Tag: pleq

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Richard Chartier; Pleq+Philippe Lamy; Pjusk+Sleep Orchestra; Thomas Tilly

RICHARD CHARTIER – SUBSEQUENT MATERIALS (2006 – 2012)
Where most releases nowadays are focussed on a physical release on a vinyl album and thus do not cross the 40 minute mark, Richard Chartier chooses a different approach and squeezes the most out of the possibilities of a digital release: Subsequent Materials (2006 – 2012) offers no less than three hours of his characteristic electronic music.

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Philippe Lamy + Pleq (3 Titles)


SlowFast

Philippe Lamy (France) is an artist combining various art-forms. He’s a painter, but also teaches ‘plastic arts’ at the School of Architecture in Toulouse. He started creating music about ten years ago, “feeling that his paintings and music resonate together”.
His soundscapes indeed resemble paintings: they are incredibly detailed, almost organic, including a wide dynamic range of sounds.

His latest solo album,“SlowFast“, is recently released, following up two recent collaboration projects with well-known Polish artist Pleq.

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Time Released Sound: the Chocolate Box series

I can’t really decide if I should consider Time Released Sound primarily an art or a music label.

I can drool when watching the incredible (handmade!) art that is created for each initial release. Carefully handcrafted, with regards to every detail, but consequently they also carry a price tag that seems to aim at art collectors more than the average music lover.

These special releases are always very limited and often quickly sell out. Luckily for those of us not fast (or rich) enough, Time Released Sound often immediately re-release these titles as a standard 5″-CD with a regular picture sleeve.

Below are some of the highlights of the latest batch: the “Chocolate Box” series. This, of course, refers to the Deluxe packaging of each individual title. Check the website for more details about that: I’ll leave out the notes about the packaging and will just focus on the music.

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

McDougall + Sasajima; Hydrophones; Francisco Lopez; Pleq a.o.

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.

Injya

James McDougall & Hiroku Sasajima – Injya
Using environmental sounds from Australia and Japan, McDougall and Sasajima create a new virtual world by rearranging and manipulating the original recordings. Their carefully crafted collages manage to maintain the ‘natural’ feeling of the recordings yet at the same times creates a non-existent landscape that is fascinating to listen to. One of the best environmental soundscapes I know.

Hydrophones

Various Artists – Hydrophones
Using only (publicly available) recordings from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), carefully manipulating the underwater sounds of ships, earthquakes, “air guns”, whale sounds and some unknown sources, this free download includes three immersive sub-aquatic ambient soundscapes created by Michael Hendley, Beau Finley and Keep.

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Interesting Collaborations

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.

Night Blossom

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. 

Woven Tide

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.”

ambient music, RECOMMENDATIONS

Specta Ciera; Sense; Pleq + Lauki; Ujjaya; Sequence 2

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.

Underpass

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

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.”