Juno Recommends Leftfield March 2020

Review: While you'll find plenty of experienced composers and producers on A Strangely Isolated Place's quietly impressive roster of artists, the Californian label is also excellent at showcasing new talents. They're at it again here, offering up a debut from previously unheard Sardinian artist Blinkar Fran Norr. The eight tracks tend towards the more becalmed, meditative and immersive end of the ambient spectrum, with Norr prioritizing swelling, stretched-out chords, hushed aural textures, atmospheric field recordings, ghostly strings and unearthly instrumental sounds that invite you in for dinner and then persuade you to stay for the weekend. It's beautiful and beguiling, for sure, but also touched with a hint of sadness. As debuts go, it's really rather impressive.

Review: Following on from the excellent "Scene In Mirage" reissue that broke O Yuki Conjugate to a whole new crowd, Emotional Rescue return to the archives of the over-looked Nottingham "dirty ambient" outfit. Their second LP "Into Dark Water", originally released in 1987, is just as powerful as the first - a hypnagogic journey fuelled by a global stew of sound, feeding into elegant, evocative pieces. Fans of classic Jon Hassell will find much to enjoy here, but equally those appreciating the exotic post punk undercurrents of 23 Skidoo et al will easily find themselves drawn to the likes of "Ba-makala". Stunning, borderless musings from a hidden treasure of the UK's post-industrial heritage.

Review: While some of the hype surrounding Acting Press may have cooled in recent times, the Berlin-based label remains in rude health. That much is proved by this album-length double vinyl excursion from Intera, an all-star collaboration between PLO Man, Hashman Deejay, C3D-E. The trio starts in stunning fashion with the spaced-out, far-sighted dub techno/ambient fusion of "697", before brilliantly wrapping huggable, ultra-deep chords around a skittish techno beat on "463". They pay tribute to the glory years of Detroit techno on the all-action bustle of "548", while "653" sees them place bouncy, glassy-eyed riffs and Modem-style electronic sounds atop another retro-futurist techno groove. "414" is techno-funk after an extra-strong dose of shrooms and "410" is a superb ambient techno excursion.

Review: Formerly known as The Greatest Hoax, there's nothing remotely fake about Washington D.C.'s T.R. Jordan. The work of some serious talent, both in terms of its arrangements and those working behind the scenes (Rafael Anton Irissari, of legendary Ann Arbour imprint Ghostly International is on mixing and production duties), the results of efforts to create this album are truly gripping, albeit in a gentle and heartbreakingly tender way. Whoever the "You" in the title is needs to count themselves very lucky indeed. The six tracks presented here are spellbinding contemporary classical overtures of such spectacular beauty they seem destined to score the most humanistic moments of sci fi. From the redemptive mood of "Leap Of Faith", to the fairytale piano stunner that is "Bruised World", here's proof that storytelling needs no words.

Review: Dutch producer Samuel Van Dijk has operated under numerous aliases over the years, though he's undoubtedly best known for his IDM and electro work as VC-118A. Those with an in-depth knowledge of his work will tell you that there's also some treasure buried within Van Dijk's outings as Multicast Dynamics, a project rooted in the blurred boundaries between ambient, music concrete and sound design. "Ancient Circuits", his latest album under the alias, is also his most expansive to date: a hundred-minute journey in four 25-minute chapters designed to tell a slowly-shifting journey that's at times blissful, otherworldly, dark, foreboding, intoxicating and intense, all crafted from epic studio experiments with synthesizers, samplers, effects units and a vast array of field recordings. Like much of the Astral Industries catalogue, it's superb.

Review: Since making his debut in the early 2010s, Berlin-based American Steve Huerta has delivered a string of rock solid, dancefloor-focused EPs. On debut album "Junipero", he's decided to mix things up, delivering a warm, woozy, atmospheric and picturesque set of tracks designed to ease tired minds in the comfort of the home. There's a few nods towards the dancefloor present - not least the toasty and dreamy breakbeat house cut "All Wild Things Are Shy" and bustling "Waxwing Air" - but for the most part the set settles in to a comfortably melodious and gently enveloping blend of blissful ambient, dub-flecked electronic soundscapes, spaced-out IDM and intergalactic electronica. It's a hugely enjoyable journey.

Review: Given the respective outputs of committed ambient explorers and sound designers Zake (best known for releasing no less than five fine albums in 2019) and 36 (most recently seen on A Strangely Isolated Place with the superb album "Fade To Grey"), you'd expect this trip into aural deep space to be rather good. It is of course, with the four tracks mixing echoing sonic tones and drifting sound effects with slow-burn electronic melodies and the kind of immersive, sustained chords that were once the preserve of German maestro Pete Namlook. The third track in the suite, appropriately titled "Stage 3", is little less than stunning, in part because of its grandiose, almost classical intent.

Review: Positive Education's Worst label may only have put out three releases to date, but that's not stopped them offering up a cheeky "Greatest Hits" set. What's really on offer is not a retrospective but rather a showcase of quality cuts from label artists, collective members and like-minded musical misfits. There's much to enjoy throughout, with highlights including the ethereal, synthesizer-heavy dreaminess of Beesmunt Soundsystem's "Nova Zen", the dark, druggy and deliciously weird dancefloor hypnotism of A Strange Wedding's "El Cartel Del Sangria", the horror-influenced Italo-disco throb of Itako's "Our Favourite Methode", the industrial murkiness and abstract melodies of Christian Coiffure and the sludgy alien soundscapes of Gil Barte.

Review: While most records invite you to listen, this retrospective celebration of Brazilian songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist Priscilla Ermel feels more like something that's inviting you into its own universe. A strange, exotic place to most western ears, if World Music wasn't such a generic and painfully sweeping term we'd apply it here. Sounds of the Amazon, sounds of the other, sounds of traditional emigre folk and a load of stuff that defies accurate description, this collection is impossible not to fall in love with. Having spent time learning the sonic ways of indigenous tribes in her homeland, then taking those instruments (among others) and re-appropriating them via field records and electronic synthesisers, she manages to create things of sombre beauty ("Meditacao"), work of percussive seduction ("Americua") and tracks packing mysterious, fantastical, futurist experimentation ("Mensageiro").

Review: We are proud to release 'Fortunate Isolation' the sophomore album from Borusiade. Born and raised in Bucharest, Romania, Borusiade aka Miruna Boruzescu started DJ-ing in 2002 as one of the very few female DJs in the city's emerging alternative clubbing scene. Influenced by a classical musical education, a bachelor in film direction and fascinated by raw electronic sounds, Borusiade first combined these universes in the construction of her DJ sets and starting 2005 also in her music production. A sound of her own has slowly crystallized, often dark with poignant bass lines, obsessive themes and by all means melodic. She has released EPs on labels like Pinkman, Unterton, Cititrax, Correspondant and Comeme, who released her debut album 'A Body' in 2018. 'Fortunate Isolation' is perhaps Borusiade's most personal release to date.

Review: 10 years after first starting out, June aka Tsampikos Fronas serves up a third full length on Mannequin Records that draws on all his years of musical exploration. The world that results is a dystopian one where machines have taken over and human life has long gone. Synths fizz with static electricity, drums and percussion automated by AI and the whole thing is like an exercise in cyber-transcendence. An arsenal of vintage analog synthesizers, drum machines and effect processors add retro-future textures that only serve to heighten the record overall.

Review: Corporate Park (aka Shane English/Jonah Lange) and Beau Wanzer are the pair behind the CP/BW project. This is their second album and one that brings together various recording sessions done in Texas over the past 5 years. "Nightclub Foot" is a hiccupping mix of wave styles and hypnotic electronics, "Stammer Time" is unhinged techno experimentation and "Symbionese Take Out" is crunchy noise slowed to a paranoid and dystopian crawl. Dark and gloomy yet fascinating and filled with sound worlds you want to explore, "BW 05" is another wining effort.

Review: Sometime Jahtari and Sex Tags sort Tapes (real name Jackson Bailey) is on fine form on this tidy ten-inch for Japanese imprint EM Records. "Summer Jam" more than lives up to its title, with the on-point producer peppering a rich, analogue-heavy electronic rhythm track with lo-fi sounding synthesizer flute solos and cheery, sun-kissed melodies. His digi-dub roots come further to the fore on undulating, delay-laden flipside "Salavere", where echoing electronic melodies seemingly drift above a sparse, clicking drum machine rhythm track. It too is rather fine, albeit in a deeper, woozier and altogether more spaced-out way. In a word: ace.

Review: Soon Jon Hassell will release a freshly re-mastered reissue of his groundbreaking debut album, "Vernal Equinox". Before that arrives, there's the small matter of this re-mastered pressing of another classic LP from his expansive discography. "Flash Of The Spirit" was created in collaboration with Farafina, a group of musicians from Burkina Faso whose extensive contributions undoubtedly shaped the outcome. Rich in West African percussion, enlightened horns, alien synthesizer sounds and group vocals, the album is undoubtedly more up-tempo in tone than some of Hassell's "Fourth World" work, despite the presence of a number of sublime ambient cuts. For that reason alone, it's essential listening.

Review: Contemporary classical is a phrase banded about far too loosely in our opinion. It would be easy to try and apply it to Carlo Giustini, for example, but the term only bears relevance in some parts. There are moments on this immersive collection of six tracks that almost feel like chamber music, choral moods without any voices or hint of a choir, for example. And the timbre is such we can almost feel the walls of a symphony hall around us, but the performance would be one of such profound intimacy that setting seems wrong. Forget overtures, then, this is more about ambient refrains that emerge, transcend and reform. Distant noises echo subtly, never fully realising themselves, but creating tangible textures that guide us through each piece - aural breadcrumbs ensuring that when we must, it's still possible to find a way out from under the depths.

Review: Inspired by a weeklong walking holiday in the Alps in 2018, acclaimed Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi decided to create a suite of albums inspired by each of the seven days he spent away. The albums were released on CD and digital in 2019, but it's only now that we're getting the final few on vinyl. This seventh and final set is particularly fine, with Einaudi delivering a succession of poignant, exceedingly beautiful piano pieces capable of taking the breath away. His playing is of cause impeccable, but the recording and production should be celebrated too; it almost feels as if you're sat in the room with him, hearing his feet tap at the piano pedals while his fingers caress the keys. In a word: sublime.

Review: Since launching in 2011, James Healy's Air Texture label and compilation series has become something of an institution within the ambient scene. As with its predecessors, the seventh volume in the series has been jointly compiled by two artists with an existing musical relationship, in this case Rrose and Silent Servant. Their selections are on point, drowsily drifting between academic ambient compositions (see Rrose and James Fei's "For Bass Clarinet 8.97 (Rrose Version)", uncomfortable electronic explorations (Ron Morelli, Anthony Child), modular movements (Not Waving), jazz-flecked deep space soundscapes (Luke Slater), horror-influenced throb-jobs (Phase Fatale, June & An-i) and 1990s style ambient electronica (Octa Octa, Function).

Review: According to the artist himself, Zake's first solo album of 2020 was recorded and produced during "a four-day excursion in several secluded areas" in South Carolina. As a result, listeners can expect to hear babbling brooks, birdsong and the gentle rustling of leaves beneath Zake's alluring mixture of enveloping ambient chords, unearthly drone tones, opaque electronics and slowly-shifting, heavily processed neo-classical movements. The results are hugely immersive and undeniably enjoyable, with each of the four tracks delivering a head-in-the-clouds journey that ripples with becalmed, atmospheric intent. In other words, it's the kind of ambient music you can get lost in. More please!

Review: Sign Libra's 2016 debut album was something of a slow-burn hit, with the quality and popularity of the initially digital-only album - a fine voyage through ambient and new age pastures - eventually leading to a vinyl release on Antinote. For the belated follow-up, the producer has transferred to RVNG INTL and delivered a concept album inspired by the moon, its various dry "seas" (check the track titles) and its relationship with earth. Musically it's a little jauntier and upbeat that you might expect, with 1980s style new age synthesizer sounds being used to create melodies that dance across soundscapes rich in echoing machine drums, choral vocals and dreamy, echo-laden chords. It's a formula that makes for enjoyable and highly entertaining listening.

Review: With a line-up that boasts Cabaret Voltaire's Stephen Mallinder, you know that Wrangler have got the chops when it comes to deviant electronics with experimental grit and synth-pop nous in equal measure. On their latest album they sound more vital than ever, skirting around a fizzing array of grooves where the human voices and synths speak with equal flair and personality. Craftily sculpted and joyously composed, this is a delightfully modernist twist on the blueprint Cabs helped define all those decades ago. The spirit of progress is alive and well across this beautifully bonkers record - all disco delinquents take note!