Solaris Mindset (Mix)

Mentioning Andrej Tarkovsky’s 1972 movie “Solaris” as a source of inspiration has become a bit of cliche somehow. This classic movie (we’re talking the original Russian 1972 version now) has inspired numerous people, in various fields of art, in its 40 years of existence.

The sparse music soundtrack, created by Edward Artemyev, and the overall meditative ambient atmosphere has also inspired a great deal of ambient music artists.
It also inspired this mix-collage.
Referring to Solaris from a mix like this may not really be in the ‘true spirit’ of what Tarkovsky meant to achieve: he originally wanted to make the movie entirely without using music at all, and asked composer Artemyev to orchestrate the ambient sounds as a musical score. The latter proposed subtly introducing orchestral music. (source).

The sparse use of musical background, together with the length and slow pace of the movie (a ‘meditative psychological drama’) has always had a strange effect on me: it puts me in some kind of half-sleep, a kind of state in which where it is difficult to distinguish details, to separate reality from images less ‘real’.
A half-conscious state of mind that perfectly matches the movie’s theme.


Solaris

This mix includes many different sources. Some parts of the originals Artemyev soundtrack are linked to fragments of the beautiful game soundtrack from Skyrim, by Jeremy Soule. The cinematic parts are alternated with various electronic soundscape fragments – familiar and less familiar.
Together with many tiny fragments from your own memory, a new – and strictly personal- alternate reality may be created, which (like in Solaris) may be hard to distinguish from real life…

Solaris was originally released in march 1972.
This tribute mix is celebrating this inspiring movie’s 40th anniversary!

Celer – Evaporate and Wonder – Tightrope

If you are in any way familiar with ambient music, Celer will probably be familiar too. The discography boasts about 80 titles, most (if not all) of these well worth the listen. 

Celer started out as a husband-and-wife duo in 2005. After the tragic death of Danielle Baquet-Long in 2009 (she died of heart failure at the age of 27), Will Long has released music they had previously recorded together, as well as music he recorded later. 

“Evaporate and Wonder” was originally recorded in may, 2009, only a few months before Danielle’s death. The source material was limited to improvised synthesizer and field recordings, but two tracks (about 20 minutes each) have all the warm aesthetic qualities that have become the Celer–trademark from the very beginning. A sound well-balanced and harmonically pleasant – ‘utterly devoid of rough edges’.

Spotify– (Also on Spotify)

Sun Hammer – A Dream in Blood


Sun Hammer

“A Dream in Blood” is the second release on the brand new (and very promising) Future Sequence label (or fourth if you count both massive Sequence  compilations).

Operating as Sun Hammer is experimental sound artist Jay Bodley, who previously has also recorded as The Setting Sun.  

The album title and the cover experience might suggest some extreme dark ambient here, but the album presents a fascinating mix of experimental and adventurous electronic music. I would not call this ‘dark’ ambient myself – though on the other hand I would not call it ‘light-hearted’ either..

Good Weather for an Airstrike; Seconds Before Awakening; Aspectee; Ryonkt; Fog Lake

In the Shortlist sections, I will mention some of the albums that I enjoyed listening to, but couldn’t find the time (or the right words) for a “full” review for. Still, I think they deserve your attention: use the links to find more info and hear previews.

Good Weather for an Airstrike - Underneat the Stars

Good Weather for an Airstrike – Underneath the Stars
Tom Honey (Hampshire, UK) originally set up Good Weather for an Airstrike to create deliberately soothing music to help ease the tinnitus problems he suffers from. His main influences are artists like Sigur Ros, Eluvium, Hammock and Stars of the Lid. “Underneath the Stars” melds “dreamy strings with hints of fragmented guitar tone, soft drones and a set of subtle field recordings.”

Nine

Seconds Before Awakening – Nine
As Seconds Before Awakening, Michael S. Walley creates a “soundtrack for dreams and dreamers alike”. “Nine” – the 10th album in the series that started counting from Zero –  is a 59 minutes long, slowly evolving deep drone. “I almost feel like this is the sound of nebulae and galaxies frozen for us to contemplate the shifting energy and interplay between matter and nothingness. These sounds remind me that infinity is real, here and now.”  
[Free Download]

The Dwindlers – Allegories

Following up Leonardo Rosado’s “Mute Words“, this is the second release on the Heart and Soul label, which was founded to release projects that combine music and poetry. 

The Dwindlers are a duo consisting of Michelle Seaman, poet, and Benjamin Dauer, composer and multi-instrumentalist. Although they have been working together since 2002, “Allegories” is their second album, following up their 2010 debut release “Dreams”.

Szymon Kaliski + Stefan Wesolowski – 281011


_blank

This collaboration by Szymon Kaliski (electronics) and Stefan Wesolowski (violin) – released as a limited  (50 only) edition on Few Quiet People – was commissioned especially to promote the new spatial audiovisual controller called the Dodecaudion.
A gesture-based controller which, by the looks of it, can best be described as some sort of nowadays Theremin. 

Listening Mirror – Resting in Aspic

Although relatively young (they formed in the beginning of 2010), Listening Mirror (a duo consisting of Jeff Stonehouse and Kate Tustain) is quickly becoming a ‘reference point’ in environmental ambient music.

Basically, their new album “Resting in Aspic“ is a collection of previously released material (although in different versions, remastered by Wil Bolton, and also including a new track: “Without Saying Goodbye”).
But together, these tracks are a perfectly balanced album – a great introduction for those new to Listening Mirror, and a welcome addition to those that were already familiar with their style.

Simon Whetham – Mall Muzak


Mall Muzak

The original Muzak, aka Elevator Music, may represent all the music you don’t want to listen to actively.
Intended and created as unobtrusive music played in shopping malls, designed to make you feel good and spend more money without realising you hear anything at all, this kind of music definitely has it’s own -conceptual-  kind of charm.  

Simon Whetham’s  latest release,  “Mall Muzak” is about the exact opposite of that kind of music.

Machinefabriek + Celer – Maastunnel-Mt. Mitake

Well here’s a little gem that will definitely be a collector’s item quickly: 

Celer (Will Long) and Machinefabriek (Rutger Zuydervelt) – two giants of the ambient-electronic improv scene – met and performed together in Tokyo in 2010, and decided to collaborate on these tracks about a year later. Exchanging an reconstructing each others audio files has resulted in this 7″ vinyl release: “Maastunnel-Mt. Mitake“.
An impressive, though short, ‘audio bridge’ between Rotterdam and Tokyo.