Articles
Andy Vaz Interview and Set
Mark O'Leary's Grønland

Albums
Acre
Arborea
Ólafur Arnalds
Kush Arora
Asura
bbcb
Steve Brand
Nick Chacona
Robert Curgenven
Cuushe
Daniell and McCombs
Delicate Noise
d'incise
Ecovillage
Danton Eeprom
Seren Ffordd
Paul Fiocco
El Fog
Koutaro Fukui
Corey Fuller
The Go Find
Ernest Gonzales
Koss
Francisco López
Ingram Marshall
Craig McElhinney
Minamo
My Majestic Star
Mystified
Nest
Nommo Ogo
Olive Oil
O'Leary - Passborg - Riis
Oy
[Post-foetus]
RPM Orchestra
Ryonkt
Richard Skelton
Slow Six
Sone Institute
Sousa & Correia
Stanislav Vdovin
Viridian Sun
Christian Zanési

Compilations / Mixes
Erased Tapes Collection II
Hammann & Janson
Leaves of Life
Music Grows On Trees
Phasen
Quit Having Fun
Scuba
Thesis Vol. 1

EPs
Aubrey
Be Maledetto Now!
DK7
Herzog
Hrdvsion
Mr Cloudy
Damon McU
Morning Factory
Neve
M. Ostermeier
R&J emp
Stanislav Vdovin

Sone Institute: Curious Memories
Front & Follow

Sone Institute's debut album Curious Memories is a dizzying, free-wheeling channel-surf generated from found sounds, magnetic tape recordings, stringed instruments, and a veritable cornucopia of sonic material. The wonky, forty-three-minute collection by Roman Bezdyk leans towards the surreal and the fantastical though a few moments of sanity prevail too, even if they're often dashed aside by Bezdyk's phantasmagoric vision. After the journey commences with the herky-jerky carnival hip-hop of “Inter Asylum Cross Country,” discombobulation sets in with the onset of “The Wind Began to Switch,” which, in little more than three minutes, sprints from an anarchic episode of declamatory horns and wah-wah electric guitar (and a core melody seemingly borrowed from Rare Earth's “I Just Want to Celebrate Another Day of Living”) into an orchestral section of strings and harps. “Hobbyhorse” offers a snappy and demented take on techno that's derailed by a number of curve balls, while “Plane Sailing Song” resembles a sleeping pill of bucolic piano cheeriness that's beset by intrusions. Bezdyk wisely reins in the madness after the opening songs so that the recording settles down by the time the child-like reverie of “Tiny Stars Peer Over the Little Roof” and lightly swinging lounge of “Lazy London Ways” surface. But after that middle-section dip into control and restraint, the material again flirts with derangement (albeit briefly). The uptempo wonderland “On Tree Hill” (replete with a “Fool on the Hill” sample) jumpstarts an apparent return to madness before the cooler head of the lounge waltz “Tea for Four” prevails. “Sleep Has Its Embers” ends the album sweetly with a one-minute coda of harp and violin. Needless to say, the recording's a wild ride that'll probably appeal most to listeners with similarly over-caffeinated dispositions.

February 2010