Articles
Rafael Anton Irisarri
Slow Six

Albums
Another Electronic Musician
Balmorhea
Celer
City of Satellites
Cylon
Deadbeat
Kyle Bobby Dunn
Eluvium
Ent
Ido Govrin
Danny Paul Grody
Chihei Hatakeyama
Wyndel Hunt
The Internal Tulips
Keepsakes
The Knife
Kshatriy
Lali Puna
Francisco López
Mask
Melodium
Monolake
Clara Moto
Myrmyr
Nos Phillipé
Ontayso
Outputmessage
Pleq
The Q4
Schuster
Shinkei + mise_en_scene
The Sight Below
Sphere Rex
subtractiveLAD
Bjørn Svin
Tamagawa
Ten and Tracer
Trills
Trouble Books
Yellow Swans

Compilations / Mixes
An Taobh Tuathail Vol. III
Does Your Cat Know My...
Emerging Organisms 3
Moment Sound Vol. 1

EPs
Brim Liski
Ceremony
Eric Chenaux
Abe Duque
Hieroglyphic Being
Rafael Anton Irisarri
Manaboo
Monolake
Mr Cooper & Dday One
Pleq & Seque
Nigel Samways
Santos and Woodward
Simon Scott
Soundpool
Stimming, Watt & Biel
Stray Ghost
Ten and Tracer
Stuchka Vkarmanye

Myrmyr: The Amber Sea
Digitalis

After making strong impressions on their respective solo releases, Agnes Szelag and Marielle Jakobsons (aka Darwinsbitch) pool their considerable talents for The Amber Sea, their debut album under the name Myrmyr. The two supplement their own rich instrumental sound (violin, cello, voice, bass, gezhong, piano, harp, accordian, melodica, glockenspiel, and guitar are just some of the sound sources credited to the two) with contributions from a number of Bay Area musicians who add clarinet, trombone, flute, and vibraphone to the material. The album itself is a concept album of sorts that traces the genealogy of amber by drawing connections from it to mythology, Baltic folklore, and geology.

Half of the eight settings feature the duo only, and it's these that capture Myrmyr's electro-acoustic meditative sound in its fundamental form. Fittingly, the album begins with two such settings, the first “Jurata,” a haunting invocation that treats Szelag's chanting voice as a lead presence alongside a spectral mass of harmonium, strings, and glassy tones. The setting decompresses briefly into gamelan form before the arrival of “Baltic Winds,” a vivid soundscape the duo conjures using gently clanging bells and bowed tones. Like a macabre fairy tale, the later “Egle's Escape” opts for a dark excursion into vocal folk-chant mystery.

Guests add clarinet, flute, and trombone to “First Seed,” making for a more conventionally through-composed piece that's nevertheless as satisfying as Myrmyr's explorative soundscapes. Piano, cello, violin, trombone, and clarinet are prominently featured in a melancholy setting that's as cinematic as it is classical. Luis Maurette adds his voice to Szelag's in the seaside meditation “Silver Rooster,” which proves haunting despite a sparse arrangement. Ample evidence of the arranging skills the duo developed during their tenure at Mills College (from which they both received MFAs in Electronic Music in 2006) is heard in the album's centerpiece, “The Sea Returns,” which adds nine musicians to Myrmyr's two in an ambitious fifteen-minute ‘conducted improvisation.' After a peaceful ambient beginning of processed tones and piano meander, individual voices of violin, flute, cello, and trombone breathe life into the slowly awakening piece until a loud unison swell erupts in an ecstatic climax. The penultimate “Dancing In Captivity” scales things back in a neo-classical dirge for violin, vibraphone, and harps. Though a ‘classical' dimension is present, The Amber Sea in no way restricts itself to any one genre. Instead, its eight pieces alchemize chamber classical, drone, chant, avant-folk, and experimental elements into an arresting and accomplished hybrid that's inspired by the duo's shared Baltic roots.

March 2010