Little Skull – “How We Used To Laugh” b/w “Haunted and Defiant” (Horn of Plenty)

Little Skull, the solo moniker of Dean Brown, has been self-releasing intricately assembled, lathe-cut singles since the early aughts and in more recent years issuing a few proper LPs with the same handmade detail on the lathe-loving Italian imprint, Planam. Though currently based in London, Brown’s roots are in the New Zealand fringe DIY underground and his sound on this limited edition 7” single indeed positions him amongst that country’s storied practitioners of downcast avant drone folk, be it Galbraith, Milton, or Montgomery. “How We Used To Laugh” features guitar strums and bells draped in low-level amplifier feedback and fragments of a barely discernible radio or TV monologue, while the flip side’s “Haunted and Defiant” finds airy, effects-laden guitar chords floating along and eventually nudged on by discordant violin drones. Both pieces are well-composed and well-paced and merit multiple listens to uncover little hidden smudged subtleties. I realize it’s getting harder to justify paying upwards of $15 dollars for a 7” single, but if you’re looking to buy just one this year, then this new one from Little Skull should be high on your list: the beautiful handmade accordion-style box and diorama sleeve is worth the price of admission alone.

Moniek Darge – Bratschebraut (Horn of Plenty)

Horn of Plenty also delivers a fascinating new archival collection from the Logos Foundation’s long-running co-director and multidisciplinary artist, Moniek Darge, whose sound work has come to more people’s attention over the past decade, myself included, through the well-considered curation of Graham Lambkin’s Kye imprint. The four pieces spread out over Bratschebraut were reportedly recorded around the same period as Darge’s seminal debut album from 1987 titled Sounds of Sacred Places, which Kye reissued back in 2011. While tape recordings factor into each of these pieces, it doesn’t function in the same site-specific Soundies fashion that she is perhaps known best for. Instead, these pieces focus on the performative aspects of Darge’s artistic practice. In fact, the generous booklet filled with b&w photos and notes written by Darge herself lays out the performance details for each of these works. Here she wields her voice and violin, both prepared, amplified, and Vibrator’d, and an assortment of homemade sound-making devices to grind out textures that sound in places like Hugh Davies free improvin’ to someone pleasuring themself (‘Bratschebraut’) and in others like Musica Elettronica Viva skronkin’ through a gong meditation (‘ManMo 2’). And that’s just a small fraction of what unfolds sonically, as things shift all over between contemplative, jarring, amusing, etc. It’s a pretty wild collection of sounds and quite unlike much of what I’ve heard published from Darge to date. Great stuff!!

Bérangère Maximin – Land Of Waves (Karlrecords)

With travel being so limited right now, Land Of Waves is a much-welcomed album that takes you on a downright invigorating journey even when your ass is planted on a couch in a dimly lit basement with the summer days ticking away. On this, her sixth full-length release, Maximin’s electroacoustic compositions guide you through bustling urban sound environments out into open expanses of reverberant soundscapes. Maximin’s modern approach to concrète, a hybrid of field recordings, synths, electronics, voice, etc, is quite refreshing. It sits somewhere between the seriousness of GRM and the playfulness of Orange Milk. There are even some sections here that slip into the forward-motion pulsations of more abstract electronic music. From start to finish, this is one of the strongest full-lengths I’ve heard so far this year. Who needs playlists when you can listen to Land Of Waves endlessly and discover something new each time?

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

If you appreciate what we are doing here on Free Form Freakout, please consider making a small donation via Ko-fi. All donations received go towards paying our guest contributors and covering our website hosting fees.