Laurel Halo

I think I still like Hour Logic the most, because of my attachment to the experience of discovering her work at a time when it felt like it was making a novel and exciting step towards a kind of new idm-ish sound for the 2010s, and was its own thing, before that would become relatively commonplace in the following years.

Quarantine. I'm still really amused how angry some people here got about that record.

King Felix spring is still her best record and slept on so yeah...

― Ross, Wednesday, August 8, 2018 1:04 AM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I just listened to this for the first time in years and it is incredible. Don't remember it hitting me so hard before. The drum programming is virtuosic, the samples and synths lush. All is well for the moment.

The new Caterina Barbieri album giving me massive early LH vibes after a first bandcamp listen.

a lot more vocals that I was expecting, and the way they sit in the mix feels very Quarantine-era Halo.

mix from july
https://soundcloud.com/discwoman/discwoman-27-x-laurel-halo

― Week of Wonders (Ross), Thursday, October 12, 2017 10:39 AM (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink

if you haven't heard this mix, you owe it to yourself

she is on another level as a DJ, it's really impressive that every single track stands out in it's own way and the mix is stylistically all over the place, but somehow she manages to make it flow naturally and seamlessly. it's rare to hear something so eclectic that doesn't devolve into chaos.

I think I've said this before but seeing her DJ a few years ago was a great experience, lots of gqom and early bleep tracks, incredible energy

thrilled to announce my first album in five years, Atlas, is coming out September 22 on my new label Awe. You can listen to the first single 'Belleville', a piano ballad which features a harmony stack moment with @cobysey

pre-order & more info here: https://t.co/9E8tirjQFs pic.twitter.com/wxJiutnNhj

— Laurel Halo (@LaurelHalo) July 12, 2023

also, I may have previously posted this on different thread, but this is another stunning mix

https://soundcloud.com/laurelhalo/laurel-halo-nowadays-nyc-562023

yes! yes! yes! yes! yes! yes! yes! yes! yes!

new album popped up on bandcamp today... definitely could use more reverb. j/k .. i don't know if €11 is realistic for digital only. i'm going in for a third listen, and don't have slsk rn. cot damn (charging 11 euros for digital only) these bands. this new album reminds me of gas narkopop (similarly inviting, swirl of strings/ orchestra) on the surface. eleven euros, ouch :\

I think this album is really incredibly beautiful and unlike anything else I've heard.

i do enjoy the piano / rhodes / keyboard playing of laurel halo (wish there was more of it) .. the rest of atlas has grown on me after a couple of listens. it does remind me of other records--the quality of the sounds/ production (at times like an ocean) as a whole - drenched in reverb. it feels overly immersive (a dense wash) at times, having only listened to it on a phone. i like the listening environment to impart some reverb on the audio (on a proper listen) .. minor quibble aside, it is nice.

I guess to me it seems like a weird mix of Debussy, Ligeti, slow jazz, ambient music, drone, and film music, with nostalgic submersed keyboards and disguised voices, and with subtle but very striking insertion of background electronic noises

it sounds like it might open up nicely on headphones. i'm complaining after listening to it on a smartphone (externally) which is an obvious problem. i was deliberating over whether or not to buy the CD, which i can't afford rn. my stereo system is set up in a small-ish, tiled room which sort of amplifies the audio nicely w/its natural reverb. blah blah blah. i like your description, Dan S

I listened to it today and it was very ambient and drifty. Will have to give it another try.

this album is fucked up (compliment)

Played it twice through back to back. Just lovely.

Sounds marvelous

Sold on the basis of your description, Dan.

Yeah, this is *very* where I'm at, what I want from music these days. Beautiful and unsettled, sweet and ominous. Well worth the $20 it costs to get the CD shipped from wherever.

very good album 👍

This is great. First thought when putting it on was Roly Porter and sure enough there's James Ginzburg in the production credits. Title track reminds me of Richard Skelton if anyone. All those dense vibrating strings in a haunted landscape.

very much looking forward to hearing this <3 raw silk uncut wood and seems like this might be a continuation of that vibe?

raw silk... is the only release of hers/theirs that's left me utterly cold. this new one is quite compelling (i keep wanting to listen to it) in comparison, imo. there's an instance partway through Atlas that recalls the melancholy of Gavin Bryars' The Sinking of the Titanic.. the atmosphere, vibe, everything. i recall two separate performances / releases of TSotT (before the philip jeck thing), one (or both?) of them were recorded in an old water tower, or some kind of approximation of that. the atmosphere (depth of it, mournful strings, etc.) is quite similar. apart from that, it's definitely singular-sounding, esp. in l'oeuvre de halo.

*par ou de ... no se

Wow this is gorgeous.

parts of it feel like Autechre's "all end" arranged for strings

Played this intensely loud this afternoon and just dissolved into it. Brilliant record.

Yeah I put it on yesterday during a drifty disco nap, lovely.

raw silk... is the only release of hers/theirs that's left me utterly cold.

btw, "Reading the Air" (after 4 minutes, on Atlas) is the only track that vaguely reminded me of Gavin Bryars' The Sinking of The Titanic, in part of its chord progression. still haven't listened to Atlas on a proper system.

*getting familiar with Raw Silk Uncut Wood, that is

Atlas was my 2023 AOTY, and now she already has a new EP out, Octavia

https://laurelhalo.bandcamp.com/album/octavia

Oh that’s awesome, I’ve had to ration how often I play Atlas so I don’t burn out on it