Landing squarely between dark ambient and post-rock, Sleepwalker’s guitar and percussion soundscapes are both haunting and majestic. The album’s four tracks begin with the self-titled opener, featuring cosmic layered guitar drones. The second track, Le Cercle Rouge, couples undistorted guitar melodies with harmonies made up of long-held notes, as well as semi-martial percussion. The percussion becomes more involved, almost tribal, on Dream Cycle, as the guitars produce waves of textures. All of this culminates in Neverending Journey Through the Void, a 29-minute excursion with slow but heavy chording and stark synth melodies. Quieter passages are introspective and reminiscent of dark ambient, while aggressive percussion and guitar, as well as a hint of chanted vocals, drive the more assertive movements to crescendo.

Monument from the Void was released on August 13 by Ksenza Records.

Even in a position where you get to hear quite a large amount of unusual music on a regular basis, that does not prepare you for Cecilia Lopez’s new release, RED (DB). On one 50-minute track, Lopez combines her electronics with the skills of drummer Gerald Cleaver and bassist Brandon Lopez to create humming textures and drones as well glissando-like sounds. Julia Cavagna provided scored actions.

The reason for this uniqueness is that the recording comes from a performable sound installation. At New York’s Roulette, drums and double bass were hung from suspended woven wire nets. These nets resonated as the instruments were played, creating feedback that accompanied Cecilia’s electronics. Cleaver’s percussion is indirectly heard, as he mostly generates abstractions and pulses of rattling. Aside from a few powerfully-played passages, his efforts do not sound like kit-based drumming. Brandon makes use of bowed bass, and plays entirely in an outside fashion. He lets his angular motifs echo in a loop-like fashion.

Structurally, the piece includes a roughly-hewn background drone, electronics that resembles a siren (that latter evolve into discordant warbling), and two voices of throbbing foreground improvisation. Often, these lines combine into sound walls. Again, the focus here is not on melody or rhythm, but texture and color. The closest comparison that comes to mind is the recent release of Three Drones by Wóma, also based on “playing” a form of resonator, but this piece is more dynamic. Regardless, RED (DB) stands on its own as a singular and oddly beautiful offering.