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viewing 1 To 9 of 9 items
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TU 007LP
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"Kindred spirits Passepartout Duo and Inoyama Land embody the essence of play -- charting a new chapter and reinvigorating the environmental music and electronic landscape. Passepartout Duo is formed of Nicoletta Favari (IT) and Christopher Salvito (IT/US), who since 2015 have been on a continuous journey travelling the world's corners, engaged in a creative process they term 'slow music.' Having been guests of many notable artist residencies and with live performances in cultural spaces and institutions, their evocative music escapes categorization. With no fixed abode their musical pilgrimage brought them to Japan first in 2019, which prompted a deep connection to Kankyō Ongaku 'environmental music', a genre in which Inoyama Land is often associated with, soundtracking the duo's first immersive experience. In 2023 the duo revisited Japan and set out to reconnect in particular with the music of Inoyama Land, performed by Makoto Inoue and Yasushi Yamashita. The highly revered album Danzindan-Pojidon (1983) produced by Haruomi Hosono amongst other well publicized and acclaimed reissues produced a global resurgence and admiration of the environmental music movement. Nicoletta took the lead to seek out Inoyama Land and in making contact successfully their intrigue and eagerness to meet was warmly reciprocated, and the group scheduled to meet in the form of a spontaneous improvisation session. Radio Yugawara was recorded in 2023 in Makoto Inoue's hometown of Yugawara where his family runs a kindergarten, whose space has doubled as a Sunday recording studio. Upon arriving a circle of four tables was set up in the school's auditorium -- the tables were carefully populated with children's instruments: a full set of handbells, a glockenspiel, a xylophone, recorders, melodicas, and harmonicas. Surrounding the tables were racks hanging all sorts of bells and wind chimes and within this environment each performer set up their own electronic instruments. Dialing into each other, a simple set of playground 'game rules' was devised where time was divided into three separate sessions (1) 'only electronic instruments', 'only acoustic', and 'a mix of both', (2) 'revolving duets' each taking turns to play through a cycle of 'four duos' and (3) 'anything permitted', accumulating to more than three hours of material which was then carefully distilled into succinct tracks. Radio Yugawara is a unique one-off transmission from a specific place and point in time, unlikely to ever occur again."
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TU 006LG-LP
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"Ezra Feinberg's third album Soft Power sees the composer-guitarist enlist an impressive array of fellow musicians including Mary Lattimore, David Moore (Bing & Ruth), Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, and Robbie Lee. Defined by its abundance of melodies, repeating figures and ecstatic improvisations, Soft Power exudes an enlightened and transformative spirit to empower the listener. Feinberg, a practicing psychoanalyst and former founding member of the San Francisco psychedelic collective Citay (Dead Oceans/Important Records) resides in the artistic enclave of upstate New York's Hudson River Valley. Initial recordings emerged in the late summer of 2020, before added synthesis with collaborator John Thayer (Arp, Sunwatchers) during early 2021. Soft Power follows previous albums Recumbent Speech (2020) and Pentimento And Others (2018). Feinberg artfully transcends the listener to an enriched place, his compositions distinguished by the deep humanity that lies at their core, plugging the listener into a state of wide eyed being, open and alive. Soft Power then is Feinberg's own mantra but also one of power giving -- a colorful catharsis translated into music. Feinberg's music always speaks to the listener, but Soft Power, in whispering, speaks loudest."
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TU 002LP
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"Blue Lake is the musical moniker of American born, Copenhagen based multidisciplinary artist and musician Jason Dungan, who signs to the Tonal Union imprint for the release of his new longform album Sun Arcs. It follows 2022's release Stikling, earning a nomination for Album of the Year at the Danish Music Awards plus warm praise from The Hum blog and musicians and DJs alike including Jack Rollo and Carla dal Forno. A self-taught player, Dungan began freely experimenting with self-built multi-string instruments, preferring to build his own hybrid 48-string zither and working in the realms of left-field ambient music, off kilter folk and improvised acoustic minimalism. The starting point of Sun Arcs saw Jason travel for a week alone to Andersabo, a cabin set in the idyllic Swedish woods just outside of Unnaryd, known also as the music project, festival and residency space which has been run by Dungan since 2016, hosting artists like Sofie Birch, Johan Carøe, and Ellen Arkbro. Whilst writing one to two pieces per day, a conscious decision was made to leave behind everyday distractions and shut out the outside world to instead focus on the natural passage of time as Dungan recalls: 'My only sense of time came from these daily walks out in the woods with my dog, and an awareness of the sun's path as it moved across the sky each day.' Musically it portrays a form of double life led by an American-identifying person living in Scandinavia, and a new found presence in Denmark, seeking out underdeveloped marshlands and barren stretches of beach adrift from other rhythms and distractions. Highlighting their individual and potent importance Dungan concludes: 'Both places feel like 'me,' I think on some level the music is always some kind of self-portrait.' Sun Arcs depicts the intricate balance of nature's cycles and the paths outlined by the seasons, from a winter dormancy to a warm sun-drenched scene. The album scales new glorying heights and further defines Dungan's musical narrative, inhabiting a unique space in left- field, improvised and experimental music, boring his most accomplished compositions to date. A singular and visionary expression, drawing on an array of instruments and sound worlds with a renewed sense of joy and discovery."
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TU 006LE-LP
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"Ezra Feinberg's third album Soft Power sees the composer-guitarist enlist an impressive array of fellow musicians including Mary Lattimore, David Moore (Bing & Ruth), Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, and Robbie Lee. Defined by its abundance of melodies, repeating figures and ecstatic improvisations, Soft Power exudes an enlightened and transformative spirit to empower the listener. Feinberg, a practicing psychoanalyst and former founding member of the San Francisco psychedelic collective Citay (Dead Oceans/Important Records) resides in the artistic enclave of upstate New York's Hudson River Valley. Initial recordings emerged in the late summer of 2020, before added synthesis with collaborator John Thayer (Arp, Sunwatchers) during early 2021. Soft Power follows previous albums Recumbent Speech (2020) and Pentimento And Others (2018). Feinberg artfully transcends the listener to an enriched place, his compositions distinguished by the deep humanity that lies at their core, plugging the listener into a state of wide eyed being, open and alive. Soft Power then is Feinberg's own mantra but also one of power giving -- a colorful catharsis translated into music. Feinberg's music always speaks to the listener, but Soft Power, in whispering, speaks loudest."
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TU 005LP
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"Caton Diab creates soundscapes that evoke the spectacular wilderness of his childhood home in northern Vancouver Island. Incorporating experimental textures, folk overtones and tape manipulations, Diab uniquely finds the unseen spaces in-between, and fittingly dubs his creations 'post-classical grunge.' Imerro explores new sonic realms and is the culmination of a sound world that Diab has built up since the critically acclaimed No Perfect Wave (2016) and subsequent releases Exit Rumination (2018), White Whale (2020) and In Love & Fracture (2021). The Wire calls it 'ambient music in the best sense -- music for living, which can be both non-invasive and immersive.' Imerro was recorded in late July and August of 2021 at Risque Disque Studio in Cedar, BC, during the summer's unprecedented second 'heat dome,' which saw temperatures soaring to over 40 degrees. Recorded with regular collaborator and engineer Jonathan Paul Stewart, the pair journeyed by boat to the studio to a place with minimal distraction with a plan of 'simple ecstatic improvisation.' Diab explains: 'I wanted to place myself in a space for creation with little thematic pretense, with the belief that music 'shows its face' as you move along. I would pick up an instrument, whether I had experience playing it or not, and make a sound. If it wanted to be played, it would play.'"
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TU 005LE-LP
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Color vinyl version. "Caton Diab creates soundscapes that evoke the spectacular wilderness of his childhood home in northern Vancouver Island. Incorporating experimental textures, folk overtones and tape manipulations, Diab uniquely finds the unseen spaces in-between, and fittingly dubs his creations 'post-classical grunge.' Imerro explores new sonic realms and is the culmination of a sound world that Diab has built up since the critically acclaimed No Perfect Wave (2016) and subsequent releases Exit Rumination (2018), White Whale (2020) and In Love & Fracture (2021). The Wire calls it 'ambient music in the best sense -- music for living, which can be both non-invasive and immersive.' Imerro was recorded in late July and August of 2021 at Risque Disque Studio in Cedar, BC, during the summer's unprecedented second 'heat dome,' which saw temperatures soaring to over 40 degrees. Recorded with regular collaborator and engineer Jonathan Paul Stewart, the pair journeyed by boat to the studio to a place with minimal distraction with a plan of 'simple ecstatic improvisation.' Diab explains: 'I wanted to place myself in a space for creation with little thematic pretense, with the belief that music 'shows its face' as you move along. I would pick up an instrument, whether I had experience playing it or not, and make a sound. If it wanted to be played, it would play.'"
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TU 003LE-LP
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"London based composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Akusmi presents Lines, an exhilarating new collection of works born from the desire to take where the acclaimed debut album Fleeting Future left off -- in search of new forms. Formed with a sense of urgency and a reductive approach, Lines is almost entirely comprised of alto saxophone, clarinet and piano, with embellishments of ambience and minimal percussive elements. Recorded in full at his home studio in London, Pascal Bideau speaks about the process: 'I wanted to go a bit more horizontal and ambient, work with layers of lines, might they be dotted or straight, and leave them to unfold and see where they would take me.' 'Secant' is the electrifying and cinematic opener, emerging with the main motif deriving from the recording sessions of Fleeting Future. It's distinct sound echoes New York, a homage in part to the works of Steve Reich and inspired also by train travels across the English countryside. Rhythmical looping pianos unite with shifting strings that build to a symphony of hypnotic rich layers, towards a euphoric and filmic climax. 'Oblique,' on the other hand is otherworldly and hopeful, a breathtaking musical meeting between jazz and ambient minimalist music. Rich layered saxophones sound a patterned melody, meshed with dotted piano, swirling electronics and percussive hits, before deep-diving into shimmering ambient tones echoing like summer rainfall against windows. Akusmi uniquely finds the spaces in between experimental, crossover classical and ambient music. 'Parallel' is the ambient companion to the acclaimed title track 'Fleeting Future,' featuring a stripped back chord progression constructed with less order and written render. 'Tangent' is a pointillist piece that stemmed from a session with friend and collaborator Daniel Brandt. Cyclical guitars loop ebb and flow reminiscent of Manuel Göttsching."
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TU 004LP
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"Anenon returns with a highly anticipated new album Moons Melt Milk Light, bearing his most personal, expressive, and arresting works to date. Anenon is the ongoing solo studio and live project of Brian Allen Simon, who since 2010 has released multiple albums and EPs to critical acclaim, including the highly revered Tongue (2018) and Petrol (2016). Moons Melt Milk Light is direct, efficient, and unwavering in its immediacy. Anenon departs from the electronics of previous works, and embarks on a reductive, almost entirely acoustic approach consisting of piano, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, and field recordings. All of the music was improvised with everything recorded as either a first or second take with no edits. Any layering happened fast and in-th-moment, and yet the sonic architecture of the whole feels both planned and refined. The production of Moons Melt Milk Light began in the autumn of 2022, and was recorded at home in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, informed in part by an acoustic collaboration with the artist Susan Cianciolo during the vernissage of her 2022 Paris exhibition, RUN 14: FIELD of existence, as well as solo performances mostly at casual non-venues such as wine bars and inns around Europe that same year. It was the combination of these experiences that led Simon to pursue this immediate approach of improvised acoustic instrumentation. Moons Melt Milk Light is a hyper-personal statement contained in a visceral beauty, a compact record of threadbare honesty and musical prowess seldom found in the musical art form. It is a search for light out of dark, for the tangible and tactile, and yet like most art of staying power, the results remain ephemeral and elusive, a beauty just out of reach."
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TU 004LE-LP
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Color vinyl version. "Anenon returns with a highly anticipated new album Moons Melt Milk Light, bearing his most personal, expressive, and arresting works to date. Anenon is the ongoing solo studio and live project of Brian Allen Simon, who since 2010 has released multiple albums and EPs to critical acclaim, including the highly revered Tongue (2018) and Petrol (2016). Moons Melt Milk Light is direct, efficient, and unwavering in its immediacy. Anenon departs from the electronics of previous works, and embarks on a reductive, almost entirely acoustic approach consisting of piano, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, and field recordings. All of the music was improvised with everything recorded as either a first or second take with no edits. Any layering happened fast and in-th-moment, and yet the sonic architecture of the whole feels both planned and refined. The production of Moons Melt Milk Light began in the autumn of 2022, and was recorded at home in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, informed in part by an acoustic collaboration with the artist Susan Cianciolo during the vernissage of her 2022 Paris exhibition, RUN 14: FIELD of existence, as well as solo performances mostly at casual non-venues such as wine bars and inns around Europe that same year. It was the combination of these experiences that led Simon to pursue this immediate approach of improvised acoustic instrumentation. Moons Melt Milk Light is a hyper-personal statement contained in a visceral beauty, a compact record of threadbare honesty and musical prowess seldom found in the musical art form. It is a search for light out of dark, for the tangible and tactile, and yet like most art of staying power, the results remain ephemeral and elusive, a beauty just out of reach."
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