The TONUS tribute project

It’s late October, and we’re starting to review the project schedule for 2019.

One of the more ambitious projects is an Ambient/Jazz/Drone/Ether Jazz hybrid paying tribute to the A New Wave of Jazz ensemble, Tonus (various new, Avant-Garde, Jazz lineups, spearheaded by Dirk Serries [whom I’d like to thank for allowing me to preview the three latest TONUS offerings).

I say “ambitious” because it’s just that: a difficult blended mix of sound that will probably top out at somewhere around 80 minutes. We’re starting with 14 hours of music & are whittling that down to 3 hours via editing – but will still need to cut that roughly in half (either by shortening the compositions or stacking tracks on top of one another to play simultaneously – which in & of itself is a mini-project).

This will most likely debut as an ‘e l e m e n t s’ side-project in the November to January time-frame, (in 2 parts).

silent rising

Ambient + Drone | 85:49

A new mix-collection of sleepy ambient & drone compositions, l-o-n-g fades (1.5 – 2 minutes) & entrenched/encompassing audio. It begins with a s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d, excerpted section of track 4 (another piece of which is segued in-between tracks 8 & 9), contains several custom audio mash-ups & was inspired by the cover art – which is a shot of earth’s sunrise from the silence of outer space.

It’s always interesting to me how a mix takes shape/evolves. This originally ended with track 7. But because I hadn’t used anything from The Circular Ruins in awhile, I went searching on DataObscura (track 9) . . . & then an email from Stroboscopic Artifacts (track 10) hit my inbox . . .

: )

01 Mount Shrine – Lifeless Indoors (stretch edit)
02 Eyes Cast Down – Exquisite Divination of Patterns
03 Susperia Electra – Free Floating in Space [expedition 24]
04 Mount Shrine – Lifeless Indoors (full track)
05 Lucette Bourdin – To the Stars
06 Mystified – The Luminous Deep II (Urban Discourse edit)
07 Broken Harbour/Ambient Landscape – Wavetable.1
…….(Geometry of Shadows+Reflecting Pool – treated mashup)
08 Dziadosz Mrenca – Mirage (Spheruleus Rework)
09 The Circular Ruins – Vanishing Shore
10 The Lotus Eaters – The Idea of North

Lua, by Wil Samson

Two weeks after relocating to Portugal from the UK in May 2016, a sudden and traumatic injury to his mouth and teeth provided Will Samson the excuse to put singing aside and focus on creating an almost entirely instrumental body of work.

As Samson describes the recording: “The whole process was about being open and allowing the music to flow out naturally, without letting my analytical mind become involved. To just press record on my tape machines and see what happens. This experiment allowed me to produce some honest documents of how I was really feeling at the time with all that was going on in my life. “Père” was recorded the day after returning home from hospital, with my friend Beatrijs De Klerck adding her violin parts a week or so later. I was still in a slightly dazed, sense of shock and recording this piece helped to settle me back down, after the surreal 48 hours in a Portuguese hospital bed.”

In contrast to his recent album, Ground Luminosity (which was meticulously crafted over a period of two years), Lua showcases Samson’s ability to improvise and create spontaneously, with equally engaging results, using his beloved tape machines (from a microcassette recorder to 1/4” reel-to-reel) to produce organic and textural soundscapes that are soaked with deep mood and emotion.

Lua features Benoit Pioulard (Kranky, Ghostly International) on “You Are An Ocean” and a cover by visual artist Gregory Euclide (known for his artwork for Bon Iver) that beautifully renders the sound of the album.

Released July 29, 2016
.

The Longest in Terms of Being, by Markus Reuter

Markus Reuter is the master of the ambient touch guitar. This instrument, in the hands of this virtuoso, produces a very distinct sound. When Markus adds manipulations and treatments, the sound goes over the top, into uncharted zones.

He recorded the tracks for The Longest in Terms of Being from July, 1999 through October, 1999 with one track from March, 2000. This set is a progression and a roller coaster of emotions. Markus has chosen to take listeners on a whirlwind tour of their own psyches. It promises to be an intense journey and to run the gamut of the dark side of the self. There are brief respites of contemplative melancholia but the overwhelming moods are dark, somber and ominous. At times, the disc even threatens to go sinister. This CD, released in 2001, is an excellent companion to Markus’ collaborations, group projects and other solo efforts.

– Jim Brenholts

Released July 1, 2001
Written and performed in real-time by Markus Reuter
Composed By, Performer, Guitar – Markus Reuter
Cover – Michael Kuhne
Edited By [Digital Editing And Assembly] – Philipp Quaet-Faslem
Producer – Markus Reuter, Philipp Quaet-Faslem

45 Echoes Sounds, a Net.Label

45 ECHOES SOUNDS – логическое продолжение уже знакомого слушателям сетевого лэйбла 45RPM-Records. Однако 45 Echoes Sounds выдвигает более жесткие жанровые и качественные требования.
45 Echoes Sounds – независимый, некоммерческий лэйбл, цель которого – распространение качественной музыки AMBIENT. Все релизы нашего лэйбла распространяются бесплатно для некоммерческого использования. Вы можете свободно скачивать нашу музыку и делиться ею с друзьями, но, согласно лицензии Creative Commons License, вы не можете использовать скачиваемый с наших сайтов материал (весь и какой-либо фрагмент) в коммерческих целях без согласия авторов музыки, являющимися исключительными правообладателями.

(Rough Translation [Google]
Logical extension of the familiar listeners network label 45RPM-Records. However, 45 Echoes Sounds pushes tougher genre and quality requirements.
45 Echoes Sounds – an independent, non-profit record label, which aims – the dissemination of quality music AMBIENT. All releases of our label, distributed free of charge for non-commercial use. You can freely download our music and share it with friends, but, according to the license Creative Commons License, you can not use the downloaded material from our sites (all and any fragment) for commercial purposes without the consent of authors of music, are the exclusive owners.)

Uhm . . .great . . .sounds . . . here:
http://45echoes-sounds.blogspot.com/2012/03/releases-catalog.html

A Trio from Tonus

This is a great trio of albums – – we’ve listened & are working on a tribute mix, of sorts . . . please stayed tuned…

Tonus
Cagean Morphology
Intermediate Obscurities I + IV
Texture Point  | A New Wave of Jazz (CD/DL)

Belgium label A New Wave of Jazz has released a steady discography of albums, all sharing an in-house visual design that favors minimal aesthetics. This visual identity, incidentally, is the work of Rutger Zuydervelt, the experimental sound artist who records as Machinefabriek. This dedication to minimalism extends to the sounds on these releases, each exploring a less is more approach to improvised jazz.

Label director Dirk Serries is present on all recordings, and this month sees the release of a trio of Tonus albums. Tonus is described as “the next chapter in his ongoing investigation into the relation between sound and time”, which is certainly evident on these three new works. Space, slowness and an exercise in restraint are common threads in each. Tonus is a collaborative project which involves Serries…

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g r A y

Another year older, another gray hair (maybe several!) – hopefully we’re all getting better with age.

This is a fusion of genres from days gone by . . . ambient, experimental, dub & minimal techno – with a closer borrowed from an R&B friend of mine.

01 toru takemitsu – piano distance
02 brian eno – matta
03 rhomb – 360 degrees
04 saul stokes – hurried space
05 farben – the video age
06 seefeel – charlotte’s mouth
07 EU – Christmas
08 jan garbarek – visible world
09 jack dejohnette, herbie hancock & pat metheny  – parallel realities
10 viridian sun – pelior is v
11 lunatic calm – neon ray
12 saul stokes – conundrum
13 suba – a noite sem fin (the endless night)

Kompakt Announces Pop Ambient 2019

Kompakt‘s next Pop Ambient compilation comes out on November 30th, 2018. The label’s calling it a “change of pace” compared to previous entries in the series, in that it focuses more on acoustic and avant-garde ambient styles.

“The 100-percent kick drum-free Pop Ambient series is the most endearing and enduring concept that I have had the pleasure to curate,” says Kompakt boss Wolfgang Voigt. “For this special edition, I create a homogenous experience that would both appeal to our followers and continue our tradition while integrating new micro-facets from neighboring musical universes as much as possible.”

The tracklist is full of previous contributors to the series, including Yui Onodera, Leandro Fresco, Thomas Fehlmann and The Black Frame (AKA Jörg Burger, who records under monikers like The Bionaut and The Modernist).

Tracklist

A1 Thore Pfeiffer – Alles Wird
A2 Coupler – A Plain Of
A3 The Black Frame – The Uncertainty Principle
B1 Kenneth James Gibson – Gone Too Soon
B2 Morgen Wurde – Schien Immer feat. Maria Estrella
C1 Gregor Schwellenbach – Rot 2
C2 Last Train To Brooklyn – Bluebird
C3 Max Würden feat. Luis Reichard – Zweitens
C4 Thomas Fehlmann – Karenina
D1 Leandro Fresco – Araña De Vidrio
D2 Yui Onodera – Cromo 3
D3 Triola – Adren
D4 Max Würden – Core

Kompakt will release Pop Ambient 2019 on November 30th, 2018.