Tor Lundvall – A Dark Place

Discovering the work of Tor Lundvall has been something of a revelation. The prolific ambient musician and painter has released nearly 20 albums in the last 20 years, both independently and via Dais Records, yet I only heard of him last month when the single 'Quiet Room' was released from his new vocal-led album A Dark Place. Luke Turner of The Quietus described it as "the sweet spot between Talk Talk and Slowdive's underrated Pygmalion" – my interest was immediately piqued.

Digging back through Lundvall's discography unearths a very deliberate, consistent aesthetic. Each release tends to be themed around a sense of place, our relationship to nature, the weather or a time of day (e.g., Rain Studies, The Park, Night Studies, The Shipyard). A Dark Place, though notably nocturnal in feel, is more of a metaphorical place – the space one enters alone while reflecting upon our mortality. It's no surprise to learn that the album was influenced by the recent loss of Lundvall's father.

While his ambient albums create a lovingly rendered instrumental space for exploration on headphones, A Dark Place features Lundvall's vocal musings front and centre. He emotes in a mesmerisingly neutral tone, which creates a curious effect. His vocal presence is the focus on each of these eight tracks, yet his delivery and lyrics seem to do everything they can to slip into the shadows so the music can do the talking.

The music itself is typically beautiful for a Lundvall album, with plenty of focus on weighty, looped figures that exhale eerie reverb trails. Befitting a vinyl release it works well as a two-sided experience. Side openers 'Quiet Room' and 'Negative Moon' feel like companion tracks with their insistent bass pulse. At its conclusion, side A feels like it's fading away with 'The Invisible Man', while side B ends on a more hopeful note with the beautiful, lilting 'The Next World'.

Listening to several of Lundvall's previous instrumental albums while waiting for this release felt like stumbling upon a treasure trove, each release fully realised and deeply emotive. My expectations for A Dark Place were high. While there's an undeniably compelling atmosphere to this release, the vocal focus means there's less space for Lundvall's immersive environments to work their magic. As a result, the listener is left in a state of suspension, pulled between the worlds of ambient and downtempo pop. Nonetheless, this release is a grower – and a worthwhile introduction to Lundvall's immense discography.

[A Dark Place is available as a digital download via Bandcamp, and on vinyl from Dais Records.] 

   

Auburn Lull – Hypha

Back when I used to buy CDs, I ended up with two copies of Auburn Lull’s 1999 debut, Alone I Admire, which is a majestic slice of dreamy guitar surge. Comparing that cloud-scaling opus with new album Hypha, their first album in nine years, is like comparing a cathedral to a meticulously maintained garden. I stand in awed witness to Alone I Admire, amen; I live inside Hypha’s minutely detailed ecosystem and feel the profound loneliness of nature.

Thanks to being on emailing terms with Auburn Lull’s Jason Kolb, I’ve learned that the sound of Hypha evolved from the band taking battery-powered music gear on camping trips. Kolb describes these trips as “electronic/pulse-heavy sessions in the middle of nowhere, with the sound of wind, crickets, birds, etc. in the background and the natural reverb of the surroundings”. Knowing this makes perfect sense when listening to these 36 minutes of carefully crafted sound.  

While the band’s Hiber EP (released on cassette in 2014 by Geographic North), plus two albums by Billow Observatory (Kolb’s collaboration with Jonas Munk), partly prepared me for Hypha’s minimalism, I’m still coming to terms with exactly how minimal it is. At times, listening to Hypha feels like walking into a stark white room, turning around and not being able to find the door.

Despite spending several months with this record, I still feel as though it’s evading my efforts to apprehend its secrets. To step inside its intimidating, glacial spaces means being rendered paralysingly lonely by the music, while being simultaneously reassured by Sean Heenan’s comforting vocal presence and koan-esque lyrical fragments. It’s a work of art that makes me feel all-too human – and for that I feel thankful.  

[Hypha is available in vinyl, CD and digital formats on Auburn Lull's Bandcamp.]

Rudi Arapahoe – False Self

The concept behind Rudi Arapahoe's new album False Self is an interesting one, especially to anyone curious about the grey area between composition and improvisation. As detailed in the album's liner notes, Arapahoe used the SuperCollider programming language to create "an algorithmic musician designed to compose and play alongside my true self". The results were then used as a springboard for further improvisation, composition and performance of the musical information by human musicians on keyboard instruments, tuned percussion, bass flute and bass clarinet. The results are otherworldly and beautiful.

The six pieces, ranging from six to ten minutes in length, are decidedly eerie in atmosphere, hovering like phantoms unsure of their next life. The song titles 'Mechanical Mask', 'Petrification Phastasy' and 'Ice Carnival' offer a vivid glimpse of the soundworlds mapped out and available to explore. Sustained tones bleed out into '80s reverb. Struck metal shimmers and blooms. The spaces between the sounds are as important as the sounds themselves.

For some, this will probably fail to register as music, or will test the endurance like water torture. It's certainly firmly in the abstract ambient camp, yet I find there's just enough musical connectivity between these sounds to lead me, rapt, across this chilly chasm. 

False Self is available now to download on a pay-what-you-want basis via Music Glue.

The Balustrade Ensemble – Renewed Brilliance

The music of The Balustrade Ensemble sounds as if it's perpetually suspended aloft by the faintest of breezes, its half-remembered melodies shimmering across a dusty room and refracted through the sheerest panes of glass. Beatless, wordless, fragile and ethereal, it sounds like The Cocteau Twins underwater, or Boards of Canada played on archaic instruments.

Compared to its predecessor, Capsules, released on Dynamophone back in 2007, Renewed Brilliance is even more vague, hazy and elusive. It's as if the already degraded radiance of The Balustrade Ensemble's music has undergone another round of aging, deepening its lustre and accentuating its fragility. In that regard, I wasn't as immediately drawn to this release. However, with time, it has proven just as beguiling.

Its most melodic and superficially vibrant pieces – opener 'Bathyal Reel', 'Show Us To The Sky' and 'Aerial Verandis' – feel like a clear continuation from Capsules. Grant Miller's guitar tones ping and shimmer, cushioned by wavering beds of organ laid down by Liam Singer, or the distant tape-looped voice of Wendy Allen. At the more abstract end of the spectrum, sound manipulator Scott Solter has transformed the original instruments beyond recognition, rendering 'The Lowing Herd Wind' as celestial exhalation, its tonal partner 'Summerhill' all aquatic atmosphere. Elsewhere, the eerie rustlings of 'The Arch Scope Cleave' are reminiscent of the wonderful Fennesz, while the closing tracks 'Processionary' and 'Goodbye Leona Dare' leave the strongest impression, the music's tender vulnerability teased into memorable melodic shapes.

The lingering feeling is that it's often the most subtle and inexplicable musical gestures that have the most lasting impact. Even though Renewed Brilliance insinuates itself delicately, as most ambient music does, like coloured light shone through water, its mood resonates deeply. While it's playing, little seems to be happening. Once it's over, its absence aches.

Renewed Brilliance is released by Serein on 27th November.

Hidden Shoal atmospheric/ambient compilation

Just a reminder that I've compiled a ten-track compilation of atmospheric/ambient stuff from the Hidden Shoal roster that's available for licensing via dots and loops. It begins with the haunting wash of Stray Ghost's 'Nothing, But Death Part 1' and concludes with acclaimed producer Scott Solter's 'The Palace Wedding', visiting Antonymes, My Majestic Star, Sleeping Me, Rich Bennett, Slow Dancing Society, Elisa Luu, Wes Willenbring and Jumpel along the way. Plenty of delicious atmospheres to immerse yourself in.

Check out the comp on Soundcloud:


If you're interested in licensing the music of any of these artists for use in your creative project, please contact tim@dots-and-loops.com

Hidden Shoal artist profile: Markus Mehr

Markus Mehr

Markus Mehr creates textured ambient drone music that pulls you in like a magnet to the heart. It's subtle and beautiful - but can be prone to violent blasts of distortion and passages of bone-crushing intensity. Whether humming along like a barely perceptible background atmosphere or looming large in your face like a raging tsunami, this music is wonderfully suited to visual accompaniment. His music suits cutting-edge visuals, from industrial townscapes to womblike moments of personal reflection.

Markus's debut solo album Lava was released to critical acclaim in 2010. The following video is of single 'Cousteau', which features amazing visuals by artist Stefanie Sixt:



Markus's latest release, In, comprises two massive tracks, 'Komo' and 'Ostinato', that evolve majestically over the course of 25 minutes. Here's a clip of Markus and Stefanie performing 'Komo' live:



In is part one of an ambitious yet beautifully realised triptych, which continues with On (June 2011) and is completed by Off (January 2012).

If you're interested in licensing Markus Mehr's music for your creative project, please contact tim@dots-and-loops.com

Hidden Shoal artist profile: Elisa Luu

Elisa Luu

Rome-based electronica artist Elisa Luu has an enviably light and precise touch. Though digitally crafted, her music is warm, inviting and uniquely human, betraying a vulnerability and sensitivity that is rarely found in the male-dominated sphere of electronica. With its sighing, lilting qualities, Elisa Luu’s music reawakens a sense of childlike wonder and adventure with every sprawling and sparkling track. It is ideally suited to visuals that portray moments of contemplation, transformation and redemption.

'Slow Bass Flute', taken from Elisa Luu's stunning debut album Chromatic Sigh, is part of my compilation of atmospheric/ambient tracks from the Hidden Shoal catalogue on Soundcloud:



Similarly dreamy is 'R3Son8':



Both these tracks are beatless, but when Elisa integrates electronic rhythms into her compositions, such as on 'Pixie Space Rock' and the following track 'Slowbeat', the results are equally beautiful:



Elisa Luu's new album will be released on Hidden Shoal later in the year, preceded by the single 'Se Fosse Per Me'.

If you're interested in licensing Elisa Luu's music for your creative project, please contact tim@dots-and-loops.com

Hidden Shoal artist profile: Wes Willenbring

Wes Willenbring

My initial intention was to run through the Hidden Shoal catalogue alphabetically, but a new single by Wes Willenbring has just been released, so I'm jumping ahead. Wes creates the kind of immersive, atmospheric music that bleeds masterfully between moments of sweet repose and queasy melancholy. The closer attention you pay to it, the more layers of meaning it reveals. As such, I can imagine his music providing the perfect soundtrack to slow-moving, reflective visuals.

Wes’s songs revolve around the primary elements of guitar and piano, the sounds expertly disassembled, reconstructed and manipulated to create minimalist atmospheres that draw equally from the sounds and moods of Leonard Cohen, Erik Satie, Earth, Brian Eno, Coil, and others. Across three albums, his attention has shifted gradually from more focus upon piano on his debut album Somewhere Someone Else through more varied pieces on his second album Close, But Not Too Close, to longform works on his forthcoming third album Weapons Reference Manual, which features new single 'The Consequences of Reckless':



I've included 'The Burrow' from Close, But Not Too Close on my compilation of atmospheric/ambient tracks from the Hidden Shoal catalogue featured on Soundcloud:



Plus, you can follow Wes on Soundcloud to sample tracks from across his excellent discography:



If you're interested in licensing Wes Willenbring's music for your creative project, please contact tim@dots-and-loops.com

Hidden Shoal artist profile: Antonymes

Now that the archiving of my music writing is out of the way, I can get on with the business of profiling the awesome Hidden Shoal artists whose music is available for licensing via dots and loops. The Hidden Shoal catalogue spans a startling array of genres and styles, from minimal, delicate ambient to heavy, rhythmic indie-rock. Nestled beautifully at the minimal, delicate ambient end of the spectrum is Antonymes.

Antonymes

Antonymes is designer, photographer and musician Ian M. Hazeldine, who is based in Wales. Ian's recorded output to date is characterised by sparse, thoughtful piano melodies, exquisitely rendered atmospheric textures and a truly cinematic approach to sound. His music is perfectly suited to moments of reflection, scenes of nature, and narratives that unfurl slowly and deliberately.

His album The Licence To Interpret Dreams was released to widespread critical acclaim in 2011. It comprises 12 beautiful pieces, including the single 'Endlessly', which is featured on my YouTube channel:



Another of Antonymes' songs, 'The Slow Beginnings of a Fragile Acceptance', which opens The Licence To Intepret Dreams, can be streamed on Soundcloud as part of an atmospheric/ambient compilation I've put together:



If you're interested in licensing Antonymes' music for your creative project, please contact tim@dots-and-loops.com