A Winged Victory for the Sullen – Atomos

A Winged Victory for the Sullen (AWVftS) is often referred to as a duo consisting of Adam Wiltzie (core member of the legendary Stars of the Lid – guess there’s no further introduction needed) and pianist/composer Dustin O’Halloran. But AWVftS would not be AWVftS without the (now 7-member) string section and the additional modular synth sounds created by Francesco Donadello. Together they present a full orchestral sound with a fascinating balance of string arrangements, melancholic piano melodies and (somewhat unsettling) synth embeddings.

Birthday News: FREE GIVEAWAYS!

On tuesday, October 21, it is exactly NINE years since the very first blog post.
And exactly five years since its name was changed to Ambientblog.net.
It is also the day this weblog (and all of its content) will be migrated to a new software platform.
To celebrate this, I have 30 FREE ALBUM DOWNLOAD CODES to give away!

Thomas Köner – Jana Winderen

Thomas Köner is perhaps the Jules Verne of ambient-electronic soundscapes: his sounds seem to come from the deepest ocean, the centre of the earth, the vastest spaces imaginable. If you know his work, you will often immediately recognise his sound when you hear it – and maybe feel it before you even hear it.

Knowing his back-catalogue, the choice of a piano as the main instrument for his new album is somewhat surprising. Piano notes are clearly fixed in time, as opposed to the stretched sounds Thomas Köner usually applies. It is, in a way, a bit of a “rigid instrument”.

Max Richter; J. Peter Schwalm: Transformed & Recomposed

Throughout musical history, composers have always taken fragments of other composers’ work and used them to re-compose completely new compositions. Before “electricity”, their choice of instruments was ‘limited’ to that of the classical orchestra settings. And now time has passed, they all sound ‘classical’ to contemporary ears.
But when contemporary composers – especially from ‘rock’ or experimental field – reworks classical compositions, incorporating electronic media – hell breaks loose in purist camps on both sides.

At least, that’s how it used to be – some years ago. It seems things have changed a bit since we’re more accustomed to the culture of ‘sampling’.

DreamScenes 2014-10

This is the very first of a monthly broadcast I plan to do from now, presenting (more or less) recent ambient/electronic music in a one hour uninterrupted “show”.
These programs will be streamed “live” every first friday evening of the month (7PM+2 UTC; 21:00hr local time) via the MIXLR channel  -where you can join in and chat/comment if you like!
They will also stay available for on-demand listening on MIXCLOUD.

Full playlist details published below.
Hope you’ll join in!!

Introducing: DreamScenes

Some of you may remember that before this blog became “Ambientblog” in 2009, it was called “DreamScenes“.

Although still a ‘niche genre’, the interest in ambient/electronic/experimental music has kept growing, and currently there seems to be much more music than I could ever write about here.
Which sometimes leaves me with a slight guilt about not presenting music that is definitely worth listening!

Time to revive the “radio show” format…..! (in a way)

Starting October, 3,, the DreamScenes ambient music channel will be published to MIXCLOUD monthly – ánd of course here on Ambientblog.

Woob – Sense – 8m2 Stereo

WOOB – AMBIENT DISASTER MOVIE
After having released two timeless albums on the now legendary EM:T label (“1194” and “4495”), Woob (Paul Frankland, also known as Max & Harvey and half of Journeyman) took some time off from making music (to work in the advertising industry) – returning in 2010 to release a string of new albums on Bigamoebasounds.

On “Ambient Disaster Movie”, the sound (sometimes referred to as ‘post-rave ambient’) is still as bright and recognisable as it was in the beginning – presented with a refreshing (tongue-in-cheek) sense of humour.