Utility Fog

Sunday, 19th of February, 2017

More new music for you tonight, on a more or less ambient tip, from dark drones and sub-bass to delicate guitar.

LISTEN AGAIN for the immersive ambient experience – stream on demand from FBi, podcast here.

I came across the Portuguese avant garde guitarist Norberto Lobo a while ago and haven’t kept track of his music, but I’m glad to discover via the latest Below The Radar compilation from The Wire that he’s still making extremely interesting music. It’s hard to imagine this piece being played on guitar – but I assume that somewhere in there the source material is guitar.

Also originally performed on guitar by Perth artist Jameson Feakes is the next piece, composed by Josten Myburgh, from the first in a series of remix EPs from the Tone List label. Perth artist Atripat is on remix duties here, turning the experimental guitar music into something abstract and electronic.

12k‘s Taylor Deupree has been involved in a considerable number of collaborations over the last few years, but it’s been almost 4 years since the in-demand mastering engineer last released a solo album. Somi is an exquisitely patient, slow-moving release in which an electric piano plays languid melodic musical figures and sparse field recordings float around a softly reverberant space. It’s lovely.

German artist Arovane developed a following in the late ’90s for his icy take on IDM – windswept melodies and razor-sharp beats. A few years back he returned to producing music, some of it in the same style, but a lot of it much more ambient. Tonight we hear him working with the Iranian artist Porya Hatami, who we’ve encountered on this show before courtesy of the Australian label Flaming Pines. Hatami pushes the sounds into a more field recording-oriented direction, with more acoustic sounds entering the picture than in Arovane’s solo work. It’s an absorbing release.

I played a beautiful track from UK guitarist Seabuckthorn last week on the show featuring bowed guitar, one that will feature on his new album later this year from US label Lost Tribe Sound. That’s a technique that Andy Cartwright uses a fair bit in his music, but as we heard tonight he’s extremely adept at beautiful fingerpicking guitar and other more rhythmic styles as well. You can pick up his older releases (including the tracks heard tonight) on his Bandcamp, and there’s a new album out on Lost Tribe Sound later this year.

Montreal-based cellist Alder & Ash is also released on Lost Tribe Sound and was heard last week on the show – this album is being re-released in a limited CD edition soon, with a follow-up album coming out later in the year. While there’s a lot of lovely acoustic cello in there, he’s not afraid to process the instrument, producing heavy bass thumps and distorted melodies, with a dark, processional mood reminiscent of doom metal. Looking forward to what comes next from him.

Scottish sound artist Joshua Sabin‘s debut album appears on the Bristol-based Subtext Recordings label this week, and it’s very well suited to that label, with ominous sub bass and fluttering, whirling processed sounds abounding. It’s apparently produced from processed field recordings made in transit around Kyoto, Tokyo and Berlin, as well as “electromagnetic field recordings” from Edinburgh & Glasgow. For all that, it’s very musical with evolving harmonies and rhythmic elements.

Tonight I’m very excited to play you some tracks from the new collaboration from Swedish drone & sound artist Dag Rosenqvist (previously known as Jasper TX) & Scottish composer & sound artist Matthew Collings. It’s their second time working together, after a mini-album on Hibernate back in 2012, and both are full of beauty and surging noise. This album is released on Denovali later this week, and I’m sure you’ll love it – it’s got the best of both of these wonderful artists, from Dag’s big crescendos and plaintive piano, Matt’s clarinets and glitches, and the crackling, bass-heavy noise they both love.
I also managed to neglect to play anything from Dag’s beautiful solo album elephant when it was released last year on Dronarivm, so we heard a long track tonight. It’s a truly beautiful musical statement and well worth your time.

Dutch brothers Romke and Jan Kleefstra have been collaborating with other experimental Dutch artists for some time, including Machinefabriek, and their trio with another Dutch artist, Anne Chris Bakker, is now on to a few releases too. It features Romke Kleefstra and Bakker on strummed, thwacked and droned guitars and Jan Kleefstra intoning spoken word – and it’s always surprising to me how absorbing and comforting it is hearing these works even though I don’t understand the Frisian dialect Kleefstra speaks in (let alone any other Dutch)…

Italian percussionist & electro-acoustic musician Andrea Belfi, as well as playing drums with a tonne of indie, postrock and experimental musicians, has by now released a stack of solo records featuring his subtle percussion and idiosyncratic electronics. His latest album is out through French publisher IIKKI as a photo book + LP. In the book, Matthias Heiderich‘s photography explores the urban architecture of Italy, and the music is inspired by these visuals. By and large, it’s quiet and mysterious stuff in keeping with Belfi’s other solo work.

Norberto Lobo – Solesticio [three:fourthree:four via The Wire]
Jameson Feakes & Josten Myburgh – a window in Sicily (Atripat remix) [Tone List]
Taylor Deupree – Aoka [12k]
arovane + porya hatami – SpeCreature [Karl Records]
arovane + porya hatami – (rhizOme) [Karl Records]
arovane + porya hatami – Micro Organism [Karl Records]
Seabuckthorn – Returnee [Lost Tribe Sound]
Seabuckthorn – I Could See The Smoke [Lost Tribe Sound]
Alder & Ash – Ikejime [Lost Tribe Sound]
Alder & Ash – At Night in the Slaughterhouse [Lost Tribe Sound]
Joshua Sabin – Terminus Drift [Subtext Recordings]
Joshua Sabin – U12 [Subtext Recordings]
Dag Rosenqvist & Matthew Collings – You don’t have to tell me about hell [Denovali]
Dag Rosenqvist – In All the Hours of Every Day [Dronarivm]
Matthew Collings & Dag Rosenqvist – Wonderland Part One [Hibernate/Matthew Collings Bandcamp/Dag Rosenqvist Bandcamp]
Dag Rosenqvist & Matthew Collings – Streets [Denovali]
Dag Rosenqvist & Matthew Collings – Renaissance [Denovali]
Kleefstra Bakker Kleefstra – De Holle as Asem [Midira Records]
Andrea Belfi – vano [IIKKI]
Andrea Belfi – abito [IIKKI]

Listen again — ~186MB

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