Colleen returns with new album The Tunnel and the Clearing

12 March 2021

Photo: Luis Torroja

French multi-instrumentalist and composer Cecile Schott, known under the moniker Colleen, is back with The Tunnel and the Clearing, her first full-length album in three years following A flame my love, a frequency. An album that finds her “at her most vulnerable and confident”, The Tunnel and the Clearing was written during a transformative period. Schott began working on the album in 2018 when she experienced extreme fatigue from a previously undiagnosed illness, eventually leading her to relocating to Barcelona where lockdowns and a breakup followed. In her own words, The Tunnel and the Clearing “is a sonic translation of the highly emotional state and the heightened sense of perception that come in the wake of a breakup and a period of great changes, with the subsequent necessary reconstruction this entails.” She added, “Never before had I felt so profoundly the power that music has, through harmony, melody, rhythm and sound itself, to express the whole range of human emotions.”

To bring the album to life, Schott embraced a self-imposed rule on her setup, restricting herself to analog electronic instruments like the Elka Drummer One, the Roland RE-201 Space Echo and Moog Grandmother synth, as well as the Yamaha organ keyboard and select Moog effects.

The poignant and wonderful ‘Gazing at Taurus – Santa Eulalia’, named after the patron saint of Barcelona, is the first single to be let loose from the album. Take a listen below and grab the album when it’s out on May 21 through Thrill Jockey.

Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones announce collaborative debut album as Sunroof

10 March 2021

Photo: Diane Zillmer & Gareth Jones

Daniel Miller, founder of Mute, and Gareth Jones, legendary producer, engineer and artist, have been friends and collaborators for four decades. They have worked together on a plethora of projects, including Depeche Mode’s Construction Time Again in 1982. Back then, after the day sessions would finish, the pair would carry on working on their own material. They continued this practice, and Sunroof came to life first as a remix project, reworking bands like Can, MGMT, To Rococo Rot, Kreidler and Goldfrapp. Miller and Jones met before a György Ligeti concert at London’s Barbican in 2019 and spent a couple of hours improvising with modular systems, which they recorded and decided to finally make a record together. “We decided to get together to do a bunch of improvisations,” explained Gareth. “We said we’d work in a number of different physical spaces but always together, in the same room. We were keen to do shorter pieces because we were both very inspired by Chris Carter and Martin Gore’s electronic music projects, where the pieces were very concise and compact.”
Come May 21st, Sunroof’s debut album is finally materializing with the release of Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 1 on the Parallel Series of Mute. The album is a collection of eight improvised modular pieces which the two recorded as live performances in several studio spaces across London in the spring and summer of 2019. As for their approach to the sessions, they were set on differentiating an improvisation and a jam session as Miller explained:

“With modular systems, you can just go on and on forever and never actually complete anything. Sometimes that’s okay – part of the joy of a modular is that you can just keep going indefinitely. But with this we were keen to actually finish something, so setting that timeframe became a really important rule for us.”

An edit of opener  ‘1.1 – 7.5.19’ serves as the first enthralling taste from the upcoming Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 1. It comes with an accompanying video with visual direction by Jeff Courtney.


Masayoshi Fujita details new album release, Bird Ambience, and shares first single ‘Thunder’

09 March 2021

Photo: Özge Cöne

There’s a new album on the way from Japanese master vibraphonist, multi-percussionist, and composer Masayoshi Fujita. Entitled Bird Ambience, it follows his 2018’s Book Of Life. Drawing from influences he’d kept separate until now, his acoustic solo recordings, the electronic dub releases under his El Fog moniker, and his experimental improvisations, Bird Ambience sees Fujita embrace a new sonic direction. Unlike previous works where the vibraphone was the signature instrument, on his upcoming album the marimba takes centre stage alongside drums, percussion, synths, effects and tape recorder.

“The way of playing the marimba is similar to the vibraphone, so it was kind of a natural development for me and easier to start with, yet it sounds very different”, Fujita explained. “The marimba bars are made with wood and it has a wider range than the vibraphone, which gives me a bigger sound palette with more possibilities. I play the instrument with bows and mallets, and sometimes manipulate it with effects.”

Fujita also commented on his approach to improvisation:

“I prioritised trying to capture the wonder which happens during those occasional magic improv moments. Sometimes the mic-ing and placement of instruments was pretty rough; things weren’t perfect and everything was done quickly, but it turned out as the final recording. Overall when I couldn’t decide between two takes, I told myself to go with the first.”

Bird Ambience arrives on May 28th through Erased Tapes and we can already hear the gorgeous and delicate lead single ‘Thunder’. The track was inspired by Anna Akhmatova’s poem You Will Hear Thunder. The single comes with a fittingly stunning video directed and shot by Ryo Noda in the mountains near Hyogo where Fujita now lives.

Xiu Xiu preview upcoming album with new video for second single ‘Rumpus Room’ ft. Liars

04 March 2021

Photo: Julia Brokaw

Earlier this year Xiu Xiu announced the release of their twelfth album, OH NO, and shared the first taste from it, ‘A Bottle of Rum’, featuring Grouper’s Liz Harris. A duet album, OH NO is a collection of duets that sees singer and songwriter Jamie Stewart collaborate with an array of artists, also including Circuit des Yeux’s Haley Fohr, Chelsea Wolfe, Owen Pallet, Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier, Twin Shadow’s George Lewis Jr., Sharon Van Etten and many more. Another stellar guest contributor is Liars’ Angus Andrew, who features on the latest single to emerge, ‘Rumpus Room’. Xiu Xiu’s Angela Seo, who directed the video for lead single ‘A Bottle of Rum’, takes the director’s seat for this one too. She commented about it:

“Does everyone have a deep personal childhood association with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, or just me? One of the first things I shoplifted as a kid was a bag of FHC. I once bet my cousin I could finish an entire Party Size bag in one sitting; I won the bet but lost my sense of taste for a couple days. I was a latchkey kid and would ditch school and often go to the 7-eleven by our apartment, where some 20 year old kid who didn’t give a crap would be working and watch me play their single arcade game- Marvel vs. Capcom – in the corner as long as I bought a slurpee and FHC. Sometimes in my old teenage journals, I find flamin’ red dusted fingerprint smudges among melodramatic poems and fake runaway notes. All that intersected perfectly with the “Rumpus Room” song, and part II story of the video trilogy (1st being “A Bottle of Rum”).”

Watch the video below.

OH NO is out on March 26th through Polyvinyl.

Mute / Spoon Records set to release Can Live series, first Can: Live in Stuttgart 1975 incoming in May

01 March 2021

Legendary krautrock outfit Can is one of the most influential bands of all time, with a catalogue that keeps on giving. Highlighting their live performances, Mute and Spoon Records have announced the release of a series of live albums, The Can Live series. Remastered from the original tapes to the best possible quality, The Can Live series was overseen by founding member Irmin Schmidt and producer / engineer Rene Tinner. Can: Live in Stuttgart 1975, the first of five parts, will be released on May 28th. The first taste from it comes in the shape of a snippet from the epic, vibrant and groovy jam ‘Stuttgart 75 Eins’. Take a listen now.

Chrystal Für announces new album, Elusion, and shares first single ‘Requiem’

27 February 2021

Photo: Paige Green

A busy and versatile composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, operating from his recording studio The Rabbit Hole Recording, Christopher Vibberts has been involved with several projects and collaborations over the last couple of decades. Having composed for film, television and multimedia, he has also played, toured and produced a multitude of artists.
His project Chrystal Für came to life three years ago while taking a life-changing sabbatical from film scoring and producing in the high desert mountains of central Mexico. Under this moniker, Vibberts is set to release his third full-length album. Entitled Elusion, the album is described as “an elegy to the cycle of loss, acceptance, and the promise of restored life.”

Elusion will see the light of day on May 28th through What Are We Records. Ahead of its release, we can already hear the opening track ‘Requiem’. Vibberts commented on the track:

“‘Requiem’ is a soaring recognition of a year of trials and tribulations and an eagerness to lay it to rest. Slowly evolving tones defy gravity as they launch into space making way for an emerging synth that in its gentle pulsation reminds us how alive we still are. Requiem is an end, and a beginning.”

At once both sombre and soothing, light and dark, ‘Requiem’ carries the listener on an immersive and hauntingly beautiful journey. The track comes with an accompanying video. Watch it below.