Leaves Stories (ice), by Emmanuel Toledo & Lauri Hallikainen

Leaves Stories (ice) is the third opus of the series “Leaves Stories”. 

Frozen lake, booming ice is the exquisite playground provided by Lauri, over which Emmanuel digressed and come back with mechanical sounds, old organs, ARP2600 synthesizers and diffusion effects. 

This work is based around those ‘false awakening’ experienced after exhausting walks in such landscapes.

Released March 15, 2015

Remote Redux (24bit), by James Murray & Francis M Gri

This is an elegant & evocative work. Murray & Gri develop a rich tapestry of ambient sonance — inducing the listener to delve deeper into the aural canyons of their collaborative slabs of quietude. The album, though firmly rooted in finite, recorded work, is nearly generative in its progression; and draws the active listener into a labyrinth of mesmerizing, beatless rhythm.

It presents worlds of sound that literally reverberate in the ebbing distance, even as the next wave envelops you in another, echoed, aural return — like a warm, resonant ambient hug.

We liked the environment so much that we replaced the closing composition (by a major, long-time running ambient sound-sculptor) with a track from Remote Redux on a recent mix – which can be found here.

The album can be ordered here, or at the link below, & is highly recommended!
~Ambient Landscape, November 2019
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James Murray and Francis M Gri’s Remote Redux is a delicate and original response to distance and closeness as expressed by the Japanese concept Ma, known also as negative space. It’s a place of elegant dimension where Gri’s graceful piano motifs and bowed guitar figures are carefully framed within the free flowing surrounds of Murray’s warm synth sequences and nuanced sound design.

Having released each other’s work on their Slowcraft and KrysaliSound imprints James and Francis naturally extended this exchange into a remote London-Milan collaboration. The resulting debut is an unhurried collection of exquisitely crafted minimal ambient, tender and contemplative, a listening experience that simultaneously explores and distorts our awareness of separation and togetherness.

• Released October 17, 2019
• Written, arranged, mixed & produced by James Murray & Francis M Gri
• Audio mastering by Vincent Villuis | Ultimae Studios (studios@ultimae.com)
• Artwork Design by Arnaud Galoppe & Vincent Villuis
• Photo credits : Welcomia

s e r e i n

serein – The supposed fall of dew from a clear sky just after sunset; mist or fine rain falling from an apparently clear sky.

Mixed using compositions from the Serein & Silent Records labels (+ 1 track/ea. from 12k, ECM & Ultimae*), this focuses on a return to the realm of ambient.

Artwork courtesy of . . . uhm, I forget.
80:10

01 France Jobin – Solitude 2_excerpt
02 Olan Mill – Spare Smoke Template
03 Stephen Vitiello & Taylor Deupree – Second Variation
04 Strië – 87 Billion Suns
05 Donato Wharton – In A Mute Scape
06 Rag Dun – That Place that Is, Is Not
07 Segue – Frozen
08 Benoît Pioulard – Alogia
09 Hibernis – Hibernis Bells
10 Nest – Koretz’s Meteor
11 Kryshe – Auflösung
12 Colorlist – Electricity
13 Lingua Lustra – Redshift
14 Michele Rabbia, Gianluca Petrella & Eivind Aarset – Styx
15 Imprints – Wardenclyffe Tower
16 Benjamin Dauer & Specta Ciera – Ice Train
17 James Murray & Francis M. Gri – Redux * (excerpt)

Download



[* Upcoming album review]

The Quietened Mechanisms, by A Year In The Country

The album is an exploration of abandoned and derelict industry, infrastructure, technology and equipment that once upon a time helped to create, connect and sustain society.

It wanders amongst deserted factories, discarded machinery, closed mines, mills and kilns and their echoes and remains; taking a moment or two to reflect on these once busy, functioning centres of activity and the sometimes sheer scale or amount of effort and human endeavour that was required to create and operate such structures and machines, many of which are now just left to fade away.

The CD and Bandcamp download include accompanying notes on the tracks by the contributors.


The Quietened Mechanisms is released as part of the A Year In The Country project, a set of year long journeys through spectral fields; cyclical explorations of an otherly pastoralism, the further reaches of folk culture and the spectral parallel worlds of hauntology – a wandering amongst subculture that draws from the undergrowth of the land.

As a project, it has included a website featuring writing, artwork and music which stems from that otherly pastoral/spectral hauntological intertwining, alongside a growing catalogue of album releases.

Accompanying the music releases is a book called A Year In The Country: Wandering Through Spectral Fields which gathers and revises previous writing from A Year In The Country alongside new journeyings.

The book and the written posts on the site are intended to draw together and connect layered and, at times, semi-hidden cultural pathways and signposts, journeying from acid folk to edgelands via electronic music innovators and pioneers, folkloric film and photography, dreams of lost futures and misremembered televisual tales and transmissions.


“…the first book of it’s kind to catalogue all these disparate strands, many of which cross over time and space to influence one another.” DJ Food

“…an essential field guide to a distinct aesthetic that remains loosely defined, like a fluttering night moth that would die if pinned down.” Ben Graham, Shindig!


On A Year In The Country and its previous music releases:

“A Year In The Country quietly go about their business releasing beautifully packaged music that is influenced by folk, electronica, drone as well as by landscape, time and place… each have themes running through them, tying the music together and seemingly telling a story as they unfold.” Terrascope

“…another exquisitely packaged affair… murky and ominous as befits the guiding thematic: places that are spectrally imprinted with past conflicts and struggles… a conceptual compilation of excellently eerie electronic music…” Simon Reynolds, author of Retromania and Energy Flash

“A Year In The Country… operating like some sinister rustic arts and crafts movement manifesting online via a Wi-Fi connected scrying mirror… an almanac of unearthly sonics to tide you through the winter nights.” Shindig!

“…a response to British folk traditions that acknowledges the history without seeming beholden to it.” John Coulthart, Feuilleton


www.ayearinthecountry.co.uk

Released October 2, 2018

#SomeBraveApollo

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 Laibach STUMM433 track/video (released on MUTE) can be found here & here.

And, finally . . . one more tip of the hat to David Robert Jones (1947 ~ 2016)

01:21:07

Download or Mixcloud

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)

r 3 d @ c T i 0 n

Longer-form ambient landscapes + drones — a mix where a portion of every song has been deleted, edited, ghosted over or withheld from the listener’s ear. Given the country in which I live, it would be easy for the reader to ascertain from whence the inspiration for this project, an inadvertent follow up to 2015’s ‘r u s t‘ mix, originated.

The cuts, splicing, insertions & omissions all served to make this a navigable mix. Most of the compositions were entirely too long to be included in their original format. That being said, I’m sure you’ll find that this flows smoothly with almost imperceptible transitions between compositions, as well as where the “drop-outs” & ghost-editing occur. It’s an effort to Make Mixing Great Again (#MMGA)!!

The cover art was crafted from a 300 foot view of the redactions contained within the Mueller Report; a creative piece of American political fiction itself based upon an unearthed copy of an old Mother Goose nail-biter, entitled The Tale of the Steele Dossier (which was bought & paid for by the [ultimate] loser of our 2016 presidential campaign).

Fabrication, it would seem, has its drawbacks . . .

Some of the oral r3d@cTi0ns can be heard ever so slightly on the project’s final track.

Peace out, ;- ) !
76:22

Download

Project Notes

01 Michael Trommer – Phonopuls.01
02 Alessandro Adriani – Casting the Runes
03 Excerpt: Framework Radio’s #677 mix
04 Michele Rabbia, Gianluca Petrella & Eivind Aarset – Flotsam
05 France Jobin – Singulum__m (excerpt)
06 Steve Roach – Deadwood
07 Steve Roach & Loren Nerell – Para.Terra
08 Lorren Stafford – Inching Glaciers (edit)
09 Oophoi – Walpurgisnacht
10 Seofon & Steve Roach – Rev. 20-13 Teknos (fragment)
11 Freq. Magnet – Nitrous
12 SINthetik Messiah – AN-02
13 Rag Dun – The Place of Potentials
14 Benjamin Dauer & Specta Ciera – Shadows Emerging

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.

Released November 30, 2018

This edition is published by the fine folk at Important Records

Still Pieces, by Ian Vine

Recently I have written a series of pieces that are concerned in one way or another with the presentation of unique, and yet similar, events or objects. 
In this work there are twenty-four pieces for flute(s), accordion, acoustic guitar(s), piano, electronics, which combine to form an hour-long work.

The pieces can be played in any order; there are 620,448,401,733,239,439,360,000 permutations. 

total time: [60:00]

Releases December 24, 2018 

flutes: Jennifer George 
accordion, guitars, piano: Ian Vine 

flutes and guitars recorded at first moon, UK, September 2018 
accordion and piano recorded by lunar module in Oregon, USA, August 2018 

mixed and mastered at first moon by Ian Vine, November-December 2018 

many thanks to KAG for the use of her accordion and piano 

Drift Stations EP, by Glåsbird

Glåsbird is an anonymous project by an established artist within the Ambient/Modern Classical scene. To date this artist name has not produced any work that has been published and we’re proud to present both the first ever Glåsbird release as well as the debut album, due out early next year. 

The Glåsbird sound is undefined and we’re told that it will be used to demonstrate working to themes, ideas and soundtracks. The artist studies their chosen topic intently before crafting electro-acoustic recordings into evocative cinematic soundscapes. The debut album Grønland is a sonic expedition to Greenland, tracking the enormous frozen ice cap, the colourful scandi huts and its lack of human inhabitants. 
The preceding Drift Stations EP features two tracks which tell the story of embarking on this imaginary journey to Greenland, as it begins in the North Pole before traversing the frozen Arctic Circle sea towards the monolithic landmass. 

In a brief section of recording space, the artist has stitched together a shrill and lonely coldness using violin, cello, sparse piano notes and other digitally effected acoustic instruments. Drift Stations is then set off with a magnificent photograph, taken on Greenland by photographer and tour guide Lasse Kyed.

Released December 14, 2018 

Written and produced by Glåsbird 
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong 
Photography by Lasse Kyed
(www.instagram.com/greenland_explorer)

Deconstructing Brian Eno’s Music for Airports

Here’s a site that deconstructs and reconstructs Brian Eno’s classic Music for Airports album; additionally you can play with the files yourself!
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In 1978, Brian Eno released Ambient 1: Music for Airports, a landmark album in ambient and electronic music. Although it wasn’t the first ambient album by any means, it was the first album explicitly released as an ‘ambient music album’. The album was essentially a continuation of Eno’s experimentation with the tape machine as a compositional tool, as well as his exploration of generative music, music created by systems. In this article I’ll discuss how Music for Airports was created, I’ll break down and recreate the tracks 2/1 and 1/2, and hopefully give you some ideas about how to adopt this approach yourself.

Eno’s experiments with tape loops go as far back as 1973’s (No Pussyfooting), a collaboration with King Crimson’s Robert Fripp that employed an early experiment in sound-on-sound tape looping. For the recordings, Fripps’s guitar was run into two tape machines feeding into each other. The musical material runs back and forth between the machines, creating longs delays akin to modern loop pedals. The length of the delay was set by the physical distance between the two machines.

More . . .