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"Embrace Storms" and "Mono No Aware" in The Sunday Experience

Embrace Storms

Loosely connected with my treatment, or should I correct that, lack of since I’m currently on strike and refusing it, I’ve managed to get myself on to a eight week mindfulness course, you know the kind of thing, connecting to the now, the moment, not reflecting or mind wandering, but more stepping back to be aware and observe your surroundings. Swiftly though, in case we lose the other reader into thinking they’ve mistakenly arrived at some ‘science now’ blog as opposed to a hapless music missive. I mention all this because ‘in your head’ by James Murray, taken from a co-opted release put out between Slowcraft and KrysaliSound entitled ’embrace storms’, has all the assisting attributes of a mindfulness meditative. At just shy of 21 minutes in length, ‘in your head’ is afforded the chance and space to connect and caress the synapses, its dream like harvesting delicately toned and almost invisible in detail, ghosts with a divine demurring occasioned by the destressing feel good calming tender of hazily radiant pulsars which, as the healing repair manual (mindfulness)trains and teaches, root you in a moment of connectivity with the eternal consciousness, the effect of which is both healing and strangely inwardly cleansing

https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2019/12/09/james-murray-5/

Mono No Aware

Staying a second or so longer with the Italian imprint Krysalisound, us being enquiring folk, decided to take ourselves on a brief wander to their bandcamp site to see what else they had in their locker. Literally just released, we eyed Nāda Mushin’s ‘Mono No Aware’ from off which the track ‘to flow like water’ had us suitably smitten and indeed spiralling in its bitter sweet grace fall. Like a dying star slowly imploding in slow formation, there’s a one last hurrah sentiment scoring here as the cascades of sun bleached shimmering’s swirl with head bowed majesty summoning forth one last concerted effort to part amid a glorious rapture of radiant jubilance, utterly heart breaking.

https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2019/12/09/nada-mushin/

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“Embrace Storms” in Fluid Radio

Embrace Storms is a new solo work from James Murray. Consisting of two long-form sound collages, listeners will find Murrays’s music, like much of the planet, to be in a state of conflict, the middle of a prolonged storm. Opener ‘In Your Head’ contrasts and compliments the closing piece ‘In Your Heart’, as one cannot live without the other.

Embrace Storms is the first multi-format split release between London’s Slowcraft Records and Milan’s KrysaliSound, two independent labels from two different nations with one goal in mind: a dedication to pursuing original, minimal, and unclassifiable music through a gorgeous set of limited editions.

At first, Murray’s music resists the storm, refusing to accept its reality, only to later trust the process. Acceptance produces calm, but it’s hard to remain calm when normality snaps and everything is swept away.

When the mind refuses to confront, tones are left to chaotically spin, almost losing their balance with the rapid oscillations and rising dynamics. Apart from these elements, the music remains relatively calm. Even when something undesirable hits the fan, it seems that Murray can close his eyes, calm the section, and continue on. There’s no panic or a reflexive decision.

Embrace Storms doesn’t turn to look the other way. It embraces the fight, knowing that it’ll come out all the stronger, a development of character that can only be gained by going through the twister, and sometimesslogging through the sludge of surging floodwater. This storm has been growing for years, delivering a steady, soul-bruising rainfall instead of an instant downpour.

Of the two, ‘In Your Heart’ is the feeler and not the thinker. Introverted notes cycle back in on themselves until they are pulled into the heart of the music, carried into a tornado-like funnel that spins in the centre of the track. They are kept there, to be stored up and used as motivation and encouragement when things seem difficult. Gold is refined in the fire. It’s time to face the music and dance.

Link here: http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2019/11/james-murray-embrace-storms/

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“Maps of reason” in Darkroom

Duo italo-americano di stanza in Belgio, Tropic Of Coldness inaugura le releases viniliche della piccola etichetta KrysaliSound fornendo una prova di grande fascino, in linea con le uscite a cui la coppia artistica ci ha abituato dal 2012 ad oggi. “Maps Of Reason” consta di quattro tracce sinuose incentrate su un’ambient tenue, giocata fra reminiscenze glaciali, riflessioni solitarie e nostalgie latenti. I tempi sono dilatati, tesi a mimare una calma serafica e naturale, ben interpretata da toni ondeggianti in continuo movimento. La luce impera sovrana ad ogni traccia, tanto che i vecchi retaggi di marca dark ambient sono sostituiti da una sorta di aurora boreale pregna di mistero e magia. I passaggi acustici ben si uniscono al melange elettronico in un post-rock minimale e denso di emozioni (“Diving For Pearls”): se nel complesso le costruzioni appaiono semplici e rarefatte, basate su impianti che reiterano schemi essenziali, è fuor di dubbio la capacità di toccare le corde dell’anima senza cadute di tono o sprazzi di noia, segno che il monicker sa gestire con sapienza pochi mezzi ed inserirsi con successo in un genere per molti aspetti sin troppo frequentato. Prova di grande personalità e gusto formale, ben condita da un tocco comunicativo che conquista e fa sognare. Edito in vinile con elegante confezione al seguito. Una conferma per chi ha già ascoltato gli ottimi precedenti lavori.

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“Maps of reason” in Side-Line

Background/Info: Tropic Of Coldness is an Italian -American duo who met in Brussels. They already released a few albums and are now back on track –one year after the “Framed Waves”-album released on Glacial Movement.

Content: The sound universe of the duo hasn’t really changed. Cinematographic passages constructed by electronics, field recordings and guitar play create a sonic universe filled with prosperity. Both last cuts are somewhat darker, but still reflect a peaceful sensation.

+ + + : “Maps Of Reason” is exactly what you might from ambient music: a relaxing effect that take you away for a moment of total evasion. The tracks have something warm and comfortable although there’s a part of mystery hanging over the work. The field recordings are essential to this opus. They feel like little sonic details, which are accentuating this mysterious and sometimes darker touch. Last, but not least, I also like the artwork of this album, which is made of cardboard.

– – – : I don’t see a real evolution with the previous album. There’s nothing new, but if you like this project you won’t complain.

Conclusion: “Maps Of Reason” feels like touched by the magic of Hypnos… a world of sweet dreams!

Best songs: “The Loss Of Empathy”, “Diving For Pearls”.

Rate: (7).

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“There Is A Flow In My Iris” in Ondarock

I riconoscimenti degli ultimi anni dell’artista danese Paw Grabowski, in particolare il recente “Nattesne”, stanno portando alla riscoperta dei suoi primi lavori, tra cui spicca la meritoria ristampa (anche in vinile) del suo esordio del 2007 “There Is A Flaw In My Iris”. Lavoro giovanile ma già maturo e consapevole, pone il musicista danese al limite del cantautorato minimale, con voce sussurrata e arpeggi di chitarra tanto flebili da sfiorare l’inconsistenza, ma allo stesso tempo portatori di un linguaggio tanto potente da affascinare musicisti di diversa estrazione, provenienti da ogni parte del mondo (solo per citarne alcuni, la Siberia di Foresteppe, il Giappone di Asuna o di Ykymr, la Germania di Jan Grünfeld, gli Stati Uniti di Peter Broderick o di Daniel K. Böhm fino all’Italia di Safir Nòu).

Lunghi bordoni di chitarra fungono da ninna nanna, con una voce tra il parlato e il sussurro, dove gli unici elementi estranei sono appena accennate sovraincisioni ambientali al servizio di questa estetica malinconica. La musica di Ojerum è fin dai suoi esordi antistorica, lontanissima dai tempi dell’ascolto compulsivo o della corsa frettolosa verso il nulla della contemporaneità. Le parole diventano incomprensibili, simili al concetto di incomunicabilità odierna già descritto magnificamente da Matt Elliott in “Drinking Songs”. Quando invece sono comprensibili, si limitano a mero sillabare infantile (“Matka”), come a sottolineare l’inutilità di nuove parole nel mare delle opinioni fallaci, tutte egualmente lontane dalla verità, tipico della nostra società.

La strada di Grabowski è ancora una volta la ricerca di se stessi nel silenzio e nella quiete. Tra gli otto brani spiccano i sette minuti di “Pristine” o gli arpeggi ripetuti di “Mist” e “Tonerum”, punti di partenza per quella che diventerà negli anni la poetica fragile e coraggiosa del progetto Ojerum.

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“There is a flaw in my iris” in Fluid Radio

With new additions to both Eilean Rec and the frequently explored by myself Krysalisound, Ojerum has been busy. This acoustically minded record, “There Is A Flaw In My Iris”, takes a departure from other drone material, marking itself out as a lullaby type organism with the songwriter sounding like he’s talking to his instruments in his sleep.
A woozy affair then, this is only a description of the very nominal and tuned tuning of guitar that glue the sabbatical narrative together. I enjoy the mood: it’s uplifting, full of melancholy and almost music-box-like in its quotidian appetite for a morsel of melody. What say you electronics, have you no fizz here? It would seem not. The music sounds totally uncontrolled by the forces of machines. Strumming a sharp string, murmuring a clutch of vowels, towing things along, like a silk handkerchief made from sows.
At any instance, there is no hurry here, no climax. Amazing stuff I would say, simply for how unpretentious it is, how direct. The vibe is implanted deep in rustic, acoustic and abstract folk meanderings, a river that runs deep underground and into the vast ocean of the world at large. There is a purity to it all. I wonder how music like this can subvert so many elements of prediction and remain wholly other, wholly unique. Like “Don’t Worry Mother” on Shimmering Moods by Ojerum released recently, this sound art carries with it ghosts of the past, specters that, fundamentally, sound as if their spirits have been set free from the coma-tense. An utterly spellbinding release, and one that I want to return to for rest.

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“Maps of reason” in Rockerilla

Due viaggiatori alla scoperta di un mondo ancora non del tutto svelato. Alle spalle del loro vagare si formano lunghe scie di suono, attimi colmi di immensità elettro-acustica che rilasciano luminescenti sostanze visibili a chilometri di distanza. A vederle dall’alto formano un accogliente vibrante reticolato lungo quanto il tempo di un sorriso, quanto basta per abbandonarsi privi di barriere, distesi sull’onda continua e profonda di un suono che produce languore e crea ipnotica dipendenza. Un viaggio iniziato nel 2012, quello dei ToC, un tragitto nel cuore del suono che continua a stupire per la sua superba bellezza. SEGUITE LE MAPPE!

Mirco Salvadori

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“There Is A Flaw In My Iris” in Beach Sloth

A unique rustic charm informs the entirety of øjeRum’s “There Is A Flaw In My Iris”. Blurred beauty emerges from the intersection of folk and ambience. The beauty of the album comes from its patience. Nothing ever feels rushes for the whole of it explores gorgeous melodies and careful gestures. Outright soothing the many layers interact in such tender ways ensuring that all of it simply shines. Songs play off each other making it all feel akin to a grand journey. Usage of a deliberate sonic palette further adds to its majesty.

Unspooling with such luxury “Mist” opens the album up on a high note. Vocals add to the surreal temperament with the echoes of “Il y a” for it all gently wafts up into the sky. Great restraint is shown on the immersive “Tonerum” easily the highlight of the album. Full of mystery the various effects give the whole of the album an elusive quality. Blissed-out electronics work wonders on the meditative “When”. Guitar tones ring out into such wide spaces on “Picture” where øjeRum occasionally touches upon Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy with his articulate lyricism. Wisps hover up into the air on the spacious scope of “Matka”. Sprawling and lush, “Pristine” has a toy-box melody quality to it, ensuring that the acoustic and electronic merge together.

On “There Is A Flaw In My Iris” øjeRum goes for an ornate lovely world, one that has such dreamy hues.

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