Methoden und Maschinen, by Bersarin Quartett

Nikolai Erastowitsch Bersarin, the ambivalent colonel general, communist and first Soviet city commander of Berlin, had an accident with his motorcycle in 1945 at the age of only 41. In the enraptured, now somewhat more compressed and at the same time more colorful (not more cheerful) electronic sound(track)s of the strange Bersarin Quartett, in its East Block sea landscapes with latently kitsched wallpaper and double bottoms, shadows of this strange figure Bersarin can be guessed – still or again – at a good 70 years later. But perhaps that is also irrelevant. This ‘band’ could just as well play imprisoned in the remixed court of the eternal, crazy North Korean presidents, whether embodied in an orchestra, quartet or as masked solo entertainer. It brings us supposedly post-rock and post-socialist grandeur, which has degenerated very slightly, in a great new splendour amidst all our irritations and emotions. And everything takes place in our heads.

The Bersarin Quartett – after thirteen years and three epic, (bad-) dreamlike beautiful albums – have settled down with their fourth album “Methoden und Maschinen” (“methods and machines”). For the time being. Because at the same time many new layers and paths are emerging. Playing live in many arrangements and at great concerts in Slovenia, Poland, Czech Republic and Russia, this has grown into a quartet, but it is still the project of DJ, musician, graphic and audio designer Thomas Bücker. The numerous concert evenings with Andy Stott, Tim Hecker, Fennesz, Murcof, Dictaphone or Hidden Orchestra, among others, are undoubtedly noticeable on “Methoden und Maschinen”. The Bersarin Quartett continues to stand for the outing of a complex musical subconscious. ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’, only that the moon is shimmering here, at least now and then. It’s probably also due to the sun shining on it. Minimalism and bombast go together. Constantly developing and entangling contrasts, paradoxes and contradictions are the motor. Constantly caught between two sides. Don’t believe the hype! 

Released November 29, 2019

Break, by Corey Fuller

Here’s the album that inspired our first mix of 2020 (Illvidri_Illvidri).
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Corey Fuller is one half of the duo Illuha on 12k and Break is his first solo recording for 12k. A crashing wave, the breaking dawn, an impact, the crushing of emotional spirit… the breaking of a storm. These are all relevant ideas behind his choice of a title for this highly emotional abum. Fuller has addressed the universality of human struggle without going into specifics of his own personal waves. The ideas that we as humans all share many of the same difficulties is both a launching point and a message he wishes to share with Break — the catharsis.

While Illuha’s music is known for its attention to small sounds and light textures, Break, while equally as fragile, sees Fuller working with much heavier elements. Still highly melodic, the work pulls and churns between harmony and tension, weight and air, the crash of a wave, the pull of the undertoe. The album is focused intensely on melody and harmony, progressions more carefully composed than the serendipitous found sound of his work with Illuha.

The piano is often at the center of these songs, an instrument (his own) that has become much an extension of his own body. His own voice plays an important role as well, sometimes lyrically ethereal and sometimes just a breath signifying the ever-fragile thread of life. Beautifully recorded in his Tokyo studio, the sounds are captured with all of their inherent physical flaws. As Fuller himself states about the piano being “Recorded in a way that you can hear the bones, like an open ribcage, moving contorting…” Everything on Break is there for a reason, not just the sound and soul of the piano but the electronic elements as well, rattling bass tones and dramatic, emotional waves of synthesizer rising and dissolving.

If a single word can be used to describe Break it is physical. From the instruments and techniques used to produce the album to the concepts of vulnerability of the human body. Break is an emotional riptide where violence and rest struggle to be the last voice. 

Released February 1, 2019
All music composed, performed and engineered by Corey Fuller in Tokyo, Japan.

Illvidri_Illvidri – A Dream-Vista

Happy New Year, everyone!

And, to open up 2020 (the precipice of a brand new decade) . . .

. . . an experimental/ambient/electronic mix which runs the gamut from stark/sparse to neo-classical. It was pieced together, track-by-track/brick by brick, over the course of a week in the waning span of 2019; in which we play around with the title track a bit: straight up, reversed & then excerpted/segued into the quiet, emotive AES Dana piece.

This began as a potential “Part 1” to a 2 part mix slated for mid-year – but grew (as these projects often do) to a proper mix in & of itself (after 7-8 iterations) – which I’ve been chillin’ to over the Christmas & New Year’s break.

We certainly hope it helps ease you into this new future . . .

77:41

: )

Download

01 Devin Underwood + Marcus Fischer – Wind [pre-faded intro]
02 Tomotsugu Nakamura – Echoes
03 Oöphoi & Paul Vnuk Jr. – West Field: Awua
04 Corey Fuller + Break Ensemble – Illvidri_Illvidri
(straight-up, reverse edited & redux-coda)
05 AES Dana – The Gradual District
06 Asura – Lumière Noire
07 Damon Zucconi – Interlude (A) [post-faded outro]
08 A Winged Victory for the Sullen – Aqualung, Muh-Fuh
09 Bethan Kellough – Vision
10 Anne Müller – Heliopause
11 Robert Fripp – Evensong, Haapsalu
12 Rhian Sheehan – Beneath the City Trees (excerpt)

Twin Radiant Flux, by Scott Cortez

Been enjoying this for a month or so – and have an (eventually/mid 2020) upcoming experimental mix where we manipulate some of Scott’s sound to achieve a particular atmosphere . . .
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Twin Radiant Flux, a beautiful processed solo guitar work by Scott Cortez, the instrumentalist of Lovesliescrushing. This previously unreleased hour long collection of works, recorded between 1997 and 1999 shows Cortez’s unique pioneering aesthetic. With droning flows and melodic layered sonic drifts, Twin Radiant Flux predates some of the most important guitar driven currents in contemporary electronic music.

Released November 1, 2010
Mastered by Taylor Deupree.

Singulum, by France Jobin

Quantum physics inspires me to draw a parallel between the
fundamental building blocs of physics, sounds and music. I put field recordings through a series of editing and manipulation processes which result in very different sounds from their origins. These manipulations affect time, timbre, harmonics and the essence of each sound, whereas composition influences how they relate to each other.

Singulum represents an unattainable goal, the process of decay while
conserving a continuation of information.

All sounds recorded at various locations in North America, Europe, and Japan and at EMS (Stockholm) using the Serge and the Buchla 200 modular synthesizers as well as the Nord Modular.

Released February 19, 2016
Cover image: Mark Hogben.
Thank you to EMS (Stockholm), Sporobole (Sherbrooke), EMPAC (Troy), Andreas Tilliander, Argeo Ascani, Fabio Perletta (Farmacia 901), Ennio Mazone (CConfin).
Special thanks to Richard Chartier and Mark Hogben

Leaves Stories (ice), by Emmanuel Toledo & Lauri Hallikainen

Leaves Stories (ice) is the third opus of the series “Leaves Stories”. 

Frozen lake, booming ice is the exquisite playground provided by Lauri, over which Emmanuel digressed and come back with mechanical sounds, old organs, ARP2600 synthesizers and diffusion effects. 

This work is based around those ‘false awakening’ experienced after exhausting walks in such landscapes.

Released March 15, 2015

Remote Redux (24bit), by James Murray & Francis M Gri

This is an elegant & evocative work. Murray & Gri develop a rich tapestry of ambient sonance — inducing the listener to delve deeper into the aural canyons of their collaborative slabs of quietude. The album, though firmly rooted in finite, recorded work, is nearly generative in its progression; and draws the active listener into a labyrinth of mesmerizing, beatless rhythm.

It presents worlds of sound that literally reverberate in the ebbing distance, even as the next wave envelops you in another, echoed, aural return — like a warm, resonant ambient hug.

We liked the environment so much that we replaced the closing composition (by a major, long-time running ambient sound-sculptor) with a track from Remote Redux on a recent mix – which can be found here.

The album can be ordered here, or at the link below, & is highly recommended!
~Ambient Landscape, November 2019
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James Murray and Francis M Gri’s Remote Redux is a delicate and original response to distance and closeness as expressed by the Japanese concept Ma, known also as negative space. It’s a place of elegant dimension where Gri’s graceful piano motifs and bowed guitar figures are carefully framed within the free flowing surrounds of Murray’s warm synth sequences and nuanced sound design.

Having released each other’s work on their Slowcraft and KrysaliSound imprints James and Francis naturally extended this exchange into a remote London-Milan collaboration. The resulting debut is an unhurried collection of exquisitely crafted minimal ambient, tender and contemplative, a listening experience that simultaneously explores and distorts our awareness of separation and togetherness.

• Released October 17, 2019
• Written, arranged, mixed & produced by James Murray & Francis M Gri
• Audio mastering by Vincent Villuis | Ultimae Studios (studios@ultimae.com)
• Artwork Design by Arnaud Galoppe & Vincent Villuis
• Photo credits : Welcomia

s e r e i n

serein – The supposed fall of dew from a clear sky just after sunset; mist or fine rain falling from an apparently clear sky.

Mixed using compositions from the Serein & Silent Records labels (+ 1 track/ea. from 12k, ECM & Ultimae*), this focuses on a return to the realm of ambient.

Artwork courtesy of . . . uhm, I forget.
80:10

01 France Jobin – Solitude 2_excerpt
02 Olan Mill – Spare Smoke Template
03 Stephen Vitiello & Taylor Deupree – Second Variation
04 Strië – 87 Billion Suns
05 Donato Wharton – In A Mute Scape
06 Rag Dun – That Place that Is, Is Not
07 Segue – Frozen
08 Benoît Pioulard – Alogia
09 Hibernis – Hibernis Bells
10 Nest – Koretz’s Meteor
11 Kryshe – Auflösung
12 Colorlist – Electricity
13 Lingua Lustra – Redshift
14 Michele Rabbia, Gianluca Petrella & Eivind Aarset – Styx
15 Imprints – Wardenclyffe Tower
16 Benjamin Dauer & Specta Ciera – Ice Train
17 James Murray & Francis M. Gri – Redux * (excerpt)

Download



[* Upcoming album review]

The Quietened Mechanisms, by A Year In The Country

The album is an exploration of abandoned and derelict industry, infrastructure, technology and equipment that once upon a time helped to create, connect and sustain society.

It wanders amongst deserted factories, discarded machinery, closed mines, mills and kilns and their echoes and remains; taking a moment or two to reflect on these once busy, functioning centres of activity and the sometimes sheer scale or amount of effort and human endeavour that was required to create and operate such structures and machines, many of which are now just left to fade away.

The CD and Bandcamp download include accompanying notes on the tracks by the contributors.


The Quietened Mechanisms is released as part of the A Year In The Country project, a set of year long journeys through spectral fields; cyclical explorations of an otherly pastoralism, the further reaches of folk culture and the spectral parallel worlds of hauntology – a wandering amongst subculture that draws from the undergrowth of the land.

As a project, it has included a website featuring writing, artwork and music which stems from that otherly pastoral/spectral hauntological intertwining, alongside a growing catalogue of album releases.

Accompanying the music releases is a book called A Year In The Country: Wandering Through Spectral Fields which gathers and revises previous writing from A Year In The Country alongside new journeyings.

The book and the written posts on the site are intended to draw together and connect layered and, at times, semi-hidden cultural pathways and signposts, journeying from acid folk to edgelands via electronic music innovators and pioneers, folkloric film and photography, dreams of lost futures and misremembered televisual tales and transmissions.


“…the first book of it’s kind to catalogue all these disparate strands, many of which cross over time and space to influence one another.” DJ Food

“…an essential field guide to a distinct aesthetic that remains loosely defined, like a fluttering night moth that would die if pinned down.” Ben Graham, Shindig!


On A Year In The Country and its previous music releases:

“A Year In The Country quietly go about their business releasing beautifully packaged music that is influenced by folk, electronica, drone as well as by landscape, time and place… each have themes running through them, tying the music together and seemingly telling a story as they unfold.” Terrascope

“…another exquisitely packaged affair… murky and ominous as befits the guiding thematic: places that are spectrally imprinted with past conflicts and struggles… a conceptual compilation of excellently eerie electronic music…” Simon Reynolds, author of Retromania and Energy Flash

“A Year In The Country… operating like some sinister rustic arts and crafts movement manifesting online via a Wi-Fi connected scrying mirror… an almanac of unearthly sonics to tide you through the winter nights.” Shindig!

“…a response to British folk traditions that acknowledges the history without seeming beholden to it.” John Coulthart, Feuilleton


www.ayearinthecountry.co.uk

Released October 2, 2018

#SomeBraveApollo

Last year (2018) marked the 25th anniversary of the release of this album.
I had a fleeting thought about this project, but it lay dormant in my head until several months ago: a re-working of Brian Eno’s landmark classic ‘Apollo‘.

The original title for this project was ‘Apollo on my Mind’ (it was later changed after I decided to close with the Diamond Dogs track); because back, w-a-y back, in the deep recesses of my mixological cranium . . . Apollo has ALWAYS been on my mind; shaping, guiding & navigating; & providing a pathway (as well as a way out) through the din.

I relied heavily on my own mix back-catalog: (what tracks had I utilized with Eno, & specifically Apollo, over the years?}. In some cases (noted in the play-list), I purposefully targeted excerpts from previous mixes (both ambient & ether-jazz), coupled with infinitely long segues, to achieve an Apollo-like aural atmosphere. Several of the tracks (where indicated*) were custom “built”; that is reconstructed, echoed, fitted with slightly longer intro/outtros; I built the last track (Bowie) first – – which was a lot of fun – blending a rock track with an ambient intro & a back piece (molded noise) due to the original, abrupt ending.

My approach to albums is that, while the compositions themselves may be great, the ordering of tracks, as well as the overall atmosphere, leaves MUCH to be desired. So I reorder & mix them with like-minded tuneage until I get something I can listen to again . . . & again. Incorporating layered tracks, ghost-editing, over-dubbing up the ying-yang & fragmented/edited tracks, I now present it for your listening pleasure
(IF you enjoy this sorta’ thing, that is . . . ).

The full Laibach STUMM433 track/video (released on MUTE) can be found here & here.

And, finally . . . one more tip of the hat to David Robert Jones (1947 ~ 2016)

01:21:07

Mixcloud

01 John Cage/Laibach – STUMM433 (excerpt)
02 Richard Chartier – Central (for M.Vainio) excerpt
03 Ambient Landscape – Matta’s Secret*
04 Daniel Lanois (ARR) & Brian Eno – The Secret Place
05 Ambient Landscape/Lowlight Mixes – Slow Decay* (excerpt)
06 Brian Eno – Matta
07 France Jobin – Singulum n_
08 Ambient Landscape – Sans Serif (opening excerpt)
09 Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois – Stars
10 Jaja – Aurigae (edit)
11 Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois – Under Stars
12 Cinchel – Drinking Tea on the Couch, Staving off a Fever
13 Brian Eno – An Ending (Ascent) w/*intro wash
14 Loscil – Monument Builders
15 Ambient Landscape – Blade Running – rework* (excerpt)
16 Zahn, Hatami & McClure – Byte
17 PCM – Par
18 David Bowie – Big Brother* (extended gibberish mix)