What is a memory? It is not such a silly question. Just stop and think about it for a moment. Try to put it into words. What IS a memory? How do they accrue such significance to our sense of self? Musician Tim Linghaus wrestles with this in a beautiful and touching way on his latest…
Category: Through a Musical Lens
Through a Musical Lens: Loving Vincent OST by Clint Mansell [Milan Records]
Oddly enough, I don’t remember which painting it was, but I will never forget the way it felt to stand for the first time in front of an original Van Gogh at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. In some ways it was a disorienting experience. I recall becoming light-headed as if the colors &…
Through a Musical Lens: Lowlands – Ester Vonplon / Taylor Deupree & Marcus Fischer [IIKKI]
Lowlands is the third edition of the recently launched IIKKI project, a unique concept in which each entry in the series is the outcome of a creative dialog between a visual artist and a music artist which results in parallel imprints – a fine art book and a vinyl record. This one began when Ester Vonplon traveled last…
Through a musical lens: øjeRum – He remembers there were gardens [KrysaliSound]
Originally released on cassette in 2013, Italian label KrysaliSound has remastered and reissued a mesmerizing long form composition by Danish collage artist & musician Paw Grabowski under his artistic pseudonym of øjeRum. An undulating, hypnagogic organ-based drone, He remembers there were gardens was conceived as an alternate soundtrack to the 1962 “photo-roman” (photo-novel) La Jetée by Chris Marker which is still recognized as…
Through A Musical Lens: CEEYS – Concrete Fields [1631 Recordings]
After giving us a taste last year of their new modern classical project with The Grunewald Church Session, brothers Sebastian and Daniel Selke are about to release their full-length studio debut album entitled Concrete Fields as CEEYS. The moniker they chose is a neologism forged from references to their respective instruments – a combination of the French spelling for cello (‘violoncelle’) played by…
Through a Musical Lens: Spheruleus – Obsolarium [Whitelabrecs]
The old Sleaford Bass Maltings brewery complex in Lincolnshire stopped being used for its originally intended purpose in the 1950’s and has been derelict for nearly a quarter century, its imposing brick malthouses, water towers, and kilns now no more than a mute echo of the bustling hub of local industry it once was. Its Grade II listing status is…
Through a Musical Lens: Danny Clay and Katrien De Blauwer – Stills [IIKKI]
A little over 2 years ago, Mathias Van Eecloo launched Eilean Rec. The label already has over 40 albums in its catalog, nearly halfway to the 100 releases planned as part of its unique concept, and has garnered a well-deserved and devoted following thanks to its imaginative premise, overarching design motifs by Rémi Verdier, and a consistent musical aesthetic which…
Through a Musical Lens: North Atlantic Explorers
In 2005, Glenn D’Cruze stepped out from behind the drum kit where he supported of a variety of Vancouver based bands and launched his own called North Atlantic Explorers along with Jonathan Anderson. After the debut record (Skylines), the project remained quiet until 2014 when they returned with the first of an ambitious brace of conceptually related albums called My Father Was a…
Through a musical lens: Francesco Giannico – Metrophony [Time Released Sound]
“Through a musical lens” is a short series of reviews focusing on albums that present and explore human experience through music. Each album incorporates field recordings, ephemera, or motifs that revolve around everyday life and memory thus creating an especially intimate connection between their transportive sounds and the listener. Metrophony by Francesco Giannico In August of 2013,…
