Rvng

Syrinx’s path veered from the dominant modes of ‘70s subculture, their version of chamber pop hybridized with wild, whimsical electronic experimentation charting new territory in the under and overground.
Formed by composer John Mills-Cockell after the dissolution of Intersystems, Syrinx’s two adventurous albums, Syrinx and Long Lost Relatives, endorsed the poetic potential of the avant-garde, subverting a turn of the ‘60s trend toward technological pageantry.
Tumblers From The Vault presents these two albums alongside the trio's unheard music, revisiting the Syrinx story and sharing their memorable, mind-bending melodies.

RVNG Intl's Frkwys is defined by the label as an "unrestricted series pairing contemporary artists with their influential predecessors…." This 11th volume places New York guitarist and songwriter Steve Gunn and veteran guitarist, electronicist, and experimentalist Mike Cooper in Lisbon. They spent ten days drinking wine in fado bars, and playing long informal sessions informed by fado – the Portuguese music whose roots can be traced to the early 19th century but are reported to date back much earlier, and was originally regarded as "the music of the poor." There are six improvisations here and one free-flowing cover: an expansive reading of the Mississippi Delta standard "Pony Blues" associated with Charley Patton.

serenitatem, the fifteenth installment of RVNG’s intergenerational FRKWYS series, joins Visible Cloaks with Yoshio Ojima and Satsuki Shibano, trailblazers of the Japanese ambient music scene in the 1980s and 90s. While the music excels on an environmental level familiar in the collective’s individual works, serenitatem reaches unseen stratums — a pure synthesis of artistic vision, technological sophistication, futurist ambition, and, occasionally, ancient polyphony.

Incredible album of bleeding-heart catharsis from cellist Oliver Coates, think Arthur Russell doing drone metal with Fennesz, and you’re not far off Coates’ capacity for tear-jerking genius here.

Like a rare comet, Suicide and Talking Heads producer Craig Leon returns nearly 40 years after his ‘Nommos’ and ‘Visiting’ LPs with their widescreen conceptual follow-up; ‘Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol.2: The Canon’. Apparently John Malkovich makes an appearance too…

The first new material from beloved Bay Area new age composer Pauline Anna Strom since 1988. Gamelan-esque rhythmic experiments, mind-expanding cosmic drones and smudgy tropical ambience - all the good stuff.