Ghost Cartridge / Mantrakid – looking into people’s windows
First up tonight, on a night when I’m seeking a semblance of harmony amidst the roar of preparation for a long vacation with a toddler and a preschooler, are three songs from Mantrakid (Nate Schmold) of Canadian duo Ghost Cartridge. These are from an upcoming album, looking into people’s windows, composed of several snapshots of an evening stroll around a residential neighborhood, each piece a voyeuristic still of a private human moment. All three of these vignettes are compelling, but the opener, ‘a loving couple talks about their future together,’ is my favorite. I easily slip back to a memory of lying in an unmade bed on the first night in an apartment I had rented with my now wife, together on an adventure, living in a new place where we knew no one but each other, following our noses, hand in hand. This is music that seeks cooperation between your temporal and occipital lobes; it’s picture music. The album is out on June 29th for streaming or on bandcamp.
Ghost Cartridge – “a loving couple talks about their future together”
Ghost Cartridge – “family dinner”
Ghost Cartridge – “bugs all over me”
Vijunns – 1991/Void
Vijunns is LA-based producer and art director Jeremy Raskin. His latest record takes inspiration from Warp’s beloved Artificial Intelligence compilation series from the early 90s, music billed at the time as electronic listening music. ‘1991’ hits that mark pretty masterfully — the song’s pleading 303 and wistful pads absolutely sound like a young Speedy J could have programmed them, and the drums feel a bit like a modernized higher-res take on some of Darrel Fitton’s earlier Skam releases as Bola. This is elegant pastiche at its best – a talented artist conjuring new material out of a cherished but overlooked space in the ether. It’s out now for streaming or on bandcamp.
Vijunns – “1991”
Domy Castellano – Near the Creek
Finally tonight, another lovely piece of unabashedly pure nature-infused ambient released by Canadian label Signal Alchemy, which seems to have a located a vein of this stuff from which to mine. This piece — which feels to me like the color of the sun through one’s eyelids -— is by Italian artist Domy Castellano. Castellano makes heavy use of field recordings and takes an aleatoric approach to writing music, allowing a degree of indeterminism to dictate his compositions. No bandcamp for this or anything from Signal Alchemy, unfortunately, but the label was generous enough to let me share the mp3 with you here, and you can find it simmering on ambient playlists all over the streamers.
Domy Castellano – “Near the Creek”