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!
This weblog is built with WordPress, based on the ‘Fluida’ template by Cryoutcreations. Edu Hackenitz has been an invaluable (and patient) help in optimising the site, and converting the data from its earlier (Pivotx) life! Edu and Vic van Cooten helped with various CSS tweaks and enhancements. The background image and colour scheme are based…
“Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.”Brian Eno, Ambient 1: Music for Airports liner notes (1978) What is Ambientblog.net? This is a personal weblog about my current (ambient) favourites. I do not…
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!!
This mix is especially created to celebrate the 25th release on Michel Banabila’s Tapu Records (which will be released later this year).
In this mix (in fact a follow up of “Streets, Dreams and Memories“), all tracks & samples are chosen from the Tapu Records catalogue and so it displays the versatility of Banabila’s work – as solo artist as well as in collaboration with others.
A limited edition (100) physical Audio CD with this mix will be included with every physical release order from Banabila’s Bandcamp.
Also, a VIDEO version (presenting the covers in sync with the mix, as well as including the impressive Geert Mulvideo for ‘Crowds‘), can be downloaded for free (link below).
This mix was created especially for Headphone Commute.
Thanks to H_C for publishing it, and for the beautiful introduction words:
Autumn is here. Darkness slowly creeps up just a little bit earlier. Clouds get grayer and swell up with rain. Trees shed their colors and tighten their belts. And people begin to prepare for winter. But among all the shadows there’s a small ray of light. And with that glow comes the music… For today’s exclusive podcast, Peter van Cooten weaves in layers of haunting soundscapes spanning the gray-scale of the ambient universe. It’s a gorgeous soundtrack to the season of tears… I hope you will enjoy!
“I’m not formed by things that are of myself alone”
This is the key quote (taken from Stoker) for this mix, which is also ‘not formed by things of itself alone’. Every detail, every short sample, has its origin in another context, another musical composition, from which it is taken to find a new place in a completely different context.
“My ears hear what others cannot hear.”
“Parallax“ is the visual effect that, when you are moving yourself, objects closer to you seem to move by faster than objects in the distance, which slowly seem to move with you in the same direction.
In sound, drones seem to create a somewhat similar effect.
In some way that is what this mix is about: the background sound slowly moving along with you while some other fragments pass by so quick you cannot even focus.
Just don’t try to focus.
“…Now I see things that were hidden from my eyes…”
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.
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.
