Quietwater, the cello and beats duo of Michelle Elliot Rearick and Colin Ingram, released their self-titled debut EP last Friday through Imperfect Fifth. Coinciding with its release, they have shared a video to accompany the EP’s beautiful closing track ‘Overcast’. Here it is.
Musician, producer, and engineer Randall Dunn spent years lending his talent and collaborating with the likes of SunnO))), Six Organs of Admittance, Anna von Hausswolf and Tim Hecker, amongst many others. After a difficult period of change and loss, Dunn took a break and concentrated on his own work and Beloved is the fruit of it, his debut album released earlier this month via figureight. His latest offering is a short film accompanying the album’s closing track, ‘A True Home’, featuring guest contributor Zola Jesus on vocals. She had this to say about their collaboration:
“I met Randall for the first time about a year ago. As soon as we got to know each other we connected deeply, sharing so much common ground on both creative and personal levels. I was so honoured when Randall asked me to sing on this song, because not only am I huge fan of his work, but this song in particular held great meaning for him and thus me as well.”
Filmed in the Oman desert, the effort was directed by Turkish filmmaker Mu Tunç, who “wanted to take the viewer into a surreal journey where the whole story reflects the hallucinatory feeling of the song”. Dunn also explained how the idea behind the film came about:
“The film is based on a reoccurring dream I had this past year of a woman walking through the desert in search of water. Longing reds and browns set against the deep sun. I conveyed this idea to Mu, who went deeply into the concept in a way beyond what I could have imagined.”
Watch it now.
Three years on from the release of All Tense Now Lax, which was one of our Picks of 2015, Southend-on-Sea’s experimental outfit Liberez are back with a new album and an expanded line up. Entitled Way Through Vulnerability, the record sees them exploring new genres and influences, including Flamenco rhythms, Italian avant-garde and UK industrial music. Basque language, Hungarian dialect and ancient Russian are also used in the record, “to lend their compositions a cross-cultural underpinning and eschew any clear geographic origin”, describes the press release, “a decision which all but adds to the perplexities of their unique brand of electro-acoustic purgatory.”
Way Through Vulnerability is out on November 30th through Alter and ‘Cellophane Window’ serves as the first fascinating taste from it. The track comes with an accompanying video directed by Matthew Reay and you can watch it below.
Extraordinary pianist and composer Lubomyr Melnyk has a new album on the way called Fallen Trees coinciding with his 70th birthday. He had previously enticed us with the magnificent ‘Son of Parasol’ and now we can listen to the second single ‘Barcarolle’. Take a listen below and grab the album when it drops on December 7th through Erased Tapes.
There’s just a few days to go before Le Guess Who? takes over Utrecht. With over 150 artists set to perform, how do we make sense of such a monumental line-up? We made a list of the artists we’re most excited to see and asked them for their recommendations.
Performing Friday 9th November at De Pastoe Fabriek, curated by Shabaka Hutchings
Belgian instrumental five-piece STUFF. have been purveying their own unique sound, embracing songwriting and improvisation, and blending disparate genres like jazz, hip-hop, funk and electronica into sonically grabbing, dance-oriented tracks. Irresistibly groovy and joyous, the quintet’s second album Old Dreams, New Planets, originally released last year, received a full worldwide reissue this year through Gondwana Records. Raved for bringing a party to the stage every time they play, we just can’t wait to experience it firsthand. And we asked them what other artists they are most looking forward to seeing at Le Guess Who?. Find out below.
Performing Sunday 11th November at TivoliVredenburg, curated by Moor Mother
“He has some of our favorite footwork beats out there.”
Performing Saturday 10th November at TivoliVredenburg
“Very curious about her new music/album!”
Performing Thursday 8th November at Janskerk
“Huge sounds, would love to see him live.”
Photo: Ebru Yildiz
Performing Saturday 10th November at TivoliVredenburg
“Very intriguing, free-spirited and sensational.”
Photo: Vincent Haycock
Performing Saturday 10th November at WAS.
” A very very cool producer. What would it be like live?”
Performing Friday 9th November at TivoliVredenburg
“Some of the most remarkable and deep spiritual voices right now.”
Performing Sunday 11th November at TivoliVredenburg
“His distinct alto saxophone sounds so wonderful and sweet. His suprisingly modern take on classic Indian carnatic music is a joy for the ear! I could listen to him all night.”
Le Guess Who? will take place 8-11 November. For the full line-up, tickets and more info visit leguesswho.com. And take a look at other artists we’re excited about picking their own Le Guess Who?’s Who.
2019 will get off to a marvellous start with the release of Julia Kent‘s new album Temporal, arriving on January 25th through The Leaf Label. Temporal follows 2015’s Asperities and the Canadian cellist and composer originally wrote many of its compositions for theatre and dance productions. “The initial inspiration was more external than internal, in that many of these pieces began as a response to a text or a choreographic concept,” she explained, “but they all seemed to be coming from the same emotional world and it made sense to weave them together into a record.” Julia comments further:
“When I perform live with dance and theatre, it makes me enormously aware of the fragility of our physical world. Dancers and actors, anyone whose instrument is their body, have nothing to protect them from the rules of gravity and time. They are so strong, but they’re subject to those demands in a more extreme way because of the physicality of what they’re doing. Onstage, I have an instrument to mediate for me, but they are bare. When I work with dancers, especially, I feel as though there can be an incredible energy exchange. They create a sort of weather system on the stage.”
The poignant and compelling ‘Imbalance’ is the first single to emerge and you can listen to it below.
