LIGETI QUARTET — S'ISCRAVAMENTU (COMPOSED BY CHRISTIAN MASON)

⌾ LISTEN TO LIGETI QUARTET, S'ISCRAVAMENTU (COMPOSED BY CHRISTIAN MASON) ⌾

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The gales of sound in 'S'iscravamentu', conjured up by UK's very own Ligeti Quartet, are deep glowing squalls that dive into the dramatic scenery of Sardinia, its jutting outcrops, jagged coastline, carpets of macchia, ultramarine seas.

Concocted by English composer Christian Mason, the piece recreates the sea shanty-esque registers of Sardinia's own tenores — polyphonic folk singing that, uniquely for Europe, is actually a form of overtone (throat) singing. As such, Ligeti Quartet's treatment of Mason's reworking of this UNESCO-recognised folk music is necessarily rich and variegated.

Thick harmonies hang heavy in the air, and the scratch and staccato of the strings is resolutely tangible, but quieter moments see the instruments become thin, veils of sound lost in their own rapture of unnerving silent howls. The physicality of the instruments — their wood, the strings, the hands that play them — is such that you could imagine literally picking up and handling this music. It's that spirit of solidity that really reflects the resonant, guttural songs at the root of this composition.

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• 🔔 'S'Iscravamentu' is taken from Ligeti Quartet's debut album Songbooks, Vol. 1, marking their 10th year of playing as a quartet. It contains two vocal-inspired projects — one following the Sardinian cantu a tenòre tradition, the other Tuvan throat singing — composed for strings by Christian Mason. It also features one song originally by Nunavut singer and composer, Tanya Tagaq.

  Scheduled for release on 9th October via UK label nonclassical, you can pre-order Songbooks, Vol. 1 from Bandcamp now, or peruse the album tracklist below at your leisure.

  Ligeti Quartet — Songbooks, Vol. 1 tracklist
  1. Sai Ma (Racing Horses)
  Tuvan Songbook
  2. Dyngylday (Good-for-nothing)
  3. Eki Attar (The Best Steeds)
  4. Kuda Yry (Wedding Song)
  5. Ezir-Kara (‘Black Eagle’)
  Sardinian Songbook
  6. S'iscravamentu (Deposition of Christ)
  7. Ballate a Ballu Tundu (Dance a Circle Dance)
  8. Satiras (Satire)
  9. Muttos (Motets)
  10. Sivunittinni (The Future Ones) by Tanya Tagaq

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🐣 CHLOE X HALLE — USED TO LOVE (MOZADO REMIX)

Half sleekly clinical space-age white with reflective smooth screens, half organic heartfelt body and muscle and historical small streets and cafes, this track is a clear split, a love-letter to real humanistic flavours told with synthetic electronics, the hip shuffle of salsa bossa nova patterns exude through the syncopated piano that pulses cosmopolitan below the wonderful velvet vocals that skim warm richly throughout. These are the voices of sister duo Chloe x Halle, this track being a remix of their song 'Used to Love', a gorgeous a cappella composition filled with sultry lilting lines thick with harmony, solo parts powerfully cutting through and soaring gutsy above these choral comforters, impatient spoken-word "ok…ok…" and handclaps perforating the languor with potential energy.

But musicmaker and serial remixer Mozado, clearly seeing the promise of these incredibly endearing vocals, as well as the non-instrumental setting, turned this from an album intro light and airy as that time between asleep and awake, falling into slumber in the warmth of the sun, takes this feeling and through rhythmic permutations of Latin sashay and ticking trap brings out the bubbling energy of its heart, the powerful vocals now washing through the thudding beats that Mozado punctuates with luscious percussion chiming pots-and-pans tinkering and the warmth of the plasma synth matching the richly layered vocals, the hefty sub-bass, the dynamic of it all, this instrumental sliding along like a cloud-filled dream as much as it bumps and whips with pumping blood panache, this remix a vital reaction to the raw honest beauty of the original.

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• 🔔 Mozado's remix can be downloaded for free via this little link here.
• 🔔 'Used to Love' is taken from Chloe x Halle's debut self-released mixtape, The Two of Us. You can listen to this collection of goodies on YouTube. In addition it can be streamed or purchased variously via this link.

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BENJHA – ΣALAD DAYS

'Σalad Days' is a four month-old song that popped up as recommended on SoundCloud when I was writing about something else that is more than a week old and I could not just sit here and hear the sumptuous sounds of it without putting some words onto the internet, sending something out into the nethersphere. It is a track by someone called Benjha who may or may not be based in Texas. I've now been just sitting here with the song on repeat going around and around and around and taking me with it to wherever it may be going, to space, through walls, floating just a few feet above the ground and wafting home like a tired ghost through commuter streets and suburban spaces. I'm there, I'm fully there.

There is a sense of the spooky in this track but it's nothing to get scared about because the track is more delicious than mere atmosphere conjuring; it's full of textures and tastes that are undeniable and that swirl into your brain like weed smoke and there's nothing you can do except shrug and get the fuck high with it running through your nerves and thoughts like a lazy lust. What does Benjha do that's so nice?

This musicmaker carves out a huge wonky beat, jingling and crunching with cascades of percussion, crackling with the familiar smell of vinyl and off-beat hip-hop tint to it, rough and heavy guitar sounds decorating a thunderous beginning, where also synth chords wash into the mix, a soft cosmic cavalcade, then rich cymbals begin to ding ding ding ding... a woodblock click that reverbs so far into the swirling decorative void of the song... a slow groovesome bass that evolves into a bending foundation of blooping bass made the whole track reminiscent of a much more chilled version of this battle music from Earthbound.

A piercing synth lead lances up and soars, melting like a bleeding rainy sunset sky and all streetlights and strangers' eyes downcast as you make your way places. The synth bulges and buzzes abrasive and thick sometimes, with other ornamentations coming from crashing cymbals and clapping hands, the beat thickets with noises, it is alive with sonic observations, a stream of sound that is a microcosm in itself. And then it ends in a slow unnerving smog, like the realisation of a ghost that there is no living left but only ghostly journeys.

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• There is also a video for this track.

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