A few years back S&S was taken by Small Hours, a spiritual ode to John Martyn’s 1977 waterfront classic in the form of static loops and field recordings by Belarusian artist Kirill Mazhai. Soothing, seamless, reliable, the sequences have a way of lightly draping any number of environments, true to its name, in the most modest, smallest of moments.
Mazhai followed-up the album this past July with a now sold-out cassette called You Don’t Belong via Amsterdam’s Shimmering Moods Records (CDs in handmade sleeves still available). The tributes this time are present and more personal: “A house by the lake, an apartment on the first floor, a park in the middle of the city — the places that stuck with me for a long time and don’t let go.” Instructions implied, the artwork is a Google Maps-inspired watercolor by Antonina Sotnikova and the track titles are coordinates; if curious, plugging them in give literal ground to the abstract. Sonically, it corresponds well with its predecessor as a soft cycling of impressionistic tones set between wistful melancholia and bliss. For its author, the music brought closure after a season of transition.
For episode 65, we handed everything to him.
“The first hour of the mix is more melodic, airy and light, while the second hour is more lyrical, dark and moody, like a day/night thing, I think. This mix contains my favourite music from past few years (Kali Malone, Ellen Arkbro, Federico Durand) and some inspirational stuff (Sarah Davachi, Carl Stone, Ian William Craig), some of the electronic music from my childhood (Jonn Serrie, Parks), some tracks from my friends (Foresteppe, Intern) and few of my own currently unreleased tracks.”
Hour One: Day
Kali Malone – Locus of Repetition
Ellen Arkbro – Mountain of Air
Carl Stone – Banteay Srey
Meyers – Struggle Artist
Kara Lis Coverdale and LXV – Disney
Jonn Serrie – The Far River
r beny – the sea’s sullen green
Emily A. Sprague – Dock / Water Memory 1
Kirill Mazhai – N60.571260 E30.226697
Sarah Davachi – Buhrstone
Parks – Full MoonHour Two: Night
Federico Durand – Las estrellas giran en el pinar
Foresteppe – s02e19
Kirill Mazhai – All Wounds Explained
Ian William Craig – A Single Hope
Mirrorring – Fell Sound
Windy & Carl – The Silent Ocean
Many Rooms – Dear Heart
Angelo De Augustine – Carcassonne
Intern – A Day Off
Kirill Mazhai – Lenta
S&S Radio broadcasts every now and then on Newtown Radio.