Dissonant

Liew Niyomkarn

Common Ground Vol. 3

Various Artists – Common Ground Vol. 3 (Safe Ground Records, 2023)

Safe Ground Records extends a sequel to its Common Ground series. While goosebumps run down your arms, exclusive material is once again offered here by the finest names in the experimental and ambient scene. Work that introduces you to artists or, if you already know them, solidifies their status even more. A clever selection that fits together like a long flow. As always, ‘Common Ground’ can be listened to like a radio show. The immaculate transition between, for instance, the work of British composer Victoria Wijerante and American JJJJJerome Ellis, leave you in doxubt that you have entered a new track. Before you are overthrown by Colin Self‘s angelic and enchanting ‘Vale of The Crested Mire’, Poland’s Martyna Basta, with field recordings, a diligent plucking of her violin and those dishevelled, distinctive, elegiac voices, reaffirms her status as a rising star on the European experimental scene. Using almost exactly the same elements, London-based Damsel Elysium creates a completely different sonic universe where alienation is nonetheless central. An ultra-short ambient soundscape that tempts for more. That lurking hunger for more of this, is further whetted by Aho Ssan‘s rougher but controlled ‘Blue Tears’. The compilation hums on. You are unobtrusively dropped off at the next artist. Sometimes it breaks radically. As with Chantal Michelle‘s compelling, engaging and abrasive ‘Study for Fuses’. And again with the work of Brussels-based Liew Niyomkarn, who this time makes her signature whispers echo louder, up against clashing rhythm patterns. ‘Don’t Die Out There’. Proceeds from Common Ground go to the NGOs Sea Watch and Choose Love. Themes and titles that are all closely linked to Lamin Fofana‘s work. His ‘Love’s Shadow’, a hauntology-rich bath of sound wrapped in crackling vinyl, brings you to inner silence. A silence that Edinburgh-based Alliyah Enyo takes advantage of. She brings reverb, masses of reverb in ‘Look Godly in Your Eyes’. Her voice, her instrumentation, the atmosphere. Intoxicating and enchanting. One last time, goosebumps unabashedly run down the arms.

Strong sunlight seeping through autumn-coloured trees

Dissonant #7 on Radio Vacarme

Tracklist for Dissonant #7 (05/10/2022).
Dissonant goes live every first wednesday of the month at 8PM CET via Radio Vacarme.

Loraine James – Choose To Be Gay (Femenine)
Building Something Beautiful For Me (Phantom Limb, 2022)

Liew Niyomkarn – I think of another time when you heard it
I Think of Another Time When You Heard It (Chinabot, 2022)

Li Yilei – Bird Box
Secondary Self (LTR Records, 2022)

BIG | BRAVE – Sibling
A Gaze Among Them (Southern Lord, 2019)

Aviva Endean – Nightwork
Moths & Stars (Room40, 2022)

Bridget Ferrill & Áslaug Magnúsdóttir –  Eternal Liquid Sad
Woodwind Quintet (Subtext Recordings, 2022)

Sally Decker & Briana Marela – When it lengthens
Small Tremble In Slow Motion (Surface World, 2022)

rRoxymore – Fragmented Dreams
Perpetual Now (Smalltown Supersound, 2022)

Coffintexts x Jonny From Space – CIENFUEGOS
CIENFUEGOS (observe participate, 2022)

Sabrina Bellaouel – We Don’t Need to Be Enemies
We Don’t Need to Be Enemies (Infiné, 2020) 

Debit – Gauzy
Animus (Naafi, 2018)

Maria Teriaeva – 14’19
Conservatory Of Flowers (Hidden Harmony Recordings, 2020)

Aleksandra Słyż – MG II
Human Glory (Pointless Geometry, 2020)

claire rousay – wouldn’t have to hurt
wouldn’t have to hurt (Mended Dreams Records, 2022)

John Poubelle – 56 fois le tour du soleil
Pléistocène Supérieur (Commando Vanessa, 2020)

Sissel Wincent – Ponytails
Inspirational Quotes EP (Peder Mannerfelt, 2018)

Denise Rabe  – Paralysed Spheres
X – Ten Years Of Artefacts (Stroboscopic Artefacts, 2019)

Maral – Feedback Jam
Ground Groove (Leaving Records, 2022)

Lucrecia Dalt – Atemporal
¡Ay! (RVNG Intl., 2022)

Georgia Rodgers – Tonewood
Tonewood (SN Variations, 2021)

Sally Decker – The Loss
In The Tender Dream (NNA Tapes, 2021)

Areliz Ramos – Kabal
Frío (Where To Now?, 2022)

Aïsha Devi – The Saviour On Spilled Blood
Conscious Cunt (Houndstooth, 2015)