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Tom Honey's Good Weather For An Airstrike project is offering all releases at "Name Your Price" on Bandcamp for one more day. I recommend "A Summer" and "Lights". Grab a bargain here:

http://goodweatherforanairstrike.bandcamp.com/
Ken Camden - Space Mirror

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Mick Buckingham on Fluid Radio Wrote:Sometimes the space we crave doesn’t confront us when we expect it to – we have to look for it, create it, satiate in it, to enjoy less. This using of enjoyment for memory’s sake to extend our original grasp lends itself to the construct of mirrors. Mirrors are multidimensional in meaning – for a musician it’s someone to bounce complimentary thoughts off of, and perhaps go somewhere new. For a world perspective the space between humans is represented by the cosmos and the erosion of liveable states. It is interesting that there are only a few “real” qualities of state that make things worthwhile – comfort, connect and emotional crusade. When any comfort, connect or crusade is cut off, the living cells of the brain diminish in outlook, then try and find their own mirror out of the darkness. Music is one of those mirrors, for many people.

Ken Camden has taken the subject of space and transformed it into a palpable sonic doctrine, a dynamic encounter with the ultramundane in the purest sense – it goes beyond the physical tangibility of objects and objectvity about synth-based drone music. For this is whooping, helium-stretched and occupies a connectivity between Brian Eno’s “Music For Airports” and Brad Rose’s Charlatan project. A touch of Eluvium and William Basinski hold up the playing field. Unlike “The Disintegration Loops” series though, Camden is best when he lets slowly amorphous passages placate the subconscious, and noticeably take you somewhere. For instance “Trapezium” benefits from a reverberated shutter sound whirring in the background to break up the atmosphere, much like a cosmic orbit from an asteroid.

“Dominic Sunset”, while not being glitzy epic, does show Camden as having the Midas’ touch when it comes to synthesis and guitar. The way he approaches his sound design and at the same time avoiding the pitfalls of ‘demo-tune-phobia, sequencer-sound’ reminds me that “Lethargy And Repurcussions”, which I heard some years ago, has the staying power of a Trident. I think I’ll do very well to keep hold of “Space Mirror” – an absorbing, sorbet of a listen, soft-centered and strange all the same, the sustenance and fruitiness of the melodies and the way they are looped makes this release stand out from the post-kosmiche pretenders…a feat all the better unmissable in an age when the new is so often rendered “cosmic”. Very recommended indeed!
My latest piece of music critique - Kaboom Karavan...

Kaboom Karavan - Hokus Fokus (Miasmah)

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Muttley on Fluid Radio Wrote:An issue of life cycle diminishing through an excess of sensory data, the limiting applied to events, and their timespans conducive of finding a true ideal point from where connection is activated and severed…often this is ushered by leftfield thought from formulae. Kabooom Karavan’s creator Bram Bosteels applies leftfield thinking to the noir-laden Modern Classical template with a revolving counterpoint aesthetic. As if dumbbell-heavy clouds of noise are weighing down the aural minefield. And it’s a minefield with many explosive moments.

“Kolik” commences proceedings with an ominous saxophone/violin hybrid timbre cloud, blending instruments so they become extensions of a further field. The mood is one of relinquished abandon, building layer upon layer of textural weight before, at 2:30, introducing an undercutting bass morsel to poke at the forefront. Its effects on the listener beckon a Machinefabriek-esque toxicology to membrane and memory combined, setting up a captivating album worthy of much more than journalistic hyperbole.

“Omsk” starts with primitive chanting sounds and a rhythmic orienteering befitting the most abrasive The Thing. Jazzy chords and demonic bass quakes ripple at the surface while sparks of sarky violin jabs at the inner core. The implemented touchstone is something akin to shrugged off paralysis that scary music can bring. And this is a scary record, no two ways about it. But it’s also one of much beauty, an inversion of stasis that carries with it charm and fortitude of delivery.

“Kipkap” is the first piece to integrate the acoustic guitar, and slack strumming ain’t hay here. Chanting akin to the Flamenco tradition adorns the repetitive figure and surfeits of saxophone keys sound out the overall picture like a Jazz cafe with saints of the brotherhood. Melody rides on two chords with snippets of noise from other instruments, whereas “Lovzar” straddles greater heights of imperfect solemnity, forever looking for improvement on its own axis. The acoustic gently plays away to itself over a resonant slumber tide, vocal samples permeating its relationship with gravity, with looking upward and even around to other things in the room.

“Kartoon Kannibal” begins with a bright vista of beats sounding like filling up a glass of juice. The atmosphere is impregnated by a specific tension that wraps its way into and over your ears, a poison dart of much salvation. Loud vocal judderings leap out at the listener in a frantic yet constrained joie de vivre, panting by the end as if time has swallowed its own larynx. “Barbaroi” starts in the same way that the last contained its succor with lower volume. It’s very busy but at the same time absolved of any responsibility to do anything, which makes the trolley-like percussion movement and saxophone progressions more poignant when they happen. Sharper sounds intrude later, and the percussion builds its artillery to a resonant matrix.

“En Avant !” is the jolliest of all tunes here, working in vocal samples of children playing and a party popper centred horn sound. Oompah-loompah bass meanders a story it told oneself earlier, blending into “The A Theme” with a virtue to survive a creepy, earth-searing joy. This time the electric guitar is the driving instrument, bobbing through interwoven passages of Jazz swing drums and mesmerising leitmotifs. Saxophone is again an auxiliary function that makes its mark on the record in another incarnation.

“Sardonis” shapes up as the most electronically minded of all the works on the album, bouncing like Amon Tobin’s “Four Ton Mantis” to a sprightly percussive diablo and high contrast reams of neo-classical glitter. Drum machine flickers syncopate the rhythm section and supplement the textural base with an underpinning melodic furore. Last piece “MIss Okee” is the really emotionally grounded tune on the LP, coming off somewhere between Brian Eno, Roger Eno, Daniel Lanois and Svarte Greiner for execution of a lavish, all the same dark tendril of bass synth exploration. Train track percussion – percussion once more – takes the hearer to a destination far off from the mainstream auditoriums, into a cavernous space full of wonder.

“Hokus Fokus” is a magical recording, sure to please and satiate the open-minded doom-mongers and shadier characters of the world, but also transcend this audience by sheer depth of material. Undoubtedly recommendable, and another release for Miasmah with all the stops pulled out!

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2013/09/kaboom-karavan/
A lovely mix from Porya Hatami on MixCloud...

Ponya Hatami Wrote:Words On Tracks /27 Feat Porya Hatami

Porya Hatami (b.1981) is an experimental sound artist based in Sanandaj, Iran. Working in the field of ambient/minimal, his compositions explore the balance between electronics and environmental sounds, utilizing processed acoustic and electronic sources and field recording

"When i was asked to contribute to this series first I wanted to collect some of my favorite musics of different genres , some of my biggest influences but the list got so huge and i couldn't decide on the final tracklist because mix was limited to 60 minutes, so i decided to put together a collection of my favorite tunes of last few months from some of my favorite experimental artists, i hope you enjoy !

offthesky - The Green Kingdom - Maps And Diagrams and Darren Harper appear on my new remix album on Inner Ocean Records (http://shop.inneroceanrecords.com/album/...nd-remixes)

facebook.com/porya.hatami
poryahatami.bandcamp.com

http://www.mixcloud.com/blueforbirds/wor...ya-hatami/
New album by Parks is finally available
http://www.entropy-records.com/release016.htm
"Hidden" and "Umbers" albums have been on heavy rotation in my CD player, "Snowblind" will be no exception (judging by the clips I checked). Recommended.
Thanks Dinsdale.

EUS - Sol Levit (Contradicta)

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Muttley on Fluid Radio Wrote:I’m at risk of sounding like an SEO article specialist, but here’s the deal: EUS’ ‘Sol Levit’ is my album of the year and we’re only in October! A full bodied, orchestral sound runs through the piece, which is as far away from a collection of tracks as ice cream is to being sold in the desert. This sense of deserted morals, a pin-pricking of conscience in the press notes as to creating something meaningful, is a glimpse to acting as touching as the music itself.

‘There is so much out there. Hidden secrets. Our community, our society, our planet, are not a closed capsule where everything, and nothing else happens. There is more. We come from dust, and will return to that state, after life. We’ve created our own, fake universe. But in the end, it is meaningless.’ Nomadic ideals and dystopian futures are a strong flavoured stew in experimental music, where most are trying to make a larger noise than the last. B7t on ‘Sol Levit’, there is a rigid maturity at core, where passages fall and rise ridiculously transparent. Strings never flee; Dark Ambient drones never suffocate; the vibe is one of finding an oasis in which to breathe, and deep breaths are order of the day here.

Opener ‘Convenza’ sounds like a tripod camera meeting between Robin Guthrie, Harold Budd and Leyland Kirby. A scything synth ominously hums out a gambit for catching your ears in its grip. This is the benevolent truth of the following 53 minutes: you feel like you’re being torn apart to see what rock lies in your soul’s life, the beating heart that no-one else can rival or alter. Souls live on in life until long after we’re gone, so we’re told. This track to me is the aural equivalent of an impending afterlife, while for Jose Acuna, aka EUS, it’s just one part of his mantra for the LP: ‘It is unnecessary to express a spiritual experience in words. Keep it for yourself.’

There is something of the Berliner Philharmoniker & Sir Simon Rattle about third piece ‘Qualia’, the violins quietly foregrounding a forgotten ghost train station at dawn. Hear them pass through the stops, opening their doors only for no-one to visibly exit. Where are these souls from, what does it all mean? At first you wonder, then you just soak up the refractively assuaged experience. Windows to another dimension; loose ends that need resolving. The pace is set for more intrigue as we venture into the mid section of the work.

‘Al Mismo Lugar’, the second longest tune on the album, conjures a cloud of sadness like a ray of sunshine oppressed and sent into the Earth’s inner crust. A heated drone plays with counterpoint of arced strings and wooing sound effects, the programming resonant on so many levels as it progresses to somewhere near the epicness of Clint Mansell. In the ‘Music That Made The Movies’ BBC 4 documentary Mansell spoke of just playing until he found something to latch onto, whereas Vangelis earlier in the program – this track sounding like a brainchild from both producers – almost shelved his best ideas before they were ingrained to wax. The best thing about ‘Sol Levit’ is that it keeps all the best moments of what must have been a monumental recording process and shapes them into transcendentally introspective, spiritual experience that defies words altogether. A truly breathtaking album!

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2013/10/eus/
My debut album has been critically acclaimed by James Catchpole, one of Fluid's most consistent writers, on the site.

Foci's Left - Grumpy Love (Foci's Left LP 001)

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James Catchpole on Fluid Radio Wrote:Introducing ‘Not Seeing Reality’ – the wayward, often mysterious journey that defines the pathway of what we call life. For many, reality is totally dependent on individual perception. The notes begin their life in innocent infancy, but by their teens they have snaked their way into the more unruly, dissonant territory, interacting with one another until a harmonious chain reaction ensues; one that started off with a primary note – a single heartbeat, the survivor in the battle of selection – but one that quickly brings in a thousand more.

Reality is then able to shape-shift into a sporadic, sparse piano line, accompanied by a gorgeous wave of crimson synth. Only, a line doesn’t quite work; it is bloated enough to feel pregnant with the baby bump of melody, oozing out of the thicker line and then submerging the original, vulnerable piano with new life.

Foci’s Left is the alias of Fluid Radio’s own Mick Buckingham, a name that regular Fluid readers will know very well. Told as a chronological tale, Grumpy Love isn’t nearly as dishevelled or as depressed with the state of things past and present as its grumpy name would seem to suggest. It is, in fact, shrouded by heart-felt sensitivity and deep personality. It is very much the opposite of grumpy. After all, there are two words up there; the oh-so-thin space that divides the first word from the second, ‘love’, is close enough to be considered intimate.

Love never fails. Love conquers all.

Grumpy Love is a beautiful, personalized painting, left to hang at a slight angle on the uneven canvas of life, with both enjoyable and difficult moments that come to claim every man. When linked together, they reach a teenage crescendo. ‘Piano Paint’ introduces some beautiful synths that jut into the piano, coating it with an intoxicating harbour of nostalgia – the nostalgic element traces a radiated line of melody, as if the early memory on which it was based has physically escaped, deceiving what we all thought of as reality and instead containing itself within the music as a precautionary measure. It cocoons itself against the decline that age brings and the mood swing of swift change that can affect our recollections as one decade passes into another.

Saturated in the vintage, ambient warmth of pure tone, when the genre itself was in its infancy, the synths are a mesmerising serenade. It shares the same angelic timbre that made the early Brian Eno classic, Music For Airports, such a lovable listen. You can tell instantly that Grumpy Love is a deeply personal recording just from this synth alone. The later drums seem to propel the passages of life forward, with no pause for reminiscing. That comes later on, because Grumpy Love has some beautiful, open spaces ideal for reflection. Life may, at times, feel like ‘An Upwards Slope’, but listening to the music here is to know that the inner serenity of peaceful ease is always there. Always. Here, a thinner drone is disguised as Cupid himself, but the darker echoes of possible distress lie just beyond the doorway. It is the tense, anxious sound of the unknown; a place where dusty road-signs are always blank with unmarked destinations.

‘For Fluid’ is a loving piece of music that is as much a generous tribute as it is a personal reflection. Grumpy Love narrates the passage of life with painstaking thought. The older hand outlines the black tail of a nurtured note like the embrace between a newborn and a parent. In this picture, the thin brush gives life to the paint. It holds itself in the palmed trust of the future, while taking one last look back at the past – this is the final dedication.

http://www.focisleft.bandcamp.com

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2013/09/focis-left/
The Angling Loser - Author Of The Twilight

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Muttley on Fluid Radio Wrote:Beautiful guitar playing and gorgeous synthesiser accompaniment? Complimentary spoken word samples and awe-inspiring field recordings…sound too much to ask? Not for Time Released Sound, who after a wonderful 2012 release from Fescal and several other installments, put out this, a highly limited package from The Angling Loser, all about investigating the nature between casting off and the natural world.

There are several delicious moments to savour here. Take the intro to “Morning”, where birdsong, nurturing bass notes and drifting, omnipresent synth sit on the side of the boat, gently rocking your attention back and forth from idyllic sightseeing to a play with your evolutionary intentions. The closest artists of resemblance are Brian Eno, Loscil, Good Weather For An Airstrike, Spheruleus and Natural Snow Buildings. Nonetheless, The Angling Loser manages to transcend through introspection on the deep nuances of his production.

Samples of water, as would be expected with this type of theme, add a soothing New Age presence to the music, but this is no saccharine-pretty exercise in pseudo-meditation. The sounds are full of depth, the timbres of guitar rich, the tones of synth connecting to the ear like a collared dove’s elegance. If the first disc wasn’t enough, too, there is a disc of remixes, one coming from the very promising artist Porya Hatami.

“I’ve spent hundreds of hours staring at a float (…) To bring up a lovely solid theme, like living metal, from a world where nothing exists, but those inevitable facts, which raise life out of nothing, and return it to nothing (…) Nice isn’t it?”

Time Released Sound say: “this release is available in two versions. This first deluxe version, in an edition of just 100 copies, comes in a 5.5″ square, hand stamped watery green translucent envelope. In each envelope is a 15-20 page, hand sewn fly tying flip book, antique fishing photos and/or postcards, a page from an antique anglers journal (some pages hand inscribed), and a two sided hand printed insert. Each envelope is strung and tagged with a hand stamped, vintage, fishing cigarette card. Each of these also comes with an originally packaged, vintage fishing lure.”

Time to go load up the reel.

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2013/10/the...-twilight/
From Twitter:

"uh oh..."Let's all go to the chill out room: ambient music is back" http://t.co/nxe11ojmpw

"Thanks to the xx and Burial creating 'depth, texture and space', there's a revival in that most 90s of sounds".

R. ANTON IRISARRI ‏@studioirisarri
@asip Thought I was reading the Onion, until I realized it was for real and laughter turned into cringing.

Neutral
This should be good: Noveller - No Dreams

http://noveller.bandcamp.com/album/no-dreams
Muttley Wrote:This should be good: Noveller - No Dreams

http://noveller.bandcamp.com/album/no-dreams

I have Red Rainbows — that's pretty good Xyxthumbs
Raum - Event Of Your Leaving (Glass House)

The Event Of Your Leaving was recorded by Raum (Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and Liz Harris) in 2011 and 2012. Commissioned by the San Francisco, CA based Glass, House, the LP is a loose set of memories, dreams & imagines interpreting the visual work of Latvian artist Vija Celmins for piano, guitar, keyboard, voice & tapes. The three panel fold out cover is an offset print & letter pressing of a drawing by Harris. Mastered at Dubplates by Rashad Becker. Edition of 500 LP’s.

https://soundcloud.com/jefre-cantu-ledes...ld-company

https://soundcloud.com/jefre-cantu-ledes...llar-orbit

http://glasscommahouse.org/project/w-gro...u-ledesma/
Migrations In Rust - Two Shadows (NNA Tapes)

https://soundcloud.com/nnatapes/sets/nna065/

I personally think that is an excellent album, check it out and see what you think.
been listening to Woob's Ultrascope a lot

Have you heard this Mick? Enantiodromia, by Horizontal Excursions.

Probably ambient selection of the year for me

http://rogermartinez.bandcamp.com/
FTAL021 - December 2013

Various Artists - Sequence 7
Futuresequence Bandcamp Free DL

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"Beautiful" is an overused hyperbole-ace in internet journalism, but Michael Waring's Futuresequence 7 compilation demands it. I initially listened to the release in two blocks of 15 tracks each, and found this perfectly fitted pacing of the whole record. First emotional curveball "A Mist Of Grey Light" by Siavash Amini is rich in the textural hues of A Winged Victory Of The Sullen, but goes further than morose, tanning the flesh of 70s Western soundscapes in cinematic territory. Not just choosing a colour that suits your enivronment, then. Instead, Sequence 7 is chock-full of surprises, like the piano and string accompaniments of Good Weather For An Airstrike's "Tides", that flutters with a steadfast drive. Elsewhere, the emotive "Emori IV" by EUS perfectly compliments the sombre, leaf-treading nature of autumnal mystery that surrounds the release. Overall, it's a complete, recommendable package representing a chunk of new and upcoming artists on and off experimental music.

http://futuresequence.bandcamp.com/releases

Slow Walkers - Slow Walkers
Peak Oil LP / DL

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As separate personas, Liz Harris and Lawrence English's music has never been confuted with misery. Instead, it relies on solemnity of delivery and patient investment. Their sound as Slow Walkers is permeated by a straddling of outlay with verging into the morose. Take "Wake", the paradoxically-to-title morbid album closer. In unhurried fashion, Harris and English stretch out swathes of guitar reverb into a dense drone. The pacing of the entire work is resolutely sluggish and positively transluscent, like a swan picking up bread from the lakeside but avoiding the hounds of attack that walk in these paths. Through an absence of foreseen optimism in sound, the duo bore holes in the well of ambient music's depth, with a shoegaze bent underpinning. This work never reaches beyond the pace of ice floe, and all the better for it; the transcendental introspection of these producers has yielded much great music over the last decade but in "Slow Walkers", Harris and English manage to convey an accurate biopic of their individual talents as songwriters, and most of all, musicians.

http://boomkat.com/downloads/814173-slow...ow-walkers

36 - Heather Spa
http://www.astrangelyisolatedplace.com EP DL

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"Dangerous Days" comes close to the somnambulant swoon of Aphex Twin's classic "Rhubarb", while the leading title work is a lesson in restraint. "Heather Spa (Burning)" takes a more concentrated, concentric angle. Swirls of synth woozily lifts the listener. The speed is roughly 90 BPM, a rather uptempo slant on the preceding tracks. For the longest length of almost 16 minutes, this works suitably. 36 is no stranger to synth excursions where drones are lilting phrases, tugging at the attention span. His music reflects ambient's nature of relaxing its audience, but always keeping an undertow of mystery in the hold. His first release for the A Strangely Isolated Place blog, the "Places" series will soon see its first vinyl. If the quality is anything like these tracks, it'll be an essential purchase.

http://astrangelyisolatedplace.com/2013/...ather-spa/
In no particular order, my 20 favourite ambient releases I enjoyed listening to in 2013 - some new, some old:

01. Hakobune - Watching The Prescribed Burn

http://acloserlisten.com/2013/04/01/hako...ibed-burn/

02. Foci's Left - Grumpy Love

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2013/09/focis-left/

03. ASC - Time Heals All

http://shop.silentseason.com/album/time-...all-sscd14

04. Secret Pyramid - Movements Of Night

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2013/10/secret-pyramid/

05. Slow Walkers (Grouper & Lawrence English) - Slow Walkers

http://boomkat.com/downloads/814173-slow...ow-walkers

06. Dirk Serries - Microphonics XXI-XXV

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2013/11/dir...s-project/

07. Steve Roach - Soul Tones

http://www.ambientblog.net/blog/2013-01-...ltra-tribe

08. Futuresequence - Sequence 7

http://futuresequence.bandcamp.com/releases

09. EUS - Sol Levit

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2013/10/eus/

10. Various Artists - Piano By The Sea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzvX2nz4zLQ

11. Ateleia - Formal Sleep (my favourite LP of all time, in any genre)

http://boomkat.com/cds/28386-ateleia-formal-sleep

12. Isnaj Dui - After The Flood

http://isnajdui.bandcamp.com/album/after-the-flood

13. Faures - Continental Drift

http://acloserlisten.com/2013/12/02/faur...tal-drift/

14. The Seaman And The Tattered Sail - Light Folds

http://www.fac-ture.co.uk/The-Seaman-The...ight-Folds

15. The Angling Loser - Author Of The Twilight

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2013/10/the...-twilight/

16. Jon Hopkins - How I Live Now OST

http://www.justmusic.co.uk/store/TAO056/...n-hopkins/

17. How To Disappear Completely - Still

http://astrangelyisolatedplace.com/2013/...ely-still/

18. Stars Of The Lid - The Tired Sounds Of Stars Of The Lid

http://boomkat.com/downloads/167604-star...of-the-lid

19. Foci's Left & Geoff Brooks - Hypnosis Session 1: Dreams

http://focisleft.bandcamp.com/album/foci...ember-2013

20. 36 - Heather Spa

http://astrangelyisolatedplace.bandcamp....eather-spa
Origamibiro - Collection 3

[Image: Origamibiro.jpg]

Triple CD packs either form a tidal wave of disbelief as to the possible delusion an artist may have over his worth, or a humble offering that rights wrongs experienced by the subconscious on its quest for truth. The trio making up Origamibiro express in a genteel sway, but never forget acoustic ambient music is about transferring ignorance to interest as it is leaving it be.

“Noshi” for example, fans a Flamenco-y way, strolling like an old age canine without care except “when is meal time?”. Pattern recognition of expectation loses pretense instead of accumulating. It is down to Origamibiro’s soporific production style. Never do things perplex: “Womb Duvet” shows description of the group’s track titles to be more than post-modernist anachronism. Traces of Sone Institute’s yawning manna, is part of the problem/solution for the “Collection” 3CD though.

You can get through everything once – all three albums back to back. But after that pace becomes laborious. This isn’t an LP criticism – it’s criticism of homogenity in music itself. Attention spans cut off potential listeners from what is great, sometimes timeless work. I just hope it’s not the case for Origamibiro’s “Collection”, as it deserves loving ears. Let’s explore more…

As “Cracked Mirrors And Stopped Clocks” progresses, composer Tom Hill, visual artist and filmmaker Jim Boxall, and multi-instrumentalist Andy Tytherleigh’s beat and guitar rhythm sections further centrally interleave besides adding glitch. CD standout “Vitreous Detachment” tunnels into the electroacoustic lexicon but maintains groove to breach meandering into a chord cupcake. Sweet and refined, the guitar work combined with atmosphere becomes real pleasure objectified.

However, object is not to outline throwaway. Quite the opposite. The experience is to “collect” an object in sonic form, move about with it, formulate a fresh perspective. The C Minor of the titular piece is strummed and accompanied by achingly nourishing synthesizer that recalls sounds of Planet Mu’s eDIT on “Crying Over Pros For No Reason”.

Glitch and chance occupy the last sixth of this LP with insect-esque scuttling and finger-picking on “Unknown In The Walls” – a paradoxically barren, alien soundscape. Rich in sustain on the synth drone looming over the estranged guitar, it’s intense. “No More Counterfeit Bliss” has chords that resound over a pumped drum, filling the aural cavity like a blast of Listerine. There are echoes of new age greats Enigma here, in essence mystique being brought from sparing deployment.

Sparing deployment is less so on the second offering of the “Collection” discs, the more orchestral “Shakkei”. “Impressions Of Footfall” begins with electric piano teetering on strings that ebb into picture like a dodgeball connected to an asteroid; slowly breaking up in bellow of the cello. There is a cadence introducing drums lurching as a hefty mud treading sloth would through woodland. Woodland feels what you’re listening in, very natural and nothing squeamishly done – all cranked to eleven on the idea generator. At 44 minutes this record is the best of the lot, but that statement forsakes the great enjoyment of the “Shakkei Remixed” CD!

Now a remix can be a broken ruminant of future woe, a dislocation of the constituent parts with nothing to gel. It can also generate a queasy reductionism, relying too much on one idea with less following through. Not so here, as artists including Leafcutter John (also in the Planet Mu roster) dissect and re-qualify the core ideology of a remix as more than a pale snapshot of crumbling psychogeographical ruins. The music is rebuilt in a flowing ideal, a curving of silent edges that once egged the curious listener on. This characteristic bodes well for a sequential listening experience, as you hear the tapestries of sound refractively assuage and introspect on themselves with little room for break. The complete form also increases your enjoyment of Origamibiro by making you want to revisit this beautiful music.

In all, “Collection” is a highly recommended package from Denovali, one of the high life purveyors of ambient and modern classical at the moment. As with any collection though, you’ll find an ideal way to listen. For me, reviewing this record, I wanted to give the whole thing one long go. In hindsight I’d perhaps have broken up my listening into album chunks interspersed with other music. The fact that I managed 3 hours of listening to just Origamibiro is I believe enough discernable commendation that this is a worthy purchase!

Mick Buckingham

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2014/01/origamibiro/
This looks wonderful - Boomkat: 14 Tracks - Gone Midnight

http://14tracks.com/selections/285-14_tr...e_midnight

Featuring Labradford, Slow Walkers, Harold Budd and Leyland Kirby.
FR 107: Mark Banning - Journey To The Light (Students Of Decay)

[Image: Mark-Banning-Journey-To-The-Light.jpg]

The gradations evoke fellow new-ager Laraaji. The feel is a simplicity of intent, side-chained to a robustness of changeability. Underneath this lies Mark Banning’s stellar use of musicianship. It grabs you more pronounced on each swell and undulation, perfectly fermenting feminine touch amidst its ethereal emotions.

New age music has always had a relationship with reconcilliation, but never has it sounded more heartfelt than on music like Mark Banning’s two tracks here for the rosy Students Of Decay imprint. Guitar delay is exquisitely done, evoking sensations of wonder and excitement. “A Sea Of Glass” takes us to a cove by the sea to hear the ocean waves wash over A major chords and substantial bass hum. The waves soften to a background murmur – and although the preconditioning is nice, the experience when dovetailed with “Everlasting Moments” works much better like this.

The poignancy of the pieces never hurts the ears or lies obtusely to you. Everything is very innocent and playful until you’re starry eyed like a young pup looking at a potential owner. Banning avoids swooning cheesemakerdom with a resistance to 80s sounding reverbed guitar. The guitar plucking as the engine powers is reconfigured like a leaking tank of oil painting faces in the sand. The picture isn’t crude for this – more a blank canvas of night sky colour.

The sort of polarising of ambient with new age, as if the two couldn’t co-exist together simply isn’t a reality for the majority of underground ambient-focused labels. More often than not, you will find a Kranky dronesmith with a synth experiment project, or a Sonic Pieces piano suite by way of Otto A Totland partnered next to songwriting new age style by Simon Scott.

There’s a caveat of new age falling into idea-microscopy through the palette being tried and tested. But put this on after a blast of droney ambience and you’ll become as revitalised as I was writing this review!

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2014/01/mark-banning/
FR 106: Glacial Movements

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Alessandro Tedeschi’s Glacial Movements, an initially CD only but now also digital label, celebrated 20 physical releases this Winter. Early entrants to the label included (Scorn’s) Mick Harris as Lull. “Like A Slow River” was drone coated in a lachrymose sleepydust, whereas GM003, Rapoon’s “Time Frost”, buried its riches in unique soil with enchanting synthesizer drones that titled an apex of synchronicity with deja vu.

Alessandro himself goes further than clone drone with his last released CD as Netherworld, crafting diasporic remnants of earlier times in your life, inducing memory receptors via repetition of phrases. Like The Caretaker’s album of similar name, phrases are persistent, but here Tedeschi’s view is more subdued and melancholy, likely due to the LP being dedicated to Oophoi, the Italian drone master who released “An Aerial View” as the very first release on GM. He passed away last year sadly, but in “Alchemy Of Ice” Alessandro has made a worthy tribute to his ouevre and meaning on the ambient map.

As well as a more palatable, soft palette than “Morketid”, an earlier album from Alessandro as Netherworld, “Alchemy…” invites many comparisons, but always transcends them. Tedeschi’s music never crystallises – always faintly liquid amid sheets of icy pads and melodic motifs that unfurl like gentle footsteps over the Arctic region. Numbing hyper-realism as to translate a chilling autonomy to the listener. “Alchemy Of Snow” finds Christopher Bissonnette’s “Jour Et Nuit” shimmers matched with fine piano G-E note progressions. They have a similar exactitude to “Jostedaal”, an exclusive track for Psychonavigation Records’ “Zaum Vol.1″ compilation, released back in 2009.

I commented then for http://www.subvertcentral.blogspot.com that “Jostedaal” sounded like “a gong hit in a lonely cave”. While “Icepulse” marries an icy piano vignette with the sound of a pipe organ in the higher register. The understated mood gradations of “Polo Nord D’ellinaccessibilities” never forfeit transcendental resonances. “Hymns To A Melancholic Sunset” has to be a nod to Oophoi’s “Hymns To A Silent Sky”; a message that life goes on with his soul intact, yet something is somehow lost from presence.

The second release I’m mentioning to excite you for some glacial movements is Celer’s “Without Retrospect, The Morning”. This LP was released quietly to the world in late 2012, taking its name from a poem foreword by Will Long (Celer)’s previous partner, Danielle-Baquet Long (Chubby Wolf). It’s a very quiet set of ambient drone meditations that demand you crank the speakers up a level (not only is the CD mastering quiet, the compositions are too). 52 minutes of slightly eerie, always beautiful micro-melodies strrrr-etched out into long, gentle waves. This is the inaugural Celer release that brought to mind for me Brian Eno, of the “On Land” style; underwater ambiences dovetailing inner calm and solitude.

Long’s passages are tri-dimensional with his previous partnership with Dani: they are congruous, yet detached, and somnambulant with Chubby Wolf’s work. This is especially indoctrinated with “Dry And Disconsolate”, a slowly morphing, bleakly comported piece for synth-based drone, as are Tedeschi’s experiments (with a Roland VP9000 analog sampler). His mood here, and on the overall piece is a gradually softening harmonic whirr that devolves on itself but never evolves into dramatist kitsch. It is much more minimally sonorous than that bracket of electro-acoustic Muzak. Yet Will retains a successful charisma that continually invites repeated hearings.

The completist piece of this recent triad spotlighted is the truly wonderful “Erebus” by two big players in the ambient and drone scenes: Bvdub (Brock Van Wey) and Loscil (Scott Morgan). It somewhat goes against the idea that Glacial Movements is an “isolationist ambient” (see the Thomas Koner release) label, and posits the question of if it ever really was one. What’s certain is the sounds are glacial throughout the catalogue, and as Bvdub has already featured (2010′s “The Art Of Dying Alone”), he’s in good stead to collaborate with Morgan. They contribute to a full piece fit for theatre, an assortment of performance art fortune cookies. Angelicism in music can be traced across vocals, soaring synths and elegaic instrumentation, but Wey and Morgan give us a different perspective: air pockets in sound translating to tension and release.

Loscil is in his “Cheekeye” sounding mode (Distance Recordings compilation, 2011), while Brock buffers his sound selection as an emphatic showcase. Both artists compliment one another, Morgan more so, as he’s the more submissive. His drones and synthesizers melt into Bvdub’s toning for orchestral ambient. Slow bass pulses on last piece “Thanatos” are met with a Last Days-esque medley of intoxicating, nasally melody lying on top of atmospheric tuning. After the second track vocals enter, very likely Brock’s doing, and their layering retains just the right amount of saccharine sweetness as it does subconscious deepness. In any case, it’s the perfect end to this taster of an imprint with no sacrifices in quality for every instalment.

http://www.glacialmovements.com

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2014/01/glacial-movements/
A Closer Listen (ACL) 003 - Mark Harris - The Angry Child

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There are many artists in the glacial ambient field, but few have succeeded in capturing the sound as well as Mark Harris does here. Comparable albums include Spheruleus’ The Disguised Familiar Altus’ Black Trees Among Amber Skies and Steve Roach’s Quiet Music. The skillful pacing and solemn emotions of Liz Harris (Grouper) also come to mind. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that The Angry Child sees release on forward-thinking American outlet n5md.

The Angry Child is mood music for early mornings. Mark Harris knots a piano ribbon across these six tracks like a slowly decomposing star over a night-time backdrop, creating suspense through the extension of minor keys. While anger may inhabit the title, it does not reflect the tone. “Everything I Did Was Wrong” marries Buddhist teacher Adyashanti’s ‘crushing defeat’ at being unable to meditate properly for four years (Falling Into Grace) to the acceptance of the idea that one cannot progress. The track speaks in a soft droney tongue about memories and loss.

No counterfeit, after-owning blues is found here. Instead, this music offers a good helping of unravelling portent. Any sense of stasis evaporates during playback, offering calm like a welcome change in the weather. The piano sounds deep and resonant; the reverberations are seductive and inviting. After immersing myself in this album, I found it difficult to remove from my stereo; maybe, with the right circumstances, your inner ‘Angry Child’ will relax and do the same. (Mick Buckingham)

http://acloserlisten.com/2014/02/19/mark...gry-child/

Click that link for more on A Closer Listen and audio.
foci's left - anything becomes possible with time (space ambient piece) - february 2014

"It reminds me of early(ish) Pink Floyd Smile" ~ Jonathan Tait (Statto)

Free download of the mastered version here, exclusive to viewers of Subvert Central:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/piife8etkt...8Master%29.mp3

Please tell me what you think. Would you buy it, for example?

Thanks
Mick
FTAL 022 - February 2014

Brian Eno - Textures (1989 Unreleased)

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Eno's later period of producing (see 2010's "Small Craft On A Milk Sea", Coldplay production etc) pales in comparison to library music like this. Although the pieces are all pop length (except for the 11 minute closer "River Journey") they retain a suitable level of drift, never aimless in its trajectory. The twinkling synths of "Mirage" predated much of today's "pretty-come-lately" ambient era. The classified inventor of ambient music knows fully implications of synthesis over composition, fancy effects over nuance, and eschews both. "Constant Dreams" is one of the highlights, a soporific swirl through organ-like daubs of keyboard work. After "Evil Thoughts" arrives some short snippet beat-driven tracks. They work effectively to convey the advertisement background quality; "Textures" music commisisioned for television shows. "Menace" reinstates the ambience with a spaghetti western feel. "The Wild" meanwhile is one of the most affecting tracks, prefocussing dark ambient before it was a growing trend. This album is one of a dying breed: pensive, yet full of long lasting charms.

http://www.willardswormholes.com/?p=434
"Hello,

Our first release of 2014 comes courtesy of Good Weather for an Airstrike's "A Home for You".

The album has been recorded as a gift for the birth of his newborn twin girls and is available to download at a name your price basis, and there are 100 very limited vinyl effect CDs available.

Download/purchase/stream at:
http://hawkmoonrecords.bandcamp.com/albu...me-for-you

Enjoy!

Hawk Moon Records."
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