Log #201 - Turn Back The Music

Starting off my next century with a right pot pourri of sounds here. We have watery ambience class from Loscil. Sea Island was the first album of his I heard. It hooked me to a greater extent than a lot of the other ambient albums I've been listening to over the last 20 weeks or so.

 Loscil - Sea Island

Ulrich Schnauss - A Long Way To Fall

The Decemberists - Picaresque

Nick Cave - The Lyre Of Orpheus

Midlake - The Trials Of Van Occupanther
ELO - Face The Music

I'm loving this Ulrich Schnauss offering. It is simply superb at what it does... which is melodic easy listening instrumental rock. I'd describe it as a bit of a mix between Jean Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, and then even Pink Floyd or something. Maybe progressive ambience is a better description although this music isn't that ambient with its guitars and drums. The closest other artist out there (who I've only just started listening to) is probably Tycho. I think Schnauss seems to offer more content and depth though from what I've heard. The production is superb. A Long Way To Fall would sound great in the car at high speed and high volume.

I'm in two minds about Picaresque from The Decemberists. The band are no doubt supremely talented with an exceptional ear for a melody, and biting lyrics. I can't quite decide if I like lead singer Colin Meloy's folk rock articulations. It's certainly very characterful but sometimes a little overwhelming possibly at the detriment of the superb songs. A minor gripe maybe in the face of a brilliant maritime folk tale like The Mariner's Revenge Song. 

Midlake are superb. Especially the albums from their Tim Smith (the original singer) vintage years. I think they only did 3 albums with Smith. I have two of them to date, and Occupanther is the middle one. In this crowded and often middle of the road Americana genre they stand out as something special. A lot is to do with Smith's desperately sad voice, which is why I haven't warmed to them so much since he left.

Another great album from Nick Cave. This one, like its sister album Abattoir Blues, is packed full of straight ahead rock and tuneful pop - quite uncharacteristic of the Cave I know from albums like The Boatman's Call, and certainly his last few dour offerings which I played about once each before moving on.

Finally this week a dip into the distant past when, as a teenager, I collected ELO records. Face The Music was one of the second string (and earlier) albums if you like (this one from 1975). The band were finding their feet and hadn't reached the heights yet of A New World Record and Out Of The Blue. Still a good record though with some experimental instrumentals and one or two cracking singles like Strange Magic and Evil Woman. 

The music is reversible but time is not. Turn back, turn back, turn back, turn back.

I do wonder where ELO fitted in to the music landscape at the time though. Just after the heyday of prog, just before disco and punk - what did the music listening public make of their symphonic pop? Was there another band then or now that was attempting something similar? Many compared their best work to The Beatles (Strawberry Fields etc possibly) and Jeff Lynne was certainly a talented and consistent songwriter but as a schoolboy I just thought it was cool to have a band with cellos and violins and even their own conductor!?

Face The Music was the first ELO album with the classic line up of Gale, Bevan, Groucutt, Lynne, Tandy, Kaminski and McDowell. 

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Log #198 - Alva Shallow Wasser

Cluster - Grosses Wasser

Cluster - Zuckerzeit

Loscil - Lifelike

Alva Noto - Unieqav

Alva Noto - Transform
Porya Hatami - Shallow

Interesting minimalist art graces Cluster's Grosses Wasser album cover. Is it a diving board or an aeroplane wing? The title translates as Big Water, suggesting it could equally show the ocean under an aeroplane wing, or a swimming pool under a diving board. 

Alva Noto is a new artist to me. Real name Carsten Nicolai hails from Germany. His music is very electronic, literally, being some of the most mechanical I have heard - think of some of the most random bleeps and clicks in early Kraftwerk. He is perhaps most famous now for his scoring of the Revenant film with regular collaborator Ryuichi Sakamoto. Of these two albums Unieqav is the most recent (2018) and the most rhythmic. Transform (2001) also has its cohesive moments but is more experimental. 

Read more here>> and here>>.

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Log #197 - A Lifelike Unlike The Others

Loscil - Submers

Arovane & Mike Lazarev - Aeon

Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto - Summvs

Vladislav Delay - Anima

Farben - Textstar
Loscil - Lifelike

I've been most drawn to the bottom 3 records in the player this week. Anima by Vladislav Delay is a lovely one hour piece based on just two processed chords which weave between a bunch of ambient sound effects. It's mesmerising. I'm always fascinated how such simple ideas can yield such impressive results. 

The Farben is also excellent - as described last week it's similar to Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records but a bit more "clubby". Actually it reminds me of some of Luke Vibert's work (an artist with an impressive catalogue of music who strangely hasn't appeared much in this blog to date) (actually, on just checking, he has appeared 6 times which is pretty good to be fair, and more than I remembered). 

Finally Lifelike is Loscil's latest album released last year and is most impressive, not least because it is beautiful, but also it's markedly (and surprisingly) different from his previous work (it's so easy for artists, especially instrumental ambient ones, to keep repeating themselves). This is much more melodic and mainstream than his stiller ambient records - it's almost "new age" but manages to avoid spilling over into that generic sugar coated wallpaper type music (you know, "Panpipes to Relax To" etc.) through it's consistent high quality. The melodies, arpeggios, loops and Nils Frahm like gated modulations are lovely and are backed by interesting atmospherics and textures. This just could become my favourite record of his. It will be interesting if this more accessible album retains it's longevity in my consciousness. Another brilliant minimalist cover too.

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Log #196 - Textstar

Loscil - Submers

 Autechre - Tri Repetae

Autechre - LP5

Fennesz - Venice

Farben - Textstar

Arovane & Mike Lazarev - Aeon

Farben is another name for German glitch producer Jan Jelinek (him of the classic 2001 Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records album which came close to being my album of the year on my discovery a few years back).

Whereas Jelinek centres more on ambience and minimalism under his own name his Farben pseudonym is home to more upbeat house beats (or micro house I've heard it called sometimes, although yet to understand what that means). 

[Jeez, that wiki definition talks about Bit Pop and something called Yorkshire Bleeps and Bass. Ed] 

However although there are more straight forward kicks and dubby basses there are still plenty of Jelinek's trademark clicks and crackles over down tempo organ tones. Textstar (2002) offers a worthy companion piece to its more famous cousin.

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Log #192 - Water As Sound

Not much movement this week at Bamyasi Towers which describes much of this ambient music too. 

Loscil continues his form with Endless Falls.

Pitchfork write generally about Loscil:

An impressive catalogue of pensive, minimal records that turn computerized sounds into something strangely soothing - the kind of music you want to listen to flat on your back, eyes fixed at the ceiling.

Or eyes wide shut.

Specifically about this album they write:

The idea here is that Endless Falls is a rainy-day album, overcast but cozy, and there's an aquatic theme that extends to its cover art and the rain-droplet field recordings that bookend the record. (Scott) Morgan (Loscil) plays with the idea of water-as-sound throughout and pulls it off in appealing ways. 

Loscil - Endless Falls

Porya Hatami - Shallow

Arovane with Porya Hatami - Chronos

Monolake - Gobi

Monolake - Ghosts

John Martyn - One World (Deluxe CD 2)

Poyra Hatami is an interesting discovery, via his association with Arovane. They've made a few albums together including Chronos (or more correctly C.H.R.O.N.O.S.) sampled here (I always wonder how electronic music producers collaborate, or even why they need to - I guess it can be very lonely being a bedroom laptop musician). Not that Hatami has been confined to his bedroom prior to lockdown - Shallow draws on field recordings from his native Iran that contribute atmosphere to steady drones which remind me of Eno's classic Ambient series, particularly the On Land one (the association with Eno's Norfolk marshes is also reinforced by the cover and the titles like Fen). 

..oh and then there are the geese on the lake in John Martyn's Small Hours again!

Finally for this week I finish with a word on Monolake's Gobi. This is a single piece of just under an hour. It's an interesting sound experiment with a slow glitchy beat and chirping crickets. It pretty much defines ambient actually (as well as "found sounds"). There isn't any melody as such, it's an experience. No soggy marshes here. I like it a lot.

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Log #191 - Pin Drops, Caves and Crickets

More wading through my new ambient discoveries this week, plus an outlier in the John Martyn. 

Loscil - Equivalents

Arovane - Gestalt

Monolake - Cinemascope

Monolake - Gravity

Arovane - Lilies

John Martyn - One World (Deluxe CD 2)

As I said last week these ambient artists - Arovane, Monolake and Loscil in particular, have a well established back catalogue of albums dating back to the turn of the millennium. So lots of listening to come as I dive deeper into these artists. 

From what I've heard so far it's nearly all good which means it's of a consistency in quality that is eventually rewarding, although at first can seem overwhelming as some of the albums are barely distinguishable from each other - until you study them - a paradox of ambient music - it satisfying as background music, and at the same time close up listening. The latter certainly never fails to reveal hidden delights as the tiniest pin drop or cave echo or cricket chirp attains magnificent significance. It's like training for the ear (and consequently the brain) as the music, or sounds, reach previously uncharted territories within your consciousness. I don't meditate as such but I think this is similar. Just occasionally I'll lie on the floor with such an album in the headphones. It's a great way to spend an hour.

Briefly then, the two Monolakes are excellent. I've realised he does make some more upbeat dance beats too, but these two are more my cup of tea - rhythmic glitch similar to the classic Loop Finding Jazz Records by Jan Jelinek (another German producer).

Arovane's Gestalt out earlier this year consists of a series of short ambient snippets rather like Aphex Twin's SAW II. I haven't heard Lilies enough to clock it too well yet beyond an inkling of some Japanese flavour in the instrumentation.

Loscil may just be my favourite of these three - his music is beautiful, yet deep - deep in a sort of "3-D depth way". On the surface simple, but underneath vivid, lush and resonant. 

The production on all these albums is brilliant - everything has its place in the mix such that the deep reverberating multi harmonic drones make space for those pin drops, caves and crickets.

Come to think of it now John Martyn's One World is ambient music in some respect.  In particular his amazing Small Hours track recorded beside an English lake complete with surrounding sounds. On this fabulous deluxe version we get three versions of this magnificent track (and 79 minutes of bonus material) - the original album version, a live performance from an eye opening Regents Park gig recorded in 1978, and an outtake. The whole package is brilliant and the bonus adds to, rather than diminishes, the original. One World came top in my recent John Martyn rundown >>.

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Log #190 - Strum, Swoosh and Glitch

Loscil - First Narrows

Loscil - Sea Island

Monolake - Silence

Ulrich Schnauss - Goodbye

Arovane - Tides

Tycho - Awake

I feel my music listening is heading off into a new direction at the moment with the player starting to be dominated by ambient artists over the last few weeks. Something similar happened just about 18 months ago when I started listening to Fennesz, Gas, William Basinski, and Stars Of The Lid, and from the German 70s scene, Cluster and Harmonia and their collaborations with Brian Eno.  

The fleeting gratification offered by mere snippets and trifles.

They were the more mainstream artists, if you can call anything mainstream in this genre, but in addition I alighted upon other artists in the somewhat underground world of "sound design" or "sound art", like James Joys from Belfast and Keith Berry from London. The former's album Glyphic Bloom nearly won my album of the year title for 2019 and deserves a listen (a recent twitter post by the artist bemoaned the fact that no one hears his music and he may as well "toss it into the sea") - with just 38 monthly listeners on the dreaded Spotify, for someone with so much talent, this is distressing, but not surprising - some of this sort of music demands effort and that's an effort many people are not prepared to invest these days. More the shame though, as anything that takes effort often yields greater long term satisfaction in comparison to the fleeting gratification offered by mere snippets and trifles.

This time around my resurgent interest in (recent experimental) David Sylvian, (post rock) Talk Talk and (digital guitarist) Fennesz has led me to some new artists including Tycho (aka Scott Hansen) from San Francisco, Monolake (aka Robert Henke) from Berlin, Ulrich Schnauss also from Germany, Arovane (aka Uwe Zahn) from Germany again, and Loscil (aka Scott Morgan) from Vancouver, Canada. Being from Germany, or Berlin especially, with that town and country's musical pedigree, would seem to offer an advantage in this electronic field.  [..or being called Scott? Ed]

Clean, sharp and minimal.

Ok, on to the music. Well, and the art. The artwork for these types of albums is almost universally brilliant. It's very much part of the overall aesthetic. (Stars Of The Lid won my album cover of the year in 2018). Scott Hansen of Tycho is actually an established graphic designer and all his album covers are beautiful (and themed). Awake graces the top of this post. The others aren't bad either - usually clean, sharp and minimal, like the music therein.

Strum and swoosh.

Tycho and Ulrich Schnauss share the most similarities. I've heard their music be described as "strum and swoosh" - highly reverbed guitars over lush synth pads. The music takes a bit of a pounding in the press (my favoured Pitchfork magazine doesn't think much of Schnauss calling his music inconsequential). Some Tycho albums have been compared to Boards Of Canada but I can't hear much similarity within Awake. 

Both Schnauss and Tycho are indeed fairly mainstream and easy listening but it's so well done I find it instantly likeable. I tell you what it reminds me most of - both in sound, and in design, is Jean Michel Jarre's 1970s work. I think it will sound great in the car. Will it still offer interest in 6 months' time, or 5 years? If I keep this blog up for that long I'll find out.

Monolake, Loscil and Arovane, are ultimately all a bit more interesting. From this first brief fly past I'd say Arovane seems to be the most upbeat and mainstream - his Tides album dates from way back in 2000 - it's amazing to think such sharp, modern, experimental music, dates from 20 years ago. 

Then Loscil is the most still and ambient. I love both his albums sampled here - beautiful and interesting. Containing some real organic instruments, and fascinating sound effects, over modestly lengthed drones and loops that seem to merge into each other. First Narrows in particular is great - I like the way the same theme seems to return to different tracks throughout the album. This is no spring chicken either, dating from 2004.

A sonic delight.

Then in between the two you get the glitch and wash of Monolake. Silence is a sonic delight - it's not necessarily music, but it's not unmusical either. Rhythm takes precedence over melody - rhythms that are imparted by very subtle sound effects and pulsing elements with merely a hint of actual percussion. I don't know what it is really, but it's endlessly fascinating on the ear. I've heard elements of Monolake's style elsewhere, but it's hard to describe where. As a standalone album it's pretty unique. I read a review elsewhere that suggested Silence should be one of those albums hifi showrooms use to demo the dynamic range of their sound equipment. 

As you can tell by the dates of some of these releases, all these artists are well established and have a wealth of back catalogue which I'll be deep diving into in the coming weeks.

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First Narrows by Loscil - A Subtly Beautiful Listen

Electronica is by nature ephemeral. It didn't take long for the Future Sound of London to sound like the Retro Sound of Nowhere In Particular, for example. So while it might be the case that today's cutting edge laptop constructions will sound anachronistic in a few years time, it's nice to know that some music being made at the moment won't have that problem. Which is where this album comes in. This is the third effort by Loscil (aka Canadian Scott Morgan), and the first to use 'real' instruments (and 'real' musicians) alongside computer generated constructions. I've not heard the other two, but if they're anything like this one, I'm keen to get them on the stereo as soon as possible.

Despite his use of digital elements, Morgan doesn't go for the usual jumpcutting, pasting and glitching beloved of the laptop crowd. This is calm, unhurried stuff; warm, fuzzy and expansive. In the opening tracks, drum machines shuffle away gently under gauzy drones and synth pulses. Nothing much happens, but it happens beautifully. Later, electric piano, cello and guitar turn up to improvise sketchy, spare melodies or spin out lush, plangent chords, sometimes sampled and fed into Morgan's slow moving, dubby constructions. It's here that an Eno-esque feel creeps in; sometimes the rigorously gorgeous miniatures of Another Green World or Before and After Science, at other times the faintly jazzy bits of his collaborations with Harold Budd.

Like the domed one, Morgan never allows his music to lapse into mere prettiness. He doesn't subvert conventionally melodic material with digital noise bursts (a common trick these days), or underpin it with irregular rhythms. Instead he strips down and stretches his chords and melodies into a melisma of foggy drones and slow tonal shifts. It's often gorgeous, but there's a vague sense of unease abroad for much of the time; a faint, unresolved tension which catches the ear even at background levels.

It's this mix of beauty and vague threat that makes First Narrows a subtly beautiful listen.This is music that seems to be out of time, like Morgan's contemporaries Stars of the Lid or Pan American and (speaking from experience) an ideal soundtrack to watching the restless cloudscapes of early Summer. Float on.

Lifted with creative commons thanks from https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/52rg/

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