Chazz Knapp - Vie comme un Parasite Faisant la fête

Chazz Knapp - Vie comme un Parasite Faisant la fête (Phantom Channel)
I remember being completely blown away by the first Our Brother the Native album, bought simply because it was on FatCat, a strange mix of Cocorosie and Four Tet folkish tapestries. Here on his solo album, Chaz Knapps musical genius shines through strongly once again, maybe not as original but stunningly beautiful. Steeped in classical roots the five songs, for the majority of the time minimal piano based tracks, are melancholy and as beautiful as the piano can be when placed under the right set of fingers. Dreamy walks through secret gardens, the impatient anticipation of a reunital with a loved one mixed with the gleeful reminiscence of past memories.

At times similiar in sound to Becky Foons Fifths of Seven project at their very best, in Chaz Knapp there has been found a healthy dose of musical genius and you'd be a fool if you weren't to take a spoonful.

Chazz Knapp - Vie comme un Parasite Faisant la fête zip

On a similiar note we find the fatcat label on fine form as always, kindly delivering the compilation Floored Memory...Fading Location, the names will be familiar and if they are not I would seriously recommend checking them out, especially if you like the above album, names like Max Richter, Hauschka and Sylvain Chaveau should become firm favourites of yours, each giving three tracks here (max gives four) alongside two new(?) tracks from Set Fire to Flames, try Chazz Knapp first, then check these out.

Johan Johannssonn - Fordlândia

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Fordlândia
There's something strangely endearing about the story behind the latest album from Icelandic composer extrodinaire Jóhann Jóhannsson. I think whats makes it so wonderful is that its about such a huge company, a massive failing unknown to me at least but yet its such an awesome idea, it has an almost Dharma Initiative feel to it that makes Lost seem even more real and believable (well obviously not all of it).

Wiki: Fordlândia ("Ford-land") was a vast tract of land purchased by American automobile tycoon Henry Ford in the 1920s. Covering over 10,000 km² of land, it was situated near the city of Santarém, Brazil, and approximately 960 kilometres from the mouth of the Amazon River at Belém. At the time all rubber was naturally produced and imported from the tropics. Ford's intent was linked to his manufacturing mentality. Ford intended to secure rubber from source to final product, increasing his bottom line.
Ford intended to use Fordlândia to provide his company with a source of rubber for the tires on Ford cars, avoiding the dependence of British (Malayan) rubber. The land was hilly, rocky and infertile. None of Ford's managers had the requisite knowledge of tropical agriculture. The rubber trees, packed closely together in plantations, as opposed to being widely spaced in the jungle, were easy prey for tree blight and insects. The mostly indigenous workers on the plantations, given unfamiliar food such as hamburgers and forced to live in American style housing, disliked the way they were treated — they had to wear ID badges, and to work midday hours under the tropical sun — and would often refuse to work. In 1930, the native workers actually revolted against the managers, many of whom fled into the jungle for a few days until the Brazilian Army arrived and the revolt ended.
Ford forbade any drinking or even smoking cigarettes within the town, including inside the workers' own homes. A settlement was established five miles upstream on the "Island of Innocence" with bars, nightclubs, and brothels.
The government of Brazil was suspicious of any foreign investments, particularly in the northern Amazonia region, and offered little help. Ford tried again upstream, relocating to Belterra, where better weather conditions to grow rubber existed. But by 1945, synthetic rubber was developed, ending the world-wide demand for natural rubber. Ford's investment opportunity dried up overnight. As a result Fordlândia was a total disaster. In 1945, Henry Ford sold it for a loss of over US$20 million.

It goes without say that the album is as majestic as you'd expect from the man who gave us one of my all time favourite albums, IBM 1401 – A Users Manual and introduced me to a world of otherworldly compostions and composers, a goldmine of contemporary classical geniuses, the likes of Max Richter, Yasushi Yoshida & Ólafur Arnalds. If these names are unfamiliar to you then as mentioned before a very crude comparison would be Sigur Ros. These are songs to drift to, songs of unexplainable beauty and probably nothing to do with Fordlândia but its an enchanting story to compliment yet another enchanting album from Jóhann Jóhannsson.

Read More about Fordlandia here
Website
Track Samples
Myspace

Last Fm: Jóhann Jóhannsson is an Icelandic-born musician, composer and producer. He also runs the record label Kitchen Motors in Reykjavík, the art organization/think tank/record label which specializes in instigating collaborations, promoting concerts and exhibitions, performances, chamber operas, producing films, books and radio shows based on the ideals of experimentation, collaboration and the search for new art forms. Jóhann founded the Apparat Organ Quartet in 1999, who have played various European festivals to great acclaim. Jóhann has also produced and written music with artists as diverse as Marc Almond (Stranger Things album), Barry Adamson and Pan Sonic, The Hafler Trio, Magga Stína and many others. He has also written music for theatre, documentaries and soundtrack music for three feature films.

Oh, and on off chance you'd been wondering just how you would dance to Johan Johannsson, here's your answer...quite bizarre

Need More Sources, And So I Watch You From Afar, Not To Reason Why Reviewed

I'm feeling a little less than inspired of late so your just gonna have to trust me on these, let the music do the talking so to speak, I guess that’s how it should be anyway...over the last few months I’ve stumbled over some of the most lovely instrumental music I’ve heard in sometime, delicately reassuring textures of warmth wrapped in electronic washes, peppered with simple yet piercing piano, an instrument I’m growing to love by the day, so much feeling in each note, I really want to learn how to play properly yet I don't have the will power to do it, one day I hope.
Need More Sources is the brainchild of Chris Stewart a delightful mix of pianos, stringed instruments and delicately treated electronics, falling between Motoro Faam, Colleen and Max Richter and a welcome addition to any weekend when your week has just been too much, an album to cherish.
At the other end of the spectrum sit, well maybe not sit, perhaps a more accurate picture would be of an agitated, impatience, and standing up and sitting down, standing up and pacing up and down, are And So I Watch You From Afar. Although I will always stick up for post rock when the critics shake their sticks so predictably at it for its ...erm, predictability, I do find myself occasionally getting tired of all the Explosions in the Sky wannabees out there and more often than not prefer those who go to the effort of making strings, violins and cellos particularly, a strong feature of their sound. And So I Watch You From Afar choose not to yet manage to throw in some great dynamics on a par or maybe even better than Russian Circles and Let Airplanes Circle Overhead..I like this alot...
And So I Watch You From Afar - I Capture Castles MP3
And So I Watch You From Afar - Holylands, 4am MP3
...I also like Not To Reason Why, again fitting undisputedly into the post rock scene but with enough about them to stand apart from the crowd, gentle piano riffs lull you in before they kick in without ever going to far into the obvious crashing, epic climaxes so often called upon. 1.21 Jiggawatts!? stands out...
Stream tracks here

Sources
Tapas n Tapas

Yasushi Yoshida - Secret Figure Reviewed

Yasushi Yoshida - Secret Figure (Noble)

Much in the vein of World's End Girlfriend the work of Yasushi Yoshida is equally as stunning though perhaps not quite as ambitious. Lonely footsteps and gently picked out piano notes compliment and grace the achingly lovely violins, the ones that we're familiar with from the quieter bits of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and maybe more appropriately Max Richter.

Dance Piece is simply gorgeous, a text book demonstration in how to make the most of the bits between the notes, each one leaving you hanging on, yet not so long that you lose interest, instead you are always rewarded and then just as you reach the four minute mark it all comes together, slow like the sunrise over the distant mountains, but just as with each passing span something new is revealed, something comes that bit clearer and as such that little bit more beautiful.

Octave Leaves is all footsteps in snow & eerie pianos that remind us of the first A Silver Mt. Zion album, yet here the sound is less steeped in politics, rather focusing on extracting the best of what we have.

Website

Yasushi Yoshida - Silent Park mp3

Yasushi Yoshida - A Picture of Three Life mp3

Sources

Swan Fungus

Indie For Bunnies

Motoro Faam Reviewed ...(Boards of Canada, World's End Girlfriend etc)

Motoro Faam - …and Water Cycles (Preco)
Motoro Faam are three highly talented twenty five year old musicians from Japan mixing classical and contemporary music with irregular beats and sampling. This is probably the most genuinely moving thing I’ve heard since Johann Johannsson’s IBM 1401 – A Users Manual and perhaps the most original and thought provoking thing since I was first wowed with Godspeeds intelligent outlook on modern music. It’s like Lucky Dragons should they ever decide to soundtrack a ballet recital, pianos roll and electronic glitches flicker like decaying static.
The sound will satisfy those partial to the sounds of Max Richter and the like, however this is one if not two steps ahead of their game and is one of the most exciting discoveries I’ve had the pleasure to stumble across lately, timeless yet undeniably original. …and Precipitation weaves and delights with bubbles of waters and waves, sandstorms and gentle pianos beneath stormy rainfall, it’s unlikely you will find anything quite so delightful this year.

Motoro Faam – …and Surface Runoff MP3

Motoro Faam – …and Condensation MP3

Motoro Faam – … and Evaporation MP3

Website

Preco Records

Myspace

Normans Records - We have another great Motoro Faam CD on the Preco label from Japan called 'And Water Cycles'. This is pretty lush sounding stuff. Gorgeous electronics and neo classical nubbins mixed together in a sexy love pot all ready to pour into your unsuspecting ears. There's a healthy dash of Ryuichi Sakamoto in there and maybe some more. It's quite experimental and there's an awful lot going on. The sound is very dense and full, but together it makes a really beautiful listen, what with all the lovely classical-ness being chucked into the electronic mix. Mingus thinks it sounds a bit like Takagi Masakatsu....highly recommended anyway!

Boards of Canada

Long term readers will need no introduction to the fact that i absolutley adore Boards of Canada, I stumbled over these videos on youtube, the excellent video for ROYGBIV, the song that turned me on to them (thanks to an NME compilation!!) and then a rather crazy but suprisingly good Audio/Video mashup/blend of David Hasselhoff's cover of "Blue Bayou" mixed with Boards of Canada's "An Eagle In Your Mind"...nice!!

And a couple of other videos i saw that summarise some of what i'm getting more and more into at the moment...beautiful stuff

at the close of every day - Hemelsblauw

World's End Girlfriend - We Are The Massacre