Plutonic Rainbows

Due this Friday (16th November).

The 32 tracks that make up the main body of the compositions are – like all good folk music – a patchwork of traditional pieces, half-remembered tunes and pure improvisation. It's testament to Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner's musicianship that the recordings work so well, not only within the context of the television episodes, but as an album in its own right. Of the recording, Oliver Postgate (in his exquisite autobiography 'Seeing Things') says: "Between them Sandra and John could play every sort of instrument from a mountain dulcimer to an Irish fiddle. They knew and could sing every tune in the world and didn't bother with written music, except as a last resort. They were exactly suited to Gabriel the Toad and Madeleine the Rag Doll and in those roles were happy to play whatever music and sing whatever songs would be needed."

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Boomkat:

Geographic North present an expertly curated, horror-themed compilation of exclusive aces from Félicia Atkinson, Pinkcourtesyphone, Ka Baird, Suzanne Kraft, CV & JAB, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Eluvium, Clarice Jensen, Arp, Ilyas Ahmed, Algiers and many more, all right in time for Samhain 2018.

Mantled in reference to the seminal Nicolas Roeg flick, ‘Don’t Look Now’ (1973), Geographic North’s 2nd collection of Halloween music shares much in common with the titular film’s classical scenery and unsettling psychology, with each contributor preferring inference and shadowplay over anything explicitly gory or sh*t-the-bed scary.

Bookended by prologue and epilogue from Sweden’s Arp, the set runs to 21 pieces in total, amounting to induce a nervously furtive state of mind fleeting between clammy anxiety, pensive midnight romance, and unshakeable uncanniness. It’s testament to Geographic North’s fine-tuned ears that the whole thing works so well, holding our attention by a silk thread for its feature-length 90 minute duration.

Like a movie, it’s best consumed in one go, but it’s worth pointing to key scenes such as Ka Baird’s nest of shivering keys in ‘Clearing’, and the cool tension between spiralling rhythms and tranquil chords in Felicia Atkinson’s ‘Little Things’ as crucial to the sequence, especially when contrasted with the more dread-filled nooks such as Robert Donne’s crushing dedication to Mika Vainio in ‘Rakkauslaulu’, the carmine seep of Jefre Cantu-Ledesma’s viscous organ wooze in ‘O Virtus Sapiente’, and the starkly sepulchral dynamic of ’Stabbing’ by Suzanne Kraft.

For our money comps rarely work, but much like PAN's Mono No Aware, Geographic North prove that with the right curation you can sometimes end up with something much more weighty then the sum of its parts, in this case an engrossing narrative full of darkness and light.

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In the dreamlike trip of El Ferrocarril Desvaneciente, or ‘The Vanishing Railway’, Rafael Anton Irisarri regales the story of an overnight train journey across Spain he took many years ago.

Marking Rafael’s 3rd release with Mexico City’s Umor Rex in just over a year, this one finds him in a beautifully heavy-lidded state of reverie, using distant pulses and finely tempered rhythmic noise to connote a sense of intimate movement through vast space, while his gauzy harmonics and half-heard melodies limn the fondly remembered journey with an intimate, nostalgic poignancy. Ideal walkman fuel for your next long journey, and fans of Tim Hecker, The Caretaker, Lawrence English, William Basinski.

New ambient excursions from Tim Hecker on the Kranky label. Konoyo finds this Canadian artist expanding his palette of sounds in new and interesting ways. On this album, Hecker works with the Tokyo Gakuso Ensemble to stunning effect. The pieces are beautiful and confounding - his trademark sound. Highly recommended.

Konoyo is available here on vinyl, compact disc and digital downloads.