🎶 2022-04-01 19:56:59 – Paris/France.
BEST EXPERIMENTAL The best experimental music on Bandcamp: March 2022 By Marc Masters 01 April 2022
All kinds of experimental music can be found on Bandcamp: free jazz, avant-rock, dense noise, outer limit electronics, deconstructed folk, abstract spoken word, and much more. If an artist tries something new with an established form or invents a completely new one, chances are they'll do it on Bandcamp. Each month, Marc Masters selects some of the best releases from this wide exploratory array. March's selection features long-distance collaboration, near-silent soundscapes, dizzying stylistic twists, and self-proclaimed "noncommittal music."
andPlay and Victoria Cheah
A butterfly on your shoulder in the years and years to come
For their latest album, New York duo andPlay commissioned a piece from Victoria Cheah, who writes in her notes to A butterfly on your shoulder in the years and years to come that “clarity and noise are not opposed; the two exist within each other and provide a context for the work of intentional attention. That's certainly true of the way violinist Maya Bennardo and violist Hanna Levinson interpret Cheah's composition, navigating through precise textures and brash bangs with equal aplomb. “Part II,” which takes up the second side of the tape, is particularly breathtaking in the way andPlay maintains control of their piercing sounds, sawing through intertwining dialogue that could rightly be called a mindmeld.
Pierre Havadine
old young
There are few artists whose work matches the "ineffable" description as well as that of Chicago's Havadine Stone. His music exists between spaces, sometimes even in a constant state of withdrawal. Take “Tree Duet”, the closest to his new album old young, which is not so far from complete silence. Small bits of wind and unidentified rumbles drift in and out of the airy track as if it were lying in the grass of an empty field, staring up at a cloudless sky. Other tracks have more readable sound sources: during “Slow Bath” she even sings a bit moving a cappella, and the opening “Dream A Little Dream Of Me (Me On Me On Me On Me)” is full of voices that echo like memories in someone's skull. But the main impression that Old Young makes is that of an artist fascinated by space and distance and interested in expanding the meaning of these terms.
hyper surface
hyper surface
Brooklyn's Hypersurface have only been playing together since 2018, and this self-titled album, recorded a year later, is just their first. But the five tracks here sound like the work of a band with a longer history, as guitarist Drew Wesely, cellist Lester St. Louis and percussionist Carlo Costa weave their conversations together with care and assurance, mindful of sonic detail. On “The Binding Problem,” strumming strings, snare stings, and unidentifiable clicks merge into a miniature solar system. The bouncy "Scribbles of the Sky at Night" uses the rubbery action of plucked strings to create kinetic energy, while the 19-minute "Hard Gold to Love" demonstrates Hypersurface's tremendous powers of concentration.
XNUMX
non-binding music
David Wesley's work as LXV has always been enigmatic, his intentions incredibly elusive. So his labeling his latest release as no-commitment music almost feels like an admission, a way of saying that if we hope to crack the code to his mysterious methods, we're going to be disappointed. But even though the four tracks here are drenched in a murky sonic haze, none of them are evasive in a pejorative sense. Wesley's slow progressions and reverent atmospheres are moving targets, blurry canvases that can change depending on the mood you bring to them. But pieces this good take real commitment, the kind that made LXV a project worth pursuing.
John Melillo and Ryan Wade Ruehlen
where the heart trembles
For John Melillo of Nova Scotia and Ryan Wade Ruehlen of Tucson, collaboration meant either sharing distant sounds or traveling a long distance. On the double CD, 150 minutes where the heart trembles, they did both. The first two pieces are 20-minute soundscapes in which Melillo and Ruehlen exchange ideas, creating varied sonic journeys that are both impulsive and sculpted. A third piece is a live performance in Tucson, 45 minutes of ever-changing atmospheres that veer into pulse-racing noise. On CD Two, each participant contributes two field recordings, a sonic tour from the waves of Cape Breton to the monsoon rains of Tucson. It's fascinating, but the intersections on CD One do where the heart trembles a work worthy of several listenings.
Obsolete organs
Obsolete organs
Richard Hoffman's previous musical forays, in particular the noise-rock trio Sightings, echo his first release as Organs Obsolete. The rolling punch his bass playing provided in this vital 2000s band is more distinctive than ever in these nine instrumental pieces, forming the rumbling backbone of nearly every track. But there are new ideas to hear about Obsolete organs. Hoffman has never been one to settle for a retread, but he loves repetition, and throughout the album, lingering loops dig into mental grooves. Perhaps most intriguing are Hoffman's cloudier, less earthy tracks, like the buzz of "Twin Dawns" and the dark rattle of "Sick Betrayal," a song that manages to be both hypnotically soothing and oddly terrifying.
Whettman Helmets
Jeanne
Musical elegies are difficult; conveying internal feelings about something as complicated and inexplicable as grief seems nearly impossible. The latest version of Whettman Chelmets, Jeanne, accomplishes this task by focusing on a specific period: the last days of his grandmother's life when he played her some of his favorite gospel music. He then used this music as material for a meditation on his final journey, sampling and reworking it into moving moods that match titles such as "This Realization of Impermanence is Terrifying" and "A Lifetime Condensed into a Small Stone and Considered”. You can feel the loss and despair in these 13 reverential, almost hymn-like tracks, but the sense of hope is even greater. Chelmets transforms her grandmother's purpose in life into something regenerative.
The Worst Spills
The Worst Spills
On the surface, Worst Spills seem like a jazz band, but their self-titled debut album is so all over the place that applying any label to them seems like a joke. It opens with an ambient electronic track that oscillates between drone, samples and noise, followed by an unruly jam of swamp jazz, then a mathematical improvisation that lands somewhere between Captain Beefheart and Hal Russell. The rest of the album continues on this jagged path as guitarist Joel Nelson, saxophonist Jacquie Cotillard, bassist Ryan Brown and drummer James Elliot drive each other around without ever getting lost (unless, of course, they don't want). The results are a roller coaster in which humor plays a big role. Only a really funny band could make a track called "Real Eyes Realize The Gelatin of My Dull Cow Eyes" sound like its title.
SOURCE: Reviews News
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