Showing posts with label arovane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arovane. Show all posts

Sunday 5 July 2020

Log #197 - A Lifelike Unlike The Others

Eddy Bamyasi

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.





Sunday 28 June 2020

Log #196 - Textstar

Eddy Bamyasi

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.


Sunday 31 May 2020

Log #192 - Water As Sound

Eddy Bamyasi

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.




Sunday 24 May 2020

Log #191 - Pin Drops, Caves and Crickets

Eddy Bamyasi

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 >>.




Sunday 17 May 2020

Log #190 - Strum, Swoosh and Glitch

Eddy Bamyasi


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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