Albums
John Luther Adams
Félicia Atkinson
Cardopusher
Matt Christensen
Enrico Coniglio
Coniglio / Under the Snow
Dakota Suite
Deadbeat
Deepchord
Vladislav Delay Quartet
DJ W!LD
Dreissk
Mark E
Marcus Fjellström
Fourcolor
Fovea Hex
Ákos Garai
Kreng
Lerosa
Machinedrum
Mem1 + Stephen Vitiello
Message to Bears
Novi_sad
Rick Reed
Alexander Rishaug
Jannick Schou
Secret Cinema
Seven Saturdays
Sleeps in Oysters
Sound People
Strom Noir
Ryan Teague
thisquietarmy
thisquietarmy + Yellow6
Amon Tobin
Alexander Turnquist
Damian Valles
Vetrix
Simon Whetham
Winterlight
Compilations / Mixes
Brownswood Electr*c 2
Laid Compilation
Prosumer
EPs
David Åhlén
Arkhonia
Bad Sector
Bengalfuel
Wil Bolton
Ed Cooke
Davis / Kleefstras
Detroit: DeepConstructed
d'incise
Final Cut
Gang Colours
Richard A Ingram
Pfirter / Dadub
Nils Quak
Rhythm Baboon
Rumpistol
Mark Templeton
Damian Valles
Josh Varnedore
Alexander Rishaug: Shadow Of Events
Dekorder
A long time in the making, Shadow Of Events is the third album by Oslo, Norway-based sound artist Alexander Rishaug, whose previous work Possible Landscape was issued on Asphodel all the way back in 2004. The new material, which Rishaug recorded over a five-year period, doesn't radically depart from the style of the earlier work though hints at more refinement overall. The album sits comfortably within the ambient soundscaping genre, and without too much effort one detects faint echoes of Oval, Stephan Mathieu, Microstoria, and related artists in Rishaug's material. He's used what are at this stage standard materials as sound sources—field recordings, electric and acoustic piano, guitar, and radio, with all of it shaped via computer—but the result is appealing nonetheless, as Rishaug produces a warm and understated brand of ambient music-making that has much to recommend it.
In “H_Icon,” murmuring pianos gradually build into a blurry cloud formation until they're joined by additional layers, this time of insect-like chirps and the babbling of a keyboard brook. In this longest of the album's tracks, layers of contrasting sounds slowly supplant others, and the whole registers as an episodic, heavily atmospheric, and patiently unfolding soundscape. As tonal washes and organ tones drift across a granular base of crackle and hiss, one could easily imagine “Drawing A Day” issued as a 12k release, so delicate is the piece an exercise in textural soundsculpting. “Garden Memories” is as lovely, with in this case Rishaug creating a reverie of gentle and nostalgic character from Rhodes sprinkles and gaseous textures. A slightly darker ambiance seeps into both “Things That Disappear,” which is otherwise as melancholy and haunting as a Bvdub production, and “Magic Fingers,” which closes the release with opaque whirlpools of shuddering haze and muffled clatter. Shadow Of Events admittedly won't win any awards for originality yet certainly stakes its place within the ambient soundscaping tradition respectably enough. Enhancing the project's appeal is its retiring nature (it is, after all, titled Shadow Of Events) and the absence of bloat in its economical forty-three-minute running time.
June 2011