Single Twin - marcus teague (2011)

First album for Single Twin, solo project of Marcus Teague, an Australian songwriter previously leader of Deloris.

Some confusion with the title track which is his real name, the reason is I guess that it represents a high amount of personal work and self-reflection (these thirteen songs have been recorded and mixed by Teague himself over a period of no less than six years, in his Melbourne home using only GarageBand and a single Rode NT-1000 microphone), so there is no other subject that himself that he had to fight with in order to finish this record.

Emphemetry – a lullaby hum for tired streets (2011, Time Travel Opps)

Inventing a new word is the best way to lead curious people towards you as every search engine will offer the shortest way to music and all information. Emphemetry is the project of Richard Birkin, also behind the label Time Tracel Opps.

Szymon Kaliski - for isolated recollections (2011, Hibernate)

One year after his debut album "Out of Forgetting" on Audiomoves, Szymon Kaliski is back with a new ep on Hibernate. It is a nice achievement to join such label for a second release.

It is not just the follow-up to his debut album. There was something still green with "Out of forgetting", a few hesitant steps, but full of innocence, emotion and intensity, a work in progress, surprisingly and disarmingly strong at times, but not made for becoming a classic album, mostly givings hints of a mastered expression yet to come and setting up a personnal challenge for him a kind of double or nothing.

Azalia Snail - celestial respect (2011, Silber Media)

I followed Azalia Snail's discography from 1993 to 1996, with the albums "Burnt sienna" (1992), "Fumarole Rising" (1993) and "Blue Danube" (1995) and my interest dropped with the album "Escape Maker" (1996) for no reason specific to her, mostly a question of style,  as she was even called "Queen of lo-fi", 1996 was marked for me with the discovery of the emocore / post-hardcore / math-rock scene, the lo-fi approach immediately seemed less attractive.

M. Ostermeier - the rules of another small world (2011, Tench)

Weather is cloudy outside, as you can see it through the big windows, inside there is an aura of warmth and comfort, but you're right alone this morning, with the full swimming pool still empty of swimmers, as if the town was suddenly devoid of its inhabitants. You adjust your goggles, you dive and start to swim.

Absent Without Leave - ‘neath the tumbling stars EP (2011, Three:Four)

Absent Without Leave is the solo project of George Mastrokostas, based in Athens, Greece. His music is instrumental. He previous released various records on labels more or less related to the post-rock scene : Unlabel, Chat Blanc, Awkward Silence, Thisquiearmy, Duotone or Fuzzy Panda, among others. His music is essentially based on atmospheric melancholic electric guitar.

Chris Watson & Marcus Davidson - cross-pollination (2011, Touch)

There are two different sides for this new album by Chris Watson. On the first half of 28 minutes, he reorganized and reconstructed a collection of sounds captured in South Africa's Kalahari desert, during the night, between sunset and sunrise.

Annelies Monseré & Richard Youngs - three:four split series volume 3 (Three:Four, 2011)

Nice association for this new split ep on the Swiss label Three:Four records. On one side the Belgian songwriter  Annelies Monseré and onn the other the famous UK musician Richard Youngs, both contributing with one track, both multiplying an idea of song through different repetition approach.

"Sand" by Annelies Monseré is very typical of her style, whispered ethereal icy voice and melody full of intimacy, strangely remorseful and disabused, following an austere path of lamentation as a way of redemption.

Mountains - air museum (Thrill Jockey, 2011)

"Air Museum" is different from the previous albums by Mountains, but it is a kind of norm for the band, going forward, surprising with each album, even if as a fan finally you'll find the same substance.

But this time, you'll have to dig deeper, in fact too much, and also discard a few tracks as dead ends. "Thousand Square" is the perfect example of inanity for my ears, five minutes of analog beats and synth sounds, which quickly makes me feel exhausted and bored. Same sentence for "Sequel", analog synth exploration of "kosmische musik".

Mountains - sewn (Apestaartje, 2006)

There are eight songs for forty-four minutes, when their debut offered only four songs for fifty-seven minutes. “Sewn” is another story, another point of view, the same band, but achieving a different goal, with the same musical source but with more complexity.

While “Mountains” contains four slowly and progressively built atmospheres, here, Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp are going directly to their goal, using the apex of their debut as the starting point from where they developed “Sewn”.

Mountains - mountains (Apestaartje, 2005)

Mountains is the project of  Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, both already behind the Brooklyn, NY label Apestaartje and with a few solo releases (as Anderegg and Aero). Mountains started as a live project before evolving into a compositional project and the fourth and last track of this debut is in fact a live recording.

Mountains - choral (Thrill Jockey, 2009)

Following two superb albums, self-released on their own label Apestaartje, the duo formed by Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp finally signed on a bigger and well known structure, Thrill Jockey, for their third album.

It's a big step forward which gives them a better diffusion for their music and a larger legitimacy among the international "indie" scene. This evolution is accompanied by some minor aesthetics changes.

Alexander Schubert - plays sinebag (Ahornfelder, 2011)

Alexander Schubert is a German musician, born in Bremen, with a background of computer science and biology. Inside his music there is a large part given to ideas of abstraction, perception and experimentation. 

On this record, he mixes acoustic and electronic sources, then process them, with both definite ideas and directions, and at times lets open the hazardous door of free improvisation.

False Awakening / Maybe Starry Skies - echo (BFW, 2010)

Split album with two artists exploring close areas of ambient post-rock. Both are two solo projects, with False Awakening from Canada and Maybe Starry Skies from France.


The three False Awakening tracks are relatively generic and follow the usual lines. While not too obviously different at first, the Maybe Starry Skies composition are more introvert and with a strange feeling of melancholic nostalgia.

Autumnleaf - still have nothing to be sure (Wood/Water, 2009)

After having enjoyed their second album, turning back tho their debut album was tempting and the trip isn't disappointing. 

Coming from Fukuoka, Japan, this four people band is directly influenced by the American indie scene, owing an obvious debt to bands like American Football, Very Secretary or also Ida, and sharing for a part the aesthetics of another Japanese band, The Guitar Plus Me.

Brian - a million miles 7inch (White Sands Records, 1989)

Brian was the project of Ken Sweeney, born in Dublin and living in London. "A million miles" was his first (self-released) 7inch which was followed by a few others and mostly two albums on Setanta.

We are not too far from the Sarah Record aesthetics of bands like Field Mice or Brighter, except it is more self-restrained and probably even more intimate, while as melancholic and moving as these two bands.