Category: ambient music

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Scissors and Sellotape – For the Tired and Ill At Ease


Scissors and Sellotape

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:

  • 180 gram “pure virgin” vinyl
  • Letter pressed CD
  • 16 page photo booklet
  • 12×12 bespoke print
  • A2 Posters
Intriguing, isn’t it? While the record industry still is in utter turmoil, and still cannot find the right way to catch up, there’s an increasing number of dedicated labels that show their love for the music in the way they pack their physical releases. 
And quickly find their audiences, too. A collector’s horror, sometimes, because often these releases sell out on the first day and are hard to find  from then.
Well, so much for the package.
Of course, there’s also the music to talk about!
 
ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Pleq, Spheruleus & Various – "A Silent Swaying Breath"

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.

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Pavonine; Seconds Before Awakening; Le Berger; Language of Landscape; Sunlight Lineage

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.

Pavonine

Pavonine – Night Falls with Silver in its Mouth
Opening with some Satie-esque classical piano chords, but soon the atmosphere changes to haunting, almost subconscious sounds.
“Most of the sounds in this album were made using recordings of things we hear in the night… heartbeat sounds in our ears, breaths in and out, the occasional bus driving by or distant siren.”, as Adrienne ‘Pavonine‘ Russell explains. “‘Night Falls with Silver in its Mouth’ is an album that is based on the auditory environment of night where the general ambient sounds of busy days drop away to silence; when the minute becomes amplified, and, though the cause may be hidden in the dark, the fact that something is there cannot be denied.”  Free download from Treetrunk netlabel.

Seconds Before Awakening

Seconds Before Awakening – Eight
“Do not listen while driving or operating heavy machinery”, Mike Waller (Seconds Before Awakening) advises. And that’s a good advice, because this free download offers 60 minutes of deep listening soundscapes that may induce a state of half-sleep. Immersively beautiful and, at some moments, almost uncomfortably dark.

ambient music, other-music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Gareth Davis, Jan and Romke Kleefstra – Tongerswel


Tongerswel

When I reviewed the very first Piiptsjilling release way back in 2008, I wrote it deserved “to be heard in and outside of Friesland (or Holland, for that matter)”. In no way I could have imagined that the combination of Frisian poetry and dreamy improvisational soundscapes would gain international recognision to this extent. 

It’s quite a remarkable feat for “local” music like this to be featured in the October Wire issue on a single advertising page, combining three respectable labels (Home Normal, Experimedia, and Hibernate) promoting different albums by the Kleefstra brothers: Deislieper, Wurdskrieme and Tongerswel, respectively!



ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Yann Novak; Antonymes + Slow Dancing Society; Pascal Savy; Mental Corridors; Broken Harbour

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.

Presence

Yann Novak – Presence
“The original sound performance for Presence used a mixture of recordings taken with a cell phone of sounds that altered ones perception.  These recordings were then digitally enhanced there unique characteristics. Through the use of digitally enhanced recordings, all chosen for there ability to altered ones perception, Presence moves smoothly through the a number of emotional and physical states. Evenly paced passages drift slowly from one into another, beginning in dissonance and slowly shifting into complimentary over the duration of the piece.”

Antonymes + Slow Dancing Society

Antonymes – We don’t look back for very long
“On his new EP We Don’t Look Back For Very Long, Antonymes has reworked a track from each of fellow Hidden Shoal artist Slow Dancing Society’s four albums,casting radiant new light on the stunning originals. Across almost 30 minutes, Antonymes marries SDS’s glistening atmospheres to his own trademark ambient neo-classical minimalism, creating a completely mesmerizing hybrid”

ambient music, other-music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Christina Vantzou – No.1

This is a great time for those that like the instrumental orchestral music of the Stars of the Lid school. 

Fairly short after A Winged Victory for the Sullen (Adam Wiltzie + Dustin O’Halloran), Kranky releases another beautiful album: Christina Vantzou‘s “No. 1” .

Christina Vantzou‘s name may not immediately sound familiar.

With Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie she has released the The Dead Texan album (2004) – which quickly became a favourite for Stars of the Lid fans. She has also toured with Sparklehorse shortly. 

Apart from composing and performing music, she’s also a prolific visual artist. (In fact she also designed the ‘Nips and Lips’ cover for A Winged Victory).
A lot of the beautiful videos she created for related artists and friends can be enjoyed on her Youtube channel.

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Penjaga Insaf – Sama Sadja

The opening track of ‘SAMA SADJA‘ , ‘Seimbang’, slowly unfolds reminiscent of a vintage Klaus Schulze track, but the similarity does not last for long. The album takes an unexpected turn, delving deep into Indonesian traditional culture, with fascinating and hypnotizing musical result.

It’s definitely no ‘roots music’ from Indonesia. But it’s not your average ambient drone, either!

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

A Winged Victory for the Sullen

“A Winged Victory for the Sullen”, “Sleep Hills of Vicodin Tears”, “Requiem for the Static King” … If titles like that remind you of the Stars of the Lid, you are right. Almost. 

For this project, Lid’s Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie teams up with Dustin O’Halloran. No real surprise, since they already worked together on O’Halloran’s latest album (“Lumiere” ). 
 
With the help of some familiar (Peter Broderick, Hildur Gudnadottir) and some less familiar contributors the duo presents “A Winged Victory for the Sullen“ – which will obviously appeal to all Stars of the Lid fans. And a lot more people that probably don’t know this album even exists.

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Guy Birkin – Symmetry-Breaking

There are many different ways to create (and enjoy) ambient/electronic music.
On “Symmetry-Breaking”  (Dr.!) Guy Birkin has an academic approach, bringing him and his music somewhat in line with that of music on the raster-noton label. 

In his work for the Nottingham Trent University (UK), Birkin investigates ‘complexity as an aesthetic property, using information theory as an approach to understanding the complexity of artworks’
For his doctoral thesis he studied ‘visual complexity’, but his current research uses his experimental method to explore the complexity of sound and music. 

The question is, of course: does an academic approach like this also produce academic (as in ‘difficult’) music?
After studying the liner notes and trying to get a grasp of the underlying theories and creation techniques, I was almost relieved to conclude that the answer to that is “No, not necessarily.”