Evening of Light

Cloudscape #51: February 2015

February starts bright and clear, but it quickly turns colder and darker. There’s hope at the end, but it’s not spring yet. The mix features Daughters of Elvin, Northaunt, Sonmi451, this nocturnal topography, Pleq & Hakobune, Ed Hamilton, offthesky, Richard Moult, Adrian Shenton & Banks Bailey, and Raising Holy Sparks. […read more…]

Review: Raising Holy Sparks – A Mendicant Hymnal

A mendicant is a travelling monk — one who begs for subsistence, accepting what people and to world have to offer, in humility. The music on this double album could be a distillation of the world experienced in such a way: a flowing by of landscapes and visions, an endless sequence of steps carrying one to some unknown destination. This is the final act of begging and acceptance: to see where the journey leads you, always deferring to decisions made outside of the self; offering up the self. Raising Holy Sparks is the project that rose from the ashes of Agitated Radio Pilot and saw David Colohan shifting from lo-fi and singer/songwriter releases to something more instrumental, raw, and abstract. The division is far from clear-cut: Agitated Radio Pilot had its share of lush ambient improvisations, and the occasional harsh guitar solo, while Raising Holy Sparks has had plenty of songs interspersed on its earlier releases. All the same, there is a tangible contrast between the two projects. […read more…]

Cloudscape #50: Winter Solstice 2014

Solstice Mix for 2014, feat. Austin Wintory, Wolves in the Throne Room, aliceffekt, Northaunt, Ugasanie, Jeremy Soule, Mendel Kaelen, Far Black Furlong, Sean Breadin, Stone Breath, Eeem, The Green Kingdom, Anne Chris Bakker, Robert Burns, Netherworld, The Cloisters, Tomoyoshi Date, Plinth, and Petrels. […read more…]

A Year In The Country — United Bible Studies – Doineann

In my 2012 review of The Cloisters, I had written about how the imagined landscape (Britain, in these cases) features so strongly in some strains of contemporary experimental folk music. Granted, this has been a central theme in folk since the 60s revival, but as I argue, the ease with which electronic manipulation can be applied these days has really influenced some of the more experimental folk works in the past decade or so. This heightened interplay of the ‘acoustic’ and electronic, and in a broader sense, between the rural and the urban, makes for a liminal artistic and imaginary field that is finding different forms of expression these days. […read more…]

Cloudscape #49: November 2014

Cloudscape: Project 83

Project 83 — Evening of Light version by Evening Of Light on Mixcloud

The Posse came together for another group mix. This time six DJs select 83 tracks out of which to pick our own favourites to mix together. The Evening of Light version is posted here. The others are listed below:

WeirdwithBeard Decadans black_ops meistsonnig avantopia

Tracklist of my version:

00:00-01:39 – Bruno Nicolai – Seq. 07 00:31-04:40 – Edward Ka-Spel […read more…]

Review: Musk Ox – Woodfall (2014)

Nathanaël Larochette’s Musk Ox is now a trio, and with the new album Woodfall, the music has evolved to fully fledged chamber folk. Larochette’s classical guitar works in unison with the violin and cello parts added by Evan Runge & Raphael Weinroth-Browne, the latter of whom also co-composed the album. The result is a suite taking parts from both classical music and the acoustic romantic neofolk from the mid-nineties and later. […read more…]

August 2014 Short Reviews (Alasdair Roberts & Robin Robertson, Immortal Bird, Kentin Jivek & Miro Snejdr, Wolves in the Throne Room)

Short reviews of: Alasdair Roberts & Robin Robertson – Hirta Songs (2013, Stone Tape); Immortal Bird – Akrasia (2014, Self-released); Kentin Jivek & Miro Snejdr – Voir Dire (2014, Self-released); Wolves in the Throne Room – Celestite (2014, Artemisia). […read more…]