Jonny Nash- Make a Wilderness (Music from Memory)

beautiful ambient. textures, chords, melody; like cendre?

Chris Potter - Circuits (Edition Records)

not my typical sound of preference, but done so well. of course these guys are great

Pascal Gallois Conducts Prague Modern - Gérard Grisey, Fabien Lévy (Stradivarius)

bassoonbreathtime. first time hearing vortex temporum, amazing

Julian Lage - Love Hurts (Mack Avenue)

Julian Lage makes magic. Heard much of this at the outstanding live show. Watch the videos.

Simon Scott - Soundings (Touch)

Love what SS has been doing. Another Touch album to dissolve toward.

Aesop Rock and Tobacco - Malibu Ken (Rhymesayers Entertainment)

A quick pleasure, dense as expected. Always enjoy breaking apart the images and references as well as I might, checking up on a few online and letting some remain mysteries. Fresh soundmatch.

Akira Rabelais - cxvi (Boomkat Editions)

Soft speech, quiet drones, endless piano decay. fin et suite

Angelo De Augustine - Tomb (Asthmatic Kitty Records)

beautiful, quiet songs

Autechre - AE_LIVE (Warp)

It's interesting to listen to live set after live set from the same tour... and then listen to them all again. There of course emerges recognized passages and elements, but there isn't one (studio) reference to know exactly how it canonically goes, how this sounds different from the next. What emerges is a fuzzy composite ideal, and each new listen has its standout moments. Is it the same moments from the same sets that stand out each time? No idea. Used the graphic for the one I first heard in 2015.

British Murder Boys - Fire in the Still Air (Downwards)

The best BMB document I know. Hard and on-point.

Croatian Amor - Isa (Posh Isolation)

Enigmatic, dark sounds, a bit future-exotic. The AI folk are everywhere these days, friendly and scary.

Ex:Re (4AD)

Another sad and intimate one, great lyrics/songs.

Lee Gamble - In a Paraventral Scale (Hyperdub)

the edge

Mikron - Severance (CPU Records)

not the edge, but sometimes things are just right

Saba Alizadeh - Scattered Memories (Karlrecords)

Kamancheh meets texture extensions.

other, exclude, condemn

that I can be OK in 2020

dwell

I started with paragraphs then realized I'll only tolerate fragments.

These are my favorite albums this year:

Andrew Cyrille - Lebroba (ECM)

Frisell's the perfect complement to Smith's lead voice.

Autechre - NTS Sessions (Warp Records)

8 hours manifold Autechre; gonks stand out

Black Thought - Streams of Thought (1&2) (Human Re Sources)

Ninth hard loops, Remi soul songs, Black Thought super solid; replayable

Busdriver - Electricity Is on Our Side (Temporary Whatever)

sprawling but connected dots; hard to choose highlights; creative/dense with ideas

ERP - Afterimage (Forgotten Future)

nothing new but perfect

Helios - Veriditas (Ghostly International)

become alpine vapor in morning glow

Hprizm - Magnetic Memory (Don Giovanni Records)

I need an Asia remix with everyone on it.

Ian William Craig - Thresholder (130701)

voice as artifact, voice as endless presence

International Contemporary Ensemble, Anna Thorvaldsdottir - AEQUA (Sono Luminus)

textures, breaths, ancient melodies, heaviest sounds

anyone have 9.1?

Jakob Bro - Bay of Rainbows (ECM)

beautiful surfaces, depths and melodies; evening song most memorable from show

Jerry Quickley - (american) FOOL (Temporary Whatever)

word and sound in inventive, expressive mesh of stories

Low - Double Negative (Sub Pop)

very cool sound/style; seems everyone liked this

M. Geddes Gengras - Light Pipe (ROOM40)

echoes, FAX, mystery, space, ocean, endless

Myra Melford's Snowy Egret - The Other Side of Air (Firehouse 12 Records)

captivating interplay

Oliver Coates - Shelley's on Zenn-la (RVNG Intl.)

great beats and textures, like this direction, plaid moments, where was this on lists

Skee Mask - Compro (Illian Tape)

beautiful detailed production, plenty of easy references (BoC, LTJ); does loving this over, say, safe in the hands of love (or a handful of others I could name) make me old?

Sylvie Courvoisier Trio - D'Agala (Intakt Records)

awesome trio, love the tidal crescendos of activity, when can I see live

Yves De Mey - Bleak Comfort (Latency)

best sound stories... Actually this one in particular has me thinking a bit on the topic of logic/functionality in music and composition, extending a bit to the arts and thinking/culture in general. Perhaps I'll take a moment to post this musing in a couple of weeks (probably not).

5 Favorite Performances

I'm amazed by how many shows I failed to attend from my calendar. In any case...

• Ojai everything... maybe With Abandon?
• Zorn/Anderson/Riley @ The Chapel (possibly somewhat for the fact of it, though it was great)
• Saul Williams & Mivos Quartet @ Ford Theatre
• Julian Lage Trio @ Lodge Room
• Estonian Phil. Chamber Choir & Tallinn Chamber Orchestra @ Royce Hall (Adam's Lament++)

and one of these might appear in my next post

Kankyo Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music (1980-1990) (Light in the Attic)

The title says it. Great compilation, comes with a great book. Nice package.

Get it

Joël Grare - Des pas sous la neige (Alpha)

Want more bells? Do you like bells? I like bells. Would you like to see George Wendt playing the bells? Well hell's bells, somebody had to do it. This is also cool.

ERP - Afterimage (Forgotten Future)

mastercraft

last of the year? possibly
would be nice to have a filter to get everything at this quality
something of interest in all aspects
asia (adrenaline)

- I guess if I listened to it 6 times in 24 hours I like it.
- Please no more with the vaccines commentary.
- does not mean 8 more, got it

HTRK - Dying of Jealousy (Ghostly International)

HTRK is better each time.

space, delays, tones, need more

Anna Thorvaldsdottir & ICE - AEQUA (Sono Luminus)

light dark ice air dread serenity and breathing and breathing IDK but likely AOTY group so will have to think of more

Yuja Wang - The Berlin Recital (DG)

the LA concert was canceled, so at least I have this

also, while she obvs. has a fanbase, I feel like YW is the most-hated musician on social media..."

riven soundtrack meets different trains meets 2010s precision noise types meets 2010s j-style-ambient types but harder

yesterday I was sitting in traffic while listening to the sound of the arctic melting

soon it'll be December

not sure how I'll find time to go over everything

Shad - A Short Story About War (Secret City Records)

less and less interest in most rap, but this is actually interesting

favorite: The Revolution/The Establishment (especially the establishment)

Andrew Cyrille - Lebroba (ECM)

Cyrille, Smith and Frisell sound great together. The music is textural and contemplative but also melodic, which is an attempt at saying something but could really describe any music that's not hyperactive and has pitches. "Really nice."

Demdike Stare - Passion (Modern Love)

tear it apart, send it a signal-fed gate, rip it up. there's definitely still life here. curious about the cover. murk

Alexander Lonquich - Schubert 1828 (Outhere Music)

"total dedication to schubert"

Richard Devine - Sort/Lave (Timesig)

a welcome album return, sounds torn to shreds, from the sculptural to the track/narrative-oriented. Off-topic, but I loved that Lipswitch jacket back in high school.

Saloli - The Deep End (Kranky)

new age lullaby keyboard jams

Myra Melford's Snowy Egret - The Other Side of Air (Firehouse 12 Records)

A+ come to LA

Ian William Craig - Thresholder (Fat Cat Records)

grainy noisy patchy emotive edge

M. Geddes Gengras - Light Pipe

trip and trip

longtime

Subtle Degrees - A Dance that Empties (New Amsterdam)

Hypnotic sax & drum patterns from Travis Laplante & Gerald Cleaver.

Witnessed without knowledge of the project at Blue Whale a few weeks ago and was transported.

Yes, that’s all acoustic/played.

Forest Drive West - Apparitions (Livity Sound)

oh, right, I love techno, I forgot

just the essentials

Vril - Anima Mundi (Delsin)

speaking of which

Delsin redo

some unbeatable repetitive blissouts

Hotel Neon - Means of Knowing (ARCHIVES)

and speaking of blissing

Kenny Segal - Happy Little Trees

vibe. man behind some of the best//\\on his own

Eli Keszler - Stadium (Shelter Press)

very cool percussion, pads, bass

this morning listening to it again in the car I was thinking “this clicky thing right now reminds me of the drummer at the oneohtrix point never show on monday,” and now that I’m looking up a few background pieces of information that won’t really inform what’s here anyway I see this: "whilst this year he has toured with Oneohtrix Point Never’s MYRIAD live show”

so yeah, that's the guy

that was a pretty strange show btw... and (of course) completely different from the Stone show... but I guess that was 7 years ago

showers are great because I can think about stupid things I've said done or thought and hate myself

Fatima - And Yet It's All Love (Eglo Records)

like the songs and production. songs

Quatuor Voce - Itinéraire (Alpha)

really enjoyable / interesting quartet music pointing to/from different directions. alpha has been great

I ran into someone from high school.
No surprise that I was awkward.

If I followed my normal rules I'd still be stuck in revisions, but I adjusted the flow to clear some items out.
Some favorites.

Helios - Veriditas (Ghostly International)

Hey guys, let's make some gorgeous music.
Ok, cool, sounds good.

This One (ECM)

Three great musicians on an intimate recording. Beautiful, (mostly) calm music that intensifies in waves. Can't wait to see them next month.

JK Flesh - New Horizon (Electric Deluxe)

super heavy, lots of grain, has its waterfall moment (to sound like I was born yesterday). really good

Oliver Coates - Shelley's on Zenn-La (RVNG Intl.)

freshers. steps into more dance terrain with a unique sounding album on idm/techno tips but for anyone

Barbara Hannigan & Reinbert de Leeuw - Vienna: Fin de Siècle (Alpha)

Romantic, nature-infused (except for mr G who skips it), star-lit poetry, set to the music of a place and time. Schoenberg, Webern, Berg, Zemlinsky, Alma Mahler, Wolf. I might not be aware of this if not for BH's upcoming role but have really enjoyed listens both with and without the translations "in hand." recommend

Low - Double Neative(Sub Pop)

Washes of words, guitar, and textures. I love the weaving of not only melodic motifs but technical / timbral motifs (in the application of filters/distortion etc). Carries a quality that reminds me of some of Sylvain Chauveau's music that I've liked. Apparently I'm late to the show.

not exactly denis lavant

Tim Hecker - Konoyo (Kranky)

brooding and detailed, not as fully-saturated-wash. he's good at {}---[]](

4 hours of great electronic music, from quiet passages to melodic IDM to downtempo techno to industrial power to dramatic, noisy mayhem, somehow all working together. "Girih" is a very cool title/concept for this compilation. Get it here>>

Opinions are unsafe.

stephan mathieu - radiance
john zorn - book of beriah

It is a common thing for me to have a spontaneous realization about music lyrics.
I might be in the shower. I might be driving to work. Without any clear motivation I'll think of a music lyric, followed by the thought of "oh!!!! that's what that means!" It happens with rap a lot, sometimes lyrics I've known for 20 years.

I've always been familiar with the "Hollywood" song. I'm not any particular fan of it or anything.
You know the one... Hollywood... da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da Hollywood...
Although I'm familiar with it, I know few of the lyrics. One that I've always (since I can remember, really) had in my head is "From Shirley Temple to Aimee Semple..."
I've always just sort of assumed I didn't really know that 2nd name or I remembered it wrong, since Aimee Semple isn't anyone I was familiar with. I've never been interested enough to look it up.
Aimee Semple is of course Sister Aimee McPherson, a totally fascinating person I learned more about a couple of years ago with this KCET article.
The sort of funny thing here is that I never connected those names until about five minutes ago.
It's 6:30 AM on a Saturday. I just woke up, got out of bed, picked up the already-filled laundry bag by the door, and exited my apartment to walk to the laundry room on the other side of the building. As I approached the laundry room, my eyes still gooey and gross (they still are), it all of a sudden hit me. "Aimee Semple!!! Aimee Semple McPherson!" Totally out of nowhere. So stupid and weird.

Great trio. Cool to see it on ECM. Looks like I'm early. How does this stuff get out?
Book LA.
Will be awhile until next time. Flooded with new music + listening inspired by the Chinen book.

oh and I'm bored of the tweet thing

"democratizing/nauseating"
Some gestures improve power structures. Some are just annoying. Not sure what this was about.

"aesthetic/ritual"
Not sure why I've set these two up against each other... really wish I could remember. "Ritual" is one of my interests. There are forms-of-being/doing that are patterned around a particular aesthetics, others (with overlap) that are ritual. Ritual helps provide comfort and community. Maybe this had to do with music events.

elizabeth swaney:

a few others were very close

Aphex Twin - Collapse (Warp)

scream in car

Sungjae Son - Near East Quartet (ECM)

jazz east rock great

"i love you preston"
I believe Preston is that kid who was like upset that a VA hospital didn't have flags and provided them with flags... or something like this.
or like he was upset that the veteran grave site didn't have flags

"rampant fetishism"
I strongly dislike fetishism. Particularly various forms of political or cultural fetishism. Goes hand-in-hand with essentialism. My Twitter feed is filled with furious positions mounted on this shaky ground. It's a challenge.

"alien"
I have no idea what this was, but I do love the Franco character.

"outrage capacity"
There's so much that I have so little room for outrage, and I'm impressed or annoyed by my feed.

"what good is"
on the question of quality

"firmament"
Firmament is an interesting word. "The heavens, the sky, especially when regarded as a tangible thing; a sphere or world viewed as a collection of people." I have this coffee table book on the universe that surveys artifacts related to astronomy/cosmology, and this notion comes up in a lot of older diagrams/depictions. How does this idea of "firmament" play into our consideration of society/societies?
or also
How might there still be some sort of firmament? (universe edge, between "dimensions," life/death)... and the idea of this being tangible is also interesting.
or not