A Winged Victory For The Sullen – Atomos
An intensely ramped up release for AWVFTS considering the supremely well-received debut of this project. We were fans since day one, lush modern classical piano music with drones and oscillations spiralling around the spectrum is exactly what we take our influences from. This release is a bit heavier on the orchestration, more organ and strings, so the dynamics throughout the record are much more present. Its just a gorgeous release, every track fits in so well to the underlying message of the album yet they all have a distinct voice unto themselves.
Nils Frahm – Spaces
This album sees Nils expanding out from his usual bedroom piano sound, its live and he has rigged up an arsenal of synthesizers, space echos, pianos and a Rhodes. His absolute mastery of this equipment, as well as his technique, makes it possible for him to fluidly run around the stage playing a bunch of them at once, and that’s what he does here. We love this record for the insane dynamics that Nils is capable of achieving in “piano music”, its something we strive for as well.
Vicky Chow – Tristan Perich: Surface Image
I wasn’t sure I would really enjoy a 70-minute piece written for solo piano and 40 1-bit electronic bleep machines until I witnessed Vicky flawlessly tear through the piece live. I have since listened to this album at least 10 times and it came out only a month ago. If you like analog electronics and a meandering, complex piece written for solo piano, this album is absolutely for you. You know what else you might like? Us!
Alexander Turnquist – Flying Fantasy
Alex put out one of our favorite albums of the year, and without a doubt his best ever in Flying Fantasy. Its fingerpicked 12-string guitar with such a unique cocktail of intensity and beauty that almost nobody out there can emulate. Lush swells of vibraphone, violin and cello fill out whatever space is left behind in his fury of guitar string pluckings, and it just leaves the listener spellbound. Invite Alex to Japan, he would love to come, tell him we say hi.
Christopher Tignor – Thunder Lay Down In The Heart
One of other favorite albums this year also comes by way of Western Vinyl, I guess that says something. And Lymbyc Systym’s Jared Bell did the artwork for both albums! But Chris’ latest solo album starts with a poem by John Ashbery, spoken alongside original string music, which is pretty much our favorite thing ever! He designs and makes use of his own custom-built electronic processing software, and when an entire orchestra is employed for the purpose of electronically manipulating their sound, it just makes this record everything we love about contemporary classical, experimental electronic music.
Sontag Shogunプロフィール
Sontag Shogun（ソンタグショーグン）は、記憶の抽象的な部分を描写するために、アナログサウンドの電子機器とアコースティックピアノを調和する事によって音楽を制作するニューヨークのトリオ。
フレッシュでメロディアスで、そして時に予測不可能に変化する現代音楽、即興演奏、アンビエントミュージック、そしてサウンドコラージュなどから影響を受けている。バンドの全体的な目標は、記憶を白く塗りつぶしたり個々の繋がりを欠く事なく、一見して平穏な取るに足らない細かい出来事の中にある瞬間を捕える事。
2014年にファーストアルバム「Tale」をリリース。これまでにアメリカ、カナダ、ヨーロッパをツアーし、恩田晃、Matana Roberts、Tom Carter、Julia Kentをはじめとした音楽アーティストや、詩人、振付師、映画監督、服飾メーカー、映像アーティスト、アロマアーティストなどとも即興パフォーマンスを行う。また、古い映画や記録映像などのモノクロ映像のループに合わせて、その美しい質感の刺激的な性質を受け入れながらパフォーマンスを頻繁に行っている。
Sontag Shogunは夢を見るように、あるいは夢の中から音楽を作っている。
http://www.sontagshogun.com
http://soundcloud.com/sontagshogun
http://facebook.com/sontagshogun
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2015年3月26日～4月5日にSontag Shogn初の日本ツアー決定！詳細はSontag ShogunのFacebookやRicco Labelのウェブサイトなどで随時発表されます。