Mono - Hymn To The Immortal Wind (Conspiracy Records)

I remember when I first saw (and heard) Mono, on their very first visit to the UK, back in 2003 supporting Kinski in the basement of Nice N Sleazy. In the aftermath of their blistering set I recall that my relatively naive take on them was that they were the band that could out-Mogwai even Mogwai themselves, with their ferocious, ultra-serious, highly-toned take on the quiet-loud post rock dynamic. While I'm sure that many detractors would see this a pithily accurate dismissal of what they do (and perhaps of the whole post rock 'thing' in general) I think that over the intervening 6 years Mono have proved themselves, by dint of sheer effort and hard-work alone, if nothing else, to be far beyond this initial misguided comparison. This, the band's 5th album proper, is released in their 10th anniversary year, an event that will be celebrated in New York in May with a pair of special anniversary concerts where the 4-piece Tokyo band are to be accompanied live by a full 23-piece orchestra. As befits such a celebration, 'Hymn To The Immortal Wind' is by far Mono's grandest and most epic achievement to date, a towering realisation of the band's musical vision and the last decade's relentless touring and development. As with their two previous albums, 'Hymn To The Immortal Wind' was recorded and produced by the band's long-time friend and collaborator Steve Albini, and his touch can be felt in the intimate live capture of even such a massive musical group. Enlisting the help of the aforementioned full-size orchestra, Mono have pushed their already massive, dynamic sound further than ever before, with soaring tremulous guitar lines multi-layered over huge classical orchestration, full of yearning heart-breaking strings and the ever-present feel of a melancholy slowly crescendoing soundtrack to the end of the world. Whilst none of these post-rock tropes (or, for the less forgiving, clichés) may be new, Mono's dedication and self-belief and their sheer vision and strength as epic instrumental composers and musicians carries them way beyond the clutches of their lesser peers, with a vast heart-felt and unsurpassed epic of an album that cements their place at the pinnacle of the post-rock canon.

'Hymn To The Immortal Wind' is released on Conspiracy Records (in Europe) on 24th March 2009.

Mono

Hanne Hukkelberg - Blood From A Stone (Nettwerk)

Hailing from Kongsberg in southern Norway, Hanne Hukkelberg displays some of the same kinds of vocal and musical idiosyncrasies that make Björk, Stina Nordenstein, or Joanna Newsom such singular and often divisive talents. 'Blood From A Stone' is Hukkelberg's third album and in contrast with its 2007 predecessor 'Rykestrasse 68', which was conceived and created in an ever bustling Berlin, 'Blood From A Stone' was written during a seven month retreat in a tiny coastal village on the island of Senja in the far north of Norway. Perhaps unexpectedly, this quiet conception has led to a noisier, more energetic pop album, full of epic soaring tunes and glorious melodic soundscapes, but with more than a hint of perfect other-worldly darkness and mystery to it. Fashioned in a uniquely rocking way from all kinds of unusual instrumentation and field-recordings, ranging from school desks, train doors, seagulls' calls and a host of household appliances and utensils, the album works its magic with layers of rhythm and sound, with Hukkelberg forming her often subtly dark and ominous, yet always beautifully soaring songs from deep wells of percussion, guitar, mysterious, mystical noise and multi-layered vocalisations and singing. From the slowly building opening strains of "Midnight Sun Dream" to the climactic epic grandeur of Norwegian-sung album closer "Bygd Gone By", 'Blood From A Stone' is an utterly enthralling and singularly beautiful accomplishment.

'Blood From A Stone' is released on Nettwerk on 20th April 2009.

Hanne Hukkelberg

Evening's Civil Twilight In Empires Of Tin (Constellation Records)

According to the notes printed inside the typically sumptuous heavy card-stock packaging for this, the Constellation label's first ever DVD release, "Evening's Civil Twilight" is a scientific term for the precise time when sunset gives way to night. But here, over the course of 100 grainy impressionistic minutes, the phrase is applied instead to passing empires, both historic and contemporary, as this multi-layered film from directorJem Cohen, with live musical accompaniment from a host of Constellation luminaries, meditates on the parallels between the decline of the 19th century Austro-Hungarian empire and the putative twilight of the current American one. The DVD documents the performance at the 2007 Vienna International Film Festival ofJem Cohen's multi-media work, inspired by Austrian author Joseph Roth's epic inter-war novel "The Radetsky March", a long-standing favourite of Efrim Menuck, Silver Mt. Zion's de facto head honcho, who originally passed the book on to the director. In front of a giant screen projection of Cohen's grainy, half-lit, black and white images, culled from archive footage of the Habsburg era and WWI and shot on atmospheric 16mm film in contemporary Brooklyn and Vienna, a massed musical ensemble, collecting together members of Silver Mt. Zion (née Godspeed You! Black Emperor) along with singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt, Guy Picciotto of Fugazi and Brooklyn duo The Quavers, provides a loosely orchestrated soundtrack to these socio-political musings. As the camera roves from the projection screen showing of Cohen's film, via long-shots of the stage and audience, to intimate close-ups of the musicians at work, they play a variety of pieces, ranging from the improvised textual abstractions that begin the performance, through impassioned full-blown ensemble reinterpretations of Vic Chesnutt's heartfelt songs and The Quavers' extended field-recording paean to their Brooklyn hometown, to the final storming blow-out rendition of Richard Strauss' "Radetsky March" that finishes the show. While the abstract, meditative nature of Cohen's film may be difficult to convey on the small home screen, this DVD certainly does its best to capture the full context of the Viennese performance, interweaving the projected images with the musical accompaniment, which, with some wonderfully passionate and superbly realised high-points, is undoubtedly the strongest aspect of the show.

'Evening's Civil Twilight In Empires Of Tin' is available now on Constellation Records.