Kelvin L. Smith is a prolific English musician. He's working as a singer/guitarist in the pubs and clubs of South Wales U.K. But he also has a firm passion for ambient music and that is what he creates at home. He has released quite a few (ambient) releases under his name, all released through various independent channels.

His latest release, The Dreaming Mind, is a good example of the variety in his (ambient) music. Sometimes it reminds me of The Orb, at other moments the music echoes the work of Harold Budd - Kelvin is a huge fan of both! His music is always friendly flowing, never dark or threatening.

Kelvin's perseverance and dedication to this genre deserves sympathy. 'The Dreaming Mind' is released through EMMA: Electronic Music & Musicians Association. It'll be hard to find in your local record shop, but I have a few copies available: you can order it here.

I’m very happy to announce that the NPS/RADIO 4FM has confirmed their commission for a new radio show series – which will be the seventh in line of an almost yearly tradition. These programs will be broadcast in april, 2006, so it’s a bit of a wait until then. But on the other hand: I will have some decent time to prepare them and try to make four hours I’ll be really proud of.

This is the plan:
There’ll be four one hour shows that’ll be broadcast weekly on Wednesday. A loose theme will bind them:

The first hour will be entirely dedicated to Akira Rabelais’ Spellewauerynsherde. Apart from the beautiful music of this album, Akira has kindly donated some special and unreleased material especially for this program!!

The second and third show will consist of a new ambient collage/mix, the kind that listeners to previous show have grown accustomed to…check here for the details of the earlier ones.

The last in this series will be a mix from random icelandic music that others will select for me. It’ll be somewhat of a challenge to create something coherent out of that material, so be prepared to be surprised...

Upon re-discovering his own archives, William Basinski found some old analog tape-recordings of some 'pastoral pieces' of his own work, recorded in the early 80's. If you can remember this analog reel-to-reel tapes (or cassettes), and imagine them to be used as a real physical loop (end glued to beginning), you can almost see how they started to deteriorate when played endlessly. (Remember the brown dust on your cassette-recorder playback heads?).

William immediately realised the symbolic potential and recorded this process of disintegration as a new musical project. Record the music that is slowly dying. That, in itself, already is quite symbolic, but the story got another dimension when these tapes, played at his New York appartment, accidentally became a soundtrack for the 2001 09-11 disaster. At that point, 'Disintegration' became quite a different dimension.

'...We were in shock. We sat on the roof terrace in lawn chairs and watched the fires burning all day into night with the Disintegration Loops playing in the background. ... In the next days and weeks, I watched as I and my friends disintegrated in our own personal loops of fear and terror...each one happening on it's own terms, in it's own language, at it's own pace'

I am not sure yet if it's the concept, the coincidence, or the music itself that makes The Disintegration Loops so very impressive.
But in the end, this doesn't really matter. It's a monument in itself.

The Disintegration Loops were hard to find originally. Rumour around this project has grown to near mythical proportions. Recently, all four cd's (almost 5 hours of disintegrating loops!) are reissued.

"Sound is Audible Time" is a quote from this book by John Luther Adams, a composer living in Alaska. The book, subtitled "Composing the North", deals with the influence the environmental landscape may have on a composer. As is stated in the foreword: "A lot of composers live in the Hudson Valley; will some future historian find among us synchronicities that unite us stylistically?"

Although I am not yet quite sure about what I think of John Luther Adam's music, I found this book a pleasure to read.

"They say that she heard things.
At Naalagiagvik, The Place Where You Go To Listen, she would sit alone in stillness. The wind across the tundra and the little waves lapping on the shore told her secrets. Birds passing overhead spoke to her in strange tongues.
She listened. And she heard. But she rarely spoke of these things. She did not question them. This is the way for one who listens."

To illustrate the music he writes about (his own), there's an accompanying cd with three long tracks.
"Winter Music" was published in 2004 by Wesleyan University Press, ISBN 0-8195-6742-6.

"Always Listen" (Pauline Oliveros)

The Belgian U-cover label has shown a fine taste in their ambient releases.
Not all releases are 'ambient' in the strict, beatless sense: the U-cover label describes itself as an underground electronic label, and that's what it is. Call it Ambient, call it Techno, U-cover releases are immediately recognisable by their specific sound.

Apart from their official label releases, U-cover also started the limited cd-r series, in which new talent is presented. Sonmi451's 'Vladivostok' is released in this CD-Rseries. It's limited to 95 copies, so I guess you have to hurry if you want one!

Sonmi451 is a character from David Mitchell's novel "Cloud Altas" who works as a slave-robot in an underground diner place, in a society called Nea So Copros in the distant future. Belgian musician Bernard Zwijzen has chosen this alias for presenting his music.
Vladivostok has a lush, warm sound and fits in perfectly with the other U-cover releases, at least those that I know. It reminds me of the earlier Biosphere sound.
In fact, I don't really understand why this particular record is released as a CD-R - it really deserves your full attention!

Maybe it's because of this unpronounceable title, but I have completely missed this (2004!) release. I never have heard about it until recently. Better late than never, because this is easily one of the strangest and the most compelling albums I ever heard!

Upon hearing only the first track of this haunting album I realised that this is a sound completely different from all I heard before.
It's as if a voice coming from the middle ages haunts you in your deepest sleep. It's beautiful, heavenlike. But at the same time it's distorted and confusing, scary even.

"Spellewauerynsherde" is built up from found sounds, field recordings of traditional Icelandic accapella lament songs recorded in the late 1960s or early 1970s on Ampex tapes and then forgotten about. After discovering the neglected tapes, cleaning them up and digitizing them for a library, Rabelais became fascinated with the heartbreaking sadness of the voices and began to think of them as source material for a series of compositions.

As the title (Spelle, Wavering, Sharde) suggests, you will not understand a word of what is sung. But somehow the message will come through.

This incredible record is available through samadhisound (David Sylvian's label)

A Boomkat (recommended online store specialised in recordings like this) quote: "Not many album's will move you in quite the way that this album does. Believe. "
Believe, indeed!

Note:
When ordering this cd at my local shop I was a bit afraid that my copy wouldn't arrive, so I ordered a second one online. Both came, so now I have a spare copy, unused and still sealed. So grab your chance here if you cannot find this cd in your neighbourhood...

Since 1980 the spelling of the word may have changed a vowel, but the meaning is still the same.

In the gymnasium
I was not a hit
There was something really interesting
about the way my gymsuit fit

The Roches (Maggy, Terry and Suzzy) were -and still are- nurdy but irresistable! And if you may doubt their skills: Robert Fripp played with them on this record...you can't get more intellectual credibility than thát, can you?

Fernando Corona's alias Murcof is a 'hot' name in the ambient music scene. And with a reason.
With his earlier releases (Martes, Utopia and some other, all released on Leaf) he defined his own particular sound, quite unlike most other contemporary ambient music around.
It's a warm, emotional sound, maybe because he is born (and lives) in Tijuana, Mexico. A Biosphere from warmer regions, you might say?

His latest release is called Remembranza, and the music is as beautiful as the title. It is as adventurous as it is quiet.

However, the glitchy clickin' rhythms on some of the tracks may pinpoint this release to 2005: I'm afraid it'll be these rhythm tracks that will make this album sound a bit dated ten years from now. In my opinion these tracks would have been 'timeless' without these rhythmic backgrounds...but I'm nitpicking now. Remembranza easily belongs to the very best recordings I have heard in many years!

I'm not gonna repeat all things already said about the Sony/BMG CD's that are copyprotected and install their 'rootkit' software on your computer when playing the cd on it: almost every weblog about music and/or computers has written about it already.

If you want the details: the original Mark Russinovich article can be found here, and there's a follow-up here.

By installing software generally known as the worst kind of computer infection (and most difficult to remove), Sony / BMG have made a complete fool of themselves, and they managed to make it worse by releasing crappy uninstaller-software under public opinion pressure.
I guess they're not even sorry, they're just afraid to loose their profit - especially now.
Remember: it's november, which means bad timing for bad press!

In my opinion, SONY/BMG deserves a total consumer strike against them, for at least the rest of the year.
Don't buy SONY/BMG cd's for present this christmas. Especially those of the copy-protected kind!

I know, this is a "Major" record company, so there's quite a lot of big artist-names nót to choose from, but if you look a bit further there's a wealth of alternatives to be found.

And if you can't think of anything: a package of blank CD-R's can be a welcome present, too!

Recently I stumbled upon some news about the buddha machine: a small device that looks like a cheap fm-radio that endless loops 9 ambient samples. You can switch samples, connect a headphone, or listen to it using the built in speaker. The ambient sample-loops for this small device are created by Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian, known as FM3.

Brian Eno is said to have bought eight of these things, for obvious installation purposes.

Well thát's a gadget (*) I cannot refuse! So I immediately ordered one from Staalplaat.
It's a conceptual thing: it's the idea that counts more than the result. Due to the inexpensive hardware the samples don't even nearly sound like they do on-line (click the speaker icon below to hear the online version).
But still - the Buddha Machine proves irrestistable. After the initial scorn for buying 'crap' like this ("it doesn't even play decent radio!") I found my family playing with the thing and enjoying this piece of obvious irrelevancy. Although I probably won't buy the complete series, I certainly won't regret this purchase....

(I'm very curious to hear about any other 'ambient gadget' you may have found, so please let me know if you did)

(*) there's a matter of definition here: a gadget is defined as 'a device that is very useful for a particular job' - whereas 'a device of clever design that has no practical purpose' is called a novelty item. It's up to you to decide which one the buddha machine is.

2005 celebrates the 30th birthday of a record that belongs to the few that I must have played hundreds of times when I was fairly young: Brian Protheroe's Pick Up (1975). Along with the preceding Pinball (1974) and the following I/You (1976), this album belongs to my all-time favourites.
When you hear these records now, it may be a bit difficult to hear why they did appeal to me so much then. But even nowadays the strong voice still sounds appealing, the tongue-in-cheekness of the lyrics still can bring on a smile. It's only some of the the arrangements that sound so very 70's, sometimes musical-like. (I hate musicals, by the way).

The performing scene clearly attracted Protheroe: after he quit recording albums he has continued his career as an actor and has been performing in numerous musicals. Check his CV on his website for details (by the way - this is by far the worst website I have seen in years!).

These albums records have been hard to find in their time , but they have been re-released on CD by Basta.

If you're one of the people that cannot stand the voice of David Sylvian, you're not gonna like this record, because he is one of the main performers in this one-off group. But if you can, you're gonna love this project!
Nine Horses' 'Snow Borne Sorrow' sounds just a like slick sounding coffee-table album -- when you don't give it enough attention. But in fact the music is very subtle, probably because Sylvian and Jansen chose interesting performing partners like Burnt Friedman (adding his unrivalled adventurous and ever-surprising arrangements and sample wizardry), Arve Henriksen (haunting Jon Hassell-like trumpet whispering), and a host of others like Stina Nordenstamm (voice), and good old Ryuichi Sakamoto - to name just a few.
But beware: these beautiful sounds ultimately reveal a very dark, maybe even depressing atmosphere, which may hit hard when the days start to turn darker:

'its a wonderful world / and she doesn't knows why
she wakes up each day / and continues to cry'

If this were a David Sylvian project, it'd be the best he has done in many, many years.
But this is not a David Sylvian project. This is Nine Horses - one of the unexpected musical pleasures of this year. Perfect release for the closing days of 2005.

Being the prolific musician that he is, Stephen Philips has come up with quite some unusual ideas (see the recent post about the drone download project, for an example).

There’s quite a few projects under his name at www.darkduck.net. Inside and Outside is presented in the form of an extremely limited multi-part subscription project, which immediately raised my interest.
Only the final (fifth) album of this series, which is planned to end in december 2005, will be available as a non-limited release, but the preceding four (ánd an extra bonus disc) will be available only for the 25 subscribers lucky enough to have spot this in time..I guess we’re talking about a 100% collectors item release here!

The music is a combination of field recordings (from near Washington DC), blended with dark deep ambient drones and textures. The field recordings are made only just before creating the albums, so the complete series finally turns out to be an auditive description of this year’s summer, fall and the beginning of winter. I like that idea. And I like the music.

Most of the two cd’s that were releases until now contain dark, moody drones (though the atmosphere gets lighter in the seconds half of part two…)

It’s heading to complete its third year already, so if this is the first time you hear about the Drone Download Project, you’ve already missed quite a few free ambient-drone download opportunities. You missed 80 tracks of the first two years, to be precise. But don't worry: the third year (including a Year 2 Megamix) can still be downloaded.

As you’d probably expected by now, all material is of the minimalist drone kind, some even quite extreme.
New tracks are available online for a limited time only, so you have to keep an eye on the site, but Stephen sends out notifications to you if you want.
If you’re into this kind of music (and can spend some money on it), I can heartily advise ordering the first two years on convenient MP3 CD format. Listening to all tracks until now takes op 21+ full hours...

The DDP - as it is sometimes referred to - was started by Stephen Philips, and boasts some famous names. And some more less famous names too. There’s a lot of material by Stephen Philips himself, some other names you may already have heard before are Sundummy, Brannan Lane, Esa Ruoho, Austere, Igneous Flame, Jeff Greinke. To name just a few.

All material is created for this occasion especially, and most of it is not available in any other format.

Support Strongly Recommended!

Well who am I? If you want to know, here's some details:

My name is Peter van Cooten. I live in Utrecht, Holland.

Have been playing all sorts of music for the bigger part of my life (which is heading rapidly to 50 years of existence!)

Been a DJ (when DJ-ing wasn’t much fun yet: people always just wanted to hear what they already knew, and you’d work clock-round without getting paid anything but a few beers ). Worked in a record store, collected music, collected music, collected other music, kept on collecting when quitting the record store...etcetera, etcetera…

A lot of the music collected may now be found on my own webshop, since I ran into space problems. It turned out there's almost so much new music that I rarely replay older records. Seems there’s not even enough time to listen to new music more than once)

Although my musical taste varies by the moment, I've had a definite passion for 'Ambient music' through all these years. In ambient, I am a hardcore drone man (in my opinion 'ambient music' should definitely never have a dance beat, although 'Dance Music' can be sort of ambient....gettit?).
On the other hand I'm also a Funk man (George Clinton addict since late 70’s). And I've been playing Reggae since the early 80's...
So maybe I'm a bit hard to profile. It seems I'm especially interested in all music with a twist, defying genres and crossing borders. My musical heroes alsway seem to be people that cross genres and synergize different things. People like Bill Laswell (who created beautiful ambient, as well as beautiful funk, as well as beautiful world music, as wel as (not so beautiful) jazz-core), Nils Petter Molvaer (combining jazz with dance and ambient), Brian Eno, Adrian Sherwood, just to name a few.

A few years ago I was invited to create some long-form ambient-electronic collages for Dutch Radio.
These collages have become a sort of yearly tradition and I am very proud of some of them (see my website for details and playlists).

The Internet has caused quite a few revolutions: it is hard to imagine all things that have changed in the last 10 years and how quickly they changed. I'm really looking forward to all things that the near future will bring to us.

"Nothing is good unless you play with it"
(George Clinton)

Almost everyone online is online permanently, using ADSL or Cable. This fact has produced some new concepts that would never have been possible before..such as that of last.fm - your own online music profile that you can fill up with the music you like. This information is used to create a personal radio station and to find users who are similar to you.

Basically - it's very simple: you install a small plugin, and from that moment on the information about all tracks you play is stored in your online musical profile (only the tags, not the tracks themselves). This of course assumes that you play your music on a PC connected to the net, so playing normal Cd's don't count. But really - who still plays original cd's???

After playing 500+ or so tracks, your musical contours get more detailed and your profile reveals your musical hangups and habits. This may lead to some beautiful spinoffs: if you like this, you might also like that. Of the 20.000 people listening to the same track you did, about 90% also listens to (...fill in a band that you may never have heard of!...).
Eventually, you get neighbours, or even friends, based on the musical profile you build. People you would never ever meet in your local record store, just because they may live in another part of the world. And there's more...

Remember the good old bootleg days? The thrill of hearing a recording of a concert you actually joined (regardless of the sound quality of the recording)?
Even for people that did not join the concert themselves, a bootleg recording may have some magic to it. 
There are lots of fans exchanging all their live-tapes...(as if 50+ concert recordings do not start to sound alike...)

The guys (I guess) at instantliveconcerts.com have understood this concept and used current technology to offer a quality cd concert-recording in about six minutes after the concert ends...Now that's what I call HOT.

From: Lewis Furey; 1975

Canadian singer sounding like Lou Reed performing musical soundtracks...(can you imagine?)
He was a one-of-a-kind man, performing with Carole Laure in music and movies...ohh those were the days.

If anyone of you remembers this man or this track I invite you to post your memories.

Overtone singing and ALPENHORN blowing....a combination you will probably NEVER hear on your local radio station (unless you're swiss).

This track, Melksuite, is definitely a good first candidate for the 'Weird Department'. The album from which this is taken is called 'Melken', and was released in 1997.

Referring to Arvo Pärt's music as 'ambient' is a bit like swearing in church, I guess.
But still, there are similarities. Listen, for example, to Da pacem Domine, and you'll probably be remembering some of the earlier ambient works of Brian Eno (Music for Airports 2/1, to be specific).

The Hilliard Ensemble as always guarantee a flawless and heavenly performance.

Daniel Lanois' album Belladonna is as sweet and intimate as the cover art suggests.
In fact, it sounds like 'Apollo' without the Brian Eno treatments...

Listen to 'Sketches' and you'll hear it (provided you know 'Apollo' ofcourse)

Michel Banabila must be one of Hollands best kept secrets. He has released numerous albums, some ambient, some world, some jazz, some experimental, all worth the listen.

Hilarious Expedition is a double album with movie- and theatre music, which he has released himself in a limited independent edition. Because it probably would be too 'difficult' for official release.

I regret this album is a bit overlooked - due to it's independent release - because it should attract a wider, adventurous, audience.

That is why I am very proud to say this album is available through my own 'webshop': check here. (There are more preview tracks found on the shop-page)

It was a long time waiting for this new studio album: the Clinton Family seemed very happy releasing one live-album after another with most material originally dating from the seventies. (Live shows are not to be missed, however - this 70's material still stands firm!)

But I can't help being somewhat disappointed with this release. I think it misses focus, there are a bit too much tracks sounding like left-overs on it to my taste.

There's still enough material on it to bring a smile on your face, though.
This track, for example: a Clinton-classic featuring Prince: "Brother, Can You Paradigm"?

Easily the wildest record I have heard this year!
This multi-culti-dance frenzy raises expectations about the live performances of the Balkan Beat Box.
If you want to check yourself: look here (Quicktime required). Prepare to be surprised!!

For the 'pop' listener, ER is a far more complex album than Molvaer's earlier work. The arrangements sound like studio improvisations, and the result is more 'jazz', less 'dance. The accompanying background is created with delicate electronic sounds, which make the record very modern.
'Sober' is one of the best tracks, in my opinion. And that may very well be because it's so ....er.....sober.

Some of the entries about my current favorites contain a link to a preview track. This track will start to play if you push the speaker button. (You need a media player capable of recognising .M3U files, such as winamp).

All streams are deliberately compressed to 64kb sub-optimal sound quality. Please support the artists in any possible way you can (in other words: buy their records!!!)!

By the way:
for older log entries, the audio-file may not be found any more.

This entry lists the 50 most read entries on this blog.

Please note:

• Articles are counted as 'read' when they have been viewed in full view: that is with the 'comment' section. Views on the homepage of this blog, or on archive overviews, are not counted.
• There was a glitch in the counting in february, 2008, when the website and blog were migrated to another server. This dropped the counting of some articles back to zero. 

1. (257) Stars of the Lid: And Their Refinement of the Decline
2. (187) Wouter van Veldhoven – Ruststukken
3. (149) Robert Fripp & Brian Eno - Beyond Even (1992 - 2006)
4. (146) Jasper TX - This Quiet Season
5. (144) April Ambient Mix
6. (144) Mantra of Walls and Wiring
7. (128) Bersarin Quartett
8. (120) Best Read Articles
9. (106) Lull - Like a Slow River
10. (101) Who am I?
11. (89) Joe Frawley - The Hypnotist
12. (86) Alva Noto - XERROX
13. (84) Sleep research Facility - Deep Frieze
14. (73) Elegi - Sistereis
15. (69) Stephan Mathieu - Radioland
16. (68) Machinefabriek & Jan Kleefstra - Piiptsjilling
17. (66) Matthew Florianz - Maalbeek
18. (66) KOAN: A Revolution Overlooked
19. (66) Stars of the Lid concert
20. (58) The Young Person's Guide to Generative Music
21. (57) Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent
22. (54) Ryoji Ikeda - 1000 Fragments
23. (54) Entia Non - Sub Routine
24. (52) Variations in a Constant Drone
25. (51) Tomasz Bednarczyk - Summer Feelings
26. (49) Outer Limits
27. (44) Goldmund - The Heart Of High Places
28. (41) Jóhann Jóhannsson - Englabörn
29. (40) Michael Fahres - The Tubes featuring Jon Hassell
30. (40) Finally...a Music Player
31. (40) Stimmhorn - Melken
32. (37) InterZone presents Stars of the Lid
33. (36) Greg Haines - Slumber Tides
34. (34) Lewis Furey - Cleanup Time
35. (33) Machinefabriek - Kruimeldief
36. (31) Brian Protheroe - Enjoy It
37. (29) The Ambient Subgenre Definitions
38. (28) Hillary Jeffery
39. (26) Uncertain Music Corps - Wheely Down
40. (26) Drone Download Project
41. (26) Sonmi451 - Vladivostok
42. (26) Murcof - Cosmos
43. (24) William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops
44. (24) Arvo Pärt - Lamentate
45. (24) Svalastog - Woodwork
46. (24) Tor Lundvall - Empty City
47. (23) Martyn Bates and Troum - To a Child dancing in the wind
48. (23) Do You Listen?
49. (23) Hector Zazou / Bernard Caillaud
50. (22) Murcof - Remembranza