Cinta Cita – Part 1


Cinta Cita, Part 1

“Cinta Cita – Meeting with the Tape” is the second ‘guest mix’ created especially for ambientblog.net.
(The first was Muttley’s “Isolate”).

Cinta Cita is a 2 1/2 hour journey by DJ Rich-Ears, presented in two parts (Part 2 can be found [here]).  

“Ambient as atmosphere. Ambient as the cusp of melody and texture. Here we have an elegantly complex woven soundtrack (by DJ Rich-Ears) from the Lowlands that takes us through time, back and forth, from the familiar, the rare, the digital and the analogue. Let it be the soundtrack to a moment where everything slows down and re-engage with yourself and your surroundings.”
Robin Rimbaud / Scanner / april 3th – 2010

Chihei Hatakeyama – A Long Journey

The cover: a vaguely faded photograph of a red-headed girl swimming. 
Titles like: “Morning Arrive on the Island”, “The Moon Reflecting On The Surface Of The Ocean”, “Within New Trees”, “A Quiet Pond”, “Haze From The River”.
The sound: light-natured, never dark or threatening, perfectly in line with the track titles..

“A Long Journey“ by Chihei Hatakeyama  is a great release to celebrate the fresh Spring season.

Ian Hawgood – Slow Films in Low Light

Headphone Commute recently published a beautiful mix created entirely of tracks published on the Home Normal label. Although all tracks in the mix are interesting enhough to check out the full CD’s, I had to restrain myself when visiting the label website. 

So I decided to start by ordering the latest release by Ian Hawgood (also Home Normal’s label owner): “Slow Films in Low Light“.

Optofonica #1


Optofonica

The Optofonica Project – platform for synesthetic media and sound spatialization – started in 2006 in Amsterdam. They have presented their immersive works on Sonar and Sonic Acts, presenting surround cinema and the Optofonica Capsule which must have been quite an impressive experience!

Cliff Child – Einn


Einn

Though Cliff Child may sound like one person’s name, it’s actually two: Iceland’s Sjorn Björnsson (creating the sounds) and Robjn (producing the tracks and creating the artwork).

In anticipation of the first, self-titled, album to be released this summer, they offer their first 6-track EP ‘Einn’ as a free download. Find it on SoundCloud.

Or, if you prefer, get it from their weblog at http://cliffchild.wordpress.com/.
This weblog also contains some fascinating videos to go with the sound…(of which “The Middle” is my absolute favourite!).

Steve Brand – Circular Scriptures

Circular Scriptures is the very first (and until now: only) release of a brand new label: Relaxed Machinery, a label owned by John Koch-Northrup (previously a co-owner of AtmoWorks), claiming that “all artists receive 100% of their release”.

That fact alone sounds like a good enough reason to track down this album on one of the major download outlets or get it as CDR from the Hypnos store.

Brian Eno’s Generative Apps


Trope

Because I was stupid enough to leave my beloved Cowon D2 MP3-player in the train (and no one was honest enough to return it), I had to decide about a new MP3 player. 
I am definitely not an Apple fan (for reasons I will not elaborate here), but I was tempted to go for the (G3 32 Gb) iPod Touch, simply because of all the extras it has to offer besides the simple MP3 function.

The first app to go for was Brian Eno’s “Bloom” – only to discover that Bloom was recently followed up by Trope, also created by Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers.
A third offspring of this generative music applications is “Air“, containing the vocal samples of Sandra O’Neill.
The good news: obtaining all three of these apps will not even cost you EUR10 ($13)!

All three of these programs are very simple to use, but incredibly effective in its ambient beauty: start it, create a mood, tap the screen for generative seeds and then just let the composition flow…

[R]ecyclopedia [R]emix

Let me begin with a warning: this mix is quite unlike the previous ones!
Though there are quite a lot ‘ambient moments’ to enjoy, it cannot be qualified as ‘ambient music mix’ because it contains a lot of other musical elements too.

This mix was created especially for Frans Friederich – a dutch musician currently working on a megalomaniac project he started in 1997: Recyclopedia.
One single full CD for each letter in the alphabet.
26 CD’s recycling and rewriting musical history associatively…!

Frans Friederich’s musical history shows a variety of styles: he played in jazz-, ska-, and big-bands, but also in experimental acts like Dull Schicksal and Trespassers W.  This musical diversity is also heard on the Recyclopedia albums: it’s a musical roller coaster ride with Friederich himself joining the musical extremes in his own personal style.

In 2009, Friederich completed the “Recyclopedia Q” album – which contains beautiful ambient music created together with soundscape artist Robert Kroos. 
(So, by now, about 65% of this project is finished – with this average output the entire Recyclopedia will be completed around 2017!)

When I started this Recyclopedia mix, I originally wanted to focus on the many ambient music pieces throughout the series, creating an ambient mix and leaving out all other music. But the nature of the project decided otherwise.

Kyle Bobby Dunn – A Young Person’s Guide to


KBD cover

When it comes to ‘classical droning’, Stars of the Lid are the reference point. While there’s some debate whether their music is Brilliant or Boring, they simply prove good music can be both.

Comparisions always are a bit risky – as music deserves to be judged by itself, not by comparision.
To me, ‘A Young Person’s Guide to Kyle Bobby Dunn‘, the new double CD by the Canadian composer Kyle Bobby Dunn (now residing in New York), has the same touching quality as most of Stars of the Lid’s music, that’s why I had to mention them.