morton feldman

morton feldman -rothko chapel / why patterns? [1971] (keep tapes alive, 2015)

Morton Feldman's 1971 commissioned piece for the Rothko Chapel is one of the most sublime works in his vast catalog of recordings. In tribute to the chapel and to his friend the painter Mark Rothko who killed himself a year before the chapel opened, Feldman uses tonal rhythms, bells, viola and a chorus in stark but lyrical consort with the reverential acoustics provided by the chapel itself. Long fascinated by the sonorous qualities of tones and how they decay and diminish over time, Feldman shared with his friend Rothko the aim to unveil the mystery of perception. Performed with a slowly unfolding arc of restrained movements and silences, there has never been a more appropriate matching of acoustics and vision than the pairing of these two 20th century mavericks. aquarius

"Think you dont like "classical" music? think again... Morton Feldman (1926-1287) NYC, is like no other. beautiful compositions constructed with patience and beauty. Theres no other mind like his, he turned composition and standard methods of composing on it's head. He used Persian rugs, artwork, silence and space as influences while most others used Bach or Beethoven. Playing alot with "in-between notes" and off kilter timing. He creates an unmatched world. You pretty much can't go wrong with any of his work. (...) A soundtrack for viewing and being in the presence of art! amazing (..) Elegant, beautiful and refreshing. A must have for any music fans collection. Limited to 100 copies on high bias chrome tape." sanity muffin

buy - listen

exit to exist / the sunrise

 

exit to exist ~ self-titled (πάνθεον, 2015)

«Mirage-album, with music like laminating fog, that involves listeners to a walk in the aural forest. There's dark and pathless ocean of green everywhere around, and only music, which is mixed with silver haze, runs the show of slightly visible trail». pantheon

This album is the first tape release for Exit To Exist project hailing from Minsk, Belarus. Despite almost 10-year history of music making under Exit To Exist and many other aliases (Insumthinmagma, Nemertis, Golova!, Owl Majesty, Winter War in Tibet), Vitaut Starovojtau (the man behind E2E) released almost all his albums only in digital format, except maybe just one limited edition cdr collab with Creation VI, done by australian Twice Removed Records. This album was made with traditional guitar ambient approach – warm, soft and lo-fi sound, often so quiet that it's easy to fall asleep while listening to it. However, there are uncertain moments of dizziness and anxiety unfolding all around, so you can feel soil slipping from under your feet, turning into a hazy texture, illusory and unreliable. All of this seems very similar to a long night walk under the the rain, when small droplets dim the view and everything turns into a shiny surfaces buried in the unstable fog. Water blends houses, streets, sky and trees into a single whole... In the right mood this music works same way, filling gaps in space with soft haziness that transforms all visible objects into some vague twins. It's very easy to lose a moment when reality becomes a dream. But if you catch it and stay in it - time ceases to exist and everything occurs at the same time - with you, but at the same time with someone else. Aural paradox, mystery album. Recommended on repeat playback.

listen ~ buy tape ~ free download


the sunrise ~ field's silence (warmshelf records, 2015)

«The last album about fields. It's filled with all experiences about summer and nostalgic memories». the sunrise

 

 As the name suggest, here goes field recording album. Mostly natural sounds and atmospheres mixed with quiet ambient passages and loop manipulations – once again very traditional, but, at the same time, nicely working approach to ambient music making. All sounds were created & manipulated by Ivan Vavilov from Samara, Russia – short pieces of music, arranged in a way similar to portable recorder files. They may start with a click of 'rec' button and finish abruptly, but it doesn't seem unnatural. Only disadvantage here is the overall playing time of 26 minutes, but this may be explained as the part of the idea of "plein air sketches" - they might be short but it's enough to capture the beautifulness and overall impression. Listening to this tape at the beginning of snowy December brings warmest memories about summer, spent out of the city: in the steppe, by the sea, listening to wild pigeons, humming bees, evening crickets and night dogs, barking in the distance under the huge starry skies. At some point these sounds may form a kaleidoscope of tiny quanta of impressions and memories so densely intertwined, that it allows you to travel through space-time of the memory and reach some long-abandoned territories of childhood experiences – wordless, nameless, full of sunlight and life that goes in its naturally silent way. And you feel yourself as organic part of it, without reflecting on it, without any knowledge at all – just perceiving, just daydreaming, simply being alive... Such experience worth a lot and if music can bring it so easily, it deserves attention of everyone who needs such simple magic in its life.

listen ~ download ~ buy tape

x.y.r / sunmoonstar / water bureau

x.y.r. ~ mental journey to b​.​c. (not not fun records, 2015)
 

«The mood of Mental Journey To B.C. is pre-human: obscure landscapes hissing in the heat, shimmering in the dark, uninhabited, unreal. Humid loops of Formanta Mini and smoke-ring keys float over hushed jungle metronomes and moonlit field recordings». not not fun

Once again we are invited to a journey with russian project X.Y.R., which name can be decrypted as "temple of solitary contemplation". Name of the album says about time of our destination, but it's certainly not some ancient civilization spot, at least there are no people in the picture. All we hear is same "tropical new age" music which is always crafted so beautifully by Vladimir with simple set of soviet synths and some guitar pedals. This music have to do with feelings much more than usual ambient music does, because it creates not just landscape or some script to fill it - it also stimulates listeners imagination and creativity, so you can make your own journey basically from just few hints. Shorts melodies, simple drum pads and lo-fi noise of old soviet gear... But this simplicity is full of magic, secret of which, I believe, should remain unsolved. Simply enjoy the possibilities it gives us!

listen ~ buy

sunmoonstar ~ gymnasium flower (squiggle dot, 2015)

«Composed with a sequencer and synthesizer, "Gymnasium Flower" is a ode to math, movement, and physicality. With her signature sculptural inklings, dot matrix's of soft light shift through each other to expose fantastic new patterns». squiggle dot

Newly composed set of aural impressions by australian charmer Natasha Home aka Sunmoonstar comes as a digital release and sounds respectively – on the edge of old-school ambient classics and modern internet lo-fi punk, varying from simple childish cartoon tunes to cyberpunkish opuses, tropical vaporwave and even some techno beats. It may sound crazy, but believe me - each time I listened to this album it sounded different somehow. I even thought that maybe someone just put new tracks there every day after release. Should admit, I expected same meditative lush that was on previous Sunmoontar's tape, but this album surprised me with new facets of Sunmoonstar talent - inventive, explorational sounds put together without being too serious about it. Not a geek music, but geeks will like it very much. I do!

listen ~ buy

water bureau ~ water bureau (sacred phrases, 2015)

«In some truly cosmic turn of events, Water Bureau finds Norm Chambers (Panabrite, Jürgen Müller, Spiral Index) and Daryl Groetsch (Pulse Emitter, Space Habitat) teaming up for a series of celestial meanderings that speak to the merits of both Pac-NW synth-heroes». sacred phrases

After having impressive box of "unshared properties" by Kyle Landstra and warm guitar lullaby by prolific Hakobune, one of the leading labels of the tape universe releases collaboration of another two super bright stars of this scene. I'm pretty sure that Norm and Daryl both are future (and even present) gurus of electronic music in the whole world and what they do is organic inheritance of what happened to music since the invention of synthesizers. Despite being a bit retro-oriented, their music rushes to new horizons and this collaboration is a good reason to explore the boundaries that were set before. Some critics say that everything in modern music is retro and everything new is the result of hybridization of old ideas, but I think that music in our age shouldn't be analyzed only by form and message behind it. At some point music became less attached to external qualities like styles or sound sources and what deserves attention nowadays is the complex picture of music inside our hypertextual world. What you may call a clishe taken from Michael Stearns album is actually a hyperlink to the huge amount of impressions and meanings embedded in this certain type sound or effect. And you choose to follow it - or not to. Thinking that way, music presented on Water Bureau debut tape may be experienced as a complex and quite interesting essay about the electronic music in US where musicians playing not only with synths, midi & effects, but with meanings and impressions, which already exist in collective mind of humanity, at least the part which listens to electronic music, of course. In the same time, this is just beautiful and refreshing piece of music, and it's already a good reason to have it in your collection!

listen ~ buy

ant'lrd / selaroda / ki oni / dragontime

ant'lrd ~ clouding indefinitely (inner islands, 2015)

«Clouding Indefinitely' is a collection of tape meditations meant to enhance and aid journeys into the reaches of the far in. It is the damp fog rolling by in slow motion as you sit amongst the trees». inner islands

It's hard to add something to such wonderful press-release – this tape sounds really hazy, like endless ocean of fog that creates illusions and visions similar to desert mirages, but of its own kind. It reminds me states of mind that can be achieved only out of town, away from clatter and everyday haste. One may say it's meditations, but not exactly, it's something more like total openness for everything around. It's meditation that every village kid can do. When you accept everything like a river, continuing to flow endlessly towards the totality of ocean... Just watching clouds and playing around, wandering through the neighborhood. Strange thing – hazy music that induces openness, but that's true. Ironically including golden-new-age-era-style meditation tape samples, this album serves meditational purposes even better than guided hemi-sync programs or stuff like this. This is not an self-indulgence of scheduled seance in the middle of everyday routine, but specific state of mind that you can experience in almost any circumstances. To accept, to absorb, to be transparent. And go further. This is what the fog can teach us.

sold out ~ listen ~ buy digital

selaroda ~ viaje a través de sonidos transportative (inner islands, 2015)

«These pieces were inspired by the idea of sharing earthly creations with lifeforms from elsewhere in the cosmos...». inner islands

Previous tape by Michael Henning under Selaroda moniker released by Sanity Muffin was very inspiring, playing with this huge spectrum of sounds and effects that we usually call "ambient music". Deepness and simplicity, variety of moods and flexible atmosphere that depends of your own attitude – all of it found its continuation here, on new Selaroda tape by amazing Inner Islands label. It starts from multi-layered  drones and grows fluently into something really big. You may notice that it's not drone or ambient anymore and the place is totally different, but you can not say how you ended up here. This is one of the magical instruments ambient music possess and Michael uses it masterfully. Music journey starts in the middle of imaginative landscape and more you involved in the process, the wider it gets. Transitions from one state to another may happen very fast and irrational, but hey – our life flows same way! So this music is sort of "inner-contemplation-cinema" that gives you bird's-eye view of our own lifetimes... Take this ride!

listen ~ buy tape

ki oni ~ elephas (inner islands, 2015)

«Inspired by a resonance with Sumatran elephants, Ki Oni summons forth lush soundscapes teeming with enough life to resemble their verdant Indonesian home. Each sample is carefully cut, looped, or manipulated to feel at home on this wet, green dancefloor». inner islands

This 100% pop tape was quite a surprise for me, as I still think Inner Islands as a home for some kinds of ambient and neo-new-age thing (whatever it really is). But it is not the first experiment with unusual forms of pop music for this label, so it's my problem actually. Time to expand boundaries! What definitely matters here is that despite being pop-oriented and very danceable, this album sounds absolutely cool and even weird. It's still not the music you hear on the TV or radio, but I hope it would be in some foreseeable future. I'll have to buy my own television set then! Behind the beats and simple melodies you can feel some intention here, sincere inspiration, wonder of life and nature. May sound cheesy, but it makes sense for old drone geek like me – sometimes you just need this simple magic of simple things to take a rest from seriousness.

listen ~ buy tape

dragontime ~ self-titled (inner islands, 2015)

I was holding this tape to the end for two reasons: firstly, because I don't really know how to describe all that is happening here; secondly – because this is something very special. Dragontime self-titled tape is the case when all beauty can be missed if you trying to capture it. Always elusive, always transforming and hiding from direct sight, Dargontime's music is something that needs specific approach. You may sit quietly and think your own thoughts without trying to analyze music around you, and if you're lucky, rainbow gate will be unlocked. Every song is different, every nimble mood can haunt you for a moment and leave without hesitation. There may be some mysterious weirdness similar to David Lynch's "Rabbits" or you can suddenly remember as neighborhood girl trusted you to read her poetry... One may remember self-invented bedtime stories or feel the presence of hattifatteners, but don't be afraid – you can always find your shelter in the blanket fort! Amazing stuff, something exclusive and pleasantly mesmerizing. 

listen ~ buy tape

PS: Huge thanks to Sean Conrad for doing great job releasing these gems to the world!

norma lyon

 norma lyon ~ the music of norma lyon (little axe, 2015)

"a collection of 16 pieces privately released by Norma Lyon in the late 1960s. all are original compositions for piano and organ. dark, moody and dramatic, each of these “sketches” was inspired by a place Ms. Lyon has lived. the tone of the record is set by its fantastic titles, including “Flight of the Spirit Geese,” “Phantom Cathedral of the Sea” and “Dirge of the Sea Gods.” the first side, “Dune Sketches,” is based on a period when she lived amidst the dunes in southwest Oregon. the second side, “Sea Sketches,” is drawn from the time she spent living with her twin sister overlooking the ocean in Coos Bay." little axe

"Norma Lyon was an Oregon, pianist, composer and children's book illustrator. she spent many years living in a small cabin in Hauser around the coastal dunes of Oregon which provided the inspiration for the first side of the record: Dune Sketches. the liner notes detail a series of setbacks for Ms. Lyon including contracting polio and a 1943 car accident which “resulted in the loss of a middle finger and the the thumb above the first joint. Plastic surgery enabled her to regain use of her thumb.” the second side Sea Sketches was inspired by living the last seventeen years in her studio overlooking the sea in Coos Bay. the album had a press run of 1000 copies was probably released in 1968 and Ms. Lyon was hoping that the proceeds from the album would help pay off her mortgage. Ms. Lyons was 58 at the time of the albums release and living with her twin sister. she has a cat named Franz and a dog named Bobby. she was at the time of the article (August 1968) working on a childrens record and book whose narrative was some sort of underwater puppet adventure where “happiness triumphs over tragedy.” backroom

si te gusta 'church organ' de Sun Ra, las sonatas para piano de Chopin, la banda sonora de las películas mudas en blanco y negro, Korla Pandit, Pierre Palla, las cascadas de piano de 'pianoketo' de Antti Tolvi (mmm), la música de órgano de los años treinta, la preciosísima 'meditation' de gurdjieff /hartmann y este mini compilado de Salvador, te enamorarás de Norma Lyon (compositora y pianista) y Marie Celia Dunn (órgano). todos los detalles de la vida de Norma, en este artículo de 1968.

listen ~ listen ~ buy

armando sciascia

armando sciascia ~ sea fantasy (vedette, 1972 / trunk, 2015)

"composed by Armando Sciascia in 1972, this unique library concept LP of sublime underwater sounds, ideas and trips is at last available to mere mortals. Sciascia is one of the Italian musical legends, whose other work includes classic spaghetti westerns, bizarre electronics and experimental modern orchestrals for synchronisation. the original Sea Fantasy LP is notoriously hard to find, and for many is a high point in deep underwater sounds, experiments and moods. 500 vinyl copies only. limited distribution. buy now if you are a fan of Jacques Cousteau, De Roubaix, Italian library music, scuba diving, snorkels, wearing wetsuits or you get the paddling pool out on a hot summer's day." trunk

un regalo y un recuerdo de otra época: shipwreck! nada me haría más feliz que trunk se acordase también de Walt Rockman y 'underwater vol. 1'.

listen ~ buy ~ try (via vinyl frontier)

ignatz

ignatz ~ i live in a utopia (goaty tapes, 2015)

"What makes this tape different from all other Ignatz tapes? Not much really. The hermitic constancy of Ignatz’s songs is part of his greatness. This is Belgium’s finest guitar loner doing what he always does~sending chills down spines by way of the minor pentatonic.

There is, however, something distinctly “at ease” about these recordings. They are longer and dreamier than previous ones. Ignatz’s voice is softer and rounder. What once were funeral songs now sound hymnal; some almost have an Americana pietism. Perhaps the move from Brussels to the small town of Landen gave license to Ignatz’s solitary tendencies. I’m inclined to believe in the album title’s joyousness (the last one was called “I Hate this City”). I guess this is Ignatz when things are going pretty well." goaty tapes

listen ~ buy

hybrid palms

hybrid palms ~ voyage (metaphysical circuits, 2015)

~ created during a journey to Puerto Rico ~ hybrid palms

 "melancholy minimalist tropical new age resplendence. palms were already my favourite tree ~ more so now." metaphysical digital

listen ~ name your price

sunmoonstar / maia ibar / sapropelic pycnic

sunmoonstar ~ ibid (twin springs tapes, 2015)

"Twins Springs Tapes is proud to offer this, the debut album from Sunmoonstar (Natasha Home, Sydney, Australia). Panoramic frequencies and percussive surfaces weave satiny landscapes. Pastel planes reflect soft complexities of clouds." 

listen ~ buy

maia ibar ~ when you close your eyes / and i see (perfect wave, 2015)

"Maia Ibar of Dual-Split is experimenting with restorative sound voyages. She is interested in assisting you, her, him, them, to come into natural states of balance and harmonies through tones, frequencies and sound. Mysterious but familiar senses of timelessness, traveling through space, or back in the womb... Seeing "when you close your eyes," and "I see." We can always see, we are awake, we are awake."

synths, bells, chimes, drums, tibetan bowls, vocals: Maia Ibar 

guitar, bass: Baptiste Ibar 

vocals: Jean-Pierre Ibar 

listen ~ buy

sapropelic pycnic ~ see sun think shadow (perfect wave, 2015)

"Sapropelic Pycnic is the solo project of Kathleen Baird of long running avant psych project Spires That In The Sunset Rise. On her debut release as Sapropelic Pycnic, Baird releases a stunning 8 track record of piano improvisations performed on a Steinway Grand in December of 2011 in a church in her hometown of Decatur, Illinois recorded just days before her father’s passing on December 30, 2011. These improvisations have a raw focus that premiere Baird’s piano training as well as very own style of punctuation, spacing and repetition. Her approach brings to mind the playful, spacious qualities of Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou, the unrestraint of Cecil Taylor, the rolling arpeggiations of Alice Coltrane, and the ghostliness of Arvo Part." 

buy vinyl ~ listen / buy

kyle landstra – unshared properties

kyle landstra – unshared properties vol. I-IV (sacred phrases, 2015)

Quadruple-cassette, limited to 50 copies, will be released on September 25, 2015

When your perception is affected on many levels starting from basic emotion and achieving pure transcendent states of deep meditation experiences – it is a certain sign of good ambient music. What started as an experimentation with lo-fi drone patterns, blossoms now as a gorgeous crystal-clear universe of wide spectrum sounds. Through last few years Kyle's music saw an exponential grow and what we have now presented by always inspiring Sacred Phrases label as a four(!) tape documentation of extensive exploration of variety of synths & effects. Creating different worlds, Kyle Landstra takes us to a journey where astronomical-scaled objects are decorated with exquisite microscopic details and we are constantly moving between them, touching surfaces full of light inside them, feeling warmth of hidden energies and smelling an odours never experienced before. Powerful, but still minimalist sequencing meets here multi-layerness of drones and early-morning pureness of reverberation. Minds are open, all energies interconnected – it's easy to feel the links between Universe and yourself, to travel that way. Ever-unfolding fractal of manifestations that we usually call life. 

In terms of listening, "unshared properties" serves as a powerful tool for consciousness expansion. Usually equal to psychedelic experience it is yet not the same thing. This music isn't hazy or confusing, it has no intention to overwhelm the listener. Instead of that, Kyle creates a state of total awareness, when you can feel everything perfectly clear, when all impressions are perceived simultaneously, but you can easily focus on any selected and move forward watching it evolve without losing attention to any other detail. It's a certain sign of masterpiece and I hope that time will prove this. Meanwhile, we are here and now – probably watching the dawn of a new era in electronic ambient music, and Kyle Landstra works at the forefront of it. 

listen ~ pre-order ~ buy

blue communion: isam

  blue communion: isam ~ dream time in totem land (inspired school of astral music, 2015)

existen pocos músicos tan apasionantes como Sam Jones, el hombre que graba como Bill Doob aka Virtually Underwater aka... o igual es cosa mía, pero decidme si hay alguien, con permiso de Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, que transmita una aura de espiritualidad y misterio tan grande. estoy muy emocionada con esta cinta. tres años después de algo tan delicioso como 'celestrial stairway' seguía esperando alguna señal. primero fue su cinta en mmm sound, y de repente inaugura su página de bandcamp con tres cintas nuevas (dos las tengo en mis manos, 'cloud forest' y 'mirror/time' son reales aunque no lo parezcan, por cortesía del propio Sam Jones. gracias gracias gracias). y 'aqua abduct' (¡aqua abduct!) del 2010. estoy literalmente desbordada, quería hablar de todas, pero hay algo diferente en 'dream time in totem land' (un proyecto que al parecer seguirá creciendo) con respecto a las demás y a Inspired School of Astral Music en particular. Bill Doob da rienda suelta a su vertiente más tribal y alcanza la hipnosis total al más puro estilo Tuluum Shimmering. inevitable pensar también en Clime y sus civilizaciones antiguas. percusiones totémicas, tribus amazónicas extraterrestres, vibraciones, frecuencias, resonancias y ese órgano lisérgico-celestial inconfundible que me desarma. en 'totem 3', lo más bonito del mundo, las notas flotan más ligeras y atemporales que nunca. pienso en Hariprasad Chaurasia sentado junto a Mammane Sani et Son Orgue, tal vez por el organillo de aroma ligeramente hindú que parece una flauta... el cielo. Sam Jones es, junto a Günter Schlienz, Jake Webster y Josh Burke mi debilidad más debilidad. ancestral, lunar, hipnótico, adictivo. no me importaría volver a escuchar dream time ahora ni dentro de un rato ni dentro de un par de horas ni mañana ni pasado ni al otro...

listen ~ buy

morning jewel / josh burke / stella haze

 morning jewel ~ vacation (midnight star media, 2009)

ojalá algún día midnight star media y gift tapes renacieran de sus cenizas. Morning Jewel es Josh Burke (Sky Limousine, Ocean Diamond, Silk Fountain, Futuresport) y no hay día que no me pregunte qué fue de él. mil cintas bajo mil nombres distintos, todas mágicas, todas irrealmente hermosas.

listen ~ download

josh burke ~ imagination part I, II & III (midnight star media/housecraft, 2009)

"warm synths drift beneath tape hiss, gliding along under the weight of sometimes as little as one tone in a manner not unlike the ultra spacious new age excursions of Dolphins into the Future. similar recording approach too it sounds, opting for the kind of "pretty as recorded cruddy" sound that Skaters love. alot of this stuff sounds like it's actually quite light and fluffy stuff, but it also sounds like all of that fluff is being played about three floors below you, so all you get is the skeleton of the sounds..." the ear-conditioned nightmare

download part I ~ part II & part III

 stella haze ~ thaw (gift tapes, 2009) 

"the transition of cold, cracked earth to a soil fit for promoting life energy, Stella Haze traverses seasons and dimensions. eeaving thick fields of synthesizer, Wurlitzer, and voice, the formation of a weightless aura that sifts through the air molecules like an eel through dark waters. this is Cristin Miller’s first as Stella Haze, a digression from her former work with avant folk-rock duo Emma Zunz. Thaw is a magical minimalist affair that leads it’s followers into eternal light, like the spirits of newly formed clouds awaiting their entrance into the evening skies." gift tapes

sold out ~ download

end of summer batch at pantheon – creation VI /sij / welcome black

creation VI ~ night over the black sea (πάνθεον, 2015)

Live recording of the show in Sochi, when stars and planets formed favorable pattern and flow of sound was colorizing almost by itself with ornaments made of voices, flutes, jaw harps and field recordings. Organic nightly drone ambient in the best traditions of Creation VI.

«Space is unfolding in front of listener. Space in which melodies go from everywhere. Flexible music is similar to light – weightless and pervasive. Even darkest forest thickets acquire dense emerald hue, and whole world starts to play with special colors following these magical tunes, mysterious voices and light weavings of flutes. Live recording presented on this album balances nature elements, sound becomes basic transforming energy. First sound is born from silence, solar eye appears from the dark to lighten the Universe. 

Creation VI dedicated this concert to Black Sea, which surface is touched by sundown. Gazing beyond the horizon, we're catching the last bright rays sinking in the depths of sea».

listen ~ buy cdr ~ name your price

sij ~ way to dream (πάνθεον, 2015)

This most personal album in SiJ discography is dedicated to his beloved wife. Its transparent sound awakens a romantic dreamer in every careful listener. Born somewhere between the sky and sea, in silent evening dialogue of elements, melodies of this album are lining up in compositions like a guiding stars, so everyone could find its own Way to Dream.

«Last rays of setting sun reflected from the azure sea surface picked up the purest, deepest dreams and flew away like a rapid sailboat. The light fades over horizon, giving way to lullaby of twinkling stars»...

listen ~ buy cdr ~ name your price

welcome black - different shades of perfect black (πάνθεον, 2015)

Perfectly crafted third full-length album by russian one-man-one-guitar project from Kostroma city. Endless flows of dense gravity, astronomical distances and psychosomatic post-effects. Very minimalistic drone work, carefully infused with nuances. Works good at high volume levels, but also in headphones – completely different experience each time. 

«With every minute it unfolded more and more in all directions. It was pitch black at first, but then some colors were added. Some light. Some life. But it was only for a brief moment of growth and soon enough it was only black color all around. There were some movement, and maybe new light was waiting for its birth, but after all – it was just different shades of perfect black».

listen ~ buy cdr ~ name your price

All three new releases are available as a whole batch for reduced price with bonus artwork and in beautiful packaging. You can order it at label's bandcamp merch page.

~ have a nice last days of summer! ~

i am just a pupil

i am just a pupil ~ 12 hours full relaxation (1080p, 2015)

"new age / comedy tape from North Carolina-based Joshua Clark. digitized clips of meditational ambience, serene string loops and spoken word samples blur into hyper-beautiful epiphanies and hit a sweet spot between humour and realness. mocking ideas of authenticity as much as participating in them, “12 Hours” striving towards an ultimately sincere and affecting 40-minutes of glowing ambient vignettes and ends up at a hybrid of healing music, RPG soundtrack transcendence with Classical aesthetics and postironic meltings into Pat Metheny-style soundtracks to becoming free. this set of focused vignettes builds peaceful zones out of YouTube, tape and record samples about taking technology for granted, hell on earth, addiction, violence, anger, dissociation, absurdity and humour." 1080p

bonito: doce horas imaginarias de relajación plena, rizando el rizo del humor y la ironía (esos angelitos de la portada...), de yo soy un pupilo, ideal para un domingo lluvioso por la mañana. voces de niños, voces femeninas de alguna estación perdida en el espacio, unicornios, notas de música clásica y ambient flotando sobre calles mojadas para deleite de los transeuntes, Virginia Astley siempre ahí, guitarras acústicas, samples, comedia. y si amaneces leyendo 'paul en los scouts'... el cielo. qué difícil es encontrar últimamente un cómic que de verdad merezca la pena (con permiso de 'el perro enamorado de las estrellas' de Takashi Murakami :').  echo de menos un nuevo 'asterios polyp'. ¿dónde están Clowes, Alex Robinson, Larcenet, Dash Shaw, Tomine, Chester Brown...?. consejo: no caigáis en la trampa de gastar vuestro dinero en, por ejemplo, 'el nao de brown' (premiada on  Angoulême con el Premio especial del jurado) o 'aquel verano' (valorada favorablemente en diversos medios), ambas adornadas con un dibujo impecable. el mundo del cómic es un poco así, no se trata ya de subjetividad y gustos personales, o de leerlos en el momento adecuado, sino de auténticas tomaduras de pelo disfrazadas de slice of life que son la nada. otra cosa son los cómics que te cuentan cosas y sus personajes te importan de verdad y te llegan y quieres darle un abrazo a sus autores. las 'novelas gráficas' no son precisamente baratas. mucho tendrían que aprender Glyn Dillon y Mariko & Jillian Tamaki de Javier Solís, de 'ombligo sin fondo' de Dash Shaw o Jeffrey Brown (autores que aparentemente no cuentan nada y te lo cuentan todo). por no hablar de 'los años dulces' de Jiro Taniguchi, maestro de la contemplación y los pequeños gestos, del dibujo detallista y precioso. da rabia. tanto como esa corriente de moda que puso y pone por las nubes la primera temporada de true detective y ahora compiten por hacer el chascarrillo más simpático (hiriente) sobre las segunda, que es mejor de aquí a lima. de nuevo la nada brillantemente adornada vs personajes de carne y hueso e historias que sí nos emocionan. de cuando la estética prima sobre la esencia. y aquí cito a rafa: "porque la segunda no es epatante, porque en la segunda hay personajes (muchos) normales con sentimientos y reacciones normales y no hay un maconajiu hiper trascendental de la polla con una trama hiper retorcida que al final era un poco bluff. la redención aquí se paga cara de cojones pero es natural. creo que ese es el palabro, una temporada natural sin aderezo."

buy tape/digital ~ try

daniel lauter / david casper

 daniel lauter ~ quartz crystal bells (modern rites/ancient waves, 1988)

~ ambient quartz crystal bells, composed by daniel lauter. this is a live recording, one of the first couple of Crystal Bowl recordings ever, vintage 1980's bell ringers: Daniel Lauter, Donna Soszynski, Kim Atkinson. recorded by Bernard Xolotl ~

"Quartz Crystal Bells are beautiful sound generating bowls used for healing, centering your inner-most thoughts and visualizations and making incredible music! The energy and tone produced by the vibrations of these 99% pure crystal bowls is one of the most powerful methods of aligning with the instincts and senses of your personal spirit and meditations. you can literally feel your body vibrating with the sound. the experience will create an ambiance capable of releasing strong inner emotions, deep relaxation and enjoyment. this performance was recorded live to digital master using a set of twelve bells ranging in diameter sizes form 8" to 18"

listen ~ download (via sounds of the dawn)

 david casper ~ night crossing (hummingbird, 1981) 

"peaced-out home-made new age from Seattle David Casper seems to be the sole artist on Hummingbird Records, with six releases from 81-86. performed with synthesizers, cheng, sitar, glass harmonica and a variety of flutes, the tracks drone and meander through melodies at once native to seattle, and to the east. patient and wandering songs, excellent slow music multi-tracked high atop a lush mountain by the sea." left coast tapes

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david casper es mi nuevo bruce langhorne. hay pocas en este mundo más bonitas que 'night crossing' y 'green anthem'.

inner travels – phases of a forest moon

inner travels ~ phases of a forest moon (otherworldly mystics, 2015)

Summertime suits very well for ambient music, especially, if this is Inner Travels new cassette! Humidity and warmness, but at the same time - kind chill, generous invitation to the world of imagination. What Steve Targo actually do with these sounds can be called therapy, but not in the old-fashioned new-agey way. It's a very gentle kind of therapy, not a treatment - but just a reminder of what we all have inside. Recent Steve's work called Nourish was some kind of tribute to "plant music" - as I thought at first, but listening to this album, I've realised that this music has much more to do with human heart and soul. If you nourish your soul, it grows and blooms - so, yes, we should treat ourselves as diligent gardeners. Ego always grows easily, like harmful weed, but it's not so easy to grow a fruitful soul. And this music certainly helps!

"Phases of a forest moon" is a nocturne. It has magical dimension, hidden from the surface. Little less naive than very first Inner Travels recordings, but still keeping that childish admiration of Nature, quiet celebration of every moment of life. Virtue, not so common these days. Ordinary emotions under the microscope of ongoing beautifulness, multiplied by careful selections of melodies and timbres. When the moonlight goes down from the sky, we do not say it came. It just is. And it was even when we didn't saw it. Same thing with Inner Travels' music - it seems that Steve just captures it from the air, condensing dissoluted beauty, creating simple forms, as easy as pie. There are many projects making music that comes from mind: calculated, pre-programmed, well-designed. This one is something very different. Intuitive continuation of nature lines and spaces, deep exploration of imagination capabilities...

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kon teifi

kon teifi ~ kon teifi (coracle audio documents, 1974)

"something of a mystery here... a couple of weeks ago a package arrived at Tuluum Shimmering Recordings headquarters, a box of 12 tapes with a brief note asking if our label would be so kind as to distribute these cassettes. the note was unsigned, and there was no return address. the tapes appear to have been made in 1974, and come with a small 4 page foldout booklet. the booklet reveals the story of a journey by coracle from Polynesia to Wales to prove a theory held by the unnamed author/recordist. the recordings on the tape were apparently made on this journey. I've been unable to find out any more about this tape or the voyage it documents, but we here at TSR are honoured to be able to help it finally see the light of day." tsr

"he aquí un misterio... hace un par de semanas llegó un paquete a la sede de Tuluum Shimmering Recordings, una caja con 12 cintas y una breve nota preguntando si nuestro sello sería tan amable de distribuirlas. la nota venía sin firmar y no había ninguna dirección de remitente. las cintas se grabaron en 1974 y vienen con un pequeño folleto despegable de cuatro páginas. el folleto revela la historia de un viaje en barca desde Polinesia a Gales para demostrar una teoría sostenida por el anónimo autor / grabador. las grabaciones de la cinta se hicieron aparentemente durante ese viaje. he sido incapaz de averiguar más acerca de esta cinta o del viaje que documenta, pero en TSR nos sentimos orgullosos de poder ayudar a que finalmente vean la luz." tsr

no hay nada que me haga más feliz que esos discos sorpresa que surgen de la nada y tienen historias románticas detrás, como el de Cap'n Jack, Jürgen Müller, Bobby Brown, Eden Ahbez o Tim Robertson. Bobby, Eden y Cap'n Jack existieron. pero ¿y los demás?. sí. no. me da igual. lo que suena es tan bonito que me gusta pensar que sí. es tan grande el poder de sugestión, y seducción, que para mí Jürgen Müller será siempre aquel oceanógrofo alemán cuyo estudio de grabación flotaba sobre el mar. Kon Teifi tiene algo en común con 'aren't you ashamed' y 'science of the sea': cuando los escucho, y por razones distintas, me producen ternura. algo tiene el universo tuluum que hechiza. y Kon Teife está impregnado de ese universo. en 1974 un antropólogo se embarcó en una expedición arqueológica desde Polinesia hasta Gales para demostrar que había sido colonizada, en la más remota antigüedad, por habitantes de las Islas del Pacífico. durante el viaje hizo algunas grabaciones que años más tarde sintió la necesidad de compartir. en la 'cara a' nuestro antropólogo misterioso hace sonar una guitarra  melancólica y tropical sobre unas grabaciones de campo a las que se le unen cánticos tribales. de fondo, una brisa ligera meciendo las palmeras, puedes oler el océano en el aire. en la 'cara b' suena un logo telie, instrumento de madera típico de Niue, isla de Polinesia. al ritmo de un tambor le acompaña una flautilla, pero lo más bonito es el telyn, arpa en galés, que suena un poco a arpa y un poco a xilófono de bambú. el logo telie y el telyn descienden de la misma raíz, tanto linguística como musicalmente. si la misión de la música es la de mostrar mundos inéditos, más allá de la realidad, Kon Teifi nos lleva definitivamente al otro lado del espejo. gracias a Keefe por ir dejando siempre miguitas en el camino, y a Jake por su generosidad (se agotó en un abrir y cerrar de ojos: un poco más y nos quedamos sin ella!).

sold out ~ download

 

golden brown

~ golden brown ~

new ramble ~ love song

foto: asako narahashi

tuluum shimmering

tuluum shimmering ~ hummingbird entered the fire / banner stone entered the fire / wide water entered the fire / great star entered the fire (tuluum shimmering records, 2015)

"four magical cd's by UK-based, one-man transcendental-drone band Tuluum Shimmering. the sound of Tuluum Shimmering is like a sort of loop-driven, timeless ethnic music without a region or a tradition. an array of instruments (sampling keyboard, flutes, violin, kalimba, percussion) are run, via a mixer, through a multi-FX pedal into a 30-second looper, and out to an amp." aguirre 

qué bien que los discos de Tuluum Shimmering aparezcan de cuatro en cuatro. si tengo que elegir: 'great star entered the fire'. pianos, bucles, una producción más bajo mínimos que nunca, una preciosa melodía de guitarra con aires tropicales, flautillas sumergidas que parecen arpas y cascadas de río como 'celestial harmonies' de Upper Astral. hago mías las palabras de tim six, en bucle, como la  música de tuluum shimmering ~

listen ~ buy