Not on 12K, but recommended:
ENCOMIAST - Havens CD-R (Crucial Bliss)
This disc contains three exquisite new driftworks from ENCOMIAST, entitled Havens. Formed from vaporous clouds of guitar, gamelan, shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute), violin, vina, voice, flute, and field recordings, Ross Hagen and Megan Garland have stretched these sounds into infinite ribbons of metallic shimmer, twisting and swirling into gorgeous hum. The three tracks on this disc are extended works that range from eleven to twenty-five minutes in length, and drifts within the angelic regions between Andrew Chalk's minimalist explorations, the dream music of Troum (and their predecessor, Maeror Tri), and the bleary melodic smear of My Bloody Valentine. Havens distills the bliss of deep dreams and early morning haze into captured hymns, and is one of ENCOMIAST's finest drone offerings to date. Packaged in a hand-assembled, full-color cardsleeve in a resealable plastic sleeve.
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Out of print, but available here for £6 including postage to anywhere in the world:
http://www.paradigms-recordings.com/store.html
RAMESES III / The North Sea - Night Of The Ankou (Type Records)
Originally released on CDR on Sun City Girl's label, 267 lattajjaa.
Awesome mail collaboration between The North Sea aka Brad Rose of Digitalis and UK's Rameses III. Vast glacial washes of gentle feedback with a brooding melancholy presence seeping through. Hard to tell what the instrumentation was on this ñ sounds like bowed guitars - but this is one of the most gorgeous records of this kind. Repeated listens reveal a lush song-structure with a proper narrative, full of a warmth that'll leave you horizontal every time.
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RAMESES III - Honey Rose (Important)
London-based trio Rameses III made waves last year with the absolutely stunning collaborative effort (with Tulsa’s The North Sea) ‘Night of the Ankou’, and now they’re back with their debut for the ever-reliable Important Records. Composed as the soundtrack to the film ‘Suityman’ this is possibly the band’s most focused work to date blending a curiously light-hearted song structure with their more familiar droning ambience and gorgeous textures. Over a mere 23 minutes the band show that they have just as much in common with classic-period 4AD and the pastoral American folk of Bruce Langhorne (‘The Hired Hand’) as with the burgeoning avant-garde drone scene and this willingness to embrace outside influence is eventually the band’s most successful move. Those who have heard the band’s phenomenal EPs ‘Jozepha’ and ‘Parsimonia’ will already know that they have been leaning in this direction for some time now, but here is where there intentions are laid out bare. Incorporating subtle synthesized elements, acoustic fretwork and even the odd vocal this is a deep and varied work, and what it lacks in length it makes up for in heart. When the scarce running time is up you are left longing for more, but the warm fuzzy feeling is guaranteed to stay with you for long after. A small but perfectly formed portrait of one of the UK’s most interesting acts at the moment, ‘Honey Rose’ is as gorgeous as the hazy cover imagery would have you believe.
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