Articles
2009 Top 10s and 20s
King Midas Sound
Starke

Albums
36
Aardvarck
Matias Aguayo
Anaphoria
Anduin
Arbol + Fibla
Aufgang
Beneva vs. Clark Nova
Black to Comm
Bvdub
Cornstar
Dinky
Enola
Fieldhead
FOURM / Shinkei / Turra
Billy Gomberg
The Green Kingdom
Chihei Hatakeyama
Ian Hawgood
Marek Hemmann
Khate
King Midas Sound
Marcel Knopf
Robot Koch
Lambent
Shinobu Nemoto
Olekranon
Laurent Perrier
Piano Magic
Porzellan
Pylône
Ryonkt
Shadyzane
Slow
Small Color
Solomun
The Sound of Lucrecia
Stray Ghost
The Use of Ashes
Sylvie Walder

Compilations / Mixes
Sebo K
Will Saul
Tama Sumo
VOLTT Amsterdam Vol. 1

EPs
Blindhæð
Roberto Bosco
Franco Cangelli
Dieb
dub KULT
Abe Duque/Blake Baxter
Gemmy
Christopher Hobbs
Duncan Ó Ceallaigh
Christopher Roberts
The Sight Below
Two Fourteen
Van Der Papen
Andy Vaz
Vetrix
Eddie Zarook

DVD
Optofonica

Duncan Ó Ceallaigh: Psalms
[ parvoart ] recordings

Van Der Papen: Path
[ parvoart ] recordings

The micro-label [ parvoart ] recordings, established by Duncan Ó Ceallaigh in the Baltic Sea port of Wismar in 2007, returns with two new 3-inch releases, one by Van Der Papen (twin brothers Ronald and Christoph Lonkowsky) and the other by Ó Ceallaigh himself.

Van Der Papen's splendid sophomore effort, Paths, opts for three tracks of glorious ambient dub-techno, with each marked by hazy synthetic textures and driving bass-heavy grooves. “Eisenbahn” (“railway”) opens in ambient mode but then, a minute in, springs forward with a bass-thrusting bounce that suggests a train in full flight. Midway through, the train squeals to a momentary stop before leaving the station with a techno attack that pounds even more heavily and with an even more jubilant spirit. Sounding like a great lost Chain Reaction track, “Signpost” underlays bright punctuations and blurry synthetic tones with a pulsating kick drum and a subterranean dub bass in a manner that's as propulsive as the opening track, even if the pace is now less furious. Emerging slowly out of a bath of dust and crackle, “London” achieves lift-off three minutes in, with claps and a deep bass line pushing dense fields of string tones and synth washes forward. Halfway through, faint traces of electro and even deep house surface like resurrected spirits as the slow-burning mix turns increasingly funky before diving back into the crackle with which it began.

The three long-form meditations on Ó Ceallaigh's third EP, Psalms, take their titles from Biblical passages, while the haunted character of the music itself was inspired by the painter Makoto Fujimura, whose work (sometimes religious in nature) exemplifies mystery and grace in a visual manner that Ó Ceallaigh aspires to match aurally. “117” (“The faithfulness of the Lord endures forever”) opens with a field recording of rain drizzle and church bells (from the St. Nikolai church in Wismar near Ó Ceallaigh's home) before ceding the stage to a stirring drone of organ and choir, the two blended into a high-pitched, subtly wavering current of willowy character that persists throughout the track's nine minutes. Close listening reveals ever-so-subtle changes occurring within the drone, before the symmetrical re-appearance of drizzle and church bells brings the piece to a close. “22” (“My God, why have you forsaken me?”) augments an organ's melancholy modulations with rustling sounds and a general feel of disorientation and drift, in keeping with the sense of loss and desolation suggested by the textual passage. “139” (“O Lord, you have searched me and you know me... Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me”) is the most peaceful of the three tracks, the subject in this case having reached a state of acceptance about his/her humble state, as slowly swirling tones, accompanied by subliminal strings and an occasional bass accent, establish a mood of stillness and resolution.

December 2009