Yann Tiersen "Kerber (Mute)"
From Mute Records:
The follow up to 2019’s Portrait (acollection of 25 newly recorded tracks from throughout his career), Kerber is very much a new chapter in the Breton artist’s work, one that begins with his most overtly electronic material to date. True to Tiersen’s nuanced and subtle approach, this isn’t a U-turn-like thumping piece of dance music but instead a beautifully textured, highly immersive and thoughtfully constructed electronic world to step inside of.
It is both an evolution of what has come before, as well as a new space to explore. On the new album, the piano is the source, but electronics are the environment that they exist within. Tiersen explains, “You may get this intuitive thinking of, ‘oh it’s piano stuff’, but actually it’s not. I worked on piano tracks to begin with but that’s not the core of it, they are not important. The context is the most important thing – the piano was a precursor to create something for the electronics to work around.”
Wye Oak "Cut All The Wires (Merge)"
From Merge Records:
Ten years after its release, Wye Oak’s Civilian remains a raw, sinewy punch of a record—bleak and intense and lonely and self-assured all at once. It marked both the ascension and death of Wye Oak, or at least a version of it. Now, a decade later, Civilian + Cut All the Wires: 2009–2011 delves back into that pivotal record and adds a lost album of 12 unreleased tracks and demos to Civilian’s universe.
Sonic paradoxes abound: The mellow “Sinking Ship” is preceded by the wall-of-sound grunginess that roars through “Half a Double Man.” A pared-down acoustic Daytrotter live session of “Two Small Deaths” dovetails into the jangling “Holy Holy” demo. The closing lyrics over the frenetic, screeching feedback of “Electricity” lend the anniversary release its title: “There’s nothing about you that I don’t adore / Show me these rooms and I’ll show you the way to the door / Walk me through / I’ll cut all the wires and spend my life with you.”
On the occasion of its 10th anniversary earlier this year, Stereogum described Civilian as “an album of hellos and goodbyes at the same time, introducing us to everything Wye Oak could be, before setting the stage for the other Wye Oaks we’d soon get to know, and the all the others we’ve still yet to meet.”
Justus Proffit "SpeedStar (Bar/None Records)"
Damon & Naomi "A Sky Record (202020)"
From 202020 Records:
Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang began playing music together as the rhythm section, co-songwriters, and sometime singers in Galaxie 500. Since the demise of Galaxie 500, Damon and Naomi have worked as a duo, exploring folk music, psychedelia, and collaborations with other like-minded musicians. After releasing a series of recordings with Shimmy Disc, Sub Pop, and Drag City, they established their own label 20/20/20, releasing the Damon & Naomi albums The Earth Is Blue, Within These Walls, False Beats and True Hearts, and Fortune. All their LPs and CDs are available from 20-20-20, or via high-quality download from the Damon & Naomi bandcamp page.
In addition to their work as musicians, Damon & Naomi are the publishers of Exact Change, a small press dedicated to avant-garde literature and artists’ writings. Damon is also a writer (books, blog, podcast, articles for Pitchfork, Art in America, Artforum and others), and Naomi is a visual artist (photography, video, and graphic design).
