Igloomag.com chats with Clem Leek and reviews “Lifenotes”
“Lifenotes is a nice mixture of complex atmospheres and stripped back pieces. It has a long track list (sixteen), but they are all short tracks, easily digested.” Clem Leek is a composer who has quietly been working away for some time now. He is very often described as neo-classical, which is a pretty loose term […]
Pop Matters offers up 2 cents on Damian Valles’ ‘Skeleton Taxa’
Valles has been jumping from one genre to another––math rock, post-rock, ambient, punk––for more than a decade now. The Canadian musician has landed on something that feels like ambient, but which he says is more concerned with structured tunes and melodies—song stuff—than his past solo stuff. How is it? At times reminiscent of the dark, […]
Exclaim.ca weighs in on Clem Leek’s “Lifenotes”
Compared to Max Richter, Dustin O’Halloran and others in the current school of neo-classical composition, Clem Leek is as much a miniaturist as a minimalist. The pieces on the UK artist’s second full-length have the fragmentary character of in-process sketches or thoughts. Piano chords are played tentatively, with pregnant intervals allowing for full breaths, or […]
Future Sequence reviews “Skeleton Taxa” by Damian Valles
Although his seventh release, Skeleton Taxa is Canadian experimental artist Damian Valles’ first full length CD ‘proper’. Having more recently been exploring ambient and drone aesthetics in a string of limited CDrs, digital releases and compilations (not to mention the first Rural Route edition which he curates) this album sees Valles retain these components, but […]
Textura reviews Clem Leek’s “Lifenotes”
In keeping with its pencil-drawn cover illustration, UK-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Clem Leek intentionally chose to keep Lifenotes‘ songs, in his own words, “very basic and raw.” But while there may be bedroom-styled production ambiance in play, there’s nothing unfinished about the material in terms of quality. The album’s sixteen pieces, old and new pieces alike, […]
Der Impuls reviews Clem Leek’s “Lifenotes”
In Hamburg geht grad die Welt unter. Der richtige Zeitpunkt, bei diesem Schietwetter beruhigende Musik raus zu kramen, über die ich schon seit längerer Zeit mal was machen wollte. An solch einem Sonntag ist es nun soweit, wo kein Stück Kuchen, kein Becher warmer Tee und auch keine noch so schöne Kerze etwas entgegen zusetzen […]
Autres Directions review Clem Leek’s “Lifenotes”
Lifenotes est un carnet de croquis, d’œuvres de circonstances et d’instantanés. Le format d’un album – le second après Holly Lane (Hibernate, 2010) – mais la même spontanéité et la même simplicité confondante que Through The Annular et Snow Tales, les deux EP qui ont inauguré la discographie du jeune Anglais. Les seize titres de […]
Caleidoscoop reviews “Lifenotes” by Clem Leek
Original Review:Vorige maand heb ik al gesteld dat het kwaliteitslabel Drifting Falling een ware hofleverancier van de dromerige muziek begint te worden en ergens in het rijtje van Kranky, Darla, n5MD en Under The Spire past. Op het label verschijnen uiteenlopende artiesten uit diverse genres die als gemene deler hebben dat de dromerigheid voorop staat. […]