★The Helen Scarsdale Agency
Interceptor
Clinton Williams is never a man of just a few words. He doesn't release that much (anymore?) under his banner Omit, but when he does it's usually a 3CD or a 2CD set, and 'Interceptor' is not different. For this release Williams did something other than his usual musical routine. Two suitcases where filled with drum machines, effects, analog synths and a portable studio and in stead of looking for job, which he was supposed to he create this music. The line up of instruments may seem like somethi…
The Otolith
The recordings of Loren Chasse and Michael Northam begin and end with the great outdoors. Yet, the well-documented wanderlust of these two kindred sound artists is only part of the equation. Field recordings of wind, water, and stone intertwine and hybridize within private rituals of droning psychedelic ragas that return as a folklore reiterating the mystery of the natural world around us. Through his numerous contributions to the multi-faceted Jewelled Antler as well his solo work, Chasse has l…
The Sleeping Moustache
This curious quintet makes sounds that recall the glory days of Nurse With Wound: long, shapeshifting collages of psychedelic murk interrupted by random outbursts of industrial clatter, nightmarish drones, deeply bizarre audio mutations and tangible masses of sticky audio goop of impossibly vague origin. The Sleeping Moustache consists of five ten-minute tracks interspersed with five brief interstitial tracks. Everything blends together well because nothing blends together well; forced juxtaposi…
The chronograph
Collaborating under the moniker Coelacanth, Loren Chasse and Jim Haynes construct sound to favor empathy, evocation, and transcendence. Initially, Coelacanth's quest may have been to engage the drone supreme, an aesthetic previously sought by C.M. von Hausswolff, Morton Feldman, and :zoviet*france:. Yet, the duo is known to get distracted by the minutae of sound itself, or some instantaneous revelation about the history of decay, or simply the sublime beauty of nature. The drone in fact does go …
Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna
In scandinavia, it's not uncommon to hear of someone's mother, grandfather, uncle, or plumber who drank him-or-herself to death at an early age; and the swedish drone artist bj nilsen has felt the alcoholic pangs which may foreshadow his own demise. in recent years, nilsen has turned to his icelandic neighbors Sigtryggur Berg sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson (collectively known as stilluppsteypa) in existential sympathy over the problems of their collective lust for alcohol. drykkjuvisur ohljodanna…
Vikinga Brennivin
Brennivin is an Icelandic liquor vulcanized from the humble potato and flavored with cumin, although you’d be hard pressed to taste much beyond the astringent burn that it leaves in your mouth. Bottled in matte black glass and stamped with ominously simple labels, brennivin appears less like something to imbibe and more like poison; and in that creeping slow death kind of way, it is. For the Icelandic electro-absurdist outfit Stilluppsteypa, brennivin has soaked into every fiber of their being; …