September 2010
32 posts
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Erik K Skodvin & Sonic Pieces
Erik K Skodvin is unbelievably creative Norwegian. With Deaf Center he created one of last decade’s best albums. Cinematic landscapes, dark unsettling musical fogs of Pale Ravine belong to the best that imaginative and experimental ambient offers. Under his second moniker, Svarte Greiner, he explores much darker and murkier places. Somewhere between the area of our fears and nightmares and...
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James Blake: Klavierwerke
James Blake belongs to the most promising names of today’s electronic scene. His mash-up of dubstep, garage and funky (from time to time) is a really tasty cocktail that is not just amusing and dancey, but also nuanced and inspiring. His latest release, CMYK, was built on 90’s R&B that is becoming increasingly trendy. Apart all the trends, James Blake pieces fresh and thoughtful....
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Peter Broderick: Music For Contemporary Dance
Peter Broderick must be a restless human being. Just few days after releasing his ‘How They Are’ album that captures him in acoustic & singing inner-looking moods (read about it here), another musical piece is ready to hit your ears. And souls as well. ‘Music For Contemporary Dance’ is being released as a double vinyl on Erased Tapes label and contains two of his...
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SBTRKT: Dubstep with melody & emotions
Dubstep scene is these days increasingly overcrowded. Narcotic rhythms aren’t the basic magic anymore and DJs must deliver something more. Subduing their listeners has many faces but some of them proved to be just on their halfway. Just one example that is valid for many is the latest Skream’s album with its schizophrenia between pop, dubstep and d’n’b. Often, it’s...
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Daníel Bjarnason: Symfonická búrka z rozdivočeného... →
Daníel Bjarnason je mladý dirigent a komponista, ktorý počas svojej kariéry spolupracoval ako s komorným orchestrom Ísafold, londýnskou Sinfonietou, tak asistoval aj známym menám z indie scény: Sigur Rós, Ólöf Arnalds, či Valgeirovi Sigurðssonovi. Napriek tomu, že poukazovanie na islandskú prírodu sa stáva klišé, bohatá hudobná scéna tohto ostrova strateného medzi Európou a Severnou...
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Anoraak & Sally Shapiro: Don't be afraid
Summer is leaving slowly, but surely, but it’s still time for having some sun-glaring song. Sally Shapiro, Swedish pseudo-mysterious glittery indie-disco diva recorded a track with French disco-boss Anoraak. 80’s are back and so is naïve, but functional synthpop. Cute. Download their collaboration, ‘Don’t be afraid’ for free from Anoraak’s page.
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“Can nothingness increase?
If something returns to nothing it becomes zero, but...”
– Haruki Murakami - Kafka On the Shore
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“You sip a liquor as burning as your life
Your life you drain like an...”
– Guillaume Apollinaire - Alcools
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“Do people start wars out of anger? Or fear?
Or are anger and fear just two...”
– Haruki Murakami: Kafka On the Shore
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Olan Mill: Pine
Beauty is the most fitting word for the stunning music of Olan Mill. The duo consists of Alex Smalley and Svitlana Samoylenko who use vast musical surfaces, incorporating piano, violins, guitar and pipe organ, to create emotive and dreamy master-pieces. Their debut album, Pine (out on Serein label), is based on a cute contrast: great musical fields that spread into uncountable echoes and...
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Ólöf Arnalds: Innundir Skinni →
What is it like to enter someone else’s body and be them for a while, having a knowledge of yourself but fully enjoying the time inside of the other body? What is it to be not yourself? Perhaps these were not the conceptual intentions Ólöf Arnalds had for this second album, but Innundir Skinni (”within skin”) gives such an impression. The album’s nine songs ring out with the sound of a mature...
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Hauschka: Foreign Landscapes
German pianist Volker Bertelmann is well-known for his playfulness and willingness to experiment with every sound his piano can make. Once, he prepares it with foils, gaffa tape, or guitar strings; another time records its pure rawness without any artificial improvements. Just his fingers touching the keyboard.
After experimenting with preparation and reviving memories from his childhood...
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The Radio Dept.: The new improved hypocrisy
It’s hard not to love The Radio Dept.. Their indie-pop music is beautifully polished, but not synthetic or artificially fabricated. Their lyrics are simple and straightforward, but still retain depth of the idea. Their shoegaze-moments are just very slight, but their sound contains that key natural rawness and spontaneity. While recording their latest album, ‘Clinging To a...
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Steve Reich: Double Sextet 2x5
Release of new work by once-visionary composer Steve Reich happened in surprising silence. Not many listeners became excited that this approx. millionth composition of legendary Reich is coming and reviews of this double-work are very few as well. It’s surprising and supposedly sad too, that talking about this important figure of contemporary classical movement is so soundless. Minimalism...
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“In everybody’s life there’s a point of no return.
And in every few...”
– Haruki Murakami - Kafka On The Shore
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Arcade Fire: Veľké slová súčasných kráľov indie... →
Arcade Fire sú kanadská skupina, ktorá ide do všetkého vo veľkom, s myšlienkami v podobe sloganov a jasným konceptom. Po šiestich rokoch vyhrievania sa na piedestáli nezávislej hudby sa na novom albume vracajú naspäť v čase: do obdobia dospievania, života na predmestiach a snov o “veľkom,” dospelom svete. Priam nezdravá dávka nostalgie a mladíckej energie sa preklopila do 16 skladieb...
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Raime: When dubstep is even darker, slower and...
Darkness is closely bound to mysteriousness and thrilling paranoia. Slower tempos, lower basses, filtered voices, whispers and dissonant layers of synthesizers. Through the murky minimalism come Raime, whose debut EP (buy it at Boomkat) is released via appropriately named Blackest Ever Black label. Resident Advisor made an interesting interview with its founder, Kiran Sande. Almost nothing is...
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Fever Ray: Mix-tape full of weird stuff she likes
Karin Dreijer Andersson is traveling round Europe once again changing her visuals from pagan rituals to 60’s horror. Of course, with assistance of creative power Andreas Nilsson. Androgynous look is trendy in the weird world of Fever Ray once again and so is African pop, Meredith Monk and M.I.A in that musical one. Along with a short interview where she claims being an atheist (what a...
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Peter Broderick: How They Are
Peter Broderick releases new record this month, ‘How They Are.’ Listening to its first song, this new album/EP (containing 7 songs) will sound like a mixture of his past projects. Minimalistic piano of “Sideline” reminds his ‘Float’ full-length, fragile singing with a sincere lyrics is reminiscent of his acoustic and bit folksy ‘Home.’
Hearing...
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Julia Kent: Last Day In July
Julia Kent is one of the three contemporary cello-princesses along with Hildur Guðnadóttir (review of her “Without Sinking”) and Zoë Keating (her ‘Optimist’ single for free). After her impressive debut, ‘Delay,’ that was released in 2007, she prepared another musical delicacy. ‘Last Day In July’ contains “just” four cello-pieces but...
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Nico Muhly: I Drink The Air Before Me
Nico Muhly’s new contribution to elite Bedroom Community label is called ‘I Drink The Air Before Me.’ As You would expect, it’s rich on classical arrangements, nuanced melodies and top-notch orchestral/solo performances. You can listen to two of these songs on Nico’s Bandcamp profile. Really, worth of checking.
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Kyle Bobby Dunn Vám zahrá pre pokojné sny →
Kyle Bobby Dunn je mladý minimalista, ktorý medzi svojimi inšpiráciami uvádza Arvo Pärta, Maurica Ravela, či Györgyho Ligetiho. Veľké mená, ktoré zadefinovali časť modernej klasiky, síce ovplyvnili Dunnove vnímanie hudby, jeho tvorba však dýcha vlastným zvukom. Najrozsiahlejšia kompozícia tohto rodeného Kanaďana, ‘A Young Person’s Guide To Kyle Bobby Dunn,’ navodzuje pri prvom počutí...
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