Short intro this week as I’m in the middle of an enormous project right now and can barely think (but that’s okay!). A quick reminder, though, that The Jewel Garden has a killer new EP from Ernesto Diaz-Infante out as of last Friday – a 26-minute piece for bajo sexto, tanpura, and singing bowl. Check it out HERE.
C. Lavender Rupture in the Eternal Realm (iDEAL)
Rupture in the Eternal Realm is a sonic refraction, an expression of the inner infinite. C. Lavender explores old ways through new ground, creating this musical coda of her experiences studying chöd (a Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice). Electronic vistas stand in the distance, beguiling aural spectacles drawing us forward. With layered melodic passages, buoyed by cleansing drones and lilting arpeggios. Lavender is so good at combining these flowing, eloquent sound worlds with discordant timbres that expand the emotional resonance and compositional complexity of the music. Rupture in the Eternal Realm feels huge but contained, a quieting presence for inward-facing squalls. Absolute magic.
Pat Thomas KANZA AL QALB (scatter)
It’s always a glorious day when Pat Thomas shares another album of electronic experiments and KANZA AL QALB is no exception. Pointillistic ruins are left behind, fragments of a distant past or forgotten world. Reconfigured, pushed through time machines and charred filters, they become pieces of spectral reverie. Thomas has a percussive graft to his playing, no matter the instrument, and that rhythmic power shows up in spades on KANZA AL QALB. Oblitered pitches are chopped into polyrhythmic stretches. Sharp timbres fly in, moving in all directions at once, even in the most minimalistic passages. But often, this is a cacophonous tornado, unrelenting and exquisite. There’s an excitement underlying this work because there’s never an indication of what direction Thomas will take. It demands repeated listening and full attention. Excellent.
Allison Ward Destruction of the Human Body (Self-Released)
Scathing rituals drown themselves in a bathtub and are reincarnated as electric fury. Allison World channels trauma into visceral and exposed sonic forms. Dissonance thrives in the margins, like eternal echoes mimicking every sign of progress and holding us like an anchor. Digital shards slice through monotonous slabs before blast beats cut the rest of the shreds to ribbons. Ward screams in the abyssal hollows and is raked across metallic fragments and tonic debris. It’s all so disorienting that, at some point, it feels familiar. Submerged and fully encased within viscous resonance, “rebirth” lulls the carnage response with mysterious, whispered mantras and disquieting piano loops. It doesn’t quite hold as the straps are tightened, though. Dawn, or any form of light, really, is the only cure we crave, and within the racket, it still exists. Intense and outstanding.
Free Tala Underwater Sounds to Lure the Fishes (SATATUHATTA)
Sub-aqueous expression takes form in dug-out, spectral drones. Juho Toivonen’s Free Tala project blurs underwater landscapes into meditative sound storms. Everything here is blurred. There are no sharp edges in sight. Each piece creates an echo chamber as the sonic environments grow and shift, pressing against the surface to build tension. All three specimens ride the line between hypnosis and monotony, with layered tones morphing each other to become immersive aural ecosystems. This music is static yet expansive. Nebulous tendrils have flickering moments, like enticing accouterments to refocus attention. I’m not sure what kind of fish this music attracts, but its tempting expanses have me entangled. Fantastic cover art, too.
Tomutonttu ja Lehtisalo s/t (VHF)
The combined prowess of Jan Anderzén and Jussi Lehtisalo sends radiant floral patterns into orbit. Dungeon zones dance in moonlight reverie, joyous yet laden with heavy plastic chains. Even when the sky is calling, we sometimes remain tethered to the ground. In that expressive soil, prog-infused structures grow, reaching higher and higher. Circuitous synth leads wind through the maze-like sonic architecture. It’s well choreographed with so many moving parts and diverging timbres, but Anderzén and Lehtisalo are the ultimate puppet masters. Synthesizers morph into full neon scenes that avoid nostalgia while still feeling familiar and warm. So many electronic textures bloom in these songs that, wherever we end up – outer space or a backyard garden – this is music that feels like living.
Samara Lubelski, Marcia Bassett Indexical/Rhizome (Relative Pitch)
New classics from two longtime collaborators that wrap a droning, expressive noose around the night. Extended techniques morph familiar timbres into alien worlds, steel resonance breaking the distance into spectral reveries. Howls lift off, aerated and obscured in a fog of violin grandeur pulled up from an alluring void. Glissandos are broken and the pieces stretched to infinity. Lubelski and Bassett trade glassine shimmer for granular mire while finding exorcism along the way. Notes are held for ages before the decay begins to creep in and pull the skyward roaring back to the ground. Black skies were never an omen, only an invitation. Indexical/Rhizome is live from the scorched Earth and it’s glorious.
Silica Gel Swan Pond (Sweat Wreath)
In a different timeline, Silica Gel sits on top of the world. Swan Pond is whimsical and heady, a haunting trip through the unknown tinged with psychedelia and humor. Folk-adjacent rambles bounce through hollow forests, pulled forward by electric fanfare and sweet whispers. These songs flit between clear-eyed affectations and loose rambles through a hazy wonderland. Riddles are murmured with a warmth that becomes a pointed razor. Within the cascading, ramshackle arrangements and acoustic treatments, bit-crushed veins connect the disparate spillover with summoning electricity. The heart at the core of Swan Pond may feel dark, but the nucleus of Laura Thomas and Lauren Jones’s voices is the real sun around which everything orbits. From cryptic, operatic minimalism to traditional folk hallucinations, they sing us through the mire and into the fantastical. Swan Pond is wild in approach, delivery, and spirit.
Quick Hits:
Rhombus Index + f5point6 “Mutual Expression” (See Blue Audio)
Intricate, melodic synth patterns flickering in crystal blue water, simultaneously clear and textured. Music that radiates from utopic landscapes.
Road To Saturn “Ranging the Cosmos” (Adventurous Music)
Remnants of a forgotten world, buried voices reaching out from beneath the soil in search of release. Eleonora Kampe’s vocals are incredible, beautifully paired with Richard Thompson’s restrained, emotive soundscapes.
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