[ Hypnos Forum ]

Dream Logic by Eivind Aarset
Narrow Garden by Eyvind Kang

and two CDs by harpist Julia Rovinsky that feature transcriptions of Budd/Eno's Arc of Doves and Budd's The Room plus some Part and Glass. Lovely stuff!

Then there's Fluxion's Traces and John Cale's Nooky Wood...

Otherwise I'm discovering old blues recordings and looking forward to the new krill.minima, Food and Celer releases. And there's a loscil/bvdub collab happening...

Well, considering the covers of Kite Stories etc., I'm pretty sure Eno had his hand on the tiller for this one! Just got the pre-order download and have to say it's really nice. I liked his last collab too, Drums Between the Bells.

Some real gems out this year:

Loscil - Sketches from New Brighton

A favourite for many reasons, plus I enjoyed doing a portrait session and field recording there with him this summer.

Celer - Engaged Touches

Re-release on Home Normal. I know there's too much Celer out there but this one is a solid set of thick, warm atmospherics.

David Wenngren & Chris Bissonnette - Meridians of Longitude...

Also on Home Normal. Surprised I've seen no other mention of this.

Pjusk - Tele

This duo remains strong and this one had me from the start and bears repeated listenings well.

K. Leimer - Day Music (an interesting multi-file long-form release that rests somewhere between Music For Airports and the piano/electronics collaborations of Mathias Grassow and Bruno Sanfilippo; very nice and droney; the four 70+ minute files can supposedly be played simutaneously, but I haven't tried that one yet)

Now this sounds interesting! Having recently listened to Somnium  I want to explore more long-form works again.

Hi all,

Here's a 90 second teaser for the two channel video installation I produced with an original piece of music by loscil. Now to get proper screenings arranged...

Tweaked Conspiracies-excerpt on Vimeo

Looking forward to this, Forrest!

I just get the feeling that the conditions in today's world do not allow for the development of talent and creativity to its highest potential. Modern life has too many distractions.

It feels like we are on the downside of a great hill that has only recently been climbed. But I suppose we should expect the unexpected, too. I know people who argue that there are unprecedented levels of creativity unleashed by our current circumstances. I tend to agree though it's hard not to see everything as being fragmented beyond repair sometimes.

I suspect that the packaging for ipods, etc. (and the materials to make them) is not greater than the materials for cds, LPs, etc. but I could be wrong.

I can't imagine we could get a complete data overview at this time but it would certainly be helpful.

There is no contest between, say, a CD digipack in a light wrap vs. virtually any hard plastic encased, plastic insert nestled iPod. Even the little ear buds are way overdone in terms of packaging. Then there's the retail floorspace now dedicated to the marketing of such things.

Now, as CD/DVD sales move online, more packaging is required and more transportation infrastructure and energy is used in the music retail industry equivalent of the single occupancy vehicle multiple trip model!

I think the whole movement toward downloads (music, books, movies, whatever) is a good thing, in the long run.  Seems like a huge savings in packaging resources, fuel for shipping, etc.

Unfortunately there is a grim parallel to the photo industry here. People thought that the near-death of film would be better for the environment. Bzzzzt! It meant that even more mining and orgiastic production of gadgets took its place. And instead of film sections in photo and drug stores we now have massive racks of batteries. 

All those Chinese e-waste peasant worker-bound obsolete Kindles, iPoos etc. need replacing at ever increasing rates. All of this, of course, eventually relates to our corporate overlords' need to ensure supplies of heavy and other metals from sources in Africa and, in China's case, the sea floor. The political ramifications are obvious. This is why the US has forces in central Africa right now, not for Obama's stated reason of doing the right thing vis-a-vis the excesses of the Lord's Resistance Army or whatever.

And in terms of packaging, one only has to look at the layers of plastic even the smallest gadget accessory comes embedded in.

In short, we are doomed as a civilization. Meanwhile I am grateful to Amazon for keeping Canada Post alive with all the *individual* CD shipping needs necessitated by the demise of bricks and mortar outlets.

OK, now to put on the new Harold Budd CD and pretend there is nothing wrong in the world... 

Tetsu Inoue - Yolo CD

Love this cover! Um, how does it sound?