jimmie.hu

finally. i’ve been wanting to write about peter broderick since - well, since i started this blog actually. a many-sided, wonderful and inspiring musician, that i first came across his music about five years ago. i have been following his musical paths ever since.
when i started listening through his former music, i was captivated by the beautiful, delicate and well defined sound sculptures he evolves, making all his music quite recognizable and diverse and the same time. and broderick is prolific: he released various solo records, most of which evolving in minimalistic, instrumental, sometimes classical soundscapes. in addition that he loves playing with others: his collabs include stunning works with he type family (as you might have noticed, one of my very favorite labels, definitely worth checking out), with pianist nils frahms (besides other joint projects he co-produced his ‘the bells’ album about a year ago (erased tapes), a beautiful collaboration with machinefabriek (that you might know already) - and of course his year-long work with the amazing efterklang - one of my all time favourites. what i like most about him is probably how sensible he goes about with his music, his songs seem composed carefully, delicately and put together in a very selective, minimalistic manner. of course, his sound between ambient, soft folk and acoustic pop this reminds me of the like of bonnie prince billy and jose gonzales - however, broderick to me has something highly selective, almost a bit like you know it from ecm releases from up north. his music has silence and room to breathe - i like that.

well, as you can imagine after reading all this excitement, i am quite looking forward to his latest release - which is actually still yet to come. ‘http://www.itstartshear.com’ is to to be released on february 20. and yes, that is the actual name of the record, already hinting at the fact that broderick is making his statement to distribution, sharing and listening to music online. the domain will actually serve as a resource of line notes, lyrics and additional information on the music. quite an interesting apporach, especially for those who still actually care about the history, the making and the artist’s thought of an album. as for itstartshear this is actually quite interesting: broderick has been working on this one for about three years now as he claims on his website. in the meantime he has been releasing several records (instrumental, ambient, conceptional and some rather experimental artworks), and of course recording and touring with efterklang and others. a rather busy man, you might say. for his latest release he got back together with long-time fellow nils frahms, who this time got in a producer in his durton studio in berlin. even though i just had the preview stream version to listen to, i liked the sparse arrangement, and transparent natural sound. brodericks second vocal album (as he calls it himself) is simple, yet multilayered and -as always - beautiful: 10 personal tracks, carefully arranged, warm, and each one with a different and unique story to tell. asleep for example - just to pick one - samples numerous recitation of the lyrics by various people all over the word: peter published the lyrics on his myspace and flickr and asked everyone to send him his personal records of the words being recite. i won’t get into giving my personal statement on each song, just listen to them yourselves - i am happy to hear what you think.

you can find the full preview stream right here.

enjoy :)

i suppose you know the dark. and if you can wrap it up into sounds and music, there is one guy who mastered this. the results are terrifying, gloomy and yet strangely beautiful sounds, amazingly louring and fascinating. the man who is in charge of all that goes by the name of erik k. skodvin. he is from oslo, norway and you might have come across him and his duo project deaf center. well, apart from that he is also running the absolutely stunning label miasmah. what started of as a netlabel in 2006 is now not only pressing vinyls and cds and working together with such beautiful artists as greg haines, elegi (soon more about them here), jasper tx and jacaszek - it is also a graphic design studio. (actually you should stop reading right now - check out their website and music - and come back here)

i am really impressed not only by the huge output of erik skodvin, but also (and even more) by the intense and speacial quality that seemingly all his works hold. just recently he produced a short little video in collaboration with suki chan, a british director. skodvin got in as the sound and music designer - the outcome is stunning:

as a matter of fact, mr. skodvin is rather prolific. thus, he is an active solo-musician himself. as svarte greiner he has released pretty unsettling and intense music, besides others on digitalis (2010) and his debut knive in 2006 on type (that you might have come across here before. you should check out the wonderful set he prepared for their typecast series. it’s the first one in 5 years and holds some notable rarities). his latest work flare, however, will be released on the berlin label sonic pieces (also absolutely worth a visit. wonderful artwork.) you can get it as soon as october 22nd, but you can have a first glimpse at what is going on right here, right now :)

well i suppose you know the dark. this is it.

i admit, i’m a little late. but i just came across this collaboration a few days ago - and it’s arresting! credit goes to two remarkable figures of music: first is the label loaf recordings from london. second is the rather special arctic circle collective. the team around ben eshmade is a group of musicians, artists and promoters who love good music and support young and unknown artists as well as old stagers - by doing concerts, festivals, sessions, a beautiful radio and - of course - records. at the latest after their highly recognized compilation that fuzzy feeling (an absolute recommendation) in 2007 these guys made sure you want to keep an eye on what’s going on when they are teaming up.

well, at least you better do: in january 2010 they launched a one-year collaboration to  publish wonderful music. the explorers club is a monthly digital release of selected music, featuring more than 30 artists - some of them well known, other more of a secret tip. you will find the likes of johann johannsson, peter broderick, nils frahm, ryan teague,  and many more represented by pretty interestig labels (type, static caravan, 4ad, etc.). a true treasure trove of woderful music and special moments that is released digitally, but, however, comes with a survival-kit of artwork, posters, bags, and little goodies.

by the way: the name explorers club is said to be derived from the concept of facing the unknown, that is sending their artists in the hinterland without maps and directions to bring back extraordinary and rare sounds from the wild. i am not to appraise if that’s true or not - as long as the result is that good i won’t ask ;)

check out the past six month’s of the explorers club releases right here right now. a few tips for listening are (most definately) sweet billy pilgrim, (my all-time favourite) peter broderick and the (pretty interesting) sons of noel & adrian.

jan, feb, mar.

penguins rule.

[…] things are best kept secret. To that extent […] is a world, and inside this world a […], and inside this […] a pulse, and where there should be […] said, nothing is said, nothing […] explicit about what this group is, where they are from, what […] do, why they do it, and […] you should listen to it. 

wow.
in a nutshell, that is pretty much everything you can say about Ian M. Hazeldine aka antonymes. when i came across his stunning music i was just captivated. decent ambient music between classical touches and spheric layers. apart from his work as an actual musician, Hazeldine regularly publishes very nice mixed on a (more or less) monthly base for fluid radio. check out the latest one right here, featuring some familiar faces such as clint mansell, valgeir sigurðsson and finn.

yep, ok, this is nice. but it gets even better: Hezldine’s latest release “beauty becomes the enemy of the future” stands between art, photography and music in a beautiful way: in collaboration with David Newlyn and Kim Smith, he created and wonderful piece of art, realizing a rather refreshing idea:

“I’ve had the idea to produce something that was more than just a record for quite a while. Being a musician, graphic designer and photographer, I’ve always tried to combine my disciplines. I’d bought a lovely photo album a year or so ago and a plastic Russian camera.”

well, i think the outcome of that is quite convincing -

wow.

“In the autumn time
when the sky is a blank grey canvas
I don’t wanna paint on it

Cause all those colors blind me
spinning all around me
round and round and round
and round and round and

round and round and round”

blank grey canvas sky was released on fang bomb label in late 2009. it’s the outcome of the collaboration of rutger zuydervelt, better known as machinefabriek, from rotterdam and peter broderick from oregon, now living in berlin (you might know him already from efterklang). actually they have been working together in 2007 already on zuydervelt’s album huis, however this is their first collaborative album. it holds six gentle pieces of wonderful music between classical, drone and very personal sounds - and even features some piano playing by nils frahm.

enough said! have a listen to kites - and enjoy :)