confusion over veriform idiosyncratic dreamcasters : best music in the year of our lord twenty twenty

Stephen Spera’s top 2020 picks

It’s certainly been quite a year for mutant chamber works - whether medieval songs from a Cistercian Abbey of the imagination, to a dusty backroom Jazz Club in in fertile memory, Circus music for aliens to Baroque ensembles heard from a room down the hall long ago, it seems also to be Lost Tribe Sound’s year- they have hosted three of these releases, with some of their artists popping up on other labels….much of this is beyond category. But that how we like it, yes?

William Ryan Fritch The Letdown (Lost Tribe Sound)

I wish I had the words to describe this one better. If you like the music of Italian highland Brass bands, dusty backroom organ trios, mutant jazz ensembles from beyond the rings of saturn,  you are home- apparently  Fritch thinks of the record as fine, but a bit of a 'weirdo throwaway' - but- that's what the world thought of Moondog, Tom Waits, Harry Partch, and many many other uncategorizable artists- all of who proved to be genius. Lost Tribe Sound has a considerable chunk of these- especially this year! ….This is the album of the year at  my Editions Vaché ....

Several wives Veil on veil (Lost Tribe Sound)

Lost Tribe Sound scores highly in releasing this latest from the inscrutable Several Wives.....and we are reveling in its dark mesmerism....the label releases some of the finest sound on the planet- and this is no exception.....

Danny Clay Ocean Park (Laaps)

Danny Clay is at times tough to classify- but no matter how he is working- be it a Chamber Piece for Baroque Ensemble, Glitched-out electronics (two of his releases are made from gameboy with tapedeck!) he never lets us down. Ocean Park, in its new life here, is a masterpiece.

Seabuckthorn Through a vulnerable occur (Ikki)

Andy Catrwright makes music that is in between states....at times drone, other times virtuostic - some of the deepest listening available. Gorgeous, haunted, full of texture and soul- this year has been a wonderland of ‘chamber works’, and this is a proud addition…

Ian Hawgood 光 (Home Normal/ Eilean)

The purpose of a musical work , as Beethoven is said to have put forth, is to bring the listener into the mental space of the composer….A key feature of Ian Hawgood’s work is centered on its emotional -and physical space- the space a sound work occupies…you can feel the passing of time, the presence of a room, the expanse of a shoreline……filtered through tape reels, already disintegrating…..the tiny grit of time dusted over it all…

Vieo Abiungo At once, there was no horizon (Lost Tribe Sound)

Vieo Abiungo, a project of the aforementioned William Ryan Fritch- and I’m thrilled to have  a new release….this album takes you on a deep, mystical journey- a chamber work under the canopy of an imaginary jungle…….this is quite a year for Lost Tribe Sound…!!

Kaboom Karavan  The log and the leeway (Miasmah records)

Like the oldest of fairy tales, lots of darkness, menace even, lurks below the forest overhead. Bram Bosteels has kept this remarkable circus on wheels that is the Karavan going- for some time now. He has constructed a full musical universe like no other- the power of complete invention is only a part of this dimension. We admire artists who create their own mythologies ( the more far-reaching the better! )- and as Erik Skodvin, boss of Miasmah records told him, “If everything fails, we´ll open a Kaboom Karavan museum”

Ciro Berenguer Bruma (Slaapwell Records)

It is extremely difficult to write-or extend- a longform piece, but on Bruma, Ciro Berenguer does a fantastic job- the music weaves and fades, shifts in a way the Slaapwell Philosophy of "music for Sleep" is tended.....Berenguer has created a rich piece, which illustrates it title, "The ins-and outs- of the night" with care-.have a soak in its ambience ( mastered by Ian Hawgood!) and let it take you on its gentle journey.

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I encourage you to explore these and related artists- have a listen to the works in bandcamp, peek at other from their catalogues, etc and support artists in sound during these trying times!……and, drop by Editions Vaché /spiritradiomusic /stephenspera at bandcamp or instagram to read other reviews and see what we are all up to. Let’s start 2021 in style!! 

 

(part 1 in a series of contemporary artist's best of lists for 2020)