas of film music: its purpose, its meaning, its uses. Though the music is furthered by the concepts underpinning it, it stands on its own two sonic feet with swathes and swells of cinematic, expansive melodies: from the bold to the understated, the shades of grey to the brightly direct, the string-laden to the piano-driven -- some with sprinkles of subtle percussion and others which run through the barest of themes in order to produce giant results. Movies Is Magic renders itself as a comment on the idea of cinema sound, which brings it into a present-day home-listening experience that is more concerned with conjuring new images than accompanying existing ones. Resonating in myriad directions, the traces of its musical, conceptual and visual inspirations remain, haunting the complete work. This confluence of cultural influences and sound productions is an indication of where Movies Is Magic takes both the listener and the artist behind the experience. Like an orchestra restructured in the digital domain, the remnants at the core of each piece lend themselves less to conservatory comparisons than filmic ones. Ambiences reside inside, but are never left untouched or undeveloped, subverting expectations and leaving trails of themselves long after each song ends. Large, picturesque settings produce emotionally-compelling mini-narratives, while warm, open progressions balance with the multi-layered shadows that are expected from a Klimek album. A careful percussive phrase, the occasional menacing horn, a tentatively sustained tone, or vocal murmurs arrange these pieces between intersecting musical camps, while rustling backgrounds creep up to remind one where they stand. The material is the product of a variety of allegiances and alliances: from soundtracks to the range of electro-acoustic and electronic sensibilities that produce such works as these, the multiples of moods and directions all further the frame of the project and the Klimek sound. The CD comes packaged with a 14"x9" fold-out poster with an alternate cover photo image -- revealing another layer of the release -- and an essay detailing the full scope of Movies Is Magic.
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ANTICIP 007CD
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This is the second full-length release by Canadian experimental electronic artist, Mark Templeton. The follow-up to 2007's acclaimed Standing On A Hummingbird (ANTICIP 001CD), Inland continues his humble electro-acoustic balancing act, using stringed instruments, drums, field recordings and his own voice with sensitive, effective processing, while playing with stillness and rhythm, visible, warm melodies and smeared, distorted meanderings. One hears the clear plucking of the guitar and banjo at times, and at others, a thick wall of texture. Beginning work in geographically-remote Edmonton, Alberta, Templeton continued and eventually finished the material after moving to the urban center of Montreal, which, in the usual paradox of urban centers, imposed the solitary remoteness of being away from friends and family while crowded in an isolating environment. The placement is still outdoors, but with a sense of borders rather than an endless plain. Working within these confines has yielded Templeton's most abundant work to date, a modern experimental campfire music which retains a subtle folkiness while acknowledging that this campout is only a five-minute ride from the comforts and technology of the big city and its big machines. Templeton makes extensive use of his voice as a melodic sound source, never uttering a word, but using the human sound as a layer which pulls you in and makes the most of its inherent gravity. Just as the voice sings out and is then quickly distanced and obscured, the song-like-structure of these pieces takes shape and then dissipates, leaving the shadows of guitar, banjo, voice, percussion and field recording elements. Since his solo debut, Templeton has developed a more fully-realized version of his sound, bathing it in a similar haze, but in a less handled, edited manner. By stepping back just a bit, and giving the sounds some more air, he has forged a stronger identity and found a place on a tightrope between electronic processing, folk-ambient music and an instrumental practice which doesn't sacrifice anything.
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ANTICIP 006CD
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Anticipate label head Ezekiel Honig makes his initial appearance for the imprint, with his first album since 2006's Scattered Practices (released on Microcosm Music). In addition to working on the release at hand, Ezekiel has been concentrating on moving Anticipate through its first two years of existence, and Surfaces Of A Broken Marching Band is as much a statement on the label as a whole as it is a reflection of his current working process. Further developing his musique concrète-influenced compositional procedure of giving emphasis to the sounds of everyday life, Honig constructs his music out of an almost incidental assembly of materials, editing and processing them into a whole, which adopts the shards as if they always belonged. The low hum of a pad and ground-skimming percussion noise play off brightly distended piano chords, thick, wheezing horns, and widespread constellations of re-pitched guitar. Playing with looping and lateral progressions alike, Honig subtly hints at his background, while utilizing a broader palette of instrumentation than on his past releases. Softly chugging 4/4 rhythms barely nod towards muted slow-motion techno, while reworked structures retain his characteristically warm, textured sound. In this manner, he delves into electro-acoustics with a sensibility that includes elements of clearly-defined genres, while allowing those definitions to quickly dissipate. These varied approaches and sources allow for the building of a constant tension between an intrinsic affinity for humid melodies and darker tonal shades, congealing into tracks which feel simultaneously minimal and dense. This music is imbued with an intimacy created by opening the spectrum to include sounds from crowded parties in cavernous spaces, subway stations, the interiors of an airliner, and other geographic departures. When in the context of music which feels so close-up, these sounds create a contrast to the at-homeness which Honig usually plays on, and this proximity gives them more weight, as the harmonics of melodic fragments and location-based recordings rummage through and across each other. As the title suggests, the album is visualized as a loosely-composed band that has fallen apart and been puzzled back together, with careful attention paid to the background details, which are brought as much to the forefront as any instrumental piece. Rather than a rhythm section taking a strict lead, it seemingly plays backbeat as it brushes up against the rattle of metal, wood and plastic from which it happens to be constructed. In this manner, Honig inspects the surfaces that were previously hidden -- the sounds that required breaking in order to exist. Guests include: Mark Templeton, Thomas Hildebrand, Craig Colorusso.
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ANTICIP 005CD
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Italian-born multi-instrumentalist and architect, Nicola Ratti, presents his debut for Anticipate. Nicola's music can best be described as warm, subtractive rock, whereby he reduces guitar figures and piano passages into quiet explorations of the hidden corners of an otherwise familiar sound. Guitars twang with slight and spacious percussion and softly hushed (occasional) vocals and atmospheric twinkles congeal into a carefully-composed re-imagining of music. In terms of situating this album in the context of modern electroacoustic music, Nicola uses more natural effects treatments, shying away from fragmentation and processing, which obscures the inherent character of the instruments. Rather, he uses these processes to add depth and subtly tease out the hidden sonorities of his tools of choice, re-composing them and adding atmospherics along the way. By taking advantage of electronic production approaches, Nicola reworks something which is imminently accessible into an album which adds new levels of intangibility -- turning a classic and subdued sound into a future-minded extension, using the acoustics of field recordings and found sounds as instruments in their own right and allowing the harmonies between object and instrument to become more fully-realized. Dynamic and well-balanced, the album maneuvers through full, layered sequences into spare moments of near silence and back again with ease. It isn't a loud-quiet dichotomy, but rather, skillfully placed areas of intimacy. Nicola segues from droning strings and almost invisible vocals to subtly uplifting chords in an almost unnoticeable transition. From the Desert Came Saltwater is an album that sneaks up on the listener -- disappearing and also taking hold without missing a breath. With one solo album on Megaplomb, a handful of single tracks and remixes, and a recent collaboration with producer and engineer Giuseppe Ielasi, Nicola is defined by the excellence of his craft.
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