Adult Contemporary (2016)

Somewhat sadistic, but approachable for the way that Rossetto arranges sound such that it feels both navigable, and like a sort of ride with a clear trajectory- Side A is all cavernous spaces collapsing around the listener, while B has her lost at sea where the forces manipulating things are immense and invisible

bandcamp / -o-

Community (2016)

penultimate / -o- / kye / aguirre

Comme un seul narcisse (2016)

boomkat / -o- / norman

Summer (2016)

bandcamp / -o-

Too (2016)

The trend in electronic music towards material sound and sound sources has influenced everyone from The Body to Andy Stott and Tim Hecker this year, and Lewis' response is less vapory (as e.g. Hecker) or OPNy (as e.g. Stott), as it is tangible beats supplied to effectively guide us through suites of dark/ambiguous textures. For the most part Lewis highlights the conflict in this relationship by allowing the atmospheres to float away, never to be dominated or controlled by the rhythms. The album's final third heralded by Beaming changes things however, and sees the 'physical' win out. Beats are replaced by decayed tapes on that one while Try almost finds 000s Burial, and the finale uses echoing drums in a way that is less discordant, more deserved, and even hopeful.

mego / -o- / spotify / boomkat / norman

Only the Youngest Grave (2016)

Seems driven by the desire to uncover a human past in the landscape but rather than rekindling a relationship with the elemental (as in the Scandinavian tradition), finds a kind of abandoned occult sadness (as in the British tradition), which is to say that it's all bones and no spirit. A few things strike me every time (one good, one subjectively not good_)- I have no idea what makes good music much less good mixing but the sparseness of Only the Youngest Grave allows me to hear around the noise in a way that I'm not accustomed to (good!), and also I am all attention whenever the music wanders, but it every now and then builds instead (repeated motif, click distortion pedal) which is a thing I am most allergic to thanks to post-rock but which is quite moving if you are into that, and which I consciously overlook as the noise actually overrides the loud-quiet dynamic and maybe inadvertently distracts from it. So there's something for everyone there

bandcamp

Clonic Earth (2016)

boomkat / -o- / spotify / pan

Hearing Music (2016)

Although new age music found an audience willing to overlook or even embrace its dorkiness via obscure tape rips in the music blog era, it was only recently that it became properly accepted and even declared fashionable. Far from cashing in on this via unearthed archival material Hearing Music offers nothing in the way of antique synths and dolphin noises for new age fetishists- rather it sits on the threshold of 'tasteful' minimalism and forays into the kind of sounds one would expect with that recently de-stigmatised genre tag, which is to say soulful repetition and rainy elegance

numero / -o- / boomkat / spotify

あいしゃ (2016)

Akio Suzuki moves a radio through public spaces, its hums and static drones echoing and reverberating in these 'found' environments, and making for a surprisingly musical instrument. The additional indeterminacy of people interacting in these spaces makes composers of them if that's what you get from it, but to me it grounds the music in 'the world' and brings it to life.

-o-

Those Winged Ones (2016)

Yoiking is an ancient Sami form of chanting which collapses human/'nature' dichotomies through mimesis- of animals, of fairies, of the landscape. The throat-shedding beauty of Somby's yoiking might catch the unfamiliar ear off-guard espec. in the underworld of Neahkkameahttun, and the epic Wolf where Somby repeats himself into the form of the animal, each cycle taking its toll on his vocal chords (which emerge stronger for it). Chris Watson records Somby's performance on-site and mixes it with field recordings made minus-Somby, such that the necessary echos and reverberations are there in the voice, but the sounds of birds and lakes are never drowned out by it.

ash / -o- / stream