honest words on honest music
Best of 2019
Welcome to our 12th edition of Best of the Year selections! This is what you’ve been waiting for! Prepare to open up your wallets and your hearts!
Ambient
“Ambient was designed to throw in some uncertainty. It’s a tool best used experientially – adjusting parameters and making artistic decisions about the sound…”
In the studio with Jogging House
Today we visit with the Frankfurt-based artist whose latest record, When, is out on Dauw as of September 23rd
Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto
In anticipation of the upcoming new album, we celebrate one of our favourite releases from the duo, in this RECITAL of their 2009 album, featuring Ensemble Modern
Plaid – Polymer
… an essential album from the veterans of electronic music…
Immolate Yourself
A RECITAL for Telefon Tel Aviv’s monumental album from 2009.
… hyper-modern sound design and smoky nocturnal emotion…
In the studio with Resina
A Warsaw-based cellist talks about how she started her career, her studio set up, favourite gear and compositional process
Benoît Pioulard, Ecker and Meulyzer, Jaja
A trio of beautiful records, ranging in dynamics, texture, and tone.
Olga Wojciechowska, Pepo Galán, and Robin Saville
“… an x-ray in a musical form… “
Lusine Icl
Language Barrier (Hymen)
“… outer-edges of atmospheric electronica, rhythmic structures, and textured tones…”
A flashback to Jeff McIlwain’s monumental album from 2007 which began my obsession with audiophile-grade electronica, hifi headphones, and sonically-rich atmospherics
Alex Kozobolis
Barcelona
… a 3D model which is frozen in time and thawed by the music…
Paul Haslinger
Valse I
“… a montage sequence of dreams…”
“… a stunning, delicate, and fragile piece, in which you’ll fall in love…“
Interview with Penguin Cafe
“… it was the long, empty days pulling a sled across the ice that had given us all lots of time to think about our lives back home…”
Interview with Alessandro Cortini
“… I spend less time questioning myself and thinking and more time making music…”
Anton Belov
Piano Works II
… leaving impressions that won’t soon fade…
Delicate yet engrossing, the album brings the listener face to face with the past. Its enduring reverberations reach across the threshold of memory to reanimate touching details long forgotten that flicker back to life…
Sylvain Chauveau
The Light That Is Felt
… a continuous mix of dreamy mood pieces, so one may prefer playing it at night, maybe lying in bed…
Kelly James Wyse
ssSwan
“… inspired by repetition in music and the interval of the fifth…”
Dustin O’Halloran of AWVFTS talks about the group’s latest album, the live tour, and the making of Aqualung…
Amulets, Anne Müller, Chihei Hatakeyama
A trio of records highlighted from the late months of last year…
Machinefabriek
Stillness Soundtracks II
… tranquil and gliding sounds…
A vinyl-only mix from Mike Jedlicka celebrating his favourites from this still-spinning format…
Bersarin Quartett
Methoden und Maschinen (Denovali)
… das Brausen des Geistes… ach brüllhaftes Leben…
By pulling the Bersarin sound out of the studio and throwing it out onto the stage, Bücker has created an aurally diverse, deeply emotional and hugely impressive work, revealing brightness and brilliance.
Penguin Cafe
Handfuls of Night (Erased Tapes)
“…even in the most remote silent places, music can still be a huge part of one’s internal world and imagination…”
Hammock
Silencia (Hammock Music)
… a prelude to silence…
The third and final installment in the trilogy of records – Mysterium, Universalis, and now, Silencia
Bluetech, Suumhow, and Lee Gamble
Bluetech Holotrope I feel like the world has moved on from the psy-X influenced post-genres, although, …
Marcus Fjellström
Schattenspieler (Miasmah)
Dark and moody, sad and beautiful, organic and ghostly, Schattenspieler, is an incredible achievement, that grows on you with every listen.
Telefon Tel Aviv
Dreams Are Not Enough (Ghostly)
… hyper-modern sound design and smoky nocturnal emotion…
A complicated and emotional piece, reflecting once again, on time we’ve lost, the predicament which we have found, and the sense of emptiness we tend to fill with music…
Biosphere
Shenzhou (Touch)
“… the subliminal waves of euphoria wash over the timeless expansion of sound throughout the universe of the void…”
Adam Daudrich
Swells (Moderna)
“… meditative textures of the muted upright piano, harmonium, and Wurlitzer electric piano…”
A Winged Victory for the Sullen
The Undivided Five (Ninja Tune)
…centered around the harmonic perfect fifth, the five senses, the divine interval…
Dynamic and intelligent music which rewards the patient listener while carrying enough emotional weight in its simplicity to be affecting for the listener short on time. In a world of tension, this is a deep breath and a reminder to slow down and take stock…
Proem, Silk Road Assassins, and ØxØ
“… contradictions of contemporary society through the dialectics of conceptual music…”
Bersarin Quartett
Wie von selbst
“… constantly developing and entangling contrasts, paradoxes and contradictions…”
Grischa Lichtenberger
re: phgrp (Raster)
… electronic no longer cares to be separate from all-acoustic…
Grischa Lichtenberger’s music stands for broken rhythms, for high-density manipulations that emphasize the digital and fractal nature of its working process. A mindset that grew closer to contemporary jazz in recent years.
“… like a suppressed or unconscious trace of invisible relations…”
Lambert
True (Mercury KX)
… the only real truth is the listener’s perspective…
A brand new record from an enigmatic pianist which is playful and sombre, often composed of both, humour and drama, with a deep-focused emphasis on execution and sense…
Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch
Headphone Commute Mix
“… music by contemporary composers […] with a very intemporal quality in its simplicity and harmonic language…”
In the studio with Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch
“I tend to become quite obsessed with the piece, it just keeps on playing and shifting in my head until I feel I have understood its shape and where I want it to go…”
Comit
Remote Viewing (A Strangely Isolated Place)
…broken, glitchy breakbeats weave amongst emotive and often melodic chord progressions
A refreshing take on a genre that has seemed to slowly fade away from the scene…
“… I intentionally don’t make too many notes of things that sound good together…”
Slow Meadow
Happy Occident (Hammock Music)
… a soundtrack to life’s contemplative moments…
A gorgeous new release on Hammock‘s very own curated imprint