Ivan The Tolerable – ‘Autodiadact II’
The latest instalment in Oli Heffernan’s prolific ITT project, this album started life as three separate recording sessions in July and August 2021 – work for a soundtrack to a series of films about psychogeography and North Yorkshire folklore, a remote improvised session with Christian Alderson (The Unit Ama/Archipelago) and a solo EP of arpeggiater repeat drones and freak-folk. Originally intended as three EPs, the flow and theme running through them lends itself well as a single album, linking previous release ‘White Tears’, (Library of The Occult) and forthcoming album ‘The Long Year’ (Stolen Body)
Deadman’s Ghost – ‘Tethered Tales’
This album presents alternative audio reels for two experimental short films from the 1950s. These new scores explore the worlds of isolated characters seeking to free themselves from repressive forces, implying narratives not originally intended by the directors. Once loose of their visual anchors the resulting tracks unfold as ominous, shifting soundscapes.
1 : The Poisoned Wood. Written for Arrière Saison (1950. Directed by Dimitri Kirsanoff) In this rural drama, a woman plots to escape the remote place where she lives with her woodcutter husband. A mixture of drone, folk and field recordings lend the story a sense of tension and dread. Has the forest placed a curse on the couple due to the husband’s actions, or is there some other dark undercurrent to their marriage?
2: The Blind Prophet. Written for The Way to Shadow Garden (1954. Directed by Stan Brakhage) Synths and samples evoke the shadowy forces of an era which spawned McCarthyism and Project MK-Ultra. Was the protagonist a subject in a secret government mind control experiment? Back in his urban apartment, strange phenomena, radio propaganda and a book of Greek tragedy propel him on a terrifying quest for enlightenment.
One Key Magic [OKM] – ‘Worldly Noise and Electronic Atmospheres’
Situated on the edge of the North York Moors in North East England are three giant, geodesic domes containing the space radars of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Built in 1962, the purpose of the ‘radomes’ at RAF Fylingdales was to track everything in Low Earth Orbit and distinguish the signal of an incoming nuclear weapon from the ‘noise’ of satellites and space debris. Along with designing and building these radar systems (as well as those on the Apollo program’s Lunar Module), RCA developed revolutionary innovations in recorded music such as the velocity microphone, the 45rpm single and the music synthesizer. Indeed, during the early years of operations at Fylingdales, the supply chain of radar component parts (many of which were the same switches and dials as those used on early RCA synthesizers) was managed from the same office that dealt with the distribution of records by ABBA, David Bowie and Iggy Pop. Dr. Michael Mulvihill, artist and research associate in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University, is the first artist in residence at RAF Fylingdales. Together with musician and producer Chris Tate, the pair formed One Key Magic to interpret and materialise the scintillations and aurora of these electro-magnetic engagements, while folding together the geographic, cultural and historic trajectories of music production, space exploration and nuclear deterrence. The starting point was to make audible the electromagnetic pulses from the space radars, and from the Apollo Lunar Module, as drone tones. By transposing the frequencies of the radar pulses, they were brought into the range of human hearing and a different composition for each radar location was created. Compositions were improvised over the tones, with the musical key and relevant melodic scales being determined by the fundamental and harmonic frequencies present in the radar pulse drones. Using synthesizers and guitar played with electronic bow (a device which uses electromagnetism to vibrate the strings without touching them), morphing textures were allowed to form and flow. Seeking an immersive sound through processes of human and the more-than-human creative forces interacting within the world, the project shares sonic concerns with artists and musicians such as Laurie Spiegel, Catherine Christer Hennix and Alvin Lucier. One Key Magic seeks to make audible the way that electromagnetic practices of nuclear deterrence have invisibly shaped our experiences for the past half a century. FFO Spiritualized / Spacemen 3 /analogue ambient synth drones
Ddrome – ‘Beyond The Thunderddrome’
Jamie Davis is drummer with Dublin improv group Zeropunkt. This is his second outing as Ddrome. The first release being ‘Perimeter’ in May 2021. on Dublin label, Last of our Kind. ‘Beyond the Thunderddrome’ sees him in similar drum n’ drone territory, sticking to his twenty minutes-per-track format. It was recorded in August 2021. ‘Fearless and feral wins the race’ is inspired by his witnessing of young people rioting in Dublin in late summer during Covid lockdown, It’s fluctuating rhythms and tension and release echoing these events. The nonchalant whistling motif a nod to casual violence. The album’s other track ‘Stairdust’ is just that. Cosmic sonic household DIY if you will. An obvious pun on ‘Stardust’ but proof that you don’t need to travel too far to leave earth. Household finds make crystalline bell sounds and jazz brushes sweep up the dust.
Willie Stewart (Woven Skull) – ‘Let’s Explore The Floor Tom’
Woven Skull’s Willie Stewart, takes us on an educational, inspirational and entertaining journey through the versatility of the Floor Tom, that’ll appeal to both accomplished and novice drummers and the casual listener, alike.