Mixtape: Fractured Air – July 2020

July’s mix features the majestic “Wondrous Love” by folk legend Shirley Collins who recently announced details of new album (and follow up to 2016’s “Lodestar”), “Heart’s Ease”, which is due for release via Domino on 24th July. It’s first single is the timeless gem “Wondrous Love”, as Domino state: “its tune comes from an 18th Century English ballad about the infamous sea captain William Kidd, who was hanged for piracy in 1701. Collins first heard the hymn at a Sacred Harp Convention in Alabama (Collins and Alan Lomax recorded it on their field recording trip in 1959). Shirley has decided to sing it now, she said , “because songs are stored in my memory for a great many years, and suddenly it seems the right time to bring them out again.””

Independent music treasure and visionary artist Julianna Barwick returns this month with the magnificent “Healing Is A Miracle”, her Ninja Tune debut after remarkable releases for numerous indie labels over the last decade including Asthmatic Kitty, Dead Oceans, RVNG Intl’s FRKWYS series and Gregory Euclide’s THESIS label. New York-based Barwick’s fourth full length once again finds the gifted composer meld her church choir singing background during her rural Louisiana upbringing with her deeply innate gift for building expansive, immersive and wholly transformative sound worlds. “Healing Is A Miracle” finds Barwick collaborate with special guests and  fellow music visionaries Mary Lattimore, Jónsi and Nosaj Thing.

Fresh from the release of  The Soft Pink Truth (Drew Daniel)’s fantastic “Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase?”, M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel announced the hugely anticipated return of beloved electronic pioneers Matmos this month with the celebrated duo’s mightily ambitious and intriguing “The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises In Group Form” (Thrill Jockey). Featuring a dazzling array of contributions from 99 musicians (Daniel Lopatin, Marisa Anderson, Yo La Tengo, David Grubbs, Jennifer Walshe, So Percussion to name just a few), where the sole instruction was to “play anything that they wanted, but the tempo of any rhythmic material had to be set at 99 beats per minute”, the results are bound to yield some of the most rewarding music of 2020.

Back in June came one of this year’s true gems, “Arrow”, by Los Angeles-based artist Sarah Lipstate via her Noveller guise. Like fellow contemporary guitar luminaries such as William Tyler or Aidan Baker, Noveller’s electric guitar compositions constantly evolve, expand and inspire, creating an enthralling, near-symphonic, free-flowing body of work in the process. “Arrow” is released via Ba Da Bing Records and is yet another wholly unique and breathtakingly original opus from one of independent music’s most gifted artists.

Other new releases in July’s mix come from: the special Numero Group compilation on Dale Warren’s fascinating 24 Carat Black project; Yair Elazar Glotman & Mats Erlandsson’s breathtaking collaborative album “Emanate” on FatCat’s ever-dependable 130701 imprint; Ricardo Donoso’s glorious “Content” full-length for Denovali; the legendary Jon Hassell returns with the eagerly anticipated “Seeing Through Sound (Pentimento Volume Two)” – out 24th July on Ndeya records – so far unveiled are the magnificent pair of tracks “Fearless” and “Unknown Wish”; the sublime post-punk-infused debut self-titled EP by Sydney-based Loose Fit heralds a hugely exciting and intriguing opening chapter for this special band (FatCat); Ceaselessly innovative indie greats Dirty Projectors continue their glorious ongoing series of 5 E.P. releases scheduled for 2020 with this month’s “Flight Tower” (Domino), this time with Felicia Douglass at the helm.

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Fractured Air – July 20 Mix

01. Flying Lotus – “Fire Is Coming” (feat. David Lynch) (Warp)
02. INVŌKER – “Batumi” (Azzur)
03. T. Gowdy – “Up CTRL” (Constellation)
04. Darkstar – “Wolf” (John Talabot’s Materia Dub) (Warp)
05. Ital Tek – “Open Heart” (Planet Mu)
06. Rival Consoles – “Vibrations on a String” (Erased Tapes)
07. Matmos – “No Concept” (Thrill Jockey)
08. Ricardo Donoso – “Forking Path” (Denovali)
09. Oneohtrix Point Never – “Good Time” (Good Time OST, Warp)
10. Spiritualized – “Spread Your Wings” (Fat Possum/Sony Music)
11. Noveller – “Pre-fabled” (Ba Da Bing)
12. Spectrum – “All Night Long” (Sony Music)
13. Television Personalities – “Diary Of A Young Man” (Fire Records)
14. Charlie Megira & The Modern Dance Club – “The Valley Of Tears” (Numero Group)
15. Loose Fit – “Pull the Lever” (FatCat)
16. Protomartyr – “Michigan Hammers” (Domino)
17. Girl Band – “Ereignis” (Rough Trade)
18. Dirty Projectors – “Self Design” (Domino)
19. Nightmares On Wax – “Me And You” (Warp)
20. 24 Carat Black & LaRhonda LeGette – “I Need A Change” (Numero Group)
21. Takashi Kokubo – “回廊の音楽” (Glossy Mistakes)
22. Jon Hassell – “Fearless” (Ndeya)
23. Ka Baird – “Imagination” (RVNG Intl)
24. Angel Bat Dawid – “Transition East” (International Anthem)
25. Becca Mancari – “I’m Sorry” (Captured Tracks)
26. The Beatles – “Yes It Is” (Apple)
27. Roy Harper – “One for All” (Science Friction)
28. Shirley Collins – “Wondrous Love” (Domino)
29. PJ Harvey – “Prayer” (The Virtues OST, Invada)
30. Yair Elazar Glotman & Mats Erlandsson – “Procession” (130701)
31. The Transcendence Orchestra – “Overview Effect” (Editions Mego)
32. Owen Pallett  – “Paragon Of Order” (w/ London Contemporary Orchestra) (Domino)
33. Max Richter – “All Human Beings (Voiceless Mix) Pt. 3” (Decca/Universal)
34. Julianna Barwick – “Healing Is A Miracle” (Ninja Tune)
35. Brigid Mae Power – “Head Above The Water” (Fire Records)
36. Rebecca Foon – “New World Reprise” (Constellation)
37. Arthur Russell – “In Love With You For The Last Time” (Audika)

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Chosen One: Rebecca Foon

“It is wild looking back at songs like that with a certain sense of bewilderment of how it came out of me, almost like they were created from some transcendental state – a space where the conscious and subconscious meet.” —Rebecca Foon

The renowned Canadian-born composer Rebecca Foon released “Waxing Moon” this February via Constellation Records, her first eponymous album, after a string of widely acclaimed albums under her Saltland guise. Best known as a cellist and frequent contributor to many of the most influential and celebrated groups in the thriving Canadian independent scene (Montreal, to be precise, where Foon is based), Foon has been a founding member of Esmerine, and a key contributor to the world-renowned Set Fire To Flames and A Silver Mt. Zion. Foon is also the co-founder of Pathway To Paris, a nonprofit organization set up in 2014, dedicated to turning the Paris Agreement into reality through finding and offering innovative and ambitious solutions for combating global climate change.

What’s immediately apparent on listening to “Waxing Moon” is the predominant use of the piano here, and when combined with Foon’s hauntingly beautiful and soul-stirring lyrics, the startling effect is akin to listening to the works of Liz Harris’s Grouper, Cécile Schott’s Colleen or Alicia Merz’s Birds Of Passage, such is the divine spell it can’t fail but impress deep into the heart’s core. It’s what music is truly made for, as it feels like a communion-like dialogue occurs between composer and listener alone, both sharing that same intangible, indefinable timeline, that sensory-heightened, shared and sacred space.

While the album most predominantly features piano, Foon still performs cello across the album, often layered over the piano and vocal lines. Indeed, this slow, time-honoured practice of layering tracks one-by-one certainly feeds into establishing the tone and mood for the album: there isn’t a single note that isn’t anything but perfect and yet the album never feels as though it’s overly polished or bathed in too strong a light; rather, it feels as though it could have been struck in one rapid, inspiration-fueled take such is the sense of the present moment distilled throughout. They are songs from a room which have been suspended in time indefinitely.

“Waxing Moon” is framed beautifully by a pair of instrumental piano compositions – “New World” and it’s “Reprise” counterpart – the former introducing us to Foon’s truly singular realm of divine, immersive artistry (much like Lubomyr Melnyk’s “Pockets Of Light”, as the piano keys pulsate and reverberate like a true force of nature) while the latter is all about the spaces between notes, as they intertwine with the memory of each and every other distant note of Waxing Moon’s ten staggering compositions, as they endlessly permeate, weave, and navigate the stratosphere of Foon’s unique realm.

“Pour” has the direct immediacy that hits the marrow of the bone as Foon sings, mantra-like:

“I want to dive
Into your heart
And feel it pulse
To the depths of my core
Expanding like wings
Into something greater”

The repetitive, hypnotic electric guitar lines echo Set Fire To Flames or “Moon Pix”-era Cat Power, while the vocal delivery (like all of Foon’s songbook) could be sung a cappella and the effect would be no less earth-shattering or dripping with poignancy and urgency. How the lyrics slowly reveal themselves across bars, lines and verses (think Bill Callahan’s “Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle”) is a thing of real beauty, it feels like one’s heartbeat is slowing to the particular beat of Waxing Moon’s own sonic universe, for we are suspended in a new timeline now as we continue to orbit the sun of Foon’s universe.
Later, electric guitars are also used to hypnotic effect on the glorious, PJ Harvey-infused track “Wide Open Eyes”, an acute sense of yearning to be free is offset against the backdrop of frenzied guitar and cello lines as they enter a cathartic dialogue with one another. “Wanting so much / To be free / From the heartbreak / Of this world” sings Foon on the outro as the deepest of one’s most innermost realisations rise to the surface, all the while an unrelenting guitar strum and drumbeat pulsate and reverberate as though from some distant, faraway shore.

“Give me your hand / And I’ll take you / To the ocean of love” sings Foon on the majestic “Ocean Song”, a song dripping in so much soul-baring honesty and poetic lyricism, it could score only the most touching of moments in fiction, think Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” or Haruki Murakami’s “Norwegian Wood”. It’s hauntingly beautiful lyrics (“The child between us / Melted me / Helping me believe / In almost anything”) could be penned by the folk greats such as Vashti Bunyan or Shirley Collins, while, once more, the sense of both the finite and the infinite lie side by side here, creating (and holding) an unrelenting tension throughout.

Elsewhere, both the album’s title-track and “Vessels” (the latter finds Foon sharing vocal duties with Patrick Watson) effortlessly journey to even greater depths of emotion, as they reflect our own deepest regrets and innermost fears in the process. Waxing Moon’s title-track is predominantly piano and voice (while ghostly traces of reverberating notes hang in the air magnificently) which once more only serves to highlight the sheer power and mastery Foon possesses as both a songwriter and composer. As Foon sings: “This beautiful waxing moon” repeatedly on the song’s outro one feels a celestial, godlike light being emitted far and wide, slowly lightening the most far-reaching bands of darkness and pain.

Witnessing “Vessels” for the first time is – like everything across Waxing Moon’s orbit – a soul-stirring experience: how lines of cello and voice (alternating between Foon and Watson as if in private dialogue through dreamlike reverie) beat in unison is a thing of such true beauty, it recalls Arthur Russell or Robert Wyatt at their most poignant and beautiful. “The future seems / So half written” sings Watson as Foon continues: “Can we Foresee / Vessels of love / Boundless love”. The alternating chorus lines between Foon and Watson (as cello lines fill the same sacred spaces) is one of the countless moments of epiphany found on “Waxing Moon”.

Lyrically, the magnificent “Waxing Moon” powerfully (and quietly) reveals its central themes to be that of the dual co-existence of both the temporary and the permanent, the finite and the infinite. One can’t help feel one’s own very small, limited place in a world so vast, unrelenting and unforgiving. And yet, importantly, a sense of true hope co-exists here: there is the (real not imagined) hope that this very place one occupies (as finite or temporary as it is) is indeed one to be valued, one to be truly appreciated and cherished closed to heart always. It’s the true testament of Waxing Moon’s staggering beauty that such an affirming feeling can be arrived upon, through mere notes or chords of sheet music, words on a piece of paper. But such is the true artistry and divine spirit of the composer, by entering other realms of Foon’s making we can set foot to earth once more with hopes revived, faded dreams rekindled and spirits reawakened. “Waxing Moon” is an album which continues to profoundly touch and inspire long after the last tides of the moon have ebbed and flowed.

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“Waxing Moon” by Rebecca Foon is out now on Constellation Records.

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https://www.rebeccafoon.com/
http://cstrecords.com/

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Interview with Rebecca Foon.

Congratulations, Rebecca, on the magnificent “Waxing Moon”, it’s such a singularly unique and truly moving listening experience, with so much fragile beauty throughout. Even from your two previous Saltland albums, this new album seems more intimate and personal, with more of a focus on the piano with your vocals too. I’d love to know what the starting points were for you in the making and genesis of “Waxing Moon”?

Rebecca Foon: Oh thank you so much, I am so happy to hear it speaks to you. This definitely is the most raw and intimate album I have ever made. I wanted to challenge my foundation of composing, and decided to write most of the songs from the piano, which I have never done before. This carved out a different type of space for me to sing and write lyrics to. The lyrics are definitely the most personal words I have ever put to music, and touch on intimate moments in my life, while linking them to the current state of our world, the sadness and heartbreak around us, while also trying to offer a sense of hope.

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I love how the instrumental piano piece “New World” guides us into the universe of “Waxing Moon” (while it’s reprise is the fitting farewell to the journey), the compositions are reminiscent of Peter Broderick or Lubomyr Melnyk in their beauty and timelessness. It must be really liberating to have piano-based compositions such as this, especially when you’re principally known as a composer with regards to the cello instrument?

RF: Aw thank you, yes I truly fell in love with playing the piano while making this album, and it has been so deeply fulfilling to immerse myself in this new approach to creating, as well as being able to add cello to my own piano compositions. This has been a whole new way of composing for me, truly taking me out of my comfort zone.

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Would you have been taught the cello or piano first, when growing up? Which piano composers and cellists would you mostly admire or influenced you the most in your formative years I wonder?

RF: I grew up studying classical cello, and only recently started playing the piano, however have always loved improvising on the piano ever since I was young. Philip Glass, Eric Satie, Arvo Pärt, Pablo Casals, Yo-Yo Ma, Mstislav Rostropovich are all composers and musicians that have deeply inspired me over the years.

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I love how there’s always that sense of dichotomy at the heart of your music, a sense of both the micro and macro, permanent and temporal, the self and the universe… The really breathtaking part of “Waxing Moon” is the quiet realisation that one feels on listening to it is arriving at that sense of feeling our own place in the universe around us.
I guess it must stem not only from your technical skills, lyricism and sensitivities with arrangements and collaboration and so on but also your love and passion for nature and the natural world too?

RF: I am so glad you feel this from the album, this truly is what the heart of the album is all about. Over the last few years I have been doing a lot of climate change and conservation work, and the environmental reality we find ourselves in is always on my mind. The waxing moon is when the illumination of the moon expands over time. I chose this title because it seems more than ever humanity needs to become more enlightened and recognize how deeply interconnected we are in order to carve out a sustainable path for ourselves. So in essence the album speaks to some of my own personal heartbreak over the last few years as well as my sense of wonder from being alive together and connects these emotions to the current state of our world, while also offering a sense of hope for our collective future.

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The lyrics and songwriting in your music is always so transcendental, there’s that sense of dreamlike reverie and heightened atmosphere there. Even if the recordings were done with just voice alone the affect would be no less moving. I’d love to know how you approach songwriting, for instance with songs such as “Ocean Song” and “Dreams to be Born”, would you have the piece of music written first, prior to adding voice or can it be the other way round? Is it difficult to “let go” once songs like these are finished?

RF: I usually write the lyrics to my songs separately from the music and then put them together in a second phase – one I have a foundation of the chords and some lyrics on paper. But sometimes I am blessed with songs just pouring out of me, and I have no control over it. “Ocean Song” and “Dreams to be Born” are examples of this. It also happened with “Light of Mercy” on the last Saltland album. It feels almost like it just comes from an open channel. “Ocean Song” is the most intimate and deeply personal song I have ever written. It is wild looking back at songs like that with a certain sense of bewilderment of how it came out of me, almost like they were created from some transcendental state – a space where the conscious and subconscious meet.

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“Vessels” is another sonic gem on “Waxing Moon”. That repeated “Vessels of love / Boundless love” in the chorus is so beautiful. I wonder did you write the song with the knowledge that it would be sung in a collaborative way? It must have been a great experience having Patrick Watson sing and add his voice to “Vessels”? It must have been very special hearing the finished recording back for the first time?

RF: It is funny I actually had no idea Patrick was going to sing on “Vessels”. Patrick is a very dear friend, and he came by the studio to hang out and listen. I played him that track just after I had added the vocals, and he asked Jace and I (Jace was recording and co-produced the album) if he could go into the vocal booth and try something. And so Jace set up a mic, I showed him the lyrics, and he just started playing around with vocal melodies in the vocal booth. I had no idea what was going to come of the takes, but in the mix it organically fit so incredibly together, and then we had the idea to mix it so we each sang certain lyrics separately – and the repeated “Vessels of love / Boundless love” together. Patrick truly has an incredible ability to create stunning melodies, and his falsetto voice works so beautifully in the song, it truly was a magical experience creating this together.

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I also love the more guitar-based tracks, such as “Pour” and “Wide Open Eyes”, they both add another dimension to the album in their immediacy and directness, and are powerful parts to “Waxing Moon” and its trajectory, I love how they almost act as counterpoints to the piano-based compositions. I’d love for you to talk about how these songs were born?

RF: I wrote “Pour” on the piano, but it just didn’t seem to work, I couldn’t get a good take of the vocals, and it wasn’t capturing the emotions I was trying to convey. So I asked Jace if he could try the piano part on electric guitar, and it totally solved the problem, and I could finally sing on it. After writing and recording “Pour”, I wanted to have one other song on the album that was driving with electric guitar and drums. So Jace and I worked on ideas together in the studio and Richard Reed Parry (another close friend who would come by and hang out during the sessions) came in and wrote a bass line, which became “Wide Open Eyes”. I think this song might actually be my favorite song on the album, it was so fun for me to sing on this song, and record all the counter vocal melodies.

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Collaboration is of course something that naturally you’ve done so much over the years, whether when having other musicians on your own albums (and indeed to the many groups you’ve been closely associated with or founding members of). I love how such musicians add their own fingerprint to your albums, for instance Warren Ellis on “A Common Truth” or Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld on “I Thought It Was Us But It Was All Of Us”, or here with Richard Reed Parry, for example. It must be a really rewarding part of the making of an album having such musicians and composers contribute to your albums?

RF: Yes absolutely, I feel so blessed to have such incredible friends who are also incredibly inspiring musicians. The Saltland records and “Waxing Moon” are such personal records for me, and everyone that has played on them have been an enormous part of my life in different ways, and I am so grateful. I absolutely loved playing cello to Warren’s violin on the song “Magnolia” on “A Common Truth” and also writing those instrumental songs on that album together. I absolutely love playing with Colin and adore his epic swirling circular saxophone tonalities on the first Saltland Album. Sarah and I have known each other since I was a teenager, and we are involved in multiple projects together, at this point she feels like a sister, and playing with her feels like an extension of myself. It was also so wonderful to have Sophie Trudeau play on “Waxing Moon”, as we hadn’t played together since our time in Mt. Zion.

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It must be incredibly enriching and a source of much pride to be part of Esmerine and also having contributed so much to so many other groups, such as A Silver Mt. Zion and Set Fire To Flames also, especially as their songbooks and discographies are such treasured and revered music for so many independent music fans, they’re very much up their with the likes of Rachel’s, Dirty Three and Godspeed You! Black Emperor in terms of their influence and importance.
I’d love to gain an insight into what the writing process was like for Set Fire To Flames? Listening to both “Sings Reign Rebuilder” and “Telegraphs In Negative / Mouths Trapped In Static” over the years, the mystery and wonder only grows as time goes by. It feels like it’s the entire ensemble improvising and finding their path organically while sharing the same room, in that magical, timeless way. Would pieces have been rehearsed beforehand or did you all have separate ideas prior to recording them? I’m sure you have treasured memories of live shows together in Montreal around this time too?

RF: Yes those albums truly shaped me as a musician, I was so young then when we recorded them, and it is how I met so many incredible musicians in Montreal that then led me to playing in A Silver Mt. Zion and forming Esmerine with Bruce. Those Set Fire to Flames albums came from a deep desire to improvise together in spaces that deeply moved us, only to discover what could come out of our time together, delirious from fatigue from hours and hours of recording and committed to a love to create together. Some of us were just getting to know each other through that time, and so many musical projects evolved from those new found relationships. Set Fire to Flames holds a very special place in my heart and I am so grateful to Dave for his vision in it all and asking me to be a part of it as it truly shaped the trajectory of my music life to date.

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Being in Montreal and part of such a thriving independent music scene (as well as being part of the Constellation Records family, of course) where there’s such always such an amazing spirit of community there must be a constant source for much inspiration?

RF: It definitely has profoundly shaped me as a musician, and has allowed me to collaborate with so many incredible musicians over the years, that has also led me to working with musicians from around the world and co-founding the Non-profit Pathway to Paris with Jesse Paris Smith.

I could not be more grateful to be part of the music scene here and all the touring I have been fortunate to be a part of (especially now thinking back during these wild times).

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Your taste of music is always so special and wide-reaching. I wonder what albums have you been listening to the most lately?

RF: I have been listening to a lot of quiet, introspective music lately like Nils Frahm, Nick Drake, Arthur Russell, Lhasa de Sela as well as Simon Diaz and Alice Coltrane.

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“Waxing Moon” by Rebecca Foon is out now on Constellation Records.

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https://www.rebeccafoon.com/
http://cstrecords.com/

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Mixtape: Fractured Air – June 2020

June’s mix features the hugely anticipated debut solo LP by Grizzly Bear’s Chris Bear. Released under the American drummer and multi-instrumentalist’s Fools moniker, “Fools’ Harp Vol. 1” is available via the forever dependable Music From Memory label. What’s immediately apparent on listening to the album’s thirteen tracks (more will be made available shortly, via a cassette edition with bonus tracks) is the considerable gestation period these compositions undertook (Bear plays every instrument himself) before bearing fruition as a fully formed record. Recorded in between Grizzly Bear tours, the album took it’s final shape over a six week period in summer 2019, the results are a breathtaking insight into this truly independent and wholly creative spirit whose technical ability and improvisational spirit shines throughout his Fools’ debut.

Another masterful drummer in the contemporary independent music scene is the ever-prolific New York-based artist Greg Fox. “Contact” is released by the hugely influential RVNG Intl label and sees Fox traverse even further sonic boundaries – always tirelessly seeking to push the envelope further with each subsequent work – creating one of the year’s most defining records in the process.

Other 2020 gems included here are courtesy of the celebrated cellist and multi-instrumentalist Rebecca Foon (the Saltland composer releases her first album via her own name, once again via Constellation); extraordinary South Korean cellist Okkyung Lee releases the majestic “Yeo-Neun” (Shelter Press); Julianna Barwick returns with the magnificent “Inspirit” from her much anticipated “Healing Is a Miracle” album (Ninja Tune); world renowned drummer Jim White (Dirty Three, Xylouris White) joins acclaimed American guitarist Marisa Anderson for the breathtaking collaborative album “The Quickening” (Thrill Jockey).

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Fractured Air – June 2020 Mix

01. Yasuaki Shimizu – “Seiko 3” (Light In The Attic)
02. Yoshiaki Ochi – “Ear Dreamin’” (Light In The Attic)
03. Inventions – “Spirit Refinement Exploder” (Temporary Residence)
04. Hiroshi Yoshimura – “Creek” (Light In The Attic)
05. Nicolas Jaar – “Gocce” (Other People)
06. 2814 – “恢复” (Dream Catalogue)
07. Giuseppe Ielasi – “8” (12k)
08. DJ Python – “oooophi” (Incienso)
09. Minor Science – “Polyglottal” (Whities)
10. Jamie xx – “Idontknow” (Young Turks)
11. Four Tet – “Insect Near Piha Beach” (Text)
12. Hood – “They Removed All Trace That Anything Had Ever Happened Here” (Domino)
13. Warren Ellis – “Time to Run, Time to Drive” (Mustang OST, Milan)
14. Bill Callahan – “Circles” (Drag City)
15. Jim White and Marisa Anderson – “The Quickening” (Thrill Jockey)
16. Xylouris White – “Inland” (Drag City)
17. Batsumi – “Moving Along” (R & T)
18. El Wali – “The People of El Aaiun” (Sahel Sounds)
19. Hailu Mergia, Dahlak Band – “Embuwa Bey Lamitu” (Awesome Tapes From Africa)
20. Fools – “Nnuunn” (Music From Memory)
21. Greg Fox – “Ill Being” (RVNG Intl)
22. Julia Kent – “Imbalance” (The Leaf Label)
23. Hildur Guðnadóttir – “Fólk fær andlit” (Deutsche Grammophon)
24. Okkyung Lee – “The Yellow Porcelain Bird” (Shelter Press)
25. Daniel Ögren – “Levi” (Sing a Song Fighter)
26. Julianna Barwick – “Inspirit” (Ninja Tune)
27. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – “Leviathan” (Ghosteen Ltd.)
28. Jóhann Jóhannsson – “The Navigators” (Last And First Men OST, Deutsche Grammophon)
29. Arvo Pärt, Paul Hillier – “My Heart Is In The Highlands” (perf. Else Torp, Christopher Bowers-Broadbent) (Harmonia Mundi)
30. Rebecca Foon – “Another Realm” (Constellation)

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Guest Mixtape: Rebecca Foon (Constellation)

We are thrilled to present a special guest mix compiled by the world-renowned Montreal-based composer and cellist Rebecca Foon (Esmerine/Saltland). Last February marked her first eponymous release (on the legendary Constellation imprint) with a heightened emphasis on piano and vocals. ‘Waxing Moon’ casts an eternal light of staggering beauty and heralds a new chapter in Foon’s storied career.

An emotional resonance emanates deeply in the heart of Rebecca Foon’s staggering works. It is why there has always been a deep connection – akin to the gravitational pull of the earth – to each and every record the Montreal-based composer has created. The Constellation alumnus has been responsible for a wide array of vital musical forces these past two decades: co-founder of modern chamber post-rock ensemble Esmerine; member of Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra (2001-2008); Set Fire To Flames (2001-2004) and her songwriting project Saltland. This year’s enthralling solo full-length ‘Waxing Moon’ marks the first album under her own name (which in itself is quite telling) that heralds a significant new chapter in Foon’s cherished songbook.

The soul-stirring piano lament ‘Ocean Song’ hits you deeply with its ceaseless waves of yearning and desperate prayer for hope. “Give me your hand and I’ll take you/ To the ocean of love and give you everything” is softly ushered beneath beautiful sustained piano chords. This opening verse, in just mere moments plunges the listener into the depths of a long lost world of faded dreams. ‘Ocean Song’ channels the darkest of fears for our planet: the swirling notes of piano and cello coalesce with Foon’s achingly beautiful vocal delivery; embedded inside “a thousand tears”.

The closing section encapsulates the spiritual dimension of ‘Waxing Moon’s sonic expedition. The staggering beauty of ‘New World’ begins with poignant piano arpeggios reminiscent of Arvo Part or the score-work of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. An introspective moment of fragile beauty. The piece builds into a crescendo of soaring strings and ripple of piano notes that shares the DNA of Lubomyr Melnyk’s continuous music such is its divine spell.

Waves of sweeping strings serve the vital pulse of the album’s penultimate track ‘This Is Our Lives’. The charged immediacy of this otherworldly creation mirrors the desperation depicted by the song’s narrative. Foon pleas “I wish to hold you” on a later verse: channeling radiance from the depths of darkness. Just like the expanding waxing moon depicted on the scintillating title-track, the gifted composer’s newest work casts an eternal beauty and unfathomable power.

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‘Waxing Moon’ is out now on Constellation.

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https://www.rebeccafoon.com/

http://cstrecords.com/

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“This mix includes songs that have moved me deeply, some of which I have been going back to recently and some over the course of my adult life. Much of this playlist has inspired the creation of my last album, waxing moon. I find great solace in the moving piano and strings of arvo part, satie, philip glass, the heightened awakened vibrations of alice coltrane and the outpouring of profound lyrics and powerful transformative energy in these songs. It is a 3 hour playlist for you during these times of stillness, reflection, heartbreak and so many unknowns. If anything, we can embrace and find hope in our interconnectedness, which feels truer than ever. I hope you enjoy it.”

—Rebecca Foon

‘Waxing Moon’ is out now on Constellation.

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https://www.rebeccafoon.com/

http://cstrecords.com/

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Mixtape: Fractured Air – April 2020

It’s been a while. The beautiful light of spring has finally descended upon us; filling the void (of current circumstance) with birdsong, blooming flowers, blue skies and all signs of glittering life. Even though nature does not mirror the dark surface that permeates all of our lives at this present moment; remember all things must pass. These days offer moments of introspection and quiet: to be at peace with your own self during this slowed down, prolonged period.

The art of music remains a trusted constant. Light In The Attic’s lovingly assembled compilation of Seattle-based recording engineer Kearney Barton is an exceptional document of divine pop, soul and R&B spanning the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. ‘Architect of the Northwest Sound’ is filled with a seamless array of timeless musical discoveries.
Another essential compilation is Morr Music’s soon-to-be-released ‘Minna Miteru’: collection of hard to find music from the Japanese independent scene, compiled by Saya, who plays in the iconic duo Tenniscoats. We have an exclusive track (peformed by Takako Minekawa and Dustin Wong) on this month’s mix.

The L.A-based composer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s shape-shifting sonic explorations continue to evolve on her Ghostly debut ‘Expanding Electricity’: an epic and enriching foray into visionary fourth world dimensions. Essential. Russian electronic musician Kate NV’s forthcoming full-length ‘Room for the Moon’ on Brooklyn music institution RVNG Intl represents another singular voice in the contemporary musical landscape of today.

The debut collaboration of Australian drummer Jim White (Dirty Three/Xylouris White) and renowned guitarist Marisa Anderson arrives soon on the legendary Chicago label Thrill Jockey (and first single ‘The Lucky’ offers the first glimpses into this enchanting body of work). Cellist Helen Money’s new Thrill Jockey full-length and Rebecca Foon’s latest Constellation solo release are things of beauty and boundless magnitude.

Inventions is the immense collaborative duo of Matthew Robert Cooper (Eluvium) and Mark T. Smith (Explosions In The Sky). Their new single ‘Outlook for the Future’ is a joyous, uplifting sonic voyage. “What is your outlook for the future?” is asked beneath colourful woodwind patterns and rhythmic pulses, before an elderly female voice responds: “I don’t worry about the future”. Live in the present: in the here and now. Music never ceases to surprise and awaken something deep inside of us all.

 

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Fractured Air – April 2020 Mix

01. Ann Wilson & The Daybreaks ‘Through Eyes and Glass’ (Light In The Attic)
02. Maki Asakawa ‘No Ga Kowai’ (Honest Jon’s)
03. Takako Minekawa ＆ Dustin Wong ‘Party On A Floating Cake’ (Morr Music)
04. Kate NV ‘Sayonara’ (RVNG Intl)
05. Inventions ‘Outlook for the Future’ (Temporary Residence)
06. Group Listening ‘A Little Lost’ (PRAH)
07. Cate Le Bon & Group Listening ‘Here It Comes Again’ (Mexican Summer)
08. Hamish Kilgour ‘Crazy Radiance’ (Ba Da Bing!)
09. Arthur Russell ‘You Did It Yourself’ (Audika)
10. Yves Tumor ‘Gospel For A New Future’ (Warp)
11. El Michel’s Affair ‘Rubix’ (Big Crown Records)
12. MF Doom ‘Ninjarous’ (30th Century Records)
13. Four Tet ‘Something in the Sadness’ (Text)
14. Cucina Povera ‘Saniaiset’ (Night School)
15. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith ‘Expanding Electricity’ (Ghostly)
16. Laraaji ‘Hare Jaya Jaya Rama II’ (Numero Group)
17. Drab City ‘Working For The Men’ (Bella Union)
18. 24 Carat Black ‘You’re Slipping Away’ (Numero Group)
19. Pentangle ‘Light Flight’ (Sanctuary)
20. Jim White and Marisa Anderson ‘The Lucky’ (Thrill Jockey)
21. Enablers ‘Even Its Lies’ (Lancashire And Somerset)
22. Helen Money ‘One Year One Ring’ (Thrill Jockey)
23. Rebecca Foon ‘Ocean Song’ (Constellation)
24. A Winged Victory For The Sullen ‘Adios, Florida’ (Ninja Tune)
25. Brian Eno ‘Deep Blue Day’ (Editions EG)
26. Tropical Rainstorm ‘Flying Bird’ (Light In The Attic)
27. Aoife Nessa Frances ‘Less Is More’ (Basin Rock)
28. Dark Arts ‘The More Things Stay The Same’ (STROOM)
29. Windy & Carl ‘Crossing Over’ (Kranky)
30. Colin Self ‘Once More’ (RVNG Intl)

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