Great:Autechre 'NTS Sessions' (Warp) - along with the Roland Kayn back catalogue this was probably about 75% of my listening this year. No one else is pushing sound architecture so far into the unknown presently. Yes, some of this still has noticeable 'techno' DNA, but only in the way that Fushitsusha has noticeable traces of Blue Cheer.
Autechre 'sinistrail sentinel' (Adult Swim/Warp) - excellent condensation of NTS into about 12 minutes, single of the decade.
Rudolf Eb.er 'Om Kult: The Ritual Practice of Conscious Dying' Volumes I/II (Schimpfluch Associates) - deepens the whole post-Brainnectar unnerving ritual sound, very uncomfortable atmosphere.
Eva-Maria Houben 'Breath for Organ' (Second Editions) - ultra-minimal work for cathedral organ, like the breathing of some unimaginable machine, needs loud playback to really feel it.
Kiyoharu Kuwayama 'Falsegraphia' (Lethe/KK) - excellent haunted factory sounds from the always-reliable KK, a little more layered than usual.
Okkyung Lee 'Dahl-Tah-Ghi' (Pica Disk) - recorded live in a mausoleum with excellent acoustics... Lee is the best solo improviser I've ever heard, much of what she does seems physically impossible, even when you are watching her do it.
Drew McDowall 'The Third Helix' (Dais) - his best work since Coil, beautifully detailed and quite unearthly.
MMMD 'Hagazussa' (Antifrost) - soundtrack to the (excellent) film of the same name, if you know MMMD/Mohammad already you know what to expect... maybe more of the same but when the same is this good it's hard to complain.
Nurse With Wound/TNB 'Changez les Blockeurs'/'Changez les Blockeurs And' (Dirter) - wasn't expecting much of this and was pleasantly (if that word can apply) surprised - Stapleton has lovingly boosted all the most irritating frequencies of the original and tripled the density. CD adds 25 more minutes of brain damage. The whole thing sounds more like TNB than TNB themselves, almost.
Dave Phillips 'Clearing' (Spalt-ung/Licht-ung)
Dave Phillips 'Ritual Protest Music' (Urbsounds Collective) these two are also more of the same but up to Dave's usual impeccable standards, really excellently recorded for maximum visceral impact.
Jakob Ullmann 'Muntzers Stern Solo II' (Edition RZ) - Ullmann is doing just about the most interesting work at the quiet end of the spectrum right now and this is his most minimal yet, newcomers should probably reach for 'A Catalogue of Sounds' and expecially 'Voice, books and FIRE' first but if you're already a convert then you probably already know about this. Edition RZ is the best contemporary 'classical' label operating right now, no question.
OK to good:Albedo Fantastica 'Culvert and Starry Night' (An'archives) - very eccentric work by Sachiko Fukuoka (Overhang Party, Kousokuya, Musik Atlach) and Keiko Higuchi, definitly not for all tastes but there's not much else like it.
Thomas Ankersmit 'Homage to Dick Raaijmakers' (Shelter Press) - heavy modular synth work, pretty intense, catch him live if you have the opportunity.
Antoine Chessex 'Subjectivation' (Fragment Factory) - heavy electronics w. processed sax, grim, relentless.
Cam Deas 'Time Exercises' (The Death of Rave) - if you like Roland Kayn you need to hear this.
The Eternal Chord 'Semper Liber' (Spire/Touch) - nice group collaborations for pipe organ, maybe a little overlong though
MMMD 'Andromache' (Antifrost) - Ilios & Veliotis adapt earlier Mohammad tracks for damaged pianos, nice.
Mayuko Hino 'Lunisolar' (Cold Spring) - first piece is good, second is not. still, good to have her back in operation
Jim O'Rourke 'Sleep Like it's Winter' (Newhere)
Jim O'Rourke 'Steamroom 38/39' (Steamroom) - I prefer the Steamroom releases to the album itself which derived from them, O'Rourke is better when he focuses on one thing intently.
Anna Schimkat 'Spinhouse' (Fragment Factory) - if you thought Francisco Lopez's 'Buildings: New York' needed more aggression, this is for you. Fragment Factory is one of the best labels around at present, always top quality and uncompromising sounds.
Uruk 'Mysterium Coniunctionis' (Ici d'ailleurs) - sprawling psychedelic space music by Thighpaulsandra and Massimo Pupillo, highly immersive, somewhere between Cyclobe and Tangerine Dream's 'Zeit', maybe?
Alex Zhang Hungtai 'Divine Weight' (Non Worldwide) - the first four tracks are good but nothing special, the final title piece is an uncanny masterpiece which could have been released as a standalone EP instead.
Reissues/anthologies/archive recordings, etc:Coil 'Wormsongs' (archive.org) - seems to be outtakes from the ElpH/Worship the Glitch period, quite ghostly, good to have this circulating.
Current 93 dreamt by Andrew Liles 'Like Swallowing Eclipses' - I normally can't tolerate Liles, who is a moderately talented engineer/sound designer but terrible composer, but these C93 remixes are really great, even more visceral than the originals at times.
John Duncan 'Organic' (États-Unis) - excellent, long-overdue rerelease of John's first LP from 1979.
John Duncan 'Riot' (iDEAL) - the best version of this classic record yet, completely remixed from the original 8-track master, in places like a totally new recording, mandatory!
Lethe 'Six Tables Sublimation' (Lethe/KK) - I was at the show this was recorded at, KK doing his dry ice on steel tables routine at the cavernous Darling Foundry, recording doesn't quite capture the room sound but it's nice to have this.
Mlehst 'Black Letter Ballad' Parts I/II (Mlehst) - this seems to be a comp of the various 'Black Letter Ballad' pieces scattered throughout the Mlehst discography but I don't know his work well enough to be sure - anyway it's nice lo-fi surrealism. Both parts were up on his now deactivated Bandcamp page earlier this year.
Roland Kayn 'Scanning' (?) - this has been circulating online recently, unsure of the provenance or how this was obtained as it was never released, but it is the ten-hour(!) piece recorded at the Institute of Sonology in 1982-83 immediately following the completion of TEKTRA. I only got this a few weeks ago so haven't had the time to really assimilate it but it is truly amazing, much more diverse in texture and structure than I expected, foreshadows the Electronic Symphonies that he would later do in the 90's.
Roland Kayn 'Simultan' (Die Schachtel) - this should have been CD instead of vinyl but the remastering is great and the sound is much better than the AGP transcription that had previously circulated. Much cruder than his later recordings, this (along with 'MAKRO I-III') would be the best introduction to Kayn's work for people into noise/industrial/PE - it was recorded in 1972 but totally anticipates MB, some of the more abstract Broken Flag things, early Merzbow, etc etc.
Merzbow 'Noisembryo' (Hospital) - not sure why this was on vinyl, CD would have been better (without remastering - the original still sounds perfect, much more dynamic than the brickwalled-to-death Relapse discs that came soon after), but its greatness can't be denied.
Eliane Radigue 'Oeuvres Electroniques' (INA-GRM) - Much needed, very well produced collection, some of the very finest electronic music ever made, but you already knew that.
Concerts:Eliane Radigue + Quatuor Bozzini 'Occam Delta VI' w. Jakob Kirkegaard (playing Else Marie Pade), Fonderie Darling, Montreal
Keiji Haino w. Julia Reidy, La Sala Rossa, Montreal
Drew McDowall w. Group A, La Vitrola, Montreal
Yikes, that was long.
