Showing posts with label ambient. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ambient. Show all posts
Monday, March 10, 2014
Monday, January 13, 2014
Bohren und der Club of Gore — Piano Nights (2014)
Just discovered Bohren und der Club of Gore will be releasing a new album titled Piano Nights at the end of january 2014. Can't wait to listen to it ! Here's a teaser from their Vimeo page. Sounds as good as their previous albums.
Friday, November 1, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Myrninerest — Journey to Avebury
Journey to Avebury (The Spheres Five) is Myrninerest’s soundtrack to Derek Jarman’s movie of the same name. Myrninerest is a side project of David Tibet (Current 93) and pianist/composer Michael Cashmore. You can buy this song on Boomkat.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Monday, September 16, 2013
Lycia — Quiet Moments (2013)
This new album from Lycia delivers the usual darkwave / ambient music. It is their first album in 13 years! Their sound has not changed at all since their 1989 demo. Ideal for this time of the year when the air is getting colder and the leaves start falling. You can purchase the album via Handmade Birds Records.
Friday, September 13, 2013
Boards of Canada — Reach for the Dead (2013)
Chances are, if you follow music through blogs, you have already seen this video. Reach for the Dead, the new single from Boards of Canada was relased earlier this year. I wasn't a Boards of Canada fan before but I think this song is just perfect. Something about the haunting retro sound of the synths reminds me of 70's electronic bands like Tangerine Dream. This superb video is directed by photographer Neil Krug.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Cyclobe — An Interview with Ossian Brown
Ossian Brown is a musician, known for his participation with english experimental group Coil. I Already shared my love of this group in this blog. The influence of Coil on experimental music, be it dark ambient, neofolk or electronic music has been tremendous. Since the departure of Coil, I felt there was a void waiting to be filled. It is no exaggeration that Cyclobe (the association of Ossian Brown and Stephen Thrower) may very well be the new torchbearers of this unclassifiable pagan experimental music. I had the chance to ask questions Ossian Brown about his project and his coming participation at Meltdown 2012.
How did you get to play music with Coil?
Is it there you got to know Stephen Thrower?
Playing in Coil was the most natural step, I was very close with Jhonn and Sleazy, we all lived together in West London so it was very intimate, it felt like the most organic progression to be in a group together. We all trusted and felt safe with each other, we also had a lot of similar interests. Our imaginations spun off together in very enjoyable and excitable ways, very much so between me and Jhonn. That's something I miss enormously now they've gone. So living together, spending so much time together, and with us all being artists, naturally we'd conjure up lots of ideas and plans we'd want to collaborate together on. I met Steve through Jhonn and Sleaz, Steve used to come to the house a lot and stay over for days at a time... It was his home from home for the majority of the 80s.
Is it there you got to know Stephen Thrower?
Playing in Coil was the most natural step, I was very close with Jhonn and Sleazy, we all lived together in West London so it was very intimate, it felt like the most organic progression to be in a group together. We all trusted and felt safe with each other, we also had a lot of similar interests. Our imaginations spun off together in very enjoyable and excitable ways, very much so between me and Jhonn. That's something I miss enormously now they've gone. So living together, spending so much time together, and with us all being artists, naturally we'd conjure up lots of ideas and plans we'd want to collaborate together on. I met Steve through Jhonn and Sleaz, Steve used to come to the house a lot and stay over for days at a time... It was his home from home for the majority of the 80s.
Recently you had a lot of exposure for your book Haunted Air, a collection of antique Halloween photographs. How did you start collecting those pictures?
Well I've always been a bit of a magpie, filling my homes up with pictures I find interesting, photographs and objects, old rags and buttons I find. With my Haunted Air pictures, when I first saw them I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing, I really couldn't. The ones that appealed and stood out to me seemed so complete and alive, not a single element earthed them or dampened the magic they expressed to me.
They felt completely supernatural, riddled and buzzing with revenants - they became my wraiths and strays. After finding one and feeling completely astonished by it, I found another and on it went for years, it was like tapping into a ghost artery. They overwhelmed and excited my imagination, as they did also to David Lynch. They go straight in! Geoff Cox was incredibly encouraging and supportive from very early on, we felt very protective of them. I showed them earlier this year at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, in an exhibition called Read Into my Black Holes.
When did you start making music as Cyclobe and what prompted you and Stephen Thrower to start this project?
With wanting to be close in as many ways as possible, there was no way on earth we wouldn't have worked together. Our first recording sessions together were in a hired studio in South London. some of the experiments we did there turned out interestingly, they where encouraging, but there was nothing we felt at that point we really wanted to share, it felt like we where just touching on the areas we wanted to explore, just scratching the surface. A few fragments from these sessions appeared on Luminous Darkness. It became clear to us very quickly that we needed our own studio though, so we could spend concentrated amounts of time working on pieces together privately, without that pressure of a ticking clock or having to consider and relate to strangers, however accommodating.
Well I've always been a bit of a magpie, filling my homes up with pictures I find interesting, photographs and objects, old rags and buttons I find. With my Haunted Air pictures, when I first saw them I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing, I really couldn't. The ones that appealed and stood out to me seemed so complete and alive, not a single element earthed them or dampened the magic they expressed to me.
They felt completely supernatural, riddled and buzzing with revenants - they became my wraiths and strays. After finding one and feeling completely astonished by it, I found another and on it went for years, it was like tapping into a ghost artery. They overwhelmed and excited my imagination, as they did also to David Lynch. They go straight in! Geoff Cox was incredibly encouraging and supportive from very early on, we felt very protective of them. I showed them earlier this year at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, in an exhibition called Read Into my Black Holes.
When did you start making music as Cyclobe and what prompted you and Stephen Thrower to start this project?
With wanting to be close in as many ways as possible, there was no way on earth we wouldn't have worked together. Our first recording sessions together were in a hired studio in South London. some of the experiments we did there turned out interestingly, they where encouraging, but there was nothing we felt at that point we really wanted to share, it felt like we where just touching on the areas we wanted to explore, just scratching the surface. A few fragments from these sessions appeared on Luminous Darkness. It became clear to us very quickly that we needed our own studio though, so we could spend concentrated amounts of time working on pieces together privately, without that pressure of a ticking clock or having to consider and relate to strangers, however accommodating.
You created Phantomcode, a label for distributing the work of Cyclobe. Why did you feel the need to create your own label? Do you eventually plan to release other artists on Phantomcode?
I'd like to say we would release other artists on Phantomcode, one of the difficulties though is time. The label is completely independent, and we only have a small amount of help from our friend Daniel Mars, so although we'd love to release other work, in order to record Cyclobe which is very time consuming, to create our releases and send them out into the world, that's about as much as we can manage presently. Perhaps things might change and we'll be able to get more support one day, for now though we pretty much do it all.
I'd like to say we would release other artists on Phantomcode, one of the difficulties though is time. The label is completely independent, and we only have a small amount of help from our friend Daniel Mars, so although we'd love to release other work, in order to record Cyclobe which is very time consuming, to create our releases and send them out into the world, that's about as much as we can manage presently. Perhaps things might change and we'll be able to get more support one day, for now though we pretty much do it all.
There seems to be a lot in common between the music of Cyclobe and Coil. In the themes and the desire to experiment. Do you see Cyclobe as a continuity of your work with Coil? If not, how is it different?
Our motivation is to try and create music that essentially moves us, that transports us in a beautiful and overwhelming way, sound that perplexes us, shakes us. We want to make a very organic and alive sound, that oozes and seeps into the normal and transforms space, takes you out of time, so it's enveloping, like a giant Crab Nebula. So much of what we do I feel has a sense of reverie, I really want to convey those feelings in our work, Cyclobe for me is devotional music.
There is a continuity, a part of us is very much in Coil, with the music we worked on together and the ideas we shared and developed back then… and the same works in reverse of course, with those influences and shared experiences together revealing or manifesting themselves subtly in what we do, feeding into the creative process's we explore now. It makes sense there should be finger prints, atmospheres echoing though. Coil is part of our heritage, our family blood line, so it would be foolish to say it's not present and an influence.
It feels more like light refracting through a piece of quartz though, but seen from slightly different angles. We might be peering through the same crystals but the effect is unique to the work we do in Cyclobe.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Wounded Galaxies Tap at the Window has an alien atmosphere that reminded me a lot of the work of H.P. Lovecraft (like something menacing trying to invade our world).
Quite a few people refer to H P Lovecraft’s writing when they've talked about our work, that's fine. Steve would certainly embrace that description - it’s not something I feel personally, although he was without doubt a great American writer, both me and Steve have loved his books. Clark Ashton Smith was one of my favourite fantasy writers, he was a good friend of Lovecraft’s, and an artist and poet, also published by Arkham House. A Star Change is a wonderful short story for instance.
There is a lot of unusual ethnic/folk instruments used in Cyclobe, can you name a few?
Rebabs, Hurdy Gurdies, Diples, Duduks, Tulums! A lot of this is thanks to Cliff and Michael. Michael’s also a craftsman and often tailors instruments for our pieces specifically. He has a wonderful collection of instruments a lot of them he's made himself. We've been incorporating this kind of folk instrumentation since our earliest recordings though, it's something we're very much enjoying bring to the forefront now with our music. We first started working with Hurdy Gurdies on 'Inevitable Black Horn', on our first album in 1999. Hearing Cliff Stapleton play, the tunes he wrote was a big inspiration for me.
Those instruments are so evocative and pagan… made from goat skin, fur lined bags full of your breath, bodies carved out of wood, spinning wheels resonating, heating up and vibrating your body, against your belly. I find them so moving to hear, they effect me very deeply, they're so full of emotion and history. I play a Pajot lute-back hurdy gurdy, it's around 150 years old. When Michael plays his Tulum, you can smell Pan in the studio, it's very exciting.
It's also good though to be taking these instruments into new areas, playing them in ways they weren't intended, seeing what else we can conjure, blending them with other instruments, sounds we've created.
What can we expect from a Cyclobe live show?
We'll be making our first live performance here in England this August at Meltdown, invited by Antony [from Antony and the Johnsons] whose curating the festival. It'll be our second performance in 13 years, we don't come out often! I always been incredibly nervous about performing Cyclobe live, increasingly less keen to be out in large public situations as well. We've become very hermetic in recent years.
We couldn't say no for Antony though, whom we dearly love and have such great admiration for. Antony's so brave and fearless… such a unique and essential artist. I think Antony's put together a fascinating selection of artists this year.
So many great and inspiring female performers, underground queer artists, and very driven visionary musicians as well, like David Tibet for instance with his new group Myrninerest. They'll be playing at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with us, along with some magical and rarely seen super 8 films by Derek Jarman.
Our evening is called 'ALBION - HYPNAGOGUE - GHOST: Hallucinatory Queer British Paganism’. We'll be performing pieces from our last album 'Wounded Galaxies Tap at The Window' along with some new work, including a collaboration from our next album to be released in Spring 2013, performing with a very special guest which we're extremely excited about. It should be beautiful and telesmatic… an evening of mantrical moon pieces!
It's been fascinating recently, to hear our work developing, transforming them into compositions that can be performed live.
We're going to be working visually with artwork by Fred Tomaselli and Alex Rose, projecting films by Anna Thew and David Larcher, a very beautiful piece of film from his 'Mare's Tail' and Anna's arboreal meditations, her Equinox and Solstice films. I've felt very hesitant to play live since Coil, those shows could be very intense, very stressful emotionally. With Cyclobe, since then, I've been the stick in the mud really, the goat boy dragging his hooves, until Antony surprised us with such a flattering invitation.
We'll be performing with Michael and Cliff of course, but also with Dave Smith from Miasma and the Carousel of Headless Horses, and our good friend Ivan Pavlov from COH, Sleazy's partner in Soisong.
What are your favorite music albums?
They change from week to week, I'd have to say though The End, Marble Index and Desertshore by Nico are three really important records for me, they exist out of time, there's nothing comparable. She could snuff out the stars with those songs, such beautiful, haunting and devastating work. At the moment I'm listening a lot to John Jacob Niles, Jimmy Scott - and Moondog's ‘A New Sound of an Old Instrument’, Moondog always. I think I've listened to that album more than any other over the years. I'm playing a lot of Billy Holiday right now, Sylvester and Sun-Ra, the Turkish singers Bülent Ersoy and Selda. Lal Waterson has a very special place in my heart.
Cyclobe will be performing at Meltdown festival in august 2012
Photo credit: by Ruth Bayer
It feels more like light refracting through a piece of quartz though, but seen from slightly different angles. We might be peering through the same crystals but the effect is unique to the work we do in Cyclobe.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Wounded Galaxies Tap at the Window has an alien atmosphere that reminded me a lot of the work of H.P. Lovecraft (like something menacing trying to invade our world).
Quite a few people refer to H P Lovecraft’s writing when they've talked about our work, that's fine. Steve would certainly embrace that description - it’s not something I feel personally, although he was without doubt a great American writer, both me and Steve have loved his books. Clark Ashton Smith was one of my favourite fantasy writers, he was a good friend of Lovecraft’s, and an artist and poet, also published by Arkham House. A Star Change is a wonderful short story for instance.
There is a lot of unusual ethnic/folk instruments used in Cyclobe, can you name a few?
Rebabs, Hurdy Gurdies, Diples, Duduks, Tulums! A lot of this is thanks to Cliff and Michael. Michael’s also a craftsman and often tailors instruments for our pieces specifically. He has a wonderful collection of instruments a lot of them he's made himself. We've been incorporating this kind of folk instrumentation since our earliest recordings though, it's something we're very much enjoying bring to the forefront now with our music. We first started working with Hurdy Gurdies on 'Inevitable Black Horn', on our first album in 1999. Hearing Cliff Stapleton play, the tunes he wrote was a big inspiration for me.
Those instruments are so evocative and pagan… made from goat skin, fur lined bags full of your breath, bodies carved out of wood, spinning wheels resonating, heating up and vibrating your body, against your belly. I find them so moving to hear, they effect me very deeply, they're so full of emotion and history. I play a Pajot lute-back hurdy gurdy, it's around 150 years old. When Michael plays his Tulum, you can smell Pan in the studio, it's very exciting.
It's also good though to be taking these instruments into new areas, playing them in ways they weren't intended, seeing what else we can conjure, blending them with other instruments, sounds we've created.
What can we expect from a Cyclobe live show?
We'll be making our first live performance here in England this August at Meltdown, invited by Antony [from Antony and the Johnsons] whose curating the festival. It'll be our second performance in 13 years, we don't come out often! I always been incredibly nervous about performing Cyclobe live, increasingly less keen to be out in large public situations as well. We've become very hermetic in recent years.
We couldn't say no for Antony though, whom we dearly love and have such great admiration for. Antony's so brave and fearless… such a unique and essential artist. I think Antony's put together a fascinating selection of artists this year.
So many great and inspiring female performers, underground queer artists, and very driven visionary musicians as well, like David Tibet for instance with his new group Myrninerest. They'll be playing at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with us, along with some magical and rarely seen super 8 films by Derek Jarman.
Our evening is called 'ALBION - HYPNAGOGUE - GHOST: Hallucinatory Queer British Paganism’. We'll be performing pieces from our last album 'Wounded Galaxies Tap at The Window' along with some new work, including a collaboration from our next album to be released in Spring 2013, performing with a very special guest which we're extremely excited about. It should be beautiful and telesmatic… an evening of mantrical moon pieces!
It's been fascinating recently, to hear our work developing, transforming them into compositions that can be performed live.
We're going to be working visually with artwork by Fred Tomaselli and Alex Rose, projecting films by Anna Thew and David Larcher, a very beautiful piece of film from his 'Mare's Tail' and Anna's arboreal meditations, her Equinox and Solstice films. I've felt very hesitant to play live since Coil, those shows could be very intense, very stressful emotionally. With Cyclobe, since then, I've been the stick in the mud really, the goat boy dragging his hooves, until Antony surprised us with such a flattering invitation.
We'll be performing with Michael and Cliff of course, but also with Dave Smith from Miasma and the Carousel of Headless Horses, and our good friend Ivan Pavlov from COH, Sleazy's partner in Soisong.
What are your favorite music albums?
They change from week to week, I'd have to say though The End, Marble Index and Desertshore by Nico are three really important records for me, they exist out of time, there's nothing comparable. She could snuff out the stars with those songs, such beautiful, haunting and devastating work. At the moment I'm listening a lot to John Jacob Niles, Jimmy Scott - and Moondog's ‘A New Sound of an Old Instrument’, Moondog always. I think I've listened to that album more than any other over the years. I'm playing a lot of Billy Holiday right now, Sylvester and Sun-Ra, the Turkish singers Bülent Ersoy and Selda. Lal Waterson has a very special place in my heart.
Cyclobe will be performing at Meltdown festival in august 2012
Photo credit: by Ruth Bayer
Artwork: Alex Rose
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Biosphere & Lustmord present Trinity (2012)
They have already done a performance for the Unsound Festival in New York. They will soon be performing at Montréal's Mutek Festival (and hopefully touring elsewhere near you if you are lucky):
Contrary to a lot of ambient bands made for listening at home with a pair of good headphones, Lustmord seems to give a very impressive live performance. I will certainly attend this show!
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Supersilent — 6.2 (2003)
Supersilent is a jazz / improvisation band featuring a lot of unconventional instruments. The group features ambient trumpetist Arve Henriksen and sound artist Helge Sten of Deathprod. Each album is completely improvised (and some albums have a very aggressive electronic sound not very common in jazz).
Supersilent
6.2
Album: 6 (2003)
Painting:
Aurora Borealis (1865)
by Frederic Edwin Church
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Ben Frost — There Are No Others, There Is Only Us
There Are No Others, There Is Only Us is a video installation by Marc Silver, filmmaker about the power of crowds. The visceral music of Ben Frost (already discussed in this blog) has been composed to accompany the images.
In a time where the world is ever more connected and unbordered, Marc Silver considers whether crowds are a force for oppression, or a potential for resistance. There are no others, there is only us is a powerful visual metaphor illustrating the nature of collaboration and the power of crowds, with music composed by producer Ben Frost.
In a time where the world is ever more connected and unbordered, Marc Silver considers whether crowds are a force for oppression, or a potential for resistance. There are no others, there is only us is a powerful visual metaphor illustrating the nature of collaboration and the power of crowds, with music composed by producer Ben Frost.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Arctic Ambient list — 6 albums
After discovering the classic "arctic ambient" Substrata album by Biosphere (I talked about it here), I was hooked and started looking for something similar. I was surprised to find out there is a lot of arctic theme ambient music. It seems the polar landscape is a never-ending source of inspiration for ambient musicians. There is even a label called Glacial Movements Records specialised in arctic ambient music.
1. Thomas Köner — Permafrost (1993): Köner is a german multimedia artist making installations with sound and projections. All of his albums are based on the arctic themes featuring deep bass sound, drones sounding like the wind and low rumbles. Better to listen to this album with good headphones. [Video below]
2. Higher Intelligence Agency & Biosphere — Polar Sequences (1996): This album is more related to minimal electronic music. The sounds are crystalline and "icy". A lot of sampling is used. The most impressive track being what seems to be the sound of a melting glacier in the song Meltwater. [Video below]
3. Tim Hecker — Haunt Me, Haunt Me Do It Again (2001): Hecker is the expert of distortion, static noises and reverb. The atmosphere of this album is cold, with titles like Music for Tundra, Arctic Loner's Rock, Boreal Kiss.
4. Northaunt — Barren Land (2004): This is the dark ambient equivalent of Substrata. Features a lot of field recordings of wind, creaking snow but the whole atmosphere of the album is very menacing.
4. Northaunt — Barren Land (2004): This is the dark ambient equivalent of Substrata. Features a lot of field recordings of wind, creaking snow but the whole atmosphere of the album is very menacing.
5. SleepResearch_Facility — Deep Frieze (2007): Another dark ambient album from the Cold Spring label. Each track of Deep Frieze is named after Antarctic co-ordinates. The music is very minimal with some discreet synth over recordings that sound like the wind. Sounds very cold.
6. Irezumi — Endurance (2008): This is one of my favorite in the genre. The album was made by a young techno/house artist but could really be described as dark ambient. This a concept album based on the tragic Endurance expedition in the Arctic. This album is like a soundtrack to a movie. The use of the synth is splendid and does not fall in the traps of the typical dark ambient albums. The theme is morbid, but the music is splendid and often contemplative. [Video below]
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Android Dreams — Tokyo Time-Lapse
I love the Blade Runner soundtrack...
Fits perfectly with this Tokyo Time-Lapse.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Wardruna — Runaljod - gap var Ginnunga (2009)
Some things take time. This band, for example. I've had the first album of Wardruna for more than a year and I didn't listen to it much. Maybe my musical taste has changed, or it is another of these intense musical phases that I have but it is now in among my favorites.
Wardruna is a band making music centered on the theme of Nordic spirituality and shamanism. It's members are Einar "Kvitrafn" Selvik (drummer of Black Metal band Gorgoroth), Lindy Fay Hella and Gaahl (famous for being the signer Gorgoroth). Up to now, the group has only released Runaljod - gap var Ginnunga, but two more albums are supposed to be in creation with the aim of creating a trilogy (called the Runajod Trilogy). Each album explores the theme of 8 runes. The group uses ancient traditional folk instruments (deer-hoof percussion, hide drums, bone flutes, goat horn), field recordings (water, thunder, birds), and vocals. The signing is really impressive here. Lindy Fay has a beautiful voice and she really can sing, there is also some throat singing by both Gaahl and Kvitrafn.
Wardruna has had a lot of success and recognition lately. They have played live on Norwegian television, had a concert in the Viking Ship Museum of Oslo and they are part of a lot of festivals. Their next albums seem to be expected by a lot of people.
This is great music for people who like ambient/tribal/medieval bands like Dead Can Dance. Sure it's not the only band to try to tackle the viking theme, but it is really a good interpretation of it. I'm not sure how historically accurate is Wardruna's music but I like it that way, very cinematic.
Apoptose — Blutopfer [Calanda Semana Santa]
"Nowhere are they beaten (the drums of Good Friday) with such mysterious power as in Calanda. They beat in recognition of the shadows that covered the earth at the moment Christ died" — Luis Buñuel [exerpt from his autobiography]
Every year, in the small town of Calanda, in Spain, a religious ritual takes place to celebrate the Holy Week. Up to 3000 people gather in the town's Plaza, dressed in purple costumes and play the drums until Easter arrives at midnight. Hooded figures march through the streets with the Virgin Mary statue while playing drums. This tradition has been immortalized and is now famous because it has been filmed by cineast Luis Buñuel, citizen of Calanda. I am not religious, but have always been fascinated by the theatral aspect of religious rituals, even more when music is involved. This really seems like something impressive.
In 2006, the german industrial band Apoptose, has made a recording called Blutopfer mixing sampling of the drums of Calanda with synth music. The result is impressive.
UPDATE: After some research I stumbled on another industrial group that has made industrial versions of the drums of Calanda. It is the Catalan band Vagina Dentana Organ. The album featuring the drums is called Triumph of the flesh.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Deathprod — Dead People's Things (2004)
Deathprod is the musical dark ambient project of Helge Sten. His music is often oppressive and scary. He also plays for the jazz group Supersilent (that features famous jazz trumpetist Arve Henriksen). Sten also works as a producer (with ambient group Biosphere). Here is my favorite Deathprod song.
Deathprod
Dead People's Things [edit]
Album: Morals and Dogma (2004)
Photo: Darren Nisbett
[photograph taken inside the Chernobyl Zone of Alienation)
Thursday, March 15, 2012
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