Markus Reuter, String Quartet #1 ‘Heartland’

Beautiful . . !

Down Transmitter, by Impulse Array

4 tracks of dark techno performed & recorded using both hardware & software instruments.

Released August 24, 2018 

JON HASSELL: POWER SPOT (ECM 1327)

A comment on a recent mix inspired me to post this review from 2012. Enjoy!

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JANUARY 5, 2012 | TYRAN GRILLO

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Jon Hassell trumpet
J. A. Deane percussion, alto flute
Jean-Philippe Rykiel keyboards
Michael Brook guitar
Richard Horowitz keyboards
Brian Eno bass
Richard and Paul Armin RAAD electro-acoustic strings
Miguel Frasconi flute

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Recorded October 1983 and December 1984, Grant Avenue Studio, Ontario
Assistant  engineering: David Bottrill and Roman Zack
Produced and engineered by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois

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American composer and trumpeter Jon Hassell is best known for his music of the Fourth World, which he describes as “coffee-colored classical.” The definition becomes clearer once you immerse yourself in the sounds of Power Spot. Hassell’s career is as varied as his education. A student of both Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pandit Pran Nath, he is known for overlooking idiomatic barriers in favor of something far broader. Nath left an indelible mark in Hassell, who turned to the master’s voice for guidance in his own playing. His unmistakable tones are achieved by singing into the instrument, thereby drawing clusters of sounds from a single exhalation. This recording is significant for a number of reasons, not least for indicating a moment in sonic history in which the electro-acoustic universe was beginning to spin some of its richer, more majestic galaxies. The music on Power Spot radiates like a supernova waiting patiently for the traction of celestial bodies to fan its clouds away, revealing softly spinning globes of breath and vapor. With such evocative titles as “Wing Melodies” and “The Elephant And The Orchid,” one feels almost overwhelmed by the range of possible imagery. And yet, like any question of mode or genre thereof, these words disappear behind the music’s waterfall.

At first listen the album may seem to blend into a broad wash of sound, but lean in closer and you begin to hear the details emerge. The title track is perhaps the most potent, opening this portal to a wellspring of beats and train whistles. Brian Eno’s amphibian bass slithers through a pond of liquid mercury, fading into the gaseous darkness from which it sprang. Otherworldly connotations are bound to reveal themselves, and nowhere more so than in “Passage D.E.,” which sounds for all like the soundtrack to a documentary of some undiscovered planet. Notable also is “Miracle Steps,” where live percussion provides marked contrast to the synthetic overlay, drawing in the process the album’s most beautiful cartography.

Power Spot is one protracted aerial view, a bubbling primordial soup of circuits and blips, funneled through such progressive sense of direction and atmosphere as only Hassell can activate. Unlike much of the knob-turning to grace the many electronic albums of the 80s, its sound is strikingly effusive and organic. In this ocean, one finds that the light of life shines brightest on the inside. It is a light that no clouds can obscure, a light that no darkness can close its eyes around. It is a journey of transience, of transport, of futurism and antiquity, of none of these things. Influential? More than words can say. Just listen to Paul Schütze’s Stateless, or the works of countless others who’ve clearly drunk from the Hassell font.

A perfect specimen.

shimmering undercurrents, arc 6

Arc 6; the unplanned culmination of a mix series that I didn’t mix. The series concentrated upon the works & legacy of Brian Eno (solo work, collaborations & production projects with other artists). Joe Miles, a.k.a. 12vman, came up with the idea for the series & then contacted me for assistance with the cover art – which I happily created. Along the way I made a suggestion or 2 regarding tracks for future editions and that was that . . . (or so I thought).

The series was more compilation than mix because the tracks weren’t segued, simply ordered by track – nevertheless it was well received by me & the rest of the ArtoftheMix.org community.

Then, after he had completed the 5^th edition – we got to talking about another “final” edition. Eno had just produced Paul Simon’s “Surprise” and that got our wheels turning . . . Joe mailed me a CD with his tracks & I got to work. At the time I was using Roxio Music Editor – which was nice software for a beginning mixer, but was limited in its segue ability. But we punched it out to rave reviews & that was that . . . (or so I thought).

Last Christmas, I reloaded the tracks into Audacity & remastered it using the same track order – but rather than individual tracks (segued, but with electronic bzzt in-between those tracks) I output it as a single mp3 for zero interruption on playback.

And so, here it is: Arc.6

Tracklisting

01 Eno, Brian – Notting Hill (edit)
02 Another Green World – Becalmed
03 Brian Eno & Jah Wobble – Like Organza
04 Brian Eno – Triennale
05 Toto – Prophecy
06 Brian Eno & Harold Budd – The Chill Air
07 Philip Glass – _Neuköln_
08 Brian Eno -The Big Ship
09 Jon Hassell – Solaire
10 Brian Eno – Bottomliners
11 Shiveree – Fat Lady of Limbourg
12 U2 – Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World
13 The Talking Heads – Mind
14 Brian Eno & David Byrne – Quran
15 FarFlung – The True Wheel
16 Eno-Moebius-Roedelius-Plank – Conditionierer
17 Paul Simon & Brian Eno – Sure Don’t Feel Like Love
18 Brian Eno & John Cale – One Word
19 David Bowie – Red Sails
20 Brian Eno – King’s Lead Hat

Dialog Tapes, by Various Artists

“Dialog Tapes is a blend between Eilean Rec. & Dauw in which we linked artists of both labels. It’s the result of true love for each other works. We hope you enjoy this little treasure.”

One year ago, eilean rec. came to Dauw to propose to them if they would be interested in a collaboration between our two labels. after some exchanges of ideas and talkings, we found the guidelines of the project : propose between a selection of the Dauw & Eilean Rec. music artists to choose 2 music artists from the other label and works with them on a piece of sounds.
here is the result of this project :
14 tracks, 15 music artists, 85 minutes of sounds spread on the two labels.

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Artists involved :

Aaron Martin, Danny Clay, David Andree, Dudal, Leigh Toro, Masaya Ozaki, Miguel Isaza, Monolyth & Cobalt, Ruhe, Sokkyo (Heine Christensen + Ciro Berenguer), Stijn Hüwels, The Humble Bee, Twincities, Wil Bolton.

Winter Restlessness, by Mount Shrine

Mount Shrine (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) serves us a warm and inviting ambient album.

Rain pounds the temple as you look out across snowy mountains from a lotus position. A wet furred hare seeks refuge beside you, curious about the kettle of hot tea that rests at your side.

A distress call led you here, transmitted to a frequency on your Ham radio. The journey here was long and filled with majestic sights. Isolated villages, melting snow in forgotten valleys, the robed order of the silent all calmed your mind. The rolling fog followed you every step of the way to enlightenment.

Recommended for lovers of subtle field recordings and sleep ambient. Warm, inviting and atmospheric. Best enjoyed with a cup of hot beverage on a rainy day.

• Released July 24, 2018
• Written, Produced, Performed – Cesar Alexandre
• Artwork & Mastering – Simon Heath

TONUS Tribute (mix)

The TONUS Tribute mix: 75:21 | An ‘e l e m e n t s‘ side project.

(unstable, discordant & audiologically dysfunctional)

This raw & untamed project initially began with over 14 hours of music. That was chopped to 3 hours as the palette of

T O N U S

material with which to begin – and the segueing/mixing/editing beg an at that point.

Overlays, ghosted audio imaging and l-o-n-g segues tapered it all down to a 75 minute mixture (+ another 67 for part 2) of ether-jazz, drone/glitch & experimentation – with a goal of showcasing TONUS within a construct of an elements deliverable.

Think of it as a cross between John Cage & The Slow Music Project— a sparse & minimalist soundscape. It is, primarily, an Experimental (in terms of compositions used)  mix; then Minimal (as regards its sparseness of sound) then Ambient (due to its level of quietude) & lastly, Ether-Jazz.(because 80% of the tracks originate from A New Wave of Jazz artists).

We’d like to give a “shout out” to Silent Records for providing many of the corollary artists needed to make this a proper audiological “fit”.

01 TONUS – Cagean Morphology (edit x)
…………………..Interpolating
……………………a. Quiet American – Beach Rain
……………………b. Masaya Kato – Column
……………………c. Protofuse – Data Thread
……………………d. Frieband – Emanate, part 1 (excerpt)
02 TONUS – Texture 1
03 TONUS – I
04 Khem One – Modal Gauzes No 1
05 David Lee Meyers – Upper Air
06 TONUS – Point A
07 Zero Ohms – Translation
08 Lingua Lustra – Steamloc to Oblivion
…………………..Interpolating TONUS – IV (excerpt)
09 Kali – Maya.

Jonas Kasper Jensen | Within The Temporal Experience

Clang (DL)

– Special to Toneshift.net by Darren McClure

Jonas Kasper Jensen is a visual artist who also works in the realm of sound art and composition. Since 2010 he has released audio editions of his sound installations, under his own name and the Kasper Knigge moniker. Last year he released his first material that strayed from the gallery environment and relied on purely musical and composed elements. 2017’s Layers of Bridges on the Danish label Clang, explored the connection between music and art, and contained a sculptural quality that applied tactile textures to otherworldly drones. Recordings of girders and beams cast a heavy, wrought-iron feel to that release.

His new album, Within the Temporal Experience (available 9/28), again on Clang, is a continuation of Jenson’s interest in sound-as-object. The metallic tones of his previous release have been smoothed out, but not entirely flattened on this collection of six pieces. Stringed instruments have been processed to form expansive, slow building drones that cascade and immerse the listener. There is a sense of drama in these pieces, with subtle details shimmering in the spectral haze. Album opener “An Indeterminacy Of Silence” takes its time to fade into full volume, adding layer upon layer of harmonic colour, with occasional chord changes that steer the track in subtle new directions.

At times the material is static, but dense, like on “A Shape Within A Material”, where a sustained cluster of chords create cinematic tension. “From The One To The Other” is quieter, more restrained. A soft hiss dances on the periphery of the track, balancing out the frequencies between low-end ebbs and mid-range dust. These differences in tones are always complimentary, never competing, and allow the listener to really sink into the spaces between them.

The final piece, “The Passing By”, is an achingly beautiful way to close the album. An orchestral-like section that reminds me of Fennesz’s most heart-wrenching work, but minus the grit and noise. It shows that, despite being process-oriented and conceptual in nature, Jensen’s work is not without emotion.