Reviews
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Giulio Aldinucci ~ Disappearing In A Mirror
Originally posted at A CLOSER LISTEN Disappearing In A Mirror follows last year’s Borders And Ruins, both on Karlrecords, and together they form an intense and complimentary diptych of ambient drone sound design. While Giulio Aldinucci‘s earlier record explores the relationship between peoples and territories and the instability of both as imaginary constructs, Disappearing In…
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Giovanni Lami ~ Hysteresis I-IV
Originally published by A CLOSER LISTEN I realized that it can take other forms, others than the one imposed. Not just a section, but a circle or an ellipse, a closed path where you may see a cyclic repeat of events where not everything has a beginning and an end. Hysteresis is an ongoing work…
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WK569 ~ Omaggio a Marino Zuccheri
Originally published by A CLOSER LISTEN Onga and Boring Machines deliver another unexpected gem with WK569’s Omaggio a Marino Zuccheri, an homage to the Italian godfather of electronic music studios from a trio of contemporary artists and technicians. Marino Zuccheri is certainly worthy of such an homage, and his influence is felt around the world…
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On the Return of Senufo Editions (Giuseppe Ielasi, Alessandro Brivio, Takamitsu Ohta)
Originally published by A CLOSER LISTEN Giuseppe Ielasi has been one my favorite artists for a decade now, his reputation cemented in my mind by the blissful textures of August (2007) and the rhythmic sampledelica of Aix (2009), both for 12k. His Stunt series (2008-2013) further solidified this position with its singular take on turntable…
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Matthew Herbert – Recomposed: Mahler Symphony X
Originally published by The Silent Ballet Amongst classical composers, a somewhat superstitious bunch, there is something known as (cue dramatic music) THE CURSE OF THE NINTH. Many great composers have died after completing their ninth symphony but before completing their tenth, therefore leading to the suspicion that there is something about that ninth Symphony that…
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Canti Magnetici ~ Tape Batch #2: Luca Garino, Videobasic, Absent Outfit, Danny Clay + Greg Gorlen
Serious question: Why release music on tape? The resurgence of tape labels in recent years has been met with a seemingly never-ending flood of condescending think pieces. I’m against fetishization and nostalgia more than most, yet I think it’s important we take seriously that for some the tape never went away, and if the current…
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Enrico Coniglio ~ Bragos series: Astrùra / Solèra
There are different schools of thought when it comes to the production of “soundscapes.” There is R. Murray Schafer, who coined the term, and his World Soundscape Project, which approaches the soundscape as “acoustic ecology.” Some have criticized his approach as nostalgic, with romantic notions of pre-industrial life, constructing a division between nature and culture…
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Glauco Salvo ~ 5 Haiku
A compact suite in five parts for banjo, e-bowed zither, and electronics, it is nonetheless the environmental sounds that are the heart of 5 Haiku. Drawing metrical and formal inspiration from its poetic namesake, 5 Haiku is given shape by Glauco Salvo’s tentative playing in quiet dialogue with his natural surroundings. Recorded live on-site with…
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Andrew Pekler ~ Tristes Tropiques
Andrew Pekler returns with a heady solo album full of beautiful electronic vistas and tropically-inspired ethnographic hallucinations. In searching for the blurry border between the familiar and the foreign, Tristes Tropiques is the direct descendant of the “coffee-coloured” Fourth World music of Jon Hassell. At times densely layered and others richly minimal, a classic headphone…
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con_cetta vs MonoLogue ~ Orlando
Originally published at A CLOSER LISTEN. The ever-reliable Time Released Sound label kicked off 2014 in strong fashion with Orlando, a unique collaboration billed as con_cetta vs MonoLogue. Though conceptually interesting and certainly enriched by an understanding of its context, the album stands as a beautiful work on its own. The use of music in…
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Giovanni Lami ~ Bias
It’s like a garden, where everything grows by itself and you need to make just a few things, to see what is going to happen most of the time. -Giovanni Lami Does a physical medium simply contain (or mediate) a work of art, or can the medium be a work all its own? Since at…
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Francisco López ~ untitled#281
Originally published at A CLOSER LISTEN. Untitled #281 was created by extreme mutation and evolution of bird calls from original recordings carried out over a period of fifteen years (1995-2010) in multiple wilderness locations of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Spain, South Africa, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru. The most dramatic antithesis of any “birdsong” piece…
Sound Propositions 