by Andrew Sacher

Laurel Halo at Warsaw 4/20/12 (via)

Laurel Halo's Spring EP which was originally set to come out in March under the moniker King Felix as the first release for Mute's new Liberation Technologies imprint, was pushed back and finally released earlier this month. Like her 2011 EP, Hour Logic, Spring focuses on Laurel's talents as a producer rather than her voice. It boasts a wide variety of sounds ranging from footwork to deep house to ambient. Although it's probably more suitable blasting through the PA at a club, it's just as listenable on headphones in a bedroom. Liberation Technologies is selling the EP on vinyl at their European webstore and its available digitally on iTunes. Streams of two of its tracks below.

Meanwhile, Laurel Halo is readying Quarantine, her debut full length which is due out under her usual moniker on June 5 in the US and May 28 in Europe via Hyperdub. Maybe you caught her previewing some stuff off the new album at her Unsound show at Warsaw this past Friday (4/20) (how was that?).

Quarantine is a drastic departure from all of Laurel's previous work and is by far her biggest and most distinct statement yet. After introducing and confirming her skills as a producer on Hour Logic and Spring, Laurel leaves almost all of her beatwork behind on Quarantine in favor of centering the songs on her own voice. Though she did use her vocals in the forefront of 2010's King Felix EP, the new album bares little resemblance to the reverby electronic pop of that release. Here, she's channelling a Bjork-like falsetto and overexposing her vocals to the point where you feel like you're in the room with her as she's recording them. The off-kilter melodies and sparse arrangements bring to mind early Laurie Anderson with a Berlin Trilogy type of itchingly addictive ambience. Sample the album for yourself with its closing track, "Light + Space," which is available to stream below.

Laurel will tour Europe in support of the album surrounding its release date, but before she leaves town, she'll play another NYC show opening for Chairlift at Webster Hall on 5/8 with Pains of Being Pure at Heart drummer Kurt Feldman's Ice Choir project. Tickets are still available. Chairlift just finished their tour with Nite Jewel (who headlined Bowery Ballroom last night). Check out pictures from the Austin show.

All dates and song streams (when Soundcloud stops being down) below...

Continue reading "Laurel Halo reading 'Quarantine', opening for Chairlift"

photos by Greg Cristman

"On Saturday night the festival presented a commission: "Trinity," a collaboration by Lustmord, from Los Angeles, and Biosphere, from Norway. The West Park Presbyterian Church had been turned into a surround-sound environment.

Trinity was the name of the first test of the atomic bomb, in New Mexico, and the images on the video screen at the church were black-and-white film of desert landscapes, 1940s bomb technology and eventually the detonation. Lustmord and Biosphere are kindred spirits, masters of ominous ambience: enveloping, murky, ultra-slow-motion music. "Trinity" filled the room with tectonic rumbles and gradual whooshes, with tolling crashes followed by silences, with air-raid sirens, with claustrophobically thick cluster chords that were sometimes electronic and sometimes orchestral -- part Penderecki, part "A Day in the Life" -- and with spoken words from the era, wondering, "What have we done?" They embraced technology to question where technology can lead. -[NY Times]

The Lustmord/Biosphere collaboration at West Park Presbyterian Church on Saturday (4/21) also featured a supporting slot from Jacaszek. More pictures and a video from that show, below...

Continue reading "Lustmord & Biosphere collaborated in a church (pics/video)"

by Andrew Sacher

London-via-Estonia's Maria Minerva made her US live debut at Glasslands last night (4/22) as part of the Unsound Fest closing party. The stage was lit up by an original video montage which included clips of highway driving, old music videos, and tropical storms as Maria performed solo with her laptop/samplers/keyboard and an effected vocal mic which soaked her voice in reverb and delay. Though Maria is a producer and had the stage setup of one, she opted for more of a pop performance, spending most of the time away from the boards and focusing on her voice which rotated between speak-singing and a floaty falsetto. And while visuals for some electronic artists have become "what you watch" at their shows, for Maria they only added to her own performance, which included dancing on stage, standing on chairs, and charismatic gestures.

Like Neon Indian or Toro y Moi, Maria Minerva is looking back on nostalgic pop music through a psychedelic lens. She creates dense, hypnotic atmospheres in virtually all of her music, yet seeing her perform it in front of clips that hearken back to the days where MTV actually played music videos, it's hard not to wonder how many cues she takes from those groups that were on MTV. This isn't a totally foreign concept--Grimes and Zola Jesus have achieved similar feats--but Maria does it really well and there's something very pleasing about music that can be perceived as intelligent while hitting the spot filled by pop. In addition to those nostalgic pop video moments and the samples in her songs, she's quite referential. Because of the effects on her voice, it wasn't always too discernible, but when it cut through I could make out some other allusions to pop culture. The most notable one came when she nicked The Kinks' lyrics on her final song of the night by repeating, "Boy, you really got me going/you got me so I don't know what I'm doing/yeah, you really got me now/you got me so I can't sleep at night," to her own rhythms and melodies.

a Sun Araw vs Heat Wave DJ set, along with Napszyklat and DJ Elton John, opened the night. Watch some Maria Minerva videos below...

Continue reading "Maria Minerva helped close out Unsound Fest @ Glasslands"

by Andrew Sacher

Speaking of dub/psych artists who are playing Austin Psych Fest later this month, but are meanwhile in NYC for Unsound this week, Madison, Wisconsin duo Peaking Lights (who play a free Unsound show at Lincoln Center on Thursday with LXMP) just dropped the first track off their upcoming album, Lucifer (out 6/19 via Mexican Summer) and it's pretty great. Stream that track, which is called "LO HI," along with all of their dates, below...

Continue reading "listen to a new Peaking Lights track, see them for free"

by Andrew Sacher

Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras, and The Congos - FRKWYS Vol. 9: ICON GIVE THANK

Speaking of Sun Araw (aka Cameron Stallone), he's part of the recently released ninth installment of Brooklyn label RVNG Intl's FRKWYS series, which brings together modern experimental artists and their influential forerunners to collaborate on an album. In the past, we've seen collaborative releases from Julianna Barwick and DNA's Ikue Mori; Daniel Lopatin, James Ferarro, Samuel Godin, and composer David Borden; and Blues Control and Laraaji, among others. The newest release, FRKWYS Vol. 9: ICON GIVE THANK, sees Sun Araw and M. Geddes Gengras, who were both members of the now-defunct Pocahaunted (whose lineup also included Amanda Brown aka LA Vampires and Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast), teaming up with The Congos, who released the dub/reggae classic Heart of the Congos in 1977, produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry. That's the artwork above.

The track, "Happy Song," which you can stream below, sounds too modern for a '70s reggae band but too genuinely nostalgic for modern psych experimentalists, and doesn't really fit anywhere in between.

ICON GIVE THANK was released in conjunction with the film, ICON EYE, a film documenting the album's making. That film will be screened as part of the Unsound LABS on Saturday (4/21) at Anthology Film Archives at 1 PM. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Sun Araw's Cameron Stallones, director Tony Lowe, and project producer Matt Werth.

The movie screening is one of at least three Sun Araw events in NYC this weekend, with the first being a full band show at Le Poisson Rouge Friday night (with Pole & Marc McGuire of Emeralds), and the last being the recently-mentioned DJ set with Heat Wave at Glasslands.

Film trailer, streams, album tracklist, and all dates, below...

Continue reading "Sun Araw collaborated w/ The Congos, appearing at 3 events this weekend (including a film screening)"

Sun Araw Band at BV SXSW (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Heat Wave, who is in NYC this week for the Unsound Festival for which he will participate in a 'Sun Araw vs Heat Wave' DJ set at Glasslands on Sunday (4/22) with Maria Minerva, is playing his first ever Brooklyn show TONIGHT (4/18) at 285 Kent with OHBLIV, Pilgrim (not to be confused with the metal band), and North American, with DJ sets by Zona, Bessed Of, and Witch Doctor.

Of the Glasslands show, Unsound writes, "Especially for the Unsound closing party, Sun Araw will perfrorm a DJ set with close associate and guitarist Alex Gray, who jams with Sun Araw in his band, and is also in Heat Wave and Deep Magic." Tiny Mix Tapes clarifies and says "Heat Wave [is] a project started in late 2010 by L.A.-based Alex Gray (Deep Magic, Sun Araw, Olympus Mons, Earthsurfers)."

More info on the 285 Kent show is below, along with a stream of a Sun Araw vs Heat Wave mix.

Continue reading "Heat Wave plays 285 Kent (tonight) before Unsound DJ set w/ Sun Araw (and Maria Minerva)"

by Andrew Frisicano

Julia Holter @ Le Poisson Rouge in March (more by by Amanda Hatfield)

Unsound Festival New York, the Poland-based series of avant-leaning, ambient and experimental music, kicks off five nights in NYC with two events tonight (4/18): instrumental Warsaw band Baaba scores animations at BAM, while Julia Holter, Julia Kent and Jenny Hval playing a sold-out show at Issue Project Room.

Check out the festival's full schedule, which includes several free shows such as LXMP and Peaking Lights at Lincoln Center's David Rubenstein Atrium on Thursday 19th (both have amazing songs on the comp below). Issue Project Room hosts free day sets Saturday and Sunday (though only tickets for Saturday appear to still be available).

Dark ambient musician and repeat Unsound artist Lustmord recently spoke with Resident Advisor about the experience of seeing someone play a laptop live...

If somebody said "an ambient musician" was playing live in town this evening, I wouldn't exactly rush out, you know? I'd rather stay home and read a book. [laughs]

[he then goes on to describe how seeing Kraftwerk live changed his mind]

I hadn't seen them live for a long time, and they played in LA--four middle aged guys on laptops, how boring is that? But, fucking hell, it was one of the best gigs I've ever seen. That's when I really thought, yeah, you can stand there with your laptop and do your thing as long as you got the fucking sound.

Inner Tube were set to play Le Poisson Rouge on Friday, but have been replaced by Mark McGuire (solo). And:

a visual program has been added to Bass Mutations on April 21, showing the ways in which visual artists have helped shape the way we imagine bass music. Curated by "Big Up Magazine" Editor-In-Chief Katya Guseva in collaboration with Dave Q from Dub War NYC, it will take place in a movie theatre adjacent to the dancefloor at the venue for the night, IndieScreen. Live audio from Bass Mutations performers such as 2562, Teeth, Sepalcure, Distal, Throwing Snow and Nguzunguzu will provide the soundtrack.

Continue reading "Unsound Festival (Lustmord, Demdike Stare, Actress, Julia Holter) begins; listen to a mix"

by Andrew Sacher

Laurel Halo at PS1 in 2011 (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Brooklyn's Laurel Halo, who has two solid EPs under her belt and another coming on Mute's new Liberation Technologies label (that one was supposed to come out this week, but has been pushed back), just announced that she's signed to Hyperdub, the label founded and run by Kode9 and whose roster also includes Burial. The label will release her debut full length album, Quarantine, on June 5 in the US and May 28 in Europe. The album art and tracklist are below.

Laurel's got two upcoming appearances in NYC including a techno party at Glasslands on April 13 with Korean Beauty Slaon and Rem Koolhaus (probably DJing?) and a live set during Unsound Fest at Warsaw on April 20 with Ital, Demdike Stare, Hieroglyphic Being, Zemi17, and Monolake, who are all also playing live. Tickets for that show are on sale. The Bunker party flier is below.

Ital meanwhile plays in Brooklyn TONIGHT (3/21) at Knitting Factory with The Suicide of Western Culture and Octo Octa. Tickets are available.

All dates, album art and tracklist below...

Continue reading "Laurel Halo releasing LP on Hyperdub, playing Unsound/Bunker show w/ Monolake & Ital (who plays KF tonight)"

by Andrew Sacher

Julia Holter at LPR last week (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Unsound Fest, which goes down from April 18 - 22 across multiple NYC venues, has announced its schedule for 2012. The schedule is listed in full below, and here are some of its highlights:

Julia Holter, who has been making a ton of buzz lately with her excellent new album, Ekstasis, and her NYC live debut, which you can now watch in full at NPR, will be playing the first day of the fest on Wednesday, April 18 at Issue Project Room with Julia Kent and Jenny Hval.

On Thursday, April 19, psych/dub duo Peaking Lights and LXMP will play a free show at David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center at 7:30 PM. That show will be followed by live sets by Actress, Next Life, and Hype Williams at Le Poisson Rouge at 11 PM.

Friday's (April 20) shows include Sun Araw, pole, and Inner Tube at Le Poisson Rouge at 6 PM and live sets by Laurel Halo, Ital, Demdike Stare, Hieroglyphic Being, Zemi17 and Monolake at Warsaw at 10 PM.

On Saturday, April 21, Biosphere and Lustmord's special TRINITY piece will be performed at West Park Presbyterian Church at 7 PM with an opening set by Jacaszek. After that show, at a venue TBA we'll get Sepalcure (live A/V set), Nguzunguzu (DJ), 2562 (DJ), Teeth (live), Throwing Snow (DJ), DaveQ (DJ), and Distal (DJ).

The festival wraps up on Sunday, April 22 with mostly Unsound LABS, including a talk with Biosphere & Lustmord on 'TRINITY' at the Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building at 4 PM. Glasslands will then hosting the Unsound Festival closing party at 9 PM with live sets by Napszyklat and Maria Minerva (who will be making her US debut) and DJ sets by Sun Araw vs Heat Wave and Eltron John.

Ticket info for all of the paid shows is available.

Full schedule including Unsound LABS below...

Continue reading "Unsound Fest posts schedule; tickets on sale"

by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: Maria Minerva - "Gloria" (MP3)

Maria Minerva

Last month, we announced that the Unsound Festival is returning to NYC on April 18 - 22 across various venues including BAMcinématek, The Bunker, Lincoln Center, ISSUE Project Room and Le Poisson Rouge. We also since mentioned the related Kickstarter campaign for UNSOUND LABS.

Now, a lot of really exciting additions have been made to the lineup, including Julia Holter (who makes her NYC debut at LPR on 3/6), Maria Minerva, Peaking Lights, Sepalcure, Nguzunguzu (who recently announced a tour), Laurel Halo, 2562, Inner Tube (aka Mark McGuire of Emeralds and Spencer Clark), and many more. The full current lineup is listed below. More details coming soon.

One of the most interesting additions to this year's Unsound lineup is Estonia's Maria Minerva (aka Maria Juur), who will be making her NYC/US debut at the festival. According to her facebook, she'll be "doing two things at the festival, more info soon." Maria first caught my attention with her first official LP, Cabaret Cixous, which dropped last year on Not Not Fun. The album showed a tasteful knack for ambient/experimental pop but left me admittedly feeling like she still had plenty of room left to grow. A few months later, she dropped the Sacred & Profane Love EP on NNF's sister label, 100% Silk, and it was exactly what Cabaret Cixous was yearning for. The most impressive moment on the EP (and her best song yet) is the track, "Gloria," which you can download above or stream below. Fans of Grimes, Julianna Barwick, or fellow Unsound performers Julia Holter and Laurel Halo, take note.

Lineup, song stream, and all Maria Minerva dates below...

Continue reading "Unsound Fest announces Maria Minerva, other lineup additions"

Emeralds with Alan Howarth at UNSOUND 2011 (more by Erez Avissar)

While we await full details on Unsound NYC 2012, the festival is working to ensure funding for its "LABS" by putting up a Kickstarter. The say;

In 2012, we are working to expand UNSOUND LABS, both within the context of the festival and with further related events to be presented throughout the city during the rest of the year. During UNSOUND FESTIVAL NEW YORK 2012, we will be presenting more special collaborations between musicians from the U.S. and Europe, with a special focus on New York, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia. Concerts presented under the banner of LABS will be free and open to all. We will also be recording all UNSOUND LABS concerts for distribution via a free digital compilation to be available for download after the festival.

Likewise, all talks, presentations, and tours presented as part of LABS will be free and open to all. That has always been the case in the past, and it is important to us to continue in a similarly accessible vein. Your support will allow us to help cover LABS-related costs not supported directly by the cultural institutes we work with to make the festival come together as a whole. It will allow us to continue to present new and interesting work and ideas and part of LABS--and keep things free.

Continue reading "UNSOUND LABS seeking funding via Kickstarter"

Lustmord at Unsound 2011 (more by Greg Cristman)

Set aside April 18 - 22 which is when the annual Unsound Festival will make its way back to NYC at various venues across the city including BAMcinématek, The Bunker, Lincoln Center, ISSUE Project Room and Le Poisson Rouge.

So far amongst the confirmed are Baaba, Hype Williams, Berliner POLE, Jacaszek, Demdike Stare, ITAL, Hieroglyphic Being, Sun Araw, and a special set from Biosphere with Lustmord:

The worldwide debut of a special commission by Unsound and The Royal Norwegian Consulate General in New York and San Francisco: TRINITY features two legendary pioneers of ambient music Biosphere and Lustmord joining forces for the first time. Though both hail from very different worlds - Los Angeles based Lustmord is shrouded in darkness, whilst Biosphere's equally mysterious persona is deeply connected with the Arctic Circle - together they will create a work inspired by the first testing and development of atomic weapons in the Nevada desert.

This project is just one in a series of works related to the new Nordic scene - with a special focus on Norway. Unsound Festival New York's 2012 program will also include the blistering live show of Oslo-based digimetal band KILLL.

photos by Erez Avissar

""IF YOU'RE FROM NEW YORK, you'll know this one." As the image of an eye patch-sporting Kurt Russell flashed across twin screens behind the stage at West Village destination Le Poisson Rouge, the speaker struck up a portentous synth line and the audience burst into nostalgic applause; ...the tense theme from 1981 cult actioner Escape from New York is one of his own compositions. Alan Howarth... is something of an icon to fans of electronic movie sound tracks and effects: His résumé is peppered with Hollywood titles from Poltergeist to Raiders of the Lost Ark, John Carpenter projects like Escape and Halloween featuring prominently among them.

"Most of this music's just been sitting around for thirty years," Howarth admitted cheerfully, reveling in the attention it was now receiving and clearly overjoyed to find himself out of the studio and in front of some appreciative listeners. Harald Grosskopf, drummer for 1970s German space-rockers Ash Ra Tempel and author of 1979's Synthesist album (described by the organizers as "the nexus of Krautrock, Kosmische, and New Age"--and who am I to argue?), was in similarly high sprits. Taking the stage after Howarth, he got rather more of a workout, bobbing and weaving behind his stand-up kit while adopting a range of orgasmic/tortured facial expressions. "This screen is to monitor my blood pressure," he quipped, pointing to one of several nearby laptops. "It's nothing to do with the music."

After an hour or so of meandering but effortlessly enjoyable stuff, Grosskopf and friends made way for Emeralds, a young trio from Cleveland whose synth-heavy instrumental jams owe much to their senior colleagues' pioneering work..." -[Artforum]

The theme continued the next night as well as many of the same performers, Harald Grosskopf included, played and/or DJ'd at a secret party in Brooklyn. Erez was at both events, and his pictures from them continue, with some videos, below...

Continue reading "Alan Howarth, Harald Grosskopf, Emeralds & friends played an Unsound show @ LPR (and a secret gig in Brooklyn) (pics)"

photos by Greg Cristman

Lustmord

"Rumbles, thunderclaps and a baleful reading from the Old Testament prophet Amos -- "I will slay the last of them with my sword" -- opened the set by Lustmord on Sunday night at the Abrons Arts Center, the finale of the Unsound Festival of electronic and contemporary music and video. It was an extraordinarily rare live performance by the British musician Brian Williams, who has been recording as Lustmord since 1980 but has given only a handful of public concerts during his career, emerging for the Unsound Festival in Krakow, Poland, last year.

Lustmord has been a pioneer of what is generally called dark ambient music. It is textural rather than melodic, ultra-slow and submerged in bass and sub-bass frequencies, merging natural reverberations -- Lustmord has recorded in crypts -- with electronic ones. It opens abysses and lingers in them. When Lustmord got started it was associated with post-punk industrial music. Mr. Williams was a member in the 1980s of the Australian industrial group SPK and more recently has collaborated with the Melvins and Tool. While recording prolifically as Lustmord he has worked extensively as a sound designer in Hollywood, bringing ominous resonances to movie soundtracks."
[NY Times]

Continue reading "Lustmord played rare US shows @ Abrons Arts Center w/ Robert Piotrowicz & Void Ov Voices (pics)"

Sinfonietta Cracovia

04.01 Friday
08:00 PM // ISSUE PROJECT ROOM
UNSOUND LABS: COLLABORATIONS 1, presented with ISSUE Project Room
Unsound Festival NY Labs kicks off at ISSUE Project Room with the first of 2 nights focusing on collaborations. HATI (PL) collaborates with Z'ev (US); Dawid Szczesny (PL) collaborates with duo MERCE made up of harpist Shelley Burgon & avant-turntablist Maria Chavez (US); Anna Zaradny (PL) collaborates with New York-based Walkman manipulator Aki Onda (US).
08:00 PM HATI + Z'ev
08:00 PM Anna Zaradny
08:00 PM MERCE
08:00 PM Dawid Szczesny
08:00 PM Aki Onda
Tickets: $12 / $10 members IPR

April 6th is the Daníel Bjarnason/Ben Frost w/ Krakow orchestra Sinfonietta Cracovia "Music for Solaris" show at Alice Tully Hall. Sinfonietta Cracovia (who are coming all the way from Poland) also perform the day after that at Judson Church where they'll be performing Gorecki including the piece you can watch below.

To quote the NY Times...

"Now in its second year, this New York outpost of a vital Polish avant-garde music festival includes several events of note for contemporary-classical partisans. On Wednesday at Lincoln Center, the Sinfonietta Cracovia presents "Music for Solaris," a multimedia homage to Stanislaw Lem's novel with music by Ben Frost and Daníel Bjarnason, and works by Krzysztof Penderecki and Steve Reich. On Thursday evening Morton Subotnick revisits his pioneering electronic work "Silver Apples of the Moon" at the Rubenstein Atrium; later, at the Judson Church, the Sinfonietta Cracovia plays works by Henryk Gorecki in a concert shared with the Norwegian duo Deaf Center. Wednesday at 8 p.m., Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 671-4050, lincolncenter.org; $20 to $30. Thursday at 7:30 p.m., David Rubenstein Atrium, Lincoln Center, (212) 875-5456, lincolncenter.org; free; at 10 p.m., Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, Greenwich Village , (212) 598-0551, judson.org; $12 in advance, $15 at the door. (Smith)"

Continue reading "UNSOUND is here (April 1-10 in NYC)"

Ben Frost at Brooklyn Masonic Temple (more by Greg Cristman)

After a successful inaugural year, Unsound returns in 2011. As discussed, the ten day festival will take place from April 1st - 10th at multiple venues across New York City with the musical program taking place from April 6th - 10th.

Kicking off April 6th at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, as also discussed Unsound will host Music For Solaris, a multimedia experience that incorporates the Tarkovsky film, Lem's written source material, and music "written for twenty-nine string players, two percussionists, prepared piano, guitars and electronics by Ben Frost (Australia / Iceland) and Daníel Bjarnason (Iceland) in collaboration with one of Poland's leading orchestras, Sinfonietta Cracovia." Brian Eno and Nick Robertson will be on hand for "film manipulations" of the Tarkovsky film.

The next three days will see events with Morton Subotnick, Atom, Lone, Badawi, Kontext, Alan Howarth, Harald Grosskopf, Emeralds, the previously mentioned debut of the new incarnation of Skull Defekts with Daniel Higgs (April 3rd at Littlefield), and so much more.

On April 10th, the festival will close up shop with with three events, one of which will feature the NYC live and dark debut of Lustmord with Void Ov Voices (aka Attila of Mayhem) and Robert Piotrowicz at Abrons Art Center.

More details on Unsound NYC are below.

Continue reading "Unsound 2011 lineup updates (Ben Frost, Brian Eno, Emeralds, Lustmord, Void Ov Voices, Morton Subotnick, Atom & more)"

Moritz Von Oswald Trio at Unsound 2010 (more by Greg Cristman)

UNSOUND had it's first NYC event over the course of ten days in February with artists like Moritz Von Oswald Trio, Aidan Baker, Carl Craig, and a ton of others. Now the Polish organizers will make their return to NYC from in April 2011 (the 6th through 10th) for a gang of musical acts as well as "workshops, discussions and experimental events". So far the lineup hasn't been announced, save for one performance:

Making its USA premiere at Unsound Festival will be a new Unsound-commissioned project by Ben Frost & Daníel Bjarnasson, with "film manipulations" by Brian Eno and Nick Robertson. The ambitious project will celebrate the 50th anniversary (2011) of the publication of Krakow writer Stanislaw Lem's novel Solaris and will feature Frost / Bjarnasson collaborating with Sinfonietta Cracovia, one of Poland's leading orchestras.
Written for 29 string players, 2 percussionists, prepared piano, guitars and electronics, Music For Solaris has its beginnings in both Lem's original novel and the 1972 film adaptation by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky. It is a re-imagined soundtrack for a film so still as to become almost absent, a story in sound, and an exploration of an interior cosmos. It is music written by human beings, removed and mutated by machine intelligence, then translated once more by human beings.

Integral to the project are a series of "film manipulations" by Brian Eno and Nick Robertson, drawing on moments from the original Tarkovwsky film to create a visual parallel to the music composition process. The performance will also mark the release of the album Music For Solaris.

Ben Frost meanwhile is scheduled to open the sold-out Swans show at Brooklyn Masonic Temple on 10/8. Brian Eno is currently streaming his new album Small Craft on a Milk Sea, due in November via Warp.

by BBG

DOWNLOAD: Aidan Baker - "Liminoid Part III" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Tim Hecker - "Chimeras" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Tim Hecker - "Radio Spiricom" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Tim Hecker - "Blood Rainbow" (MP3)

Nadja

The ongoing Unsound festival continues to impress. LPR will feature the great Tim Hecker TONIGHT (2/10) with Radian, Sweden's Tape, and Mountains with a special and unique set from a "band formed during the kids electronic music workshops" that have taken place throughout the festival. Tickets are still available.

Hecker released two LPs in the past two years: a solo effort entitled An Imaginary Country via Kranky last year and a collabo LP with Aidan Baker on Alien8 called Fantasma Parastasie. The ever prolific Baker has a few different projects up his sleeve but one of those, Nadja, will also be in NYC as part of the Unsound fest.

Nadja is scheduled to open the Issue Project Room on 2/12 with Xavier van Wersch and headliner David Daniell:

As a performer, Daniell utilizes acoustic, electric, and pedal steel guitar along with a variety of electronics. He has worked for over a decade as a member of the improvising blues-drone trio San Agustin, along with many other collaborators through the years, including Tim Barnes, Ateleia, Jeph Jerman, Thurston Moore, Sean Meehan, Loren Connors, Tomas Korber, Greg Davis, as lead guitarist in Jonathan Kane's live band, and as concertmaster for Rhys Chatham's 100- and 200-guitar performances. Current active collaborations include a duo with guitarist Douglas McCombs (of Brokeback, Tortoise, Eleventh Dream Day) and a trio with Christian Fennesz and Tony Buck (of The Necks).

Aidan Baker has a new LP entitled Liminoid/Lifeforms out NOW via Alien 8. Stream the entire thing and/or download one track, "Liminoid Part III", above. After NYC, Nadja will blast off to Europa to link up with OvO and Thrones (who is playing TWO NYC shows, 2/18 and 2/19) for a string of dates in later March/April.

Full tour dates and a bunch of videos are below.

Continue reading "Tim Hecker, Nadja, other upcoming (Unsound) shows + MP3s"

words by BBG, photos by Greg Cristman

No one minded that the Moritz Von Oswald Trio had five members when it made its American debut on Saturday night at Le Poisson Rouge, part of the Unsound Festival New York and the Wordless Music series at the club. The trio is an alliance of techno and ambient disc jockeys and programmers doing what they don't do in D.J. booths or remix studios: playing instruments together in real time.

Mr. Von Oswald was surrounded by keyboards and synthesizers. Sasu Ripatti, also known as Vladislav Delay, was at a percussion kit with conga drums, bells and cymbals. Max Loderbauer, a k a N.S.I., was at his own analog synthesizer. And with them were another two renowned D.J.s: Carl Craig, a pioneer of Detroit techno, on synthesizers, and François K, a patriarch of house music, providing mixing, effects and additional sounds.

Their shared improvisation only hinted at the dance floor. It was sci-fi ambient music, with a background wash of pink noise like interstellar dust and puffy tones, pitched and unpitched, arising out of the static. The group's D.J. instincts governed the perpetually evolving structure: riffs appeared, drew responses, repeated, became foundations and eventually dissolved as new ones arrived. -[New York Times]

Unsound rolls on today (2/9) with the experimental electronic beats of Zavoloka, NYC artist Bora Yoon, and the ambient noise of Poland's Zenial at Issue Project Room. Tickets are still available.

More pictures from the Moritz Von Oswald Trio show are below...

Continue reading "Moritz Von Oswald Trio, Carl Craig & François K played LPR (pics) & the Unsound Festival continues "

by BBG

Carl Craig, one of the many artists at Unsound 2010

Since 2003, Unsound Festival, Poland's most adventurous music festival, has brought a bold and uniquely modern program of music to Kraków. Now, with seven festivals in their native city under their belt (and outpost events further east in cities like Minsk),
Unsound is coming west to New York for their first ever North American edition. Unsound Festival New York's mission is to forge new links between music genres, between generations and even between artistic practices.

The driving force in the assembling of the New York program has been Unsound Festival's commitment to forms of music and sound art that involve experimentation and risk. Unsound Festival has made a worldwide reputation by breaking new ground while dealing with vibrant electronic, experimental, independent, post-classical and club music scenes from around the world.

Feb 5th begins the start of Warhol Program, a series of pieces designed for and in tribute to Andy Warhol. The great Carl Craig will join nsi. for live soundtracks to "Blow Job" and "Kiss" respectively during a pair of screenings that night at The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater> Tickets are currently on sale for both the first showing at 7:30 (tix), and the second going down at 9:30 PM (tix). The show will be the US debut of the pieces, with nsi.'s piece being it's world debut. For the night owls, the party continues at Public Assembly, who will house Bunker parties on that night, 2/12, and 2/13. More details about the Bunker parties are at their site.

The Warhol Program continues the next day (2/6), when Groupshow (Jan Jelinek, Andrew Pekler, Hanno Leichtmann) will lead a free eight-hour (!) improvisation to Andy Warhol's film "Empire" at LPR. Maybe hook up a sack lunch?

After eight hours of improv, LPR will make way for A Century of Dance Music featuring the US debut of Moritz Von Oswald Trio:

Berliner Moritz Von Oswald is well known for his work as part of the duos Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound as well as for his own "M" series of recordings. He could be labeled the inventor of "dub techno," if that weren't too narrow a tag to define the scope of his music and accomplishments. Moritz Von Oswald is highly ranked by many critics and fans alike as one of the most original electronic music producers of the last two decades. [On 2/6] Von Oswald unveils his new trio featuring Vladislav Delay on drums and Max Loderbauer on electronics in their first ever North American performance. Last year their debut album was released by London's Honest Jons.

In tribute to Von Oswald, the evening opens with New York City's Ensemble LPR - the flexible house band of the venue (Le) Poisson Rouge which is led by LPR's two young founders - David Handler (violinist / composer) and Justin Kantor (cellist) along with fellow Manhattan School of Music graduate Orlando Alonso (conductor / pianist). The Ensemble will perform new renditions of Ravel's "Bolero" and selections from Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" based on remixes Moritz Von Oswald and Carl Craig assembled in 2008 for the Deutsche Grammophon album "Recomposed" (released only in Europe).

We'll post more details on this festival, but for now, dig on the full lineup (below) and a few videos. In addition, you can download a copy of the Unsound digital compilation for FREE for a limited time. Get on it!

Continue reading "Unsound Fest - Feb 4-14 in NYC"

by Black Bubblegum

Primitive North Art By Josh Graham

As originally discussed in July, A Storm of Light and Nadja have announced the release date for their sort-of split LP Primitive North due on the Robotic Empire on March 3rd, 2009. The record will feature two new tracks by A Storm of Light, a new one by Nadja, and remixes of each track by the other party. A Storm of Light's Josh Graham did the cover art for the album. That's it above.

In related news, Graham will provide the art for the new record by Brooklyn's own Hull who announced today that they have inked a deal with The End Records to release their LP Sole Lord. No release date yet. In the meantime, you can check the band out at one of two dates the band has lined up in the next two weeks... 12/12 at Union Pool with Apeshit & Ancient Sky, and 12/19 as part of Unsound with Zozobra (mems Cave-In), The Austerity Program, Heavy Winged, and Cowards. Flyer for Unsound below.

A Storm of Light released And We Wept The Black Ocean Within earlier this year... and we interviewed Josh Graham about it. The band will headline Europa on Feb 15, 2009 with faves Zoroaster, Amenra, and I, Parasite (tickets here). All dates below...

Continue reading "Hull signs with The End, A Storm of Light & Nadja's split LP, tour dates & stuff"

by Black Bubblegum

DOWNLOAD: Crowpath - "The Deed" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Crowpath - "One With Filth" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Crowpath - "Plague Bearer" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Graf Orlock - "Run Over By A Truck" (M4A)
DOWNLOAD: Cripple Bastards - "Sangue Chiama" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ocean - "The Beacon" (Excerpt) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Ocean - "Of The Lesser" (Excerpt) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Kylesa - "Set Controls for The Heart Of The Sun" (MP3, Pink Floyd cover)
DOWNLOAD: Kylesa - "Between Silence & Sound" (Remix) (MP3)

Crowpath

Let us all give thanks to Crowpath. For it is on November 25th, that the Swedes will brutalize us at the highly chaotic crossroads of brutal grind, death, doom, and hardcore with their new album One with Filth. The eleven-track LP One With Filth is currently up for preorder with a shirt at Willowtip Records, but you can download THREE of those tracks above, including "The Deed" available only here!

How can it get any better? Maryland Deathfest have added Napalm Death, Venomous Concept, and Misery Index to the already STELLAR lineup which includes the mighty Bolt Thrower. Tickets for Maryland Deathfest are on sale.

As we discussed last week, the mighty Graf Orlock have a new record on the way, Destination Time Today. The third installment in their cinemagrind trilogy, da Graf have been (un)kind enough to hook us BV'ers up with the new jam "Run Over By A Truck", downloadable above!

Ocean (of Maine) drops their new record, the two-track Pantheon Of The Lesser on Important Records on 11/11... check out the pair of MP3 excerpts available for download above. Likey? Pick it up right cheah...

Trap Them's massive new album Seizures In Barren Praise and the domestic issue of Carpathian's Isolation is out NOW via Deathwish Records. Broke/cheap & want 'em both? Email BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM (subject: Trap Them) and win BOTH CDs or BOTH LPs! Include your first and last name, your preference in format (CD or LP)... winners will be selected at random and contacted. Meanwhile, get your listen on at Hardcore Night's Trap Them Listening Party "and Beer Chugging Contest" (awesome) at The Charleston on 11/13.. flyer is below. Trap Them also was interviewed by Crustcake and sat in at WNYU! Download it here (forward to the 27 min mark).

Italian me(n)tal pantients Cripple Bastards dropped their new grinder Variante Alla Morte on FETO Records (owned by Shane Embury and Mick Kenney). Check out "Sangue Chiama", one of the few tracks over 30 seconds long (hell, over 10 seconds long), available for download above!

Neurosis have announced a few new new bands for the Beyond The Pale event at Roadburn 2009 including Om, Six Organs Of Admitttance, Skullflower, and A Storm Of Light! Hmmm, Wino is at Roadburn with Saint Vitus, Scott Kelly of Neurosis is obviously there, and now Al Cisneros from Om is on board.... thats 3/4 of Shrinebuilder... we'll keep you posted for new additions as come up! As originally discussed in February, Scott "Wino" Weinrich has a new solo album in the works... but now it has a name and a date! Look for the new album, Punctuated Equilibrium on Jan 20th 2009, and check out the album art!

That album art plus details on the Amenra US tour, news on Mastodon, Jesu, Metallica, Giant Squid, Agoraphobic Nosebleed and so much more below...

Continue reading "This Week In METAL (11/12/08) "

by Black Bubblegum

DOWNLOAD: Sigh - "Black Metal" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Salome - "Black Tides" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Salome - "White Tides" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Crom - "The Black Ring" (M4A)
DOWNLOAD: Light Yourself On Fire - "Love And Death" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Monarch! - "Mer Morte" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Tweak Bird - "Whorses" (MP3)

War is beautiful...... Torche (more by Jason Bergman)

Torche have teamed up with labelmates (and former tourmates) Clouds, for a string of freshly minted US tour dates with Coliseum and Black Cobra providing support. Torche is also currently gearing up for a European tour with another set of labelmates, Pelican, which concludes on October 11th. The first date on the Torche / Clouds tour is October 24th with Coliseum. CMJ is October 21st - 25th. Will we see Torche, Clouds or Coliseum at CMJ? No word yet (natch), but when we know, so will you. Full tour dates below.

Speaking of Pelican, the boys have issued a rather thorough update in which they detail their loooong awaited split with These Arms Are Snakes (due on Hydrahead, limited quantities), a split 7" with Young Widows (due in 2009), a collaborative split 7" with Suicide Note, and a Fire In Their Throats.... 2LP release in Viva Hate Records. But the band also dropped more interesting news..... including the fact that the band will tour the east coast in the fall, have a video for "Lost in the Headlights" in the works, and are working on their follow up to City Of Echoes. More details to come. Speaking of These Arms Are Snakes, the band recently posted "Red Line Season" to their myspace for streaming.

Coffins have contributed two songs, one new and another a cover of "The Day Man Lost" by swedish death metallers Carnage, to a split 7" with sludgy-grind enthusiasts Skullhog. Pick it up NOW at No Escape, it's limited to 500 copies (200 on red wax). Coffins also have the following releases lined up: the Warhead 7" EP (on Torture Garden); Split 7" EPs with Womb (on Necroharmonic), Lobotomized (on Plague Island), and Spun In Darkness (Battle Kommand); Split 12" LPs with The Arm And Sword Of A Bastard God (the vinyl release on Enucleation, originally on CD via 20 Buck Spin), Anatomia & Grudge (the three-way split vinyl release on Enucleation, originally dropped on Grindmind), and XXX Maniak (the vinyl release on Haunted Hotel, originally released on CD via Creeping Vine); a Singles collection from 2004-2008 (on Living Dead Society); a mini album (on Bones Brigade); a track on the Death Metal Power Compilation Vol.1 (on Final Punishment).
Engineer is currently working on their follow up to The Dregs, and have "close to five songs completed". Look for the band to line up a few new shows in the coming months.

Sigh drops their new record, A Tribute to Venom, on limited edition etched vinyl with CD via The End Records on Sept 2nd. A Tribute To Venom is just that, a set of Venom covers reimagined in way that only Sigh could. Check out the artwork below, download their cover of the Venom classic (and namesake for an entire genre) "Black Metal" above. Want a copy of A Tribute To Venom on vinyl/CD? Email BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM (subject: Sigh). Include your first and last name. One winner will be picked at random and contacted. Sigh will hit the road in September with Zimmer's Hole & Unexpect, hitting BB Kings in NYC on Sept 16th. Tickets are still available, full tour dates are below.

Salome, Lair Of The Minotaur, Behemoth, Napalm Death, Municipal Waste, and much more below.........

Continue reading "This Week In METAL (08/28/08)"