Max Bondi – Convolution

Head of London-based Tartaruga records and ex-BHN member Max Bondi’s first full release, an album of subtly glowing, glowering and glittering electronica entitled M, came out to the fanfare of a small but appreciative few back in 2009. Since then he’s been working on various different projects, the culmination of which is an increased level of output for the label and a new solo record. This new offering sees him delving deep into the recesses of the electronic palette. Starting with spacious, glacial tones the album slowly builds its levels of complexity, intensity and emotion. Layers of drones flow under stuttering arpeggiators whilst shifting phases drift in and out of time, miring all with an invasive viscerality that seems to constrict blood vessels. The album’s zenith comes in the last four tracks as levels of scintillatingly abrasive bitter-sweetness are reached and the coup de grace is finally delivered. Check out the beautiful visualization of this moment in the video by Petrels and BHN frontman Oli Barrett, as well as the album in an exclusive full stream, below.

Image is by Andreas Gursky.

Patient Sounds Sampler Volume 3

A new sampler’s just been put together by Patient Sounds, a great little stateside cassette label with accompanying blog. It features a couple of our favourite artists – Kites Sail High, Petrels – and a fair few new and welcome discoveries. Help pass your final hour at work by streaming below, or click here to download and set yourself up with a nice bit of MP3 accompaniment for the journey home. Or just bookmark the page and save it for later. Or just do whatever you want. Although be warned, you will be judged for it. Quite possibly severely.

If you like what you hear don’t forget to nip over to the Patient Sounds site and check out their catalogue of cassette and DL releases. There’s some great stuff on there.

Image is by Jennilee Marigomen.

Petrels – All Things In Common

We first covered Oli Barrett’s solo project Petrels back in February, when he released the immensely beautiful Haeligewielle LP. It’s been a firm favourite of ours ever since; provoking a plethora of emotional states and lending itself to myriad re-discoveries and interpretations. It’s obviously great news, then, that he’s got a new tape coming out soon on the awesome Patient Sounds.

The first side covers similar territory to Haeligewielle, combining a mired murkiness of electronic effects-sludge with hallowed, soaring strings to create something sublime, almost tangible. Side B sees him in a lighter mood, building a sweet little beat over looped marimbas and then chucking in his trademark strings to end on a massive high. It’s a great 20 minutes and the broadening of his scope should be a sign of even greater things to come.

The cassette will be available from August 8th. Check it out first though below.

If you like what you hear too, make sure you get yourself down to Cafe Oto on August 14th where he’ll be playing live, along with Trouble books and Outshine Family. Should be a great night.

Image is by Lukasz Wierzbowski.

Add Void’s Best of February Mix

As we languish on through one of the most depressing parts of the year it can often seem that there’s very little in the outside world to make us feel good. The onset of spring (despite how fucking long it’s taking in actually turning up) is probably one of them. Another has to be the early bumper crop of stunning new music that’s recently sprung into bloom (sorry, enough with the harvest metaphors). We’ve been totally blown away by the number of fantastic tracks released this month, to the extent that the mix has required various omissions to maintain linearity of style and an acceptable duration (pretty sure we could have done a sprawling two hour-long one if we’d wanted). So if there’s a personal favourite that we’ve neglected to include, please don’t consider it a dismissal, simply an avowal of how great things have been and how many things there are to be happy about. Yay!!!

Image is called Touched By The Hand of God and is by David Benjamin Sherry.

Petrels

Singer, songwriter, guitarist, cellist, composer and sound artist (phewph) Oli Barrett has just finished putting together a new collection of tracks for his solo project, Petrels. The as-yet unnamed album takes its musical cues from Barrett’s primary instrument, the cello, and builds around, upon, beneath and through it, weaving its sound into ghostly drones, celestial chants and crackling, distorted electronics. It’s a mass of dark, swirling patterns, lifted by moments of soaring exultation, inspired by the incredible life of 19th century diver William Walker.

Here’s my personal favourite track from the album, the spine-tinglingly powerful Canute. Kindly donated for you to download for free.

Image is a picture of someone underwater by Guy Bourdin.