My 100 favorite albums of 2023
Folks, it’s that time of the year - the time where people such as myself look back on the year we’ve collectively experienced and put together lists documenting things that happened in it as we prepare to venture into the ether of a new one. For someone who writes about music, there are many, many instances where I have trouble thinking of ways to talk about it, and writing intros for these lists is one of them. My first thought is to write about how these kinds of lists are fairly pointless and I’m not even sure why I make them in the first place - AKA the exact same way I introduced the previous year end list. There’s a point to be made about how the endless deluge of list after fucking list is indicative of a time in which categorizing music has lost whatever (already insignificant) purpose it once held, yet continuing to categorize this music endlessly seems to be all we know how to do. But to make such a statement would also be totally hypocritical coming from me, as a solid chunk of my musical education comes from poring lists on the internet, ranging from Alan Licht’s Minimal Top Ten lists and Henry Kaiser’s albums lists to the Boomkat charts, and, lest we forget, the Nurse With Wound list. I’ve benefitted a good bit from cool people putting together lists of stuff they like, so maybe dumping my own lists out into the universe is just my way of giving back. Yeah, I’ll keep telling myself that.
Anyways, here’s 100 of my favorite albums from 2023, the year that was:
Arnold Dreyblatt & The Orchestra of Excited Strings - Release (Drag City)
Arsenije Jovanović - Sailboat Galiola Nuria’s Unfinished Logbook (Pentiments)
Asha Sheshadri - Whiplash (Recital)
Azu Tiwaline - The Fifth Dream (IOT)
B. Cool-Aid - Leather Blvd. (Lex)
Babsy Konate - Tounga (Sahel Sounds)
Ustad Bahauddin Dagar - Ragas Bihag & Ragvardhani - Berlin February 19th 2023 (Sacred Realism)
Beatriz Ferreyra - UFO Forest + (Room40)
Ben Vida w/ Yarn/Wire and Nina Dante - The Beat My Head Hit (Shelter Press)
Biliana Voutchkova & Sarah Davachi - Slow Poem for Stiebler (Another Timbre)
billy woods & Kenny Segal - Maps (Backwoodz)
Blod - Där Ska Barnet Vara (Discreet)
Brandon Lopez - VileVileVileVileVileVileVileVile (Tao Forms)
Carla Boregas - Pena ao mar (iDEAL)
Catherine Christer Hennix - Solo for Tamburim (Blank Forms)
Christian Mirande - Beautiful One Day, Perfect the Next
CV & JAB - Κlima (Basilic)
Dane Law & Chants - Gurum Triads (Trilogy)
Dania - Foreign Body (Ecstatic)
Delphine Dora - As Above, So Below (Recital)
DJ Manny - Hypnotized (Planet Mu)
DJ Danifox - Ansiedade (Príncipe)
Dustin Wong - Perpetual Morphosis (Hausu Mountain)
Eiko Ishibashi / Jim O’Rourke - Live in Okayama (self-released)
Eric La Casa - Barrières mobiles (Swarming)
Estee Nack - Nacksaw Jim Duggan (Griselda)
Eve Aboulhkeir / Lasse Marhaug - 22/12/2017 Guilin Synthetic Daydream / How to Avoid Ants (Portraits GRM)
Eventless Plot - Distance Between Us (Dinzu Artefacts)
Eyes of the Amaryllis - Perceptible to Everyone (Horn of Plenty)
Fay Victor - Blackity Black Black Is Beautiful (Northern Spy)
Francis Plagne - Udge (Horn of Plenty)
Gil Sansón & Lance Austin Olsen - Lakeside Blues - Nachtmusik (Confront)
Giovanni Di Domenico, Silvia Tarozzi & Emmanuel Holterbach - L’occhio del vedere (elsewhere)
Giovanni Lami - Monumento Fiume (Kohlhaas)
Graham Lambkin & James Rushford - Gondolas (Erstwhile)
Hearsay - Glossolalia (Amalgam)
Holy Tongue - Deliverance and Spiritual Warfare (Amidah)
Idea Fire Company - Bathroom Electronics (Horn of Plenty)
Irreversible Entanglements - Protect Your Light (Impulse!)
Jaimie Branch - Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((World War)) (International Anthem)
Jay Glass Dubs - You Would Love Me Now (Extended Techniques)
Kelela - Raven (Warp)
Klein - Touched by an Angel (Parkwuud)
KMRU - Dissolution Grip (OFNOT)
L’Rain - I Killed Your Dog (Mexican Summer)
Langham Research Centre & John Butcher - Six Hands at an Open Door (Persistence of Sound)
Läuten der Seele - Ertrunken Im Seichtesten Gewässer (World of Echo)
Lia Kohl - The Ceiling Reposes (American Dreams)
Loraine James - Gentle Confrontation (Hyperdub)
Lucy Liyou - Dog Dreams (American Dreams)
Madhuvanti Pal - The Holy Mother (Sublime Frequencies)
Manja Ristić - Awakenings (LINE)
Mariam Rezaei - BOWN (Heat Crimes)
Marja Ahti - Tender Membranes (Black Truffle)
Mark Vernon - Call Back Carousel (Discrepant)
Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden… (Constellation)
Matmos - Return to Archive (Folkways)
Meshell Ndegeocello - The Omnichord Real Book (Blue Note)
Mike Cooper - Black Flamingos (Room40)
Model Home & Wolf Eyes - More Difficult Messages (Disciples)
Moniek Darge & Vanessa Rossetto - Dream Soundies (Erstwhile)
MP Hopkins - Misting (Nice)
Nakibemebe Embaire Group - S/T (Nyege Nyege)
Natasha Barrett - Reconfiguring the Landscape (Persistence of Sound)
The Necks - Travel (Northern Spy)
Nick Klein & Makoto Oshiro - Spaced (Superpang)
Nídia - 95 Mindjeres (Príncipe)
Niecy Blues - Exit Simulation (kranky)
Niko-Matti Ahti - Kaivajaiset (Students of Decay)
Nondi_ - Flood City Trax (Planet Mu)
Norman W. Long - Calumet in Dub (Blorpus)
Oren Ambarchi & Eric Thielemans - Double Consciousness (Matière Mémoire)
Otto Wilberg - The Leisure Principle (Black Truffle)
Patrick Shiroishi - I Was Too Young to Hear Silence (American Dreams)
Paul St. Hilaire - Tikiman Vol. 1 (Kynant)
Perila - On the Corner of the Day (Shelter Press)
Peter Brötzmann, Majid Bekkas & Hamid Drake - Catching Ghosts (ACT)
Philip Samartzis - Atmospheres and Disturbances (Room40)
Pita & Reinhold Friedl - Pita / Friedl (Karl)
Purelink - Signs (Peak Oil)
Rian Treanor & Ocen James - Saccades (Nyege Nyege)
Ricardo Dias Gomes - Muito Sol (Hive Mind)
Richard Chartier - On a Continuous Form (LINE)
Roxane Métayer - Perlée de sève (Marionette)
Sandy Ewen - Solo (Scatter)
SDEM - Vortices (Skam)
Shinetiac - Not All Who Wander Are Lost (West Mineral)
Staubitz and Waterhouse - Out and About (Gertrude)
Susan Alcorn, Patrick Holmes & Ryan Sawyer - From Union Pool (Relative Pitch)
Sydney Spann - Sending Up A Spiral Of (Recital)
Titi Bakorta - Molende (Nyege Nyege)
Tom Mudd - Guitar Cultures (Fancyyyyy)
Tongue Depressor - Bones for Time (Worried Songs)
Toshimaru Nakamura & suzueri - A Floor, Walls, and a Ceiling (Superpang)
Vumbi Dekula - Congo Guitar (Hive Mind)
Werner Dafeldecker - Neural (Room40)
William Fields - Fictions (Goto)
Yungwebster - S/T (Sferic)
Zhu Wenbo & Zhu Songjie - Magnet Blues (Notice)
Zoh Amba, Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt - The Flower School (Palilalia)
Favorite archival releases:
Carl Stone - Electronic Music from 1972–2022 (Unseen Worlds)
Charles Curtis, Alan Licht & Dean Roberts - May 99 (Blank Forms)
Derek Bailey / Paul Motian - Duo in Concert (Frozen Reeds)
Gamelan Kjahi Kanjoet Mèsem of the Mangkunegaran Palace - Gamelan in the Mangkunegaran Court, Surakarta, Java, 1931-37 (Canary)
Ruth Anderson / Annea Lockwood - Tête-à-tête (Ergot)
Tony Conrad / Arnold Dreyblatt / Jim O'Rourke - Tonic 19-01-2001 (Black Truffle)
VA - Spirit Cry Flutes and Bamboo Jews Harps From Papua New Guinea: Eastern Highlands and Madang (Ideologic Organ)
VA - The NID Tapes: Electronic Music from India 1969-1972 (The State51 Conspiracy)
Everything released by Roland Kayn
Albums not released this year that I nonetheless listened to a lot:
Julius Watkins - Sextet (Blue Note, 1954)
Duke Ellington’s Spacemen - The Cosmic Scene (Columbia, 1958)
Vilayat Khan & Bismillah Khan - Duets (HMV, 1967)
Gordon Lightfoot - Lightfoot! (United Artists, 1967)
Brij Bhusan Kabra - Two Raga Moods on Guitar (World Pacific, 1968)
Michael Nesmith & The First National Band - Magnetic South (RCA Victor, 1970)
Tudor Lodge - S/T (Vertigo, 1971)
John Surman & John Warren - Tales of the Algonquin (Deram, 1971)
Mike Westbrook - Metropolis (Neon, 1971)
Van Dyke Parks - Discover America (Warner Bros., 1972)
V/A - Fataleka and Baegu Music - Malaita, Solomon Islands (UNESCO Collection, 1973)
Judee Sill - Heart Food (Asylum, 1973)
Bobby Bradford - Love’s Dream (Emanem, 1973)
Wayne Shorter - Moto Grosso Feio (Blue Note, 1974)
Albert Marcœur - Album à colorier (Atlantic, 1976)
Derek Bailey & Tristan Honsinger - Duo (Incus, 1977)
Dome - Dome (Dome, 1980)
Eugene Chadbourne - There'll Be No Tears Tonight (Parachute, 1980)
Wha-Ha-Ha - Shinutokiwa Betsu (Nippon Columbia, 1981)
Scott Walker - Climate of Hunter (Virgin, 1984)
Depeche Mode - Music for the Masses (Sire, 1987)
Liof Munimula - The Jonah Syndrome (Garlic, 1988)
Annea Lockwood - A Sound Map of the Hudson River (Lovely, 1989)
David Behrman - Leapday Night (Lovely, 1991)
Uday Bhawalkar - A Dhrupad Recital (Navras, 1996)
Richard Youngs - Festival (Table of the Elements, 1996)
Christian Zanési - Le paradoxe de la femme-poisson (INA-GRM, 1998)
Triangles - S/T (Moikai, 2001)
Rolf Julius - (Halb) Schwartz (X-Tract, 2001)
Stilluppsteypa & TV Pow - We Are Everyone in the Room (Erstwhile, 2001)
Manuel Vallejo - Copa Pavón y llave de oro del cante (Sonifolk, 2003)
Douglas Lilburn - Complete Electro-Acoustic Works (Atoll, 2004)
Tod Dockstader - Aerial (Sub Rosa, 2005)
M Geddes Gengras - Light Pipe (Room 40, 2009)
Otomo Yoshihide, Axel Dörner, Sachiko M & Martin Brandlmayr - Allurements of the Ellipsoid (NEOS Jazz, 2010)
Forma - S/T (Spectrum Spools, 2011)
Grischa Lichtenberger - And IV [Inertia] (raster-noton, 2012)
Traxman - Da Mind of Traxman (Planet Mu, 2012)
Bee Mask - When We Were Eating Unripe Pears (Spectrum Spools, 2012)
Guenter Schlienz - Treehut Visions (Sacred Phrases, 2014)
Cybe - Tropisch Verlangen (STROOM, 2017)
EQ Why - Life of the Why: The MixTape Vol.1 (Third Kind, 2018)
Double Goocher Shop - S/T (Regional Bears, 2018)
John Chantler - Tomorrow Is Too Late (Room40, 2019)
R.I.P. Hayman - Dreams of India & China (Recital, 2019)
LF58 - Alterazione (Astral Industries, 2020)
Mike Hanapi with Kalama's Quartet - S/T (Mississippi, 2020)
Atsuko Hatano & Midori Hirano - Water Ladder (Alien Transistor, 2021)
Jos Smolders & Jim O’Rourke - Additive Inverse (Moving Furniture, 2021)