The "classical" music you buy from Boomkat (2010): a thread to discuss Sylvain Chauveau, Johann Johannsson, Peter Broderick, Olafur Arnalds and others

Not lumping anything in :) just always hoping to implement some aesthetic corrections in my listening

In the case of AWVFTS in particular - I definitely think of what they're doing as an evolution from ambient music, not a lazy take on classical.

For me, Stars of the Lid really opened my ears with Tired Sounds and Refinement of the Decline--when they shifted from making drone from guitars into making something more beautiful and more powerful with a small string section. Everything they've done since then--Brian McBride's solo albums and A Winged Victory--feels like steps from that point. For A Winged Victory it's less about "ambient" because of Dustin O'Halloran's piano, but to me it still feels related.

As for the rest of the Erased Tapes catalog (Nils Frahm, Olafur Arnaulds, etc), I don't really know where those guys are coming from musically to say it's "safe" or some kind of indie/poser-classical. I only know that I found my way to Erased Tapes via A Winged Victory for the Sullen so in my own mind I'm approaching it all from that perspective. That is absolutely subjective, though.

In any case I really hesitate to call it New Age, a term which has a pejorative whiff to it. I also bristle at "safe" as a descriptor of this music. I guess I don't really understand what I'm supposed to contrast that against. What would make Atomos dangerous? And would that necessarily make it better?

And as far as Atomos vs their debut - the new one is definitely superior. In the context of SotL I kinda get how you could perceive the debut as somewhat rote and less inspired. But I think on Atomos they more clearly show that they are trying to do something different. It's not just SotL with piano. (And for that matter I also like it more than a lot of the other Erased Tapes material I've heard.)

Yes yes I am not sure I love ATOMOS but it is amazingly well written and executed, holy cow. I've listened to it ten times now and it's still surprising me with how well paced it is, subtle expansions from track to track, really impressed.

Has there been anything good recently?

djh did you see the Textura EOY list posted int he Year-End Polls thread? Lots of great stuff on that list. Currently transfixed by Ian William Craig's Turn of Breath. Also digging Marvin Ayres's Ultradian Rhythms and Vicky Chow's Tristan Perich: Surface Image, among others.

And don't walk past Kyle Bobby Dunn's 'And The Infinite Sadness'.

Been fascinated lately by Aaron Martin's Comet's Coma and Elisa Luu's Enchanting Gaze.

Thanks all.

Ian William Craig's Either Or is nice; quite reminds of Rice Boy Sleep. "A Turn of Breath" seems to be sold out.

Yeah, Ian William Craig's Turn of Breath is really good - it was the most recent Guardian 100 weirdest (but great) albums on Spotify entry

http://tape-dust.tumblr.com/casolli

a winged victory for the sullen, anyone?

i enjoyed the prom. first i'd heard of them was last week's latitude coverage on Late Junction and this week they're on tv playing the Royal Albert Hall...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0640mhj (28 days left)

(some chat here: The "classical" music you buy from Boomkat (2010): a thread to discuss Sylvain Chauveau, Johann Johannsson, Peter Broderick, Olafur Arnalds and others )

Enjoying the new Hauschka EP A NDO C Y very much.

It cheers me up when this thread is revived.

Doing my very best. One interesting addition regarding relatively straightforward (though a bit unpolished) solo piano might be Martin Kohlstedt.
Dude was playing live way more experimental processing his tunes, but somehow his albums connect with me really well in their own subdued way. Moreso, a supercharming individual.

Wrote up two albums by Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir for Burning Ambulance today.

I'm really enjoying Olli Aarni's Puu Tuulessa (which was ridiculously limited on Cotton Goods).

http://olliaarni.bandcamp.com/album/puu-tuulessa

http://inverted-audio.com/feature/130701-pioneers-of-post-classical/

this new Lubomyr Melnyk album is beautiful

a friend of mine just hipped me to Rupert Clervaux & Beatrice Dillon, 'Studies I - XVII for Samplers & Percussion' and it is rad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo8b_yEil-M

^ been enjoying Yair Elazar Glotman's Études recently, guy's got a good sound

it's not pretty music btw, it's more like a bear growling in your ear

cool record

Spotify has discovered Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch for me. From the safer, AWftS, piano-era Eluvium end of the spectrum.

this thread put me on Turn of Breath and for that I am forever in its debt, I keep finding new ways to enjoy this record

Boomkat sale is on. Lots of Type Records.

http://www.factmag.com/2015/12/07/fact-mix-527-johann-johannsson/

http://www.sonicpieces.com/pattern002.html

Liking this a lot.

JOHANN JOHANNSSON WITH HILDUR GUDNADOTTIR & ROBERT AIKI AUBREY LOWE - END OF SUMMER

PATTERN 002 CD/DVD "lasercut cardboard packaging with full colored innersleeve"
PATTERN 002 LP "lasercut cardboard packaging with full colored innersleeve"

End of Summer captures Johann Johannsson's journey to the Antarctic Peninsula to discover the calm scenery of a landscape changing seasons, barely influenced or even noticed by humanity. The super 8 film is a comforting study of a peaceful setting in one of the most crucial and endangered areas of our planet.

Accompanied by rich and detailed field recordings of the surrounding this footage makes a perfect foundation for Johann's musical compositions, performed together with fellow musicians and friends Hildur Gudnadottir and Robert A. A. Lowe. The varying use of cello, voice, synthesizer and electronics creates a listening experience that reflects both the vast beauty of the quiet scenery and the necessary cautiousness of its inhabitants. As if gliding through the steep ice, its rough edges and the harmonious water movements, organic arrangements are patiently devolving into voice and electronic based ambience that adds warmth to the icy, artefact laden environment.

The soundtrack to End of Summer is an emotional, enduring listen and a compelling experience. Forming a soundscape as broad as the view it was inspired by yet equally heartwarming, devotion to the music will slow down time and provide a moment of harmony within times of change.

LP edition features the soundtrack as well as the film's sound design on the B-Side, exclusively on vinyl;
DVD + CD package features the film and accompanying soundtrack.

Glad to know about this, it's great. Put me on a Hildur Gudnottir kick all day today.

Might be of interest:

https://www.fat-cat.co.uk/release/like-water-through-the-sand

(Revived 130701 imprint).

Recent obsessions:

Colin Stetson: Sorrow -- sax-based reinterpretation of Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
http://open.spotify.com/album/0SnAsW09FjjOYZ2oHYliyL

Julia Kent - Asperities -- cello-heavy wonderfulness
http://open.spotify.com/album/5on5Q09vRTjw24GmaK3pMz

http://www.classicfm.com/discover/music/sarah-neufeld-playlist/#wX1tPVS2S4xq4Sxz.97

(I have to confess the comment underneath made me chuckle).

I have to say, getting the weekly Boomkat email of new albums, going through it and finding almost all the intriguing looking stuff on Spotify, and settling in a for a day's listening at work is very satisfying. Today there's a new Peter Broderick (Partners), the new Scott Walker OST for The Childhood of a Leader, Marielle V Jakobsons, Chino Amobi's 'Airport Music for Black Folk', stuff like that.

Like bits of the Ben Lukas Boysen (on Erased Tapes).

Actually, love this track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCpFvn7jTPo

Apparently, there's a feature in this month's Uncut on some of these types.

> these types

Pun!

Yeah, the Boyson, Christopher Tignor and Ian William are good 2016 additions

*Ian William Craig

Peter Broderick's Playlist
Stuart Maconie's Freakier Zone

Stuart's guest from the Freak Zone this week, Peter Broderick, offers a 60-minute playlist of music from his studio in Oregon called The Sparkle which he has just closed. Featuring a bounty of unreleased tracks from The Sparkle's archive including Portland's Shelley Short, harpist Desiree Rousseau's band Brumes and his sister Heather Woods Broderick.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b082q70v

interview in the main freak zone show too

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04fzm50

Some temptation here:

https://stationarytravels.wordpress.com/2016/12/27/2016-in-review-journeys-in-modern-classical/

Their "Sense of Place" list is also interesting.

I had no idea Touch had a bandcamp

https://highplainskranky.bandcamp.com/

^oh hey, i'm friends with that cellist

I must buy that Claire M Singer album. The bits I've heard sound great.

Sampling some of these I haven't heard, I'm sorta taken aback by the homogeneity of a lot of this stuff. Guess I hadn't realized until now what a big shadow Erased Tapes really cast, but so much of this is just really conservative, featherlight furniture music that makes Satie sound like Jerry Lee Lewis. Guess I just don't get it?

Any recommendations, Wimmels?

Well, if you're asking, some of the younger Scandinavian pianists on ECM fill this void for me quite nicely. It's music that often surprises me while still capturing / evoking icy or bucolic or mellow moods. It too can occasionally be overly polite and antiseptic, but even then I find it more adventurous and challenging than a lot of the stately, grandiloquent somber / pretty music in this thread. I also don't understand why I should listen to frustrated post-rockers play bootleg Debussy through effects pedals when something like this exists.

To be clear, I'm not dismissing the entire above list. I like a few of these artists. But of the ones I'd never heard, most of the samples did not make me want to investigate further. Claire M. Singer is probably the lone exception, that's definitely something I need to look into, based on the sample...