Temporal is a meditation on the transitory and fragile nature of existence.
Much of the music that comprises the album was originally written to accompany theatre and dance productions. “The initial inspiration was more external than internal, in that many of these pieces began as a response to a text or a choreographic concept,” Julia explains, “but they all seemed to be coming from the same emotional world and it made sense to weave them together into a record.”
After the threat of violent release on previous album Asperities, Temporal’s relationship to the physical world manifests itself in a more organic, human sound. The electronic manipulations are subtler, with Julia sampling voices from a theatre production and processing them into unrecognisable textures: ghosts of the source material. “I included the processed voices to acknowledge the genesis of the music and also because I wanted to incorporate vocals in a way that turned voice into texture, and blurred the lines between sonic elements.
Kenji Kihara is a musician based in Horiuchi, Japan, a place surrounded by nature near the sea and the mountains. Kenji makes field recordings around his home and integrates those into his lush, drifting compositions. He says, “I am making music as an inspiration for seasonal change, day to day importance.” Kenji imbues his compositions with the tone and timbre of the landscape of his home. There is acute attention to make all the pieces breathe as elements come in and out, ebb and flow. There is a reverance for natural beauty and the natural pace of the non-human world. While not all compositions on this collection are in dialogue with summer, it is still fitting to release the album in summer as it it bookended with two pieces evokative of a warm breeze on a light summer evening.
Music by Kenji Kihara. Art and mastering by Sean Conrad.
Last year (2018) marked the 25th anniversary of the release of this album. I had a fleeting thought about this project, but it lay dormant in my head until several months ago: a re-working of Brian Eno’s landmark classic ‘Apollo‘.
The original title for this project was ‘Apollo on my Mind’ (it was later changed after I decided to close with the Diamond Dogs track); because back, w-a-y back, in the deep recesses of my mixological cranium . . . Apollo has ALWAYS been on my mind; shaping, guiding & navigating; & providing a pathway (as well as a way out) through the din.
I relied heavily on my own mix back-catalog: (what tracks had I utilized with Eno, & specifically Apollo, over the years?}. In some cases (noted in the play-list), I purposefully targeted excerpts from previous mixes (both ambient & ether-jazz), coupled with infinitely long segues, to achieve an Apollo-like aural atmosphere. Several of the tracks (where indicated*) were custom “built”; that is reconstructed, echoed, fitted with slightly longer intro/outtros; I built the last track (Bowie) first – – which was a lot of fun – blending a rock track with an ambient intro & a back piece (molded noise) due to the original, abrupt ending.
My approach to albums is that, while the compositions themselves may be great, the ordering of tracks, as well as the overall atmosphere, leaves MUCH to be desired. So I reorder & mix them with like-minded tuneage until I get something I can listen to again . . . & again. Incorporating layered tracks, ghost-editing, over-dubbing up the ying-yang & fragmented/edited tracks, I now present it for your listening pleasure (IF you enjoy this sorta’ thing, that is . . . ).
The full LaibachSTUMM433 track/video (released on MUTE) can be found here & here.
And, finally . . . one more tip of the hat to David Robert Jones (1947 ~ 2016)
01 John Cage/Laibach – STUMM433 (excerpt) 02 Richard Chartier – Central (for M.Vainio) excerpt 03 Ambient Landscape – Matta’s Secret* 04 Daniel Lanois (ARR) & Brian Eno – The Secret Place 05 Ambient Landscape/Lowlight Mixes – Slow Decay* (excerpt) 06 Brian Eno – Matta 07 France Jobin – Singulum n_ 08 Ambient Landscape – Sans Serif (opening excerpt) 09 Brian Eno& Daniel Lanois – Stars 10 Jaja – Aurigae (edit) 11 Brian Eno& Daniel Lanois – Under Stars 12 Cinchel – Drinking Tea on the Couch, Staving off a Fever 13 Brian Eno – An Ending (Ascent) w/*intro wash 14 Loscil – Monument Builders 15 Ambient Landscape – Blade Running – rework* (excerpt) 16 Zahn, Hatami & McClure – Byte 17 PCM – Par 18 David Bowie – Big Brother* (extended gibberish mix)
This album is an ambient music evocation of certain landscapes of the northern regions of Iceland near the town of Akureyri, which we visited in the fall of 2014. We were, as most visitors are, very moved by the power of these volcanic landscapes and coastlines and decided to capture them in music.
Stepping bravely out into icy waters and leaving behind a port always known, that being a lifetime of familiarity, comfort, and love, Moss Covered Technology paints a cold sea composed of blue tones, the chilled air seeping into the cabins of the heart through cracks in its frost-rimmed windows. Through this crack, feelings of sadness, anxiety and hopelessness slither in, making a nest in the heart of the ship. Some of the background textures clink and creak, like the breaking of ice, and the record charts a melancholic course. ‘His Many Seas’ is the sound of an ending, but it’s also a maiden voyage.
Soaked textures and sparse, frostbitten melodies loop in the frigid air, almost as if they can’t remember their place, or where they are in relation to everything else. The grey sea looks the same. Its horizon never differs. But music can act as a compass, a North Star, in times of trouble, during tempests and unquiet seas, and this ambient Polaris guides the artist back home. Music can return a soul to safe shores after a period of brokenness.
Credits:
Music: Moss Covered Technology Mastering: James Plotkin Design: Daniel Crossley
Sony has announced a new Walkman to celebrate the gadget’s fortieth anniversary. It’s snappily called the NW-A100TPS Walkman and here’s all you need to know about it.
What was your first Walkman? If you had a music player before you had
a smartphone, it’s likely it was a Walkman. When it first launched,
seeing people wearing headphones as they walked down the street was just
weird.
But everyone got used to it very quickly – especially when they
sampled the joy of listening to your music as you walked along, and with
good audio quality, too.
Of course, back when the Walkman first arrived, and for years after, the optimum portable format was the cassette. Whether you carried a bag full of tapes bought from your favorite store, or scrupulously put together mixtapes, the Walkman gave you the freedom to carry your music like never before.
Nowadays, almost everyone carries their music in their smartphone,
although it’s true that Apple hasn’t given up on the iPod, for instance,
refreshing the iPod touch range earlier this year. So, the announcement
of a new Walkman isn’t entirely surprising.
What is surprising, however, is exactly what Sony has done with it.
Sony’s music players have traditionally been known for extremely good audio quality, beating many smartphone music players hands down. Which is a good start. The new model, I can confirm, sounds terrific, with rich detail in vocals, a light touch with mid-tones and solid, enjoyable bass.
But the look is as important as the sound with this model, and here’s
why. A special soft case comes with the player which means it closely
resembles the very first cassette player, the TPS-L2, released in July
1979.
Because it was a cassette player, it had a little plastic window on
it so you could see the tapes rotating slowly inside as the music
played.
Well, not only does the soft cover absolutely make the Walkman look like a real classic, but it has the peek-a-boo window, too.
And when you look through it, oh my, there are those cassette cogs turning inside. If that sounds a bit baffling, just open the case. Yes, it’s a cassette player, you think. Has Sony taken leave of its senses?
As you think that, just tap the tape. Don’t worry, you won’t jog the
music because then the trick is revealed: it’s not a cassette, of
course, but a touchscreen with a perfect video representation of tape.
As you tap it, the image is replaced by a modern interface, with album
art, track details and play and pause functionality.
It’s a cute trick, and it works beautifully. There’s something so idiosyncratic about this visual effect that it almost feels like only Sony could have done this. Other companies might not have had the imagination, and especially the wit, to do something as fun as this. There’s something so idiosyncratic about this visual effect that it almost feels like only Sony could have done this. Other companies might not have had the imagination, and especially the wit, to do something as fun as this.
But this is a splendid player with a super-cool, if gimmicky, extra.
The storage isn’t huge – 16GB – so you can’t have your entire music
library on it. And many people will want to stick with just their phone.
Unless they listen to how good this sounds.
A collaborative mix made many (12) years ago – when I mixed under the moniker ‘g.a.b. l@bs‘ on the Art of the Mix site. The collaboration was with one ‘Muzag‘ (Gary Smith) – an Irishman who @ the time was mixing rings around the rest of us with the equipment @ his disposal. We made this & then another one (entitled ‘A Wider View‘; my copy (CD) of which was damaged over the years & will, sadly, no longer play).
01 Muzag Field Recording – Mont St Michel Abbey Bells 02 Arrocata – Binary Som [extract] 03 Ingram Marshall – Gradual Requiem (Part 2) 04 Fessenden – Sun on 5 05 Geoffroy Montel – Tokyo Temple Prayers 06 Jeff Greinke – Moving to Malaysia [extract] 07 Gamelan Plesetan – Kecapi Drum Bubbles 08 Nikita Golyshev – Seven Glasses with Hot Oil (Infra-Red Analysis on Low Frequencies) 09 Nikita Golyshev – Frozen Oil Spectum Analysis (Infra-Red Analysis on Low Frequencies) 10 Igneous Flame – Red Sands Shifting [extract] 11 Vangelis – Abraham’s Theme 12 Pausal – Song From A Cloth Pocket 13 Aix Em Klemm – Sparkwood and Twentyone 14 O Yuki Conjugate – Tropospheric 15 Polygon Windows – Quino-phec 16 Muzag Field Recording – Benny Purrs 17 Pan Sonic – Rafter [extract] 18 Endlos – Hast du viele hast du keine 19 Easy Star All-Stars – Great Dub in the Sky 20 Dub Syndicate – Higher Than High [Muzag edit] 21 Robert Rich – Beyond Part 4 [extract] 22 Pjusk – Spore 2 23 Murcof – Ulysses [extract] 24 Klaus Schulze – Amourage [extract] 25 Fridge – Tuum 26 Georgy Sviridov – Four Choruses from Songs of Troubled Times: Bright Fields
No. Digital welcomes Canadian France Jobin to the label.
The Montreal based artist will release her 9th album on No.. With her release entitled ‘Intrication’, she grapples with some truly cosmic concepts involving Quantum Entanglement (go on, Google it..) amongst other truly magical ideas which physics tend to invent these days.
Musically the release can be described as ‘microsound ambient’ but we think it’s much larger than that. It is at once comprised of microscopic sonic particles yet combines that with the warmth we know and love from the ‘Ambient’ cosmos.
Whilst the sub atomic particles of noise bounce around your mind, the total work weaves a warm blanket of audio enjoyment on both the micro and macroscopic levels revealing a world at once both too tiny to comprehend and too large to grasp. Presented here as No. 916 for your scientific scrutiny.
Released February 22, 2018
Produced by France Jobin. Cover Image by Mark Hogben. Artwork by Material Object. Mastering by Atom™.
Ambient Landscape 