A Portals session with Julianna Barwick recently took place in our apartment. Victoria dusted off her Mamiya medium format for the occasion. Much love and thanks to Julianna, Scott Bell, Eric Littman, Tonje Thilesen, Daniel Dorsa and the whole Portals family.
Nepenthe is out now via Dead Oceans.
A visualizer, or rather an “audio/visual wildlife database experience”, “New World” lives up to its name. The 16 minutes access some other space, open to interact with both intensely and passively. Cues are of course taken from this gorgeous, cerebral nod-along by Chase Hudson aka Foothills, which sweeps the entire B side of a cassette of the same name. Melodica, Moog, Rhodes, AM radio, drum machine… these are well-crafted soundscapes, rich and precise, and as of today, available through Patient Sounds.
“…all environmental sound and non-sound begin to have a meaning to me and the sound begins to shine.”
Above is the music and the words of Michiru Aoyama. Both are in reference to the composer’s regular practice of meditation in Zen Buddhism. Matched with Prelinger-sourced infrared footage, “日本の空気 (Air of Japan)” illuminates those shining subtleties in hyper-awareness. The four minutes works well as a standalone zone-out, but we also recommend letting them open up a nice half-hour of textural ambient and static drone at bandcamp via Hamburg-based label Organic Industries.