Articles
2009 Artists' Picks
Lymbyc Systym

Albums
Cory Allen
aus
The Bird Ensemble
Canaille
Catlin & Machinefabriek
Greg Davis
Loren Dent
Dirac
Drafted By Minotaurs
Flica
Sarah Goldfarb & JHK
Gown
John Hollenbeck
Viviane Houle
I/DEX
Akira Kosemura
Andrew McKenna Lee
Le Lendemain
LRAD
Lymbyc Systym
Melorman
Muskox
The Mercury Program
Nikasaya
Northerner
nörz
Noveller / Aidan Baker
Redshape
Marina Rosenfeld
Stripmall Architecture
Sturqen
Wes Willenbring
The Tony Wilson Sextet
Julia Wolfe
Peter Wright
Zelienople

Compilations / Mixes
Blackoperator
Glimpse Four:Twenty 03
Kod.eX
Portland Stories

EPs
Molnbär Av John
Tommi Bass & B.B.S.C.
Julian Beau
Colours-Volume 5
Dalot
Echologist
Simon James French
Geiom & Shortstuff
General Elektriks
Geskia
Ernest Gonzales
Gradient
Jacksonville
Joker
Ann Laplantine
Loko
Machinefabriek
Stefano Pilia
Damian Valles

Northerner: 1976
Hibernate

Simon James French: Anthem
Hibernate

Martin Cummings complements his other recent Northerner release, the double-CD The Ridings (Home Assembly Music), with the more modestly-timed 1976. Each of its six tracks flows seamlessly into the next, making the release a twenty-eight-minute travelogue through multiple electro-acoustic locales. Cummings boosts the material's dream-like character by casting a hazy glow upon much of it, and in doing so blurs the gaps between the contrasting styles. A melancholy ambiance pervades the opener “The End of December,” which accompanies melancholy tones with field recording elements and the faint picking of an acoustic guitar; the material's evocative suggestiveness asserts itself when a percussive episode advances and recedes like a wagon rolling through town. Echoes of prog and krautrock haunt “1976” when it trudges through the undergrowth alongside a stream of shuddering guitars and quivering synth figures, after which moments of laid-back space-rock (“Can't”), guitar-based splendour (“If You Could”), and soothing ambient (“Red Soil”) appear.

London, UK-based sound artist Simon James French also makes a strong impression in the five pieces on his debut release Anthem. The three-inch disc contains five calming meditations of evocative and transporting character filled with shimmering electronics and field recordings of natural sounds. “Serfdom” is distinguished by luscious symphonic tones French merges with the field elements, while natural sounds are especially prominent in “Misery” where churning rhythms reminscent of a water wheel alternate with hazy electronic tones. “Shame,”  the most melodic of the five pieces, is graced by a melancholy theme that repeats amidst a swelling organ-laced backdrop. Despite the EP's modest eighteen-minute running time, French's seductive settings still manage to draw the listener deeply into their sinuous sound worlds.

January 2010