Tag: environmental

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Francisco López – Presque Tout

Had this not been a release by Francisco López (who has been creating sound art and electronic music for over 30 years, continuously building on a massive catalogue of music and sound) on the Line Imprint label (“exploring the aesthetics of contemporary and digital minimalism” since 2000) – then I probably would have thought “Presque Tout“ was a conceptual joke.

But it isn’t.
It’s perhaps the most radical release in ambient sound recording – its extreme minimalism perhaps only surpassed by the well-known ‘4’33″‘ by John Cage.

ambient music, other-music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Bruce Gilbert & BAW – Enrico Coniglio – Chris Watson – Felix Gebhard

Field recordings are often an important part of ‘ambient’ recordings. But there are many variations: from heavily processed, almost unrecognisable sounds to strictly natural representation – and everything inbetween.
Some impressive examples: 


Diluvial

BRUCE GILBERT AND DAW – DILUVIAL(*)
(*) – Release date: sept 2 – link will be replaced when available
With the basic material including field recordings from beaches in Suffolk and London (recorded by Naomi Siderfin, half of Beaconsfield ArtWorks), “Diluvial” originates from “local preoccupation with rising sea levels – a work that dwells on the dynamics of flood geology and global warming; creation stories and climate change”.
The basic material may consist of field recording of natural sounds, but the synthesized sounds generated by Bruce Gilbert (founding member of art-punk band Wire and experimental music researcher since 2004) and David Crawforth (the other half of BAW) in response to those recording take it to a completely different electroacoustic level.

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Chris Dooks – 300 Square Miles of Upwards


300 Square Miles

Shortly after the release of “The Eskdalemuir Harmonium”, Chris Dooks releases the second part of what will become a colourful Idioholism trilogy.

“300 Square Miles of Upwards” is released in a stunning package (designed by Rutger ‘Machinefabriek’ Zuydervelt): a bright blue vinyl 12″ album that also comes with an (extended) digital download version including a video version of the opener track ‘Gardening As Astonomy’.

ambient music, exclusives, RECOMMENDATIONS

Michel Banabila – 47 Voice Loops + Gardening (Extended)

Two surprising new albums by Michel Banabila, both based on some of his earlier work yet remarkably different from most albums in his extensive catalogue.

47 VOICE LOOPS

The original basic track for “47 Voice Loops“ can be found on the free (!) download album “In Other Words“ (track called “MltVz8”.)
In reaction to some listeners comments, Banabila decided to create longer versions of this track. The result is now available as a separate album which clearly demonstrates these listeners were right!

ambient music, MIXES, other-news, videos

Rust (Mix) – The Video Version

When publishing the mixes for Ambientblog, I have always been looking for a way to ‘visualise’ the artist credits for the mix.

Most of the fragments and samples used in the mix-collages are almost indistinguishable, yet the interested listener might want to find out about the release details. 
This is why most mixes on ambientblog also feature a ‘sequence scheme’ image which shows the building blocks of that particular mix.

For my most recent mix, “Rust”, I decided to try out a different feature: a video version, which is showing the track details at the very moment they are used in the mix.

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Helios, Porzellan, North Atlantic Drift, Retina.it, Stefan Paulus

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.

Moiety

Helios – Moiety
I don’t think I can add much to the near-legendary status that Helios, a.k.a.Keith Kenniff, a.k.a.Goldmund has already earned – apart from the fact that this Godfather of Cinematic Romanticism offers this album as a free download to all his fans. In FLAC as well as MP3 format. I can only suggest a donation, because this album (and his overall work) deserves it.

Lost Library

Porzellan – The Lost Library
Francis Cazal is a baroque violinist and composer, but – in his own words: “who cares”.
The sounds on this album are definitely more electronic than you might expect from that description.
“This is a bit more than music, but a bit less than something else.”
 Anyway, this album clearly shows the work of a creator. 25 Minutes definitely worth investigating!

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Steve Roden + Machinefabriek – Lichtung


Lichtung

The very first release on a brand new label called Eat, Sleep, Repeat brings together two remarkable men from the electronic/improv scene: Steve Roden and Machinefabriek (Rutger Zuydervelt)

“Lichtung“ is the soundtrack created for an audio-visual installation at  Galerie Vayhinger, featuring visuals by Sabine Bürger, inspired by the Mindelsee lake in Germany.

This CD version does not feature the video part of the installation, but the images from the inlay booklet  are a good impression of how beautiful this installation must have been.

ambient music, other-music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Chris Watson – El Tren Fantasma

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.