Photo: Danilo Giungato
Italian avant–garde jazz metal band ZU have just unleashed a video for the excellent and galvanizing ‘Conflict Acceleration’. The track is extracted from their album Cortar Todo, released recently via Ipecac. Sara D’Uva directs. Here it is.
In other related good news, Zu have also announced a string European tour dates. Check all their stops and other info here.
Acclaimed ambient composer and multi-instrumentalist William Basinski has announced the release of a pair of albums featuring brand new material. Known for his eerie and majestic compositions using obsolete technology and analogue tape loops, with the upcoming Cascade and The Deluge Basinski creates and explores further tape loop-based soundscapes.
Cascade will be out in digital and CD formats whilst The Deluge, which features a different mix of ‘Cascade’, will be available as a special vinyl release only.
“A single ancient lilting piano tape loop repeats endlessly carrying one along in its tessellating current” in Cascade, explains the press release. It adds that in The Deluge, “the same loop is processed through a series of feedback loops of different lengths, creating a spiraling crescendo of overtones that eventually fades away to silence.”
Cascade will see the light of day on April 28th via Basinski’s own label 2062 Records and The Deluge arrives later on May 26th via Temporary Residence.
To get you enticed, float away in this wonderful excerpt from ‘Cascade’.
We’ve had our ears on Tanya Tagaq for a while now. The tantalizing Canadian Inuit throat singer released recently her third album, Animism, a groundbreaking effort that won the prestigious Polaris Music Prize last year and the award for Aboriginal Album of the Year at the 2015 Juno Awards.
So we’re delighted to know that Tanya’s music is gracing a gorgeous stop motion short film, The Lion’s Teeth, directed by her friend Emilio Rojas. Here’s what he had to say about it:
“Last summer I collected 10,000 dandelion flowers, approximately 300,000 seeds. Since then I’ve been working them in my artistic practice, and ‘The Lion´s Teeth’ is one of the results from these explorations.
I was introduced to Tanya by a childhood friend of hers at her performance of Nanook of the North, in 2014. I was deeply moved by her show, it really struck a chord, and I spent most of the concert in tears. I started listening to her music as a source of creativity, and during the collection of the dandelions, I would listen to her work while gathering the seeds. Her voice was one of the sources of inspiration for this yearlong project and it kept me going through this extremely laborious and strenuous process.
I finished the video last week and showed it to Tanya. She was really excited about it and asked me if she could share it, which is a total honour.”
Watch ‘The Lion’s Teeth’ below.
In other related good news, Tanya Tagaq is performing a special show in London on May 19th at Village Underground.
Animism is out now via Six Shooter Records.
Abandoned Cities, the outstanding album from German composer, songwriter and experimental musician Hauschka, came out to wide acclaim just over a year ago. He’s now offering a stunning video to accompany ‘ Who Lived Here?’. Like the album, inspired and centred around abandoned places, the video features derelict buildings and deserted places. Eric Epstein directs. Here it is.
Abandoned Cities is out now via Temporary Residence in the US and and City Slang in Europe.
Producer and composer Ryan Lott’s solo project Son Lux has turned into a trio with the addition of guitarist and composer Rafiq Bhatia and drummer Ian Chang. With the new line-up, comes the announcement of a new album, entitled Bones and due out on June 22nd via Glassnote. “Bones is a call to action, a document of personal and collective uprising”, describes the press release. “Themes of metamorphosis resonate in architectural, vivid sound.”
‘Change Is Everything’ is the first single to emerge from Bones, a triumphant, beautiful and gritty song. Listen to it below.
In support of the upcoming album, Son Lux have announced a series of intimate European pre-release shows including a special event at London’s Edition Hotel on May 5th.
The mighty ‘Quetzalcoatl’ was the first single to be unveiled from Liturgy‘s The Ark Work. With the album just out via Thrill Jockey, the Brooklyn based band are offering a video for the track, directed and produced by AUJIK. Watch it now.
