Brief album reviews this time: everything here is on Bandcamp.com.
Aki Takahashi: Piano Space 4
I used to listen to the “Piano Space” series on vinyl back in the day. Now
they’re here, but the pieces are arranged into different albums. No matter.
These are mid- to late-20th century avant-garde piano music. Most do
indeed have a lot of “space” in them (though Toshi Ichiyagani’s “Piano Media”
is a frenetic exception) and all feature the delicacy of Ms. Takahashi’s touch.
If you thought this stuff was all stark and forbidding, give this a listen.
Alan Hajduk: Arasynth
I once commented that classical music followed (or follows) a particular
historical timeline until the present day, where it “sort-of merges with
electronica”. There’s not that much difference, I said, between Steve Reich and
EDM. This statement would have some people screaming in horror, while others
would probably nod quietly in agreement but not say anything out loud. This electronica has a heavy bass beat and a cyberpunk backstory, but the repeating and gradually shifting riffs are of similar ilk.
Dessa: A Badly Broken Code
Rapping about everyday life’s ups and downs, with a sharp wit and beautiful
vocals. Nothing much else need be said. (Note: There are a couple of "swears" where they're appropriate for the song.)
Infusion Baroque: 1747: C.P.E. Bach
I should have paid more attention to the “other” Bachs before now.
The fifth review today is one of my own.
I’ve been working on a huge musical project lately (it’s rather frightening how
such things can get out of control) and I’ve posted some of it on Bandcamp
also. Called “Another This World”, and it draws inspiration from field
recordings, or perhaps I should say it is (but at the same time is not) field
recordings. What’s going on here is that I took recordings of nature, urban
sounds, and some old cassettes of experimental sounds I’d made years ago, ran
them through filters and through a MIDI plug-in to produce “instruments”, and
remixed and re-processed the result. This made four albums of what could either
be old-school musique-concrète or avant-garde chamber music (though not meant
to be played “live”). Each of them features a different virtual instrument: one
is titled “Mallets” and has a virtual marimba up front; one (called
“Renderings”) features a (similar) vibraphone; one is obviously electronic; and
one features a piano (this latter one may change around in a week or so; I’m
waiting for permission to use some copyrighted material). They may be played in
any order, though I would recommend listening to the "piano" one somewhere in the middle and saving the “electronic” one (called
“Ancient Forest”) for last. All of my music is free to listen at this link: .
Please comment, and if you really like one or more of them, purchase it. Thank
you!
