Summons of shining ruins - ileun

Summons of shining ruins - ileun
Genre : Ambient, Electronica, Drone

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01 Oido - Winter
02 Jimbo & Euna
03 Absolute Crying
04 Ileun
05 Sits Alone
06 Do Not Know Where to Go...Late Night Panic
07 Eyes Closed, Feels Light, Quiet..Quiet...
08 Enoshima - Summer

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This album is different from a usual SUMMONS album a little. I tried to see through the unknown smell, sign and feeling and I made an effort in order to exclude a lie from there thoroughly. Did I bring it close to truth? Everything was always already shining. Should I make music? The feeling of the bit of hope was awesome than that of the imagination. That was found at everywhere. On the way where I begin and walk. In a limited time. Break a mirror! You should see on the other side.. Offered to your smile.

Drowning the virgin silence – Beneath the sulfur sky

Drowning the virgin silence – Beneath the sulfur sky
Genre : Electronica, Ambient, Acoustic

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1. We Twist the Sun and the Sea
2. Riverman
3. White Skin Sun
4. Birds Fly
5. To Reach the Clouds
6. The Gospel
7. Fiction
8. Beneath the Sulfur Sky

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The Green Kingdom – Twig And Twine

The Green Kingdom – Twig And Twine
Genre : Electronica, Ambient, Acoustic

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1-Into_the_Magic_Night
2-Autumn_Eyes
3-The_Promise_of_Spring
4-Crystal_Window
5-Maplecopter
6-What_Birds_See
7-Orange_Saturday_Morning
8-River_Bends_Park
9-The_Green_Bridge

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The Green Kingdom is Michael Cottone, a graphic designer and sound artist based in Michigan. His compositions blur the line between soundscape and structure, utilizing a variety of processed acoustic and electronic sources, sampled textures and field recordings. RIYL: Mountains, Shuttle358, Fenton, The Boats, Sawako, Harold Budd.

Nuearz – Saturation Point

Nuearz – Saturation Point
Genre : Electronica, IDM

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01 Saturation Point 4.58
02 Humble Diet 5.25
03 Spiral Ramp 4.31
04 Protocol C 5.33
05 Counterpoise 5.55
06 Innerspace 5.15
07 Turn and Twist 4.59
08 Non Linear Vibration 5.32
09 Watershed 7.40
10 Self Absorption 5.20
11 Escalator over the Super Flat 6.00
12 Hundred Views of JP 6.02

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The solo project of one Kazuhiro Okuda, Nuearz is the latest recruit to the Skam roster, and while a solid core of heavily edited electronica is at the heart of this record, there’s an awful lot more going on as well. The tricky cutting, in-depth percussive detail and cranked levels of compression all make Saturation Point an aptly titled sensory assault. ‘Protocol C’ works well, benefitting from playing down the more overloaded compositional traits of elsewhere – ‘Counterpoise’ for example is a beast of a thing, full of melodic, twinkling tones, lurid synth lines and strummed acoustic guitar. In fact, acoustic guitar is heavily used throughout the record, which isn’t really something you’d expect of a Skam release. Far more in keeping with the label’s traditional agenda is the obliteration of beat structures and a thorough working knowledge of advanced electro experiments, which is apparently something Okuda is eminently adept at, albeit in a slightly noisier, scrappier – even psychedelic fashion than is customary for anything that might come under the banner of IDM.

Grouper / Xela - Tsuki No Seika: Volume 1

Grouper / Xela - Tsuki No Seika: Volume 1
Genre : Ambient, Drone, IDM

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01 - Pale Through
02 - I Drowned Her In A Dreamless Sleep

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Strictly speaking, this split 7" from Grouper and Xela is a subscription-only release, and so shouldn't really be available to shops.
This record marks the very first installment of Root Strata's 'Tsuki No Seika' series, a sequence of four 7"s that will go on to include contributions from Christina Carter, Richard Youngs, Islaja, Zelienople, Hisato Higuchi and Valet. The common theme running throughout is a restriction to acappella compositions, and the overall air of autonomy and self-sufficiency is even carried over into the artwork: each artist illustrates their own side of the sleeve. Grouper's musical contribution has something faintly festive about it, sounding like the warm-up hum of undead Christmas carollers. The piece acquires the seamless, fog-caked, drone-like quality that characterised Liz Harris' earliest output, momentarily abandoning her more songwriterly instincts for a return to the brilliantly intangible and esoteric qualities of 'Way Their Crept'. The Xela side is more discernible as a vocals-only piece, and avoiding droned-out abstraction he layers darkly reverberant falsetto recordings that tap into the almost Arvo Part-like streak recurrent in his work of late. The tone encroaches on something that's at least similar to ecclesiastical music, taking on the improbable aesthetic of a one-man church choir from the fourteenth century. Only the song's title upsets that logic: it's called 'I Drowned Her In A Dreamless Sleep'. This all makes for an exceptional start to the series, and with the likes of Carter and Youngs - both seasoned purveyors of unaccompanied vocal recordings - waiting in the wings, this bears all the hallmarks of an absolutely classic collectors edition.

Yuki Murata - Films

Yuki Murata - Films
Genre : Piano, Ambient, Acustica

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1. prologue
2. the Hill named Air
3. Capricious
4. under the deep Sea
5. Call my name and Hear my Voice
6. Mr. Doughnut
7. Glitch
8. Broken Arrow [mp3]
9. me and G
10. Let's Go to Neverland
11. unstable Waltz
12. the Hill Nobody Knows but only me
13. Open your Hands it's here always
14. don't Worry, all Things will be OK !

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Milinal – Honey meridian

Milinal – Honey meridian
Genre : Ambient, Electronica

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1. Fluxes
2. Inside Sea Shells
3. Dirketoki
4. Drift
5. Bur In Sky Ya
6. Stereo Fall of the Leaves
7. Brinta
8. Swallows Fly Low
9. Hurricaine
10. Artificial & Yellow (featuring Natasha Burinskaya)
11. Honey Meridian

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Audiobulb continue to offer up interesting developments on the electronica scene with this unusual new long-player from Milinal. Honey Meridian asserts a sound that’s all its own, slicing through filtered, ambient recordings drawn from instruments and environmental noises. ‘Inside Sea Shells’ offers a pop song of sorts, glitching through obliterated vocals in an oddly haunting, romanticized way, but subsequent tracks take us towards a more experimental set of sounds. The clicky guitar string dissections of ‘Bur In Sky Ya’ are as ear-ticklingly tuneful as they are elaborate and ‘Stereo Fall Of The Leaves’ is a wonderfully immersive soundscape in the Tim Hecker mold, full of dense, foggy noise formations and pensive electroacoustic treatments.

This elegant album com

Fieldhead – They shook hands for hours

Fieldhead – They shook hands for hours
Genre : Ambient, Electronica

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This Train Is A Rainbow
Half Names
Document One
They Shook Hands For Hours
Of October
He’d Found The Sea
Songs Well Known
Broken
I’m Fond Of Maps
Introductions

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This elegant album communicates integrity and substance in the few seconds it takes to open the case and start listening to the first track, “this train is a rainbow”. The decisive minimalism of the graphics and the carefully dense texture of the music announce a wish to be known and listened to, with an assurance that there will be a lot to hear and nothing dropped carelessly in simply because it can be.

Sit up and listen. You might treat this album as background music later, but on the first few listens there are plenty of rewards for paying close attention. Reverence for the wide potential of music to connect with something like difficult truth, or at least to provoke the feeling that there are important things to experience are clearly involved. Meditative, absorbed listening is recommended (and, happily, easy to achieve). Paul Elam might or might not have thought these things as he made the album, but it’s ours now, and we can make of it whatever we like.

The percussive elements are subtle and varied. They move about, drop in and out, and use unexpected textures and resonances. Here and there, rapid flurries of tiny, ultra short beats could be the crackle of static, but they work perfectly well as pulses of forward energy.

Deeper, slower beats grow out of bass sounds and hold an entirely different time frame. In “Songs Well Known” there’s a real groove, as seductive as you like. That tune stops abruptly and a bass note introduces “Broken” very very far down the octaves. Listening to the piece from another room in my house, I can feel great chunks of air moving, catching the natural resonance of walls and floors. It’s a bit scary. A host of drones and shifts seem to be moving with it, and my internal visualisations (strong throughout the album) move through forests and across moorland. It disappears and they float away , diminishing like spirits into a grey sky.
And on it goes, with (always) ambiguous unearthly sounds, hints of orchestral scoring and suggestions of natural instruments playing as a band. My imagination draws and redraws the landscapes and ecosystems. The music suggests them, and then moves on before the images can become fixed. The open ambiguous spaces, simultaneously (of course) also imply the inner territories of the soul and the emotions. Without the distraction of strong tunes to hold the imagination down, the experience is genuinely psychotropic. It’s like being hypnotised but without being told what to do.

It is an album that is varied, perhaps to the point of restlessness. It’s complete redemption is in the carefully managed development and the delights of new sounds at every turn.
whisperinandhollerin

Akira Kosemura - Polaroid Piano

Akira Kosemura - Polaroid Piano
Genre : Ambient, Acustica, Clásica

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01.Hicari
02.Faire
03.April
04.Would
05.Sign
06.Tale
07.Look
08.Tyme
09.Guitar
10.Venice
11.Ein Lied

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As the Someone Good label blurb so evocatively states: "Polaroid cameras did more than simply recount past moments - the medium itself inserted a soft-focus, dream-like quality that appeared to suggest vague recollection over exacting reality." This idea is carried over into Akira Kosemura's delicate instrumentals: they're vague and suggestively wistful, imbued with a sense of time and place with a selection of background field recordings that play to the memory. These pieces are so understated and hushed you can hear the mechanism of the piano and the movement of the keys themselves more pronouncedly than you can the actual notes. Melodically, there are some beautiful passages of play here, with the likes of 'April' and the rickety, shambling 'Would' offering early highlights. There is the odd confrontation with cliche here too however: 'Tale' features the sound of children playing accompanied by toy xylophone, which is slightly irritating in its tweeness, but the simple, Satie-like ornamental quality of the subsequent piano solo 'Look' dismisses any such reservations with its sheer loveliness. Goldmund's Corduroy Road will inevitably spring to mind through a playback of Polaroid Piano, and Peter Broderick's Docile probably won't be too far behind. Anyone craving plaintive, characterful piano solos will find much to absorb here.

Black to comm – Alphabet 1968

Black to comm – Alphabet 1968
Genre : Ambient, Electronica, Experimental

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01. Jonathan
02. Forst
03. Trapez
04. Rauschen
05. Musik für Alle
06. Amateur
07. Traum GmbH
08. Houdini Rites
09. Void
10. Hotel Freund

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Marc Richter (aka Black to Comm) is no newcomer to the experimental music scene. As the figurehead of the Hamburg-based Dekorder label, the musician and designer has brought countless oddities to the attention of rabid music fans in the last few years, but it is with his own compositions that he has made the biggest splash. Releasing for a plethora of labels including Digitalis, Trensmat and of course his own imprint, he has pioneered a new, organic drone sub-genre using tape loops, vintage organs and an inexhaustible swamp of found sounds. With this latest album however, it was Richter’s intention to move away from the epic drones he had made his own and into something more ‘classic’.

The mission statement for ‘Alphabet 1968’ was to write an album of ‘songs’ for want of a better word. Short tracks which represented genre points, the milestones which stuck in Richter’s mind when he thought back to his favourite records. What we arrive at is an breathtaking ten track album which, over the course of forty-five minutes, explores world music, techno, noise, avant-garde, ambient music and even exotica. Each track is linked with a loose thread of radio static or environmental sound, dragging you through the album as if tuning in to a stray broadcast or a particularly adventurous mix.

Richter has pieced the album together from hours of recordings made at his studio with home made gamelan, small instruments and loops gathered from a collection of ancient vinyl and 78 records. The scope of the album is admirable but ignoring this it is simply a shockingly arresting collection of experimental oddities, with references ranging from Moondog to Basic Channel by way of the Bernard Herrmann. It’s not hard to fall in love with ‘Alphabet 1968’, far harder would be to place exactly where the record should fit into your collection.

Llyn Y Cwn – Llyn Y Cwn

Llyn Y Cwn – Llyn Y Cwn
Genre : Ambient, Electronica

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01 – XII
02 – XI
03 – IX
04 – X

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Llyn Y Cwn (Welsh - lake of the dogs) is a small lake at 715m, nestled between Glyder Fach and Y Garn in the Glyder mountain range of Snowdoina, UK. Llyn Y Cwn is a dark ambient project by Ben Powell (mank). The two EP’s were released only in digital format in 2009 – part 1 in March and part 2 in November. The EP’s try to emulate the type of environment encountered at Llyn Y Cwn, harsh and desolate but at the same time beautiful. They feature environmental field recordings from the mountains of north wales and from an ice breaker ploughing through ice at the north pole. The music is intended to be played as the listener is going to sleep.

Mitsuyoshi Matsuda - Scene

Mitsuyoshi Matsuda - Scene
Genre : Ambient, Electronica

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01. Hirune 1:46
02. Curtain 3:50
03. Park 1:27
04. Evening Melody 3:28
05. Calm 2:45
06. Shizukana Umi 5:48
07. Secret Door 4:20

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The Declining Winter - Haunt The Upper Hallways

The Declining Winter - Haunt The Upper Hallways
Genre : Electronica, Acustica, Indie

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01. Haunt The Upper Hallways
02. My Name In Ruins
03. Hey EFD
04. Red Brick Houses
05. Where The Servern Rivers Tread
06. Come On Feel The Willingness
07. Drenched
08. Goodbye Light LS28
09. Carta Remix
10. Hey EFD (inst)

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When the brothers Adams allowed Hood an extended sabbatical it was always going to be interesting to see how far their musical paths would diverge from their unmistakable blueprint. Now temporarily freed from the pressures and expectations of the Hood environment, Richard Adams has breathed an audible sigh of relief into his new project, The Declining Winter.

The latest instalment from The Declining Winter is due for release on 27th July 2009. It has taken some time to work out the format for this release but after much deliberation we have decided it should come as a 7" record which includes a CD containing a full album of material. We hope this will satisfy those who require a 'vinyl fix' and everyone else also receives what is effectively The Declining Winter's second full length album on CD, in its own packaging. A slightly unusual format but perfectly in keeping with Adams' idiosyncratic approach to music making. In addition to all this, the first 100 website orders will also receive a further CD of remixes of 'Haunt The Upper Hallways' from the likes of Part Timer, Winter North Atlantic, Northerner, Fieldhead and Richard Adams himself.

Throughout the course of 'Haunt The Upper Hallways' you will encounter passages of breathtaking beauty akin to those found on Rachel's mesmerising 'Music For Egon Schiele', followed by wistful, reflective pieces that conjure up comparisons with Robert Wyatt, Deerhunter, Grizzly Bear and latter day Talk Talk. There is a freshness to Adams' approach to songwriting which is beautifully exhibited in the addition of dulcimer and violins throughout these ten mini epics.

‘Haunt The Upper Hallways’, true to Adams’ pedigree, is the work of an artist for whom contradiction, severity, experimentation and dissonance are as much grist to the mill as harmony, melody and concord. Close attention to the multi-layered vocals sometimes reveals that Adams might also be grinding axes or even settling old scores throughout the course of these songs. Or, perhaps it’s just the ramblings of a man lost and confused on the number ninety-one (Pudsey to Chapeltown) bus.

Yui Onodera-Entropy

Yui Onodera-Entropy
Genre : Ambient, Electronica

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01. untitled 6' 39"
02. untitled 3' 14"
03. untitled 5' 41"
04. untitled 4' 20"
05. untitled 4' 40"
06. untitled 3' 50"
07. untitled 5' 00"
08. untitled 4' 18"
09. untitled 3' 50"
10. untitled 5' 40"

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Over the last months, a plethora of drone-related albums have piled up on our desk. Several of them have been of exceptional quality: Imaginative, personal, pristinely realised, daring even. And yet few artists have been able to sustain their ambitions over a prolonged series of releases like Yui Onodera. The three albums he churned out in 2007 alone would have fueled the career of other artists for at least a decade: „Substrateﾒ on Mystery Sea revealed a pure and hypnotic world of overtones, „Suisei“ (AND/OAR) constituted an epic journey into the heart of Tokyo, while „Rhizome“ (Gears of Sand) was a colourful, multistylistic effort with a strong melodic underpinning. Onodera, it seemed, had discovered a foolproof creative formula and the way he was lavishly applying its ardent arithmetics to a string of continuously immaculate albums implied there were more and possibly even greater things to come.

This, of course, is the main trait of all leading artists: Never holding anything back from their audiences in fear of having nothing left to say one day. And yet, for a second there, it seemed as though the well had indeed dried up. After being administered the accolade of the genre by releasing a 7inch on seminal label Drone Records, Onodera lapsed into silence. „Radiance“, a collaboration with The Beautiful Schizophonic and officially published only a couple of days ago, is his first new full-length in almost one and a half years and its shimmering harmonies and glowing production are sure to again raise attention. „Entropy“, meanwhile, is an older work, Onodera's first in fact, and it takes listeners back all the way to 2005, when he was just setting up his Critical Path imprint and assembling a circle of like-minded young Japanese Sound Artists. His relative fame was restricted to his homeland back then, withholding the music from most of the world's ears. Re-released on nascent record company Trumn, it however sounds as fresh as ever today and demonstrates just how mature he had already been when debuting on the scene.

It also underlines that a combination of solid craftsmanship and good-old inspiration can still yield impressive results which are „characterized by values and concepts that are different from everything so far“ (as he himself put it): Onodera uses a typical setup of Guitar, field recordings and electronics here and most pieces on „Entropy“ consist of a recognisable amalgamation of various layers of harmonics, noises and micro-sounds. Still, the record is capable of evoking insistent images of burning intensity. Each track is like a psychedelic still-life, like gazing through a cosmic caleidoscope with shardes of stardust gracefully creating shifting patterns at the pace of planetational rotation. The music reveals its constituents early on – simple two-chord loops, melodic movements, frequential pulsation and timbral friction – and then allows the audience to observe them from various angles and in slightly different constellations over the course of their brief four- to five-minute duration. Effectively, listening to this album feels a little bit like walking through an exposition of holographic sculptures electrically flickering in serene darkness to the beat of random fluctuations in power supply.

On the one hand, the accuracy of his vision is astounding: Each scene is carved out with utmost precision and a great sensitivity for mood: In the best of Japanese traditions, his compositions are the most immediate realisation of a single idea imaginable. They should not be seen as symbols but as strikingly vivid expressions of life. On the other, Onodera is constructing a greater picture from these small-scale miracles as well. Juxtaposition is the main creative tool on „Entropy“, with dense ambiances taking turns with minimalistic microtonal sketches and light-filled amniotic soundscapes seaguing into the foreboding waters of a dark sonic river. With each new piece, the immersive character of the album grows, culminating in a sensation of immense tranquility when tension finally dissolves into the calm final movement.

Despite constant claims that it no longer had anything new to say, the Drone genre has only grown more prolific and seminal labels like Drone Records and Mystery Sea are planning their release schedules years rather than months ahead. As similar as some of its techniques and approaches have necessarily been by default, the allure of this kind of music has always been its unique ability of voicing a vast and indiscribable mystery in an immediate and emotionally direct vocabulary. As the market becomes saturated, artists like Yui Onodera are thus becoming ever-more important: Even the sound of small stones and subtle tones rubbed against each other sounds spooky and enigmatic with him and there seem to be lightyears of whispering dark matter separating tonal layers in his tracks. His work always goes that one decisive step deeper, his sounds touching the very chakral points of your synapses. As imaginative and daring as many of his colleagues may be, only few can match that.

Tobias Fischer

Asobi Seksu – Rewolf

Asobi Seksu – Rewolf
Genre : Shoegaze, Dream Pop, Indie

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1. Breathe Into Glass (at Olympic Studios)
2.Walk on the Moon (at Olympic Studios)
3.Meh No Mae (at Olympic Studios)
4.New Years (at Olympic Studios)
5.Blind Little Rain (at Olympic Studios)
6.Bossa (at Olympic Studios)
7.Suzanne (at Olympic Studios)
8.Gliss (at Olympic Studios)
9.Familiar Light (at Olympic Studios)
10.Thursday (at Olympic Studios)

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One of the last albums ever recorded at London’s renowned Olympic Studios (The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who), Rewolf finds Asobi Seksu’s core duo—vocalist Yuki Chikudate and guitarist James Hanna—affording listeners a fresh take on songs spanning the band’s career. Here, Asobi Seksu replaces its sonic layer of guitars with beautiful new arrangements achieved through the use of mostly acoustic instruments.

Mika Vainio - Vandal EP

Mika Vainio - Vandal EP
Genre : Electronica, Experimental

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01. Teutons
02. Vandals
03. Goths
04. Barbarians

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We're struggling to contain our excitement over the latest in Raster Noton's Unun series, following essential excursions from Aoki Takamasa, NHK and Grischa Lichtenberger with four tracks of absolutely immense nasty beats and techno reductions from Mika Vainio! It's fully acknowledged that we have a man-crush on this producer, but it's totally justified when he gives out analog brutalism of this variety. There's a definite theme of northern-European destruction going on with this 12" with titles like 'Vandals' and 'Goths' connecting the downright rotten noise aesthetic to the notoriously fierce tribes of northern and central Europe. Three of the tracks opt for hiphop breakbeats and slower tempos similar to the NHK release, before bludgeoning the rhythms with extreme noise-force, but the standout for many will be 'Barbarians'. To our knowledge it's the first 4/4 techno track he's made for nearly 10 years, taking cues from the arrangements of tuff Chicago patterns before eroding them with a caustic noise substance to sound like a nightmarish Marcel Dettmann

Noveller/Aidan Baker - Colorful Disturbances

Noveller/Aidan Baker - Colorful Disturbances
Genre : Ambient, Electronica, Experimental

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A1 - Noveller - Under the Color Cave
A2 - Noveller - White Rabbit
B - Aidan Baker - Disturbances Part 1 & 2

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Guitars warped so hard they dissolve into pure consciousness! Seriously, this record had to happen because these two are the NOW of transcendental guitar weirdness. In families like ours where deformed music of one kind or another pours out of the speakers all day long, Toronto's Aidan Baker is a household name. He is no doubt one of the most imaginative experimental musicians of the new generation, quickly creating a universe of limitless sound with his bursting discography. He offers this record an extensive piece which mixes drone, texture, and an ever-bowing foundation -- imagine the sound of falling backwards... forever. The new blood on this split is guitarist Sarah Lipstate from Brooklyn, New York (aka Noveller). Sarah's prepared twin guitar works up a slow hypnotic force, gently pulling way out to the furthest deep end of pulses and patterns. Beautiful repetitions effortlessly skirt over a dark undercurrent. A+++ listen. Edition of 600 copies.

Ryuichi Sakamoto – Playing the Piano

Ryuichi Sakamoto – Playing the Piano
Genre : Piano, Clásica

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Disc 1

01. Hibari
02. Composition 0919
03. Put Your Hands Up
04. Mizu No Naka No Bagatelle
05. Tango
06. Amore
07. Ambiguous Lucidity
08. A Flower Is Not A Flower
09. Before Long
10. Energy Flow
11. Mc_08 (Tong Poo)
12. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
13. The Last Emperor
14. Rain

Disc 2
01. The Sheltering Sky
02. Sweet Revenge
03. High Heels
04. Bolerish
05. Silk
06. Self Portrait
07. Bibo No Aozora
08. Perspective
09. Behind The Mask
10. Tibetan Dance
11. 1919
12. Thousand Knives
13. Parolibre

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Oppressed by the line - kiku

Oppressed by the line - kiku
Genre : Shoegaze, Electronica, Indie
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1. Mountain Mist 3:54
2. Sunset From the 16th Floor 2:10
3. Paper Cranes 5:42
4. One Thousand Red Stars 5:42
5. Shinkansen 7:26 $0.99
6. Sunset From the 16th Floor (Winterlight Remix) 6:16
7. Mountain Mist (Taro Kawasaki Remix) 3:32

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Beyond running Drifting Falling Records, Jonathan Thompson – who records under the moniker Oppressed by the Line – is a prolific artist too. It’s been less than a year since he delivered Soft Focus and now returns with a set of new songs that comprise his third album ”Kiku”. And there is no doubt that this release is Thompson’s most uplifting and heart – warming work to date.

As I read in the press release Thompson inspired Kiku by lovely sunsets, mountainous landscapes and city lights while on holiday in Japan. His experience in the Land of the Rising Sun is depicted in the opener Mountain Mist where a subtle Taiko drum beat and colorful xylophone ringings give way to warm organic melodies and glitchy sound effects. Sunset from the 16th Floor is a two minute instrumental piece of blissed-out ambience that nicely unrolls the carpet for the pop gem that is Paper Cranes. Displaying a nostalgic summery feeling Paper Cranes shines and sparkles with its joyful harmonies and a catchy chorus before ending up into a haze of swirling guitars. Imagine Field Mice meeting My Bloody Valentine, this track is dangerously infectious. Elsewhere Thompson’s echoed vocals add a spacey feel to the Shoegaze- laden synths of One Thousand Red Stars while the up tempo beats and textured electronic noises of Shinkansen find him venturing into dance territory.

Kiku also features two remixes by Taro Kawasaki and Winterlight. On Mountain Mist the Japanese composer abandons the minimal aesthetic of his debut ep for a lusher and playful orchestration while on Sunset from the 16th Floor, Tim Ingham (Winterlight) sticks to what he knows best: Creating aural dreamscapes that evoke a feeling of escapism.

By titillating both your ear and imagination Kiku calls you for repeated listening. Especially, for those who prefer music to be the equivalent of a green field full of poppies against a vivid blue sky where kids are cheerfully laughing and jumping this is a record they will fall in love with. by Sotiris

Melodium - Ten Years

Melodium - Ten Years
Genre : Ambient, Electronica,
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01. rhythmi
02. low system
03. k-rdroid
04. silica
05. hymnotic
06. quarsep
07. death to frequencies
08. gamm
09. cyclamen1
10. hiko
11. cyclamen2
12. varicelle
13. vilnius2
14. vide obscur
15. ballad
16. impropre
17. the summer air
18. it’s almost time for you to leave
19. basistas
20. crimethink
21. piano interlude
22. violon interlude
23. guitare interlude
24. life is a tv show

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Melodium has been knocking about for some time now so it's nice hear that he's decided to put together a self -released compilation of his favorite compositions from the last ten years. He's called it 'Ten Years' which is a little lacking in imagination but i'll forgive him as this is a strong collection of dreamy electronica that instantly soothing my achey achey bonce. So you get 24 tunes on this comp, all of which have been previously released on various formats by excellent labels such as Static Caravan, Unlabel, Active suspension and Duotone amongst others. Melodium specializes in electro-snippets/mini portions of electronica that have a lot in common with Plaid, The Remote Viewer, Boards Of Canada and the like. Very melodic use of sounds and samples with well laid back beat programming and wonky bonus sounds. This is a really ace sounding compilation so make sure you check out the sound clips to get a better idea of what i'm talking about.

Offthesky - On Aerial Archetype

Offthesky - On Aerial Archetype
Genre : Ambient, Electronica, Experimental
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1. Offthesky - Arc Automatic (Original Mix)
2. Offthesky - Streamlined For Slipstreams (Original Mix)
3. Offthesky - Finally Floating (Original Mix)
4. Offthesky - Feathering (Original Mix)
5. Offthesky - Still Moving Star (Original Mix)
6. Offthesky - On Aerial Archetype (Ten And Tracer Remix)

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Small Color- In Light

Small Color- In Light
Genre : Electrocoustic, Electro-Pop
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01 In Light
02 Daisy
03 Life
04 Arrows Of Time
05 Nowhere Near
06 Hideaway
07 Heaven Knows
08 Amaoto
09 Moss
10 Hikari No Hana
11 Lemmy

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Four years after the release of their debut album Outflow, Japan’s Small Color, a duo comprised of Rie Yoshihara (aka Trico!) (accordion, voice, vintage keyboard instruments) and Yusuke Onishi (guitar, banjo, bass, programming and production) are back with the beautifully polished In Light. This album marks what some may consider a departure for 12k: sublime and gentle, minimal, acoustic J-pop, which once may have been destined for the now-defunct Happy label, but can now sit comfortably beside 12k’s roster of electronic/acoustic ambient hybrids.

For the past 4 years, Small Color has been performing live and honing their sound. Inspired mostly by the very act of performing and the way their sound relates to interactions with a live audience, In Light is truly a mature album with a very focused aesthetic. Being primarily an acoustic band, their recordings are not created in front of a computer screen. With the musicianship of Yoshihara, an accomplished accordion player and instructor, and Onishi, who plays guitar for many artists in Japan, live performance and songwriting are what Small Color is all about, as is quite evident on In Light.

Small Color’s sound encompasses many moods in its modest shell: joy, sorrow, love and sadness, the feelings of everyday life, with influences from such diverse musical genres as jazz, world music, pop and experimentalism, as well as design, architecture and cooking (Rie is an accomplished chef and has a recipe book being published in the near future). Their songs are delicate yet rich in texture, brimming with the warm sounds of electric pianos, acoustic guitar, glockenspiel, accordion, toy pianos and a studio full of other instruments accented by small beatboxes, electronic sprinklings, and Rie’s faraway and lulling voice with lyrics in both Japanese and English.

The first 1000 copies of In Light will be packaged in a full-color slipcase over the ubiquitous 12k digipack and the release of the CD will coincide with the digital-only release of the remixed single fora “Hikari No Hana.”

Elm – Nemcatacoa

Elm – Nemcatacoa
Genre : Ambient, Electronica, Drone
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1 Nemcatacoa
2 In The Shadow Of Red Rock
3 Silver Dust In Moonlight
4 Arc Of Wisdom
5 Sacrament At Dusk
6 Breath Of Midnight Still
7 Covered In Blankets And Moss
8 Three Rings Drawn In Sand
9 Deep Mirage

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For my money, Barn Owl is the best new band to emerge in the last five years. Their trajectory has been meteoric, progressing musically and conceptually in leaps and bounds. I've been thrilled to be there from the beginning, watching and listening in awe as the duo of Jon Porras and Evan Caminiti have carved out an impressive niche of their own. Heavy doses of guitar savagery and tribal essence have them firmly planted at the top of the mountain. So it makes sense to deconstruct the duo and present each as a solo entity, soaring on their own.

Elm is the name of Porras' solo creations. His music retains the megasonics of Barn Owl, but finds his tutelage deep in the heart of the desert. "Nemcatacoa" is a lonesome, epic journey. Named after one of the deities of his Colombian heritage, his latest full-length (and first large-scale solo release) feels huge and endless. Walls of guitars shatter beneath the weight of the booming percussion blasts that find their way from the caves into the light. An acoustic guitar is mournfully plucked, the beginning of a procession of the dead. "Nemcatacoa" is an album begging for somebody, anybody to find and embrace.

Porras is a master artist. The instrumentation at work here is even more impressive when you consider it's played by a lone soul. Guitars, Rhodes, Harmonium, Trumpet and more echo through the caverns of the ancient Earth. Even though this album is dark and at times bleak, it never overpowers. Traversing similar aural planes as Sunn O))) and Earth, Porras is staking a claim all his own. As his voice wails over blankets of guitars, he never loses sight of the golden life ahead. Incredible.