Concepts 2022.4

This anthology is the second compilation from EM Records of the works of the late Henry Kawahara, a media artist and electronic music producer who was particularly active in the Japanese cyber-occult underground of the 1990s, a scene linked with technologies such as 3D (binaural) recordings, brain machines, sound chairs, computer graphics and compact discs. These tracks, produced 1990-95, include a series of recordings described as “Parallel Data Sounds” and “Sound LSD”, a “new language system that speaks directly to the cerebrum” using “frequency components that are not perceived by the conscious mind”, reflecting Kawahara’s interest in concepts such as astrology, love mantras, and astral projection. Also here are two pieces featuring dolphin sounds and human brainwave feedback, as well as pieces from a recording unit called H Music De-perception (HMD) and a group called Xiaoyun.

Yoko Ono's catalog isn't easy to navigate or even define at times. Even when John Lennon was on board as a collaborator – band member, producer or cheerleader – her music could be willfully difficult and stubbornly uncommercial. She's a singular artist, maybe more so than her late husband and his famous band, which makes any tribute to her vast recorded work an uphill charge not exactly suited for the easily intimidated. The 14 brave souls who tackle Ono's music on Ocean Child: Songs of Yoko Ono can't truly replicate her distinctive path, and much of the source material hinges on her artist's right to explore those paths via routes of her choosing. In other words, they're not songs in the traditional sense. There have been some interpretable tracks over the years: "Who Has Seen the Wind?," "Listen, the Snow Is Falling" and "Walking on Thin Ice" are close enough to pop music.

Fade To Black is Carmen Lundy's 16th album and one of her most personal to date. Grammy® Nominated for her previous album Modern Ancestors, these 11 original songs, written and arranged by Carmen Lundy, were conceived during the challenging months of the pandemic and reflect this time of great loss, sorrow, healing, and hope for a brighter, more inclusive future for us all. Tackling the difficult social issues of our time while also musing on the joys of love and relationships, this stunning set of songs takes us on an emotional journey that culminates in the extraordinary hymn-like ballad titled "Rest In Peace". Jazzy, passionate, introspective, thoughtful, smart, kind, honoring and loving, Carmen has crafted an album without borders that transfixes it's listeners.

Thisness is Miles Okazaki's third volume of compositions for Trickster, a quartet featuring Matt Mitchell on piano, Anthony Tidd on bass, and Sean Rickman on drums. The album is a set of themes that are shuffled and connected in different ways to make four large movements.

Tyler Mitchell was a member of the Sun Ra Arkestra with Marshall in 1985 with Sun Ra, then much later when Marshall became musical director. On this recording Tyler has the opportunity to perform Marshall Allen's and Sun Ra's compositions with a small ensemble. They used different ideas and concepts from two of Tyler’s former band leaders: Arthur Taylor and the Sun Ra Arkestra.

On each of her albums, Jenny Hval thoroughly examines what it means to be an artist, but on Classic Objects, she explores what it means to be herself. Like so many other people, during the COVID-19 global pandemic and its ensuing lockdowns Hval's life shrank down to a simple day-to-day existence – a challenging situation for an artist and performer who shares their work with the outside world and, in turn, draws inspiration from it. For her 4AD debut, Hval used her simpler existence as a self-described "private person" as source material for a set of songs so intimate and expansive that they feel like shared memories. Rather than a simplification of her music, Classic Objects feels like a distillation of it.