Sunday, October 31, 2010

Juanjo Palacios - Borde Litoral


Text taken from juanjopalacios

Borde Litoral is a sound tour for the littoral of Asturias-Spain. The field recordings have been realized in concrete places of the coast (beaches, ports, cliffs, river mouths…) and have not altered with any type of processing. This work was made between may and september of 2010. Juanjo Palacios: Field recordings and artwork.
credits
released 14 December 2010




Lamorna - Sparks


Text taken from Lamorna

Released 07 September 2010
All music written by Sam Knight & Adam W. Flynn, Guildford and Manchester, England.

Artwork by Georgina Vinsun - www.georgiepaint.com

Track 1 'The Illusion of Truth' written for the short film 'Watching Millie' Directed by Tom Law (Red Owl Productions)


Lamorna - Sparks from Sam Knight on Vimeo.






Planet Boelex - Raja


Text taken from Soft Phase

“Many musicians defy musical convention. Very few can transport the listener beyond established boundaries without leaving them feeling lost. For six years, Planet Boelex has been creating music that is quite simply out of this world. So, it’s playfully fitting that ‘Raja’, this much anticipated EP from the Finnish musician, is a title that translates as ‘boundary’ or ‘limits’. Over five elegant, entrancing tracks, ‘Raja’ has the capacity to transport you high above the clouds and hundreds of leagues below the surface of the ocean. It redefines melody, and somehow teases sublime sonic compositions from static. This is organic electronica, underpinned by glitched beats that could come from chattering computers abandoned on a scrapheap. Planet Boelex spins on a slower axis this time around. The results, at times majestic and reflective, mournful and uplifting, bring lasting rewards to listeners old and new.” — Matt Whyman

additional credits:
track 2 “Not From Here”: collaboration with Lisa’s antenna
track 3 “Suddenly”: collaboration with Mikael Fyrek
track 5 “Sailor’s Dilemma”: acoustic guitar & additional loops by Mosaik

cover artwork and release notes by Matt Whyman
logo design by Stewart Fritz



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Planet Boelex & Lisa's antenna "Little World" remastered


Text taken from Soft Phase

The days are slowly becoming shorter, the leaves on the trees begin to change their colour, the weather is getting colder, the autumn is approaching. We welcome you to the world of Soft Phase netlabel with our first release, which is a collaboration between two northern artists, Planet Boelex and Lisa’s antenna. The former you might know from the past releases on Monotonik and Kahvi Collective, and we’d suspect you might learn something about Lisa while listening to these songs. Enter Little World, journey into the mysterious sound universe full of soft and sensitive vocals, lyrics that’ll tell you little stories, backed up by the floating melodic atmospheres you’ve grown to expect from Planet Boelex. Perfect for taking with you, while walking in the misty autumn evening, watching the nature silently preparing for the coldness of the winter. Get yourself a nice cup of tea, sit comfortably and let Little World’s songs surround you with warmth and emotion.

Additional credits: Mastering by Christopher Leary.

Update May 2009: this is the remastered edition in 320Kbit quality.



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Damian Valles - Bow Echoes


Text taken from Resting Bell

Resting Bell is very happy to welcome Damian Valles. Damian is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist who creates ambient/experimental works based mainly on solo guitar. He utilizes a wide range of sources to expand his sound which include a variety of percussive elements, piano, and field recordings. Past releases include a full length on the excellent Under The Spire imprint, and a 3" EP on Standard Form. The latter being the first in a series of limited 3" releases called "Rural Routes" that he is curating for the label.

His work "Bow Echoes" contains 6 audio-tracks with a duration of about 40 minutes and a 10-minute video for the opening track "Ground Truth". Compared to his other releases, Damian put his focus more on drone- and ambient-scapes; however, "Bow Echoes" still has a very, very strong melodic center. The dominant washed-out and fading guitar-work give the whole release a touch of beauty and sublimity. Blurry shades, dimly lit landscapes, and warm colours layer and fade into each other. In addition, the video for “Ground Truth” perfectly visualises the sound and feel of the complete release.



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Damian Valles - In The Shadow of The Occluding Body


Text taken from audiogourmet

For the next 15 minute E.P, we welcome Damian Valles to our catalog with a pair of gloomy electro-acoustic dronescapes.Damian has had releases out on Under The Spire, his own imprint Rural Route and more recently, the stunning 'Bow Echoes' which is available for free download on Resting Bell. Damian is a multi-instrumentalist from Canada and throughout his discography you will find that he is more than capable of producing various types of electro-acoustic/ambient music to a very high quality. A testament to this is the fact that 'Bow Echoes' has surpassed the 30,000 download count!

For his E.P on Audio Gourmet 'In The Shadows Of The Occluding Body', Valles has explored darker territory than in previous releases. Throughout this atmospheric 2 track journey, the overall listening experience is riddled with a sense of doom as Damian explores an array of carefully sculpted guitar-based drone textures.

This really is an excellent piece of work and we are extremely pleased to be able to bring it to your ears through Audio Gourmet. The fact that Damian Valles has released an E.P through the Audio Gourmet netlabel collection hints that we mean business as a label - long may we continue to present you work from artists of this calibre!





released 17 May 2010 
Music: Damian Valles 
Photography: Jonathan Lees

Carl Sagan's Ghost - Before I Go

Text taken from audiogourmet

Carl Sagan's Ghost is Daniel Davis from the USA who has had work released on Earth Mantra, Soft Phase, Circlesandlines and Luxus-Arctica Records International. Since the early nineties, Daniel has been heavily involved with music of varying styles from ska bands right through to the beautifully crafted ambient soundscapes he has built a reputation for recently. 

Although he possesses an immense talent with producing ambient, as an artist he feels that he shouldn't focus entirely on one style of music. 
So he has just a couple more ambient releases scheduled for release before he heads off in a different direction with other musical projects and ideas. 
'Before I Go' is one of the last projects as Carl Sagan's Ghost for the time being and is an aptly titled ambient/drone EP in two parts. For Audio Gourmet it represents a slight change in style of ambient, after the recent dark and more vacant material. It is warm, refreshing and thoroughly well put together... 




released 29 October 2010
Carl Sagan's Ghost - Before I Go (parts one and two)
Recorded August 2010 in Spokane, Washington 

Small Things On Sundays - Recalling


Text taken from audiogourmet

After a brief pause on Audio Gourmet, we return with AGN016 'Recalling', by Danish duo Small Things On Sundays. The Small Things On Sundays project is spearheaded by the Copenhagen based Henrik Bagner and Claus Poulsen.

This artist has several releases available, varying in style across each album and over several weeks, we've been in discussion about getting together an atmospheric ambient EP depicting the quintessential characteristics of this talented duo's work. Finally, here it is in all its glory: 'Recalling', three tracks of high quality otherworldly and cavernous ambient drones. This is a thoroughly atmospheric listen from start to finish and although it has the typical short timeframe that comes as standard with Audio Gourmet releases, this record seems to draw out time through this short duration.




VBR mp3

Find out more here: 
creditsreleased 31 August 2010 
Music by Henrik Bagner & Claus Poulsen 
Mastering by Claus Poulsen 
Cover by Artwerk 
cc 2010

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Ian D Hawgood - The Fire Will Die At Night


Text taken from Resting Bell

"Fire rushes across the mountain. Its beautiful, and its all around me now. But the fire will die at night and I will realise that I am alone, remembering the way things used to be. This night has come too soon."
Ian D Hawgood 03/11/07 00:45

4 tracks of enormous beauty are presented by Ian D Hawgood on "The Fire Will Die At Night". With great soundscapes and multiple layers of different soundsources, this EP catches you and leaves you with a soft shiver over your back. Ian creates a warm and gentle ambience with soft glitches, some percussions, beats and wide spaces. All woven together very, very subtley.

Enjoy this great piece of music on the border between ambient and electronica.

Cover-Image by Takasunrise0921, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5



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Myspace

Friday, October 29, 2010

Guanxi - Graveyard Shift


Text taken from Resting Bell

The Guanxi pseudonym is orchestraed towards 'a sui generi sound' through research, investigation and with a hunger to explore a constructed visual and non-subjective disposition.

"Graveyard Shift" contains 5 pieces of complex and playful sounds from guitar, piano, bells, strings, flute, vocals, field recordings and electronics. Some of the pieces have a noisy and harsh character of a musical sketches, others operate with droning elements and a more calm ambience. And some combine both things. If you want to find a category for this, forget it.

For me the most precise analogy would be the sound world of a modern metropolis. You can hear layer over layer of multiple elements which are structured and arranged into a current impression. But it is constantly changing and moving. With every listen you get a different layer of "Graveyard Shift". One time it seems to be a loud and unorganised cluster of tones, the next time you hear a reduced and humming melody, hidden under other elements before. Be curious and adventurous, you will be surprised.


Guanxi - Sea Cucumber from DS1984 on Vimeo.




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Herzog - First Summer and The Running Dream


Text taken from Resting Bell

Resting Bell is really happy to welcome herzog, a.k.a. Bill Bawden and his latest EP “first summer and the running dream”. Bill’s previous releases on Serein were the first netaudio-works I got in touch with. And you also might know him from his fantastic release on 12rec. So what an honour to do a herzog-release here on Resting Bell.

“first summer and the running dream” contains 5 tracks with a complete duration of 30 minutes. Compared to his earlier works “first summer...“ has a more droning, a bit distorted character. The sounds are layered very softly and sublime to a very harmonic composition. The overall mood is quite laid-back with noisy, distorted splinters. The noisy elements are getting stronger to the end of the EP but it leaves still a very harmonic picture.

For me a perfect soundtrack of the season. Watching raindrops on the window and feeling wind in the hair.



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Herzog - This Time We're Infinite


Text taken from Serein

Just three months have passed since Herzog's last EP release at Serein, and we are delighted to welcome him back with the follow up, 'This time we're infinite'. Since his debut release I had been eagerly awaiting fresh material and I was not disappointed. This EP (which is perhaps closer to being a mini-album, at over thirty minutes in length) further builds upon Herzog's love of fragmented sound and gently unfolding rhapsodies.

The pieces comprise of three shorter compositions, leaving the final eighteen minutes of 'Look at us only through microscopes now' until last. What makes this music so special is the artist's ability to surprise throughout, with a sound that borrows from the world of post-rock and folk through to French cinema, it is perhaps unsurprising that the result is so special.



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Herzog - The Autumn Parade EP

Text taken from Serein

From the chilly climes of Scotland we present to you Herzog, with the aptly named Autumn Parade EP (fast becoming winter up there, I should imagine!). Continuing the low key electronic feel of the last release, Herzog seems to strip back this sound even more - revealing a minimal, warm and deeply sophisticated sound. Another five tracks here then of the most wonderful electronic music; this is fodder for the cold nights closing in around us.



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Nest - Nest EP


Text taken from Serein

Nest is the collaborative project of Otto Totland (Deaf Center / Type Records) and Huw Roberts (Serein). The two started working together after forging a strong friendship as former members of the Miasmah label. This self-titled EP is their first work publicly released, so it is a great honour that we are able to offer it to you here.

Both pianists, there is little wonder that after exploring a plethora of musical styles, the two find themselves most at home writing traditionally structured pieces, with the ivories a major element throughout. The EP demonstrates clearly the innate ability the two have for song writing, borrowing from the world of film soundtracks and contemporary classical composers to craft delicate instrumental compositions.

Alongside their favoured instrument can be variously heard the plucked strings of the Welsh harp, violins, woodwind instruments, field recordings, percussion and a heady dose of mind wobbling effects. From the time Nest began writing together, one purpose was clear; to produce beautiful music free of pretense, and they do it exceptionally well.



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Ian D Hawgood - A Life In Abstract Colours


Text taken from Resting Bell

After a bunch of great releases under several monikers on a wide range of labels like luvsound, headphonica, u-cover, experimedia, best kept secret, lunar flower and many more, Ian Hawgood is back home with a stunning release on Resting Bell.

"A Life In Abstract Colours" contains 5 pieces with a duration of nearly 60 minutes. It is a monolithic work. Walls of guitar- and piano-drones are shifting slightly from one ear to the other. Compared to the earlier Resting Bell-releases, it’s a pure and stripped-down composition. No field-recordings are used on these tracks, no little melodic lines are dripping into your ears as usual with his work, but instead focus on slowly evolving melodies carefully drawn out.

Put your headphones on, close your eyes and sink to the ground.

Cover-Image by Shawn Himmelberger, www.himmelbergerdesign.com



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Sunday, October 24, 2010

Motionfield - Music for Pictures


Text taken from Autoplate

Transforming pictures into music is the motivation of the Swede Petter Friberg. At the age of 10, during the age of electronic innovators like Jean-Michel Jarre, Brian Eno and Kraftwerk, Petter did experiments using tape recorders. Together with Thomas Krome and friends he built up a studio during the mid 90's, listening to The Orb, F.S.O.L. and Aphex Twin. The efforts resulted in several techno/house 12''s under his 'Superstereo' moniker, but more recently Petter unveiled a new project with 'Motionfield', more focusing on warm, spheric ambient electronica with influences from Jazz and Field Recordings.

As the title of this release prompts, Petter thinks that songs convey static pictures. These recreate either a painted mood or the very moment of a photography. Living in the beautiful swedish countryside, surrounded by lots of untouched nature, Motionfield tries to express the moving pictures in his head with the help of moody electronic music. If you listen carefully you will figure that the tracks are internally split into pieces. These pieces seamlessly melt into each other and create a mental break in between, a transition to a new aural scenery, where both computers and analog synthesizers can be heard.

The musical journey starts with "The Colour of Water", a voyage within the depths of the dark blue ocean where distant sound of whales becomes audible. The scenery approaches the shores and finally leaves the water, taking a look at the play of light on the surface of the wide open ocean. Continuing with "Falling in Stillness" the listener enjoys staying at home watching outside the windows on a rainy day, listening to sounds that appear apart from the crackling rain on the window. With the rain fading out slowly, a warm cocoon of silence spreads that features a warm slowly swelling and returning sound.

The next image in the gallery is "Nothern Sky", yet again a warm and organic track with warm surrounding atmospheric sounds that convey a feeling of broken skies which are formed by long days in summer and by long nights in winter. When night falls feathery shivers of solar wind streak the magnetic field of the earth resulting in a glowing nocturnal sky. Closing this EP, with the last picture of Motionfields gallery he escorts a cargo of coffee from the misty dulled penchants carried by a train to the coffee machine that creates a smell of fresh warm coffee floating in waves across the room, stimulating the olfactory nervs.

With "Music for pictures" Petter Friberg conjures a gallery of pictures and moods that carry on the thought of the titles and create their own world, full of comfortable depths to dive into. Well done!



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Saluki Regicide - Rain III


Text taken from Webbed Hand

Number III from SR, for Webbed Hand's "Rain" series of ambient concept albums. Psychedelic, synaesthetic, it puts your mind in a very strange place. Play this while you sleep. This is a single CD-length (approx 74 minutes) track.

Rain is a series of conceptual CDs produced under the auspices of Webbed Hand Records. Each "Rain" is a CD-length ambient recording ideal for listening to while relaxing, working, or socializing.

Rain albums are intended to be played at low volume, as a background ambience.

Thank you for listening to this Webbed Hand Records release. Please visit the WHR homepage to explore our complete catalog of experimental and ambient recordings. All of our music is free to download, but we'd be very grateful if you could make a small donation (via Paypal) to help with the costs of maintaining a netlabel.



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Saturday, October 23, 2010

Darren Harper - Seasons Within


Text taken from Earth Mantra Netlabel

The year 2009 has been a difficult one for many people in many ways, a year of great economic hardship and dreams lost, of global conflict and cultural friction, a year of immense turbulence for nearly every citizen of this little blue planet of ours. So we feel it is entirely appropriate to close out this chaotic year with an album of sublime peacefulness and inspired awakening.

Thus, we unveil "Seasons Within", the newest release from Colorado ambient prodigy Darren Harper. And what a glorious collection of active meditations these tracks represent.

The album was born through experimental improvisations inspired by the early Autumn snows and high winds Darren experienced this season in his lovely home town in the Rockies. He reports that this is his favorite time of year, and this music is is a direct expression of his love of the colder seasons. The pieces are what he calls "improvised drones and tonations" that reflect the inward contemplation and reverie that is characteristic of autumn. He hopes that this album "helps usher in that experience for the listener as well".

We could not pick a better word than 'reverie' to describe this release. As is typical of any of Darren's work, the music is thoughtful and brilliantly constructed, with his trademark depth and craftsmanship. But another word we would use to describe it is 'profound', for in listening to the album end to end, it is impossible not to feel the remarkable sense of tranquility and centeredness that the music endows. As a result, "Seasons Within" is as useful as a meditation aid as it is a comforting backdrop, every bit as soothing as a warm blanket and a hot cup of tea on a cold evening in the mountains. Very simply, this is some of the most intelligent ambient music we have heard in a long time.

So as we look back on 2009, we realize that, despite the challenges, there were some definite bright spots - and the emergence of so many gifted musicians like Darren is definitely among them. Darren Harper is truly an amazing ambient artist, and we could not be prouder to bring his music to our listeners, or to close out the year 2009 with his majestic release "Seasons Within".



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Darren Harper - Momentary E.P


Text taken from audiogourmet

For the second Audio Gourmet release, we welcome talented American ambient artist Darren Harper to our roster. Darren has had 2 albums out on the Earth Mantra netlabel to date (http://www.earthmantra.com/) and another due out this month. He's also got work out on the Seed Sound netlabel, collaborates with Jacob Newman under the guise Frequent Sync. (http://seedsound.com/netlabel/seed026/) To assist his forthcoming full album release this month on Earth Mantra, he has treated us to an exceptional E.P of top drawer ambient music.
First up, 'Fields and Glass' serves as the darker half of the E.P, fusing environmental field recordings from the far east with a complex and eerie drone construction. Darren used these open-source field recordings as part of an 'unconscious collaboration' with his unsuspecting studio partner to tap in to the recording environment, by adding his own atmospheric interpretation of the recorded events. There are a lot of open-source sounds available from around the world and it is fascinating to think that these recorded fragments of time can be used freely for artistic expression by artists that have never met the person behind the source.
The second track on the E.P is entitled 'Leaves and Piano' and features a delicate looped piano composition with restful drone accents. This piece is incredibly beautiful and its flowing, subtle repetition of the piano loop guides the mind to a lulling meditative state.

Darren Harper is a highly talented artist and a name to watch out for. His work continues to better itself with each release; Audio Gourmet is delighted to include this magnificent E.P to its catalog of releases. Enjoy...



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Hessien - Broken


Text taken from audiogourmet

The muffled voices in the walls and the murmurs behind doors of Hessien continue on "Broken" â the new release on Audio Gourmet. Something of a departure from recently released material, this outing sees a subdued and distant approach to the melancholic side of implied melody.

The dirty windows display looped field recordings, sustained acoustic delay and the fragile vocals of Jane Sage; the dark hallways are layered, wide-open passages that create the impression of motion. The rotting staircase is flickering static and kaleidoscopic distortion, leaning into organic textures and echoing reverb; all affected with a layered, instrumental composition that gives the sense of coming from or going to a faraway place.

The letters under the floorboards are the three tracks waiting to be uncovered âthree compositions leaning towards organic textures and blissful drones. They remain disguised until they are eventually discovered, released from imagination.

The rustling in the bushes indicate that Hessien are currently finalising their debut album, due out in Autumn/Winter 2010.

The bones in the backyard mean that "Home Is Where The Ghost Is" is released on Handstitched*; an ultraâlimited CD run of 100 copies, packaged in digipack CD wallets with artwork by zenbullets.




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www.hessien.net

Friday, October 22, 2010

Hibernate Sampler Volume 1 & 2





Guanxi - A corner in England

Text taken from Pitjamajusto

A Corner in England is a perfect soundtrack for any decline of a stressful week. "Turn off your mind, relax and flow down stream" is not only a famous Beatles lyric, but an imperative for the listening of this ornate musical treasury. From the quiet corner of "Blanketflower", passing through the worried drowsiness of "Cloud Star" - "Roman Candles", up to the ancient echoes of "Vasco da Gama" - Guanxi offers a haunting and beguiling setting. The music that appears on this releases fashions a soundscape of uncertainty made all the more ominous by its organic sensibilities. Indeed, the instruments seem to have a life of their own, and one can't help but imagine that the music created is the sound of secrets being shared with the listener - Pitjamajusto!



Guanxi - Exctasy from DS1984 on Vimeo.


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Entia Non - Distal


Text taken from Test Tube

«Another personal favorite of 2007 comes from the far away Australia. James McDougall a.k.a. Entia Non possesses the rare talent of putting together seemingly ordinary field recordings in a way that they sound to always have belonged together. If you enjoyed My Fun 'Idyll EP' release you'll love 'Distal'. James manipulates found sounds using ambient electronica techniques, tape reels and vinyl records into the most beautiful soundscapes you'll be able to hear. 'Watching the paint dry' is one of the best here, with sampled voices scattered amidst soft humming tones that sound like distant lost ships at sea. Beautiful stuff. 'A Winter Plateau' is another great track. A lot more into the 'nostalgia' theme than the previous ones - which is a recurrent theme when it comes to ambient music - but also very uplifting. Sparse real world here and there, but always embraced by a warm blanket of soft light. Makes us want to cuddle around a fireplace in a winter night with a cup of hot chocolate in our hand. Closing track 'Above' is a real gem. Runs for a little over ten minutes and covers mostly sci-fi soundtrack territory, which is something of a personal favorite around here. Could have been in Tarkovsky's 'Solaris' soundtrack and it would fit like a glove. James is a really talented musician who should not go unnoticed for he makes really amazing music capable of putting us into various states of dreamscape modes. With the perfect drug this can open portals to distant worlds too.
James released a previous album on the infamous CDR label U-COVER called 'Inter Alia'. If you enjoyed what you have listened here you should go and buy it immediately, because it is a limited edition. Also, keep your eyes peeled for another Entia Non album here at test tube, somewhere in 2008. Thanks for listening!» - Pedro Leitão



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