Journeys in Sound & Music
After nearly three years of staying close to home, there is something particularly appealing about taking a virtual journey to the other side of the world, especially when it involves the electroacoustic artistry found in this collection of recent releases originating in Australia. Of course, the antipodal perspective is in the location of the beholder,…
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Collaborations between artists can be planned, but the kind of sweet serendipity that makes them magical cannot. It either happens or it doesn’t. The idea of Italian pianist & composer Bruno Bavota making an album with Dutch singer & musician Chantal Acda certainly had the potential to be a magical one. Bavota is known for…
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Portland-based guitarist Jamie Stillway‘s new album was conceived in a 196 square foot cabin with on an island in the Puget Sound where she moved in the autumn of 2019. Lullaby for a Stranger was inspired by the solitary journey taken 70 years ago by a pregnant woman driving alone from Minnesota to Oregon to…
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The guitar is an instrument for all seasons, but there is just something especially alluring about it as the waning days of summer give way to the golden light of autumn. In that spirit, here is a round-up of six excellent albums some of which released earlier in the year and some still to come…
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Wickerbird is the atmospheric dream-folk project of Blake Cowan rooted in the sylvan beauty of the wild foothills of Mt. Rainier where it all began. From early albums like The Crow Mother (2012) and The Westering (2013) to the masterful The Leaf Maker (2015), he has carved his own path by distilling daydream-filled walks in the…
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Gondwana Records is an independent record label founded in Manchester, England by composer/musician/producer Matthew Halsall in 2008 to shine a light on the talent he heard in the local clubs. Since then, it has become blossomed into a genuinely international label with additional offices in Berlin and London and a roster that boasts such well-regarded artists as GoGo Penguin,…
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Sometimes you come across an album that just feels like home right from the first note – one you know you are going to keep close at hand and retreat into often. With its warm confluence of melody, mood, and texture and delicate blending of electroacoustic minimalism with cinematic flourish, Geneva by Chris Bartels, aka…
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The field recordings at the heart of Music For Listening by Canadian sound artist, multi-instrumentalist Michael Scott Dawson were originally collected with something different in mind, an album of prairie birdsong using fragments collected during walks through the pastures and farmland on the outskirts of his childhood hometown that never came to fruition. A phone…
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Michael Scott Dawson is a Canadian sound artist, multi-instrumentalist and community builder who explores ambient and electro-acoustic compositions through synthesis, field recordings, tape loops and manipulations. While much of his solo and collaborative work focuses on efforts to reconcile his relationship with music and technology, he is also a member of the free jazz collective…
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Stationary Travels 