Sooty's Favorite Instrumentals of 2012

[Soot and Stars]

I like a good instrumental but rarely is it a big focus for me. I particularly love vocals and lyrics. This year their just seems to be a series of really cooli nstrumental based artist and songs that have rally grabbed me. This thread is open to everybody to contribute to but I'm not holding my breath. I hope there are other people listening that can open my eyes to more recent instrumentals and I can only say it's even cooler if more people dig the ones included as much as me!

Here's my favorites thus far this year:

Heavy Blanket (J. Mascis)-S/T

This is not normally within my taste but there's so much energy in these guitar riffing that I can't help but get into it. They are focused just enough to not be my idea of mindless jamming and just messy enough to have the type of edge I like.

Galloping Towards The Unknown & Dr. Martens Blues


Hilary Hahn & Hauschka-Silfra

This is the second year in a row I liked something with a classical infusion. Classical violinist Hilary Hahn who I likely would've never listened to before did a collaboration with composer/prepared pianist Hauschka and I love the whole album. It's a bunch of experimental instrumental that was 95% improvisation. Some of my favorites aren't from sources I can imbed (I love the Clockwinder track) but I really like these as well:

Bounce, Bounce & Draw A Map


Sigur Ros-Valtari

I'm going to cheat on one of these but I don't care. I've always considered the vocals of Sigur Ros to be an instrument woven into the song. One song here has the amazing builds that they are known for and completely takes my breath away and the other is breathtaking in it's purity. It really says something that I can pull so much emotion from such a minimalist song.

Varuo & Fjogur Piano


Amesthystium-Aurora EP

This is one I just discovered today. It's a fusion of Ambient, classical and Electronica and I love it. It's a short EP with four songs but I love the whole thing! It's really escapist in a fantasy type way. A little epic and a little dreamy! Good stuff!

Nightfall & Solace


So I've nearly got half a year to go so I may scrounge up more and give this thread a bump or too but for now this is what I've found and enjoyed!
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[Taboo]

I see you like Sigur Ros, did you ever hear about Ólafur Arnalds?

 

[Soot and Stars]

I liked that one dude! It was really good and I see he has an EP out as recent as 2012. I like this track! It's very sci-fi like!

Olafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm - A1 | STARE EP (Benjamin Knab Remix)

 

[Soot and Stars]

Delicate Steve-Positive Force

Here's another great instrumental discovery signed to David Byrnes record label Luaka Records. Steve has one album out in 2011 that gained him attention called Wondervisions but it's his recent 2012 album Positive Force that gained my attention. Opon up your ears for some modern Psychedelic guitar pop instrumentals!

Ramona Reborn, Wally Wilder & Redeemer
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[TheSound]

Extraordinary thread Sooty ....

....and not for the first time, so infused with fascinating links and graphics that my browser had to think twice before loading up the page, I must find time later to play through it...I'm a huge fan of Hilary Hahn, I heard her playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto a few years ago in DC and she brought the house down and gave two encores, she's incredibly versatile.

 

[Soot and Stars]

Thank you TS! Even if I'm the only one who sees or hears this material there's no better purpose for a forum to be able to do a proper showcase for something that strikes you personally. If I was the only one to see these I'd still do them here or somewhere in general. I actually know little about Hilary Hahns past career other than what she played but I love this project she's doing. It's very creative and sounds unlike anything else. I made a thread for her in the Classical section if you have some great examples of her Classical work you'd like to add. I understand how my threads can be hard on some browsers. In this age people are using all ranges of connections to get online even phones so some threads work better than others for others. Having said that it'd be cool if you did get a chance to parouse the sounds on here and get something from it! Thanks again Sound! Peace!