Tag: ambient music

Stockfinster: All Becomes Music

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment


Sutemos is a Lithuanian netlabel, releasing a variety of music, but specialising in electronica. A good introduction would be any of their Intelligent Toys compilations – the latest is “We Make Music” – described as “Style: Ambient/ IDM/ Experimental/ Instrumental/ Techno”. 51 tracks, divided into three “CD”s. You can stream any of the music from the website.

Lately I’ve been listening to the 2005 10-track release by Stockfinster – All Becomes Music. Unusually for me – with music to write to – this has vocals, especially the haunting title track, where the build is gradual, the voice-over eerie and refreshing. You can both stream and download the release for free. The release (as with other Sutemos releases) comes with a cool rotating gallery of photographs – example at left.

Pylon Suite – Venus Vulture soundscape on Zenapolae

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

A new Venus Vulture soundscape release doesn’t come along that often – the last were “Heavy Skies” on TurkbyTone Rekkids and “Stick With Me Giselle, Things Can Only Get Better” on Testtube, both in the first quarter of 2009. So after a year and a half of near-silence I’m excited to have a new extended piece released.

Released on the Zenapolae netlabel, Pylon Suite is a set of four tracks, making up a continuous thirty-eight minute movement. The set is deep and brooding, based on a long field recording (which wafts in and out through the album), together with long ambient drones. The tracks share elements, but progress, gradually becoming more complex – track four is the busiest (well, as busy as ambient drone music might be). Probably good to listen to at low volume while taking a bath or reading a horror novel.

The fabulous cover art was created by Arnd Klotz, based on photos I’d taken around the time I was composing the music.

Moss Wall Collection – ambient music by Sounds The Songs Of Seabirds

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Sounds The Songs of Seabirds is the moniker used by Bob Singley, a prolific ambient/improvisational folk artist from the Pacific Northwest. With numerous releases available through Bandcamp there’s a huge array of music available.

Moss Wall is a series of releases – seven long albums in a variety of low key styles. Bob allowed me to curate a collection of tracks for Zenapolae as a kind of overview of the series. Nine tracks, at least one from each release:

1. one rain drop
2. freezing rain
3. green leaves hanging on a limb
4. spores
5. as the high winds carry the birds
6. love (four)
7. frozen fog
8. marmot
9. purple nettle at trail 8

You can stream or download the compilation from Zenapolae here.

Zencast 012 – mix by Venus Vulture

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 1 Comment


Zenapolae is a netlabel that releases a range of ambient and experimental music. They also have regular ‘Zencasts’ of hour-long mixes of tracks from the label and from other netlabels.

Recently I completed a mix exclusively made up from Zenapolae releases and it’s available from Zenapolae as Zencast 012 – you can download it here. The mix is a very blended piece, using long sections of various tracks overlaid with long sections of others.

Tracklist
1. Todd Christopher – aurumplateau
2. Saffron Slumber – Of Ice, Water, and Steam
3. Petal – Meridian
4. Ingredient – Striations
5. zenasprime – esion2 (edit)
6. Maszyna 01 – kosmos
7. d/form – 00:11:59::00:21:15
8. Petal – Occlusion
9. lolpix – Ephialtes
10. Weird Fields – Carousel
11. Raumwerk – Mitte (edit)
12. AmgSphont – zatpacu
13. Instruction Shuttle – Further Adrift
14. d/form – 00:51:09::00:60:00
15. Saffron Slumber – Of Ice, Water, and Steam

enjoy

Paleocene Palecopeia.mp3 – Venus Vulture track on Reverbnation

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I’ve uploaded a little noodling to the Venus Vulture Reverbnation site – just some drones with a few processed guitar sounds (and those inevitable field recordings) – as part of the 2010 music project. A shade under three minutes long.

Download the track – yes, Paleocene is a real word, Palecopeia is made up. More on that later.

See, stream and/or download the full list of 2010 tracks here.

Brunk – Winter ep

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Well, it’s the height of winter here and, by coincidence really, I’ve been listening to my cd copy of brunk’s Winter ep released through Resting Bell. Winter ep is a nice short collection of four tracks, mostly laid-back guitar, about 20 minutes long, just a nice warm up with hot chocolate and a new story on the go. The cd seems to be sold out now (it was a limited edition), but you can still download from Resting Bell, or from Brunk’s bandcamp site, where he has some other material available too.

Danny Norbury – Fluid Radio Mix

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I usually enjoy the mixes on Fluid Radio so Danny Norbury’s new mix was almost anticipated. A wonderful low-key blend of quiet melodies and sounds and vocals, this is a delicious album-length (41 minutes) outing.

Track List:
00:00 The Humble Bee – A Century Of Sea Stories (Xmas 1936)
03:20 Cornelius – Omstart
07:46 Sunwrae – Autumn Never Fall
13:36 John Fahey – Night Train Of Valhalla
15:48 Dick Annegarn – Coutances
18:38 Moondog – Fujiyama 2
23:03 Hope Sandoval – Baby Let Me
24:23 The Boats – The Arrow Home
29:52 The Medium Necks – My Mane
31:56 Vincent Gallo – Yes I’m Lonely
35:38 Squarepusher – Goodnight Jade
38:19 Gabriel Fauré – In Paradisum

Listen to the mix here.

Misound – Stanze di te

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I’ve been listening to a few CDs from Ryonkt’s Slow Flow Records lately. On high rotation has been Stanze di te by Misound. This is a deep and delicious immersion: a great way to relax through an hour of writing. Some wonderful sound patterns, deep, moody, at times a little glitchy, at times quite melodic, sometimes with some distant and almost recognisable field recordings to it.

You can stream a track here through Soundcloud – well worth a listen.

12k – a perfect introduction

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I am an unabashed fan of Taylor Deupree’s 12k label – an imprint that focuses on minimal music, but has evolved over the years. I frequently listen to Shuttle358, Sawako, Steinbruchel and others from the roster as I write. Taylor has made an hour-long mix of tracks For all the things we did in May which has just come out as a stream on Fluid Radio (of which I’m also a fan). The mix is wonderfully low-key, beginning with one of my favourite pieces, Shuttle358’s “Gone”, then progressing fairly organically through tracks I’m familiar with, and some I’d never heard.

A wonderful introduction to 12k’s roster and style.