Shimmering Moods is mostly known for releasing ambient albums, so it is a pleasant surprise to find a field recording work in its latest batch, released this coming Friday.  But it’s not all field recording; in the closing piece, Dominic Sambucco infuses the project with a dose of tribal trance, tying the set together. La Madreselva is “the protective spirit of nature,” honored by the Witotos and the Ticunas.  During his travels through the Amazon, Sambucco observed the effects of environmental degradation: for example, strip-mining that short-changes the planet of vital resources wh ..read more

Heartbreak is such a universal experience that it has inspired generations of songs; but after a while, the same old songs grow weary, unable to capture the depths of despair, the nuance of mixed feelings, the anger and continued desire, the soul-searching and reassessment.  Instead of more words, perhaps we need less: a new loss language.  This is where Tegh and Adel Poursamadi come in. After You Left brings all these things to the table and more, wringing out the listener in a way that may produce catharsis. The duo’s second collaboration is “a love story full of doubt ..read more

With her background in film – shooting, editing, and scoring her own work and the work of others – it’s easy to understand why Armenian-American musician Lara Sarkissian’s swaggering, dizzying new EP, Born of the Sea, has such a cinematic feel. But it’s her musical talents and instincts that make it the evocative feast that it is. Every track is thickly layered with swirling textures and deep, in-the-pocket rhythms that can pound forward with the earth-shaking thud of a square-wheeled tank or open out onto heart-stopping vistas, often in the same song. Floating above or braided ..read more

I Can See Our House From Here is the prototypical Alien Transistor LP: bright-toned, with pop-like art and a hint of nostalgia.  On the cover, inside jokes and references abound: a banana taped to a wall, a barrel of monkeys, an angry apple. Andi Haberl has been recording for many years as a member of Notwist, Alien Ensemble and other bands, but this is the drummer’s first solo album. Although the LP is upbeat, at times reminiscent of múm’s happiest years, its origin is rather sad.  After the artist’s parents split up, they sold the house he grew up in.  After this, he was ..read more

Kraków’s okła records unveils its second batch of tapes next week, showcasing intriguing typography and colorful collaged art that draw the listener in before pressing play.  Wojtek Kiwer‘s Disconnect is billed as a suite of modular improvisations, but they have so much form that the phrase may lead people astray.  Instead, the cover collage itself is the best indication of what the music will sound like. When the listener is greeted with a piano loop, the impression is ambient, with a suggestion of modern composition.  But the music will refuse to stay in this arena ..read more

Some events in my personal life have slowed down the completion of the next episode of Sound Propositions, but since it’s been a while since our last mix, in the meanwhile it seemed an appropriate time to share a new one. Balkan signs comes courtesy of my longtime friend and collaborator Stefan Christoff, a Montreal-based musician and community organizer who has created many memorable mixes for this site over the years, here joined by Toni Dimitrov (Acidfake, Private Mountain, Post Global). In addition to his work as a DJ and producer, for over two decades, Toni has run various labels fr ..read more

Perseverance is the first part of the ambitious four-part Borders series, with a new movement unveiled every six months until the series is complete.  The album titles are inspired by Yoko Ono and refer to the four seasons; the initial installment matches up with winter.  The overall project, however, tackles much more immediate issues. When hearing the word borders, one thinks of the various border crises unfolding around the world.  When Euan Alexander Millar McMeeken began writing this album, many of these crises had reached a tipping point: Brexit, Scottish in ..read more

Two years ago, multi-faceted Yukon artist Dalton Alexander self-released a lovely, home-spun debut called Almost Home If I Disappear.  Unfortunately, it was buried in the Christmas rush.  A year later, he followed this release with I Wonder How Many Are Still Alive, in the kinder musical month of November.  This year, LAAPS Records’ Mathias fell in love with the artist’s output and is now presenting it to a larger audience.  Almost Home If I’m Still Alive contains the entire first album, rounded out by three tracks from the second, with slightly revised ..read more

Where do field recordings end and imitations begin? At some point, will imitations be all that remain?  The creation of artificial audiospheres has been popular for centuries, ever since classical musicians started imitating birds.  The latest wave of such recordings seems to have started with Kate Carr’s false dawn a year ago, but Twittering Machines, which began as an installation, precedes that.  On this single two-sided composition, Kathy Hinde toys with interpretations of the live, the pre-recorded and the manipulated, using turntables and electronics to proc ..read more

What makes a community? What is it that gives us the feeling that we belong? How much must community members have in common, and how different can they be? OPIA started out as a one day festival run by Ólafur Arnalds and has since morphed into an artist community and a promising record label. OPIA Collection 001 is its second release after Silent Stories from Sofi Paez, which we reviewed here. Back in 2015 Richard Allen, our main writer, wrote a great article called How To Be The Next Ólafur Arnalds. If you read it again now, almost a decade later, it’s remarkably prescient, as if he’s antici ..read more