Pattern Dissection

While I won’t be making this personally (from across the BIG pond):

We’re very happy to announce our first gig of 2022 with

George Hadow — drums
Anna Kaluza — saxophone
Rieko Okuda — piano
Dirk Serries — guitar

Sunday, Feb. 13th at
Kühlspot Social Club
Lehderstr. 74-79 13086 Berlin

Hope to see you there. 8pm // 2G+

Stadsbilder by Jakob Lindhagen & Dag Rosenqvist

Stadsbilder (”City Images”) is the first collaborative album between Swedish musicians Jakob Lindhagen and Dag Rosenqvist. The composers have both made names for themselves within the contemporary music scene – Jakob as an award-winning film composer with solo music streamed in the millions on digital platforms, and Dag as a highly prolific musician and sound artist, having over 50 releases over the last 15 years in a vast array of constellations, both solo works and as part of the duo From The Mouth Of The Sun, as well as film composing and music for dance performances.

The music on Stadsbilder intertwines layers of organic and electronic sounds, with minimal piano melodies meeting vintage synthesizers, found sounds, harmonium, banjo, kantele, Fender Rhodes and saxophone, as well as cello (played by Sebastian Selke of CEEYS).

Stadsbilder will be available in two distinct vinyl versions. The first comes in a limited, handmade edition of only 50 individually unique copies, each with hand done analog collages made from original vintage prints of views of the American southwest, antique interior design prints, and cut out, 100 year old…  more

credits

released August 6, 2021

Music composed, recorded, produced and mixed by Jakob Lindhagen & Dag Rosenqvist.
Cello on ”Under Hamnen” and ”Gamla Drömmars Stad” by Sebastian Selke.
Artwork and design by Colin Herrick.

u n f o c u s e d [ j o l t ! ]

u n f o c u s e d [j o l t!] | Avant-Garde/Ether-Jaz/Jazz | 72:29

This is a “bonus” u n f o c u s e d edition — being that I received the material on Wednesday and its release date is tomorrow. My long-distance (Belgium) friend & ether-jazz associate, Dirk Serries, sent a brand new batch of experimental Jazz excursions & I wanted to craft a quick preview of work from A New Wave of Jazz.

And so we present another collective featuring more cacophonous, avant-garde (yet melodious) din (from new releases on 1/15/22).

This truly rides the cutting edge of modern, improvisational Jazz evolution.

Download via Bandcamp


Listen via Mixcloud


01 Alan Wilkinson & Dirk Serries – Pull the Other One
02 Anton Mobin & Martina Verhoeven – Mound
03 John Edwards & Dirk Serries – Melancholia, ii
04 Tom Jackson & Colin Webster – The Other Lies, vi

Hidden for the Eyes, by Alapastel

Hidden for the Eyes is the exquisite debut album from Slovakian composer Lukáš Bulko recording as Alapastel. This treasure trove of neo-classical grandeur, electro-acoustic production and subtle folk undertones was eight years in the making and clearly signals the arrival of a unique and original new talent. Lukáš speaks with spirited and assured musical voice in an ambitious, pastoral and otherworldly collection, enhanced by the vocal talents of Alex Lukáčová and Marián Hrdina and the sensitive mix and mastering of Adam Dekan.

This is the first in a new Slowcraft Presents series created and curated by James Murray: exceptional, unclassifiable music offered in carefully handcrafted limited editions for people who treasure beautiful audio artefacts.

Digital Artist Booklet: alapastelsite.wordpress.com/hidden-for-the-eyes-artist-booklet/

Released March 9, 2018

Written and Produced by Lukáš Bulko
Vocals by Alex Lukáčová and Marián Hrdina
Mixed by Adam Dekan and Lukáš Bulko
Mastered by Adam Dekan
Art by Silvia Bobeková
Design by James Murray

How To Breathe Like A Stone, by Andrew Heath & Anne Chris Bakker

‘How to breathe like a stone’ is the third release from the ongoing collaboration between Dutch, ambient and experimental guitarist Anne Chris Bakker and British, minimal pianist Andrew Heath. Their work charts a slow moving, lower case journey inspired by place and process. Combining tonal washes and textural recordings, punctuated by pointillist piano and guitar notes to produce music that creates an ephemeral, dreamlike state.

Previous releases have been on Chihei Hatakeyama’s small Japanese label, White Paddy Mountain (Lichtzin) and the English, tape cassette label, Rusted Tone Recordings (A Gift for the Ephemerist).
Having been aware of each other’s music, Chris and Andrew finally met when Andrew invited Chris to play in the UK’s Resound festival several years ago. This cemented a friendship and mutual admiration of each other’s music. Various visits to both The Netherlands and the UK offered opportunities to record and improvise together before a file exchanging process followed, allowing their work to be edited and further refined.

Both artists are experienced performers and collaborators, with Andrew having played at Iceland’s Extreme Chill festival and working with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Toby Marks; Chris Has performed with the trio Kleefstra/Bakker/Kleefstra, touring Europe and Japan.

How To Breathe Like A Stone utilises Chris’s mainstay, the guitar, often processed with a huge 20 second delay and placed alongside Andrew’s piano and electronic sounds. Two different church pianos were used for their natural tones, one recorded in Noordlaren and the other in the village of Sheepscombe. Additional textures derived from field recordings and reel to reel tape machines, providing a layer of subtle detail to complete the aesthetic. One of the more unusual recordings on the album was made at the Kröller Müller museum in The Netherlands in the large sculpture room. The sun outside was causing the building to emit various quiet creaks and clicks, amplified by the acoustics of the space. It was as if the weather had its own improvised response to the collaboration, creating further notable moments that became woven into this story of chance.

This album does not have a mapped out concept, more that it uses the artist’s evident love of process and improvisation as a springboard into their sound world. It is hoped that the listener will pause to absorb this environment, both contemplating and losing track of time 

Released March 20, 2021

Written and produced by Andrew Heath and Anne Chris Bakker
Acoustic and Electric Pianos, Electronics, Treatments and Field Recordings by Andrew Heath
Guitars, Electronics, Tape Manipulation and Field Recordings by Anne Chris Bakker
Artwork by Andrew Heath
Cover Photography by Renske Zijlstra

Dirk Serries & Trösta, Island on the Moon

Album preview

Dirk Serries & Trösta immediately begin carving an exquisite tapestry of harmonious serendipity with ‘Island on the Moon. The tones from their respective instruments (ambient guitar & also saxophone) gel, blend, synergize and build an aural pathway that guides the listener into a sonic type of inner garden. Subtle shifts of direction are barely perceptible . .. until they’re completed (and then they’re onto the next shift).

Overall, one is left with a sense of floating high above the din that modern life has become as of late; at once both an unplugging & reconnection to a sense of grounding.

Call it an ambient anchor.
~Ambient Landscape, January 3^rd, 2022
_______________________________________________________

Ambient veteran DIRK SERRIES (worldwide renowned for his ambient alter-ego Vidna Obmana from 1984 till 2007) returns to this expansive sound universe with a new collaborative album that redefines the genre. Together with alto saxophonist TRÖSTA the duo delivers a breathtaking album just in time to comfort, soothe and challenge in these darker times.

ISLAND ON THE MOON is a symphony of harmony, depth and nuance. A solace drenched in melancholy and light, made without the aid of computers but by the hands of two crafted musicians on respectfully guitar and saxophone, and some outboard effects.

Immerse yourself.

Side A
1. COMPANION
2. OCEANUS

Side B
3. KREEP
4. TRANQUILLITATIS

Releases early 2022 on Consouling Sounds
Performed in isolation October/November 2020 by Dirk Serries & Trösta : electric guitar, alto saxophone, effects.
Mixed and mastered at the Sunny Side Inc. studio, Belgium.
Design by Rutger Zuydervelt
Photography by Martina Verhoeven.

u n f o c u s e d

u n f o c u s e d | Ambient/Experimental/Phonography/Minimal | 79:54

untethered ambience, floating amid aurally slipstreamed sonance & shapes . . .

This project began & was driven by the cover artwork (along with tracks predominantly from 12k & 901 editions) – a totally random picture accidentally taken inside my shorts pocket while on a bike ride with my wife. We were touring the flash-flood ravaged areas in the neighboring towns, last Labor Day (2021) – taking some “after” photos of land that had, just days earlier, been under to 8 to 30 feet of water!

When I was reviewing the photos, I noticed this one & thought: “Hmm . . . podcast/mix album cover!”
: )

Part 1 in an ongoing series.

Download via Bandscape




01 Renato Grieco + Bruno Duplant – La Disparition Pt 1 (excerpt)
02 Ben Vida + Marina Rosenfeld – Leaving (excerpt)
03 Stephen Vitiello & Taylor Deupree – Second Variation
04 Moss – Moss (excerpt 1)
05 Taylor Deupree – January (bell with red ribbon, tine sculpture) excerpt
06 Andrew Heath – This Island of Blue
07 Christopher Bissonnette – One Line Plus One Line
08 The Rain Dogs – Deep Red
09 Marcus Fischer – Shape To Shore
10 Iluiteq – Memories Relived
11 Moss – Moss (excerpt 2)
12 Monogoto – Iuxta Mare -deletion 5 (excerpt)
13 Giovanni Di Domenico – Dust Bunnies (excerpt)

Happy New Year

Wishing you all the best in 2022!

Focus on 2022

Twenty-twenty-two will be dominated, from a studio perspective, by a new #ambient series.

Debuting on January 3rd, posting every other month & running into 2023 . . . it has all the makings of an ethereal barn-burner!

Merry Christmas 2021

Merry Christmas & best wishes for a happy & prosperous New Year, 2022!

Thanks to any & all who have stopped by to take a peek. We hope you’ll have time to visit again in the coming year!