30 Tuesday Sep 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
Made with the iPad app Paper by 53.
Click image for a bonus track associated with the Quiet Friends project!
A review of this tribute in French:
http://clairetobscur.fr/quiet-friends-a-30th-anniversary-tribute-to-steve-roachs-structures-from-silence/
…and from Make Your Own Taste
30 Tuesday Sep 2014
Posted in Ambient
It’s. Finally. Here!
I actually had this on my phone’s calendar…so i wouldn’t miss a [beatless] beat. I was downloading it early this morning as I let our 2 Springer Spaniels out for their morning romp – then hurried back inside to load the tracks onto my phone so I could do the “on again/off again” listen throughout the day.
I must say it was worth the effort…and congratulations to Brad & everyone involved in erecting this monolithic structure of tribute to Mr. Roach’s Structures from Silence. It is superb!
The tracks are quiet & lush, reflective & introspective, enveloping & expansive…and make for an overall exquisite listening experience. The accompanying artwork and PDF booklet (complete with snippets of each artists experience) are the icing on this wonderful aural cake!
In a word…exquisite; if pressed for another…captivating!
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Playlist:
1. gregg plummer : convergence – (9:42)
2. scott lawlor : quiet mind – (9:39)
3. altus : dulcet – (6:30)
4. seconds before awakening : 09.30.2014 – (12:35)
5. phase47 : circular – (7:40)
6. simon slator : solace – (6:33)
7. chris russell : particles in sunlight – (9:04)
8. boris lelong : suspended – (8:25)
9. andrew lahiff : illuminating perception – (8:30)
10. c.paradisi : tacet – (8:03)
11. jack hertz : pillars of silence – (9:54)
12. phillip wilkerson : drifting past before – (10:00)
13. space megalithe : crystal landscape – (10:05)
14. robert douglas : beyond the summit – (10:03)
15. daniel robert lahey : things work out – (9:51)
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Unofficial Bonus Track:
My online [quiet] friend, Fabio Keiner submitted a track for this project that, unfortunately, didn’t make the official cut for the album. You may enjoy it here (meta-data & cover art added to the mp3…so it fits as the final album track).
Quiet, melancholy & enchantingly haunting . . . it’s a perfect finish to this tribute.
16. fabio keiner – etude zephyrienne
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From Brad & Steve:
notes
How do I begin to put into words my thoughts and feelings regarding Structures From Silence?
For me, Structures From Silence is like food, or water, or clothing. It is not music in the traditional sense. It is a place for the mind, body, and spirit to inhabit. It has surrounded and nourished me through almost every aspect of my life; every emotion, every major event, every mundane task. It has been my reading companion, my nursemaid, my co-worker, my therapist. My quiet friend.
In 1984 I was 19 years old, in college, beginning to open the doors from the small home of a child into the great, wide world of adulthood. I craved knowledge, understanding, wisdom. I had begun to explore ideas opened up to me by Alan Watts and others, turning to ideas of Taoism and Buddhism which focused on the simplicity of direct experience that could be attained with a quiet mind. A lover of music, I looked for a soundtrack that could accompany the quest for these truths.
Late one Saturday night, I’m sure I first heard the hypnotic pulse of Structures From Silence while listening to Stars End on WXPN radio. That was it. That was the sound of that place I was seeking, but like the koans of the Buddhists the music showed me that I was already inhabiting that place. The music was breathing meditation itself, the slow in and out, the pause between.
Structures From Silence was the inspiration for creating my own music and for promoting and releasing similar music by other artists. I have thought to myself that releasing a Free Floating tribute to Structures From Silence is almost redundant. To me the entire Free Floating catalog is already a tribute to the album. With it Steve drew us a map by which we could explore the liminal world between sound and silence.
This collection is dedicated with deep gratitude to him, for inspiring us stop and listen in that world and to make our own music there with him.
Brad Ross-MacLeod
Free Floating Music
September 2014
This gathering of quiet friends—this experience of hearing the mutual resonation to a sound and space we each, in our own way, connect to—-stirs so many complex and wonderful emotions for me.
In every piece, I can sense that inexplicable yearning and desire to enter into the limitless space, wonder, and quiet depth of just being. This was the seed for Structures From Silence.
The authenticity of connecting to the present moment is so alive here. This collection is living proof of an omni-present sound current, one these quiet friends here have tapped into in their own powerful way to create a multi-faceted jewel of a release. I am deeply honored and moved beyond by your efforts.
Respect and gratitude for this gift to you all!
Steve Roach
September 2014
http://steveroach.com
29 Monday Sep 2014
Posted in Ambient
28 Sunday Sep 2014
Posted in Ambient
As a continuation of my experiments with generative musics on a larger scale, this online album consists of 20 (and growing) individual songs, released through my LIGHT series of albums, that are randomly blended together by two separate audio players to create a continuous, never ending, never repeating ambient experience.
A one-click soundtrack – perfect for reading, meditating, yoga practice, studying or just to enjoy some quality, relaxing me-time.
All of the songs in the LIGHT series are designed to compliment each other tonally. They are all composed in or centered around an A minor tonic base with some varying modes. This means you can blend any two (or more) songs together to create new and more interesting pieces. Although this site only utilizes two overlapping players, you can theoretically combine as many songs together as you want – Placing separate players in each corner of a room or gallery, for instance, to create an ever changing musical experience as you walk around the space.
More information: http://light.christophersisk.com/
Free sample from the album, L I G H T:
http://christophersisk.bandcamp.com/album/8-extended
27 Saturday Sep 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
Yeah…I know, it’s only rock ‘n roll…
…(but I like it!)
;- D
#BeLucky @TheWho The Who turn 50
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The Who’s first song in eight years explicitly references Daft Punk and AC/DC. Be Lucky, which will appear on the band’s forthcoming 50th anniversary compilation, claims the Australian rockers and the French DJs can both help you achieve your dreams.
“You wanna climb without a safety line/ AC/DC’s gonna be fine,” Roger Daltrey sings over Pete Townshend’s guitar riffs. Elsewhere in the song, he alludes to the commercial appeal of AC/DC’s biggest song: “If you want to want to sell/ you’ve got to kiss and tell/ And you’ve got to do a cover of Highway to Hell.”
The references to AC/DC are bittersweet, coming in the week it was announced the group’s founding guitarist, Malcolm Young, was having to leave the group owing to ill health.
As for Daft Punk, they are part of a similar refrain: “You want to climb without a safety line/ Daft Punk will tell you that it’s gonna be fine.” Soon an AutoTuned voice pipes up, mimicking Daft Punk’s robo-effect.
Ultimately, the Who’s entire song should probably be understood as a response to one of Daft Punk’s dance anthems. Listeners are invited to Be Lucky instead of told to Get Lucky, with an emphasis on taking creative risks and “making [things] your own”.
Be Lucky is the closing track on Who Hits 50, a two-disc set otherwise filled with tunes like Baba O’Riley and Magic Bus. Recorded with bassist Pino Palladino, Ringo’s son Zak Starkey on drums, and keyboard-player Mick Talbot, the song is the Who’s first new material since 2006’s Endless Wire. Although Townshend and Daltrey claimed this summer that they were hoping to record a complete LP, they have not announced plans for any other releases before they hit the road on a winter tour. Daltrey previously described these concerts as “the beginning of the [group’s] long goodbye”.
Royalties from Be Lucky will reportedly benefit Teen Cancer America, a US outgrowth of Daltrey’s successful UK charity, the Teenage Cancer Trust. The rest of the anthology is out on 27 October.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/sep/26/the-who-be-lucky-first-new-song-in-eight-years
24 Wednesday Sep 2014
Posted in Tech/Glitch
I’m going to have to listen to a few more samples…a few more times before I’ll know whether or not I like this re-entry….
What I like, so far . . .
01. minipops 67 [120.2]
02. Xmas_Evet10 [120][Thanaton3 Mix]
03. produk 29 [101] (remixed to obliterate the profanity)
04. 4 bit 9d api+e+6 [126.26]
…the rest seems a bit…I dunno’…clunky(?)
Aphex Twin | Syro
…from NPR:
In music these days, the fastest-moving genre is electronic dance music, or EDM. It’s the sound most people associate with rave culture and artists like Skrillex. But 20 years ago, Richard D. James — better known as Aphex Twin — was making a very different kind of electronic music, as heard on landmark releases like 1994’s Selected Ambient Works Vol. II.
This week, James is back with Syro, the first new Aphex Twin album in more than a decade — making him a bit like an Unfrozen Caveman DJ, returning to a changed world. His field of endeavor has exploded commercially and splintered into thousands of subgenres. It’s also become more predictable, which is one reason many have awaited his return.
Aphex Twin’s early records expanded the lockstep pulse of techno and related rhythms with shadowy, brooding atmospheres. Syro explores similar undercurrents, rendered with a gear head’s fanatic attention to detail. In fact, the album artwork includes a list of instruments used in each track.
Reviews, etc.
Amazon (samples)
22 Monday Sep 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
18 Thursday Sep 2014
Posted in Ambient
;- D
12 Friday Sep 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
This is, to borrow a tag-line from a local, listener supported Jazz radio station [W-BGO], “real jazz/right now”. Reminiscent, in form, of John Coltrane, Steve Kuhn, Henry Butler & Colin Vallon . . . & gorgeous in the listening . . .
https://dylanhowe.bandcamp.com/
Reviews:
06 Saturday Sep 2014
Posted in Ambient
. . .looking forward to this!
In pursuit of excellence
Digressions & musings on Ambient, Electronica, Mixing & the Ether
Jazz is the Teacher - Funk is the Preacher
lead from the front
Christian inspiration and encouragement to give a jolt of caffeine to your soul.
We started and we will finish
Ambient Landscape 