Video Premiere: Lightness by Drexler

Drexler (Adrian Leung) is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, & producer from Sydney, Australia with a debut album set for release this week via Rhodium Publishing. Recorded predominantly in his studio in North West London, where he is now based, Handles infuses intimate chamber strings with piano, synth, minimal percussion and guitar while paying special attention to…

Travelogue: A hibernate recordings Collection

After a relatively sparse 2019, it is very nice to see a flurry of new activity over at hibernate recordings, the Yorkshire-based ambient label founded a little over a decade ago by Jonathan Lees. The catalyst has been something called the 2.6 challenge, a charitable initiative intended to fill the void left by the cancellation…

Sound Impression: Literature by Tomotsugu Nakamura

Tomotsugu Nakamura is a musician and graphic designer residing in Tokyo, Japan who composes music with fragments of minimal acoustic & electronic tones and field recordings. My first exposure to his work was the last year’s monologue, an excellent recording that appeared on the Audiobulb label and became a shoo-in for the annual round-up of…

Video Premiere: Nebula by Slowburner

Slowburner is the instrumental solo project of Élvio Rodrigues, a composer and producer originally from the Portugese island of Madeira an now based in Lisbon. From his first EP a little over three years ago to last year’s 10-week Sunday mornings are for piano project, Élvio has kept the piano mostly in the forefront while…

Travelogue: Longform Editions 14

Launched two years ago by Preservation label boss Andrew Khedoori, Longform Editions is a digital listening gallery which he frames as a “curatorial music practice created to foster and celebrate immersive listening experiences for the musically adventurous”. Indeed, now 56 releases into the project, Khedoori has brought together an impressive array of sound artists from…

Duologue: A conversation with John Hayes

This edition of duologues features Minneapolis-based pianist, John Hayes whose sophomore solo album The Last Best Place was written during a difficult period of uncertainty in his life which found him coping with the loss of a friend and adapting to a new studio space. The title refers to a long-standing nickname for the state…

Streaming Premiere: Orbit by Axel Toben

Alejandro Bento is a multi-instrumentalist and composer born in Spain and currently based in the coastal town of Javea. Though he is self-taught as a pianist, Alejandro, the son of Argentinian artist Oscar Bento, was traditionally trained in music from a young age. After taking up a variety of instruments in conservatory, he went on…

Travelogue: At home with La Petite Chambre Records

Affectionately named after a tiny room in Belo Horizonte, Brazil where a group of friends would gather to quietly rehearse and record new ideas, La Petite Chambre Records has been publishing a uniquely warm and colorful style of experimental music for over a decade.  The label has created their own space for artistic expression in…

Travelogue: The Whitelabrecs Home Diaries

Since its inception, Harry Towell’s Whitelabrecs label has been nothing less than prolific with release after release that seems to bring out the best in any artist that appears on the roster. In fact, Whitelabrecs made more appearances in my 2019 retrospectives than any other label. Given the creative impetus that represents, perhaps it is…