Across fluctuating tension and rhythm, André Pahl intertwines all sorts of worlds… digi-dub morphs to acid to avant-folk in perfect harmony. But what stands out most is the pure admiration for DIY music; it’s the curation of a tender heart, finding the purest of souls in the strangest of music.
Towards the close of this wonderful set, Laurie Anderson recalls ‘I remember where I came from, there were tropical breezes and a wide open sea, I remember my childhood, I remember being free.’ It’s a sentiment that embodies the experience of André music, an invitation to be utterly lost in the most beautiful ephemeral moment, that melancholy-tinged euphoria in the instant before it’s all over, stretched out for eternity.
“Recorded in my attic in Brussels during the new moon in the sign of Pisces on March 10, 2024”
Kleingeld is a resident at Radio Tempo Não Pára where her mixes are crafted with rich, emotive narrative. Together with Cardboard Lamb, she curates a monthly series of experimental radio broadcasts, inviting artists from a variety of disciplines to join the programme in an exercise of inquisitive world-building.
Kleingeld tenderly portrays the chaotic emotions that erupt amongst the turbulence of life. Her Somewhere mix is a tale of lost love, confronting the stormy experience of heartbreak and longing. In fluctuating highs and lows, she captures the delirium of escalating change. In Sanneke’s words, “it’s about spiraling into depths, checking in with the void and checking out with the past”
In debut albums for Warm Winters Ltd and Mappa, Rob Winstone has formed a unique sound that’s tinged with a beautifully eerie nostalgia, and traced by delicate, microscopic details.
His ‘Somewhere’ mix draws on this palette, conjuring a selection of blissed autumnal drone works and spacious meanderings for piano. Harnessing restrained composition, he explores the cavernous depths of sparse minimalism, juxtaposing meditative ambient with disruptive noise, to ultimately accentuate the lustrous melodies that characterize his work.
Luis Martin Gonzalez delivers an untraceable lineage of deep, ritualistic musings, going deep into the bowels of an enveloping, psychoactive listening environment.
On the surface, ceremonious cycles of sound produce a trance-induced delirium. But as these incantations take hold, the spacious repetitions give way to hypnotic visions of an expansive sonic underworld. Buried in the resonant psychedelic vibrations, a palette of wild, ineffable sounds ripple to the surface in sublime iridescence. A total trip.
Velvachell is the new solo project of Glasgow sound-artist Rachel McDermott of WomenSaid. Her recent installation ‘to yourself’ at Listen Gallery totally blew us away – an immersive multi-channel environment capturing the frenetic energy of Jilotepec and its neighbouring Mexico City.
The mix uncovers a sonic palette that has informed her sound work, building tension through the esoteric murmurs of fragmented vocal drones, distorted field recordings and pensive string instruments. In heightened surroundings, a frenzied energy emerges in the post-punk and industrial sound that has informed her previous work. The diverging of these sounds is totally intoxicating, and captures the potent energy of her exciting new sonic explorations.
Mag’s radio shows draw on a highly eclectic assortment of outsider music from soviet new age, industrial ambient to modern screwed-pop and IDM, and just about every other niche corner of experimental music.
Amongst diverse assemblages of disparate styles, Mag finds a unique viewpoint in following emotive, intuitive connections. This mix, made at the cusp of a drawn-out Glasgow heatwave, plays on the tension of a brooding storm, exploring strange rhythms through rickety, off-kilter pop to heightened ambient trance. The tension looms and envelopes, so that when broken, the rapture hits in the soft and ethereal melodies of mystical avant-folk, like beautiful, polychromatic glimmers in refracting sunlight.
Lithuanian musician and sound artist Marija Rasa, aka emer, is a master of texture and tone. In her recent album ‘sea salt’, she creates a mesmerizing palette of rustles, clicks and clangs, that spiral in freefall. Layered vocals are fragmented and compressed into the most minute of spaces, transmitted directly to the ear as whispered messages.
Her somewhere mix takes a cinematic, expansive approach to composition, with Janet Cardiff’s potent narration exerted as a guiding tether. Marija expertly weaves through layers of abstracted ambient and dismantled techno, concocting an undulating pace that stretches moments infinitely, resulting in deep, resonating echoes. As the parts come together, fortuitous sounds create a spine-tingling euphoria, glistening in their warm and blissful transience.
Chantal Michelle offers up a postscript to her album ‘Broken to Echoes’.
The mix oscillates between heightened sounds in effortless motion, from the harrowing feedback of Eliane Radigue to the enduring rapture of Ryuchi Sakamoto’s keys. It’s this fluctuating tension that characterizes the record, and through the mix format, Chantal again demonstrates her masterful ability to conjure waves of emotion, pulling us resolutely in one direction before the ripples of opposing tension enfold; an exquisite symphony of conflicting strains.
Man Rei, aka Kristin Reiman, is an artist and musician based in Frankfurt. On discovering their work we were instantly taken by their hypnotic vocals that illuminate their perceptive and poetic writing.
As with their music, they approach this mix with a focused narrative. The storyteller morphs rhythmically through disparate voices, their words carrying us through shadowy atmospheres of music concrète and new age. Yet there’s a lightness and playfulness that leads us through gothic overtones towards moments of radiant vocals, a carefree energy enticing us into a lucid daydream.
Glasgow-based Nat Earthsine, comes through with a glistening composite of blissed-out samples, elegantly stitched into a mixtape-style arrangement. Nat’s unique and playful technique shines through, drawing from a multitude of sources, he cuts, blends and distorts, fragments of songs, creating something entirely new.
The source material is expansively varied across genre, mood, place and time but a singular sonic palette emerges, an artistic approach to sound that’s totally seductive. A warm and intoxicating remedy to guide you through the January blues.
We were introduced to Johnny Power via his immaculately crafted shows for Lyl Radio. It’s rare that we come across music that moves us so deeply, and his mixes quickly became a refuge for us, a dependable source of respite from moments of fragility.
Our shared messages online led to a collaborative show between Yohan & Lizzie, pieced together over international zoom call for his Connexions Affectives show on Lyl. We’re now delighted to welcome Yohan to our series with his exquisite ‘Recovery Room’ recording. An otherworldly blend of mystical obscurities through textural ambient and ethereal folk. Once again we’re wrapped up in the blissful escapism of Johnny Power’s selections.
Somewhere 3 is delivered by DJ, music producer and TestFM resident Anit Levan.
Anit composes a radiant patchwork of celestial psychedelia, marrying a diverse range of sounds into a rich tableau. This vulnerable and emotional mix sensitively glides through styles; serene ambient-jazz introduces gothic new age and glitchy electronica leads to ethereal classical. Approaching melodies shine through in glimpses, building expansive layers that entangle like cues in a film score. It’s a journey that wraps you up in a totally immersive atmosphere, an otherworldly place where we wish we could remain.
Somewhere 2 comes from Slovakian artist Adela Mede, author of the spellbinding tape Szabadság that’s easily one of the most astounding things we’ve heard this year. Guided by the potency of her raw vocals, Adela explores folk tradition through a kaleidoscopic buzz of processed electronics, her ineffable vocals shining through in pure lucidity.
Through this mix, Adela continues her exploration of the voice. Repeating vocals chants feed into haunting moments of dissonance, heightening the innate beauty of the unprocessed song that shimmers beneath.
A beautifully delicate recording from Rory Salter aka Malvern Brume. As in much of his work, Rory creates a deeply woven atmosphere that mimic’s the disorder of the world around us; an environment painted in snippets and fractions that murmurs and hums, that at times unsettles and leads us to the brink of disarray. It’s this momentary chaos that amplifies the glimpses of serenity shining through the cracks.