~ sounds of 2018 as seen by artists ~

Greetings dear readers of Microphones in the Trees! This year we weren't so active and there are so many reasons for that, real life mostly. But we continue to discover new music and constantly listening to lots of sounds! Being a bit unsure about the importance of end-of-year lists, we were intrigued when Steve Targo (of Inner Travels) approached us with the idea to ask some of our favorite artists to make their own lists. Such way it seems right, not to impose our own vision spoiled by countless albums and everyday Bandcamp browsing (though we'll post such list too, hah!), but to give the opportunity to see things from the inside and let musicians tell what they are listening to.

So, here it goes, THE LIST OF THE LISTS, inspiring and important sounds of 2018:

By Daryl Groetsch ~ Pulse Emitter ~

Poemme ~ Moments in Golden Light (Constellation Tatsu)

Jatinder Singh Durhailay & David Edren ~ Tea Notes (Earth.Rope.Pot.Plant)

PJS ~ Sweet La Vie (Leaving Records)

Endurance ~ Cloud, Castle, Lake (Cosmic Winnetou)

Inner Travels ~ Yonder (Sounds of the Dawn)

Max Corbacho ~ Nocturnes II (SilentSun)

Kyle Landstra ~ Within / Without (Muzan Editions)

Guenter Schlienz ~ Tristan Magnetique (Otomatiek Music)

Seabat ~ Outside The Disc (Vestibule)

Various Artists ~ Switched-On Eugene (Numero Group)

~~~

By Catherine Debard ~ YlangYlang/Isness ~

Sandro Perri ~ In Another Life (Constellation Records)

Felicia Atkinson & Jefre Cantu Ledesma ~ Limpid as the Solitudes (Shelter Press)

Alex Zhang Hungtai ~ Divine Weight (NON Worldwide)

Tess Roby ~ Beacon (Italians Do It Detter)

Pendant ~ Make Me Know You Sweet (West Mineral Ltd.)

Grouper ~ Grid of Points (Kranky)

Low ~ Double Negative (Sub Pop)

Markus Floats ~ Second Album (Self-Released)

Adrianne Lenker ~ Abysskiss (Saddle Creek)

Lucrecia Dalt ~ Anticlines (RVNG Intl.)

TEREKKE ~ Improvisational Loops (Music From Memory)

~~~

By Michael Potter ~ The Electric Nature & \\NULL|Z0NE// ~

Yuzo Iwata ~ Daylight Moon (Siltbreeze)

Obnox ~ Templo del Sonido (Astral Spirits)

Sunwatchers ~ II (Trouble in Mind)

Mountain Movers ~ Pink Skies (Trouble in Mind)

Rosali ~ Trouble Anyway (Scissor Tail)

Low ~ Double Negative (Sub Pop)

Charalambides ~ Tom and Christina Carter (Drawing Room)

Daniel Bachman ~ The Morning Star (Three Lobed Recordings)

Weeping Bong Band ~ s/t (Feeding Tube)

Ramble Tamble ~ Outlaw Overtones (Eiderdown)

~~~

By Natasha Home ~ Sunmoonstar, Pearl and the Oysters & A Thousand Tones curator ~

Wizard Apprentice ‎~ I Am Invisible (Ratskin Records)

Yialmelic Frequencies ~ Yililok (Leaving Records)

Raw Silk ~ Raw Silk (Ehse Records)

Nakayama Munetoshi ~ Floating to Kill Time (Terminal Dream)

Laura Ortman ~ THE DISREMEMBER DANCER // DIG YOUR EYES (Ehepik Records)

Kate NV ~ для FOR (RVNG Intl.)

The Person ~ Tide Life (Moontown Records)

Laurel Halo ~ Raw Silk Uncut Wood (Latency Recordings)

Sarah Davachi ~ Gave in Rest (Ba Da Bing)

Jana Irmert ~ Flood (Fabrique Records)

~~~

By Matthew Hanner, Aural Canyon Label ~

Emily A. Sprague ~ Mount Vision (Self-released)

ann annie ~ Cordillera (Distant Bloom)

r beny ~ eistla (self-released)

Paparbark ~ Last Night (Seil Records)

Remember ~ The City Is My Friend (Dream Catalogue)

Future Museums ~ Rosewater Ceremony (Holodeck) 

Dedekind Cut ~ Tahoe (Kranky/Hospital Productions)

Steve Hauschildt ~ Dissolvi (Ghostly International)

John Carroll Kirby ~ Meditations On Music (Leaving Records)

Yialmelic Frequencies ~ Yililok (Leaving Records)

~~~

By Daniel Guillen ~ Lunaria ~ 

Alex Crispin ~ Open Submission (Constellation Tatsu)

Ashan ~ Far Drift Afield (Inner Islands)

Endurance ~ Shade Terrarium (Constellation Tatsu)

Inner Travels ~ Yonder (Sounds of the Dawn)

Kyle Landstra ~ Within / Without (Muzan Editions)

Max Corbacho ~ Nocturnes II (SilentSun)

Oliwa ~ Lost Memories (Geology Records)

Poemme ~ Moments in Golden Light (Constellation Tatsu)

Pulse Emitter ~ Xenharmonic Passages (Expansive)

William Basinski & Lawrence English ~ Selva Oscura (Temporary Residence)

~~~

By Camilla Padgitt-Coles ~ Ivy Meadows/Energy ✩/Tropical Rock ~

Omni Gardens ~ West Coast Escapism (Holodeck Records)

Jatinder Singh Durhailay & David Edren ~ Tea Notes (Earth.Rope.Pot.Plant)

Yialmelic Frequencies ~ Yililok (Leaving Records)

VA ~ A Thousand Tones Volume 2 (Elestial Sound)

Ramble Tamble ~ Outlaw Overtones (Eiderdown)

Louise Bock ~ Repetitives in Illocality (Feeding Tube Records)

Nick Stevens ~ The New Age (Galtta Tapes)

Arp ~ Zebra (Mexican Summer)

Jon Hassell ~ Listening To Pictures (Pentimento Volume One) (Ndeya) 

Ambienti Coassiali ~ Vol. 1 - Room 1-6 (Incidental Music)
~~~~

By Joshua Stefane ~ Endurance, Muzan Edition label ~

Matthias Puech ~ Alpestres (Hands in The Dark)

Meitei / 冥丁 ~ Kwaidan / 怪談 (Evening Chants)

Pulse Emitter ~ Xenharmonic Passages (Expansive)

Nicholas Langley ~ Entropy Soundtracks & Ambients Volume 2 (Third Kind Records)

April Larson ~ Hopeless Variations (Pyramid Blood)

Equip ~ Synthetic Core 88 (100% Electronica)

PJS ~ Glows (Pyramid Blood)

oliviaway ~ Ambition (Self-released)

N Chambers ~ Eight Informal Lines (Self-released)

Bana Haffar ~ Matiere (Self-released)

~~~

By Sean Conrad ~ Inner Islands/Channelers/Ashan ~

Ava Lux ~ Soft (Self-released)

De Leon ~ De Leon (Mana)

Emily A. Sprague ~ Mount Vision (Self-released)

Inner Travels ~ Yonder (Sounds of the Dawn)

Kenji Kihara ~ 点 線 面 - ten sen men (Self-released)

Laraaji ~ Vision Songs Vol 1 (Numero Group)

Pendant ~ Make Me Know You Sweet (West Mineral Ltd.)

Tuluum Shimmering ~ Dancing in the Seven Skies (Tuluum Shimmering Records)

Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar ~ Ragas Abhogi & Vardhani (Ideologic Organ)

Yialmelic Frequencies ~ Yililok (Leaving Records)

~~~

By Steve Targo ~ Inner Travels ~

Zazz ~ Soft Harbinger / Channelers ~ Enclosure / Channelers ~ Entrance to the Next (Inner Islands)

Ashan ~ Far Drift Afield (Inner Islands)

Electric Sound Bath ~ The Forces (Patient Sounds)

Starbirthed ~ Gems 1: Liquid Crystals (auasca)

Tuluum Shimmering ~ The One That Touched the Sky (Tuluum Shimmering Records)

Jatinder Singh Durhailay & David Edren ~ Tea Notes (Earth.Rope.Pot.Plant)

Pulse Emitter ~ Xenharmonic Passages (Expansive)

Deuter ~ Sattva  Temple Trance (New Earth)

Lunaria ~ Water Mind (ПANΘEON)

~~~

By Yuta Kudo ~ Rhucle/Alien Garage label ~ 

Chihei Hatakeyama ~ Afterimage (White Paddy Mountain)

Taylor Deupree ~ Fallen (12k)

Hikaru Utada ~ 初恋 (Sony Music)

Puppy Seed ~ Lost at Sea (Shimmering Moods)

Federico Durand ~ Pequeñas Melodías (IIKKI)

Jim O’Rourke ~ Sleep It’s Like Winter (Newhere Music)

No Death ~ Angel Tech (Dream Catalogue)

Mike Nigro and Andrew Oosterhoudt ~ Latitudes (Constellation Tatsu)

Mariah Carey ~ Caution (Epic Records)

Lee Noble ~ Q (Longform Editions)

~~~

Huge thanks to everyone involved! Let inspiration be with you!

Support independent music, spread love!

Happy New Year =)

x.y.r / sunmoonstar / water bureau

x.y.r. ~ mental journey to b​.​c. (not not fun records, 2015)
 

«The mood of Mental Journey To B.C. is pre-human: obscure landscapes hissing in the heat, shimmering in the dark, uninhabited, unreal. Humid loops of Formanta Mini and smoke-ring keys float over hushed jungle metronomes and moonlit field recordings». not not fun

Once again we are invited to a journey with russian project X.Y.R., which name can be decrypted as "temple of solitary contemplation". Name of the album says about time of our destination, but it's certainly not some ancient civilization spot, at least there are no people in the picture. All we hear is same "tropical new age" music which is always crafted so beautifully by Vladimir with simple set of soviet synths and some guitar pedals. This music have to do with feelings much more than usual ambient music does, because it creates not just landscape or some script to fill it - it also stimulates listeners imagination and creativity, so you can make your own journey basically from just few hints. Shorts melodies, simple drum pads and lo-fi noise of old soviet gear... But this simplicity is full of magic, secret of which, I believe, should remain unsolved. Simply enjoy the possibilities it gives us!

listen ~ buy

sunmoonstar ~ gymnasium flower (squiggle dot, 2015)

«Composed with a sequencer and synthesizer, "Gymnasium Flower" is a ode to math, movement, and physicality. With her signature sculptural inklings, dot matrix's of soft light shift through each other to expose fantastic new patterns». squiggle dot

Newly composed set of aural impressions by australian charmer Natasha Home aka Sunmoonstar comes as a digital release and sounds respectively – on the edge of old-school ambient classics and modern internet lo-fi punk, varying from simple childish cartoon tunes to cyberpunkish opuses, tropical vaporwave and even some techno beats. It may sound crazy, but believe me - each time I listened to this album it sounded different somehow. I even thought that maybe someone just put new tracks there every day after release. Should admit, I expected same meditative lush that was on previous Sunmoontar's tape, but this album surprised me with new facets of Sunmoonstar talent - inventive, explorational sounds put together without being too serious about it. Not a geek music, but geeks will like it very much. I do!

listen ~ buy

water bureau ~ water bureau (sacred phrases, 2015)

«In some truly cosmic turn of events, Water Bureau finds Norm Chambers (Panabrite, Jürgen Müller, Spiral Index) and Daryl Groetsch (Pulse Emitter, Space Habitat) teaming up for a series of celestial meanderings that speak to the merits of both Pac-NW synth-heroes». sacred phrases

After having impressive box of "unshared properties" by Kyle Landstra and warm guitar lullaby by prolific Hakobune, one of the leading labels of the tape universe releases collaboration of another two super bright stars of this scene. I'm pretty sure that Norm and Daryl both are future (and even present) gurus of electronic music in the whole world and what they do is organic inheritance of what happened to music since the invention of synthesizers. Despite being a bit retro-oriented, their music rushes to new horizons and this collaboration is a good reason to explore the boundaries that were set before. Some critics say that everything in modern music is retro and everything new is the result of hybridization of old ideas, but I think that music in our age shouldn't be analyzed only by form and message behind it. At some point music became less attached to external qualities like styles or sound sources and what deserves attention nowadays is the complex picture of music inside our hypertextual world. What you may call a clishe taken from Michael Stearns album is actually a hyperlink to the huge amount of impressions and meanings embedded in this certain type sound or effect. And you choose to follow it - or not to. Thinking that way, music presented on Water Bureau debut tape may be experienced as a complex and quite interesting essay about the electronic music in US where musicians playing not only with synths, midi & effects, but with meanings and impressions, which already exist in collective mind of humanity, at least the part which listens to electronic music, of course. In the same time, this is just beautiful and refreshing piece of music, and it's already a good reason to have it in your collection!

listen ~ buy

sunmoonstar / maia ibar / sapropelic pycnic

sunmoonstar ~ ibid (twin springs tapes, 2015)

"Twins Springs Tapes is proud to offer this, the debut album from Sunmoonstar (Natasha Home, Sydney, Australia). Panoramic frequencies and percussive surfaces weave satiny landscapes. Pastel planes reflect soft complexities of clouds." 

listen ~ buy

maia ibar ~ when you close your eyes / and i see (perfect wave, 2015)

"Maia Ibar of Dual-Split is experimenting with restorative sound voyages. She is interested in assisting you, her, him, them, to come into natural states of balance and harmonies through tones, frequencies and sound. Mysterious but familiar senses of timelessness, traveling through space, or back in the womb... Seeing "when you close your eyes," and "I see." We can always see, we are awake, we are awake."

synths, bells, chimes, drums, tibetan bowls, vocals: Maia Ibar 

guitar, bass: Baptiste Ibar 

vocals: Jean-Pierre Ibar 

listen ~ buy

sapropelic pycnic ~ see sun think shadow (perfect wave, 2015)

"Sapropelic Pycnic is the solo project of Kathleen Baird of long running avant psych project Spires That In The Sunset Rise. On her debut release as Sapropelic Pycnic, Baird releases a stunning 8 track record of piano improvisations performed on a Steinway Grand in December of 2011 in a church in her hometown of Decatur, Illinois recorded just days before her father’s passing on December 30, 2011. These improvisations have a raw focus that premiere Baird’s piano training as well as very own style of punctuation, spacing and repetition. Her approach brings to mind the playful, spacious qualities of Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou, the unrestraint of Cecil Taylor, the rolling arpeggiations of Alice Coltrane, and the ghostliness of Arvo Part." 

buy vinyl ~ listen / buy

plant music / grey garden home

va ~ plant music: a leafy listening compilation (dublab, 2015)

"nurture nature with dublab’s Plant Music! these songs were composed by dublab’s favorite musicians with growth of leafy friends in mind. Plant Music is a dublab Proton Drive exclusive so when you pick this up you will not only be helping plants to grow, but you will also cultivate dublab’s positive music mission."

1. a&r ~ weeping willow

 2. alejandro cohen ~ remembering
3. carmen villain ~ blomic
4. dexter story ~ mahogany
5. dntel ~ ficus sheen
6. ethio cali ~ green tej
7. golden hits ~ for the ferns
8. suneye ~ sprout
9. impa quince ~ i bloom when you bloom
10. j d emmanual ~ texas star plant
11. jp jenkins ~ cactus conciousness
12. mary lattimore ~ david green
13. matthewdavid ~ electronic dream plant
14. prints ~ vision
15. rainbow arabia ~ succulent
16. t.e.a.l. ~ moss
17. vitamin wig c ~ rose power

~ proton donation ~

va ~  グレーガーデン ホーム (grey garden home compilation) (onmyōdō cassette, 2015)

opaline, sunmoonstar, sleepland, aeki takashi, ...

 listen ~ name your price

filed under: i wanna be leaf