VA - Antechamber Music 3 (2024)

Continuing to probe at the intersection between avant-garde, neo-classical and electronic music, Accidental Records' Antechamber series returns with another expansive overview of experimental work from distinct artists across the globe. In keeping with the overall philosophy of Matthew Herbert's record label, the focus is not on stylistic or conceptual cohesion, but a restless fascination with traditional and innovative ways of working with sound.

Among the many approaches taken on Antechamber 3, a recurring theme is one of location and environment. In the case of Florence-born Drum & Lace, the live recording of her piece 'Nel Parco' matches introspective, improvised melodic ambience with tactile field recordings of water hydrants, footsteps and people playing in a Los Angeles park on a hot summer's evening. 'Srengenge' finds Indonesian composer Gardika Gigih taking a more foreboding response to heat, using Javanese gamelan played by Nanang Bayu Aji to convey the alarming intensity of a heatwave he experienced in his hometown.

For Francesca Ter-Berg, the romantic, haunting flourishes of processed cello are directly inspired by a traditional Romanian-Jewish lament known as a doina, played for her during a research trip in Transylvania. George Hurd's 'Nuremberg’ forms part of a larger series of pieces created in direct response to a specific place — in this case musing on Nuremberg's beauty by recording on an ancient grand piano he found there.

Other works on the compilation are more rigorously focused on process, from Highdegger Industries' electro-acoustic study of layered string to MrUnderwood's unique MIDI-sequenced instrumentation and Emma-Kate Matthews' precisely recorded collage of 'bell-ish' instruments.

Teasing the tension between familiar musical forms and unknown textural and rhythmical zones, the assembled works on Antechamber 3 once again demonstrate the wild possibilities and surprising accessibility that can be found in contemporary experimental music.