Articles
2011 Top 10s and 20s
Spotlight 4

Albums
Akhet
Cory Allen
Alva Noto
Aun
Bass Communion
Alexander Berne
Birds Passage / Rosado
The Black Dog
BNJMN
Ursula Bogner
Cokiyu
Steve Coleman
Cubenx
Mats Eilertsen
Elektro Guzzi
eleventhfloorrecords
Ben Fleury-Steiner
Golden Gardens
Goldmund
Thom Gossage
Steve Hauschildt
Helvacioglu & Pancaroglu
Illuha
Larkian & Yellow6
Clem Leek
Mamerico
Milyoo
Hedvig Mollestad Trio
Nao
Yann Novak
Sasajima & Hirao
Scissors And Sellotape
Ryan Scott
Till von Sein
Shaula
The Silent Section
Scott Solter
Spheruleus
Talkingmakesnosense
thisquietarmy
Anna Thorvaldsdottir
tINI
Tycho

Newly Issued
The Beach Boys

Compilations / Mixes
Deetron
Mike Huckaby
Radio Slave
Rebel Rave 2: Droog

EPs
Thavius Beck
Niccolò Bianchi
Falko Brocksieper
Alex Cobb & Aquarelle
Deru
Everything Is
Ed Hamilton
Hammock
Herzog
Oknai
SlowPitch
Tracey Thorn
Damian Valles

The Beautiful Schizophonic and Yui Onodera: Night Blossom
Whereabouts Records

Following as it does 2009's Radiance, Night Blossom is the second collaborative effort from Portuguese sound designer Jorge Mantas, aka The Beautiful Schizophonic, a project initiated by Mantas in 2004, and Japanese sound artist-composer Yui Onodera, whose profile received a boost in late 2010 when his collaboration with Celer, Generic City, was released on Will Long's Two Acorns label. Produced between spring 2010 and autumn 2011, the album finds Mantas pairing his synthesizers and electronics with Onodera's piano, electric guitars, and field recordings in a forty-minute, process-based collection of electro-acoustic ambient-drone settings.

A beautiful opener, “Dreaming in the Proximity of Mars” inaugurates Night Blossom with a flood of loud ambient-drone washes before Onodera raises the material to a higher plane with a judicious scattering of piano accents. It's a sensual beginning for an album that will offer more than its share of luscious moments. Natural field recordings sounds moves us outdoors for “Akathisia” and “Siamese Bloom,” vibrant and shimmering meditations embellished with rich detail, while “Nubian Clouds Over Saskia” perpetuates the entrancing character of the opener.

On a typical track, the duo overlays resplendent backdrops of shimmering micro-textures with the understated sparkle of single-note piano patterns, resulting in an undulating and sometimes epic wave of sounds that exhales ever-so-serenely. The addition of guests to three of the album's six settings alters the approach by substituing Onodera's piano with the bright punctuations of Masayoshi Fujita's (aka el fog) vibraphone and Miko's hushed reading of Japanese poetry during “Washing in Slow Colours” and “This Crying Age,” respectively. Taishi Kamiya's processed soprano saxophone, on the other hand, is so thoroughly absorbed into the ethereal fabric of “Siamese Bloom” that any trace of the instrument disappears altogether. Regardless, Night Blossom impresses as a lovely example of richly evocative ambient-drone soundscaping. Packaging fetishists also might be interested to note that the release is available in two formats, one the standard card wallet package and the other a limited-edition (100 copies) tin box format that comes with photo-cards.

February 2012