ROD MODELL – MUSIC FOR BUS STATIONS
Anyone who ever travels by public transport knows the feeling you get when you just miss the bus or train and have to wait for the next one. And how it raises your blood pressure, not just from running trying to catch the one that just left, but also from irritation.
With this release, you can comfortably retreat into the audio bubble that Rod Modell (also known as DeepChord, Echospace, Waveform Transmission, and more) creates for you.
It is called ‘… for bus stations’, because the inspiration came from avant-garde bus station designs such as Domitianus Arquitectura‘s station in Rio Maior, Portugal; Bluck & Morgen’s Busbahnhof Poppenbuttel in Hamburg, Germany; and Metaraum Architect’s bus station in Pzorzheim, Germany (that’s the one on the cover).
But the 62-minute ‘generative backdrop, designed to enhance space and portray a mod of progressiveness, grandeur, and ethereal calm’ is not just suitable for bus stations, but for virtually any place where you have to wait for a longer time.
Except for airports, for obvious reasons. (And toilets, for less obvious reasons).
Mentioning the 62 minutes refers to the continuous CD-mix (now sold out). But in fact, the composition is made of four parts, subtly different but without touching the delicate atmosphere. These four parts were spread out over 2 vinyl albums that are (you guessed it) also sold out already.
But there’s still the download of course – and if you’re listening to this music while waiting for your transport to arrive, you’ll probably listen to it on a portable device anyway.
LONEWARD – FRACTIONAL DIMENSIONS VOL. 4
If, by chance, your public transport is delayed for more than the 62 minutes mentioned above, you can add this fourth volume of Fractional Dimensions to your playlist for another 65 minutes of ambient bliss.
Loneward is one of the aliases for the work of Mike Carss from Ontario, Canada. Loneward’s purpose is “to provide a consistent listening experience across its discography. If you enjoy one Loneward release, you’ll enjoy them all”. As Altus, Carss aims more to explore ideas outside the ambient/new age genre, and with Burlorke he creates a mix of 80s/90s synthpop, new wave, and darkwave.
Loneward’s music is simply unpretentious: it is “ambient music in its purest form, exploring slow-moving spaces for contemplation, meditation, and sleep”. And any other use that works for you, of course.
It has the classic ambient quality: captivating when you focus on it, yet easy to tune out if you choose. Or, to re-phrase that in the words of Brian Eno: ‘as interesting as it is ignorable’.
If long-form ambient is not your preference: the plan is to release shorter versions of the four tracks as a compilation EP somewhere in the future.