lost in a sea of sound

Crossing parallels and meridians is how the world became known. Brave sailors disregarding the flat earth theory, setting off to establish sea routes for trade. Now, air travel expedites the process at exponential rates. And with the world being relatively so much closer, this cassette from NOSTROMO 1999 records has made the journey. The sounds within cause reflection though. Mysterious dream like vignettes, patiently spaced across time and place. Viscous drone holding the diversities in conveyable stasis. A flicker back to the assortment of places sea men would visit or captured airwaves from a present day world?

Linhas em terra could be best described as an astral projection over lines of longitude and latitude. Each destination wrought with sonic opacity, fluctuating background energy droning in consistency, as clouded speech is heard but not fully understood. The late Robert Monroe writes about interactions similar to this. Traveling out of body to encounter people in present time…

From the confluence of sea surface winds, sounds gently pour down, Vale & Stone is a sonic afternoon shower. Humidity and heat rinsed with aural purity then dried in delightful melodies. Find the time to to listen with attention because, like any storm formation in the late afternoon of summer, the event is over with tranquil haste. Soda Lite is on the edge of nature, the medium between an evolving untouched world and a spiraling man made attraction.

These sounds can easily fall into the background of everyday tasks. Like having the window open to hear natural sounds, anything happening inside directs attention away from the serenity all around. Val & Stone is the composure needed to compliment the chaos. Seven tracks divided over one half of an hour. Birds song complimenting the heavy droplets of synthesizer precipitation. Sinuous euphony taking hold, like the rapid growth of vines over hot summer nights. With repeated listens, this ambience for humans gradual becomes underst…

Sounds echoing through time, always infused and then diluted with the newest and most progressive music. The magnificence of days and decades ago rendered for aging souls. On the rare occasions, when current creations build upon fading sonic delight, the resonance of both past and present rings in quantum beauty. Betwixt & Between 4 has well formed roots though time, exhibiting many traditional attributes from the way music was played and sung. This composition is more though, subtle creativity procured from the span of years, making the finished delivery both nostalgic and contemporary simultaneously.

For cassettes, Betwixt & Between 4 clocks in around the very standard thirty minutes. With the sides split between Jacken Elswyth and Quinie, combined with how purely fascinating both artists are, the entire listen seems incredibly short. A very wonderful merit concurred by many repeated listens.

On the first side, Jacken Elswyth seamlessly plays the banjo through improvisationa…

Listening to music is similar to tasting new food. Sometimes you love the new sounds and taste sensations straight away, other times question marks flood thoughts. The beauty of these other times is their ability to mature. As this appreciation grows, the bonds established are soon stronger than the love at first experience scenario. Adam Michael Krause has turned contemplation to these discoveries. Accepting the repetitive features from the opening and longest track "There's Never Been A Building", has set precedence for future compositions in their mysterious entirety.     

Each time theses sounds make their way though, new aspects are discovered. As Nice As A Tree is slowly germinating in the consciousness. Eight tracks across just over twenty five minutes, the tone and timbre sitting in a difficult place to pinpoint. The unique qualities of Adam's lyrics and vocal delivery deserve wonder and introspection. "Move Ahead and Repeat", speaking of the trage…

The truth... Pressing play with friends close by, no words are said, they listen with fascination.   Sounds that illicit serenity and dissolve conscious haze. This is Azaleas, good medicine for chaotic lives. The usual nostrums showing their obsolescence as the tones and harmonies of Dream Of Fields filter through thoughts.

Somewhere in the sonic distance, nostalgic roots hold this composition close to splendid sentiment. This is the place Azaleas heralds from, an unknown locus of higher vibrations. Traveling outward, the aural lea reaches listeners, a momentary sonic hamlet, existing only in time and space. In this place, Dream Of Fields gently precipitates pleasant timbre, sonic dew from an ancient spectrum. Sounds of civilization can be heard as well, voices and roads mixing with the bestowed tranquility. There is a native American quality, defying exact description. A lonely flute still playing as the westward movement envelopes the surrounding land. A amalgamation of both joy and…

The mind gravitates towards the infinite fractal world, this is known and inherited. Within these repeated patterns, structure and rhythms are recognizable and have nurturing qualities. When creativity blossoms outside this framework, these efforts are most quickly labeled as abstract for art and experimental for sound. Both visual and sonic venues for arrangements without patterns are difficult tasks to manifest. True thoughts outside of the conditional spectrum are plagued by having no control. For those on the receiving end, the beauty is lost, the artists conceptual creation exists beyond understanding. This is something Claire Rousay understands.

The four selections included on Several Erasures, scream with patients and control. Sounds moving to either extreme, euphony to cacophony, then traversing back without pause. Echoing tones back to previous releases by Claire Rousay, a style that has been congruent throughout her recordings. Maybe describing this composition as absent of …

So Divine is a nexus of passionate sounds and strong feelings. A perfectly immersive parry from the world of tones regularly heard. Lend me your underbelly and Myrh with exponential creativeness. Both artists contributing aspects of music so different, their compatibility will be a study for music scholars to extrude upon.

Lend me your underbelly is the solo project Christian Berends. He has orchestrated an aural world that beckons your spirit. A place where guitar reverberates with clarity, echoing across vast lengths of time. As the distance is traversed, a menagerie of sonic fibers engulf the stringed melodies, leaving a tangled mystery of sounds. Walls of noise, drone like in heaviness, fluidly dispersing like water. The gravity of Lend me your underbelly is weighty, melodies pulled so strongly as to leave only lost notes glistening in the fading light. And these quiet notes are so beautifully patient, lullabies twisted in the thickets, crystalline tones cradled by cacophonous th…