Daniel Lentz - wolfMASS (2000)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Harold Budd, Ruben Garcia, & Daniel Lentz - Music for 3 Pianos (1992)

A disorienting, whimsical, sacrilegious take on a Latin mass mixing MIDI keyboards and choral vocals. I've only heard two other solo Lentz works, but contemporary classical pieces powered by highly synthesized sounds seem to be his specialty. I'm not sure I really understand wolfMASS -- as far as I can tell, it's more of an "Animal Mass", or perhaps a meditation on violent conflict -- but it's a wonderfully warped pleasure to listen to.

Track listing:

1. Preludium

2. wolfKYRIE

3. bearGLORIA

4. eagleCREDO

5. cougarSANCTUS

6. manAGNUS DEI

Wolf is dead

Also listen to:

Igor Wakhévitch - Logos (1970) + Les Fous d'Or (1975)

Michael Torke - Color Music (1991)

Somei Satoh - Mandala/Sumeru (1982)

Two of many brilliant pieces from Japanese composer Somei Satoh. First, a yawning void of reverberating electronic and vocal drone, then, an extended piece of minimalism via a small chamber orchestra.

Track listing:

1. Mandala

2. Sumeru

From the depth of silence

You should also listen to:

Giusto Pio - Motore Immobile (1979)

Toru Takemitsu - A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden (1988)

Hauschka - Substantial (2004)

First album by Hauschka, a pseudonym of German pianist/composer Volker Bertelmann. Breathtaking, minimal piano pieces with the lightest touches of layering -- a field recording here, an electronic texture here, a synth here, a second piano there. Substantial really taps into a deeply melancholic place in my psyche. Like, as far as my conscious brain is concerned, I'm good, but as soon as this record starts playing, I'm contemplating all the different paths my life could have taken, missing friends from high school who I haven't thought of in years, and mulling over all the sweet things that I should say to my loved ones but just can't ever seem to. Not sure that this is coming off like a ringing endorsement of this record, but it's supposed to be.

Track listing:

1. Orange I

2. Vielleicht

3. Golden

4. Dark I

5. Sequence I

6. Fragile

7. Wait

8. Sequence II

9. Cardiff

10. Dark II

11. Orange II

Left with a trace of all that was

You should also hear:

Bing and Ruth - Bing and Ruth (2006)

Clogs - Lantern (2006)

Upward Arrows - Upward Arrows (2010)

The first album from this project of Melbourne-based artist John McCaffrey, who has also released music as Part Timer and Scissors & Sellotape. There are subtle differences between each of these projects -- Scissors & Sellotape is more abstract and piano-based, Part Timer (his 'main gig') is earthier and more rhythmic, and Upwards Arrows flirts with the sounds of contemporary classical -- but they're all cut of the same cloth. To be a bit reductive, McCaffrey's music generally involves a combination of acoustic/organic instrumentation and glitchy textures, and the end results are uniformly beautiful, damaged, and downcast.

For Upwards Arrows, he joined forces with a string quartet and fellow experimental musician William Ryan Fritch (aka Vieo Abiungo). Most of the record is spent in an amorphous cloud of bright, shimmering drone, made up of strings, wordless vocals, and grainy white noise. Certain moments recall the most atmospheric outer-reaches of neofolk; elsewhere, the harsher elements fully take over. Overall, it's probably my favorite record he's made.

Track listing:

1. ^

2. ^^

3. ^^^

4. ^^^^

5. ^^^^^

6. ^^^^^^

7. ^^^^^^^

8. ^^^^^^^^

9. ^^^^^^^^^

10. ^^^^^^^^^^

They were overwhelmed

Whilst walking back home

If you like this, listen to:

David Darling - Cello (1992)

Portrait of David - These Days Are Hard to Ignore (2001)

Akira Rabelais - Spellewauerynsherde (2004)

Spellbinding sounds from American composer Akira Rabelais. Composed entirely of vocals that Rabelais sourced from a tape of Icelandic laments, then stretched, layered, and generally obfuscated until they assumed their true form as ghosts, wailing their grief from across the river Styx. Listening to this record feels like a visitation from the divine, or the immortal, or the damned. A true masterwork.

Track listing:

1. 1382 Wyclif Gen. II. 7 And Spiride in to the Face of Hym an Entre of Breth of Lijf.

2. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 20 I Can Noght Thanne Unethes Spelle That I Wende Altherbest Have Rad.

3. 1440 Promp. Parv. 518/2 Wawyn, or Waueryn, yn a Myry Totyr, Oscillo.

4. 1483 Caxton Golden Leg. 208 B/2 He Put Not Away the Wodenes of His Flessh with a Sherde or Shelle.

5. 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 125 Within Which Draw an Other Circle, a Finger Bredth Distant.

6. (Gorgeous Curves Lovely Fragments Labyrinthed on Occasions Entwined Charms, a Few Stories at Any Longer Sworn to Gathered from a Guileless Angel and the Hilt Edges of Old Hearts, If They Do in the Guilt of Deep Despondency.)

7. 1671 Milton Samson 1122 Add Thy Spear, a Weavers Beam, and Seven-Times-Folded Shield.

A cadence of vanishing

You should also listen to:

Asunta - Landscapes (1996)

Alan Lamb - Original Masters: Night Passage (1998)

Terje Rypdal - Lux Aeterna (2002)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Terje Rypdal - Bleak House (1968)
Jan Garbarek with Terje Rypdal - Esoteric Circle (1969)
Terje Rypdal - Terje Rypdal (1971)
Terje Rypdal - After the Rain (1976)
Terje Rypdal, Miroslav Vitous & Jack DeJohnette - S/T (1979)
Terje Rypdal - Descendre (1980)
Terje Rypdal, Miroslav Vitous & Jack DeJohnette - To Be Continued (1981)
Ketil Bjørnstad, David Darling, Terje Rypdal & Jon Christensen - The Sea (1995) + The Sea II (1998)

A breathtaking work of jazz-informed contemporary classical that's unlike anything else I've posted by Mr. Rypdal. Some of the most haunting, sublime sounds he's ever made.

Track listing:
1. 1st Movement - Luminous Galaxy
2. 2nd Movement - Fjelldåpen
3. 3rd Movement - Escalator
4. 4th Movement - Toccata
5. 5th Movement - Lux Aeterna

No, they couldn't believe it was you
But I knew

Also listen to:

Steve Tibbetts -
Northern Song (1982)

Zbigniew Preisner - Diaries of Hope (2013)

Vanessa Amara - Like All Mornings (2017)

Some of my favorite ambient music in recent memory. Abstracted piano figures and ghostly drones, echoing into empty space through a watery, moderately damaged cassette. Melancholy, tranquil, and utterly haunting.

Track listing:
1. 09-03-2016
2. 28-04-2016
3. 03-03-2016
4. 12-03-2016
5. 05-03-2016
6. 12-04-2016
7. 15-03-2016
8. 27-04-2016
9. 07-04-2016
10. 11-04-2016
11. 01-03-2016
12. 26-04-2016
13. 08-04-2016
14. 06-04-2016
15. 29-04-2016

You're welcome here

You'd probably also enjoy:

Vidna Obmana -
The River of Appearance (1996)

Keith Fullerton Whitman -
Playthroughs (2002)

Midori Takada & Masahiko Satoh - Lunar Cruise (1990)

An excellent collaboration between percussionist Midori Takada and pianist/keyboardist Masahiko Satoh. Lunar Cruise is a thing of alien energy and woozy beauty, and explores a wide range of styles and moods, so you know what that means: I'm way too lazy of a writer to address it effectively here. Here, read this.

Track listing:
1. Iron Paradise
2. Nahm
3. Ancient Palace
4. A Vanished Illusion
5. Jyomuran
6. Monody
7. In 'D'
8. Madorone
9. Chang-Dra
10. Lunar Cruise

Return from sleep

If you like this, listen to:

Jon Hassell -
Vernal Equinox (1977)

Alesini & Andreoni -
Marco Polo (1995)

Mark Korven - The Witch (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2016)

Otherworldly score for a masterclass of tension and atmosphere. Following a stately, sorrowful opening theme, dissonant, droning strings slowly build to terrifying peaks, with clattering percussion and wordless choral vocals. I fucking loved this movie, and it's on Netflix so if you haven't seen it yet, 'tis the season. Also, notice that his last name is almost "Coven" -- obviously, it was meant to be.

Track listing:
1. What Went We
2. Banished
3. A Witch Stole Sam
4. Hare in the Woods
5. I Am the Witch Mercy
6. Foster the Children
7. Calen Is Lost
8. Caleb's Seduction
9. Caleb's Death
10. William and Tomasin
11. William's Confession
12. The Goat & the Mayhem
13. Follow the Goat
14. Witch's Coven
15. Isle of Wight (Traditional)
16. Standish (Traditional)

I will guide thy hand

Ennio Morricone - La Corta Notte
delle Bambole di Vetro (1971)

Kaija Saariaho - Verblendungen -
Jardin Secret I - Laconisme De L'Aile -
...Sah Den Vögeln (1985)

Horrific Child - L'Étrange Mr Whinster (1976)

Extremely bizarre French prog. First song is the most conventional of the lot, which, given that it's a disjointed 8-and-and-half-minutes of creepy, abstract prog, says more about the rest of the album than anything else. Second song is all spoken word over woozy horror synths -- anyone wanna tell me what he's talking about? Third is the topper, morphing over the course of 16 minutes from something that might play on a haunted house ride into a peak of majestically mournful space rock, then back again.

Track listing:
1. Frayeur
2. Angoisse
3. H.I.A. (Horreur Indescriptible et Accumulée)

A bullet with your brains on it

Also listen to:

Art Zoyd -
Berlin (1987)

Silvester Anfang -
Kosmies Slachtafval (2007)

Giusto Pio - Motore Immobile (1979)

Two beautiful minimal pieces by Italian composer Giusto Pio. Organ, violin, vocals, and piano generating elegant, subdued drones and melodic fragments.

Track listing:
1. Motore Immobile
2. Ananta

Stretched over hillsides

Similar listening:

David Hykes & The Harmonic Choir -
Hearing Solar Winds (1983)

Gavin Bryars with Tom Waits -
Jesus' Blood Never Failed Met Yet (1993)

Iannis Xenakis - Metastasis / Pithoprakta / Eonta (1965)

Unsettling modern classical from Greek-French composer Iannis Xenakis. From creeping pizzicato flurries to shrieking walls of dissonance, these anxious, cacophonous pieces wouldn't sound at all out of place soundtracking an artfully-made slasher flick.

Track listing:
1. Metastasis
2. Pithoprakta
3. Eonta

You really scared me, you know

You might also enjoy:

Kaija Saariaho - Verblendungen - Jardin Secret I -
Laconisme de l'Aile - ...Sah Den Vögeln (1985)

György Ligeti - Kammerkonzert / Ramifications /
Lux Aeterna / Atmosphères (1988)

Bing and Ruth - Bing and Ruth (2006)

Beautiful minimalist compositions from an ensemble led by American pianist David Moore. Prominent, repeated piano figures against a warm, ethereal backdrop of synth, clarinet, pedal steel, vocals, and more.

Track listing:
1. A Flat Line in a Round Race
2. go on.
3. Bing and Ruth #5

And then it rained

You might also enjoy:

Harold Budd, Ruben Garcia, Daniel
Lentz - Music for 3 Pianos (1992)

Sasha Matson -
Steel Chords, I-5 (1993)

John Luther Adams - The Far Country (1993)

Gorgeous ambient classical by American composer John Luther Adams. Elongated chords and gentle, contemplative melodies, with a haunting, melancholic overall effect.

Track listing:
1. Dream in White on White
2. Night Peace
3. The Far Country of Sleep

Become ocean

If you like this, listen to:

David Hykes & the Harmonic Choir -
Hearing Solar Winds (1983)

Toru Takemitsu - A Flock Descends
into the Pentagonal Garden (1988)

Art Zoyd - Berlin (1987)

A dark, dense, dissonant cacophony generated by a big ol' pile o' instruments, including synths, strings, horns, organ, piano, and percussion, with structurally ambitious, experimental compositions to boot. Someone please explain to me how it's possible that this is the first time I've posted Art Zoyd on here?

Track listing:
1. Epithalame
2. Baboon's Blood
3. Petite Messe a l'Usage des Pharmaciens - Offertoire
4. Petite Messe a l'Usage des Pharmaciens - Kyrie
5. A Drum, a Drum
6. Petite Messe a l'Usage des Pharmaciens - Introit
7. Unsex Me Here

Don't lose your head

You'd probably also like:

Univers Zero -
Ceux du Dehors (1983)

Un Festín Sagital ‎-
Sic Deus Dilexit Mundum (2012)

Jocelyn Montgomery with David Lynch - Lux Vivens (The Music of Hildegard von Bingen) (1998)

Related:
Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night (1989) + The Voice of Love (1993)
Chrysta Bell - This Train (2011)

Haunting, centuries-old vocal works sung with reverence and grace by UK musician Jocelyn Montgomery, and accompanied by cavernous dark ambience, lush strings, and more, courtesy of one Mr. David Lynch.

Track listing:
1. Flame and Vision
2. Sapientie
3. O Tu Illustrata
4. Et Ideo
5. Viridissima
6. Battle and Aftermath
7. Gloria Patri
8. Lux Vivens
9. Deus Enim
10. Clarissima
11. Orzchis
12. Caritas
13. Kyrie
14. Hodie
15. Alleluia

Imprisoned in flesh

You should also hear:

Jocelyn Pook -
Deluge (1997)

Lisa Gerrard & Patrick Cassidy -
Immortal Memory (2004)

Gavin Bryars with Tom Waits - Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet (1993)

A gorgeous, 75-minute piece of lush, intricately layered modern classical built atop a brief loop of a homeless man softly singing a verse from a Christian song. When the piece was originally recorded in 1971, it had to fit onto a single side of an LP -- a limitation that eventually led Bryars to, with the advent of the compact disc, rewrite it, stretching it out over six parts and 75+ minutes.

Given that some people can't stand Tom Waits, I should mention that his role in this recording is minimal, and unless he played a role in the writing process, it's kinda weird that his name's on the cover.

Track listing:
1. Tramp with Orchestra I (String Quartet)
2. Tramp with Orchestra II (Low Strings)
3. Tramp with Orchestra III (No Stings)
4. Tramp with Orchestra IV (Full String
5. Tramp and Tom Waits with Full Orchestra
6. Coda: Tom Waits with High Strings

This one thing I know

You might also enjoy:

Michael Torke -
Color Music (1991)

Zbigniew Preisner -
Diaries of Hope (2013)

Anthony Pateras - Chasms (2007)

Clattering, piano-generated sounds, courtesy of Australian avant-garde composer Anthony Pateras. Long stretches of anxious dissonance give way to full-blown panic, or recede to sparse, zen-like calm.

Track listing:
1. Residue
2. Chasms
3. Descent

When objects dream

You would also like:

Anthony Braxton -
3 Compositions of New Jazz (1968)

Giancarlo Toniutti & Conrad
Schnitzler - Кулáк (Camma) (1990)

William Hoskins ‎– Galactic Fantasy - Eastern Reflections (1979)

Abstract, often quite intense, 100% synth explorations of the outer limits by William Hoskins, a professor at Jacksonville University. Came across this rare-ass LP, which came with the outrageously low price tag of 25 cents, buried in a pile of old, boring classical box sets -- total fucking score.

Track listing:
1. Overture: Stars Are Suns
2. Intermezzo: Interplanetary Communique
3. Star Nocturne
4. Scherzo: Comets
5. Beyond Beyond
6. Prolog: Theme and Variation
7. Lower Heterophonie
8. Song: Open Skies
9. Drum Chime
10. Upper Heterophonie
11. Epilog: Processional

Corridors of time

If you like this, try:

Morton Subotnik -
Silver Apples of the Moon (1967)

Asmus Tietchens - Nachtstücke
(Expressions et Perspectives
Sonores Intemporelles) (1980)

Otomo Yoshihide - Cathode (1999)

Four sparse, quite difficult, experimental pieces by Japanese musician Otomo Yoshihide. Warm, organic-sounding instruments producing some really ugly sounds, at times accompanied by harsh electronics.

Track listing:
1. Modulation #2
2. Cathode #1
3. Cathode #2
4. Modulation #1

Open window

If you like this, try:

Alog -
Miniatures (2006)

Death Ambient -
Drunken Forest (2007)