One of the most anticipated concerts of this year coming up friday, 21: Stars of the Lid will be performing in Utrecht (my hometown).

There's an extensive European tour proceeding, so quite a few people may have already seen the show by now.

Koan, the music software that can be credited for creating a musical form that was neither "recorded" nor "live" (see previous post here ) did generate a lot of interesting musical projects.
Brian Eno's diskette-release "Generative Music 1" may have been the most noticeable release, but certainly it wasn't the only one that was interesting.

Most of this generative music is lost in it's generative form now, because it was either connected to specific hardware (now obsolete), or because the concept was just too advanced to gain wider attention.
(Notice: rumours are that the original creators of KOAN are working on a new version of the same concept to be released soon. It's called noatikl, which to my ears sounds like an almost unmarketable product name. More news to follow!)

Luckily, a historic overview extensively documenting all sorts of music created with KOAN is now published to view and download for free.
"Dark Symphony" is a huge Generative Music Retrospective. It's material was presented at Ars Electronica in 2003, curated by Tim Didymus and Mark "Uncertain Music Corporation" Harrop.
It shows that generative music has a lot of faces: from harmonic drone music to 'avant-garde' experimental output - and all kinds of music inbetween.

Although presented as a video stream, the cinematographic content of this project is not the main issue. These are mostly just stills from the Ars Electronica event. The real issue is the option to download the files including a surround sound audio track!
 This is a HUGE download, so you may hopefully have either a reasonable download connection speed OR a lot of patience. But it's worth it. You'll document a moment in the history of musical 'notation' that has been neglected and should have got more, more, more credit for what it's worth!

To hear these files in full surround glory, you'll have to have a surround system connected to your computer, I'm afraid. Most people will only be able to enjoy surround sound through their home cinema system - so if anyone knows a trick to convert Quicktime MOV with AAC 5.1 surround sound to standard DVD format: please let us know (by reacting to this post)!

Below is the introduction text for this massive download. To download the files containing the 5.1 sound, you'll have to register with Vimeo (which is free).
Do yourself a favour and check out the streams for a first introduction and then download the files for full enjoyment. 

And don't forget to thank Mark Harrop and Tim Didymus for their effort to share this (and Tim and Pete Cole for their Generative Music vision)

Wouter van Veldhoven 's Ruststukken is recently released on the new Belgian label ‘Slaapwel’.

Slaapwel means Sleep well. Label owner Wim Maesschalck tells us:
“I set out, looking for people that would be good at making mind-soothing songs. I ask them to write a sleep-inducing record, I listen to it, and when I fail to reach the end because I fell asleep, I release it as a musical record with whatever means are available to me.”
Well that’s a heart-warming concept to me!

Stars of the Lid will be performing in Utrecht, Holland on december, 21, 2007!
Yes...read that again!! 
They will be performing at the Huis aan de Werf. 
The Utrecht gig concludes an extensive european tour on which "The Stars" (Adam Wiltzie and Brian McBride) will be performing with a "real live" string quartet.

Bloom. Huge. Allure. The Explanation. The Discussion. An Answer.
This is quite a special case (literally!).

Carefully scheduled in the last three years, Fovea Hex released three EP’s, each containing three songs, with a bonus cd containing remixes/reworks by The Hafler Trio (H30) for every initial release.
Concluding this series, in 2007, a beautiful box is released (as could be expected) containing all 3 EP’s and, if you want it all, also including the bonus cd’s.

4AD will re-release Jóhann Jóhannssen’s “Englabörn” in November. Perfectly timed, since the opening track Odi et Amo, which is “sung” by a computer, links seamlessly with the equally beautiful 2006 release “IBM1401 – A User’s manual”.
Englabörn originally was written as an acoustic score for an Icelandic play with the same name. A play só violent, that Johannsson chose to take the other direction for the musical score: the sweet, melancholic sounds of an acoustical string quartet. The resulting effect seems to have been devastating for those that attended the original play.
(The same trick, by the way, was used by Stanley Kubrick in his masterpiece "A Clockwork Orange" - where he linked the ultraviolence to the beauty of "Ludwig Von" Beethoven)

For the 2002 cd-release, Johannsson processed (parts of) the acoustical recordings and added electronics. That was a perfect decision too, because it resulted in a beautiful recording that stands firm on it’s own. The original release was on Touch records, the rerelease is on 4AD. That should give a clue. 

I recently upgraded my audio system with the NAD C272 power amplifier. I was not quite happy with the standard (stereo) sound performance of the Cambridge Audio 540R surround receiver. A good surround receiver, but a bit flat in the standard stereo performance (though lot of people think otherwise, that's why I chose this particular one). Reverting to a stereo system was no option for me, because I really enjoy surround music when playing movies or electronic multi-channel music.
By adding the C272 for extra power, the performance in playing 'normal' 2-channel music (which I still play 90% of the time) strongly enhanced, so I get 'the best of two worlds".

The NAD power amplifier is stored out of reach, and has a convenient "Sleep/Wake" feature that activates the amplifier when receiving signal and makes it go into sleep mode when there's no signal for 5 minutes.

But there's a downside:

When playing ambient drone music, the receiver obviously thinks there's no audio input at all and consequently shuts off. Goes into sleep mode. (Unless I play it very loud, but of course that's not what I want for most ambient drones... )

My family finally found proof in the ongoing discussion about my musical taste.
Their simple statement:
"The music you play is só boring, even the amp is going to sleep..."

Please help me find a good counter-statement!

There have been quite a few mediocre (‘fans only’) releases by Brian Eno in the last couple of years. The 2004 collaboration with Robert Fripp was a remarkable exception, and so is their collaboration sketches overview “Beyond Even (1996 – 2006)”.
I call this a ‘sketches overview’ because  it feels like that: a collection of works that sound like good yet unfinished ideas. Which does not mean they sound like second hand outtakes that should not have been released. Most of these tracks are very beautiful indeed, and do deserve a life on their own. However some of this tracks still feel a bit outdated, even a bit mushy sometimes.

“Stofstuk”, a composition for singing bowl, contact mic, vinyl recording and laptop, was one of the many 3” cd’s Rutger “Machinefabriek” Zuydervelt recently unleashed. A beautiful, introspective piece of electronica. Shortly after it’s initial release, this collection of remixes appears.

2005’s Remembranza was a remarkable release, partly because the warm organic sound that made the music feel quite different. Cosmos has the same sound detail, but it sounds less melancholic and more dark and threatening.
Of course, with a theme and title like this it’s no wonder it sounds like some retro-futuristic science-fiction movie soundtrack. Murcof sets himself a high standard, partly referring to to the great modern composers such as Pärt and Ligeti. The heavy crescendo’s will not appeal to everyone I guess: this is NOT ‘drone’ ambient - No chance to softly dream away.
Still, he’s living up to his reputation easily, settling himself firmly between the great artists of this genre.

BTW – Murcof will be headlining the Interzone Ambient Festival in Utrecht on September, 26.

It's been quite some time since my latest post to this weblog. Holiday time, the obligatory holiday trips ...I obviously had a hard time...

But the new season has a promising start:
If you live near Utrecht, Holland you should keep an eye on the following events
(and if you don't live in Holland but are interested still, keep an ear on the FOLIO webstream as linked below):

• Interzone Ambient Festival - 29 / 30 september, Theater Kikker, Utrecht
  This is a 2 day festival that has a promising line-up. Murcof will be there, probably to promote his new release: Cosmos. Other performers on saturday are Jessica Bailiff, Klimek and  Shuttle 358.
  Sunday will bring us a Ahornfelder showcase, with performances by Sinebag, Semuin, F.S. Blumm, Marcel Turkowsky.
  Radio 6' Folio will preview this festival on september, 4

• Tivoli De Helling programs a performance by Cluster (Dieter Moebius / Hans-Joachim Roedelius) on November, 7
  Don't know what to expect on this concert, but both Moebius and Roedelius were there to define 'ambient' in the time their music was called 'Krautrock'. They partnered with Brian Eno, worked with legendary producer Conny Plank, and their 30+ years of musical output is quite difficult to survey. Again, the night before this concert, Folio will present a musical preview.

Sounds promising, doesn't it?

Sleep Research Facility should be credited for one of the best names in ambient music. Apart from that, Kevin Doherty was also responsible for the Nostromo release a few years ago. Nostromo was based on the first minutes of sound from the first Alien movie (Nostromo was the name of the spaceship) (*), and the music was as deep as outer space. (By the way: you cannot find this release anymore by now, but Cold Spring Records has announced a re-release later this year).

Deep Frieze is Kevin Doherty latest SRF project. Thematically it stays more to earth this time: the five track names are geographical coordinates that point to the Antarctic region. You can use Google Earth to check themand to get an impression of this uncharted territory. There's no difference in the overall feeling of deserted loneliness however. Being in the heart of Antarctica might just feel as lonely as floating in outer space.
There's some vague hints of melodic themes at times, but mostly Deep Frieze equals Nostromo for the immeasurable depths of the layered drones, which resembled me of the work of Thomas Köner.

LATEST NEWS:
Ambient-droneheads prepare!

NOSTROMO will be re-released in October. It'll be remastered, and will feature some new additional tracks.
That's your chance to obtain one of the best deep-drone ambient cd's ever released (and trust me, I've heard quite a few)!

To celebrate that, FOLIO will feature a Sleep Research Facility special on October, 2. A full one hour mix of Sleep Research Facility music, featuring tracks from Nostromo, Deep Frieze, Dead Weather Machine and Re:heat.
(International listeners can listen to this radio show through the webstream - see details on the Folio site)

(*)
Kevin "Sleep Research Facility' Doherty aptly paraphrases the Alien punchline:
"In space no one can hear you dream"

Two new releases of ambient pioneer Robert Rich recently caught my attention. Both are related to visual performances, and while they are very different, they represent the many facets of this prolific ambient music legend.

First, there's the CD accompanying Michael Somoroff's Illumination installations. The installation was originally created for the Rothko Chapel, but when moved to the Aldrich Contemporary Arts Museum in Ridgefield Robert Rich created this music especially for that occasion. Not much is know of the installation apart from a short description and the stills in the liner notes, but regarding the music it must be quite 'deep'. This is Robert Rich at his most dark (as this music is often called, though I do not really experience it as such myself). Slowly evolving and stretched beyond patience. As ambient as any ambient shoud be - a beautiful release.

In 2006, Cold Spring records has re-released a record from 1993. It only recently came to my attention, so I would not have written about it on this weblog (for it would be ‘old news’) - if it’s thematic content wouldn't be so shocking.
John Watermann's album is called ‘Calcutta Gas Chamber’ - and that about says all.  Story goes that the recording artist has visited India in the early 90’s and came across nightmare-ish giant gas chambers that the Indian government used for ‘population control’.

“There had never been permission given to take pictures in the compounds of the gas chambers itself, despite the fact that tourists had been allowed to view the smallest details during the six years of operation”
“Only a few photographs with hidden cameras have been smuggled out of the country (see the 19th  of February report in Time magazine). But the constant arrival of truck loads and later the infamous daily helicopter parade , transporting the victims like game in huge nets hanging under the machines, was documented quite often” 
The Gas Chamber plant was shut down in 1989 because “commercial success could not be achieved”.

This single statement is so shocking that I can hardly believe it. Why can’t I remember any serious discussion about this issue? I was alive and well in those days but I really cannot remember reading anything about this. Could it be possible that international media would simply neglect something so incomprehensible? 

The sleeve notes continue:
“The Indian government has always been on the forefront of population control. Lower caste women, for instance, were constantly encouraged to bathe in or drink from the tailing ponds of Jaduguda, where the radioactive waste is dumped in (thorium is used as nuclear fuel).”

Watermann created this record using field recordings from an abandoned electrical power station in Brisbane in 1992. So what you hear is not the actual gas chamber sound, but an artist impression of the nightmare he could not shake loose.

There are no ‘tracks’ on this cd, but ‘shudder projects’. In fact, any discussion about the musical quality of this project is totally irrelevant.
One question remains: is this story really true, or is it just a nightmare?

Currently, I am preparing the Folio radiobroadcast for june, 26, which will feature some work played by Hilary Jeffery.
Jeffery is an English trombone player, currently living in Amsterdam. He plays quite a lot of different line-ups: with Jimi Tenor as well as with the Kilimanjaro Dark Jazz Ensemble, to name just two.
His musical output is equally diverse, ranging from experimental improvisational jazz to quiet drones.
One of his influences is trombone player James Fulkerson (who surprisingly also lives in the Netherlands!), with whom he also studied.  

In a lot of his work he uses his tromboscillator, a custom built set of analogue synthesizers, which he uses to interact with his live trombone playing. The warm breathy sound of the trombone layered on the analogue synth sounds are like "he breathes life into the machines" (his own words).

There will be quite a lot of his beautiful music in the radio show mix, so be sure to listen if you can. But there's no need to wait, because on his website, Hilary has some incredibly beautiful pieces to download for free. (Just check the 'Tromboscillator' page and check the links at the bottom).
The audio link presented here is a direct link to the second piece, Belfast Tromboscillator 2, which is about 5 minutes long.
The first piece (Belfast Tromboscillator 1) lasts about 20 minutes (a 20Mb download), but is absolutely worth the effort . (As is the 'Owl' track, by the way).
So: Check out this guy's music!

I know that this is not the most visited weblog in the world.
Still, I like to maintain it, and I will. Simply because I love the music and want to share my enthousiasm with whatever few people that may be interested.

But for those of you that sometimes return to read here, I have a question I'd like to hear your answer to:

• Do you ever click the speaker button below the entries to listen to the tracks I write about?
  (If so, did it ever surprise you or did you just find it boring?)
  
• Did you notice the 'play all available tracks' link in the right column of the weblog homepage?
• If so, do you ever use it?

I'm curious...
Please let me know!

You can use the comment button below to post your comment...

Oh - and you can react in dutch or english.
Or whatever other language, but in that case I might not be able to understand it

Reageren in het nederlands mag natuurlijk ook!

‘Sistereis’ is the opposite of a ship’s maiden voyage. It’s a ship’s doomed final voyage.

“All was as it had been upon my previous visit, save that the picture which I have described as having hung at the end of his bed had been cut out of it’s frame, as with a knife, and was gone. With this last link in a strange chain of evidence I close my diary of the voyage”

Not much is known of Tommy Jansen (Elegi), apart that he’s from Norway, and has a passion for wreck-diving.
He has been recording the deep sea environment during his diving trips. These recordings were used in the creation of Sistereis - which may give it it’s haunting quality.
The overall atmosphere of this album is that of sunken, wrecked ship.  You almost feel the presence of the tormented souls that went down with it.

This record is special because it’s not just a recording by  a musician envisioning an atmosphere. It’s created by someone that actually knows what it’s like down there. It’s not easy ambient, as you may guess, some people call it ‘acoustic doom’. It’s haunting.

http://www.miasmah.com/

'Weleer' (Formerly, in old times) is the well chosen title for the 2CD selection of work from more than 30 3"-cd's that Rutger "machinefabriek" Zuydervelt released last years. Most of these will be very hard to find, so this album is a good starting point for those that want to know what sort of stuff the machinefabriek produces.

This prolific musician (from Arnhem, Holland) draws some international attention (how do foreigners pronounce titles like "gruis uit het plafond"?) with his noise and drone experiments, as well as with his lovely naïve electro-acoustics (not unlike Colleen or Goldmund).

Weleer is a varied collection, but not for the faint of heart: not everyone will like all of the tracks. It's impressing that one man can deliver so much great work in such short time. Machinefabriek deserves all respect and praise for his work, and not only from Holland!

William Basinski has built almost his entire oeuvre on deteriorating copies of original tape recordings. (The Disintegration Loops may be the best example).
So, when reading about the new Alva Noto release, Xerrox, I had to suppress a ‘not again’ yawn..

“Via the technique of duplication the copy often contains mistakes and glitches that differ from the original. The mutating copy emerges as a new original and thereby provides space for development”

I can understand a tape deteriorating (which is what Basinski uses), but how’s that with digital samples? Isn’t a digital copy exact the same as the original?

For Xerrox, Carsten Nicolai used the xerrox sample transformer built by Christoph Brünggel to  process the orginal samples.
Funny, isn’t it? Someone creating a device to simulate the deterioration that the new digital recording techniques eliminated....

The copies of the samples used are very much detached from their originals, and still live a life of their own. The overall sound is harsh and high pitched, as might be expected, but the very thing that struck me is that there is an emotional chord in this recordings that makes it differ from other, comparable projects.
This project is not about how copies sound when sampled and resampled. It’s about how sampled and resampled copies may sound when you order them in a specific way and add emotional content by arranging them to sound like beautiful chords..
In fact, that may be what separates the artist from the standard cut’n’paste computer user

from Brian Eno's "Oblique Strategies" card set.

Another one I like: 
"Honour thy mistakes as hidden intentions"

I don’t know if you have noticed the links to various weblogs in the right column, but if you did, you have probably found the Low Light Mixes, and treasure them like I do. All mixes are worth the download, but the latest one, A Drift on the Signal, is especially rewarding.

It’s an ambient mix that was inspired by the Conet Project, a source of shortwave recording that’ll excite anyone who’s into global conspiracy theories (check the liner notes for this mix), and by the recordings that can be found on Myke Weiskopf’s SHORTWAVEMUSIC weblog.

The noise and interference of these shortwave recordings (the kind of samples Holger Czukay used to apply in his music) are fascinating. It feels like sounds drifting in from another time and galaxy. Somehow, the ambient tunes and drones mix perfectly with the imperfect, glitchy  recordings from beyond faraway borders. And the spooky paranoia of the ‘numbers’ stations that are claimed to broadcast covert intelligence messages only enhances to this listening experience!
Download this mix if you can, and don’t forget to encourage Dave to create and share more!

It’s hard to tell what it is exactly that touches me everytime I hear the songs of The Innocence Mission. Is it the pureness (innocence?) of singer-songwriter Karen’s voice, reminding me of early 10.000 Maniacs? (This connection is no coincidence: Karen and Don Peris contributed to Natalie Merchant’s Ophelia).
Is it the open, seemingly simple, acoustic arrangements played by Don Peris on guitar and Mike Bitts on bass?
Is it the combination? Does it matter, anyway? 
What really matters is that The Innocence Mission released at least TEN records, and that none of these gained any serious attention in Europe. Please, notice them! You can start with 'We Walked in Song' and work backwards from there...

Ambient music collectors no longer visit the local record shop to find the latest releases. Most of the times, the titles are not even stocked. Still, the genre is lively and growing bigger than it ever was. Not through the 'old' distribution channels and brick and mortar shops, but through the internet mostly. This weblog only covers a small tip of the iceberg of the music available.

There are quite a lot specialised webshops online (if you got any tips for readers to share, please use the react link below and share it with us), and there are a lot netlabels that release the music - purely out of passion for it.
Sometimes for a small fee (a direct support of the artists), but often for free. And if you think that 'free' music must be inferior hobbyist music, here's the proof that it isn't:
try the Serein netlabel. And especially try their NEST release. 

Nest is the collaborative project of Otto Totland (Deaf Center / Type Records) and Huw Roberts (Serein). If you want names to compare: their music sounds like music from people like Harold Budd, Goldmund/Helios, Murcof and even Biosphere (on this track featured here: Cad Goddeu).

It's beautiful atmospheric and it's feel is more organic than electronic.
With netlabels offering music like this, who needs record companies??

If you want a good impression of the new STARS OF THE LID album  '..and their refinement of the decline...' that was released this week, you can listen to a one hour mix of it from dutch radio program NPS-FOLIO! (You may skip the first minute: that's part of the preceding news).

The stream will be available until tuesday night april, 10. (After that it'll be replaced with the new Folio program (which may be interesting too, of course..)

The past winter here was not very cold; it didn't feel like 'Winter' at all. Australian composer Lawrence English must have foreseen this when he recorded the music for this album "For Varying degrees of Winter", full of beautiful haunting electro acoustic music.

The music, electronic as it may be, feels very 'organic', and evokes 'varying degrees' of moods. Or, in the words of the label Baskaru that released it: "Each one of the six pieces is a monochrome composition ranging from the blinding whites of the snow to the blue-grays of cloudy days".
It's not just 'quiet dronemusic' though. Some of the tones in Fleck for instance, may strike those with a good hearing as almost (subliminally) agressive. These very high tones strike you directly inside your head (some of Ryoji Ikeda's work has the same effect).

By now, spring has arrived and the mood of this album may be a bit too dark and winterish for the coming season. But it's nót cold - like the winter that passed.
But even then - another winter will come next year!

On this third solo project Arve Henriksen is accompanied by two fellow Supersilent members: Helge Sten (a.k.a. DeathProd) and Ståle Storløkken. Unlike most of the Supersilent albums Strjon breathes a natural, Zen-like balance and peacefulness.
Henriksen’s trumpet-playing is perfectly balanced with the almost chilling sound sculptures accompanying it.

This music is in fact totally unclassifiable. It is NOT ambient, it is NOT jazz, and it CERTAINLY is not New Age. It is quietly peaceful and adventurous at the same time (and those two hardly ever go hand in hand), and it has that typical open Nordic sound. The best reference may be the ‘Fourth World’ sound of Jon Hassell.
But in fact it’s best not to compare this music to anything else…just enjoy it.

Looking at the cover should be your first warning. Steingarten shows the kind of castle even Disney would have considered 'over the top'. In a landscape you could never even imagine.
The warning seems to serve a purpose, because at first casual listen this album feels far more lightweight than earlier Pole albums. We did not expect this kind of poppy electronics from Stefan Betke!
Well: time to adjust the expectations and retry.
On second (and further) listening this album shows it’s subtleties: Betke handles his electronics far more creative than many others in this time and genre. Every single sample is as rightplaced as it is inventive. The production is wide open and accessible, but also very adventurous.
So like it’s cover, this album may put you off-balance at first. But if you regain your balance and persist, you will enjoy it even more than you would have thought possible when you looked at the cover...

The old weblog skin was not exactly cross-browser compatible, and has done it's work for quite some time now, so it's time for a new skin. You're looking at it now.
Hope you like it!

Thanks to Marco van Hylckama Vlieg for creating this template.
The header picture is a part of Ui a Pen, photographed by Mindfullness .

Good news for those of you that are fascinated by the current Buddha Machine hype (like me) : there's a free download available of the album Uhrwerk by Pocka here.
It may not be as layered as Robert Henke's 'Layering Buddha', but the sound of these Buddha Machine interpretations is very comfortable and authentic.
The recognisable Buddha Machine loops are enhanced by subtle bass guitar, piano, guitar pedals and software effects.

So if this is the first Kurzwellen (netlabel) release, it sets a high standard!
I regret that this netlabel release came too late to my attention to add it to the forthcoming Buddha Machine Special on NPS Folio: Feb 06 2007. (See http://www.nps-folio.info for details of this program).
But never mind: just download this album, enjoy and express your gratitude to the artist!

These "Six Drummers" have quite a different view about "environmental music".

Just shows that music can be found all around you!

(no ambient content)

Stars of the Lid may be one of the most important names of the Kranky label. Their previous releases are all worthwile, some of them are genre masterpieces. "The Tired Sounds of..." has set a standard hard to match, but regarding this preview "Apreludes (in C Sharp Major)" , their new album "And Their Refinement of the Decline" could prove to be just as beautiful. Or even better...

The 2CD /3LP album will be released in april, with Catalogue # 100.
Definitely looking forward to this!

FOLIO listeners be prepared:
NPS-FOLIO will dedicate the first show in April to this SOTL release.
This also happens to be the week of the oficial release.
So if you want to hear more like this, check out the radio show or webstream.

I had not heard Rudy Adrian’s name before, although this New Zealand’s musician seems to be around for a while. But when a single name pops up more than a few times in various ambient circles, you know it’s time to check out the release people are talking about.

I’m glad I did, because “Moonwater” feels like coming home. Adrian uses one single synth (Yamaha SY77) to create the sort of sounds that Brian Eno did when originally defining ambient music in the seventies - especially the early records he made together with Harold Budd.
Sometimes the resemblance even gets a bit too close: one might argue that Moonwater lacks some ‘originality’. But then again: I find myself repeatingly playing it, just for the comfortable atmosphere it creates.