The Weekly Warble

Orchestral crooning is back, the halldorophone is the new guitar, live improv duos are the new autotune, electronic music has been purified and folk goes fragile and pleasingly lo-fi.

The start of year release lull is coming to an end, although there is certainly enough good music to be going on with. Things should really kick off next week until the summer holiday season, and I’ll be doing my utmost to filter the deluge for you. Although I ended up waffling on more than I intended again, I’m hoping that as I will be writing less in the future I’ll be able to recommend more releases worthy of your attention.

The weather is also picking up and I’ll be taking as many Sundays off as possible to go hiking and roaming around the north of Portugal whilst I’m still able to carry my newborn in her harness, so expect the newsletters at the start of the week for the foreseeable future.

After last weeks exhaustion issues I really need to spend at least one day a week not staring at a screen and reminding my brain that life is 3D rather than 2D, well with the exception of my hiking apps that is. Just in case you don’t know there’s some great apps that collate crowd sourced hiking routes, both rural and urban. So if you fancy stretching your legs a bit more then check out AllTrails or Wikiloc, they’ve really made getting into the countryside less daunting for the inexperienced. Go on get some fresh air, it will do you good.

Cici Arthur - Way Through (Western Vinyl)

If you’ve been following TSMM on other channels, then you’ll already be aware of Cici Arthur, comprised of Joseph Shabason, Thom Gill and Chris A. Cummings, plus a whole hose of choice Toronto musicians.

I’ve been using the newsletter to feed TSMM’s blog for a while now, hoping that the lure of getting tips early will persuade some of the blog readers and social media followers to subscribe to the newsletter, but the blog isn’t all second fiddle. For the real trainspotters I also write a few blog posts a week that don’t make it to the newsletter, highlighting singles from largely unknown artists - often with debut singles that I feel deserve support and encouragement. So if you want to get the full TSMM picture then it’s worth also checking the blog, and refreshingly decentralised Mastodon or Bluesky social media accounts.

Cici Arthur was born when Cummings lost his job of 20 years during the pandemic, decided to throw himself into making music full time and make some serious life changes. Fortunately he had class acts Shabason and Gill to back him up, and they’ve really gone to town providing him with some classy orchestral arrangements, just perfect for Cumming’s throwback vocal style.

There is serious craft on display that is a real breath of fresh air in today’s ocean of digital workstation produced music. The arrangements hark back to the twentieth century golden age of crooning, they even had an orchestra and conductor on board, which helped create the perfect velvety bed for Cummings low key, intimate vocals to grace.

Scratch under the surface of the vocals, sweeping arrangements, unhurried stand-up bass and twinkling keys though, and you’ll find some subtle sonic deviance, mischievous yet masterly sound design and ambient augmentation that give these classic sounds a modern sheen. I doubt if anyone under the age of thirty will bother with this album to be honest, but it’s surely a recording that both you and your mum will agree on.

Martina Bertoni - Electroacoustic Works for Halldorophone (Karl Records)

Don’t be put off by the rather dry, academic album title, this is a pretty cosmic electroacoustic journey, and the closest you’ll get to an ambient listen today. What elevates this recording above the ethereal competition, apart from Bertoni’s vision and ability, is the use of the halldorphone, an extremely responsive cello looking instrument that was designed to feedback the strings. It was invented in 2007, oddly by Halldór Úlfarsson, a visual arts student who isn’t a musician and doesn’t even play it. Luckily, Martina Bertoni alongside Sunn O))) and some acclaimed classical, avant-garde and soundtrack composing musicians do.

The recording consists of four tracks spanning fifty minutes and certainly sounds like a studio production where string playing and painstaking post recording processing have collided, but the fact that it’s all coming from classically trained cellist Bertoni’s live playing is pretty mind blowing. Ignoring her formal cello training she’s approached the string from different angles, creating feedback that itself creates feedback and seemingly infinite loop cycles. The results were then captured with two microphones, one for the drones and one for the strings.

The results are unfailingly mesmerising, the loops of varying prominence at times imagine Oriental mysticism decades from now, break new ground in electronic pointillism and forge new paths in drone science. Turn off your phone and sink into this one.

Raven - GNOSIS (Incienso)

If you don’t like electronic music then turn away now, if you do you’re in luck. This is a damn fine debut album from Raven. Artist info is thin on the ground but the release is full of electronic purity, minimal purpose and blissful repetition. The sounds are decidedly classic but twisted to autobiographical purpose rather than telling the same old stories.

Astral excursions suggest brighter days are possible, calmative ambient cascades gentle usher you to the sofa rather than desk, rhythmic soundscapes expand perception and subtle beats, low gravity techno and a classic house nod call all ecstatic ravers to action. This is electronic music for the head and the hips.

Oren Ambarchi & Eric Thielemans - Kind Regards (AD93)

I’ve mentioned before I’m not a big fan of live recordings, but I’m making an exception for the latest show recording from Oren Ambarchi and drummer Eric Thielemans that was recorded in Poitiers just over a year ago and then given a welcome mastering polish by Joe Talia.

There is an obvious synergy at play here honed through prior concerts, and possibly aided by Ambarchi’s percussive history as a free jazz drummer. For this show though he’s ditched the sticks for his guitar, although you’ll barely recognise the instrument. I’m not quite sure what he’s doing with it - nothing normal that’s for sure, but aided by a Leslie cabinet, and a host of effects units presumably, he’s ringing sounds out of the strings that you wouldn’t imagine possible and which can only be achieved through years of imaginative instrument mistreatment.

You’d better buckle up, although its ritualistic inception and proceeding percussive ambience are welcoming enough, as it’s not long before outsider jazz meets psychedelic spa music and free drumming and electronica jostle with more jolting, but always appreciable noise; each passage eventually seamlessly melting into the next like it’s the most natural thing in the world. It’s a trip and a half.

Maxine Funke - Clear

One last tip or else I’ll be here all week. Maxine Funke has just digitally released what was previously an extremely limited lathe cut single. If your Saturday’s aren’t a mystical realm yet then you really need to get with the program.

Still frustratingly overlooked by many, Funke has been releasing her DIY folk singles since 2012, but things really got interesting with 2018’s “SILK” release when she decided on a more gently experimental approach, which she’s been honing with a steady stream of pleasingly lo-fi compositions and her shy vocals. This is DIY alt-folk at its finest, make sure you check out what she’s been up to.

Don’t Forget TSMM’s Playlists.

From ambient sound baths and wellness imbuing new age vibes to underground house via jazz, neoclassical, folk and dub, the playlists cover a lot of ground.

They’re available on Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon, Youtube Music, Youtube, Deezer, Soundcloud and Spotify (if you don’t worry about them not paying most of the artists on the playlists). Just hit this smartlink to connect to the various services and TSMM profiles.