Category: score

Now this is some proper liner notes:

The flesh withers to the pulses of thunderous cave reverberations, while the spirit is united with the psalms of the Glorious Dead, the Ancient Entities that have conquered Death and become Life, dominant, absolute and victorious. This Work consists of a ritual deriving from the darkest corners of the Mind, the deathlike spheres of the Netherworld and the truest essence of the Afterlife, to become a homage to the Force of Life Eternal.  
Guided by Her Luminous rays, it is dictated to be experienced solely in chamber-like conditions,  below the waxing Moon, accompanied with Myrrh and lunarian incenses and agharbattis, to be properly roamed within its uncharted corridors. Listen, experience and conquer, setting aside the mundane aspects of realities, explore the unmapped pathways, with every preconception burnt to the altars of this Magnum Opus.
SHIBALBA’s music is saturated with the mysticism of the East. It’s richly detailed and multidimensional, while layered with chanting and broadly defined elements of traditional ritual and shamanic music. Apart from contemporary synths and guitar drones, the band makes use of bones and skulls as percussion instruments…, Tibetan Horns, Tibetan Singing Bowls, bone & horne trumpets, Darbuka’s (goblet drums) as well as ceremonial bells and gongs, to name a few.

Big record.

Inviting escapism through detailed, glacial textures, S.W.I.M. elevates a traditional beatless spectrum into a first-person narrative, moving across burning wastelands, miles-high sundown, a dizzying night sky, subterranean exploration, and more beautiful, natural phenomena. Subtle changes in tone and texture across each of the six environments provide a signal of the destination’s energy and the intended perception of the traveler. At times, elated and dwarfed by nature’s surrounding grandeur. Other times, bestowing a sense of apprehension and unknowing.

The cinematic, repetitive music of Polish instrumentalist Dobrawa Czocher evokes the work of Philip Glass in its textured atmospheres and deep emotion. A dreamy neoclassical highlight of the Europavox festival. 

We like a bit of modern cello composition. Files close to Julia Kent and Zoe Keating.

With Discreet Music (1975), Music for Airports (1978) and Thursday Afternoon (1985), Brian Eno invented a new music genre, Ambient Music, which he defined as “able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.”
These versions performed and arranged by Dedalus Ensemble, according to the musicians and the critics who listened to it, goes beyond what we expect from it. A mental base that takes us far away. One of the only music without beginning or end in which we want to stay as long as possible.

An engineer as much as a composer Iannis Xenakis combines music, architecture and mathematics. Iannis Xenakis and the Percussions de Strasbourg collaborated on Persephassa, a work that places the audience at the centre of a circle formed by the musicians. There, the body of the listener becomes instrument, receptacle and relay of the music: a real sensory experience. Their second collaboration was Pleiades, one of Xenakis’ masterpieces, for which an instrument, the sixxen, was created especially. 

I love percussion music, and the moments where the musicians lock together and then fly apart again are delicious.

CIRCLE OF LIGHT (Amazon) from Trunk Records. Derbyshire’s been on my mind lately, due to discussions about music for DEPARTMENT OF MIDNIGHT.

Released On: 24 Jun 2023Available for 3 days

Fresh off the release of their first studio record in ten years, legendary Icelandic post-rock and ambient band Sigur Rós pick two hours of absorbing ambient music to help you focus, including Frakkur, Carl Stone, Gavin Bryars and more. And, of course, new music from Sigur Rós and their collaborators.

Gentle, tender night music. Good night.

I have always loved the electronic washes and hymns of Black Polygons. Absolute peace.

This just popped into my head, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember who did it. Took me five minutes of desperate googling. The Strange Death Of Liberal England! Putting it here so I don’t lose it again. I do love a grand and grandiose guitar pop anthem, and this is a big one.