#tak:til

[dustedmagazine]

Brìghde Chaimbeul — Carry Them With Us (tak:til)

First of all, for any interested non-Gaelic speakers, the young Scottish piper’s name is (per her own site) pronounced “Bree-chu CHaym-bul.” And secondly, while the music found on this, her third album, sounds like what most would identify as bagpipes, it’s… well it is and it isn’t. To the extent that bagpipes are known to the wider world it’s something like the great Highland bagpipe (musician blowing into a reed, pipes extending over shoulder). Chaimbeul can certainly play that too, but she specializes more in the Scottish smallpipes, a bellow-driven instrument of more recent vintage (the 80s!) albeit from a lineage going back hundreds of years. The details are worth noting up front, because the music on Carry Them With Us is so viscerally enchanting it might be hard to keep track of them once you’re mid-listen.

Both varieties of bagpipe share some seemingly contradictory qualities. Drone instruments that (due to the various chanters used and other aspects of their design) can handle complex, fast-moving melodies; intensely analogue devices that, due to their precision and lack of sonic decay, can feel almost electronic in nature. Capable of simultaneously evoking melancholy and spritely joy, one on its own, played well, can fill a whole room with sound almost to the point of oppression. Unsurprisingly for a musician who’s been winning awards since she was a teen, Chaimbeul is an exceptional player of the smallpipes and from the opening blast of “Pililiù: The Call of the Redshank” these 35 minutes practically put on a clinic on why any listener might want to get to know them.

Not that Chaimbeul is strictly solo; after Canadian saxophone dynamo Colin Stetson reached out to her about a documentary soundtrack, the two of them wound of working together on six of the nine tracks here. If you’ve never previously considered the way sax and bagpipe might sound like each other, or take on similar roles, or complement each other, their completely natural fit here might take you aback. Stetson fans are well aware of the head of steam he can build up, but Chaimbeul’s no slouch either; a track like “Tha Fonn Gun Bhi Trom: I Am Disposed of Mirth” already feels delirious before you notice Stetson’s whirling flutters unspooling in the background. Even when their roles diverge more, like the impossible to miss saxophone tessellations towards the end of “’S Mi Gabhail an Rathaid: I Take the Road,” they feel like kindred spirits.

The most notable element aside from Chaimbeul’s pipes and Stetson’s sax is her voice, singing in Gaelic. It only shows up a few times but it’s an arresting presence whenever it does. Maybe if you speak the language it turns out she’s singing about something more mundane, but based on the song titles here and the incantatory, almost vatic feeling those passages bring to the rest of the music it’s hard not to feel like there’s something of deep significance being passed on. Like the rest of Carry Them With Us, it's intensely striking.

Ian Mathers

[sonmelier]

Avant-cuvée 2025 #2

Backxwash | Only Dust Remains

🇨🇦 Canada 🇿🇲 Zambie | Ugly Hag Records | 41 minutes | 10 morceaux

Après une trilogie furieuse à l’intensité parfois suffocante, marquée par les éclats du metal et des sonorités industrielles, Only Dust Remains amorce un virage sonore significatif dans la discographie d’Ashanti Mutinta. Sans abandonner ses thématiques de prédilection, qui tournent beaucoup autour de la douleur, de la solitude, de la violence (entre autres joyeusetés), la productrice et rappeuse canadienne d’origine zambienne troque une partie de son esthétique abrasive et ténébreuse contre une expressivité plus ouverte, plus mélodique, parfois même lumineuse. Plus épurée, mais toujours aussi habitée, son hybridation entre hip-hop, rock alternatif et musiques électroniques démontre une capacité nouvelle à ménager des respirations, atteignant avec ce supplément de nuances une puissance d’évocation renforcée.

🎧 WAKE UP

Demdike Stare & Kristen Pilon | To Cut and Shoot

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Angleterre 🇺🇸 Etats-Unis | DDS | 50 minutes | 13 morceaux

Pensé comme la bande-son d’un film expérimental de Kristen Pilon, ce dédale sonore hanté et hypnotique ne se contente pas d’accompagner des images : il en projette lui-même, insaisissables et mouvantes mais surtout profondément intrigantes. Tel un puzzle surréaliste agençant voix flottantes, textures électro-acoustiques aux contours incertains, nappes spectrales et échos lointains d’une musique de chambre paranormale, il déploie un univers magnétique qui peut évoquer les travaux de Leyland Kirby ou de William Basinski, mais aussi les fantômes de la Manchester post-industrielle (bien que le film prenne pour point de départ un improbable village du Texas). Le duo mancunien Demdike Stare n’avait plus été aussi captivant depuis son Liberation Through Hearing sorti quinze ans plus tôt.

🎧 Saddle Up

Eiko Ishibashi | Antigone

🇯🇵 Japon | Drag City | 40 minutes | 8 morceaux

Sept ans après The Dream My Bones Dream, avec notamment de magnifiques bandes originales de film dans l’intervalle, Eiko Ishibashi signe un retour aussi feutré qu’envoûtant vers une pop expérimentale, délicatement portée par des arrangements d’une précision rare. Derrière des mélodies au charme presque classique se cache un jeu de textures insaisissable, où chacun des instruments semble prêt à se dissoudre ou à se déformer dès lors que l’écoute se fait plus attentive. La patte de Jim O’Rourke, complice de vie et d’art de la musicienne japonaise, contribue à cette élégance en mouvement qui parcourt le disque. Les musiciens fidèles entourant le couple jouent leurs partitions avec une douce étrangeté, alors que le chant aérien d’Ishibashi vient maintenir un très subtil équilibre et rend absolument limpide cet univers sonore bouillonnant d’idées.

🎧 Trial

Damon Locks | List of Demands

🇺🇸 Etats-Unis | International Anthem | 32 minutes | 12 morceaux

Damon Locks poursuit avec List of Demands un geste artistique rare : celui d’unir la mémoire et la lutte, le collage sonore et la poésie, en une expérience musicale à la fois politique et sensorielle. Membre éminent du label International Anthem, cette communauté créative de Chicago rassemblée autour de l’amour du jazz et de l’expérimentation, celui qui est par ailleurs un éducateur engagé se fait le relai d’aspirations pacifiques et d'espoirs collectifs : plus de beauté, plus d’amour, plus de lumière.

🎧 Distance

Park Jiha | All Living Things

🇰🇷 Corée du Sud | tak:til | 46 minutes | 9 morceaux

Trois ans après le très beau The Gleam, Park Jiha se plonge dans une exploration sonore à la luminosité moins éclatante pour se caler délicatement dans le cycle éternel de la nature. Entre bourgeonnement et dépérissement, croissance et disparition, la musicienne coréenne tisse une fresque instrumentale contemplative d’une élégance et d’une profondeur rares. On y retrouve ses compagnons de toujours — piri, saenghwang, glockenspiel — auxquels s’ajoutent des textures électroniques discrètes qui amplifient encore la sensation d’apesanteur. Une sublime méditation sur la fragilité et la finitude, empreinte de gravité mais aussi d’une forme d’apaisement.

🎧 Grounding

Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek | Yarın Yoksa

🇩🇪 Allemagne & 🇹🇷 Turquie | Big Crown Records | 38 minutes | 11 morceaux

« S’il n’y a pas de lendemain », pour reprendre la traduction du titre de ce quatrième album du groupe, alors célébrons l’instant présent et faisons fi de toutes les cases (a fortiori dans l’expression musicale). Chantant en turc, sa « langue émotionnelle », Derya Yildirim (née et vivant en Allemagne) projette ici sa voix sur des sonorités tout autant cosmopolites que fidèles à ses racines anatoliennes. Odyssée psychédélique puisant dans le folklore comme dans la soul américaine ou le psychédélisme californien, Yarin Yoksa propose une matière sonore chaleureuse, au groove hypnotique et aux mélodies aussi tendues que rêveuses. Un autre magnifique exemple, avec notamment les néerlandais d'Altın Gün, de ce que les artistes issus des communautés turques d'Europe de l'ouest sont capables d'offrir musicalement.

🎧 Cool Hand

[dustedandsocial]

Etceteral - Rome Burns

[brownwork]

“... it's virtually leaking hypnotic intensity, with small nuances and microscopic shifts in tone and volume gradually building into a hip-shaking celebration of the mind-bending potential of repetition familiar to devotees of Can, Neu! and certain strands of electronic dance music. “

[jgthirlwell]

2022 Year In Review

This year once again I invited some friends and colleagues to reflect on 2022

JG Thirlwell

Composer Foetus Xordox Manorexia Steroid Maximus Venture Bros Archer www.foetus.org

2022 was a marathon year. I took on too much work, but somehow got through it. It challenged me. I played some excellent shows in Woodstock, Los Angeles, Orlando and NYC. Reconnected with Soft Cell at the Beacon. Reconnected with Sarah Lipstate. Wrote a ton of new music for Archer and a Venture Bros movie. Taught a class on film scoring at the New School. I still woke up 5am in a panic on too many occasions. And I saw some great concerts.It was difficult to whittle down this list but here are a lot of albums I enjoyed in 2022, in no particular order.

Tyondai Braxton Telekinesis (Nonesuch) Zeal & Ardor Zeal & Ardor (MVKA) Papangu Holoceno (Bandcamp) Extra Life Secular Works Vol 2 (Bandcamp) Carl Stone Wat Dong Moon Lek (Unseen Worlds) / Gall Tones (Unseen Worlds) / We Jazz Reworks Vol 2 (We Jazz Records) Louis Cole Quality Over Opinion (Brainfeeder) Ben Frost 1899 OST (Invada Records) Loraine James Building Something Beautiful For Me (Phantom Limb) Persher Man With The Magic Soap (Thrill Jockey) Anna Meredith Bumps Per Minute (Moshi Moshi) Sault Air (Forever Living Originals) The Smile A Light For Attracting Attention (XL) Shamblemaths Shamblemaths 2 (Apollon Prog) Julia Wolfe Oxygen (Cantelope) Heiner Schmitz’s Symprophonicum Sins & Blessings (Big Band Records) Burial Antidawn EP / Streetlands EP (Hyperdub) Gotho Mindbowling (Controcanti Produzioni) Oliver Coates The Stranger OST Gilla Band Most Normal (Rough Trade Records Ltd) Blanck Mass Ted K OST (Sacred Bones) Arcade Fire WE (Interscope) Yeah Yeah Yeahs Cool It Down (Secretly) Catarine Barbieri Spirit Exit (light-years) Felicia Atkinson Image Language (Shelter Press) Netherlands Kali Corvette (Three One G) Kemper Norton estrenyon (Zona Watusa) Elysian Fields Once Beautiful Twice Removed (Ojet) Simon Hanes Hurricane Salad Two Fingers Red Bass DJ Mix 22 (NoMark) Backxwash His Happiness Shall Come…(Ugly Hag) Bob Vylan The Price of Life (Ghost Theater) John Elmquist’s Hard Art Groop Stars and Bells / Zero Rest Mass / Trip Up reissues (Bandcamp) Dan Deacon Hustle OST (Netflix Music) Bent Knee Frosting (TTTH) Boris Heavy Rocks 2022 (Relapse) Wet Leg Wet Leg (Domino) Author and Punisher Kruller (Relapse)

Honorable mentions Hudson Mohawke Cry Sugar / Rival Consoles Now is / Haunted Horses The Worst Has Finally Happened / Sirom The Liquified Throne of Simplicity (Tak:Til)/ Meshuggah Immutable / Ani Klang Ani Klang / Pimpon Pozdrawiam (Pointless Geometry)

Shows

The Smile at Kings Theater Julia Wolfe Steel Hammer Carnegie Hall The Protomen LPR Tristan Perich St Thomas ChurchSparks Town Hall Anna Meredith Elsewhere Lingua Ignota LPR Royal Blood Terminal 5 Kraftwerk Radio City Hiro Kone Pioneer Works RATM / RTJ MSG Matmos LPR Rammstein MetLife Stadium Yeah Yeah Yeahs Forest Hills Stadium Melvins Irving Plaza Roxy Music MSG Sean Lennon Stone Elysian Fields The Owl The Comet Is Coming Bowery Ballroom Child Abuse TV Eye Fennesz Pioneer Works Helm Elsewhere

Film / TV

The Stranger All Quiet In The Western Front Dont Worry Darling Moonage Daydream The Velvet Underground Elvis Men Northman Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent White Lotus

Books

I read a ton of memoirs this year. Standouts were

Kid Congo Powers Some New Kind Of Kick Danny Sugerman Wonderland Ave

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Kemper Norton

LISTENING

My favourite album of the year was the dayglo psychedelic joy of Panda Bear/ Sonic Boom’s Reset , with honourable mentions for the amazing Aethiopes by billy woods and Alison Cotton’s beautiful The Portrait You Painted of Me. Also, must mention the massive , varied and crucial Rental Yields compilations on Front and Follow /Gated Canal Community in aid of homeless charities in the UK.

GIGS

Didn’t get out much this year but live events I loved this year here in Brighton, UK included the blasted joy of deafkids at The Hope, the final gig of the mighty Slum of Legs at The Green Door Store, and playing alongside Alexander Tucker’s Microcorps and Opal X at The Wire’s 40th anniversary shows at The Rosehill as part of the reanimated Outer Church.

In terms of radio, as well as Elizabeth Alker’s essential breakfast and Unclassified shows on Radio 3 there were loads of great shows on the fantastic Repeater Radio ( many previously on the mighty Neon Hospice) including Afternoon Delight by Ix Tab and the best of Eastern Europe showcased on Slav to the Rhythm by Catherine and Iris.

READING

Apart from the works of nonconformist Cornish poet Jack Clemo and American novelist Pete Dexter ( Deadwood and Paris, Trout ), new discoveries were thin on the ground this year. I read and reread a lot of old favourites ( Ray Bradbury, Cormac McCarthy, Pat Barker , Elmore Leonard ) and finally fell in love with Jane Austen.

WATCHING

My film and TV viewing in 2022 was largely informed / enforced by my 5 year old daughter, and the essential texts we rewatched repeatedly were the lively and proactive Gaby’s Dollhouse, multi-species global explorers the Octonauts , surreal UK gem Sarah and Duck and of course, the inspirational Aussie masterpiece Bluey. I did manage to catch a few films either new or new to me in 2022…

Wake in Fright ( 1971) : another Australian key text ( although less adorable than Bluey ). The horrors of closed environments, toxic masculinity and continuous drinking.

Enys Men (2022) : Cornish filmmaker Mark Jenkin’s spooky and minimalistic follow-up to his incredible Bait (2019) , a wonderful drama of local economic realities and identities. Would love to score one of his films but unfortunately he does an excellent job of this himself.

Stalker (1979) : As good as everyone said it would be.

EATING

Chorizo with honey Chinese black fungus

DRINKING

Everything by Burning Sky brewery ( Sussex, UK)

CREATING

I managed to churn out two tape releases in 2022 in between all the watching, listening, eating, drinking etc.

Estrenyon was released on tape and download with the Barcelona label zonawatusa and was inspired by historical UFO sightings throughout Cornwall from 1888 to 2021. Rife is the story of a Sussex Spring day and was released via Woodford Halse, who have released loads of great electronic and folky music by the likes of Xylitol and Sairie. On top of that , our first volume of download-only pay-what-you-like winter tunes Montol Melodies is available on our bandcamp until the traditional English old ‘ twelfth night ‘ ( January 12 2023).

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Lee Ranaldo

2022 LIST

I’m terrible at lists like this, and usually don’t keep track towards such a year-end summary. Pardon the self-focus, this is my year-in-review accounting, mostly just remembering to myself.

August in Vienna Leah and I spent the month of August in Vienna, creating a public artwork, sound+image, called Fermata. I discovered the world of small-body, near century-old, German + Austrian guitars. I wrote the main melodic material one one of these tiny, wonderful instruments,. At one point we had 3 of them in the apartment down in the MuseumQuartier. A whole new world of sound to explore. Side trips to Berlin and Prague. (https://tonspur.at/soundworks/lee-ranaldo-leah-singer/?lang=en) Exhibitions in Berlin and Eupen, Chile Media Arts Biennial, Covid Flowers online Exhibitions of my Black Noise record print editions in Berlin, Lost Highway road drawings in Belgium, and watercolor covid-flowers online. In Chile Leah and I created an outdoor sound/art work, Do You Read Me?, in a field of trees surrounding an observatory above Santiago. Sounds were generated from signals collected from deep space by another observatory in the Atacama desert. A sound displacement work.

Medicine Singers in Brasilia, Montreal, NYC Had fruitful wanderings this year with Yonatan Gat, working with indigineous players from the USA, Brasil and Canada. Recording sessions in Montreal at fabulous Hotel2Tango studio, and in a splendid house set on the edge of the city in Brasilia, one of my favorite places. Happy to have been invited along for this most interesting ride.

Touring resumes Mostly in Europe, mostly quite wonderful. After 2 years at home it felt good to stand up in front of audiences again. Lots of solo acoustic shows playing In Virus Times and singing songs, but also interesting collaborations with Yuri Landman; My Cat Is An Alien, Jean-Marc Montera and Sophie Gonthier, and a special ‘Velvets Suite’ with French legend Pascal Comelade in Banyoles, Spain. Also the beginnings of a new collaboration with Chicago guitarist Michael Vallera, in a great new space in NYC for experimental music, 411 Kent (aka Shift). Leah and I premiered the new version of our Contre Jour performance with suspended guitar and films, in A Coruna, Spain and at the Three-Lobed Fest in Durham, North Carolina – which was an amazing three days of music. Also a short NorthEast tour with Jeff Parker in May.

London/Paris/Leah/ Catpower My touring year ended with a month split between Europe and the UK. A friend-lent apartment in Paris as base, with shows and lectures in Nantes, and Brittany. Five shows in the UK, the most I’ve played in some time there, including a free-ranging set with the Pop Group’s Mark Stewart and an eclectic band. Wild night! Leah flew over to celebrate her birthday, with CatPower at Royal Albert Hall (first time there for us both) recreating Bob Dylan’s legendary show there – both acoustic and electric sets – from 1966. What a great night, and our time together, in London, Paris and Brittany, was splendid.

Hurricane Transcriptions This year I played solo keyboard shows for the first time ever – the solo-for-Fender-Rhodes performance of my Hurricane Sandy Transcriptions, first at Karma Gallery in NYC, accompanied by films from LA Artist Mungo Thomson, and also at a Xenakis celebration in Vienna and at the opening of my exhibition of Lost Highway drawings, ‘The Road Is Like The River, Constantly Changing Yet Ever The Same’ – at IKOB Museum in Eupen, Belgium. (ikob.be)

Circuit des Yeux at Green-Wood Cemetery I think my favorite gig of the year was Circuit des Yeux in Green-Wood Cemetery on a rainy night in June. The weather threatened the show all evening, which made this incredible performance – just Haley and Whitney Johnson (Matchess). Just a magical, powerful night.

Godard’s King Lear In late August I committed to introduce Jean-Luc Godard’s King Lear, which I’d never seen, at TriBeCa’s Roxy Cinema, which has been doing terrific programs organized by Illyse Singer. I love Godard’s films, they are an important touchstone for me, and I took this as an opportunity to discover both the film and Shakespeare’s play; my Shakespeare knowledge is terrible, so I boned up on the play. Four days before the screening, the great master died, which cast the whole night in a new light. The film has been described by Richard Brody of the NY’er as ‘one of the best films of all time’ – wow. Burgess Meredith, Molly Ringwald, Norman Mailer, Julie Delpy, Leos Carax, and Godard himself center-stage and the plugged/unplugged oracle Professor Pluggy. What a film. As usual with a Godard film: what a sound mix!. See it in 35mm.

Broken Circle / Spiral Hill I have had a long fascination with the work of Robert Smithson, since discovering the book of his writings in the 70s. In the early 80s on the first few SY tours, I ‘coaxed’ the band into visiting one of his 3 still existing artworks – Broken Circle/Spiral Hill – in the countryside of northern Holland. Back then it was like a treasure hunt trying to find it, in the dark, late on the way to Club Vera in Groningen. In 2020 I visited it for a third time w friend Carlos, in the week before the world shut down. It had been totally restored and ready for it’s moment – just at it’s 50-year mark. In 2022 the site-an old, long-unused quarry – was opened to the public for the first time in ages, across 8 weekends. This year I narrated a podcast for the Holt/Smithson Foundation and the Netherland’s Land Art Contemporary, about Smithson and the work, which went live in November. (brokencircle.nl)

Birdsong Project I worked on this project, as both producer and performer, to raise money to benefit the Audobon Society for the preservation of avian habitats. Over 200 musicians contributed to this 20-LP set, as well as writers, poets and artists. Uplifting and surprising. (https://www.audubon.org/birdsong-project)

James Jackson Toth In the early 2000s I produced an album – James and the Quiet – with Mr. Wooden Wand, who’s music I love. This year a group of friends organized a birthday tribute to James, with 33 of us recording versions of songs from his vast catalog. I recorded ‘Wired to the Sky’, a favorite from the album we made together, recorded in our Viennese apartment in August, which closes this Birthday Blues collection. (https://aquariumdrunkard.com/category/jamesjackson-toth/)

Some Music/Art/Books etc:

Lou Reed – Words + Music, 1971 RCA Demos David Bowie – Divine Symmetry Catherine Christer Hennix – Selected Early Keyboard Works (https://blankformseditions.bandcamp.com/album/selected-early-keyboard-works) Plus Instruments, Februari-April ’81 (first record I was ever on) on Domani Records, NYC. In/Out/In, Sonic Youth. So cool to see this release welcomed so warmly! Cecilia Vicuña, Tate Modern Turbine Hall Venus of Willendorf, Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna Matisse: The Red Studio, Museum of Modern Art, NYC Claude Monet – Joan Mitchell, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris Marco Fusinato, Desastres, Venice Biennale Family Affair, a 20-minute short film included in the Criterion Collection edition of Josh & Benny Safdie’s 2009 Daddy Longlegs, outlining our two families intertwined involvement in the making of the film. The most glorious home movie ever. The Double Life of Bob Dylan: A Restless, Hungry Feeling, Clinton Heylin. First of a 2-part bio of the (other) Bard, making first use of all the new material out from Tulsa’s Bob Dylan Center archive. Loved: Olivier Assayas’ Irma Vep mini series. He’d used SY’s ‘Tunic’ in his original 1995 film, and we became friends and occasional collaborators. The new limited series mines the story anew, meta-mixing in his 1995 film and Louis Feuillade’s 1915 original, Les Vampires. The most contemporary piece of ‘television’ I’ve seen in ages, just wonderful, with fantastic cast including a spot-on stand-in portrayal by Vincent Macaigne as the director, Alicia Vikander as Irma Vep, and Lars Eidinger as Gottfried. Also Devon Ross, Carrie Brownstein, many other great performances. Loved it. Still watching: Westworld, Handmaid’s Tale. Hal Willner Memorial, St. Anne’s, April. Miss Hal all the time…

---LR, Winnipeg, December 2022

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Brian Chase

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Brian chose to write about one album that impacted him in 2022

This write-up is in no way meant to be a formal review - I don’t deem myself qualified for that task here - rather, this is meant to share personal enthusiasm and bring an album to light - like, "Have you heard this, it's really really amazing and inspiring and why isn't there more talking about it, and…" As a musician working within a greater community, I am acutely aware of the creative drive to continually uncover new modes, methodologies, practices etc. of expressing our chosen art form - each performance and each album serving as an instance of discovery and offering new perspectives on old conundrums. Whether the genre is rock, jazz, noise, free-improvisation, modern classical etc. the relationship of discourse and dialogue is still the same. At the forefront of this dialogue is John Zorn, as he has been for decades, and a major contribution to the conversation is the 2022 album Incerto - Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, and the Uncertainty Principle. Here, Zorn is the composer and the performing ensemble consists of some of Zorn's tightest in recent years: Brian Marsella on piano, Julian Lage on guitar, Jorge Roeder on bass and Ches Smith on drums. As Zorn says in the liner notes, "Incerto is about possibilities, probabilities, inevitabilities and improbabilities." Formal logic for musical structure is considerably expanded with these compositions and never before have I heard such new forms for improvisation. In these pieces, unexpected juxtapositions and superimpositions abound, as foremost examples of its many distinct features. The syntax of this music is beyond the scope of any previous way that I've conceived of music existing. Not only are harmonic and rhythmic conventions regularly reconstructed - often replaced with adjacent compliments and aggressive contradictions - but entire paradigms of improvisatory behavior are game as well. Shifts in genre/mood/tempo/texture/harmonic character/melodic personality place the improvisor in varying contexts - often in a short amount of time - and each context requires its own set of responses. The whole scope of musical history+trends+possibilities takes on a dynamic relational co-existence, in ways that I've never previously heard or thought possible - like when angular atonal lead lines enter on top of a serene ostinato, or impressionistic chords alternate between stillness and motion, or genre styles and idiomatic references collide, or gravelly density and noise build tension culminating into a placid release. Plus, so much of the composed material is really just so cool. Paramount to it all is the music’s immense depth of feeling. The moods on this album are evocative, romantic and ecstatic as much as they are revolutionary, kaleidoscopic and mystifying. As the music winds through its structural twists and turns, the key that holds it all together is sincerity of spirit - the performance of this music, as well as listening to it, is a literal experience. And within each singular track is the remarkable performance of the individual musicians themselves - each a respective master at the craft. Additionally, the album as a collective whole, being comprised of eleven very different tracks, functions as a macro-structure in itself which expands on the themes present in each individual track. So many new modes of music making are presented here - integrating them into current music making will take a while as more people discover its brilliance and begin to absorb the concepts and ideas it conveys. It is uniquely Zorn and there for us musicians to process and in turn produce that which is uniquely ours. Incerto is a gem in the conversation - we can listen and run with it how we like - but we have to hear it first.

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David T. Little

composer www.davidtlittle.com

MUSIC (new, revisited, & in rotation)

Vile Creature – Glory! Glory! Apathy Took Helm! Burning Witch – Crippled Lucifer tryphème – Aluminia Louis Cole – Quality Over Opinion KANGA – You and I Will Never Die DELANILA – Overloaded Amyl & the Sniffers – Comfort To Me Kae Tempest – Let Them Eat Chaos Graindelavoix & Björn Schmelzer – Josquin, the Undead: Laments, Deplorations & Dances of Death Run The Jewels – 1, 2, 3, 4 The Cure – Disintegration, Wish, Show, Pornography Tenderheart Bitches – High Kicks George Walker – Piano Sonatas (Steven Beck) Rammstein – Herzeleid, Mutter, Sehnsucht, Untitled (in heavy rotation after the MetLife Stadium show) Living Colour – Vivid Utah Phillips – We Have Fed You All For A Thousand Years Tom Morello – Hold The Line (track, feat. grandson) ACRONYM – Oddities & Trifles: the Very Peculiar Instrumental Music of Giovanni Valentini Late Stravinsky (various) Son Lux – Everything Everywhere All At Once (ost) Harrison Birtwistle – The Moth Requiem Christopher Tin – The Lost Birds Karim Sulayman, Apollo’s Fire – Songs of Orpheus Hermann Nitsch – Symphony No. 9 “The Egyptian” Jay Wadley – Swan Song (ost) Herem – Pulsa diNura Danny Elfman – Big Mess / Bigger. Messier. (Deluxe.) Scott Walker – The Drift

FILMS & SERIES (new & rewatched) Hellraiser (Clive Barker) The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman) Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Shin'ya Tsukamoto) Private Life (Tamara Jenkins) Double Take (Johan Grimonprez) After Life (Ricky Gervais) One Big Bag (Every Ocean Hughes) The Village Detective (Bill Morrison) Polia & Blastema (E. Elias Merhige) Sibyl (William Kentridge)

The Copper Queen (Crystal Manich) Wishes (Amy Jenkins) The Once and Future Smash (Sophia Cacciola & Michael J. Epstein) End Zone 2 (August Kane) All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger) Everything Everywhere All At Once (Daniels) Russian Doll (multiple directors) Piggy (short) (Carlota Pereda) The Mitchells vs. The Machines (Michael Rianda & Jeff Rowe) WHAT DID JACK DO? (David Lynch) The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion) Pig (Michael Sarnoski) The Green Knight (David Lowery) The Northman (Robert Eggers) Muriel’s Wedding (P.J. Hogan) BoJack Horseman (multiple directors) Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)

BOOKS (some) Body Horror - Anne Elizabeth Moore Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf a ghost in the throat - Doireann Ní Ghríofa Cleanness – Garth Greenwell A Saint from Texas – Edmund White Out Loud – Mark Morris The Gastronomical Me – M.F.K. Fisher Agamemnon – Aeschylus (trans. Robert Fagles)

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Jonnine

HTRK

2022 good vibes - Hackedepicciotto tour photos such #couplegoals, kicking off the HTRK tour in Atlanta was exhilarating! Big hangs with my overseas buds Nathan Corbin and Yasmina Dexter, writing new songs with Nigel and keeping THE dream alive, my puppy Pali growing up into mumma’s good boy, instagram follows @the.holistic.psychologist (self healing)  @cracked.bolos (cakes), DJ Sundae, Amir Shoat, ‘Crush’ by Richard Siken (borrow from Nigel) writing bonkers dreams down again, Jonathan Richmond lyrics, tik tok #stayathomegirlfriend, jamming with Brother May in London and playing cafe OTO, second season Euphoria, White Lotus, Heartbreak High, rewatching Curb, Julia Fox’s eye makeup tutorial, films The Weekend and 45 Years by director Andrew Haigh, Charlotte Rampling interviews, fam long drives with Conrad and Pali finding songs for NTS <3 <3 Conrad got me into the Kinks!

Some music  i liked Actress — Dummy Corporation (Ninja Tune)  Autumn Fair - Autumn Fair  DALE CORNISH — Traditional Music of South London (The Death Of Rave)  Delphine Dora — A Stream Of Consciousness II (for piano solo) Coby Sey — Conduit (AD 93)  CS + Kreme — Orange (The Trilogy Tapes)  Harry Howard  - Slight Pavilions  Various / Kashual Plastik — Field of Progress Jonathan Richman - Jonathan Goes Country  Julia Reidy - World in World  Kitchen Cynics — Strange Acrobats Liz Durette - A Christmas Gift To You  Malvern Brume — Body Traffic (MAL)  Taylor E. Burch — The Best of Taylor E. Burch (Downwards)  The Incredible String Band — Wee Tam and the Big Huge  The Kinks - The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society  Thomas Bush — Preludes Warm Currency — Returns (Horn Of Plenty) 

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Lawrence English

(Room 40 Records)

This year was the first time I had travelled internationally since 2019. The thing I realised I've truly missed is seeing people. The opportunity to share ideas, to be curious with others and to just be in the world was, well, magical. I think if anything the past few years has reminded me (us?) not to take things for granted…especially each other. This year was also the first time I returned to making solo electronic works. It had been about six years since I had completed Cruel Optimism and, if I am honest, I wasn’t sure if I still had an appetite for making solo electronic works. Approach however proved, to me at least, I can still derive great pleasure from working alone. Unexpectedly, I found the whole process of the album very satisfying, like it was new all over again, not something I always feel.

There’s been a tonne of great input into the system this year. Ergo Proxy totally got me thinking. I was late to the party, but it was a party I am glad I did make it to. Puce Mary made some tapes back in April, both of them were totally ace, filled with an acute sense of heaviness. I very much enjoyed Boy Harsher’s work this year too, outside my usual orbit in some ways, but they are really onto something of late. I caught up with my old and dear friend Kate Crawford, and had a chance to read over he excellent Atlas Of AI book, she is a tower of radiance. Annea Lockwood’s, work occupied a great deal of my thoughts this year, realising her Piano Transplants all at once was quite simply a delight. Adam Curtis’s TraumaZone left an indelible mark in more ways than one. I returned to Vancouver to photograph the crows that started off my homage to Masahisa Fukase, perhaps that tract of work is done? Oh and thanks to a dinner with Atsuo from Boris, and the encouragement of my small humans, we all started down the pathway of the epic saga of Gundam too. I missed that when I was younger, so it’s a long road to catch up on….but I started.

Oh and on a purely personal note I was able to commission a shikishi from Yoshihisa Tagami. Seriously, my 12 year old self was reborn when it arrived. The world is so much bigger, and smaller, than that little human could ever have imagined!

Love to you all and here’s hoping 2023 is full of curious surprises and wonder.

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John Tottenham

author

A LISTLESS LIST

Best Books:   Woodcutters Concrete Extinction| Wittgenstein’s Nephew Old Masters 

Thomas Bernhard

A Father and his Fate More Women than Men Manservant and Maidservant A Family and a Fortune  -  Ivy Compton Burnett   Hawkwind: Days of the Underground  -  Joe Banks

Best Songs:   Eunice Collins  –  At the Hotel Gloria Barnes  -  Old Before My Time Sonia Ross  -  Every Now and Then Rozetta Johnson  -  A Woman’s Way Debbie Taylor  -  I Don’t Wanna Leave You Denise LaSalle  -  Trapped by a Thing Called Love Barbara Stant  -  Unsatisfied Woman Ann Alford  -  If It Ain’t One Thing Big Martha  -  Your Magic Touch Helene Smith  -  Sure Thing     Best Shows By Octogenarians And Nonagenarians:

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – Zebulon, LA  / Bob Dylan  -  Pantages, LA / Marshall Allen (Arkestra)  -  Zebulon, LA / Swamp Dogg  -  Teragram, LA / Doug Kershaw  -  Zebulon,  LA / Sonny Green  -  Barnyard & La Louisianne, LA / Tommy McClain  -  Stowaway, LA

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Brian Carpenter

Composer / Ghost Train Orchestra

My favorite recordings of 2022, in no particular order…also the most frequently played albums on my long-running radio show Free Association on WZBC in Boston. As I'm writing this I'm reminded that a lot of great records came out of bands from South London this year, across genres. 

The Comet is Coming - CODE Caroline - caroline Dry Cleaning - Stumpwork William Orbit - The Painter Akusmi - Fleeting Future

Electric Youth, David Sylvian, et al - A Tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto - To the Moon and Back Portico Quartet - Next Stop The Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention Zola Jesus - Into the Wild Mary Lattimore and Paul Sukeena - West Kensington Lucrecia Dalt - Ay! Bjork - Fossora Tindersticks - Stars at Noon Original Soundtrack Kamikaze Palm Tree - The Hit Bitchin Bajas - Bajascillators Bill Callahan - YTILAER Thurston Moore - Screen Time Bill Orcutt - Music for Four Guitars Horse Lords - Comradely Objects Curha - Curha III

Sharon Van Etten - We've Been Going About This All Wrong Aldous Harding - Warm Chris Weyes Blood - Hearts Aglow Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You Oneida - Success Brandon Seabrook - In the Swarm Jacob Garchik - Assembly Oren Ambarchi - Shebang The Lord and Petra Haden - Devotional Roedelius & Tim Story - 4 Hands Brian Eno - Foreverandevernomore Steve Reich - Runner Moor Mother - Jazz Codes Makaya McCraven  - Dream Another Sun Ra Arkestra - Living Sky Danger Mouse and Black Thought - Identical Deaths A Far Cry - The Blue Hour Nils Frahm - Music for Animals Mary Halvorson - Amaryllis Kronos Quartet, Van-Anh Vanessa Vo, Rinde Eckert - My Lai Attacca Quartet - Caroline Shaw: Evergreen

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DJ Food

Music: Clocolan - Empathy Alpha LP (Redpan) Brian Eno - The Lighthouse (Sonos HD) King Gizzard &The Lizard Wizard - Omnium Gatherum LP (Flightless) Twilight Sequence - Trees in General: and the Larch 12" (Castles In Space) WTCHCRFT - Drugs Here 12" (Balkan Vinyl) Ghost Power - Ghost Power LP (Duophonic Super 45s) Dexorcist - Night Watch 12" (Yellow Machines) The Advisory Circle - Full Circle LP (Ghost Box) Fenella - The Metallic Index (Fire Records) S'Express & Daddy Squad - Music 4 The Mind (DL)

Podcasts: The Bureau of Lost Culture We Buy Records Oh God, What Now?

Gigs / Events: The Orb play U.F.Orb @ The Fox & Firkin, London Staying in a restored Futuro House, Somerset Fogfest @ Iklectik, London Funki Porcini's Lasarium @ Iklectik, London The Trunk Groovy Record Fayre @ Mildmay Club, London

Books / Comics: 99 Balls Pond Road - Jill Drower (Scrudge Books) Radio Spaceman - Mike Mignola & Greg Hinkle (Dark Horse) A-Z of Record Shop Bags - Jonny Trunk (Fuel) Mud Sharks - Dave Barbarossa Good Pop, Bad Pop - Jarvis Cocker (Vintage) House Music - Andy Votel (The Modernist) Defying Gravity - Jordan Mooney w. Cathi Unsworth 69 Exhibition Road - Dorothy Max Prior (Strange Attractor) Judge Dredd - Mike McMahon (Apex Edition) It's Lonely At The Centre Of The Universe - Zoe Thorogood (Image Comics) The Black Locomotive - Rian Hughes (Picador)

Films: Get Back (Disney+) Who Killed The KLF? (Chris Atkins) In The Court of the Crimson King (Toby Aimes)

[burlveneer-music]

Pulled by Magnets - Invite Them In

New single (7” vinyl & digital) from London-based experimentalist Seb Rochford (Polar Bear, Sons of Kemet) and his latest group: Pulled By Magnets. The single consists of two vastly different versions of a track from upcoming debut album. While the A-side features the Pulled By Magnets trio, the B-side is a solo performance by acclaimed organist/composer Kit Downes. Glitterbeat label imprint tak:til will be releasing Pulled By Magnet’s debut album “Rose Golden Doorways” on February 28th, 2020. "Sometimes people let themselves be known, so maybe you can invite them in." -- Seb Rochford Pulled By Magnets are a three-piece, featuring in addition to Rochford, Pete Wareham (Acoustic Ladyland, Polar Bear, F-IRE) on saxophone and Neil Charles (Zed-U, Empirical, Tomorrow's Warrior) on bass.

[one-track-daily]

Chuck Johnson Riga Black (2017)

From the album: Balsams (Vin Du Select Qualitite / Thin Wrist Recordings / Tak:til)

[diyeipetea]

JazzX5#070. Sirom: A Washed out Boy Taking Fossils from a Frog Sack [Minipodcast]

JazzX5#070. Sirom: A Washed out Boy Taking Fossils from a Frog Sack [Minipodcast]

Por Pachi Tapiz.

“A Washed out Boy Taking Fossils from a Frog Sack / Spran fantic iz vrece zabje vzema fosile”. Sirom: A Universe That Roasts Blossoms For A Horse (tak:til – Glitter Beat) Siron: Ana Kravanja, Samo Kutin, Iztok Koren

Tomajazz: © Pachi Tapiz, 2019

JazzX5 es un minipodcast de HDO de la Factoría Tomajazz presentado, editado y producido por Pachi Tapiz. JazzX5comenzó su andadura el 24…

[khabir]

"75 Dollar Bill - Beni Said" by Glitterbeat Records

[ozkar-krapo]

PARK Jiha [박지하]

"Philos"

(LP. Tak:til / Glitterbest. 2019 / rec. 2018) [KR]

[dustedmagazine]

Jon Hassell/Farafina — Flash of the Spirit (tak:til/Glitterbeat)

Flash of the Spirit by Jon Hassell / Farafina

Think long enough about Jon Hassell’s music and a paradox emerges. Hassell is an iconic trumpet player; he’s recorded albums for ECM and carved out a peculiar space for his “fourth world” imagery — effectively soundtracking a surreal and fictional part of the globe while nodding in the direction of numerous musical traditions.  

But Hassell is also a prime collaborator: he might be best-known for Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics, his 1980 album with Brian Eno, but it’s far from alone in his discography. He’s also worked with Davids Sylvian and Toop; now, via Glitterbeat’s tak:til imprint, his 1987 collaboration with the Burkina Faso-based group Farafina is back in print.

Though to label Flash of the Spirit as simply a collaboration between Hassell and Farafina might be somewhat misleading. This is one where reading the liner notes can be enlightening: they explain that Daniel Lanois recorded the group in 1987; after that, Brian Eno “carved and shaped the remaining mixes.” Hassell himself is credited with “the creation and fitting together of electronic musical superstructure with pre-existing Farafina compositions.”  

All of that is to say that, while the prospect of Hassell sitting in with Farafina for a set could be inviting enough, that’s not what’s going on with this album. There’s a copious amount of musical talent on display here, but it’s also difficult to suss out precisely who did what — which, considering the notion of the studio as an instrument unto itself, is far from a bad thing.  

The resulting album is one that can be propulsive, but is largely concerned with creating thoroughly immersive sonic spaces. “Kaboo [Play]” abounds with vocal give-and-take and subtly played propulsive; those elements are, in turn, surrounded by a shimmering keyboard sound. It’s an ethos that doesn’t sound pinned to a specific time or place, which accounts for much of its charm and power.  

While Hassell’s name is billed first, this is the sort of collaboration in which both parties can share the spotlight. Farafina drummer Paco Yé takes the spotlight on “Air Afrique [Wind],” which is based around one of his compositions. Percussion is also at the center of the song, even as synthetic melodies and chanted lyrics surround it.  

Still, Hassell is a tremendously skilled player, and on songs such as “(Like) Warriors Everywhere [Courage],” his resonant tone doubles back on itself. Between this and sheets of percussion, the effect is all-encompassing. It’s one of many places on Flash where the musicians and producers seem entirely in sync, pushing forward to create something new, a glimpse of the jazz standards of an alternate Earth.  

Tobias Carroll

[sonmelier]

79. Brìghde Chaimbeul | Carry Them With Us

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Ecosse | tak:til | 35 minutes | 9 morceaux

Ce deuxième album de Brìghde Chaimbeul est une exploration captivante (et expérimentale) de la musique celtique, particulièrement du folklore écossais. Accompagnée par le saxophoniste Colin Stetson, la native des Highlands marie à merveille les sonorités de ses smallpipes (dans la tradition du genre musical typiquement local qu’est le Pìobaireachd) avec des incursions envoutantes en territoires drone.

[affairesasuivre]

Širom - Low Probability of a Hug (album A Universe that Roasts Blossoms for a Horse; tak:til/Glitterbeat, 2019)

Širom, a Slovenian trio, with their imaginary space-less, home-less, mystical folk music. The song ... Low Probability of a Hug. More than a dozen instruments and at least as many musical forms can be found in the repertoire of Širom and their imaginary folk music ...

ARTIST: http://siromband.si/

ALBUM: https://sirom.bandcamp.com/album/a-universe-that-roasts-blossoms-for-a-horse

LABEL: https://glitterbeat.com/tak-til/

Radio Študent, Slovenija, Žiga Pucelj/Radio Študent music board

selector

RŠ 89.3 MHz

[brownwork]

“They’ve carved out a niche for themselves as an experimental group with a vision and a sound that is unique. 75 Dollar Bill are the missing link between archetypal blues, experimental, and drone-based music. Influences from different cultures drift in and out, and in the end, you can only say this is truly “world” music in that it is both from everywhere and nowhere.”  Photo Credit: Alex Phillipe Cohen

[freersounds]

Freer Sounds Radio January 2018

New Year. New Radio Show. Music dug from the furthest corners of my digital and physical music archive. We kick off with solo guitars and intriguing experimentalism and then veer off in a funk and jazzy direction. Post-punk type sounds drag us back before the tempo is upped for a few Housier efforts and then we slide back into the funk to finish off! We have a strong Gothenburg contingent, with music from Atelje, Amateur Hour, Suss Hansson and Gabriel Nils Edvinsson. Glasgow is well represented too, with a number of tracks from the Huntleys + Palmers archive. Elsewhere, we have prime digs from Gothenburg record shops and charity shops, resulting in gospel funk grooves from Edwin Hawkins, Iberian rock from Barrabas and cold 80s sounds from Yazoo. We also have harp assisted jazziness by Earl Klugh sourced from the 1 Euro bin of Barcelona record shop and post-punk grooviness by Maria Lanuit from the top floor of Encants Market. Enjoy!

Atelje – Aah – Vinyl Export

Refree - Ramilrez 19022017a – Tak:Til

Amateur Hour - Jenny's Place – Happiest Place

Suss Hansson – Kaliyuga – Self-Released

Refree - Ramilrez 11012017 - Tak:Til

Chump - Out Of It – Self-Released

Suss Hansson – Clouds - Self-Released

Gabriel Nils Edvinsson - Jarntorget 0845-0915 - Self-Released

Cucina Povera – Sokerihumala – Huntleys + Palmers

JeffMajors – Summertime – Invisible City Editions

Earl Klugh - Soft Stuff (And Other Earthly Delights) - Liberty

Dam-Funk – Free – Stones Throw

Edwin Hawkins - You Gave Your All (Reprise) @45 - Polydor

Yazoo - Ode To Boy - Mute

Nino - Ese Chaval Se Parece A Mi – Self-Released

B52s - Deep Sleep – Warner Bros

Fred Und Luna - Im Element - Compost

Still House Plants - The House Sound Of Chicago – Greater Lanarkshire Auricular Research Council

Barrabas - On The Road Again - Hansa

Maria Lanuit - Cine de Barrio - Ddomèstic Records

General Ludd - Diego Garcia – Huntleys + Palmers

Peggy Gou - It Makes You Forget (Itgehane) (I: Cube Remix) – Ninja Tune

Upercent - La lluita - Watergate

Reset Robot – Conflux - Hotflush

Edwin Hawkins - You Gave Your All (Reprise) - Polydor