Less is More

The results from the Sleeplaboratory have just been published, and there's also a minimal electroacoustic masterclass if you're still awake.

I’ve been down with a plague again; quarantined in the spare room at night so the rest of the house can get some cough free, unbroken sleep; struggling through the day job and generally feeling sorry for myself. You’ll be glad to hear I didn’t even have time to rant about Meta this week.

BUT if you want to keep tabs on the “Age of Broligarchs” then you should check out Carole Cadwalladr’s, The Power Substack. She’s a Pulitzer Prize nominated journalist for her work exposing and covering the Cambridge Analytica scandal, has recently been let go by The Guardian after a long association due to the cutbacks associated with the backhand sale of the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, and Guardian sister paper, The Observer to a financially struggling podcast company with all sorts of worrying connections. I kid you not. If you want to be better informed and pre-warned about our near technoauthoritarian dystopia then check out

Carole Cadwalladr

, she’s intrepid and got her finger on the pulse of one of the issues of our age.

Various Artists - Sleeplaboratory5​.​0 (Whitelabrecs)

I’ve mentioned Whitelabrecs multiple times in the newsletter, so you might be aware that their annual Sleeplaboratory compilation dropped today, which means it’s also time for the series’ obligatory recommendation.

Whitelabrecs is a great ambient label. Run by Harry Towell, himself a respected ambient artist, it’s been releasing ambient, drone, modern classical and electro acoustic music for the last nine years. Following the label on Bandcamp is the way to go as many of the releases, this latest compilation included, never make it to the streaming services. Bandcamp really is the true home of the music underground, not to mention the best way to support independent artists and labels - get involved.

The compilation is something of a showcase for the label, containing sleep themed tracks from some of the label regulars, but also a host of new names who will be releasing with the label, and inevitably deserve a follow.

This year’s selection is, with one exception, a particularly sedate suite. Feeling Flying and Kevin Paczesny kick things off with some soporific, slowly morphing drones augmented by some choice field recordings, before Ozbolk brings the light with some shimmering tonal ambience. Tides continues in that vein but goes one step further by adding an unobtrusive post rock gloss, the track’s excess energy immediately dissipated by the patient electroacoustic work of The Bird’s Companion.

Mark David Hadley adopts a minimal approach, before rhubiqs, who obviously lives near a major road or suffers from insomnia, drops a maximal drone to rouse any dozers for the remaining tracks which showcase Jolanda Moletta’s ethereal vocal work, the cultured bowing of TSMM fave Henrik Meierkord, the sparse piano of Calm Pieces, the tonal hypnosis of Patry Siliuse and the astral projections of label stalwart Knivtid.

Sleep well, but if you’re still having trouble nodding off then slip into the warm waters of the Slow Ambient Playlist.

Yair Elazar Glotman & Mats Erlandsson - Glory Fades (XKATEDRAL)

My fascination with minimal music was late coming. I’d love to say I have all of Terry Riley and Philip Glass’ early recordings, but I didn’t just miss the boat, I wasn’t even in sight of the quay. I guess my ambient awakening helped. Even if much of ambient music is painstakingly layered, the sense of quiet in many of the recordings peaked my interest in decay and those unembarrassed moments of silence once the notes expend all their energy, ceasing to exist except in the mind of the listener. Space between sounds is a dark art that many musicians, and even less producers understand, and then mostly later in life.

Yair Elazar Glotman and Mats Erlandsson have given space some serious thought, and if you want something of a masterclass then you should give Glory Fades your undivided attention.

Apparently Mats Erlandsson is something of a Swedish drone sage, a distinction that surely helped secure him a studio technician role at the renowned Elektronmusikstudion in Stockholm. On this recording as well as machine tinkering he also takes care of plucked and bowed acoustic guitars, zithers and bells. Yair Elazar Glotman is a Berlin based composer and a musician trained on classical contrabass but focussed more on taking that instrument, and also the piano on this recording, into more textural territory. They also phone some minimally minded friends with Gaianeh Pilossian adding some violin, Andrea Belfi supplying rogue drums on one track and none other than Mephisto Wunderbar chipping in with some cimbalom.

The recording is a textural feat with notes appearing in glorious isolation, or exquisite refrains repeated to perfection, never outstaying their welcome. The detailing is devilish, with the subtlest of unidentified sounds coming and going at just the right moments, somehow amplifying rather than hindering their more melodic counterparts. Occasionally notes are extended past their natural lifespan, not for vanity but rather to elevate the succinct plucking, pressing and bowing.

Erlandsson and Glotman really do have a rare talent for creating engaging music with very little. Some minimal albums can feel a bit sterile and somewhat academic, but this recording has a real warmth, easy accessibility and deserves your attention.

Don’t Forget The Playlists

If you use Tidal, Apple Music, Soundcloud, Amazon, Deezer, Youtube Music, Youtube or Spotify (boo hiss) then you’re in luck. I have profiles and replicate the playlists on all of those services.