23 Thursday May 2019
Posted in Ambient, Experimental, Mixing
DUO is the first collaborative project from minimal composer France Jobin and Richard Chartier.
DUO creates an “intemporelle“ and pervading atmosphere, where sounds intermingle within an intricate and delicate system delineated by spatial and temporal boundaries.
Released December 16, 2018
Composed by France Jobin and Richard Chartier.
Mastered by Stephen Mathieu
thank you to Yukitomo Hamasaki and Shuhei Miyagi
Design by Richard Chartier
12 Sunday May 2019
Posted in Ambient, Experimental, Mixing
Limited edition physical versions of ‘Immersion’ available with deluxe, hand-finished packaging:
Day Edition (limited 52 copies) includes white / black CDr album in string bound book packaging.
Night Edition box set (limited 52 copies) containing all black CDr album, string bound booklet, 4 x 25mm button badge set, unique one-off art print.
Dusk Edition (limited 52 copies) with all black CDr album in matt recycled sleeve with insert.
Dawn Edition (limited 52 copies) with white / black CDr album in textured recycled fold out sleeve with insert and button badge.
To order, visit the A Year In The Country web site: www.ayearinthecountry.co.uk?s=grey+frequency
or Bandcamp page: tinyurl.com/kefdssk
Released August 12, 2014
Produced and recorded by Grey Frequency (Gavin Morrow).
Artwork and design by AYITC Ocular Signals Department
(utilising visual work/source material by Gavin Morrow).
Released by A Year In The Country: ayearinthecountry.co.uk
03 Friday May 2019
Posted in Ambient, Experimental, Mixing
Ambient & Glitch | 79:05
A mix to go with an iPad cover I made last year using ‘Vectornater’ & ‘Paper by 53’. It’s a project built around the construct of long, deep sound installations, ghosting & extended segue/compositional editing 😉.
Source material was drawn from the various albums featured on the blog (I feature that which intrigues me & make notes as I post). As per usual, there was more material cached than I could possibly use . . . I find the best mixes are those where the cutting floor is filled with segued casualties.
So I give you, the general shape & outline of what should resemble an ambient mix collective (bleeding onto/into dark causticity glitchy, micro-sonic cacophony @ select moments) with dark/light contrasts, long-fades & a bit of noise & clatter near the end;
(“the machine can come” . . . )
.
01 France Jobin + Richard Chartier – Duo 5
02 Carlo Giustini – Manifestazioni
03 扎克 (Zack) – Kasita
04 Thomas Ragsdale – Time To Go
05 Emmanuel Toledo & Lauri Hallikainen – Leaves Stories (ice) excerpt
…….(interpolating the intro of Max Richter’s ‘The Blue Notebooks‘)
06 Ümlaut – Zero
07 Federico Durand – Teatro de sombras (Shadow play)
08 O Yuki Conjugate – Dirty Roads
09 Eeem – La patience
10 Mathieu Lamontagne & Emmanuel Toledo – Il Le Faut Bien
11 Ebauche – Behind Closed Eyes
12 Plaster – Casual Encounter
13 Venetian Snares x Daniel Lanois – United P92
01 Monday Apr 2019
Posted in Ambient, Experimental, Mixing
I’ve been playing this one off & on for the past few weeks. The mixer is Richard Chartier (who was kind enough to Tweet me the track-listing):
This show was 10th in the global experimental chart and 37th in the global electronica chart.
Comments:
Includes selections from my BEST OF 2015 list, which you can see here: https://boomkat.com/charts/2015/94
& here: http://climbmountanalog.com/year-end-lists/
plus some other favorites around and in between…
19 Tuesday Mar 2019
Posted in Ambient, Classical/Neo-Classical, Experimental, Mixing
07 Thursday Mar 2019
Posted in Ambient, Jazz Fusion, Mixing
The buzz began to grow when the studio announced we were going back into the soundroom for an ‘elements’ project! With the All About Jazz* interview behind us, new material had been lining up for a few months & the sound engineer had been strangely silent when asked about the rate of downloads that were streaming in.
What was the trajectory?
What audiological pathway?
Where was the elements franchise heading?
The GOAL (at least) was to create dual streams within the same mix: a 2 part mix made, specifically, to be played back-to-back (as if the 2, together, were a single deliverable).
Treated structural timber, audiological nomenclature & ghost-editing did (at times) play significantly into the mix construct – but were juxtaposed against the straight-up, real-time value of the artist’s original offerings.
The project title reflects the mission: these are windows into the eclectic & avant garde ether-jazz world that encompass the ‘elements’ series – and we think you’ll enjoy this, the final project deliverable.
Part 1 | 86:05
.
01 Nik Bärtsch’s Mobile – Modul 12
02 Yaz Ahmed – Inhale
03 Porya Hatami & Arovane – Kann
04 Vassilis Tsabropoulos – Diamond Cut Diamond
05 Heiner Goebbels – Exhibition of Objects: interpolating
……………………………………Jan Daelman, Dirk Serries & Thijs Troch – B and
……………………………………Kali – Riot (excerpt 1)
06 Hely – Opio
07 Kali – Bist du ein Schmetterling
08 Bobo Stetson Trio – Hemingway Intonations
09 Thomas Strønen & Time is a Blind Guide – Truth Grows Gradually
10 Hely – Cluster
11 Medeski, Martin & Wood – Kenny
12 Vijay Iyer Trio – Diptych
13 Jack DeJohnette, Matt Garrison & Ravi Coltrane – Two Jimmys
14 Medeski, Martin & Wood – Illinization
15 Kali – Trope
———————————————————————————-
28 Thursday Feb 2019
Posted in Experimental, Jazz Fusion, Mixing
22 Friday Feb 2019
Posted in Jazz Fusion, Mixing
The front:
More, more . . . and then some more.
More eclectic, nuanced experimentation & improvisation from the creative Belgium mastermind, avant-garde Jazz collective:
Utilizing tracks from TONUS’ “Ear Duration”, “Puncture Cycle” & “Zeitweise Leichter Schneefall” (At Times, Light Snowfall) this follows an #EtherJazz, #Noise, Avant-Garde & #Experimental Ambient pathway . . . with the entire mix resting atop a ghosted/layered backdrop, itself excerpted from Ear Duration (giving the project a subtle ambient feel). This was worked on in 2 sections (A & B). Then we tinkered, tweaked & tailored until the two halves were ready to be retro-stitched together.
Many thanks to Mr. Dirk Serries for slipping us the codes for the downloads just prior to Christmas so the previewing, audiological tinkering & mixological machinations could begin!
Granted – this is a new way of crafting compositions within the Jazz genre. As such, it can be a difficult listen at first. However, if things go according to Dirk’s master plan of worldwide genre domination, the style should begin to grow on you and it has been invigorating to be even marginally part of this Jazz excursion!
🎷 🎸 🎻 🎧 🙂
The back:
As I began listening to the new tracks between Christmas & New Year’s, I crafted a diagram of what I had in mind for this project prior to beginning work on the actual mix. The new mix model revolves around a long-form piece: ghosting & stretching the original piece & then breaking it up into intersectional slabs of sound. Other compositions are then inserted between the fragmented sections, layered on top of the ghosted edit & then rendered/mixed down into the final deliverable. This creates an echo of the original work within the mix, with the actual composition playing on top of its own subdued echo.
The next project from our studio will utilize this model within the Ambient genre.
Mixing, for our engineering crew must push the envelope & break new ground . . . or it ceases to be a creative effort & merely a functional/productional one (time to make the, uhm . . . donuts, er . . . yet another mix 😉)
The cover art was discovered during an online search & then “massaged” via iPad using Paper by Fifty Three.
A New Wave of Jazz | 61:06
01 Iceland Symphony Orchestra – BD (excerpt)
02 TONUS – Ear Duration – Set 1A
03 Benedict Taylor & Dirk Serries – Puncture Cycle, II
04 Christoph Schiller & Anouck Genthon – Zeitweise Leichter Schneefall
05 TONUS – Ear Duration – Set 1B
06 Christoph Schiller & Anouck Genthon – der Meidingersche Fullofen
07 Benedict Taylor & Dirk Serries – Puncture Cycle, VII
08 Dirk Serries & Benedict Taylor – Puncture Cycle, VI
09 Christoph Schiller & Anouck Genthon – Flaschenpost
10 TONUS – Ear Duration – Set 1D
11 Heiner Goebbels – The Fog
12 Christoph Schiller & Anouck Genthon – die Stille
. . . .(sampling excerpts from ‘HISS’, by Colin Webster & ‘Aequora’ by Icelandic Symphony Orchestra)
13 Dirk Serries – In the Beckoning Rust (overlap/fade w/ track 12)
A New Wave of Mix
02 Saturday Feb 2019
Posted in Ambient, Classical/Neo-Classical, Experimental, Mixing
Tags
Sonagrama magazine published a very introspective article on my online friend (and mix-making diva) Laima Lisauskienė. I’ve copied a portion of it below – please see the link @ the bottom for the entire article.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
I’m Laima Lisauskienė from Lithuania’s capital city, Vilnius. I studied Fine Art during my secondary education at the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art and went on to attain degrees in visual design at Vilnius Academy of Arts. Visual communication has been a key component throughout my education and professional career and remains central to my work in areas such as graphic design, corporate branding and advertising. Since 2010, I’ve been a member of the Lithuanian Graphic Design Association (LGDA). In addition, I have a long-standing interest in music and sound culture, which is the primary focus of this article.[1]
I love exploring the ways in which different media platforms can be used not only to distribute music, but also enhance communication between musicians and audiences in fresh and exhilarating ways. I am proud of my Lithuanian heritage and greatly enjoy visiting other countries and collaborating with musicians and other creative people from different cultures. In the past, I’ve had the good fortune to travel extensively in countries such as Egypt, Germany, Spain and the UK. I had a wonderful time living in Bilbao, whilst working as a design consultant for an international conference on art and technology Technarte 2015. Consulting on Technarte was both a stimulating project in itself – combining art, technology and science – as well as an ideal opportunity to explore and expand my fascination with sound and music.[2]
After working on Technarte, I returned to Vilnius in late 2015 and was invited to create radio programmes for an innovative online music streaming project Radio Kaos Caribou (RKC), based in Ermont, France. Creating my fortnightly radio show Dimensions involved investing a considerable amount of time, energy and resources into discovering and acquiring music created by talented artists working, for the most part, under the radar of the mainstream music industry. I consulted professional audio design engineers and learned new skills, using technical expertise and resources of a well equipped sound studio to create my own Dimensions mixes. As a result, the compilation audio file for each show was specifically designed and engineered for my regular one hour slot on RKC. The inaugural Dimensions #1 show was first broadcast online 26 March 2016.[3]
Whilst crafting Dimensions radio shows for RKC, I also worked on a four-day sonic arts event Music Tech Fest (MTF) Berlin 2016 and this further enhanced my appreciation of experimental music and sound culture more generally. During MTF Berlin, I was inspired by a number of artists, notably the talented electronic musician and multimedia artist Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner) after attending an exclusive preview described as ‘sketches’ of his permanent sound installation ‘Water Drops’ for Rijeka airport, Croatia.[4]
It was a joy to meet Robin and speak with him backstage at the festival. He kindly agreed to contribute a selection of his unique experimental music to include in my shows, such as the composition ‘Middlesex Voices Interlude’ featured in Dimensions #7 and, more recently, one of his latest albums ‘Mass Observation (Expanded)’. I am grateful to Robin for supporting Dimensions over the years and our continued collaboration.[5]
Overall, my positive experience of MTF included previews of work by contemporary artists – such as Benjamin Heidersberger, Bernd Deckers, David Fernandez, Greg Beller, Johannes Wernicke, Rikard Vilhelm Lindell, Robin Rimbaud and others – using the latest technologies in the sonic arts showcased at the festival, and this had a huge impact on Dimensions.
The growing experience and creative potential, discussions with practitioners and theorists in the sonic arts and design world, the expanding library of compositional works (audio, images, video and text), and the desire to reveal new music and narratives led me to realize my personal endeavour to transform Dimensions into a multifaceted, independently curated transmedia project.
© Tadas Kazakevičius, Lithuania, 2019
As the year 2017 came to end, I left everything behind, transitioning from the eclectic ethos of RKC to a tranquil space that enveloped and allowed me to dream during sleep and waking hours. A most extraordinary dimension of time and space. I completed one path and embarked on a myriad of new ones, including new directions and vistas for Dimensions. I wanted to offer contributors and listeners a new approach or, if you will, portals to the conceptual context, core themes and content of future Dimensions.
In January 2018, Dimensions entered a new phase as an independent music program broadcast monthly on Mixcloud, incorporating new and exclusive material from a diverse array of music labels.[6]
‘Being in and moving around the city, navigating through a myriad of criss-crossing lifeworlds and meaning-filled spaces. Adrift amid the fluidity of time, traversing pathways and places of an urban habitat both familiar and unknown. Fleeting memories of times past, in which the real and imagined converge and dissolve effortlessly into each other. The past is constantly being imported into the present. Broken shells of a forgotten time, fragments of ever-changing identities born of the desire to inhabit and understand the world. This urban journey and flux of experiences simultaneously evoke feelings of fragility, reticence, strangeness, and anticipation.’
. . . .
28 Monday Jan 2019
Posted in Ambient, Experimental, Mixing
A Free Application For Listening To Continous Generative Soundscapes
http://www.thomasparksolutions.com/player
In pursuit of excellence
Digressions & musings on Ambient, Electronica, Mixing & the Ether
Jazz is the Teacher - Funk is the Preacher
lead from the front
Finding Out the Truth of Things
Christian inspiration and encouragement to give a jolt of caffeine to your soul.
We started and we will finish
