Tag: electronic

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Field Rotation; Wil Bolton; Anna Rose Carter + Pleq; Umber; Simon Whetham

In this “shortlist” section, 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).

Field Rotation

Field Rotation – And Tomorrow I Will Sleep
“After countless nights of work for university suspending my circadian rhythm at last I decided to compose some pieces to set myself on sleeping mode. – Christoph Berg (Field Rotation)
This beautifully calm album was released a few months ago, but somehow slipped through the cracks and was never reviewed here. It should have been, since  the album keeps returning to my player to prove it is one of the best releases I have heard this year. 

Chimes for a Wall Drawing

Wil Bolton – Chimes for a Wall Drawing
Remarkably bright-sounding live recording of a 2009 performance at Tate Liverpool, inspired by the gallery’s display of Sol LeWitt’s ‘Wall Drawing #1136’. 
“In the spirit of Sol LeWitt’s use of seriality and arbitrary systems, this electro-acoustic composition used the artwork as an inspiration and graphic score, mapping its seven spectrum colours onto the corresponding notes on coloured chime bars. Chimes, handbell and electric guitar were processed live into elongated tones and drones, layered with electronics and field recordings made within the gallery and surrounding area.”

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Restive – Generative 2

Ever since Brian Eno himself introduced the SSeyo Koan Generative Music software (way back in 1996!!) I have been interested in the Generative Music concept: music that is ever-changing, evolving from a single “seed”, consistent through musical parameters defined by the ‘artist’, the creator that has to refrain from influencing the ‘path’ of the music once it has left off.  

For his release Generative Music I, Brian Eno chose the most radical medium possible: a diskette containing the software, only reproducable when using the correct hardware (the SoundBlaster AWE32 soundcard: I actually bought one of those just to be able to reproduce Eno’s Generative Music!!).
Which sadly means you’ll have a hard time now to reproduce this music as it was intended then. 

This represents the dilemma for musicians creating Generative music. Apart from using it in sound installations, there is no way to distribute the music in its generative form, since every recorded medium stops it from being generative (= different with every new performance).

Which does not mean that a recorded ‘instance’ of generative music is not interesting to listen to….on the contrary. But, like a photograph compared to movement, it is a ‘frozen’ capture of an ongoing (musical) process.

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Neue – The Planets


The Planets

Electronic music has always been closely related to (outer) space – scientific astronomics as well as sci-fi fantasy themes.   

Sometimes quite literally, such as in the 12-CD series created by Dr. Jeffrey Thompson from the original NASA Voyager I & II Space Probe Recordings that was released around 1990.
Although there has been a lot of discussion about the extent of manipulation of these recordings, these ‘pure space sounds’ are about the deepest, most soothing and timeless ambient drones imaginable.

“The Planets“, recently released by Neue – not from Germany as you might think, and not related to the legendary Krautrock band Neu, but an alias of musician and designer Mike Lemmon from Portland, USA – continues this tradition.

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

In the Bleak Wilderness of Sleep


Bleak Wilderness of Sleep

Apart from releasing music as Spheruleus, Harry Towell also curates the Audio Gourmet netlabel, well-known for their now 40+ releases that all can be downloaded for free from Bandcamp (or from Archive.org when the Bandcamp credit runs out, but in that case I’d suggest donating a few dollars to keep them running).

Apart from these “tea/coffee-break” EP’s (all of them somewhere around 15 minutes in length), Audio Gourmet also has released a few full length albums (such as “Hidden Landscapes”). 

“In the Bleak Wilderness of Sleep”  (released may 2011) celebrates the first year of Audio Gourmet existence. And considering the contents of this compilation, Audio Gourmet has definitely found their place between the yop netlabels in the ambient/electronic/soundscape field!

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Akumu – Descent

Akumu - Descent

When music is described as ‘organic’, this will often refer to a warm, almost acoustic and almost  ‘live’ sound.
On “Descent“, Akumu (Deane Hughes, Toronto, Canada) has a different approach in describing organic structures in sound.

The basic material comes from ‘field recordings’ (but do NOT imagine birds or crickets here):
“based on field recordings captured within train stations, banks and other large buildings, these four pieces re-synthesize and reduce those grand structures into the infinitesimal — the real into the abstract.
“Descent” is the continuation of Akumu’s study of resonances and micro-sonics found in our everyday world.“

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Enrico Coniglio+Under the Snow – Dialogue One

I first learned about Enrico Coniglio on the “Underwater Noises” compilation and from there found his fascinating “Salicornie (Topofonie Vol. 2)”, dedicated to the city of Venice.

Compared to “Salicornie”, this latest release, “Dialogue One”  is quite different: one hour of abstract soundscapes and mutually attracting opposites.

“Dialogue One” is a ‘split’ project with Silentes label artists Under the Snow (Stefano Gentile (guitar, field recordings) and Gianluca Favaron (field recordings, processing)).

ambient music, MIXES, surround

Amnesia (Mix)


Photo: 'Misty Park' by Michel Banabila

Although it was created in March, this mix shows little signs of “Spring”.

There was no intentional relation, but inevitably the devastating Japan Earthquake, and the frightening nuclear disaster following it, somehow found its way into this mix.
The result: a rather dark overall atmosphere, which seems to leave little room for hope.
But at the same time, in Europe, winter retreats and daylight returns.
Nature shows that it can destroy as well as recuperate.