Even if you think you have enough saxophone and drum improv duos on your shelf (and there have been a few of late), this record comes with a high recommendation to make room for another one. Gunter Baby Sommer is the leader of the Dresden Ensemble. Their two way collaboration with the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra led to some exciting concerts and workshops on each side of their Scottish and German home turf in 2005 & 2006. Meanwhile, MacDonald and Sommer found their playing gelled as a duo and - voila - along comes an album full of expressive and melodic playing. The recording is top class and Neil Davidson's witty sleeve note raises the question: how many quality-lit references can you get into 3 short paragraphs? A record to enjoy in so many ways. (JC)

An album of highly focussed playing which is also very soulful - two qualities which make it easy to recommend. Although it lists only sax and guitar, the opening piece, Rake, has some beguiling harmonics going on which sound like an organ. Prospect reveals an ominous low register rarely heard from an acoustic guitar and the album flows so well, as the full force of the player's energies in the middle of the record resolve to the beautiful closing music which sounds rather sacred. All lovingly hand-packaged for you by the Iorram label's artistes... need I say more? Now sold out at source. (JC)

Swedish guitarist David Stackenäs joined Scotland's Raymond MacDonald for a weekend of sessions during a crisp'n'cold December 2009. The resulting album of four pieces captures two players hitting it off straight away with beautiful melodic inventions and some free playing which flies so fast that it sounds as though the players' fingers would be excoriated at the end of it! One piece was recorded in Edinburgh; the rest in Glasgow, both at a concert in the Street Level Photoworks Gallery, as the fog furled round the windows, and at my home earlier that day. I must include a mention here for the end of the second piece - "Wool" - where David and Raymond finished as the Muirend train pulled in outside the window. This sense of ideal timing seemed to sum up the feel of the sessions so well! (JC)

"Ghost Lanes (the A side) was recorded during the first ever duo session that Gareth and Rutger had, at STEIM, Amsterdam, June 2009. The two hadn't met before, but immediately there was a strange chemistry between them, and without much discussion, it was plug-in and play, and two albums and an EP were recorded. Ghost Lanes was then released as a very limited 3-inch CDr. A year and a half later, they settled at STEIM again, for another fruitful session. That's when Mackerel Sky was recorded. A perfect match with the A-side of this vinyl and a cumulation of their shared progress. Gareth and Rutger's music is all improvised. The slow paced pieces combine the rough loopings of Rutger's guitar with the low-end rumblings of Gareth's contrabass clarinet. A perfect soundtrack for some weird underwater world." (Dekorder)

Magickal Folk of the Faraway Tree - The Soup and the Shilling 2cd (Deserted Village) 6

Excellent release that compiles previous Magickal Folk recordings "The Cat's Melodeon" and "The Mildew Leaf" along with new recordings (all of the second disc). The band comprises Dave Colohan (Agitated Radio Pilot / United Bible Studies) and Shane Cullinane (Cosmic Nanou / United Bible Studies) along with assistance from Caroline Coffey, Gavin Prior (United Bible Studies), Sean Og and Scott McLaughlin. The songs are all folk songs learnt from Peter Kennedy's "Traditional Songs of Britain and Ireland ", sometimes with new melodies written by Colohan / Cullinane. This is the most traditional of all the Deserted Village projects but has a gothic-with-a-small-g feel, a real feeling of magic, a "live" sounds like it was recorded in a mystical inn situated at the very edge of the world and of course the wonderful vocals of Dave Colohan. Highly recommended.

New label specializing in improvised and experimental music in handmade packages and run by Una MacGlone, Raymond MacDonald and Neil Davidson of Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. The one features the above trio - double bass, voice and guitar. It opens with a beautifully pure tone-drone that makes me thing of distant planes overhead on a summer's day. Later on the disc "Muslin" employs buzzing drones that seem to make the air throb. The trio's improvised pieces are equally impressive with Neil & Una manipulating strings with real energy and Aileen's squeaks, croaks and gurgles the quiet sound of nightmares. The air of unease is palpable, particularly on "Slither" where the bass and guitar seethe and indeed slither around the vocal contortions, and again on the closing "Clearing", a writhing mass of quiet noise. Beautifully recorded by our own Mr Cavanagh! Highly recommended. Now sold out at source.

Anthony Magen - Pourquoi? 3" cdr (Black Petal) 0.50

"dub-revisioning of personal pain. an attempt to abstract himself from sorrow...or intensify the hurt" (Black Petal)

Matricarians 

• Up Down & Sideways cdr (self-released) 5

This new Matricarians cd is replete with the always enticing voice and chiming guitar of Alan Davidson, as ever, but there are twists anew too.... there's a set of electronic pieces with titles like "Gandar-Dower Organises A Cheetah Race In London" which are, I suspect, named in honour of the man who founded Aberdeen Airport. Then there are 3 rather hypnotic long tracks, one running to over 20 minutes. It's difficult to review Matricarians releases without repeating what we've said here before, but it's very easy to praise them warmly! (JC)

• Do You Know? cdr (self-released) 5

This Matricarians' release finds Susan Matthew, Alan Davidson (Kitchen Cynics) and David MacKay at their spookiest yet. Bowed strings and singing bowl create beautiful foggy drones that drifts like haar off the North Sea . Elsewhere glockenspiel, piano & thumb piano create haunted melodies that evokes images of dusty attics and as Syd Barrett put it "Doll's house darkness old perfume". Gorgeous.

• When We Were ... cdr (self-released) 5

Taking its cue from the more abstract recordings on Kitchen Cynics' releases, Alan Davidson & his Matricarians cohorts create haunted soundscapes from singing bowl, guitar, zither, clarinet, piano and theremin. A kitten plays theremin on one track! Gorgeous stuff.

• 10 Impertinent Questions cdr (self-released) 5

Another excellent Matricarians release. Alan Davidson & co create warm atmospheric soundscapes. Acoustic reveries haunted by singing and swirling analogue electronics. The mood is one of wistful nostalgia mixed with a spirit of playfulness and the instrumentation is interesting as always: 'cello, piano, theremin, clarinet.

Robert Mayson - Hross cdr (Black Petal) 2

Solo release from Robert Mayson of Grey Daturas, Whitehorse etc. Bleak industrial electro-pulsings, nauseous drone-throb and monolithic monotony. Comes in the usual lovingly handmade packaging with a sandpaper & wire cover.

Mazurka - Fruits cassette (Golem) 4

"Amplified clarinet and drums-duo playing free, noisy, psychedelic klezmer. This is the second press, limited to 25 copies with second-sorting of covers and on black tapes, the first being ltd. to 30 on red tapes." (Golem)

Nathan McLaughlin - Echolocation #2 cassette (Digitalis) 3

Fragmented drones, atmospheric throb, the distant rumble of the wind and distant electronic murmur.

Medroxy Progesterone Acetate - Mar'ah cdr (Rural Faune) 1

The sound of crackling black electricity from darkest Iowa . Sometimes a dense churring like millions of robotic grasshoppers, sometimes the high whir of interplanetary radio waves.

Meisselschieber - Ohikuolija cdr (267 Lattajjaa) 0.50

A veritable everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach from Oorlog Braatö and Rene Kita. They plunder the toybox and a vast array of household appliances amongst more conventional instruments to create a frenetic free improvised scrunch.

Christopher Merritt - Crown Heights cassette (Digitalis) 3

A wonderful mix of manipulated acoustic sounds & field recordings and electronics / synths that from the off invites you to plunge into its fuzzy depths. Reverb-heavy and intensively layered, this is a pretty intense auditory experience. Occasionally individual sounds and fragmented melodies break the surface but it's best to let time and place disappear and sink into the consuming mass. Recommended.

Metal Rouge 

• Ephemeroptera 4 cdr (Seymour) 2.50

4th in the "Ephemeroptera" series from the Metal Rouge duo - Andrew Scott & Helga Fassonaki. It's another blast, split between the cacophonous - feedback, pedal steel and vocals undulating in a nauseous throb - and the spectral - long beams of feedback shrouded by Helga's wordless vocals.

• Ephemeroptera 5 cdr (Seymour) 2.50

The latest in the Ephemeroptera series is another gem. The opener is the sound of Metal Rouge revving up - guitar strings warping and distant bass rising slowly like steam. The second and middle track is a righteous 3 minute cacophony of crashing drums, raging distortion and Helga's vocals rattling in the maelstrom. This release ends with a charged meditation of trembling wires with Helga's wordless wails awaking the dead. Excellent.

Duo  featuring long-time collaborators Robert Horton & Hal Hughes. Two long tracks: the first is 30 plus minutes of truly freaked-out fiddle playing courtesy of Hughes which Horton accompanies with some pan-rattling percussion. Hughes switches to banjo for "No Tamburo" (which was due to feature guitarist Mike Tamburo until he slept in, in another city!), another long-form slice of backwoods psychedelia. Highly recommended

• Haze for Daze cassette (Digitalis) 4.50

The lo-fi 5th generation tape copy feel to this brings to mind James Ferraro's recent solo recordings but this is more blissed-out techno than warped 80s soundtracks

Moon Unit - Hell Horse & Handy Stratus LP (Blackest Rainbow) 8

Incredible album by this trio who comprise Ruaraidh Sanachan (Nackt Insecten) on guitar, Andreas Jonsson (Lanterns) on keyboards and Peter Kelly on drums. Think of a interstellar collision between Nackt Insecten's analogue synth voyages to oblivion and Ashtray Navigations' most fuzzed-up psych-outs and you're just about there. Highly recommended. 

Phil Todd's primeval electronic project. With the distortion ramped up to almost painful levels, imagine Harmonia being ripped up and spat out by Dr Mix and the Remix and you're nearly there. Excellent.

"Motion Sickness of Time Travel's Rachel Evans has had an incredibly busy year but finally returns to Digitalis with the proper follow-up to 2010's acclaimed Seeping Through the Veil of the Unconscious. Over the course of numerous limited releases, Evans has showcased her immense talent to construct floating sound worlds that immerse the listener in an aural cocoon. With Luminaries & Synastry, she is ready to unleash a whole different kind of voodoo. Recorded through the latter part of 2010, Luminaries & Synastry represents Motion Sickness of Time Travel's most focused and definitive work to date. These songs are darker, more condensed and dialed-in than ever with Evans voice sitting even more prominently in the mix. Her synth work is effortless and mesmerizing, adding the perfect accompaniment to her vocals which are, as ever, the star of the show. On the opener, “Luminaries,” rhythmically hypnotic synth chords float underground while Evans pierces the darkness with her voice. It's perfect foreshadowing for what is to come on the rest of the album. Its sister track, “Synastry,” is minimal and haunted. It revels in its simplicity, finding a perfect balance of grounded effervescence and astral projection. Taken together, the combined forces of “Luminaries” & “Synastry” are a bittersweet title set. Skeletal rhythms and sunburned arpeggios return on album centerpiece, “Day Glow.” Dripping in miserable beauty, the song takes vague kosmische nods and paints a thick coat of sublime whimsy to fill all the cracks. When it reaches its peak it is absolutely devastating. Everything in this song embodies all the best things about Motion Sickness of Time Travel. Heading toward the finish line, bombarded by gorgeous, revolving synthesizer passages on “Eight Nineteen” and the blissed-out “The Walls Were Dripping Stars,” it's clear that Luminaries & Synastry is something quite special in the ever-expanding discography of one of 2010's finest new voices. Even though only a year has passed since her last opus, this is a massive leap ahead." (Digitalis)

Mpala Garoo - Sur Satori cassette (Digitalis) 5

Wondrous spaced-out electronics that floats somewhere between Monopoly Child and Moondog.

Muffin Seeks Sunship - Crashing Circles in the Midnight Horn cdr (CLaudia) 2.50

"These are all-acoustic improvisations by Sam Hamilton, Mark Sadgrove, Andrew Scott & Eve Gordon. Droning bowed-strings are the predominant sound, with a few percussive bits. Very Cave-man, very hippie, but very beautiful too - These two pieces were recorded in the dead of night, in concrete echoey spaces in the urban environment (too close to the neighbours at times)." (Claudia)

Nalle

• Wilder Shores of Love LP (Alt Vinyl) 15
• Wilder Shores of Love CD (Alt Vinyl) 12

The third album from Glasgow-based trio Hanna Tuulikki, Aby Vuillamy and Chris Hladowski contains songs and artwork inspired by the Greek myth of doomed lovers Leander and Hero and a title taken from a painting by Cy Twombly. It's an artistic tour-de-force. The album is bookended by spectral ballads that echo the spookier end of the country canon utilizing spidery shimmers of slide guide and a double-tracked "Gene Vincent vocal effect" on Hanna's vocals to suitably eerie effect. Hanna's voice is in fine form throughout, particularly on "Songthrush" where she seems to channel "Starsailor"-era Tim Buckley in a free jazz / folk collision, inspired by the song thrush's melodic couplets. Aby's contribution to this album is immeasurable with her expressive Nico-esque alto winding around Hanna in the hypnotic plainsong "Bring the Traveller to Land" or the epic title track, some wonderfully atmospheric grand piano on "Sunne's Return" and "Wilder Shores" itself - huge crashing chords that sound like the sea consuming the lovers in the song - and of course her exquisite viola. The penultimate track "Lily" is a splendid psychedelic freak-out with Chris rocking out on fuzzed-up electric saz. Guest musicians abound: current musical partner in Two Wings Ben Reynolds, One Ensemble's Peter Nicholson, GIO's Raymond MacDonald and Alex Neilson and the album is recorded beautifully at Glo-Spot by our reviewer John Cavanagh. Of course, no project involving Hanna Tuulikki would be complete without her wonderful illustration and this comes in a gatefold sleeve with an 8 page booklet of lyrics and illustrations. Heavy vinyl.

• Wilder Shores of Love LP - silk-screened sleeve (Alt Vinyl) 30

I have 5 copies of this, a special limited edition version of "Wilder Shores" at a special price (it is normally £35). Only 25 exist. Silk-screened version of Hanna's beautiful artwork.

You can see Hanna's artwork for this album here - there are also 10 extra special art editions of the LP for sale, featuring original pen and ink drawings, and prints / original artwork. Please contact Hanna for details: http://wilder-shores-of-love.blogspot.com/2010/07/art-edition-lps.html

"It's been quite some time since a full length solo Ben Nash release, and it's finally here, and so,what different from his more psychedelic folk drones he showcased way back on 'The Seventh Goodbye'. Probably best left for Ben to explain this one for you... "I recorded this new full-length record during downtime from playing with Chora and after a long break from recording any solo music. Having become somewhat disillusioned with the process of overdubbing conventional “physical” instruments repeatedly in my solo work I have spent a lot of time experimenting with different ways of inputting, manipulating and arranging sound electronically, both in a variety of computer based environments and also using an Apple iPad. This release is the first in a series that will document these experiments. All sounds on the album stem from and are sequenced within Yamaha’s TNR-I app with some minimal mix processing in Logic" - Ben Nash, Camberwell Green, September 2011. Edition of 250 copies pressed on heavy weight black virgin vinyl." (BR)

A welcome return from Mehdi Ameziane and Solange Gularte 2 years after their last album. Two slabs of vinyl split between their extraordinarily opulent drones, stately Eastern-influenced dirges and wistful acid-folk ballads sung by Mehdi, in a voice as fragile as Vashti Bunyan. The atmosphere is utterly enchanted. Vinyl features an extra track not on the cd.

Fascinating collection of gamelan music made by using samples of every note of every set held at the Nusantara Museum of Ethnography in Holland. Tim Newman is also in Vibrafuzz.  The tracks on this cdr use the samples in thoughtful ways from the more obvious Moondog-esque rhythmic constructions to more mysterious introspective moments. The intensely sonorous ringing of the gamelan is a sound I never tire of and this is a fine collection of music.

Solo cdr from Part Wild Horse's Mane on Both Sides percussionist Pascal Nichols. See-sawing unease, the rolling shimmer of metal, quiet improvisation. Limited version with A3 poster packaging.

Some great improv from two members of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra (Peter also plays in One Ensemble), recorded at the old Streetlevel gallery onto 1/4 inch tape by Boa reviewer / Mr Phosphene John Cavanagh. Cello and saxophone rasp and wheeze along with wordless vocal mantras to create unsettling shape-shifting drones amidst spells of fluid breath and string stter. Again, great handmade packaging.

Latest in a slew of North Sea releases. The A side is a monolithic epic of black metal nihilism, industrial strength hum and oscillations spiralling into oblivion. The B side is a blitz of bleak electronic industria.

"Tipped Bowler returns to the fertile soil of New Zealand to cull two choice improvisations. On the A-side, Wellington’s Nova Scotia delivers “A Million Corpses of Dead Bees,” an eighteen minute free-rock burner. Growing from violin sine-squeak and distant shortwave, the piece gains momentum with its patient drumming and resolves into a saxophone swarm shot through with synthetic scrabble. On the reverse, Dunedin’s Eye comes off colder and more aggressive. “High Road” throttles the listener with Schnitzler-ian electronics, militant percussion, and guitar strangulation before collapsing into coda of cymbal taps and glassy string-work. Rigorous yet unbound, these pieces shine a light on a musical community few of us can witness firsthand. Issued in an edition of 250 150-gram black LPs in elegant black-and-white matte sleeves screened with consummate skill by Alan Sherry of Siwa." (TB)

Nova Scotian Arms 

• Sun Flange cassette (Digitalis) 3

Solo recording from the guy who runs the Hooker Vision label with his wife (who records as Motion Sickness of Time Travel). Haunting synth / guitar melodies sunken deep in a great morass of fuzz

• Temporal Maneuvers cdr (Rural Synth) 3

Repetition and a slow and solemn pace are key on this release. Opening with a repeated 4 notes on guitar that become gradually immersed in drone, this release is hypnotic and zen-like. The other 3 tracks continue in similar fashion with repeated synth patterns providing the meditative feel.

Nova Scotian Arms / Motion Sickness of Time Travel - Crystal Anniversary LP (Aguirre) 14.75

"This split lp sees the man/wife duo of Grant and Rachel Evans performing under their own solo projects. In the past two years they have released a bunch of awesome tapes and cd-rs on their label “Hooker Vision”. They also record and perform as droneduo Quiet Evenings. This record was created to celebrate the crystal anniversary of the couple. And indeed, on both sides Grant and Rachel create sounds which sound like the perfect marriage. With stunningly beautiful collage artwork by Grant Evans." (Aguirre)

Marianne Nowottny - Divine Cantos cassette (Sloow) 4

A typically strange Marianne Nowottny release, this one features 6 tracks inspired by Dante's "Divine Comedy" (2 each for Hell, Purgatory and Paradise ). She accompanies herself on electronic keyboards, harmonium and dulcimer on epic meandering songs. Her voice has quite a theatrical quality to it and the cyclical nature of the songs (and the harmonium) reminds me a little of Nico. Intriguing

Cian Nugent 

• Doubles  LP (VHF) 10.75
• Doubles cd (VHF) 9

Two gorgeous long tracks by Irish guitarist Cian Nugent, imbued with the spirit of Takoma. The first track "Peaks & Troughs" builds slowly through drone-based finger-picking into an ear-buzzing drone that almost drifts into atonality. "Sixes & Sevens" features a full band including drums, viola, clarinet / bass clarinet, flugelhorn and trumpet, replacing the melancholy of the previous track with a delightfully upbeat melody for the opening section. Things become quieter and tense with descending arpeggios, long breathes of silence broken by drum and chimes, then quieter pastoral finger-picking like an intense sunset fading to monochrome. Audiophile vinyl, gatefold sleeve.

Nuslux / Amon Dude / Kiiskinen & Reijo Pami - Feelin' Strong cdr (Lal Lal Lal) 0.50

Tour cd from April 2008 featuring Arttu Partinen's Amon Dude, Roope Eronen's Nuslux and 2 new names (to me): Kiiskinen and Reijo Pami. 

Tim Olive and Fritz Welch - Sun Reverse the Footpedal cd (Evolving Ear) 8

Recorded in a 19th century barn by Glasgow-based percussionst Fritz Welch and Canadian / Japanese guitarist Tim Olive. A frenetically quiet, evocative recording that sounds like the barn and earth it stands over were contact-miked and the sounds on this disc the creeping and crawling of invertebrates and the creaking of rafters in the wind. Gorgeous silk-screened foldout sleeve.

One Ensemble - Wayward the Fourth cd (Secret Eye) 8

Orphax - A Room With a View 3" cdr (Reverb Worship) 4.50

Highly charged drone that morphs from a pulsating howl of electricity into a low spectral wail that undulates mournfully and finally into a super-charged metallic hum like a vast choir of singing bowls. Made by Sietse Van Erve. Hand-packaged in textured paper with an insert with a photograph of a spectacular lime hawkmoth. 

Outerdrive - Hallucinations cd (Mar / Ino) 9.50

A superb example of the big, brooding beast they used to call space-rock on Elsie and Jack offshoot label Mar / Ino. Bass- and delay-heavy, some great trumpet, cosmic vocals: in some ways it's like a psychedelized version of the Drift. Packaged in a gatefold cardboard sleeve with some nice inserts. Be sure to 'rewind' the cd at the start or else you'll miss the best track on the album!

Owl Head, Wooden Man / Night Music - Liftedness cassette (Cabin Floor Esoterica) 3

"Creaking basement prayers from a few sides of the Dust Era. Owlhead, Wooden Man, otherwise known as Shon Mahoney (S. Br. Oak, Soft Peace, etc.) slips right into a long buzzing drone piece, full of half-heard layers and imagined howls, the subtle melody of a horn on the radio. A dream in dust, for sure. Then he let's it ride a little easier on a simply folky song blown out and roaring in the most gentle way possible, building into a strange loop of misheard melody. The flip side sees a series of shorter cut works from Night Music's Christopher Kline (Wooden Veil, Soft Peace, etc.) tossing banjos, guitars, jaw harp, old electronics and whatever else he can find into an old trunk, shaking it up, and dumping it out. Sounding like a television made of stones on the fritz during a storm, chopping up flooded gray static and deep woods fortune teller stories. In an edition of 50 painted-label tapes tied with thread to a seed packet designed by the artists and filled with Cosmos flower seeds." (CFE)

Owl Xounds Exploding Galaxy - Splintered Visions LP (Blackest Rainbow) 11.50

"BR worked with Adam Kriney of La Otracina and Owl Xounds on the Owl Xounds/Family Battle Snake split cassette back in May 2007, and its great to have this raging free jazz improv psyche out bunch back on Blackest Rainbow again for this awesome LP. 'Splintered Visions' was recorded back in February 2007, and has been torn from the archives of some of the wildest jams put to tape. This time round the group is in a quartet zone with Kriney on drums, Gene Janas on upright bass, Mario Rechtern on saxophones, electronics and devices, and Shayna Dulberger on upright bass. That's right, TWO upright bass shredders! All the wild instrumentation laid down blazes to the sky, getting mightier and mightier, everything wildly bright and energetic, this LP will rage through your psychosis like nothing else!  Housed in equally insane psychedelic hippy techi-colour sleeves designed by the one and only Jefferson Mayday Mayday Vimana. The vision on this one (both visually, and sonically) is outta this world! Pressed on virgin vinyl and limited to 250 copies." (BR)

Ø+yn 'He Resucitado en la Montaña cassette (Winebox Press) 8.50

"Hot on the heels of the Chora tape, this new release floats in all the way from another hemisphere but is a pretty ripe southern companion to the free movement of certain UK underground tribes. Ø+yn (said 'Omasin') come from the inland badlands of Córdoba, Argentina, and 'He Resucitado en la Montaña' is quite a trip, taking all kinds of unexpected yet smooth turns: from the occult church to the carnival to the Balinese woods at midnight, taking a detour up 6th Avenue to jam with Moondog before shifting gracefully towards a climactic scene with what sounds like a swarm of angry bees taking the guitar player for a ride at dinner time." (Winebox)

"it's a eurotrash dream and i'm loving it. paco sala is the alter-ego of konntinent's antony harrison and anyone familiar with his past work will be quite surprised by this turn of events. "radial sundown" is an afterhours vapor trail through italo mazes and darkened alleys. swirling electronics are matched by smooth beats and pop-infused hymns. harrison bounces to the underbelly, always keeping something sinister just off-screen. add in delectable vocals by felicia atkinson (in french, no less) and you're in for the best fucking ride. edition of 80, pro-dubbed chrome." (Digitalis) 

Repress. Padang Food Tigers are a duo featuring Spencer Grady and Steven Lewis from Rameses III and anyone who enjoyed their epic Americana-inspired soundscapes should feel right at home here. Guitar, banjo, piano, field recordings and acres of space give an impression of sepia-tinged deserted towns and wide-open spaces. Excellent. Cd available on Under the Spire.

"Ship Chop is a celebratory cut-up of far-flung musics. Edited, collaged and re-arranged by Daniel Padden from original vinyl sources to create impossible collaborations between musical ghosts. It is both reverential and sacrilegious, giving the music its full praise whilst also subjecting it to playful subversion. Some of the editing is obvious and transparent, but some of it much less so, where sounds from different recordings and continents overlap into an unlikely whole. Daniel Padden is a member of The One Ensemble and Volcano The Bear, and also creates music for theatre and film. Limited edition of 300 copies." (Dekorder)

Who isn't fascinated by the wonderful array of musical instruments in the world? Beyond the horizons of those we usually hear, some intrepid sonic explorers dream up and create their own. I'm thinking about one-off figures like Harry Partch. Now we have Sarah Ketchington, whose projects include turning a disused house into a giant instrument in its own right. Although the house doesn't appear on The Bellow Switch, a collection of her sound-makers, which double as beautiful mechanical sculptures, were recorded and collaged by Daniel Padden to great effect. If you fancy something like you've never heard before, snap this one up! There's an eerie sense of wonder to the myriad twangs and wheezes which is hard to describe in a few words. The insert includes pictures of several instruments, a useful insight in themselves. (JC)

New set of field recordings from Antony Milton (A.M. / Nether Dawn etc) following on from earlier releases featuring recordings from India and Pakistan. This one captures sounds recorded during Antony's time in South American. Crowd noise from markets and buses, water, wildlife, wind, music and nightlife. A fascinating audio portrait. Comes with a 12 page booklet.

"Transparent Winter follows on from the debut release on the always excellent Time-Lag label and releases on the equally great PSF, Opax and A Silent Place. Painting Petals On Planet Ghost is the trio of Ramona Ponzini with Roberto & Maurizio Opalio (aka My Cat Is An Alien). Here they return for a new full length vinyl release on Blackest Rainbow. PPOPG create some wonderfully fragile and unusual experiments that fall somewhere between folk, psychedelia and drone. Ramono Ponzini sings in Japanese as well as contributing 'furin, metal and wooden japanese wind chimes'. These are combined with Maurizio Opalio on acoustic guitar, and Roberto Opalio on 'mini keyboard, bodhran, alientronics, and wordless vocalizations'. The trio's eclectic setup helps them create some truly luscious and mysterious music that is perfectly fragile, strange, distant and delicate. 'Mars Appears' is a hazy dream piece with layered guitars, strange electronics and Ramono's perfectly delivered Japanese vocals drawing the listener in surrounded by a strange but perfect fitting created by the Opalio brothers musical output. 'The Mountain' is equally as otherworldy as the previous sides track, with swirling strings and out of this world electronics created by Roberto and Maurizio. Whilst Ramona's vocal are almost delivered in a trance like state. A extremely beautiful record with a gorgeous organic feel to it. The record is housed in a sleeve featuring film photographs of flowers. Edition of 250 copies pressed on 140gram virgin vinyl." (BR)

Over-loaded tape loop pop collage.

This is similar to the Rokkiryma disc: unhinged bedroom lo-fi pop with basic strummed guitar, whistles, handclaps and "incidental" vocals. Again it reminds me of the days of Slampt cassettes which is a very nice memory indeed!

Astral synth navigations from James Michael. Spiralling bubbles, free-falling oscillations and occasional fragments of reverb-heavy singing.

"Seattle’s Norm Chambers and his project Panabrite seemed to appear out of nowhere last year, displaying awe-inspiring synth wizardry across a handful of cassettes. Wind Rider builds upon that foundation and expands Panabrite’s horizons even further. Only briefly flirting with the oceanic themes prevalent in much of his work, Chambers instead takes to the skies. Soaring arpeggios mix with warm synth pads and even vocoder to form seven concise, but fully realized pieces. It’s simply amazing how many perfect melodic passages Chambers is able to unleash in a single track while still managing to keep the composition light and airy. Homage to new age and kosmiche pioneers is apparent throughout Wind Rider, but Panabrite is so much more than a retro synth revival project. Chambers manages to combine these influences with his own well-developed compositional abilities for a sound that’s at once personal, progressive, and entirely satisfying to the ears. Pro-dubbed and imprinted, featuring designs by Caroline Teagle." (TT)

Paper Wings is a duo of Antony Milton (AM, Nether Dawn, Black Boned Angel) and Anthony Guerra. This opens with a corrosive dirge of distorted guitar of the kind you might expect from Haino. The melancholic mood prevails throughout: spectral melodies, doomed feedback clouds, mournful bowing and a sense of dislocation. Beautiful hand-painted artpaper sleeves. Highly recommended.

Some folks start out wanting to be pop stars as they watch the idols of their early experience. It's a case of "I want to be just like Mark Owen/Kylie/Adam Ant/Frank Ifield..." (well maybe not quite!). With Park Attack, it sounds as though they cut their teeth on a raw diet of the Residents and Pere Ubu and thus was their twisted vision formed... bass lines bubble to boiling point, oscillators wail and vocals aim for 13 on a dial that stops at 11. This band are a very polular live attraction in Glasgow. this record goes some way to explaining why. (JC)

"Part Wild Horses Mane on Both Sides is the duo of Kelly Jones and Pascal Nichols. Proclaiming a context far greater than the sum of their instruments, Low Fired Clay Escape is a remarkable record of visceral beauty, stark decay and translucence. One that inhales the smoke of martyrs and advances towards an unknown vocabulary, depicting barren worlds as lost as they are found. Limited to 530 copies and housed in the intricate work of Darren Adcock."

"An edition of 500 copies on 180 gram vinyl. Originally released on Rayon Records as a tape. Includes bonus track "Seven Season Of Weeping", not included on original cassette release."

Solo guitar explorations from Michael Scholtz. If I didn't know this was guitar, I would have gone for some 70s analogue synth as a fair bit of this album features razor-sharp distorted monophonic tonal melodies that melt into long searing drones and then re-emerge.

•  Above the Flood Plain cdr (Seagrass) 6

"Oak Creek flows south from the narrow channel it has carved through the red sandstone cliffs at the edge of the Kaibab Plateau, and empties into the Verde Valley of central Arizona. This second album by Pathways was inspired by the views from a hillside overlooking the green pastures and cottonwood trees that line the river's banks as it winds its way across the dusty desert. The flowers sparkling "In the Summer Garden" might have grown from seeds planted on a sunny day by Virgina Astley, while the murky hums and dragonfly buzzes "By the Pond" drift through still, hot air, and hint at what might lie hidden among the reeds. And then a wind rises, dark clouds drift overhead, thunder echoes against the red rock cliffs, and a cool rain falls "Under Monsoon Skies." These melodic electric guitar improvisations evoke the calm beauty of the rural Southwest with no trace of twangy regionalism or new age cliche; the music glows and shimmers with multitracked harmonies, deep reverberation and ringing distortion." (Seagrass)

Ashley Paul - Hidden Face / Leave Mine 7" (Emerald Cocoon) 7.50

"Ashley Paul's music is the intersection of so many different facets of late 20th century art music that sometimes I'm surprised that the vinyl can still spin under the weight of all the ideas contained within. Modern composition, euro free clatter and textural psychedelia converge as stilted song forms on the verge of careering off the very face of form on thin lines of carefully controlled reed-skree. Amazing that a music so loaded with ideas could feel so hand crafted and warm. Guitar, vocals, crotales and saxophone stitched together and moving in a constant slow peristalsis, never quite coalescing, never quite drifting apart. Equal parts alien unease and folkish charm, these slowly tangled tones drift prismatic and high in the late afternoon light. Ashley is also one half of Aster (with artist of equal genius and partner in life/crime Eli Keszler) and Paul & Maurey (with Sakiko Mori). Part 2 of the 'Alone Together' series. Mastered by Pete Swanson. Edition of 300." (EC)

Lina Paul - No Blue Birds Passing By cdr (Reverb Worhsip) 6

This is a hauntingly beautiful record, where the space between is an important part of how what is sung and played holds together. Lina Paul's voice is like a darker Stina Nordenstam and some of her lyrics are pretty dark too. Field recordings and some use of what sounds like an old tape delay unit (a Copicat, perhaps?) add to the eeriness of the atmosphere. Even the very fine paper inserts to this edition of only 50 copies seem to lend themselves to the ethereal quality of the songs they cold. (JC)

Peeesseye 

• Pestilence & Joy LP (Evolving Ear) 10.75

Peeesseye's seventh full-length album will confound those who like their music to be easily classifiable. There's an almost devotional intensity to some of it, out and out noise assault elsewhere and a sense of fun running through a lot of it too. The album shares a couple of titles with the Shadow in the Swamp tape release, but the versions of these pieces differ, so there isn't any crossover to discourage you from owning both, if you fancy them. The version of Pestilence & joy on the lp, for example, begins with a mini-masterclass on clapping in time for a live audience. Voices, drones, bending strings and percussion all combine to create a sound which, although hugely divergent from piece to piece, is also a steady hallmark of this band. The front cover drawing, by Ronaldo Wright, deserves mention too as it seems to leap out of some particularly colourful dungeon, replete with a horned muscle man, a halberd-bearing amazon, a purple-caped monster, a skull, a chain and bulges'n'buns galore!! (JC)

• Shadow in the Swamp cassette (Sick Head) 5.50

Near hymnal drones and distant voices; handclap-led bendy-guitar blues for round the campfire; full on noise barrage. All part of the tableaux here. It's a well named tape, as it is both swampy and shadowy and one suspects these people could put gris-gris on your doorstep if you don't go with the flow! (JC)

• Artificially Retarded Soul Care Operators cd (Evolving Ear) 9

These recordings date from 2003-2004 and range across a very wide spectrum. Subtle dynamics of bowed cymbals and radio static are followed by a short and funny piece of an audience being teased with extreme noise music (there's more substantial noise later and it means business!) and there's a beautifully controlled piece which centres of big, sparse drum thwacks. This comes in a chunky gatefold paste-on sleeve with a poster insert. (JC)

• Commuting Between the Surface and the Underworld cd (Evolving Ear) 9

"Commuting Between the Surface & the Underworld continues Peeesseye’s pattern of ignoring virtually all patterns but those that spring forth from the swarm of earthquakes in their collective brain.  Recorded following an unamplified tour of US noise venues with groups including Nautical Almanac, Life Partners, and Sharks With Wings, this record brings vocals, a more pronounced rhythmic pulse and piles of acoustic instruments to the foreground alongside the waves of electronic density that have characterized past releases.  Guests on Commuting Between the Surface & the Underworld  include three frequent collaborators of Peeesseye:  Clare Cooper, the Australian harpist who adds pedal harp and guzheng (Chinese harp) to two tracks; trumpeter Nate Wooley, who adds brass on “Distant Mud;” and the reclusive conceptualist Shawn Edward Hansen, who provides additional percussion and vocals to two tracks.  The resulting record is a perverse twist on spaced rock and post-noise ritual - mayhem in the mansion, shivers in the shack." (Evolving Ear)

Peeesseye & Talibam! cd (Invada) 8

One of my favourite albums I've heard this year, for sure! You Tried (to Eat it) opens the record with near volcanic force. Without sounding like ersatz Krautrock, this truly carries the spirit of the wildest German innovators, allied to Bitches Brew style electric free jazz. Lots of Fender Rhodes keyboard, voice samples and Fritz Welch's flailing-but-unfailing drumming... a real fuse-blower! There's a steep contrast between this and the mellow, drone based material which happens alongside the explosive stuff. This is an album of many dimensions and, to my ears, a winner in all of them. (JC)

Pefkin 

• Lie on the Ground & Breathe 3" cdr (Cook an Egg) 4.50

"Yet another slab of pure magic from Gayle Brogan. After her acclaimed releases on Foxglove, PseudoArcana and Students of Decay, Gayle delivers one 20-minute track which begins with a few scattered improvisations on the dulcimer before shifting into one of the most blissed-out ambient folk reveries to date. It all ends on a particularly intimate note as Gayle's highly delicate soundworld is able to suspend time in one breath. Should appeals to fans of Christina Carter and My Cat Is An Alien alike." (Label)

• Possible Confusion Species cdr (Rural Faune) 5

Comes with a lovely rural twig and handmade paper sleeve. Short fragments of toybox folk and VCS3 / violin throb. Four longer tracks: mutilated thumb piano and bubbling vocals recorded on Joe Meek's old Ampex tape recorder in its death throes, harp / clarinet / vocal drone / tone meditations, spacious wild wood folk-improv and ending on a hugely reverberant organ and Radford oscillator drone with melancholic melodica offering a requiem to an extinct bird. John Cavanagh (Electroscope / Phosphene) plays clarinet on one track.

• Zugunruhe cdr (Sound & Fury) 6

I may as well declare my involvement with this record at the outset. Zugunruhe was made in the room where I sit writing about it now and, in addition to Gayle - aka Pefkin - and I producing it, I also play on a couple of the tracks. If anything, that's likely to make me more critical of it, but on the fifth listen since receiving the finished cd, I'm actually enjoying it more and more. Zugunruhe is, as you may know or guess, a German word. It pertains to anxiety within migratory animals, especially birds. In one sense, the listener could use this as a pointer to perceiving an anxiety in the shifting tonalities of voice, wind instruments and oscillations which open the album. Doing that would overlook the experimental pop side of Zugunruhe, exemplified by the use of a Clavioline (an instrument rarely heard these days and much loved by Joe Meek), which sounds as though it's bubbling up on a shortwave broadcast. Speaking of much loved instruments, the harmonium figures here, as does the Farfisa Compact Duo and the whole thing shimmers like autumn sun on a deserted shore. The disc comes in an attractive purple card case, which Gayle insists is pink. Bag a copy while you can and make up your own mind... pink or purple, have a listen to Gayle's singing on the plaintive closing song Remember the Words and either will do nicely! (JC)

• The Inaugural Meeting of the Glasgow Temperance Society cdr (Reverb Worship) 6

4 tracks, 3 of which were recorded for a radio session on John Cavanagh's Soundwave on Radio 6 International. Different versions of "Seasons Come and Never Go" (from Pingle Pangle) and "Remember the Words" (from Zugunruhe) and 2 unreleased tracks, one from the forthcoming Digitalis album and another completely new improvised piece. Joined by John Cavanagh on VCS3 and Farfisa Compact Duo and Nalle / Two Wings' Hanna Tuulikki on flute, drums, vocals and strings. Fragile songs with disorientating psyched-out middles and ends and some wild primal drumming. Very limited.

Pefkin / The Circle and the Point split cdr (Deep Water) 5

It's a bit weird to review one's own music but here goes - the pefkin track is an extended piece of string reverie (little lute type thing, hammer dulcimer and electric guitar) with bursts of almost distorted melodica blast which eventually dissolves into a lengthy drone section of harmonium wheeze and VCS3 which I like to imagine is Oliver Postgate meets Brian Eno. Anyway, enough of me, and onto the Circle and the Point: Grant Capes (of (VxPxC)) and Adam Richards (House of Alchemy). These 4 tracks find them at the more blissful hazy end of their sound with guitar, organ, percussion and flutes merging into a sunlit blur.

Inspired prepared guitar duo collaboration between Antony Milton ( A.M., Mrtyu!, Nether Dawn) and ex- Reynolds Fernando Perales, recorded in November 2009 in Buenos Aires. Some abstract almost musique concrete moments offset by blissed out distortion wail. The final long track was a live recording from a gallery opening which mixes heavy industrial clanking with high ringing notes that burn with intense ferocity. Excellent.

Full-on fuzz-drones from wowing guitars on the opener to chord organ buzz and then finally onto wind tunnel howl. 

Phosphene  

• Long Meadow Felt Company cd (Oggum) 8 

 a more amorphous collection, synths and clarinet weaving a mystical spell with spoken vocals barely breaking the surface.

• Projection cd (Secret Eye) 9

former Electroscope member and author of a book about Pink Floyd's 'Piper' album John Cavanagh's 2nd album: spooky analogue electronic soundscapes that hint of Delia Derbyshire or Mount Vernon Arts Lab, singing woodstoves, psychaedelia of  luxuriant and vibrant textures, and a few surprises: a cover of John Leyton's 'Wild Wind', some Beach Boys style harmonies and John McKeown (ex-Yummy Fur) playing some fuzzed-up guitar - excellent stuff

Piano Queen Rainbow Star Telephone - Demo cdr (Fictitious Sighs) 4

Rattling, clattering improv recorded in Dunedin. Forest sighs of whistles / flute, train-track percussion, the metallic clang of guitar strings, rasping saxophone and borrowing feedback. Full of quiet tense passages and cluttered freakouts.

"Presenting...the first LP by Julian Bradley's new project. The suave Mr.Bradley is of course best known for being a founder member of The Vibracathedral Orchestra. If you've never heard of them, well, I don't believe you, but in case its true, you may remember him from Birmingham's finest amplifier drone crew The Negative Kite or his early duo work with Neil Campbell. Or for a series of very limited solo releases, mostly cassettes and mostly ultra limited editions, either under his own name or as A Companion As Glamorous As Sleeping On Wheels. This LP is the first Julian Bradley sighting for a number of years, and the first vinyl since a ltd.100 LP on Giardia sometime in the mid-90s. "A Theme Park For Whatever Happened Before" features eight tracks of intricate electronic caligraphy produced by archaic and malfunctioning effects units, unsweetened by digital reverb or any other modern day fripperies. Fuzztone and feedback patterns pulsating and intersecting to create a unique sound which mixes drone electronics, garage psych and a lumbering dose of doom metal. Mr.Bradley is not a ten-CDR-a-month man, to put it mildly, so don't miss out on this rare vinyl appearance, which has a full colour cover (truly a Memoirs first)." (MoA)

With an album already out on Scarcelight, this laptop-totting group features Richard Francis (Sandoz Lab Technicians), Rosy Parlane, Tim Coster, Mark Sadgrove, Clinton Watkins and Paul Winstanley, and this cdr features a live recording from June 2006. Computer-generated drones and loops of ringing feedback provide the background for frenetic burst of machine chatter.

Plum Slate - The Loathsome Bough cassette (Winebox Press) 5.50

Solo project of Stuart J Arnot (Smear Campaign, The Gamecock, Mid Leopard Violet Prism). Atonal acoustic guitar arpeggios, strange asymmetric beauty. Wooden packaging made from a former dresser.

Popular Radiation - Saitana Sarkasa 3" cdr (Bells Hill) 1.50

Solo disc from Hasan Gaylani of Jazzfinger. Synth drones, tape snarl and almost inaudible samples.

Posset 

• The Silver Conch cdr (Striate Cortex) 1.50

"Posset uses the grainy texture and skewed juxtapositions afforded by multiple Dictaphones and tapes to improvise on the quiet noise of everyday life using sound sources as diverse as washing up, commuting to work and parenting. " (Striate Cortex) Handmade packaging constructed from white card, paint and thread.

• Peed-trofm:oc cassette (Gold Soundz) 1.50

"Newcastle's Posset fleshes out a great collection of miniature collages. The dictaphone king of northeast UK expertly blends noise and non-music components into captivating oddball songs.. however strange this may sound, there's an easyness and an everyday feel to these compositions that make them highly entertaining... Some tracks also has a sort of a rhythmic backbone... Six tracks in 10 minutes gives this a good album feel... Yellow tapes wrapped in double-sided yellow A4 sheet. Edition of 30." (Gold Soundz)

Fletcher Pratt - Mind Gunk Vol 14 cassette (Digitalis) 1

"when you've got 13 previous installments of a series under your belt, you obviously know what you're doing.  fletcher pratt's "mind gunk" series is definitely no exception.  as with previous beasts, vol. 14 is an epic maze of tape collage, synth sprigs, acoustic skronk and general analog chaos..  it's all over the map and you're likely to lose your head along the way, but isn't a little fun always worth the risk? " (Digitalis)

Prisma is a duo featuring the 2 female members of Attar Cups and Visitations. Ghostly acoustic folk-pop with much of the backwoods vibe that both Attar Cups and Visitations have. Very quiet and intimate and very very lovely. 

Pro Team - Demo cdr (Fictitious Sighs) 64

Trio collaboration between Tim Coster, Oliver of the Sky, Eves (from Piano Queen Rainbow Star Telephone), recorded in Dunedin. Low level acoustic noise / drone, maximal atmosphere, enhanced by the use of a plethora of hand-held recorders positioned around the recording space.

Psychic Frost (Mike Tamburo / Matt McDowell) - s/t cdr Deep Water) 5

Two long pieces from regular collaborators Mike Tamburo and Matt McDowell. "Hey Enis Dance" starts out as a hypnotic piece of acoustic fingerpicking accompanied by tones of guitar feedback. The piece goes through a process of disintegration, fragmenting into reverberant throbs of decay and fuzzing feedback drone, before returning to the meditative feel present at the start. "Taste the Frost" finds the duo in an intense modal duel of electrified tenor banjo and hammered dulcimer. Great stuff.

Pummeler / The North Sea split cd (Ark Tarp) 9.50

Pummeler is Dane Mikkel Dunkerley and on here he contributes one long track of synth disintegration. The North Sea's explorations of weird synth-scapes continues with this lengthy track that mixes a background of infernal tape-wowing hum with spiralling oscillations. Excellent hand-made packaging too.

"Everything's coming to an end with the swansong from Iowa City's Raccoo-oo-oon. Following up last years critically acclaimed Behold Secret Kingdom (RTB/Not Not Fun), the final album takes everything up a notch and shows a band taking their last breath and laying down the last bricks in their fairly short history. The album blends together all different parts of Raccoo-oo-oons discography, taking cues from the utter freeform punk madness of The Cave Of Spirits Forever (Time Lag), building something completely new of the era that was Behold Secret Kingdom and yet delivering echoes of the eclectic Mythos Folkways recordings. The album reeks of desperation and a feeling of going down with nothing to loose at all. A fucked up future-prog mayhem that is all over the place and at no known place at all at the same time. Genuinely uncomfortable, desperate and just beautiful, this album will surely be remembered as the most important recording that Racco-oo-oon ever put to tape. Minds are melting, new grounds are covered and things will never be the same." (RTB)

"this year i've found myself more interested in electronic music & techno (borft!) than anytime in the past decade, so it was bound to start showing up in the annals of digitalis.  enter red math, the work of lance dibblee.  "unhinged" is exactly that.  utilyzing an array of synthesizers & drum machines, red math traverses all over the spectrum.  it's a crazy ride as he unloads and remixes all sorts of ideas into something totally bonkers. straight-up acid is the first thing you'll notice, but it all breaks down and shifts from there.  epic beats and bending basslines take over giving a nod to juan atkins and other detroit giants.  but that's not the only card being played here as dibblee brings in thick industrial beats and other heavy machinery to contrast with the flowing bass.  pushing things even further, your brain gets pummelled by a constant barrage of kick drums right to your frontal lobe.  to keep everything on the level, though, are the mini-synthscapes that fill in the cracks and smooth it all out and into submission.  by the end, it's four to the floor and time to dance.  edition of 75." (Digitalis)

1986 / 87 recordings from this post-ESP Kinetic project featuring Neil Campbell, Stewart Walden, MS Turner, Andrew Watson and Caroline Gormley. The first 6 tracks are a desk recording and thus pretty good quality - primitive punk squall. The second half is an audience recording and features a lot of audience, er, interaction.

"New up on The GPS is a beautiful new Jonas Reinhardt 12” EP, a debut UK release arriving hot on the heels of their acclaimed Not Not Fun LP “Music For The Tactile Dome” earlier this year, (following essential earlier outings on Kranky and KRAAK.) Initially a project launched by San Francisco based Jesse Reiner, who began writing and creating analog synthesiser music over 10 years ago whilst studying music synthesis at the Harvard Electronic Music Centre. (Recently extended to a 4 piece for the road and future recording, by one time and current members of Trans Am, Mi Ami, Citay and 3 Leafs amongst others). 2 deep trip kosmische pieces, heavy on rich ‘Cyborg‘-esque swells and pulsing drones, expansive ebb and flow, simmer and swell kraut soundscapes aimed at the stars! Hypnotic, warm and melodic with a celestial eeriness. Shades of Froese and Schulze figure for sure, with the odd passing nod to some of the later Sky oeuvre; “Sonnenlicht”, “Synthesist”, later Cluster etc… Cut and mastered at Abbey Road, this one looks just beautiful too. Side A of this 12 is cut as a 7” played at 45 and Side B cut as a 10” at 33. 11+ mins of music overall. Both sides featuring on disc etching from GPS head, Dom, also at Abbey Road. An incredible record in top opening pro-printed sleeves in a numbered edition of 500 on vinyl only." (GPS)

latest in the second series of 'Sparkling Composers': this features a group of musicians from Chicago in some frenetic percussion driven improvisation  

Brand new album from Christian Renou, formerly Brume. This really is a delight, with the focus often firmly on the melodic rather than textural. On the second track the trebly chime of acoustic steel-string becomes manipulated into a baroque improvisation that sounds like it is played on a harpsichord. Later a recording of "Amazing Grace" sung by a solo voice initially, later by a full choir, finds itself manipulated into a fogged reverie, in a similar way to Felix Kubin's assault on Jane Birkin a few years ago. Later the same bell-like guitar finds itself soundtracking disturbed dreams, like a faintly remembered degraded version of the theme to "Get Carter". The kind of music that makes you hear things that aren't really there. Interspersed with enough clicks and cuts, subliminal drones and bursts of abrasive noise to make you jump out of the sweet torpor. Superb photography and packaging from E&J as always.

Music by Raymond MacDonald, Graeme Wilson, Christoph Reiserer and Markus Henze: a group of four improvising saxophonists. There's something about the sound of this quartet which is quite baroque at times. Although there are totally free pieces, others were inspired by texts or images and they lock into underpinning patterns which sound quite arranged rather than being a free for all. To add to the enjoyable sounds there's a graphic score reproduced in the cd insert, which informs us that one piece was developed from an idea supplied by Fred Frith. Oh - also worth a mention - the first track, Tchai-Ovna, is a titular homage to one of our favourite small venues in Glasgow, where you can also (as the name suggests) get a super selection of teas! (JC)

Ali Robertson's Ludd Quest - Don't Turn Your Hog Out cdr (Blackest Rainbow) 4.25

"Brand new slab of avant weirdo sounds from Ali of Usurper. Slurping, sucking and squeaking insanity opens up this five track disc. As it progresses it may well just get more and more weird, pouring water (?), some sorta mic-ed up pipe actions, weird tinkerings of househeld objects, layered talking (at times saying that talking is a terrible idea - 'why are you talking'?). Ali's work with Usurper and his solo work retains a great sense of humour, with the pure weirdness of what is going and lack or knowing what the hell is making half the bizarre sounds. Limited to 50. " (BR)

Two Horses follows on from Andy Robbins' instrumental tape (which was well received at the Melodybar) in fine style. This is an album of songs - very good they are too - and one long, driving instro. to finish. There's elements of psych-pop, drone-folk and old country blues going on here. I'm thinking that I might be hearing some nods to Bert Jansch, Will Oldham and Tyrannosaurus Rex, but I only mention these as a rough outline. There are really nice textures, from violin & 'cello, electronics and autoharp and, all in all, this album is one I can recommend quite easily. (JC)

Viola, acoustic guitar, field recordings and processes of synthesis: those are the components here. There is no bombast and yet such quiet music proves to be all-encompassing to my attention. Wade Matthews has written a most interesting sleeve note comparing the flow of music with water, gradually eroding and revealing, hence the album title. Whilst it is music of inner spaces, it also seems to reach out to something wider. Maybe I'm hearing a hint of radio astronomy sound, implied unconsciously in the process... or maybe that's just what these erosions are revealing in me? (JC)

Neil Davidson has taken his acoustic guitar on many fascinating sonic adventures, forever pushing the language of sounds possible with this instrument to new places. Here he joins a group of musicians from Portugal led by the rather legendary Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and also featuring his son Guilherme Rodrigues on 'cello and Hernani Faustino on double bass. Here the four - sorry, Fower - play with hushed minimal intensity, leading to some passages which let loose with freedom and passion, a range which makes this album an absorbing journey. (JC)

Close to 30 minutes of multi-layered, sinuous drone, overlaid with sparse melodic bursts which seem to hold a filmic tension, perhaps influenced by the Roy Budd/John Carpenter school of soundtracks. This subsides to what, in the later stages, sounds like vocals in the mix of the electronic drone. An involving piece, but be warned: apart from a small paper insert with Derek Rogers' name on it, there's no title or artist written on the disc or the sleeve, so just be sure you keep the flyer in there! (JC)

"Completing a triptych of Hunter Gracchus solo pieces, Roman Nose is the solo work of Jon Marshall (who also plays in Akke Phallus Duo and Vampire Blues). Using harmonium/voice/various free reed aerophones he creates drones that are fairly radical in their nakedness, far removed from the smooth edges of dream pop, with a Tazartès-esque 'world' aesthetic that takes in Antarctica (specifically Douglas Quinn's recordings of Weddell seals), the Middle East (the third track comes on like a pitch-shifted call to prayer) and Indonesia, while the sidelong track that makes up the second side is both centrepiece and climax, pulsating wildly with an urgency not dissimilar to Blue Yodel. Edition of 53 copies comes, at the insistence of the recording artist, from the usable parts of a pretty gnarly old couch from the roof of Portland Works, so if anything crawls out of it blame him." (Winebox)

Excellent trio recording from 3 members of Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra: vocalist Aileen Campbell, double bassist Una MacGlone and flautist Emma Roche. The 5 tracks move with ease from wild freeform abandonment to long breathes of bow and blow with Aileen Campbell's extraordinary vocalizations oscillating like a feline theremin  to malevolent inversions of chamber music ("Rain & Rising Dust"). Again, nice boat-themed handmade packaging from Iorram.

Another excellent missive from New Zealand's Rory Storm. Outsider songwriting with scouring guitar and some malfunctioning electronic interludes.