Sonic Cathedral Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield 4 Items

In the heady days prior to the pandemic, on October 23, 2019, Pye Corner Audio headlined Sonic Cathedral’s 15th birthday bash at The Social in London (on a bill that also included bdrmm and Andy Bell). Now, following a limited cassette release in 2020, the incendiary performance – which mixes improvisations with reworked material from across his career – has been remastered by Antony Ryan (isan) and is to be made available on vinyl for the first time. Wryly titled ‘Social Dissonance’, it comes on green and blue swirl vinyl in a striking fluoro green and neon blue sleeve by designer Marc Jones. “This is a recording of a gig in a small space with a big heart,” says Pye Corner Audio, aka Martin Jenkins. “A memory of a night before the world changed completely. However, new alliances were formed and friendships made in that basement in Little Portland Street.” Indeed, Pye Corner Audio went on to collaborate with Andy Bell on an acclaimed series of remixes and the Ride guitarist returned the favour by playing on some new recordings that will be coming out on Sonic Cathedral later this year.

Reveries is Zach Frizzell, Marc Ertel and Damien Duque’s first album for over three years, and follows the success of their debut Liberamente. Together, the trio craft delicately textured and slowly unfurling sonic vistas, occupying a unique aural domain that lies between guitar-driven drone music and modern classical compositions.With their individual projects they are incredibly prolific, but Dawn Chorus releases are few and far between and Reveries represents a refined evolution, leaning more heavily toward string-based arrangements and compositional virtuosity. It is the very essence of what they are calling “dronegaze”, pushing the boundaries of the ambient genre while embracing a profound auditory expression. According to the trio, the six, long tracks on Reveries are “heavily reliant on improvisation, intuition, and allowing the compositions to exist in their own moment; the aim was a feeling of fluidity and a sense that every instrument has its place and purpose”. And they’re right. The opening title track emerges quietly in a swirl of strings; lead single ‘Deus’ eases its fittingly reverent grain into a glorious minor-key immensity; ‘Cadere’ pulls together a cast of orchestral instruments into a comforting devotional; ‘Somnium’ plays out in diffuse, shimmering melodic rounds; ‘Vale’ blossoms from a pair of sparse, alternating chord swells; and ‘Aufero’ is the perfect coda that reprises the low-end rumble of the album’s overture before being swept away on a sea of dissonance. “We live in an era of infinite distraction,” says Zach Frizzell, “where often the most valuable thing you can find is a respite for the soul.” How right he is. This, truly, is music from a higher place.

Italian duo Not Me But Us release their debut album Two via Sonic Cathedral on March 22. It’s a stunning record and proof that when two very different musicians meet it’s always possible for magic to happen.

This is very much the case with Bruno Bavota (the acclaimed Naples-based pianist and composer) and Fabrizio Somma (an electronic producer who releases music under the moniker K-Conjog) and their new collaboration. It blends both of their influences with added echoes of ambient, techno, 2000s club culture, post-classical and vague hints of post-rock, forming a soundtrack of their musical union.

‘Interlocking Mechanics’ was the first song they wrote and when, according to Bruno, it became clear that “all the sounds were in the right place”. So, instead than the rather cold and functional implication of the title, this slowly building beauty is actually the sound of something coming to life. The closing track, the elegiac ‘Us’, was the second piece of music they made, and is a similarly perfect mix of their styles. “It’s a nice combination and the good thing is that it’s a really new way to make music for the both of us,” says Bruno. “It’s hard to say how we came up with it together or who does what. We both believe that we’ve a common feeling about how to look for pure and sincere emotions.”

He’s right, despite the wordless nature of the eight tracks here, they are a testament to their ability to translate raw emotion into a musical journey, forging a connection that goes beyond sound. It takes us from the ambience of opener ‘No Words’, via the floaty ‘Inner Space’ and the B. Fleischmann-inspired ‘Buildings’ to the hymnal ‘In A Box’, the darker and more mysterious ‘Nocturnal Humans’ and the single ‘When We See’ which combines ethereal synths with skittering beats to great effect. It’s called Two, simply because it is just the two of them.

The series of seemingly random events that finally pushed them together in the “fragmented” Naples music scene and then led them to working with Sonic Cathedral simply adds to the record’s gravitas.

Back at the start of 2020 as the Covid pandemic tore through Italy, Bruno locked down at home in Naples and made music. In addition to his usual piano-based pieces, he experimented with electronics and the result – released the following year by the Brooklyn-based label Temporary Residence as For Apartments: Songs & Loops – was one of the records that soundtracked my grief after losing my mum. We got talking on Instagram and Bruno sent me some tracks by a new project.

The collaboration with Fabrizio had come about because a local promoter had essentially forced then to work together for an event on the island of Procida in November 2022 as part of its celebrations as Italian Capital of Culture. They got on well and, while they were there, on a wall, saw a sign that read “not me but us”. Several months of music-making and Mario Kart later, here they are, making up for lost time. “Here in Naples, 20 years ago, it was difficult to find someone who I could talk to about certain records,” concludes Fabrizio. “What we heard back then is in our music now and I’m convinced that this is only the beginning of a journey and we don’t know yet where it will take us.”

Pye Corner Audio releases an EP of remixes by Spacemen 3 legend Sonic Boom on October 28. Let's Remerge! takes three tracks from the recent album Let's Emerge! - which went to Number One in the Official Charts' dance chart following its release in July - and gives them all appropriately weird and wonderful twists. 'Haze Loops' gets turned inside out, the smoke clearing to reveal some new shoots; Andy Bell's guitar is brought to the fore on 'Saturation Point', keeping things together as the rest of the track spins out of control in the background, like a cross between Khruangbin and Ennio Morricone; previous single 'Warmth Of The Sun' is put through an acid blender, blurring all the edges and giving us one much-needed final hit of serotonin as the summer recedes into the distance. "When Nat from Sonic Cathedral said we should ask Sonic Boom for a remix, I thought he was kidding, but as a huge Spacemen 3 fan I felt we should give it a shot," says Pye Corner Audio, aka Martin Jenkins. "Happily, he ended up remixing three tracks and I couldn't have been more pleased with the results. He really took them somewhere special." "Friends kept mentioning Pye Corner Audio. Friends with good taste. And when I listened, I could hear why," says Sonic Boom, aka Pete Kember, who has just released Reset, his acclaimed collaboration with Panda Bear. "When Sonic Cathedral approached me about a remix, with Andy Bell in tow to boot, I asked for the stems of the three tracks that I liked the most_ and sometimes in life things just flow. "Three tracks and three remixes later, here we are, finally sending them off into the world to do their thing and for us to float and oscillate into their textures. These songs were medicine during troubled times for me. I can't think of a better endorsement."