TranscendNoise

10. Tim Hecker – Love Streams Tim Hecker is the master of affective forces in music. Since his 2011 album Ravedeath 1972 , my listening to music and my experience of sound haven´t been the same. I have yet to experience this power in a life setting, but Hecker talking about the importance of fog, about the sheer intensity of loudness, actually feeling the sounds in your body stand as the reassurance, that this experience will be something to remember. His work with sounds is something entirely different from making music for enjoyment and is hard to grasp if you´re searching for easy listening. The understanding of drones, of elongated sounds, chopped organs and the semblances of air or fog have driven me to pursue studies of ephemerality and the sense and pushed me in a direction a book or teaching would have never accomplished. That being said, Love Streams is a departure or a side-step from his previous work and is already visible through his choice of colors for the a...

20. Jóhann Jóhannsson – Orphée Jóhannsson himself writes about the gaze of Orpheus towards his Eurydice in the vain of an interpretation given by Maurice Blanchot: The gaze, which turns Eurydice to dust, for that was Orpheus only condition in getting her back from the Underworld, is also the gaze of inspiration. This theme of creativity stemming from something that causes pain, something that is forbidden or transgresses a boundary is something we find in Orphée and Jóhansson´s work time and time again. These, mostly short, tracks follow a similar structure of sweeping, cascading upwards, while also crumbling, employing small sparkling sounds or musical ideas that seem to pick on the basis set for by strings and keys. This gives the undeniable feeling of unattainability, of never being able to grasp the beauty that lies in these small compositions. Much like a gaze, a peak of something breathtaking that will destroy it in retrospect. While the theme of the Orphic hymn reoccurs ...

30. ANOHNI – Hopelessness A drone attack leaving behind a girl wishing for death. The world burning as a cause of climate change, leaving the animals suffering and dead. The state of surveillance, being a happy reality of watching the watchers. Claiming to be a progressive western state, while still killing in the name of justice. Losing your love for it was something that only brought you pain. The leader everybody placed his hopes in, who couldn´t, for the life of him, change the unchangeable. The undercurrent of a world dominated by men being in turn dominated by bloodshed and Darwinist ideals. Losing your connection to the world you live in, mourning the death of your life-world. The effects of fighting alleged terrorism by acts of terrorism yourself, violence leading to acts against the violators. You yourself are the problem, the virus. Hello Americanism, disease without cure. If you´re dealing with music most of the time, you might run low on reading the news and ge...

40. Yohuna – Patientness Having a washed-out aesthetic is something that works quite well with female vocals, and Yohuna hits the sweet spot right away. Patientness is shoe-gaze with a very singer-songwriter mindset. The washed out sound, the effect-laden guitar, and the reverb-soaked vocals never overpower you, never fall into purely ecstatic moments, but leave nuance and especially enough of the vocals intact. Not that you necessarily get everything that is being said, but on tracks like “Steel Skins”, when the vocals are layered and harmonize with each other, the words are comprehensible enough to give meaning to them, which is equally true for high pitched “Golden Foil” and the sunrise attitude the song carries. The whole album has enough ideas and variations, to digress from any pinpointing and the band´s performance is set on stressing the mood of the vocals rather than creating it on their own. The best moments even recall something like Cocteau Twins or Imogen Heap, ...