Dirk Serries & Trösta, Island on the Moon

Album preview

Dirk Serries & Trösta immediately begin carving an exquisite tapestry of harmonious serendipity with ‘Island on the Moon. The tones from their respective instruments (ambient guitar & also saxophone) gel, blend, synergize and build an aural pathway that guides the listener into a sonic type of inner garden. Subtle shifts of direction are barely perceptible . .. until they’re completed (and then they’re onto the next shift).

Overall, one is left with a sense of floating high above the din that modern life has become as of late; at once both an unplugging & reconnection to a sense of grounding.

Call it an ambient anchor.
~Ambient Landscape, January 3^rd, 2022
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Ambient veteran DIRK SERRIES (worldwide renowned for his ambient alter-ego Vidna Obmana from 1984 till 2007) returns to this expansive sound universe with a new collaborative album that redefines the genre. Together with alto saxophonist TRÖSTA the duo delivers a breathtaking album just in time to comfort, soothe and challenge in these darker times.

ISLAND ON THE MOON is a symphony of harmony, depth and nuance. A solace drenched in melancholy and light, made without the aid of computers but by the hands of two crafted musicians on respectfully guitar and saxophone, and some outboard effects.

Immerse yourself.

Side A
1. COMPANION
2. OCEANUS

Side B
3. KREEP
4. TRANQUILLITATIS

Releases early 2022 on Consouling Sounds
Performed in isolation October/November 2020 by Dirk Serries & Trösta : electric guitar, alto saxophone, effects.
Mixed and mastered at the Sunny Side Inc. studio, Belgium.
Design by Rutger Zuydervelt
Photography by Martina Verhoeven.

u n f o c u s e d

u n f o c u s e d | Ambient/Experimental/Phonography/Minimal | 79:54

untethered ambience, floating amid aurally slipstreamed sonance & shapes . . .

This project began & was driven by the cover artwork (along with tracks predominantly from 12k & 901 editions) – a totally random picture accidentally taken inside my shorts pocket while on a bike ride with my wife. We were touring the flash-flood ravaged areas in the neighboring towns, last Labor Day (2021) – taking some “after” photos of land that had, just days earlier, been under to 8 to 30 feet of water!

When I was reviewing the photos, I noticed this one & thought: “Hmm . . . podcast/mix album cover!”
: )

Part 1 in an ongoing series.

Download via Bandscape




01 Renato Grieco + Bruno Duplant – La Disparition Pt 1 (excerpt)
02 Ben Vida + Marina Rosenfeld – Leaving (excerpt)
03 Stephen Vitiello & Taylor Deupree – Second Variation
04 Moss – Moss (excerpt 1)
05 Taylor Deupree – January (bell with red ribbon, tine sculpture) excerpt
06 Andrew Heath – This Island of Blue
07 Christopher Bissonnette – One Line Plus One Line
08 The Rain Dogs – Deep Red
09 Marcus Fischer – Shape To Shore
10 Iluiteq – Memories Relived
11 Moss – Moss (excerpt 2)
12 Monogoto – Iuxta Mare -deletion 5 (excerpt)
13 Giovanni Di Domenico – Dust Bunnies (excerpt)

Happy New Year

Wishing you all the best in 2022!

Focus on 2022

Twenty-twenty-two will be dominated, from a studio perspective, by a new #ambient series.

Debuting on January 3rd, posting every other month & running into 2023 . . . it has all the makings of an ethereal barn-burner!

Vihne, by Jens Pauly

This is a nice collection of ambient music; we used a track on a program last year.
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Floating through empty streets late at night. No other people around, no distraction from a dialogue happening inside of you – looking for something, looking for nothing, looking for anything relevant.
Jens Pauly’s second album ‘Vihne’ is the soundtrack to a search between flickering lights and a cloudy sky, between emptiness and being alive. It asks the essential questions within us, in a tranquil state neither here nor there.
Each track marks a microcosm of its own, a small journey through worlds engulfed in memories.

Jens Pauly is a musician and artist from Cologne, Germany, who has previously released an album named r/f on Karlrecords. In his earlier years, Jens performed in punk and metal bands before he eventually began to compose more synth-based solo work as Ghostrider which he released with labels such as Digitalis and Tranquility Tapes.
Since debuting under his own name with r/f in 2017, Jens has developed an electro-acoustic sound which is both sparse and engulfing yet at the same time warm and melancholic. When we first heard Jens’ demo, we were reminded of the beautiful Ambient sounds that 12k might put out, such as work by Marcus Fischer, Solo Andata and Taylor Deupree. However, Jens has since shared with us that some of the artists that influenced this work are Oren Ambarchi, early Hiroshi Yoshimura and Vikki Jackman.

There is a sound palette that at first listen is stripped back but on closer inspection, Vihne is something steeped in detail. The music flows and feels weightless, as passages of guitars, piano, sine wave and cassette dictaphone recordings softly collide into a dreamy collage. If r/f was ‘5 straight lines in a circle’, Vihne is ‘8 circles on a line’ and although these tracks are parts of the wider picture of this album, it is intended to transfer an overall atmosphere as one whole journey. 

Released March 9, 2019

Written and produced by Jens Pauly
Mastered by Alexandr Vatagin
Photography by Choi Sungdong and Peter Nejedly
Packaging design by Jens Pauly
Press release Foreword by Ralph Schmidt

elements_short stories (remix)

elements_short stories | Jazz & Ether Jazz | 76:07

Short (under 77″), sweet (REAL Jazz!) & sassy (can you dig that?).

My world is driven by leadership training & its corresponding audios. As a result, when I have time to listen to music, I want it to sound “just right” (and when it’s not, I tweak it!).

This is a re-working of a mix from 2014 with a new opening gambit (tracks 1, 2 & 3), track 9 & the track 12 closer); I also swapped out track 4, previously Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin, to a solo piano version by Bärtsch of the same composition.

With so many mixes under our collective belt, I had forgotten about this one and, tripping across it in my “Jazz” file, decided it needed a little dusting & refurbishing — I had just ordered the Jakob Bro album, Uma Elmo — and decided to give him the #3 spot (after the Marc Johnson track) for the remix.

I personally like this version better.

01 Ayumi Tanaka Trio – Ichi
02 Marc Johnson – Nardis
03 Jakob Bro, Arve Henriksen & Jorge Rossy – Music For Black Pigeons
04 Nik Bärtsch – Modul 13 (solo piano)
05 Pat Metheny, Dave Holland & Roy Haynes – Old Folks
06 John Scofield – Jeep on 35
07 Van Morrison – The Eternal Kansas City
08 Miles Davis – It’s About That Time
09 Stefano Battaglia & Michele Rabbia – Sundance In Balkh
10 Stanley Jordan – Freddie Freeloader
11 Pat Metheny – Sariel
12 Sonar – Sonic Blue

#3, by Illuminine

I am so happy that today I can finally share my third spiritual child ‘#3’ with you. It was a long and sometimes turbulent journey, creating this album during a time full of struggles with anxiety and panic attacks. But especially reading all your sweet comments and hearing your stories about what my music gives to you, encouraged me to go on and to create this album. I hope that these songs will also become part of your personal journey through life, and that this music will give you the support and comfort we all need sometimes.

Released November 3, 2018 
All songs written & arranged by Kevin Imbrechts. Except for song 5 & 11 by Kevin Imbrechts & Hannah Boswell. Except for song 6 by Kevin Imbrechts & Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie. 

Produced by Kevin Imbrechts. 
Recorded (September 2016 – March 2018) by Kevin Imbrechts at his home studio (BE). 

Except for song 6, recorded by Adam Wiltzie. 
Additional string recordings (track 1, 3, 8 & 9) by Jimmy Van Rietvelde at Sugarbeat Studio (BE). 
Mixed by Birgir Jón Birgisson at Sundlaugin Studio, Mosfellsbær (IS). 

Photographs Chrisopher De Béthune 

Lay-out Ruben Van Bouwel 

Tine Anthonis (cello track 1, 3, 8 & 9) 
Hannah Boswell (vocals track 5 & 11) 
Budapest String Orchestra (track 6) 
Beatrijs De Klerck (cello track 1, 3, 8 & 9) 
Kevin Imbrechts (acoustic & electric guitar, samples, piano, keys, synths and others: all tracks) 
Adam Wiltzie (guitar & synths track 6)

Overload Lady, by Mick Harris & Eraldo Bernocchi

From 1997 to 1998, in two years only, Mick Harris has released 3 albums and 2 EPs for Sub Rosa, two in collaboration with Eraldo Bernocchi, one with Neil Harvey (PCM). Overload Lady was created and mixed in The Box, late december 1996, Birmingham, and published in early 1997.

Michael John Harris started out in the 1980s as a drummer working with various punk rock and grindcore bands (most notably pioneering grindcore band Napalm Death); as a drummer he is generally credited with popularizing the blast beat, which has since become a key component of much of extreme metal and grindcore. Since the mid-1990s, Harris has worked primarily in electronic and ambient music, his main projects being Scorn and Lull. According to Allmusic, Harris’s “genre-spanning activities have done much to jar the minds, expectations, and record collections of audiences previously kept aggressively opposed.” While in Napalm Death, Harris also played drums for Doom and Extreme Noise Terror, and participated in a side project with Mitch Harris called Defecation, which produced two records, Purity Dilution and Intention Surpassed, through Nuclear Blast, but this last one just with Mitch Harris.

Eraldo Bernocchi is an Italian musician, producer and sound designer. He created in 1985 the project Sigillum S. Later, he expanded the cadre of musicians he would work with to include people such as Mick Harris, Jim Plotkin and Bill Laswell. These collaborations have up to this day provided an array of releases and shows. Along with the aforementioned artists, the last 15 years have seen collaborations with musicians and artists including Harold Budd, Russell Mills, Toshinori Kondo, Raiz, Almamegretta, Thomas Fehlmann, Zu, DJ Olive, and a host of others. 

Released December 9, 2016

Shine on Beaver Moon!

Friday, November 19: The full Beaver Moon will take place in a 97%-total lunar eclipse — the longest in 580 years!

BYOA (bring your own #ambient!)

#BeaverMoon#LunarEclipse2021#Ambient

Critical; Mass, by Requiem & Simon McCorry

Hush Hush is honored to help present ‘Critical; Mass’ (HH140), a new collaborative release between Washington, DC-based duo Requiem and UK-based experimental cellist Simon McCorry. A masterful fusion of their cinematic and minimal strengths, the album’s three long-form pieces swell and sway between ambient, drone, neo-classical, and psychedelic zones for a sound that’s always beautiful and ultimately hopeful, yet never afraid to touch the ugly side.

Requiem is the musical project of Washington, DC-based musicians Tristan Welch and Douglas Kallmeyer, both accomplished solo musicians known for their cerebral and exploratory sonic tendencies. Tristan is a guitarist with a deep background in Washington, DC’s DIY music scene – originally playing in punk rock bands and noise-based projects before turning his attention to minimalist guitar compositions. Working full-time as a funeral home director, Tristan uses his painterly sonic creations to employ his intimate awareness and unique perspective of mortality through music.

Douglas Kallmeyer is a bit of an audio savant who’s worn multiple hats throughout his bustling music career. Picking up the bass at age 11, Douglas’ love of music led to life as a touring musician straight out of high school, before an obsession with sound systems, audio equipment, live mixing, and production engineering led to touring gigs with the bands Blonde Redhead, Shellac, Rancid, Phantogram, and more. In addition to quietly releasing his own solo music on a plethora of underground labels, Douglas was the driving force behind the independent label Verses Records and has worked for advocacy groups like the Human Rights Campaign, with Bell visuals, to promote awareness of social issues globally and spotlight the healing effects of music for those suffering from depression and PTSD.

Stroud, UK-based artist Simon McCorry rounds out this trans-Atlantic collaboration. Born in London to mixed Indian and British heritage, the classically trained cellist has worked as a composer and sound designer in theatre, film, and contemporary dance. Influenced by the boundary-pushing works of Aphex Twin, Jon Hassell, King Tubby, and György Ligeti, Simon has emerged as a prolific solo artist with a productive 2021 so far that has included the ‘Nature in Nature’ EP for Spanish label See Blue Audio, the stunning album ‘And Where Are You Really From?’ for anthéne’s Polar Seas Recordings imprint, as well as the collaborative album ‘the equation of time’ with anthéne for premiere UK label Whitelabrecs.

Strikingly powerful instrumental music filtered through a prism both haunting and gorgeous, ‘Critical; Mass’ features 3 epic songs by 3 artists following their own instinctual sonic paths. Also the latest in a flurry of long-distance collaborations to find a home on Hush Hush Records, this long-form album provides a potent soundtrack of our transformative early 2020s and further serves as a reflection of the musician’s desire for connection amidst an apocalyptic, harrowing, and dramatically hopeful backdrop. 

credits

released July 16, 2021

Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Requiem & Simon McCorry.

Requiem is Tristan Welch and Douglas Kallmeyer.

Tristan Welch: Guitars, Electronics.
Douglas Kallmeyer: Bass, Electronics.
Simon McCorry: Cello, Electronics.