Article
Lucy

Albums
Alphabets Heaven
AREA C
Aidan Baker
Black Devil Disco Club
Cluster
Dakota Suite & Errante
Davis & Machinefabriek
Deaf Center
Fancy Mike
FM3
Forest Swords
Frivolous
Hakobune
Kyo Ichinose
Juv
Deniz Kurtel
Sven Laux
Lucy
Stephan Mathieu
Joel Mull
Near The Parenthesis
Netherworld
nunu
Fabio Orsi
Penalune
Pleq
port-royal
Rainbow Arabia
Todd Reynolds
Roedelius
Rosenqvist and Scott
Steffi
Sublamp
SubtractiveLAD
Tapage

Compilations
Back and 4th
Future Disco Volume 4
SMM: Context
Tasogare: Live in Tokyo

EPs
Aardvarck & Kubus
Corrugated Tunnel
Debilos
Djamel
Tolga Fidan
Flowers and Sea Creatures
Anne Garner
Mike Jedlicka / Cloudburst
Mo 2 Meaux-2
Proximity One: Remixes
Darren Rice
Sepalcure
Sharma + Krause
Josh T
Talvihorros
Francesco Tristano
Widesky
Dez Williams

VA: SMM: Context
Ghostly International / SMM

With its SMM: Context release, Ghostly's SMM—introduced by the Ann Arbor-based Ghostly International label in 2004 as a platform for experimental classical-ambient-soundscaping musics—would seem to be muscling in on the territory typically covered by labels such as Hibernate, Home Normal, Low Point, and Miasmah. But you'll hear no complaints from this corner, as the compilation includes a top-of-the-line cast (from Poland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, North America, and the UK—Rafael Anton Irisarri the sole contributor whose home base is the same as the label's and, it might be added, the compilation's lone Ghostly artist, given that he records for the label under The Sight Below alias) and selections that speak highly of the producers' respective talents.

Many of the contributors stick close to their signature styles—not that there's anything objectionable about that: Keith Kenniff opens the set in his customary Goldmund style with a delicate setting of piano-and-electronics beauty called “Motion,” while Norwegian producer Svarte Greiner's woozy gloomscape “Halves,” all low-pitched rumbles, creaks, and shudders, is quintessential Miasmah. On loan from Barge Recordings, The Fun Years fracture the serenity of the collection with the jagged stabs of a guitar-and-turntables exercise titled “Cornelia Amygdaloid.” Having kept a low profile since his 3-CD opus, Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was appeared, Leyland Kirby contributes “Polaroid,” an hypnotic stream of echoing string plucks and muffled synthesizer tones.

In other cases, however, there are surprising departures from their associated styles. Piano rather than guitar appears as the primary instrument in Irisarri's pretty reverie “Moments Descend On My Windowpane,” to cite one example. It's also gratifying to see Manual (Jonas Munk) included in the group, given the tendency for compilations to favour new artists over the more-established, and to report that his graceful, neo-symphonic ambient setting “Three Parts” is as strong as any of the other tracks.

It's sometimes thought that artists treat compilations as dumping grounds for leftover material or throwaway tracks, but that certainly doesn't sound like it's the case here as some of the material is fine indeed. In “11 Generations Of My Fathers,” Christina Vantzou gives us a stately meditation whose synth swells are sweetened with subtle string layers, and “Elegia,” from Polish electro-acoustic artist Jacaszek, proves to be just as arresting when a solo voice and violin rise plaintively above a mass of hushed voices. Peter Broderick's “Pause” takes us home with a lovely electro-acoustic setting that finds acoustic guitar picking and strums resounding against a flickering web of electronics. There's some hint that SMM: Context is the first in what purportedly will be an annual compilation series of like-spirited music, a move that can't help but invite comparisons to Kompakt and its yearly Pop Ambient installments. All that means, however, for fans of the genres covered is that there'll be double the classical-ambient pleasure, so to speak.

March 2011