Old New Borrowed Blue #1
Ricky Eat Acid, Blithe Field, Jim Wallis, Erland Cooper, synfilums, Itoko Toma, Olivier Alary, Johannes Malfatti
Welcome to Old New Borrowed Blue, a bite-sized selection of ambient, experimental and instrumental music recommendations.
Old1
Carnival of Souls - Ricky Eat Acid, Blithe Field
From A whole lot of music from the past few years, all of which I hope you enjoy - Ricky Eat Acid. Released December, 2017.
There’s something about this song that has me coming back to it again and again since I first heard it in May 2021. It’s a patchwork of loosely related sound collages that somehow fit perfectly together.
The song is a collaboration between two amazing artists. Ricky Eat Acid is the ambient/experimental electronic project of Sam Ray (Teen Suicide, Julia Brown). Blithe Field is the experimental/instrumental project of songwriter Spencer Radcliffe.
The song shifts from moments of delicate bells over gentle looping string passages, to soaring cinematic strings against explosions of glitching drums.
If you like this: Listen to If I Cleaned Everything Would You Come Back (Variations on a Theme) by Ricky Eat Acid. It’s another song with an unusual structure but which somehow fits together beautifully. Check out Milkshakes in the Rain by Blithe Field, a gently growing loop of delicate overlapping guitars.
Follow Ricky Eat Acid | Follow Spencer Radcliffe
New2
Open Door - Erland Cooper Rework - Jim Wallis, Erland Cooper
From Europa Reworked - Jim Wallis. Released November, 2020.
The song comes from a remix album of Jim Wallis’s album Europa. Jim Wallis is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who releases ambient/instrumental music via Tip Top Records. He also plays drums in Modern Nature and Still Corners. Erland Cooper is a Scottish composer and producer.
The cello line is surrounded by a cloud of blurry piano, vocal, string and percussion fragments which gradually envelop it leaving only a simple piano motif over sustained string harmonics. I love how the piece grows and dies away so sensitively.
If you like this: Listen to Neanic by aus and Benedicte Maurseth. It’s another example of a simple instrumental performance that is gradually enveloped by a beautiful blurry cloud of sound. Listen to Snow by Hinako Omori, another artist featured on Europa Rework.
Follow Jim Wallis | Follow Erland Cooper
Borrowed3
Cycling with the Permanent Green - synfilums, Itoko Toma
From syn crho - synfilums. Released April, 2021.
The song is a collaboration between synfilums, the music project of Shin Kikuchi, founder of Tokyo-based Schole Records, and Itoko Toma, a modern classical pianist, vocalist and composer also from Japan.
I like how the vocal melody sits gently over the beat. The song has a lovely warm feeling to it. The found sound recordings are great too.
If you like this: The found sounds in this song remind me a lot of Strains of Delight by Motohiro Nakashima, an amazing Japanese guitarist and composer.
Follow Schole Records | Follow Itoko Toma
Blue4
사랑 해 - Olivier Alary, Johannes Malfatti
From u,i - Olivier Alary, Johannes Malfatti. Released September 2020. FatCat Records.
I had the great privilege of seeing Johannes Malfatti perform live with Yair Elazar Glotman at Q3Ambientfest, Potsdam, Germany in 2023. Their performance blew me away. I had a lovely conversation with Johannes after the show and bought a copy of u,i from him directly. It has since become one of my favourite records of all time.
Olivier Alary is a Montreal-based composer and multi-instrumentalist and Johannes Malfatti is a Berlin-based composer of contemporary and experimental electroacoustic music.
The piece starts with ghostly distorted fragments surrounding a distant synth melody that gradually comes into focus. A whispering voice speaks before the piece transforms suddenly into a pulsing swell of distorted ambient roars. As with the rest of the album, each part sounds crushed and degraded to the point of near unintelligibility, which somehow imparts a sense of fragility and longing to the entire album.
If you like this: I can’t recommend listening to the album in its entirety more strongly. The album is stunningly beautiful.
Follow Olivier Alary | Follow Johannes Malfatti
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This song isn’t very old, but it’s old to me. I think I’ve included it in every mix and DJ set I’ve done and I noticed today that I’ve added it to nine Spotify playlists since May 2021.
Not very new, but new to me!
This recommendation is borrowed with love from my dear friend Emmy Shigeta’s recent mix on Dublin Digital Radio.
Blue because it makes me feel very sad. Fun fact: 사랑 해 means I love you.