Welcome to the final Capsule Garden of 2023! It’s hard to believe I’ve written 42 of these this year, but even though it’s a tremendous amount of work, it’s one of my favorite parts of Foxy Digitalis these days. It will certainly return in 2024.
Next week will see our year-end coverage get published. Peter Taylor has an incredible year-in-review episode of Inside No. 9 ready and I’ll have a new approach to the main Foxy Digitalis piece. Plus, I’ll do an episode of the Foxy Digitalis Podcast looking back on my own various projects during the year. Oh, and a special Christmas edition of Songs of Our Lives with Cult Love (don’t miss this week’s amazing episode with Andrew Pekler!). It’s going to be a busy week.
As ever, you can support the site through our Patreon, by subscribing to The Jewel Garden, or via Ko-fi. I appreciate it all so so much – it 100% keeps the site going.
What a fucken year.
Lamin Fofana And The Doudou Ndiaye Rose Family (Honest Jon’s)
Lamin Fofana is one of my favorite artists in the world, but this EP has me especially transfixed. Relentless, complex mbalax rhythms, spacious field recordings, and a general feeling that time and distance are disintegrating. The combination of gliding, emotive arpeggios, and the bold percussive force is exceptionally imaginative, connecting worlds across technological divides where the past and present converge to dream of tomorrow. Fofana’s airy, expressive synth moves are infinite strings, revealing echoes that show us the way moments ripple through infinite means. Bouncing on sharp, precise cadences while permeating every subterranean level with thumping frequencies that live within our bodies, this music finds clarity in its sonic journey. Joyous mechanics hang with silhouettes of eternal gravity, carrying this music into the far future only it can imagine. Highest recommendation.
Youmna Saba Wishah وِشاح (Ruptured/Touch)
A five-part composition for voice, oud, and electronics that lingers like an illuminated phantom hovering in our periphery. Youmna Saba’s voice is timeless, each whispered tome finds its way into the stars before the sting wears off. Rushed passages send out glowing tendrils to cut through the darkness, simmering with an endless vitality that captivates the senses and leaves us wondering what’s to come. Organic resonance shuffles beneath a well-worn sheen, oud notes hanging longer than a single breath. Structured into five discernible stages, Wishah guides us through a gradual process of revelation, deconstructing memories and barriers that have built up through the ages. Saba carefully peels back those layers, finding an empty shell at the center, the place where home once existed. Each word stings. Caustic, atmospheric drones hollow out the last remnants, leaving our thoughts trailing into the endless night. A stunning album.
(LP edition is available on Ruptured (link above in the embed) – CD edition is on Touch)
Ogle Constellation (Frosti)
I would be happy living in a world of arpeggios. Ogle’s Constellation obliges my fantasies with a collection of whimsical, sometimes angular, and obtuse sonic excursions. Major chord progressions blossom in geometric patterns and build vivid, resonant worlds in the skies. Elsewhere, the spaces contract and feel more disorienting. Connective strands ride sine waves between the negative space, drawing expressive aural structures in the ether. Ogle continues to run circles around us, wrapping us in lovely electronic threads. This music is such a joy to listen to on repeat.
Wind Tide Blue Breaking Brown (Notice Recordings)
I am always here for new Wind Tide recordings. Fashioned from bits of dust and bone, the duo of Gretchen Korsmo and Andrew Weathers dig out a pair of tarred incantations from a slow-burning sandstorm. Crusty tones crawl out from behind charred rock piles, lulled into the open through wretched sonic charms and blackened melodies. Korsmo’s voice is ancient, rising through the Earth like timeless invocations spread across a parched yet expansive landscape. This is music that is squeezed from raw concrete, every bit smothered in biting textures; every moment a scarred memory. Guitar notes swim through distortion like razorblades cutting open aquifers hidden beneath the surface. When the clattering, metallic resonances stream out, saturating the ground with sharp drones, and leaving microscopic traces for new life to bloom in the distant future. Wind Tide remains.
Petra Hermanova In Death’s Eyes (Unguarded)
Still life casts shadows and in the quiet, those shadows begin to dance. Petra Hermanova’s beguiling In Death’s Eyes captures that shadow world within sacred sonic rituals. The air is thick with drama and tension winding through haunted organ passages and opaque corridors. In Death’s Eye has a terminal glow, as though Hermanova has found a secret passage to spy on the end of all things. Her voice is luminous, a spectral force teasing the gallows at midnight. Riding golden strands from her autoharp, a choir emerges from the hollows to ruminate on a series of forgotten dreams. Sinister undercurrents percolate beneath the lithe aural enchantments, with uncanny melodies speaking from beyond the ethereal veil. This music is timeless, stuck in between worlds, and utterly absorbing. Incredible.
NEY s/t (Somewhere Press)
Emptiness transcends space and time in the confines of NEY’s incredible self-titled debut. Resonant shards spill into fractured compositional forays into the dark, NEY’s whispered words and incorporeal vocalizing glowing in the distance, pulling us forward. She delves into uncharted musical territories, uncovering hidden treasures amid a hostile sonic landscape, where discordant, metallic drones and blitzing percussive blasts line the halls. When the atmosphere suddenly vanishes it’s as if we all collectively pause for breath. Stretched-out tones linger in the air, ghostly echoes of a distant past. This music exists in eternity. Minimalist rhythms plod ahead while despairing arrangements squirm beneath layers of tension, keeping us on edge. Absolutely incredible – highest possible recommendation.
Volcano Lazerbeam Union (Bathysphere)
Bathysphere heads Cristina Cano and Justin Longerbeam join forces for a gleaming mountain of crystalized sonic wonder. Union constructs a fully immersive sonic landscape, transporting listeners to imagined, distant realms without conforming to conventional boundaries. Lines between worlds blur with tuned percussion dancing in lovely electronic streams and drifting arpeggios flickering against the moonlight. Synthetic reverie abounds throughout Union, with cathartic expressions shining through moving chord progressions and exultant arrangements. This music swims through emotional waves into the aquamarine depths, weaving a narrative of longing that invites us inside to get lost. It’s beautiful and heavy, seeking the place that holds us, shining beneath a bright veneer. Exceptional.
Cat Tyson Hughes Roses in the Casement Window (quiet details)
quiet details closes out the year with my favorite album they’ve released so far. Cat Tyson Hughes produces radiant sonic atmospheres that persist endlessly, forming an unbreakable silhouette surrounding ethereal melodies that intertwine above in the obsidian night sky. This is gentle, contemplative music. Joined by a host of stellar collaborators like marine eyes and zaké, her voice floats above things that never were, immersing us in reflective tones and waves of white noise. Soft arpeggios hum with anticipation of new beginnings. Resonating in the static progressions, harmonic fantasies glow like distant revelers traversing ancient paths to far-off lands. Roses in the Casement Window embraces the exploration of simple, imagined worlds, places where we don’t have to hide. Solace lies in calculated movements and thoughtful pauses as vocal echoes permeate the electronic fog. Beautiful.
Patrick Shiroishi I was too young to hear silence (American Dreams)
This is music that has stayed with me, lurking in darkened corners I didn’t even realize were there. Patrick Shiroishi is a mountain, the headwaters of an endless stream of expressive, searching work. I Was Too Young To Hear Silence is one of the purest forms of that expression, his saxophone notes cutting through eternal resonance and searing themselves into our blood. It’s such a beautiful example of someone tapping into their deepest core and connecting it to an unseen, cosmic thread in the universe, infinite and ever-evolving. Sound is the medium and Shiroishi is the channel. A stunning album.
Jakob Heinemann Opacity (Kashe Editions)
Jakob Heinemann’s first album as a bandleader is sonically rich, textural, and inviting. With an ensemble including Jeff Kimmel, Molly Jones, and Ishmael Ali, contemplations unfold through harmonic resonance and quiet discord. I’m struck by the way these pieces are simultaneously dialed in but free to meander. All four musicians move together, but in their own ways, which adds elements of whimsy and an engaging sense of elegance. Heinemann’s compositions weave a cohesive tapestry from a myriad of auditory concepts, with field recordings filling in spatial gaps and improvised elements keeping us guessing. But when the moments coalesce into bright, cascading, spirited melodies, the entire world lights up. There are so many fine details on Opacity – a hollow scrape, quick pizzicatos, distant birds – that turn the album into an immersive sonic environment full of intrigue and wonder.
Leafblower Dew Magic (Umé Records)
Raquel Bell’s latest Leafblower album is transportive. When the first song is called “Mermaids in a Cave Singing,” I know I’m in the right zone. Aqueous field recordings wrap around synth leads covered with relaxed cadences and pastel tones. Each step along this sonic pathway is an invitation to dive deeper into secret forests and hidden dreams. Maximal space swims through neon-hued skies in the expansive charms of “Stars at Day” while “Hawaiian Ocean” murmurs with a refined stillness underwater. Bell spins magic webs on every surface she spills tones onto, whether it’s a liminal reverie, new age dronescapes, or a cathartic vocal melody etched in sea glass. An absolute delight.
Acid Springfield & Honey Fingers Soft Vibrations (Self-Released)
A collaboration with a bee hive? Obviously, I am in. Acid Springfield used a pressure sensor mounted inside rooftop hives to communicate the vibrations and movements within to a custom built device that translated these actions into electronic sound. These synth passages flit from calm and almost meditative to intricately choreographed sonic escapades. There’s a purpose behind the gentle, starry plucks and bleeps as they glide atop resonant synth washes. Melodic dreams drip through the viscous aural waves, permeating this music with a lively, engaging atmosphere. I am so here for this.
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