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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hior Chronik - Unspoken Words 
On his second album, Hior Chronik (Greece) combines the finest elements to create a well-balanced palette of ambient soundscapes, acoustic elements and melancholic themes.
The enthousiastic recommendations by Hauschka ("Definitely a part of my soundtrack for this year autumn and dark winter times."), Nils Frahm ("Essential experimental music!" ), Sawako and Will Long (Celer) may indicate that this is an album that should not be missed. And it definitely is!
Kane Ikin - Contrail
Also known as half of the Solo Andata duo, Kane Ikin presents his first solo project as a 4-track EP release: two tracks on a clear vinyl 7", the other two as additional download tracks. For this 20+ minute album, "he recorded everything through and onto old technology — aged analog consoles, reel-to-reel tape — and all heard through a hazy science fiction filter."
Markus Mehr's new album "In" is the promising first part of a trilogy: it will be followed by "On" (june 2012) and "Off" (january 2013), so the entire trilogy will take an exact year to complete.
"In" features two long tracks, "Komo" and"Ostinato", about 25 minutes each.
At first listen, two albums come to mind that explore a similar compositional process: Gavin Bryars' "Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet" and William Basinski's "Disintegration Loops".
But the comparision fails, because Mehr chooses quite a different approach to 'minimal loops repeating'.
The complete ambientblog files, including all audio files, have been moved to a new location now.
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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.
The Beautiful Schizophonic & Yui Onodera - Night Blossom
The Beautiful Schizophonic (Jorge Mantas, Portugal) and Yui Onodera (Japan), two renowned sound artists, continue to refine their collaborative work that started in 2009, with "Radiance".
Immersive, yet restrained, beauty.
From the Mouth of the Sun - Woven Tide
From the Mouth of the Sun is the name of the first project of Dag Rosenqvist (Jasper TX) and Aaron Martin. Just mentioning these two names should raise your interest!
"Out of the charred embers of dusk Woven Tide emerges with an incandescent glow. Each glimmer cast by the sustained notes of ebony keys, the taut strings of the cello, and the rampant buzz of guitar lights our way, gives us hope, brings us into the dawn of a new day. As From The Mouth of the Sun, the duo act as our torchbearers, scrawling messages along the walls of an elongated cave, toiling through the decayed remnants of fetid matter to create eight illuminating pieces."
"Nothing but a Grand Piano. No Synths, drones, pan pipes or tubular bells. I think it's quite different. The music is very gentle, slow and quiet, more about the space between the notes than the notes themselves."
Jeremy de Tolly 's introduction is a perfect introduction and an accurate description of his solo piano album "Piano Nocturnes, Volume One" .
"These pieces express emotions that have no specific name; the songs are meant to exist in the background of your life. It’s not archetypal music of any kind. It’s not really ambient, or classical, it’s definitely not jazz. It’s not depressing, nor is it happy."
If you are familiar with the works of Harold Budd together with Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins) on earlier classics like Lovely Thunder, The Moon and the Melodies, The White Arcades and Before the Night Falls/After the Day Breaks, you will probably have a good idea what this new album sounds like.
Compared to these earlier albums, "Winter Garden" may hold no radical surprises.
But in case of this particular album that is definitely meant as a positive remark: never change a winning formula, as they say!
This mix obviously found its name from the lovely intro (and outtro) track by Nest.
Inbetween, there are many moments of 'stillness', too... Moments you may slowly drift off into the drones, letting your mind wander ... to be pulled back again by some of the post-classical 'anchors' in this mix by Winged Victory For the Sullen, Human Greed, Vladimír Gódar, and Maya Beiser (member of Bang on a Can, with a stunning cello performance of the Djivan Gasparyan composition 'Memories').
Most of the tracks featured in this were released in 2011. But this mix is nót intended as a "Best of.." overview. That would result in a mix with an entirely different atmosphere (- and much longer, because one hour would not be enough to cover all the great releases I have enjoyed in 2011).
Maybe it's a good way to start a new year with a small opportunity to retreat from current society's turmoil, and to find some time to 'cocoon' to the sounds (and the sometimes fascinating depths) of 'Stillness'.
Some word of warning, however: if this suggests this mix only contains warm, comfortable and pleasurable sounds, be prepared for some suprises.
I never said that "Stillness" always means "Comforting"...
Best wishes for 2012 to all of you!
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.
Ben Frost & Daniel Bjarnason - Solaris
With the names of these two composers and the title referring to the classic SF movie, further introduction is completetely superfluous. This is "a quiet, stilled and all consuming symphonic suite at once as affecting and uncanny as the science- fiction classic that inspired it".
As mysterious as the movie, Solaris is "a journey into an internal world, into the self, a flux of wonder, horror, sorrow and tenderness, and a ravishing sensory experience".
Daniel Thomas Freeman - The Beauty of Doubting Yourself
With a title like that an album hardly needs any further introduction. The album starts off pitch black with track titles like "Dark House Walk" and "Staring into Black Water" (25 minutes!), but the ovarall atmosphere gradually gets lighter and more optimistic as does the instrumentation. Dark electronic settings slowly make way for mediaeval sounding string arrangements. Not many albums can present a sound palette like this in such a coherent style.
Matthew Florianz is one of the dutch artists I have been following for a lot of years now - together with fellow experimenters like Rutger 'Machinefabriek' Zuydervelt, the 'Piiptsjilling' (Kleefstra) brothers and Michel Banabila.
It's funny mentioning them together, because their music is quite different. But all have their own definite 'brand' that identifies their music, all work tirelessly on their music, and - finally - all get international recognition for their works' quality.
From these artists, Matthew Florianz (who started recording as 'Liquid Morphine' around 2000) may be the one whose music remains most close to the origins of ambient music as defined by Brian Eno.
In musical style, I mean, not regarding the 'generative' compositional aspect of much of Eno's music. Florianz carefully constructs his music, paying attention to the placement of every little detail.
Okay: Christmas and New Year's Holiday are rapidly approaching - you've probably already had your share of the End-Of-Year Top 2000 lists (full of unsurprisingly position shifts of headliners like The Eagles and Queen) - Your "Last Christmas" and "Imagine" singles are totally worn out - as has "Phil Spector's Christmas Album"? Even the ZE Christmas Record (featuring Suicide!) is not surprising anymore?
Well, maybe it's time for a slightly different approach ....
Enter: "Festive Greetings from Hibernate and Home Normal" - and be prepared for some surprises!
Sometimes an album comes along that is difficult to define, because it doesn't seem to conform to what may be considered as a single 'style' or a 'genre'.
Albums like that usually take a few extra listens to definitely make up your mind, but they prove to be the more interesting in the end - they don't easily fit the current consensus because they create their own style definitions.
"Feather Hammer" is one of such albums.
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.
Specta Ciera - Underpass
Specta Ciera is the pseudonym for sound designer Devin Underwood from Cambridge, MA. "Underpass" is the latest in a line of 15+ releases combining ambient drones, field recordings and avant garde electronics. The four tracks on this (FREE) FeedbackLoopLabel release are warm, immersive and slightly dark. (In fact there are three tracks, because the title track returns in a Darren Harper mix). This great EP only scratches the surface of the compositional style and approach Specta Ciera employs, so it may be a good starting point for checking out his back-catalogue.
Sense - Selected Moments Vol. I
With his vintage synth sounds, Sense, aka Adam Raisbeck, brings back "the golden era of 90's ambient music". The sounds are beautiful analog, but the music itself is far from 'retro'. The compositions are warm and nicely balanced. In Adam's own words: It's about selected moments of my life over the last 5 years and consequential realisations from looking at those moments individually it's about change and growth its about opening hearts and healing. My ultimate goal is create an interface via my music whereby people listening to it will totally feel what's happening and understand what I was feeling at the time I was making the music, it's something that is to me - beyond-sonic."
To some, waves on the shore, leaves from a tree, flames in a fire all look the same.
Others can stare at this fractal beauty and find Zen-like peacefulness in the fact that this 'sameness' is just an illusion, because every single detail is different - and no single detail ever occurs twice.
Michael Gordon's "Timber" may achieve the same effect in sound.
"Timber" is scored for six "wooden 2x4s, each cut into different sizes, giving each one a slightly different pitch."
Called a "simantra", this percussion instrument was first devised by composer Iannis Xenakis.
Although 'outsiders' may think otherwise, 'ambient' music knows a lot of different musical variations. Referring to ambient music as one single genre is a bit like using 'world music' as a genre definition for all kinds of different ethnic music.
In fact, 'ambient music' is a rather undefinable collection of sub-genres. It ranges from deep-listening drones via eno-esque generative music to dance music and dub-techno, from acoustic improv to post-classical string ensembles, from 70's cosmic psychedelica to new age tribal music.
The Near is Ending" starts with a deep droney track, but then continues to combine some different kinds of electronic music to a surprisingly well-balanced album.
"Deislieper" is the third release in what I like to call the "Kleefstra Wire Trilogy".
In fact, there's no real 'trilogy', but three separate albums that were presented by three independent labels on one single advertising page in Wire Magazine: "Wurdskrieme" (on Experimedia). "Tongerswel" (on Home Normal), and now "Deislieper" (on Hibernate).
"Deislieper", by the way, is a Frisian name for the nightjar and literally it means ‘day sleeper’
Rooted firmly in the improv scene, core members Jan (poetry) and Romke (guitar, effects) Kleefstra never work alone.
With Piiiptsjilling, most of the contributors were Dutch fellow musicians (like Rutger 'Machinefabriek' Zuydervelt, Mariska Baars, Chris Bakker), but soon they also started playing with an international cast of musicians like Peter Broderick, Nils Frahm, Greg Haines (on the Seeljocht project).
Tongerswel presented their work together with saxophonist Gareth Davis, and now Deisleeper features the incredible percussion music by Sytze Pruiksma.
There is, has been and will always be, a lot of debate about what "ambient" music is. Whatever you think of that, the word definitely has ambience in it, so the music will probably have something to do with the atmosphere of your surroundings.
Closely related, yet still an entirely different matter, are what we call Field Recordings, and/or Environmental Soundscapes.
The first strive to record environmental sounds as closely as possible to its origin, the second add an emotional dimension to that recordings by deliberately manipulating these recordings into a soundscape. Which, inevitably leads to the discussion about the moment when sound becomes music.
Chris Watson is one of the very few real masters of this area (which might be a lot more challenging than you'd suspect). He was one of the founding members of Sheffield's Cabaret Voltaire and the Hafler Trio, and started another career as a television sound recording engineer in 1981.
Recording and documenting natural sounds, he has also specialised in assembling these recordings to fascinating soundscapes.
Most of his memorable works have been released on the Touch label, that recently presented his latest masterpiece: "El Tren Fantasma" (The Ghost Train).
And after listening to this album for quite a few times, I can easily state that this is certainly one of the most impressive soundscapes available.
"The Endless Now" is Wouter Veldhuis' second full release, the follow up to his 2008 release "Satumaa" (which is available as a recommended free download from Bandcamp, by the way!).
These two albums match each other very well, both presenting 'classic' dreamlike electronic-ambient music.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the November month is the month of Autumn: the month that summer is definitely over, when cold and darkness slowly creeps in.
(In the Southern Hemisphere, November is a month of Spring - which means this mix will probably not fit your "November Thoughts" at all).
(Northern) November can be rough and harsh, but it's also very beautiful to watch nature prepare for winter and finding ourselves doing the same.
It is also a good month to think November Thoughts.
However deep and fascinating 'classic' (drone) ambient music may be, listening too much of the same kind can get a little eh... same-ish. The borders and boundaries need to be stretched in some ways, and that's where the adventurous music tends to start. Even though, by strict definition, this may or may not be called 'ambient' music at all (such as with a lot of the post-classical or improvised acoustic music lately).
I don't really know, but this may very well have been one of the reasons for Leonardo Rosado, also known as the curator of the Feedbackloop label (with its impressive catalogue of ambient/experimental music), to start a new label with a somewhat different concept: Heart and Soul.
Heart and Soul will focus on combining poetry and music, and will release albums in physical formats only (so NO downloads!): a paperback book combined with the CD in this particular case.
Editions are "totally homemade" - but unlike many others not 'strictly limited', because they are made on demand.
The very first release on this Feedbackloop sister label is Rosado's own "Mute Words"
Before talking about the actual music on this album, let's first take a look at its remarkable package. After all, "the medium is the message" isn't it?
"For the Tired and Ill At Ease" - the fourth release on Daniel '(Fluid Audio/Fluid Radio') Crossley's Facture label - is a hand numbered/staped/sealed package (limited edition of 200) containing:
When they decided to work together on a charity fund-raising album "for those that has beenaffected by the recent unrest that ravaged cities across the country" (referring of course to the recent UK riots), Pleq (Bartosz Dziadosz) and Spheruleus (Harry Towell) chose a different approach.
Instead of asking fellow artists to contribute a complete track, they teamed up with SoundFjord (UK Sound Art Gallery), and started asking their (immense) network of 'artists, musicians and the general public' to contribute just a short (under one minute) sample for this project.
Then they started working on these samples, creating this one hour album with twelve full length tracks.
