The Gears of Sand label has an eclectic mix of recordings. Mikronesia’s album Tissue Paper Ghosts is one that straddles the lines – at times a bit glitchy, at other times quite drone based. The last track “Remember / Home” is both the longest (around 10 minutes) and quietest, and probably my favourite, and a great way to close out the album. Wonderful to write to – edgy enough to keep me alert and busy.
Category: music
Music from Alien Cities by Venus Vulture used on book trailer
James Kay Publishing has used some music from the Venus Vulture ep Alien Cities in a cool book trailer. The trailer promotes Derek Bullard’s book Mayan Moon which I hope to read soon.
The Alien Cities glitchy space-music feel seems to suit the trailer, especially since it’s tied in with some music by Thomas Andersson which is more uptempo and melodic (you can tell easily which music is mine and which is Thomas’s).
It’s cool to be part of this kind of thing – Venus Vulture music being linked back to science fiction writing. Alien Cities remains a reasonably popular download, especially considering it’s early work and I haven’t really put much promotion behind it. Bizarrely the ep cover is by far the most popular image on my flickr site – it has been viewed 10x as often as my next most popular image.
Hol Baumann – [Human]
On high rotation over the last couple of weeks has been Hol Baumann’s [Human] from ultimae records. As I’ve written before, ultimae’s catalog is a little more beat-driven than I would usually listen to, and [Human] is probably at the upper end of beats in my collection. That said, why I’m enjoying it, and enjoying writing to it, is that the album is still very atmospheric – the beats fade off into the background and quiet melodies shuffle forwards. At times it’s edging into world music – a woman singing in a language I don’t recognise (on the song called “Radio Bombay”, so perhaps it is Hindi). I guess that part of writing to music is avoiding music with lyrics I can understand – those words would distract from the words I want to put on the page: I’m seeking atmosphere, and the human voice can create haunting senses … this is an album filled with atmosphere and drive.
I plugged the album in at work for a while and a colleague thought for a moment that it was Massive Attack – so perhaps that’s an indication of the style and tone of Baumann’s album. Again, as with other ultimae releases, this is in a beautiful package – a three-fold digipack, with a 16 page booklet filled with stunning photographs. And a mini “hidden track” too, after a few minutes of silence in the final track.
If you want to sample Baumann’s music, this is his last.fm stream.
Silver Lines – music by Anna Rose Carter
Silver Lines is a laid-back EP (around 20 minutes) of solo piano works. All the information about the who and what is on the Schedios Records Bandcamp download site. I’m not often a fan on pure piano – though I do enjoy manipulated works, so it was a surprise to enjoy this so much. Silver Lines is a wonderful engaging background piece to stream or download. The download costs four pounds (GBP), but of course the neat thing with bandcamp is the full streaming so you can listen right through before you decide to buy. There is a CD available too – direct from Schedios.
Schedios Records is fairly new outfit – this is just the second release and the first – Clem Leek has sold out, but is still available digitally (stream and download).
Igneous Flame – Intox – gorgeous ambient
I have a couple of Igneous Flame albums – Intox and Oxana. Both are wonderful drifty drone-ambient pieces. Intox is a little over an hour long – so it suits me for a writing spell. It’s good music to be more concentrated to, there’s nothing too invasive or requiring too much attention (unless you want to to really give it attention). Oxana has some shipping forcasts later in the album which adds a little edge.
I still like CDs for variety and some of Igneous Flame disks are still available at Shopsonic, but you can stream music from the Igneous Flame MySpace page. There are also some neat videos at the NME site.
Gustavius’s “am-bee-yent” photo set
Gustavius added one of my little flickr photos (the distorted car) as a favourite, which was flattering (since my flickr page is singularly unvisited – most visits seem to come from people clicking on the picture in the sidebar here, and the blog is relatively unvisited). Anyway, having a look at his flickr site I discovered his am-bee-yent set of photos (see ultra-mini thumbnails there) which are pretty cool and would look great as the covers of some ambient albums. I’m guessing this is the same Gustavius I remember from the 12k Forum online forum for discussing minimal and ambient music. Anyway, there are nearly 200 images and they’re fabulous – try running them as a slideshow with some music playing. Very Zen.
[The Core] by I Awake
I Awake – [The Core] is a 60 minute-plus album (it has a “hidden” track at the end) that’s probably more chill than strictly ambient. There are a lot of beats compared to some of what I listen to. Nothing too fast or imposing and much of the record is made up of atmospheres and gentle drifty melodies, supported by some deep bass, choir sounds and a little singing. [The Core] is made up of shorter tracks – mostly between four and five minutes, unlike many ambient albums around which often have tracks which clock in at 15 minutes and upwards. I like to write to this album when I’m wanting to be fast and punchy – the music is an hour with energy and drive, ebbs and flows and this gets reflected, I think, in slightly more upbeat writing.
Like other releases on the exquisite Ultimae label, this comes with a gorgeous 16 page booklet of photographs.
Pecha Kucha consumes weekend
I put my hand up, perhaps foolishly, to participate in a local Pecha Kucha event. Pecha Kucha nights are presentations of 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds, while the presenter talks for the 6 minutes and 40 seconds. It sounded straightforward when I agreed to do it, but coming up with a theme (music, writing, graphics?), then an engaging talk, then trying to match slides to it all has left me drained. I’m perhaps halfway there, but I’ve got to have my slides delivered by Thursday, and the event is being held on March 25th. Had I realised how much work I was getting myself in for, especially when I have other stuff on too. At least it has been good for my right-brain/left-brain stuff – thinking in different modes has got to be good.
phantomshadows available again
The Venus Vulture album phantomshadows, which was originally released on the Resting Bell netlabel, is available again. It can be streamed or downloaded (for free) on the Venus Vulture Bandcamp page. phantomshadows is a minimal ambient drone album of four tracks, each around 14 minutes. The release was combined with a set of images, which are available on the Flickr page.
The funny details:
The release went out of print because I, silly me, had joined APRA – the New Zealand branch of the Australian Performing Rights Association. I think they do good work, but they’re not really compatible with creative commons licences. Christian, who does an extraordinary job at Resting Bell, was faced with paying GEMA (the German equivalent of APRA) fees for releasing my music – even though it was never my intent to generate money from this release. My bad. I’m no longer a member of APRA, though GEMA’s rules are different, it appears possible that I will never be able to release music through Resting Bell or any other German netlabel.
New Venus Vulture track – “Doubtful Sound 3 March 1963” – available now
I’ve uploaded a new three minute track to my Reverbnation page. This is another short drifty piece, a little very slow melody/chord progression with some distant voices speaking quietly. The title comes out of the story I’ve just submitted (see this post), and in keeping with my other Reverbnation tracks, is dated (arbitrarily, perhaps, but that’s all part of it). The track, as with the others there, is available for streaming or free download.
As I mentioned elsewhere, I’m having less focus on Venus Vulture music this year as I work on writing more – but I will keep shooting for a track a month.
Sean Monaghan - Writer 