Stonewashed #002: Only The Sound Remains
Landscape music, disappearing sounds, and the places that shape us. Plus 13 suggestions for seasonal mind travel.
Welcome to Stonewashed, a space for sharing thoughts on music, performance, and being an artist in the modern world.
This one’s about erosion, sound as living remnant, and allowing ourselves to listen.
As you travel, especially over a period of time, what starts to stand out are the contrasts. On my recent trip, Cincinnati revealed itself through the lens of Pittsburgh and Brooklyn, where I had also recently spent time. As I walked the neighborhoods, I was captivated by the sense of history, the industrial infrastructure, and the stories embedded in the gentle decay unique to these cities. I can see what sets these places apart as much as what links them together. Cincinnati feels like a gritty underdog, somehow forgotten. Chili on top of spaghetti? Surprisingly good. Pittsburgh holds fast to its brick-clad steel town history in glorious soot-covered stone. Handmade pierogies really are so much better than Mrs. T’s. And NYC is a living place unto itself, massive in scale, but with everything you could ever need.
I’m choosing a perspective of bounty, and there is so much to be grateful for. November means it’s officially harvest season, which means a wealth of incredible recent tunes to soak in. As the days get darker, I’ve made a fresh mix to help guide the way. Each place carries its own frequency, what we hear just depends on where we’re standing.
This issue’s playlist follows that logic, mapping sound across landscapes from glacial Alaska to the glow of Buenos Aires. Many of these artists build their music in direct relationship with the natural world. Field recordings are living archives, recording patterns of glacial melt, wind, and water. These are the sounds of fragile ecosystems, places that may disappear. Listening then, becomes a way of honoring these spaces.
Slowly Shifting:
Only The Sound Remains
The Playlist:
Penelope Trappes - Litany
John Thayer - Beginner’s Mind
Alan Graves - Phase Shear
Ruth Mascelli & Mary Hanson Scott - Blue Of Noon
Rosales - Loom
Baseck & Brad Rose - Bliss Garden Part 2
Saapaato - Salmon Run
The Cosmic Tones Research Trio - Photosynthesis
Pablo Diserens - world in the process of making itself
Ismael Pinkler - Verde Profundo
Elijah Jamal Asani - æolian shallows
Chaz Knapp - wm jan19 24(i)
Felicia Atkinson - Ochre
Total playtime: 50 minutes
Photos this issue are from Crown Heights, NY and Pittsburgh’s North Side.
Now to dig deeper:
Penelope Trappes - Litany
From the album Æternum (One Little Independent Records)
I’ve been swept away by Penelope Trappes this year. Like Diamanda on 16RPM, the work is entrancing, but also a bit frightening. With the newly released Æternum EP, Penelope Trappes delivers an emotive offering to the Autumn winds. Not far behind the stunning A Requiem album, this latest arrived on Samhain, acting as a companion EP to the recent work. It’s a lovely idea, to expand and complement your own music, with an epilogue of sorts. It feels like a thoughtful post script, bringing a deeper view into the living shadow world that Trappes inhabits. With the epic scope of cinematic scores, and the delicacy of intimate ritual, the work is raw and hypnotic, humming with life. There is a consistent edge, as with the best of fairy tales. Trappes’ music carries an animist beauty, barely obscuring the menace beneath the surface.
John Thayer - Beginner’s Mind
From the album Winds Gate (Aural Canyon)
John Thayer is a New York composer with a deep connection to the natural spaces around him. Exploring his past work, I’ve discovered a wealth of thoughtful compositions, created in relationship to the landscape, and in honor of the natural path. The artists gentle methods exist in symbiosis with the spaces themselves, both powerful and fragile. Aural Canyon is absolutely relentless. They’ve been consistently releasing high quality ambient and new-age music for years now, and even for a label devotee like me, it’s almost impossible to keep up. You can always trust them to open your third eye every time. Winds Gate is a resonant marvel, created with natural sounds collected from Lake Tear of the Clouds, the very source of the Hudson River located high in the Adirondack Mountains. Water is life, after all. A singular work of reflected space and shifting sequence, ever so softly smeared.
Alan Graves - Phase Shear
From the album A Possible Wind (Bathysphere Records)
Bathysphere is an imprint to watch, consistently releasing beautiful small-batch editions of high quality ambient and experimental music. With A Possible Wind, LA artist Alan Graves has put forth a fascinating work of great depth and beauty. Created using years worth of field recordings of wind sounds collected from the PNW coastline, bamboo forests of Hawaii, and the wilderness of rural California, the work forms a complex narrative of parallels. Air is difficult to see, but present everywhere. When we hear wind, what we actually hear is usually the effect of air moving quickly across stationary objects, or living materials in the path of the wind. The music here flows as remnants, forming an emotional bridge to place, and creating a doorway to distant memory. We follow the artist’s literal path, physically traveling across these spaces — but in wider perspective, we are welcomed to witness a spectacular view, much greater than our own. The music is a reverent expression of connection, a document of motion through place, and a gift to us all.
Ruth Mascelli & Mary Hanson Scott - Blue Of Noon
From the album Esoteric Lounge Music Now (Disciples)
Esoterica is in the eye of the beholder. One might argue that all knowledge exists on a spectrum of accessibility, and we only label something as esoteric when our own understanding fails. The path here is a refreshing steamy noir, like a fine evening smog. Mary Hanson Scott’s unique methods are a perfect complement to the dark electro-croon of New Orleans artist Ruth Mascelli. A regular performer and collaborator around the Twin Cities, Scott uses focused modes of saxophone improvisation to rupture space and time. Combined here with Mascelli’s process, the pair provide a compelling path forward. Patterns projected onto a fractured mirrorball create wild, angular reflections. There is no light without shadow. These selected works may fall beyond our current understanding of lounge music as we know it, but the time is now. Sometimes we just gotta groove, y’ know? Welcome to the new world.
Rosales - Loom
From the album Woven Songs (Home Normal)
I’ve been really into soft fabrics lately. It’s a nice, tactile reminder of the simple joys and comforts of life. Rosales is the collaborative duo of Ian Hawgood and Brad Deschamps, each respective solo artists of great merit. The duo work together here to create a series of tracks each carrying distinct weight and sense of transport, collected and contained within the frame of shorter time spans. The work uses an analog process of magnetic tape to distort and extend reality into beautiful new shapes and forms, and these gentlemen use exceedingly soft fabrics. While it’s not technically a new release, the title has recently been published on lovely CD and vinyl editions, so I picked it up with open ears. The re-issue coincides with another new album from Rosales titled ‘To Live’, also worth deeply investing in. Woven Songs feels organic, the textures laced into entrancing patterns, a welcome soft landing.
Baseck & Brad Rose - Bliss Garden Part 2
From the single Bliss Garden Part 2 (Bliss Garden)
Gardening is an act of care. Since I first started putting this mix together, the Tulsa based duo of Baseck and Brad Rose have released another Part Three of the ongoing Bliss Garden Series, with more to come, representing a further extension of an ever growing garden. The pair present these fruitful works staggered in time, gathered together in broader view to form a greater landscape. The music drifts between control and chaos, finding release in that tension. This can be a risky balance, as these spaces require steady hands. But the pair navigate the terrain bravely, offering a glimmer of fertile soil for we, the damaged few. Seeds eventually bloom, a hopeful offering for the days to come. Each fragment hefts an essential surge, pushing the listener into dream state, until the rest of the world just disappears.
Saapato - Salmon Run
From the album In Alaska (AKP Recordings)
I’m a big fan of this label, everything I’m into lately is like “oh cool it’s on AKP”. Saapato has had an incredible year, releasing the collaborative epic Decomposition: Fox on a Highway back in March on Constellation Tatsu, plus presenting work at Sound Pavillion, a spatial sound installation with Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, and performing across the USA with ambient legends like Laraaji and Don Slepian. This new album was created with location-based field recordings, collected while an artist in residence with Alaska State Park Service. The music carries a weight of what could be lost, spreading a message of hopeful caution. It’s a landscape of extremes, with all the rules that apply. Saapaato’s work has continued to evolve as it examines the impact of humanity on nature, and the continued cycles of elemental decomposition. Nature can be beautiful, but it isn’t kind. In Alaska is a glowing gust from the Arctic Circle, where the moonlight meets the water.
The Cosmic Tones Research Trio - Photosynthesis
From the album The Cosmic Tones Research Trio (Mississippi Records)
Converting light into energy. Last year’s self-titled LP from The Cosmic Tones Research Trio was on my top records of the year, so of course I snapped up this new one ASAP. It’s a good thing too, as it appears the first pressing of the recently released vinyl is already out of print, but still available on CD, and tape thankfully. The track “Photosynthesis”, selected here is a lovely one, a mellow mover through keys and spectral arpeggio, a small slice of heaven emerging from a world on fire. The Trio has been on fire too, having recently performed at Le Guess Who in Netherlands, with concerts across the US including Brooklyn, Portland, and the Woodsist Festival. The Cosmic Tones Research Trio’s music brings a sense of spiritual simplicity, a reflection of the beauty that might be. Love is powerful. We live together, create together, and grow to survive. Thanks to the fine folks of Mississippi Records for spreading the Trio’s tones around the world, may they bloom and grow.
Pablo Diserens - world in the process of making itself
From the album Ebbing Icelines (forms of minutiae)
The forms of minutiae label, stylized f-o-m, does great work, housing a range of rare sonic ecologies, unique field recordings, and contemporary experimental music in a brilliantly curated catalog of deep listening. Sound artist and field recordist Pablo Diserens brings ‘ebbing ice lines’, an offering of minimal ecological drone created with textures of glaciers collected through the Low Arctic’s melting zones of Iceland and Finland. It’s a work of patience and connection, built in relationship with the eroding landscape. Experiencing the work fully requires a recognition of what it takes to get to these places in the remote wilderness, and an understanding of how important it is to document what’s happening there. As the world changes, some of these places and sounds may literally disappear. Recorded sound can play a crucial role in documenting, measuring, and recognizing these issues of natural conservation. From the ice series, a part of UNESCO & WMO’s Art for Glaciers Preservation. Thanks to Pablo for giving a voice to the glaciers themselves.
Ismael Pinkler - Permanencia
From the album Verde Profundo (Evergreen Music)
Buenos Aires artist and producer Ismael Pinkler has brought forth a lovely statement of living breath, with subtly shifting tones, and sequences of careful motion. Sustainable, ecologically-focused music is somewhat rare, so it feels important to support and highlight these works as they appear. Evergreen Music is a UK based ambient label, specializing in eco-conscious practice, with zero-carbon footprint, and using recycled materials. They focus on an organic, meditative sound, supporting a range of international artists working within these modes. With Verde Profundo, Pinkler has created depth through minimalism, a work that causes the listener to slow down and appreciate the details. The selected track Permanencia brings a slow push, as air moves and fills the space, a peaceful moment of forced rest. Biologically speaking, the one thing that is truly permanent is the concept of perpetual change. That endless cycle of life is the one thing we can always count on.
Elijah Jamal Asani - æolian shallows {{& before we even open our eyes,, the natural quiet sees us}}
From the album ,,, as long as i long to memorise your sky ,,, (AKP Recordings)
Oh cool, it’s on AKP. Elijah Jamal Asani has delivered an opus of what I’m now calling “landscape music”, inspired directly from his time spent in artist residency at Grand Canyon National Park. The track æolian shallows is a technicolor memory, each moment a flash of sunlight refracted. A soft poem of shadow on stone. I’ve hiked down into the Grand Canyon myself, and tell you what, it’s a lot harder to get back up than it is to get down. They literally have signs warning that you might puke. The endless vista has got to be good for the nervous system though, and I can sense the grandeur in the feeling and narrative of this gorgeous music. It’s emotional and real, while simultaneously somehow ethereal and other-worldly. Some of the most dramatic things in nature that I’ve ever seen, seem to fit this balance — somehow more than real, like actual magic. Of all the natural places to inspire beautiful art, The Grand Canyon has got to be at the very top of the list.
Chaz Knapp - wm jan19 24(i)
From the album Winter Music (Aural Canyon)
Knapp brings the cold air a little early, I still haven’t raked out front yet! Aural Canyon is in its prime, yet another recent example being this eerie new solo work from Chaz Knapp. This is the next step forward with the artist’s ongoing microfolk series, where the artist improvises outdoors using tape loops in nature. This practice sounds wonderful in theory, I love playing outside, but what about doing it in less ideal scenarios? The title is literal, as these works were recorded in the raw cold of Winter, and I can only imagine how the hands would cramp up after just a few minutes when exposed to frigid temps. Shaped by the environment, these crisp works bring a chill under the collar, I can practically feel the freeze cutting through my loose cotton weaves. This relationship is further accentuated by the use of exclusively acoustic instruments, bringing these natural elements together through analog process and location based methods to form a compelling new whole. Just defrost it first.
Felicia Atkinson - Ochre
From the album Promenades (Shelter Press)
There is a graceful sense of space in this music, a calming balance so difficult to capture. As the artist says “following an invisible river”. This singular element is what’s often missing elsewhere, an ability to levitate with one single note — so elusive. French artist Felicia Atkinson left an indelible mark last year with the stunning Space As An Instrument, and I’d say that idea runs steadily through all of her work. Recorded in Winter while thinking of Spring, this latest album Promenades presents a series of meditative vignettes focused on color and synesthesia. The prompt of “walking around” begins a conversation of listening through movement, keeping momentum, and various modes of active meditation. I myself tend to do better when I’m moving. Over the past year, the artist has maintained a busy international schedule, performing more than two dozen concerts across 11 countries, so I’d say there is an element of movement there as well. The cassettes have already disappeared, but digital lasts forever.
As these darker months settle around us, I hope these sounds offer you the same sense of connection they’ve given me. These are reminders that even in erosion, something vital remains. Keep listening.
This is Stonewashed, a growing chronicle of music, place, and creative reality. If this resonates, please subscribe for more.
☮❣ — Matthew
STONEWASHED by Matthew Hiram
Stonewashed is a chronicle of creative reality, tracing the inner and outer landscapes of life and sound.
www.matthewhiram.com