Helios is in fact Keith Kenniff, who is also releasing as Goldmund. Most of his releases were issued through Type records, but there are also a couple of titles available directly from the artist himself.
And these prove to be as interesting as the official releases.
Earlier this weekend, the Belgian label Slaapwel (Sleep Well) presented their first labelnight in Leuven, Belgium.
To my regret, I was not able to be there – although I’m a big fan of Slaapwel’s sleep inducing catalogue.
And, looking at the venue for this special night (including breakfast) it must have been very special indeed:
read post"Peter Broderick – Music for a Sleeping Sculpture…"
The Serein netlabel was founded in 2005 and released quite an impressing batch of quality ambient and electronic music. In 2007, Serein released it’s ‘flagship title’: the Nest EP.
Nest is the collaborative project of Otto Totland (Deaf Center; Type Records) and Huw Roberts (Serein Label owner).
The beauty of their music was quickly recognised, the blogosphere caught on and the EP was features in a lot of favourites-lists that year.
Then, early 2009, the Serein site closed down.
These artist names are probably familiar to everyone even remotely interested in ambient/electronic music.
Multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick (from Oregon, now living in Berlin) released quite a few impressive albums under his own name, and is currently touring as a member of Efterklang.
The number of albums Rutger “Machinefabriek” Zuydervelt (from Arnhem, now living in Rotterdam) has released can hardly be counted any more (quite some of them are featured on this weblog).
So when two such great artists start working together expectations are quite high!
The brand new Fluid Audio label kicks off with a promising start: a compilation album donating 50% of its profits to charity. (Toybox Charity foundation, supporting latin america’s street children).
One may wonder how much funds this may raise in times where ambient musicians hardly make enough money to break even on any physical CD release.
Just realising the fact that the ‘average Guatemalan street kid’ has an average life expectancy of four years should make you buy this album.
But the music included proves to be rewarding too – raising expectations fairly high for future releases on this label.
This could have been one of the shortest reviews of this weblog: I simply could state that this music induced some of the deepest sleeps I experienced when listening to ambient music. And please don’t doubt that that is meant as a true compliment!
Even the found environmental sounds included in the tracks could not disturb the peaceful quiet and the balanced harmonies of this music. And most of the real-time environmental sounds merging in from outside can’t either.
This fact alone makes this album one of the most impressive I heard this year.
A few years ago, ‘Ambient Music‘ used to be almost synonymous to ‘Electronic Music‘ in regards of instruments chosen and production process.
But gradually, acoustic instruments crept in, maybe as a reaction to laptop concerts proving to be quite boring – throw in a ‘real’ musician playing a ‘real’ instrument (cello is favourite for its sound) and any live show is far more interesting to watch.
A lot of this music can hardly be called ‘ambient’ any more. Some of it is modern classical music, some of it has firm roots in ethnic folk music or even folk psychedelica…
Enter Solo Andata. Australian duo (Kane Ikin and Paul Fiocco), creating great ambient soundscapes which are as much ‘electronic’ as they are ‘acoustic’, still definitely also ‘ambient music’.
Their second album (Solo Andata) is released on the 12k label, mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi and with cover art by Taylor Deupree. Any more recommendation needed?
Obviously, since it’s very hard to earn a living (or even a part of it) from creating ambient music, a lot of musicians creating this kind of music offer it for free.
From their own websites, through netlablels or using archive.org, bandcamp.com or one of the many alternatives for sharing music.
So if you take some time to do a good search you may find quite some nice music (and a pile of rubbish too).
Frank Rothkamm is a composer as well as a conceptual artists. You can tell when visiting his website, but also when reading the promo text for this new CD: “He cultivates enigmas <…>In fact, Rothkamm is a magician, a prestidigitation theoretician, and a carny all in one”.
Wow. Big Words. Want more? Read [here]!
But luckily he’s not without humour. His discography boasts 21 releases – among which Opus Spongebobicum, a set of piano variations on the first ten notes from the “Spongebob Squarepants” theme song. (Don’t know it, but I’d love to hear it!)
His latest release, ALT is released on the Baskaru label. It is a collection of ‘analog computers & algorithms’, created between 1989 and 2009.
