Those of you familiar with Stephan Mathieu’s beautiful album ‘Radioland‘ (2008) will probably find this follow-up equally interesting.
The concept is more or less familiar: using analog (found) sounds to create immersive layers of ambient electronics, using a process technique that makes the end result sound very ‘natural’.
And it’s exactly that what makes Stephan Mathieu’s music stands out compared to others.
Mathieu never takes the easy way when recording his projects. This time, he recorded the sounds of old wax cylinders, and some 78RPM records and processed them afterwards.
It’s not only scratched vinyl and wax you hear: sometimes some of the recorded music filters through almost inaudible, with an eerie dreamlike effect.
Taylor Deupree adds his guitar and synthesizer sounds, in a delicate interaction with the recorded and filtered sounds of the past.
‘Transmissions’ is a hazy vision into the history of recorded music. A vision of times that have long gone.
More info here.
Stephan Mathieu website: http://www.bitsteam.de
Prior to this CD-release, Stephan Mathieu also released “A Key to the Kingdom” on 10″ vinyl in a beautiful ‘Disc-O-File’ sleeve.
Using old 78RPM recordings of very early gospel music Mathieu created a tribute to the gospel preacher Washington Phillips.
But you probably already guessed the result is in no way sounds like the gospel records you knew.