WHAT YOUR EARS SAY & THE COVER LOOKS LIKE

WHAT WE SAY

Cheers to Aquarium Drunkard for nodding me in the direction of Jonathan Kirby's minimal gem for Mr. Haircut as he loops succinct & sweet motifs around old synth drum presets & throws in a few bird sounds for good measure. A refreshingly sparse lo-fi meditation on how less is more & how that simple idea can save the world.

WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY

This album is great. You should buy it.

Credits​
Jonathan Kirby did it all.

WHAT YOUR EARS SAY & THE COVER LOOKS LIKE

WHAT WE SAY

Never judge an LP by its cover, except this new one from Ora Clementi for Black Truffle Records, that invites you to slip through a gap in your reality tunnel to a world of ambient magic realism & shroom warped New Age biomes, quenched by sound art backwaters, dotted with ASMR tree houses & occasionally shrouded by fine purple mists that rise from the adjacent experimental swamps.

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Black Truffle is pleased to present Sylva Sylvarum, an epic new work from Ora Clementi, the collaborative project of crys cole and James Rushford. Primarily conceived and recorded over several months together in Melbourne, Sylva Sylvarum is a stunning step forward from the mumbled, creaking sound world of the duo’s debut, Cover You Will Softer Me (Penultimate Press, 2014). From the opening ‘Peach of Immortality’, which takes an unpredictable journey from layers of chiming bells, vocal harmonies and lush synth pads to a desolate landscape of half-animal, half-digital wooshes and cries, it is immediately clear that cole and Rushford are working here with an entirely unique sound palette. Throughout the record’s four sides, we hear a large array of carefully detailed synthesizer sounds (many of them recorded at the remarkable Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio), sparse drum machine hits, wind instruments and field recordings of animals, often with a twistedly late 80s/early 90s flavour that at various points calls up New Age references, Robert Ashley’s later operas or the thinned-out textures of early digital GRM. 

Threaded through this distinctive array of sounds are the two musicians’ voices, sometimes singing, sometimes speaking through varying degrees of manipulation. A guiding thread through the pair’s collaboration, beginning with their initial experiments with lip-readings, the presence of these two voices – cole’s crisp and sibilant, Rushford’s rich and low – reinforces the sense that the music is immersed in itself, less performed by two people than occurring between them. On Sylva Sylvarum, these voices first come to the forefront on the third piece, ‘Dialogue Between a Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller and a Genoese Sea Captain’, where in unison they intone fragments of a description of an imaginary space taken from a 17th century utopian text. The two voices resurface periodically thereafter, most stunningly in the unexpected turn into cushiony dream pop on ‘Magic Mountain’. At other points, the subtle manipulation of pitch and intonation in the close-miked vocal performances filters the recitations through a fog of abstraction that climaxes with the almost incomprehensible alternating syllables of the side-long closer ‘Forest of Materials’. 
Like the album’s title, these textual elements are drawn from various literary descriptions of utopias, a theme that also informed the pair’s musical approach. Far from anything dryly illustrative, utopia figures into Sylva Sylvarum as an invitation to inhabit otherworldly spaces that, like the empirical details that proliferate in these literary utopias, are grounded in mundane reality but shot through with the eldritch. Admirably framed by the abstracted digital topographies of Sabrina Ratté’s artwork, the uncanny sweep of the album’s fifteen pieces is expansive enough to take in stretches of crackling austerity, warped microtonal keyboard etudes and moments of stunning beauty, the latter most strikingly when cole and Rushford are joined by Callum G’Froerer on trumpet and Joe O’Connor on trombone for a series of dream-like moments moving from growling overtones to poignant lyricism. ​

WHAT YOUR EARS SAY & THE COVER LOOKS LIKE

WHAT WE SAY

​Ambient textures abound on the new Tangents LP for Temporary Residence Ltd. but the tempos fluctuate wildly from a hip hop crawl to all sorts of mutated, futuristic liquid drum and bass constructs. Pop it on the headphones & you'll simultaneously float & fly through the weekly shop.

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Australian improvising ensemble Tangents return with a ‘twin’ release that sees 2020’s Timeslips complemented with a second album, Chimeras. The Timeslips tracks, which were released in digital-only form under the subdued circumstances of the first COVID wave, are remastered and reissued in the newly merged Timeslips & Chimeras package, receiving a full release on 2xLP, CD, and all digital platforms. Timeslips & Chimeras marks the third Tangents release issued through the iconic Brooklyn label Temporary Residence Ltd. (home to Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky, MONO, William Basinski and more). 

The two albums were created in tandem, with much of the material recorded in one day at Sydney’s Free Energy Device Studios in 2018. Timeslips leans towards more literal takes on the studio-improvised material, with Tangents’ usual blend of ambiguous post-production treatment. Chimeras expands into more constructed passages of iterated overdubs, lo-fi electric jams, additional studio takes and splintered extracts from the Timeslips sessions, offering more extreme twists, turns and stylistic variation through doomy rock and dub drones, ecstatic superjazz and abstract collages. 

This landmark double release comes 3 years after the release of New Bodies, the Australian Music Prize nominated albumwhich thrust Tangents’ peculiar blend of improvisation and precision production into the international spotlight, a record which, says Grayson Haver Currin of Pitchfork, “overflows with sensations — of being overpowered and delighted, of being buoyed up and washed away by Tangents’ seemingly endless ideas”.  

More tension and intention pervades Timeslips & Chimeras, demonstrating a thoughtful maturation of improvisational ideas and more abstracted and purposeful production. With breathtaking, rhythmic drumming and skillful production driving the various moods, Timeslips & Chimeras emerges from an even more intense interaction between live playing and carefully constructed compositions. The brittle skittering mallets of “Exaptation”, raucous guitar of “Debris” and processed trumpet of “Vessel” add new timbres to their existing palette of jazz drums, melancholy piano, throbbing cello and swirling glitched ambiences. The tonal rumble of a 100-carriage coal train winding through New South Wales’ Bylong Valley signals the first half of the double album’s slow close, recalling Tangents’ earlier references to the Australian environment in New Bodies and Stateless, before the second half picks up on a new tack: “Lilliputian” carves an upbeat path through growling drones into an ecstatic techno-infused anthem. “Ossicles” revisits Tangents’ penchant for deep, almost dubstep, grooves. “Lost Track” is a bizarre detour into elated jazz melodics. “Timeslip” radically deconstructs the band with pitch-shifts, cut-ups and decontextualized performances, while “Chimera” further smears the live improvisations into ambient jazz and hints at acoustic dub, before “Wonder” signs out with pulsating organ, spurts of mutant cello, and empty beats.
  CreditsTangents are: 
Ollie Bown: software, field recordings, synths 
Evan Dorrian: drums, percussion, voice 
Peter Hollo: cello, fx 
Adrian Lim-Klumpes: piano, prepared piano, Rhodes, mallet percussion, organ, synths, fx 

Additional musicians: 
Sia Ahmad: guitar, percussion, synths (tracks 1-7) arrangement (track 5) 
Nick Calligeros: trumpet (track 2) 

Primary improvisations recorded at Free Energy Device Studios, Sydney 
Recording and mix engineer: Richard Belkner 
Additional recordings, composition, arrangement and production by Tangents 
Mastered by Bob Weston 
Artwork by Britt Hiatzus 
Design by Jeremy DeVine 

WHAT YOUR EARS SAY & WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE

WHAT WE SAY

It's been great teaming up with Wiki Chaves and dropping a couple of singles from his new album, now you can finally check the full length LP that has just landed - perfect summer listening.

WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY

Wiki Chaves’ latest production is Raíz - a 27 minute long minimalistic instrumental album jointly released by The Slow Music Movement. Its 7 tracks combine beats from a legendary Ace Tone drum machine, quiet electric guitar layers and subtle acoustic percussion to create relaxing dreamy landscapes inspired by parenthood and a return to nature, hence the title "Raíz" (roots in Spanish). 

The music on Raíz is driven by soft riffs that develop organically and work as mantric loops, seasoned with deep reverbs that convey a retro vibe, and spatial backgrounds reminiscent of ambient music. The influences for the tracks on the album are drawn from diverse roots: dub’s signature sound, post-punk heavily chorused guitars, exotica rhythms, classical guitar arpeggios and smooth jazz phrasing.

CreditsWritten By Wiki Chaves 

Performed by Wiki Chaves (guitar and drum programing), Nicolás Supertino (percussion and melodica) and Nico Bruschi (bass guitar) 
Produced by Nico Bruschi aka Sidirum 
Mixed by Nicola Carra 
Mastered by Jerónimo Escajal 
Cover by Carmen Chaves 
Photography by Agustina Perretta

WHAT YOUR EARS SAY & WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE

WHAT WE SAY

Get your Friday freak on & launch into the weekend with the horn & string assisted, propulsive polyrhythmic joys & full on celebration of Mandé music from London's Balimaya Project for Jazz Re:freshed & pray to Mangala that live music returns soon as this crew will undoubtedly smash any show.

WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY

Driving collective polyrhythms, blazing frontline horns & virtuosic kora stylings collide across this dynamic meeting of traditional Mandé music/culture and contemporary jazz.
CreditsYahael Camara Onono - Lead Djembe/Arranger/Composer/ Voice /Sangban 
N’famady Kouyaté - Balafon/Sangban/ Voice 
Jali Bakary Konte - Kora 
Skanda Sabbagh - Dounoun 
Adeegun Crispin Robinson - Congas/voice 
Paul Goumou - Omele/Shekere/Sakara 
Michael Adesina - Lead Talking Drums/Sakara 
Moses Olukayode - Talking Drums/Sakara 
Yohan Kebede - Keys 
Godwin Sonzi - Guitar/voice 
Jonathan Monga Moko - Bass/voice 
Nathaniel Cross - Trombone 
Joe Bristow - Trombone 
Elias Ntiamoah Atkinson - Flugelhorn/Trumpet 
Ife Ogunjobi - Trumpet 
Triston Dubison - Kit 
Mariam Tounkara Koné - Solo Vocal 

Recorded at: Livingston Studios 
Engineered by: Marcus Locock 
Mixed by: Marcus Locock 
Mastered by: Daz-I-Kue 
Date recorded: July 2020 

Thanks to: 
I’d like to thank my ‘father’ Sidiki Dembele for his undying encouragement, mentoring, care and Attention and education in tradition and culture. 

A big thanks to my Family - Balimaya Project - without whom, none of this would be possible. The talent that surrounds us all is extraordinary. 

To Michelea Onono and Adaiba Onono, for keeping us Sane. 

Thanks to Andrew Azuka Uchea (RIP), Frances Uchea and the Uchea family for their prayers and support throughout my life and career. 

Marcus Locock, for working with us singlehandedly and doing a hell of a job 

Last but definitely not least, a huge thank you to Jazz re:freshed. Adam, Yvette and team, You have consistently followed and supported everything we have done. Advised, sacrificed and supported. To pull this off during a pandemic was no mean feat. But your unwavering positivity and encouragement has been priceless. What you do for the community, in general, is indescribable. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.​