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.
