#frkwys

[biigbri]

Electronic music pioneer @suzanne_ciani and composer @kaitlynaurelia come together for two super duper slices of ambient bliss 🎶🙏🏻 #sunergy #suzanneciani #kaitlynaureliasmith #rvngintl #limitededition #pacificbluevinyl #frkwys #buchla200e #buchlamusiceasel #electronic #ambient #vinyl #vinylcollection #recordcollection #vinyladdict #vinylcollector #vinyljunkie #vinylporn #nowspinning #lp https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp4teNHMEzX/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[theparanoid]

Ian William Craig & Daniel Lentz - Joyce

From The Album: FRKWYS Vol. 16: In a Word (2020)

[Ambient, Tape Music, Chamber Music, Post-Minimalism, Choral, Drone]

[musicwithoutborders]

Ian William Craig · Daniel Lentz, Aphrodite I FRKWYS Vol. 16: In a Word, 2020

[dustedmagazine]

Steve Gunn & David Moore — Reflections Vol. 1: Let the Moon Be a Planet (RVNG Intl.)

Photo by Annie Forrest

Reflections Vol. 1: Let the Moon Be a Planet by Steve Gunn & David Moore

Steve Gunn and David Moore, building on an earlier collaboration, join forces for an instrumental album that sounds little like the previous work of either (though there is some kinship with a recent composition by Gunn for a gallery installation). Thus, Gunn seems to stick to nylon-stringed guitar instead of his usual steel-string and electric, and Moore contributes spare, atmospheric piano distinct from the rippling waves of notes characteristic of his sound as Bing & Ruth. The gentle and soothing tones here are suggestive of the ambient and new age genres, with plenty of space for echo amid the interplay of the two instruments as the tracks gradually develop.

According to the liner notes, the collaboration began with remote file-sharing and was completed when the two musicians came together in Hudson, NY. Both composition and improvisation, then, inform the eight songs here, most of which are around five minutes long. The continuity across the tracks leaves it unclear which originated with Gunn and which with Moore, though there may be a clue in the fact that those that begin with guitar tend to end with guitar and those that begin with piano tend to end with piano. Notably, each track has a defined and satisfying ending, with no fadeouts or abrupt cutaways. Environmental and room sounds also contribute to the sound (especially on “Painterly” and “Paper Limb”). 

Throughout, Moore’s light touch and heavy sustain and Gunn’s fingerpicking complement each other perfectly. “Scattering,” for example, begins with an Americana-adjacent guitar strum and moves slowly like light filtering through leaves while piano notes float in the background, and “Basin” follows an analogous path beginning from a piano arpeggio that is answered by languid guitar chords. The enigmatically titled “Morning Mare,” something of a centerpiece as the longest of the tracks, opens with guitar and piano chords resolving into a spare almost-melody that unspools like a film sequence. 

Let the Moon Be a Planet is contemplative but sunny, with plenty of suspended voicings but few minor chords in evidence. This recording is billed as the first in the “Reflections” series of collaborations that RVNG Intl. will be releasing that, based on this auspicious beginning, promises to be as compelling as the label’s FRKWYS series (which includes the excellent 2014 collaboration between Gunn and Mike Cooper). Let’s also hope that Gunn and Moore release more music soon. 

Jim Marks

[c-40]

A-T-2 381 Laraaji - Rhythm 'N' Bliss

Laraaji had begun busking with his zither in Washington Square Park in the late 1970s which is where he met Brian Eno. In 1980 Eno produced an album with him which would be released as the third instalment of his Ambient series Ambient 3: Day of Radiance, this is the most widely know album by Laraaji. On the album he plays the hammered dulcimer and a treated and amplified zither. I'm curious about this as Laraaji is influenced by and studies Eastern Mysticism, I'm assuming Taoism, Buddhists tend to chant. It'd be easy to believe you are hearing as eastern spiritual music but taoist music use what they believe to be 'magic instruments' the Qing and Muyu, music is played to accompany ceremonies and rituals, what Laraaji is playing is new and relies more on improvisation and chance.  After Ambient 3: Day of Radiance's success he received requests to make longer pieces and began releasing new age cassettes like 1982s Rhythm 'N' Bliss

This edit is from the All Saints compilation Celestial Music 1978-2011

and here's a link to the full cassette

as an extra special treat there is also a short film about Laraaji. It's funny how he clearly has an ego, I suppose if he'd had less of an ego we wouldn't be aware of him. RVNG get Laraaji in the studio with Blues Control to record volume 8 of there excellent FRKWYS series

[redscroll]

More New releases in the racks for Friday the 5th of March 2021: @janeweavermusic #suss @northernspyrecs @tzadikmanagement #johnzorn @landeyo @getbetterrecords @benstillerilluminati @nnatapes @fire_records @ianwilliamcraig #daniellentz #frkwys #rvngintl #domeniquedumont #peopleonsunday #mush @memphis_industries @thirdface.sehc @explodinginsound @lessthanjake @purenoiserecs @tindersticks_uk @cityslangrecords #EmilyASprague @rvngintl #japan #quietlife @balthazarband @playitagainsamrecs @beachwoodsparksofficial @curation_records @fuzzclubrecords @flyingmooninspace @incantation_official @listenable_records @therealjimbomathus @andrewbirdmusic @tim_skold @cleopatrarecords (at Redscroll Records) https://www.instagram.com/p/CMA91iJs32s/?igshid=1mplpg6i6d88z

[thesunlounge]

Visible Cloaks, Yoshio Ojima, Satsuki Shibano - Atelier (from serenitatem, RVNGIntl. 2019)

[ruinedholograms]

FRKWYS | 12. Ariel Kalma + Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe - We Know Each Other Somehow | 13. Suzanne Ciani + Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Sunergy | 14. Tashi Wada + Yoshi Wada and Friends - Nue | 15. Visible Cloaks + Yoshio Ojima + Satsuki Shibano - Serenitatem

[lvl3]

LVL3 Tunes interview this week featuring Tashi Wada. 

[zef-zef]

Ka Baird & Pekka Airaksinen - Grey Body from: Ka Baird & Pekka Airaksinen - (FRKWYS, 2021)

Hungry Shells, the seventeenth entry in RVNG Intl.’s intergenerational collaborations series FRKWYS, brings together vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Ka Baird with avant-garde composer and radical performance art pioneer Pekka Airaksinen. Recorded six months before Pekka’s passing, Hungry Shells alchemizes separate but similar spiritualistic practices, canvassing Baird’s voice and synthesizer rituals and Airaksinen’s lysergic sound explorations into startling, surreal landscapes.

[more-records]

#ianwilliamcraig #daniellentz #music #frkwys #rvng #ambient #electronic #experimental #drone #minimal #minimalism #piano #soundscape #音楽 #アンビエント #cd #cdジャケット #artwork #アートワーク #morerecords #モアレコ入荷情報 #大宮 (more records) https://www.instagram.com/p/CKS3-ZjJ7ZX/?igshid=1fuq34q8xtev

[dstbin]

Listen/purchase: FRKWYS Vol. 13: Sunergy by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Suzanne Ciani

[cdlistening]

Tashi Wada with Yoshi Wada and Friends, 'Nue', (RVNG Intl)

Wednesday, February 12, 2019, 11:03am

Second time hearing this in a background setting, this time even more so than the first. Still struck by how good it sounds even with half an ear: great instrumentation throughout. Must delve deeper soon.

[mitjalovse]

Which possible option might be the most intriguing one for an electronic musician to tackle on, when one gets to work outside one's era? Suzanne Ciani, for instance, collaborated with one of those she influenced, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, on FRKWYS Vol. 13: Sunergy. Given the fact they made this under the celebrated banner, where a sonic master cooperates with an apprentice, we shouldn't be surprised that the results are spellbinding. Both Ciani and Smith complement each other, since they seem to be interested in the similar sonic landscapes, yet the ways they reach them differ. Nonetheless, they don't clash over this, they find a common ground. Thus, their joint album presents the best way for the players of the machine idiom to carry on with their legacy during their later careers.  

[vividplanet]

Listen/purchase: FRKWYS Vol. 13: Sunergy by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Suzanne Ciani