The cover art to Witch’s Ladder features the stunning 1933 painting “The Primal Wing” by Agnes Pelton, a visionary symbolist who was not widely known during her lifetime but is now being recognized as a pioneer of spiritual abstract art alongside the likes of Hilma Af Klimt and Wassily Kandinsky. Recorded live with no overdubs and inspired by folklore, mysticism and the landscapes of the North of England, Witch’s Ladder represents a significant evolution in his sound, while also retaining the unique sense of depth and space that has drawn comparison with the likes of Loren Connors, Dylan Carlson, and Popul Vuh. On this new album he uses his Telecaster, valve amp and effects to weave an even deeper spell, as fingerpicked melodies soar over hypnotic riffs, looped basslines and cosmic reverb trails. Witch’s Ladder is the fourth full-length album from UK guitarist Dean McPhee, whose last LP Four Stones (2018) introduced a kick drum pulse, hypnotic loops and synth-like Ebow lines to his sparsely meditative, echo-laden solo guitar music. Smokey clear vinyl gatefold cover with insert edition of 500.įile Under: Ambient, Electronic, Fourth Worldĭean McPhee: Witch’s Ladder (Hood Faire) LP Instrumentation: tongue drums, bass, thunderegg, voice, keyboards, samples, wireless, stratus, airtubes, skin, percussion, marimba, digital edits, dharbouka, roto-tom, sholak, finger cymbals, rain stick. Now revisited, this expanded vinyl edition features an additional 30 minutes of material, together with new glorious artwork from artist and actor Frederick Schimmelschmidt. It’s a deeply hypnotic work that joins the dots between the late 80’s industrial scene and the smoked-out chill out rooms of the ’90s, which should have received more attention at the time, were it not for the haphazard Staalplaat label who ensured O Yuki Conjugate remained a total obscurity in their home country. Brooding atmospheres unfold underneath a wide range of ethnic percussion and deep, meditative basslines - existing in a unique cross-section of Hassell-inspired 4th world mystery, Industrial landscapes and the rich middle-eastern projections pioneered by Muslimgauze. Making use of the emergent technology of the early ’90s, Equator was one of the first albms to be mixed with digital equipment, weaving together a blend of studio, live and location recordings to create their own deeply immersive, enveloping soundscapes. Coming four years after their lauded Peyote release, the group split and reformed into their Mk II phase with the two original members Roger Horberry and Andrew Hulme, along with Malcolm McGeorge, Dan Mudford, and Pete Woodhead. A subtle yet stunning work that more than forty years on still seems charged with possibility, Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri arrives in a loving reproduction of the original sleeve, featuring Edith Schloss’ beautiful cover painting, remastered audio and with new liner notes by Alvin Curran and Francis Plagne.įile Under: Experimental, Electronic, Ambientīritish post-industrial/ambient group O Yuki Conjugate arrives on Aguirre Records with a vinyl run of their previously CD only 1995 release Equator. As Curran explains, his approach is like that of a filmmaker in the editing process, working with “whole blocks of recorded time.” The purring of a cat, toy piano, a child counting, plaintive synthesizer tones, the cacophony of exotic birds at the London Zoo - each disappears into the next, until, on the LP’s second side, a solo piano performance takes center stage, moving unexpectedly from percussive minimalist permutations to a halting rendition of “Georgia on My Mind”. Far from the bracing pointillism of much musique concrete, the elements encountered on the meandering course followed by Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri - whether a frenetic piano improvisation, dense layers of Serge synthesizer and ocarina, or a monologue from Frederic Rzewski’s five-year old son, Alexis - often occupy the foreground of our attention for minutes at a time. Each of these solo works combines field recordings with performances on synthesizer, various acoustic instruments, and voice, arranged in languorously paced, dreamy sequences.
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Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri (Light Flowers Dark Flowers) - its title inspired by an intersection in Milan - is the second in the series of four solo recordings Alvin Curran issued in the 1970s and early 1980s, preceded by Songs and Views from the Magnetic Garden (1975), followed by The Works (1980) and Canti Illuminati (1982). Alvin Curran: Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri (Black Truffle) LPīlack Truffle announce the first-ever vinyl reissue of Alvin Curran’s classic Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri, originally issued in 1978 on Ananda, the cooperative label run by Curran, Roberto Laneri, and Giacinto Scelsi.