SPIN's 20 Best Avant Albums of 2015

Liturgy is a Brooklyn-based, self-styled “Transcendental Black Metal” band whose yearning, energetic music exists in an uncanny space between avant rock, black metal, fine art and shamanic ritual.

FELICIA ATKINSON A READYMADE CEREMONY SHELTER PRESS shelter-press.com/055-Felicia-Atkinson-A-Readymade-Ceremony Technical 5 tracks / 32 min / 12′ LP - CD - DL / 2015 edition of 500 copies (LP) / 160grm vinyl, uncoated sleeve, uncoated inner sleeve / 100 copies on clear wax, remaning on black edition of 1000 copies (CD) / digipack 2 panels All music by Felicia Atkinson / Mastered by Helmut Erler at D+M Out on Mar. 17, 2015 15 euros / BUY Tracklist A1. Against Archives A2. L'Oeil B1. The book is the territory B2. Carve the concept and the artichoke B3. Recherche de la base et du sommet Extract About Relocated in the french Alps following a 5 years exile in Belgium, Felicia Atkinson returns on Shelter Press with A Readymade Ceremony, a concrete / post-digital oratorio in 5 parts. Composed and recorded at home and on the Oregon coast, the opus documents a full range of bridges happening in Atkinson’s work. It documents the gather of her early-musical studies with her actual musical practice, the reunion of her two main projects — under her own name and Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier — and finally affirms the obvious link between her visual and sonic body of work. Felicia Atkinson is a visual artist, a writer and musician graduated from Les Beaux-Arts de Paris. Her visual works - sculptures, paintings, installations and collages - includes a variety of media gathered together through the use of improvisation and its patterns such as delay, loop and saturations, with a chosen list of special tools : clay, silk, spray paint, watercolor, wood, or digital images… Using the improvisation as a main technique to play music, write poetry and make art, her latest output is the book Improvising Sculpture as Delayed Fiction, a fiction / play published by Shelter Press in the fall of 2014. Pursuing a radical position in the art world with the use of a publishing / economical autonomy as a very crucial element driving her carrier, this LP has been entirely recorded on her laptop using a super basic software. Felicia Atkinson reaffirms here the importance of the DIY in her creating process : the artist-run space as a place to exhibit, the studio space as a whole territory to record, the book as a score, the record itself as a proper documentation for a possible sculpture. A readymade as the migration of one thing to another one’s context, involving a change of status, of genre, of politics. A ceremony as a possible gathering, a community shared moment, a happening, a celebration, a protest. The first foundation of A Readymade Ceremony is the text, spread along the 5 tracks building the record. The text is a collage of extracts of Improvising Sculpture as Delayed Fictions (Félicia Atkinson, 2014), Recherche de la Base et du Sommet (René Char, 1955), and Madame Edwarda (Georges Bataille, 1937), and some random texts lying around while Atkinson was playing, mostly picked in the italian magazine Mousse. Objects speaking, sculptures arguing : there is a surrealistic feel in the dark whisperings that we can hear responding to ‘Madame Edwarda’ an erotic text featured on the 2nd track ‘L’oeil’. A theatre of objects and desires, de-materialization of bodies through the sounds, it’s a gate open to concrete music and sound poetry. » The other founding element is Atkinson’s getting back to her first encounter with contemporary music. Starting her musical education at the age of 4 acquiring music skills with the Martenot Method - a method that emphasis on rhythm and an intuitive and phenomenological learning of sound - she also got the chance to encounter at school the Structures Baschet from the Frères Baschet. She then learned harp and piano before dropping it at 14, when she got more interested in theatre and indie rock. That is the moment she discovered the texts of the heritage of French literature such as Georges Bataille, Antonin Artaud, René Char, Henri Michaux or Jean Genet. Writers she convokes again 17 years after on this new record. As a student she did a crucial workshop with Christian Wolff who made the art school students interpret Cornelius Cardew, and play music with stones and kitchen wares at the school’s chapel. At same time she became interested by John Cage, Fluxus, Robert Ashley, Morton Feldman, electro-acoustic music and contemporary art… and began to play music and do art… But it took her more than 10 years to acknowledge and digest those influences… blending them with rougher materials such as noise, punk rock, drone, folk and electronic music, but also cinema from the 70’s such as Brian de Palma, Nicolas Roeg, or Dario Argento…. There’s something about a possible scary music that happens here, from a feeling she felt while listening to Pierre Henry’s ‘Apocalypse de Jean’ as a kid: something scary and beautiful in the same time….something uncanny, as Ruth White reciting Baudelaire… as a readymade ceremony. And now let’s ask four questions to the tracklisting, and give on answer : Against Archives / What could be the answer of a french woman in her 30’s answering to this mostly-masculine core of references? L’oeil / What about asking a sweater or an electronic device to speak? The book is the territory / It’s all about nostalgia : how the shifting of time changes our vision of the past and the future, like an echo or a delay ? Carve the concept and the artichoke / Is this a waiting room? the prologue of an inexistent play or an introduction for a possible delayed climax ? Recherche de la base et du sommet / Meaning « research of the base and the peak » in french, as a raw reading of René Char. « There is always a lack in the accident. there is no accident in the expression . (..) the poet is not made of wood. The mouth and the eye speak separately » Out on March 17th, mastered and cut at D+M by Helmut Erler, out on LP / CD / DL

Matana Roberts is one of the most acclaimed, socio-politically conscious and aesthetically intrepid avant-jazz practitioners of the 21st century. The critical accolades for her multi-chapter Coin Coin work place her at the vanguard of stylistic innovation and radicalization, while confirming the deep substance and soul that guides her compositional agenda. Roberts has long employed the phrase "panoramic sound quilting" to describe Coin Coin, and with this third chapter in the series she implements this metaphor most overtly, creating a sound art tapestry from field recordings, loop and effects pedals, and spoken word recitations, alongside her saxophone and singing voices. Coin Coin Chapter Three: river run thee unfolds as an uninterrupted album-length flow, in what Roberts calls "a fever dream" of sonic material, inspired by a solitary research-based road trip Roberts took through the American South in early 2014.  Fragments of traditional song are the album's main touchstones, with Roberts' singing voice riding atop waves of radiophonic texture, layered spoken word, and an often dislocated, wandering horn. It is the first explicitly solo work in the Coin Coin series, and a fascinating extension of the cycle; yet another adventurous, socially engaged definition of what Jazz can mean in this day and age.

Every major record released by Daniel Bachman has rightly been greeted by critical acclaim. Starting with 2012’s Seven Pines and running through 2014’s Orange Co. Seranade, each album has been lauded as his best release to date. In each of these instances, the critics have been correct. Even more impressive than the breadth and depth of each album has been the fact that Bachman has continued to top himself with respect to composition, technique, instrumentation and artistry on such a consistent basis. Given this sort of track record, what can we expect from River? Simply stated, River is Bachman’s best album. Everything written previously by the critics about his albums applies once again with one change: he just got better. Unconventionally, it opens with the breathtaking and robust fourteen minute epic “Won’t You Cross Over To That Other Shore.” Proving his ability to write music that keeps the listener engaged (even across such a long tune), Bachman successfully uses tempo changes, varied picking patterns and melodic exploration, all without ever getting lost in pointless improvisation too far from the overall theme. Bachman has always been quick to have his music serve as a homage to his musical and geographical roots in Virginia. River is no exception. Here he tips his hat to Jack Rose (“Levee”) and William Moore (“Old Country Rock”) through his interpretations of their songs. Bachman’s playing and flourishes on these tracks simultaneously acknowledge the influence each of these men has on his development and style. His love for old American music and deft skill at adapting traditional tunes allows listeners of all levels of sophistication to feel welcome at his musical table. Whether one is newly discovering the world of American primitivism, or is already deeply into the experimental world, Bachman’s playing draws the listener in and takes them places. On three of River’s successive tracks – “Farnham,” “Song For The Setting Sun I” and “Song For The Setting Sun II” – Bachman takes the listener on an aural journey through the back roads of the foothills of the Blue Ridge to calm coastal waters. Much like driving by a stunning vista and feeling compelled to pull over and take it all in, “Song for the Setting Sun I” continually surprises with a beautiful set of melodies that cause you to stop anything else you are doing in anticipation of how the music will continue to unfold. This track alone demonstrates the leap that is River in Bachman’s maturity of both artistry and compositional understanding. The album closes with a reprise of "Won’t You Cross Over To That Other Shore." As its notes play out, it is almost certain that you will continuously hum one or another of the album’s rich melodies long after play has ended. River marks the first time that Bachman has recorded an album in a proper studio. The album’s recording quality is remarkable, and translates an intimacy as if Bachman is playing only for his listener. Recorded on a single day as a series of live and overdub-free takes, the sound is exceptionally natural, leaving the over produced and sterile vibe of previous records behind. The movement of the guitar on his leg, his breathing, an accidentally muted note or an overly excited resonating bass string make River a living document of contemporary solo guitar music. Over the course of the last several years Daniel Bachman has stepped out of the shadow of influential solo guitarists past and present. River, the definitive document of his skill and talent, proves that Bachman is pushing the boundaries of solo acoustic guitar. -- Marcus Obst / Dying For Bad Music

Known as America’s most prominent noise figurehead, for nearly 20 years under the moniker of PRURIENT, Dominick Fernow has created a sonic entity unlike any other in the realm of experimental, ambient, and noise music respectively. Throughout a massive repertoire that consists of full-lengths, EPs, splits, singles, limited cassette runs and 7” releases etc. PRURIENT is one of the most important artists to define and reinvent the genre of noise music which in turn has made Fernow one of the premiere visionaries in the entire genre of experimental music. Throughout the years PRURIENT has been known to constantly shape shift its sound into many mutations and incarnations within the noise genre through massive layered walls of sound consisting of harsh feedback, tortured vocals, meticulous sampling, machine-like industrial pounding, entrancing synth work, enticing beats, and waves of electronica to create an aura that treads the fine line of harsh noise extremity and atmospheric beauty. PRURIENT’s first full-length album since the 2011 game changer “Bermuda Drain” sees Fernow deliver the most ambitious and massive PRURIENT album to date. A double-album clocking in at a near 90-minutes entitled “Frozen Niagara Falls”, the new PRURIENT album is set to define Fernow even more as a master within all the genres PRURIENT tends to crossover into. In what encompasses moments familiar from the entire PRURIENT catalog along with creating something entirely new and different from what PRURIENT has previously done, “Frozen Niagara Falls” (in which its journey began to manifest in late 2013 and was finally completed on Valentine’s Day 2015) could very well be recognized as the PRURIENT magnum opus.

London-based experimentalist Luke Younger (a.k.a HELM) returns to PAN with 'Olympic Mess’, a record born of destructive practice, competing desires, and troubled optimism. Where his previous effort, 2014's 'The Hollow Organ,' dealt in dense, distressed sonics, 'Olympic Mess' is Younger responding to a period spent engaged with loop-based industrial music, dub techno, and balearic disco. These musical references, all of which can induce hypnotic states and feelings of euphoria, inform ten evocative aural landscapes which unfurl over the course of an hour and act almost as a counterpoint to the turmoil that spawned them. "It's about exploring a perverse desire to pull the rug from under yourself, and the struggle to achieve a healthy equilibrium between one's personal and artistic lives," Younger says. "Dealing with the problematic consequences of pushing your own limits, forming and dissolving relationships, transient lifestyles, physical and mental exhaustion, excess, and other kinds of personal chaos". Crafted using an array of heavily processed samples, found sound and electroacoustics, personal conflict manifests in "I Exist In A Fog" and "Outerzone 2015," where visceral noise disintegrates into veiled, ambient strata. The disquieting crescendos of "The Evening In Reverse" and "Fluid Cloak" offer no such relief, while the title track and "Don't Lick The Jacket" are mineral, multilayered abstractions twisting around a brittle pulse. Following a period of extensive touring throughout the States and Europe, which included 20 dates in support of Danish punk group Iceage, 'Olympic Mess' was recorded in London, New York and Berlin by Sean Ragon, Luke Younger and John Hannon. The album is mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, pressed on 140g 2xLP and CD. It features photography by Kim Thue and artwork by Bill Kouligas.

Holly Herndon's second album Platform proposes new fantasies and rejuvenates old optimism. Herndon has become a leading light in contemporary music by experimenting within the outer reaches of dance music and pop songwriting possibilities. A galvanising statement, Platform signals Herndon's transformation as an electronic musician to a singular voice. For More Info: shop.igetrvng.com/collections/all/products/rvngnl29

The Necks 18th album Vertigo is an eventful, kaleidoscopic tone poem set against a darkly shimmering background. Slowly but inexorably moving forward, it crosses many frontiers yet remains true to the mission and mood established in the opening stanzas of this cinematic 44 minute journey. A work able to be viewed either as a whole, or two symmetrical halves, Vertigo sees The Necks once again offer an excursion in sound that reflects both the light and darkness of some preternatural world. Vertigo will be released on 30th October in North America by Northern Spy Records. It follows their acclaimed 2013 album Open, described by SPIN as ‘the most beautiful album of the year’. In contrast to the sustained improvisations that are their live performances, The Necks’ studio albums take shape by way of intricate crafting brought to bear throughout the entire recording and mixing process. “The discussion this time really began in earnest in the session itself, where we started to pursue the idea of having a drone running from start to finish, off which we could hang ideas,” said bassist Lloyd Swanton “But like all Necks albums we ended up in a very different place from whatever our initial notion of it had been.” Maintaining a teetering tension between suspension and collapse, Vertigo draws on a diverse palette of sounds created in the studio by Tony Buck (drums/percussion/guitar), Lloyd Swanton (bass) and Chris Abrahams (piano/keyboards), featuring everything from homemade instruments, extended instrumental techniques and marathon explorations of sonic textures. One piece, at the same time two. Monochrome, yet multicoloured. Dark, yet incandescent. Expansive and still. Melancholic and exhilarating. The Necks. Vertigo.