Emergence; Experimental Music from Vietnam

“Emergence” is an introductory compilation of experimental music from active Vietnamese artists, foreign artists who are based in Vietnam and those who collaborate with Vietnamese artists. This compilation features ten tracks of both established and emerging artists from all backgrounds.

Experimental music is a genre that has been overlooked in Vietnam. The number of artists active in Hanoi, Saigon and abroad is small. The first generation of experimental musicians appeared in Hanoi in the 1990s. Late 2000s and early 2010s, the second generation of Vietnamese experimental musicians started developing.

Up until now the local scene is still lacking resources, awareness and appreciation for experimental music in Vietnam. Our emergence is not only to claim our musical identities but also to open up new possibilities, exploration and potential future collaboration. For us, experimental music is a direct way to construct our sonic language; to freely express a complex range of personal experience, thoughts and emotions.

………………………………………………………..~Nhung Nguyen, Hanoi, Vietnam

Released April 25, 2018

Curated by Nhung Nguyen
Art by Dan Ni
Mastered by Jason Corder
All tracks by listed artists.
.

Advertisements

SEQUENCE4, by Various Artists

SEQUENCE 4 is the fourth installment of the Sequence series. Continuing the series started almost a year ago, SEQUENCE 4 showcases some of the finest artists from around the world, working in the genres of ambient, drone, minimal, electronic and modern classical.

.
The compilation remains free and is curated from just over 130 artist submissions and like it’s predecessors, weighs in at 42 tracks.Release artwork is available as framed print, stretched canvas or mobile phone case here: society6.com/aphomic/SEQUENCE4_Print

Credits

Released June 27, 2012
Curated by Ed Hamilton and Michael Waring

.

Installation Music Mix

Brian Eno will release ‘‘Music For Installations” on May 4th.

In commemoration of that, our studio engineers have crafted for me a personal mix (residing on my phone & iPad) which is perfect for computing, writing, contemplating, cleaning firearms, reading the U.S. Constitution, heterosexual love-making, napping, dithering and/or staring out windows — utilizing several fine atmospheres from Mr. Eno’s v-a-s-t ambient collection.

This simply condenses several long-form pieces into something easily managed & looped if a longer listening session is required.

34:18

1. Kazakhstan (excerpt)
2. Reflection (excerpt)
3. LUX (excerpt)
4. Compact Forest Proposal, Condition 5
5. Music for Installations/Kazakhstan (fade-in excerpt II)
6. Left Where it Fell (excerpt)

Awase, by Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin

Looking forward to the 5.04.18 release of this . . .
#MoreRonin!
_____________________________________________________________

‘Awase‘, a term from martial arts, means “moving together” in the sense of matching energies, a fitting metaphor for the dynamic precision, tessellated grooves and balletic minimalism of Nik Bartsch’s Ronin.

Six years have passed since the last release from the Swiss group (though Nik Bartsch did release ‘Continuum’ with his group Mobile on ECM in 2016). In the interim, trimmed from quintet to quartet size and with new bassist Thomy Jordi fully integrated, Ronin has become a subtly different band.

The pianist/composer speaks of a new-found freedom and flexibility in the approach to the material, with “greater transparency, more interaction, more joy in every performance”. The freedom here extends to revisiting early Bartsch modules alongside new compositions including, for the first time on a Ronin record, a piece by reedman Sha.

After “Modul 60,” the reflective and tranquil opener to Awase, from pianist Nik Bärtsch’s groove-metric quartet Ronin, “Modul 58” comes at you with such an insistence and power that it leaves you, after its persistent eighteen minutes, catching your breath, marveling at how you went from zero to mach 10 in the blink of an eye.

Bärtsch describes the music of Ronin as “Zen Funk” or “Ritual Groove Music” and, as evidenced on previous thrillers including 2002’s Randori (Ronin Rhythm Records), ’08’s Holon (ECM Records), and ’12’s Ronin Live (ECM), the keyboardist’s in no way pulling our legs or playing with our heads.

Play with our heads the music does, though, in a dizzying, grand way, employing simple patterns unconcerned with downbeats or expectations and mantra-like modules (or “Moduls,” as Bärtsch chooses to title his works) of sheer minimalist groove that expand, contract and expand again at the whim and will of both composer and players.

Positioned, as it is, after the maelstrom of “Modul 58, Sha’s “A,” is a languid, darkly hypnotic work, its theme offered up repetitively as the band interprets each go ’round in shifting, intrinsic ways. “A” also serves as an oasis from the growing dance of “Modul 36,” a flowing, firing-on-all-cylinders rave that, if you weren’t familiar with the vision of Ronin, you might suspect was out of reach for this brainy quartet.

Ditto “Modul 34,” with Rast holding a hard rock ‘n’ roll center as Bärtsch goes unhinged. It is a tune that blends rock and jazz with a stunning ease seldom found since the fusion heyday of the mid-’70s. “Modul 59,” after the fashion of the opener, takes us out quietly, with Bärtsch and company knowing full well that we need the time to recover from the rush.
~All About Jazz

Awase was recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the south of France in October 2017 and produced by Manfred Eicher. It is released on CD and on a double LP (180g vinyl) with a free download code.

Personnel:
Nik Bartsch (piano)
Sha (bass clarinet, alto saxophone)
Thomy Jordi (bass)
Kaspar Rast (drums)

Vegir, by Dominique Vantomme feat. Tony Levin, Michel Delville

Dominique Vantomme of VANTOMME, is a pianist, keyboardist, composer, band leader, music educator and producer, equally well known for his work with many European pop and rock acts as for being the jazz piano instructor at the Music Conservatory in Kortrijk, Belgium.

This album was born from his nomadic adventures: traveling in 2016 to see Stick Men, in Holland, and meeting up with old pal, MoonJune’s Leonardo Pavkovic; and shortly thereafter befriending the legendary bassist/stickist Tony Levin of the King Crimson, Peter Gabriel and Stick Men hall of fame. In the studio session which shortly followed, Dom and Tony were joined by veteran MoonJune artist, also from Belgium, Michel Delville (The Wrong Object; douBt; Machine Mass), who was recruited on guitar, and another Belgian musician, Maxime Lenssens, tasked with holding down the timekeeping duties.

The spontaneity and freshness of this sizzling, high-altitude set reflects the equally unpretentious manner in which the session itself came together. Tackling some decidedly hip musical sketches of  Dominique Vantomme, the band is given full artistic liberty – and with all participants in top form, the resulting music weaves and winds its way across paths previously untrodden … in stunning fashion, and with sure footing! In the truest MoonJune tradition, “Vegir” thumbs its nose at convention and showcases these seasoned veteran musicians at the top of their game: with the skill set, bravery and chutzpah to follow their instincts and, in the process, allow the music to seek out and ultimately capture its own form. It slinks; it growls; it stalks; it devours! It grooves; it stutters; it holds you in suspense, then explodes! (… think ‘juggling chainsaws’ in the sonic realm.

I’ll be using the final track, ‘Odin’s Wig‘ on an upcoming (June) elements ether-jazz edition.

Credits

Released January 5, 2018

DOMINIQUE VANTOMME: Fender Rhodes Electric Piano, Piano, Mini Moog, Mellotron
MICHEL DELVILLE: Electric Guitar
TONY LEVIN: Bass Guitar, Chapman Stick
MAXIME LENSSENS: Drums
Produced by DOMINIQUE VANTOMME
Recorded by Pascal Deweze at Studio Jezuz, Hoboken, Belgium, October 29th 2016.
Mixing by Fritz Sunderman.
Mastering by Mark Wingfield.
Photos by Perry Schrijvers.
Artwork by Marcel van der Heyden.

plastiK + waX

I decided to kick-off the 2018 mixing years with some Rock & Roll (w/ a little pop, punk & alternative-rock thrown in).

An enduring rock (and out-of-ambient genera) mix made back in 2007 & remastered a few months ago, adding the Blondie, Pretenders & White Stripes tracks (7 of the 22 tracks ripped from my vinyl collection).

Kids…this was an era when Rock & Roll ruled & musicians plied their craft
(and this project represents perhaps the finest R&R mix you’ll download this year – or any other!)
;- ) / 75:49

01 Bachman-Turner Overdrive – Not Fragile
02 The THE – Dogs of Lust
03 Radiohead – The Bends
04 The Beatles – I am the Walrus
05 Guided by Voices – Big Chief Chinese Restuarant
06 The Greenberry Woods – Trampoline
07 David Bowie – Fall Dog Bombs the Moon
08 The Breeders – Roi
09 Big Head Todd & the Monsters – Groove Thing
10 Cranes – Lilies
11 School of Fish – Three Strange Days
12 Blondie – Youth Nabbed as Sniper
13 Catherine Wheel – Chrome
14 Lemonheads – Ceiling Fan in my Spoon
15 Crowded House – Locked Out
16 Dada – Dim
17 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – I Need to Know
18 Elvis Costello & Glenn Tilbrook – From a Whisper to a Scream
19 David Lindley – Mercury Blues
20 The Pretenders – Mystery Achievement
21 The White Stripes – Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine
22 Led Zeppelin – Boogie with Stu

Birch Trees, made w/ Paper by 53

I occasionally paint via my iPad drawing app, Paper; I Advance Masked, Let The Power Fall . . . & this one, simply entitled ‘Birch Trees.”
The app contains a marker, color pencil, charcoal pencil, paint brush, ink pen & several cutting & pasting tools – very nice to work with!

s t i l l

‘s t i l l‘ . . . “like the moon on the breast of the new fallen snow . . .“

Ambient & Drone; inspired by the David Gerard track, the Kloob & the Klotzsch.
This final 2017 release should be just the thing for a quiet New Year’s Day listen as you hang out in your pajamas with a hot cup of tea, planning your 2018 calendar [#MakeItCount!]
81:46

01 Steve Roach – Stars Begin
02 Peter James – Into the Invisible
03 Terra Ambient – Wisp (excerpt)
04 Glos – Figurant (excerpt)
05 Chris Russell – Dolmen (excerpt)
06 Kloob – Thin Thread
07 Oophoi + Ran Kirlian – Breath (excerpt)
08 Mendel Kaelen – Sunayaca-tala
09 Brian Eno & Leo Abrahams – Late Anthropocene
10 Headphone Commute – Residuum (mix excerpt)
11 David Gerard – Outer Spaces 1 (treated excerpt)
12 Jonathan Hughes – Terminal
13 Beautumn – Bordeaux
14 Emil Klotzsch – Aussennacht

ethereal skyline

ethereal skyline | ambient/drone | 71:57

With Thanksgiving upon us (USA). . .here’s an ethereal, meandering, tryptophan-laden mix for headphone use after you..[begrudgingly] push away from that last slice of pie @ the holiday table & locate a comfortable, pillow-enabled couch for your post meal nap…Zzzzzzzz
;- )

01 Loscil – Sous Marin
02 Bing Sattelites – Cloud Surfing (excerpt)
03 Emil Klotszch – Tiefe Berge, part 2
04 metlay! – On Little Cat Feet (excerpt)
05 Eyes Cast Down – Exquisite Divination of Patterns
06 Julio Di Benedetto – Still Quiet After
07 Brian Eno & Harold Budd – The Plateaux of Mirror
08 Leonardo Rosado – Upon Contact Reworked
09 Chris Russell – Phlox
10 Dead Beat – Open My Eyes that I May See
11 Mathieu Lamontagne – Pourquoi Faire
12 Bienfay – Mein Entschluss Anders zu Leben
……………………..(My decision to live differently)
13 Aphex Twin – Blur

A.A.R.*

[ *Ambient Audio Respite]

#Ambient audio/mix construction provides a respite from today’s cultural chaos that can be revisited simply by pressing ‘play’! ▶️
😉☂️🎹🎸🎧🎶

— Ambient Landscape (@AmbientLndscape) October 17, 2017