“Vavil” by Bryozone

On 24 February Russia invaded neighbouring independent country Ukraine, in violation of international law. Russia’s military aggression against an independent sovereign nation has included targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, in violation of international humanitarian law, causing death, and destruction, and turning life there upside down. Prior to the Russian invasion and war, Ukraine had thriving underground music scenes. Buying and sharing music from Ukraine artists and labels via Bandcamp is one small way to help the people involved in those scenes. Here’s a track from an album by Odessa/ Odesa ambient electronic artist Bryozone, called “Vavil”:

“Vavil” is from Bryozone’s “Acid Frog Day” album released in 2013. It’s experimental, ‘light industrial’, immersive ambient electronic music. This track in particular has a weirdly natural organic kind of feel, channeling maybe a little bit of the sprit of The Orb and also Can’s “Future Days”. There’s a more recent EP called “Ifrit” from 2016 on the Odessa/ Odesa ‘pluridisciplinary art project’ label system which is also well worth diving into.

Bryozone is Ganna Brizhata from the southern Ukraine coastal city of Odessa / Odesa on the Black Sea. Brizhata is also more recently the bassist in Chillera. The trio’s “Live from Odesa” recorded a year ago at a celebration for Kyiv label Muscut, is a thrilling journey through loose, trippy, dubby psychedelic surf instrumentals.

“All Too Much” by Maria Somerville

Today’s immersive sound experience comes courtesy of a Bandcamp Daily feature about Irish musician Maria Somerville and her remarkable debut album “All My People”. It’s hard to pick out one track to introduce Somerville’s sound-world, but here’s “All Too Much”

If this is dream-pop it comes from the deepest dream-state sleep. “All Too Much” sounds like some early ambient work of Eno has been beamed into a cathedral via a shortwave radio drifting on and off station while Somerville sings quietly in the middle of the hall. There are things you imagine you can hear in the mix that may not actually there; audio illusions, like watermarks, or ghostly stains seeping through from a parallel world, smudged hallucinations, warped through time and space.

It’s a magical piece of work and everything on “All My People” possesses a subtle kind of sonic magic. I was reminded at different times of the spirit of Cocteau Twins, Grouper, El Perro Del Mar, and HTRK (sometimes all in the same song). The infinite reverb layers and strange noises washing around in the mix often providing disorienting anomalies, like the kind of things you may imagine half-remembering hearing while drifting off to sleep watching an unsettling a dream-sequence from a David Lynch film. Wonderful.

w/o/n/d/e/r/f/u/l by Synth Sisters

“w/o/n/d/e/r/f/u/l” is the opening track of Synth Sisters’ second album “Euphoria”, released earlier this year on Osaka label EM Records.

“w/o/n/d/e/r/f/u/l” is the only track on “Euphoria” with vocals but it sets the scene for the voiceless wonderlands of sound that follow it. The synth soundscapes throughout the album are rich and layered, falling somewhere between retro synth soundtracks and darker, weirder and more intimidating sonic atmospheres.

Synth Sisters are Osaka-based artists Rie Lambdoll and MAYUKo who have also collaborated as the more confrontational noise-focused Crossbred, which probably explains the unyielding uneasy listening, ambient-with-attitude edge to the music on “Euphoria”.

There are reminders of those pulsing early Tangerine Dream masterpieces, woven into the more ambient disorienting soundtracks of the likes of Future Sound of London. It’s all presented with the audio equivalent of a TV cartoon show with over-saturated colours and the brightness tuned up.  “Euphoria” is quite gloriously euphoric.

“holds and releases” by strathcona pl

Following on from “seams” from the mysterious stratchcona pl, shared here back at the end of March carrying the promise of an EP some time in the future… here is that 4 track EP

“holds and releases” is an oddly wonderful lyrical puzzle floating within a musical skeleton of acoustic guitar + voice + ambient sounds + occasional drums. Just listen:

Once again; so now we know everything, and yet we still know nothing at all.

 

“Bittersweet” by Nhung Nguyen

“Bittersweet” is one of 7 tracks on a new EP called “An Ordinary Narrative” by Hanoi based musician/ composer Nhung Nguyen.

Nhung Nguyen creates atmospheric ambient instrumental music combining acoustic and electronic instruments along with field recordings. This new EP “An Ordinary Narrative” continues a recent theme of using piano as the sole instrument. The simplicity and minimalism may be “an ordinary narrative” but it is heavy with echoes of a ghostly, partially remembered past.

The piano is a perfect universal instrument for conveying a sense of memory,  as well as feelings of nostalgia, regret, happiness, hope… whatever we project on, or draw out of each recording.

The use of field recordings of public pianos, sometimes with their own imperfect out-of-tune character, and then post-production adding the reverb and delay adds to the dream-like nature of these pieces. The magic here is not so much the moment each note is struck but what happens in the space that follows, before the next note arrives.

In “Bittersweet” the occasional background of street noise from passing cars grounds the music at an unknown place and in a point of time. It adds to the atmosphere, the imperfection and to the intrigue. It’s a bit like the music equivalent of watching a flickering old Super-8 film home movie projected onto sun-faded wallpaper.

 

 

“Flight Instinct” by Peach Milk

Photo credit: Imogen Wilson for iD AUNZ

Peach Milk‘s EP “Finally”, is a perfect introduction to new electronic musician/ producer Madison Eve from Auckland. It’s part Euro-dance/ post-dance music, part ambient electronica as the opening track “Flight Instinct” demonstrates:

The whole EP is superbly tasteful in the sounds and the moods created, the sheen and shimmer of the synth washes, the understated beats, and the icy ambient minimalism.

When vocals appear they are injected into the ether, a presence rather than anything direct, dancing through atmosphere of the music like ghostly spirits.

It’s what Peach Milk leaves out that gives the music on the “Finally” EP the space to set the mind free to wander and imagine.

There’s a song-by-song break down interview with Peach Milk on the EP on The Wireless if you want to dig a little deeper into the stories behind the music.

 

“One” by Be

Been away, enjoying the tail-end of a British summer, hence the lack of posts here for the past 6 weeks. On a visit to Kew Gardens in London a week ago The Hive caught my attention and imagination. The installation seen above incorporates a surround sound ambient drone connected to the activity in the nearby beehives.

The Hive is a structure inspired by scientific research into the health of bees. Designed by UK based artist Wolfgang Buttress, it was originally created as the centre-piece of the UK Pavilion at the 2015 Milan Expo. The music on the Soundcloud link following the video  below is from an album recorded to accompany The Hive at the expo.

The music below is not the same as the ambient drone you hear in The Hive installation, but it uses some of the same sounds and drones. Standing inside (or nearby) The Hive is a unique experience, and highly recommended to lovers of drone, ambient and experimental music, as well as lovers of bees.

“This four-track album imagines the sound of British summertime as heard by one of the most important members of the animal kingdom – the bee. A hypnotic conceptualisation of the life, work and living environment of the bee, “One” is a truly transcendental record – think Spacemen 3 recording a series of 21st century outdoor ragas for Touch Records and you’re somewhere in the right direction.”

“One” features Jason Pierce (Spiritualized) and Aniima – the string section who record with Sigur Ros – along with several other musicians. There’s a more detailed description if you click through to the Caught by the River Soundcloud.

“Culture Clash (Encouragement Remix) by Estere

Day 28 of NZ Music Month is a re-mix of a track from Wellington producer/ composer/ vocalist Estere. Here’s the heavily atmospheric “Culture Clash (Encouragement Remix)”

This remix takes a completely different approach to the rhythm and atmosphere of the original song on Estere’s 2014 album. It is more of a dance plus ambient re-imagining and it works on so many levels from club banger to atmospheric soundscape while retaining the soulful heart of Estere’s vocal.

All the remixes on this “New Species Remix EP” are adventurous re-interpretations, so if you enjoyed Estere’s self-titled 2014 album, explore this further.

“A Tanera Talisman” by Mairearad Green

Summer Isles from Achiltibuie, on the Coigach coast of North-Western Scotland.

There’s not much traditional folk featured PopLib, but there have been a few examples ambient soundscape music featured. The atmospheric “A Tanera Talisman” from Scottish folk composer and multi-instrumental musician Mairearad Green works just as well as an evocative soundscape as it does a haunting example of neo-classic Celtic folk.

“A Tanera Talisman” is from a new album out last week called “Summer Isles”.

If you get up past Ullapool on the North Western coast of Scotland (and not many people do) and turn left down a single track road you’ll eventually come to the end of the road at Achiltibuie and look out over the Summer Isles.

It’s a magical place, usually wet, cold and windy, but occasionally looking as it does in the photo above and on this video for the song:

Mairearad Green is from Achiltibuie but lives in Glasgow. The journey between the two places was the inspiration for her multi-part composition “Passing Places” written for performance at the 2009 Celtic Connections Festival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Evergreen” by Nhung Nguyen

Playing David Bowie’s “Low” last week I got lost again in that second side of sweeping cinematic instrumentals. Those paths lead me back to Brian Eno’s “Music For Films” and the Fripp & Eno album “Evening Star” – but also started me off exploring forward to an ever-expanding universe of imaginary worlds created by new generations of musicians working with ambient music, combining instrument sounds, field recordings and textures. Here’s one stellar recent example of that universe from Hanoi, Vietnam musician/ sound artist Nhung Nguyen.

It is almost impossible to pick just one track, but “Evergreen” – hinting as much of early Tangerine Dream as much as ambient Eno – is as good an entry point as any.

Continue on to listen to the whole collection, particularly “For June (Forever Summer)” with its glorious combination of field recordings of birdsong mingling with other-worldly hypnotic chiming.

Her latest release “Music For Quiet Souls” is different again, taking a minimal piano composition approach, like an experimental Erik Satie ‘Gymnopedies’ collection, but mixing field recordings with the delay-effect piano.

So impressed by these works I’ve just bought the full digital discography.