MICHAEL BEGG - LULU AND THE BLACKS


Lulu And The Blacks. It sounds like the name of a 70s Soul/Funk band, or even like an 80s punk band. But it is the enigmatic title of a new album by Scottish composer and sound artist Michael Begg. And it is presented without any introduction or explanation about the album, so we can only guess what this is all about. Or not guess at all and simply enjoy the music of course.


Quite some of Michael Begg's previous work has been featured here on Ambientblog. His work is quite diverse: ranging from contributions to the legendary Fovea Hex ensemble, to the ambient/electronic music of Human Greed, experimental post-classical works, and sonic experiments based on weather-, polar- or satellite data. Diverse as it may be, there's also something in the sound that is typical and recognisable Begg's.


Lulu And The Blacks is like 'A Young Person's Guide To' Michael Begg. There are string arrangements in some tracks (like the opener Ascent and the heartbreaking Sad Tears - which is a deconstruction of John Dowland's Flow, My Tears. Other tracks are pure ambient, such as The Bones In Currie Kirkyard (Are Soft And Wet And Yours) - the only track available for preview until the album's release date on October 20. And then there is the combination of these: Fill The Air, for example, and also some tracks featuring the piano as the main instrument (An Intimation, Let It Go).


Overall, the atmosphere on this hour-long album is mysterious and melancholic. If this were a movie score, it would probably be for a rather sad movie. But it is beautiful sadness, not the dark, threatening kind. If you're receptive to this kind of atmospheric soundscapes, this music is also accessible, by which I mean it never gets academic or too experimental. But it also has many layers and depths and surprising turns.


If you're already familiar with the work of Michael Begg then you probably don't need any more encouragement to check out this album. If you weren't familiar with him until now, Lulu And The Blacks is a perfect album to start exploring his work. The album will be available on CD and as a digital download.


Lulu And The Blacks by Michael Begg








LUKAS LAUERMANN - VARVE


Lukas Lauermann is an Austrian cellist, composer, and sound artist. Varve is his fourth solo album.The album is named after varves: "geological layers of sediment which, like the rings of a tree, serve as anarchive of climate change." It's motto is "it's not the surface I'm concerned with, but with what lies beneath where no light falls."
All (10) tracks are named 'Varve' followed by a version number (III.3, II.8, etc.) - "deliberately neutral, functioning more as labels for sections that indicate relationships – akin to core samples of varves from threedifferent bodies of water."
Apart from playing the cello, Lauermann uses vocal and organ samples that are recorded on different reel-to-reel tapes and cassette recorders, celebrating (and sometimes emphasizing) their "blurriness, irregularities, and unstable speeds, resulting in subtle shifts and friction." The vocal samples come from Marcel Duchamp's Erratum Musical, which originally uses completely random notes but are here reorganized into ordered forms.
This combination results in a beautiful blend of (post-)classical music, minimalism, and experimental music, but completely without the sentimentality that some modern classical music can have.


Like his previous albums, Varve is released on the Col-Legno label on October 24. (It is not yeat available on pre-order, so I used the link to the label site for now)




LUKAS LAUERMANN - VARVE III.3

--- originally published on Ambientblog ---

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