The online electronic/experimental/ambient music magazine Futuresequence has attracted a large readership since its inception back in August 2010. The slick design, lively interviews and well informed reviews have recently been accompanied by two huge collaborative ambient releases in the free-to-download SEQUENCE series, curated by Futuresequence’s owner Michael Waring. With the success of SEQUENCE 1 & 2 it seemed almost inevitable that Futuresequence would evolve into a fully fledged netlabel and so it has come to pass with the imminent digital download release of the label’s first album by Radere – I’ll Make you Quiet.

Radere is Carl Ritger who lives near the picturesque foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colorado. He has been working as a sound artist since 2003 blending field recordings with electronic processing, effects and guitar. While Ritger apparently eschews synthesis techniques in favour of live instrumentation and organic looping this album does sound distinctly electronic and full of sound synthesis, a common result of processing original sounds to such extremes that the source can no longer be identified.

Opening track I’ll Make You Quiet sets the tone for the rest of the album where clear visual and audible influences from the mountainous scenery around his home filter down into Ritger’s expansive soundscapes, managing to sound by turns majestic, forbidding and melancholic. Soaring drone pads are gradually subsumed under an ear shredding layer of distorted white noise for much of the first track, which just barely manages to stay on the right side of listenable. The noise fortunately passes toward the end like a clearing storm and a gentle fading drone is revealed beneath.

The next three tracks have a similar format where an underlying repeated loop phrase is given dynamics through the use of effects processing with much reverb, echo and distortion thrown in to create some atmospheric pieces. Sometimes, I can’t Make Full Sentences actually manages to mimic the album cover in sound with a distinct sense of cloud rolling ominously down a dark mountain valley.

Final track Stay Away is the longest track on the album and, to my mind, the most fully developed of the tracks on offer. From a quiet start it builds into a menacing swirl with a little distortion here an there and some cold blasts of icy wind. The use of field recorded keys jangling around only serves to increase the heightened tension, as if you are following a climber, harness full of clanking belays and karabiners, into the maelstrom above.

Radere successfully manages to capture the essence of changing weather conditions, environment and scenery in this mountainous first offering from Futuresequence and provides a rock solid foundation on which the label can now grow. I look forward to traversing the many pathways of experimental music that will be on offer in the future.

Radere – I’ll Make You Quiet. Futuresequence FSoo1. Digital Download. Mastered by Jannick Schou. Released 24/1/2012  http://www.futuresequence.com/releases/ill-make-you-quiet/

Links:

Radere Blog: http://falsereactions.tumblr.com/

Radere Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/radere

Radere Bandcamp: http://radere.bandcamp.com/

The Hibernate label starts the new year in good shape with Tom Honey’s latest cure for sleep deprivation and tinnitus in the form of his new album Underneath the Stars.

The ten tracks on this release continue Tom’s  exploration of the gentler side of ambient soundscaping which started in 2009. Suffering with tinnitus himself he set out to write therapeutic pieces of music which subsume the din of our noisy world and the faint burblings of the troubled inner ear in a calm and blissful rapture. Amidst the reverbed, reversed and stretched guitar layers there are gentle electronic pulses, diffuse vocals, soft warbling strings and a host of cleverly muffled field recordings of kids playing, thunder, rain  and other sounds that interject here and there, or form a burbling undertone giving some bottom end weight to these otherwise airy pieces. The second track Another Day Out  really stood out for me with its opening gentle patter of rain and low thunder rumbles which slowly give way to gentle guitar phrasing and a wonderfully rich sounding piano and strings section joined by a choral overtone, playing out wistfully on distant kids voices.

Relaxed – check, soothed – check, drifting off to sleep with a smile on my face – oh yeah   I’d say that was mission accomplished for me.

Do check out this album whether you have tinnitus or not – you owe it to your ears !

Good Weather for an Airstrike – Underneath the Stars. Hibernate Records HB38. Released: 13th January 2012. Available digitally via Bandcamp http://goodweatherforanairstrike.bandcamp.com/  iTunes and Amazon. Also available in a limited run of 200 CD’s from Hibernate Records http://store.hibernate-recs.co.uk/products/14647

It was a pleasure to review Mark Harris’s debut solo album The Boy Observes the Ocean on the Hibernate label last year and his follow-up album has been eagerly anticipated by many. His electro-acoustic music gently unfolds from carefully manipulated sound generating software that he developed himself in the Reaktor programming environment. Always subtle, nuanced and slowly evolving his tracks manage to perfectly capture the essence of location,  environment and emotion through sound.

Harris’s search for an appropriate new home for his second album seems to have alighted on the perfect destination with Mike Cadoo’s contemporary electronic label n5MD based in Oakland, California. n5MD’s tagline is “emotional experiments in music” and I think that perfectly sums up the content of the new album An Idea of North/ Learning to Walk, which has its origins in the Winter of 2010 and was further developed throughout 2011.

The album includes five tracks which seamlessly play through as one work totaling some 44 minutes in length. Opener softly lies sleeping builds gently from blended field recordings of cars swishing past through a fine curtain of rain, birdsong and kids playing somewhere in the distance. Accompanying the field recordings there are strains of woodwind and reed instrument tones that perfectly complement this soundscape of a sleepy Sunday afternoon in suburbia.  Second track in slow motion she falls builds and develops the sound of the orchestral drones into a swelling pastoral symphony before fading to the blue-grey Atlantic swell and sea mist of an idea of north/ learning to walk. This is the central piece of the album and the longest track at just over 19 minutes and it really benefits from having that extra time to develop. Sounds of the the sea-kissed shoreline are pierced by high pitched flute like meanderings and some colossal reverb interjects here and there to give the impression of some huge hulk of a ship groaning in the wind. Processed chimes feed into the sound from about half way through and really lift that misty veil to throw some glinting sun into the mix before the tide slips and slides back into hushed white noise – this is a mesmerizing track !  Fourth track a place of safety/ all things will change is full of string swells with a slight dissonance and some hazy cathedralesque organ before playing out on a light piano refrain to great effect. The album ends where it started with towards an ending and reprise where the sounds of the first track make a barely perceptible return before vanishing again in a long fade.

This is already one of the most outstanding albums of the year for me and I was spellbound throughout. I highly recommend that you selfishly reserve some quality time for yourself to give it a listen.

Mark Harris – An Idea of North / Learning to Walk. n5MD MD195 Released on CD and Digital formats 6/2/12. http://n5md.com/discography/195/An-Idea-of-north–Learning-to-walk

NOTE: Also released on January 24th at n5MD’s digital outlet Enpeg is the accompanying album Points of Departure: Works 2004 – 2009 which collects some of Mark Harris’s earlier experiments in loop phasing with musical phrases. This album again includes multiple tracks in one seamless and constantly developing soundscape.  http://www.enpeg.com/discography.php?catno=55

Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/mark-harris

Blog: http://markharrismusic.blogspot.com/

Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/markharris

Just over a year on from his last release (collab album Flower Garden of Rejuvenation) with the electronic/experimental label Moongadget Jay Bodley brings us a new sound landscape in the form of the long player album December.

Recorded over two years while flitting between his mother’s home, his adopted home in Brooklyn NY and Blacksburg VA the five tracks are ultimately derived from piano, guitar and field recorded sounds. These basic sound sources have then been pushed through some extreme sonic manipulation and  you will find it difficult to believe they were not all the product of some vast modular synth system spewing out randomly generated sounds. The end result is a set of tracks with a distinctly electronic flavor, sometimes extremely harsh and industrial then veering off into quieter humming drones. Be warned that the pure noise sections eg. the first five minutes of Livonia, end of Cosmic Trigger 1 and parts of Frost  get quite unbearable if, like me, you have hearing that is sensitive to high pitched white noise.

There’s much to like here too though. Parts of Cosmic Trigger 1  sound like a space elevator pumping ambient bell pulses gently into your ear as you ascend on a twinkling breathy hiss of static cloud to watch a sunrise illuminate the wide horizon. Frost delivers, true to its title, the music of icicles melting over shimmering drones. December is suitably hushed and certainly the quietest track  on the album with its slow pulsing drones that build to a crescendo then fade.

For me this was more a piece of sonic art suited to an installation or a live audio-visual gig than a traditional album. Few of the sounds get a chance to fully develop and expand in the mix before they immediately morph into something else,  which is why it has that algorithmic sound generator style of sound.

Experimental listeners will no doubt soak this up though and as a piece of sonic art combining a harsh and wintry theme with nostalgic memories of home locations it does produce the goods.

A Setting Sun – December. Moongadget. Released 13/12/2011 as a digital download via iTunes www.moodgadget.com/december

http://sunhammer.bandcamp.com
http://soundcloud.com/sunhammer
http://twitter.com/sunhammer

1. FareWell Poetry – Hoping for the Invisible to Ignite (Gizeh Records)

2. Brian Eno – Drums Between the Bells (WARP)

3. FRKTL (Sarah Badr) – ATOM (http://frktl.bandcamp.com/album/atom)

4. Emphemetry – A Lullaby Hum for Tired Streets (Time Travel Opps)

5. Nigel Samways – Nine Barrow Down (Ephre Imprint)

6. Antonymes meets Slow Dancing Society – We Don’t Look Back for Very Long (Hidden Shoal Recordings)

7. Monty Adkins – Fragile Flicker Fragment (Audiobulb)

8. Maps and Diagrams – Get Lost (Time Released Sound)

9. Ekca Liena – Slow Music for Rapid Eye Movement (Dead Pilot Records)

10. Chris Watson – El Tren Fantasma (Touch)

Soundscape De Nostalgia is the debut EP by Hampshire, UK based solo artist Alex Fawcett, otherwise known as Arboretus. Having been a member of underground post-metal outfit Oceanus since 2008, Alex decided to switch his attentions towards more of a ambient/drone project whilst Oceanus are currently on an indefinite hiatus. The EP conveys some deep references towards some events Alex has experienced over the past few years, with a strong emphasis on nostalgia. Alex took strong influence from the likes of Stars of the Lid, Steve Roach, Raison d’etre, Cranes and Laki Mera.

Track Listings:

1 Hymn For Eurasian Misery Movement I – This is a moody, melancholic and dreamlike number with a warm drone background, heavily delayed and reverbed guitar and some nicely placed pulsing rhythm provided by recorded sounds. Bassy monastic choral layers push through here and there to give the piece a weighty but spacious sound and I enjoyed the female vocal samples in there too – a really nice track !

2. Cloudy Sunday – A brighter tone to this track with layers of looped guitar and the sound of children playing in the background.

3. Hymn For Eurasian Misery Movement II – Back to the haunting sound of drifting guitar melody on this one which picks up the looped melody in track 2 and stretches it out into a more developed soundscape with some dissonant phrases here and there. Ends on a lovely fade out of breathy vocal phrasing.

An accomplished debut here with plenty of room for the development of an individual style on future releases.

Listen & Download: www.hawkmoonrecords.bandcamp.com/album/  Release Date: 24th October 2011

Find more Arboretus on:

www.facebook.com/pages/Arboretus/234075199949968

www.soundcloud.com/arboretus

www.myspace.com/earlyreflectionsafawcett

Craylo first appeared as a signal on my new music radar about a year back when they were way out on the edge of the screen, just another unsigned electronic band looking for some recognition and a step up on the label ladder. One year on and i’m happy to say the signal on the radar is pulsing dead center with a release on September 2nd on the Itchy Pig Records label. Craylo are Raoul Ray and Chris Massey from London who combined their talents in 2010 to work on this new album. Raoul has played with numerous guitar based bands in the past including My Friend Brian, while Chris has released electronica with Boltfish Records as the artist Taborshell.

Trying to find a niche in the morass of electronica releases these days is no easy task but Craylo appear to have achieved this with apparent ease thanks to their distinctive blend of melodic acoustic and electric guitar, synth pads, vocal samples, sweet piano lines, tight punchy rhythms and some well-placed use of glitch elements. It’s a difficult sound to pigeonhole, which is always good in my book, and probably veers toward the melodic techno-ambient area with a hint of cinematic and nu-jazz thrown in. Every track has great development with some neat transitions that often take you in a completely different direction, indicating a healthy regard for experimentation that I hope these guys explore further. No sounds are overwhelming and the electronic and guitar based elements have plenty of space to express themselves in each track.

Define by Light is the stand-out track for me on the album with its unobtrusive vinyl crackle intro and airy swirling synth lines building to a punchy beat driven section that breaks down into glitch then builds again to a soaring play-out mix of piano, strings, guitar and synths over a driving beat – a fantastic piece ! Other tracks worthy of mention for me would be Plinky with its subtle use of female vocal and movie/broadcast dialogue samples in the mix, Losing Your Reflection which is probably the most gently  ambient and understated piece on the whole album plus Never Empty with its catchy melodic guitar line that sweeps through the track on a bed of foot-tapping glitched rhythms that constantly morph around the central theme.

This is an uplifting and optimistic album full of great ideas and so refreshing after the mass of rather nostalgic or doom laden releases that seem to be the norm these days. Put this album on in the car, put it on in the house, just put it on – this will brighten your day !

Craylo – Headtime Stories. Itchy Pig Records ITCHY 014. Released September 2nd 2011. http://www.junodownload.com/products/1817224-02.htm

Craylo – Itchy Pig Records  http://www.itchy-pig.com/page18.html

Craylo – Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000842074196#!/Craylo

Craylo – Soundcloud  http://soundcloud.com/craylo

Craylo – Define By Light video by So Money Productions on You Tube  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhA0uYMEdeE

Craylo – Podcast by Craylo for Itchy Pig records indicating their musical influences http://itchypig.podomatic.com/entry/2011-07-29T01_00_53-07_00

The Somehow Recordings micro label Twisted Tree Line (TTL) has gone into overdrive lately with up to nine 3″ CDr postcard releases appearing per month! This popular release format seems to be attracting an ever increasing roster of well known artists to the TTL label and the collaboration between Bartosz Dziadosz (aka Pleq) and Marihiko Hara on The Dawn Came Behind the Fog is due for imminent release on 15th August.

Both artists have been very active on the collaboration scene of late with Pleq working alongside Spheruleus (Futuresequence), Offthesky, Anne Rose Carter (Rural Colours) and Natalia Noelia Siebuła (Heat Death Records) while Marihiko contributed to the beautiful Prosa release with Tomas Phillips on the Tench label which I reviewed on here last year.  The TTL release is a perfect marriage of Pleq’s glitchy electronic melancholy and Marihiko’s processed piano and other sounds to the point where it is impossible to distinguish who created what on each of these tracks.

The five tracks on this 20 minute EP begin somewhat quirkily with One Last Dream Of Being On This Universe which includes DIY hammering and a bit of bottle smashing mixed with vinyl crackle, glitchy sounds and some panning processed piano. Having recovered from this enigmatic opener the next three tracks explore a more familiar experimental landscape of subtle hisses, electrical interference, vinyl crackle, processed piano meanderings, plucked strings and breathy white-noise washes over lightly textured drone backgrounds. The final track  Place And Time Beyond The Mind has a dystopian air with a quiet piano and rain soaked intro descending slowly into chaos as the piano notes become ever more discordant and doom laden while being chopped up by rattling tin sounds, blips and other electrical noise.

The EP as a whole is pleasantly devoid of melody and familiar musical structures with the more unusual bookend tracks surrounding a gentle experimental ambient core that recalls the sound of Marihiko’s much praised Nostalghia release on the Audiomoves label back in 2010.

This is a very successful collaboration which would be worth revisiting with a longer release in the future.

Pleq and Marihiko Hara – The Dawn Came Behind The Fog. 3″ postcard CDr limited to 100 copies on Twisted Tree Line. Released 15/8/11. http://www.twistedtreeline.co.uk/page2.html

My thanks to Kate Carr for the opportunity to take part in the creation of this compilation. I’ll let Kate describe the background to the project in her own words……..

This is a compilation about a small beach in Sydney , Australia called Burning Palms.  Accessible only on foot, It is the home of black cockatoos, many palm trees and a natural figure eight rock pool. Most contributers haven’t been there. For them this compilation has been a process of imagination and fantasy, for others it has been one of nostalgia, remembering and forgetting.

This compilation is about the process of imbuing a place with meaning, a common theme in ambient music. But rather than aiming to uncover some inner essence of the landscape this compilation looks at how this act can be just as much a work of fiction as one of fact.

Tracks by: Broken Chip, Savaran, Kate Carr, Sublamp, All N4tural, Manrico Montero, Adam WIlliams, Darren McClure, Every Bolt Rumbling.  Mastering: 12k

Burning Palms is a free download, but if you like it please consider donating a small amount to help cover the mastering costs. To download it visit here: http://flamingpines.com/releases.htm  You can also make a donation on this page if you want to.

Praise for previous Flaming Pines releases:

Summer Floods – Kate Carr
“Carr’s work explores unconventional sounds, and challenges herself and
her listener to push outside their comfort zone. The vivid cinematic
quality it possesses creates a dramatic edge, intensely visual and
memorable.”      Future Sequence

Listen to the weather – Various Artists
“As a whole, the tracks on Listen to the Weather display a homogeneity of
structural approach, with most artists favouring an introductory drone,
a scattering of digital debris (the results of the weather data
sonification) followed by the interplay of melodic material drawn from
the mostly well-disguised song sample. However the manipulation of this
harmonic material offers many surprises and makes this album a
particularly pleasurable listening experience and an interesting
addition to the area of ecologically focused sound practice.”       RealTime Arts

With all the grim news in the world lately I felt like doing something bright and cheerful and the result was the track ‘Summerday’ for the Feedbackloop Label’s postcard series of releases. Head on over to http://feedbacklooplabel.tumblr.com/  where you can listen to the track, download it and also see the matching image and poem that Leonardo Rosado created for the track. The track is also available on Soundcloud here http://soundcloud.com/fblsoundcards/fpc009-summerday-by-savaran Lots of other great artists have contributed single tracks to this project and it would be well worth your time scrolling down the above webpages to listen to the other entries.