ARTICLE
2006 10 Favourite Labels

ALBUMS
aMute
Art Ensemble of Chicago
Asphalt Jungle
Joseph Auer
Avia Gardner
Tommi Bass
Caural
Cdatakill
Christ.
Conjoint
Contriva
Cursor Minor
DJ Soul Slinger
DJ Wally/DJ Willie Ross
DoF
Electric Penguins
Encre
Flashbulb
Fuckpony
Funckarma
Cedric Gervais
Eglantine Gouzy
Greater Than One
Greg Haines
François Houle
Housemeister
Jan Jelinek
Eleni Karaindrou
Kode9 + Spaceape
Takagi Masakatsu
Mini
Move D
The New Law
Nuuro
Qwel & Meaty Ogre
Rant
Max Richter
Janek Schaefer
Svarte Greiner
Thighpaulsandra
Unwed Sailor
Geoff White
Wilt
Yellow6
Jesse Zubot

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
4 Women No Cry Vol. 2
Analog for Architecture
Assemblage Sessions
Jimmy Van M
King Unique/Nubreed
Monza Club Ibiza
Pop Ambient 2007
Rub-N-Tug
Thankful
The Rorschach Suite

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Baseheadz
Big Toe
Franco Cangelli
Richard Chartier
Deadbeat/Monolake
Depth Affect
Diebombshelters
DJ Koze
Eltron
Johan Fotmeijer
Hellothisisalex
Mitsuaki Komamura
Múm
Ozka
Seekers Who Are Lovers
Strategy
Tandem 5
Andi Teichmann
The Twilight Sad
Ray Valioso

Richard Chartier: Current
Room40

A high-pitched tone wrapped in a softly shimmering cloud comes ever so glacially into aural view at the start of Richard Chartier's Current, a twenty-minute piece that takes its thematic inspiration from the disassociating effects of airplane travel and the air and ocean currents surrounding the vessel. Listener's familiar with his recordings will expect something that flirts with the threshold of audibility and, true to form, the first sound of a conventional magnitude appears after almost precisely three minutes. Dark, clarinet-like tones and a faint percussive tapping emerge halfway through, signaling the piece's gradual development into a multi-layered sound field. Chartier's uncompromisingly austere style isn't understandably to every listener's taste but does provide a certain kind of ascetic pleasure to those with an appetite for sustained, tension-inducing set pieces.

December 2006