★Students of Decay
Kyle Bobby Dunn & the infinite sadness
Based in Montreal, Kyle Bobby Dunn has been producing elegant and refined works of ambient minimalism for the better part of a decade. His two lengthy and critically lauded collections for the Low Point label, “A Young Person’s Guide…” and “Bring Me the Head of…,” established him as a force to be reckoned with in the current epoch of drone/ambient music. Indeed, he is a rare artist whose compositions offer listeners wonder, sadness and pathos in equal measure, and are executed with a prec…
I
Beautiful modern composition from LA's prolific Sean McCann and En/Root Strata's San Fran-based Maxwell August Croy. Their first collaboration, 'I' feels timlessly enigmatic, drawing on a wealth of aesthetic and compositional tropes from their respective oeuvres to synthesise something wholly new and uniquely engaging, weaving the exotic timbres of Croy's koto and McCann's keening string arrangements in a sound that defies easy categorization. Beaming forth with the flurry of strings and breezin…
The seeker and the healer
Performed and put to tape at Estuary Recording Facility, The Seeker and The Healer constitutes the first collaborative work by Texas-based sound artist Cory Allen and Louisiana minimalist composer Duane Pitre. The album’s two side-long pieces were developed out of multiple improvisational sessions governed by predetermined rules, sourced from piano, bowed guitar, harmonium and 49-stringed drone harp (a custom-made instrument of Allen’s own design featured here on record for the first time). In t…
Journey to the light
"Recorded in Northern California in 1984 and released in a micro edition by the Creative Sound imprint in January of the following year, Mark Banning’s Journey to the Light is a lost gem of private issue New Age music, an impossible-to-find album that is more spoken about than heard and deserves to be recognized alongside established classics of the genre. Incorporating processed electric guitar, zither, voice and field recordings, it is unabashedly beautiful music—two side-long pieces that feel…
August Undone
Sweeping and rustically romantic neo-classical and drone flights seemingly dropped from the sky on the wonderful Students Of Decay label "From the very first seconds of “Within/Without,” listeners familiar with the output of Aquarelle, the nom-de-plume of Madison, WI-based sound artist Ryan Potts, will find themselves in territory that is at once familiar and new. This opening salvo explodes into being with the surging, analog fuzz blooms and preternatural sense of rhythm that endeared many to …
Ekin Fil
Operating out of Istanbul, Ekin Fil is the solo project of Turkish musician Ekin Üzeltüzenci. Her music first came to the ears of many by way of “Language,” a 2011 cassette release on the Root Strata label. “Language” presented listeners with a fractured, hazy soundworld in which half-remembered melodies and wraith-like vocals cohered into dark and hypnotic masses. On this self-titled album, Ekin opens the curtains a bit, letting in some light and offering up an even more refined album. This is …
Ask the dust
Hailing from Northern California, John Davis is a sound artist, composer and filmmaker who has released music on labels such as Root Strata and Digitalis. With “Ask the Dust,” he offers up a moving suite of compositions made using a plethora of instrumentation including guitar, piano, tape loops, Max/MSP, field recordings and the newest addition to his arsenal, a complex assortment of Blacet synthesizer modules. Davis uses the synth not as the crux of his recordings but as a tool among many in h…
Glass Canyon
It's been a little while since we've last heard from Oakland-based sound artist Marielle Jakobsons in a solo capacity, but that's certainly not to say she hasn't been busy. Last year saw full-length outings by her two duo projects, Date Palms and Myrmyr, and already in 2012 works with Bay Area drone ensemble Portraits and trio recordings with Helena Espvall and Agnes Szelag have been released. Her last major solo outing (under the nom-de-plume Darwinsbitch) came in form of the dark, comple…
Already Gone
Already Gone is the second full length album from West Coast dream-drone unit En, the duo of Maxwell August Croy and James Devane, following their well-received debut album The Absent Coast (released in 2010 on Root Strata, which Croy runs alongside Jefre Cantu-Ledesma). For their sophomore release, the pair has opened up their tonal palette considerably. While the comparisons that critics made of their first album to the work of Tim Hecker and Stars of the Lid still hold true, Already Gone find…
In Search Of Light
In Search of Light is the full-length follow-up to the well-received Fountain (RS 057CD), Danny Paul Grody's debut solo release. Many listeners no doubt recognize Grody from his work in San Francisco-based groups Tarentel and The Drift. As a solo artist, he produces wistful, poignant music culled principally from acoustic guitar and synthesizer. Grody's work recalls aspects of the post-Takoma school in that fingerpicked, cyclical melodies make up the crux of many of his recordings. However,…
Sung In Broken Symmetry
Describing the music of Aquarelle's Ryan Potts is a difficult task indeed. It's related to the hazy, heavily treated output of musicians such as Fennesz and Tim Hecker, but one would be remiss to locate it solely within the realm of electronic ambient or drone, as there are often strong organic, rhythmic and composerly elements to Potts' work. In fact, the title of his last record, Slow Circles, might offer the best point of access into the Aquarelle aesthetic, in which compositional trop…
Shining Skull Breath
This ultra limited, and long out of print cd-r from 2007, finally available again, now as a super swank (and still quite limited) lp...Another gorgeous sonic transmission from right here in the Bay Area, from AQ fave Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, the man behind Tarentel, and the Root Strata label. Those familiar with Cantu-Ledesma's music know that he usually speakers in hushed whispers, breathy and breathless, soft sonic shimmers allowed to drift like billowy clouds into your ears. But here, C-L …
Renewable Destination
*restocked* Recorded from 2009-2011, during which time Caboladies members Eric Lanham and Chris Bush relocated from Kentucky to Chicago, Renewable Destination constitutes the duo's most refined and focused work to date. Both as a collaborative unit and under solo monikers Carl Calm and Flower Man, Lanham and Bush have produced a wealth of limited-run releases in recent years on labels such as Arbor, Dekorder, Digitalis, and their own Smooth Tapes imprint which document their uniquely fractured s…
Charmed Birds Against Sorcery
The third full-length CD by AREA C, released this time by Students of Decay: "Glacial harmonics drift in and out of each channel, skittering, modulated notes pulse and surge, sputtering suddenly to luminescent manifestation before disappearing just as quickly." Quite a departure. Listen to MP3 excerpts below.
At Last A New Dawn
Following on from 2004's Yellow Horizon, At Last A New Dawn comes as a momentous deployment of Peter Wright's adventurous, emotionally resonant electroacoustic music. This double disc set offers an extensive portrait of Wright's work, opening up with the threatening hum of 'Urban Wolves', a piece that escalates in intensity, slowly fleshing out what began as an oddly hollow-sounding sonic husk, only to segue into the unnerving noise and field recording melange 'Death Ships Approaching', a piece …