Currently listening, part 1

[Bill Binkelman]

Manitou - All Points North, prepping for writing the review
also on the docket, hopefully, for today:
Greg Plummer - Vast (floating ambient and spacemusic)
V/A - max.chillroom (selected, sequenced and produced by Lloyd Barde, an assortment of rhythmic ambient, electronica, chill-out and a little bit 'a glitch; nicely done by Lloyd)
Di Evantile - Inertia (quirky blend of retro and contemporary electronic music, accessible but not pedestrian)

And, by the way, I just a copy of a new collaboration between Tim Story and Roedelius, Inlandish and while I've only listened to the first seven tracks, it's excellent. Muted minimal piano themes intermixed with subtle applications of synths and electronic textures/sounds, painting sepia-toned somber soundscapes.

[APK]

This evening is beginning with a
chardonnay, a fire, and

- BJ Nilsen: The Short Night

This is a great quirky disk of drones, sounds, atmospheres, that shift and meld in serious ways ... like an impending storm over the North Sea.

[uhurit]

1. K Wiese, Touareg
2. Darren Tate/Paul Bradley, Sometime Today
3. Dronaement, Esoterick Musick
4. Penumbra EP collection, Vol 7
5. Evan Bartholomew, Caverns of Time
6. Robert Rich, Temple of the Invisible
7. Matt Borghi/Ben Fleury-Steiner, What the Night Leaves Behind
8. Budhaditya Mukherjee/Anindo Chatterjee, Rag Ramkali

And really looking forward to get the new Cuni/Cage collaboration

[APK]

Now:

- Eluvium: Talk Among The Trees

Can't tire of this.

[Dave Michuda]

Pulusha - Isolation
Autistici - Volume Objects
martin grech - march of the lonely
krill.minima - nautica

[jkn]

Hypnos box arrived... queued up for today:

Seren Ffordd -Veils, Shadows
various - Sounds of a Universe Overheard
Nverxion - A Look Within

Comments after I've listened a few times...   always fun to get a box of ambient goodness in the mail!

[LNerell]

Here's my current list:

Brain records History of German Rock 1972-1976
Craig Leon - Nommos
Danzindan-Pojidon - Inoyama Land
Harald Grosskopf - Synthesist
Steve Roach - Traveler

I picked up an old receiver that I can plug my turntable into (my newer suround system doesn't support record players) so I've been on a bit of a vinyl bing lately.  All of the above are LPs, not a single CD in the mix. I don't think I've listened to this much vinyl in one sitting in 15 years.

[mgriffin]

I just noticed we don't have a now playing thread for music, what gives? 

Ok so let me start one. 

Here's my current listening list:

Brain records History of German Rock 1972-1976
Craig Leon - Nommos
Inoyama Land - Danzindan-Pojidon
Harald Grosskopf - Synthesist
Steve Roach - Traveler

I picked up an old receiver that I can plug my turntable into (my newer suround system doesn't support record players) so I've been on a bit of a vinyl bing lately.  All of the above are LPs, not a single CD in the mix. I don't think I've listened to this much vinyl in one sitting in 15 years.

I moved this post of Loren's over from the  "Everything and Nothing" area into this section specifically devoted to "now playing" lists.  I'll 'PM' Loren about this move in case he never checks out the Forum's main screen!

[LNerell]

I moved this post of Loren's over from the  "Everything and Nothing" area into this section specifically devoted to "now playing" lists.  I'll 'PM' Loren about this move in case he never checks out the Forum's main screen!

No need, I was in the middle of deleting it to move it myself when you moved it. 

Sorry, I forgot about this section until after I posted my thread. 

[SiF]

Alva Noto & Sakamoto - Logic Moon4
lately i'm really enjoying these glitched piano drones

[Joe R]

Eluvium- Talk Amongst the Trees; What a great disc, especially "New Animals From the Air" (sounds like a beautiful & slow moving merry-go-round), and "Calm of the Cast-Light Cloud".

[Undershadow]

Eluvium- Talk Amongst the Trees; What a great disc, especially "New Animals From the Air" (sounds like a beautiful & slow moving merry-go-round), and "Calm of the Cast-Light Cloud".

Hey, Joe. Talk Amongst the Trees is my fave Eluvium too. I know others here who prefer Copia, but I found that release a little over-precious with all its post-classicisms (a bit like how I feel about SotL's drift from their early-mid period to their more recent post-orchestralisms), and though Copia's a nice enough disc, I prefer the grittier more particulate textures of TAtT. There's also a great 19-minute Eluvium track, "Time-Travel Of The Sloth Parts I, II, & III", on this split vinyl (with nu-shu-metal-gazers, Jesu):


http://www.discogs.com/release/1022143

[Mark Mushet]

Eluvium- Talk Amongst the Trees; What a great disc, especially "New Animals From the Air" (sounds like a beautiful & slow moving merry-go-round), and "Calm of the Cast-Light Cloud".

Hmmm. I actually found this disc so wanting I traded it in...which is rare for me. I tried for months but just found it made all the right moves...but didn't have "the touch".

Anyway:

Jon Hassell - Delta Rain Dream from "4th World-Possible Musics" I hope Astralwerks is going to re-master/re-issue this!

Paul Bradley - Chroma Now here's someone who has the touch! I don't share the view that this is "drone" music though. Too warm and expansive for the term IMO.

[SiF]

Jeff Pearce - Written in Water
oh how i love this sound

[Joe R]

Eluvium- Talk Amongst the Trees; What a great disc, especially "New Animals From the Air" (sounds like a beautiful & slow moving merry-go-round), and "Calm of the Cast-Light Cloud".

Hey, Joe. Talk Amongst the Trees is my fave Eluvium too. I know others here who prefer Copia, but I found that release a little over-precious with all its post-classicisms (a bit like how I feel about SotL's drift from their early-mid period to their more recent post-orchestralisms), and though Copia's a nice enough disc, I prefer the grittier more particulate textures of TAtT.

"Precious". Yes, exactly. I thought several of the Copia tracks were plagued by piano playing that was too-sweet, too-prominent, and too predictable. I also thought it sounded kind of "crowded"- no room for the instruments to breath. Having said that though, it's still a half-great disc.

And thanks for the tip on "Time Travel".

[Undershadow]

Paul Bradley[/b] - Chroma Now here's someone who has the touch! I don't share the view that this is "drone" music though. Too warm and expansive for the term IMO.

It isn’t actually a “view” that Chroma is drone-based music. It simply is by definition. “Drone”, put simply, refers to the use of sustained sounds, notes, or tones-clusters, and is typically characterized by lengthy passages or pieces with relatively slight harmonic variations throughout as compared to other musics. It's true that many drone-based musicians are associated with somewhat forbidding unwelcoming works, but there’s nothing in the nature of the drone per se which precludes drone-based music from being “warm and expansive”. In fact, a lot of drone-based music is expansive by dint of the drawn-out nature of drone content. Chroma happens to be one Bradley’s lighter drone works, with its sustains and tone-clusters being located in the mid to high end, but drone-based it undeniably still is. It’s the tonal and harmonic nature of the material in combination with its soft translucent timbres that create the sense of warmth. There are other examples of this warm expansive drone-based style, such as in most of Andrew Chalk's work.

http://www.volcanictongue.com/artist.php?art=Andrew+Chalk

[mgriffin]

Been playing Matt Borghi - The Phantom Light fairly regularly lately. 

A very nice minimal ambient piece, shame about it being such a limited run (only 30 copies).  One of my favorite things by Matt that I've heard (though I have a few more of his things on the way).

[Mark Mushet]

Paul Bradley[/b] - Chroma Now here's someone who has the touch! I don't share the view that this is "drone" music though. Too warm and expansive for the term IMO.

It isn’t actually a “view” that Chroma is drone-based music. It simply is by definition. “Drone”, put simply, refers to the use of sustained sounds, notes, or tones-clusters, and is typically characterized by lengthy passages or pieces with relatively slight harmonic variations throughout as compared to other musics. It's true that many drone-based musicians are associated with somewhat forbidding unwelcoming works, but there’s nothing in the nature of the drone per se which precludes drone-based music from being “warm and expansive”. In fact, a lot of drone-based music is expansive by dint of the drawn-out nature of drone content. Chroma happens to be one Bradley’s lighter drone works, with its sustains and tone-clusters being located in the mid to high end, but drone-based it undeniably still is. It’s the tonal and harmonic nature of the material in combination with its soft translucent timbres that create the sense of warmth.

Well I'm glad you've said "drone-based" because that's more accurate. My use of the singular "drone music" was to indicate something less varied and coloured which most (frequently self-described) electronic "drone music" is IMO. Very few do it well.

"Chroma" reminded me of Paul Dolden's "Veils: Studies in Textural Transformations" from 1985. But that piece was oft comprised of 300 tracks of voice, cello etc. "Drone-based" but well beyond being merely referred to as "drone music". I've been listening to Indian classical music for 25 years now so I'm well aware of how a drone functions.

[mgriffin]

Just since lunch:

Mico Nonet - The Marmalade Balloon

A wonderful and charming mix of gentle, ambient chamber music, and modern electronic elements.  Real music by real musicians, really nice!

[APK]

This evening

- SleepResearch Facility: Deep Frieze

Images of deep storm rumblings and icy winds blowing masterfully across frozen tundra.
Very listenable, very mellow, very sleepy music.
Real sounds, by a real composer