Bioaccumulation, by Ian Wellman

From Ian Wellman
The scientific term Bioaccumulation is used to describe the accumulation of toxic substances occurring in the environment. Bioaccumulation takes place when an organism absorbs a substance at a faster rate than it can lose in catabolism or excretion. This process only magnifies as it moves down the food chain.

Similarly, the concept for my album Bioaccumulation started with idea of sounds cycling and mingling together, eventually attacking one another or disintegrating completely. Our relationship with nature is mirrored in this endless cycle of extracting and using the land’s resources until they run dry. We seem hell bent on absorbing and in turn obliterating anything in our path.

This year I had a chance to mull on this while I attended a week-long bioacoustics workshop through Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the Sierra Nevadas. The idea of bioacoustics has become increasingly important to me. Through listening and observation, we absorb most of our information. The capacity to study animals, through the ‘lens’ of the sonic environment, to analyze how they have changed over time amplifies the importance of sound. We can learn so much about ourselves just by being present and listening to our surroundings.

The field recordings in Bioaccumulation are meant to serve as real-world examples of how we affect the environment and our surroundings, even simply by being present. The human-generated sounds left in the recordings are intended to reflect the inescapable amount of noise pollution we have contributed to the world. On example can be heard in the recording of the woodpeckers from Carlton Flats in the Angeles National Forest. While walking around, I heard a cooing from a nearby tree. After realizing this sound was a baby bird inside a nest, I was greeted by a group of angry woodpeckers knocking their beaks has hard as they could against the tree, flicking their wings back, and vocalizing shrill calls. Nature is literally screaming at us to leave.

Each musical piece is assembled with 4 track tape machine played as an instrument with loops sourced from digital synths and manipulated or dissolved completely by effect pedals. In this way, digital becomes both analog and physical. The pieces dwell on feelings from our environmental collapse (the real and the most sensationalized versions), guilt of humanity’s destructive shadow, and hope for the realization of a balance with nature, as mythical as it may seem. 

Released October 4, 2019

Immediate Horizon, by Alessandro Cortini + Lawrence English

Having become mutual admirers of each others work; English of Cortini’s Sonno and Cortini of English’s Wilderness Of Mirrors, the pair were very pleased to receive an invitation to collaborate together.

Following a number of months exchanging compositional ideas and materials, Cortini and English met in Berlin several days ahead of the festival and commenced an intense period of rehearsal and arrangement. The resulting piece, Immediate Horizon, traces their shared interests in harmony and texture. It is a work that meditates on saturation and the ruptures that occur when harmonic elements are stacked. Immediate Horizon’s five pieces swell and burst in a perpetual sense of pulse.

This LP is a live recording, made at the premiere of the piece during Berlin Atonal, held at Kraftwerk in Berlin.

Credits

released November 30, 2018

A New Wave of Jazz (live!)

This was broadcast live on 3.20.21 @ 3:00 PM EST

the construct [II]

the construct [II] | Experimental/Ether-Jazz/Jazz/Noise/Mixed Genre | 79:46

Aural blasphemy . . . in the form of artful/experimental noise, ether-jazz with a smidgen of classical & eclectic din — tossed in . . . and almost enuf assembled ether-jazz artists (8/13) to officially classify as an ‘elements’ edition . . . but not quite.

. . . and definitely NOT up for any of this year’s Grammy nominations.

A project constructed in stream-of-consciousness mode, literally buying extra songs (Amazon, Bandcamp) on the fly & figuring out how to retro cross-stitch as I went along. Part one (2019) can be found . . . here.

Eighty minutes never traveled through yer ears so f-a-s-t.
;- )



01 João Sarnadas – B4 S Ildefonso Detaill
02 Andrew Cyrille, Ben Monder, Paul Motian & Pete Rende – Dinosaur Skies
03 Alio Die & Nick Parkin – Unctious Vapour
04 Neuro…No Neuro – Don’t Hold Your Breath
05 Ward, Verhoeven, Serries & Roberts – Imaginary Junction – Pt. 2 (excerpt)
06 Thomas Zehetmair – Bach; Sonata for Violin Solo No. 2 in A Minor, 2. Fuga
07 Numün – Voyage au Soleil
08 Food, Thomas Strønen & Iain Ballamy – Nebular
09 Michel Banabila and Oene van Geel – Kino Mikro (excerpt)
10 Nils Petter Molvaer & Food – Cirrina
11 David Torn – They Were Then, Now & Again
12 Benedict Taylor & Anton Mobin – Slicing Ups
13 Hely – Opio
14 Steve Tibetts – Chandoha

Hishiryo (Piano Solo), by Nik Bärtsch

Released May 1, 2002

Nik Bärtsch: Prepared Piano, Percussion

Four Thirty Three

4’33” | Four Thirty Three | 54:34 | Remixed/Reloaded on 03/22/21

A soundtrack for your inner, dream-scaped world . . .

I recently came across an obscure album collective of covers of John Cage’s 4’33.
Some were screechy (didn’t use those) & some so quiet I had to stack several compositions together to get any meaningful audio onto this project. Thus, the project started out @ 72 minutes+ & was whittled down, with the layering, to just over fifty-four minutes.

However . . . fifty-four minutes of granular, caustic glitch is probably enuf!
;- D

00 eme celis – tfw u tryna 4’33 by the window but u live right next 2 a cement plant
01 Unknownuser – 4’33 + Bedfordnoise – Reality Partially Intertwining With
02 Atmospheric Disturbances – Water & Light + Girl Animusica – Cassette in Space
03 How the Night Came – HHF9+6J
04 Laudanum Quilt – 51
05 Jettenbach – Friday Morning + Laibach – STUMM433
06 Willem Sannen – Framework Afield/749 (excerpt)
07 Blackt00th – Performance Condenser + Laibach – Stumm433 (reversed)
08 Fencepost – Rain
09 Darling – Summer Waifu Mix + Roses Landing – Cassette Dictaphone Cover
10 Expose Your Eyes – Quiet Please
11 Atmospheric Disturbances – Soil and Cedar
12 Niacinamide – 4’33 (John Cage Cover)
13 4’33 Remix: Atmospheric Disturbances/Dani Heggie/Death Tape Super Bass/Vacant Possession
14 R0 [nought] – Machine Room
15 Pink Floyd – Welcome to the Machine (outtro)

Brian Eno – Like I Was A Spectator

Deus Sive Natura, by Nicola Di Croce

“Deus sive Natura” is a latin expression later used by philosopher Baruch Spinoza to reflect upon the identity of God and Nature: “Individual things are nothing but modifications of the attributes of God, or modes by which the attributes of God are expressed in a fixed and definite manner” (Spinoza, Ethics, pt. 1, proposition 25, corollary).

This album results from a performance by Nicola Di Croce which closed an art residency developed in Viterbo (Italy) at the “Bullicame” thermal springs. The public springs were used by Romans and later by poets, writers and popes; the same natural crater was also cited by Dante as the access to Flegetonte, namely the infernal river.

The residency aimed at sonically investigating the aquatic environment of the area, and presented the results to the public through a quadriphonic performance realized beside the natural pools. The residency was curated by Serena Achilli within the framework of Algoritmo festival in August 2019.

Nicola Di Croce is a sound artist and scholar trained as an architect and a musician. He has a PhD in Regional planning and public policies, and is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Università Iuav di Venezia (Italy).

His research deals with the relationship between Urban Studies and Sound Studies. In particular, he is interested in collaborative and participatory approach to urban policy analysis and design through methodologies emerging within Urban Planning and Sound Art.

Sound is central to his artistic and academic practice for he considers listening and field recording as pivotal tools to investigate urban atmospheres and social transformations. Through articles, lectures, compositions, performances, and installations he aims to foster sonic awareness and to empower institutions and local communities, exploring new potentials for local development. 

Released November 24, 2020
Field recordings, composition and mix by Nicola Di Croce.

Neuro…No Neuro – Object Models (review)

This new album from electronic sound artist Neuro…No Neuro could almost be categorized as an album of short, electronic stories. The tracks fit together cohesively and I find it extremely listenable in its entirety (and that from someone who rarely listens to entire albums;  mostly previewing tracks for inclusion on upcoming mix projects).

Kirk (the mastermind behind Neuro…No Neuro) weaves in subtle tapestries of electronica: landscapes of pops, quirky shifts & layers of sonic carpeting that blend, seamlessly into one another . . . as well as the next track.

This body of work represents a slightly new aural direction for Mr. Markarian — but damned if I can tell you exactly how & why: be it the progressive maturation of the composer, a relaxing of overall sound & structure or an intentional & deliberate new approach to shaping his craft . . . it works; and it works very well!

My 2 favorites from this Neuro collective are ‘All the Missing Words’ & ‘Calcified’ (in fact, both will more than likely appear on an end-of-year ambient/electronic mix). They lay within a bed of quiet, sonic solitude and whisper their nuanced changes with electronic tinkering that moves the respective compositions forward like the trim-tab of a great ship of state.
I don’t know this to be the case, but it’s as if Kirk created several, smaller audio files & then grafted them together with a surgeon’s skill until they narrate their own short story – but one that, like James Joyce’s ‘Dubliners’, play individually as well as to the work in whole.

‘Object Models’ (out next week on Audiobulb) is at once imaginative, introspective and, most noticeably . . . IMMERSIVE. Brief lengths of landscape, drawing the listener in while allowing for independent thought even as you’re enjoying the electronic gear-shifting which passes by almost imperceptibly, then grabs your attention once again (which is why it stands up to repeated listening).

It’s like a movie you’re enjoying . . . but you’re not 100% conscious as to “why”.

~Ambient Landscape, March 2021

of the e a r t h

of the earth | Experimental/Drone/Noise/Dark Ambient | 82:06

Darker, deep earth tones combined with drone-scaped glitch, experimental noise and a touch of ambient glue . . . to hold the entire thing together.

All tracks originate from the Silent Records label, save the final 2 tracks (Ümlaut & Tangent) which are from Audiobulb & n5MD, respectively.

Cover art is, literally, a photo (manipulated in Adobe) of a large, post-storm mud puddle I took while letting our 3 Springer Spaniels out into the backyard in January!
Mixed over the New Year’s break & pairs well with last year’s White Noise Room.

01 Lingua Lustra – Blueshift
02 Minor Tom – Inner Day
03 Flying Cobra – Aether
04 Glenn Weyant – Mictlantecuhtli
05 Meterpool – Event Horizon
06 Mondo Skull – Rings of Saturn
07 Gerard Pape – Cello, Double Cello (for Jean Baptiste)
08 Daniel Menche – Ash and Rain
09 Deeper than Space – Amaterasu (edit)
10 DT-90 – Magnetosphere
11 Rhys Chatham – Slow Rotation Suggesting Permanence
12 Ümlaut – The Outer Forms
13 Tangent – Isolated Mechanisms