This is my weekly(ish) answer to the question “What have you been listening to lately?” It’s lightly annotated because I don’t like re-posting material without providing some context. In the interest of conversation, let me know what you’re listening to in the comments below. Just please don’t promote your own work (or that of your label/client). This isn’t the right venue. (Just use email.)
▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ NEW: Recent(ish) arrivals and pre-releases
▰ Warp & Weft is a lovely, free, six-track release posted by Scanner (based in London) of delicately reworked samples from kalimba alongside soft synth lines, lightly glitched and filtered. The first two tracks (“Wefte,” “Wevan”) and sixth (“Weave into Time”) are especially sedate and gentle. The album was recorded live and released this past Friday, August 7.
▰ The free Reel Feels (Sound Pack), by Frankfurt-based musician Jogging House, is the source audio from which Scanner derived his Warp & Weft album, but you don’t need to be a musician to take advantage of it. The first five tracks are beautifully torqued recordings of kalimba (or mbira), turned into pure atmosphere, each a minute or longer. Put them in a playlist and set them to loop on random. You’ll lose track of time happily.
▰ Sometimes an instrument is just as useful on the receiving end of sound, such as this great ongoing series in which a tuba amplifies nearby audio, here rendering deep metallic reverberations from passing traffic.