2023

Wire 15 (11)
Slumberland & Sainkho Namtchylak - Lightkeeper (Morphine)
Ryuichi Sakamoto - 12 (Milan / Sony)
Beatriz Ferreyra - Senderos de Luz y Sombras (Ina-GRM)
Satoko Fujii & Otomo Yoshihide - Perpetual Motion (Ayler)
Genesis P-Orridge & The Hafler Trio - Dream Less Suite (Cortizona)
Anchor & Burden - Kozmonautic Pilgrimage (Moonjune) +#471
Uboa - The Origin of My Depression (The Flenser)
Dwight Trible - Ancient Future (Gearbox Records)
Various - Disruptive Frequencies (Nonclassical)
JG Thirlwell / Mivos Quartet - Dystonia (Cantaloupe) +#474
Seven)Suns - One of Us is the Killer (Silent Pendulum)
Éliane Radigue - In Memoriam-Ostinato / Danse des Dakinis (Alga Marghen)
Rozenhall - Dance of the Aberrant (ADAADAT / Firework Edition Records)
Shackleton / Zimpel with Siddhartha Belmannu - In the Cell of Dreams (7K!)
Steve Lehman & Orchestre National de Jazz - Ex Machina (Pi) +#478

record of the year
Ryuichi Sakamoto - 12 (Milan / Sony)

#478

Shackleton / Zimpel with Siddhartha Belmannu - In the Cell of Dreams (7K!)

Three long pieces of overlapping drone form the bulk of the album. Its 21 minute opener “The Ocean Lies Between Us” layers electronics, gong-like sounds and vocal chanting. As vast and deep as its title would suggest, it feels like it could continue forever. — Claire Biddles

#477

Rozenhall - Dance of the Aberrant (ADAADAT / Firework Edition Records)

[Rozenhall’s] music may seem cosmic in scope, but it thrives on turbulence, conveying a sense of impending chaos rather than ethereal tranquillity. — Julian Cowley

#476

Éliane Radigue - In Memoriam-Ostinato / Danse des Dakinis (Alga Marghen)

In Memoriam-Ostinato/Danse Des Dakinis belongs to Radigue’s feedback era – a little-chronicled point in her career when she was working primarily with magnetic tape. — Hannah Pezzack

#475

Seven)Suns - One of Us is the Killer (Silent Pendulum)

The transcription of Greg Puciato’s leading vocal melodies into electrifying motifs on “Prancer”, the maelstrom of tremolo, martelé and spiccato bowed strings on “When I Lost My Bet” and the threatening unison hum of “Crossburner” are just a few of many superb details here. — Antonio Poscic

#474

Various - Disruptive Frequencies (Nonclassical)

You will not witness a more surprising, engaging, mindblowing collection of experimental music in 2023 because these are people whose music provides blissful and bruising counterpoint to the dead-end, blanched out, racially parochial narratives of so much experimental UK music. — Neil Kulkarni

#473

Dwight Trible - Ancient Future (Gearbox Records)

This is a compelling album that makes a strong argument for Trible as much more than a 1970s throwback. He’s too weird for that. — Phil Freeman

#472

Uboa - The Origin of My Depression (The Flenser)

The Flenser is now reissuing Uboa’s 2019 album (...) on vinyl, sealing her transgender grief and personal trauma onto wax for the first time. — Rosie Esther Solomon

#471

Genesis P-Orridge & The Hafler Trio - Dream Less Suite (Cortizona)

This sprawling double LP consists of recordings made over several years by The Hafler Trio’s Andrew McKenzie and the late Genesis P-Orridge, as ‘resurrected’ and completed by McKenzie. — Emily Pothast

#470

Satoko Fujii & Otomo Yoshihide - Perpetual Motion (Ayler)

Even when he’s bashing the guitar like it’s a drum, Otomo is matching Fujii’s gestures, not undermining them. — Bill Meyer

#469

Beatriz Ferreyra - Senderos de Luz y Sombras (Ina-GRM)

Layers of sustained musique concrète continuously fold over and into each other, opening into the reverberance of an outer space littered with thermal atmospheric tides that percussively torque passing planets and stars off their synchronous orbits. — Jo Hutton

#468

Ryuichi Sakamoto - 12 (Milan / Sony)

Though created with minimal means, the resulting music has a palpable sense of open space – each note is like a petal dropped into an infinity pool, the ripples from its impact expanding gently forever. — Claire Biddles

#467

Slumberland & Sainkho Namtchylak - Lightkeeper (Morphine)

[I]f you’re looking to go all the way, try Slumberland and Namtchylak to get an idea of just how far this combination can be pushed in the hands of a mercurial instrumentalist and an impossible vocalist. — Rosie Esther Solomon