Yann Novak - The Breeze Blowing Over Us (Infrequency)

Infrequency Editions is a sub-label of Dragon's Eye, the latter owned and operated by Yann Novak himself. The label was originally founded by Jamie Drouin and Lance Olsen, but after a brief hiatus, and introduction to Novak, it merged with Dragon's Eye. Originally concerned with documenting live performances and sound installations presented through public concerts at a local gallery in Victoria (British Columbia), Infrequency also releases ambient and minimal studio compositions, as is the case with this recording. The Breeze Blowing Over Us is based on a simple recording of a fan, during one of the hottest days in Seattle. This recording is transformed into a 38+ minute composition that layers organic and synthetic sounds into a thick, brooding, drenched with tropical haze, and tense composition, with a slow movement of mechanically distributed air, worthy of its original title. The piece begins with a moving onslaught of dense textures, inching its way into the foreground at a crawling pace. Muffled sound waves, resembling a pitched down ocean, or the rumbling of a gigantic vehicle passing through an underground tunnel, are offset by distant, high frequency robotic screeches of an alien species. I proceed with caution in the darkness, and feel ahead what must be the door handle. I guess this is where I enter. Suddenly, I'm fighting through the thick vegetation of sound. Soon I come out upon an opening, where the chords crawl up a mountain in a melting drone of lava. This expedition with sound enters a sacred circle of open mouths and stretched out hands, to lift the trapped spirit into the cloud of white noise, only to be spilled again in a form of frequency rain, at the foot of the mountain. The atmosphere of this recording is tightly wound, condensed, drenched in suspenseful emotions, with a slight tingling of uneasiness. Some may even find this unsettling - but not I. I love dark and spooky. Descending deep into abandoned caverns of sound is my part time sport. For the same reasons that one replays those eerie horror movies, I return to Novak's world, time and time again. Check out Novak's extensive discography, with many limited and archival recordings of live performances on Dragon's Eye. His attention to detail with the work on a label, and persistence at reinventing his sound has finally been rewarded - Novak has been noticed by Richard Chartier and is scheduled to release an album on Line in September of 2010.

See also Two and a Half Questions with Yann Novak

yannnovak.com | dragonseyerecordings.com | infrequency.org

Windy & Carl - Songs For The Broken Hearted (Kranky)

Windy Weber & Carl Hultgren have been releasing minimal ambient and experimental post-rock music since the late 90's. The catalog of this Michigan based husband-and-wife duo spans an eclectic selection of notable labels such as Icon, Ochre, Darla, Brainwashed, and of course, Chicago-based Kranky Records. Songs For The Broken Hearted is Windy & Carl's fourth release on Kranky (being signed to the label for over a decade now), where it perfectly fits among the works by their fellow label-mates, Stars of the Lid, Pan•American, Tim Hecker, and Brian McBride. The tracks on Songs For The Broken Hearted continue to build on the duo's style of beatless shoegaze layers of Carl & Windy's guitar work, using EBow and a variety of time-based delays, with the occasional soft vocals by Windy. Both play equal amounts of guitar on the record, and Windy tells me that "each track (with the exception of Rhodes) was created spontaneously with us both playing guitar, and then carl added a few extra layers after and i added the vocals". The sound of this album is still drony, but a lot more harmonic, as if a heavy pillow was left on the Rhodes, pressing on all the right keys. The cover art of the album pictures a forest with breaking light. A parallel could be drawn between this image and the dense stratum of sonic frequencies evoked by the guitar, with an occasional breakthrough of clearly EQed voice, which almost whispers the songs that lullaby the sad, and indeed the brokenhearted. To understand the depth of feelings behind this work, it helps to bypass my interpretations, and instead quote Windy talking about the album on the band's web site: "this is an album about love. everyone has known love, and everyone has known loss. love is not just about warm fuzzy feelings, although that would be the part people say they like the best. and in any span of time, love changes and means different things to different people. [...] songs for the broken hearted is an album full of honesty, both musically and lyrically. it is for anyone who has felt love - you can hear it in the sounds and the words, both spoken and unspoken. the album i never thought would be is finished." For an extensive selection of Windy & Carl's tracks, check out their triple disk release, Introspection (Blue Flea, 2002). A few other great recommendations from the duo include Depths (Kranky, 1998), Consiousness (Kranky, 2001), and a compilation of two EPs, The Dreamhouse / Dedications to Flea (Kranky, 2005) - the latter being a sad elegy dedicated to their departed dog, Flea. Recommended for the above mentioned Kranky roster. Windy & Carl are currently preparing for their spring tour along with Benoît Pioulard with some special treats from Lambs Laughter (Windy and Thomas Meluch). For tour tour dates and details check their website or myspazz.

myspace.com/windyandcarl | brainwashed.com/wc
myspace.com/krankyltd | kranky.net

Aidan Baker And Tim Hecker - Fantasma Parastasie (Alien8)

Toronto based Aidan Baker and Montreal based Tim Hecker pair up to deliver an abstract and experimental ambient piece on a Canadian Alien8 Recordings. Hecker is not a stranger to a noise-prominent label, having previously released Mirages (Alien8, 2004), and a re-issue of Radio Amor (Mille Plateaux, 2003). In addition, his ambient recordings have already graced quality labels like Force Inc, Staalplaat, Fat Cat and Kranky. This is, however, his very first collaboration. Baker, on the other hand, is known for his work with Leah Buckareff, together cooking up ambient drone metal under the Nadja moniker. Baker's discography is immense, and mostly consists of live improvised long pieces. His ability to churn out guitar heavy drone soundscapes can be overwhelming, but together, with Hecker's luscious synth work, they pull out a whole different beast. The overdriven guitars combined with hiss, crackle and static, vibrate feverishly across the frequency spectrum, occasionally revealing a hidden pattern, a loose structure, and a graceful melody. The paced slow-core riffs, rolling at a speed of a sleeping giant, are fed back into themselves and split through a harmonic meat grinder. All this is again mashed up, tweaked out, and faded in through a torrent of bit-crushed digitally violated audio waves that give your speakers (and ears) a massive workout. Fantasma Parastasie is a relaxing fatigue - it cradles you gently by screaming its head off. Thus, together, Backer and Hecker, define an oxymoron of ambient noise or shoegazer metal. This should be a special treat for those with a taste for Belong, Ben Frost, Fennesz, Jasper TX, and Lawrence English. Where as Baker has a bucket of upcoming albums, too many to fit in a paragraph (see my Two and a Half Questions with Aidan Baker for a full list), Hecker is scheduled to release his seventh studio album, An Imaginary Country, in March 2009 on Kranky.



myspace.com/aidanbakermusic  |  aidanbaker.org
myspace.com/rainbowbloodx  |  alien8recordings.com

Jasper TX - Black Sleep (Miasmah)

The fragmented world of random memories mixed by a disk jockey is one thing. An album is another. Listening to an album you always start at the beginning. You always start at track one. Dag Rosenqvist, under his moniker Jasper TX, opens up Black Sleep with a swell. It dynamically expands into a quiet drone, setting the tone for the things to come. Using layered pads, lo-fi treatment, and low rumbling tones, Rosenqvist builds a distant soundscape that drapes over my ears like a Valerian pillowcase. Black Sleep drifts me out of collective consciousness, through a tranquil voice of a Buddhist wordless sermon. The tracks on Black Sleep range from serene lullabies to haunting drones. Although the sleep is certainly black, it's not too dark to be enjoyed outdoors. Jasper TX is a perfect artist to end up on Miasmah, which recently stepped up from operating as a net label, the current album being its eighth official release. Miasmah's previous hailed albums include Rafael Anton Irisarri's Daydreaming, Elegi's Sistereis, and Jacaszek's Treny. Jasper TX is Rosenqvist's solo project, under which he has a couple of self released EPs, and a few albums, most notable of these are In A Cool Mansoon (Pumpkin Seeds In The Sand, 2007), and I'll Be Long Gone Before My Light Reaches You (Lampse, 2005). This past February, Jasper TX released yet another ambient album titled This Quiet Season (Slaapwel, 2008). I highly recommend you check it out as well. Besides releasing ambient bliss under Jasper TX, Sweden based Dag Rosenqvist is a member of a post-rock group, De La Mancha. For the likes of Deaf Center, Klimek, Marsen Jules, Fennesz, and Machinefabriek.

myspace.com/jaspertx
myspace.com/miasmah | www.miasmah.com

The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation - Doomjazz Future Corpses! (Ad Noiseam)

Must be a gloomy kinda day for me. The irritating questions from those who should know better, and the music from The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation didn't help at all. Perhaps just another alias for Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, or perhaps a brand new outlet for the two member group consisting of Gideon Kiers and Jason Köhnen, created to channel all of their semi-improvised, experimental, and free-form ambient doom through one of my favorite labels, Ad Noiseam. Köhnen is most notably known for his Bong-Ra moniker with drilling breakcore releases on the same label. But on the Doomjazz Future Corpses!, which was recorded live in Amsterdam, you won't hear any beats. Instead, the cinematic soundscapes resemble a haunted house in which a cello moans, a trombone sighs, and the saxophone wails, all to the accompaniment of the warm drony bass and the cold oscillating instruments. The acoustic "mutant jazz" treatment around the low vibrating hum make me imagine an abandoned ship pier, in which the wind plays music with the metallic doors. And with each long passing minute I descent deeper and further into the darkest caverns of this spooky corridor. I withstood this punishing (in a good way) and at the same time amazing experience, but I would not recommend it on sunny days. I would have absolutely loved to witness it live!

myspace.com/tkde | myspace.com/adnoiseam