7th of April 2020
Ambient Scapes with a twist for the daily menu
Marc Barreca – From the Gray and the Green
Release date: 27 September 2019
Label: Palace of Lights
Widescreen, pastoral visions of ambient music by West Coast US pioneer Marc Barreca ov Savant esteem. RIYL Eno, K. Leimer, Phillip Jeck
“Moving in the directions that originated with the Environments recordings and evolved to become extended pieces like Klaus Schulze’s Gewitter, Robert Henke’s Studies For Thunder, Brian Eno’s On Land and Steve Peter’s Here-ings, the music of From The Gray And The Green finds its origins in landscapes. This time, landscapes that Marc Barreca knows as his home — the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. These eleven pieces and three digital-only bonus tracks are sculpted from layers of synthesized and sampled instruments, field recordings and processed vinyl. Barreca tells us that ‘My goal was to create immersive, evolving landscapes shaped by a dynamic past and viewed as if through the translucence of passing clouds.’ From The Gray And The Green offers a music of contrasts and change, departing from traditional ideas of ambient to arrive in shifting landscapes of the strange and the beautiful.
Marc Barreca has been creating and performing electronic music since the mid-1970s. His 1980 album, Twilight, reissued on vinyl in 2016, was one of the earliest releases on Palace Of Lights. From The Gray And The Green is his ninth solo album for the label. Recent releases include Shadow Aesthetics (2018) and three collaborations with K. Leimer. Reissues include work on the acclaimed VOD box set American Cassette Culture, the Cherry Red compilation of seminal U.S. electronic music and the 1983 cassette, Music Works For Industry, now on vinyl. His work is also included in the collection of The British Library.”
source
Lee Ranaldo & Raül Refree – Names of the North End Women
Release date: 21 February 2020
Label: Mute
“If you live long enough, you see a lot of people drift in and out of your life,” says Lee Ranaldo, explaining one of the loose themes linking the adventurous pieces that compose his and collaborator Raül Refree’s electrifying new album: that of the ineffable course of time and the lives that pass in and out of one’s own.
“In a remarkable career that has seen him flourish as a songwriter, a singer, a guitarist, a noisemaker, a poet, a visual artist, a producer and more, Ranaldo has seen many fellow quixotics – from his bandmates in Sonic Youth to this most recent collaboration with Raül Refree, whose restless career had taken him from hardcore bands in his youth, to the vanguard of a new movement redefining flamenco. One of the most renowned producers in southern Europe, his collaboration with Rosalía on her debut album has shaped both the modern sound of flamenco and her new found stardom.
source