my week-end ambient pick #30 : Bgudna

Tideless

From Iceland, a puzzling kind of track and the video that goes with it. No info on Bgudna anywhere, that will be our sunday morning unknown unknown.
more on http://bgudna.com/ 

my week-end ambient pick #29 : The Amber Tapes

These guys are from London, Uk and build up layers of sound, then cut, add, cut, spoil, recover, cut. that's what they say :
These tracks are typically built up in layers, and then adding and taking away until something happens. Sometimes tracks start on a particular thread and end at a different destination; sometimes they splinter into nothing. Where does all the time go... 

There's beautiful stuff on their Myspace, though I can't embed it here, check this : http://www.myspace.com/theambertapes

my week-end ambient pick #28 : Fabio Orsi

The guy is from down south Italy and is an absolute nuts at field recording manipulation. This track stands on its own as a particular release (you may get a special vynil limited edition of this, with work from painter Niwi). Let's quote from the bio :
Orsi’s music originates with field recordings through which he seeks to capture images in sound inspired by the historic pre-war folk recordings made by Alan Lomax . Orsi says he admires the way in which Lomax was able to present folklore not merely as some historic artefact but as “an expression of suffering with a thirst for rebellion”.
I love this. Thing is they make so perfect bios now that you can't chop in it.
You have other one-track projects & albums to listen to here : http://fabioorsi.bandcamp.com/

my week-end ambient pick #27 : Spheruleus

That guy has many names, Spheruleus is one of them. We'll meet him again later i'm sure. that track "Residue" is from album "Kanshin" put together by label Hibernate, UK. Download is £6 only.
£6 for what ? for 3 hours of music, 31 tracks and goes directly to the help of Japan.

whole album is here : http://kanshin.bandcamp.com/album/kanshin


As the sensationalist media broadcasters find other things to talk about in the news, a huge recovery operation is still on-going as we speak. Many people have lost everything. So we decided to put together Kanshin so that via Ian Hawgood, 100% of profit from compilation sales will go directly towards the Japan recovery and on-going relief efforts. Ian lives in Japan and his wife is currently working with both the Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support organisation ... more

As for Mr Spheruleus, you have to listen to "blue moon" here : http://www.myspace.com/spheruleus (i can't get it out of the space to put it here). And don't be surprised if you get more from this Lincolnshire guy on this blog soon.

update 10/06/2011 : album is ready & shipping now : http://store.hibernate-recs.co.uk/products/10276 
+ there's an awesome interview here too : http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2011/06/the-truth-hurts-ian-hawgood-brock-van-wey if you want to know more about the project, why, how, who ...

my week-end ambient pick #26 : Off the Sky

 
Offthesky: Whittling You Little Lights

Could be pop ? and so what. a very delicate sweet flowing moment. from label hibernate, UK.

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(why i take the comments off from the soundcloud player ? because it would make some of you think some tracks are worth listening to more than others.)

my week-end ambient pick #25 : M.Ostermeier

 Gently going its way all along, simple. I love the quiet strings here.
Competing Memories, Both Correct by M. Ostermeier

hessien #2 : a video

my week-end ambient pick #24 : Hessien

This is a haunting work by english/australian duo Hessien. Wrapped into hypnotizing textures, you can clearly distinguish silouhettes in the mist : a woman's voice, a guitar, the sound from an amp, someone walking. Still everything just combines to create a fantastic cloud of sound evaporating from your speakers.
The duo has released 6 projects already. You can listen to 3 of them here : http://handstitched.bandcamp.com/
Another one (this is our extract) is here : http://music.audiogourmet.co.uk/album/broken
2 others over there : http://soundcloud.com/handstitched/sets/hessien-skurjn/
More info, or how to buy a physical copy : http://hessien.net/ 

electrorchestral music ?

Electrorchestral is obviously a mixed use of electronic music & orchestral composition. My basis on this 6th project was to work around a field recording done outside recently. Adding layers and treatment to make the background bed like moving in slow motion. I used piano on the first 2 tracks. On the first one, it is only improvisation. On the second, it does set up a melody that will be repeated all through the tune with slight changes. No piano on the third.
The orchestral parts were improvised while playing the final bed. The improvisation (with alti first, then celli, violin, basses, horns and sparse bassoon, trombone or trumpet) had to follow the unfamiliar movements of the electronic bed beneath. I must say i decided to stay as instinctive as possible. There's nearly no correction to the orchestral improvisation. It's something like automatic writing in a way. the thing is, when i had the electronic texture and the alti on it, i thought 'this goes right to the bin'. Absolutely no magic happened at that moment. It's when the celli came in that some shape was unveiled.
I recorded the celli with the alti midi part on the screen. So I knew when something was going to happen with the movement. Still the notes were improvised though naturally played on the same key as the alti. The second melodic line (celli here) might be the point when the music gets cerebral again maybe.
When the violins and basses were added, something did start to come out of the whole thing. I came back to the electronic part for a while, even sending parts of the string parts into effects. The come back to the "unnatural" sound was the point when the fusion operated. I then treated the sound of the orchestra to fit in the global mix (in this case, driving strings to higher frequencies, combined with very low reverberation.

 track #01. Pater


 track #02. Filius


 track #03. Spiritus

The religious terms given to this piece have nothing to do with the musical idea of electrorchestrality (?). It just came naturally that there was in the orchestral work some kind of link to something mystical or divine. I didn't stop that from coming out, all the more on track #03 with its latin choir phrases (improvised too).

So, Electrorchestral is a term that just fits that combination of classical and electronic in order to make the 2 sources of familiar emotions collide and speak to the mind. There should result in some kind oh hypnotizing effect. Ancient to Ambient, or through.

my week-end ambient pick #23 : Green Kingdom

Guy is from Detroit, US and has a peculiar romantic way of using sounds & samples. It's like joyful sadness, or imagine the evening your girlfriend dumped you. And it's pouring down all night. And you walk aimlessly into the streets and at 6 am, you're too exhausted to even think. And there's a huge ray of light suddenly piercing the sky making everything around shine and reflect. Ok drop poetry now. Just joyful sadness.
check whole (beautiful) album here : http://semlabel.com/s-t/