Tag Archives: Lo Recordings

New music – Susumu Yokota – Skintone Edition Volume 1 (Lo Recordings)

Posted on by
Reply

from the press release, edited by Ben Hogwood

When the revered Susumu Yokota left us in 2015, at the young age of 54, he left a legacy that helped to redefine ambient music, from the first release (Magic Thread in 1998) right through the last, 2012’s Dreamer.

Now, with the assistance of his family, Skintone Edition commemorate Yokota with the re-release of all 14 of the albums he made for them.

They will be reissued on Lo Recordings on Vinyl, CD & Digital formats both as individual albums and packaged in two limited edition box sets. The Skintone Edition hopes to highlight the extraordinary work and legacy of Susumu Yokota.

The Volume 1 box set is available to pre-order now – with the individual albums becoming available over the next year to include:

Magic Thread

Image 1983-1998

Sakura

Grinning Cat

Will

The Boy and the Tree

Laputa

Volume 2 will be released in 2026.

For ordering information, head to the dedicated Bandcamp page for this release.

Published post no.2,560 – Wednesday 11 June 2025

New music – Red Snapper: Live at the Moth Club (Lo Recordings)

Posted on by
Reply

A new release on Lo Recordings that is well worth your time! In the words of the label’s press release:

“Musical innovators Red Snapper release a new album on Lo Recordings. Live at The Moth Club, the follow up to 2022’s acclaimed Everybody Is Somebody long player, features nine tracks from a vast and impressive back catalogue on Warp Records and Lo Recordings and captures perfectly the energy of their celebrated sold out London show from May 2022 in Hackney.

With an incredible and genre bursting career that spans nearly thirty years, the new album demonstrates the band’s ability to constantly rework classic and new tracks, keeping them impassioned, experimental and relevant. The collection includes a version of Suckerpunch which originally appeared on their 1998 album Making Bones.’ It was released as a single on 15 September.

Have a listen below and see what you think:

Published post no.1,984 – Friday 20 October 2023

On Record – aus: Everis (Lo Recordings)

Posted on by
Reply

by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

aus is the solo project of Tokyo-born composer and producer Yasuhiko Fukuzono. He works with a blend of analogue and digital, bringing a keen awareness of orchestration for strings to bear with recordings of everyday life and electronic motifs.

Often these are highly descriptive, capturing movie images or reflecting conversations, dreams, melodies and emotions. As his press material goes on to say, Fukuzono reflects his home city in the activity felt within his music, with dynamics that shift quickly from loud to quiet and back again.

What’s the music like?

Fukuzono writes warm, expressive music with beautiful colours and compelling attention to detail.

Halsar Weiter establishes the rich tableau of sounds, with bright harmonic movements and an initial stillness that gradually gives way to movement, when Landia arrives with distinctive thematic material and the use of a chorus.

Past From brings elements of minimalist composers into the mix, with a busy and slightly percussive piano part complemented by struck percussion and attractive strings that come to the fore towards the end, rather like the postlude on a Björk song.

Make Me Me has quite a plaintive two part harmonisation that grows in strength. The vocal for Flo feels like it’s played on an old record. Memories has a dreamy, sparkling piano against incisive strings.

All these pale into relative insignificance alongside the final track Neanic, which has the fluttering figurations of a violin against a still, wordless choir, then builds to a powerful and moving conclusion.

Does it all work?

Yes, it does – Fukuzono has a keen sense of structure to keep things moving, not to mention an abundance of melodic ideas.

Is it recommended?

It is – this is an album that gives more with each listen, which will appeal to modern classical listeners as well as those with an eye on the cinematic.

Listen

Buy

https://flau.bandcamp.com/album/everis

Switched On – Simon James: Electronic Breeze (Lo Recordings)

Posted on by
Reply

by Ben Hogwood

What’s The Story?

There are just two tracks on Electronic Breeze, an album whose name really is matched by its contents. The composer is Simon James, described on the press release as ‘a master of electronic manipulation’.

The two tracks were written as a sound installation for the Lowry Gallery in Salford. James describes them on his blog as ‘durational environmental sound pieces’.

The electronic breeze of the title is a semi-random construction, made with wind chimes, modular synth clusters arranged in loops and field recordings. While using wind chimes, James was keen to avoid the clichés that can occur when they have been used in New Age music. Instead he chose a different set for each track to depict different times of the day, and programmed his Buchla synthesizer to randomly play back the notes from each chime, never repeating itself.

What’s The Music Like?

While the initial method of construction might sound like a cop-out initially, James used it as a springboard to begin his own composition, using the ‘breeze’ to dictate other musical events such as intensity, speed, pitch. Then he added the wind chimes themselves. At all times he wanted to complement the installation – so that means the dynamic level of the piece is low, and best enjoyed in isolation.

If you have the right listening conditions then Electronic Breeze is a piece in which to let your mind run free. The two extended sections complement each other, and the resultant sounds, which occupy mid to upper pitches most of the time, give the impression of floating. It is in effect the musical equivalent of gliding.

Does It All Work?

It does – certainly as background music to ease the troubled mind, and as a helpful accompaniment for mindfulness sessions or meditation.

Is It Recommended?

Yes. Electronic Breeze is a soothing way to spend just north of an hour, taking the edge away from the pressures of everyday life.

Listen and Buy

Switched On – Various Artists: Spaciousness 2 (Lo Recordings)

Posted on by
Reply

spaciousness-2

reviewed by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

In which Lo Recordings founder Jon Tye presents a sequel to their successful Spaciousness compilation of 2019. There they expressed the wish for ‘a series of releases that seeks to explore the connections, the overlaps, the roots and the future of a music variously referred to as ambient, deep listening, new age and even post classical.’

What’s the music like?

The second volume of Spaciousness follows on seamlessly from the first. As he did then, Jon Tye has linked together an especially calming selection exploring the corners of the catalogue. The music is effective as a meditation aid, and works equally well in foreground or background listening.

Highlights include the horizontal vibes of Integer by Lauren Doss, with a soothing vocal amid the flickering textures, and the lightly scattered percussion on David Casper‘s Dawn Poems Part 2: Awakening, which has its origins in the east.

Outdoor sounds and soft bells are the order of the day as first track Cruising in the Dimension of a Shenandoah Backyard, from JD Emmanuel, drifts into view, and this segues into Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith‘s remix of Cool Maritime‘s Climbing Up, which starts out like written out wind chimes but then gains positive energy from busy but soothing loops. The Gigi Masin remix of Brain Machine‘s Crystal Clouds bleeps and chugs in a strangely restful way, while the activity of Ariel Kalma‘s Space Forest is underpinned by an appealing drone.

Later on we get to enjoy the gentle open spaces of Vague Imaginaires‘ Le Sillage du Vaguarti, and a serene closing track from Mary Lattimore, the Ocean Moon Redux of A Unicorn Catches A Falling Star. 

Does it all work?

Yes – with more bleeps than the first, so not as explicitly relaxing, but still finding a very calm headspace. There is more than a touch of new age about the musical language and titles, but to be honest Spaciousness 2 covers a number of stylistic bases with effortless ease.

Is it recommended?

It is – a worthy sequel to the first volume, and good to see Lo Recordings pushing the boat out and incorporating a number of ambient styles. Proof that you can have many different forms of musical relaxation!

Stream

Buy