Let's introduce ourselves -- new Hypnos Forum members especially

[9dragons]

I recently was honored by the use of my art on two separate releases of Alio Die, which is something I could not have imagined when I was sitting in distant lands, creating art to the soundtrack of his music.

Belated congratulations to you, Joseph.  Your artwork for Alio Die is quite intense and really outstanding.  The attention to detail almost reminds me a little bit of outsider artist Adolf Wolfli (though you're probably a lot saner than he was, of course).

Sounds like a fascinating life route you've taken.

Forrest

Much appreciated Forrest, I am glad you like the covers! It is funny, but my art (thankfully not my personality) has been compared to Wolfli's before, in the text for the last gallery show I did a few years back. I didn't know who he was, but upon seeing his art, was fascinated by the rawness and inner-realism of it. I have to say though that I have a love/hate relationship with what has come to be called Outsider Art today. Seems that the point is kind of being lost, with the term being just another label with predictable and expected outcomes. I think I could identify myself as an Outsider in my ideas and methods of work, being self taught, and uninterested in illusionism (realism). I started out being very much interested in the more 'underground' traditions of Europe, like 17th century alchemical engravings, and then became deeply influenced by Chinese ink painting and Japanese woodblock prints. I think the overriding interest is in the patterns of nature and the visual, totemic ideas of the ancients of all cultures.

[caul]

Hello!

My name is Brett Smith, I'm 42 years old and release music under the name Caul. I have been doing so since '94, I think. I've been married for 6 years now, no kids. I started out with music by playing drums, when I was 12. I started making music when I was around 18, when my brother bought a Teac 4 track. Much lower tech than I use now! Currently I use a imac, with Logic Pro, various softsynths and an Ensoniq EPS Classic for my controller. It still boots!

2007 & 2008 slowed my music down quite a bit, both my parents passed away in 2007 and 2008 I was out of town quite a bit, cleaning out my mother's house so we can sell it. Finally, I'm feeling more like making some music!

This message board reminds me quite a bit of another one I'm a member of- the PriusChat board. A wide variety of people, yet everyone seems to get along well. A nice change of pace from what you see on the news everyday.

[Bill Binkelman]

Hello!

My name is Brett Smith, I'm 42 years old and release music under the name Caul. I have been doing so since '94, I think. I've been married for 6 years now, no kids. I started out with music by playing drums, when I was 12. I started making music when I was around 18, when my brother bought a Teac 4 track. Much lower tech than I use now! Currently I use a imac, with Logic Pro, various softsynths and an Ensoniq EPS Classic for my controller. It still boots!

2007 & 2008 slowed my music down quite a bit, both my parents passed away in 2007 and 2008 I was out of town quite a bit, cleaning out my mother's house so we can sell it. Finally, I'm feeling more like making some music!

This message board reminds me quite a bit of another one I'm a member of- the PriusChat board. A wide variety of people, yet everyone seems to get along well. A nice change of pace from what you see on the news everyday.

So sorry about your folks, Brett. I lost my mom and dad in back-to-back years as well. Hope that the passage of time eases the pain a bit. Glad you are returning to music, too. And welcome to the Forum, of course.

[caul]

So sorry about your folks, Brett. I lost my mom and dad in back-to-back years as well. Hope that the passage of time eases the pain a bit. Glad you are returning to music, too. And welcome to the Forum, of course.

Thanks! Yep, it's getting easier. At some point, you have to try to get back to your own life and the things you enjoy. Glad to be here!

[hdibrell]

don't like war, being in pain, Rush Limbaugh, being broke, republicanism, mean people, working overtime, the corporate lifestyle, fake people, being hungover, riots, overly sporty people (i.e. jocks or cheerleaders), tooth aches, split pea soup, country music, guns, or religious leaders who gay bash yet have homosexual affairs (see ted Haggard).

WHAT!!! What kind of weirdo are you? You don't like split pea soup? Now I am disallusioned. See if I listen to any more of your music.       Harry

[jblock]

I'm Jonathan Block. I play mainly a wind synth and bass currently (as well as a bit of clarinet), but still dabble in synths. I have recorded in the past under the name Synthetic Block but use my given name these days. I have CDs on Hypnos Secret Sounds and Binary, as well as Gears of Sand and the late lamented Mindspore. Since the summer I've been playing bass and singing in a power trio that does mostly more obscure classic rock as well as originals, which has been a nice change of pace. With the wind synth I use delays to create long looping lines that evolve and layer slowly.

My day job is as the senior director for a research and advisory company for sales and marketing executives. A good job but a bit of travel lately; I'll be in Portland and Seattle next week. I also have a wife and two daughters (16 and 10).

[stuyvesant]

Greetings fellow ambient music lovers! A good friend of mine told me about this forum and it looks pretty cool.
I am a 46 year old independent management consultant living in SW PA. I travel extensively and ambient music is the main constant in my travel kit. I must have my daily fill of Steve Roach, Liquid Mind and Ma Ja Le - and many others.
I am divorced and have no children.

[mgriffin]

Greetings fellow ambient music lovers! A good friend of mine told me about this forum and it looks pretty cool.
I am a 46 year old independent management consultant living in SW PA. I travel extensively and ambient music is the main constant in my travel kit. I must have my daily fill of Steve Roach, Liquid Mind and Ma Ja Le - and many others.
I am divorced and have no children.

Hi, Stuyvesant. Welcome to the Hypnos Forum, and thanks for introducing yourself.  Hope to see you around!

[jim brenholts]

welcome, stuyvesant. good to have you abpard.

[Bebbo]

Ay Up (as they say where I originally come from),

Dene Bebbington, an occasional reader of this forum. Some of you may know me as a reviewer for a few years with Wind & Wire, Ambient Visions, and my own (now dormant) site Melliflua. Apart from music my main interests are reading (mostly but not exclusively Sci-Fi and Travel) and article writing - I've had a few articles published over the years, mainly in specialist magazines.

Edited to add: as most people are mentioning their age, I'm 42 but feel older (don't do enough exercise, and eat too much chocolate though I'm not overweight).

I now live in Wiltshire (England) with my wife Joy who I married last year after being together for about 6 years. We don't have any kids, though Joy has a dog (a daft Jack Russell) at her parents who live nearby. In recent years I've become a bit obsessed by holidays and probably spend too much time pouring over brochures and checking out reviews and forums on tripadvisor.

For a living I work for a mobile telco managing software development. It pays well but half the time I can't stand the place!

In short:

Love: my wife, holidays, beautiful scenery, music, books, words, hot women, shiraz, quality tv, peaceful surroundings

Hate: George Bush, Gordon Brown, self absorbed and inconsiderate people, winter, vacuous tv, cities, ignorance, work, football

[MarkM]

I'm Mark Mahoney.  I am originally from Massachusetts, but now I live in northeast Tennessee.  I'm in my late 50s and switched careers last year; I went from being a videographer to an 8th grade language arts teacher.

I became interested in ambient music in the late 1960s after a music instructor in high school gave me an Edgar Varese LP.  From that moment on I wanted to become an electronic musician, but in the late 60s audio equipment was extremely expensive.  About 7 years ago I decided it was time to turn my teenage aspiration into reality.  With my friend Michael Peck I have played several concerts and festivals including The Gathering in Philly as well as four Electro-Music.com festivals.  Michael and I have also played live on Chuck van Zyl's "Stars End" radio show three times. Last year I started doing solo performances beginning with Jim Comb's City Skies festival in Atlanta.  I have also performed live several times on Stillstream.com.  I prefer composing and performing live than working on studio projects.

Musically I am not drawn to the long form drone tracks. I like odd melodic themes with evolving variations, and I like tribal as well as glitchy rhythms. When I perform live my set is a continuous work made up of several compositions sewn together with transitions.  I use hardware (analogue and digital) as well as softsynths when I perform.

I like living in NE Tennessee.  My wife and I enjoy the laid back lifestyle, however, politically we feel like alien beings.  This area is extremely conservative.  People still drive around in their trucks and SUVs proudly displaying their Bush/Cheney bumper stickers. Musically, this area loves bluegrass and metal.  However, when Michael and I have promoted some ambient shows we have attracted 50 to 60 people who pay to listen.

I am inspired by many different types of music and art.  Coltrane is the Holy Grail.  I also love many of Steve Roach's projects as well as Robert Rich's.  Abstract artists such as Pollack and Tanguy inspire me musically as well.

[dwight]

Dwight Ashley here and alive at age 49. I live in northwest Ohio near the Maumee river. I am an American mutt (composed of English, Scottish, Welsh, Greek and German). Ich kann deutsches wenig sprechen. Charles Ives, Ornette Coleman, John Adams, Steve Reich and Holy Toy get repeated listens at my house. Bourbon is the preferred adult beverage unless I am with Russians. In that case it's all about seeing if they can out-drink the American. I like oriental shorthair', in other words I like like cats. And like John Shanahan, I am addicted to hot sauce. Eggplant and broccoli is right out!
-
Formally trained on cello and piano back in the day, I have been writing music for my ears since 1976. I started releasing solo projects in 2004. Before that I mostly hid under a rock with the exception of 2 collaborations I did with Tim Story in 1991 on Multimood and again in 1997 with Lektronic Soundscapes. In all probability I will go back under that rock after I am finished with the 2 projects I have committed to work on this year (and finish 2 more solo projects I am in the middle of). 

(As Bill Binkelman said) In real life, I have run a small media company for over 20 years. In addition I have a micro label call Nepenthe Music. Of interest there would be the forthcoming Cluster release (a studio recording), titled Qua and Human Being: Live at the Zodiak - Berlin 1968, which will be out very soon.

Bill Beck and I have the lurking thing here in common, as I visit here once a week.

[richardgurtler]

Dear friends,

my name is Richard Gurtler and I am saying hello to you from Bratislava in Slovak Republic, Europe!!! I am quite new to this forum (member since August 2008), but nevertheless I would like to introduce myself. I am turning in four days 43 years and I am absolutely fascinated by ambient music. I have been listening to the electronic music since 1983, but during these early years I was into other genres, like electro-industrial, ebm... Since 1992 to 1995 I was also one of the publishers and reviewers of English written electrozine called Crewzine and until 1998 I was running also a small mail-order catalogue with related music. The turning point came around 1995 when I have discovered through Fathom/HoS and Projekt labels names like Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Michael Stearns and Vidna Obmana. My search was finally over!!!

In my real life, I live since 1996 with my lovely girlfriend Simona together with her son Daniel (21 years old) and her daughter Veronika (17 years old). We know each other since our high school years. During the season (from March till December) I work as service technician for irrigation lawn sprinkler systems. During the winter time I have part-time job in one of Bratislava's theatres (Studio L&S) where I work as podium technician (building the scenes...) plus some occasional work with scanning lights. Simona works as a teacher (2nd grade in elementary school). We enjoy sporting activities (especially inline and ice skating), watching sports, hiking, taking photographs of nature, good food and good beer (Belgian Leffe Brune is our top fave...). We live in Bratislava, the capital city of Slovak Republic in Central Europe, which used to be a part of former CzechoSlovakia (split up in 1993).

Back to ambient music. Unfortunately, during the years 1999-2007 I was totally out of music. My family, smaller kids (very serious collecting of hockey cards with my son Daniel), my work, some sporting activities (active inline speedskating for four seasons), very expensive US dollar here in Slovakia at the end of the 90's, broken CD player and discman... all this took me out of music completely. No ambient music at all... It took me almost 10 years to return and re-explore magnificent sonic worlds of ambient music. I was back again in the good old days and stronger than ever. So I am now a great fan of this music, big collector of CDs and I am again in contact with many really nice people within this musical genre, including some of you from this Hypnos forum. Hello to Mike & Lena of Hypnos, Bill Binkelman, Jeff Pearce..., it's my great pleasure to be in contact with all of you!!!

When mentioning Mike & Lena, I also want to express my big thanks to both of you for doing great job with Hypnos and all related projects and activities. Thank you for putting together this community and please keep on going!!!

Okay my friends, all the best, have a wonderful time and enjoy the music!!!


With friendly greetings, Richard

[hdibrell]

Hi Richard, It's great to have you here!  I'll have to see if I can find some Leffe Brune to try. Strictly in the name of science, of course.         Harry     

[Gurdonark]

I'm Robert Nunnally. I live with my wife in Allen, Texas USA, which is about 25 miles north of Dallas. I've been a fan of Hypnos music for many years now. I've enjoyed how many interesting conversations take place here at Hypnos Forum.

I co-own a Creative Commons netlabel called http://www.negativesoundinstitute.com, in which most of the music "fellow travels" with ambient music, without often being traditional ambient. I also make music under the name Gurdonark, and can be found not only on NSI but also on various other netlabels and compilations here and there. My most recent EP, "Seven Virtues", was posted CC BY at jamendo.com. I often remix things at http://www.ccmixter.org.

I work as a commercial litigation attorney, which I enjoy. My hobbies include reading, hiking, chess, and a bit of fairly novice birding.

My weblog is gurdonark.livejournal.com.

I twitter as gurdonark, and enjoy following ambient music folks.  I also am gurdonark at last.fm, and enjoy loading up ambient pieces (as well as other things) on the little last.fm player and scrobbler.

I am a big believer in Creative Commons licenses, netlabel culture, parlor ambience, and compassion.

My main analog instrument? The mountain dulcimer.

[michael sandler]

Edited to add: as most people are mentioning their age, I'm 42 but feel older (don't do enough exercise, and eat too much chocolate though I'm not overweight).

Please do tell how you manage that. 

Mike S

[michael sandler]

Mike Sandler here, from the Raleigh NC exurbs. Like a lot of people, I first heard ambient/space music by stumbling across Star's End. This was back in the days when they had rotating hosts. It was also before most people had a computer, so when I moved from that area I lost touch with that whole scene. I started making ambient music about 10 years ago, using, as the years spun on, guitar, synth, Buzz, voice, household sounds, and mangled samples.

I live with my wife and several four-footed beasts. Likes, current or former, include death metal, poetry, community theater, drumming, cold weather (although 20 years in the South has softened me a little), open spaces, and motor sports.

[uhurit]

Hello, everyone

 I am a huge ambient music fan, and my love for electronic music began many years ago when I discovered Berlin techno and rave. Next stop was chicago house. Then I discovered the likes of Zoviet France and Autechre. Later I got hooked on ethno-ambient, and Rapoon/Robin Storey became my obsession. As I grew older, I mellowed out a lot, and my ambient  musical tastes (d)evolved into drone music and indian ragas. On the other hand, when I need some adrenaline rush, I still love german industrial bands like Rammstein. I am a seriously foolish audiophile, and have a ton of money invested in fancy amps/speakers/wires/Cd-players. I love fast cars, and still drive only a stickshift.
 I happen to move around a lot, as I am a transitional protestant minister , and currently live in Wisconsin.
 

[Bill Binkelman]

Hello, everyone

 I am a huge ambient music fan, and my love for electronic music began many years ago when I discovered Berlin techno and rave. Next stop was chicago house. Then I discovered the likes of Zoviet France and Autechre. Later I got hooked on ethno-ambient, and Rapoon/Robin Storey became my obsession. As I grew older, I mellowed out a lot, and my ambient  musical tastes (d)evolved into drone music and indian ragas. On the other hand, when I need some adrenaline rush, I still love german industrial bands like Rammstein. I am a seriously foolish audiophile, and have a ton of money invested in fancy amps/speakers/wires/Cd-players. I love fast cars, and still drive only a stickshift.
 I happen to move around a lot, as I am a transitional protestant minister , and currently live in Wisconsin.
 

Where in Wisconsin do you live? (It's my home state).

[Sighthound]

Frank Sylvis and I live in the western suburbs of Philly (Bryn Mawr, Radnor, Villanova area).  Spent 10 years in New England (North Andover, Nashua, Methuen, Salem area).  My wife still works from home for a company based out of Salem, CoreMedical Group, placing traveling nurses and allied health professional.  I work for a local health system as a finance manager here in Bryn Mawr.  Been in love with ambient/electronic music for ever, originally starting with Pink Floyd, Wendy Carlos and TD.  I have about 750 pieces of vinyl in my basement including such labels as Audion, Secret Music and the IC label.  My family hates ambient and my wife accuses me of playing it just to drive them out of the family room where my 5.1 is set up.    Been buying Hypnos stuff and related CD’s since about 1997.  I have over 1,000 disks of bought and self made ambiet/tribal/drone/space/soundscape stuff now.  Bought my 1st Steve Roach vinyl in 1984 (Structures from Silence) and my kids were born in Nashua to the sounds of the Quiet Music tapes.  (Didn’t stick with them though).  Like to read and listen to the likes of Oophoi, Robert Rich, Hypnos, Spotted Peccary, Project, Roach, Brennan, Numina, and a lot of the new guys putting stuff out on net labels like Earth Mantra.  Been to several Gatherings, and even took my wife to one (huge mistake).  Intersperse my ambient with ECM jazz and ECM classical just to keep a semblance of peace (along with a local Classic Rock station).  Very amateur photographer, using a digital Nikon SLR, with a nice collection of Amish work.  (Spend my weekends traveling around Lancaster County.)  I like to lurk here and read the interactions between all of the ambient musicians, although not a musician myself, I enjoy the repartee.  As I write, I am listening to the new Mystahr offering from Earth Mantra.