Wonderful Beasts are boycalledcrow and Xqui.
Audio wave riding high priest of the sonic spheres boycalledcrow and, experimental artist and remixer Xqui have teamed up to bring you their debut album under the name of Wonderful Beasts.
Twelve tracks of differing textures and sounds combine to make the first journey into the world of this new collaboration. The harmonic work of boycalledcrow meeting the trancelike meanderings of Xqui seeming to fit together like hand and glove.
Tracks were made by boycalledcrow before the music stems were digitally forwarded to Xqui who reconstructed them without listening to the original track. The results are quite simply wonderful, providing hypnotic, dreamy soundscapes that will whisk the listener away to a lighter, comfortable place.
Says boycalledcrow: “My inspiration came in the early hours of mornings when my baby daughter was awake and feeding. Often I found myself unable to sleep so I made music for hours and often forgot about it.”
The mysterious Xqui found the re-assembling process incredibly cathartic. “The stems that boycalledcrow supplied were simple but often gorgeous. I found the different parts like a musical jigsaw that fell into place with every extra piece I inserted.”
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"The Art Of Whisper is the special new collaborative album by Wonderful Beasts who are made up of the artists boycalledcrow (high priest of the sonic spheres) and Xqui (experimental artist and remixer).
The album is twelve tracks of differing textures and sounds combining to make the first journey into the world of this new collaboration. The pair had a unique (yet typically experimental for these artists) approach to creating their sonic chemistry. Tracks were constructed by boycalledcrow, before the music stems were digitally forwarded to Xqui who then reconstructed them without listening to the original track.
‘Heavy Gaze’ opens the album and very much sets the tone. It has chilled out beats and sounds, coupled with gentle field recording samples reminiscent of Radiohead. Follow up ‘I Fell Into A Dream’ has more earthy and dreamlike sounds mingling with some Kraftwerk inspired electronica.
‘I Fell Into Another Dream’ is filled to the brim with beautiful piano and ambient soundscapes as is ‘Love Her’ with its dreamlike Brian Eno esque blissed out collage.
‘My Old Guitar’ has some nice thick and gloopy electronica that eventually evolves into the gentle and gorgeous ambience that has gone before. ‘She Is The Melody Man’ is the penultimate track on this intriguing release and it is a track that successfully blends gentle tribal drumming with tender electronica.
Across the twelve tracks the due of Wonderful Beasts are able to successfully straddle the fine line between experimentation and accessibility. The substantial soundscapes that the pair are able to produce is remarkable when reminded of how the album was constructed. In these dark and uncertain times, this release is just what is needed. It is unassuming and occasionally reflects some type of drama, but more than anything, it has an overwhelming feeling of solace which that alone make me highly recommend this LP.
Of the album, boycalledcrow says “My inspiration came in the early hours of mornings when my baby daughter was awake and feeding. Often I found myself unable to sleep so I made music for hours and often forgot about it.”
Xqui found the re-assembling process incredibly cathartic. “The stems that boycalledcrow supplied were simple but often gorgeous. I found the different parts like a musical jigsaw that fell into place with every extra piece I inserted.”"
Joyzine
joyzine.org/2020/03/25/album-review-wonderful-beasts-the-art-of-whisper/
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"This next communication from Wonderful Beasts expands the velocity of meaning as their debut album seeks out fresh pasture. Wonderful Beasts are of course the gathered creative thoughts of boycalledcrow and Xqui. They produce music that combines a diverse range of feelings that sometimes escapes into the beyond, while at others aim straight for the heart. Employing words such as ambience is redundant here as the sounds collate in live, organic ways brushing the airwaves with meaningful expression. Unlike many of their contemporaries each of the pieces explores new avenues with notes and atmospheres not relying on easy options. Occasionally using drum beats such as on the pounding She is The melody Man, then grainy industrial landscapes shape Into the Emerald Eye, contrasting ideas defy expectations and that’s what is most intriguing about it all. There is an experimental element very much at play here just as there are moments of contemplative reassurance escaping the boundaries of other forms of electronic music. But enough words for now. Seek this out and experience the art of the possible."
Magazine Sixty
www.magazinesixty.com/wonderful-beasts-the-art-of-whisper-wormhole-world/
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"Wonderful Beasts latest album brought to my mind an arty Japanese gangster movie called Sonatine. Directed by ‘Beat’ Takeshi Kitano, it tells the story of a group of Yakuza hiding out at a remote beach house to avoid the fallout of an escalating gang war. It is unlike any other gangster film as it has a real air of serenity. However, amidst the calm, there are punctuations. Punctuations of extreme violence, that serve to bookmark the beauty of it in a wonderful way.
The same can be said for Art of Whisper. Long periods of ambient beauty are suddenly interrupted by eruptions of noise. Not a cacophony of noise though, just a pounding drum, a brooding bass line or a driving beat here or there. Into the Emerald Eye has moments that could be at home over a John Carpenter film, before unravelling into something altogether more tranquil. This tranquility is key with companion pieces, I fell into a/another dream. Both beautiful, floating ambient pieces woven with guitarwork.
Wonderful Beasts are a tricky one to categorise, which in this day and age is a huge feat in itself, but one group who came to mind the more I explored was Fuck Buttons. Not something you would expect from a group who border on ambience, but that aforementioned marriage of peace and fury that FB made their staple is extremely apparent on My Old Guitar. Driving drums are entangled with an angular melody all on a bed of airy synths.
There is real weight to the polarities on Art of Whisper, and the very concept of opposing parts is something that appears embedded in its DNA. The original tracks were made by boycalledcrow, before he passed the stems on to collaborator Xqui, who assembled them and added touches of his own without ever listening to the original tracks. It is clearly a formula that works as this is an accomplished LP that manages to evoke a wide range of emotions whilst never feeling less than the sum of its parts. Well worth a listen."
At The Barrier
atthebarrier.com/2020/03/31/wonderful-beasts-art-of-whisper-album-review/
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"More than ever before, ambient music feels somehow necessary right now. It represents a vehicle through which to still one’s restless mind amid a tickertape feed of dystopian signals, harrowing statistics and only the briefest flourishes of hope. Whether as a tool for absorption or distraction, ambient music can centre you elsewhere, allowing you to regain focus and perspective.
Unfortunately, a lot of ambient music is also terminally boring, the equivalent of sonic wallpaper or a naff pastiche of inconsequential New Age reference points. That accusation thankfully cannot be levied at Wonderful Beasts, a pairing of electronic artists boycalledcrow and Xqui, whose first collaboration together is anything but music to drift off to sleep to.
For the most part, The Art Of Whisper is built from blocks of gauzy texture, etiolated clouds of sound that float past you and hover, mirage-like and just out to reach, before vanishing into nothingness. Sprinkles of delicate synth melodies are cast over pieces like ‘I Fell Into A Dream’, a languid pace and frosty atmosphere evoking crystalline structures and ghostly shimmer. ‘Love Her’ and ‘Quiet’ include what could be the heavily-processed sound of pealing church bells submerged under layers and layers of dense reverb so as to leave the merest trace outline of joyfulness.
Elsewhere, there are pieces that break free of these beatific soundworlds. ‘My Old Guitar’ has a firmness and drama, its delicate melodic gestures nudged forward with a murky bass undertow and a distant beat. The track opens with a distorted, over-amped synth passage, creating the sense of memory and nostalgia enshrined in the title. A similar effect can be found on ‘She Is The Melody Man’, wherein a pounded, tribal rhythm supports a framework of high-velocity sequences and plucked guitar-like sounds, simultaneously carrying a sense of threat but also a youthful vigour, like looking back on the adventure games you played as a child. ‘Into The Emerald Eye’ is perhaps the noisiest piece here, with squalling layers of angry noise that finally ebb away into the same stylistic terrain as the likes of ‘Love Her’.
What boycalledcrow and Xqui offer is a sense of narrative without once revealing the story, offering little more than glimpses of moments freighted with emotional, yet ephemeral significance. To do that within the context of ambient music is nothing short of remarkable."
Furtherdot
furtherdot.com/2020/03/30/wonderful-beasts-the-art-of-whisper/
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"The Art of Whisper is a fantastic representation of the nature of sounds; which, some artists have that unique ability of depicting the colors and atmospheres of inner landscapes in ways others simply can’t.
Wonderful Beasts are all experimental artists; with boycalledcrow and remixer Xqui. They have collaborated on the allure of sounds and meticulously crafted each arrangement to bring us something both extraordinary and organic in creativity.
Available March 20, 2020 and available as a very limited CD on micro net-label Wormhole World, these twelve tracks perfectly represent and embellish the duality and textures of the world which surrounds us.
Boycalledcrow says, “My inspiration came in the early hours of mornings when my baby daughter was awake and feeding. Often I found myself unable to sleep so I made music for hours and often forgot about it.”
Tracks were originally made by boycalledcrow and re-assembled by Xqui, and has since found that process to be freeing. Saying, “The stems that boycalledcrow supplied were simple but often gorgeous. I found the different parts like a musical jigsaw that fell into place with every extra piece I inserted.”
You can really tell the pieces given were incredibly blissful. Many sounds were picturesque of what Xqui talked about, while others were semblances of decay enriched with experimental sound samples; and the re-constructions of such were a balance, complimenting the stems.
The album spills in abundance with a variety of colors and sound-oriented plantation. Exploring deeply the flesh of the land, we come across beasts of this forest; and are enveloped into the organism of the earth.
You Came With The Dawn was a perfect introduction to some very eclectic and multifarious sounds. A throaty sine-wave resonates through a strong, powerful gust of white noise. Suddenly, we are transitioned to a sequence of arpeggiated synths delicately gliding across the dawn’s light. Descending, we soar through an atmosphere where all of the elements meld together; as a clean, evanescent synth rings across the mass wall of white noise.
Most of the album was consistent and remained focused on various rhythmic forms; the production quality was fantastic, especially listening carefully to each arrangement transition, effortlessly, but never becoming over-bearing or drowned out by some unknown sound. Wonderful Beasts definitely explores a sense of freedom, opening new and imaginative landscapes for the listener.
My Old Guitar is a nice musical piece that contrasts to the delicacy of the first song. An 8-bit sampler – or what I presume is such – plays a nice tune while a medium tom rises in volume to vibrate your heart. Ethereal synths glide and build, slowly and delicately evolving.
The duplexity of the album’s atmosphere is portrayed perfectly through these transitions; also, allowing for a certain change in atmosphere as we venture deeper into The Art of Whisper.
She Is The Melody Man is a great display of what exactly this album has to offer. A loose tom pounds through a thunderous clash of dissonant textures. The melody ascends, shifting and shaping through various synth uses – cushioning the extraordinary energy. But, nevertheless, shaping the way in which this album is perceived. A once innocent sound, now maturing into what sounds like tribal chaos.
Mirror is a duality of what was represented throughout the album. Sparking lands of dark ambient creation, while decayed and muddied bass tones morph unequally through a string of distorted tonality.
I can go on and on about the strength and dichotomy the album has to offer, as well as the various constructions of the songs arrangements and identity, but it’s better if you just listen for yourself. With that said, I hope these guys collaborate on more projects in the future, one is just not enough!"
A N T I : MUSIC REVIEW
xactionmusic.wordpress.com/2020/03/11/the-art-of-whisper-by-wonderful-beasts/
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"Hello online traveling people! Are you in search for something to get your mind off things? A little pleasant journey of feathery delights filled with nice beasts that will be your instant friends, showing you around their beloved habitats and making you feel all welcome and all that? Good news for you as Xqui and boycalledcrow have teamed up for an album for a whole lot of that and possibly more!
Imagine sitting on the back of a flying friendly bumblebee as it gracefully tumbles around in a blue sky, a pretty space in which lush sunshine rays are warning the bad vibes that their time is running out. Oh it feels so nice and free over here, everything is weightlessly and little, experiencing a feel-good fantasy flight on the back of its little soft bum of humbling music created by this wonderful beast.
It will fly us into pretty times , ones in which the spooning sounds of pretty buzz have transformed themselves into butterfly twinkling, making it a wonderfully gracious flight that is absolutely friendly and dream-like. With nifty kind hearted melodies that enables us to float away through kind scenarios. Meanwhile our imaginative host had become a beautiful winged creature that goes along with the air like a good friend that feels entirely at home in the great skies of warm sunny adventures.
Happy electric energy can be embraced here in these airs, filled with joyous organ tones that are normally only coming out to celebrate angels or perhaps for wedding moments among only the purest of partners. Rhythms of love and beauty are seemingly the landscapes below us and the sky is not just continuing this view, but simply enlarging it. If you need comfort music and a moment to forget things, the wonderful beasts in this musical journey are the perfect wordless tour guide to go on a journey with.
Excitement might be around the corner too, feeding us the pulse that might make a heart beat tick a little longer as if we now sit on the back of a hasty rabbit that is running towards a field full of edible stuff that it likes to eat and bring home to it’s beloved long eared family. The transformative rides from one wonderful beastie to the other had never felt so good and pleasant. When this one jumps into the field we fall with it into yet another piece of dreamy music.
It’s comfort food for the ears and mind, a luxury of prettiness that will be a lovely escape from trouble. Even if the journey decided to land down on the ground these wonderful beasts are embracing you with their little legs, paws and well groomed claws like the best possible friends that you can count upon in times like these. Embracing you with the melodies of care, as if you just walked into a closet and ended in a sunny Narnia with only friendly beasts and pretty comfortable views inside. What are you waiting for? Jump on a bumblebee and get yourself out of there!"
Yeah I Know It Sucks
yeahiknowitsucks.wordpress.com/2020/03/23/wonderful-beasts-the-art-of-whisper/
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Released on Wormhole World, where the album is available on CD.
wormholeworld.bandcamp.com/album/the-art-of-whisper
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