Despite his recalcitrance in self-exposing on live stages and the mysterious veil on his identity, Tokyo-based electronic wizard Serph keeps on catching many listener's ears by means of this graceful brand new album, the fourth one of a hopefully big batch, which follows his acclaimed "Heartstrings" and renews and enhances all the distinctive features that justified the incredible sales of his past releases and recently fertilized the dry grounds of dance music by means of his new dance-oriented project Reliq. There's even a logical connection with his previous album , where he seems to describe an utopian world, as suggested by the title "El Esperanka" - a neologism, supposedly coming from the combination of "esperanca", Spanish word for "hope", and "ankh", the ancient Egyptian "key of life" -. Whatsoever blossom Serph is expecting to harvest, listeners will easily bask his musical efflorescences, which bud by means of gorgeous uplifting melodies which swing between jazzy tunes, childish roundelays, easier J-pop themes and springy overjoyed explosions (they could even surmise the hooking melodies of tv or radio jingles or pre-set songs of toy keyboards), breathtaking sparkling rhythm sections, twisting pinwheels and confetti of sonic slides (he reaches peaks of intriguing intricacy on tracks like "Vesta", "Wizardmix" or "Ankh"), refreshing whirlwind of popping splashes and chugs ("Shift", "Magicalpath", "Curve"), sudden chromatic and tonal permutations ("Felixz", "Rem") and the most amazing aspect lies in the fact that he blends so many elements with a built-in adroitness and a catchy vivaciousness which could be associated to nothing but a beating of wings by a butterfly or a fine-feathered bird. The reference to Ankh, the so-called key of life, could be a key for the access to the positive conceptual and "spiritual" (quixotic?) world, which Serph musically daubs, where a pell-mell dimension is no more a source for torment, which vexes a reasoning mind with the obsession for geometrical order, but a thrilling path to happiness!

Anatomia De Vanitats is Mercé Spica from ELDARs solo project, and this album is inspired by the Anthropic Principle stating that any valid theory of the universe must be consistent with the existence of human beings.
Musically speaking this an almost classic dark ambient album searching for a clearer sci-fi atmosphere than other release of this label.
"Reflector" opens this release with a slowly moving filtered noise with some small found sound for the creation of the atmosphere. "Igneus" moves on quieter territories for the first part while the second is on noisier ones. "Ether" is almost on dark ambient territories with sharp insert of noise above menacing layer of sound and a loop of didgeridoo. "Fluid" is an almost quiet atmospheric interlude based on found sounds to "Absolut" that opens quietly with careful sculpted sounds and is slowly colored by a drone and sparse metallic beats. "Material" is constructed on dark drones while "Geminal" is based on the noises similar to the ones used in the album until a sharp constructed slowly line close the track and serves as an introduction to "Atomic" that close the album in an almost sci-fi cinematic atmosphere in his uses of resonances.
This albums is based on carefully constructed atmosphere, with the aid of the mastering by Simon Heath, on the usual form of the genre and so, even if is not a ground breaking release, it reveal the search for a personal interpretation of dark ambient. A really nice release for fans.

Poncey exoticism has never attracted my attention, particularly when it's clear that the more or less noticeable insertion of etnhic elements get justified by no particular reason that an inappropriate titivation, but I cannot say the sonic researches by French sound-artist Laurent Jeanneau, one of the most activ contributor of Sublime Frequencies, which recently released a collection of sonic documents of unknown indigenous music from ethnic minority groups of Southern China, prolific producer of ethnographic field recordings and tireless wayfarer, belongs to that kind of sonic fetishism. On "Voices" as in Jeanneau's previous collages, the concept could be vaguely close to Freform's Audiotourism, but in spite of the computer aided editing which is not invasive at all, there's no particulr stylistical imprint and the process of coalescence between recorded voices, field recordings and textures of traditional (mainly percussive) instruments doesn't taint the authenticity of the source. It rather highlights the immersive listening experience that Laurent evokes. As you can easily imagine, "Voices" focuses on vocal excerpts he recorded in the southern regions of Yunnan and Guizhou, China, in Sapa, Northern Vietnam and phongsaly, Northern laos, which are often embellished by means of intriguing instrumental twines: the overlapping of entrancing vocals on the initial "Baozoo Khen", the lopsided string striations on the absorbing "Sixian Miao Choir", the ritual scent and the odd howling of the speaking woman on "Cym Wu Khmu" are the most impressive moments of a record, which is going to steep listener's mind into the remote corners of the planet Laurent genuinely documented.

In an interview with the website Fluid Radio (fluidradio.co.uk) Italian composer described the origins of the title Tarsia, his first release under his own name.

"The term Tarsia (or Intarsia) denotes an ancient technique of wood inlaying. The first examples of this practice date back to the XIV century and come from the Siena region. I have chosen this title because I consider this technique similar to the that of a lot of contemporary electro-acoustic music. To make these wood inlays they used rare and carefully selected natural elements, which were then treated, and sometimes individually coloured, and subsequently placed next to each other in order to create complex patterns, which is what many musicians within this field tend to do."

It seems like the terms 'field recordings', 'modern classical', and 'soundscapes' could be interchangeable, so often are they found in the same sentence. It seems like every time an artist lays a cello or a piano to tape, it is accompanied by handheld tape recordings, the sounds of rippling brooks, and the ringing of churchbells. It is hard to stand out in this saturated field, but Giulio Aldinucci achieves this rare balance, by creating whole compositions, that don't merely sound like 'classical lite' with some voicemail pasted on top.

The composer achieves this effect by carefully mixng and balancing the sounds, creating a delicate interplay that suggests technical mastery and a sensitive ear. Most of the sounds are synthetic in nature, overlaid with pristine soundscapes: crystal running rivers, dogs barking, snippets of conversation. It seems like a memory of wandering the Italian countryside. Aldinucci's music may have originated in a soundcard or a circuit board, but they beautifully complement the acoustic recordings with masterful mixing, making a cohesive whole, like the wooden boxes Tarsia is named after.

Once upon a time, a record like this would be merely considered 'new age' and left at that, mainly due to the soothing synth ambiance that makes up most of this record. However, with synthesizer opuses making a heavy comeback for the last 10 years or so, perhaps we are ready to consider these electronic instruments on their own terms. I would like to amend the newage tag with 'heavenly' or dare i even say it, 'beautiful'.


Giulio Aldinucci, and the Nomadic Kids Republic that released this, are ones to watch out for, seemingly creating reams of gorgeous modern classicism. Physical copies of Tarsia are long gone, but you can stream or download copies from the label's bandcamp site.

Lovely stuff! Recommended.

The very first moments of this interesting collaborative recording by two of the most interesting contemporary musicians with the penchant for extreme experimentation, the master of minimalism Charles Martin, commonly known as Charlemagne Palestine, and protean American percussionist and sound artist Stefan Joel Weisser aka Z'EV, resembled the Italian version of a notorious French nursery rhyme "Frere Jacques" (the English version is known as "Brother John" or "Are You Sleeping?"), which sings about a certain friar named Martin, who plays bells. Joking aside, this sonic document whose title "Rubhitbangklanghear | Rubhitbangklangear" could vaguely summarize some "concrete" aspects of this musical performance. Its gestational times are almost mythological, as these renowned sound artists needed more than 20 years to channel their performative arts into a release: Charlemagne Palestine and Z'EV met in Amsterdam in the eighties, but they performed together just in 2007 (at Lem, Barcelona), but their first studio recording occurred in 2010 and it started after zoning out while seeing and listening to the carillon that Charles held in his studio in Brussels. After 3 days of recordings, this album is what they squeezed: highly hypnotical bells reel in sonic space while they twine on mesmerizing dull thuds, choking metallic hits, dazzling strokes, loosing acousmatic sounds Z'EV manages to squeeze. There are two avalable version of the release, but I warmly recommend the double CD one as you will find the complete recordings, both the collaborative versions (marked by a CZ, abbreviation of Charlemagne and Z'EV) and solo ones (marked by the initial letter of each performer). If solo performances sound unbelievably entrancing and magnetic, you can barely imagine how they could sound when they join respective flows...