[ Hypnos Forum ]

I just wanted to join in with the praise for this wonderful collection. Nice job Anthony! This generously populated disc flows seamlessly. As mentioned before, the Saul Stokes track is a winner and certainly has me looking forward to his upcoming release and Anthony's offerings as TCR and in collaboration with Off The Sky are wonderful as well. There isn't a misplaced track on this collection. The artists are all top-notch and names that I will look to for quality music making. It is to APK's credit as a label owner that he has presented such an amazing string of "new" talent to this genre. Recommended for an enjoyable sound journey.
Peace, Kirk

That's a clean and efficient looking operation there Gemini. Best wishes to you for much joy in creation.
What happened to Saul Stokes photos? I liked the gear and the artwork!
Thanks for posting the photos people.
Peace, Kirk

That is wonderful news Loren! I have been out of work a few times in my life (including presently at age 53) and it is not pleasant on many levels. Hell, I need to lose some weight too, ha,ha! I wish you the best for the future, hopefully one that allows you to release further music.
Peace, Kirk

I made a series of DAT recordings at a bee farm back in California. I did some wide stereo recordings with bees swooping back and forth between the two mics. It was a bit unnerving to be standing in the middle of the numerous wooden boxes containing the hives dressed only in jeans, a t-shirt and sandals (ah, California) with bees bouncing into me from time to time. They didn't seem bothered by my presence and I got used to it. After smoking the area the beekeeper, wearing a protective suit, opened the wooden box and placed the mics inside. This would normally launch the bees into a defensive rage but the smoke kept them reasonably calm. The close up recordings were hilarious as the bees would sometimes land on the mic and sound like they were giving me a piece of their mind. It reminded me of those old cartoons where a pissed off bee would be cursing in a buzzy language.
I seem to recall that Jerry Goldsmith used handheld eggbeaters or blenders as part of the soundtrack instrumentation for the original "Planet of the Apes". If I am not mistaken, they are heard when Moses, I mean Astronaut Heston enters a canyon with ape "scarecrows" mounted on either side to scare away the pesky humans. Of course, they didn't scare Chuck, even though he wasn't packing any heat!   

Matt, you have no idea how pathetically low-tech I am, ha,ha!!!

I listen to a lot of classical music these days but nowhere near the amount that I used to. I worked for the late Tower Records in Sacramento for over 20 years, during which I was both a jazz buyer and a classical buyer before I moved to management. I received many promos and purchased a lot of music at an employee discount over those many years. As a result I have a pretty large classical collection on CD (had tons of jazz on vinyl which wound up at Rick Ballard's store in Oakland when I moved to Canada).

I too enjoy the composers previously mentioned. Mahler sometimes arranged his orchestra with a special sort of "stereo field" in mind. He and Charles Ives among others had performers play offstage for sonic effect.

I fell in love with Paul Hindemith's music and had to collect everything by him that I could. The same thing happened to me with Czech composer, Bohuslav Martinu. Symphonies, concerto works, chamber or choral, I loved it all.

The works of Olivier Messiaen, Lou Harrison, Henri Dutilleux and George Crumb might also appeal to ambient listeners. Berlin school lovers might check out the works of electro-classical composer, Morton Subotnik or the freaky studies for player piano by  Conlon Nancarrow. 

The Mercury Living Presence series are very cool. One of my favorites is the "Hanson Conducts Ives, (William) Schuman and Mennin". That performance of the middle movement of William Schuman's "New England Triptych" was a definite influence on my piece, "Scarecrow" on the "Sounds of a Universe Overheard" compilation.


 
 

I received Sounds of a Universe Overheard the other day and also have to compliment Mike on the sequencing and mastering. The disc flows smoothly from beginning to end making for a wonderful sonic journey. A great job by Mike as well as the other artists on the compilation. I am grateful to be part of it.
Peace, Kirk

I have enjoyed everything that I have heard and/or purchased from Atmoworks. James Johnson and Vir Unis have produced impeccable music solo and together and have helped other artists to gain better exposure. The music of the artists that Pete mentioned sounds wonderful. I like that Atmoworks has offered a lot of the new releases as high quality downloads at an affordable price. And the little blurbs about download times under the releases are amusing!
Peace, Kirk