[ Hypnos Forum ]

Hi,

Just to let you know that my new album, Alien Genome Project is now available from
Musiczeit



Craig Murphy is a musician, composer and producer of experimental music and a multimedia artist working with abstract music videos. Having established the rising Herb Recordings imprint in his native Scotland, Murphy's own output resembles that of a musical odyssey. An obsession with Frank Zappa has seen to a fascination with experimentation and Murphy's many projects span several genres. From the mechanistic, yet poignant electronica of Solipsism, his electro-psychedelic band shoosh with Neil Carlill and multi-instrumentalist Ed Drury, to his recent ambient outlet ch.pm. Murphy's distinctive sound is often abstract, yet retains a rich, melodic and emotional edge.



Alien Genome Project is Craig Murphy's latest foray into the realms of deep ambience and sonic experimentation. Based loosely on the "Panspermia" theory of life on earth being seeded from space, it's a deep and hypnotic journey from one end the universe to the other. Droning soundscapes rich in texture are laced with discreet melodies to take the listener on a rollercoaster journey, that's emotional, breathtaking and strangely reassuring. Murphy's deep understanding of sound and texture has enabled him to deliver an album that could warm the coldest reaches of deep space.

hi,

it's pretty good for a beginner, too short though for ambient i would say and i think the breathing sounds outside of the track, like separate from it. I liked the music, nice drones that were quite unsettling and the overall mood of the track was quite dark, which is always good!

cheers
craig

you could report them to www.blogger.com as it's a direct breach of their guidelines and their blog will be closed down. I also run a small label called Herb Recordings and you need to more or less accept these days that people are going to download music whether you like it or not. i think doing them at 320kbps is a real slap in the face, as if people get them at that quality then there's very little chance of them buying the CD.

Recent developments on Last FM via an agreement with all the major labels, has also more or less killed off download sales. Basically the majors have agreed to allow last fm to stream their entire catalogues in full for free. They've also signed an exclusive agreement with a new download company called QTrax who will be giving their entire catalogues away for free download through the site. Simultaneously, online performance royalties have been really tightened and Last FM (other sites will be following suit soon) are now paying the artists who are registered with collection societies for streams online (not downloads though, as that takes the music off the site and the people aren't seeing the adverts anymore when they play them). Download stores will now be paying artists a slice of the advertising revenue, based on the number of downloads they've had rather than paying them a percentage of sales. With the Majors giving away the music for free, it means indie labels are going to have to do it also, to get their music on the download sites in the first place.

I believe there's still a decent enough market for indie CD sales though, as the indie labels' sales of CDs aren't diminishing anywhere near as rapidly as the majors. I think this is more a result of the output though than anything else, as most majors are by and large doing fast food music now and there's a lack of desire more than anything for people to buy it. It's a fact that the majority of people under 30 these days buy less than one CD a year.

We lost a lot of money last year when our distributor went bust and we never got the money for our vinyl sales, even if we got the money on them though we'd have been lucky to break even as there's no profit margin in vinyl at all now. There's still a decent profit margin on CDs though and I think it will be a good while before they become like vinyl and the financial incentive for releasing them is gone.

Sonic Charge Microtonic is an excellent VST/midi drum machine. It was designed by the same guy who designed the Redrum in Reason and works along similar principles.

Gustav Mahler is by far and away my favourite classical composer and the one I listen to most. Though I also listen to and enjoy Rachmaninov and someone who probably wouldn't be everyone's first choice as a classical/orchestral composer, Frank Zappa. I think certain styles of classical music appeal to ambient music fans as although by first appearance they may seem worlds apart, aesthetically they're quite similar and the motivation behind the music i think is similar in the respect that it's often appreciated more when you listen by yourself, rather than in a group setting as you need to pay close attention to the detail to appreciate it in full.

you also have crossover composers such as Edgar Varese whom i think could quite easily fit into both genres, despite the fact he was composing long before ambient music was conceived as a genre.

Quote from: solyaris on February 18, 2008, 09:00:50 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8GJB16t--4

that's a nice track, it's a shame there's not a proper video to go with it though. Having it on youtube with text only, sort of defeats the purpose of posting it there as people want the visual element also. If you're interested in getting a proper video done for it, send me an email to craig@ambidextrousrecords.com and we can have a chat about it.

You can see some of the video work i've done for other artists on my Youtube channel.

cheers
craig

Hello,

Just a quick message to let you know about a couple of ambient EPs that are available for free download.




1. Strange Times
2. So Long Good Friend
3. Carousel
4. An Inescapable Journey
5. Nice Chasm
6. Distant Star
7. A Place To Call Home

Download



1. 2
2. Over The Horizon
3. Spectacular Views
4. Paradox
5. QED
6. Slow Down Copper
7. Infinity Won't Last Forever

Download

Review

its that man Craig Murphy again this time under his guise as Weird Fields - a self described 'ambient / film soundtrack' project who not content in dividing himself between his Shoosh and Solipsism identities can be found occasionally orchestrating opining odysseys of cavernous cascades. Delicate, lonesome and hitherto monolithic these somnambulant drone-scapes swirl in frosted pirouette formations applying a stately courtship (none more so than 'distant star'). Two free to download albums to his name via Lastfm in the shape of 'a place to call home' and 'destruct science' which we thoroughly recommend that you seek out and love - for now though amid the showcase of glacial tides and sparsely drawn and effecting minimalist washes of lilting electronic symphonies we suggest you stop by at your first opportunity to sample the warming radiance of the playfully orbiting oscillations of the melting 'so long good friend' - bit of a peach by our reckoning appealing to 'magnetic fields' era Jarre and Vangelis fans alike.

Losing Today

To see some of the abstract music videos i've done for other artists, please visit the Youtube channel.

cheers
craig