A whole gang of things, musical things, things of a more experimental nature, a touch of cross pollination, an album or two, well three things really, first a new piece of ambition from French instrumental experimentalists BRUIT≤ in the shape of a new flavour or two from the just announced album The Age Of Ephemerality, out on April 25th via Pelagic. That’s the band up there by the way…

More about the album…. This Music Video shot and edited by Clara Griot is a making of the recording of our upcoming album

“The process began in our studio ‘La Taniere’, composing on computer and on paper, even recording some of the things that appear on the final version of this album”.

“Next, we travelled to La Soulane in the heart of the Pyrénées mountains to play together and improvise. Mornings here were spent walking, with the rest of the day dedicated to composition and pre-production. It was here that we recorded the most wild and spontaneous elements, which remain present in the final version of the album”.

“We began the final recording with an incredible two-week session in the old Gesu church in Toulouse, spending days trying to capture the character and sound of the space as if it were a musical instrument in its own right. We wanted our performances to interact with the immense vault and stone walls of this incredible place. We also had the opportunity to record the organ built by Cavaillé-Coll in 1864. We took this opportunity to invite some guitarist friends from the local alternative rock scene to create a guitar orchestra playing heavy riffs, feedback, and other abstract textures captured through the church’s acoustics”.

“We then spent weeks at Studio Capitol experimenting with everything from tape and external equipment to different amplifiers, live recording, modular synthesizers and beyond. We played with a constantly evolving configuration, pushing the technology to its limits. The idea behind this process was to layer different production and composition methods from different technological eras to deliver contrasting results. In this way, the technological eras confront each other in a sonic choreography where a modular synthesizer, a 150-year-old organ, a classical ensemble and a rock band co-exist”.

Markus Guentner – Black Dahlia – An album of dark, slow moving, glacial eleectronic soundscapes, the track featured with the video there is kind of typical. The album does, without ever quite being just another album of dense electronic soundscapes, does kind of sound like a lot things we’ve heard before, it might be “unexplored territories of experimental sound design” for Markus Guentner, it kinds of feels like these paths might have been explore bore by others though.

“The seven track album, released on the Affin label, marks a bold departure from Guentner’s previous works and ventures into unexplored territories of experimental sound design while retaining his unmistakable sonic identity. On ‘Black Dahlia’, Guentner’s mastery shines through as he seamlessly blends electronic elements with his signature ambient textures, creating an all-encompassing sonic experience that transcends genre boundaries.
Each track serves as a sonic vignette, weaving intricate layers of pulsating rhythms, haunting melodies and ethereal atmospheres”.

It is a meticulously crafted set of works, beautifully so, a warm collection of semi-experimental electronic ambient soundscapes if that is your thing. The music throughout the album feels big, it feels weighty, tense at times if you let it in rather than just let it slowly flow by, it kind of feels like slow moving icebergs in the deep dark of night, the ice cracking here and there (f that isn’t too much of a clichéd response?), or is a more dystopian concrete kind of experience? The artwork fits well. Not sure if the boundaries are really being pushed, maybe the artist’s own personal boundaries? I don’t think I’m that familiar with his previous work? It does kind of feel familiar, do rather like it, it does kind of feel like a lot of things that flow this way though…

Here’s the Bandcamp and the album details. The album is released on February 7th 2025. Available digitally, or as hand-crafted 4 panel CD with sticker. Designed and assembled by the artist. Limited edition of 80.

Kate Carr and Matt Atkins – Organelles (Flaming Pines) – The restraint here is marvellous, the temptation must be to change step, to move the dial slightly, when they do, in such a radiant way on closing track Ribosome it is like the sun breaking through, Not that weather has been dull, and we’re not really talking cloud sands sunshine here, actually they talk of “a miniature world of speculative microsound that lurches between spiky textures, wonky rhythms, static, and the occasional off kilter melody”. It is all very (very) minimal,always there though, always engaging, delicious little details, exquisite timing, precise placing of sound. Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum rather catches you when you’re maybe not expecting it?       

“What goes on inside a cell? What might it sound like? Inspired by tiny processes and interactions Organelles presents a sonic imaginary of intracellular operations. Cells are busy: folding proteins, exchanging gases, creating energy, growing, dividing, mutating and communicating. Likened to minute factories or warehouses, organelles are the entities which perform the specialised tasks which enable cellular life. So often explored visually, this album offers one version of what the aural life of these tiny, fantastically-shaped organelles might sound like….”

Bandcamp

And while we’re here, here’s soemthing else via the Pelagic label