ephemeral

Life is but a fragile breath. A fleeting vapor. A glimpse; a blink . . . and then it’s gone.

Ambient, minimal, drone, a dash of glitch & some very  l-o-n-g fades & segues (104 minutes, raw down to 79, mixed) and a continuation of the mix-model begun with the ‘s e n d u s t‘ series — incorporating several artists from the L-NE netlabel (file under Minimal Landscape).

This mix is dedicated to the memory of my little brother Eric:
2-20.69 ~ 1.27.18
[Cardiac arrest brought on by Arteriostenosis]

78:45

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01 Richared Chartier – Threshold (excerpt)
02 Evelina Domnitch + Dmitry Gelfand – Xenon Wind (en masse edit)
03 France Jobin – Scène 2
04 Olivier Alary – V
05 Olan Mill – Gray Panics
06 Antonymes – The Gramophone Suite III
07 Alphaxone – Astral Definition
08 OfftheSky – Vox Delicæ
09 Ilm – Mantina
10 Triac – Day 1
11 Endless Melancholy – These Gloomy Days
12 Andrew Sherwell – Beware Koschei’s Visit
13 Stefan Wesolowski – Forefathers
14 Loscil – Azimuth
15 Jacaszek – Qualia
16 Sven Laux – Interference

The Mysterious Sea (Album Two), by Scotty Delowe

Released November 23, 2015

Thanks to T-L Reid for her cover photo/art. Her site can be found here: (Chroma Alchemy Images) tlreid13.wix.com/chromaalchemyimages

All music by Scotty Delowe
Cover photo/art by T-L Reid

Irradiance, by Joachim Spieth

Irradiance is Joachim Spieth’s first full length album, to be released on his own imprint Affin. It reflects a cycle of realignment in a carefully realized emotional journey. A constant motion through the layers of the tracks shape the sonic landscape, while evolving atmospheres provide a cohesive feel with shimmers of optimism.

The release will be available as a double 12” and digital, mastered by Artefacts Mastering. The album release coincides with Affin’s 10th anniversary.

www.joachimspieth.de

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Released November 7, 2017Mastered by Gio @ Artefacts Mastering Berlin
Artwork by Bjoern Stolpmann & Oliver Keil
Photo by Joachim Spieth

s e n d u s t . 2

Part 2 of a 2 part series focusing on artists* from the Silent Records net-label
Part 1 is here).

[ambient audio constructions, compositions & treatments interspersed within an agglomerative, interstitial spectrum]
: )

Experimental Ambient/Drone/Glitch – 85:09

01 Yves De Mey – Lichtung
02 Emil Klotzsch – sctl15
03 Chris Russell – Opacity (excerpt)
04 Rag Dun – Standing at the Speed of Light*
05 Grey Frequency – Cascade
06 Mike Rooke – Basidium*
07 Viridian Sun – Elixer Sonic
08 Steinbruchel – scene 01 (excerpt)
09 Kevin Keller – Anicca
10 Kris Force – Tears of Sybil*
11 Tegh – They Were From Somewhere Cold (Pjusk remix)
12 Michael Northam – Cutting Fetters*
13 Off the Sky – Wool (excerpt)
14 Khem One Ensemble – Astral Engines*
15 Lowell Levine Sims – Coil (w/ outro wash)
16 David Colohan – Landfall at William Creek

Source of Present, by Max Corbacho

by Max Corbacho

Max Corbacho has been crafting electronic soundscapes for almost two decades and has progressively refined his space ambient style since his debut, Vestiges, appeared in 1998. Experimenting and forcing the limits of looping, reverb, Fx processing, and sequencing, Corbacho strengthens the oceanic character of his albums and intensifies its time-suspending quality. Source of Present starts through the magmatic flow of “The Beginning of Remembering”, the first track of this new album, created during long sessions between 2015 and 2017. Dramatically, the music moves slowly as cosmic, nebulous, expansive stratums, orbiting into the boundaries of consciousness. Focused on the more intimate and oceanic side of Corbacho, a voice with which he began a long time ago with the soft interaction between textured layers and dense mercurial harmonies, the enveloping sound of these pieces forms a fine harmonic fabric. Gradually, this music manages to install us in a mental zone only established in the present moment, like a disconnection from all the noise and mental chatter that surrounds us in daily life. It moves smoothly like long slow waves, perhaps here calmer and softer than in recent works, giving continuity to the line undertaken in the double album The Ocean Inside.

“I have selected this group of pieces from a large number that was already created. Max says. The first piece to be composed was ‘The Beginning of Remembering’. The time spent in the studio I remember as a cloud of calm, with the soft colors of the hybrid harmonic tonalities gradually changing and creating a myriad of sound waves, imperceptibly morphing and at the same time repeating itself in distant echoes.”

Max creates a special timbric quality in his music by mixing shades and textures, that shift with each other and produce a hypnotic, decelerating, sedative effect. At the same time, the power and energy of some passages penetrate dramatically into the very mystery of life. One can choose how one wants to listen to this music, if in an attentive way, by getting involved in listening, or as a sound background filling daily activities in the day and night. In both ways, the reward is a wondrous, deep and dreamy journey.

Download a press sheet: goo.gl/JP1AUW

Releases November 10, 2017

Alter, by Otto Lindholm

Very nice – just used a track for an upcoming mix.
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Alter is the new album from Belgium-based double bass player and electronic producer Otto Lindholm.

Divided into four colour-inspired, long-form movements, Alter takes off from Lindholm’s previous work – a self-titled album released in 2015 on Icarus Records, and pushes the already abundant palette of sounds even further. This new work is more brooding and hypnotic. A deep, resonating bass is present – hinting at the likes of Greek, chamber-doom merchants Mohammad but perhaps with more attention placed upon textures and melody.

The record moves at a funereal pace and opener Fauve hits abyssal depths from the outset. A bowed melody is coaxed through the throbbing bass with dissonant harmonics drawing you in and holding you close. The ghostly beginnings of Alyscamps create an overwhelmingly tense atmosphere where acoustic and electronic elements collide and evolve into a heaving, ceremonious drone. Shafts of light emerge through the fog but the tone remains a haunted one. Closer, Heliotrope, strikes a more hopeful note. A lighter, more open feel emerges – bringing to mind early work of The Rachels or perhaps Deaf Center.

Alter is a triumphant record in its entirety. Seamlessly moving from light to shade and back again, experimenting in heavy atmosphere and ultimately drawing you into its deep and mysterious world.

Released October 13, 2017
All music by Otto Lindholm
Mastered by Lawrence English
Original painting by Claire Brentnall
Design by SmilingPaperGhosts

Wingfield/Reuter/Sirkis – Lighthouse

It’s rare that an album emerges as something entirely new; so different that there aren’t any genre or sub-genre categories into which it comfortably fits. Like its critically acclaimed, similarly forward-reaching and all-improvised sister The Stone House – released first but actually recorded second during a marathon six-day 2016 series of sessions that will ultimately yield more than the three albums initially planned – Lighthouse is an even more tumultuous, texture-driven and, perhaps, overtly daring ride than the undeniably audacious The Stone House.

Lighthouse, featuring guitarist Mark Wingfield, touch guitarist Markus Reuter and drummer Asaf Sirkis, represents a true paradigm shift in what improvised music can be. This isn’t jazz, though its improvisational spontaneity suggests at least a tenuous link. It isn’t rock – or, more appropriately, progressive rock – though it certainly is, by definition, progressive in its futuristic stance. Nor is it free improv, despite its overall lack of planning. Instead, the bold and utterly fresh Lighthouse represents nothing less than a brand new methodology and a completely unheard-of way of doing things, its sense of progression and imagination miraculously drawn from the ether, with no clear precedent or preconception.
…

Released September 11, 2017
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MARK WINGFIELD guitar
MARKUS REUTER touch guitar
ASAF SIRKIS drumsAll compositions by Wingfield Reuter Sirkis.
Produced by Leonardo Pavkovic and Wingfield Reuter Sirkis.
Executive production by Leonardo Pavkovic, MoonJune Records.

Recorded live in the studio with no overdubs and minimal editing. The music on this album was composed at the moment of playing with no music written down or rehearsed.

Recorded by Jesus Rovira at La Casa Murada Studios, Banyeres del Penedés, Catalunya, Spain, on February 18, 2016.
Mixed by Mark Wingfield & Markus Reuter at Heron Island Studio, Cambridgeshire, England, in March 2017, and mastered by Mark Wingfield in May 2017.

plastiK + waX

I decided to kick-off the 2018 mixing year with some Rock & Roll (w/ a little pop, punk & alternative-rock thrown in).

An enduring rock (and out-of-ambient genera) mix made back in 2007 & remastered a few months ago, adding the Blondie, Pretenders & White Stripes tracks (7 of the 22 tracks ripped from my vinyl collection).

Kids…this was an era when Rock & Roll ruled & musicians plied their craft
(and this project represents perhaps the finest R&R mix you’ll download this year – or any other!)
;- ) / 75:49

01 Bachman-Turner Overdrive – Not Fragile
02 The THE – Dogs of Lust
03 Radiohead – The Bends
04 The Beatles – I am the Walrus
05 Guided by Voices – Big Chief Chinese Restuarant
06 The Greenberry Woods – Trampoline
07 David Bowie – Fall Dog Bombs the Moon
08 The Breeders – Roi
09 Big Head Todd & the Monsters – Groove Thing
10 Cranes – Lilies
11 School of Fish – Three Strange Days
12 Blondie – Youth Nabbed as Sniper
13 Catherine Wheel – Chrome
14 Lemonheads – Ceiling Fan in my Spoon
15 Crowded House – Locked Out
16 Dada – Dim
17 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – I Need to Know
18 Elvis Costello & Glenn Tilbrook – From a Whisper to a Scream
19 David Lindley – Mercury Blues
20 The Pretenders – Mystery Achievement
21 The White Stripes – Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine
22 Led Zeppelin – Boogie with Stu

Birch Trees, made w/ Paper by 53

I occasionally paint via my iPad drawing app, Paper; I Advance Masked, Let The Power Fall . . . & this one, simply entitled ‘Birch Trees.”
The app contains a marker, color pencil, charcoal pencil, paint brush, ink pen & several cutting & pasting tools – very nice to work with!