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Hillsong Worship ~ Open Heaven/River Wild (Hillsong Music)
The year’s finest Christian album is also the worship band’s most fully-realized collection to date: a series of live recordings that challenges and uplifts in equal measure. With “Oceans” still riding the chart (three years at #1!), this new set is evidence that the group continues to be divinely inspired.

Buy Limited Editin CD from Farpoint Records
Pat Collins & Tadhg O’Sullivan ~ Silence/Sound (Farpoint Recordings)
The aural reflection of Collins’ 2012 film Silence, Sound/Silence succeeds on multiple levels: as an engaging composition, a philosophical treatise, and an exercise in spiritual centering. The film follows a field recordist returning to his Irish home, plunging into the most barren of lands in search of something even he cannot fully name. This soundscape offers a different take on the subject: melancholy and meditative, it revels in natural sound while restoring faith in the human voice.

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Holly Herndon ~ Platform (4AD/RVNG)
Herndon’s sonic suitcase is stuffed: layers of meaning shrouded in mysterious vocal snippets, glued to shards of electronic beats and notes. The smooth surfaces and gleaming edges of Platform lend it a futuristic sheen akin to the android in “Ex Machina”; as the Tyrell Corporation once said, “more human than human.”

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V/A ~ One Minute Older (Virgin Babylon)
Got a minute? Virgin Babylon’s 5th anniversary compilation contains 50 tracks, each approximately one minute in length. The album creates an impression of Japan as an aural explosion of color and sound, as it tumbles from orchestral suites to video game bleeps to heavy metal blasts. Playing the disc is like listening to the best radio station imaginable, anticipating a surprise around every corner.

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Disasterpeace ~ It Follows OST (Milan Records)
It doesn’t think. It doesn’t feel. It doesn’t give up. It follows. The simple taglines reflect a streamlined concept. The score is similarly methodical, lingering in the mind even after it has ended. An homage to John Carpenter’s Halloween score, It Follows is fresh and retro, the old in the guise of the new.

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Michael Price ~ Entanglement (Erased Tapes)
Michael Price has been working hard since the release of his EP a couple years back, honing his sound and preparing to launch a major work into the world. Entanglement is just that: a beautiful, contemplative work that stands tall among its peers. As it was released during the Easter season, and features a track by that name, it’s a perfect soundtrack for the holy days. (Richard Allen)

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Ian William Craig ~ Cradle for the Wanting (Recital)
Ian William Craig‘s second album is gossamer and glass, as gentle as music can be. Vocal loops swirl like snowflakes and smoke, exposing every angle before falling or rising. From time to time, a word or phrase is captured like an elusive memory, but the emphasis is on harmonic convergence. Each clutch of interlocked notes is a tiny miracle, the spiritual plane reflected in the voice of the created.

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The Frozen Vaults ~ 1816 (Voxxov)
1816 is a winter music classic, inspired by “the year with no summer.” The strings sound exquisite, but the field recordings lend the album its distinctive nature: whipping wind, frozen precipitation, boots on snow. The music conjures images of a frigid north, white-out conditions, a shivering populace. Finally “The Great Thaw” arrives, dripping, melting, flowing, as water deserts the white.

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Olga Wojciechowska ~ Maps and Mazes (Time Released Sound)
Maps and Mazes suggests both mystery and discovery: deep secrets and an invitation. Follow the map, and one may emerge intact. Visit the minotaur, but bring a ball of string. The composer has been building an impressive body of work over the past few years, and this is her coming out party: after years of pseudonyms, it’s the first album recorded under her own name.

Packaging
Treha Sektori & Muhd ~ The Sense of Dust and Sheer (Cyclic Law)
Merzbow ~ Konchuuki (Essence Music)
*AR ~ Memorious Earth (Corbel Stone Music)
V/A ~ Merry May (Folklore Tapes)
Kate Carr ~ I had myself a nuclear spring (Flaming Pines)

Music Videos (in alphabetical order)
ABADDON (Directed by Rogerio Silva, Music by Alaskan Tapes)
Alfonso Muskedunder (Directed by Bendik Kaltenborn and Espen Friberg, Music by Todd Terje)
Covers (Directed by Henning M. Lederer, Music by Jörg Stierle)
Fear Nothing (Directed by Isaac Ravishankara, Music by Selah Sue)
Lilium (Directed by kynd, Music by Yaporigami)
Megalizer II (Directed by 16 artists, Music by edIT)
Periscopes (Directed by James Sampson, Music by Jilk and Haiku Salut)
Quack Fat (Directed by Dropbear, Music by Opiuo)
Slowly Rising (Directed by Hideki Inaba, Music by Beetsofreen)
solo scum (Directed by Mukai Jumpei, Music by Yuki Matsumura)

Favorite Films of 2015
Spring; It Follows; Furious 7; Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Ex Machina

Richard Allen
A Closer Listen
www.acloserlisten.com