Space music did not necessarily begin with Jonn Serrie, but it’s through his work that the genre has arguably reached its creative zenith, perhaps matched only by Michael Stearns (who certainly deserves his own installment of this feature).
Part of the reason Serrie has managed to strike intergalactic gold again and again over the span of a decades-long career lies is his role in shaping the space music and, by extension, electronic ambient genres. Read More »
Vashti Bunyan will be known to most readers of Foxy Digitalis for her remarkable and beautiful music, as demonstrated, for example, on the Just Another Diamond Day (1970) and Lookaftering (2005) albums. She very kindly took time recently to discuss her feelings on songwriting:
I didn’t write a song for thirty years. I started when I was eighteen when I should have been painting and drawing at an art school in Oxford. The school was inside the old Ashmolean Museum – just two high-ceilinged rooms where we were made to sit and draw from life – or from plaster casts of the Greek and Roman marble figures that lined the corridor outside. The museum itself held more fascination for me than the tutors did and so I spent a good deal of my time in the galleries where there were exquisite drawings by Leonardo and Raphael, paintings by Uccello and Botticelli, mummies in their sarcophagi and ancient musical instruments behind glass. The music room was where I spent most time – aching to be able to take those lovely instruments out to see how they sounded. Read More »
Iconoclastic Seattle music label Sublime Frequencies, with its avowed purpose of “acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers,” has outdone itself with this release by photojournalist Olivia Wyatt, which includes a DVD, CD, liner notes and handsomely packaged booklet of 136 color Polaroid snapshots. Wyatt’s initial intent was to film the 2009 version of an annual musical convergence in the Rift Valley of Southern Ethiopia, known as the Festival of a Thousand Stars. However, she arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, only to discover that the festival had been cancelled by the government for somewhat obscure reasons relating to the potential exploitation of the performers (exploitation by whom, is not made clear, although the contentious nature of contemporary Ethiopian politics and the apparent funding of the festival by one or more outside agencies will have to suffice as an explanation). Read More »
“I never even thought about whether or not they understand what I’m doing…the emotional reaction is all that matters as long as there’s some feeling of communication, it isn’t necessary that it be understood.” – John Coltrane
My interviews last year with Seasons (Pre-Din) and Blanck Mass were both heavy on the idea that emotion can be channelled through the use of drones and ambient soundscapes – not a view that is held by many people I know who invariably pass it off as unfeeling noise or, as my girlfriend likes to remark on an almost nightly basis, “that fucking shit.” So I did a lot of thinking in 2011 about just what it was that attracted me to the music I found myself becoming more and more immersed in. I know for sure that when I hear, say, “Chernobyl“ off of the Blanck Mass record, I definitely experience an emotional reaction even if I can’t necessarily explain why. When I received Derek Rogers’ superb The Exhaustion of Emotion tape I thought it would be the perfect chance to test my theories, and it didn’t disappoint. Okay, so the word “emotion” is in the title – it kind of announces it’s presence before you’ve even switched on your Walkman – but there’s got to be a reason for it being there, right? Read More »
Delicate, romantic, contemplative, introspective; all of these terms describe Christina Vantzou‘s recent album No1. Read More »
Gowanus (Brooklyn (New York (New York (USA))))’s Fabrica Records continues its diverse string of interesting little gems with this tape from Collin McKelvey’s Orbless project. Read More »
Without ever being able to experience death & live to re-tell the tale, Pete Nolan et al coined the sentiment ‘dancing with the dead’ with the simple analogy ‘ghost folk’ which invokes sounds that do, strangely, lend themselves to this unlikely pairing of words & possible birth of a new genre. Read More »
Consisting of Scott Johnson, Mike Pouw, Josh St. Denis, and Sean Gadoury, Basked Unit implants some lingering zoners into the back of your mind. Read More »
Every once in a while, an album hits you seemingly out of nowhere. Read More »
Two years after his solo debut “Navigare”, former Slowdive member Simon Scott returns to Miasmah for “Bunny”. Read More »
English composer Jodi Cave offers up two pieces for his Mort Aux Vaches installment. Read More »
We're always trying to make improvements here at Foxy D, and this year we've got a new one for you. Less focus on the numbers, more focus on the music, which means: no more ratings! Should make 2012 an even better year than the last.
If you're interested in writing for us, send a note and a writing sample to foxyd at digitalisindustries dot com. The only requirements are that you know how to write and can do it on a regular basis. We may not get back to you right away, but we will get back to you.
