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The Hardy Tree ~ All the Hours

We love Clay Pipe Music’s Mini CD series, and the latest entry is a beautiful 20-minute piece by label founder Frances Castle, recording as The Hardy Tree. Castle is also responsible for the illustration, and the work is the score to a “slow moving animation” that was inspired by the artwork of the artist’s previous album: a new form of exquisite corpse. All the Hours is also a perfect piece for…

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Farewell Phoenix ~ The Angels In These Fields

Imagine receiving a wooden box in the mail, stamped with a branding iron, with letters stained in wine.  Inside the box, a bottle and a tape, nestled in soft sponges that look like burnt orange coral.  The contents build a bridge across the seasons: music to soothe the mind, an apéritif wine to relax the body.  The leaves are only beginning to turn, an occasional early victim falling from the…

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Ukrainian Field Notes XXXVI

artwork by Mariia Prymachenko Bumper episode after the Summer break. Unfortunately, there was no respite in Ukraine with at least 184 civilians killed and 856 injured in August alone, making it the month with the second highest number of civilian casualties in 2024, after July. And once again, the number of musicians being drafted or volunteering has also been steadily increasing. This month Ross…

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Marcus Fjellström ~ The Last Sunset of the Year

When is a soundtrack not a soundtrack?  Seven years ago, Marcus Fjellström recorded the score for the first season of The Terror, based on Dan Simmons’ novel of the same name, published a decade before.  On the surface, the plot line is the search for the Northwest Passage, the ship caught in the ice, the long winter night.  Below the surface, it is allegory and monster tale.  Sadly, Fjellström…

[thenewobjective]

Alaskan Tapes ~ Something Ephemeral

Something Ephemeral is a testament to the temporary nature of experience, written in hope that one might appreciate each moment all the more.  The concept, found in the Japanese mono no aware, is brought to fruition by Alaskan Tapes with a patina of grace anchored by an undercurrent of melancholy. Listen hard to the opening minute, and one may even hear church bells.  As Richard O’Brien so…

[thenewobjective]

MF Clarke ~ Arrays

Many of us wish that we could be in two places at once.  Either we have too much to do, and would like to divide ourselves, or we are in one place, dreaming of being in another.  MF Clarke offers a reflection of this wish in aural form, combining data sonification material from the Hudson River with related data from the Arctic and Antarctic and field recordings from Greenland.  To this she adds…

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Erland Cooper ~ Carve the Runes then Be Content With Silence

Erland Cooper has already received a great amount of publicity for the backstory around his latest album. Our fear is that the backstory will obscure the fact that this is a rather excellent work. Carve the Runes Then Be Content With Silence takes its title from George Mackay Brown’s poem “A Work for Poets” (1996), the preceding line being “Here is a work for poets-“.  Mackay was known for “the…

[thenewobjective]

Various Artists ~ harkening critters

As announced in our Fall Music Preview, harkening critters is the field recording highlight of the season.  A virtual who’s who of the genre, the 4-hour, 33 track triple album contains the sounds of “critters” from around the world, while asking if the real critters are the ones who are recording them.  A 76-page booklet contains photographs and descriptions from each of the artists, which…

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SP* Episode 38: DIS/PLACED - with Matana Roberts [podcast]

[thenewobjective]

Anthony Vine ~ Sound Spring

Sound Spring is the redefinition of a soundtrack, as a director’s cut is the redefinition of a movie.  Anthony Vine composed the original score to Catalina’s film of the same name, but on this release, the artist offers an expanded version that includes layers and outtakes that are not heard in the film; just as the interviews from the film are not heard on the album.  (We’d love a third version…

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Sarah Davachi ~ The Head As Form’d In The Crier’s Choir

Our review of Two Sisters, Sarah Davachi’s 2022 album, compared the listening experience to going to church. It’s a similar feeling playing her latest release, except possibly on a grander scale, akin to finding a pew in an ancient cathedral on a quiet afternoon while the organist practices for the Sunday service. Davachi creates music that is equally intimate and epic; compositions recorded on…

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Dame Area ~ Toda la verdad sobre Dame Area

Toda la verdad sobre Dame Area (The whole truth about Dame Area) is an atypical choice for A Closer Listen, but its power is irresistible.  On their fourth album, Dame Area (the Italian-Catalan duo of Silvia Konstance and Viktor Lux Crux) has made a major shift in sound, from melodic, romantic electro-synth to aggressive industrial with shouted phrases.  When compared to Toda la mentira sobre…

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Ghostwriter ~ Tremulant

2024 has been a great year for alternative sacred music, exemplified in albums from Shards, Salt of the Sound, Andrzej Pietrewicz and Wild Up (performing the music of Julius Eastman).  Now we can add the Ghostwriter quartet, led by Mark Brent, to the mix. Brent is responsible for the music, while the singers are Michael Weston King of My Darling Valentine, Anglican bishop Andrew Rumsey (competing…

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Various Artists ~ Dekmantel Ten: A Decade of Dekmantel Music

Dekmantel Festival celebrates its tenth anniversary with a massive box set: seven albums, each loosely representing one of the festival stages, containing 44 exclusive tracks from Dekmantel artists old and new.  The genres are generous, including techno, house, breakbeat and jungle; big names (Jeff Mills, Adrian Sherwood, Lee Gamble) are here among the new and upcoming.  The treats are the…

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Izabela Dłużyk ~ The Amazon - Where the Moon Wept

What a joy to see the release of The Amazon – Where the Moon Wept, a happy dream come true for Izabela Dłużyk and a wish fulfilled for our readers, who will remember the artist from her albums Soundscapes of Spring and Soundscapes of Summer, recorded in her native Slovenia.  Blind since birth, yet possessing a “particular sensitivity to sound,” Dłużyk is the field recording version of Marvel…

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Styrofoam ~ the lost album

One of fall’s most enjoyable electronic albums is a time traveler, beamed to us from 2000-2001.  While listening, fans of a certain age are thrown back to the halcyon days at the turn of the century, before 9-11, before Brexit, before COVID, before a whole lot of things went in the wrong direction.  Back then, artists such as The Notwist, The Postal Service, Opiate and Styrofoam were in their…

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Interview with Rafael Anton Irisarri

A week prior to headlining the Ametric Festival in Crete (September 12-14), and only days after the announcement of his upcoming November album FAÇADISMS, Rafael Anton Irisarri spent some time conversing with our own Greek correspondent Maria Papadomanolaki.  In this interview, the artist looks back over his career, discusses the process of making music, highlights the benefits of collaboration,…