Highlighted by the contribution of Stella Diana’s Dario Torre (vocals in “Outside noise”) and Marco Barzetti, aka True Sleeper (vocals in “To realize”), “Some are stars” is a four-song EP whose making took no less than three years. During this time Manfredi Lamartina, leader of the project, has radically changed his composition approach. Novanta is no longer a solo project, but a duo that also includes drummer Agostino Financo Burgio (Nicolò Carnesi, Hank, Moque). The sound is no longer lo-fi: cleaner, with more impact, also thanks to the work of Lucantonio Fusaro, Claudio Piperissa and Luca Ferrari, who recorded and mixed the album at Faro Recording Studio (Varese, IT).
What kind of music is “Some are stars”? Manfredi Lamartina, founder and leader of Novanta, likes to call it “ceiling-gazing”: a mix of dream pop, post-rock and synth-wave to listen to at very low or very high volumes. No middle ground.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/novantamusic
https://novanta.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/novanta
https://twitter.com/novanta_
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAP0yD_6tWlCP1XgeJMKN0Q
https://lapaurafanovanta.wordpress.com/
-
Twilight Fields – Demagogue
Canada’s Twilight Fields, the solo moniker of singer-songwriter Allister Thompson, has announced his new album ‘Songs from the Age of Ruin’, slated for release in early 2019. Ahead of this, he presents the first rather politically-charged single ‘Demagogue’, an expression of anti-populist sentiment.
Twilight Fields is truly a one-man show, with Thompson writing, playing, engineering, mixing, mastering and designing everything himself from his home studio in North Bay, Ontario.
‘Songs from the Age of Ruin’ is a warning to the present and an apology to a possible future. While Twilight Fields is best known for his blend of ambient, dream-pop and progressive rock influences, this album pays grateful homage to such artists as Billy Bragg, New Model Army, Killing Joke, Midnight Oil, and The Levellers, as well as other artists influencing his music like Leon Rosselson, Bob Dylan, Robert Wyatt, and Phil Ochs.
‘Songs from the Age of Ruin’ is also an uneasy but compelling song cycle that begins with the bombing of Hiroshima and the absurdities of the atomic age and proceeds to tackle such difficult topics as homelessness and economic inequalities (‘Lazarus’), the evils of populism and political repression (‘Demagogue’, ‘Taken Away’), the toxicity of social media communication (‘Offended’), animal rights (‘The Animal’s Song’), and the utter stupidity of war (‘Soldier Song’). It concludes with a three-part “climate change suite” (‘Loss’, ‘Barren Planet’, ‘Why Did We Do It?’) that lays bare the tragic human consequences of catastrophic climate change.
The album also contains two cover versions, including of Bruce Cockburn’s immortal classic ‘Lovers in a Dangerous Time’ and Thin Lizzy’s ‘Holy War’.
“While growing up, certain passionate, activist musicians were very influential to me. So much so that I’d say they changed and shaped the person I would eventually become. There has never been a more crucial time for musicians to step up and add their voices to the chorus of reason necessary to take us back from the brink of total destruction,” says Allister Thompson.
“The year 2019 finds the human species standing at a crossroads, with only two possible directions: survival or extinction. Artists should contribute their strong and clear voices to dialogues that could lead to our survival and renewal.”
Allister Thompson has had a varied musical career, initially playing with Toronto-based glam-rock band Crash Kelly, together with Sean Kelly (now guitarist for Nelly Furtado), and opening for such notable artists as The Black Crowes and Alice Cooper. He later veered towards making traditional folk music, progressive rock and ambient music, recording several ambient rock albums as Twilight Fields and numerous albums of ambient/Krautrock/psychedelia under the monikers The Gateless Gate and Khan Tengri.
As of December 6, ‘Demagogue’ will be available via online stores and streaming platforms, including Spotify and iTunes, as well as Bandcamp. The full album ‘Song From The Age of Ruin’ LP will be released on February 1, 2019.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/twilightfields
http://twilightfields.bandcamp.com
http://twitter.com/gatelessgate1 -
R Seiliog – Obsidian
Welsh producer R.Seiliog aka Robin Edwards returns with his new LP ‘Megadoze’ a subtle shift from the sonic palette of critically acclaimed ‘In Hz’ and 2016’s ’Shedhead EP’. R.Seiliog creates a gentle stir from darkness, coaxing ambisonic visions of the void with synth-driven tides. ‘Megadoze’ refined prologue surges through visceral tapestries of static and haze merging ambient techno, musique concrète and field recordings.
Astounding lead track ‘Opal Drift’ with its enveloping structures builds through ambient textures and a bricolage of half-remembered techno and synth waves, it’s like the evocative sound of flowing water softly sculpting the rocks of the Black mountains. Second track ‘DC Offset’ weaves intricate sci-fi soundtrack layers bubbles, babbles and skitters with otherworldly presence echoing homage to the finest work of Brian Eno, its followed by the incredible ‘Obsidian’ its deep-glitch woven journey unfurls into an awe-inspiring interlude of sonic revelry in its final portion. Meanwh,ile the ambient hauntings and glacial washes of ‘Vitamin Filter’ are a masterclass in the melding of field recordings and motorik electronic beats, it’s equally the soundtrack to chilling-in, or going out.
‘Zemlya’ resonates and chimes with harmonics that conjure echoes of the percussive music of different continents from India to Africa, underscored by contrasting hues of sub-bass driven beats, crunchy granular glitch with instrumental swathes. The ambient drops of ‘Nectar Phase’with its viscous swells and fluxing breakbeat possess a timelessness. The glacial ‘Chalk Fields’ mirrors the sound of a rising sun casting cosmic beams onto your face as you lie in a dew-speckled field, samples of birds chirruping, streams flowing, a distant voice and stunning ambient textures arise into a moment of unified clarity.
Sonically daring and sewn with intricate genre-blurring levels of detail, each cut remains connected to the heart of nature in its elemental force, ‘Megadoze’ is perhaps R.Seiliog’s finest record yet.R.Seiliog emerged from the pine coned hills of Peniel, North Wales. Releasing the warm analog psychedelia of 2012’s ‘Shuffles EP’, and his debut long player 2013’s ‘Doppler’ which was a wide-eyed homage to Krautrock. Manic Street Preachers were so inspired by his debut album Doppler that the band entrusted Edwards to remix Manic Street Preachers’ single ‘Futurology’.
In 2014 the release of his critically acclaimed second album ‘In Hz’ a masterful work of convoluted drone and electronics. Which led Thump to herald it as “So good it hurts” and Mojo Magazine to say “R.Seiliog presides over a subtle, imaginative record that transcends many genres.” R. Seiliog’s work has received airplay from the likes of Huw Stephens, 6 Music – Mary Anne Hobbs, Radcliffe and Maconie and Lauren Laverne.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/r.seiliog
http://www.turnstilemusic.net/rseiliog-1 -
Cellista – Look Homeward, Angel
Cellista has announced her new album ‘Transfigurations’ album, which is set to release on May 31, 2019. Ahead of this, she is previewing the song ‘Look Homeward, Angel’ featuring the lyrics and rhymes of hip hop artist DEM ONE (a.k.a. Demone Carter) and beautiful soprano vocals by Melissa Wimbish. As a stage poem, ‘Transfigurations’ is a multi-media work that includes dance, poetry, original classical compositions, noise and sound textures.
“In 2017, Transfigurations began growing out of an avant-garde performance art piece I wrote, composed, and directed called ‘Wants’. It was meant to be a response to Trump and the rapid gentrification of the Bay, and address the tragedy of the Ghost Ship fire. Wants became a 20-minute film that my regular filmmaker Jennifer Gigantino shot and edited. The ruptures feature sounds from the Internet Archive and there are lots of historical recordings and found sounds, most originating from the Bay area,” explains Cellista.
‘Transfigurations’ is a response to the world we inhabit. It is meant to allow us all, singularly and as a community, to see the ruptures that punctuate our place in the present – The ache of the Ghostship that points to greater ruptures interwoven like veins; the call to resist the deadening of our world by institutions and false power, and the violence of gentrification and displacement. Above all, for Cellista, it is a way of seeing and sharing awareness of her own impact within this shared place.
Engineered by longtime collaborator Maryam Qudus and Grammy-winner Nahuel Bronzini, ‘Transfigurations’ features original compositions and arrangements by Cellista and also involves Bay area composers Peter Colclasure, Nick Vasallo and Be’eri Moalem with his piano quintet Tzeva Adom. The album also features the original poetry of Aubrey Ferreira, narrated by DEM ONE. The movements are composed and curated in a suite-like manner with genres ranging from thrash metal, noise, hip-hop, and classical music.
Cellista is an American experimental cellist and multidisciplinary artist. Her penchant for performing music in unconventional spaces and her devotion to collaborating with artists across media and genres disrupts the world of the classical performing arts. Cellista traverses the walls between disciplines and the borders between spectator and audience. She etches out her own niche through her performances of captivating theatrical recitals by interweaving film, text, and dance. Her work is deeply rooted in her musicological studies of Olivier Messiaen and the French Surrealists.
Cellista’s sound brims with a dissidence informed by her classical foundation and her want to tear that very foundation apart. It explores the sounds of her immediate community through sound collages and music curated to augment that community. Similarly, it explores the meeting point of musical borders and gives testimony to the fragile ecosystem of the San Francisco Bay Area that sits alongside the rest of the world in an increasingly vulgar epoch.
As an experimental cellist, performance artist and artistic director of the interdisciplinary performing arts group Juxtapositions, Cellista is known for her collaborations with artists across various media, as well as her self-produced stage poems (live performances staged in unconventional spaces that incorporate elements of music, theater, improvisation and visual art across a range of genres including pop, hip-hop, classical and more).
Her interdisciplinary exhibit ‘The End of Time’ premiered alongside internationally renowned visual artist Barron Storey’s solo exhibit ‘Quartet’ at the Anno Domini art gallery in San Jose, California. The dual exhibition, created in tribute to French composer Olivier Messiaen’s seminal chamber work ‘The Quartet for the End of Time’, was met with critical acclaim.
Cellista has worked with Grammy-nominated artist Tanya Donelly, producer John Vanderslice, Troyboi, Don McLean, Casey Crescenzo, Van Dyke Parks, and Pam the Funkstress. She recently joined soprano Carla Canales for Hear Her Song, a project that promotes women’s voices through original compositions by female composers. Under the musical direction of Kurt Crowley (Broadway’s Hamilton), her playing was praised.
Cellista’s debut 2016 full-length album ‘Finding San Jose’ was engineered by Maryam Qudus (Doe Eye). The album and its subsequent release as the soundtrack for an interdisciplinary ballet directed and produced by Cellista received favorable reviews.
“Transfigurations’ will be released on May 31, 2019, both digitally and on CD. Digital releases will be available on Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon and all major online stores. The CDs, which come with a full-length book and download code, will be available for purchase on Bandcamp and at shows.
In a region known for disrupting the status quo, Cellista is celebrating the legacy of the original disruptors
– Andrew Gilbert, San Jose Mercury NewsCellista is a classically-trained, punk rock spirited girl with the charm and elegance to defy the stereotype that classical music isn’t cool
– Belle FoundationBuilt on a classical foundation, her music is beautifully avant-garde yet accessible enough to touch one’s sensitivities and create intrigue surrounding her music, her world-view, her all-encompassing vision – elegantly combining sound, space, and dance in an impactful way and the meshed field of wonderment connecting them
– Big Takeover MagazineMore than just a cellist
– Nathan Zanon, Content MagazineShe gave me quotes to put around the emptiness. She gave me context. And subtext. And reflex-tions of what has now filled the void
– Gary Singh, journalist, poet, Steinbeck FellowAn overall brilliant gem. True to her “pastiche” curatorial style, this inclusion and collaboration with other creatives is what makes a captivating and mesmerizing listening experience
– Cherri Lakey, KQEDLINKS:
http://www.cellista.net
https://www.facebook.com/cellista.music
https://twitter.com/xcellistax
https://www.instagram.com/xcellistax
https://www.soundcloud.com/xcellistax
https://cellista.bandcamp.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/xcellistax/videos
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3sZ132TtThqqirlRB9BjFp