The Art Gallery in Your Mind’s Ear

Atmospheric hellfire and brimstone from Yvette Janine Jackson

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Toward the end of this coming January, the Fridman Gallery in Manhattan will be releasing *Freedom* by artist Yvette Janine Jackson. The record is up for pre-release right now, with two of its tracks streaming at [fridmangallery.bandcamp.com](https://fridmangallery.bandcamp.com/album/freedom). One cut, available as an excerpt, “Invisible People,” is all hellfire and brimstone, part excoriating exorcism, part calculated recitation of Jonathan Edwards sermonizing (heard here in usefully creepy text-to-speech), all playing out in an atmosphere of dissolute, slow-motion chamber music. Especially engaging is the album’s opening track, “Destination Freedom,” also an excerpt (each around three minutes in length), which is even more atmospheric: piano keys with near-oceanic depth, ghostly string sections, horns buried in the fog. The album is due out January 22, 2021.

More from Jackson at [yvettejackson.com](http://www.yvettejackson.com/).

Caminauta in the Dunes

Live ambient improv by the Atlantic

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Video of Caminauta, shot not far from the Atlantic Ocean, performing electronic music on an Ableton Push, improvising ambient sounds live amid the dunes. Rough percussive textures mix with pulsing, soft notes for a minimalist fantasia, the pace (just under 90 BPM) slow enough to relax to, but allowing for a welcome vibrancy. (I previously mentioned Caminauta here in the context of [a duet with cellist Federico Motta](https://disquiet.com/2020/07/05/current-listens-instrumental-hip-hop-non-performance-samples/) back in early July of this year.)

Video originally posted at [youtube.com](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-PSCwz8_Ak). More from Caminauta at [caminauta.bandcamp.com](https://caminauta.bandcamp.com/). This is the latest video I’ve added to [my ongoing YouTube playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAgCxRbmR1MJxihgJkCPEnehAPvjoF71-) of fine live performance of ambient music.

Music for Reading (and Writing)

Horror, that is

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

If the clattering noises and blood-in-the-ear drones, not to mention the backwards monster voices and plagues-sweep-the-land synth washes, make this intensely quiet music an altogether uncomfortable listen, it’s all on purpose. Finland-based musician Juha-Matti Rautiainen set out, when recording the four tracks that comprise *Dark*, “to create as scary soundscapes as possible.” He recommends the music as accompaniment when reading the work of “psychological horror” novelist Marko Hautala. The album grew out of a conversation the two of them had, leading Rautiainen to compose music to which Hautala might write, and to which his readers, in turn, might read.

Album originally posted the night before Halloween at [juhamattirautiainen.bandcamp.com](https://juhamattirautiainen.bandcamp.com/album/dark). More from Rautiainen at [juhamattirautiainen.com](https://juhamattirautiainen.com/), and check out Hautala’s writing at [markohautala.fi](http://markohautala.fi/home/).

Current Listens: Bisengalieva, Vogelsinger, half light

Heavy rotation, lightly annotated

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

A 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. I hope to write more about some of these in the future, but didn’t want to delay sharing them.

▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰

NEW: Recent(ish) arrivals and pre-releases

▰ Live violin from the Kazakh-British composer Galya Bisengalieva, soaring like gulls above an accompaniment of strings, voices, and muted percussion.

▰ Hélène Vogelsinger performs (in full (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYxheEGl2oM&t=176s)) a 10-minute live modular piece in an abandoned castle in her native France.

▰ The Dallas/Nashville duo called half light released [*Permafrost*](https://soundcloud.com/halflightcompositions/sets/permafrost), a beautiful box of musical curios. Long tones, cello and violin lines stretched to the horizon, gather beneath the sonic equivalent of textured cloth on one track (“Hiraeth”), while infrastructural moans meet panning drones on another (“Isolation”). A deep, rich recording.

▰ 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.)

“Night (There and Back)”

Sunday night loops

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Sunday night guitar loops. Unlike other recent guitar loop experiments I’ve tried out, this one has a live component. After the first minute or so (which I’d already layered in advance of hitting record), new material is added and then later deleted. This setup consists of electric guitar, reverb pedal, overdrive, and looper, plus an eBow on occasion for those extended notes. After recording (amp to phone, live in the room), I used Adobe Audition to implement a fade in and a fade out, and for a little additional reverb.

Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/disquiet](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/night-there-and-back).