The Underground of Happiness

Lutine are Heather Minor and Emma Morton from Brighton. 'Sallow tree' is the first release from their debut album White flowers which comes out on Front & Follow at the end of September. It's a low-key introduction to the band, dominated by folk harmonies, but the addition of some intriguing shades via cello, dappled piano and zither give a hint of the album arrangements. The vocals are highlighted on 'Sallow tree' in particular, two handsome, pure vibratos, two perfectly beautiful instruments. More on the album in due course.

A quick mention for this release over the summer, the box set compilation of the series spread over contributions from nine different artists using a communal set of sound files. You’ll find all the detail you need on the label website or on this link . Suffice to say that it is a consistently fascinating and surprising collection and it sheds new light on the term collaboration. Because I’m late getting around to this, it’s likely the special edition is gone by now, but here’s the blurb on that anyway. It looks and sounds like a particularly gorgeous package, which is just in keeping with Front & Follow's previous releases. “The limited first edition of 200 comes in a letter pressed package, with a bonus download album of exclusive additional tracks, and the original sound clips used to create each EP. EPs come from Psychological Strategy Board (Jonny Mugwump and Time Attendant), West Norwood Cassette Library, The Lord, Hong Kong in the 60s, BLK TAG, Kemper Norton,...

One of the things I consistently welcomed in 2012 was the arrival of the latest in the Collision/Detection series on the Front & Follow label. This is an audio project whereby artists submit audio clips into a pot, and then draw from that pot to create new sounds. We’re on to v7 now and it sees the return of The Doomed Bird of Providence (at least to my world). Here’s the full blurb on what’s contained. 1. In the terror of the moment This piece was written to accompany the climatic scene towards the end of the 1927 film adaption of Marcus Clarke's 'For the Term of His Natural Life'. It involves a ship sinking on stormy seas and the two main characters anticipating watery graves. 2. Safety at sea Written for part of a 20 minute 'safety at sea' documentary involved lightships, lighthouses and model boats often replacing real ones for the more dramatic scenes. It is possibly the most jolly piece of music ever released by the band. 3. Seabound Writ...

And speaking of Front & Follow ... Another one of their collaborative projects is ongoing, under the Long Division with Remainders (LDWR) moniker. It's called Collision/Detection and consists of invited artists throwing audio clips into a central pot. This resource is then shared around the group for each one to manipulate in their own way. Already this year, we've had EPs in the series from Psychological Strategy Board, West Norwood Cassette Library and The Lord . These three would qualify comfortably under sound art or sound design, occupying experimental, challenging and often intriguing terrain. However, the fourth in the series, from London/Cambridge band Hong Kong in the 60s , is a slightly different kettle of (pop) fish. Although most of the EP features an undercurrent of electronic static, there are also a couple of beautiful pop songs, vindicating the band's aim "to adapt the more abstract samples to melodic songform, whilst retaining their essenti...

It was 2010 that I first came across Sone Institute , which is largely one man, Roman Bezdyk . His album that year, Curious memories , was a masterful set of Burt Bacharach leaning tunes (in terms of their laid back atmosphere only), put together using samples and cut and paste wizardry. (In fact, I featured a tune from it in the recent Trumpets special, 'On tree hill' which samples the iconic trumpet part from the Bacharach-produced, Gene Pitney classic '24 hours from Tulsa', alongside a frantic Bollywood sample) This follow up shares the beauty and enigmatic qualities of the previous album, but adds a more organic feel, possibly due to the host of collaborators on show - among them Nils Frahm , Katie English of Isnaj Dui and Dale Grundle of The Sleeping Years. 'Frozen leaves/Falling from trees' superbly maps the space between an Eden Ahbez-style cosmic lounge (bongo and flute are prominent) and studied post-jazz instrumentals. 'Back at yesterday...

We've mentioned The Doomed Bird of Providence in these pages several times this year (go here and here to refresh your memory.) Their excellent album Will ever pray on Front & Follow is one of my favourites of 2011. The Manchester label have just announced a single from the band, containing two new songs, although they tie in closely with the content of the earlier album. The Bell of the Jardines features enterprise, kidnap, ambition and finally leprosy on the high seas off Australia's north-east coast, in the life story of one Frank Jardine . It's really stirring stuff, driven along by wailing fiddles, see-sawing accordions and a thundering marching drum. It comes across like The Bad Seeds in bed with The Pogues, with a compelling singing narrator in ex-pat Aussie Mark Kluzek . Folk music like they don't make any more (well, very few anyway). The death flurry employs electric guitar and bass further forward in the mix to brilliantly convey the visceral terr...

Speaking of labels we love, here's another one. Next month, Manchester's Front & Follow release a series of remixes by BLK w/BEAR (pronounced black with bear , based in Washington D.C.) of a previous F&F release by Yonokiero , Blue apples . I haven't heard the original, but the re-workings are fascinating miniature soundworlds. Casey Jnr , for example, features a clarinet prominently above an oscillating cello loop. Sumimasen creates a slow, subterranean atmosphere with static noise, an electronic hum and what sounds like morse code sampled, with a haunting, melancholy female vocal. Listen here. BLK w/BEAR - Sorry about your (remixes) by frontandfollow In addition, the band's live video mixer Renee Shaw has made a film to accompany Casey Jnr . It's suitably dreamlike with melting frames and multiple superimpositions. There's also a giant rabbit and a ferris wheel involved. It's intriguing and I like it a lot.

Qluster - Haste Tone (Bureau B, from the album Fragen ) From Hans-Joachim Roedelius, who (along with Dieter Moebius and others) brought you Kluster, Cluster and Harmonia, and sound installationist Onnen Bock. Meditative, swelling synths ebb and flo like the tide, punctuated by discreet bells and obscure gurglings, until a beautiful piano and flute duo sails into view. Sublime stuff from a master. QLUSTER - LIVE PREVIEW 2011 from luma launisch on Vimeo . Cashier No. 9 - Lost at sea (Bella Union, from the album To the death of fun ) An uplifting wall of 60's sound, with a melancholy vocal in the middle and a lonesome harmonica in the wings, from the Belfast band's David Holmes-produced debut album. Tympani and castanets make up the intriguing supporting cast. There's the glorious whiff of the Brill building about the songwriting too. And here's the equally great first single from the album, Goldstar , sounding a shade like The Stone Roses taken in hand by Lee H...

We spoke about the above mini-album recently, a companion to the current Doomed Bird of Providence album, Will ever pray , which is wonderful. Well there's more, in the shape of a Sone Institute remix of the same track. You need to go here to stream it. http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/6679/ It's very woozy without losing any of the drama of the original. By the way, as you're at it, check the Sone Institute album of last year, Curious memories , and the Dollboy meets Sone Institute collaboration, The sum and the difference , both on Front & Follow . This is what I thought of them at the time, with listening links added. Sone Institute – Curious memories (Front & Follow) Beguiling album of Burt Bacharach tones and gorgeous orchestrations, in among the cut-and-paste glitches and samples, from one man electronic wiz Roman Bezdyk. Here's the absolutely sublime French woods from that album. Sone Institute - French Woods by beneshmade Various A...

It's quite unusual to find an album that is the result of, in effect, a research project. What a bonus when the music has a mysterious and compelling quality (although we partly guessed as much based on the band's fine eponymous EP of last year). The research in question, by singer Mark Kluzek , focuses on early Australian history and reveals harrowing tales of death and delinquency in the inhospitable tropics and on the high seas. The tales of various miscreants and misfortunates are recounted against a suitable backdrop of folk laments and dirges (violin and accordion are prominent throughout). In fact, the strength of the stories suggests a theatrical setting. Fedicia Exine deserves special mention, a song about "the little-known daughter of a convict" deported to Van Diemen's Land for murder. It contains a heartstopping moment a few minutes in when the drones drop out momentarily to be replaced by a light, airy folk tune on guitar, only for the narrator to re...

An album that's been consuming my brain over the last few days is the new Doomed Bird of Providence , Will ever pray , on the Front & Follow label. It's a set of songs drawing on historical accounts of the early days of colonial Australia. Think dirges, dark waltzes, folk music with a tragic underbelly, and a deep foundation of accordion and droning strings holding it up. I'll have more to say on the album at the end of the month once I've digested it all (it's fairly dense, on first listen). If you've been into anything Black Heart Procession or The Dirty Three have done, you'll love it I'd say. Here's a sample. The Doomed Bird of Providence - Fedicia Exine by frontandfollow