There's certainly no lack of ambition in  Kasper Bjørke's graceful & contemplative neoclassical ambient biography of planet earth's 4.5 billion year existence, its evolving lifeforms & humanity's rapidly concluding walk on part. Fittingly for a project of such scope he's collaborated with some genuine modern compositional virtuosos to tell this epic tale.

For over two decades Bjørke has cut his own path, as a solo artist and enthusiastic collaborator. Bjørke’s Copenhagen home may be one of Europe’s great cultural hubs, and he’s certainly added a paragraph or two to that story, but his music is distinctly international. Even a cursory listen exposes an impressive, ever-evolving career. However, few expected him to initiate the collaborative ambient / neo-classical project Kasper Bjørke Quartet. In 2018 The Fifty Eleven Project was released on Kompakt Records, a deeply personal record that musically documents Bjørkes encounter with, and triumph over, cancer. The album topped many critics' lists, and was included among The Guardian’s Best Contemporary Albums of the year.

Mother, which will be released on October 28th, represents a quantum leap forward. Literally, when you consider the terrestrial shifts that informed it. Six compositions explore what the evolution of our planet sounds like. While Holst may have gotten there first, Mother singularly focuses on the orb where we reside, from its formation, to its likely conclusion. Other artists have tackled song cycles that parallel a day, a year, or even a lifetime. Mother spans a timeframe from 4.5 billion years ago up to humankind’s impending demise. It hints at how that may be sooner than we think, as well as the earth’s resilience, and the promise of another chapter.

Additional gravity comes courtesy of evocative choir arrangements - - and marimba recorded at the Copenhagen Opera House. “Formation” condenses 20 million years of runaway accretion into 20 minutes. It is sublimely padded by feature artist Sofie Birch’s gentle synths. “Abiogenesis” intimates a different type of emergence: the first life to inhabit our nascent planet. The entire cosmos is condensed into the layered vocals of Philip|Schneider. Birch returns on “Miocene,” which signals the divergence of proto-humans from primates not with foreboding, but rather cascaded notes and swells adumbrating a pure and curious being, revealing nothing of what the Catch-22 of knowledge will bring. That’s addressed in the diptych of “Anthropocene” and “Tipping Points,” respectively marking the dawn and foreshadowing the probable downfall of homosapians, through wondrous advancements and their climate damaging byproducts. It’s tempting to think the album’s finale, “Requiem,” implies only a dark conclusion, owing to its sparkling verrillon’s coronach, and the return of Philip|Schneider’s empyrean vocals, but its juxtaposition with revolving, enigmatic piano chords infers the earth will enter its next act.

Mother is a staggering achievement, encouraging contemplative thought.
The album is released October 28th on Kompakt Records, both digitally and on limited edition double vinyl. The atwork is designed by multidisciplinary artist Trevor Jackson.

CREDITS
Kasper Bjørke (Synthesizers, Producer and Mixer)

- Davide Rossi (Violin, viola, cello) has collected multiple Grammys,and has studied under Karlheinz Stockhausen and Robert Fripp. He is without parallel as a modern arranger, having worked with Kanye, Alicia Keys, Frank Ocean, Moby, Jon Hopkins, The Verve, Goldfrapp, to name a select few, but may be best known for his long standing relationship with Coldplay.

- Claus Noreen (Synthesizers) has been active in Danish electronic and pop circles for years, as both musician and producer, currently under his brand new Langstrakt moniker.

- Jakob Littauer (Piano) Musician / Composer / Producer who works with artists including Mø and CTM.

- Mathias Friis-Hansen & David Hildebrandt (Marimba on Anthropocene) Versatile, classical musicians, both part of the award winning PACE Percussion Trio.

- Sofie Birch (Features with additional synths on Formation and Miocene) Musician, producer and NTS resident Sofie Birch is a rising artist on the ambient scene. Her new album Holotropica has been praised by the music press, incl. Pitchfork.

- Philip|Schneider (Features with vocals on Abiogenesis and Requiem) Celebrated performance duo Josephine Philip and Hannah Schneider who is known for their seductive spatial voice compositions that engage the body, ears and mind. 

Minted in Minsk and released by Brighton's Mr. Bongo, indebted to the classic 60-70s sound of Brazil but executed by a global cast, oozing vintage orchestral jazz class in a digital world, with lyrics in Portuguese & Russian; the new recording from the oddly named СОЮЗ / SOYUZ is an enigma & a suitably lavish soundtrack for some Sunday self indulgence.

Some records just stop you in your tracks. They resonate with you and feel instantly familiar like an old friend, even on the first listen. SOYUZ's third album ‘Force of the Wind’ is one of those records. It holds all the trademarks, beauty, and eccentricities of classic Brazilian recordings, from the 60s and 70s, that we have come to love. Think artists such as Milton Nascimento, Lô Borges, Burnier e Cartier, Arthur Verocai et al. But this record wasn’t made in Brazil and is in fact a brand-new release.

SOYUZ (which translates as 'union') is a creative collective from Minsk, Belarus, led by composer, arranger, and singer, Alex Chumak, multi-instrumentalist, Mikita Arlou, and drummer, Anton Nemahai. SOYUZ's previous albums explored and reimagined the legacy of jazz-oriented, non-English-language pop music of the 20th century. For their third album, there is a stronger focus, and it is influenced by 70s Música popular Brasileira and building bridges from it to present-day Belarus. Alex notes that from the moment he first encountered Brazilian music, he found in it a kind of concentrated emotion that felt as if it were familiar to him from his childhood. This non-verbal emotion and connection between the listener and musician echoes in the music, regardless of understanding of the language the album is recorded in.

‘Force of the Wind’ includes songs sung in Russian and Portuguese as well as instrumental compositions. Its musical palette is both acoustic and electroacoustic: rich warm Rhodes piano, soaring string arrangements, and a controlled drum swagger sounding both relaxed yet super tight. Alongside Alex's sublime vocals, that grace the majority of the tracks, the album features guest performances by multi-talented musician and vocalist Kate NV and rising Brazilian star, Sessa. Alex also recently arranged a number of tracks on Sessa's highly praised 2022 album 'Estrela Acesa'.

On the album, the trio is joined by a cast of friends; NY-based musician of Turkish origin percussionist, Cem Mısırlıoğlu, classically trained composer, Simon Hanes, who aided with string arrangements and conducting the string players, Netherlands-based Brazilian multi-instrumentalist, Gabriel Milliet, on flutes. With the collaboration of these friends SOYUZ have created nine songs/suites that are subtle and plenitude and like the best albums, leave you aching for more.

‘Force of the Wind’ is an enigma, Brazilian yet not Brazilian, vintage yet still contemporary, out of sync with modern culture yet completely relevant and necessary. 

Field recordings from Adriaan Swert's tour of Icelandic glaciers & Scottish lochs guide and the beauty of nature, celebrations of life & love temper this graceful & palliative neoclassical ambient meditation for Piano and Coffee Records on the fragility of existence, something we've all probably contemplated more than usual the last couple of years.

Belgian composer and sound artist Adriaan Swerts announces the release of his debut full-length album One in collaboration with piano and coffee records – a collection of twelve deeply personal compositions that, originally, were not conceived with the idea of ever getting released but that, like shards of ice, slowly floated together and formed an island of music.

Both a life-threatening accident – which caused his disability – and the passing of his grandfather confronted Adriaan with the fragility of life. Thematically, this album deals with the eternal, life fading away, death, and the afterlife. At the same time, it attempts to celebrate the beauty of love, life, nature and all that lives on earth.

The characteristic sounds on this album are field recordings of natural landscapes Adriaan visited, which he transformed into instruments and used almost solely to compose. The piano and other acoustic instruments such as the harmonium and strings, as old but not forgotten classical friends, are the other elements that accompany these transformed natural sounds. Icelandic glaciers, geysers, Scottish lochs, waterfalls, oceans and more all found a home on this album. In addition, Swerts uses reel-to-reel tape processing to degrade the sound of the recordings and make them sound broken – a reflection of what his body feels like.

The artwork of the album similarly reflects Adriaan's focus on the theme of the fragility of life and nature. The cracks in the ice symbolise how easily something can be broken into pieces – just like what happened to his body after his accident – but can still be a whole. In addition, Adriaan crafted a videoclip for each piece of the album through the process of cymatics – the study of visible sound vibration and the transformational nature of sound and matter. He filmed the sound vibrations caused by his music in water, unveiling beautiful and unique geometric patterns for each composition.

CREDITS
All music was composed and produced by Adriaan Swerts.
Mastered by Ian Hawgood at Mokoshi Mastering.
Artwork and design by Celia Bayo.

A loving thanks to my wife, my family and friends who enlighten my world. May this music provide you some peace and stillness in this busy world.

P&C 2022 Adriaan Swerts under exclusive license to Piano And Coffee Records. All rights reserved.
adriaanswerts.be
pianoandcoffee.com

Bumping, weekend starting beats and work escaping, free thought encouraging dreamtronic vibes all in one tidy liquid electronica meets low gravity ambient house package courtesy of Michael Claus and 100% Silk.

Lavender Palace is a portrait of a process more than a place – the result of a creative headspace San Francisco producer (and Silva Electronics boss) Michael Claus describes as “dropping out of the world and entering a flow state.” That heightened sense of spatial focus, dilated and dialed in, colors the collection in subtle shades of dream house, dub techno, and liquid downtempo.

Recorded before and during the strangest days of peak lockdown, Claus found himself drawn to sci-fi notions of fantastical cities and mythic landscapes, hazy realms in the horizon of the mind’s eye. Further inspired by a new and improved studio arrangement in the city, the sessions unspooled in long, low-slung voyages of texture and pulse, restlessness and reverie, “yearning for a better tomorrow.” It’s music of empty streets and guarded hope, percolating at the precipice of futures too real to recognize.

CREDITS
Mastered by Jared Carrigan.
Design by Britt Brown.

BIG thanks to the ever illuminating Ambient Blog for introducing me to the Punkt concept, its Norwegian improvised, collaboration encouraging festival epicentre & now the first release on it's newly minted imprint, & they're off to a stunning start! Ambient in nature but with a cinematic scope, classical grandeur, haunted by jazz trumpets, bound by electronic forces & speckled with the unexpected.

From the opening grand diptych of “Night Poles River” through its eight tracks, Dai Fujikura and Jan Bang’s The Bow Maker is an album of multidimensional musical movements – not in the conventional compositional sense, but in the sense of actual movement: the music is constantly active, enveloping the listener, surrounding them with evanescent sonic spaces.

Featuring Dai Fujikura on synthesisers throughout (apart from one piece, “Implanted Memories”, to which he contributes orchestral samples), alongside Jan Bang’s unique use of samples, sound processing, and programming, the album features an ever-changing cast of contributors. Eivind Aarset’s guitar moves between textural elements, broad warm glissandos, and brief interjections of unidentifiable sounds. Arve Henriksen provides his fluid trumpet playing and breathy falsetto vocals. Nils Petter Molvær’s trumpet provides different moods from that of Henriksen’s, despite sharing stylistic musical DNA. Kati Raitinen’s resonant cello on the title track creates an evocative textural contrast with the shifting sonic world around it. Tamami Tono’s Sho (a mouth organ, a Japanese traditional instrument) conjures a unique acoustic terrain that undulates and rolls through angular peaks and valleys.

The mood and atmosphere of each piece is distinct, sometimes wide in scope and spacious, sometimes enclosed and focussed, sometimes warm and hazy, sometimes cool and crystalline. The fleeting elements – whether brief incursions of drums, prepared piano or orchestra, half-glimpsed field recordings, or manipulated echoes of the other instruments – populate these spaces with a kind of ongoing life through which a leading instrument, often trumpet or voice or both, can swoop and weave. It is like shifting illumination and silhouettes behind shoji.

The combination of the organic spirit of the music (despite its electronic nature) with the versatility of the musicians involved means that while sounds are clearly differentiated within the soundscape, their true source is often unclear.

Seemingly freeform, the pieces contain subtle structures over which the music flows like windblown silk, vacillating between obscuring this supporting architecture, creating clinging outlines if it, or briefly revealing it. The closing piece, “Satellite Sister”, perhaps follows mostly closely the structure of a conventional song, albeit through implied repetition and counterpoint.

The album could arguably be regarded as a perfect example of the “Punkt Sound”. This is not music that reclines into the background to be unnoticed, not a new age meditation soundtrack, not sonic furniture. It is music that engages directly with the listener, actively permeating their consciousness, capturing their attention.

That this album should be identifiable as possessing the “Punkt Sound” is perhaps appropriate, as this is the first release from Punkt Editions, a new record label curated by Jan Bang and Erik Honoré.

CREDITS
Music composed by Jan Bang and Dai Fujikura
except where indicated. Copyright Control [ Tono, PRS ]
1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 mixed at Punkt Studio, Kristiansand
1 assembled and edited by Dai Fujikura
4 mixed by Dai Fujikura in London
Recorded and mixed at Punkt Studio, Kristiansand, by Jan Bang
Dai Fujikura recorded at home in London
Arve Henriksen recorded at home in Gothenburg
Kati Raitinen recorded by Erik Arvinder at AB Studio, Stockholm
Mastered by Mike Grinser at Manmade Mastering
Artwork and design by Nina Birkeland
Supported by Det Norske Komponistfond
Thanks to Eivind, Arve, Nils Petter, Kati, Erik, Tamami,
Matthew, Rune, Martel, Sten and Nina

With barely a glance in the rearview mirror, New York's artist run Foil Imprints label has been cruising the electronic music underground from experimental ambient to big system bangers for over a decade, with a pleasingly eclectic catalogue that's not even afraid of throwing in some alt-pop on a whim. Get a taste of this musical force for good with their excellent new artist compilation showcase.

Established in 2018 as an artist run label, FOIL focuses on forward thinking electronic music, embracing IDM, techno, alt-pop, ambient, and micro-noises. We value collaboration and experimentation.

Who are daily rituals? Does it even matter? Either hire a San Diego P.I. or content yourself with their recent ambient & modern compositional musings "about individual & generational passing" which, apart from the end of LP tragedy is a lot more pleasant & soothing than it sounds. Big up Alex Ruder (specifically his Bandcamp feed) for the tip.

an album about individual and generational passing.

CREDITS
music & mastering by brandon tani
artwork by anna buckley

Fourth World aware, occasionally sub-aquatic, Greek cave dwelling inspired ambient jazz from Son of Chi & Arthur Flink for Astral Industries, seemingly optimized to make all the pain go away or at the very least provide the most pleasing of sedentary soundtracks.

AI-32 signals the arrival of ‘The Fifth World Recordings’, by Son of Chi (Hanyo van Oosterom) and long-term collaborator Arthur Flink. A tribute to the late Jon Hassell, who passed away in 2021, the album connects a deep running thread that goes back to the source of Chi project. Carrying on from where Hassell left off, the album takes inspiration and references from his Fourth World music concept and the ancient Hopi tradition of Native America. Illuminating the subliminal space of the arising Fifth World, Son of Chi pays respects to an inimitable force in contemporary music.

Hassell’s ‘Dream Theory in Malaya’ forms a touchstone to Hanyo van Oosterom’s musical journey, which soundtracked long, deep and reflective periods living in the cave of the Kallikatsou (Patmos, Greece) back in the early 80s. This period resulted in Hanyo’s track as Chi - ‘Hopi’ - in 1984. Hanyo met Hassell shortly after in 1987 at his “The Surgeon in the Nightsky” concert in Rotterdam - it wasn’t until twenty years later that Hanyo invited him for two magic nights of “Instant Composing Sessions” with the Numoonlab Orchestra (with a host of other artists) at the LantarenVenster, the very same stage where Hassell had performed in 1987 and also where Chi did their first live performance.

Dreamful, mysterious, prophetic, the Fifth World Recordings features the quiet yet elaborate sound of Chi awash with rich instrumentation, field recordings, and old stories by the firelight. Sketches were created with drones, loops, and soundscapes, with which Arthur Flink (also a member of the Numoonlab Orchestra) jammed on trumpet. Channelling Hassell’s idiosyncratic style, floating melodies and lyrical improvisations are parsed into the mix, where Hanyo has processed and manipulated the recordings, also referencing Hassell’s exotic scales and unique harmonics.

Additionally, the wah Bamboo flute at the closing piece is an homage to the works of Chi co-founder Jacobus Derwort (1952-2019). For this piece Hanyo used his first bamboo flute he made at the cave of the Kallikatsou in 1984. Arthur Flink answers in counterpoint with the wah trumpet, almost like the intuitive communication of the nightbirds...