Recordings

How does repetition spark creativity? Explore Body and Soul by Francesca Gavin @roughversion about one of jazz’s most recorded standards, and discover how artists like Coltrane, Winehouse, and Hawkins turned a melody into pure self-expression.

A recording by memotone

Autodidactic multi-instrumentalist and composer Memotone has contributed an all-vinyl mix for Blue Mountain School. His own music spans wide, shot through with a sense of endlessness—atmospheres between bliss and who-knows-where, replete with unnamed qualities that you recognise when you feel them.

Memotone’s most recent record—and debut release on Soda Gong—Fever of the World, is patient and focused, laden with sonic signatures that have come to characterise his catalog: low-lit, ECM-inflected noir; elusive and evolving loop-based textures; and mellifluous mosaics of keys, guitar, reeds, and percussion.

Somewhere Press:
Selkie Reflections
by Alliyah Enyo & Angel R

In celebration of Selkie Reflections, released by the Glasgow-based record label and publisher Somewhere Press, Alliyah Enyo and Angel R have curated an extended playlist that delves into the selkie myth. The selection traverses a myriad of sounds, from new-age jazz to ambient techno, musique concrète and chamber pop, capturing the multifarious nature of these folk tales.

Shunyata IV—Klaus Wiese
Tributary II—Forest Management
Boat Song—Meredith Monk & Robert Een
BLOCK-1_dv190—MPU101
So Far Out Of Love—Malibu
Under This Hunger Moon We Fell—Lomond Campbell
Tar—Forest Swords
Semitones—Lucinda Chua
Fantas for Electric Guitar (feat. Walter Zanetti)—Caterina Barbieri
Demetra—Cucina Povera
A Rain Storm Before the Calm—Carlos Niño, Idris Ackamoor and Nate Mercereau
I Came to Visit Here for a While—John Lurie National Orchestra
Big Stone Lake—Galaxy 2 Galaxy
Richer Than Blood—Arushi Jain
Heaven (AW-Cut)—Silence
Below a Pack of Swans—Cole Pulice & Nat Harvie
Water—Joe Henderson feat. Alice Coltrane
THE CIRCLE GAME—Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes
Water Music—Roberto Musci & Giovanni Venosta
Marina—Ulla Straus
Patience—Lifetones
New York Grief ’86—Princess Demeny
Commend, NYC Peace 6—Carlos Niño & Friends
Hymn For The Corner—Alvidrez
4U&4ME—Nexcyia
1111—Niecy Blues
Drift—N.U.G.
Looking Outside—nthng
Synonymy—Forest Management
IB—Unt
There Is a Science to Days Like These (But I Am a Slow Learner)—Yara Asmar
Healing Codes—Panoram
Moon Is Sharp—Grouper
*when my mind is quiet i drift 2 u *water2wine*—Alliyah Enyo
New Faith—Daniel Avery
Fire Gilded—Dive Reflex Service

A Schoenberg Playlist
Mark Berry

A Space To Get Lost In
by Charles Curtis

Penultimate Press
Quick Encounters in Quiet Environments
by Mark Harwood

Sarah Hennies

Sarah Hennies is a composer based in Ithaca, NY whose work is concerned with a variety of musical, sociopolitical, and psychological issues including including queer & trans identity, psychoacoustics, and the social and neurological conditions underlying creative thought. She is primarily a composer of acoustic chamber music, but is also active in improvisation, film, and performance art. She presents her work internationally as both a composer and percussionist with notable performances at MoMA PS1 (NYC), Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles), Le Guess Who (Utrecht), Festival Cable (Nantes), send + receive (Winnipeg), O’ Art Space (Milan), Cafe Oto (London), ALICE (Copenhagen), and the Edition Festival (Stockholm). As a composer, she has worked with a wide array of performers and ensembles including Bearthoven, Bent Duo, Claire Chase, ensemble 0, Judith Hamann, R. Andrew Lee, Talea Ensemble, Thin Edge New Music Collective, Two-Way Street, Nate Wooley, and Yarn/Wire.

Tracklist:

Ryoji Ikeda, Body Music – I.
Gaz Carbonique Israël Quellet, Pour Pas Et Frappes Sur Marches D’escaliers
Karl Van Welden & Frederik Croene, MARS II: part 3
Michael Ranta, The Great Wall
C. Vadi, Point Beach State Forest, October 2021
Ahti & Ahti, Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear?: Part 1
Mary Jane Leach, 4BC
Jean-Claude Eloy, Anâhata
Michel Chion, Requiem: Dies Irae
David First, Song for the Healing Sciences

Objects & Sounds
How We’d Like to be Feeling

The label Saltern is run by its founder, Los Angeles-based composer and performer Tashi Wada, son (and collaborator) of Japanese composer and artist Yoshi Wada. Since its inception in 2014, the label has released a string of seriously beautiful records, the most recent being Performances & Recordings 1998-2018—the first comprehensive collection of recordings surveying the career of renowned, American cellist Charles Curtis (with liner notes by La Monte Young no less). Previous releases include a gorgeous recording of Morton Feldman’s Clarinet and String Quartet (performed by Curtis and Anthony Burr among others) as well as Al Di Là, the first full-length collection of recordings by legendary dancer, artist and writer Simone Forti.

I started Saltern about six years ago to help realize projects of my own and others that I was working on. It’s been a family affair for the most part so far, though the influences are broader. “Day Fuses with Night” is a mix of music that deeply inspires me by family and friends, and people I don’t know. I’ve included music from our releases and some unreleased gems, two courtesy of my partner Julia. Thanks for listening. Enjoy. — Tashi

Tracklist:

Joseph Beuys, Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee
John Tchicai, Lied
Archie Shepp, Steam, Part 1
Lucrecia Dalt, Disuelta
Nuno Canavarro, Wolfie
Annette Peacock, 1/2 Broken
Jeanne Lee & Ran Blake, Laura
Seigén Ono, Model-93
Julia Holter, Accompanying Erroll on Youtube
Haruomi Hosono, Air-Condition
La Monte Young & Marian Zazeela, 31 VII 69 10:44-10:49 PM
Charles Curtis, Music for “Lester”
Simone Forti, The Endless Summer
Terry Jennings & Charlemagne Palestine, Short & Sweet
Julia Holter, Down in Italy
Tirzah, Devotion (feat. Coby Sey)
Exotic Sin, Canis Minor
Tashi Wada with Yoshi Wada and Friends, Fanfare (Julia Holter “Unearthly Bird” Remix)
Tashi Wada Group Live at Meakusma Festival 2019 (St. Nikolaus Kirche, Eupen, Belgium)
Yoshi Wada Bagpipe Rehearsal
Bobby Charles, I Hope

Image by Tashi Wada
www.saltern.bandcamp.com

‘This playlist is based on autobiographical considerations. It’s not a list of recommendations, things I’ve been listening to lately, things to watch out for or anything in that direction, but rather a list of music that had a crucial impact on me as a young listener and budding creator of my own music.’

Blue Hour Mix
by Dynamo Dreesen

Is knowledge justified true belief, or? Let’s not. Whatever it is, a few things that (we think) we know about this mix:

1) How it was recorded (vinyl-only, straight to cassette);
2) That it ‘runs for listening not dancing’ and is best listened to in a car (as some would argue all mixes are – you know who you are).

However, something that we’re less sure about is who did it. Dynamo Dreesen? Dreesen? Dresden Dynamo or Dynamo Dresen? Otherwise, Andreas Krumm? Either way, the tracks are mega so as long as it’s blaring through your car speakers, who cares. (Let’s just say the mix is by the fifth before last though.)

Tip: for more word games and amazing music for your next joy-ride, delve into the extended mysterious-world of Dynamo Dreesen (in no particular order): Acido Records, Busen, Sven Rieger, Département d’Éducation Psychique, Stefan Mitterer T.V.A., Henrik Jonsson, Dreesvn, General Elektro, Stefan Wust, Westend, SUED, Stefan Alvin Mitterer, Porn Sword Tobacco, Sex Tags Mania, S & M Trading Co., Wania. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

Tracklist:

1. Unknown artist from a V/a compilation
2. Ovuca Rephlex records
3. Blätter Lux Nigra
4. Scratch-Pet Land Source records
5. Imaginations Uni Disc
6. DJ Lonley Boerft records
7. Skrsintl Boken Versions
8. Vitamin B12 not on label 4x LP box
9. Naffi Sandwich EM
10. Yello Ralph records
11. Yello Ralph records
12. T.V.A. acido records
13. Kinkane Co-Lette records
14. Daniel Logig Kurbel records
15. Ceephex weme
16. Paul J. Butler sublime records
17. Pekka Airakaksinen O records
17. Cog / Polmo Polpo Audi Sensa records
18. Nurse with wound united dairies records
19. The klf Panasonic remix Blast Fist records
20. Mike Dred & Peter Green Mashine Codes records
21. Unik DUM records

Isolation
A playlist for home listening
by Jonny Nash

A collection of songs selected by Jonny Nash (Melody as Truth) best listened to alone, with time and space – in isolation. Neither positive nor negative, the playlist comprises music that simply ‘encourages a connection to the infinite in some way’.

Tracklist:

Hildegard von Bingen, Sequentia, Barbara Thornton, O vis aeternitatis
Kyle Bobby Dunn, Variations on a Theme by St-Dipshit
John Potter, Sanctus Ambrose Field
Time Is A Blind Guide, Fugitive Places Thomas Strønen
Mark Hollis, A Life (1895 – 1915)
Kate Bush, Snowflake
Somei Satoh, Birds In Warped Time II
John Luther Adams, Robin Lorentz, Marty Walker, Barry Newton, Amy Knoles, Nathaniel Reichman, Bryan Pezzone, The Farthest Place
Coil, Going Up
Tarawangsawelas, Kecemasan
Jonny Nash, Suzanne Kraft, Knife

“How I spent a/My life in one hour”
by Cédric Lerouley of An’archives

Cédric’s voyage into Japanese culture might be rooted (so perfectly) in a French TV screening of Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Woman in the Dunes (1964), which he happened across when he was fourteen years old.

Since founding An’archives in 2008, he has gone onto release a breathtaking, beautifully presented survey of Japanese avant-garde music often housed in heavy “old style” silk-screened jackets with obi strips, postcards and insert-liner notes. Really starting with the first Enka Mood series (now in its fifth volume), which manages to get beyond the genres commonly misattributed label that describes it, unfairly, as a simple, conservative form of Japanese Country & Western, successfully bringing into focus something rich and complex: a music that grapples not with the optimistic first flush of youthful desire, but rather the difficulties, negotiations, failures and disappointments of adult life. Other releases by such legends as master drummer Ikuro Takahashi, saxophonists Harutaka Mochizuki and Makoto Kawashima (as part of the Free Wind Mood series) and most recently, Tori Kudo’s The Last Song Of My life LP; ‘a significant figure in the Japanese underground, thanks to his membership of groups like Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Noise (with his wife Reiko Kudo) and Guys ’N’ Dolls’. (Kudo and his musical collaborators performed Last Song Of My Life as an accompaniment to a screening of Umi Ishihara’s (aka Ummmi) The Garden Apartment, during which the ensemble was instructed to either play the eight-bar score that Kudo had provided or noise, depending on their response to the film. Unreal.)

Tracklist:

Haino Keiji, うまくできない (Umaku dekinai)
Kanako Michi, 夜の虫
Takakura Ken, Abashiri Bangaishi
Chiyako Satō from 東京行進曲
Mikami Kan, 誰を怨めばいいのでございましょうか
Kazuko Matsuo, この恋を返して
Funamura Tōru, ギター船
Fuji Junko
Tenjo Sajiki, 男娼巡礼歌
Kengo Iuchi,犬神と家畜
Asaoka Yukiji, 梅川忠兵衛
European Sensoria Band Featuring Itaru Oki, Volcano Phoenix
Fujii Teruko, 炎の恋 (L’Immensitá)
Kiyoko Itoh, 花のマドンナ
Misora Hibari, Sakura No Uta

Recent Scenes
A self-reflective playlist
by Moopie from A Colourful Storm.

A thoughtful playlist of recent encounters by Moopie with reflections to boot. After/during listening to and reading what follows here, visit A Colourful Storm for sentimental compilations, heavenly reissues, sharp, ruffneck jungle, scattergun dnb, industrial ambience, d-floor stomperz and complex, bleached-out chillout-room atmospheres.

Tracklist:

Roy Montgomery, 324 E 13th Street #7 (Drunken Fish, 1999)
Köhn, Köhn ((K-RAA-K)³, 1998)
Isolée, Rest (Playhouse, 2000)
Gemini, In And Out Of Fog And Lights (Peacefrog, 1997)
Pelt, Pearls From the River (VHF, 2003)
Locust, Truth Is Born Of Arguments (Apollo, 1995)
Ethik, Music For Stock Exchange (Eat Raw, 1993)
Anton Heyboer, She And She As One (EMI, 1976)
Planet Love, Planet Love Volume 2 (Superstition, 1996)
Suburban Cracked Collective, Private Failings (No Confidante Dictae Recs, 2019)

David Keenan
DYING FOR SPLENDOUR
An autobiographical playlist

A: “The hazy nature of memory lends itself well to introspection. Remembering tends to imbue the referents of our experiences with an imagined, un-lifelike-ness that says more about you than it does it.”

B: “Hmm…but then what of the quarter million madheds at Knebworth in 1996 singing every lyric back to Liam and Noel? Surely the internal re-presencing of such events has as much to do with, in this case, Slide Away and Don’t Look Back in Anger, as it does the individuals doing the remembering?”

AB: “Who knows (cares), don’t think about it now. Instead, read on about some of the wonderful referents that David Keenan thinks – at risk of putting words in his mouth (by putting words in his mouth) – the world would be worse off without/is better off with.”

Treader
Music selected by label co-founder John Coxon, from their beautiful discography.

Tracklist:

Evan Parker with Birds, Track 2
John Tchicai with Strings, Formalism
The Sweetness of the Water, Track 4
Bishopsgate Concert, Track 1
RAK, The Long Miles
Clarinet Record, Home
Bombscare EP, Hand so Small
Swallow Chase, Track 2
The Sweetness of the Water, Track 1