Foxy Digitalis
Tenured soundsmith Jefre Cantu-Ledesma produces ambient works that reflect a cosmic mindset, one that reveals our own energies as being integrated with and connected to those of our surroundings. He seeks to reveal our oneness with the universe through sound. Cantu-Ledesma has refined his practice over the decades, collaborating with like-minded sonic practitioners and transitioning […]
The short video that accompanies the title track of We Will Be Wherever the Fires are Lit depicts crowds of protestors clashing with riot police and blossoming balls of burning fire juxtaposed against calmly swaying fields of grain and delicate flowers. It’s the perfect allegory for Bhutanese guitarist Tashi Dorji’s musical output. He’s always used his […]
R. Hunter’s missing scenes project continues to evolve in organic and compelling ways. dream or memory? finds him collaborating with percussionist Steve Lyman to craft a gently propulsive sonic exploration of the unconscious. Electronic realities dissolve and reform into fluid, tonal synapses. Light bends and fractures into distinct colors through these synthetic landscapes, each strand […]
With Patio User Manual, Alex Cobb continues his decades-long quest to mirror the stillness and richness of the cosmos here on Earth. His delicate, carefully wrought soundscapes – which first arrived under the name Taiga Remains but have since taken on the Etelin moniker – flow with the grace of starlight and the solemnity of […]
After creating his Black Square painting in 1915, Kazimir Malevich couldn’t eat or sleep for a week. Based on a previous iteration for an opera of poet Velimir Khlebnikov, Malevich’s black square represented the year zero: the destruction of all modern values. Paradoxically, the work was also embryonic and opened him to all future possibilities, […]
Here’s a collaboration that at first seems incongruous, but when you hold a microscope up to the orbital trajectories of Sam Shackleton and Ben Chasny, a latent kinship between the two artists emerges, and it all makes sense. The former arose from the dank cellar of dubstep, while the latter traces a lineage through the […]
Black Editions continues doing the lord’s work, rolling out essential sounds from Milford Graves’ private archive. This gorgeous and massive box set is extra special because it’s the first widely available release from these three free jazz titans, each of whom is a legend in the New York scene. Commissioned by the artists themselves, the […]
Sometimes I look at an old map and let my imagination drift to places that once flourished and are now shells. When did the turn from thriving to decay happen? And why? Answers are fleeting, but within fictitious memories, we can become something else. Gretchen Korsmo’s spellbinding Silhouettes, Spires is a momentary treatise on our […]
The term “ghosted” carries a negative connotation in the zeitgeist. It describes making a connection with someone virtually and then having that (usually short-lived) link severed when they vanish without a trace. Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, and Andreas Werliin flip the script on the “g” word, implying a sense of longstanding affinity and connectedness with their music. As a trio – Ambarchi playing guitar, Berthling on […]