Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and Paul Clipson at Cafe OTO

As a brief addendum to our earlier post, here’s a video of Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and Paul Clipson’s show at Cafe Oto last Wednesday. Beautiful sounds and visuals to ease you into the week.

Image is by ethereal Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi.

Paul Clipson

For those that attended the Jefre Cantu-Ledesma gig at Café Oto last night, please forgive us for trying to re-create what happened in this post. We know that all we are able to provide is a cheap facsimile, but providing even a homeopathically-scaled percentage of events is something still totally worthwhile.

For those that weren’t at the Jefre Cantu-Ledesma gig at Café Oto last night, please forgive us for what must seem like a slightly obtuse opening gambit. But bear with us; it’ll definitely be worth it.

Last night, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma’s gig at Café Oto (I suppose you’ve figured that bit out already) was accompanied by the Super 8 projections of Paul Clipson. Or, more accurately – in my mind at least – Paul Clipson’s Super 8 projections were accompanied by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. He showed some of the most beautifully captured fragments of film that I think I’ve ever seen, all flowing in and out, penetrating deep within, floating on top and swimming around each other in what seemed perfect, serendipitous harmony with the engulfing music. Images ranging from the stark, geometric angles of industrial cityscapes to undulating, amorphous patterns to silhouettes of trees and fences and ghostly apparitions of colourful faces all moving and shifting incessantly with a gurgling, immersive fluidity. The subject – light – was utterly singular, but its treatment through texture, rhythm and pattern was phenomenally complex and it recalled so many of the most powerful and moving video art that’s ever been created (László Moholy-Nagy, Bruce Nauman, Len Lye, William Klein, Kenneth Anger, Fernand Léger – to name a few) whilst being in itself something totally new and, quite literally at some points, jaw-droppingly breathtaking (I think I may have even dribbled).

Unfortunately the excerpts provided below, as stated above, only provide a suggestion of last night’s events. But hopefully some of the effect might rub off and a few people, somewhere, will be persuaded to catch him next time he shows his work. If so, we will see you there.

Saåad – Raincoats

Beautiful bit of white noise for you here from French drone artist Romain Barbot, aka Saåad. Similar to the all-encompassing tidal waves of noise that Tim Hecker and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma have put out in the last year or so, but with strangely buried and half-forgotten melodies swimming underneath the barrage, kind of like The Caretaker’s recent stunner An Empty Bliss Beyond This World. There’s only one track off the upcoming album available to stream below, but if you click here you can nip over to the Bandcamp page and listen to his previous two releases for free.

Image is by Canadian photographer Mark Peckmezian.

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – Shining Skull Breath

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma’s 2010 LP Love Is A Stream was one of the stand-out drone albums of last year, a blockade of nullifying multicoloured noise that belied some heartbreakingly tender melodies underneath – if you could actually locate them through all the scuzz and hiss, that is. So, for anyone interested in the kind of experimental, immersive soundscapes that he’s such a master of, the news of his impending follow-up release (on March 22nd) should come as really great news. Here’s a four track streamed teaser from Students of Decay Records to blow away those Monday cobwebs. NB: must be played LOUD.

If you like this check out our Ten from 2010 mix #6 that features some of the best drone/noise tracks from last year.

Image is a diptych by Jason Nocito, found on the unbelievably good Tiny Vices.

Add Void’s Ten from 2010 #6

So it seems we’re slightly stuck in the past. 2010 is rapidly speeding into the distance and we’ve admittedly been a little slow in outing all of our favourite tracks from the year that’s passed.

As far as we’re concerned though, that’s no reason to stop looking back. At least three of the songs on this mix have come to our attention in the short window January has so far afforded, some from as far back as February last year, and I’m sure we’ll discover more as the year continues.

The selection of ambience and drone we’ve put together shows that 2010 was a year in which the marginal seemed to come to the fore. Emeralds and Oneohtrix featured in many a ‘best of’ list and they’re firmly nestled in ours alongside some less heralded favourites. This has been the hardest mix to finalise a track list for, with songs from Concern, The Fun Years, Barn Owl, Philip Jeck and Yellow Swans all just missing out. Still, there should be enough here to hold you interest for an hour or so. Click here to get the tracklisting and download the mix for free.

The picture is from a stunning collection of photos by Susanna Majuri called Nordic Water Tales. You can see more of her wonderful work here.