For The Ambient Lovers...review and mixtape archive 001

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Dark-ish ambient and electronica from DVA - current album NOTU_URONLIEU:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...Jv-jN7H9bn
Music critic for the Tally Ho
"Endless Ambient" - www.lowlightmixes.blogspot.co.uk

6h21min longform tracks mix. Nov 2016 sub-directory.
One of my favourite ambient artists who I have considered booking for a show in the past isn't a big name, but Bing Satellites - a prolific lo-fi and space ambient project centred on glacial drones and shimmering spheres of sound design, creates big music. Very wide in scope with many pretty elements like piano, guitar and harmonium occasionally dotted through quieter passages, with a lathering of luscious drone to complete each (usually long-form) album dish. This selected release is one of my favourites...from the "Twilight Sessions" catalogue series; volume 5, free to download if you're looking for stocking up on his music on the cheap.

https://bingsatellites.bandcamp.com/albu...s-volume-5
Yagya - Stars and Dust (Delsin Records)

https://yagya.bandcamp.com/album/stars-and-dust

Stunning! Lovesmilie
I think my ambient album of 2k16 would have to be DIB reco - GAS 10lp 4cd boxset. Unfortunately, goes for dumb money secondhand. So, I keep playing YT streams.
Grouper has a 2 tracker out on her Yellow Electric label since 2k16. "Headache / I'm Clean Now"

http://www.emusic.com/samples/m3u/album/17080841/0.m3u
Brand new Slowdive single released today.

https://slowdive.bandcamp.com/track/star-roving
Thanks for posting the Slowdive single post, DIB. I like the track.
Me been doing lots of PaulStretch(ed) tracks on SoundCloud recently (www.soundcloud.com/subversion-2). While it is fun to effect sounds live, processing is another, interesting, kettle of trout, delivering a strong charring to the overall drone dish. Cosine is my favourite set of angles; linear drones are a bit boring in comparison. It is nice to have that amorphous bubbling up of sounds that create a kind of ultramundane language that loses attention like nobody's business; that's part of the fun of it, trying to keep the listener 'there' while 'drifting off' at the same time.
William Basinski - A Shadow Of Time

https://boomkat.com/products/a-shadow-in-time

Look at that awesome cover art...it makes me want it...but I mustn't...I have way too many physical records to handle.

[Image: TRR278_WilliamBasinski_HI-RES_640x.jpg]

I'm playing my YouTube stream on Plug DJ after Ustav Lal, up next in 1 minute.
www.plug.dj/subvert-central
James Murray - Eyes To The Height
https://ultimae.bandcamp.com/album/eyes-...ight-24bit
Great album. And nice artwork of the CD as well.
Should listen
Mind Over MIDI - Soft Science (rohs! records)

https://rohsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/soft-science
Various Artists - The Opposite of Aloof Vol.1 (ACR)

https://weareacr.bandcamp.com/releases
2 nice lps I listened to from hs (whitelab) and sky flying by (fluttery records) this afternoon

https://sky-flying-by.bandcamp.com/album/miscellany
https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/hs
The parents went to see a good ambient folk band, Three Cane Whale, last night 03022017. The inclusion of Paul Bradley is surprising, a pure drone musician, if it's the same Paul Bradley that is.
As the last week's regulars activity will have shown, I've been lurking unlogged most days on SC for a week or two. I need to take stock every now and then, and the bonus is lots of other people's daily contributions to the forum become more visible.

Here is a forum outsider, the local Oxon mag editor, recommending Muttley something that other readers should be interested in, too...
"Hey fella, thought this might appeal to you if you haven’t seen it already - http://thump.vice.com/en_ca/article/10-h...ource=dmfb "
If you're too lazy to click links atm, it's basically a 10 hour arctic ambient recording on youtube with lots of ship sounds as far as I can tell - I will check this soon, I'm just having a day of recovering from a Fosters beer allergy that like most things in life, I forgot.

It also lead us to revisit the David Tagg & Brian Grainger Sleeping Pills Series. I'm unsure how much of this is publically available, but I can stream 48 20 minute versions of it on Bandcamp - take this link:

https://21mg.bandcamp.com/album/pillbox-a-g

The Pillbox USB version sold out very quickly; made to order packages with individual-to-buyer faux-prescription labels. On the sticks was 8 hours of seemingly generative music, similar to the release "The Endless Change Of Colour" by Marsen Jules.

More interest in long form at present here. A lot of tracks flutter away before they really have chance to grow...
the greater you think about subjective mundanity, the greater your outreach for music that contains more drones than usual, because drones; hum, static, interference noise, feedback from instruments, is the effect of mundanity - of something being left to form stasis, which we need to eject from to keep moving. this relates to how much we all move up and down, in and out of bed each day.
big ambient movers and shakers Hammock have a charity release out now, and a Spotify staff playlist you can follow. the comp is on bandcamp and includes contributions from benoit pioulard and Christina vantzou, while the Spotify playlist can be found by installing the app on ios or PC. always interesting music and shines a light on their more synthy works, apparently.
"Dear followers!

We´re starting the year with a new album by Swedish composer Marcus Fjellström, 6 years since his last album on Miasmah - a fitting soundtrack to the rather dark and twisted start of the year. To balance the paranoia, Sonic Pieces brings another re-issue, this time of the classic
Moon Ate The Dark I + II, in a gatefold 2LP on both clear and black vinyl. On top of this there is a LTD CD pressing of Svarte Greiner´s "Moss Garden" from late last year. Everything now available from our long-overdue, finally open webshop. Thanks for hanging in there with us." ~ Monique Recknagel & Erik K Skodvin
I quite approve of this

https://htdc.bandcamp.com/album/void-vision

How To Disappear Completely took their name from the Radiohead song, famous for being quite detached (..."I'm not here, this isn't really happening / "In a little while, I'll be gone"). This is spectral, graceful music, with the sound of Goldfrapp's ambient movements coming into view from the "Felt Mountain LP" days. You'll also enjoy something here if you like Foci_Left or Hammock or Brian Eno or Stars Of The Lid.
Latst notable offers are from Rural Colours, Serein and Glacial Movements labels, all in my inbox. Im also told about 36's "Void Dance" remastered vinyl edition.
http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2017/03/new-from-eilean/

"New from Eilean..."

On these two Eilean. Rec releases from Antiope, and Monolyth & Cobalt respectively, the generic ambient listener’s achilles heel is buckled. Tension gives way to surefire emotion, and the listener is overwhelmed with love…

Let us start with Monolyth and Cobalt. Said to be the last music the duo release under the name, the affair here is a triumph. Microtone melodies cluster like The Green Kingdom’s Michael Cottone experiments, especially on “North Way”, track six. The gentle clink and crinkle of harmony against motif midriff powers into itself through repetitive roughage. The very fibres of your being are set alight by the cluster effect, like it has supernatural power over us and reactivate an antibody that is a pathogen for positive action.

The 17 track M&C LP is a big size to muster words on, but one that rewards with every honest hearing. The ultimate decision about size is honesty, because size is so important to predict the scope of an effort. It also quantifies its basis. What it is about, what it says, why it is saying it. In this product, the focus is on experiments with partial song structures, but junctures that are quite abstracted. Like Haruki Murakami novelist, they speak a abstract emotional language. Very rare and exceedingly good in this case.

Yet this is no unhealthy Mr. Kipling cake of a record. In the same way that snacks and meals are ultimately based on proteins (fullness), carbs (energy) and fibres (expulsion potential), the gate objective becomes clear. Monolyth and Cobalt are working with abstraction to create size, not the other way round. And this is where they succeed on a fine ultimatum to their artistic careers.



Next is the Antiope release. Much more compact and richly woven, less tawdry feathers transformed into sophistication. It’s the vocals that really do this for me personally. The tone is less wandering, more purposefully optimistic; slightly pedantic. Mood unites the two releases, as does tempo. It’s no wonder Eilean Rec picked this stuff up. I really like what I hear from the two albums, and the irregularity of their comparability in particular.

The Antiope has a specific gentility to its calming down moments. The tension fills the heart with charm rather than unease. Another notch to the bow of Antiope, and in the same way, a pathogen – for caring, for humility, for the size of space. Another winning 2 albums for Eilean – Recommended!



www.eileanrec.bandcamp.com
0
http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2017/02/ear...t-of-love/

When we are lonely and sick of heart, we go to the friend we know. Honey-eyed nostalgia. Is it always an act of love? Questions like this are answered with the ‘An Act Of Love’ record of the same titular incantation. Since, to be honey-eyed to start with, one has to at least have a facsimile of life goodness inside of them. This is a simple bi-curious fascination with duality, how someone or something can be either confused or afflicted by their mental position. So the answer is: yes, if the one is simply full of good over evil, good will reign. With benign tolerance.


With this in mind, I initially listened to Earthen Sea’s ‘An Act Of Love’ in reverse track order. I wanted to pick out the leitmotif ideas Wagner proposed in 21st century classical music, which are inextricably linked to honey-eyed nostalgia. How can one break through the veil of continuous aural prose that speaks an act of love – basically a monologue love story? The answer would seem to be to break this honeycomb down into small digestible chunks, or reverse the process altogether. Since, if one has no nostalgia, the act of love should become so much more transparent. After all, what is an “act” of love? What makes up lust or affection is not inextricably linked to love. There has to be something deeper. And depth is something I soon find laced through the covetous ambient and dub techno styles of Earthen Sea.

The atmospheres are certainly dense, and density has its place in reminiscing; heavy emotions; sentimentality; nostalgic friendship with music. It sounds like the creator has had a tough time, and indeed the press release states this was a difficult period of life for producer Jacob when writing this, for it was when Jacob lost some traction in one’s life. But one is the way one is. Case in point – these melodies and percussions flow with an easy grace, ‘Above The Clouds’ more solidly so. They sound like fresh creations comparable with Wolfgang Voigt of Kompakt label ownership fame. Jacob long, like Will Long in the pure ambient drone field as Celer, utilises harmony as a counteragent to bitterness and inner torment. It is with this personal fortitude that Jacob’s productions shine with an amorphous glow.

Favourite tracks were ‘Apparent Lushness’, track three, ‘Delicately In The Sunlight’ for its gentility with a Wurlitzer type sound, almost glassy tones, and the straight-ahead propulsion of ‘Above the clouds’ that takes my ears to another place. Travel is a constant in this album, and in lieu of the past as a touchstone in this review’s theme, the use of travel can create many positive effects. Raise a heartbeat, or a few pounds to spend on this wonderful record from the esteemed Kranky Recordings today.

www.kranky.net
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=emUETcnDxnY

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