Filaments

The fourth release on Silver Threads is Filaments, a 13-track compilation of experimental, ambient, electronic and electro-acoustic music by exceptional artists from three continents. Jo Johnson (quiet details, Muzan Editions, Mysteries of the Deep), who founded the label and curated this album, explains, “It’s a statement of intent for Silver Threads. It showcases many of the artists who inspire me and who I admire – as people and as musicians. Filaments are the invisible threads that connect us across space and time, transcending borders, binaries and barriers. A place between voids.”
 
Filaments was sequenced by Jo with help from Raica (Silver Threads, quiet details, Further Records), both of whom have contributed to the album. The 78-minute journey begins with the meditative, gorgeously warm and nurturing sounds of Cate Francesca Brooks (Clay Pipe, Cafe Kaput), Bea Brennan (Old Technology), Ryan J Raffa (Muzan Editions, Aural Canyon, Mystery Circles), and Jo Johnson – first solo and then with long-term collaborator Hilary Robinson (9128.live, Second Language, WIAIWYA). Unrush label, podcast and event series curator Mareena (Muzan Editions, Tresor) closes this section of the album perfectly.
 
Next Raica, whose incredible album “If Not Now, When” was the second release on Silver Threads, builds the energy and intensity, and then allows things to descend, leading us into the deep and, at times, darker realms with Erika (Ectomorph / Interdimensional Transmissions), Ana Quiroga (Houndstooth, Editions Mego, Lapsus) featuring violinist Leilehua Lanzilotti, and C. Lavender (Editions Mego, Old Technology, iDEAL Recordings). Expertly unsettling and disorientating music that invites reflection.
 
Anthony Child (Editions Mego, Old Technology, Dynamic Tension) provided the inspiration for the compilation’s title with his track Silver Filaments Connecting Us All. Its bittersweet arpeggios entwine, twist and unravel again before handing over to Loula Yorke (Truxalis, DiN, Castles in Space, quiet details) who picks up this thread, and seems to weave her modular arps into question marks. Polypores (Aural Canyon, quiet details, Cracked Ankles) concludes the compilation with layers of polyrhythms, just as creative, defiant and uncategorisable as ever.
 
The delicate cosmic art and design is by Plant43 and the album was attentively mastered by quiet details.
 
Note: Filaments is a compilation album, not a label sampler, and none of the tracks are taken from forthcoming albums. But it does give some clues about the future direction and range of Silver Threads.

1. Cate Francesca Brooks - Blush Tide
2. Bea Brennan - Say More
3. Ryan J Raffa - Nangan Island
4. Jo Johnson - Between Voids
5. Jo Johnson & Hilary Robinson - Hold, Together
6. Mareena - Trompos
7. Raica - Let Them Out
8. Erika - Timeblind
9. Ana Quiroga featuring Leilehua Lanzilotti - Expectation
10.C. Lavender - Entropy Remainder
11.Anthony Child - Silver Filaments Connecting Us All
12. Loula Yorke - We Think a Spoon is a Saw
13. Polypores - Mesme