Having unveiled our 2012 picks characteristically late in the day , here's an anticipatory 'Best of' for the new year to jump the gun on next December's list frenzy - & even provide some kind of benchmark for our eventual contribution. The list is unencumbered by the restrictions - no more than one pick per artist/label - imposed on the recent Furtive 30 ... This initial selection of some 20 coming highlights ranges from Stephan Mathieu 's ravishing David Sylvian remix [...]
Stephan Mathieu - A Static Place (album preview) READ the full review of A Static Place, by Stephan Mathieu, HERE A Static Place is another solid strike from Minority Records, this time from the hand of one Stephan Mathieu, a ... Continue reading
On 17 July 2011, the minimalist musicians Stephan Mathieu and David Maranha performed an acoustic concert in the tennis court at the Fundação Serralves park in Porto. Stephan Mathieu played his virginals harpsichord with electromagnets, while David Maranha used violin and shruti box. The performance lasted 29 minutes and 20 seconds. The performance centred around a drone in the key of A. In February 2012 a recording of that performance is being issued on a single-sided LP by Cronica and Serralves under the name Strings . Read the rest of this review (it gets better, I think) over at [...]
On 17 July 2011, the minimalist musicians Stephan Mathieu and David Maranha performed an acoustic concert in the tennis court at the Fundação Serralves park in Porto. Stephan Mathieu played his virginals harpsichord with electromagnets, while David Maranha used violin and shruti box. The performance lasted 29 minutes and 20 seconds. The performance centred around a drone in the key of A. In February 2012 a recording of that performance is being issued on a single-sided LP by Cronica and Serralves under the name Strings . Read the rest of this review (it gets better, I think) over at [...]
MIXTAPE MONDAYS featuring mixes by The Weeknd’s Dropxlife, Sleep Over, Air France and Essay. I’m always fascinated and extremely curious about where artists’ influence comes from. So this week I’ve collected some of the latest and greatest mixtapes from a few of my favorite artists, Air France, Sleep Over, The Weeknd and Essay, that really showcase a wide variety of sounds from Bollywood, Avant Garde, Ambient and beyond. Enjoy! 1. Dropxlife - Pawncho Mix [...]
Last week, the Guardian named Dalston's Cafe Oto and the Vortex as two of the ten best music venues in London, and given how these two stand (so far) apart from the rest thanks to their laudable commitment to adventurous programming, I'm almost surprised that they managed to find eight more, to be honest. Cafe Oto was pretty full tonight for the sort of lineup you really wouldn't find anywhere else in the city: the artists Stephan Mathieu, BJ Nilsen and TSU (Robert Curgenven and Jörg Maria Zeger). It led me to wonder whether anyone had come along to Cafe [...]
[RSS Readers: See post to listen to audio] This Dunian track makes me picture a smiling person stumbling in slowmotion with their eyes hold in a dreamy state, not a care in the world, completely content, now i'm wondering what kind of person you're imagining and if they look like the one in my head. Don't let the wonky intro for this Solar Bears track scare you off, its a very rewarding listen, epic echos and a sugary drive to it all. Just a lazy day off sitting on the porch, [...]
There seems to be a quest in much of Stephan Mathieu's work to disrupt the linear nature of the time, to capture a moment and hold it forever, to reach back to the past and drag it through to the present day, and even to reverse the process of obsolescence. His is a very slow and quiet rage against the dying of the light. I saw a performance of his Virginals project (a version of which is to be released later this year) in Berlin last year, which saw him bringing not just the room - the crumbling old [...]
Blissful drone from the tree of life . Stephan Mathieu's Radioland was among the best albums this year according to Wire & Boomkat. The album takes shortwave radio signals as its starting point, meaning Mathieu instantly invites comparisons with Tod Dockstader and William Basinski, but while there's often a grainy, hazed over murk to those works, Mathieu somehow brings a luminosity and brightness out of his sources. The opening trilogy of pieces (each named after an archangel) makes for an utterly absorbing half-hour sequence, each composition spanning an immersive [...]
I understand the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the man-made object never equalled the purity of sound achieved by the pig. - Alfred Hitchcock Free jazz and bagpipes share the reputation of being unlistenable squalls - totally unfair, of course, as they both can be quite listenable squalls. And like chocolate and peanut butter, bagpipes and improvised music have a history of comingling. John Coltrane and Albert Ayler both played them. Rufus Harley made a career [...]
Stephan Mathieu & Janek Schaefer: "White Wings/Child Okeford," from the Hidden Name LP (Cronica Electronica, 2006)
Lend Me Your Ears
The Gumshoe Grove
mapsadaisical
Gluttony Is the New Black
ISO50 Blog
Letters Have No Arms
undomondo
WFMU's Beware of the Blog
Good Vibrato
NSFW: Miley Cyrus shows off her BANGIN TANKINI BOD!
Doldrums - "Holographic Sandcastles"
A Little Something For Everyone At EDC New York
