Ambient

[Music] Arturo Stàlteri – From Ajanta to Lhasa

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This release comes as a very pleasant surprise! Arturo Stàlteri (Italian bio) is a pianist and composer of incredible ability whom I came across at least 30 years ago when finding a record by his early project, Pierrot Lunaire, who release a couple of progressive rock masterpieces.

This new album (and I’m not really sure if it is a reissue or something that was sitting in the vaults for 40 years) compares well with minimalist composers influenced by Eastern culture like Terry Riley, Philip Glass and La Monte Young.

This really is a minor treasure. I’d be very interested to see if Stàlteri has a few more hidden albums waiting to see the light of day.

[Music] Various Artists – Anthology Of Persian Experimental Music Vol. II

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September 4 is one of those Bandcamp Fridays where the company doesn’t take its normal commission in order for the artists to either make a bit more money or donate it to the cause of their choice. Though well over 1,500 releases flooded by email inbox today, there was one which came to me from a dear friend of the blog, Raffaele Pezzella (owner of the incredible Unexplained Sounds Group, whose compilations never fail to impress.

This one is a second batch of Iranian dark ambient and experimental music composers, featuring such maestros as Xerxes The Dark, Reza Solatipour, Force Ignore and a host of names which are not only new to me, but who have managed to capture my interest rather quickly.

Today, of all days, is a fine one to introduce yourself to a fresh batch of music from Iran’s dark ambient wellspring.

[Music] Xerxes The Dark – Final Crises

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At least for my taste, there’s not much better than hearing extremely deep, cavernous, and at some points, scary, black ambient. No, not dark ambient. This is black and bleak. Morego Dimmer (Xerxes The Dark himself) composes a lot of top-quality material, but I feel like he’s begun to hit the peak of his powers. I can say without hesitation that Iran is the place to watch for this strain of electronic music.

[Music] Ruheman – Slight Collapse

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Ruheman is the monicker of Bristol-based producer Sam Bates. Today must have been a good day because bright, sweeping ambient music in the vein, ever so slightly, of Brian Eno’s “Thursday Afternoon,” with more atmospherics and a touch of field recordings, was precisely what I was looking to hear. I don’t know much about Sam’s background, but if this is his first proper EP, he has a rather good future ahead of him.

[Music] Txema González ~ Insularum — a closer listen

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Thanks to our friends at A Closer Listen, a blog we wholeheartedly recommend reading. We’re back in business, though we ask that you expect few posts until September. By then, we will have finished our move to Brno, Czechia.

It’s rare that we encounter an album devoid of liner notes. We assume the moniker of the Portuguese artist is a pseudonym, as Google lists Txema González as a cycling masseur who died in Seville a decade ago. We feel on firmer footing with the title; insularum means island, while the cover and second track title refer to a […]

Txema González ~ Insularum — a closer listen

[Music] FANT^MS ~ Roomtones — a closer listen

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What do Frédéric Nogray, Lee Patterson and Pali Meursault (FANT^MS) have in common? All are fascinated with sounds that would normally remain unheard. Nogray specializes in industrial crucibles forged into singing bowls; Patterson prefers springs, motors and chemical reactions; Meursault focuses on failing neon light and other electromagnetic activity. Under natural circumstances, one might expect their […]

FANT^MS ~ Roomtones — a closer listen

We had to take a hiatus due to some unforeseen personal issues popping up, but we’re happy to be back, starting with giving a nod to our colleagues at a closer listen who give us a taste of experimental composers Frédéric Nogray, Lee Patterson and Pali Meursault collaborating as FANT^MS.

[Music] NERATERRÆ – Scenes From The Sublime

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Our friend Alessio Antoni of NERATERRÆ is visiting us for the third time, and he brings along some of the finest composers in dark ambient music to collaborate with.

Some of the participants in this album include Alphaxone, Dødsmaskin, Leila Abdul-Rauf, Mount Shrine, Phelios, Phragments, Shrine, Xerxes The Dark, George Zafiriadis from Martyria and Yann Hagimont from Cober Ord. The variance of sounds and textures on this release corresponds well with the different paintings which inspired Alessio to produce this album. Such painters as Zdzisław Beksiński, Ilya Repin, Salvador Dalí, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Francisco Goya among others.

There is a ghostly quality that comes with the genre on each track, but they have more of a viscous feeling to them. They sound, and in a sense, feel, more substantial than others I’ve been hearing recently. There is no shortage of incredible ambient music going around today, but Alessio and his partners continue to impress and surprise.

[Music] Lauri-Dag Tüür – Polar Night Jet

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Lauri-Dag Tüür is a composer from Estonia, a country whom I have a deep love for and who have given presented two equally fine composers whom I admire (Arvo Pärt and Erkki-Sven Tüür).

Lauri-Dag’s work compares favorably to these legends, as Polar Night Jet reminds me of works by a more freeform Popol Vuh, Paul Schütze or Steve Roach, yet with an aura of a field recording about it.  The percussion work is very engaging, so ambient it isn’t – it hooked me about 5 minutes into the release.

According to the composer, the three pieces should be perceived as one symphony.  I concur.  Everything flows together naturally.  One of the best albums I’ve heard in a while.