Klotzsch & Krey - Through All These Years Of Trying To Belong

while i was at the cologne commons conference and music festival last weekend, i had the good fortune of meeting Simon of the 12rec netlabel and Emil Klotzsch, which gave me a good reason to revisit Emil's wonderful collaboration with Ruediger Krey, Through All These Years Of Trying To Belong. Emil's work as a sound designer for film is apparent, as this is an album of expansive audio-visual depth. subtle processed field recordings and ghostly pads loom far on the horizon.. in the middle ground, mournful piano chords.. and close in the foreground, a solo clarinet (and occasionally voice), recorded with intense intimacy, capturing every hiss, squeak, clattering sticky key and half-breathed note. a startling and original ambient work.

Marc Doudin - Affection

"Marc's gorgeous crystalline ambiance blends beautifully with pianos and haunting reverb to form Affection, his latest masterpiece."
lovely minimalistic tones best played at very low volume late at night. Affection, as well as several other of Marc's EPs are available at the Wise Owl Records netlabel.

Planet Boelex & Lisa's Antenna - Little world [remastered]

my favorite release of 2008 has just been tweaked and professionally remastered, giving it an even more lush and refined sound. a perfect excuse to re-visit this stunningly beautiful album of ambient dream pop.
for more information, visit the official press release on the soft phase label page, or planet boelex's myspace blog entry.

Imachi Akira - Lycoris radiata EP

i have mentioned that quiet ambient music is very fitting to the cold dark days of winter. i have also discovered that sometimes other styles of music are equally appropriate for those rare sunnier winter days when the sun glitters off the snow and ice. the Lycoris radiata EP put out on the electronica netlabel certainly evokes such and atomsphere.
Imachi Akira skillfully blends a myriad of sounds and styles into a beautifully cohesive whole. icy ambient atmospheres, subtle filtered idm-esque rhythms, dubby echoes, acoustic jazz guitar, delicate piano malodies and airy field recordings blend together to form a perfect soundtrack to a beautiful winter's day spend in a snow-covered valley, on the shores of a frozen river bed or walking on a glacier.

Motionfield - absolute zero

sometimes some of the best albums are hidden away as buried treasures, released in relative obscurity on an artist's own website. one such treasure is 'absolute zero' which is presented on an unassuming page in motionfield's homepage without even a tracklist or description.
motionfield has already released several brilliant albums on stadtgruen, test tube, and autoplate, as well as an especially excellent commercial release (available for full streaming and for purchase on somnia records) , creating some of the best quiet, introspective ambient idm you're likely to hear. 'absolute zero' is no exception. desolate soundscapes of spacious pads peppered with subtle, indistinct environmental sounds and delicate, glitchy percussion grow and evolve with a sensuous, breath-like rhythm. fractured, wandering piano melodies float in and out on gentle digital breezes. supremely chilled organic electronica for thoughtful moments...
EDIT: it seems the download link has been removed. but hiddenplace music has heard from an inside source that this album is slated to be released on thinner some time in the near future. stay tuned!

Beyond Absence - Complacency

released on the netlabel Webbed Hand records, Complacency is a collection of quiet, contemplative acoustic jazz pieces by Beyond Absence. the duo takes a very peaceful, thoughtful and simplistic approach to their music- slow, minimal improvisations for acoustic guitar and piano, with some occasional subtle percussion and keyboards. perfectly warm music to shelter from the darkening cold outside.

general fuzz - soulful fulfilling

soulful fulfilling finds general fuzz in an especially quiet and contemplative mood. for this album, he has created an absolutely beautiful set of quiet, introspective [mostly] instrumental music.
as he did on his previous album "coolaborations" general fuzz collaborates with several live musicians, adding violin, cello, guitar and vocals to compliment the general's soft keyboards, subtle sequenced percussion and careful production.
this album, along with several other quality full-length albums, can be downloaded for free from general fuzz's website. there is also a fascinating and detailed making-of page explaining the process of the album's creation, along with a custom-build mp3 player with loops and elements from each song.
the peaceful and positive vibe may cause the style to venture a little too close to the 'new age' category for some listeners, but the music is brilliantly produced and supremely chilled, and comes very highly recommended.

Planet Boelex & Lisa's Antenna - Little world

my vote for best netaudio release of this year goes to the first release from a humble new netlabel called soft phase: an ep entitled 'Little world' produced by none other than finnish artist planet boelex. last year, planet boelex released a brilliant extended ep called 'suunta' which i gushed about in an earlier post, also lauding it as the best release of that year. that release contained a collaboration with swedish vocalist Krister Linder, and this time, mr boelex works with another swedish singer/songwriter known as Lisa's Antenna. and he has outdone himself once again, creating exquisite, beautifully sequenced soundscapes around Lisa's lovely vocals and and minimal piano chords.
the usual planet boelex elements are here: infinitely reverberating pads, precisely filtered percussion and thick basses.. but planet b has scaled back the sequencing dramatically, providing a subtle, evocative backdrop for lisa's delicate vocals to soar over. truly good vocals and song writing are unfortunately rare in the world of netaudio, but this collaboration finds a rare gem in Lisa's entrancing songs. from time-suspending stillness, building to rapturous crescendos, and fading back into contemplative silence, this beautifully formed Little world provides the perfect peaceful refreshing escape from our own hectic and stressful world.

The Silent Ballet IX

i wrote about The Silent Ballet compilation series in an early entry on this blog. since that writing, a few new volumes have appeared, and i wanted to take a moment to spotlight the latest addition to the series, which really caught my ear recently. The Silent Ballet series (in collaboration with the Lost Children netlabel) has featured a lot of excellent artists, but in the past the series has suffered from some inconsistency in both musical style and quality. not so with this edition-- there is not one misplaced track on this compilation. The Silent Ballet IX is an absolutely beautiful collection of tracks which delicately combine strings and orchestral sounds with minimal electronics in a quiet post-rock sensibility. the compilation maintains a very cohesive, classical-inspired sound; each carefully selected track is an exquisite composition on its own, which also perfectly compliments the others. from the repressed intensity of the Bersarin Quartett, to the plaintive strains of Redhooker, to the soaring violins and piano arpeggios of Bosques de mi Mente, this is dream music for your nights and days.

Bosques de mi Mente - Trenes de Juguete

the experimental/noise netlabel Clinical Archives surprised me recently which a beautiful minimal ambient piano release entitled Trenes de Juguete (Toy Trains).
fans of the wistful melancholy piano of Yann Tiersen's Amélie film soundtrack will certainly enjoy this release, which combines simple lilting piano compositions with occasional gently strummed guitars and mysterious radio samples and other found sounds. it becomes a little repetitive at times, but makes for a perfectly relaxing accompaniment to light morning work or an afternoon tea break.
as the dark winter clouds begin to occasionally break with patches of sunlight, we are reminded that spring is approaching..

Solipsistic NATION guest mix

hiddenplacemusic is very proud to present an hour-long guest mix and short interview on an excellent podcast, Solipsistic NATION (episode 79). full playlist with links available on the SN homepage. artists include hiddenplace favorites such as planet boelex, muxu, iambic², lé mepris and nest, as well as some excellent artists who i havent had a chance to review yet.

a very warm welcome to listeners of SN who have taken the time to check out the blog. i have some great releases lined up to review in the coming weeks, but in the mean time, feel free to check out the archives or the 'in the queue' list to the right. enjoy the music!

Janne Hanhisuanto - Padmospheres

readers of this blog may know that i am a fan of gentle, floating beatless ambience. as with many forms of art, this style of music sounds deceptively simple, and yet is surprisingly difficult to produce with just the right proportions of sound. most 'ambient' works found on various netlabels veer heavily in the experimental direction-- perhaps interesting to listen to intellectually, but usually not pleasant to the ears.
'Padmospheres' from finnish musician Janne Hanhisuanto is certainly the exception to the rule, and a rare treasure among the vast collection of netaudio ambient. deep floating pads, quiet field recordings and found sound drenched in reverb, delicately simple piano passages, all mixed to perfection... and yet compelling and original enough to not fall into the cheesy 'new age' category. with 4 excellent long-form ambient compositions and beautiful artwork, i gladly add this release to my sadly short list of masterpieces of ambient netaudio.

Francesco Lettera

normally i really cant stand sequenced orchestral music, but in the case of music by Francesco Lettera, the composition is of such quality that i can forgive the occasionally cheesy sounds (although, on the whole, the sequencing sounds quite good). the digital orchestral sometimes lacks the 'punch' of a live performance, but the composer has done a very admirable job of infusing the music with a great deal of evocative expression and lively capriciousness. Mr Lettra has two quality releases on the somewhat enigmatic netlabel dharmasound: Vertigini, and The wizard of OZ. drawing on a wide range of influences- most notably Danny Elfman, perhaps along with a few cut scenes of Mahler, a flashback to Vaughn Williams, a tiny reference to Prokofiev or Stravinsky- these releases should appeal to fans of music with a grand, panoramic quality.
thanks to the Machtdose podcast for turning me on to these releases.

Pavel Dombrovski plays George Crumb: A little suite for Christmas

today, another audio treat for fans of the avant-garde: a modern classical(?) piano piece by experimentalist composer George Crumb. presented by the russian top-40 netlabel, this piece is quite a unique find in the netaudio world and will most certainly fascinate those with an interest in classical composition, performance, and sound art. as instructed by Mr Crumb, the performer coaxes a huge variety of sounds from the piano, including many avant-garde techniques such as long periods of silence, heavy tone clusters, and knocking/strumming/plucking the inside of the piano. this piece is full of expressionistic emotion-- moments of quiet ambience are punctuated by violent explosions of sound. i was particularly impressed by a passage where the performer plays chords on the keys and plucks a melody on the open strings, giving a delicate, harp-like effect. dont be fooled by the somewhat cliché christmas titles, this is definitely not your average holiday music!

Le Mépris

today i offer a delicious and delictate selection of minimal piano ambience from one of my top-ten netlabels, aerotone. although the label is just over 2 years old now, Le Mépris is only aerotone's 11th release, proof that this is a label with the most discerning of tastes. if the words eno, budd, and airports ring a positive note, you will almost certainly enjoy this release.