Schmeichel
HiConcentrated Music

Let's face it, no one really knows where they're going, so the best we can do is enjoy the ride - a sentiment captured perfectly by the high altitude ambient of 'Flights',Double Geography's new release on the Growing Bin.Embracing the unpredictable, Duncan Thornley married melodic fragments with semi-generative computer process and random filter interactions, an aleatory approach to music therapy during the existential funk of the first Lockdown. The unhurried melodies, weightless within plumes of reverb and delay, conjure the feeling of long distance air travel with All Nippon - that pensive delirium stimulated by varying air pressure, broken sleep and the most welcome pause in your everyday life. Remote snippets of news reports, street noise and conversation, plundered from cassette dictaphone and a Spanish language tape the artist found in the loft sit low in the mix, the barely audible sound of the pilot and passenger, extras in your everyday experience.Contemplative and comforting, 'Flights' is a gentle reminder to be present, delivered with a rare beauty.

Portico Quartet have defied categorisation over the course of six studio albums. From their 2007 Mercury Music Prize nominated breakthrough ‘Knee-Deep in the North Sea’ through to the longform minimalist inspired ‘Terrain’ in 2021.Their new electronic driven album Monument shows the band at their most direct, with a streamlined, rhythmic sound. Full of precisely sculpted ideas combining human touch with electronic efficiency, ‘Monument’ displays the acclaimed widescreen minimalists at their best.

Already a renowned live band on the London gig circuit, Lunch Money Life make apocalypse music, impossible to categorise, rich in texture, immersing the listener in a world of disgust and yearning. Their debut album 'Immersion Chamber' is the perfect embodiment of that. Full of foreboding energy, restless beats and agitated noise: it's mardy electronics married with tense jazz-tinged and combative drumming.Lunch Money Life are Stewart Hughes (drums) Sean Keating (guitar) Luke Mills-Pettigrew (bass) Jack Martin (electronics/trombone) Spencer Martin (electronics/saxophone). A few years ago, Spencer wrote to 50 churches in East London looking for a job as an organist - one responded, All Saints Haggerston, where he still plays every Sunday. In a city where traditional rehearsal is near unaffordable, this was a lifeline for the band during its early, experimental period. It is the results of this period that make up 'Immersion Chamber'.The band initially featured 10 members, a loose collective now (somewhat) sharpened ahead of album release, as documented in an electric Boiler Room set at the end of 2019.Bubbling on the fringes of the London music scene for years, between them creating & sculpting Church of Sound, Total Refreshment Centre, Touching Bass & Tiff’s Joints. In the wake of 2018’s sold-out collaboration with Jamaican outfit Equiknoxx - Living3000 EP - the group has released lunchmoneylife STYLES™, a label compilation in the form of a cereal box, and Unlimited Ice Cream Palace EP on Kaya Kaya Records, featuring remixes by King Knut and Captain Terence McDonagh.The album is coming out via Scenic Route. A label that started in October 2019 after beginning life as a regular south London party. Previous releases include Desert Sound Colony: expect more releases, parties and, in their own words, "there'll be a melancholic and introspective thread running through everything we release".Stewart Hughes - drumsSean Keating - guitarLuke Mills-Pettigrew - bassJack Martin - electronics / tromboneSpencer Martin - electronics / saxophoneMixed by Danalogue the ConquerorMastered by Frank MerrittArtwork by Aurelie Michaud

Tibor Szemző is not only a skillful and experienced Hungarian musician but also a media artist with a vast imagination. His last LP, ARBO X – Csoma Grooves, refers to his full-length film A Guest of Life released in 2006, for which he not only directed but also composed all the music. The film is inspired by the life of Alexander Csoma de Körös, a remarkable polyglot from the 19th century who set out from his native Transylvania to central Asia on foot to look for the roots of the Hungarian language. He reached Tibet, dedicated the rest of his life to study of Tibetan manuscripts and finally became the founder of tibetology. After 14 years Tibor Szemző decided to explore the theme further and composed the cinematic performance, Silverbird and the Cyclist, where he as narrator presented the story of Csoma from a different perspective.ARBO X is the music from this performance and it is based on the soundtrack of the original movie but the material has been restructured and enhanced by new layers. There are fourteen relatively short tracks on the album and each of them has a very specific character, sometimes mysterious as the titles of the tracks themselves. Their arrangement is ingeniously composed. Szemző’s typical bass flute and voice with percussion accompaniment on the first track Axis is a very impressive introduction to the whole album. The following tracks build up a series of colorful sound parables, which are in no way descriptive. Every element, whether it’s a double bass, viola, soprano voice, vocal trio or electronics, fits perfectly within the overall sound fabric with effective timing. Listening to ARBO X one unwittingly concentrates on interweaving details without loosing the sense of the whole. It’s certainly a great benefit, as in previous recordings, that most of the musicians participating in the recording of ARBO X are very familiar with Szemző’s music and his collaboration with some of them goes back to Group 180, a new music ensemble he founded in 1978 and soon earned international acclaim. This most recent album belongs among a long line of recordings that Tibor Szemző has released during his musical career and displays great compositional complexity and a keen sense of a perfectly balanced sound spectrum.Alexandr Krestovský