When I first glanced at a cover of Wurdskrieme I had an involuntary reaction… You see, I don’t really like lyrics and prefer instrumental music, painting the pictures without the words. That being said, I was relieved to see that it was not in English, and that perhaps the sound of a foreign language will add to the experience of the album. I wasn’t wrong. When it comes to dialects I can’t comprehend, I prefer the music of the tongue in Japanese, Portuguese, and Finnish. I believe that when the language strips off its underlying message, it becomes an instrument all on its own.

The poetry recited by Jan Kleefstra on the album is delivered in a perfectly paced, accentuated language of his native Friesland, a province in the far North of the Netherlands. Upon further investigation, perhaps I wouldn’t mind understanding the lyrics that much:

I’d like to be a word not alone, I’d like to be immeasurable light
and float around your voice like a sound that flew out because of me
the night only knows it through hearsay that the light then tired
fell like an autumn moth to earth and never got up
- Wurch Ljocht (tr. “Tired Light”)

Besides the words by the above mentioned Kleefstra, the other three members of Piiptsjilling are Romke Kleefstra, Mariska Baars (aka Soccer Committee), and Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek). With haunting abstract paintings on the guitar, strange effects and various noises, the group of musicians create acoustic folktronica for distant lands and desolate places. The poetry comes and goes, drifting into the foreground of experimental sounds, then receding into the shadows of drones.

Wurdskrieme (tr. “Cry of Words”), is somewhat improvisational, somewhat post-processed, and finally mastered by the acute ear of Taylor Deupree. The album explores “serene soundscapes”, “nocturnal atmospheres”, and “emotional abstractions”. Be sure to also check out Machinefabriek and Jan Kleefstra’s earlier collaboration on an album titled Piiptsjilling (Onomatopee, 2008), a 30-minute opus that started this project. Beautifully crafted and highly recommended. A delicate lullaby in a faraway tongue.

piiptsjilling.wordpress.com | experimedia.net

Along with our Experimedia Label Special currently running on Headphone Commute, we have a very special mix for you from the label! Featuring new and upcoming releases from many of our favorite and a few new labels, this 80-minute journey across ambient and experimental music is a perfect mid-week surprise! Something that’s definitely needed on this end… Hope you feel the same!

experimedia.net

[ S T R E A M ] | [ D O W N L O A D ] | [ P O D C A S T ] | [ i T U N E S ]

On your bandcamp page I saw that some samples for the album come from Sample Based Life project. Talk a bit about that.
I can’t remember exactly how I came to that, but I found their sound library very interesting and so I started some tracks with their samples like “feel it” which is the main melody of the song, with their kind permission of course.

You’ve done a lot of remixes lately! How do you find the time and how do you select which tracks will get your reworking?
Time is my biggest enemy! ;) But I presently have the time to be creative and that permits me to work fast. The selection is simply; I listen to the track and if I love it I will try to make the Sun Glitters version. However, now, it is also a question of time, If I have the time to work on the project, I will. It also depends on deadlines too!

Who does all of the cover design for your releases?
I make all the graphics concerning Sun Glitters myself. It’s important to me that I keep an eye on this because it’s a important part of the concept as well! Except sometimes there are some compilations or remixes who are curated by those who invite me to participate.

What do you think about all the attention you have been receiving since the album release?
I’m really happy, it helps me focus more time on my music, and makes me excited to continue making music and playing shows! I think it’s important for an artist to see that you have people/fans who love and are following your work! But all that was also possible due the great work done by Jeff at Type PR.

Any memorably moments from your recent tour?
There are a lot of great moments who I will never forget for sure! I’ve had the chance to meet great people and had really great times with them. Hope that will continue ;)

Tell us about your latest EP – ‘high’.
The High EP it’s a collaboration that started last year at the early stages of Sun Glitters. The guys from m/i/f/l showed interest in Sun Glitters music and asked me to be their first release of their new label. I had a good feeling with them, so, I decided to make it happen! About the tracks, it’s a production based around everyday life, with a more mature sound… It was the next step from “everything could be fine” debut and singles like “things are” and the “wind caresses her hair”

What are you working on right now, and what are your ambitions for 2012?
I’m working on my new songs for my next full length. I hope to find a great label to sign to with the help of my manager at Banter Media Management. Continue creating my yet-to-be released works and of course, playing shows/festivals where “it’s ok booking” is doing a great job!

Read Headphone Commute review of Everything Could Be Fine

sunglitters.com | sunglitters.bandcamp.com

I suppose there’s no use in asking you to reveal your identity, so I’ll just inquire about your decision in remaining anonymous.
It’s much appreciated, and I thank you for that. That sounds are being passed onto the listener for themselves to decode and understand. I fear that revealing myself may corrupt the very aesthetic that exists within the music- personally, for the listener, along with myself.

How would you say your work on The Quiet Divide has evolved since In 8 Movements?
The Quiet Divide is a bit more musical in its own sense, but to be honest, I’m really not sure how, or even if it has evolved at all. I’ve explored other routes of sound, while still hoping it overall wouldn’t become stagnant. Each have their own appearance and identity, while sharing the same. I was nervous to release this record in fear that it may destroy the expectations of the music’s fan base. I was afraid people wouldn’t connect to it as much as 8 Movements. But as it turned out, they did. Thankfully, though I will probably always live in fear, regardless.

What is the journey and where are you taking us?
Sadly, we live in a society where all senses are force fed and everything that’s presented is spelled out. Be it spiritual, emotional, intuitive, meditative, semiconscious, subconsciousness, or even null, the journey, if any at all, is definitely personal. I see it to be myself who invites the curious into something untouched, from the beginning. I may initiate, but the listener is in full charge of their own journey, which could end in light, or complete darkness. I’m just lingering behind, but their vision of me is obscured. They eventually forget that I’m even present throughout it all, and my existence fades away.

Tell us about your label, Ethereal Symphony. And how did you get signed to Experimedia?
Ethereal Symphony was the name of a DIY operation behind Black Swan, and its recordings. I had originally released the first album (8 Movements) independently, where Jeremy discovered it and inquired the possible release of a physical record. Seeing how Jeremy works, and working with him directly, I have no doubt that he is one of the hardest working souls within the independent music community and am extremely grateful for what he does for my music, my label mates, and independent music as a whole.

How would you describe your music to your friends? And do they even know you as Black Swan?
I don’t, and stand alone with it all. I enjoy solitude greatly, as dark as it can become. The very few around me hardly know about Black Swan. I like to keep it locked away.

Who or what are your inspirations when composing the Symphony of Misery and Sorrow?
Something very distant, yet extremely familiar and near. It’s almost magnetic. It could be bright, dark, forgotten, or found, but exists within us all. It’s almost a sort of hope, in which we try to hold on to and keep alive, even if it is beginning to slip through our hands.

If there’s one thing you’d want the world to know about you, what would it be?
The devil will always live within the details.

Read Headphone Commute’s Review of The Quiet Divide

blackswan.byethost18.com

It’s true… I wait until the sun goes down to listen to the second release from Black Swan. I listen to the music the way others watch the movies. Lounging comfortably in my chair, positioned perfectly between my studio monitors, their cones facing towards me, slightly tilted, completing an imaginary triangle. A glass of wine in my hand… my eyes slightly closed… I let the sound envelope and surround me in preparation for a film. Occasionally I drift away, as images begin to swirl behind my eyelids, and this is when the music becomes alive, telling the story through its long growing fingers, gesturing me to follow its essence around the corner, down the corridor from whence the voice comes.

On the last step of the staircase I hear the sounds of a ballroom, drowned in muffled buzzing of a nearby electric transformer. I know that the deeper I go, the harder it will be to come back, but there’s no turning back now… I’ve bridged The Quiet Divide… Somewhere between “Black Eulogy” and “Angel Eyes” I have become aware of the dream. Perhaps the sounds of the Victrola triggered my lucid awakening, and all I can do now, is observe. Here’s what I see: walls made from black velvet inhale air full of soot; pipes covered with mildew wheeze, rumble and hiss; thick putrid fog glows in sweltering heat… there’s no one here… I’m wholly alone…

“Awash with chilling ambience, found sounds and haunting samples, The Quiet Divide reins in the phantasmagoria, examining the blurred in-between, the darkness that lies at the divide. [...] Upon surfacing from the muck and grime, the resulting work is disquieting and poignant, exposing the listener to the inner workings of the desolate in hope that they will never have to plunge themselves into it.”

I don’t remember waking up. I don’t remember returning. In fact, I highly doubt I’ve come back at all. This album has that effect. Subtitled “A Symphony of Misery and Sorrow“, Black Swan’s follow up to the 2010 debut, In 8 Movements, is even darker then before. I remember falling in love with the predecessor, but the subsequent installment in “drones for bleeding hearts” is soul wrenching. And I mean that with the highest possible praise. Co-released by what appears the artist’s own label, Ethereal Symphony, The Quiet Divide is an amazing addition to Experimedia‘s catalog. We now have two full lengths from this elusive artist… the rest is a mystery…

Read Interview With Black Swan

experimedia.net

Starting off from the very first track – the album name, the cover art, and Lisa Isaksson‘s lovely voice – everything suggests that I’m about to enter an epic story, a little medieval, a bit contemporary, and always unique. Defying all categorization, the eight tracks on Meadow Rituals, remind me of old-fashioned stories, lost antique treasures, and ancient simple times, when music was made with voice, strings, and wind. With guitar, flute, and cello dominating the sound palette, this super group of over nineteen musicians (I lost count!), set out to “examine man’s primitive nature”.

“Meadow Rituals presents 8 paeans to unite man’s overwhelming distance from nature and self and a celebration of the reunion. Lilting melodies mix with ambient and new age directions; propulsive swells of strings and effervescent electronics make way for profound vocal harmonies to create a universal and timeless experience.”

This Greek collective appeared seemingly out of nowhere, all thanks to Experimedia, reminding me of the beauty within celtic, pagan, and pastoral songs. On purely instrumental tracks, such as “Roots Growth”, the Lüüp finds itself engaged in jazzy rhythm, performing a piece composed by the group’s lead, flautist Stelios Romaliadis, who also a member of Yellow Elephant Ensemble. My favorite piece, “Ritual Of Apollo & Dionysus” recalls contemporary classical composition saturated in sadness, dread and angst.

Perhaps just as captivating as the album itself is a digital-only bonus release featuring remixes by Aaron Martin, Field Rotation, Hummingbird, Jasper TX, offthesky, Billy Gomberg and Dictionary of Ghosts. Aren’t these all of your favorites? I thought so… Here are another eight amazing tracks, reworking only two songs, “Spiraling” and “Cream Sky“. Yet in each artist’s hands, the pieces take on a new life, uniquely represented within such a fantastic roster of musicians. Worth a separate pressing all on its own! Pick up your collection of rituals directly from the label for this extra gift!

luup.experimedia.net

editor’s note: answers provided by Aaron Martin (A) and Dag Rosenqvist (D)

How did you guys first meet, and what persuaded you to work together?
A: I had been aware of and admired Dag’s work as Jasper TX since I’ll Be Long Gone Before My Light Reaches You, but we didn’t first come into direct contact with one another until he asked me to record a cello arrangement for a piece called “Weight of Days” that appears on The Black Sun Transmissions album. That went well, and I was excited about the possibility of working on a longer project together. He felt the same way and we got started working on “Woven Tide” from there.

What does the name of your project mean?
D: The thing is I’d had this as a possible title for a while. But I just couldn’t seem to make it stick to anything And when Aaron and I started talking about actually giving this project a proper name I started thinking that it might actually work better as the name for a project rather than for a track or an album. It’s sort of a weird title for a project but once we decided on it. It just kind of stuck and now I couldn’t imagine this being named something else. Initially the title came to me in a dream where I was running up a hill and once I came to the summit I was blinded by this radiant bright sun reminding me of an Aztec Sun God. The light was so intense I could barely look at it and then it opened its mouth and out came a sound unlike anything I’ve ever heard. It was like the most overpowering drone I’ve ever heard, penetrating every fiber in my body, filling me with light. This was kind of the anti thesis to the image that spurred the initial concept for “The Black Sun Transmissions”. And no, I’m not a hippie and I’m not on drugs…

Talk about the recording process of Woven Tide.
D: I think we started talking about doing something together in the beginning of 2010 but I know I was very busy at the time and couldn’t really commit to anything right then. Then when Eyjafjallajökull forced the world to a standstill in April I got stuck in den Haag, The Netherlands for an additional three or four days during which I started playing around with some recordings of Trombone and French Horn I had done a couple of months earlier for another project. And during the course of those very insecure, chaotic and strange days I made the foundation to what was to become “Like Shadows In An Empty Cathedral”. And I actually think that Aaron had sent me a recording of an electric guitar (which is the foundation of “My Skin Drinks Light That Has Passed Through Leaves”) a while before this that I also started playing around with during that time. But the collaboration didn’t take off for real (at least for me, as I remember it) until I had left school in the beginning of June and was basically unemployed for almost two months. And from there on we started bouncing tracks and ideas back and fourth. I made most of the basic foundations in terms of chords and stuff like that for the tracks. And Aaron would send me sounds and recordings that I built even more foundations of. Some things emanated from previous recordings but transformed into something completely new. And once we had a foundation we would bounce that back and fourth a couple of times. Add stuff, mix and re-mix, add more, take away and mix some more. The whole process went quite fast and easy actually and I think that both of us wanted to keep it quite rough, at least that was one of my ambitions with this one. The main part of what I recorded was first-takes. Everything was very well recorded (in terms of recording quality/equipment) but I really wanted to keep a spontaneity about the whole thing and not over-work it. And that goes for the mixing and processing as well. Thinking about it now I don’t think we ever talked about what we wanted to do in terms of music, we kind of just let it take its course and see where it would take us. And it seemed to work fine. The album was basically done by mid-December or something like that. So it was a pretty quick one. From initial discussions to finished album in about a year. Fastest recording I’ve ever been a part of.

Your music is already full of emotion, and yet the titles of the tracks carry on a deeper meaning. What is the main theme behind the album and how is that reflected in the track names?
A: The album is intimate, but has a broader scope than my solo work, which often concerns specific events in my life. The music is like standing in a large, detailed room and absorbing the scope of space from afar, letting the feeling of space wash over you, rather than inspecting each ornamentation up close. During the time that we were working on the album, I did a short tour from Colorado down to New Mexico. I saw a photograph in Santa Fe of a woman sitting in a room with no roof. I carried this feeling with me for “Woven Tide” which coincides with the idea of surrendering to space, rather than trying to control it. Another similar image I kept in mind while recording was the vision of light passing through leaves. Giving in to the knowledge that we are enclosed by nature is an important thread that ties “Woven Tide” together. It’s like following a wire into the woods and letting go: there’s a sense of awe and bewilderment present throughout the music.

If this was a soundtrack to a movie, what would be the main protagonist’s story?
D: I have no idea to be honest. To me this is more about the ebb and flow of nature. For some reason I just came back to images of nature when I worked on it. And also when I listen back to it I see and hear water, meadows, rocks and sand in it.

Tell us about the appearance of your music on Remember Me, My Ghost. How did that collaboration come about?
A: Three pieces of my music had appeared in Ross McDonnell and Carter Gunn’s feature-length documentary Colony. The documentary showed at a festival a few hours from where I live and I was able to meet Carter. He showed interest in working with me more closely in the future and when he was editing Remember Me, My Ghost he had the idea to exclusively use my music (as well as one piece from “Woven Tide”) for the short documentary.

Given all the praise I sang for the album, I’m hoping that this project is here to stay. Do you think we’ll see and hear more?
D: Yes, that was actually one of the reasons why we choose a name for this duo, we could have just as easily called it Aaron Martin & Dag Rosenqvist or something along the lines of that. So yeah, I don’t know when or where but you will definitely hear more from us in the future!

I know both of you are very prolific artists. What are you working on right now?
D: Fall 2011 I experienced my first ever serious writers block but now I’m slowly making my way out of it. At the moment I’m working with the Gothenburg based dance company Iraqi Bodies and their new performance “Vowels”, set to premiere in Gothenburg in May 2012. I will continue working with the company also for the coming three-part project “Body & Identities” set to premiere during fall 2012. I’m also currently working with Edinburgh based sound artist Matt Collings in preparation for our upcoming UK tour. To start with, we’re doing an EP that will be available during our joint dates in April. I’ve also started making sketches for my next solo album. The entire concept is set so now I “only” need to make the music to go along with that. But when that will see the light of day is pretty much any ones guess.

A: I’m currently working on a release with a musician from New Mexico who records under the name Luperci. He plays sitar and heavily processes it. He did a remix for the recent “Worried about the Fire” remix tape “Stitched in Fire”. I’ve also been contributing cello parts to the new project of Maurice De Jong (Gnaw Their Tongues) called Seirom. That album should be out soon and there are already some unreleased tracks available. This spring I hope to start working on the first Winter’s Day full-length with Dawn Smithson.

Read Headphone Commute’s review of From The Mouth of The Sun

experimedia.net

I feel like 2011 was the year of collaborations. A year when two truly amazing artists combined forces to produce something even more beautiful than they alone could make. Bear with me, and let me demonstrate. There was the stunning collaboration between Ben Frost and Daníel Bjarnason, titled SÓLARIS, the minimally blissed out record by Taylor Deupree and Marcus Fischer, In A Place Of Such Graceful Shapes, an incredible pairing by David Wenngren (aka Library Tapes) and Christopher Bissonnette on The Meridians Of Longitude And Parallels Of Latitude, an absolute perfect match between Hauschka and Hildur Guðnadóttir for Pan Tone, a gorgeous record by Dakota Suite and Emanuele Errante, The North Green Down, and an absolute mind blowing tour de force by A Winged Victory For The Sullen finding Dustin O’Halloran and Adam Bryanbaum producing one of the best records of the year. Whew!

I think I made my point. So could 2012 bring in another batch of matches made in heaven? I think Experimedia is trying to do just that! Kicking off the year with a gorgeous album, Woven Tide, this new duo is hopefully here to stay to keep aching for more. Let me introduce you to the happy couple. From The Mouth of The Sun begins with Dag Rosenqvist who is definitely not a newcomer to the scene. Known mostly for his Jasper TX moniker, Rosenqvist has been producing beautiful ambient landscapes, and sometimes darker drone caverns for labels such as Lidar, Slaapwel, Miasmah, Under The Spire and Fang Bomb.

Aaron Martin is the other half of the group. Martin is an incredibly talented cellist, recording multiple albums for Preservation label, above mentioned Under The Spire, and the very same Experimedia. Martin’s collaboration with Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek), titled Cello Recycling | Cello Drowning for Type turned many heads in 2007. Our eyes (and ears) have been since attuned to his works with Justin Wright, Dawn Smithson, and Part Timer, all just in time to get us excited for this amazing collab with Dag. Well, enough name dropping and catalog clawing, let’s get down to music, ’cause that’s why we’ve gathered here today!

Album Preview:

Gently bowed and carefully plucked strings rise above the humming hiss, lo-fi noise and molded field recordings. Piano chords guide the rhythm as the music swirls towards the light, lifting memory, melody and spirit. There’s something enigmatic and timeless about this journey through the vast landscapes, grieving mountains and abandoned homes. A needle left on a record is forever locked in its groove, clocking off a beat of crackle, clicks and fuzz. Voices sigh in empty cathedrals; the singing bowls vibrate the dust; and vinyl pops melt in the rain. Finally the cello sings. Its solo cry is perpetually lost in an agonizing minor chord, until the guitar strums pick it up. The album comes to its cinematic climax on an eleven minute epic peak, “A Season In Waters”.

“As From The Mouth of the Sun, the duo act as our torchbearers, scrawling messages along the walls of an elongated cave, toiling through the decayed remnants of fetid matter to create eight illuminating pieces. The listener, who has wiled away the hours, will find a door; Woven Tide will be the light out of the darkness.”

This is a very special album that is destined to stay in your mind, heart and soul. Released on Experimedia label, the record is available on CD, digital download, and an LP. A piece from Woven Tide as well as additional music by Aaron Martin appears on a documentary film by Lost Hills, Remember Me, My Ghost. Be sure to check out Jasper TX’s The Black Sun Transmissions (Fang Bomb, 2011) featured on our Best of 2011 list, Music For Bending Light And Stopping Time, as well as his exclusive mix for Headphone Commute, From Midnight To Sunlight. For more music from Aaron Martin pick up Worried About The Fire (Experimedia, 2011) and his collaboration with Justin Wright, Light Poured out Of Our Bones (Preservation, 2011). All are highly recommended.

Be sure to read our Interview with From The Mouth of The Sun

experimedia.net

Imagine yourself riding through the country in your brand new convertible on a summer day… Imagine drifting above the stretching fields following the sunset towards the horizon with warm wind in your hair… Imagine floating above the clouds, climbing to the heights where the air is thin, and then diving off the coast towards the salty ocean… These are the images and feelings that are evoked when listening to Dive, Scott Hansen‘s latest studio album as Tycho released on the remarkable Ann Arbor based (Michigan, USA) Ghostly International.

Hansen first came onto the scene with his 2004 release on Gammaphone, Sunrise Projector. In 2006, he got picked up by the now defunct and dearly missed Merck, where Tycho gained critical acclaim with the expanded version of Sunrise Projector, published as Past Is Prologue. When Merck closed its doors in January 2007, Hansen was one of those musicians looking for a new home. He immediately found Ghostly International to be suitable for his sound with a digital release, The Daydream / The Disconnect. In 2009, Hansen teased us with a Coastal Brake EP on Ghostly, and finally unleashed Dive – a collection of floating melodies, uplifting beats, and dreamy vocals.

Many thoughts and memories well up when listening to Dive. I immediately flashback to the days of electronica when lush textures, warm layers, and upbeat rhythms accompanied me on many occasions. Hansen hints on elements of time in his compositions:

“Nostalgia is a common thread in my work, but this album wasn’t driven by that idea. I see these songs as artifacts from a future which might have more in common with our past than our present.”

It’s nearly impossible to avoid comparisons of Dive to the sonic fields of Boards of Canada, synth soundscapes of Ulrich Schnauss, lounging head nodding of Bibio, childhood longing of M83, and mnemonic washes of Telefon Tel Aviv. Known in the graphic design world as ISO50, Hansen paints his auditory canvas with sun drenched colors and earthy tones. With nearly effortless yet flawless execution, Hansen justifies the long wait, and delivers one of our favorite albums of the year – featured in Headphone Commute’s Best of 2011 : Music For Missed Friends, Barbecues And Turntables.

tychomusic.com | ghostly.com

A long time contributor, a sonic curator, and musical journey vanguard, Cole Pierce, returns to Headphone Commute’s podcast series with his latest auditory map – LAKE ODESSA. This latest installment is more than a mix – it is an extension to Pierce’s sound installation for the Born Digital Exhibition at CAM Raleigh, which is opening today (January, 28th, 2012).

“My piece in the Born Digital Exhibition is a listening station and a limited edition run of hand-made mix CDs. There is a vague theme running throughout the music mix about obscured language and limits of human behavior.  The mix is fairly drawn out, comprised of austere ambient and abstract electronic music, with a groovy set in the middle.  I wove a variety of found sounds and field recordings throughout the mix; Buzz Aldrin on the moon, snippets of conversations about phobias, artificial christmas trees, and Brian Eno’s ideas on limit making.” 

Cover art by Cole Pierce, silk-screen print on 90lb cotton paper, edition of 100. Originally designed with Mixel, based on collages by Able Parris and Paul Soulellis.

colepierce.com | prestosamo.blogspot.com | camraleigh.org

[ S T R E A M ] | [ D O W N L O A D ] | [ P O D C A S T ] | [ i T U N E S ]

• Cole Pierce – WORD
• Cole Pierce – Go Lightly
• Cole Pierce – Zombies and Vampires
• Cole Pierce – Later

I somehow stumbled upon Sun Glitters in March and the album hasn’t left my player ever since.  Luxembourg based Victor Ferreira (also known as sug(r)cane) is quite prolific and seems to regularly add to his oeuvre with remixes and stand alone tracks popping up on his bandcamp on a fairly regular basis… Upon initial listening I raved to those who would listen, describing Sun Glitters as “like Boards of Canada making house music” or “probably quite good with Nitrous,” but don’t take my word for it… the official bio describes the sound as such:

“Sun Glitters sound is an ocean of lush melodies, pitch-shifted vocal samples, ghostly digi-diva choirs, warm bass melodies driven by alternately dense and relaxing beatwork combinations between downtempo and wonky beats.”

Having had this music with me for over 9 months, it really has soundtracked some memorable moments of my year… When I went to the Bangface Weekender, this is what we would wake up to in the early afternoon; when I drove to a week’s holiday at the seaside, this was the soundtrack I’d play in the car; when I have to get up at 5.30am to go to work, this shuts out the noise of the London Underground; when I had a summer barbecue, this was the album I played as the sun waned over the horizon. When Headphone Commute asked me to do a podcast mix this summer, it was no fluke that I featured several Sun Glitters tracks and remixes.

With Everything Could Be Fine, Ferreira officially reached his all time high, performing at many festivals, getting interviewed by many journalists, and of course being selected as one of the best albums of the year. The album got picked up by LebensStrasse Records for a CD release, as well as We get By label for a limited edition cassette reprint. Ufolk Records wasted no time and released a 17-track remix album, Everything Could Be Remodeled And That’s Fine, featuring reworks by Blackbird, Space Ghost, :papercutz, and many others. Ferreira also released a four-tarck split EP with South London’s Halls, and his very latest 2012 offering, high ep, released via upcoming label music/is/for/losers.

Sun Glitters – It Takes Me from high ep

sunglitters.com | sunglitters.bandcamp.com

Review by Orangewarrior, originally appearing on clockworkshorts.com. Republished with permission of the author. Additional text by HC.

It seems like an awful long time since Rustie’s Jagz The Smack EP came out on Stuffrecords. Well, 4 years to be precise. Remembering to back then, his bass-heavy “aqua krunk” style of instrumental hip hop left chinstrokers unsure if this was dubstep or something similar. In 2008, I had the pleasure of seeing him and fellow Glaswegian wonky beat-maker Hudson Mohawke dj twice in Barcelona – playing mostly hip-hop with the odd bit of a wobble, but still getting everyone who was paying attention very excited indeed.

Jump forward to 2011 and the electronic musical landscape has changed considerably – HudMo’s Butter LP came out on Warp 2 years ago seemingly leaving Russ in the dust, and bass-based dance & wobble music has evolved at an exponential rate. Quite honestly, I don’t think I was the only person to wonder what had happened to Rustie (despite the odd random quality remix), so it was a great relief to see him finally step up and deliver on the promise of those early productions.

Glass Swords, like all the best electronic albums has one eye on the future, the other on the past, and has then fused both into a sound that somehow manages to sound nostalgic and future-looking in one contemporaneous shard – crystallizing the moment, you might say. Surprisingly for someone whose early works seemed quite moody, there’s a sense of unabashed joy and freedom that permeates each track – dayglo trance drum rolls and hands-in-the-air euphoric rave synths, which are gleefully thrown into the mix alongside what sounds like 1980′s hair metal guitar samples and an infinite play chest of toy percussion.

“[...] Rustie time travels for the cocaine-addled synthesizer washes and searing guitar tones of 1980’s pop, the cash-infused bombast of new-millennium R&B, the pit-of-your-stomach ecstasy high of the most classic rave memories and the bloodshot scowl of white-hot pirate radio broadcasts.”  -Warp Press Release

The sounds themselves are of a strangely fuzzy home-made quality, sounding like an energetic drummer trying to replicate an Essential Mix as he listens to it live on the radio. This is by no means a bad thing, but it does mean that there is something uniquely Rustic about the tracks here that would make them hard to blend into a DJ mix of otherwise polished-to-perfection dancefloor smashers. Whilst appropriating the templates of current musical vogues: dubstep, juke, techno, wobble hip hop, and so on, the album manages to sound like none of them at all, but something beamed down from another plane entirely.

The second track on the album, “Flash Back”, instantly reminded me of Vince DiCola’s synthy score for the 1980′s animated Transformers Movie and I suspect this isn’t coincidental.. a clonky retro-futuristic element is definitely there in the fabric of the music. Meanwhile, neck snapping tunes like “City Star” and “After Light” sound (unexpectedly) like something Afrika Bambaataa might have made, had he grown up on a diet of Irn Bru and fish suppers. It’s yet to be proven, but I suspect you could happily play this album from end to end over a compilation of 80′s sci-fi movies and it would fit perfectly…

warp.net

Review by Orangewarrior, originally appearing on clockworkshorts.com. Republished with permission of the author.

Jamie Teasdale, formerly one half of dubstep duo Vex’d, is now working solo as Kuedo. Fittingly released on Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu record label, it harkens back to the mid-1990′s Artificial Intelligence series of albums on Warp that led to the somewhat unfortunate genre name of “IDM.” There are certain keywords that appear to be obligatory when talking about this album, so let’s get them out of the way: Vangelis, Blade Runner, Tangerine Dream, Carly Simon, Tony’s Theme From Scarface, Chicago’s footwork, and ‘coke rap’. There we go. Whoops, nearly forgot 808. That’s better.

Severant in some senses shares a lot of DNA with Rustie‘s Glass Swords (Warp, 2011) – there’s definitely a sci-fi element at play here and indeed the 1980′s nostalgia is up front and centre. Wilfully low-fi sounding instrumentation is an element of both albums too – Severant appearing to be almost hand crafted rather than edited together on a computer: I can happily imagine a live band behind a huge bank of synthesizers, 808s and Keytars playing this album to their hearts’ content. Where the two part company, however, is that whilst Glass Swords is like an ADD-afflicted blipvert of influences, Severant is defiantly consistent in its sounds and atmospheres.

“As reality shapes imagination and escapism affects your choices in the real world, there is a strange relational loop between the two and the space in between the two. There’s a bitter sweetness in that gap, it has a certain emotive quality, kind of in between being and non-being. I wanted to capture a really futurist sentiment, kind of melancholy and grand luminescent, so I used the instrument that most evokes that for me – that sweeping Vangelis brass sound.” – Jamie Teasdale

There’s a glacial flow and mathematic, almost architectural precision to the 15 emotive tracks of this album. No track overstays its welcome, and the album as a whole is a brisk listening experience, as well as a wholly immersive one. Tentative, tinkling melodies dapple the big brassy synth washes like plankton dancing around a killer whale; jittery spiders-legs percussive rhythms call to mind a long-forgotten time when Autechre were an act one could relax to. Ultimately, Severant is a beautiful body of work that manages to sound both upfront and horizontal at the same time (I’d be fascinated to see how people react at any live shows). Don’t just take my word for it though, you can stream the entire album on the Planet Mu website.

planet.mu

Review by Orangewarrior, originally appearing on clockworkshorts.com. Republished with permission of the author.

For this vinyl only mix, Mike Jedlicka of Optic Echo selects over 90 minutes of his favorite releases on wax for this Best Vinyl of 2011 journey. Full of incredible ambient soundscapes and modern classical marvels, Jedlicka crafts an itinerary worthy of repeat revisits and appropriate for another end of year celebration. Besides being a programming director at Portland Radio Authority where Jedlicka runs the Optic Echo Presents show, Mike also curates his label, Optic Echo Records, with an upcoming vinyl release by Marcus Fischer.

Be sure to check out Mike Jedlicka – Fleeting Desolation

opticecho.com

[ S T R E A M ] | [ D O W N L O A D ] | [ P O D C A S T ] | [ i T U N E S ]

Hey Simon, where are you now and what did you do this past week?
I recently moved to California and spent this week working on material for the upcoming Krusseldorf & Behind Blue Eyes album coming up in 2012.

Can you talk a bit about your different aliases? How is each one different and how do you separate the music when you produce under one verses another?
Krusseldorf is my free form project where I can test out new music theories and technical theories and put them into action, not all material gets used due to the reservations to where one can release material that currently has no definitive scene. But the project is very much about experimentation and my most MUSICAL project. Atrium Carceri is completely different and I produce this under strict rules and when experimenting with my psychological theories on how sound manipulate thought patterns, emotions and enlightenment, I use test groups of listeners for AC to report how they got affected from the material and it is a very personal project because it reflects my travels beyond the physical. Za Frûmi is the project I do with Simon Kölle and that project is much more like creating a soundtrack for a movie that was never made, in a way. We work a lot with recording field sounds at various locations and often try out new ways for the surroundings to influence us (The album Simon Magus from our side project Abnocto was recorded in an underground bunker of sorts deep down under the ground). Alembic is the project I do with Zekazy and is mainly a pooling of resources from both of our personas, what new theories we learned and are interested and testing out and so on. Kronox is my dubstep project which is just about having some fun.

What is your studio setup like? Care to share some production secrets?
The most important thing about the studio is my Rokit RP8s in combination with the TC TWIN, the next most important stuff is all the microphones I use but they are far too many to list here. Production secrets hmm, I can share something that keeps bugging me. The volume Race! Non producers often perceive a loud sound as sounding better than low sound volume, this has resulted in the overuse of limiters and compressors when masterers work, but it destroys the dynamics of the audio. Use your volume knobs!!!! To all who listens, stop the madness!

You have been producing since the Amiga days – does that mean you were into the whole demoscene back in the days, with 4-track MODs and 8-bit samples?
I was never a good programmer, but I used a lot of tracker software back in those days and I was a consumer of the demoscene for sure. 4kb demos still blow me away.

What was the story and inspiration behind the music on From Soil to Space?
I carry over this from Atrium Carceri I guess, but I never explain my artwork, texts or story of any of my projects. The inspiration is all over the planes, but mostly my inner travels and audio theories I wanted to test out.

How is the music scene in Sweden?
We don’t really have a good music scene for listening to music live here, most people attend parties to, well, party. Not listen to music.

Tell us about your upcoming work with Behind Blue Eyes.
There is an upcoming album in 2012 as of yet untitled, with groovy pumping 4/4 beats. The project is always morphing and changing as we both fuse our energies into it having vastly different experiences in audio and music productions. The upcoming album has a different style than the previous one, but still very much has that deep Iboga Progressive sound tattooed on its forehead.

Read Headphone Commute review of From Soil to Space

krusseldorf.com

Before I go into the details of this review, I’d like to take a moment and talk about the label. Glacial Movements is an Italian label, specializing in “glacial and isolationist ambient”, founded and curated by Alessandro Tedeschi, also known as Netherworld. The label was launched in July of 2006, with a customary introductory compilation. The second catalog release was Netherworld’s Mørketid (2007), followed by Rapoon‘s Time Frost (2007). The minimalist aesthetic of the dark ambiance and icy drone continued with releases by Lull, Skare, Aqua Dorsa, and Francisco López.

I finally discovered the label with a beautiful album by bvdub, The Art Of Dying Alone (2010), and then kept my ears open for Netherworld‘s follow up, Over The Summit (2011), Loscil‘s Coast/ Range/ Arc (2011), and of course bvdub‘s return for the interpretations on Tedeschi’s above mentioned first release - I Remember (Translations Of Mørketid). It’s no wonder that the label quickly climbed to the top of my favorites, as I tracked down and purchased the back catalog. Here’s an introductory paragraph from the label’s page:

Places that man has forgotten… icy landscapes… fields of flowers covered eternally with ice… Icebergs colliding among themselves… The boreal dawn that shines upon silent white valleys in the Great Northern lands… an explorer lost among the Antarctic glaciers looking for the way home… The cold and silent night that falls upon the glacial valleys… creatures that look for shelter from the Great Northern cold… Glacial Movements is a label born to describe and spread these thoughts/images through sound.

Yes, fans of Biosphere, William Basinski, Deathprod, and the minimalism of Taylor Deupree, Robert Henke, Richard Chartier and Yann Novak will appreciate any and all of the above mentioned albums. Not to mention the most amazing upcoming release schedule from Pjusk, Marsen Jules, Phobos, Aidan Baker & Troum, and Celer!!! Did that get you excited? OK, now back to Snowbound!

Stormloop is the brainchild of Leeds based (England) Kev Spence, who has been producing and self-releasing ambient albums since 1999. There are about a dozen albums available via his bandcamp page, if you get hungry for more. Snowbound* (written with an asterisk), is Spence’s very first release for a record label, and it is a perfect fit for Glacial Movements! Collecting the material recorded during a two-week snow fall in December of 2009, the album tells the story of solitude and detachment through slow evolving sound and straightforward titles such as “Cold Winds”, “Dense Fog”, “Melt” and “A Blizzard”.

Soft layers of synth pads and bass drift through the landscape like a heavy cloud. It is impossible to avoid references to early mist, murky fog and smoky vapor when describing a hazy atmosphere painted by Spence. But unlike the organic ambiance of guitars and strings by some of the above mentioned artists, the music of Stormloop is a little synthetic, spacey and futuristic. As if Snowbound* is a soundtrack for an alien planet, covered in gaseous atmosphere and frozen rock. Wind picks up, but it lacks the oxygen. Instead it is thick with heavier elements that cover the caverns hungry for sun. Just writing these words with the music in the background sent chills down my spine…

Composing usually late into the night, watching the heavy snowfalls was the inspiration for these tracks, and the feeling of been lost in some remote cabin, safe but warm, with good food and drink, staring out at the depths of winter snow that covers the land… These crystalline soundscapes, take us from the cold winter nights, then out towards the bleakness of space. Snowbound* is an authentic full-immersion into the cold, and you can really feel the snowflakes on your skin.

Spence has also released a complimentary album, Snowbound** The Tracks Left In The Snow, as a ten track digital-only download via his bandcamp, recorded during the same sessions as Snowbound*. Photography by Bjarne Riesto is once again featured on this Glacial Movements release, adding to the overall aesthetic of the label that I’m falling in love with… Now I need to go and boil some water for my green tea…

glacialmovements.com

It is difficult to know whether to be more impressed by the sheer size of Brock Van Wey’s portfolio as an artist or the level of quality that he manages to sustain. Regardless, Van Wey, or bvdub, surely stands out as one of ambient music’s most influential figures. His recent collaboration with Ian Hagwood, The Truth Hurts, for Nomadic Kids Republic, reviewed by Headphone Commute in October, and his curation on the compilation Air Texture Vol 1, speak to bvdub’s growing reputation in the industry. His output as a solo artist is showing no signs of slowing down, however, and I Remember is his sixth
release in 2011!

Van Wey’s work is laced with emotion, typically drawing on themes seemingly close to his heart. I Remember epitomizes this, and is, for me, by far the most affecting of his recent solo releases. The theme here is nostalgia, with song titles evoking regret and, ultimately, retribution. Musically this approach has the effect of drawing the listener in to bvdub’s world; this is not ambient music that blends into the background but rather a shared journey. The opener, “This Place Has Only Known Sadness”, sets the stage well. It is less beat driven than many tracks on Tribes at the Temple of Silence (Home Normal, 2011), instead creating an epic soundscape that circles around haunting vocals. “We Said Forever” is similarly crafted and leads in to the album’s highlight “The Promise (reprise)”.

This is an exquisite example of a track that marches to its crescendo, peaking around the eight minute mark, before lingering, and very, very slowly drifting away (think Autechre’s “Piezo” from Amber). It is among the most exhilarating and moving pieces of electronic music I have heard recently and stands out as the centre piece of this album. The remaining songs on the album come together to make this a substantial piece of work, clocking in at just over the hour mark. The final track, “A Taste Of Your Own Medicine”, a bracing send off of soaring intensity and energy, ends this journey into bvdub’s world in thrilling fashion.

[Ed.: I beg your pardon for including Brock's notes on the album verbatim]

“Alessandro Tedeschi, aka Netherworld, has become a dear friend of mine since his kind invitation to produce an album for Glacial Movements last year, and his vision, kindness, and honesty have been an inspiration. He had sent me a copy of his album ‘Mørketid,’ and from the opening notes I was mesmerized – not in a typical way, as his music is far too subtle for that, but on a much deeper level, as the music brought a flood of memories surging forth that I had long thought lost. It took me back to those times when ambient music was so pure, and so true… so when he then asked if I would be interested in doing a translation of the album, I couldn’t have said yes any faster.

I call them translations, as they are not remixes. I used his original work as a base, and it is indeed interwoven in the translations, but my translations serve more as my own narratives on the memories and feelings his original work evoked. The translations are about memories… memories of dreams lost, and never fulfilled… but also the beauty in knowing that dreams exist… as whether they come true or not, it’s in their pursuit that life means anything.

The original album brought back all my memories of my time in the early rave scene, the dreams I (and everyone, really) had for the beautiful utopia that only existed in our minds, and which we were only able to reach but a few times – but also my current surroundings of China, where in a rapidly changing environment, I am constantly reminded of unrealized dreams – deserted buildings that stand as monuments of once-great visions, and echoes of so many voices once yearning to be heard, wanting only for the world to remember them for a moment. And so it has been a strange kind of full-circle experience, as I stand in this place with no connection to my former life, yet in it I realize that every ‘scene’ is the same – we all just want to be heard, by someone – and to be remembered.”

Newcomers to bvdub can be overwhelmed by his extensive catalogue of releases – latest albums include Then (AY, 2011),  Resistance Is Beautiful (Darla, 2011), Songs For A Friend I Left Behind (Distant Noise, 2011), and the very latest, Serenity (Darla, 2012) - but the consistent quality of Van Wey’s work is irresistible. I Remember represents bvdub at both his very best and his most personal, similar to how we found him on The Art of Dying Alone, released by Glacial Movements in 2010. For its emotional intensity and electronic craft, this album comes highly recommended!

bvdub.org | glacialmovements.com

Review by Ben Rutter exclusively for Headphone Commute.

As another year begins, I race to catch up on missed albums from my favorite labels. Israeli Aleph Zero Records has consistently put out some of the most interesting psychedelic, downtempo and IDM albums to date. Previous releases have captured the [hopefully coveted] spot on our Best of the Year lists, with Eitan Reiter’s Places I Miss That I Haven’t Been To in 2010 and Fredrik Öhr‘s Falling Through The Earth a year prior. I have been loyally following the releases by the label since Shulman‘s In Search of a Meaningful Moment (2003), and am always interested in discovering their latest offering.

For their eighteenth album catalog release, Aleph Zero  signs a veteran musician and prolific artist, Simon Heath. Recording under the moniker Krusseldorf, Heath has released numerous albums and EPs on Sofa Beats, Beats & Pieces and Iboga; and that’s not counting half a dozen albums released under his Atrium Carceri alias on Cold Meat Industry; and yet another eight albums in collaboration with Simon Kölle as Za Frûmi on Waerloga Records. A track by Krusseldorf has also previously appeared on Aleph Zero’s last compilation, Dark Room Beats (2010), so I was prepared for the best…

Throughout the album, Heath implements glitchy percussion, processed synth melodies and plenty of IDM elements to craft psybient atmospheres from another world. Listening closely reveals digital structures of spacial textures full of many rewarding moments for fans of stripped down, intimately complex, and micro constructed rhythms. Listening from a perspective of a casual observer, the music takes on a futuristic spacey feel, apt for a science fiction story where planetary spheres slowly revolve around their orbit in a never-ending gravitational fall. The music invigorates your imagination and triggers the retired synapses exercised in fantasies and lucid dreaming.

“The outer reaches of our fragile mind always strive to explore new places both inner and outer. This album was made using a large number of techniques to reach the other side of the looking glass and we greet any listener with open arms that would delve deep enough into our collective psyche to connect and dance with us in the plummeting caves of humanity’s cradle.” (from the liner notes)

Some tracks remind me of the dearly missed music of early-to-mid 00′s, with acts like Neo Ouija’s Geiom, Bauri, Sense, and Seven Ark, with a bit of psychill flavor from Bluetech, Aes Dana, and, of course, Aleph Zero’s own Shulman. This is a great album to chill out (and warm up) to, full of sonic and intelligent delights. Recommended for fans of early morning chill out beats and sparkling psychedelic vibes… Another wonderful release to land on our Best of 2011, Music For Awakened Spirits And Open Minds.

Check out Interview with Krusseldorf

krusseldorf.com | aleph-zero.info

Tell us about the evolution of your sound since your earliest release…
Jesus… I guess I’m never good enough both production wise and in the arrangement. It can always sound better and can always have more tricks n detail so is in a state of constant evolution. Those have been the constants really, that and 95% of the time it being big, hectic and dirty. I’m influenced by what I love at that certain moment in time, music, film etc.

And what about the progress of hardcore and breakcore genres? How do you feel about their influence of and fusion with dubstep?
What I think is more noticeable and relevant to me is their fusions with drum and bass, where in the past we’ve been frowned upon or scoffed at by some I think. Now though, some hard drum and bass is sounding very core influenced. And drum and bass’s production values and influence shine through in some particular core artists work (myself, Deathmachine for example). It’s pretty exciting that everyone’s accepting other things and open their minds a little on all sides of the pigeon hole multiverse, it’s been a long time coming and I’ve been waiting for it I guess in many ways.

On your latest release, Trainwreck Magnetism, you managed to gather up some of my favourite taste makers from the electronic music scene. How do you come upon remixing tracks from Hecq, µ-Ziq, Drumcorps and the like?
Well, Ben (Hecq) approached me to remix Spheres of Fury quite a while before the album started taking shape. It was for the 1st release on his own label. I’m still in shock that he asked me of all people as I hold him in such high regard. I had a lot of fun remixing Spheres; he said he wanted a heavier remix so in that respect I guess he did ask the right person. Id wanted to get my teeth into Mu-ziq’s ‘Siege of Antioch’ since the very 1st time I heard it after getting ‘Bilious Paths’ and it just came up in conversation while we were hanging at a gig or something. I’m lucky to have got the chance to remix Mike, he was very important to the shaping of my sound. As for Drumcorps, well it’s kind of like the Mike story, I wanted to mash a couple of Aaron’s tracks together for a dj mix and then ended up with an idea for a track n it grew from that. It’s a banger…

Are there any artists that you would love to work with?
Myself and Tommy Broken Note have talked for a year or so about a collab so I want to get that started next year. I’d love to collab with Limewax and I think a collab between me and Enduser is long overdue. I’ve got quite a couple of collabs lined up for 2012 though, including a Drumcorps project. I think as I said before, the merging of these genres will really show its face next year… bring it.

Where does the title of your album come from?
Hahaha, a journalist a few years back said that I had a sort of train wreck magnetism ‘quality’. Likening me to the feeling you get when driving past a train/car crash and being drawn towards it/not being able to stop looking at it… I’ve taken it as a compliment! hahaha

Your latest sound indeed sounds pretty “hard”… What prompted you to explore such darker territory and unleash the destroyer upon the listener?
I actually think it’s a lot lighter and musical than the 1st album, whereas that was an album written pretty much solely for moshing to and worked as a unit/full album as one this is more separate pieces. It still is pretty damn heavy though, I just can’t help but write like that. Even when I try and make something, say, minimalistic and light, it comes out like a rapid fire sledge hammer cannon.

The production quality of Trainwreck Magnetism is pretty tight… Even with all the distorted kicks, my monitors have no trouble peeling off the higher frequencies. Tell us about your production setup. What hardware/software did you use for composing these tracks?
That’s good to hear! I used only software for all projects up until very recently. Cubase, Kontakt, Reaktor are the staples. In fact iv only very recently bought a mixing desk, rack compressor and some other toys but hasn’t used them at all. I’ve had a time out in 2011 believe it or not… 2012 will be a very different beast. After a year break I feel really refreshed and focused. It’s good.

What are you working on right now, and what’s next for The Teknoist?
I’m working on moving studio/house after a year off (kind of). I’ve been resting but releases that have been waiting have come out this year so it’s made me look busy still. 2012 I’m planning on being pretty busy both in the studio and gig wise. In 2011 I turned down 95% of shows and strongly considered having a few years off but things have changed for the better since a dreadful 2010 and early 2011 personally. I’ve got a lot of work to do to fix some things but I’ve had time to think and get healthy again after 5 or so years of international touring every weekend.. So I’m motivated again and tbh I don’t think I could have stayed away.