#avant folk

[womenofnoise]

Delphine Dora @delphine.dora is a French multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser. She works mainly with piano, voice, organ, modular synth and field recordings. Her music displays a pure fascination with sound and straddles the lines between improvisation, modern classical, avant folk, song forms, and electro-acoustic music. (via artist's SoundCloud page).

[Bandcamp]

[warismenstrualenvy]

[doyoulikethisemoband]

[zef-zef]

Japanese Freaks / Weird Japan

Geinoh Yamashirogumi - 恐山 (Osorezan) from: 芸能山城組 (Geinoh Yamashirogumi) - 恐山 (Osorezan) / 銅之剣舞 (Dou No Kenbai) (Victor, 1976)

[haveyouheardthissong-poll]

[mywifeleftme]

282: Entourage Music and Theatre Ensemble // Ceremony of Dreams: Studio Sessions & Outtakes 1972–1977

Ceremony of Dreams: Studio Sessions & Outtakes 1972–1977 Entourage Music and Theatre Ensemble 2018, Tompkins Square (Bandcamp)

Still wildly underknown given the transporting beauty of their compositions, there is a world next door to this one where Baltimore’s Entourage Music and Theatre Ensemble is as popular a soundtrack for meditation and study as Steve Reich or Philip Glass are in our own. Their music lies somewhere between modern chamber music and progressive folk, with a dash of jazz, and it was often used to score experimental dance and theatre productions. The band released two albums in the 1970s on Folkways before dissolving following the death of bandleader Joe Clark in 1983. Most probably their obscurity came from practicing their craft outside a major cultural centre; if anything, the 1,600 monthly listeners they command on Spotify represents wider exposure than they enjoyed in their prime.

Ceremony of Dreams, available in a three-hour digital format or an abridged ten-track vinyl, collects material that didn’t make it onto either of their Folkways records. Compared to Entourage and The Neptune Collection, these tracks are a little less playful, less overtly experimental in their production; they weren’t after all recorded specifically for release as an LP. But even in its condensed wax form, I can speak to the quality of Ceremony’s sober reveries, the lot of it grey or ghost-haloed yet coruscating, like black and white footage of waves crashing at night. Rather than a mere trove of demos, it meaningfully expands on their discography.

The Pitchfork review does a better job of namedropping comparable artists than I have the chutzpah for today (Arvo Pärt, Bert Jansch, La Monte Young, John Cale, Sandy Bull, raga like in general), but if you have a taste for open-concept acoustic music, Ceremony of Dreams is a sure shot.

(As an aside though: It's either endearing or grownworthy that the Entourage boys still have the classic doofy musician dude sense of humour that compels them to give these ethereal compositions "Lick My Lovepump"-ass names like "Sleazy Sue" and "Necrophelia.")

282/365

[theparanoid]

Natural Snow Buildings - Shadow Kingdom

(2009, full album)

[Drone, Psychedelic Folk, Ambient, Avant-Folk, Free Folk]

[terrasraras]

The Art of Joanna Newsom Posters

[walkinclosetrecords]

No Curfew Kids - Asbestos 1:36, "Behold the Lamb of Death" (WIC666)

Genre: Avant-Folk/Experimental Location: Raleigh, NC Releases Feb 29th, 2024

The world is engulfed in cancers, famines, genocides, cycles of abuse, unconscious people living on autopilot. We have the power collectively to end these cycles, to make and do better for each other. This album shows some ugly truths, sheds light on issues that No Curfew Kids had yet to put to recording.

Production by Valyri Sheffner Harris

This will be available in a local Raleigh store only at first, though they will be available at shows where No Curfew Kids is selling WIC tapes as well.

[womenofnoise]

do you have any recs for more folk-influenced women's noise projects? i really like svitlana nianio and aine o'dwyer and i'm wondering if there's more similar stuff out there

Hello there, it's a very interesting question! There's plenty of artists who mix folk with experimental/noise/contemporary. Here's a list of few I can think of right now:

There's Księżyc [x], a 90s experimental classic from Poland - it's a whole band, but fronted by two women.

Adela Mede [x] is a Czech artist creating contemporary sound collages with some folk vocals

Maryana Klochko [x] - an Ukrainian artist, her style ranges from more electroacoustic to more trip-hopy/electronic, worth checking out few of her tracks to get a range (I like the song Kvity, which kind of changes from one to another)

Tomoko Sauvage [x] - Japanese artist hugely inspired by various music folklore traditions, such as Carnatic water-bowls instrument

Julia Ulehla / dalava [x] - Czech vocalist, composer, ethnomusicologist "With her husband guitarist Aram Bajakian, she initiated a new line of performance research based on the ancestral song tradition of her father’s lineage, sourcing folk songs collected and transcribed by her great-grandfather, biologist Vladimír Úlehla".

Daina Dieva [x] - from Lithuania. Her works aren't maybe the most folklorish, but their closeness to the world of nature makes me put her in the mix

Audrey Chen [x] - Chinese-American artist mixing cello, voice and analogue synthesizers to create hauting compositions

Sainkho Namtchylak [x] - is a Tuvan experimental singer, known for using Tuvian throat singing and overtone singing named Khöömei. She mixes elements of east asian culture with genres such as avant jazz or electronica.

For more Slavic avant-folk check out this this compilation by In Crudo: [x] it's not all-women but features some inspiring women artists (Svitlana Nino and Księżyc included)

One can mix folk traditions with pretty much any genres I tried to stick to your artists of reference, but it's hard to find something *just like that* and nothing else - there are many more artists than these I've mentioned!

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

What Else Do You Do? (A Compilation of Quiet Music) 1990 Folk-Rock / Folk / Acoustic Rock / Lo-Fi / Outsider / Avant-Folk / Americana / Folk-Punk / Art Rock

Here's something fun from a sizeable movement and era that I've never really taken the time to dive all that much into before: that mid-80s-to-mid-90s Bohemian-open-mic-at-a-coffeehouse-or-independent-bookstore folk revivalist type of stuff. Lighthearted, tender, childlike, vulnerable, silly, intimate, acoustic, imperfect, eccentric, DiY, goofy, charming, absurd, and sometimes sloppy music. There was a pretty big underground subculture of this stuff that I feel like lived on self-produced and self-released cassette tapes that soft-spoken and idiosyncratic starving artist weirdos would take to their local shops or try to panhandle on arts district street corners and at shows. Of course, I'm basically describing the outsider king himself, Daniel Johnston, to a T here, but he wasn't the only one who was responsible for creating this beautifully strange type of fare, although his iconic talking frog drawing could certainly serve as its emblem, whose simplicity is akin to this album's own artwork.

And while Daniel Johnston, a native of Austin, makes an appearance on this comp, this release appears to actually be pretty New York-centric. And maybe this is just me, but I feel like when we generally reflect on this mid-80s to mid-90s era of New York, what we're usually thinking about is the hustle and bustle of that big city: loud, blaring, electronically-made dance beats, or the raucous rock of haunts like CBGBs, or some cerebral and gritty rap tunes; not so much this stripped-down folkiness that happens to make up most of this album here.

But it seems like this vein of artistry has been a part of New York in some form or another for a very long time anyway; it's just that pieces of it have been way more prominent and historicized, like the Beatniks of the 50s, or the folkies of the 60s. Really, this album could just be considered a darling, little early 90s snapshot of some of that ever-shifting Downtown continuum, I guess.

So, in addition to Daniel Johnston, within this odd collection you'll find some of his own contemporaries too, like Beck's former roommate, Paleface, who kicks us off with a tongue-in-cheek piece of nihilistically violent folk-punk in "Burn and Rob." Then there's the iconic counterculturalist and co-founder of legendary satirical rock band The Fugs, Tuli Kupferberg, who delivers the song with probably the richest and fullest sound of this entire set with "I Was Much Mistaken."

But where this comp really seems to truly shine is with its absolute nobodies who somehow managed to make it on here in the first place; it's like they've sauntered into an open mic and have stolen the whole dang show, which is what the spirit of this movement has always seemed to reflect: open-armed and open-minded egalitarianism. Some random cat could just come in off the street, play something great, and then never show up again, which, in a way, reads sort of like a folktale in and of itself, doesn't it?

And this album seems to capture a bunch of those types, like David Keener and the Hat Brothers, both of whose only ever released song is accorded to this album. They both deliver some pretty excellent pieces of acoustic folk in "Tip of the Iceberg" and "Dark as a Dungeon," respectively.

So, this is a very good and slightly weird early 90s folky comp from a scene and era that I haven't really ever given that much thought to. From New York's Shimmy Disc label, which was run by mononymous and iconic New York oddball Kramer, who was in The Fugs with the aforementioned Tuli Kupferberg, and was a member of, and also produced, a bunch of other off-beat acts as well to keep a lot of this avant-and-indie stuff thriving. Cool, creative, and non-commercial art that serves as something of a light, under-the-radar counterweight to some of the Big Apple's more striving, maximalist, and brash tendencies.

Highlights:

Paleface - "Burn and Rob" Dogbowl - "Rosemary in Red" Daniel Johnston - "1989 Blues" David Keener - "Tip of the Iceberg" Tuli Kupferberg - "I Was Much Mistaken" Azalia Snail - "Dual Control" King Missile - "Life" Hat Brothers - "Dark as a Dungeon"

[eurovision-revisited]

1996 Oslo - Number 16 - Kirile Loo - "Maatütre tants"

The third entry for Estonia in a row and this time it's for someone who didn't manage to make it to Club Decolté. As she was singing along, the producers must have had to come up with a very short-notice solution. There solution was just play the song with no one on stage. Pump in some dry ice and focus on the massive glitterball.

Halfway through the song, they must have decided that was a really bad idea so they sent on someone with a drum to dance around and to pretend to play it. Who was this mysterious man? Runner, stage-hand, musician? Who can say. He seems somewhat half-hearted. One of the only authorised stage invasions in Eurovision history.

The actual song, Maatütre tants (The Dance of the Country Girl) should have been sung by Kirile Loo and is a traditional folk piece not so much sung as chanted. If it had won, it may have challenged Nocturne for fewest words in a Eurovision song. It fits in with this year's trend for traditional, ethnic music. The insistent drumbeat that kicks in after a minute drives it forward.

Despite the non-appearance of anyone on stage involved with actually singing the song, this still appealed so much that two of the judges gave it the maximum number of points and it finished fourth overall. It's still considered to be one of the stronger songs to have been entered for Eurolaul this year, even if there are no actual words.

So who is the mysterious Kirlie Loo? Well she's a traditional singer who grew up in a forest with her grandmother, and without electricity, telephones or television. She learned singing as a child and had been discovered two years prior to this and released the LP Saatus worldwide when the trend for 'world music' was at its height. This LP is currently attracting the tags 'Avant Folk' and 'Neoclassical Darkwave' which I find ridiculously funny.

In 1996 she was still riding the wave of that popularity, but unfortunately was probably snowbound in a forest in Estonia and unable to make it for her big moment on stage. This again could have been big, and give what won Eurovision in 1996 - this would also have been a contender for the victory in Oslo - if they added some words. A strong year in Estonia.

[mywifeleftme]

335: Areski and Fontaine // L'Incendie

L'Incendie Areski and Fontaine 1973, BYG

The late ‘60s and early ‘70s were when the past half-century of avant-garde developments in theatre, literature, film, and art music began to break through into pop. The results of these early flirtations have a sense of discovery and possibility that has continued to captivate generations of new listeners to this day. Brigitte Fontaine and Areski Belkacem’s L’Incendie should absolutely be considered one of the towering classics of the era (and, among the Francophonie, it probably is), but I only came across it for the first time early last year. It reminds me of something from the Velvet Underground / John Cale / Nico universe, simultaneously emblematic of its time and so ahead of it as to sound anachronistic.

On “Les murailles,” tape of Fontaine’s exhalations and what sounds like a kalimba are snipped up and looped to create a tinkling, twitching soundscape that presages the Books or Boards of Canada; the track that follows, “L’engourdie,” layers howling wah-drenched electric guitar behind a pretty acoustic folk pop number that would fit right in on a Brigitte Bardot record; next, the stark “Nous avons tant parlé” could be a theatrical elegy set in a dilapidated seaside church. Every song feels stylistically distinct, but Areski and Fontaine’s creative vision remains consistent; I hear post-punk and Björk and Sonic Youth, and I hear French early music and Berber folk and the ‘50s sound poetry of Henri Chopin in the same measure.

It’s always a challenge reviewing non-English language records because you’re stuck speaking to its purely sonic characteristics, which increases the likelihood you’ll hilariously misread it—call a song a soothing folk idyll when it’s actually about smashing international Jewry or something. With political, lyric-forward stuff like L’Incendie, it also means failing to engage with its message, flattening it as an artwork. (Unfortunately, there is nothing I as a person of French ancestry living in a majority-French city could do or could have done in the past to better interpret this record.) I asked French-language correspondent and girlfriend of the podcast Mea for one of her classic vibe checks, but she told me the reams of notes she took while listening were too dotty to share, so I can only assume hearing and understanding Fontaine’s words in their original tongue unchains some celestial horror.

Few of the lyrics can be easily found online, which forces me to rely on Le Gendre’s analysis, but critic Kevin Le Gendre’s helpful liner notes paint a portrait of a wide-ranging album that engages with recent post-colonialist bloodshed (Jordan’s Black September civil war with PLO forces on “Le 6 septembre”); the medicalization of psychic distress (“Ragilia”); intimacy and coupledom; and much more besides. What I was able to find of Fontaine’s lyrics online have a spiky surrealist poetry to them. From “Après la guerre” (“After the War”):

“Happiness blows The eyelids lie gently The sexes glow The eyes, by moving, make you cum The men returned from the war And on their heads, the grass grows back.”

335/365

[theparanoid]

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - I Hope It Lands

(1996, full album)

[Indie Rock, Noise Rock, Experimental Rock, Alt-Country, Art Punk, Psychedelic Folk, Slacker Rock, Avant-Folk]