The official weather report for Los Angeles says it’s going to be gloomy and rainy here this weekend. Of course, those of us who know better only listen to David Lynch’s daily weather reports to find out what’s really going on in the local atmosphere.
Our house in the San Fernando Valley stores cold like a medical grade freezer, so the music I’ve selected for this weekend — in part — derives from my desire to warm up my insides. Also, I wanted to share a couple albums that feel like a total experience, a transportation to another place. I’ve been spinning these two a bunch lately, sometimes with headphones on, with my eyes closed, and sometimes softly through speakers while I’m doing other stuff. I’ve found both experiences rewarding. And while they share some affinities, I feel like together these two albums fuel different moods, modalities, emotions, and imaginative experiences.
Presuming many of you exist elsewhere, beyond my beloved little nook of the world, I can only imagine what alchemical magic these two albums might produce for you. And depending on how you experience them: in your car, on your stereo, with headphones or without, each of these can impact you in such different ways.
If you’ve listened to them before, I hope you find value in returning to them. If they’re new to you, I hope they light your fuse.
First, Sculpturegardening by Mexico City-based artist and producer, Tristan Arp. Released on October 22, 2021 by the UK label Wisdom Teeth. It self identifies as electronic, idm, ambient, experimental, leftfield-bass, modern classical, polyrhythmic.
In the liner notes, Arp describes the project thusly:
With sculpturegardening, my concept was to approach music like gardening. I collaborated with machines inspired by the way a gardener collaborates with the earth. A gardener creates the conditions for the plants to come to life and develop on their own. In a similar way, I created a set of conditions and probabilities for the music to make itself. Who is making the music here?
And second, BLACK BROWN GRAY GREEN by Norman W. Long. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Long’s work foregrounds field recording in his local community. As one of his other album’s liner notes describe it, his place-based work “offers us a way to listen to communities of color by listening for the ecological, economic and residential life that make up the community.”
Released on September 10, 2021 by the Chicago-based Hausu Mountain Records, BLACK BROWN GRAY GREEN self identifies as ambient, environmental, experimental electronic, field recordings, modern composition, sound art.
According to an insightful article on the American Composers Forum website I Care If Your Listen:
BLACK BROWN GRAY GREEN builds upon [Long’s] catalogue of work with field recordings and sound collages. The album opens with a substantial live performance from 2019. At first, we are situated in an active environment, abundant with crickets, birds, and other natural noise-makers. The sound appears “untouched” and unprocessed by Long, who then subtly and gradually introduces his hand. A sustained drone and grainy bubbling slowly emerge from the soundscape, as does a high-pitched pulsating tone that conveys a manufactured chirping. These two seemingly disparate and opposing forces so easily come together to create a sound that feels both nostalgic and futuristic at once. Gentle beeps and boops of a synthesizer chatter with birdsong. Crunchy filters, wind, and static noise blur together in a desert of sound. The effectiveness of this track lies in the composites of Long’s worldbuilding — blending natural sounds with the electronic to create something new entirely.
I hope these two albums give you something magical to experience this weekend!
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