The latest Stasisfield release, Recovery Room, is a collaboration between David Fodel and Ardai. The overall effect is sublime. While there’s an overarching sense of serious stillness, various tonal forms from distinct realms are brought together, often in stark — if at first indiscernible — contrast with each other. Bubbling below the quiet surface are discordant harmonies of mid-century experimental classical music, the sonorous haze of early ambient music, and the simple melodic structure of Erik Satie. Certainly all three of those realms have associations, but to hear them in one place is a unique experience — like a willfully less approachable Cocteau Twins. There are five tracks in all, one standout being “Stage 3” (the tracks are numbered one through four, with the fifth track titled “Last Stage”), which has a tiny percussive piano (at least, it sounds like processed piano) line amid murky depths (MP3).
Get the full set at stasisfield.com.
Chiptune musician Matthew Applegate (aka Pixelh8) doesn’t make all his music out of 8-bit technology — he goes even further back, as the punchcards on the cover of his recent Obsolete? album show. He also weighs heavily on the question mark in the album’s title, employing various ancient computers to purposes (1) for which they weren’t intended and (2) that might, just might, rescue them from obscurity. Fortunately for Applegate, and for us, he didn’t have to rummage through the dustbins of history to gain access to these archaic tools. He got a gracious invitation from the the UK National Museum of Computing to make use of its substantial holdings. According to coverage of an event Applegate performed at the museum, he drew from the following equipment: