elements_hull

elements_hull | Jazz, Funk & Post-Rock | 84:31

So there I was, surfing the net. Looking for images for our blog; when I came across photos of sunken ships & the remains of once majestic sailing vessels. I grabbed a few, imported them into Adobe Photo-Image, began tinkering & came up with a new ‘elements‘ mix cover.

This mix, built from the “hull” of a previously sketched/drafted ‘elements‘ play-list, incorporates several sequence revisions & is comprised of several new acquisitions as well as some old faves. I’ve been playing it a lot, lately . . . and it seems like a “keeper” to me.

Thanks & a big “shout-out” to Ronin Rhythym Records; not only for it’s primary brand (Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin) but for all the developmental bands & brands they’re shepherding!

Download

01 Stefano Battaglia & Michele Rabbia – Spirits of Myths
02 Gary Peacock – Azure
03 Hely – Chopin Space Station
04 Michele Rabbia, Gianluca Petrella & Eivind Aarset – Night Sea Journey
05 Sonar – Möbius Loop
06 Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin – Modul 41_17
07 Ginger Baker Trio – The Day the Sun Come Out
08 Dave Holland Quartet – Color of Mind
09 Sonar – Structure 3
10 Nels Cline, Tim Berne & Jim Black – Dawn of the Lawn
11 Andy Summers – Metal Dog

Lie Symmetry, by Aperus

“An extremely unique & captivating album within the “ambient/experimental” genera (edgy, glitchy & slighty caustic). I read about this on ello, clicked & immediately purchased ‘Lie Symmetry’.
It will, no doubt, make its way onto a future A.L. studio mix!
Favorite track: Marsh Lake, October.“

~Ambient Landscape, 1.16.20
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On ‘Lie Symmetry’, Brian McWilliams (aka Aperus) creates an ambient work of highly saturated color and sound, blending resonant analog synths with warm textures and a compelling selection of field recordings. Here, McWilliams works as sonic sculptor – exploring the edges, pushing the sound as far as possible and shaping the music and artwork together into a nearly synesthetic vision. Defying easy categorization, the album moves between ambient, electronic, environmental and drone music to create a wide array of emotional tones. With all of its layers and contours, Lie Symmetry is sure to reward repeated listens and appeal to fans of various ambient styles.

From the liner notes:

I first heard the term “Lie Symmetry” on the radio segment “Finding Beautiful Symmetry Near Absolute Zero”. There, physicist Alan Tennant described his study of transitions in the quantum states of deeply cooled ions – “when water goes from ice to liquid, there are transitions between these states. At the exact point where you change from one state to another, that’s where you get the really important stuff … In fact, [these transitions] are quite beautiful. The quantum aspect of the system provides a kind of a simplification, an extra layer of order that you wouldn’t expect.” This order or symmetry is known as E8 or Lie Symmetry.

I held onto Lie Symmetry as a title for years hoping to return to it for the right project – supplying diagrams, text and photos from scientific studies as part of the artwork. But ultimately, I found the research difficult to connect with and even harder to explain.

Then, unexpectedly, I found a series of photos taken by accident after a recent hike. The simplest explanation is that I left my phone in camera mode while it was in my pocket, triggering the shutter as I walked. These accidental landscapes suggest the light and contour of the high desert but are nothing more than abstractions captured from a covered lens. Many of the photos show distinct center lines with heavy bands of color and a symmetry all their own. When I saw them, I knew that the artwork I was looking for had suddenly appeared while I wasn’t looking. Maybe the physical world wasn’t behaving predictably as I walked through it that day or perhaps I projected the landscape I saw onto “film” as a kind of thought-ography.

In the end, I suppose “entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily”. It’s my hope that the music and photos link back to the concept of Lie Symmetry in a way that invites curiosity and further exploration.

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Released April 18, 2018

TRUCE, by Markus Reuter (featuring Fabio Trentini & Asaf Sirkis)

Releases January 17, 2020

Awesome & raucous reverberations with some kick ass bass lines & drum work. (and THIS from the same dude who penned the fabulous ‘Heartland’??)
https://twitter.com/AmbientLndscape/status/1215452303139975170

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MoonJune Records’ historic 100th release features a full frontal aural assault: witnessing the über-innovative guitar maestro Markus Reuter, seizing the reigns on the groundbreaking trio effort – Truce. It is only fitting that the label which has produced more than its fair share of revisionist power trio-format albums would celebrate a landmark event of this magnitude in such freewheeling, grandiose fashion. Prominently displaying textural wizardry, melodic flair, but most strikingly, bone-crushing (touch) guitar playing, Markus Reuter unleashes a musical maelstrom which — like the label producing it — thumbs its nose at both convention and pretense.

Ably supported by the fiery, inspired rhythms of ace veteran timekeeper Asaf Sirkis, and renowned Italian bass phenomenon and producer Fabio Trentini, the trio ventures through a melange of exotic sonic fare which pushes the boundaries of the traditional power trio well beyond established norms. Transcending his ‘Fripp disciple’ credentials, Reuter rips through this soaring, imaginative set in true authoritarian fashion: establishing, in a most convincing, demonstrative manner, that – beyond being one of the world’s foremost avant-garde performers and composers – Markus is one of the electric guitar’s most capable, imaginative modern representatives.

This Markus Reuter trio is a nuanced, highly-potent-yet-sensitive, forward thinking retake on the classic format — and “Truce” is the spellbinding evidence. Frequently channeling the ‘axe-wielding madman’ side of his musical persona, Markus Reuter doesn’t hold back on this album, takes no prisoners and leaves the dead to bury their own in his wake! For those with a robust palette for all things musically creative, there’s plenty to sink your teeth into here. MoonJune Records, once again, serves up an offering to its listeners that is immediately essential.

Releases January 17, 2020

Written and performed by Reuter/Trentini/Sirkis
Recorded live in the studio at La Casa Murada, Banyeres del Penedes, Spain, on May 16 2019.

Markus Reuter: Touch Guitars® AU8, Live Looping
Fabio Trentini: Wal Fretless Bass, Bass Synthesizer
Asaf Sirkis: Acoustic Drums

Recording engineer: Jesus Rovira
Post-production and mix by Fabio Trentini
Mastered by Lee Fletcher

Produced by Markus Reuter and Fabio Trentini
Executive producer, project initiator and facilitator: Leonardo Pavkovic

Artwork and design by Ritxi Ostariz
Promo shots of Markus by Hajo Müller

www.markusreuter.com
www.moonjune.com

Cafe Mor, by Scorn

I grabbed a few tracks from Scorn’s new album & am putting them to good use on some upcoming mixes . . .
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The first LP from Scorn since 2010’s Refuse; Start Fires, Cafe Mor is Mick Harris in his happy place. Which just happens to be in studio, demolishing all standards and rules for electronic bass music, and embodying the darkest, deepest sound in dub. Cafe Mor takes risks outside of the conventional Scorn apparatus, and with these risks come substantial rewards.

The album is comprised of powerful dub excursions, from the deep dark dank of the front two tracks Elephant and The Lower The Middle Our Bit, and gaining steam towards the ultraviolence of Mugwump Tea Room to Never Let It Be Said to the CRUSHING DEATH KICK of Who Are They Which One. A quick drive under the lights with a lasered out snare on Dulce, then we come across the appearance from Sleaford Mods frontman, Jason Williamson, on the standout track on the LP, “Talk Whiff”. A cruise around the Midlands sighting the Broke Fridge and Tinder Surprise, with an instant classic refrain:

“Talk Whiff // I’m a busy person // I’ve had enough of it”

Cafe Mor culminates in the all-in-one dub affair SA70, letting rip all the new mixer and FX techniques of Harris’ most recent incarnation of Scorn. The album is the official soundtrack for all smoked out backroom deals, situations and arrangements, cancelling all small tours, and mongoose rhinocharging the bass to level 24.

Tracks

1. Elephant
2.The Lower The Middle Our Bit
3. Mugwump Tea Room
4. Never Let It Be Said
5. Who Are They Which One
6. Dulce
7. TalkWhiff
8. SA70

Releases November 15, 2019

All tracks Created and Mixed by MJ Harris in the Lad’s Old Room B14
Mastered by Daniele Antezza for Dadub Mastering Studio
Artwork, Layout by Machine™
Cover photo by Helen Harris
Executive Producer: Alexandra Portaluppi

Dreaming Spaces, by Max Corbacho

Happy New Year, everyone! Here’s a great kick-starter for 2020.

Static soundscapes have always been part of Max’s work since his beginnings as an ambient artist more than two decades ago. Dreaming Spaces is a 73 min long reflection about the space where we live, balancing presence and stillness, exploring the weightless flow of sound in a serene multispace of imperceptible changes over time. The sound elements come and go just like a supernatural breeze. Max’s synthesizers create a deep game of an exotic and surreal sound perfume.

Max says:
“I have completed this piece in the last weeks of November to share with all my followers on dates of a special sensitivity. I have not used any type of sample for this sound work. I always use some brushstroke coming from my samplers but in Dreaming Spaces everything comes in real time from my synthesizers, seasoned with the effect processors. That way I have maintained an intimacy in the sound landscape that gives it a special homogeneity and absolute immersion in the space of tranquility. “

Dreaming Spaces is a celebration of the static and the deep for the change of the year, a serene illumination in the middle of the shadows and a call to life and hope. 

Released January 01, 2020

Merry Christmas & Greetings of the Season

#MerryChristmas from the A.L. Studios to your #ambient home & loved ones. Our 2020 mix lineup is shaping up nicely & we wish you the best of health, happiness & prosperity in the coming year!

Inks, by AES Dana

Ultimae’s copy really says it all. I’ve been previewing this album for the last several weeks (in the car, on house speaker & via earbuds on my Nordic Track).
There are beats for those who want them, intelligent aural design for those so inclined, ambient for folks like moi & controlled chaos for everyone else!
It is, all at once, subtle, sublime, powerful & recessed & . . . engaging!
(and perfect for the late night, high speed traversing of highways & by-ways).

AES (Vincent) has truly evolved in his field as a sound-scape leader & aural protagonist. I’m grateful to the powers that be @ Ultimae for gracing me with this seminal release.

We’ll be previewing a track from this collection on our 2020 inaugural mix
“Ilvidri_ Ilvidri“ (title revealed in January) that scratches a more ambient/space itch . . . so stay tuned!

~Ambient Landscape
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AES Dana is releasing his 8th solo album on the Ultimae imprint; glowing addition to the composer’s discography, Inks is at once a synthesis of everything that his music has been leading up to and an original step forwards in terms of expressiveness and contrast.

A self-taught electronic music composer, bass guitar and samplist, Vincent Villuis has quickly become one of the most recognizeable names in the broad-reaching “downtempo” field. With Inks, he delivers a sublime narrative album, fusion of ambient, idm, deep techno and drum’n’bass.

The finely-woven tapestries of his inspiring music are as much a dazzling exercise in rhythm chiseling, melody and texture as a pure, intuitive and intimate perspective of life’s intrigues.

Tracklisting:

01. Inks
02. Unfold
03. Nuphar Log
04. Peace Corrosion
05. Otherness (Album Edit)
06. Transparency Syndrome
07. Akacie
08. Ashen
09. The Gradual District
10. Alep Offset
11. Juniper

All tracks written, arranged, mixed and produced by Vincent Villuis
Mastered by Vincent Villuis at Ultimae Studios
Artwork by Arnaud Galoppe & Vincent Villuis
Photo credits: Anupam Lotlika

Jahre Planetarium (a remix)

This mix first appeared here, and a wonderful mix it is!

But it wasn’t “mixed”.

The songs all faded to the end . . & then the next composition would begin after a moment or 2 of silence. So I downloaded it, separated the songs into their component parts, added 2 of my own & remixed it (unless a composition specifically calls for “space”, I abhor a mixological vacuum).

It was originally constructed by Brian Housman of Stationary Travels, celebrates the 6-year anniversary of the Planetarium mix platform (congratulations!) & is re-presented here for your listening enjoyment.

75:55

01 Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno – Like I Was A Spectator
(bonus track from Apollo, on EG Records – w/ A.L. elongated ending)
02 Jane Antonia Cornish – Seascapes I (self-released)
03 A Winged Victory for the Sullen – Sullen Sonata [Ninja Tune]
04 Wil Bolton – Marram [Facture]
05 Porya Hatami, Aaron Martin & Roberto Attanasio – Rêbendan [dronarivm]
06 r beny – Seafoam and Dust (self-released)
07 Maxwell August Croy & Sean McCann – The Inlet Arc [Students of Decay]
08 Bethan Kellough – Vision [Touch]
09 Siavash Amini – What Wind Whispered to the Trees
10 Tide Jewel – The Shape of Heaven Changes Every Time You Say My Name (Tomonari Nozaki Remix)
11 Lee Yi – Safety Pins [Rottenman Editions]
12 OHIO – Always [12k]
13 Devin Underwood + Marcus Fischer – Crystal Radio [Distance Recordings]

The cover art also reminded me of this

In Separation and Isolation, by Alaskan Tapes

Released July 15, 2015 

All Vocals/Vocal Samples: Chantal Ouellette

The Construct

Wanted to get this final 2019 mix-posting up prior to the enveloping of Jingle Bells & White Christmas: a mixed-genre conglomeration, constructed on & off, for the past year & 1/2  (a tune here, another there); this is eclectic & electric . . . w/ a little post-rock, Jazz & Ambient tossed in – for a meandering, mashed-up, aural adventure.

Save up the tracks you cut from your assorted projects – when you get enough of ’em, you can cash them in for a brand new mix!
79:36

01 Markus Reuter & Sha – 0100 (excerpt)
02 The The – Lung Shadows
03 Jack Hertz – Blizzerman Airs
04 Northcape – Deep Strata
05 1 Mile North – Life Indoors
06 Brian Eno – The Real
07 Marcin Wasilewski – Oz Guizos
08 Vijay Iyer Trio – Starlings
09 Mark Selig – Call of the Divine
10 Exit Abacus – Industrial Property Office
11 Off the Sky – Tight Phases of Pollen Inertia
12 Zahn, Hatami & Mcclure – Prysma
13 Jakko Jakszyk, Robert Fripp & Mel Collins – This House
14 Jack DeJohnette, Matt Garrison & Ravi Coltrane – Alabama
15 Stefano Battaglia & Michele Rabbia – Monasterium

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It is . . . balloon!