Janek Schaefer – Extended Play

extended Play

At first listen, the ‘post-classical’ music on Janek Schaefer’s new CD “Extended Play (Triptych For The Child Survivors Of War And Conflict)” resembles the quiet peacefulness of the compositions of Arvo Pärt – especially in the beautiful 24 minute piece “acoustic ensemble”.
But there are some disturbing details: most artist would go a long way to avoid the vinyl crackle-and-pops for a CD release like this. The parts of the acoustic ensemble piece are also represented as solo piano, cello and violin piece, which contain some  stops and re-starts breaking the flow of the composition quite unexpected.
Janek Shaefer is, after all, not primarily know as a post-classical composer but as a ‘turntablist‘…. 

The installation picture on the cover explains the performance we hear:

"The 17"

The 17 is an interesting concept created by Bill Drummond (hence the ambient link – remember KLF’s Chillout album?). Though the composition seems to be quite new, the method seems to refer to the sound practices of Pauline Oliveros.The scores represented on the 17 website seem to use the same…

Hammock – Maybe They Will Sing for Us Tomorrow

Hammock

The ‘making of’ of this album is a nice story to tell:

Hammock (Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson) released three full albums (not counting ‘The Sleepover Sessions’) since 2005.
Most of these filled with quiet, guitar-driven ‘post-rock’, with some crossover to the ambient realm.
If that description sounds a bit like Sigur Rós – so does some of their music.

Stephan Mathieu – Radioland

Stephan Mathieu - Radioland

 Holger Czukay always used to mention ‘shortwave’ (radio) in the instrument credits on his album. The mysterious, vaguely distorted sound of shortwave radio has always seem to trigger the imagination of those interested in sounds of the unknown and unreachable.
Shortwave radio is a direct connection with uncharted territories. Its distortion and strange sweeping filter effects add another dimension to the radio broadcasts: the fleeting connection may be lost any moment. It’s as if you’re transferred through time and space to a world you did not know until then.
All of this magic gets lost when technology improves. The same stations may lose their attractivity when heard in full quality. They become part of normal everyday life (and then mostly prove to be as boring as the local stations).

In this time of world wide web global connectivity, where no place on earth seems out of reach, there’s an enhancing interest in shortwave sounds. For example, take “A Ghost in the Phase“, the latest in the series of the beautiful Low Light Mixes created by Dave Michuda. t’s a collage of shortwave samples and ambient sounds of artists using shortwave samples. Haunting and definitely worth listening.

Some of the shortwave fragments in this mix can be found on the Shortwavemusic weblog, strictly dedicated to found shortwave sounds.
Also included in this low light mix is a track from the latest CD by Stephan Mathieu, Radioland (‘Auf der Gasse’, also included below).

Machinefabriek & Jan Kleefstra – Piiptsjilling

Piiptsjilling

Just mentioning Rutger “Machinefabriek” Zuydervelt’s releases could fill a blog on its own. In the high quantity of releases he’s able to maintain a very high quality standard, making it hard to pinpoint highlights in the continuous stream of new releases.
But there’s no doubt ‘Piiptsjilling’ belongs in the ‘Best of Machinefabriek’ list!

Piiptsjilling, by the way, is the name of a bird:Wintertaling, or Teal (Anas Crecca), in the Frysk language spoken in Friesland, northern Netherlands.

Lull – Like a Slow River

Lull - Slike a Slow River

It is hard to imagine that there’s a direct link between Napalm Death and extreme ‘isolationist’ ambient. But there is, and ex-Napalm Death drummer Mick (MJ) Harris is the linking pin.

As Scorn he has created post-industrial dub (working with Bill Laswell, among others), and as Lull  he has createst some of the deepest, abstract ambient imaginable.

Variations in a Constant Drone

Constant Mix 

One definition of ‘drone’ music might be: ‘finding the least thing necessary for pleasurable listening’.
Although it’s not it’s not a very good definition (because of the ‘pleasurable’ which may prove to be a bit ehh…subjective. And what’s a “thing”?), it fits the purpose for describing the intention of ‘drone music’. 

“Constant” is the well-chosen title of the drone Mystified (Thomas Park) originally ‘found’, and which he thought impressive enough to listen to it constantly. It has the basic soothing drone quality of distant humming machines…reassuring and comforting sounds to listen to, to ignore, or to help disguise other, unwanted sounds from your environment.