Installation Music Mix

Brian Eno will release ‘‘Music For Installations” on May 4th.

In commemoration of that, our studio engineers have crafted for me a personal mix (residing on my phone & iPad) which is perfect for computing, writing, contemplating, cleaning firearms, reading the U.S. Constitution, heterosexual love-making, napping, dithering and/or staring out windows — utilizing several fine atmospheres from Mr. Eno’s v-a-s-t ambient collection.

This simply condenses several long-form pieces into something easily managed & looped if a longer listening session is required.

34:18

1. Kazakhstan (excerpt)
2. Reflection (excerpt)
3. LUX (excerpt)
4. Compact Forest Proposal, Condition 5
5. Music for Installations/Kazakhstan (fade-in excerpt II)
6. Left Where it Fell (excerpt)

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Awase, by Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin

Looking forward to the 5.04.18 release of this . . .
#MoreRonin!
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‘Awase‘, a term from martial arts, means “moving together” in the sense of matching energies, a fitting metaphor for the dynamic precision, tessellated grooves and balletic minimalism of Nik Bartsch’s Ronin.

Six years have passed since the last release from the Swiss group (though Nik Bartsch did release ‘Continuum’ with his group Mobile on ECM in 2016). In the interim, trimmed from quintet to quartet size and with new bassist Thomy Jordi fully integrated, Ronin has become a subtly different band.

The pianist/composer speaks of a new-found freedom and flexibility in the approach to the material, with “greater transparency, more interaction, more joy in every performance”. The freedom here extends to revisiting early Bartsch modules alongside new compositions including, for the first time on a Ronin record, a piece by reedman Sha.

After “Modul 60,” the reflective and tranquil opener to Awase, from pianist Nik Bärtsch’s groove-metric quartet Ronin, “Modul 58” comes at you with such an insistence and power that it leaves you, after its persistent eighteen minutes, catching your breath, marveling at how you went from zero to mach 10 in the blink of an eye.

Bärtsch describes the music of Ronin as “Zen Funk” or “Ritual Groove Music” and, as evidenced on previous thrillers including 2002’s Randori (Ronin Rhythm Records), ’08’s Holon (ECM Records), and ’12’s Ronin Live (ECM), the keyboardist’s in no way pulling our legs or playing with our heads.

Play with our heads the music does, though, in a dizzying, grand way, employing simple patterns unconcerned with downbeats or expectations and mantra-like modules (or “Moduls,” as Bärtsch chooses to title his works) of sheer minimalist groove that expand, contract and expand again at the whim and will of both composer and players.

Positioned, as it is, after the maelstrom of “Modul 58, Sha’s “A,” is a languid, darkly hypnotic work, its theme offered up repetitively as the band interprets each go ’round in shifting, intrinsic ways. “A” also serves as an oasis from the growing dance of “Modul 36,” a flowing, firing-on-all-cylinders rave that, if you weren’t familiar with the vision of Ronin, you might suspect was out of reach for this brainy quartet.

Ditto “Modul 34,” with Rast holding a hard rock ‘n’ roll center as Bärtsch goes unhinged. It is a tune that blends rock and jazz with a stunning ease seldom found since the fusion heyday of the mid-’70s. “Modul 59,” after the fashion of the opener, takes us out quietly, with Bärtsch and company knowing full well that we need the time to recover from the rush.
~All About Jazz

Awase was recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the south of France in October 2017 and produced by Manfred Eicher. It is released on CD and on a double LP (180g vinyl) with a free download code.

Personnel:
Nik Bartsch (piano)
Sha (bass clarinet, alto saxophone)
Thomy Jordi (bass)
Kaspar Rast (drums)

Nature Mirror, by Darren McClure

“The pieces that comprise Nature Mirror were composed and recorded during late spring 2017, as the rice fields of Nagano were being filled with water and planted. After a long winter, this process is known as “waking up the fields”.

These paddies surround my home area and are a common sight throughout Matsumoto. Punctuated by lines of rice stalks, the water is still and perfectly reflects the environment above and around. The four tracks on this album were greatly influenced by these flat mirrors of water and contain location recordings from these areas. Stillness, parallel lines and nature are represented in the music just as clouds and mountains are reflected in the flooded fields.”
……………………………………………………………………………………………~ Darren McClure

 

• Released September 19, 2017
• Composed, recorded, and mixed by Darren McClure in Nagano, Japan.
• Mastered by Jason Lescalleet at Glistening Labs, USA
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Before Sunrise, by Jeff Greinke

Nice. Not the classic, gritty/darker ambient shades of Greinke – but I’ll still be using a track from this on a future mix.
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Rich with harmonic texture and delicate detail, sound-sculptor Jeff Greinke’s BEFORE SUNRISE presents an exquisite arrangement of ambient chamber music. The album follows a natural progression from the composer’s previous works, featuring abstract soundscapes and emotive passages of effortless beauty, created with an abundance of acoustic instruments. Piano, cello, viola, winds, brass, and vibraphone, all blend fluently with Greinke’s own sampled textures, synthesizers, and other electronic elements, resulting in an expansive palette of rich timbres that underscore a nuanced display of ambient impressionism.

Spanning the genres of modern classical, electronic, and ambient, BEFORE SUNRISE gently evolves, flowing through a predominately non-linear structure. The music is characteristically slow-moving, and the balance between composition and improvisation reveals an organic sound that is vital for a dynamic listening experience. The string instruments are recorded in such a way as to highlight the sound of the bow moving across the strings, and this attention to both acoustic details and performance techniques feeds the music’s natural quality. Greinke explains, “I instructed the musicians not to shy away from squeaks and scrapes that sometimes happen while playing such instruments. It’s the first time I’ve really paid attention to those sounds and I made sure to bring those qualities into the mix when appropriate. I find that those sounds evoke a lonely, abandoned landscape that appeals to me.” Indeed, the recordings conjure a desolate, and at times melancholy terrain, while the warmth and depth of the electronic textures offer a lush, comforting blanket of sound.

Greinke takes deep inspiration from the sights, sounds, sensations, and atmosphere of his natural surroundings, and as a result BEFORE SUNRISE is an intimate and spacious work that unfolds with the majestic subtlety of a pre-dawn sky.

Released April 6, 2018 on Spotted Peccary

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f o r m l e s s

Ambient | 83:42

Some favorite tracks from ambient days gone by, yet right in step with
the recent Markus Guenter composition.

The cover art started out as a photo of a flock of Canadian Geese flying south . . .

01 Brian Eno – Dunwich Beach, Autumn, 1960
02 Numina – Lost on Silica Ridge
03 Robert Fripp – Requiem; Affirming
04 The Winterhouse – Winterhouse
05 Michael Whalen – The Heart Of Midnight
06 Lammergeyer – Against the Shore
07 Kirk Watson – Scarecrow
08 Vir Unis – A Mysterious Subatomic Fragment
09 Markus Guenter – Cavus
10 Saul Stokes – Thick Streets
11 Igneous Flame – The Language of Rocks
12 David Helping – Moon Dreaming Thunder
13 Robert Rich – Sky Tunnel

Climata, by Robert Curgenven

‘Climata‘ is a new [actually 2016] work by composer and sound artist Robert Curgenven comprised entirely of site-specific recordings captured in 15 of James Turrell’s Skyspaces, spanning 9 countries. Each of the individual recordings, with their quiet & slowly changing microtonal interventions made in-situ, interrogate and offer a specific document of weather, location and duration framed by the architecture of the Skyspace – a frame that blurs the distinction between interiority and exteriority – while allowing the physicality of the Skyspace to be subtly rendered audible.

Turrell’s Skyspaces are a specifically proportioned chamber with an aperture in the ceiling open to the sky and outside world. The Skyspaces can be autonomous structures or integrated into existing architecture. The aperture can be round, ovular or square – each with its’ own “piece of sky” beneath an ocean of air. These variously shaped apertures let in and frame not only Turrell’s famous light but also sound and its medium, in this case air.

The initial tones you will notice are a by-product of the recording process in the Skyspaces, a technique which brings the air inside the Skyspace into movement against the air outside – oscillating through the ceiling aperture, creating a soft phasing sound, like a whooshing or fluttering where the listener can hear the air move – this sound is about as loud as the sound outside the Skyspace.

The two discs that make up ‘Climata’ were created to be played back to back or simultaneously, in any order and ideally on two sound systems. Together the two 58 minute CDs give rise to hours of unique combinations.

An installation version of Climata was exhibited in the National Gallery of Australia’s Skyspace in 2015 with more site-specific iterations to follow in 2016.
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Released April 29, 2016

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Veronica III

Talk about cognitive dissonance – this mix began with the Fripp & Reuter pieces and slowly grew from there. Some of the toughest mixes for me to make are the unplanned ones . . . where I keep adding, tweaking, playing with volume/segue/sequence lengths & then “finish” it; only to add another composition or treatment the next day!

The title originates from the Reuter track & the fact that I remixed this three+ times (until I was happy with it!). It’s a Bandcamp-only release; remixed @ our Northern Point Studio w/ artwork painted/tweaked via 53’s Paper app.

Tags: #Ambient | #Experimental | #PostRock | #AvantGarde

Please enjoy responsibly. | 84:20

01 Aairria – Well of Hope (excerpt)
02 Jeff Greinke – Night Watch
03 Kristjan Randalu, Ben Monder & Markku Ounaskari – Sisu
04 Ekca Liena – Onset Eve
05 J.Peter Schwalm – Ibra
06 Robert Fripp – Broad Chalke
07 Markus Reuter – Veronica
08 David Torn – Reaching Barely, Sparely Fraught
09 Emil Klotzsch – So schläfst auch du / (So you sleep, too)
10 Porya Hatami & Arovane – Iaan
11 Ebauche – Chwiać
12 Fripp, Gunn & Rieflin – Heard, Not Seen
13 J.Peter Schwalm – Strofort
14 Brian Eno – Flora and Fauna _ Gleise 581d
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Listening To Pictures, by Jon Hassell

Jon Hassell has announced his first new album in nine years, Listening To Pictures (Pentimento Volume One).

Out June 8, the LP marks the Fourth World pioneer’s first release for his new label Ndeya (pronounced “in-day-ya”), which will also be home to selected archival releases, including unreleased music.

The eight-track LP is inspired by the concept of vertical listening, or “listening to yourself listening,” as Hassell says in the press release.

“Letting your inner ears scan up and down the sonic spectrum, asking what kind of ‘shapes’ you’re seeing, then noticing how that picture morphs as the music moves through time,” he explains.

Listening To Pictures follow’s 2009’s Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street. See the tracklist and artwork below.

Tracklist:

01. ‘Dreaming’
02. ‘Picnic’
03. ‘Slipstream’
04. ‘Al Kongo Udu’
05. ‘Pastorale Vassant’
06. ‘Manga Scene’
07. ‘Her First Rain’
08. ‘Ndeya’

This album will be released on

elements_lightpoint

Real Jazz Right Now!

A return to the jazzier side of the ‘elements‘ franchise – beginning with some light-fingered piano styling from Mr. Lightsey & winding down a Jazz & Ether pathway that finishes with a Monk/Train chestnut . . . as they light up your way.
83:36

01 Kirk Lightsey – Wild Flower
02 Dave Holland Quartet – 101° Fahrenheit (Slow Meltdown)
03 Adriano Orru – A Sa Muda
04 Otto Lindholm – Fauve
05 Triosk Meets Jan Jelinek – Munmorah
06 Jan Garbarek – The Path
07 Jeff Beck – Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
08 Hal Wilner & the 858 Strings – D. Sharpe
09 Tim Berne & Bill Frisell – M
10 Eberhard Weber – Nuit Blanche
11 Black Swan Quartet – Justification
12 Bill Frisell – Stringbean
13 Satoko Fujii Quartet – Caught in a Web
14 Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane – Epistrophy