SOUND X SOUND

Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard is a Danish composer who, in his series SOUND X SOUND has been working with multiplying instruments to make the sound transcend itself, creating a pure new sound without references to anything.

The SOUND X SOUND series consists of a cycle of 7” vinyls where each release is an exploration of one single instrument, multiplied. The first release consists of music composed for 8 recorders. The aim is to get the instrument to exceed its own familiar sound and be transformed into a new and clean sound, by multiplying it. It was released on the 25th of november on Hiatus.

Currently, Niels is running a crowdfunding campaign for his next 7”, a fantastic spectral piece based on 30 chromatic tuners. You can watch the Kickstarter video below.

In these two cases, Niels uses the strengths of the instruments very well, treating the recorder as a single frequency and the tuner as a spectral building block. This tickles my curiosity; what will be the next instrument in the SOUND X SOUND series?

Another Sound: Glasser

For the fourth edition of Another Sound, my contribution to Joachim Baan’s blog Anothersomething, I wrote about Glasser and her newly released album Ring. I was pleasantly surprised by the sound of it at first listen. Curious? I invite you to read the complete article on Anothersomething!

Inanimate Life by Mark Peter Wright

I like making field recordings, recording and archiving a moment in time, to travel back to while listening to it on some later day. The field recordings Mark Peter Wright made for his album Inanimate Life are not the same though. They take the listener a little closer to their sources. 

Mark Peter Wright made his field recordings along the North East coast of England, inspired by the voice of the coastal winds. Other than what you might expect from field recordings, it is never really clear what I am listening to. While listening to Inanimate Life on my headphones the sounds rumble through my head, evoking images in my mind of what might be the source of those haunting soundscapes.

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Journal de Nîmes N°5: Joy Division / New Order

A new issue of Journal de Nîmes, the quarterly paper of denim-inspired boutique Tenue de Nîmes, is here. This fifth edition of the Journal is themed around Britain. Next to a piece about the great handmade denim label Tender, which has nothing to do with sound at all, I wrote an article about some very influential bands, for Britain and also for the whole evolution of popular music: Joy Division and New Order, and took a look at their debut albums, Unknown Pleasures and Movement, respectively. Click on the image for a readable version, or if you are in Amsterdam, pick up a fresh copy at Tenue de Nîmes, Elandsgracht 60.

Another Sound: Joanna Newsom

A few weeks ago I visited a Joanna Newsom concert, finally, after listening to her recorded music for many times with great pleasure. 

It was a wonderful, inspiring experience, so I decided to write the next edition of Another Sound on Joachim Baan’s Anothersomething about Joanna Newsom. 

“It was amazing to see how powerful the arrangements were brought to life with only a hand full of instruments, adding the right touch at just the right moment of a song. No lengthy, repetitive drums, just a very well measured percussive addition.”

Click here to read the full article.

Denoising Field Recordings by Richard Eigner

If you have ever edited sound which was badly recorded, you have probably used a denoiser of some sort. And if there was a lot of noise to be removed (I recently received an interview recorded during heavy rain, with the request to remove the sound of the rain and no, I am not joking), you know the side effects such a treatment can have. 

Looking at them from another perspective, these side effects we try to avoid most of the time can sound pretty interesting themselves. Richard Eigner from Austria created his project Denoising Field Recordings based on this idea. He made recordings of particularly noisy environments and used denoising techniques to create the material for his compositions.

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Song Review: Jónsi & Alex - Atlas Song

Only after listening to Jónsi’s solo album Go, I discovered last year’s Riceboy Sleeps by Jónsi and Alex, a collection of mesmerizing songs. Let’s listen to the second track on the album, Atlas Song and see where it brings me.

 

Atlas Song begins with subtle sound flakes made of high piano notes. A pizzicato violin appears in the distance and slowly the patterns start melting together in a dreamy field of sounds. Suddenly there is room for Jónsi’s voice, repeating the same melody over and over again.

 

This music does not have a clear beginning or end. It takes me to a place of dreams and memories. It creates one state, one atmosphere, without the ambition to surprise too much. And it feels good. Gentle crackles roughen up the texture of the smooth layers of sound. Towards the end the vocals become distorted and rusty. I am slowly moving away, back into my own world. 

 

As many of you know, Jónsi is the lead singer of Sigur Rós. Also be sure to check out his new solo album Go. Visit the Jónsi & Alex website jonsiandalex.com.

The Mystery Of Grey Matters: a Polyalbum

I normally do not write album reviews on Everyday Listening, but this is a special case. It is not an album, it is a Polyalbum. A what? Well, to be honest, until I heard about this project I had no idea what that word meant. It is an album consisting of three discs. The first and the second can be played apart from each other, but the work comes together when they are played simultaneously. The third disk is for lazy people or people with only one CD player and contains a pre-mixed version of disks one and two. 

The Mystery Of Grey Matters is a project by Charlie McCarron. It tells the story of Gregory (Grey) Matters, who is suffering from strange hallucinations. He starts living in two separate worlds, almost without being able to tell which one is real and which one is dreamt. People start to think he is going crazy. The polyalbum allows us to listen to these two worlds separately, or combined.

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Another Sound: Midlake

The second edition of Another Sound on Anothersomething is now online. This time I wrote a little piece about Midlake. I recently visited one of their live shows, but I already fell in love with their music quite some time ago. Click through to read the whole story on Anothersomething: Another Sound - Midlake.

It is great to have the opportunity to write for Anothersomething. On Everyday Listening I like to still my hunger for innovative, thought provoking or just inspiring sound-related projects, but it is fun to write about music in a different way as well. A big thank you to Joachim for this!

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Another Sound on Anothersomething

I am very happy to announce the first edition of Another Sound, a recurring feature on Joachim Baan’s great blog Anothersomething. Joachim is a very inspiring person and on Anothersomething he shares his passion with the world. In his own words: “We don’t fall for just anything. We are attracted to the quality, aesthetic and sophistication of something. A unique, incomparable and extraordinary something.” And from now on Anothersomething has its own music and sound related section called Another Sound, written by me. 

The first edition of Another Sound features Efterklang and their new album Magic Chairs. I love the way Efterklang changes their musical style without changing their way of showing their true passion for music. Please read the whole article here and let me know what you think: Another Sound on Anothersomething.