Widesky is the moniker of Seth Chrisman, experimental musician and multimedia artist from New Mexico. Extended techniques, field recordings, found sound and radio static are employed as source material, woven together through improvisation with DSP chains and looping software to create subtly undulating and centrifugal compositions.
Floating in Being was recorded during the winter months of 2009-2010, inspired by feelings of intercorporeity with the acoustic environment and the vast and barren sepia-tinged landscapes of rural New Mexico.
The record takes its name from a Maurice Merleau-Ponty passage: "the body is lost outside of the world and its goals, fascinated by the unique occupation of floating in Being with another life, of making itself the outside of its inside and the inside of its outside . . . movement, touch, vision, applying themselves to the other and to themselves, return toward their source and, in the patient and silent labor of desire, begin the paradox of expression."
Released 4/02/11 and part of subscription pack 8 (Sold out).
This morning i decided to make something special for all my neu-new-age ambient music lovers... Some classic-mode tone float drift shift drone lift!
Dr Pizza's Spectral Retreat and Event Center is a virtual spiritual meditation retreat that you can go to any time, anywhere! Just put on some headphones or play this through a nice stereo to be transported to Dr Pizza's very special zone.
Over 40 minutes of continuous ambient cloud-bath! Extremely mellow, drifting and beatless! Specifically harmonically tuned by Dr Pizza himself for the purest spectrum of vibrations! etc etc
Recorded in one take at Marriage/YU Studio in Portland, Oregon on December 29th, 2010 between 10:00 and 11:00 AM
Coldstream is the ambient-music project name of London based sound artist Dan Mumford.
He has previously released his work through the likes of the marvellous Under The Spire and Rural Colours imprints and now for Audio Gourmet, he has turned his creative ears towards putting together this short EP called 'The Asleep'.
As the title suggests, this body of work is themed closely around sleep and dreams - a much explored and familiar concept throughout the ambient music scenes.
It is not something that you'd associate with the classic fifteen minute EP duration...all too often this topic is reserved for the longer, more explorative duration of the full CD-length album.
In this short timeframe however, Dan has managed to weave in a wealth of dreamy mystery within three heady drones. They can be listened to late at low volume, inducing a lulling sleepy state or at a louder volume for a more conscious exploration of his thoroughly melodic work.
To round this EP off, we have been allowed by a photographer and artist called Georgina Richardson to use an image for the front cover that really encapsulates the loosely defined conceptual intentions of 'The Asleep'...
released 01 February 2011
Written and produced by Dan Mumford
Cover artwork by Georgina Richardson:
www.flickr.com/photos/georginarichardson/
With our second release of 2011, Earth Mantra has a very special treat for our listeners - and one with a particular significance for everyone who loves electronic music. It is our very great privilege to be able to bring our listeners a new album by none other than Jim Brenholts, aka Rigel Orionis, entitled "Variations on Sonic Integrity".
For those who didn't know Jim, allow us to share a little of his story. He never would have let anyone get away with calling him one, but Jim clearly was nothing less than a luminary of the ambient world. Well known and regarded for his incisive reviews and commentary, Jim also developed quite a talent at ambient composition, releasing a variety of albums over the years, both solo and in collaboration. Unfortunately, Jim passed away in 2009, leaving us only with memories and his indelible imprint upon this art form we call electronic music. Fortunately for us, however, he also had completed quite a number of unreleased works, including the mysterious and inspiring album that we proudly present to you today.
And what a release it is. This two-disc bonanza of textural abstract ambient goodness contains twelve variations on a theme, all reinterpretations of a base motif that Jim composed, recomposed, deconstructed, and reconstructed into a variety of drones and sonic journeys. As always with Jim's work, the music demands as much of the listener as it did of its composer, challenging people to not just passively enjoy the music but to actively participate in the experience, to sit up and pay attention lest something important sneak by unobserved. This is not ear candy, folks; this is mind music.
Maybe the best word to use when describing this release is "intense". All of Jim's music seethes with an enigmatic energy, containing an invisible reservoir of power around which the air seems to crackle and shimmer. And "Variations on Sonic Integrity" certainly has an almost fundamental magnetism to it, as if somehow Jim bottled up the forces of nature into twelve recordings and captured them in stasis for the rest of us to hear. A remarkable piece of sound sculpture, by a remarkable man.
So it is with great pleasure that we unveil "Variations on Sonic Integrity". Dark ambient music that we feel is certain to send a chill down your spine and put a smile on your face. We at Earth Mantra miss Jim, and feel very honored to be able to bring his music to our audience.
