Yann Tiersen unveils first single from forthcoming album

25 March 2014

We’ve been eagerly waiting to hear a full taste of Yann Tiersen‘s upcoming new album, ∞ (Infinity), even more so as the French composer had teased the effort last month with a stunning album trailer. Conceived and recorded between Paris, Brittany and Iceland, ∞ (Infinity) features guest collaborations from Aidan Moffat and Amiina amongst others who contributed in their native language to some of the album tracks sung and spoken in Breton, Faroese and Icelandic.
‘A Midsummer Evening’ is the first wonderful single from the album to emerge. Tiersen explained how the track came about:

“The idea was to start with toy instruments as a reference to my early works, then manipulate the sounds electronically. Then I added a new layer of acoustic instrumentation, and repeated the same process. Finally I repeated the process once more with strings, so the whole album was a constant back and forth from acoustic to electronic to digital, and then back to analogue.”

∞ (Infinity) drops on May 19th in the UK/Europe and May 20th in North America via Mute. Now listen to ‘A Midsummer Evening’.

Sam Ospovat and Serge Rogalski form ROOM, release debut album

24 March 2014

Over the years, drummer/percussionist Sam Ospovat has lent his talents to numerous projects, including Beep, Naytronix, tUnE-yArDs, Anteater and Kapowski, to name but a few. With PIKI, his solo project, Ospovat released a tremendous self-titled debut album in 2012, which remains a favourite of ours. So we were ecstatic to learn about ROOM, his most recent collaborative project with French guitarist and electronic musician Serge Rogalski. The pair have recently released a full-length album, La Malédiction du M, via their bandcamp. An album of absorbingly weird, rich and mostly improvised sounds, La Malédiction du M is an exceptional and powerful release that clearly showcases the duo’s talent.
To whet your appetite, listen to ‘Où les zèbres dorment’ and ‘Flashing candies under my tongue’ below. The first comes with an accompanying video. Enjoy.

Ben Frost shares first single from upcoming fifth album A U R O R A

23 March 2014

Exquisite experimental producer and composer Ben Frost last released a solo album, By The Throat, back in 2009. That’s not say he’s been quiet, on the contrary, Frost has been collaborating and producing several other projects including Colin Stetson’s New History Warfare trilogy and SWANS’ The Seer. The Reykjavík based musician has recently announced his highly anticipated fifth studio album entitled A U R O R A. The effort, due out on May 26th via Mute / Bedroom Community, was largely written in Eastern DR Congo with the addition of drummers Thor Harris of Swans and Greg Fox of Guardian Alien (and formerly Liturgy) and Shahzad Ismaily.

“A U R O R A aims directly, through its monolithic construction, at blinding luminescent alchemy; not with benign heavenly beauty but through decimating magnetic force” explains the press release. “Starved of all the adornments of its predecessor; wholly absent of guitar, of piano, of string instruments and natural wooden intimacy, A U R O R A offers a deﬁant new world of ﬁercely synthetic shapes and galactic interference, pummelling skins and pure metals.”

Ahead of the album’s release, Frost has confirmed a number of live dates in support of the album, kicking off at the Village Underground in London on April 26th.
To get us excited, Frost has unveiled the album’s first single, the obscure, throbbing and intense ‘Venter’. Listen to it beneath.

Deerhoof & Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog Split 7″ out on Record Store Day

22 March 2014

Record Store Day is less than a month away and news of exclusive releases have been steadily coming through. The latest to get our attention, and one we hope to grab on April 19th, is the Deerhoof & Marc Ribot‘s Ceramic Dog Split 7″ featuring two tracks, ‘Who Sleeps, Only Dreams’ and ‘Hide With Me’. The first single has surfaced the web and you can listen to it below.

New trio The Comet is Coming unveil accompanying video for ‘Neon Baby’

20 March 2014

Ingenious multi-reed player Shabaka Hutchings has been on an incredibly fruitful roll of late, with last year’s magnificent debut album from his brainchild project Sons of Kemet, which was one of our Album Picks of 2013, and his numerous contributions and membership in other projects including Hello Skinny, Melt Yourself Down and The Heliocentrics, to name but a few. This high level carries on into his newest project The Comet is Coming, fittingly named after a BBC Radiophonic Workshop piece. Joining Hutchings on this cosmic adventure is drums and keyboards duo Soccer 96, made up of Dan Leavers aka Danalogue and Max Hallett aka Betamax.
The trio are prepping their debut album, due out later this year. The first taste of it comes in the form of a video accompanying ‘Neon Baby’, an infectious killer track that epitomizes The Comet is Coming’s upbeat feel. If ‘Neon Baby’ is anything to go by, their upcoming debut is among my most anticipated releases this year. Check it out below and if you’re lucky enough to be near London next month, go to see them live at Hootenanny on April 5th and Surya on April 29th.

C O L L E C T R E S S set to release debut album, announce launch shows

18 March 2014

London and Brighton natives Quinta, Rebecca Waterworth, Caroline Weeks and Alice Eldridge are the four very talented multi-instrumentalists who make up C O L L E C T R E S S. Their music is both composed and improvised, dazzling and enveloping, made using conventional instruments and other unusual sources and found sounds. We were immediately conquered and fully immersed in the wholly astonishing textures of their music. It goes without saying that we are beyond excited about their debut album, Mondegreen, coming out this Monday March 24th via their own imprint Peeler Records. The album takes its name from an essay by Sylvia Wright published in Harper’s Magazine in November 1954, as the press release explains.

“A Mondegreen is the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase as result of a near homophony, in a way that gives it new meaning. Likewise, C O L L E C T R E S S find fruit in mishearings and happy accidents recognising that paths through are sometimes oblique or followed without intention; they flow intuitively from improvisations where the outcome can’t be known but is often far more beautiful than could ever have been planned. Music is a form of recycling where every new player, every new listener, makes new, unique and often very personal meaning from essentially the same set of notes or sounds. This record has been made with four sets of ears making four sets of collaborative hearings and mishearings, and shaping together the paths that flow from them.”

In support of the upcoming album, and having recently performed as part of the Women Of The World Festival at Southbank Centre, C O L L E C T R E S S have announced a number of live shows, starting this Sunday 23rd at the Vortex in London. Check all their other dates here, and go to see them live.

To entice you further, listen to a couple of tracks from the album, ‘Goodbye’, which is inspired by a Katherine Mansfield short story, The Wind Blows, and the charming ‘Spell’.

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