a closer listen

Nagoya’s leftfield electronic scene has recently garnered interest from the international music press. This is chiefly thanks to the efforts of  producer and all-around scenester Yuya Abe (abentis). abentis has been an associate of Facta & K-...

A Vilnius-based Indonesian composer and a Berlin-based Japanese producer have recorded an album in three different nations and released it on an Ugandan imprint. As a result, Abu sounds as if it comes from nowhere and everywhere at once: a “mystifying new landmas...

With Sounds From The S.P.E.A.K.E.R. System, Bios Contrast & Nilotpal Das abruptly change course from the expansive drone works of Meltwater Pulse (2023) and Dragon Rising (2022). The album arrives in violent bursts, assembled from Bangla rap, digital hardcore, dek bass, ambient electronics, and an unusually large network of coll...

Structura Parva — literally “small structure” — acts as both title and manifesto. Seven years after Forma, the Italian duo Filtro (Luca de Biasi and Angelo Bignamini) have moved away from long-form improvisations built from concrete sounds and electrical interference towards something more concentrated, deliberate, and architectural....

If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? And what if an entire forest falls?  Around Here, The Birds Plant The Trees, inspired by a “clear-felled wasteland” in Leitrim, Ireland, amplifies these questions. In the digital era, it prompts an a...