Dutch lute player and composer Jozef Van Wissem has today shared a second track from his forthcoming album The Night Dwells in the Day, set for release on 19 January 2024 on Incunabulum Records.
Following the recent first single, The Call of the Deathbird featuring guest vocals from Hilary Woods, today he shares the album’s opening instrumental The Devil is a Fair Angel and the Serpent a Subtle Beast.
“The track grapples with the world as it moves on and all the dualism and dichotomies that follow” explains the artist. “It combines darkness and light, happy and sad at the same time”. You can listen below:
Published post no.2,023 – Tuesday 28 November 2023
This intriguing piece, recorded for Another Timbre, is a sizeable structure of 79 minutes for solo piano by Canadian composer Martin Arnold. The piece was commissioned by pianist Philip Thomas on the back of the success of his box set of Morton Feldman piano music. Sadly Philip became very unwell shortly after commissioning the piece and is unable to play it. However, fellow Apartment House pianist Kerry Yong took on the project with Philip’s blessing, and has recorded it for Another Timbre.
Released on Friday 23 November, Flax can be heard in part on the Another Timbre bandcamp site – where it is also available for purchase:
After such a long and prestigious career in music, it feels odd to be talking about Vince Clarke’s first solo album. And yet here it is, the first time he has stepped out in a lone capacity. Having been a key founder member of Yazoo, Depeche Mode and Erasure, where he still resides, you might think this music had been in the offing for a long time – but in truth it was lockdown that inspired Songs Of Silence.
Alone with his cat and the modular synthesizer format Eurorack, Clarke set to work, enjoying the instrumental restrictions and also thriving on a technique which sees him base each of the ten tracks on a drone.
What’sthemusiclike?
Vince Clarke’s music is of very strong presence and character. It is also deeply serious, but with a great deal of light and shade that gives these silent songs a great deal of expression.
Clarke uses drones as his musical currency, rather than intricate synth lines. Catchy chorus hooks are less forthcoming, but that is not a problem. While each of the ten tracks is based on a single note, they provide a strong base over which the treble melodies and textures can freely operate. There is some very descriptive music here too, typified by Cathedral and Red Planet.
At times the music is minimal, stark even – and when this happens emotions run high, the music baring its soul. Reed Hays’ cello cuts to the quick on Lamentations Of Jeremiah, a musical ritual with an intensely emotional melodic line, speaking of trial and hardship. Caroline Joy brings her vocals to the vocalise Passage, releasing energy generated by the preceding White Rabbit.
Textures are often stark, rising ahead like hills in the road or the outline of craggy mountains. And yet there is solace too, the drones offering comfort from the intensity above.
The parallels with the Covid outbreak are notable, Clarke exploring music of resentment and anger, but ultimately the music finds a troubled peace. His electronic pop prowess is temporarily set aside, but he is equally at home in slower music.
Does it all work?
It does. Clarke achieves a sense of timelessness, not just through the drones but also the melodic material that unfolds with grace and stature.
Is it recommended?
Yes, enthusiastically. It is typical of Vince Clarke that he should deliver an album of such quality, but also that it should be consistently rewarding.
Listen
Buy
Published post no.2,020 – Saturday 25 November 2023
Sandunes’ third album is her first since moving to Tru Thoughts. On it she focuses on connecting the earth and the body, focusing on ‘humanity’s collective spirit, authentic expression’.
With the freedom to move between genres, the artist – real name Sanaya Ardeshir – gathers quite a guest list and a small army of instrumental collaborators, using stringed instruments but also a number of more exotic contributions from quena and mandolin.
What’sthemusiclike?
The blueprint behind the album suggests a fresh approach, and that’s exactly what we get. This is a joyously creative piece of work, the rule book put to one side as Sandunes makes her music with a natural flair.
Pelican Dance is a good example of how she harnesses influences past and present, using a harpsichord but also marimba, creating a colourful backdrop that ebbs and flows very naturally. It segues into Masti, where scattered beats form the base of an evocative scene.
The vocal guests are well chosen and structured, the standout being KAVYA, who brings her strong personality and penetrating vocals to Follow Me and Time For This. Ramya Pothuri has a more languid style but is equally persuasive, lending an endearing smokiness to Signs and The Surge. Cyclone starts atmospherically, with thunder and rain, a song brought to life by Half Waif’s strong vocals.
Does it all work?
Pretty much. The twists and turns of the music lend themselves well to the album format, the levels of intensity rising and falling with the differing moods of each song.
Is it recommended?
It is indeed. Sandunes has a great deal of imagination in her music, and The Ground Beneath Her Feet is invigorating and fresh.
Listen
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Published post no.2,020 – Saturday 25 November 2023
This is King Creosote’s first album release on the Domino label for seven years. He has certainly not been idle in the meantime, however, continuing the prodigious level of work he has always invested into his Fence label in Fife, Scotland. There he is free to make instinctive albums at unusual speed, works shot through with his trademark lyrical imagination and instrumental colour.
Since Astronaut Meets Appleman was released in 2016 on Domino, the King – real name Kenny Anderson – has been exploring a more electronic approach to his music, bringing keyboard player Des Lawson into the spotlight. While they were musing over a title for the album, they saw how a play on words could bring I Des (of March) into being.
What’sthemusiclike?
Everything good about King Creosote is here, with I DES taking an emotive look at the songwriter’s life as he approaches his 50th birthday. Not all is rosy, that’s for sure – and themes of life and death, not to mention other preoccupations, furrow his brow as he sings. Music, however, is his strength and consolation.
This is his most adventurous ‘mainstream’ release to date, ending with two tracks that between them last 50 minutes. Before we get to that, though, there is music that is uplifting in language if not always chipper in its lyrics. The instrumentation has a silvery edge, rather like the hair of its creator (and also, increasingly, what remains of this reviewer!)
“The drugs only made me cry, when I was having such a good time!” Anderson notes on the opener, It’s Sin That’s Got It’s Hold Upon Us, but by Blue Marbled Elm Trees there is a serenity in the face of anxiety, and Burial Bleak reaches full strength. “I’m thinking that maybe dying’s just not for me”, he sings, backed by Hannah Fisher and a resolute cello. “You’ll see how hard I can cling to my life!”
In the middle of the album the music loses the plot entirely. Susie Mullen is a riot, the kitchen sink thrown at the production in what turns out to be a right old Fife knees-up with no musical rules adhered to. It is hugely enjoyable, and complemented by the haunting Love Is A Curse and beautiful, introverted thoughts of the piano-led song Ides.
The epic closer, Please Come Back I Will Listen, I Will Behave, I Will Toe The Line is also unlike anything Anderson has done before, moving from minor key darkness to major key light, finding grace and power as it does so. The stature at the end suggests a kind of accordion-powered equivalent to M83. This is realised even more fully in the substantial ‘bonus’ track, Drone in B#. This is a meditation of over 36 minutes, developing slowly as the fuzz of the accordion makes itself known as the pedal note. The approach works very well, Anderson taking his time to gather musical power, and delivering a musical statement that seems initially disposable but becomes a lasting tale.
Does it all work?
It does – provided the listener gives I DES several hearings. Then the treasures are fully unfurled.
Is it recommended?
Enthusiastically. King Creosote prefers to shun the limelight, but releases like this show why it is essential for him to keep making music. I DES provides many moments of joy, consolation and genuine uplift.
Arcana.fm 