bj nilsen & stilluppsteypa - space finale (tape)

bj nilsen & stilluppsteypa
space finale
demego 011
editions mego
c90 cassette tape
limited to 200 copies


image:©franz graf

Well I'm starting the New Year with something I completely missed out last year and that is the amazing BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa - Space Finale album. Originally released as a (very) limited edition cassette tape it's since been made available as a 2LP on Mego. Unfortunately, both editions have long sold out and people like myself, who've just discovered this gem, will have to do with a download copy. This is so good that it would have (if I'd done one) made my list of the best albums of 2010... The perfect companion piece to accompany the dreadful weather, as well as the whisky-fuelled stupor of the night before, that we've woken up to this morning... Though, I must make this quite clear, Nilsen and Stilluppsteypa's drone-along is anything but dreadful; the recording being quite sublime and much more interesting than anything else drone-wise that I've encountered in a while. Not to mention that this tape, all things considered, is almost worth having for the beautiful Franz Graf artwork alone. As Boomkat says "An absolute treasure." Very highly recommended. one2zero

A track from BJNilsen & Stillupsteypa's 'Space Finale' features on the soundtrack to Gaspar Noë's 'Enter The Void.' This film received a 5 star review in The Guardian.

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"Fantastic collaboration between two masters of immersive drone music and location recordings. [...] Originally released on cassette earlier on this year. Divided into four lengthy pieces, the album has the feel of a classic piece of analogue experimentation, populated by obliterated field recordings, vintage synth timbres, archaic, blipping tones and above all, acre after acre of sustaining, continuous sound. [...] It's listed that the principal 'instrument' used in the making of this record was a Revox 2-channel tape machine, and the fact that the release was originally consigned to cassette means that the warm, magnetic character of the music is seen through right to the end. [...] Very few modern, digital drone records manage to achieve such an unshakable air of foggy enigma, and at its intangible best 'Space Finale' evokes a fantasy meeting between Delia Derbyshire and The Hafler Trio. Strictly limited copies - an absolute treasure." ©boomkat

Buy this recording @ Editions Mego / @ boomkat

Download @ boomkat

mark fell : ul8

mark fell
ul8
mego 111
editions mego


image:©japanese forms

Well one2zero more or less ends the year with a further release from Mark Fell. UL8 follows hard on the heels of his very recent Multistability on raster-noton and his tape only release on Alku Records (see previous posts here & here). On UL8 Fell explores territories of sonic abstraction that might not be easy on the ear for most of us though some will applaud this adventure in sound and rythmn... As Boomkat puts it "... [Fell] takes his sound even further into the outer reaches of glacial, rhythmic experimentation. " I've only listened to it a couple of times (so far) but I imagine that even after a few more spins I'll like it less than the Multistability album. I'll maybe let the over-indulgence of Xmas fade a bit before returning to it and to give it a listen in less hectic circumstances.
All in all though, an impressive album with Fell in full 'experimental' but not completely uncomprising mode as someone like Hecker perhaps.
Available in digipak card-sleeve with beautiful graphic design/artwork which, like the Multstability sleeve, was done by the musician himself. Recommended. one2zero
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UL8 ...Just two weeks after Multistability comes UL8 on Editions Mego. Handily split into digestible sections, it's a much different listen than Multistability. The first section ("The Occultation of 3C 273") is the closest, but the sounds are duller, and more relaxed, with its distinct low-end coated with grit. The second section ("Vortex Studies") plays games with static and very slight noise for something that sounds like Kraftwerk's Radio-Activity as filtered through AtomTM's Liedgut: ancient but determinedly technological...©Resident Advisor
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Buy this disc @ Editions Mego / @ boomkat