On his new album 'Observation of Breath' for the Swiss-based Hallow Ground label, Lawrence English works exclusively with an organ for four compositions that are exercises in "maximal minimalism" as their creator himself notes in a nod to Charlemagne Palestine, who coined this term.
"While it seems somewhat fitting that those four pieces based on a steady flow of air were conceived and recorded in a situation of accelerated standstill caused by a respiratory disease, the Room40 founder is not so much concerned with capturing the zeitgeist than rather incorporating the spirit of time itself. »It is a record about presence and patience,« he explains. Exploring the unique sonic affordances of a singular instrument, »Observation of Breath« is not only devoted to the durability of sound but also to its density. That it marks his debut on Hallow Ground after having shaped its sound by mastering most of the label’s releases in recent years is just as fitting then as its release following albums by Kali Malone and FUJI|||||||||||TA, whose innovative work with organ instruments have facilitated a rediscovery of their possibilities.English’s compositions however are neither directly indebted nor responding to these musicians.
His exploration of the organ’s many facets started a decade ago when the composer was given access to an instrument built in 1889 that is presently housed at The Old Museum in Brisbane. After it had already played a crucial role on his seminal albums »Wilderness Of Mirrors« and »Cruel Optimism,« last year’s self-released »Lassitude« was the first record that English entirely composed and recorded with that instrument. »During the soft lockdowns, I spent many days playing to an empty concert hall, recording the pieces that became ›Lassitude‹ and then, this album,« says English in regards to an unfortunate situation that fortunately provided him with time and space—two major themes but also key qualities of the four new compositions. In this sense, he goes on, »Observation of Breath« resolves a number of the questions originally raised by »Lassitude."

Notes on the recording process:
The organ on All Thoughts Fly is situated in Gothenburg and is a Swedish replica of the Arp Schnitger organ in Germany. It is the largest organ tuned in Quarter-comma meantone temperament in the world. With it’s four manuals, one pedal and 54 stops, it was built as part of a ten-year research project reconstructing 17th Century North German organ building craft. The tuning temperament is an important detail to note here, as it deeply affects the sound and tuning, and thus radically changed the process of creating this album. Anna speaks of a pleasant surprise during recording, the organ's ability to create beautiful "pitching" notes through its stops and air supply system. She remarks “We took advantage of this so most of the pitching sounds and notes that you hear on the album comes from the mechanics of this organ, effects made entirely acoustically." The organ was recorded with two room mics for atmosphere and two pairs of close mics placed inside the organ to capture nuances and detail for further organ sound processing by Filip Leyman in his studio.

在一片静谧之中，Chaotic Effigy通过感知人潮的情绪，触摸社会规则中看不见的气压，描绘了关于意识的深层流动。宁成在社会群体形象中获取灵感，利用即兴、情绪导向等方式构建出一种出离氛围本身的思考引导。他通过有形存在的声音片段，在冲突之中彼此排斥再融合。宁成所想构建的绝非一个自然的空间，他意在表达一种“真实社会的不自然”。
In the midst of the silence, Chaotic Effigy portrays the deep flow of consciousness by sensing the emotions of the crowd and touching the invisible air pressure of social rules.Ning Cheng draws inspiration from the images of social groups and uses improvisation and emotional orientation to construct a thoughtful guidance that is out of the atmosphere itself. Through the sound fragments of tangible existence, he repels and re-integrates them in the midst of conflict. What Ning is trying to build is not a natural space, but an expression of the "unnaturalness of the real society".

『稗海遺考』は「雲生/Cloudborn」の再録音を含む、2013年から2014年初めまでの作品を収録したアルバム。台北のGrass Mountainと異常に蒸暑い夏に奉げられている。破地獄は台湾・台北のドローン/アンビエント・トリオ。グループ名は道教の儀式に由来しており、アジアの密教音楽を連想させる独自のヘヴィ・ドローンを展開している。

The Body is a prolific musical force whose creativity is matched only by the astonishing weight of their sound. Duo Lee Buford and Chip King have established their own musical language that reimagines how rhythm, dynamics, and sonics can shape or dismantle song structure. Over the course of two decades, the duo has consistently challenged assumptions and defied categorization, redefining what it means to be a heavy band. On their new album, The Body are again pushing limits and testing the boundaries of the studio to explore the extremes and microtonality of distortion to find its maximal impact. I’ve Seen All I Need To See is The Body at their most incisively bleak, a towering monolith of noise.
I’ve Seen All I Need To See marks both a return and departure for The Body. In contrast to the electronic-centric instrumentation and production-heavy arrangements of previous albums and Buford’s work in Sightless Pit, this album is focused on their core live sound: Buford’s booming, resolute drums paired with King’s obliterated guitar and howl. Following albums with extensive guest performances and acclaimed collaborations with Thou, Uniform, Full of Hell, and more, I’ve Seen All I Need To See is almost entirely the core duo. Guests vocalist/pianist Chrissy Wolpert and vocalist Ben Eberle are used very sparingly. Course, bristling distortion contorts every instrument, with samples of spoken word, cymbals, toms and King’s already noxious tone emerging from layers of feedback. The myriad of tonal interplays, captured in detail, has a movement all its own. The Body, together with engineer Seth Manchester of Machines With Magnets, capture the complexities of distorted sound in stunning detail. The clarity and the cacophony exceed anything they've created before, morphing desolate, festering soundscapes into an exhilarating sonic universe.
The recording studio remains indelible to The Body’s creative process. Working closely with Manchester, Buford often lays the framework for songs from the drums up, mirroring hip hop production. I’ve Seen All I Need To See trades out 808s and The Body’s self-sampling for live instruments with a focus on expanding mutations of sound from more limited sources. The results are remarkably rich textural bombardments. Throughout, The Body deliver oppressive noise with potent lucidity, replicating the overwhelming sound of their live performances in revelatory detail.
I’ve Seen All I Need To See demonstrates not only The Body’s fearless spirit and vicious edge, but their intellectual musical heft through its explorations of distorted sound and the power of distorted sounds’ interplay. Composer Roger Johnson said “Noise is power, but is generally represented as negative, chaotic, dangerous, violent, when it comes... from those marginalized from power. Noise is also an expression of freedom, a ‘liberation of sound.’” The Body are sound liberators capable of mining and extracting remarkable details from the most manipulated and distorted sound sources. I’ve Seen All I Need To See is a groundbreaking work and an ecstatic listen, whether seen as a testament to catharsis in oblivion, an opus of inexorable dread or a wholly liberating adventure.

▼WV045 & CFI008: 李劍鴻 Li Jianhong - 山霧 Mountain Fog
A co-release between WV Sorcerer Productions & CFI Record.
"Like Sonic Youth and Japanese rock collective Ghost, he straddles and/or blasts his way across the line between psychedelic rock and exploratory noise; he also frequently incorporates a spiritual component inspired by Buddhism and traditional Chinese art." - Noah Berlatsky, Chicago Reader
四明山區，多霧。尤其春夏季節，老家窗前的山頭上時常霧氣繚繞。
一陣山雨一陣涼 —— 我喜歡這種潮濕的，涼颼颼的體感。不是冷，是那種山林里清涼的空氣吸入肺部後，又迅速擴散到全身的舒暢感。感覺自己就是一株渾身沾滿水氣的大葉狼萁。
霧起之時，我喜歡去山野里走走。但也不敢往森林深處去。關於山霧的種種神秘和傳說，從來沒有在李家村的志怪中斷過。童年時代是害怕，後來是對山林的一絲敬畏。就算是現在，我也常想，山霧彌漫之際可能就是山與山之間開始對話的時候吧 —— 山，肯定是有智慧的。還有，平日里一些見不著的動物，或山精野怪也都會借著山霧幽幽地遊蕩出來了吧。
《山霧》是關於故鄉的第三部錄音，前兩部《望海崗》和《父親，以及蜿蜒而下的山路》已分別由美國的Utech Records和比利時的Cold... Moss做了出版。
In the Siming Mountains, there is a lot of fog. Especially in spring and summer, the hills in front of my home window are often foggy.
A shower of mountain rain will give a while of coolness - I like this humid, cool body feeling. Not cold, but the kind of relief feeling when cool mountain air is absorbed into the lungs, and then quickly spread to the whole body. It feels like I am a big leaf of a wolfsbane covering with water.
When the fog rises, I like to go for a walk in the mountains. But I don't dare to go deeper into the forest. The mysteries and legends about the mountain fog have never been absent in ghost stories told in Lijia Village. In my childhood, it was out of fear, and later it turned into a touch of awe of the mountains and forests. Even now, I often think that the time when the mountain fog fills the air may be the time when the dialogue between mountains begins – the mountain, for sure, has wisdom. And, some animals rarely to be seen, or mountain spirits and monsters may also wander in the mountain fog.
“Mountain Fog” is the third recording about my hometown. The first two, “Wanghai Gang” and “Father, and a wild trail zigzagging down” have been released by the U.S. label Utech Records and the Belgian label Cold Moss respectively.
- 李劍鴻 Li Jianhong more