Council Meeting Memo #084 — Eleventhvolume’s Top 13 for 2023
Eleventhvolume > 13 + 13 = 2023
1. Call Super: Eulo Cramps (can you feel the sun)
Bruised, beautiful, oblique
[electronic / acoustic]
2. Carrier: Neither Curve Nor Edge (Carrier) | Fathom (Felt)
Technical rigour and dark thrill of prime Photek
[breakbeat / adjacent]
3. Fabiano do Nascimento: Lendas (Now-Again Records) | Das Nuvens (Leaving Records) | Mundo Solo (Far Out Recordings)
Three different albums this year
[Brazilian-born guitarist]
4. Goat (jp): Joy in Fear (NAKID)
Martial, but by no means wholly
[percussive, post-Hassell]
5. Joe Armon-Jones and Maxwell Owin: Archetype (Aquarii Records)
Shabaka Hutchings, Mala a.o. guest
[UKG / bass / new jazz]
6. John Zorn: Homenaje a Remedios Varo (Tzadik)
Smooth, complex, immediate, brilliant
[jazz?]
7. Leo Takami: Next Door (Unseen Worlds)
Lovely successor to Felis Catus and Silence
[warm, Ghibli-esque]
8. Moritz Von Oswald: Silencio (Tresor)
Earth / sky
[abstract]
9. Nick Malkin: At The Libra Hotel (OOH-sounds)
Instrumental music with limbs sticking into Soundtrack and Jazz and Electronic and who knows what else
[sui generis]
10. Nils Petter Molvær & The Norwegian Radio Orchestra: Certainty of Tides (Modern Recordings)
Just the sound of it (intonation, coloration, arrangement, intent)
[post-jazz]
11. Salamanda: In Parallel (Wisdom Teeth)
Fecund, organic-seeming
[electronic]
12. Steve Lehman and Orchestral National de Jazz: Ex Machina (Pi Recordings)
Voices these times, Ellingtonian thereby
[jazz+ai]
13. Susanna and The Norwegian Radio Orchestra: Baudelaire and Orchestra (SusannaSonata)
Never a great fan of the covers, but Susanna’s own compositions (Triangle, Garden of Earthly Delights, etc.) are another thing entirely
[vocal]
And, and, and…
Actress: LXXXXVIII [Actress] (Ninja Tune)
Alabaster Deplume: Come With Fierce Grace [jazz] (International Anthem Recording Company)
Chief Adjuah: Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning [Afro New Orleans] (Ropeadope)
Dasha Rush: Contemplating [ambient / electronic] (Raster)
Dhafer Youssef: Street of Minarets [jazz / world] (Back Beat Edition)
DJ Manny: Hypnotized [footwork] (Planet Mu)
Laurel Halo: Atlas [not ambient] (Awe)
Lee Gamble: Models [ai-lectronic] (Hyperdub)
Lucy Railton: Corner Dancer [abstract] (Modern Love)
Ricardo Dias Gomes: Muito Sol [Brazilian / Psych / Vocal] (Hive Mind Records)
Sam Gendel: Cook Up [weird / fun] (Nonesuch)
Samuel Rohrer: Codes of Nature [rhythmic] (Arjunamusic)
Shackleton: The Scandal of Time [haunted] (Woe To The Septic Heart)
Eleventhvolume hopes for a better 2024 for everyone.
