bryter layter: - two lenses- students of decay - lp - 12$
Comprised of Joseph Raglani (Kranky) and Mike Pollard (Arbor), Bryter Layter is a collaborative unit that focuses on the lyrical faculties of analog synthesis. For the most part, these recordings find the pair eschewing the at-times unfocused, long-form drone techniques that have become fixtures in the scene in favor of short, melodic compositions that are strikingly rich in detail. Listeners familiar with the oeuvres of Raglani and Pollard will find much to love here. As the pillow-soft, analog tone-clouds that characterize the latter’s work as Pale Blue Sky find themselves wed to the highly structured, dynamic arrangements that one associates with the former’s solo output.”Two Lenses” is rich and cinematic, rife with evocative motifs which ebb and flow from one piece to the next creating, over the course of the album, a masterfully composed, unified whole.
“Your Verdant Skin,” the opening salvo, brings to mind Popul Vuh’s work for Werner Herzog at its most grandiose, as waves of rising, symphonic tones surge and dissolve, carrying us along with them. “First Light,” with its startlingly catchy syncopated rhythms, illustrates perfectly those qualities which set Bryter Layter apart from their synthesist contemporaries, with Raglani and Pollard channeling wistful, sun-washed pop sensibilities into the cold facades of their machines.
Recorded live and meticulously arranged by Raglani at his home studio, and mastered by Greg Davis to supreme effect, “Two Lenses” builds upon and extends the qualities established on the pair’s 2009 cassette release “Imprinted Season” in every way. Their work here runs the gamut from maudlin and picturesque to profoundly hopeful always with an eye towards the beautiful.
marble sky - the sad return -students of decay – cd - 14$
Limited to a mere 15 copies, the original Marble Sky cassette
is definitely an album which has been talked about more than
actually heard. Released in 2007 by the Callow God label, and
dedicated to "several friends passing through and across,"
"The Sad Return" finds Impregnable's Jeff Witscher conjuring
devastatingly beautiful tidepools of romantic, nostalgic
drone music. As evidenced by the surge of placid, warm
Impregnable recordings which began turning up midway through
2007, Witscher has become increasingly interested in lulling
ambient music - a move which is in sharp contrast to his
earlier, blisteringly harsh noise work with Impregnable. After
hearing the cassette, we knew that this was material that demanded
a larger audience and we're thrilled to present the original material
along with 20 minutes of new recordings.
Listening to "The Sad Return" is akin to staring out into a grey
horizon on a late autumn day. "Pulling Out Grass Under a Blanket"
is a smear of beautifully evolving, evocative tones wrung from
guitar and synthesizer. Witscher's attention to detail and pacing
is marvelous, as wisps of choral drones weave in and out of
warm gushes of washed out synth discharge. Later, on "What You
Might Forget," surges of static threaten to unhinge a romantic
dronework that brings to mind the levitating vistas of Mirror at
their most poignant. Elsewhere, Witscher channels the glacial
synth studies of Elaine Radigue into a myriad of focused, devotional
dreamstates akin to the dayglo analog string fantastias put forth
by Stars of the Lid circa "Avec-Laudenum." Ultimately, Marble Sky
stands as Witscher's opus: a strikingly wrought meditation on
sadness, love and the depths of memory.
-sod
billy gomberg - only the sun for our - students of decay – cass - 6$
Glacial excursions culled from synthesizer, piano and field recordings by Brooklyn based multi-instrumentalist Billy Gomberg. Wisps of melancholic melody adrift on murky waters. A beguiling collection that truly rewards repeat listens.
pausal - autumnal - students of decay – cass - 6$
Gorgeous and expansive, "Autumnal" is the second release by the UK duo of Alex Smalley and Simon Bainton following their revered debut on Barge Recordings last year. This two-part suite is full of heart-rending strings and bucolic, wistful arrangements. Recommended for fans of Stars of the Lid, Arvo Pärt and Labradford.
asuna & opitope - sunroom - students of decay –cd– 14$
This is the first collaborative full-length release by Japan’s Opitope, the duo of Chihei Hatakeyama (Kranky, Room40) and Tomoyoshi Date (FlyRec), and Asuna (spekk, Headz). Listeners familiar with Opitope’s majestic 2007 release “Hau,” or any of the more recent output by Asuna, Hatakeyama or Date, will find much to love here. Across the albums’ nine tracks, gossamer webs of treated sound (made from all manner of plaintive piano, rubbed strings, delicately picked guitars and evocative accordian, vibraphone and sampling) hover, resonate, ebb and disperse. Paradoxical as it may seem, there is a painstaking effortlessness to this music. In some ways, “Sunroom” feels like a perfect followup to “Hau,” with one critical distinction. Where that previous release, as with Asuna’s wonderful “THIS” double disc and much of Hatakeyama’s recent solo work, focused principally on textures and abstraction, here an added emphasis is placed on songcraft. Ultimately, we might best situate these recordings alongside Date’s 2008 masterpiece “Human Being,” as there is, to be sure, a similar playfulness, deftness of juxtaposition, accessibility, and sincere reverence to be found in the radiant compositions of “Sunroom.” Throughout the album’s duration, the masterful, capable hands of Date, Hatakeyama and Asuna, craft miniature, effervescent gems of songs which swell and bloom like the changing of seasons or the passage of time in memory.
jefre cantu-ledesma and paul clipson - within mirrors - students of decay – dvd – 17$
Many artists within the realm of electronic and ambient music combine film with audio. Rarely however, do we find such a highly singular and symbiotic merging of the two forms as occurs in the collaborative efforts between Bay Area filmmaker Paul Clipson and founding Tarentel member/Root Strata label owner Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Clipson and Cantu have worked aside one another for years, with Clipson often providing visuals for Tarentel’s live sets, and their history of working closely with each other is immediately apparent when viewing these collaborative works.
As a filmmaker, Clipson’s aesthetic draws heavily from a palette which includes and synthesizes the abstractions of the American Avant-Garde, such as Stan Brakhage, Maya Deren, and Jonas Mekas with narrative and formal tendencies from artists as diverse as Chantal Akerman, Hiroshi Teshigahara, and Jose Antonio Sistiaga.
Cantu-Ledesma’s scores run the gamut from bleary, post-shoegaze mantras, in which barely-there melodies are submerged with all manner electronically treated aural detritus, to hushed ambience that is almost Eastern in its level of devotional pathos. Combined, the sonic and visual elements of these works are at once overwhelming in their beauty, and supremely evocative in their ability to conjure for the viewer pure wonder at the beauty and frailty of the world around us.
This volume collects several of the out of print DVD-R releases that Jefre has released on the Root Strata imprint over the past few years, including “Two Suns,” “Corridors,” “The Phantom Harp,” “The Light and its Perfections,” and “Constellations, along with two new works, the eponymous film and “The Sphinx on the Seine” on professional DVDs with menu design by C. Spencer Yeh and artwork by Jefre. Clips from films may be seen here.
brothers of the occult sisterhood - suppress (detached) orchestra - students of decay – lp – 14$
"Suppress (Detached) Orchestra" is the vinyl debut for Australia's
Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood. BOTOS is centered around
Michael Donnelly and a revolving cast of free thinkers who exist
collectively as musicyourmindwillloveyou and have released a myriad
of post-psychedelic free drone action on a wide variety of formats,
culminating with "Goodbye," released in 2006 by Digitalis.
The LP consists of two side-long freakouts, the first recorded in
2006 by the latest incarnation of the group, and the second by the
original duo lineup of Michael and his sister Kristina, recorded in 2004.
Because of this difference, both temporal and in personnel, each side
is immediately distinct in sound. Lurching, shamanistic percussion,
sonorous cello, snarling, blistering psych guitar, shambling piano,
and a wealth of other heaving, joyous sounds congeal and morph
in this fascinating journey through the minds of Australia's most
wrecked sons and daughters.
-sod
david kirby - the scythe -students of decay – cdr – 5$
David Kirby returns for his second outing on Students of Decay,
following 2006's "Inside, it is Ringing." "The Scythe" may well be
David's most realized composition to date. A veritable cornucopia
of source material hammered and melted into shape, forming a
truly vast, humming universe of sound. The drones which drift
throughout remind me of something from Christoph Heemann's
backcatalog. But far from being so easily pigeonholed, David's
use of found sound, samples and other wry "appropriations" renders
this piece and sound very much his own. Keep your eyes peeled for
a full length proper CD from David here on SOD later this year.
-sod
tombi - black humid mist - students of decay – cdr – 5$
Tombi is the solo moniker of Ry Wharton (who runs the great
Twonicorn tape label). Over the course of several limited edition
cassettes, including the simply fantastic "Forest of Three Trees"
released on Tone Filth midway through 2006, Wharton has sculpted
subterranean synth and electronics into obsessive basement
hymns. "Black Humid Mist" begins with a calming tide pool
of ringing bell tones, which open up into the hypnotic riptide
static of the title track - an enchanting live feed from some
bleak and beautiful valley far beneath earth's surface.
-sod
area c - charmed birds against sorcery -students of decay – cd – 11$
"Charmed Birds Against Sorcery" is the third studio album by New
England-based musician Erik Carlson, and constitutes a startling
development in his sound. The first Area C record, 2006's "Traffics
+ Discoveries," was a small marvel of whirring loops sourced primarily
from processed guitars. Last year's "Haunt," Carlson's second record
for Last Visible Dog, was a different affair entirely, investigating the
provocative drone capabilites of farfisa organs. The compositions which
constitute "Charmed Birds..." develop and, often, transcend the motifs
found on these prior albums, with Carlson revealing an astonishingly
refined and singular approach to guitar-based composition.
Soundwise, the album recalls more the crystalline, kaleidoscopic webworks
of the first Area C record than the ragged organ workouts of "Haunt."
Glacial harmonics drift in and out of each channel, skittering, modulated
notes pulse and surge, sputtering suddenly to luminescent manifestation
before disappearing just as quickly. Many of the compositions here are in
fact more remniscient of the ambient side of Wolfgang Voigt's work
in Gas, or perhaps the less beat driven aspects of "94 Diskont"-era Oval
than what we've come to expect from what is ostensibly a 'guitar and
electronics' based project. An almost kraut-like rhythm subtends the
topography of "Composition Journal," the album's stunning opener, its
low throb punctuated by brittle shocks from deconstructed drum
machines over which Carlson weaves a spiralling lattice of bowed and
picked notes. Later, on "Sleeping Birds," we're presented with a lulling
idyll concocted by way of flute-like tones and languid note clusters, a
shorter piece which dissolves seemlessly into modulating static at the
onset of the pointillist microcosm that is "Spell of Resistance." The title
track is without question the album's apex and constitutes a formal peak
in Carlson's discography, as brilliant, bright guitar lines tread effortlessly
in a sea of tranquil pulses and disembodied percussive elements.
It should come as no surprise that, by day, Carlson works in the field of
architecture. For with "Charmed Birds..." he has constructed an edifice
of stunning complexity, originality and beauty.
-sod
brendan murray -students of decay – cd – 11$
Never content to rest on his laurels, we have here a new
stellar release from Boston based composer/sound artist
Brendan Murray, the followup to the acclaimed 23five
release "Commonwealth." Murray's compositions tend
to hinge upon drones and this eponymous record is no
exception. That being said, this is a work which differs
considerably from "Commonwealth" or "Wonders Never
Cease"(Murray's Intransitive release from 2007).
In Brendan's own words: "This record was recorded after
a 6 month break from making solo music. Commonwealth
was a pretty big undertaking over a few years, and I
wanted to see if I could take some of the long range
deliberation out of my process and trust decisions
that I normally rethink over and over. I also worked
under a deadline for the first time. The six tracks
represent the first real overhaul of my approach since
I started. I found myself breaking a lot of self-imposed
rules and working very quickly. I decided to incorporate
recognizable instrumentation, mainly piano and guitar.
I made some shorter pieces and use lots of different
recording techniques to give each track it's own character
while making it sound like a record. It definitely sounds like
my music, but it's a more delicate in some places than
anything I've ever released. I regard the ideas as refined
and realized, but each track inhabits its own space, almost
like chapters in a book.
It's self-titled or untitled, depending on how you care to think
of it. The images in the artwork could also work as symbolic
titles. I have left that very open, because the titles of the
pieces are purposely evocative. They are also rather personal
and refer to specific moments in my life, whether real or
imagined. I plan on making a couple of more records like
this, as well as continuing to make large, complex pieces.
I don't regard this as a detour. Some people have told me that
this music sounds dark, others have told me it sounds really
paranoid. I think it's a weirdly optimistic record."
-sod