Eerie is not nearly powerful enough to describe the hellish soundscape that Maryam Sirvan produces on this record. It is as if Pierre Henry decided to do an ethnographic recording tracing Dante’s footsteps inside of Hell. Brooding, powerful soundscapes.
Musique Concrète
[Music] Napalm Death – Mentally Murdered
This record was my first introduction to grindcore. Napalm Death were brutal and fast, and meticulously precise, and this record caught them at the beginning of the peak of their powers. Truly brutal listening.
[Music] Juhani Silvola – Post-Biological Wildlife
Norwegian composer Juhani Silvola is the heir of the French electroacoustic music tradition, and he has managed to update the sound while maintaining its spirit. According to his biography, “Juhani’s music often explores themes circling post-humanism, nature and virtual reality, questioning the role of humanity in the near future, and painting varied scenarios without exclusively condemning or glorifying the techno-futuristic vision.” We’re in for a bleak future, folks.
Post-Biological Wildlife is his latest album, released on his own Eighth Nerve Audio.
[Music] Meng Qi – Span 跨度
Meng Qi is a Chinese experimental music composer based out of my current place of residence, Beijing. His music is unlike most of the genre, where one would expect to hear an avalanche of nearly pointless noise. There is a beauty to his compositions that I don’t find much in a lot of modern releases that purport to be ‘experimental’. He’s definitely an intriguing character.
[Music] Roberto Romero Molina – Escandinavia por Ala Delta
This must be a great week for Bandcamp. This release features a young Mexican composer called Roberto Romero Molina, whose work falls somewhere between electroacoustic music and something reminiscent of a sci-fi movie. A short, but brilliant, release.
[Music] Pierre Henry – Prismes (1973)
The elder statesman of electroacoustic music, Pierre Henry, with a composition that could almost pass for dubsetp these days.
[Music] Michèle Bokanowski – Tabou
Michèle Bokanowski composed this piece for Metamkine Records in France. It was featured in a series called Cinéma pour l’oreille, which were released as 3-inch CDs.
[Video] Ivana Stefanović – The Epistle of Birds (1976)
Less a piece of music and more a gaggle of birds having their caterwauling manipulated expertly by Ivana Stefanović, who composed this piece of sound art inside the studios of Radio Belgrade.
GRM on Bandcamp!
Holy smokes! The legendary INA-GRM Record Label out of Paris, France, which housed some of the most legendary names in electroacoustic and avant-garde music, has decided to release selected titles as downloads via Bandcamp, and at reasonable prices!
[Video] Spooky Tooth with Pierre Henry – Prayer
An updated version of this post, as an error by GoDaddy, who hosts this site, ate it. Hopefully, I have no more missing posts.
A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music 