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About Arcana

My name is Ben Hogwood, editor of the Arcana music site (arcana.fm)

New music – Dot Allison – Subconsciousology (Sonic Cathedral)

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from the press release, edited by Ben Hogwood

Dot Allison releases a new album, Subconsciousology, via Sonic Cathedral on 25 July. It’s a full reworking of 2023’s Consciousology, by electronic producer and machine-maker Lomond Campbell, who, as the title suggests, has made it deeper, darker and dancier.

The first single,Weeping Roses, has been twisted from its original incarnation as a Tim Hardin-style folk lament into the most unlikely acid house banger.

“It began on a guitar with the two verse chords and grew from there,” says Dot of the song’s germination. “I wanted it to have a deep heartbreak and rawness, and now I love the surreal and beautiful, light and dark clash of worlds and sounds that Lomond has created from the roots and stems of the original.”

“It was the last one I remixed, possibly because it was the only track I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with,” explains Lomond. “At the risk of sounding obvious, I decided the best thing was to work on it somewhat subconsciously. I like that some of the bonny twists and turns of the original song haven’t been entirely corroded away by acid.”

Watch the stunning visualiser by Studio Sparks – using the artwork of Maria Mochnacz and Marc Jones – below:

While the original Consciousology was all ornate avant-garde folk and psychedelic explorations, this new take is as hard-hitting as it is heavenly, as beat-driven as it is beautiful.

Crucially, it finds Dot re-embracing the electronic music with which she first made her name in One Dove.

“I think electronic music will always be a key part of my music-making DNA,” she explains. “I see all instruments as possibilities with which to voice ideas, so I’d never want to cloister myself in a genre or feel I couldn’t return to any genre. Whether the sound source is from vibrations or a voltage, I don’t really see any limitations or rules.”

It was this open-minded approach that led to Dot and Lomond working together in the first place. After being introduced to his music by Hannah Peel, Dot asked him to remix Ghost Orchid, a track from her previous album, Heart-Shaped Scars. In the meantime, he’d already been listening to the album and had noticed the similarities between it and some of his own music.

There was an element of synchronicity, which extended to them both having mutual friends where they hang out in the Highlands and islands in the west of Scotland. The remix was also so good that it inspired Dot to ask Lomond to rework a whole album.

“I knew Dot would be encouraging of experimentation as I strayed pretty far off the mark with the remix of Ghost Orchid and she loved it, so I felt I could be playful,” explains Lomond. “However, I’ve never remixed an entire album before and was keen to make it work as a standalone piece with a vibe of its own. Dot’s vocals are so impressive that I felt anything could work around them, even atomising the recordings into abstract micro samples. It also amazes me how much grime, distortion and dense sound you can throw at Dot’s voice, yet it remains so bright and salient. I loved all of Hannah Peel’s string arrangements, too, so I made heavy use of them.”

“I love that he has brought a rich musicality and has created wild universes around the elements he has chosen to retain in the various songs,” adds Dot. “It reminds me of working with Andrew Weatherall in a way, where the mixes were bold and reinventive departures.

“I wanted an album through the looking glass, in a way. In my mind, it was going to be a mirror version of Consciousology. The whole concept of the original record is about interconnectivity and the electromagnetic aspects to consciousness, so the remixed version should be like a diffracted version of the original, like a rainbow diffracted from a beam of light!”

The end result is the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow – everything sounds and feels at once familiar but different – from the chugging electro of Unchanged and Bleached By The Sun, to the almost absurd, Aphex Twin-like shock of 220Hz.

“It’s landed exactly where I hoped it would,” says Lomond. “I like that each track has its own identity yet there’s a clear thread running through it all. Dot has a real knack for creating striking melodies that hit quickly and stay with you. I tried to build different chord structures around these vocal lines, re-harmonising to take it to darker places.”

The good news is that they are planning on working together again in the future, and have already collaborated on Lomond’s new album.

“I think it would be remiss of us not to build on everything that we’ve done so far,” concludes Lomond. “Stay tuned!”

You can explore ordering options from the Sonic Cathedral Bandcamp page.

Published post no.2,560 – Tuesday 10 June 2025

Switched On – Pye Corner Audio – Lake Deep Memory (quiet details)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

quiet details describe their temporary new signing, Martin Jenkins, as “a leading protagonist of widescreen dystopian electronica” in his Pye Corner Audio alias.

Lake Deep Memory, his contribution to the quiet details series, was inspired by a trip Jenkins made to Lake Atitlan in Guatemala in 2024, where he had played a festival – and the music is his capture of the volcanic landscape in the vastness and ethereal soundscapes across the album. He also aims to portray the spiritual importance of the lake to locals.

A crucial element of his process is the “noises and submerged sounds that a lot of artists try to eradicate, such as noise, hums and hiss. Those are the quiet details that I bring to the foreground”, he says.

The artwork originates from a photo Martin took at the lake, which was then captured with analogue photography and processed at the quiet details studios. The album is also available as a continuous mix, with all eight tracks running without a break.

What’s the music like?

Extremely relaxing – but spiritually invigorating, too. The title track forms slowly, the flowing water of the lake portrayed in musical form, while Pyroclastic Flow has the steadying presence of a slow, three-note motif, like a chime. The listener becomes enveloped by the 360 degree ambience of Beneath The Noise Floor, a surrounding cloud of comforting minor-key noise, hanging in the air. Similarly Memoria Del Agua is suspended, though its weight is heavier and nearer the ground.

Rich colours are introduced for Infinite Symphony, with synthesized strings in slowly shifting open-air chords. Fumarole has a brighter outlook, a bracing chord that grows in stature through its long, sustained duration.

Finally Volcanic Rock has a sharper edge to its sound, and more of a melodic pattern that comes through from low to high range, its intensity growing but beautifully managed.

Does it all work?

It does – either as individual tracks or as a complete whole.

Is it recommended?

It is. If you need some time out and want some new music to go with it, Pye Corner Audio offers a wholly enlightening experience.

For fans of… Bvdub, Scanner, Global Communication, Biosphere, Loscil

Listen / Buy

Published post no.2,559 – Monday 9 June 2025

Switched On – Lindstrøm – Sirius Syntoms (Feedelity)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

“I wanted to create something that feels freeing,” says Hans-Peter Lindstrøm about his latest album. “Music that lifts you up but also has depth—something that resonates emotionally and physically.” This is after a comparatively heavy previous album Everyone Else Is A Stranger, which – like 2019s On A Clear Day I Can See You Forever – saw him operating within bigger structures. For Sirius Syntoms he takes something of a ‘back to basics’ approach.

What’s the music like?

Lindstrøm’s latest is more of a stripped back affair, focusing on grooves and individual synth lines with less evidence of the airy pads he has used so effectively on previous albums. Yet it works really well, and sounds like it was a lot of fun to make. This sense of fun runs through all the instrumental tracks, with the breezy Cirkl a highlight, while Thousand Island Man is full of the joys with plenty of play between the synth parts. Lindstrøm brings a nice house piano and bird-like synth calls to These Are A Few Of My Favourite Strings, while the title track closes things out with an infectious groove, with a riff that reeks of Dan Hartman’s Relight My Fire.

Does it all work?

Pretty much. There is nothing radically new in Lindstrøm’s approach this time around, but equally the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ adage applies itself well.

Is it recommended?

It is. For an album of feelgood electronic music, you don’t have to look much further!

For fans of… Prins Thomas, Mr Scruff, Lemon Jelly, Todd Terje

Listen / Buy

Published post no.2,558 – Sunday 8 June 2025

On this day 80 years ago – world premieres of Britten’s ‘Peter Grimes’ & Prokofiev’s ‘War & Peace’

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by Ben Hogwood Picture from the current Welsh National Opera production of Peter Grimes

Eighty years ago today, two landmark operas of the 20th century received their world premieres.

Britten’s Peter Grimes, given its first performance at Sadler’s Wells under Reginald Goodall on 7 June 1945, is a breakthrough work in his output, one that would tie his music indelibly to the Suffolk coast. Telling the story of Grimes, the outcast fisherman, it captures the mysterious North Sea in rare clarity. You can read more about the opera’s history at my Good Morning Britten site, dedicated to the composer. The video links below are to a complete performance of the opera, with the Royal Opera conducted by Colin Davis:

Meanwhile the famous 4 Sea Interludes extracted from the work, Britten’s remarkably pictorial orchestral suite, are below – where you can follow the score:

Prokofiev‘s War and Peace is an altogether different beast – a mammoth project which first reached the public in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory on 6 June 1945, where nine scenes from the opera were performed.

The finished opera is an epic dramatisation of Leo Tolstoy’s novel, which occupied Prokofiev from 1941 right up to the year of his death, 1953. Here is a famous recording conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich:

Published post no.2,557 – Saturday 7 June 2025

On this day – the world premiere of Prokofiev’s Second Symphony in 1925

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by Ben Hogwood Picture from the Bain Collection, Library of Congress

This day marks the centenary of the premiere of one of Prokofiev‘s most remarkable works, the Second Symphony. It was first performed in Paris on 6 June 1925, under the baton of Serge Koussevitsky.

It is difficult to imagine a work of greater contrast to the first symphony in the composer’s output, the much-loved ‘Classical’. Where that was a masterly updating of the classical style, bursting with good tunes, the Second initially impacts as a cacophony of noise and seemingly devoid of melody.

Listen more closely, however, and you will hear some distinctive themes beyond the bluster, some innovative orchestration and a highly original approach to form drawing initially from Beethoven’s 32nd and final piano sonata. Perhaps inevitably these qualities were lost on the first audience, who recoiled from the piece. Their reaction gave Prokofiev serious doubts about his ability as a composer.

Yet time has treated this piece relatively well, with no less a composer than Christopher Rouse showering it with praise. Listen below and see what you think:

Published post no.2,556 – Friday 6 June 2025