Buscar:the field

“Rob wanted the world of The Northman to feel harsh and uncomfortable, and for everything to feel like it was caked in mud and dry blood, so it was crucial for the score to mirror that.” Composers Robin Carolan (Tri-Angle Records) and Sebastian Gainsborough (Vessel) were given a task of epic proportions when director Rob Eggers (The VVitch, The Lighthouse) asked them to create the score for his ambitious and highly anticipated new film The Northman, releasing on April 22nd. They needed to make a score that both honored the immense research that had gone into the authenticity of this Viking era period piece and complimented the cinematic maximalism of the film for a modern audience. The artists stretched themselves to the depths of their creativity and the resulting album is a gorgeous sonic tableaux that places the listener right in the center of the film.

While arranging the score the composers consulted musician and ethnographer Poul Høxbro for inspiration and insight into the history of Viking music. Having backgrounds in left field electronic music, Robin and Sebastian felt liberated by the constraint of using a small selection of musical tools for this piece. “Electronic music has almost limitless potential when it comes to making sounds and that’s obviously an incredible thing, but you can also go down the wormhole and get lost in it sometimes. There’s no risk of that happening when you only have a few primary instruments to draw upon.” Robin remarked.

They utilized traditional instruments such as the tagelharpa, langspil, kravik lyre, and säckpip to build the cinematic world of The Northman but they also took creative freedoms in adding instruments likes drums, which some academics believe wouldn’t have played a big part in Viking musical culture, simply due to the lack of archaeological evidence of actual drums. “One of the pieces we wrote was intended to emulate the sound of a bullroarer; an ancient instrument used in sacred rituals or in battle to intimidate enemies. It makes a really disorienting roaring vibrato sound and low frequencies capable of traveling insane distances.” Robin says when asked about one of the more unique aspects of the score. Everyone involved put so much effort into both their research and their creativity and this richness is evident in every track. The album as a whole is a cinematic masterpiece of sound and ambiance, both gorgeous and disturbing, like the film it so beautifully accompanies.

Since its founding back in 2014, Blume has carved a unique place in cultural landscape, issuing free-standing works, spanning the historical and contemporary, that represent singular gestures of creativity within the field of experimental sound. Joining their broad efforts in building networks of context and understanding that already includes the works by Werner Durand, Sarah Hennies, Bruce Nauman, John Butcher, Jocy de Oliveira, Mary Jane Leach, Valentina Magaletti, Alvin Curran, Julius Eastman, Alvin Lucier, and following the first ever vinyl release to attend to James Tenney's legendary Postal Pieces, the label now presents the first LP published by the visionary Swiss composer Jürg Frey. Drawing from the transformative power of breath and resonance, this release represents one of the most profound explorations of musical metamorphosis to emerge from the contemporary experimental landscape.

The completed work represents a "conjunction of these two artists" that has "activated a transformative form of experimentalism." These renderings "dance with an airy lightness, humour, and play, imbuing them with a beauty and emotiveness that can be rare within experimental music." They exist as "breaths, carrying the curiosities of life, belonging to no time and all time, to no one and everyone: a human music to be inhaled and pondered, for which the outcome remains unknown." In this liminal space between composition and interpretation, between breath and resonance, Zurria and Frey have created something that transcends the boundaries of experimental music itself, offering what might be called a metaphysical cartography of sound in its most essential form. As Bradford Bailey observes in his penetrating liner notes, "music is rarely a fixed entity," existing instead in a state of perpetual flux, "taking on the influences of its interpreters and performers." This fundamental truth finds its most eloquent expression in the transformative collaboration between Italian flutist Manuel Zurria and Frey, longtime member of the Wandelweiser Group. Where conventional recordings might preserve a definitive version, this release activates what Bailey calls "states of unknowing and continued experimentation," allowing Frey's compositions to evolve into entirely new dimensional territories. The original string quartet and piano works dissolve into breath-carried architectures of sound, where "the original remains in a constant dialogue with its transformation." This is not mere arrangement but ontological metamorphosis - an alchemical process through which crystalline harmonies are reborn as atmospheric phenomena.

The metaphysical dimensions of this transformation become clear through detailed analysis of the musical result. Where Frey's original compositions operate through what he calls "basic confidence in the clear and restricted material," Zurria's interpretation activates entirely new perceptual territories. Space holds almost atomic sense of weight against the airy punctuations of timbres, textures, and tones, creating "suspensions of time within which questions and identities posed by instrumentation fade." The Extended Circular Music pieces - each comprising "a small number of bars to be repeated an undetermined number of times" - become organizations of sound that defy being definitive or fixed. Originally scored for different combinations of violin, viola, cello, and piano, these works now exist as pure phenomena of breath and resonance, where "hanging, breath-length utterances dance and intertwine amongst complex harmonic clusters and conjunctions."

The philosophical implications of this transformation illuminate a lineage of composers who have moved "away from abstraction and responding to the need to create" something beyond mere technique. Drawing parallels to Morton Feldman's understanding of non-functional harmony, Zurria's approach represents "a transformative form of experimentalism" that activates what Frey calls the "thaumaturgic power" of music - its capacity to heal and transform consciousness itself. The result is "a radical reimagining of ambience: sprawling sonorities and resonances adrift in space, carrying the liberated traces of the work's former incarnations and their truths." In Zurria's interpretation, Frey's String Quartet n.3 becomes something approaching "an organ played in slow motion, its seals leaking," while the Extended Circular Music pieces transform into "glacial chords from a diverse palette of voicings, harmonies, timbres, and tones."

Performed by Manuel Zurria. Recorded and mixed by Zurria at BigCardo, Catania between 2022-2024, with mastering by Bruno Germano at Vacuumstudio, Bologna, this Blume release represents a profound exploration of musical transformation.

SIDE B returns with the second installment of its newly established label, this time with Rill at the helm. Staying true to effect, the young German producer has honed his percussively forward style with a string of steady releases and performances over the past three years. In his EP 'Friss', Rill delivers three highly concentrated club tracks with a Beste Hira remix closing out the project, assembling a record destined for unforgiving sound systems and frenzied dance floors.

Driving and mental, Rill brews up a viscous first track 'Silky Stones' to make his intentions clear. Shooting through a bubbling lead with percussive stabs wide in the stereo field, the producer uses the element of surprise by sharpening the edge with a sharp key sequence, doubling down on tension to an already hypnotic cut. With no time to waste, the needle slides to 'Rakija', with an imposing groove and quick, dry hats. Characteristically, a dystopian melody warbles over a robust rhythm to ensure maximum movement. Two tracks in and Rill already proves to balance his tools with attitude. Taking a turn on the record flip, the B1 ups the audacity with the title track 'Friss'. Techno usually prioritising kicks is a rule that Rill sweeps aside in exchange for an intimidating bassline with an ecosystem of high frequency ambiance. A testament to balance and spatial definition, the German adopts in fitting chord stabs in the second half to up the ante in a contained manner. To conclude, celebrated Beste Hira puts her spin on the latter for a drum forward eye roller, versatile for almost any dancefloor. Reconceptualizing the rhythmic identity of 'Friss', Beste Hira is able to weather the far off atmospheres while maintaining an emphasized festivity. Combining the best of groove-focused club music with a touch of niche psychedelia, Rill and SIDE B prove that techno is very much alive no matter what side of Europe you search for it.

Words by Noah Hocker

WRWTFWW Records is very excited to announce its third release from visionary Japanese ambient/experimental/environmental composer/producer Yutaka Hirose, this time with brand new album Voices, available on limited edition heavyweight-sleeved double LP as well as double CD, both with liner notes from the artist.

Voices finds Yutaka Hirose expanding his signature spatial layering into a three-dimensional videography of sound, blending field recordings, electronic manipulations, and abstract narratives. The 12-track album is a journey through a crumbling library where books whisper, history collides, and sonic textures weave new realities. Chaos, memory, and transformation – Hirose’s voices echo throughout the space, creating a fully immersive sonic experience.

The pioneering experimental and abstract electronic piece with deep hints of ambient and IDM is beautifully represented by the original artwork by Koji Shiroshita and Mifuku gracing the double LP and double digipack CD sleeves.

Voices marks Yutaka Hirose’s third full-length release on WRWTFWW Records, following his kankyõ ongaku classics Nova + 4 (an expanded version of his genre defining Soundscape 2: Nova album) and archival compilation TRACE: Sound Design Works 1986-1989, both available in vinyl, CD, and digital formats.

Blodsträngen, the third from Gothenburg's inimitable fourpiece Blessings, begins and ends in the same space: the safety and familiarity of their rehearsal room. In between these moments however, the album knows no boundaries; it rampages through your inner sanctum, upending everything it can, razing everything you hold dear and drawing on the walls whilst panting, drooling and muttering to itself in strange tongues_ Blodsträngen is Blessings fine-tuning their deliberately dissonant sound whilst simultaneously casting their net wide for ever more left-field, experimental influences; a disparate collection of idiosyncrasies that the band somehow manage to pull into something cohesive, captivating and empowering. The band leave the messages and meanings behind their music open to interpretation as a means of sharing this attitude of openness with their audience because, when all is said and done, all that matters is all playing disgustingly loud music together in a room. FOR FANS OF Unsane, Breach, Young Widows, Black Flag, Trap Them, Converge, Old Man Gloom, At The Drive In, Swans, The Jesus Lizard

2025 Repress

Sometimes you hear a sound which ruins you and you remain chasing the echo that floats heavy, dubby, but with sharpened edges. Funky breaks under low ceilings. 'Time Codes' is made for the longer nights.

Journeys are never just about distance. They stretch time, reshape perception, and demand transformation. With its latest vinyl split EP, Standard Deviation presents four tracks by Nastya Vogan and Phase Fatale that serves as a vessel for tracing displacement, memory, and the liminality of return. These melancholic yet powerful techno cuts serve both the concrete dance floor and moments of intimate self-reflection. Two artists--Nastya Vogan and Phase Fatale--approach Kyiv from different trajectories, but they both keep returning to the city. Vogan, a Ukrainian musician and resident DJ of Kyiv, and Phase Fatale (Hayden Payne), Berlin-based producer, Berghain and Khidi resident and founder of BITE Records, share a longstanding musical friendship. They've played B2B sets at K41 and Vogan, appeared on BITE's ''Shedding Skin'' compilation in 2023, and they share a vision for music selection, from aesthetics to philosophy. Vogan's 'Transitioning Territory' and 'This Is Not a Love Song' unravel the psycho-geography of transition. The first track captures the 24-hour journey to Kyiv as a rite of passage where 'time seems to fold; you are profoundly present yet paradoxically far from the world you left.' In this suspended state, memories surface and ordinary life recedes as the train's rhythm becomes its own meditation. Her second track explores Lacanian limerence--consciously falling for something not fully known, filling absences with personal projections as a way to discover what lies within oneself. Phase Fatale's contributions capture movement and distance with mechanical precision. 'Kekkai,' takes its name from the Japanese word for boundary, echoing 'respect my borders' ethos while reflecting on crossing into wartime Ukraine. The term also suggests a protective force field in Buddhist thought--much like Kyiv's current aura of resistance. 'Neosyazhna Rosa' (Unreachable Rose) honors Payne's Ukrainian grandmother Rose, weaving family history into his present connection with Ukraine. Both pieces balance melancholy with light, their sound palette of lush pads and rhythmic breaks crafted with K41's dance floor in mind.

Madlib’s WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip Returns on Double Vinyl via BBE Music BBE Music is thrilled to announce the long-awaited rerelease of WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip, the final installment in the legendary Beat Generation series from none other than Madlib. Originally released in 2008, this masterful collage of dusty loops, raw beats, and left-field soundscapes remains a high-water mark in the Stones Throw producer’s sprawling discography.

Now, for the first time in years, fans can experience the album in all its analog glory with this deluxe double vinyl edition, carefully remastered to preserve Madlib’s signature warmth and grit. A tribute to pirate radio culture and late-night airwaves, WLIB AM weaves together a rich tapestry of hip-hop, jazz, and soul, featuring an all-star cas t of collaborators, including Talib Kweli, Guilty Simpson, MED, and Oh No. Each track showcases Madlib’s uncanny ability to blur the lines between genres, effortlessly flipping obscure samples into hypnotic, off-kilter rhythms. From the hypnotic bounce of “Blow the Horns on ‘Em” to the smoked-out groove of “The Plan Pt. 1,” this is Madlib at his most playful, unpredictable, and inspired.

This special double vinyl edition, released exclusively via BBE Music, brings one of the Beat Generation series’ most celebrated albums back into circulation for crate-diggers and collectors alike. With original artwork and a high-quality pressing, this rerelease is a must-have for Madlib aficionados and vinyl lovers who appreciate raw, unfiltered beat craftsmanship. Don’t miss your chance to own a piece of hip-hop history—WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip is back and sounding better than ever.

After impressions of Unguja and Borneo islands, Discrepant's chieftain Gonçalo F. Cardoso continues his sonic travelogue on insularity with 'Impressões de Várias Ilhas’.

Literally translated as "impressions from various islands", this third tome dwells on recordings and inspirations from three archipelagos of Macaronésia. Soaking in the sounds and recollections from Azores, Cape Verde and Canary Islands these diaristic endeavours spread throughout a number of real environments, from water caves and black stone beaches and lagoons to small harbours and everyday life scenarios, to project them into this not quite imaginary but not quite real memory haze that goes from a deeply personal impression to a resonating one.

Melding raw field recordings with processed ones and synthesized landscapes, Cardoso never falters into sonic tourism, conjuring small-ish takes both vivid and dreamy, infused with a sense of wonder that feels both bewildering, comforting and escapist. The breaking waves of 'Bufadeiros de São Vicente' soothing in their irregular pattern, mingling with the lone echoing tones not completely removed from Black Dice's 'Beaches & Canyon's most pensive passages, flow into the underwater ambience and suspended pads of 'La Cueva Scuba Livre', as reflections of the same sea crashing in on different lands, nature’s psychogeography. Further on, the queasy warm chord and scraping murmurs of 'Noite em Rabo de Peixe' mirror their nighttime framing while 'Rãs em Xoxo' veers closer to pure musique concréte, crossed by a subdued feeling of unease that lingers in the nostalgia of 'Cozido da Caldeira Velha', brimming within the haze of a Boards of Canada vignette. Summoning the past lives and future hauntings of its scenery, 'Salinas de Pedra Lume' is like the quiet epic of the album, meandering into the unknown among crackling field recordings, decaying synths and flute-like howls - or is it howl-like flutes? - recurring as glimpses from foregone existences, not necessarily Gonçalo’s own. Maybe ours?

Music & Photography by Gonçalo F. Cardoso
Artwork layout by Jeroen Wille
Master by Rashad Becker

Discrepant 2025
Pressed in Spain

Massi NPL’s EP debut on House on the Strand’s label 'Herah' is a wonderful cluster of ambient club adjacent works
Producer and sound artist Massi NPL has spent close to a decade honing his craft as a producer with an impressive growing list of accolades that have seen him try his hand at everything from scoring award winning video games and theatre productions at the Zurich theater to DJ at events and radio stations around the globe.
While the producer’s output may be slim it is considered and precise. His new Fragments EP is a deeply personal project that is the product of years of work.
These select 3 pieces are crafted from a series of field recordings spanning 3 cities that have shaped much of the producers life. These ambient club adjacent works are equally promising at decibel sound system shaking volumes as they are within tucked away headphone and home listening environments. They exude expansive soundscapes, featuring a rich array of washed out synth backdrops and percussions.
As featured on Alex Ruder’s Pacific Notions on KEXP
Mastered by artist engineer Adam Badí Donova (ulla, mu-tate, dj lostboi, Torus)

Ben Nichols is best known as the frontman and songwriter for the long-running Memphis rock band Lucero. Now, at age 50, he is releasing one of his most personal pieces of work, a rare solo album titled In the Heart of the Mountain.
The album features Nichols on acoustic guitar and vocals, as well as the occasional electric guitar solo and percussion. He is accompanied by Morgan Eve Swain (The Huntress and the Holder of Hands, The Devil Makes Three, Brown Bird) on violin and backing vocals, Cory Branan on electric and acoustic guitars, and Todd Beene (Chuck Ragan, Glossary) on pedal steel and electric guitars. It was recorded at Southern Grooves studio in Memphis, Tennessee with Matt Ross-Spang as the recording and mixing engineer.

Says Nichols 'I'd say In the Heart of the Mountain is the closest I've come to making an album completely on my own terms. I had help from a great engineer and great friends who also happened to be amazing studio musicians, but it was self produced. I wrote it without input from anyone else. There were no band members to negotiate parts and approaches with. It wasn't based on a novel or a theme. The only inspiration was that desire to create something that lived in my memories of those rivers, fields, and mountains,
in that mythological Arkansas my family called home, where I grew up. I haven't been able to get back there nearly as often as I would like."

Relay For Death is the noise project of the twin sisters Roxann and Rachal Spikula. Their hermetic works consistently reflect a bleak nihilism, all the while carving an autonomous space for survival as the rest of the existence crumbles. Previous works have been published by Hanson, No Rent, Total Black, and RRRecords.

The twins offered the consideration that "Mutual Consuming comes from a concept in the philosophies that underpin traditional Chinese medicine theory, where the two opposing states (yin and yang) are 2 states on a continuum and their interactions produce an infinite possible number of states of aggregation. Within this interplay, there is a dynamic balance that is maintained by a constant adjustment of their relative levels. So an excess of yin consumes yang and vice versa." We asked if this has anything to do with the concept of the Ouroboros, to which they responded, "we hadn't thought about Ouroboros, but the eternal cycle of things makes sense too. The gorge fest of existence." Does this relate to previous works? The twins concisely respond to that question in a rare interview in Untitled, "No."

Mutual Consuming is a dire piece of isolationist thrum, spectral caterwaul, and heavy gloom through an oblique and abstracted coupling of electronics, noise, and ominous field recordings. As immersive as Thomas Köner’s haunting ambience but fully entrenched in the industrial meditations of MB. Originally published as part of the instantly out of print boxset, On Corrosion - a 10 cassette anthology from 2019 that was housed in a handcrafted wooden box and featuring full albums from Kleistwahr, Neutral, Pinkcourtesyphone, Alice Kemp, She Spread Sorrow, G*Park, Relay For Death, Francisco Meirino, Fossil Aerosol Mining Project, and Himukalt. The collection stood as the 50th release for The Helen Scarsdale Agency.

Award-winning producer and composer Giorgi Koberidze offers up a head-spinning debut of Georgian modern classical music shot through with 360° electroacoustic textures.

Giorgi Koberidze is an electronic and classical music composer from Georgia. He currently serves as a professor of music at Tbilisi State Conservatoire, as well as at Ilia State University, and the private music school "303 Herz". Giorgi's work is rooted in the Georgian musical tradition, cross-pollinating indigenous instrumentation with electronic and western classical timbres. He recently won first prize in the Tbilisi Conservatoire Composers Awards, and received Georgia's most prestigious cultural gong, the Tsinandali Award.
The Album was premiered in Georgia at the Kutaisi Film Festival, and later showcased at the Tbilisi Film Festival. Working from graphic scores, Giorgi's ensemble includes strings, woodwind and traditional instruments from the Caucasus (doli, chuniri). Fleeting voices, field recordings and skittering percussion converge to paint a storied map of Tbilisi, and its surrounding terrain of forested polyphony and microtonal peaks and crags.

Each listen of the album is projectively rich, like a dizzying series of sonic inkblot images. The piece is designed to be absorbed in the surround sound of darkened movie theatres, conjuring a multiverse of narratives in the half-light of sensory acuity. At home, Giorgi invites listeners to set aside time to experience the record in a dark, comfortable space absent of external stimuli.

This album was made with the support of the Tbilisi State Conservatoire. The recordings were funded by Nicolas Jaar. Thank you. We are beyond proud to present this incredible project.

Recommended for fans of Pierre Bastien, Roméo Poirier, Jan Jelinek.

Manslaughter 777 are powerhouses of forward-thinking rhythmic music and production. The duo, composed of drummers/programmers Lee Buford (The Body, Sightless Pit, Dead Times, Everyone Asked About You) and Zac Jones (MSC, Nothing, Braveyoung), combine their prowess as percussionists and producers into beat-centric music that delights in turning unexpected sounds into razor sharp rhythms. Buford and Jones, along with engineer/producer Seth Manchester of Machines with Magnets (The Body, Model Actriz, Liturgy), have collaborated for nearly two decades, consistently shattering genre boundaries and redefining the role of the studio in the process. God"s World uses innovative sound sampling to create expansive sonics driven by complex rhythms. The resulting album"s infectious grooves are both celebratory and irreverent. The duo deftly interweave their own playing into field recordings and synthesized drums. The taut pieces blur the boundaries between acoustic and electronic instruments, samples and performances.

Manslaughter 777 are powerhouses of forward-thinking rhythmic music and production. The duo, composed of drummers/programmers Lee Buford (The Body, Sightless Pit, Dead Times, Everyone Asked About You) and Zac Jones (MSC, Nothing, Braveyoung), combine their prowess as percussionists and producers into beat-centric music that delights in turning unexpected sounds into razor sharp rhythms. Buford and Jones, along with engineer/producer Seth Manchester of Machines with Magnets (The Body, Model Actriz, Liturgy), have collaborated for nearly two decades, consistently shattering genre boundaries and redefining the role of the studio in the process. God"s World uses innovative sound sampling to create expansive sonics driven by complex rhythms. The resulting album"s infectious grooves are both celebratory and irreverent. The duo deftly interweave their own playing into field recordings and synthesized drums. The taut pieces blur the boundaries between acoustic and electronic instruments, samples and performances.

Bitterviper is an all-new configuration of individuals and intent. Nikos Veliotis (cello), Taku Unami (synthesizer), Sarah Hennies (percussion) and David Grubbs (piano, guitars) have all participated - solo and as collaborators - in some of the most striking avant music-making of the past couple of decades. Their quartet"s collective minimalist interplay passes through dense harmonic fields, transcendentally ionized ambient moods and soundtracks.

Nachdem sie auf dem SXSW, New Colossus und Spot Festival für Furore gesorgt haben, veröffentlicht das Berliner Indie-Pop-Trio Matching Outfits ihr erstes Album bei Bar/None Records in Zusammenarbeit mit Dreams of Field Recordings erscheint. Auf "Ditch Me" erzählt die schwedische Frontfrau Linnea Mårtensson mit einer Mischung aus trockenem Humor und roher Verletzlichkeit von dem Jahr nach einer Trennung. Vom Schock, der Trauer und der Wut bis hin zur grimmigen Akzeptanz, wieder in den Dating-Pool zu springen, bleibt kein Gefühl unausgelebt, kein Detail unkommentiert. Die Bandmitglieder Rachel Glassberg und Leah Corper passen sich dem Wirbelwind der Emotionen auf Schritt und Tritt an und wechseln blitzschnell von mäandernden Melodien zu kontrolliertem Chaos, während die reduzierte Produktion von Chad Matheny (Emperor X) die Texte in den Mittelpunkt stellt. Was passiert in diesem Jahr? Die Zeit vergeht, die Vogelkirsche blüht, Geburtstage kommen und gehen und die Alltäglichkeit des Lebens geht weiter - nur mit einem riesigen Loch in der Mitte, das niemand sonst zu bemerken scheint. Richtet man den mikroskopischen Fokus auf diese Leere, malt sie in Pastellfarben, fügt einen Hauch von Velvet Underground und international akzentuierte dreistimmige Harmonien hinzu, dann erhält man so etwas wie "Ditch Me". Die Geschichte von Matching Outfits beginnt auf einem Bauernhof außerhalb von Mjöbäck, Schweden, wo Linnea - Saxophonistin einer Marschkapelle, Chorsängerin und autodidaktische Pianistin - die Musik von The Moldy Peaches und Belle and Sebastian entdeckte und begann, eigene Songs zu schreiben. Nachdem sie nach Berlin gezogen war, ging sie zu einer Open-Mic-Nacht und traf dort Rachel, eine amerikanische Kollegin, die sich bereit erklärte, Schlagzeug auf ihrem Song zu spielen, in dem es darum ging, in einer Karaoke-Bar abgewimmelt zu werden. Leah, eine Bassistin und geheimnisvolle Frau aus Großbritannien, vervollständigte das Trio und Matching Outfits war geboren. Nachdem sie ihr erstes Tape "Band Made Out Of Sand" auf dem Berliner Kassettenlabel Kitchen Leg veröffentlicht hatten, tourte die Band durch Deutschland und Skandinavien, wurde aber auch vom Kult-Radiosender WFMU aus New Jersey eingeladen, ein Syd-Barrett-Cover für eine Fundraising-Compilation aufzunehmen. Matching Outfits tragen keine passenden Outfits, außer wenn sie es tun.

Balmat 17 marks both a return and a new frontier. It is the second album on the label from Patricia Wolf, whose 2022 album See-Through is one of the most beloved in Balmat’s catalog; it also marks the first time that Wolf has turned her hand to a film soundtrack. The results are every bit as magical as fans of the Portland, Oregon, composer’s music might expect.

Hrafnamynd—Icelandic for “raven film”—is a new feature-length documentary by experimental filmmaker Edward Pack Davee. Shot on a mix of film and digital formats, and incorporating his father’s Ektachrome slides from the 1970s, the autobiographical film works on multiple levels at once: a reminiscence of his childhood in Iceland, an exploration of landscape and folklore, and a documentary study of the island nation’s ravens—including a talking raven named Krummi.

Wolf is the perfect artist to score such an unusual film. Mixing ambient music and field recording—including extensive experience documenting bird song—Wolf brings an unusually empathic perspective to her music. In the context of Hrafnamynd, her airy melodies, pensive atmospheres, and vivid textures intuitively complement the film’s grainy film stock and blown-out colors. Friends for years, the two artists further bonded when Wolf asked Pack to film music videos for her songs “Woodland Encounter” (from See-Through) and “The Culmination Of” (from I'll Look For You In Others). Pack used Wolf’s previously recorded music as placeholders as he began assembling a rough cut of the film, which made her a natural choice to help him complete his idiosyncratic vision with an all-new, bespoke score.

But Wolf’s soundtrack also indisputably stands alone as a full-length album. Largely created using the UDO Super 6 synthesizer, it features a carefully distilled palette of warm, string-like pads and darkly glistening mallets, rounded out with the very occasional introduction of nylon string guitar. Musically and stylistically, the album’s 11 tracks represent both a continuation of the ruminative sound of See-Through and also an extension into new expressive modes. Few musicians, ambient or otherwise, are as skilled at balancing melody with atmosphere, or at finding ways to eke fresh at finding ways to eke fresh, surprising sounds out of an intentionally reduced toolkit. Meditative, immersive, and emotionally generous Wolf’s Hrafnamynd soundtrack evokes a range of ambient classics from decades past while confidently marking out its own verdant patch of ground.


Artist’s Statement:
Edward and I have been friends for years, but we really started to get to know one another better after I hired him to make music videos for my songs “Woodland Encounter” and “The Culmination Of.” For those projects we got to spend a lot of time hiking in various locations around the Pacific Northwest with his camera, very nice lenses, and tripod. Keeping quiet, hidden, and vigilant we searched for wildlife, good light on the trees, meadows, lakes, rivers, and skies. Edward was already an appreciator of my music and I was already in awe of his filmmaking talents so it felt like a great fit. Although we work in different areas of art our styles compliment one another. We both tend toward slow and careful pacing, with a focus on emotion and introspective reflections on life and the landscapes around us. For this reason, Iknew that I could trust Edward to create videos for my music. We saw so many beautiful and unexpected things on our filming days, but I was moved to tears once I saw how magnificent and poetic it all was. His video work from the cinematography, to the editing, and color correction helped bring my inner vision to life.

A few months after that, Edward surprised me with an invitation to work on the soundtrack for his new film, Hrafnamynd. I enthusiastically said yes. I had always wanted to work on a film, and I knew that his filmmaking style would be inspiring to write music for. I had recently acquired an UDO Super 6 synthesizer but hadn't used it much. I decided that this would be the synth that I'd use for the film. It has the ability to sound very modern, but can also sound so warm and fuzzy, like a synth from the 1970s. It turned out to be the perfect instrument for this project as the film itself straddles time from the ’70s to today.

When Edward sent me the rough cut of the film, he used placeholder music to help give me an idea of the emotion and energy that he was hoping to achieve for each scene. For many of the scenes, Edward used music from my albums as temporary tracks. This told me that he trusted my work and style and therefore I should just trust my intuition with how to proceed. I wanted to make sure that everything that I made was a direct reflection of what was happening on screen, a mirror of its emotion and energy so people could really lock into the film psychologically. This process took my composing to unexpected places—like being led by a strange cat or a raven that seemed to have something to show me. I found that the approach made the music so much more dynamic than my usual style. I really enjoyed being influenced by the action and dialog on the screen. Thankfully, Edward was very happy with the work. I made sure to handle this project with the utmost care because this is about his life and his family, and an exploration of the experiences that made him an artist and filmmaker. While watching the film many times over, I found myself thinking about my own family and my early memories with them and how the place where I grew up has influenced who I have become. I found that his film invites the viewer to reflect on their own lives in a similar way. I hope that this music and film can guide others to contemplate on the history of their beingness and the people and places that shaped them.

Another aspect to this project is the splendor and wonder of Iceland itself. I had the opportunity to visit Iceland for the first time in 2023. I got to play a show there for the Extreme Chill Festival and met many friendly and brilliant Icelanders. I also got to collect field recordings that I used in the film. It's a fascinating place and culture that easily captures the hearts and imaginations of anyone who visits. Whether you spend your time in the city immersed in its impressive arts scene, or venture out into the wilderness to behold its wondrous landscape, it will leave a lasting impression. The soundtrack is also a love letter to Iceland itself.

Penguin Cafe Orchestra’ is the second studio album by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, released in 1981, and recorded between 1977 and 1980.  By this album, the line-up for the band had expanded greatly, with contribution including Simon Jeffes, Helen Leibmann, Steve Nye and Gavyn Wright of the original quartet, as well as Geoff Richardson, Peter Veitch, Braco, Giles Leamna, Julio Segovia and Neil Rennie.
All pieces were composed by Simon Jeffes, except for ‘Paul’s Dance’ (Jeffes and Nye), ‘Cutting Branches’ (traditional), and ‘Walk Don’t Run’ (by Johnny Smith).
The cover painting is by Emily Young.
‘Cutting Branches For A Temporary Shelter’ is based on the traditional Zimbabwean song, ‘Nhemamusasa’, a field recording of which can be heard played on mbira on the Nonesuch Records album ‘The Soul of the Mbira’.

The Boston Globe opined that “this is one of the most eccentric records released this or any year... It’s also one of the most delightful.”
In 2021, ‘Penguin Cafe Orchestra’ was named among The Fifty Best Albums Of 1981 by Spin.
This repress uses the 2008 remaster.

Pressed on apricot vinyl.