Daily Drops · Vol.159每日唱片 · Vol.159

An album named after three words on a map grid: Downhill. Almost. Starlight. 一張號稱收全鋼琴獨奏作品的碟，裡頭有兩首不是獨奏

Thursday, September 10, 2026 2026年9月10日星期四

01 Pick of the Day 今日精選

Jem Finer & John Matthias — Almost Starlight

Genre類型: Drone · Chamber Improvisation
Label廠牌: Touch
Format介質: Vinyl · CD · Cassette · Streaming
Released發行: 2026-09-04

A hurdy-gurdy is a machine as much as an instrument, and most recordings treat the machinery as a nuisance to be minimised. Jay Auborn, producing, went the other way: eight or nine microphones on the instrument, one or two of them taped to the body specifically to catch the clatter of the keys, the rest hung in the air and around the church. The mechanical noise is therefore a voice, on equal terms with Matthias's violin. They also recorded a long stretch of the empty church with nobody playing at all, which is the sort of thing that sounds like a conceit until you hear how much of the room is audible in everything else. Finer was a founding member of the Pogues; Matthias is a theoretical physicist by day. Neither fact explains the record, but together they suggest why nobody involved seems in a hurry. 手搖琴這件樂器，多數錄音都只想收它拉出來的那條持續音，按鍵的機械聲被當成雜訊處理掉。這張碟反過來做：製作人 Jay Auborn 在琴上架了八到九支麥克風，其中一兩支直接貼在琴身，專門收按鍵的咔噠聲，其餘的懸在空中與教堂各處。於是機械噪音變成了正經聲部，跟 John Matthias 的小提琴平起平坐。同一場收音裡，他們還錄了整整一段沒有人演奏的教堂空場——空間本身也算一位演奏者。Jem Finer 是 The Pogues 的創始成員之一，Matthias 的本職是理論物理學者，這兩個人湊在一張唱片上，本來就不太常見。

Sir Simon Rattle & London Symphony Orchestra — Janáček: The Excursions of Mr Brouček

Genre類型: Opera · Classical
Label廠牌: LSO Live
Format介質: SACD · Streaming
Released發行: 2026-09-04

The plot, in full: a drunk Prague landlord is transported to the Moon, where he is dismayed to find the inhabitants live on the scent of flowers and talk exclusively about art; he then falls into fifteenth-century Prague in the middle of the Hussite wars, where his cowardice is rather more consequential. It is Janáček's least performed stage work and the reason is usually given as the Czech, whose stresses he set with the precision of a man taking dictation. This account is entirely a London affair — the LSO, Tenebrae in the chorus, Peter Hoare in the title role, with Aleš Briscein, Gyula Orendt and Lucy Crowe — recorded live at the Barbican in May last year. Whether an opera this tied to one language survives the transfer is exactly the question worth two SACDs. 楊納傑克這齣歌劇的主角是個喝醉的布拉格房東：第一段他被送上月球，第二段他掉進十五世紀胡斯戰爭時期的布拉格。荒唐歸荒唐，難的是語言——捷克語的字重與旋律咬得極死，這也是它上演次數遠不如《顏如花》的原因之一。這一版整套班底在倫敦：LSO 加上 Tenebrae 合唱，主角交給英國男高音 Peter Hoare，卡司另有 Aleš Briscein、Gyula Orendt 與 Lucy Crowe。2025 年 5 月 Barbican 的現場收音，兩張 SACD。捷克語歌劇讓一支英國樂團與國際卡司來完成，值得聽的正是這個選擇本身。

Jackie Leung — Inside Out: Piano Music by Alvin Singleton

Genre類型: Contemporary Piano · Classical
Label廠牌: Albany Records
Format介質: CD · Streaming
Released發行: 2026-09-04

Fifty-six years separate the earliest and latest pieces here, 1966 to 2022, and the record closes with a work that one pianist cannot play: Inside-Out is marked for piano four hands. The track before the middle, Greed Machine, wants a vibraphone. Both sit inside an album billed as the complete solo piano music, a claim the tracklist quietly declines to support. Leung, a Canadian pianist who has been following Singleton's work for years, has otherwise assembled the thing properly, and the choice to end on a piece requiring a second person seems less like an oversight than a joke at the expense of the word "complete." 宣傳語說這是 Alvin Singleton 一九六六到二〇二二年間全部鋼琴獨奏作品的首度全收。我把曲目單調出來核對過：十二軌裡，〈Greed Machine〉標明是給顫音琴與鋼琴的，收尾的〈Inside-Out〉標明是四手聯彈——兩首都不是獨奏。這不影響碟本身的價值，只是說明「全集」這個詞在唱片文案裡向來寬鬆。加拿大鋼琴家 Leung 追這位布魯克林出生的作曲家多年，五十六年跨度的作品收在一起，最後卻用一首需要兩個人的曲子收尾，這個安排比宣傳語有意思得多。

立原綾乃（Ayano Tachihara） — 心に風

Genre類型: Ambient Vocal · Piano
Label廠牌: SHIRO RECORDS
Format介質: Digital · Streaming
Released發行: 2026-09-09

The room came first. Tachihara and the engineer Masahiro Iwai built a small wooden hall where she lives, using untreated timber taken from the surrounding forest, and this second album was made inside it with three microphones and nothing else. The piano is tuned to 436 Hz. Eleven tracks, fifty-one minutes, and exactly one line of lyric in the whole thing — everything else is wordless voice. Andy Bevan mixed; Seigen Ono mastered. Records made under this much restriction usually announce the restriction. This one just sounds like a building. 錄音場所不是找來的，是造出來的。她與錄音師巖井正洋用森林裡取得的無垢木材，在她生活的所在搭了一座「小さな森の音樂堂」，這張第二張專輯全程在那裡完成，只用三支麥克風。鋼琴調成 436 Hz，比標準音低了四赫茲——聽感上整體往下沉了一點，說不上刻意，但確實不一樣。十一曲五十一分鐘裡，唯一出現的歌詞只有一句「東を出てきた照らす太陽」，其餘全是沒有語言的人聲。混音 Andy Bevan，母帶小野誠彥。減法做到這個程度，剩下的東西反而顯眼。

荒谷翔大（Shota Aratani） — Sing in Blue

Genre類型: Soul · City Pop Covers
Label廠牌: EMI Records
Format介質: Streaming · Hi-Res
Released發行: 2026-09-09

Nine songs, one grand piano, played by やまもとゆきこ from his touring band while he sings. The programme reaches back further than a singer in his twenties has any business reaching: Miyuki Nakajima's "Keshō" from 1978, Masaki Ueda's "Kanashii Iro Yane" from 1982, Ulfuls from 2002, and Alicia Keys. Covers records with this little around them leave nowhere to stand. 首張 major 全長《TASOGARE SOUL》之後緊接著推翻唱盤，選曲清單對一位二十多歲的歌手來說老派得驚人：中島美雪〈化粧〉一九七八年、上田正樹〈悲しい色やね〉一九八二年、Ulfuls〈笑えれば〉二〇〇二年，再加 Alicia Keys 的〈If I Ain't Got You〉。九首全部只有一臺平臺鋼琴伴奏，由巡演樂團的やまもとゆきこ彈，他唱。這種編制沒有藏拙的餘地，選這批歌又等於把自己放在原唱旁邊比。四十二分鐘，聽的是他敢不敢。

荒谷翔大（Shota Aratani） — Sing in Blue YouTube ↗

伯爵白（earl blanc） — 情人未遂

Genre類型: Britpop · Disco Rock
Label廠牌: 滾石唱片 Rock Records
Format介質: Streaming · Digital
Released發行: 2026-09-01

The English title is Situationtrip, a word built out of "situationship," and the Tainan band spend nine songs inside that particular modern limbo. What holds it together is the sequence: the opener is still one sentence short of a confession, and only by the closing "Dear Friend" can the singer manage to tell her she may as well forget him. Four years since the last one. The arrangements refuse the obvious register — distorted guitar and a restless rhythm section, heartbreak set to something you could dance to. 英文盤名 Situationtrip 是 situationship 加 trip 拼出來的字，中文盤名《情人未遂》把同一件事說得更狠——關係沒能成立，但也不算沒發生。臺南這支樂團隔了四年才交出第二張，九首歌的排序本身就是一條線：開場〈未遂 Attempted〉還在說「只差最重要一句話」，一路走到終曲〈Dear Friend〉，才說得出「你可以就這樣忘了我」。編曲刻意避開苦情路數，破音音牆配上跳動的節奏組，把心碎寫成可以跳的東西。這個選擇讓整張碟聽起來不像在討拍。

Guiding Light — Fear on My Own Time

Genre類型: Post-Punk
Label廠牌: Post Present Medium
Format介質: Vinyl · Digital
Released發行: 2026-08-21

The instrumental parts existed before the singer did. Elise Cook was brought into this Austin four-piece after the music was written, arriving with a batch of finished lyrics already in hand — an inversion of the usual order that shows in how little the words seem to be accommodating the songs. Most of the record is sung in German: "Egoismus," "Haare," "Blau Gefleckt," "Die Zunge," "Liebe Im Kapitalistischen Reich." It was recorded in two sessions six months apart, and the halves do not quite match, which is a virtue here. English arrives only at the very end, in translation, and says something about a cage and a key. 德州奧斯汀的四人組，整張專輯用德語唱：〈Egoismus〉〈Haare〉〈Blau Gefleckt〉〈Die Zunge〉〈Liebe Im Kapitalistischen Reich〉。這件事的來由比結果更有趣——樂團先把器樂部分寫完，才去找主唱，而 Elise Cook 當時手上恰好已經備著一整批寫好的詞。誰配合誰，在這張碟裡是反過來的。錄音分兩次進行，中間隔了六個月，聽得出來前後段的緊繃程度不太一樣。直到最後才第一次出現英譯的句子：關在籠子裡，只有一起才找得到鑰匙。

Gaia Wilmer Large Ensemble — Parabólico: Reflections on Gilberto Gil, Volume I

Genre類型: Large Ensemble Jazz
Label廠牌: Sunnyside Records
Format介質: CD · Digital
Released發行: 2026-08-14

The choosing was done by two people: Wilmer and the singer Mônica Salmaso, working through a catalogue large enough that selection amounts to an argument about what Gil is. Wilmer's ensemble carries two flutes beyond the standard large-band complement — Maiara Moraes, and Yulia Musayelyan on piccolo and alto flute — which pulls the woodwind writing toward Pixinguinha and Hermeto Pascoal rather than toward Gil Evans. On the closing "Parabolicamará," Salmaso stops singing and plays the triangle. 大樂團編制向來吃銅管，Wilmer 的簽名動作卻是往外多掛兩支長笛：Maiara Moraes，以及兼吹短笛與低音長笛的 Yulia Musayelyan。加這兩支不圖柔和，圖的是讓聲部能往 Pixinguinha 的 choro 與 Hermeto Pascoal 那個方向走——巴西的木管傳統跟美國大樂團的木管傳統，本來就不是同一回事。曲目由 Wilmer 與歌手 Mônica Salmaso 一起挑，Gil 的作品量太大，挑什麼本身就是一種詮釋。末曲〈Parabolicamará〉裡 Salmaso 不唱了，改敲三角鐵。