Posts tagged Drone
Brad Lynham & Jesse TaylorEmpty Love + Reflektions – E.R.G.I.
Jan 27th
Recorded live at The Emergency Room Granville Island in Vancouver on July 27, 2007 by Dan Kibke.
Korg MS-20
ARP Axxe
Moog Delay
Sequential Circuits Pro-One
Moog Ring Modulator
Dream Machine
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Koji Okamoto . Wanders deep waters
Jan 7th
Have you ever wandered the depths of the oceans, felt the cold dark voids. Koji Okamoto takes you by the hand and goes deep beyond the oceanfloors and uncovers a world of darkness. No diving gear nor decompression time necessary.
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solstice overtone drone
Dec 28th
my laptop set at polly moller’s “long night’s moon” concert at the luggage store gallery. the only sound sources were overtone-singing vocal samples of cary sheldon and an iphone recording of a small bell.
thanks to cary, polly, rent, c.j., matt, suki, michael, and amar.
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The Silence Bureau
Nov 8th
This album contains minimalistic noise, avant-garde synthesizer, guitar, and piano experiments recorded from 2007 to the present year. Sound collages of varied textures and moods, overall this album will challenge listeners to reconsider the nature of ‘music’.
Jeff Fowler aka The Silence Bureau
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John Mason : Gammatria
Sep 22nd
John Mason is, as you might expect, a close relative of Jon 7 and JMMIII. Jon 7 has a contentious colleague (interactions with whom he still values highly) who had offered him a release of “Guitar Music” for Time Theory. The offer was rescinded though due to Jon 7’s failure to respond immediately. “Guitar Music” was instead offered to a Dutch label, and promptly was never brought up again (though it may have done well where it landed. we just don’t know).
NOt easily out done, Jon 7 commissioned John Mason to construct an album of ‘guitar music’ for a different Dutch label (the now famous and defunct Okkulth, who in it’s unmercifully short lifespan revolutionized a new area of dark ambient drone and noise). Upon submission of “Gammatria” Okkulth came to an end, and it was never released.
Upon reflection this was a bit of a good thing: Mr. Mason had entirely forgotten the methods he used to make the album, and had described it entirely incorrectly to Okkulth HQ.
What you hear here in this release are only two instruments, a Hondo electric guitar (a Japanese surf-guitar, if you will) and a phillips head screwdriver. the rest is just ’special effects’.
Other artists are encouraged to continue the long fight to prove Decca wrong, guitar music is not “on its way out.” Not when it can take such forms as this.
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Various : The Synthi Group Vol. 1
Aug 23rd
Formed in 1969, Electronic Music Studios (EMS) quickly became innovators for the recording, production and advancement of electronic music. The ideas and designs that bubbled forth out of the ingenuitive minds of Peter Zinovieff, Tristram Cary, David Cockerell and others, led to the creation of some of the most wildly original musical/sound design equipment ever conceived. The VCS3, Synthi A + AKS, Synthi 100, Synthi E, Synthi Logik and the Soundbeam are among these, almost unworldly, devices.
It is often said EMS gear has attained cult status, reaching a fervor of near worship among its users. The Synthi Group is an example and collection of such users. United through the Synthi blog and forum (www.thesynthi.de) and located throughout the world, the group’s members have come together for a planned series of compilation volume releases where the individuality and approach of each member towards their EMS instrument is showcased and broadcasted for all to experience. The listener will hear wildly different examples of styles and sounds that this original, and oft times, vintage equipment can create.
EMS were true pioneers from the very beginning, always looking beyond the culture and times they were surrounded and seemingly trapped in. Still around today, thanks to Robin Wood and Ludwig Rehberg, they are one of the few companies involved with electronic instrument production that have had a continued run since their inception. The Synthi Group have honed the original pioneering spirit and DIY ethic of EMS with their Volume series, a collection of sounds encompassing beautiful dreamscapes, synaesthetic visions, dark ambience, aural abstractions, sonic absurdities, pulsating analog, glitch, ring modulators, and envelope shapers generating trapezoidal geometry. Beginning with Volume 1, the Synthi Group compilations aim to ensure the story of EMS continues well into the future of electronic music production.
[Synopsis by Alka]
tracklist:
Track 1
Artist: Don Hassler
Title: No Subsequent Interaction Synthi Recording No. 1
Time: 2:04
Device: EMS Synthi A MK1
Genre: irritating
Contact: http://www.donhassler.com
Location: USA
Track 2
Artist: The Vegan Surgeons
Title : VCS3ImprovC
Time: 6:53
Device: EMS VCS3 Mark I, recorded and processed
digitally through Audiomulch
Genre: 50-60’s electroacoustic music
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/thevegansurgeons
Location: Scotland
Track 3
Artist : Trap & Zoid
Title : Gnomes evasion
Time: 5:26
Device : EMS Synthi A + Aria AD10 analog delay,
recorded live in one take with Edirol R-09HR, unprocessed.
Genre : live electronics / psychedelic / experimental
Contact : http://www.myspace.com/trapandzoid
Location : Brussels, Belgium
Track 4
Artist: Cray
Title: 29days laterrr
Time: 6:15
Device: EMS Synthi AKS, Pencils,
live improvising into Audiomulch.
Genre: Avant Electronics
Contact: http://www.discogs.com/artist/Cray
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Track 5
Artist: Sam Samshuijzen
Title: Simple
Time: 2:55
Device: Modified EMS Synthi AKS
Randrum pulse generator/divider for the returned ES
triggering of the synthi 4 track analog tape recorder
Remixed with a digital system into a 4 channel composition (4C).
This is the stereo mix of those 4 (2C).
Done in Studio Denkraam, Ede NL, 1980.
It’s called simple, because it makes basic use of a
sequence voltage for one oscillator, while playing
the realtime voltage to another oscillator simultaneously.
Genre: Electronic
Contact: http://www.xs4all.nl/~samzen/
Location: Netherlands
Track 6
Artist: Pin
Title: Can the sound change
Time: 6:40
Device: EMS Synthi AKS, multilayering of sounds, recorded and processed
digitally through ProTools.
Genre: Experimental
Contact: http://www.thesynthi.de
Location: Germany
Track 7
Artist: Mono-Poly
Title: Do you observe?
Time: 6:01
Device: EMS Synthi AKS cv-ed by Blippoo Box witch processes
audio + Delay and Reverb
Genre: Experimental
Contact: http://mono-poly.blogspot.com
Location: Netherlands
Track 8
Artist: Werd
Title: Smirk
Time: 1:44
Device: EMS Synthi A & Roland Space Echo 201
Genre: Exp.,broadcasted in 1979 by radio KRO Hilversum 4
“Collage van Alledaags en Zeldzaam”
Contact: http://werdav.tripod.com/index.html
Location: Netherlands
Track 9
Artist: Johan Schurer
Title: FrogWaltz
Time: 2:05
Device: EMS Synthi AKS
Genre: Experimental
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/johanschurer
Location: The Netherlands
Track 10
Artist: Impulsantwort
Title: Ich kann den Strom in der Wand hören.
Time: 7:00
Device: EMS Synthi AKS 80 treated by EMS Soundbeam recorded via RME
Fireface,
processed digitally through ProTools.
Genre: Drone
Contact: http://www.impulsantwort.com
Location: Germany
Track 11
Artist: THM
Title: Setting Sun
Time: 6:45
Device: EMS Synthi AKS (London UK model from 1975), only some Roland
RE-301
Chorus Echo and SRV-330 Reverb added; recorded and processed digitally
via Cubase 4
Genre: Space Music / Ambient Drone
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/thmsynthfreak
thm[at]pandora.be
Location: Belgium
Track 12
Artist: Delia (Leo Learchi – Luca Isabella – Daniele De Rossi)
Title: Trilogia per Delia (live excerpt)
Device: EMS Synthi A, AKS, E, Digisound 80 modular synthesizer,
field recordings, PC.
Genre: Experimental
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/leomodular
Location: Italy
Track 13
Artist: Alka
Title: Interrupt Structure
Time: 3:57
Device: EMS Synthi Mk1 AKS partially processed through the Elektron
Machinedrum
SPS1 UW Mk2. Further processing and recording through Apple Logic Pro.
Genre: Electronic / Glitch / Experimental
Contact: http://www.reverbnation.com/buryn
Location: USA
Track 14
Artist: Tunnel
Title: Descent
Time: 6:08
Device: EMS VCS3 Mk II, Boss DD-3 Delay
Genre: Improv / Experimental
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/tunnelx
Location: Australia
Track 15
Artist: D. Skevington
Title: Block I
Time: 5.10
Device: Layers of direct and amplified Synthi A.
Genre: Psychedelic/Rock
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/danielskevington
Location: UK
Track 16
Artist: Synthiaks
Title: Bump
Time: 3:30
Device: EMS Synthi AKS, live recording.
Genre: Experimental
Contact: baby_tog[at]hotmail.com
Location: UK
Track 17
Artist: Maelem
Title: Dripping party
Time: 6:59
Device: EMS Synthi A
Genre: Noise
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/maelem
Location: France
Track 18
Artist: Splitradix
Title: Harmony Suitcase
Time: 4:37
Devices: EMS Synthi A, Roland TR808, Sequential Circuits Pro One,
Roland System 100 101, Roland SH101, Roland MKS80, Roland RE301
Genre: Electro
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/splitradix
Location: Berlin, Germany
Track 19
Artist: Level-Repeat
Title: Syncophant
Time: 5:32
Device: Live Performance using a modified EMS Synthi AKS.
Making heavy use of oscillator sync.
Genre: Experimental
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/levelrepeat
Location: United Kingdom
***
Contacts:
http://www.thesynthi.de
http://thesynthigroup.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/thesynthigroup
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Davies / Rives / Rodrigues / Rodrigues / Santos : Twrf Neus Ciglau
Aug 22nd
I usually shift colds really quickly. I get them bad but they don’t last long. This one is still here and it is still really getting me down. I feel like one big snotty tissue right now, and am getting fed up that they only make one flavour of Lemsip. Ah well. If you’ve got swine flu what are the first symptoms? Are these trotters I’ve grown normal? So anyway, music. Despite having very blocked up ears and a headache for most of the day that gets worse when I stare at a computer screen your valiant blogger has still managed to listen to one CD a couple of times today and here I am writing about it. I returned to the pile of Creative Sources discs today, feeling a little guilty that I hadn’t played anything from it in a while. I picked out a disc I really wanted to hear from the recent batch anyway, the quintet of Ernesto Rodrigues, (viola) Guilherme Rodrigues, (cello) Carlos Santos, (electronics) Rhodri Davies, (harp and electtronics) and Stéphane Rives (soprano sax). The album title is Twrf Neus Ciglau. (no prizes for guessing which of the group came up with that little gem!) When run through an online translation programme the title translates from Welsh to read Noise Conquer Ciglau, which helps a little, but not much. Rhodri if you read this let me know? Anyway the music…. The disc contains a single thirty-four minute live recording made a year ago this Sunday at a festival in Lisbon. The music actually follows a similar pattern to one or two other releases involving Rhodri Davies of late, not quite drone-based but certainly music involving layers of shifting sounds that slip and slide over each other, transparent in places, opaque in others and all very beautiful. A little like the recent Midhopestones release on Another Timbre there is a nice blend of acoustic and electronic instrumentation here that is combined into one delicate mass of sound that travels along at a slow pace with little change in dynamic but plenty of diversity in colour The beauty comes then from the constantly changing textures and tones that are placed over one another, kind of the aural equivalent to a kaleidoscopic being turned very slowly. This shouldn’t suggest that the music is all pastel shades however. It isn’t always easy to tell which sound is coming from where, but certainly Rives’ sax can be heard sending out shrill blasts that set your teeth on edge, and the two Rodrigues scratch and scrape a gritty belly to the music throughout. Things never really break into any real to-and-fro interplay though, with the quintet happy to work their individual sounds over and through those of their colleagues rather than respond directly. So as a nice, detailed example of laminal improvised music Twrf Neus Ciglau works really well for me, containing some really beautiful moments. (the part thirteen minutes in when all sounds coalesce into a high pitched stream for a few moments is gorgeous) Certainly there is nothing groundbreaking here and, given the quality of the musicians on show no real surprises, but despite a throbbing headache I found it easy to lose myself in the Twrf Neus Ciglau’s drifting layers. Maybe this won’t be one I will come back to as often as I should, but as a document of a nice concert one summer’s day in Portugal I like this CD quite a bit and I’m pleased someone thought to share it with those that weren’t there on the night. Richard Pinnell (The Watchful Ear)
Ernesto Rodrigues – viola
Rhodri Davies – harp, electronics
St̩phane Rives Рsoprano saxophone
Guilherme Rodrigues – cello
Carlos Santos – electronics
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inverz : songs
Aug 17th
Savvas Metaxas (which sounds like a good drink) is the guitarist from 2L8 and a member of Good Luck Mr Gorsky but also active solo under the guise of Inverz. For his album ‘Songs’ he plays guitar (electric and acoustic), vintage synthesizers and field recordings. That may seem like old hat, and obviously the end result doesn’t offer much new under the micro sun, but I thought the result were pretty neat. Tinkling guitars in the middle of sea of swirling electronic sounds, field recordings being processed to quite an extent where they become unrecognizable. Maybe its all done and said before, and occasionally also better than this, this is still a fine copy of say Fennesz meets Machinefabriek. Core piece is ‘Bow Song’, which features only the contrabass by Iraklis Iosifidis, in various, layered samples, building a nice drone piece. On a hot day like this, I’d like to sit back and enjoy whatever is coming to me in a nice way, and this is just the one for such a day; when more thinking is not necessary. (FdW) VITAL WEEKLY 639
2101
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Various : Vol. G
Aug 11th
The great alphabet continues with Giancarlo Toniutti in a fairly long drone piece, which no doubt is created with some acoustic objects and analogue treatments, which results in a great minimal drone piece. Government Alpha is the noise corner of ‘G’, with a pure and unrelentness piece of feedback and distortion, followed by the near silence of G*Park. Here we find ourselves outside and listening to our environment. Cracks of branches, the careful opening of a squeaky door. An antidote for the noise of the previous piece. One of the nice things about this series, is that G.X. Jupitter-Larsen finds people of whom we haven’t heard in a while, like Gregory Whitehead. He has a classic piece ‘The Catastrophe Class’, of mumbling voices, repeated phrases and background environment noise of an undefined nature. In every word: a classic Whitehead piece. So far on this series all tracks last around fifteen to twenty minutes, maybe with one of two exceptions, but ‘G’, closes with ‘Explosion 2008? by G.X. Jupitter-Larsen, a single sound of explosion. (FDW) Vital Weekly 688
Giancarlo Toniutti Kudi Ch’Vit’Anc (17:46)
Government Alpha Corrosion Electrolysis (12:54)
G*Park Slow (12:24)
Gregory Whitehead The Catastrophe Class (9:32)
GX Jupitter-Larsen Explosion 2008 (0:04)
2095
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James Wyness : figure and ground
Aug 9th
One James Wyness writes me that ‘this is an advance copy of my self-released CDR. I’ll be releasing it as the first hard copy release on my netlabel Khora in July’. What I hold in my hand already looks like the ‘real’ release, with a great, printed cover, so what ‘advance’ copy? And hard copy on a netlabel? That seems to be case, well, perhaps not in this case actually, of Vital no longer reviewing MP3s (as announced since three months and still missed by many, so why not bring the subject on in a review, and not in a header everyone seems to be skipping): this CDR (small jewel case, full color one card as cover) is of course a CDR release of a MP3, but then no doubt none of the CDR will be sold, and its merely to fool yours truly around. Or is that a cynical thought? As said, even when Wyness doesn’t use the proper lingo for record releases (and be honest: why should he?), his release looks at least great in that professional printed cover. There is the artist name, title (’Figure
And Ground’) and on the front it says ‘field recording and processes’, but the booklet reveals a fair bit. This music was made as part of a sound installation. I won’t go into all the details described in the booklet, but it seems Wyness wants us to listen to this in some sort of mediative manner, a zen way of hearing. One piece that lasts about forty two minutes, at which basis lies a good sized bit of rain sound. That seems to fit the Dutch Summer (actually there was a release of pure, unprocessed rain sounds with Dutch Summer as its title), since everyday there is rain – so why hear it on CD my mother would say? Its a bit unclear what the process part of the music is about, but sometimes it seems that the rain sounds leap over into white static hiss. After about twenty-seven minutes it stops and on comes a deep drone like thing. That works up again towards the end of the piece into more seaside sounds. If anything, it seems that Wyness is inspired by Francisco Lopez, both in
approach to field recordings and the dynamic way to process them. Quite a nice release this one. Not entirely new or surprising, but quite a consistent work of processed field recordings. (FdW) Vital Weekly 689
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