Ukkonen creates rounded, mellifluous and pulsing ambience structured (or deconstructed) with understated anomalies. “Erriapo” thaws the gap between minimal techno and deep house, swaying occasionally one direction or the other, but always maintaining a delicate fluidity, nurturing the in-between space it establishes.
Flint Glass & Arx Kaeli – Circumbaikal
Despite that the production and music are both of good quality, everything on “Circumbaikal” seems too short. It is as if each track calls it quits before it really has a chance to get off the ground.
V/A – Myths & Masks of Karol Szymanowski: Music by Ukrainian Sound Artists
This tribute compilation gave eight Ukrainian sound artists the opportunity to freely represent their respective visions of Karol Szymanowski’s music, life and ideas. The result is a gorgeously packaged disc and twelve-page booklet. It is a collection for lovers of drones, glitch, noise and pure, eclectic experimentalism in sound – yet with strong classical nuances.
Mobthrow / Çuta Kebab & Party / 2methylbulbe1ol
Mobthrow delivers once again that notorious, dark dubstep sound with “Pitch Black EP” while unpronounceable 2methylbulbe1ol’s offering is best categorized in that vein of IDM especially made to prickle the senses and Çuta Kebab & Party present a surprising mashup of tough and fast breakbeats with Turkish flavours.
Stanislav Vdovin – Live for Food and Culture
In the absence of rhythm, Vdovin constructs long tones and drones, lighter than air, which float effortlessly and are, at the same moment, embedded with small clicks and blips, minute vibrations that anchor the gauzy fluctuations. At once attractive, minimal and melodic, “Live for Food and Culture” foreshadows more good things to come from this extraordinary artist.
Lingouf – Doème
While not completely departing from its hardcore techno roots, “Doème” nevertheless spins an elaborate web of broken IDM beats, splintered jazz and classical influences. It is a convoluted and challenging release that will keep its audience guessing.
Mathias Delplanque – Passeports
Mathias Delplanque, an artist synonymous with sound installations and immersive compositions, delves on “Passeports” into the phenomenon of the ‘non-place’ – ubiquitous urban spaces formed in relation to certain ends (transport, transit, commerce, leisure). Instead of the identifiable field recordings we expect, Delplanque presents a series of polished ambient/experimental compositions.
Canartic – Modulotion
This guitar-based and electronic-backed offering of totally dubbed out and lathered down psychedelic downtempo from Canartic is everything an album name like “Modulotion” promises. Though song structures come across as similar, each breathes its own mix of elements so that, taken individually, the differences might as well be profound.
David Wells – Rojo
“Rojo” plays to expectations, its primary aspects in line with other drone work – circular motifs, rich textures and infinitesimal evolutions. It is a model for a genre that finds itself refined to a point where there is little left to discover, but immeasurable time to savor what has been done.
Past the Mark – Hakhel Tribulation
Past the Mark’s proficiency in marrying prominent guitar riffs with electronic accents and layers lends itself to longer compositions, something which this reviewer hopes for in the collaboration’s future. Post-rock, after all, can get away with being epic.