Savaran track ‘Hidden Places’ on Burning Palms compilation at Flaming Pines Label

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

Savaran track ‘Summerday’ – Free Download on Feedbackloop Label

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.

Review: Keith Freund – Constant Comments

The Experimedia label run by Jeremy Bible has an uncanny ability for finding electro-acoustic artists whose creative musical output seems to originate from an almost symbiotic relationship with their surroundings, Keith Freund is one of those artists. Normally playing guitar as one half of Akron Ohio based husband and wife duo Trouble Books, here Freund plays solo over 12 tracks full of wonderfully detailed field recordings from everyday life in his neighbourhood.

If I could drag an electric guitar, 1970′s Elka Rhapsody string synth, field recorder, Ebow and amp through my local neighbourhood, recording on the way, this album is probably close to what it would sound like, but that is probably an experiment too far where I live!  With Freund’s guidance you feel like you are right there listening to light rain on the car roof, on the sidewalk being sidestepped by passers-by, down at the poolside, out in the garden regaled by birdsong and church bells, on that train journey.  It could be the diary of a great day out, but we know it is actually snatches of recordings spanning 2007 – 2010. Throughout these sound diaries you are accompanied by the occasionally melancholic, but usually cheerfully neutral, sound of Freund’s accompaniment on guitar or the wonderfully wobbly Elka synth. There are some tracks in between without field recordings like Horses on Air and For All Our Dead Pets, but for me it is the tracks with the recordings that really work on this album. Given that the final recordings were transferred to cassette tape and then onto vinyl you might have expected some sound degradation, but other than some nice warm and rather colourful hiss the final render by Taylor Deupree is excellent.

I thoroughly enjoyed this brief meander through Freund’s local soundscapes and I can see this release being a fast seller amongst fans of the electro-acoustic and field recording scenes. You have to love those quirky song titles and the playout on the last track is guaranteed to make you smile. Freund will shortly be touring Europe in August so the potential for hearing some of the album in a live situation is quite an exciting and real prospect.  Hopefully there will be a digital release for those of us, like me, who do not own a vinyl player and I was thankful for mp3′s to review this album. I highly recommend you obtain a copy of this superb release.

Keith Freund – Constant Comments. Experimedia EXPLP019. Released August 16th 2011 on 12″ vinyl LP. Limited to 300 copies with 100 in green vinyl. Mastered by Taylor Deupree  http://www.experimedia.net/index.php?main_page=product_music_info&cPath=1&products_id=3668

Artists Website: http://barkandhiss.com/trblbks/

The full album is currently streaming for two weeks on the Fluid Radio website here http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2011/07/keith-freund-constant-comments-excusive-full-album-stream/

Review: Jonathan Read – Volans 2

An expat now living in Merriwa, Australia, Jonathan Read is well versed in electro-acoustic dronescapes with a previous release on the Ephre label and recent releases on Enpeg and Under the Spire.

This new Ephre Imprint offering has hints of his previous Volans excursion from earth into the vacuum of space through deep evolving drone textures.  The opener Patterns Emerge consists of overlapping guitar-based and heavily reverbed drone textures with a field recording of what sounds to me like someone pattering around in mud. Like a Dream is, well, like a dream – soft industrial hisses of steam and ticking machinery merge with a deep bass underlay to carry you off on a distinctly meditative journey. The third track Tree on Moon contrasts metallic chime drones and a distant fading click with an underbelly of guitar laden washes of sound cocooned in a gentle amniotic pulse. This piece unfolds nicely and is for me the most developed track on this release. The EP closes with Pass which has an altogether darker atmosphere presenting a nightmarish soundscape of breathy hiss and a deep growling rumble that evolves throughout.

This is a rewarding 21 minute listen for fans of darker, spacious electro-acoustic dronescapes.

Jonathan Read – Volans 2. Ephre Imprint (EPH09). Released on cdr May 2011.  http://www.ephreimprint.eu/releases.htm

 

Review: PJE – Hidden Stone

PJE is UK based artist Phil Edwards who entered the electronic music scene in 2006 after a musical hiatus of five years. Formerly a guitar player for various indie bands in the 1990′s he now works on solo projects in the electronic and ambient genres.  His four track EP Hidden Stone has been released on Patpong Records based in Bucharest, Romania and follows a string of releases since 2007 on labels including October Man Recordings, Cold Room and Elpa.

At just under 20 minutes this is a calm and undemanding listen that will easily accompany a spare moment of relaxation in your day with tracks constructed from repeated acoustic guitar phrases, synth chords and textures, occasional processed vocals and minimalist analog style (think TR-606) drum machine beats.  The simple layered structure of the tracks belies a clever meld of field recorded sounds with muffled beats, melodic guitar and synth overtones that gives  a slightly melancholy, but also restive and contemplative quality to the tracks. I particularly enjoyed Diffract with its distorted female vocals, pulsing morse code rhythm, spare synth-choir style chords and the doom laden piano notes at the end.

This EP is well worth a listen and despite being released in February 2011 you can still pick up the download at Patpong Records and at all the other major download emporiums eg, Beatport, iTunes etc. If you like PJE’s work then do also have a look at his latest EP release Abstractions on Twistedtreeline which was released on 10th July.

PJE – Hidden Stone. Patpong Records PPR039DL. Released 25/2/2011 http://patpongrecords.com/01_pages/04_artists/pje.html

PJE – Abstractions. Twistedtreeline. Released 10/7/11 http://www.twistedtreeline.co.uk/page9.html

PJE – Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/PJE/162631640461914?sk=wall

PJE – Soundcloud http://soundcloud.com/pjetunes

New Release! Savaran – Resonances EP

It’s release day for my new EP ‘Resonances’ over at the FeedbackLoop label here http://feedbacklooplabel.blogspot.com/2011/05/fbl014-savaran-resonances.html Do make sure you grab the seperate PDF download too as this provides some detailed background info. on the inspiration behind each track. Hope you like the sounds and all feedback is most welcome. I will leave you with the excellent release notes/review by Michael Waring………

Welsh electroacoustic artist Mark Walters aka Savaran comes to Feedbackloop with a five track EP ‘Resonances’ after a number of netlabel releases over the past year. Utilising both digital and analogue instrumentation with field recordings, samples and an array of effects, Mark develops refined micro-soundscapes, tightly knit into granular textures which demand an attentive ear. In Resonances he marks waypoints in the contours of his own life, describing personal experiences – memories of events and locations – and his own interests in history, astronomy and geology.

Opener ‘The Forest’ is closely grounded in nature, a perpetually moving and shifting piece – being more and more ethereal. ‘Aurora’ cinematically depicts the sound of the lights in the sky created by particles passing through the atmosphere. A granular focus that is present also in the micro movements suggested in ‘Tectonic’. Constructed literally from the vibrations of earthquakes through a custom built digital effect, the track offers a kind of cathartis, made all the more relevant with the recent happenings in Japan. ‘Graaw’ is a childhood place remembered and revisted, illustrated with a careful eye, and representative of Mark’s unique observational style.

In last track ‘Delphic’ we’ve travelled as far from earthly groundings as we can, to otherworldly dimensions set within Greek mythology. Delphi was the seat of the oracle, housed in the temple of Apollo. Inspired by this historic reference – Mark translates these dramatic visuals into an exciting sonic experience.

Resonances is deeply personal, born from historic and personal interest which reveals itself to be emotionally evocative and intriguing for the listener. By allowing us this intimate insight
into these parts of himself, Mark achieves a brilliant expression of his own history, memory and self.

Savaran – Facebook Artist Page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Savaran/119943491371699?v=wall

Savaran – Soundcloud http://soundcloud.com/savaran

Savaran Twitter – http://twitter.com/#!/Savaran_Music

Review: Nigel Samways – Nine Barrow Down EP

Now here’s a great concept for an EP – base the musical content on a moment of ‘inexplicable otherness’ experienced in your teenage years at a place of great significance in prehistory, combine that with samples of music by ’two eminent and quintessentially English composers of differing creed’, rework all of that with your own creative content and place a great photo of some transient outdoor artwork (by K. Imanaka) on your cover. And the result of all of this is ? Well, one of the most intriguing and appealing EP’s I have reviewed so far.

Nigel Samways runs the Ephre Imprint label and hales from Brighton and the South East. His previous works are firmly from the sound art stable of the electroacoustic scene and releases have appeared on Authorised Version, Hibernate, Camomille, Taalem, October Man, Experimedia and Ephre Imprint. Much of the early work focussed on sound recordings captured in European cities such as London, Paris and Venice which were processed into evocative soundscapes capturing the essence of each location in a sonic narrative.

The otherwordly sounds encountered in the Nine Barrow Down EP derive from a very personal but unfathomable experience in Samways’ youth close to Nine Barrow Down near Purbeck in Dorset. The back cover of the CD gives a bit more detail explaining that an undefined shape was seen crossing an open field during evening supper with just the sound of a radio broadcast to break the spell of a fleeting moment of strangeness. I was immediately struck by the parallels here with the early 20th century composer John Ireland’s supernatural experience on Harrow Hill in the Sussex Downs where he reports witnessing ghostly children dancing during a picnic lunch – this event was later incorporated into the piece called Legend for Piano and Orchestra (1933).

The first track on the EP has six distinct parts alternating between the unsettling vocal and sonic textures of the opener, which clearly represents supernature at work, while quiter pastoral interludes with birdsong and soft ambient pulses conjure up scenes of a lazy afternoon picnic in the countryside. The sampled orchestral works are so altered from their original form that I could not distinguish them amidst the shifting layers of electronic and field recorded sounds that dominate the piece although some ethereal trumpets may be a remnant. There are hints of melodic phrasing throughout this piece which are subsumed by warm analog synth lines, highly manipulated field recordings and careful use of digital effects. The second track has a wonderully ritualistic flavour full of shakers, rattles, mechanical noises, a female shriek and an owl-like hooting woodwind which all ends very abruptly as if the ghostly ancient revellers have been surprised by some visitor from the modern day stumbling onto the scene. I sense some playful fun in this track with our myth laden and folkloric past.

The EP concept as a whole just works and I was totally drawn in by the sounds and the storyline. The cover art is inspired, depicting as it does a running human form in long grass covered by gossamer threads of some microbial mesh that seems to be consuming the body and drawing it into the ground – great stuff ! I was so excited by Samways’ work that I spent some of the weekend hunting down his other works to date, many of which are freely downloadable. I have produced a list of locations for these earlier works below. This EP comes highly recommended and I hope Samways explores more from our rich past in his future works.

Nigel Samways – Nine Barrow Down. Ephre Imprint Eph08. Released 11/3/11 on CD. Running time: 21 minutes http://www.ephreimprint.eu/releases.htm

Earlier Works:

Gazing of the Owl-God EP - Planetarium Records, 2007 – Free Download here http://www.planetariumrecords.com/plane_arium/018.html

Mestre Full Stop EP – Camomille, March 2008 – Free Download here http://nigelsamways.bandcamp.com/album/mestre-full-stop-ep

Veilleur De Nuit EP – Experimedia, January 2009 – Free Download here http://nigelsamways.bandcamp.com/album/veilleur-de-nuit-ep

Silver Rain, Green Trees EP - Ephre Imprint, December 2009 – Listen to demo and buy from here http://ephreimprint.bandcamp.com/album/nigel-samways-silver-rain-green-trees-ep

Poor Henrietta Marie EP – Hibernate, February 2010 – Free Download here http://ephreimprint.bandcamp.com/album/nigel-samways-poor-henrietta-marie-ep

Illumine EP – Taalem, April 2010 – Buy from here http://www.taalem.com/alm66.htm

Streetcleaner EP – October Man Recordings, 2010 – Download parts 1 and 3 on his Soundcloud pages here http://soundcloud.com/nigelsamways

Review: Listening Mirror – Even in the Quietest Moments

Jeff Stonehouse has been recording under the Listening Mirror name since October 2009 in collaboration with the classically trained multi-instrumentalist Kate Tustain and their output has been steady and well received with releases on aReW Records, Somehow Recordings, Heat Death Records, Rural Colours and Entropy Records. Although Kate Tustain departed from the collaboration in January 2011 she provided vocals on this self-released 3″ CD which is limited to 100 copies.

Jeff’s artwork is the first thing you see when the CD arrives on its postcard – a glowing photographic cover of stark leafless trees which suggests we are in for some warm drone textures punctuated by Jeff’s trademark meandering piano notes and sparse melodic chords. Originally intended as a full 45 minute piece called ‘The Lovechild Symphony’, which was started over a year ago, this work has now been split into two parts with the second EP titled ‘Your Laughter Flutters in my Veins’ due out later this year.

Even in the Quietest Moments opens with lush symphonic strings that soar with a panning deep drone in the background before settling into layers of sweeping synth ambience and soft processed noise. There is a hushed epic quality here that would suit some historical or fantasy film/game soundtracks  and this carries throughout the whole piece which is thoroughly dreamy in character. Kate’s voice adds a haunting quality as it fades in and out of the layered drone textures while piano notes thread through the faded tapestry here and there along with vocal sound recordings of what sounds to me like someone shouting out numbers. The 22 minute track winds down effortlessly on sustained angelic vocals and gentle ripples of piano. Considering this track is edited down from parts of a much longer work the finished piece works really well and feels complete. A fine piece of music then and the second part is much anticipated.

Listening Mirror – Even in the Quietest Moments. 3″ CD of 100 copies plus download version. Running time: 21:52. Self Released on 4/4/2011

Available at:

Bandcamp:  http://listening-mirror.bandcamp.com/track/even-in-the-quietest-moments-2 (Use email on this page to contact Jeff direct for a CD copy)

Stashed Goods: http://www.store.fluid-radio.co.uk/2011/04/listening-mirror-even-in-the-quietest-moments-3-3-50/

Norman Records: http://www.normanrecords.com/cd/124685-listening-mirror-even-in-the-quietest-moments

Review – Heat Death Records: Heat 18 Zvuku, Heat 19 Listening Mirror, Heat 21 Gimu

Three Heat Death Records EP reviews for you this time with two releases from March including Zvuku and Listening Mirror, plus one from Gimu to be released in April.

Zvuku (pronounced za-voo-coo and meaning ‘of sound’) is the Irish and Dublin based artist Karl McGrath. Karl was involved in the 90′s/early 00′s electronica and dance music scene, but became disillusioned with the direction of beat driven dance styles in the last decade and started to turn to ambient music for new inspiration. His last release ‘Half Full’ on Rural Colours was well received.

The Midway Slump release on Heat Death is a three track EP full of lush classically influenced ambient drones. The sounds originate from piano, violin, cello and acoustic guitar but are transformed by an array of reverb, echo and octave shifting effects into beds of shimmering and pulsing strings with occasional violin and piano phrases breaking through. The first track, Mid, pulses gently on bowed strings and has something of the wave-like rhythm of the sea about it with a short appearance by bright acoustic guitar at the end. The opening to the second track, Way, sounds like a requiem with its doom laden tone but this lifts to a more hopeful vibe half way through. The last track, Slump, was the best on the EP for me with its rising strings accompanied by gentle bells providing a hint of rhythm while cello phrases pan around over the top – wonderful stuff!    

Listening Mirror (Jeff Stonehouse) takes up where Zvuku finishes with his EP ‘Spires, Spirals and Stones’. This is a two-track release of Jeff’s distinctive piano-drone led ambient and field recorded sounds which is full of dreamy nostalgia and faded memories.

Distant voices echo amidst a quiet pulsing drone with piano chord phrases and masses of spacial reverb on opening track ‘Glass Slopes’. The second title track starts quietly and builds on heavily reverbed piano while strings shimmer in the background. Recordings of what sounded to me like someone stomping around in a spacious room while peeling sellotape off the walls and holding a sparkler firework  join the mix and the track fades out on panning airy drones and echoing voices. Yet another wholly enjoyable and restful release then from Listening Mirror.

Gimu’s ’A Prayer for Time’ was the surprise release for me of these three offerings. I can find almost nothing about this artist on the web except that he is a sound designer from Brazil who had a debut release titled ‘Beluga’ on the Audio Gourmet label in December 2010. As with Zvuku, Gimu had an earlier musical career in electronic pop, but moved away from this scene when his band ‘Terrorturbo’ broke up. Like so many other strays from the electronica scene he moved to more sedate musical explorations in the contemporary ambient world and has a particular interest in repetitive, mind-expanding soundscaped works.

The three tracks on ‘A Prayer for Time’ are all epic soundscapes of spacious and celestial electronic drone. My skull does not feel like a suitable chamber for these colossal sounds to reverberate in and you really need to take a wall of amps out into some vast natural arena and blast the tracks out there for the full effect while looking up and imagining there are two extra suns and a few extra moons hanging in the midday sky – that’s what it sounds like ! 

All three of the above releases are available from Heat Death Records here http://www.heatdeathrecords.co.uk/ as limited CD releases, or as downloads on the Bandcamp page. Zvuku and Listening Mirror are available now and the  Gimu EP will be released in mid April 2011.

Review: Message to Bears – Departures

Message to Bears is the accomplished multi-instrumentalist Jerome Alexander based in Oxford, UK and ‘Departures’ is a heavy vinyl reissue by Dead Pilot Records of his 2009 limited edition debut CD release.  

OK – so i’m probably not the best person to ask for a review of an entirely acoustic album given that this blog focusses on the various electronic shades of music. It was therefore with some trepidation that I pushed the play button on this promo download fully expecting some hideous neo-folkery to emanate from the speakers.

But no, hang on, this isn’t supposed to be happening, i’m smiling and relaxing back in the chair as the sheer force of personality in the album wins me over with each successive track. To be sure, there are some small sections that don’t really grab me like the do dah and ooo ee ooo style improv vocals on four of the tracks, but the instrumental melodies on this album are sublime and compelling.  Guitars and violin fold comfortingly around kids playground voices on ‘At the Top of this Hill’ and the wonderfully melancholic track ‘Hope’ has rich layers of violin/viola/cello strings building and skittering over each other playfully. While some tracks have an ambient-folk leaning others are more neo-classical in style like the piano driven piece ‘November’ which is full of moody shimmering violin and a field recording of heavy rain that builds towards the fade.  ’Running through Woodland’ sounds just like that with its guitar pulse skipping along to violin accompaniment and short harmonica bursts joining in as we dash through sun dappled glades. The album ends with the joyous Snowdonia – no slate tips and rain here, this track is full of scenic wonder and lungful’s of mountain air.  

So I would like to recommend that you take a listen to this album no matter what genre of music forms your main listening taste. It will win you over and carry you through to the end effortlessly in an understated and thoroughly pleasant way.

Message to Bears – Departures. Dead Pilot Records DPRLP01. Heavy duty 180 gram black virgin vinyl with MP3 download on purchase. 250 copies available now - £15.49 

http://www.store.fluid-radio.co.uk/2011/03/message-to-bears-departures-vinyl-15-99/