Five? The five music things thing again? Already? Five more? Again? Do we need a new editorial yet? Is there a point? is there any point? What do points make? What is the point? Again and again and again (and again). Five more, same as last time (and the time before) five more musical things to explore, another five? Already? Alright already? You never did answer the question, shame about last time around, where’s did we put the plot? Dive? Five? Dave? Five more pieces of earfood? Shall we do it again? Back to back to back being back to the five musical things thing and the fractured music portal yet again (and again and again) and yeah, we did say all this last week and the weeks before and blah blah blah while the whole world window and no, we never do and the proof of the pudding and all that proof reading. It doesn’t really matter if it was a television fizzing and going off and things back then when we first heard of the Window going off and things. and like we did ask last time, does anyone bother reading the editorial? Does anyone ever actually look down the rabbit hole or is it all just method acting? Cut to the chase, we could just cut ‘n paste the editorial from the last time, there’s loads of music further down the page, well five or so pieces of music, cut to the damn chase, who needs an editorial? Who needs any of this? Who needs it, who needs it, just cut to the chase, who really needs any of this? Cynical who? Same what every day? Here’s your five…

1: “Portuguese experimental trio 10,000 Russos are today sharing ‘A House Full Of Garbage’, the second single to be lifted from their forthcoming ‘Superinertia’ LP that’s due out September 10th on Fuzz Club. In support of the new album, which will be their fifth LP to date, 10 000 Russos will be touring across the UK and Europe this Autumn. Arriving off the back of recent single ‘Super Inertia’”, you can stream ‘A House Full of Garbage’ and its accompanying video just up there and well, here’s the details. And yes, whe nthey say “today”, well it was today when they said that and few days back. Do like the new wave no wave slowly uncoiling space rock flow if it all.

2: Theodore Wild Ride – “Hi, Hope this message finds you well, Please find below some presentation to the forthcoming first album of “Theodore Wild Ride”, side-project of Christine Ott, associating oud, ondes Martenot & analog synths, to be released on October 1st thru Icarus Records & Consouling Sounds (BOW, Amenra, Jozef Van Wissem…)”

It is a rather beautiful album, a melancholic piece of work (or set of works), a quietly relaxing body of work, polite classical piano-led based or organic keyboards of some sort,Ondes Martenot and such – “The amplified strings respond to the felt-treated piano, the microtones of the Ondes Martenot mingle with the quarter tones of the oud, to the point of challenging the cracked electronics of a detuned mellotron in a final explosion” – and rather beautifully detailed, slowly unfolding in a space and time all to itself. Warm strings, organic, airely, we probably should review it properly but then there’s nothing we can actually share with you right now, no taster piece posted on You Tube, no link to a Bandcamp and quite honestly, a beautiful as it is and as much as we’;re enjoying it on a late Sunday Monday evening , we get so muxh of this “post-classical” water-colour politeness and well water colours are fine and it is beautiful and there are wonderful details and hang on, just found this, and here’s a Bandcamp page for more whe nthey finally do release a track. We do have a private link t othe whole album and things like this needs lots of time to unpack properly and there really isn;t the time to tie up a computer.”First Single / Video Clip to be released early september” so they tel us, I guess we’ll revisit closer to the time if a hundred other things haven’t taken our attention by then,,,

3: Anne Müller reworks Henrik Lindstrand – This is rather beautiful, “!Revered Swedish pianist Henrik Lindstrand is due to release his new album Via OLI, ‘Reimagined’ – a collection of compositional reworks by some of the best contemporary artists working today. It features the likes of Anne Müller, Manu Delago, Tom Adams, Christina Vantzou, Alex Somers, Benoît Pioulard and more. Gaining notoriety for his semi-autobiographical stories told using sounds solely from the piano, the work from Henrik’s solo ventures are ripe for reinterpretation

For the latest, Berlin based cellist/composer Anne Müller has reworked ‘Søndermarken’ into an unrepressed, striking journey. The Erased Tapes signee adds her weightless signature strings, setting free its expressive melodies, and retaining all of the originals alluring character”.

Anne tells us; “It was a pleasure to work on Søndermarken. I hope you will enjoy my almost symphonic cello-orchestra version. It was the soundtrack of the change from deep, dark, cold winter (we actually had -14 degrees in Berlin and this difficult lockdown time was special) to longer days with more light and happiness – watching snowflakes and the birds in the tree outside the window.  The piece sounds like it’s taken from a dark winter tale a very long time ago and almost unreal, while enjoying the summer sun. But all of these inspirations found their way into my version of this wonderful piece, playing with Henrik Lindstrand in an imaginary cello-piano duet.”
 
Henrik continues; “Anne Müller has been a favourite cello player of mine for a long time. I think she is a formidable storyteller with her instrument and it has been a great pleasure to collaborate with her on Søndermarken. Adding the string elements to the piece definitely takes it to a new place entering a larger and playful area for the composition.”
 
Last year Henrik Lindstrand completed his trilogy of personal, melodically woven soundscapes with ‘Nordhem’, following albums ‘Nattresan’ (2019) and ‘Leken’ (2017).
 
Lindstrand’s career is littered with accolades that make up an impressive and eclectic resume. A keen musician from a young age, he graduated from the Rhythmic Conservatory in Copenhagen where he became engrossed in the local musical culture and lent his skills to a multitude of acts as a studio musician, live player and string arranger. This lead to him being “adopted” into Danish rock band Kashmir, one of Scandinavia‘s most prominent and acclaimed bands with whom he toured the world extensively as their keyboard player and guitarist.
 
During his tenure in Kashmir and until the band’s hiatus, Henrik worked with seminal profiles such as Tony Visconti, Andy Wallace, David Bowie and Lou Reed, whilst building a career alongside as a highly regarded composer for television and cinema. Recent accomplishments include the score for the ITV Nordic-noir series Greyzone, the soundtrack for the hugely successful and award-winning LEGO game, Builder´s Journey and a film score to Undtagelsen (The Exception) released last summer. Recent noteable solo performances include sold out concerts in Copenhagen, The Heartland Festival (DK) Silent Green in Berlin, Soho House London, Union Chapel London and Pianeo Festival Munster (D).
 
In October Lindstrand played a unique and intimate live performance filmed in Copenhagen at Camp Adventure (one of Time Magazines 100 best places to visit), in a stunning 45-meter-high tower in the middle of the forest. In a time when live music experiences were few and far between across the world, Lindstrand and his team were able to create an extraordinary one-off outdoor event to perfectly house this captivating performance.
 
At the end of the year he released a book, a selection of 21 transcriptions and arrangements for solo piano from his three albums. With scores ranging from pure and minimal to experimental and inventive. It includes beautiful imagery, specially written notes from the composer and downloadable backing tracks to inspire the most enjoyable experience.
 
Last month, to coincide with its launch on Playstation and Nintendo, a deluxe version of Henrik’s hugely successful soundtrack for LEGO Builder’s Journey was also released with brand new bonus material.

About Anne Müller
 
Classically trained at Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts under the renowned cellist and conductor Michael Sanderling, Anne Müller performed as a cellist in many of Berlin’s symphonies for some time before choosing a different path with her music and focussing on novel approaches to classical instrumentation. A profound believer in the power of artistic collaboration, Anne’s skilled cello playing and instinctive composition became extremely sought after. Following her work with Nils Frahm, an enduring partnership with singer-songwriter-composer Agnes Obel ensued, touring for five years together and featuring on two albums (‘Philharmonics’ and ‘Aventine’) and most recently, working with multi-instrumentalist Markus Sieber (aka Aukai) on his 2019 album ‘Reminiscence’. In between all this, Müller also co-founded the progressive live project Solo Collective along with violinist/singer Alex Stolze and pianist/conceptual artist Sebastian Reynolds, releasing ‘Solo Collective Part One’ in 2017. She released her long-awaited debut solo album ‘Heliopause’ in 2019.

4: Laurel Halo shares two remixes of ‘Cruising‘ by Bendik Giske – “Cracks”, the new album from Norwegian saxophonist, composer and artist Bendik Giske, is out August 27th via Smalltown Supersound. Following lead single, “Flutter,” Giske is thrilled to present two remixes of the album’s centerpiece, “Cruising,” by Laurel Halo.

An admirer of Giske’s work, Halo molds the track to highlight the amorphous qualities of his music, which effortlessly meanders into a variety of spaces – club, ambient, and experimental, to name a few. Halo’s remixes are beautiful, surging with a mix of dreamlike synths, water-like oscillations, beats, and saxophone.

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“Norwegian saxophonist, composer and artist Bendik Giske will release his new album, Cracks, on August 27th via Smalltown Supersound. Following lead single, “Flutter,” Giske is thrilled to present two remixes of the album’s centerpiece, “Cruising,” by LaurelHalo. An admirer of Giske’s work, Halo molds the track to highlight the amorphous qualities of his music, which effortlessly meanders into a variety of spaces – club, ambient, and experimental, to name a few. Halo’s remixes are beautiful, surging with a mix of dreamlike synths, water-like oscillations, beats, and saxophone. 

Cracks follows Giske’s 2019 acclaimed debut, Surrender, and Untitled, a collaborative project with Pavel Milyakov aka Buttechno released earlier this year. Collaborating with producer André Bratten, Cracks sees Giske using his signature physical and hypnotic techniques in addition to Bratten’s extensive studio of electronic machines, including the new “resonant” space of Bratten’s reactive studio tuned to his original sounds. If this new studio-as-an-instrument process has brought Giske one step closer to the man-machine, it’s also a way to bridge the separation – or crack – between the two. This kind of liminal space, according to Giske, is to be treasured.   

The body is important for Giske, not just in the strength and muscle control required to accomplish his mesmerizing circular breathing on the saxophone. Body is implied in his sense of queerness, which has helped him create his own sound, blossoming luxuriantly not only on record but also in his striking, embodied performances. As such, in the past Giske has likened his performance to transmuting electronic music through all of his human faults, akin to becoming a machine. With Cracks, he introduces a new set of parameters for the automated processes of his muscle memory to work against. In a sense, you could call it generative music – a term coined by Brian Eno to describe music made within a set of rules that can constantly evolve within that system. But here the only algorithms at work are responding to Giske’s self-imposed constraints (or parameters) – like the afore-mentioned circular breathing. As a practice, it induces in the player – and perhaps the listener, too – a kind of altered state, more open to discovery, and as a cycle of sound it defies time”. 

5: The Equations Collective are “a group of artists active in the fields of music, photography, sound design and software design. In 2018, the collective set up a temporary outdoor recording studio, 1130 meters above sea level, on the slopes of Greece’s mount helicon. Powered by solar panels, the studio was designed to help showcase the possibilities of a progressive eco-future via renewable energy. The improvised sessions explore dialogues with the mountain region, surrounded by the ancient narratives of their muses”. More details

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one more slice

And while we’re here, can anyone find that confounded bridge? Can’t get enough of Ceramic Dog right now – ORGAN THING: Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog and just about all the Hope you need right now…

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