Aired on 29.03.26, 12:00pm
Quite a journey today, through genres, countries & continents, emotions and BPMs. This is how we do it in the house of Utility Fog.
Tonight at the top of the show I featured tracks from two big compilations of incredible Lebanese experimental music released by Tunefork Studios on Bandcamp to raise money for the millions of people displaced by Israel's invasion & now occupation of southern Lebanon. Land 01 came out in 2024, and now Land 02 and Land 03 have come out simultaneously. They're jam-packed with amazing music. There's a discount for getting all three, and it will go directly to supporting people in immediate need.
FRANTX – BARBIECUE [Carton Records/Bandcamp]
Andrea Giordano, Kalle Moberg, Jo David Meyer Lysne – D’antorn a lor [Black Truffle Records/Bandcamp]
Two releases here show the breadth of the work of Oslo-based Italian musician & singer Andrea Giordano, mentioned above as an early collaborator with Nicolas Remondino in their electro-acoustic duo ŌTONN and the contemporary classical/jazz Dròlo Ensemble. And while I say she is Oslo-based, Giordano is also leader of the Paris-based “glit-noise” band FRANTX. As far as I know, in FRANTX she is lead singer, also playing melodica and all sorts of electronics (in other groups she plays winds and various keyboard-based instruments including accordion). I intrepret “glit” as “glitch”, but it could also refer to glitter, and the group has a glittery queer punk attitude, tackling the politics of making music in the current context, expressing themselves through electro-acoustic experimentalism, punk noise (or noisy punk) and a weird instrumental lineup (guitar & drums added to Giordano’s melodica and Fanny Meteier‘s tuba). The album’s out on May 22, titled IDUTYU (“I Didn’t Understand That You Didn’t Understand”).
Utility Fog teeters on the cusp between acoustic and electronic, organic and digital. Constantly changing and rearranging, this aural cloud of nanotech consumes genres and spits them out in new forms.
Peter Hollo curates each episode around a narrative of genre-plasticity, deep-diving into artist histories, side projects and influences. Challenging sounds are contextualised within musical movements, surprising connections are uncovered, unfairly overlooked works are revisited.
Come on a journey through music in all its ugly beauty.
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