Blog Archives

The Slow Music Movement Blog

Mostly we put our daily recommendations here for the blog readers among you, although occasionally we go longform.
Reading about music is a bit like looking at pictures of food - not nearly half as much fun as getting involved, so we scribble a brief intro to hopefully whet your appetite but you're better off just hitting play. Not very "slow" I know but there's a lot of music to check these days & hopefully you'll find the recommendations a handy filter.
Trust your ears, not opinions.

30/4/2022 0 Comments

Various Artists - For Ukraine (Volume 2) [Headphone Commute]

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

Having raised $7000+ with volume one, the fine online magazine for experimental, ambient leaning electronica & neoclassical music - Headphone Commute, is back with another A-list compilation of the music they know best, to raise funds for International Rescue Committee & help war displaced families.

What The Release Notes Say

Having raised over $7,000 USD with the first volume, we are happy to present you with this follow-up, featuring 25 amazing compositions created for this benefit compilation.

We are especially honoured to open up this volume with a stirring new piece composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Ukrainian violinist Illia Bondarenko called "Piece for Illia". Sending files back and forth, the two produced the music, a touching cry for healing, and no war. Illia has been playing and uniting musicians from a bomb shelter in Ukraine, including a powerful violin flashmob where Ukrainian violinists were joined in harmony by top violinists across the world. 94 violinists from 29 countries.

The sheet music for “Piece for Illia" is publicly available under creative commons license for anyone in the world to play: sitesakamoto.com/pieceforillia

100% of all the proceeds (excluding Bandcamp's revenue share and payment processor fees) will be donated to International Rescue Committee (rescue.org) to support displaced children and families with vital supplies during the Crisis in Ukraine.

Please help and support our message. Thank you.

CREDITS
Curated by Hollie Kenniff
Cover art by Max Kukurudziak
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri
Presented by Mike Lazarev

IF YOU LIKE THAT THE YOU MIGHT LIKE THIS

You can stream the playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube & Soundcloud

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29/4/2022 0 Comments

PIERRE KWENDERS - José Louis And The Paradox of Love (ARTS & CRAFTS)

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE

WHAT YOUR EARS SAY

WHAT WE SAY

From Friday night shakers to late night lovers soul & unashamed feel good Afropop, Pierre Kwenders velvety vocals unite the stylistic diversity of this positively vibrating cruise around young Africa's & increasingly the world's popular music for Arts & Crafts.

WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY

Congolese-born, Montreal-based musician, songwriter, and DJ Pierre Kwenders (he/him) is a storyteller at his core. Motivated by the intricacies of love, his songs weave together narratives from memories of the past, sketches of his hometown, and reflections on the future. With his third album, José Louis and The Paradox of Love (via Arts & Crafts), Kwenders arrives at a new juncture – a moment of resonance, carefully wrapped in freewheeling tapestry, hinged in reverence to its diverse heritage, yet reveling in the inventive combination of its elements. Seamlessly working across Congolese rumba, contemporary electronic music, pop-R&B, and jazz-infused progressions with a range of global collaborators including Tendai Maraire (Shabazz Palaces), Branko (M.I.A., Buraka som Sistema), Win Butler (Arcade Fire), Michael Brun (J Balvin), and Uproot Andy (Poirier), the new album is both an embrace of African musical tradition and an evolution of it. Singing and rapping in Lingala, French, English, Tshiluba, and Kikongo, Kwenders similarly weaves his stories across the boundaries of language and geography. Written and recorded while traversing the globe with his Moonshine Collective -- holding nearly 100 lunar-based events including a Boiler Room party in his native Kinshasa or performing for COLORS in Berlin -- Kwenders has taken his Afro-electronic soirées from Los Angeles to Santiago to Paris and beyond, building a truly international grassroots community of fans and peers.

IF YOU LIKE THAT YOU MIGHT LIKE THIS

You can stream the playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube or Soundcloud

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28/4/2022 0 Comments

Singles & EPs Round Up - April 28th, 2022

Lindsay Clark - roses In The Sky (Audiosport)

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Lindsay Clark has been floating around the modern folk underground for a while but her new single has such a simple joy and pleasing purity to it, I for one am now taking notice. Aided by some well judged vocal elevating guitar work by William Tyler, this is boding really well for her LP that will drop on June 24th.

Shakali - Aurinkopari (Good Morning Tapes)

Mystical, spiritual and New Age fused ambient vibrations by Shakali on the constantly surprising Good Morning Tapes out of France. If you're conducting some sort of seasonally related, pagan ceremonies in your apartment or local forest then look no further for your next ritual soundtrack.

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Space Ghost feat. Teddy Bryant - Heavent Sent (PPU)

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Space Ghost has been a solid source of deep bumping instrumental grooves and warm vintage house with all the right classic sounds for a while so this trip to the world of 80s synthesized soul with the perfect throwback vocals of Bryant is a natural and most welcome development.

Stray Wool - Fog (Fallow)

Fallow Recordings the new imprint set up by Ishmael Cormack (yep the same one with a release on TSMM) is slowly but surely cementing itself as a discerning guide through the release swamped world of ambient music. Here he kindly gives Stray Wool - a new producer to me, a leg up the horizontal music hierarchy.

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27/4/2022 0 Comments

Yoshihiro Sawasaki - Naturally Gushing vol. 2 (Naturally gushing)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

New Age smooches with chill hop in the kitchen & smooth jazz flirts with dub & acid kissed wobbletronica on the sofa as host with the most Yoshihiro Sawasaki plays vintage Eurosynth sounds & sun warmed melodies to keep the party swinging, whilst contentedly surveying his good natured guests getting along famously.

What The Release NOtes Say

サワサキヨシヒロの「温泉ラウンジ＆アンビエントアルバム」が遂に完成！
２００８年リリースの「Naturally Gushing　vol.1」から１４年、遂に究極の「温泉ラウンジ＆アンビエントアルバム」フルアルバム第２弾をリリース！
この十数年、数々の温泉的音楽を放ってきたサワサキヨシヒロの、ライフワークともいうべき温泉的音楽&映像プロジェクト「Naturally Gushing」
その第一弾「Naturally Gushing　vol.1」リリースから１４年の歳月を経て、遂に第二弾フルアルバムが完成！究極温泉的リラックスミュージックがリリース！
今回もテーマは言わずと知れた「温泉」。昨今再発されたベルギーの「APOLLO」からリリースの９０年代サワサキの、初期作品を髣髴させるようなアンビエント作品に、JAZZYな要素が新たに加わり、独特のロマンチズムと浮遊感が漂う、まさに「新型ラウンジ＆アンビエントミュージック」に仕上がっている。全編にロマンチズム、楽園感が溢れ、アンビエントでダブな浮遊感、エレクトロニックでありながら、生楽器との調和的融合感で、まさに「温泉に入ってる心地」が全体を包み込む作品となっている。
参加アーチストは、温泉盟友のミュージシャンであるテディ熊谷（sax＆flute）を始め、エレクトロニック・ポップ・バンド『URBAN DANCE』のベーシスト小山謙吾、マルチメディアアーティストの佐藤理、super stupidの大高ジャッキー（GUITAR）、京都精華大学講師の西田彩ゾンビ、伝説の料理人である代官山三宿食堂の森口周（PIANO）など、バラエティーに富んでいる。
マスタリングは、Masaaki Enatsu（marimoRECORDS）
ジャケットデザインはVol.1同様の永易直樹、ジャケット写真は東京神父。
こちらの方から、CD購入、及びダウンロード、視聴へのサイトがまとめてあります！
視聴もいろいろできます！youtubemusic
spotifyでも聴けます！spotify
で、音が気に入ったら、ジャケも写真（東京神父）＆デザイン（永易直樹）素晴らしいですので、是非CD購入も、よろしくお願いいたします！ハイレゾ音源ももちろんあります！音いいのですハイレゾは！特に大きい音で聴いたら良いですよ！
ototoy
以下HPでもネット購入可能です！
amazon
TOWER RECORDS
diskunion
HMV
楽天
 ULTRA SHIBUYA
Billboard JAPAN
PayPayモールでも！

If You Like That The You Might Like This

You can stream the playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube & Soundcloud

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26/4/2022 0 Comments

Coco Em - Kilumi (InFiné)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

There's always been steady innovation in African music, but on her new LP for InFiné, Nairobi's Coco Em rounds up all the right collaborators & makes an Afrofuturistic evolutionary leap. One day all Afrobeats will sound like this.

What The Release Notes Say

COCO EM IS A DJ, MUSIC PRODUCER AND FILM MAKER BASED IN NAIROBI KENYA. DUBBED THE 'HARDEST HUSTLING DJ' BY OKAY AFRICA, COCO EM PLAYS A VARIETY OF GENRES
FROM AFRO HOUSE, KUDURO, LINGALA AND ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC. HER ECLECTIC SETS HAVE EARNED HER PERFORMANCES AT PLATFORMS SUCH AS AFRO PUNK FESTIVAL IN JOHANNESBURG BOILER ROOM NAIROBI STAGE, GLASTONBURY'S BEAT HOTEL FESTIVAL MARRAKECH AND MORE.

ALL TRACKS COMPOSED PRODUCED & MIXED BY EMMA NZIOKA [COCO EM]
MASTERED BY DOMINIC CLARE @ DECLARED SOUND

PHOTO BY PADDY GEDI
A&D BY MOTOPLACTIC

If You Like That The You Might Like This

You can stream the playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube & a smaller selection on Soundcloud

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25/4/2022 0 Comments

Held By Trees - Solace (Tweed Jacket)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

Some start of the week loveliness from Held By Trees as they mostly eschew post rock excess, set all instruments to daydream and float through the speakers like your happiest childhood summer holiday memory. Gorgeous.

What The Release Notes Say

Instrumental post-rock project Held By Trees is pleased to offer it’s debut, self-titled album for pre-order. Sitting somewhere between the spaciousness of latter Talk Talk and the melodic vistas of Pink Floyd, Held By Trees has enlisted an astonishing cast of musicians including veterans of Talk Talk, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Blur and legends such as Eric Bibb.

Singles can be heard on all major streaming platforms here…

https://songwhip.com/heldbytrees

If You Like That You Might Like This

You can stream the playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube and Soundcloud

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24/4/2022 0 Comments

Skee Mask - ISS007 (Ilian Tape)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

Nice to hear Skee Mask leave the drum machine at Ilian Tape HQ & launch the studio pod into deep space, beaming back ambient pictures of low gravity moons, gaseous planets and friendly lifeforms as he goes.

If You Like That then You Might Like This

You can check the playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube and Soundcloud

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23/4/2022 0 Comments

Abigail Lapell - Stolen time (Outside Music)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

With her silence encouraging, largely intimate vocals Abigail Lapell draws you closer to her truths about the human condition for Outside Music, ably supported by some perfectly judged campfire twang, acoustic roots & occasional folk rock. Nothing new here just a damn fine folk album.

What The Release Notes Say

Stolen Time was produced, recorded, and mixed by former Arcade Fire drummer Howard Bilerman at Montréal’s Hotel2Tango studio and features some notable talent in support of Lapell’s impressive compositions. The songwriter is a multi-instrumentalist, so she handles guitars, keyboards, accordion, and harmonica herself, while her principal collaborators on most tracks are the rhythm section of bassist Dan Fortin (Bernice/Devon Sproule/Serena Ryder) and drummer Dani Nash (Andy Shauf/Sarah Harmer/July Talk).
Also chipping in across the eleven tracks are French horn player Pietro Amato (Arcade Fire/Snailhouse/Bell Orchestre); Christine Bougie (Bahamas/Gretchen Peters/Amy Millan) on lap steel; violist Rachael Cardiello (Zinnia); trumpeter Ellwood Epps (Matana Roberts/Pink Saliva/Stuffy Turkey); Fats Kaplin (Jack White/Nanci Griffith/John Prine); cellist Peggy Lee (Mary Margaret O’Hara/Waxwing/Wayne Horvitz); backing vocalist Katie Moore (Socalled/Patrick Watson/El Coyote), and – on the closing track – bassist Joshua Toal (Plants & Animals/Basia Bulat/The Key-Lites). Fortin, Bougie, Cardiello, and Lee appeared on Lapell’s 2019 album, Getaway.

If You Like That You Might Like This

You can also stream the playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube, Deezer and Soundcloud

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22/4/2022 0 Comments

't Geruis - Bain D'Étoiles (Laaps)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

Distressed melodies, decayed beauty & aged futurism juxtapose perfectly on the latest LP from 't Geruis for Laaps, & mark a welcome return to softer edged ambient abstraction from a genuine original of the genre.

What The Release Notes Say

NOTE : ‘’Nimf’’ is only on the CD/digital version.
_____________________

laaps 019
season : spring
duration : 38.15 mn
___________________________________________________

' t Geruis is a discreet musician from Belgium, working in the field of ambient, with a grainy texture from some lo-fi recordings. This is his third solo release on a label but coming from his first works (recorded between august 2020 and march 2021). His words on Bain D’Étoiles below:

"This album is about searching for wonder. Stories that give a sense of adventure. A vague memory of a discovery, something that lurks in the forest.

The night falls over you like a warm bath of stars.

Are we fearful?
We are curious!
 With the right courage we encounter more than we have been expecting.
 I'm so glad we went there after all!

Promise yourself to always keep eyes and ears open."
 ' t Geruis

If You Like That then You might Like This

You can stream the playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube, Deezer and Soundcloud

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22/4/2022 0 Comments

Singles & EPs Round Up - 22nd April, 2022

Resolute Vibration - The Stars Above (Self Released)

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Ambient music is often made by one man, his computer and probably one too many synths set up in a man cave, with carefully arranged sounds painstakingly layered over long periods of screen facing isolation, which makes this one take live recording of some wonderfully soft edged, traditional instrument driven, easy on the ear ambient from Resolute Vibration all the more of a pleasure.

finnegan Tui - Bones (Eywa)

Once in a blue moon Finnegan Tui gives me a nudge when he has a new release & quite frankly he always blows me away. His latest release is another consummate slice of folk futurism with his age old, earth rooted folk vocals & traditional instrumentation synergistically fused with cutting edge electronica, making him one of my favourite folktronic acts of recent times. He also makes a mean video.

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Folk Spectre - Mountain Transmission (Self Release)

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More folk mutations & neural backroad blues, this time from self-styled citybilly Pete Nolen in this lo-fi, barely lucid, acid-folk transmission from Massachusetts. I don't know what his mushroom growing set up is like but hopefully one day he'll share that as well as his pleasingly wayward music on this exploration of rarely perceived neighbouring dimensions.

ROSIE TEE - ANCHORS REMIXES (SELF RELEASE)

Rosie Tee is a jewel of the UK's often overlooked second city, Birmingham. Not only is she producing some accessible avant leaning music of the highest quality, it looks like she's got a great ear for a remix as well. Here she enlists Vanishing Twin and matters to remix "Anchors" from her last EP. Hopefully there's more to come from her this year

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What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

What The Release Notes Say

IF YOU LIKE THAT THE YOU MIGHT LIKE THIS

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE

WHAT YOUR EARS SAY

WHAT WE SAY

WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY

IF YOU LIKE THAT YOU MIGHT LIKE THIS

Lindsay Clark - roses In The Sky (Audiosport)

Shakali - Aurinkopari (Good Morning Tapes)

Space Ghost feat. Teddy Bryant - Heavent Sent (PPU)

Stray Wool - Fog (Fallow)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

What The Release NOtes Say

If You Like That The You Might Like This

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

What The Release Notes Say

If You Like That The You Might Like This

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

What The Release Notes Say

If You Like That You Might Like This

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

If You Like That then You Might Like This

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

What The Release Notes Say

If You Like That You Might Like This

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

What We Say

What The Release Notes Say

If You Like That then You might Like This

Resolute Vibration - The Stars Above (Self Released)

finnegan Tui - Bones (Eywa)

Folk Spectre - Mountain Transmission (Self Release)

ROSIE TEE - ANCHORS REMIXES (SELF RELEASE)

OUR MISSION STATEMENT GOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS

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