Eluvium "Virga 1 (Temporary Residence)"
From Temporary Residence:
Virga I is the first album in a new ambient music series by Eluvium. Matthew Cooper, the composer behind the Eluvium moniker, explains: “I had recently been playing around with various forms of generative music and long-format looping – as well as practicing patience interacting with musical systems and recordings – hesitantly dueting with them, trying to keep things minimal while also encouraging as much depth as possible. It was really just something fun to privately experiment with for personal gain. Over time I’d created a group of pieces and had them on various mixes that I would make for myself, but I hadn’t really given them much thought. At some point, my evenings became very much about relaxing, stretching, and breathing to these pieces. They gradually fostered a very specific mood that I found intoxicating. The music seemed to enhance the soft orange glow in this small room in the dark of night, with the snow falling just outside. They also reminded me of some of my earliest works, those which were a bit less researched and considered. Perhaps they were simply more “felt” than anything. I decided it might be nice to start a series inspired by this setup. I titled it Virga, after the drifting of rain we sometimes catch drooping on the horizon, disappearing before it reaches the ground.”
Check out the title track “Virga I.”
Harry Nilsson "Losst And Founnd (Omnivore)"
What’s this? Oh nothing. No big deal… just the NEW HARRY NILSSON RECORD!!! Ok, I’ll calm down now. When the music world (and the world in general) unexpectedly lost Harry Nilsson in 1994 it had been nearly 15 years since he had gifted the world with a new album. Well, it turns out that at the time of his death he was deep into the work on a new album, and now 25 years later that album has been completed by his friends and family. Produced by Mark Hudson and featuring contributions from Van Dyke Parks, Jim Keltner, Jimmy Webb, and Harry’s son Kiefo as well as the songcraft and melodies Nilsson is known for, this is a wonderful post script to the man’s already amazing legacy. If you were worried that Harry was going to get with the times in the 90s, well fear not. This is his classic sound. Check out the title track “Lost And Found.”
Juliana Hatfield "Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police (American Laundromat)"
Sometimes albums are steeped in mystery, with a heady concept that’s beyond difficult to describe. Other times, Juliana Hatfield records and releases an album called Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police (American Laundromat), making life for music describers and listeners very, very easy. Juliana adds her singular talents to the Gordon Sumner songbook. Check out the rocking, rollicking take on “Murder By Numbers.”
Blood Warrior "Animal Hides (Ernest Jenning Record Co.)"
From Ernest Jenning Record Co.:
Animal Hides is the third album by Blood Warrior. It’s a collection of songs affected by the anxieties and securities of these times, documented by two friends in their late thirties, Joey Weiss and Greg Jamie (O’Death). Recorded onto tape at Joey Weiss’ studio in the Hudson Valley, Animal Hides was mixed and mastered by Kevin McMahon (Swans, The Walkman, Real Estate) and is being released by Ernest Jenning Record Co. (who also released the band’s 2010 debut) on November 15th, 2019.
The band always describes Blood Warrior as a project that “exists so two old friends can continue to make music and check in on each other”. Weiss and Jamie first met at summer camp in 1994 and have remained friends and music collaborators ever since. They have been continuously recording and releasing as Blood Warrior for over a decade, their albums existing as snapshots of different points in their lives. If Letter Ghost—the band’s second album, released in 2015— was an introspective affair, dealing with the dissolution of Greg’s marriage, Animal Hides instead chooses to focus on the cultivation of community and family. The importance of finding a home, no matter how small, inside this strange, evolving world.
Check out the haunting “Animal Shades.”