I’m getting a sense of Déjà vu here, I swear it was about this time last year I wrote about Magnus Birgersson’s last release under his Solar Fields monicker, Random Friday. As with his prior release Origin # 01 however, this one is a look back in time specifically focusing on the period between 2003 and 2009. Continue reading
I’ve recently been revisiting some of my favorite ambient artists and making some new discoveries. I thought I’d do a little roundup of what I’ve been daydreaming to for the last week.
Keith Kenniff AKA Helios released an album of his previously released songs that have been remixed by a variety of artists. Halving The Compass is one of my all time favourite Helios tracks, and was recently remixed by Rhian Sheehan, an award winning musician from New Zealand. Rhian Sheehan put the ambient scene in awe with his 2008 album, Standing in Silence. I genuinely can’t think of a better composer to remix this track. The pacing and intimate sounds of the piano are perfect.
After last week’s speculation, the new album from My Bloody Valentine not only exists, it’s available right now! The long awaited follow up to 1991s Loveless, is named simply mbv, the album was launched at midnight on Saturday 2nd February. The album is exclusively available through the band’s website – after initially crashing, due to load, the site is now back up and running.
Much time has passed since the release of the critically hailed Loveless, rumours of whole albums worth of material that have been recorded then subsequently scrapped by the band have surfaced over the years.
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Directing duo Karni and Saul have collaborated with The Staves to create an absolutely stunning video for the first single from their debut album Dead & Born & Grow (November 2012). It’s wonderfully organic with a mix of techniques including hand drawn imagery and flash animation and gives a brilliant sense of depth and although the woodcut style is obviously an influence it apparently contains no stop-frame animation. It’s a very literal take on the subject and its beautiful animation and quirky characters are charming to behold.
The Staves are off on tour shortly with dates primarily across the UK, with a few European ones thrown in for good measure. Follow this link for a full list. Their debut is out now through Atlantic Records, available in all the usual places.
Sources: Creative Review Blog
