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Marcus Fjellström - Schattenspieler ' miacd013/mialp013    


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Swedish composer and multimedia artist Marcus Fjellström’s debut Miasmah release follows two critically acclaimed full length albums on Lampse (2006’s ‘Gebrauchsmusik’ and 2005’s ‘Exercises In Estrangement’). In addition Marcus has had several commissioned works requested, leading to him working with, among others, the Swedish Royal Ballet, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, numerous ensembles, soloists and filmmakers including ‘Salad Fingers’ creator David Firth. Currently based in Berlin, Fjellström’s compositions often combine aspects of modern classical composition and arrangement and more avant forms of music, be that acoustic or electronic.

‘Schattenspieler’ (which translates as ‘Shadowplayer’) takes the form of eleven compositions which explore ambience and melody, texture and silence. Haunting synth and orchestral instrument-based audio constructions, flowing from one moment to the next – the fleeting ghosts of Fjellström’s melodies rise, only to be buried under a claustrophobic clutter of percussion and creaking background noise. These pieces do indeed feel like you’re listening to something more implied than obviously stated, as if Fjellström wants only to expose us to the shadow of the music – the implication being perhaps a more terrifying experience than to be confronted outright…listen to ‘Schattenspieler’ and you may find your mind starts to play tricks on you…

The undeniably Angelo Badalamenti-esque descending synth strings of opening track ‘The Disjointed’, lay the foundations for Fjellström’s ‘Schattenspieler’ album; music resting somewhere between the unsettling horror soundtracks of Jerry Goldsmith, the elevating melodies of Cliff Martinez, and the subtle audio constructions of Miasmah label mates Kreng and Jacaszek. Marcus’ wide ranging abilities in composition and his willingness to let go of accepted form and function makes ‘Schattenspieler’ a perfect choice of release for the Miasmah label. The suspense laden ‘Antichrist Architechture Management’, with its harrowing and tense undertones, weaving synth lines and a wash of static hiss and flicker, is a particular standout track. Despite it’s a strangely oppressive sound, shafts of light grace ‘Schattenspieler’; pieces such as ‘Untitled 090616’ find gorgeous melodies are boxed in by unsettling arrangements and sparse background ambience. There is a coldness to many of these compositions – not without emotion, but somehow remorseless. ‘Schattenspieler’ is, for the main part, a defiantly bleak journey.

‘Schattenspieler’ also includes a four part suite ‘House Without A Door’ (tracks six to nine), which was originally commissioned for the Bernd Behr film of the same name. Album closer ‘Uncanny Valleys’, reflective in some ways of the opening track, is a haze of descending synth and organ tones. The imperfections in these often scratchy recordings makes for an alluring, almost drug- induced state of mind where all that is real is unreal. Doom-not-doom? Well, not perhaps so easy to label…it’s safe to say though, as a well grounded modern composer, Fjellström’s created something of a suitably appropriate monster in ‘Schattenspieler’.

> MARCUS FJELLSTRÖM

Coming 13th September 2010



 


 
 
   
FNS - FNS ' miacd012/mialp012    


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The latest addition to the Miasmah roster is Oslo based musician FNS aka Fredrik Ness Sevendal. A veteran of the Oslo experimental scene, Sevendal has been associated with several bands over the years: DEL, Slowburn and Kobi. Additionally his previous work has involved collaborations with Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple), Mitsuru Tabata (Zeni Geva, Marble Sheep), Mark Francombe (ex-Cranes guitarist), and Bill Wood (1/3 Octave Band).

For his Miasmah debut, FNS treats us to a spectacular excursion into the world of psych-folk instrumentals, with a collection of semi-improvised multi-layered pieces, primarily for acoustic and electric guitar and voice. These lo-fi home recordings capture a sense of astral travel, though explorations into drone, raga-styled melodies and layers of guitar feedback. The immediate allure of FNS’s spectral sound is in the understated nature of the performances – it recalls the magnetic interplay between Tom & Christina Carter’s work in Charalambides, the playful free noise of Sunburned Hand Of The Man, the ethereal blues of Loren Connors, and a variety of subtle but undeniable influences from the 70’s progressive UK folk scene.

FNS’s sound is a sorrowful sound – a death-fuzz, a hazy wailing wall of cavernous guitars, doom-freakout and swirling psychedelia, melded into one then drowned in echo and haze. FNS fires forth cosmic transmissions for the mind and spirit…the result, is nothing short of an aural treat.

> FNS

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Simon Scott - Navigare ' miacd011/mialp011    


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Simon Scott has a notable musical past: in the early 90's he was the drummer for the renowned shoegaze band Slowdive, whose acclaimed 'Souvlaki' album is still considered by many to be one of a handful of landmark releases from that scene. Upon leaving Slowdive he formed the experimental, and more electronic-based group Televise. He also set up his own label, Kesh Recordings, and has so far released titles by the likes of Hannu, Sebastian Roux, Aus and Mark Templeton. More recently Scott has been involved in several diverse projects, including his work as a member of Seavault (with Antony Ryan from Isan), and collaborations with Machinefabriek, Jasper TX and Emmanuele Errante, offering live guitar treatments, providing remix work and in turn being remixed himself. Regular appearances alongside Rafael Anton Irisarri as the live incarnation of The Sight Below (Ghostly International), have seen the duo enthralling audiences with their submerged post-Chain Reaction guitar/techno ambience. With 'Navigare', his debut solo release for Miasmah, there are shades of Scott's previous output and musical interests, but as a whole the album marks a bold new direction, taking his music into new uncharted territory.

'Navigare' opens with ‘Introduction of Cambridge’, a shimmering wall of sound, its ethereal tones and slow burning drones gradually drawing closer and closer, creating gorgeous uplifting melodies and textures. The processed guitar combined with gentle swathes of interference and underlying rhythms echoes the processes of Chain Reaction's productions as much as it does the screeching, arcing feedback lines of Kevin Shield's guitar work. If this is to be considered 'shoegaze' in any way, it's certainly a giant step in possibilities...this album is way too forward-thinking to be pigeonholed so easily. ‘Navigare’ shares an affinity with the melodic content of Fennesz's work, the dark beauty of Tim Hecker's sound, and houses elements of the restraint found in Andrew Chalk's drone compositions.

What really devastates here is Scott's ability to merge ambient passages with such memorable melodic cycles, taking at times the simplest of ideas and building on them, generating murky hooks and submerged 'riffs' - melodies are initially buried beneath a haze of sound, and then over time are lifted to the forefront. Scott explores textures using a variety of instruments including sitar, violin, cello, and flute, merging them with excerpts of field recordings; it all sounds so effortless. The looping rhythms and slow guitars rise and grow, at times approaching something oppressive; select pieces such as ‘Flood Inn’ house an underlying weight, comparable to Justin K. Broderick's Jesu and Final projects. Perhaps the hazy drums, bass and guitar drift of ‘The ACC’ presents the most recognizable of stylistic qualities from Scott’s back catalogue; a groove that recalls the ‘Souvlaki’ era sound in all its glory, reimagined in a new, darker and more expansive form.

There is a less academic, more 'organic' approach to composition here than the recent, equally spectacular run of Miasmah titles, which include Elegi's 'Varde' and Kreng's 'L'Autopsie Phénoménale De Dieu'. As such, fans of the label will no doubt be enthralled by the diversity. Additionally, a guest appearance from label mate Jasper TX, a vocal contribution from Moskitoo (12K), and a track co-written with Rafael Anton Irisarri (also of Miasmah), adds even more depth to Scott’s already ambitious vision.

> SIMON SCOTT

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Kreng - L'Autopsie Phenomenal de dieu ' miacd010/mialp010  

‘Noise lost the power to insult. Silence hasn’t’ – John Cage

On initial listening, ‘L’Autopsie Phenomenale De Dieu’ immediately presents itself as a fully-realised body of work, with focus, flow and continuity. It may therefore come as a surprise to discover that the album mainly comprises recordings created for a variety of separate theatre productions, and even more of a surprise to learn that the compositions found here are sample-based constructions. The pieces incorporate sounds and material from a variety of sources: free-jazz, new electronic generated sounds, classical modernism and vintage geographical recordings. The subtleties of the techniques Kreng has employed in the creation of theses pieces is simply stunning.

Discordant segments of wailing top-end violins give way to clunking rhythmic passages of metal marimbas and tuned percussion; free roaming passages of rasping low-end brass and the shuffle of free jazz. recalling the work of Prestige-era Moondog, as well as aspects of Harry Partch’s instrumentation via mid- to latterday period Tom Waits, are all at work here. Atonal ambiance and slow builds, eerie segues into low murk, and a haunting solo soprano voice are all pulled together to make perfect sense, often in terrifying ways. The creative process in Kreng’s twisted soundscapes works perhaps in parallel with the abstract and often disturbing work of the Abattoir Fermé theatre company, which has used many of the scores found here in a variety of their productions. In this context, the dark and threatening moods the album creates suggest it may house more subversive, ritualistic, even occult undertones; Kreng’s music is based upon the possibility of silence as a confrontational weapon.

‘L’Autopsie Phenomenale De Dieu’ also features suitably twisted artwork coordinated by Erik Skodvin, and, aside from scoring over twenty theatre and dance productions, Kreng has been involved in several collaborative projects with various members of Belgium’s musical underground, including producing a remix for Badawi's ‘Unit Of Resistance’ album (aka Raz Mesinai - Tzadik ).

> KRENG

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Elegi - Varde ' miacd009    


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This winter, Norwegian composer Elegi (Tommy Jansen) returns with ‘Varde’, the second installment of a trilogy on Miasmah Recordings. ‘Varde’ (translates: cairn - a pile of stones, used as a monument or marker), tells the story of the pioneer polar explorers who risked their lives to go to some of the most hostile places on earth, to conquer land and to ‘triumph’, over the elements. Inspired by this, Elegi’s music explores the feelings those brave men must have felt, as they went into the unknown, well aware that they might never see their families again. Ice cold winds and blizzards, creaking ice, stormy waters, constant hunger, isolation, disease and death, provide the basis for the music, depicting the immensity and scale of these great white landscapes.

‘Varde’ is an incredibly accomplished body of work, its natural progression of movements transporting the listener through cinematic soundscapes and evocative passages of intense, doom-laden, droning acoustic instruments. The eerie, underlying sounds taken from seemingly unrecognizable sources, add to the feelings of unresolved tension, and with them bring into focus the ambition of the compositions - the likes of which can be found in the later work of Scott Walker.

The album’s opening tracks, it could be suggested, recall aspects of the slow-build of Gorecki’s 3rd Symphony, with the murk of Gavin Bryars’ ‘The Sinking Of The Titanic’ album; a hollow-sounding and desolate part-composed/part-improvised harmony. A sorrowful solo violin emerging from the abstract ambience sets the tone for this journey, musically a reflection of the lonely voyager’s terrain; something at once so utterly desolate yet so equally staggering in its awe-inspiring beauty. As the journey progresses, the compositions shift through the barren lands, instilling an array of emotions; despair and confusion, loss, hope and determination, always with a constant and unrelenting sense of movement forward.

This time around Tommy wanted to bring in extra help from musicians he admired, to give the record an extra dimension, with violin, percussion, double bass and musical saw. Elegi operates in the area between composed and improvised music, building bridges between classical music and dark ambient drones and textures. It's often difficult to tell where the music ends and the sound-design begins. His love for Victorian story telling shines through as expected. Imagine Edgar Allan Poe as a music composer and you might get an idea of what this sounds like.

> ELEGI

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Jasper TX - Black Sleep ' miacd008    


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2007 saw Dag Rosenqvist, the man behind the Jasper TX moniker, carefully feed a handful of releases to a hungry public. Varied in both their format and their sound, all helped to further establish Rosenqvist as one of the most interesting musicians in his field. ‘Black Sleep’, in a way, feels like the album he has been building up to for some time now, like all his previous experience in creating haunting, oft-beautiful soundscapes has been harvested and fine-tuned for this album. Originally conceived as one continuous track, ‘Black Sleep’ is no random collection of songs – it is one work, one statement. Ambitious as it may be, it’s impossible to deny its resounding success.

As is often the case with Jasper TX’s music, the guitar plays a prominent role. This album sees every conceivable sound caressed and tortured from the instrument, from the romantic and direct chimes of ‘Pt III’ to the distant whisper of ‘Pt. IV’. Rosenqvist states Oren Ambarchi, Johann Johannsson, Arvo Part and Tim Hecker amongst his influences – something that gives some insight into the sound and scale of this release. Impossible to explain in simple terms, comparisons could also be made to Deathprod, with sounds slowly emerging and disappearing into thick clouds of murky warmth. The sheer scale and focus on display here also shows Rosenqvist’s knowledge of Classical music, and in a way ‘Black Sleep’ is akin to a symphony – its orchestra made from guitars, pianos and synthesizers instead of the usual strings and brass.

‘Black Sleep’ is possibly one of Rosenqvist’s darkest moments, but that doesn’t make the album any more enjoyable to listen to. Its moments of bleakness are somewhat in tribute to the soundtracks and visual artistry of David Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Drive’. This is music for rainy days spent indoors, looking out towards a vacant street while tracing the build up and release of condensation droplets.

> JASPER TX

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Jacaszek - Treny ' miacd007 / mialp007    


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Michal Jacaszek's 'Treny' is the seventh release from Norway's Miasmah label - a label that has already created a unique and distinctive identity for itself through a string of releases existing in the darker side of the musical spectrum. Bringing together a variety of musicians and composers from around the world, each artist shares a similar aesthetic and a penchant for introspective, lamenting, classically-influenced music. With this in mind, no better home comes to mind for the new album by Poland's Jacaszek - in fact, it could even be argued that 'Treny' typifies the Miasmah 'sound' and encapsulates everything that is so gripping about the label right now.

The opening track, 'Rytm to Niesmiertelnosc I', sets the dimly-lit scene perfectly. A beautifully arranged string quartet and a lonesome female voice are framed with waves of distant underwater rumbles and creaks, with fragments of harp occasionally breaking to surface to release mournful motifs onto the dense musical canvas. It could be argued that the talent that Mr. Jacaszek holds is in his perfect blending of acoustic and electronic sounds, inasmuch that it is hard to tell where tape loops end and forlorn violin melodies begin.

By the beginning of the second piece, the appropriately titled 'Lament', Jacaszek has already firmly established a sound for himself. Clearly influenced by the liturgical compositions of Henryk Gorecki or John Tavener, with a healthy pinch of Angelo Badalamenti's mood-setting soundscapes, Jacaszek manages to find his own niche somewhere between Murcof and Francois Tetaz's indispensible score for 'Wolf Creek' - somewhere dark and mysterious but ultimately beautifully rewarding and moving.

There are traces of optimism in these songs, and as the album ends with 'Rytm to Niesmiertelnosc II', the clouds turn from a heavy grey to a uplifting palette of autumnal shades as a subtle rhythm emerges to gently guide the listener into lighter pastures. Despite the somewhat uplifting ending, as the last note strikes you may find yourself wanting to turn back into the darkness and start the whole adventure again. Wrap up warm, and carry enough supplies for many years of repeated listening...

> JACASZEK

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Gultskra Artikler - Kasha iz Topora ' miacd006    


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Last time we came across Russian pranksters Gultskra Artikler they were a duo comprising of Alexey Devyanin and Dmitry Garin, but since the release of the haunting 'Pofigistka' on the Lampse label in 2006, Garin has left the band leaving Devyanin to come up with the most definitive Gultskra Artikler statement to date; 'Kasha Iz Topora'.

The entire record, which plays continuously through its hour-long duration, is set to a fairytale written by a friend of Devayanin, detailing the adventures of a man with an axe that makes flying porridge (based on a traditional Russian tale) - quite some distance then from the Little Red Riding Hood then. The macabre elements of the disc's storyline provides ample source material for Devayanin to weave his processed darkness in and out of folk-tinged guitar parts, knee-trembling vocals and all manner of other obscure instrumentation.

'Kasha Iz Topora' is one of those records that truly sounds on its own in an overpopulated music scene, and while this is possibly due to the location of the recording (how many records can you honestly say you own from Russia?) it is more likely that Devyanin has developed his windswept sound stories over years of careful experimentation and fine-tuning.

Hailing from Novosibirsk in Siberia he has much to draw influence from in his new Moscow home; a place that can reach a startling -40 degrees Celsius in winter. Wrapping up warm and constructing choppy experimental music on an archaic personal computer was one of only very few ways of keeping his mind off the intense world outside, busying himself crafting his sound and taking in influence from such artists as Leafcutter John, Jackie O Motherfucker and Todd Dockstader.

It is clear on 'Kasha Iz Topora' that Devyanin has chiselled his craft to a fine point going far beyond so much else in contemporary electronic music - this is a new stage in the development of not only Gultskra Artikler but the ever-growing Miasmah label which seems to be broadening its horizons rapidly. If you give this album the time and let yourself fall into its cryptic story, you may find the strangest and most involving record you could hear this year.

> GULTSKRA ARTIKLER

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Elegi - Sistereis ' miacd005    


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Since last year’s ‘Knive’ from Svarte Greiner (Miasmah boss Erik Skodvin) the world has been waiting eagerly for the next addition to the acoustic doom canon. Maybe fitting then that it should also come from Oslo, as we all know that Norway is home to everything that is dark and all that is desolate. ‘Sistereis’ is the debut solo release from Tommy Jansen aka Elegi, a man who besides crafting effortlessly mysterious Lynchian soundscapes takes time out of his everyday life to go wreck-diving. For those of you unfamiliar with this sport, it involves diving into the deep sea to explore shipwrecks; empty maritime museums of lost life and forgotten history. This deep obsession is reflected in the album’s title ‘Sistereis’ which is a word used for a ship’s doomed final voyage, a theme which is followed closely throughout the recording.

It is hardly surprising then that Jansen, an experienced studio engineer and classically trained musician took his love of sound into the deep seas and while diving made reel upon reel of waterlogged recordings. These passages of sound, which Jansen believes capture the ghosts of the shipwrecks, formed the basis of many of the album’s tracks and if you listen very closely you hear the deep seas rumbling around you. Within the haunted piano melodies and scraping of damp wood there are much deeper, much more frightening sounds to be heard – and using his personal knowledge of all things watery Jansen has truly created the next chapter in the black book of acoustic doom. Where better to find influence for such music than the frightening world of forgotten souls that is the sea, and while the choppy blue expanse may have lent itself to many an album, there is something devastatingly original about Jansen’s approach. Maybe it is down to his deep historical knowledge or maybe it is down to simple compositional skill but it is almost impossible to listen to ‘Sistereis’ without being thrust into a blackened world of stormy waters and drifting bodies.

A truly epic record which is sure to appeal to fans of Earth, Wolfmangler, Angelo Badalamenti and of course Svarte Greiner this is something for the darker nights. Turn the lights down low, make sure the windows are locked tightly and drift away – just watch out for that rolling fog, there’s no telling what the seas might bring…

> ELEGI

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Rafael Anton Irisarri - Daydreaming ' miacd004    


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Seattle-based multi instrumentalist Rafael Anton Irisarri is the latest in a growing number of electronic musicians returning to that hallowed of instruments – the piano. It has become something of a cliché now for the electronic musician to turn to the humble keys in the hope of adding something organic into the mix, but it would be frivolous to pass ‘Daydreaming’ off in such a manner. Rather than an electronic album with elements of piano, ‘Daydreaming’ sounds like a record written for piano which somehow manages to utilise current technology in its production. As the drifting synthesizers lap around the feet of a majestic piano part in the album’s opening track ‘Waking Expression’ it is startlingly clear that there is more to Irisarri than mere stereotyping. Rather this is a carefully constructed soundtrack to your most intriguing dreams, the dreams you might remember for a split second before losing everything, only to have images creep up on you some time later. Those of you left spellbound by Deaf Center’s haunting and beautiful ‘Pale Ravine’ album will be pleased to know that ‘Daydreaming’ continues in the tradition of murky, theatrical and deeply imaginative music quite wonderfully. Even Lynch is hinted at again with the album’s clear highlight ‘Lumberton’ (possibly a reference to Blue Velvet’s troubled small-town) and as the emotive piano shimmers around radio static and lightly picked guitar it is impossible not to get drawn into the shattered American dream. This is rich, visual music showing a dark, melancholic side to American life and captured perfectly by an artist unafraid to bear his soul to the world. Uncluttered and subtly realised, ‘Daydreaming’ is maybe best summed up as it draws to a close with a gaseous ambience, drawing you in for the last time before the inevitable repeat play. Pure, uninterrupted bliss.

> RAFAEL ANTON IRISARRI

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Greg Haines - Slumber Tides ' miacd003    


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Hearing the expertly constructed and deeply sensitive post-classical pieces featured on ‘Slumber Tides’ it is difficult to comprehend that the musician is only a mere 18 years of age. Harking from the boredom filled lands of Greater Surrey in England, Haines quickly tired of school life and found himself immersed in music, and in a move indicative of the current trend of our disillusioned youth, became obsessed with the intrigue of experimental sound. Travelling through Europe whenever he could and sleeping on the floors of musicians he would contact by email he quickly built up a network of friends, most importantly in Oslo, Norway where he spent time with Deaf Center’s Erik Skodvin (who also runs the Miasmah imprint) and his collaborator Kristin Evensen Giaver who contributes her haunting vocals on a number of Haines’ tracks. In Sweden Haines met up with Lampse’s Dag Rosenqvist (Jasper TX) who kindly provided his pump organ skills and was another important musical influence in Haines’ journey, helping him to return home with a sense of Europe and a sense of unity far more mature than his years would suggest. This nomadic existence is represented beautifully on the album, which opens majestically with ‘Snow Airport’ a slowly building work of looped cello sounds played by Haines himself. The structure is similar in sound to the phasing experiments of Steve Reich or the electronic/acoustic works of Ryan Teague but Haines has injected enough of his own personality and experience to give the compositions a distinct sense of gravitas and a refreshing narrative. The second piece ‘Submergence’ builds over nine minutes with Kristin Evensen Giaver’s shimmering vocals drifting over waves of cello and subtle electronic structures until it reaches an almost cacophonous peak and dips into breathless squeaks and groans. By the time we reach the album’s centrepiece and highlight ‘Arups Gate’ we have already been on a rich emotional journey, but Haines doesn’t let off yet, instead he takes us even further into epic territory with xylophone and glockenspiel tones serving as the backbone of the track as those signature cello sounds swoop overhead. This track feels as if it could be married with any number of films or stories – yet Haines shows an incredible sense of restraint never letting the music get too melodramatic or overdone. For a debut album ‘Slumber Tides’ is a simply remarkable accomplishment, and a clear indication that we will be hearing a great deal more from Greg Haines.

> GREG HAINES

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Encre - Plexus II ' miacd002

   


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Frenchman Encre aka Yann Tambour has already amassed an extensive and diverse back catalogue of titles in his brief recording career. Though each has been as acclaimed as the next, with particular focus on the stunning 'Plux' released in 2004, this new disc is arguably his most personal and awe inspiring release to date.

The aforementioned 'Flux' album ended with the track that gave birth to 'Plexus II', and in it's second act Tambour experienced a rush of creative imagination forcing him to explore not only the use of electronic devices (as a dismissal to the previously strictly overbearing classical framework) but also to create music of warmth and uplifting spiritualism via multiple processed string instruments. These instruments morph slowly into different shapes and sizes, drifting, ebbing and flowing in a loosely looped framework not unlike the work of Steve Reich.

Inspired by Japanese Butoh dancers and named after the solar plexus the piece is most influenced by the old school of Gorecki, Tony Conrad, La Monte Young and Terry Riley, yet Tambour has managed to inject this reverence with a distinctly contemporary feeling, bringing to mind the work of Max Richter, Johann Johannsson or even Deaf Center. There is no shortage of contemporary classical music at the moment, but rarely is it approached with such pensive ease - Yann Tambour has surely crafted a disc which will serve to inspire many composers, electronic or otherwise, to come.

> ENCRE

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V/A - Silva ' miacd001

   


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Silva’ is the debut release from Norwegian-based label Miasmah, yet it is by no means their first foray into the music scene. After working as a net-label releasing MP3 albums and EPs for years, they have already racked up over 60 releases, featuring artists such as Helios, Paavoharju and Deaf Center. No surprise then that holding the reigns at Miasmah is Erik Skodvin, one half of the aforementioned and always mysterious Deaf Center. While compiling this compilation, Skodvin asked artists he had worked with and who he admired to create a track with a theme in mind; theatrical and dark organic music. Hearing Deaf Center’s most recent album ‘Pale Ravine’ would give you a good idea on this sound, yet Skodvin wanted to take it further, and in doing so he has managed to collect up some of the best artists working in the genre at the moment. Opening the compilation is newcomer Makunouchi Bento who contributes a solemn piano piece, before Type mainstay Julien Neto launches into ‘Ninety Four’, which is the first we’ve heard of him since his breathtaking debut album. City Centre Offices double act Yasume also make an extremely rare appearance with new track ‘Wakare’ (which for those interested means ‘Farewell’ in Japanese…), a Lynchian fusion of strings and digitally enhanced beats. Marsen Jules, also of City Centre Offices, offers up yet more of the droney orchestral goodness we have come to love with ‘Rainy Days in Milan’, and Type’s Ryan Teague takes the orchestral theme even further with a dark violin piece, guaranteed to send shivers down your spine. As the record comes to a close, with the blood curdling tryptich of Dead Center, Svarte Greiner (Erik Skodvin’s solo project) and Lampse’s Jasper TX one thing is on your mind, to press play once more and re-live the darkly mysterious dreamscape that is ‘Silva

1) MAKUNOUCHI BENTO “Piacente”
2) JULIEN NETO “Ninety Four”
3) YASUME “Wakare”
4) GULTSKRA ARTIKLER “Mehanik”
5) LIBRARY TAPES “The scratches on the window on the door of each cell”
6) MARSEN JULES “Rainy days in Milan”
7) RYAN TEAGUE “Study for prepared violin”
8) GREG HAINES “The Tired Diary (edit)”
9) DEAF CENTER “Low Field”
10) SVARTE GREINER “Traditional wood on trees”
11) ) JASPER TX “July”

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