Crucial Listening

Voice drips like milk, rays of soprano sunlight, filthy metal bass face. Producer, vocalist and DJ Felicia Chen discusses three important albums.

Felicia's picks:
 
Arvo Pärt – Te Deum
Portishead – Dummy
Goth-Trad – Psionics

The collaborative record between Dis Fig and The Body is out now via Thrill Jockey. Check it out here. Dis Fig is on Instagram and Soundcloud.

The Body and Dis Fig will debut the collaboration at this year's Supersonic Festival in Birmingham UK, which runs 30th August – 1st September. More info here.

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Driving in fury, letting the endings be real, slow and lonely. The free improvisation percussionist discusses three important albums.

Mark's picks:

Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell – Old And New Dreams (1979)
Evan Parker – Monoceros
Rebecca Saunders – Fury II

As always, Mark has a bunch of upcoming live dates. These include Evan Parker's 80th birthday residency at Cafe Oto, for which Mark has prepared a four-part percussion group. Mark's website is here.

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Caught by howling, three people at the 2pm concert, vivid colour changes. The Berlin-based singer and artist discusses three important albums.

Rosa's picks:

Julia Shortreed – Violet Sun
Low – Double Negative
Tear Garden – To Be An Angel Blind, The Cripple Soul Divide

Rosa's new album Interior is out 23rd February on KLANGBAD. Check out her music on Bandcamp. Rosa's website is here. She's also on Instagram.

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Post-apocalyptic industrial environments, pseudo-music, twisted proto-typicalities. The sound artist and experimental musician discusses three important albums.

Francisco's picks:

David Lynch + Alan Splet – Eraserhead (OST)
Mnemonists – Horde
Meshuggah – Chaosphere

Francisco's work is available on Bandcamp, including the recent Conveyor Belts [USA]. His website is here.

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The dirt aesthetic, non-relinquishable frequencies, opening up that filter. The London-based sound artist and "mutant dancehall" practitioner discusses three important albums.

Aniruddha's picks:

Miles Davies – Dark Magus
Robert Hood – Minimal Nation
Hallucinator – Landlocked

Check out Dhangsha's music on Bandcamp here. His Hard Return EP "Aberrant" is over here. Dhangsha plays London's Cafe Oto on 24th January, and Electric Spring festival in Huddersfield on 17th February.

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Slowing everything down, emotionally devastating lines, the snare on Faucet. The Portland-based producer discusses three important albums.

hyacinth.'s picks:

DJ Screw – Bigtyme Vol II All Screwed Up
Earl Sweatshirt – I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside
MIKE – War In My Pen

Check out hyacinth.'s music over on the peradam tapes. label. They're on Twitter – @hyacinthindecay.

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Mellow ingenuity, drowned in reverb, London at its most gloomy and miserable. London-based multidisciplinary artist Sam Ashton discusses three important albums.

Sam's picks:

Explosions In The Sky – The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place
Grouper – Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill
Burial – S/T

You can check out Sam's music over at the Fortresses Bandcamp or over at Dragon's Eye Recordings. He's also on Instagram.

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Weird symphony, no crazy vibrato, Terry Riley on the discman. The violist and composer discusses three important albums.

Jessica's picks:

Beethoven - André Cluytens, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – Symphony No. 9
John Cage, Arditti String Quartet – String Quartet In Four Parts
Terry Riley – You're Nogood

Jessica's new album Clamor is out now via Out Of Your Head Records. Her website is here.

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High-altitude Bryars, trash on the walls, desperate shamans. The Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artist discusses three important albums.

Dorian's picks:

Gavin Bryars – The Sinking Of The Titanic / Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet
Nearly God – S/T
George Michael – Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1

Dorian's new album, Excesiva, is out now on Dragon's Eye Recordings. Check it out on Bandcamp. Dorian's website is here.

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Emotional rollercoasters, impossible Neo Tokyo, perfect snares. The London-based Swedish producer/sound designer discusses three important albums.

Julia's picks:

Esbjörn Svensson Trio – Leucocyte
Akira Yamaoka – Silent Hill 2 OST
Pinecone Moonshine (label) – [PCMS 2020​.​1] Vector Space

The new aircode album, titled Surface Tension, is out now via Gin&Platonic. Check it out on Bandcamp. Aircode is on Bandcamp and Instagram.

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Architectural sound, understandings of freedom, and how do we end? The composer, improviser and performer discusses three important albums.

Lucie's picks:

Iannis Xenakis – La L​é​gende d'Eer
Pauline Oliveros – The Tuning Meditation
Christian Wolff – Changing The System

Lucie's recent solo album, Cave Acoustics, is out now via the labels mappa and Skupina. Lucie's website is here. Follow them on Instagram.

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Light in the ocean depths, doors to other worlds, respiratory cycling. The Tehran-based composer discusses three important albums.

Ava's picks:

William Basinski – Watermusic
Radiohead – In Rainbows
Harold Budd / Akira Rabelais – As Long As I Can Hold My Breath (By Night)

Ava's new album Ginestra is out now on Flaming Pines. Check it out here. She's also on Instagram and X.

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(Almost) falling into the water, post-dumb-house-party-bike-rides, wildness and mastery. The musician and member of Xiu Xiu discusses three important albums.

Hyunhye's picks:

Chris Watson – El Tren Fantasma
PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love
Cecil Taylor – Solo (1973)

Hyunhye's new album, Eel, is out now on Room40. Check out her website and Instagram.

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The science of baffling unpredictability, nuclear plants leaking beauty, the moments before the apocalypse. The São Paulo-based artist discusses three important albums.

Claudio's picks:

KRAAN – Flyday
Hatfield And The North – The Rotters' Club
Guruh Gipsy – Guruh Gipsy

The new Babe, Terror album is titled Teghnojoyg and it's out now. Check it out on the Babe, Terror Bandcamp. Head over to the Babe, Terror Youtube to see videos for each track on the new record. Check out the Babe, Terror Tumblr and also the Patreon.

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Digging in near the bridge, one old woman, acting like the Rolling Stones. The American media artist and composer discusses three important albums.

Arnold's picks:

Tony Conrad With Faust – Outside The Dream Syndicate
Sacred Guitar and Violin Music of the Modern Aztecs (Smithsonian Folkways)
Robert Ashley – Automatic Writing

The new album by Arnold Dreyblatt & The Orchestra of Excited Strings, titled Resolve, is out now on Drag City. Check it out here. Here's Arnold's website and Instagram.

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Music for sleep, radical electronics, biospheric amorphous spaces. The sound artist and 12k label founder discusses three important albums.

Taylor's picks:

Brian Eno – Thursday Afternoon
Ryoji Ikeda – +/-
Microstoria – Model 3, Step 2

Taylor's new EP, Eev, is out August 18th via Nettwerk. Preorder and preview it on Taylor's Bandcamp. Taylor is also on Instagram and X.

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The joy of UK pirate radio, intoxicating production, Streets Of Rage DJ set. Montréal-based French-British producer Jean Néant discusses three important albums.

Jean's picks:

Death Is Not The End – The Letter Tape Series / Bristol Pirates
Yuka Honda – Memories Are My Only Witness / Eucademix
Yuzo Koshiro – Bare Knuckle II OST / Bare Knuckle I OST

The new Joni Void album, Everyday Is The Song, is out now on Constellation. Check it out here. Joni Void is on Instagram and Twitter.

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Phytoplankton microsound, sketched-out dead ends, perfect warbles. The North Carolina-based electronic music producer discusses three important albums.

Bana's picks:

Jana Winderen – The Wanderer
Autechre – Amber
Boards Of Canada – Tomorrow's Harvest

Bana Haffar's new album, intimaa' إ​ن​ت​م​ا​ء, is out now on Touch. You can also listen/buy via Bana's bandcamp here. Bana's website is actually a Google sheet, and you check that out here. She's also on Instagram.

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Sunday puppet show routine, childhood anime memories, Brazilian cutlery jams. The electronic producer and performer from Taiwan discusses three important albums.

Sabiwa's picks:

Pili Puppet Drama – Soundtrack / Sound Design
Joe Hisaishi – Princess Mononoke OST
Hermeto Pascoal – Zabumbê-bum-á

Sabiwa's new album, Island no.16 – Memories Of Future Landscapes, is out now on Phantom Limb. Sabiwa is on Instagram.

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Scared of the wolf, emotionally-resonant Eno, the 90s Louisville scene. Modern composer Matthew Cooper (aka Eluvium) discusses three important albums.

Matthew's picks:

Prokofiev (New Philharmonia Orchestra) – Peter And The Wolf (narrated by Richard Baker)
Eno – Another Green World / Brian Eno – Discreet Music
Rachel's – Music For Egon Schiele / Rachel's – The Sea And The Bells

The new Eluvium album, (Whirring Marvels In) Consensus Reality, is available now. Eluvium also has a website and a Bandcamp. Matthew is on Instagram and Twitter.

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