Serena Butler - We Want Neither Clean Hands Nor Beautiful Souls (Stroboscopic Artefacts)
[T]he closing track is a bed for actor Emma Watson’s speech to the UN on gender equality. Her feminist call to arms, delivered in quivering RP, feels, frankly, a bit normie for a record that claims to be about “Butler’s personal juncture with the Queerverse”, but you can’t fault the tunes. — Chal Ravens
Angélique Kidjo - Remain in Light (Kravenworks)
[Q]uestions about cultural appropriation have orbited the album for years. Kidjo’s homage transforms the nature of these questions, both by infusing the songs with a new, collaborative authenticity and radiating a playful, open-hearted brilliance that makes Eno’s original production seem self-conscious by comparison. — Emily Pothast
Pierre Henry - Polyphonies (Radio France/Decca)
[T]here is a lot more to him as a composer, as a technician, as a sonic visionary of sounds untethered to their origins, than simply as one of the chief exponents of musique concrète – the 12 CDs that make up Polyphonies
make this fact abundantly clear. — Louise Gray
Kamaal Williams - The Return (Black Focus)
It blends a mostly dark and slow fusion with chopped up hiphop elements and an almost cinematic quality, as if Williams were soundtracking endless reels of South London streetscapes. — Brian Morton
Eva-Maria Houben - Breath for Organ (Second Editions)
Along with engines running at full throttle, [Peter] Handford documented trains at rest or undergoing maintenance, revealing the breath-like source of their enormous mechanical power. Houben engages with another pneumatic giant in the aftermath of its glory years and finds fascination in its inner life. — Julian Cowley
Susana Santos Silva - All the Rivers: Live at the Panteão Nacional (Clean Feed)
Her stillness is audible in the music, which proceeds very slowly, in short bursts of melodic narrative that are allowed to reverberate through the church’s complex marble interior, creating layers of overtones. — Brian Morton
John Cage - The Works for Percussion 4 (Mode)
In his article “Experimental Music” (...) [Cage] stated “relevant action is theatrical (music [imaginary separation of hearing from the other senses] does not exist)”. Whiting has appropriate flair as well as technique, understanding and judgment. — Julian Cowley
Joan La Barbara - The Early Immersive Music of Joan La Barbara (Mode)
The magic of her solo artistry lies not just in the sounds she projects but crucially in their intricate composition, forms envisaged beyond the boundaries of technique. — Julian Cowley
Ariadne - Stabat Mater (Auris Apothecary)
Christine Lanx’s sombre hymnals make clear her background in contemporary and early music. But deft electronic processing sees her voice twisted and refracted into barely recognisable forms. (...) Benjamin Forest, meanwhile, shadows her with ringing electronic frequencies, jags of burrowing noise. — Louis Pattison
Wire 15 (5)
Ariel Guzik -
Cordiox (VON Archives)
Bobbie Johnson -
You & I (Escape Route Media)
Tanya Tagaq -
Retribution (Six Shooter) +#396
Harriet Tubman -
Araminta (Sunnyside)
Various -
Total Reggae: Special Request (VP)
Dopplereffekt -
Cellular Automata (Leisure System)
Dead Neanderthals -
Craters (Consouling Sounds)
Sarah Angliss -
Ealing Feeder (Bandcamp)
Bill Orcutt -
Bill Orcutt (Palilalia)
Jo Thomas -
Sunshine Over Nimbus (Bandcamp) +#402
Maggi Payne -
Crystal (Aguirre)
Myra Melford Trio -
Alive in the House of Saints (hatART)
Melaine Dalibert -
Ressac (Another Timbre)
Anji Cheung -
Spirit as Creature (Utech) +#405
Wadada Leo Smith -
Najwa (TUM)
record of the year
Bill Orcutt -
Bill Orcutt (Palilalia)
