Article
Spotlight 6

Albums
17 Pygmies
Ælab
Aeroc
Adrian Aniol
Aleph
Artificial Memory Trace
B. Schizophonic / Onodera
Blue Fields
The Boats
Canyons of Static
Celer
drog_A_tek
Fennesz + Sakamoto
Marcus Fischer
Les Fragments de la Nuit
Daniel Thomas Freeman
From the Mouth of the Sun
Goth-Trad
Karol Gwózdz
Mark Harris
Inverz
Kingbastard
Tatsuro Kojima
Robert Lippok
Maps and Diagrams
Merzouga
Message To Bears
mpld
The New Law
Nuojuva
Octave One
Petrels
Puresque
Refractor
Lasse-Marc Riek
Jim Rivers
Dennis Rollins
Scuba
Shigeto
Susurrus
Jason Urick
VVV
Williamette
Windy & Carl
Zomes

Compilations / Mixes
DJ-Kicks: The Exclusives
Future Disco Volume 5
King Deluxe Year One
Phonography Meeting
Pop Ambient 2012

EPs
Blixaboy
Matthew Dear
Fovea Hex
Jacksonville
Kurzwellen 0
Phasen
Pascal Savy

Fovea Hex: I:I:XII Hail Hope
Janet Records

There apparently is a new Fovea Hex album on the horizon, but until then we'll have to make do with a nine-minute single produced by band member Michael Begg and featuring two wondrous samplings of the group's artistry. Listeners seduced by the Fovea Hex captured on Here Is Where We Used To Sing (textura's top album pick of 2011, incidentally) will no doubt be as won over by Hail Hope, even if the two songs on the recording are over quickly.

“Carol” begins as a magisterial, strings-heavy dirge before blossoming into a prototypical Fovea Hex incantation featuring vocals by Clodagh Simonds, Laura Sheeran, and others, with all of its rich sounds suspended in delicate rapture for four lustrous minutes. Even more affecting is “Lullaby (debris mix),” which makes good on its title with a serenading vocal melody lovely enough to ease the most restless child into a state of slumber. Augmented by violin, viola, cello, harmonium, and martial snares, the song's full arrangement and robust, chant-like delivery make for a powerful and addictive listen, and the strings episode with which it ends is a thing of beauty. Fovea Hex is hardly the most prolific group on the planet, but the obvious upside is that when new music by the outfit does appear, one knows that it will be music-making of the highest caliber.

February 2012