honest words on honest music
Interview with Alessandro Cortini
… on the musical ideas that fit like puzzle pieces, on partnership with Make Noise for a synthesizer module, and much more…
In the studio with Matt Robertson
“… I love the idea that your own projects and your own perception of your ideas, can evolve by themselves when you leave them alone…”
Olivia Belli
“My music reflects what I observe every day… And I hope that’s how it might help other people too – to carry them through the day and to help them find their place in it, where they feel safe.”
BEST OF 2020
Revealing only one list per day, here’s the long-awaited thirteenth edition of our favorites of the year! Start here.
In the studio with Biosphere
“… I often start a composition by creating a theme with an acoustic-digital filtered sound. Over this, I often try to integrate pure synthetic sounds from a synthesizer…”
Interview with Max Richter
I finally catch up with one of my all-time favourite contemporary classical composers to talk about his latest record, VOICES and touch a little on SLEEP.
A fascinating discussion on modular synthesis, live improv, and the resulting album as Sunroof
Alessandro Cortini
CORRI
“… on heavily contrasting light and shadows, in art, in music, and in life…”
Populous
Orizzonti bagnati dell’Adriatico
“… where gorgeous suggestive colors can be seen on the horizon between sky and sea…”
“… what I’m trying to do at the moment is bypass the abyss that I can fall down by overplaying the stuff as I write it…”
Peter Gregson
Patina
“… stripping away at the layers of sound, until you are left all alone, surrounded by the inaudible absence…”
Yuting Wu, Skee Mask, and Squarepusher
I’ve got some crunchy IDM and glitch for you to chew on…
Disting EX
Expert Sleepers
There comes a moment, when, beyond exploring their favourite instrument, a musician ventures in search of pleasures found beyond
Island People
Loneliness Has a Purpose
“… made of contrasting lights and harsh elements where time seems to stand still, circling the moment…”
“… the most important aspect to me is to have lovely and inspiring people in the community…”
Dustin O’Halloran feat. Bryan Senti
Opus 28
“… a feeling of travelling back in time to my past while experiencing the music in new ways in the present…”
Laura Masotto feat. Roger Goula
Refugees
“… dedicated to the continuing tragedy which is experienced daily by migrants in the Mediterranean…”
Matthias Puech
Hollow
“… sketching cartography of the invisible, as introspective as unpredictable, in a unique sensory whirlwind…”
Arovane
Atol Scrap (2021 Remaster)
“… more than an echo of the past, this bottled sound truly has matured…”
Uwe Zahn‘s monumental debut gets a polished re-master and a vinyl pressing that should keep the fans of IDM, glitch, and melodic electronica extremely happy with this very special treat.
Chrystal Für
I’m Losing You
“… somber piano and cellos float toward the future, as the past slips away…”
Matthew Halsall
We’re back with the second episode (of the 2nd series) of The Contemplative Podcast!
A transcribed excerpt from The Contemplative Podcast episode
Rose Riebl
Even As The Light
“… fragile, soulful and transcendent works that guide the listener into vulnerable emotional spaces…”
BPMoore
Hold Your Own
“… an appreciation of how we are all connected, like strands to a whole…”
“Based on the life and work of French contemporary artist Olivier de Sagazan, this borderline horror sonic narrative will give you chills even without its visual counterpart.”
Viktor Orri Árnason
The Faultline
“… present classical – eternal, everlasting…”
Syndication of a monthly show originally appearing on Heather’s very own program on London’s Soho Radio
Sebastian Plano
Soul II (Elan)
“… elegant, vivid and sometimes even spiritual…”
May 2nd, 2021
Yesterday I took a train ride out into the country. Besides getting out of the house, …
“… poetic and contemplative, with a focus on the space between the notes, the atmosphere and the silence…”
Masayoshi Fujita
Morocco
“… like when you try to remember a dream you just had, but it falls away and disappears…”
Francesca Guccione
Muqataea
“… mesmerising traversal of solemn chords, nostalgic soundscapes, and a clearly stated cinematic arc…”
A #PianoDay special, featuring exclusive track premieres, videos, and sound bytes from Tom Blankenberg, Muriël Bostdorp, Garreth Brooke, Akira Kosemura, Jameson Nathan Jones, and Mike Lazarev.
Joachim Spieth
Affinities
An Affin label showcase
Matt Robertson
Bees
“… a sense of envelopment in your surroundings and taking some comfort in that…”
Hainbach
Landfill Totems
“… music of obsolete, once high-end research equipment, taken from nuclear research labs, particle accelerators and grandfather’s shed…”
Berlin-based Stefan Goetsch revives esoteric machinery, for an album of their forgotten stories, a sample library for Spitfire, and a YoutTube channel for curious techies…
1000 Reasons To Ride
Three years ago, I launched a playlist rotating in a new track each morning, featuring favourite …
James Heather
Beginnings
“… it’s about emerging from the fog and having the courage to start again…”
“… travelling through realms of regret, grief and loss, towards optimism and a sense of excitement for living…”
Secret Of Elements
Nothing Lost Yet
“… wide open spaces are filled with elegiac strings and reverberating electronic percussion…”
Adverb, Sonic Area, and Kcin
Some post-psy-ambient, post-techno, and post-doom…
“… I often start a composition by creating a theme with an acoustic-digital filtered sound. Over this, I often try to integrate pure synthetic sounds from a synthesizer…”
Tom Blankenberg
dear
…music to listen to when one is alone… and that one can confide in…“
LTO
Cad Goddeu
“… a mysterious and deeply textured journey that could be set in both the distant past and an uncertain future, on this planet or beyond…”
UNDISCLOSED
Final Discography Sale
“… to reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim…”
“My compositions are bound by the parameters of where they were created. And so to prevent my creativity from stagnating, I need to change those parameters every now and then…”
Shomyo: Buddhist Ritual Chant
Moonlight Mantra
“… clad in brightly colored monastic robes, the choir alternates between monotone stillness and ecstatic polyphony…”
Ambientologist
Sustain Series, Vol. 1
“… an ongoing fluid project aimed at recycling unfinished musical material, and creating collaborations in the process…”
n5MD label boss lets us into his abode…
“… there’s always a point where you just have to let it go, and any imperfections left are almost always insignificant in hindsight…”
Gimmik
Carters Final Transmission
“… a weightless journey above the clouds floating through melodic electronica…”
A mix prominently featuring one of my favourite contemporary classical instruments
Valgeir Sigurðsson
Kvika
“… a sound to get lost in […] shimmering above the earth, fleeting and momentary…”
Music used to soundtrack a wartime film by Slovakian director Peter Magát, titled Malá Ríša.
“… I like to think that we have to find each other throughout life […] and take responsibility for who we are, rather than fantasizing about what we are not…”
Faten Kanaan
Mist & Madrigal
“Infinite, intimate. A parallel, a tangent.”
“… a much-desired segment in the arsenal of modules to produce complex textures and granular soundscapes…”
Kinn
Black Sinking Clouds
“… lamenting the diminishing role of the sacred and the supernatural…”
A Strangely Isolated Place
2020 | Label Compilation
A label showcase
“… getting confused by echo – variations on its depth or repetition, or even by its sudden absence – is unique and unexpected and beautiful to me...”
Christopher Royal King & Nico Rosenberg
Healing
“… on synthesizers, textured lo-fi loops, and a remote musical conversation…”
“… reminiscent of winsome memories, having something to live for by keeping the past alive, and centring our minds around the optimism of having that back again…”
Matt Emery
Anxiety Mist
“… anxiety is at the core of rising tones, increasing tension in dynamics as if performed in one big breath…“
Reza Safinia
Within
“… a fusion of two worlds, marrying classical orchestration with elements of contemporary electronic music…”
“… music is medicine for both the artist and the audience…”
Mathias Van Eecloo
eisOtones 13
50 tracks from 50 releases of 2020
Christian Löffler
Dir Jehova
“… a soundtrack for a modern love story…”
Simon Goff
I Filled My Lungs with the Necessary Air, and Yelled!
“… a feeling of letting out a controlled, cathartic cry…”
“… it is where the past, present, and future all collide into a place where everything is connected…”
Elori Saxl, Henrik Meierkord, Of Thread & Mist
If you’re in search of new artists, new sounds, and new composition to explore, you can always first turn to your trusted labels
Jacob David
Styrhus
“… the solo piano drifts and waltzes through dim corridors of purposely forgotten memories, occasionally opening up the dusty shades…”
“… all the great recordings were made with what people had available to them at the time, and Picasso already knew: when I haven’t got any blue, I use red…”
James Murray & Mike Lazarev
Suññatā
“… where fragile tones appear to hang in an infinite amount of space…”
Following last year’s reworking of ‘Living Treasure’ James Murray and Mike Lazarev present a collection of post-classical compositions woven into delicate ambient textures