Jan. 2, 2025
I’m a bit late with this summary of my favorite recorded music from the last quarter of last year. Not that anyone had noticed or was holding me to account. Frankly, the end of 2024 was challenging in ways that were not very pleasant, and I’m not going to miss it. However, there was some music that helped ease the pain, and I’m happy to share it with you (whoever you may be) just slightly past the deadline. Please note this is not a year-end best-of list, just stuff I heard since October that I wanted to hear more than once. All descriptive blurbs in quotes are taken directly from the release pages or other reviews. The occasional lines not in quotes are my personal commentary. As always, the names of artists who live or have lived in the Pacific Northwest are in bold.
Afrocop - Afrocop
"As longtime Afrocop fans know, they are inveterate sonic chameleons...they can beautify the background like ambient masters, get up with it à la Miles Davis’ filthiest electric-era band, or fling you into deepest, fusionoid space on a nanosecond’s notice."
Luiza Brina - Prece (Brazil)
"The Brazilian singer-songwriter Luiza Brina calls these non-religious prayers calls for peace, salves for broken hearts, and announcements of arrivals and departures in life... Her soft-yet-commanding voice, nimble nylon guitar picking and orchestral arrangements expand outward with bombastic synths and more subtle electronic textures, crafting a sound that's right now, with a host of collaborators from Brazil's past and present." - NPR
Alvin Curran - Archeology
Alvin's classic albums from the 70s and 80s combining field recordings, improvisation and electronics were hugely inspiring and influential for me. Here he revisits some unreleased material from that era and drags it kicking and screaming into the present and the future.
EarthtoneSkytone - Pottery of Valleys and Arches
"...combines mesmerizing grooves with atmospheric songwriting, contemplative lyrics and evocative vocal textures."
enereph (Connie Fu) - Immortal Mirth
"...formed out of her deep contemplation of concepts ranging from Chinese cultural symbology to physical materials and the weight of navigating the human world we’ve found ourselves in.... weaving together influences of ambient music, Chicago footwork, the UK hardcore continuum and beyond."
Amaro Freitas - Y'Y (Brazil)
"In 2020 the pianist, who hails from the Northeastern Brazilian coastal city of Recife, was drawn to Manaus, located in the Amazon basin, some 4600 kilometers to the west. His experience in that lush wilderness led him into a new realm of musical creation, one rooted in magic and possibility and tempered by a sense of stewardship for the earth’s bounties and a connection to the Sateré Mawé indigenous community. ”
Gamelan Bike Bike - Teka-Teki. (Canada)
"Gamelan Bike Bike draws its musical inspiration from Bali, Indonesia and its raw materials from the scrap metal bins of Vancouver. In 2012, instrument maker George Rahi collected over 100 discarded bicycle frames to build the instruments, configuring the colourful metal scraps into various types of metallophones and gongs. The 10 member ensemble is dedicated to performing new works for gamelan."
Bill Horist - Substratum
Improvisations for prepared electric guitar and electronics.
Daniela Huerta - Soplo (Mexico/Germany)
"A hallucinatory array of vaporous atmospheres, illusory rhythms, vanishing voices, and evocative environmental recordings, "Soplo" (Spanish for 'breath') ruminates on the enduring resonance of storytelling."
Leanna Keith - Body of Breath
"Bass flute as a living, breathing, organism. Backed by live and pre-recorded processed electronics, Leanna creates shifting surrealist soundscapes, utilizing the unique timbre and extended technique possibilities of the bass flute as a solo instrument."
Lamina (Clarice Calvo-Pinsolle) - Sueños acuáticos. (Belgium)
"Water ripples all around, and echoing sounds stretch out into a shady sub aquatic habitat. Its dark corners slowly burst into view as cresting noises reveal fresh caverns teeming with liquid life."
Matt Marble - Arising Eyes
I don’t quite know what to say about this (that’s a compliment), and the artist isn’t saying much either. You could call this “guitar music,” or guitar-oriented, but its palette is more expansive than that. Just listen.
John McCowen & Madison Greenstone - Mundanas VII - XI
Hypnotic music based on the experience of earthquakes in Iceland. "...two contrabass clarinets emanating low, sine-like tones with shifting harmonics activated by these rumbling swells. When these two contrabass clarinets are combined, there emerges a wave of combinatorial frequencies - an acoustic stream of sound almost tactile."
The Necks - Bleed (Australia)
"...explores a sublime language of stillness. With a single, 42-minute composition, The Necks masterfully express the unspeakable beauty of decay and space..."
Rich Pellegrin & Neil Welch - Topography
"Compositions and improvisations directly inspired by the landscapes of the American West – especially Whidbey Island, located just north of Seattle. Each track provides an abstract vignette of a natural area, and the simplicity of instrumentation [piano, tenor and soprano saxophones] and use of space makes each track feel all the more clear, even naked."
Pani Candra Rini - Wani (Indonesia)
"The album was created by giving the recorded musicians “very basic outlines” of the songs, improvising around those frameworks in the studio, and giving producers John Dieterich and Chris Botta “free reign to produce the tracks as they liked.” The result is a loud, fun, chaotic, energizing, and mesmerizing collection of songs that explore themes from traditional Javanese art, scripture, politics, shadow play, and song."
Terror/Cactus - Forastero
"Psychedelic electro cumbia and experimental digital folklore... explores themes of identity, memory, perception, and mysticism... a reflection on the experiences of immigrants, troubadours, and displaced people - bringing up feelings of isolation, solitude, and introspection, while simultaneously evoking the freedom of roaming in nature and dreaming of a world that is beyond borders."
David Toop & Rie Nakajima - Music for Vòila (UK/Japan)
Delicate, detailed improvisations in which (I think) Rie’s tiny motorized machines encounter various assorted percussive objects along side Toop’s delicate playing of things that are mostly not generally considered to be musical instruments. Reminds me of the "small music" of the late Rolf Julius.