Photo: Hamed Masoumi

Some folk music to unwind a bit and softly roll into a more reflective state of mind. But certainly no dreamy stuff either, there’s plenty of foot tapping and head nodding going on. Based on the photo, it was supposed to be much more ambient-folk oriented but once the list started to take its definite form, more and more traditional song-based pieces forced their way in. These songs did a good job in accompanying me into the countryside in the weekends over the last couple of weeks. Great for staring off into the distance.

It was this morning I led my horse through a field of sunken arrows
From a river to its source an open quarry aflood in crimson
And from a thicket I watched you there
Letting down your great rolls of golden
Your eyes were flashing and nostrils flared
As there before me you dove in deeply
And when upon the shore you swam
I was waiting with warm embracing

~ Micah Blue Smaldone / The Red River ~

1. Silent Land Time Machine – The Contours of Perfect Distance
   & Hope Still (Time-Lag, 2008)
2. Anne Briggs – Willie O’ Winsbury
   Anne Briggs (Topic, 1971)
3. Micah Blue Smaldone – The Red River
   The Red River (Immune, 2008)
4. Fire on Fire – Flight Song
   The Orchard (Young God, 2008)
5. Trembling Bells – Willows of Carbeth
   Carbeth (Honest Jon’s, 2009)
6. Head of Wantastiquet – Mortange
   Mortagne (Ecstatic Yod, 2008)
7. Karen Dalton – Katie Cruel
   Green Rocky Road (Delmore, 1962)
8. United Bible Studies – Hellical Rising
   The Shore That Fears The Sea (Deadslackstring, 2006)
9. Peter Delaney – If You Become Impossible
   Duck Egg Blue (Self released, 2007)

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1. Birchville Cat Motel – Gunpowder Temple of Heaven (Pica Disk)
MP3: Gunpowder Temple of Heaven (excerpt)

With Gunpowder Temple of Heaven Campbell Kneale has delivered his masterpiece. Massive church organ drones majestically unfold over the course of 40 minutes and collide with shimmering rays of noise and eventually a deep, sluggish pounding. Layer upon layer of blissful drones melt together and grow into a timeless aural monument that sets out to explore the relationship between time and music. The piece manages to challenge its listener’s perception of time by carefully balancing between two opposites: unremitting intensity and unspoilt serenity. With this it has the same effect on me as landmark recordings Charlemagne Palestine’s Schlongo!!!daLUVdrone and Eliane Radique’s Trilogie de la Mort. Each captures and enfolds you and absorbs your full attention yet leaves you in perfect tranquillity, washing out all emotions and thoughts cluttered inside your head and replacing them with a clear and singular state of mind.

The insightful liner notes – written by Dead C founder Bruce Russell – even go one step further and link Gunpowder Temple of Heaven with Messiaen’s trademark approach to music, knowing that Messiaen was also looking for ways to manipulate tempos and structures to affect the listeners’ perception of the passage of time. My personal experience of this album sits very closely to Josef Sudek’s photography of the St. Vitus Cathedral for all the obvious reasons, yet there is a distinct dark edge to Gunpowder Temple of Heaven that just as much seems to praise anything destructive.

Everything is big about this album. Imagine yourself standing at the foot of a colossal temple. An ancient structure so enormous and overwhelming as it towers over you and dominates the sky that you cannot help but to stand there in awe and complete humbleness. Its timeless appearance suddenly putting your marginal existence in perspective as nothing within its surroundings is able to escape from its overpowering grandeur. Listening to Gunpowder Temple of Heaven evokes the same kind of overwhelming experience.

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2. Kazuki Tomokawa – Blue Water, Red Water (P.S.F.)
MP3: Kara Bran

Accompanied by an impressive line-up of prolific musicians, Japanese underground troubadour Kazuki Tomokawa flourishes on Blue Water, Red Water, an album on which he seems to redefine melancholia in his trademark raw and compassionate style. Already in his fourth decade as a poet musician and painter, Tomokawa still largely operates below the radar of far too many people. With Blue Water, Red Water again he proves to be one of the prime musicians of his generation. His intense vocals here backed by a colourful array of instruments – including a tuba wonderfully played by Takero Sekijima and cello by improv-legend Hiromichi Sakamoto – together creating rich arrangements that delicately sweep across Tomokawa’s devastating canvas.

The moon reflecting in my cheeks
And a dancing lord on my back
Is this a sky already lost to me?
Or a long-awaited dawn?
On fingertips that bring blushes even to the wind
Thinking to myself, never mind
As red locusts fell to earth

~Kazuki Tomokawa / Kara Bran ~

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3. Sun Kil Moon – April (Caldo Verde)
MP3: Tonight the Sky

It seems impossible to release anything after the instant-classic Ghosts of the Great Highway that doesn’t lead to disappointment. And yet here comes Kozelek with an album that manages to even exceed those expectations. Five years we had to wait for a true follow-up and on April he is as melancholic as he ever was, often mostly reminiscent of his Songs For a Blue Guitar album but also harbouring several new elements to his style. Though still at the heart of his music lies the gloomy sound that captivates the listener and wraps it in its warm atmosphere. With April Mark Kozelek has shown that even after so many remarkable albums he is still growing as a musician, constantly perfecting his trademark style. More dense and personal than its predecessor, April offers both the gently flowing acoustic ballads as the fuzzy guitar riffs that are so characteristic for his work, with the incredible Tonight the Sky as a definite highlight.

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4. Dennis González & Faruq Z. Bey with Northwoods Improvisers Septet – Hymn for Tomasz Stanko (Qbico)
MP3: Kuntu

Recorded as an homage to the Polish trumpet player and composer Tomasz Stańko, the renowned Italian label Qbico has treated us again with a stellar jazz record from the Detroit based Faruq Z. Bey and Northwoods Improvisers. This time they are accompanied by trumpeter Dennis González to record their follow-up to one of my personal favourites Infa’a, a classic in the making if it weren’t for the strictly limited (and long-sold-out) pressing. On Hymn for Tomasz Stańko their African-tinged sound is as lush and fresh as ever with Mike Gilmore not only adding his cool green on vibes but also delivering a mystical touch to the fourth piece with a magnificent part on tamboura. The homage was inspired as they consider Tomasz Stańko as “one of the most underrated trumpet players ever”. If that’s the criteria for paying homage to a musician, it’s only a matter of time before someone else will do the same for Faruq Z. Bey and the Northwoods Improvisers.

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5. Scott Tuma – Not For Nobody (Digitalis)
MP3: Heeler

This album truly is like a small windup music box, producing fragile lo-fi tunes with a delicate atmosphere full of melancholy. Scott Tuma has created quite an oddball of an album, a wonderful daydream that’s as mystifying as it is entrancing. Beautiful melodies are woven together on guitar and harmonium, fading in and out like foggy memories. An oddly affecting high-pitched voice heart-wrenchingly opens the album and puts you under a spell even before he has enfolded you in wonderful resonant harmonies and bittersweet drones. As elusive as the album is, it’s constantly shifting between ambient, folk and country and in effect creating its own musical universe. There is always something left to discover as the songs seem slightly different with each listen. A landmark album for the Digitalis label.

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6. Micah P. Hinson and the Red Empire Orchestra (Full Time Hobby)
MP3: I Keep Havin’ These Dreams

With his characteristic baritone voice the über-romanticist Micah P. Hinson sings about the dark edges of desire and romance, always longing for something just out of reach. On the inside cover we see a beautifully – in black and white – photographed girl sitting somewhat hesitantly with a phone in her hands. But photographed (by Hinson himself) in such a way that makes it seem as if he’s spying at her through a keyhole, fantasizing about the unreachable. “Constantly craving what isn’t mine” he even sings on Tell Me It Ain’t So. After two terrific full lengths Micah P. Hinson finds himself surrounded again by lush arrangements, with I Keep Having These Dreams even sounding as if Yann Tiersen momentarily stepped into the recording studio. But also on songs like the almost-a-capella The Fire Came up to My Knees that opens side B he draws you in to his melancholic world with ease. A wonderful album from one of my favourite current singer-songwriters.

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7. Richard Skelton – Marking Time (Preservation)
MP3: Fold

Multi-instrumentalist Richard Skelton has been operating under several names on his Sustain Release label for the last couple of years, including A Broken Consort whose breathtaking full length Box of Birch was listed in my album top 10 from last year. Now for the first time under his own name and on the rather excellent Australian label Preservation he has delivered yet another devastatingly beautiful collection of multi-layered sound sketches made with piano, guitar and bowed strings. On Marking Time Richard Skelton takes his trademark sound to another level, making the desperate shrieks of the strings even more drenched in solitude and grief. The pieces evolve in the most natural way, seemingly breathing on their own as they fall and rise without taking note of time. As I said last year, his compositions are immensely emotional and bring comfort and solace in a way that music is rarely capable of. If you’ve somehow missed the extraordinary talent of Richard Skelton up till now, this is really the time to introduce yourself.

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8. Fire on Fire – The Orchard (Young God)
MP3: Sirocco

After last year’s exquisite 5 Song EP on Young God Records, Fire on Fire has delivered another prime collection of exuberant folk songs and rambling sing-alongs. All in their joyous yet dark-edged back-porch atmosphere: “And if we tear this kingdom down, let it be with a deserving and joyful sound!” Fire on Fire is the acoustic reincarnation of the Maine-based collective Cerberus Shoal, backed by one of my personal favourites, Micah Blue Smalldone, whose solo album The Red River released also this year is well worth seeking out too. Besides the obvious appeal of their wonderful vocal harmonies, it’s the richness of their instrumentation what really makes this such an engaging album. On accordion, harmonium, guitar, banjo, upright bass, fiddle and many other traditional instruments they join in stunningly subtle and expressive arrangements, giving proof of the flourishing folk scene currently in Portland, Maine.

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9. Kawaguchi Masami’s New Rock Syndicate – Cat vs. Frog (Palindrone)
MP3: From the Dream

Probably the most addictive album I’ve come across this year as I couldn’t get enough of Kawaguchi Masami’s fuzzy guitar riffs and the intense garage-psych of his New Rock Syndicate. On their debut album this noisy garage rock trio from Japan delivers a soaring piece of psych-rock with distortion, feedback and wailing vocals in all the right places. Debut album or not, Kawaguchi Masami is certainly no stranger to the scene being a member of several influential Japanese psych-rock groups like LSD March, Broomdusters and Miminokoto. Now for the first time leading a group under his own name he is letting it all out. His vocals drenched in melancholic yearning, making the fuzzed out jams almost sound like tragic love songs. With howling guitar solos that instantly hook into your brain. The heritage of the legendary Les Rallizes Denudes is never far away, though Kawaguchi Masami is distinctly more direct in his song structures, effortlessly weaving pop and garage rock elements into feet-tapping stormers.

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10. Fred Eaglesmith – Tinderbox (Sonic Rendezvous / Lonesome Day)
MP3: Worked Up Field

A gospel record was not what I was expecting to be in my top 10 list this year. But this is no ordinary gospel Fred Eaglesmith is preaching. The Canadian growls in a way similar to Johnny Dowd and Tom Waits about tales of the working class, of suffering and of spiritual crisis. He’s preaching the gospel in the most down-to-earth way, backed by jangly instrumentations, you can almost hear the church-house floorboards crack under his stomping feet as he angrily sings about faith and lives without hope. “That god you got is a fancy god, he’s not the one I know” he growls with spirit which seems to sum up the album best. Yet the most striking songs for me are the subdued ones. The ones on which he’s already broken down on the ground. Like the tragic Worked Up Field on which his crooning is overlaid by a woman’s dialogue. For me this is Americana as good as it can get.

I’m kneeling at the edge of a worked up field praying for the rain to fall
I’m kneeling at the edge of a worked up field praying for the rain to fall
I pray and pray and pray all day
But it don’t rain at all

~ Fred Eaglesmith / Worked Up Field ~

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Rest of the year-end list:
11. Philip Jeck – Sand (Touch)
12. Micah Blue Smaldone – The Red River (Immune)
13. Koen Holtkamp – Field Rituals (Type)
14. Lambchop – OH (Ohio) (City Slang)
15. Grouper – Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill (Type)
16. Toumani Diabaté – The Mandé Variations (Nonesuch)
17. Fennesz – Black Sea (Touch)
18. Scorch Trio – Brolt (Rune Grammofon)
19. Autistic Daughters – Uneasy Flowers (Kranky)
20. Brendan Murray – Commonwealth (23Five Incorporated)
21. Josephine Foster – This Coming Gladness (Bo’ Weavil)
22. Stephan Mathieu – Radioland (Die Schachtel)
23. Death Vessel – Nothing is Precious Enough for Us (Sub Pop)
24. Trygve Seim & Frode Haltli – Yeraz (ECM)
25. Earth – The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull (Southern Lord)

See also:
Moka’s Top 10 Albums 2008
Moka’s top 12 albums 2007
Bubbachups’ top 10 albums 2007
Moka’s top 12 albums 2006
Bubbachups’ top 10 albums 2006
Moka’s top 5 albums 2005

Image: Artwork from Boustrophedon (ECM, 2008)

Here’s an eclectic jazz-oriented list to start off September with some sly foot-tapping grooves and mostly laid-back spirit. The theme of the list flows from several relaxed yet sumptuous tunes to a much more brooding atmosphere and finally turning into an urgent yet seemingly directionless endeavour. Lately I’ve increasingly been finding myself going back to jazz records and gigs again. So more than anything else I guess I made this list for myself just to play around a bit with a certain mood that I wanted to create. I guess contemplation is the key denominator here for this list. These tunes are going places but not necessarily with a distinctive sense of direction. It’s easy to think of yourself as a truly rational and calculated individual who has it all figured out – who thinks, plans and acts accordingly – but right now if you’d somehow be able to map my existence with an EEG-monitor-like device it would look a lot more like the image above than a well constructed blueprint. Flutter – to move about or behave in an agitated aimless manner. From a distance, just like the image, it might seem that way to some, but every twist and turn along this grand voyage feels natural and clearly meant to be. It doesn’t always have to make sense, does it?

1. Amancio D’Silva – A Street in Bombay
   Konkan Dance (Qbico, 2006)
2. Faruq Z. Bey with Northwoods Improvisers – Oncala
   Infa’a (Qbico, 2006)
3. John Zorn – Mow Mow
   The Dreamers (Tzadik, 2008)
4. Bohren & Der Club Of Gore – Destroying Angels
   Black Earth (Wonder, 2002)
5. Michael Moore – Miss Yosemite
   Fragile (Ramboy, 2008)
6. Sun Ra – Intergalactic Motion
   Outer Spaceways Incorporated (Saturn, 1974)
7. Evan Parker / Transatlantic Art Ensemble – Furrow 6
   Boustrophedon (ECM, 2008)
8. Dirty Three – Flutter
   Cinder (Touch and Go, 2005)
9. Yo La Tengo – Let’s Be Still
   Summer Sun (Matador, 2003)

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Yo La Tengo in a jazz list? I know! But it works damn well if you ask me and that’s also due to the guests contributing here on the underrated Summer Sun album. None other than jazz heavyweights William Parker, Daniel Carter, Roy Campbell Jr. and Sabir Mateen enrich the album with their playing. You also may well remember Sabir Mateen and Daniel Carter’s Not on Earth…In Your Soul! from my 2006 year-end list. In the same batch of jazz records that the Italian Qbico label released that month was Faruq Z. Bey’s spectacular Infa’a, an album that quite possibly provides my favourite tune to this playlist. And earlier that year the same label already treated us with Amancio D’Silva’s 1972 recording Konkan Dance, of which a song is also featured on this playlist. Hm, maybe in some way, if you connect all the dots, all things do make sense after all?

Photo: Josef Sudek (1896–1976), from the portfolio Svàty Vit (1928)

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Poets don’t invent poems
The poem is somewhere behind
It’s been there for a long time
The poet merely discovers it

~ Jan Skácel ~

Josef Sudek (1896-1976), born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, was gifted with an extraordinary intuition for knowing where such poetry was to be discovered. Throughout a career that spanned sixty-five years Sudek not only showed a devoted persistence to wait for that rare instant when poetry would reveal itself but also possessed an artistic vision and ability to capture it with unrivalled romantic lyricism. Regarded as one of the masters of photography in the twentieth century and aptly named the “Poet of Prague”, Sudek managed to convey the spirit of his beloved city and its timeless romance and grandeur like no one else. The symbiotic relationship between light and shadow fascinated him and would characterize his work throughout his career, often resulting in images that showed a rich diversity of shadow tonalities and light as being an almost physical presence in his photographs. Photography however wasn’t his initial destination until losing his right arm in World War I. As a bookbinder’s apprentice Sudek already was a keen amateur photographer when he was called up for military service in 1915, but losing his arm and thus not being able to devote his life to bookbinding forced him to look for a different profession. Back in Prague he met Jaromir Funke, an abstract photographer, and finally became a professional photographer himself.

Everything around us, dead or alive, in the eyes of a crazy photographer mysteriously takes on many variations, so that a seemingly dead object comes to life through light or by its surrounding. And if the photographer has a bit of sense in his head maybe he is able to capture some of this – and I suppose that’s lyricism.

~ Josef Sudek ~

In 1924 Sudek was commissioned to photograph the reconstruction of the St. Vitus Cathedral. The subsequent four years Sudek would spend endless amount of time exploring and studying the cathedral, trying to reveal all its details and secrets with painstaking thoroughness of which we see two breathtaking examples above and below. This photographic series shows the dusty gloom of the cathedral brushed by streams of sunlight falling in through the windows and penetrating the medieval interior, shrouding the cathedral in romanticism and spirituality. Each photograph is carefully composed based on comprehensive sketches and his detailed knowledge of the cathedral. One of his apprentices once noted how the photographer exactly knew on which day of the year the light would pour through the windows at his desired angle for him to make his intended photograph.

Photo: Josef Sudek (1896–1976), from the portfolio Svàty Vit (1928)

Sudek’s well known passion for music greatly inspired his work. Especially Mozart, Smetana, Dvořák and Janáček (to whom he even devoted his last project) were composers he deeply admired and according to his own words showed up in his work like a reflection in a mirror. For this post however I’ve made a playlist with my own personal interpretation of this specific series on the St. Vitus Cathedral. The sense of timelessness and romanticism that is so profoundly conveyed by these photographs was my guidance for compiling this playlist, which draws heavily on the timbre of the organ, minimalism and drone principles. As if the rays of sunlight piercing through the cathedral were translated into music.

One of my favourite pieces of minimalism is Charlemagne Palestine’s Schlongo!!!daLUVdrone, a meditative magnum opus on solo pipe organ that creates a symphony of overtones and perfectly sets the mood for the rest of the mix. Palestine’s unconventional methods of playing on the church pipe organ involves putting pieces of paper between the keys to hold them down in order to create an overwhelming whirlpool of sonority. At first it might sound motionless but the longer you listen the more details there are exposed, eventually revealing a complex structure of overtones swirling together. The piece as presented on CD is a 75 minute fragment of the original three-hour performance on Valentine’s Day 1998, which is not very practical for this playlist so it’s featured here as a 15 minute excerpt. Still plenty to get drowned in and to set the right tone for this mix.

The sound of the organ is extended throughout the subsequent two pieces until we reach Danish sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard’s piece of sonic time layering. Inspired by Alvin Lucier’s groundbreaking work I Am Sitting in a Room, Jacob recorded silence in four rooms in and around Chernobyl. He then played back those recordings of silence in the same rooms, which he again recorded. Repeating this process up to ten times eventually created a multi-layered drone, different for each room, that is not only interesting on a conceptual level but also musically engrossing. Kirkegaard’s piece of silence-put-to-sound effortlessly blends into the exquisite tape manipulations and field recordings of Graham Lambkin and Jason Lescalleet. Even the most pop-oriented listener will find beauty in this wonderful composition after having ventured the preceding thirty-five minutes of organ drones and ambient recordings.

Roughly five minutes into their piece the delicate remains of a choir are subtly incorporated into the recording which forms a natural introduction for the subsequent piece, a choral work of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. Eventually the mix comes to a halt with the Icelandic drones of Hildur Gudnadóttir, BJ Nilsen and Stilluppsteypa. Named after the Buddhist shrine in Kandy, Sri Lanka, this composition mixes together cello drones, field recordings and electronics. Perfectly paying tribute to the spiritual elements contained in Sudek’s photographs of the St. Vitus Cathedral.

If you take photography seriously you must also get interested in another art form. For me it is music. This listening to music shows up in my work like a reflection in a mirror. I relax and the world looks less unpleasant, and I can see that all around there is beauty, such as music.

~ Josef Sudek ~

1. Charlemagne Palestine – Schlongo!!!daLUVdrone (excerpt)
   Schlongo!daLUVdrone (Solo Pipe Organ) (Organ of Corti, 2000)
2. Eluvium – Ostinato
   Copia (Temporary Residence, 2007)
3. Winter Family – So Soon
   Winter Family (Sub Rosa, 2007)
4. Jacob Kirkegaard – Church
   4 Rooms (Touch, 2006)
5. Graham Lambkin / Jason Lescalleet – Listen the Snow is Falling
   The Breadwinner (Erstwhile, 2008)
6. Arvo Pärt – Magnificat
   Te Deum (ECM, 1993)
7. Stephan Mathieu – Promenade
   Radioland (Die Schachtel, 2008)
8. Machinefabriek – Wintervacht
   Stottermuziek (Self released, 2006)
9. Hildur Gudnadóttir, BJ Nilsen and Stilluppsteypa – Temple of the Holy Tooth
   Second Childhood (Quecksilber, 2007)

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Previously featured in this series:
- Is There a Way Out to Paradise?
- Of Beauty Reminiscing

Recommended reading:
Josef Sudek: Poet of Prague (Aperture Monograph)
160 page hardcover including 130 tritone images and essays by Anna Farova

Photo: Ola

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

~ William Blake / Auguries of Innocence ~

Growing up near the sea and spending many days wandering through the dunes, feeling the warm sand and the soft breeze of spring, has left me with a deep affection for its unique surroundings. A place that gives us the time and patience to recollect our thoughts while the endless sky holds an angelic purity of light reflected by the sea. This mix starts off with Bonnie Beecher sweetly humming her well known tune from the American television series The Twilight Zone (1964). A wonderfully enigmatic recording that continues to inspire and entrance people even today. From there on it continues with soft and hushed songs and with James Yorkston adding his poignant baritone voice and hopelessly romantic lyrics. A piece from François Ozon’s film Sous le Sable not only provides the mix’s title but also subtly takes us back to the adoring and dreamy undertone that was laid down by the opening tune. Please also notice the downloading functionality that I’ve added below the playlist if you quickly want it in its entirety and don’t want to download each file individually.

Inspired by and dedicated to Ola.

1. Jeff Alexander with Bonnie Beecher – Come Wander With Me
   The Brown Bunny (Tulip, 2004)
2. Joanne Robertson – Ola
   The Lighter (Textile, 2008)
3. Joyce – Meus Vinte Anos
   Nelson Angelo E Joyce (1970; reissue on Discos Mariposa, 2006)
4. Tribalistas – Lá de Longe
   Tribalistas (Blue Note, 2002)
5. Asa Irons & Swaan Miller – Abacus
   Asa Irons & Swaan Miller (Important, 2007)
6. Philippe Rombi – Sur le Sable
   Bandes originales des films de François Ozon (Wea, 2006)
7. James Yorkston – Surf Song
   Just Beyond the River (Domino, 2004)
8. Micah P. Hinson – When We Embraced
   Micah P. Hinson and the Red Empire Orchestra (Full Time Hobby, 2008)
9. Josephine Foster – Trees Lay By
   Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You (Locust, 2005)

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