textura

Albums
Alejandro & Aeron
Balustrade Ensemble
Jeremy Bible
F.S. Blumm
Cadence Weapon
Cataclyst
Cepia
Chloé
Cooler
Disinterested
edIT
Erik Enocksson
For Barry Ray
Ernest Gonzales
Grand National
Hakobune
Halou
Frode Haltli
Arve Henriksen
Ielasi & Ratti
Jumpel
Lawrence
Lickets
Manual
Melodium
Mono
My Fun
Marissa Nadler
Prints
Rekalix
Remote_ vs Ontayso
Will Saul
Sixtoo
Small Sails
Songs Of Green Pheasant
Christian Wallumrød
White Rainbow
Xeltrei
Yndi Halda

Compilations / Mixes
Paolo Mojo
Ewan Pearson
VA: 5 Years Get Physical
VA: Monza Vol. 2
VA: U-cover mix 01 [a]
VA: U-cover mix 02 [d]

3"/ 7"/ 10"/ 12"/ EPs
Ateleia
Pier Bucci
Cio D'Or
Cloudland Canyon
Curium
Laurine Frost
Dave Graham
Hakobune
The Infant Cycle
Lerosa
Lullaby Leagure
Mole Harness
Mowbray & Sullivan
Ontayso
School of Seven Bells
Science Teacher
Sleep Robot
Unwed Sailor
VA: Spies & Lies
Rick Wade

For Barry Ray: New Days
Room40

New Days by For Barry Ray, an experimental outfit comprised of married duo Carina Thorén and John Chantler, opens credibly with a wavering organ drone setting (“Through Holes, Glass & Stone”), freeform splashes of drums, electronics, and guest Dominic Garwood's clarinet (“David”), and rippling guitar fuzz and distorted keyboard noodling (“A Dark Blue Heat”). Par for the Room40 course, the Australian label's artists embrace adventurous, open-ended interplay that typically inhabits an abstract though far from alienating space; having said that, the disc's opening half doesn't offer anything not heard before. No, the really special stuff arrives after the woodwind streams of “ Aurora , Dancing...,” with the recording's most distinguishing moments occurring in its second half. The closing trio in particular elevates New Days when For Barry Ray's music turns into one of suggestion, with blank spaces between micro-guitar fragments left unfilled in “If Mingus Was Your Mother.” Plucked guitar splinters likewise meander in “Morgonstund” but the album's coup de grace is clearly “Blending Light” wherein accents of piano and acoustic guitar fade into desert-like expanses of near-silence (a percussive noise of some unidentifiable sort is audible in the distance) for nine minutes of beautiful stillness.

October 2007