Tired of hearing the same old Christmas songs from the same artists? So are we. Holiday offerings from Laura Cannell, Dave Clarkson, The Antiquarian and The Second Hand Orchestra, along with unique new compilations from Subexotic Records, Room in Heaven and Passed Recordings, guarantee that your Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities will have an original score. These new releases have inspired this surprise bonus year-end chart!
But before we get to the new music, we’d like to give a callback to our favorite modern (mostly) instrumental Christmas series of all time: Flannelgraph Records’ 4-volume The Holidays Don’t Have to Be So Rotten (2010-2013). These albums opened our ears to what was possible in non-traditional Christmas music, and sent us on a life-long search for more. We were even able to review the last two, as they were released in the first two years of our site. All four volumes can be streamed and purchased below. Please resume this series, Flannelgraph!
And now to the new stuff. Brightly Shone the Moon is billed as “alternative Christmas music for those who love and mourn in a season where darkness is everywhere.” Laura Cannell‘s music is steeped in folklore, as apparent in her ongoing series A Year in Lore and A Compendium of Beasts; the new album is no exception. Recalling ancient woods, medieval carolers and winter pews, she allows time to fold in on itself. Violin and pipe organ waft from afar, as if one is deep in the woods, searching for home. The titles and phrases quote traditional carols, treating them as spectral images against the pine; but many well-known lines are left incomplete as Cannell veers into gentle, thoughtful improvisation. The warm tone remains throughout, an invitation to gather around the hearth and share tells of winter, Christmas and home as the bright moon shines through the glass.
Dave Clarkson‘s The Ghosts of Christmas Past is split into distinct segments, past and present. Composed with vintage toys such as “bird boxes, chimes, hand bells, glockenspiels, xylophones, egg shakers, wooden blocks, toy drums, baby pianos, grandfather clocks,” the music has an instant, innocent appeal. The early tracks are redolent of childhood, happy and upbeat as a child on Christmas morning, gleefully unwrapping toy after toy. Some of the pieces, especially opener “The Amazing Toy Orchestra,” come across as club cuts. Midway through the album, the mood shifts, as one can glean from the title. Now the adult is looking back at what was once innocent and has been lost, ruminating on paths not taken, thoughts rotating in endless loops. The music imitates this state of mind, all too common during the holidays, highlighting the fact that the most wonderful time of the year can also be the loneliest. The album is important for what it recognizes; it’s also a brave recording, as it heads in a direction that not all will desire this Christmas, while offering an essential empathy.
Did you know that “The Holly and the Ivy” is not a traditional Christmas song? The folk tune actually predates Christmas, part of a wassailing tradition connected with apple orchards and “crowds making a hullabaloo.” The Antiquarian (Eric Loveland Heath) celebrates these traditions on Wassail, whose official release date is Twelfth Night, but is graciously made available early. The slightly lo-fi quality and addition of effects such as wind lend it the aura of a cassette buried and unearthed. There are no words, but one can picture the wassailers, can sing along should one choose, and can certainly eat fresh apples (and apple pies!) to honor ancient traditions. The tone is joyous, a reflection of gleeful abandon. Let us head to the orchard, and a-wassailing we will go!
A quick turnaround for The Second Hand Orchestra, whose album Puzzle was released only a month prior to SNOW, this is Christmas. The final installment of a winter trilogy, SNOW contains playful re-imaginings of well-known classics, but shines in its less familiar regional spaces. These include the dramatic Swedish Christmas carol “Staffan var en stalledräng,” “Midnatt råder” and “Santa Lucia.” (Swedish Christmas foods, by the way, include janssons frestelse, lussekatter and risgrynsgröt; and don’t forget the glögg!) The festive atmosphere is palpable, as is a slightly drunken tone. The spontaneous feel reflects the frolicking recording session. If the performers stumble through the snow, they do so together. It’s all in good fun, with a gentle morning after. Mer jul, we say (more Christmas!).
Billed as a “Yuletide winter curiosity,” Subexotic Records’ Yule 25 is a four track EP of happy electronic grooves. It all begins with the wobbly, Enya-sampling “First Christmas (On Shaky Ground)” from The Home Current, who like The Second Hand Orchestra may have had too much glögg. The woozy combination works, because Enya always sounds like Christmas, even when she’s not singing about it; and because the sampling is held to a catchy minimum, allowing space for the original music and jingle bells to shine. On “Ad Nives,” Heron & Crane combine library music and retro electronics in a style reminiscent of Clay Pipe Records; then Listening Center‘s “Plugged in Nollaig” extends the style, making one think of 70s TV specials and Christmases before the internet. Rural District Lo-Fi Recording Project returns to the present with howling winds, vocal samples and intimations of cold; “O Winter Waly” has an oddly hypnotic appeal. When the church clock peals, one knows that Christmas has arrived.
First Winter Day is not only Room in Heaven‘s first compilation, but its very first release! A mixture of “ambient, folk, primitive guitar and tape music,” First Winter’s Day was specifically designed for the solstice and beyond. The Howard Hughes Suite leads it off with gentle pedal steel and a languid, laid back tone that captures the calm feeling of “Silent Night” while cleverly disguising the song. Bus Bus Piano channels the Ghost of Christmas Past on “White Snow Green Needles,” a distorted slice of Christmas hauntology. The looping “xmas set for cricket radio_12 17 25” includes intimate whisperings of “Happy Christmas,” as if beamed from another planet that only uses reel-to-reel. The track contains micro-samples of derek white‘s favorite Christmas songs, and yes, Wham! is included! Friends of the Road contributes an all-out hoedown in “Breaking Up Christmas,” making us wish we’d been invited to the party. Many other outliers are gathered in a way that makes them seem like insiders; there’s room for everyone in this manger. Congratulations to Room in Heaven for a very strong start!
Finally the coup de grâce: a massive 35-track, three and a quarter hour compilation from Sweden’s Passed Recordings and Ambient Soundscapes, which should get one safely through the presents and the meal. As the sequel to 2022’s Christmas Passed, The Ghost of Christmas Passed more than triples the offerings and makes its play to be the most reliable instrumental Christmas series since The Holidays Don’t Have to Be So Rotten. As a bonus, each track is accompanied by a gorgeous winter photo, in many cases so striking that we wish there was a physical release, or at the very least a calendar.
There are too many tracks to mention them all, but we do have some favorites. These include Asha Patera‘s bell-decorated “The Joy On Their Faces That Morning,” which launches the set with gentle aplomb; the languid church chimes of David Aimone‘s “Gel’s Bells”; Fennel‘s “Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh,” graced by warm fireside crackle. Other pieces incorporate sleet and snow, as heard from the safety of a home. Jenn Jacobsen turns the idea on its head with the sweet, sobering string-filled reminder, “Homeless On Christmas,” while Jollroy asks, “How Many Winters Remain?” “Winter Chorus” brings static, choir and beats, surprisingly melodic given the artist name Unruly Disturbance. In the finale of “Tuyon,” I felt it in my sleep makes a surprising shift from drone to handpan, while Nanováros shifts from drone to choir in “Sisyphus Cries in Winter.” Imogen‘s “qaṣf kanīsat al-quddīs Barfīriyyūs” delves into huantology, connecting back to the project’s title. While listeners will have their own favorites, the breadth of the project virtually guarantees something for everybody; and as 50% of the proceeds will benefit Doctors Without Borders, the spirit if the season is intact. (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 