Mila:  Karlheinz Stockhausen “Kontakte”  Lots of whings, blings, and clonks here.  A conglomerate of different sounds, for me, I am missing a sense of cohesion, but that could be my ignorance of electronica.  This one is not my cup of tea, I sense a coldness in it that just doesn’t appeal to me.  Thylacine “Versailles”  This one I prefer much from the start.  It is also very electronic, obviously, but the sound of the organ at the beginning added more of a human touch that I crave in music.  I like that it has a more discernable rhythm as well, and a feeling of completion, reprising the beginning at the end. TY ft. Mpho “Brixton Baby”  Now THIS hits more notes that appeal to me.  The city sounds, the street performers.  There are synths added and the vocals are very soulful, until the rap part anyway. The rap is of interest also, as commentary of the passersby and culture.   Snippets of steel drums (?) then intersperse with city sounds and conversations and finally back to music overlying everything.  As you probably can tell, this is my favourite of yours here.  

Christian:  Sohrab “Zarrin”  Slow builder here, not sure what the opening sounds are, but a nice washy thing enters and swells.  There are subtle little wriggles show up under the repeating washy part.  Just lovely and contemplative, soothing yet kept my interest up.  Fred Frith “Same Old Me”  Funny start with sneezing!  Love the messing around on the stringed thing and the Farfisa type organ.  Sarcastic spoken vocal, there is certainly a sense of anxiety and hopelessness here.  Some ironically jolly little horns peep in, probably done on synth.  Fun!  Lewian “Distant by Funex”  Sounds almost like a typewriter type keyboard at the start, a repeating chord on piano and little tinkly sounds (teaspoons in cups?).  Little whirlies join in and some more kind of stirring, swishing sounds.  Sometimes serene, sometimes a little disturbing, with some discordant sounds peppered into the mix.  Intriguing!  And congrats on doing your own music.  I actually enjoyed all of yours, as I often do.  You’ve opened my ears to a lot in this genre over the polls. 

George:  Tyondai Braxton “Casine Trem”  Fun romp with whomps and whiddleys (clarinets?).  Sounds like most is on synths, as far as keyboards, although there are some strings that sound like violin and or cello.  Little percussive stick things going on.  Makes me think of cartoons, not that it’s laughable, but deliberately done with some humour.  It also get dramatic in parts, with dissonance.  Paula Matthusen “The Ontology of an Echo”  Drips and odd bowed sounds, plinks and plonks and whizzies.  This one becomes more contemplative as it moves along, ending with bowed cello.  Lovely.   Renė Lussier “Nocturnal”  Some quiet moments at first, then some bangs and wongly brass and electric guitar, mostly discordant.  Ominous.  A jazzy kind of section commences, with drums and piano and clarinet (?).  Deep breaths and snoring sounds, kinda (on cello). More slippy slideys.  Christian Marclay “Fade to Slide”  Industrial start this off, and some water and clicky-clackies, strings again (which are really great for staccato sounds, creating tension).  Very discordant and jumpy.  Oooh, a harp!  Bagpipes and accordions being tortured!  Probably obvious that my favourite here is “The Ontology of an Echo.” 

Nick:  Birds and the morning, just go together.  Imagine a world without birdsong.  It would be a sad thing, indeed.  May we never see that day dawn.  Cronofonia “Dawn (reprise)”  Shakuhachi type flute, then moves into more orchestral territory.  I have a feeling I’m going to like this.  Yep, electric guitar softly comes in, then drums and the rest of the band.  Flute swirls in and around as the band steadily plays along.  Surprised by a male vocalist, then a violin (and perhaps more strings).  Plenty of dynamics in the piece, as it falls back to minimal, rises again in a crescendo, then moves, as you’d stated, into pure birdsong for over a full minute. Lovely.  Henika “Dawn Chorus”   This one starts the opposite way, with birds at the fore, and indeed, throughout.  Kind of a quirky, lilting female vocalist, this is a style that is enjoying a lot of popularity right now.  She uses herself in chorus also, as well as the birds, creating her own dawn chorus.  Upbeat, like a promising morning.  Henika’s video of dawn chorus on Tiritiri Matangi Island:  This will have to wait and play off and on as I have time, I’m assuming out of competition.  I do like to have natural background sounds esp at this time of year, windows closed on the West Coast of the US for the most part.  Pie Are Squared “Heard From a Distance”  Underpinning electronic wash sound, then another type of wash, gentle, lapping waves.  The changing sounds are quite subtle, but do build in intensity and volume, very slowly.  A sound is added that at first reminds me of conch sounds, but resolves into more of an electric guitar/violin sort of sustain.  This becomes almost sonar-like, then, fairly abruptly, ends.  Henika Extras:  “Birdie Sings The Blues”  Birds start, then plucked double bass.  Here she is more sultry, much more of a blues/jazz kind of vocal.  Slide guitar comes in, making it more Delta/folky.  This one I do prefer, to the first one of hers.  Let’s see how the final one goes.  “Forest Nocturne”  This sounds more like where I live, in summer.  Twin Peaks country, lol, with those fingersnaps.  More of the sultry vocal, with some wild choral ornamentation and some weeeeeeee sorts of sounds.  A bit more quirky jazz here.  Faves here were Chronofonia and Birdie Sings The Blues.

Luc Ferrari: Presque rien avec les filles

Luc Ferrari was a pioneer in electronic music and ‘musique concrète’. The latter is a type of music composition where recorded sounds are used as raw material. Compositions in this idiom are not restricted to common musical rules of melody, harmony, rhythm, metre, etc. which is not easy to compare with most pieces in the mix. Being imo the piece closest to the subject of this poll, I see Ferrari with his “Presque rien avec les filles” running through the finish gate quite easily.

Grice: Agent Starling (high roller glitch)

This is a well-crafted composition where birdsong and music are combined to create a beautiful soundscape. Electronica, acoustic instruments, strings, and field recordings are all finely and seamlessly interwoven. In terms of music genre, it is a blend of electronica, symphonic rock and jazz, I would say. As a jazz fan I was especially captured by the sound of the trumpet that inevitably reminded me of Miles Davis’ cool jazz period. The fact that this is a relatively recent recording, adds to the attractiveness of this contribution for me.

XTC: Summer's Cauldron

A pleasant and well-crafted art-rock piece, where field recordings are well integrated into the music. This is actually something that I would want to listen to every now and then. I had a quick listen to their Skylarking album which offers consistent quality.

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Grand Jury Prize: Bang on a Can All-Stars - Casino Trem