5 Selects w/ Carmen Villain (Smalltown Supersound)

Carmen Villain shares five recent favorites in anticipation of her live performance next week at In Sheep’s Clothing HQ.

One of our favorite artists performing at the upcoming Making Time ∞ festival at Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia, Oslo’s Carmen Hillestad aka Carmen Villain is something of a musical shapeshifter. Her early, guitar-driven indie-pop songs have been described as “Liz Phair + Anika + Slowdive” while her latest experiments in left-field electronics sound “a little Jon Hassell, maybe a little Susumu Yokota, but altogether its own thing.” Atmospheric is probably the best way to describe Hillestad’s distinctive sound which, in its current iteration, features tapestries of field-recordings, woodwinds, samples and synths. She’s also toured with the Manchester Camerata experimental orchestra and scored a dance performance from acclaimed choreographer Eszter Salamon…

We’re big fans of her recent album on Smalltown Supersound Only Love From Now On. A captivating and mysterious sonic trip through lush granular textures, delicate field recordings, clarinets, trumpet, percussion, and dubby grooves, the album feels like a career-defining work for a singular artist whose musical aesthetic continues to evolve into new and unexpected zones.

From her recent The Art of Production interview on Resident Advisor: “Hillestad is drawn to more subtle sounds that evoke organic textures like ‘breath’—sounds that are anchored by a deep groove that puts you in a ‘woozy space,’ as she likes to put it.”

Next Wednesday, September 20th, Carmen Villain will join us for a rare stateside live performance at In Sheep’s Clothing HQ! Her live set will feature clarinet, Bastl Thyme tape machine, Hologram Microcosm granular looper, and Roland SP-404 sampler.

Tickets are available now: https://link.dice.fm/j844c0940a40

In anticipation of the show next week, Carmen shared five recent favorites with us including music from English singer-songwriter Tirzah, Russian producer Pavel Milyakov, and the mysterious minimalist dub project Pretty Sneaky w/ writeups on each select.

Tirzah – No Limit

Just one of many highlights from the new album. I love how they’ve used the same beat across almost all the tracks, just with slightly different mix and moods. We are lucky to have Tirzah and Mica Levi. Tirza’s recent single with Babyfather is also on repeat. 

Ulla – popping out

Foam is such a beautiful and vibe’y album, I’ve been so lucky as to see her do this live twice, and its just so magical, abstracted and chopped, but oh so musical.

pmxper – Lavender Milk

This album gives me nostalgic feelings to what I used to listen to when I was in my late teens. Super hypnotic and vibe’y. Done by two of the best – Perila and Pavel Milyakov. 

Johanna Orellana – San Fabian 

I’m pretty partial to this music as I produced this album 🙂 But Johannas flute compositions and performance is so stunning, more people should know about it! This is the closing track of the album Las Camelias, Trés Esquinas, which should be listened to in full, but this track breaks my heart over and over. 

Pretty Sneaky – Side A (on PRSN3)

I really like most of what Pretty Sneaky have released so far – most of which has a lovely dubb’y undercurrent. This 12” is one of the darker and def most atmospheric so far, a reverb-heavy glitchy percussive dub techno that pops and crackles.