Concrete Colored Paint - Linhas em terra

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, all being real yet still enveloped with a slight degree of reverie. CCP or Concrete Colored Paint delivers an expounding sonic representation of this experience. A path to different dialects, foot steps leading away, traversing water, encountering music, birds, industrial hum then back to drone. This is all on side A of the cassette. The second side remains much more sedentary, the aural landscape reserved to the seaside. Maybe an inlet or port, a place depicting the contrast of nature and the resonance of man's industrial footprints.

Concrete Colored Paint is Peter Kris. This is the second cassette by CCP to find time with Lost in a Sea of Sound. The first and also the introduction was a split with Tap Water on Lighten Up Sounds. The cassette was released a year ago and is now sold out. Fortunately, Linhas em terra is currently available and is entirely devoted to Concrete Colored Paint. Linhas em terra is very limited, with only forty copies in the edition. One other note, CCP t-shirts are available from NOSTROMO as well. This is also the first time a NOSTROMO release has been described on the site. Other than the fact the labels uses Euros, not really sure where their headquarters is. Another question regarding the label's name, is there any connection to the Joseph Conrad novel?

For the music there in, an excellent sonic foray in well developed style. Peter Kris continues with creativity in all directions.

Links
Nostromo site - facebook - soundcloud - twitter
German Army site

Soda Lite - Vale & Stone

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 understood as ceremonial joy for flora and fauna. This is how delicate Vale & Stone really is, unalloyed radiance from untraveled landscapes. Easily breakable by the faster pace of urban life. Take thirty minutes, listen, don't let distractions crease the sonic pages. This is how you will understand.

Released on Inner Islands in the middle of May. A label on a long journey, procuring sonic herbs for a listening world filled with need. This time Inner Islands traveled to Melbourne, Australia and worked with Soda Lite. Val & Stone is an edition of one hundred with copies currently available. Thank you for your continued search and all the work.

Links
Inner Islands site - bandcamp - facebook
Soda Lite - bandcamp - facebook

Jacken Elswyth / Quinie - Betwixt & Between 4

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 improvisational and traditional forms. Her use of the bow and shruti mesmerize time and place only to be followed by traditional folk pronunciations, equally as captivating. The third track, and the shortest on Jacken's side, is an absolute sublime en-devour. Her use of delay with banjo flows like early dawn light, images slowly substantiating with colors that can not be accurately described. Then grounded on "The Banks of The Green Willow". Accompanied only by birds, Jacken sings a sad tale similar to the unfortunate death of Omie Wise.

Quinie has six songs on the second side. Josie Vallely singing with Gordon Bruce and Tom Merewether accompanying in sound. Alluring traditional Scottish song style in modern context. Songs drawing from cheerful sources as well as traditional. A refreshing direction from years ago, many songs of this genre were depictions on the harshness of life. Now on this set, the ability to draw from comedy rather than tragedy is part of the makeup. One aspect making delightful realization is how experimental this group is. An assortment of sounds surfacing with grandeur, supporting traditional vocal style with present day wisdom. Quinie is completely compelling, thoughts of these selections being recorded a century ago are real, but more light and playful topics with effects are well received. 

This is the fourth cassette from Betwixt & Between Tapes. There are a few different purchase options with cassette being described here, also compact disc, and lastly hand-carved linocut / hand-pulled prints with digital included. Looking through everything Betwixt & Between Tapes has done to present, there are not many physical pieces remaining. Only fifty copies of Betwixt & Between 4, so don't wait very long.
     

Links
Betwixt & Between Tapes - bandcamp - facebook
Quinie site - twitter - facebook

Adam Michael Krause - As Nice As A Tree

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 tragedy of man's inability to understand history and it's implications for the future. "What A Dead Bird Means", is only relative to the fixation placed upon recurring events, remain free from this and think. The track "Trees Listed Alphabetically" some how remains a favorite. It's just Adam going through a list of trees in a spellbinding manner. There was a New Zealand band, The Cakekitchen and specifically one album from 1991 title World of Sand... As Nice As A Tree stirs memories of this really tremendous album.

Released on Geology Records out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This is also the area of residence for Adam Michael Krause. Geology Records always gives great love for each release and As Nice As A Tree is right there. A hand selected local leaf, small printed booklet, j card binder sleeve and excellent cassette art.... In an edition of fifty with copies currently available.

Links
Geology Records site - bandcamp - facebook - twitter
Adam Michael Krause - bandcamp

Azaleas - Dream Of Fields

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 melancholy ushered simultaneously.

Lost in a Sea of Sound described Azaleas once before. Their cassette Sapphire from early 2017 on Denver's Blank Tapes. There are two copies of this tape still available. The most recent Dream Of Fields was released in February in an edition of fifty. Copies are available from St. Louis, Missouri's Distant Bloom label. This is the label's fifth release and is one more cornerstone for all the Distant Bloom offerings preceding Dream of Fields. The last two label releases are in runs of fifty, this is a very good quantity, enough but still on a path to all sell out.

Links
Distant Bloom - bandcamp - facebook
Kyle Wade
Alice Marie
Katie 'Kat' Andres

Claire Rousay - Several Erasures

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 patterns is not completely accurate. When listening with close study, there are many micro sequences within Several Erasures. Minute detailed rhythms so brief or arcane, they are lost in the magnitude of transitions. This brings to mind another thought, when thinking of imagination outside the connective fabric, usually "beyond" is the associated image. This detailed aural landscape of Claire Rousay could use the antonym of beyond as a descriptive reference, but this is a difficult word to find an opposite for. Will have to go with a new word, bein (not the Qatar based sports network).

Released on Already Dead Tapes and Records in the middle of April. If remembered correctly, all of the cassettes from the label sold out in the pre-release stage. This is rare and very commendable for Claire, Already Dead and all supporters. If you would like to purchase a physical copy Claire is performing tonight at Exposure Series 2019 in Chicago. There was a tweet noting she has some copies of Several Erasures with her.

Links
Already Dead Tapes site - facebook - bandcamp - twitter
Claire Rousay -  site - facebook  - bandcamp - twitter

Myrh | Lend me your underbelly - So Divine

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 thorns. Christian has composed tortured tranquility, a perfect canvas for Myrh to articulate through.

Mariam Zohra D is Myrh. Her poetry resting on the the transient and spiritual union of heart and consciousness. Satire of the unthinking human condition fueled by the dichotomy love provides with close family. Seriousness grounded by an array of vocal deliveries. From song to story across broken seams that are perplexingly and beautifully fused together. Mariam travels in directions few go and listeners will need an open mind to trace her path. With Lend me your underbelly's sonic landscape, Myrh is a nocturnal being, calling and whispering sounds in the night.

A most gorgeous compact disc release in a super limited quantity of twenty five. Meticulously hand painted by Christian Berends, every square inch is cared for and utilized. A handsome booklet with lyrics, poety, art and pictures sits inside the compact disc case. If you like the intensity of the ethereal spectrum, So Divine is a most inviting tree to climb.

Links
Lend me your underbelly site - facebook - bandcamp
Myrh site - facebook