microphones in the trees: sean conrad
Showing posts with label sean conrad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sean conrad. Show all posts

Thursday, January 23, 2020

2019 mixes (V): Sean Conrad



Greetings, dear follower! Today we resume our 2019 mix series for a special mixtape made by Sean Conrad ~ an artist and label curator whose work must be familiar even to our least frequent readers. Through the years, Inner Islands label remains one of our most beloved labels simply because it shares the same aesthetics and feeling we always tried to carry on here on Microphones. Some of the most soulful ambiences and gentle new age hymns are being released at Inner Islands and under Sean's main aliases ~ Ashan and Channelers, among many others which you can always explore through Discogs. Sean's mix features tunes radiating love and light, joy of the being here on this planet and simply experiencing being a human with all its ups and downs ~ as an ongoing project of neverending evolution. Hope you'll enjoy it! ~ piedpaper



Tracklist:

0:00 ~ Malibu ~ Nana (Like A Star Made For Me) (Joyful Noise, White Label Series, 2019)
3:38 ~ Julianna Barwick ~ noon (Commend, 2019)
07:21 ~ Jogging House ~ Traverse (Dauw, 2019)
12:47 ~ Emily A. Sprague ~ Synth 2 (RVNG, 2019)
20:17 ~ Wanderwelle & Bandhagens Musikförening ~ Before The Rain (Semantica Records, 2019)
23:43 ~ H. Takahashi ~ Pollen (Where To Now? Records, 2019)
31:30 ~ Green-House ~ Peperomia Seedling (Leaving Records, 2019)
34:47 ~ Andrew Pekler ~ Hy Brasil (Faitiche, 2019)
39:20 ~ peafowl - part two ~ (Self-Released, 2019)
47:17 ~ Jefre Cantu-Ledesma ~ Joy (Mexican Summer, 2019)



Saturday, December 29, 2018

~ sounds of 2018 as seen by artists ~



Greetings dear readers of Microphones in the Trees! This year we weren't so active and there are so many reasons for that, real life mostly. But we continue to discover new music and constantly listening to lots of sounds! Being a bit unsure about the importance of end-of-year lists, we were intrigued when Steve Targo (of Inner Travels) approached us with the idea to ask some of our favorite artists to make their own lists. Such way it seems right, not to impose our own vision spoiled by countless albums and everyday Bandcamp browsing (though we'll post such list too, hah!), but to give the opportunity to see things from the inside and let musicians tell what they are listening to.

So, here it goes, THE LIST OF THE LISTS, inspiring and important sounds of 2018:



By Daryl Groetsch ~ Pulse Emitter ~

Poemme ~ Moments in Golden Light (Constellation Tatsu)
Jatinder Singh Durhailay & David Edren ~ Tea Notes (Earth.Rope.Pot.Plant)
PJS ~ Sweet La Vie (Leaving Records)
Endurance ~ Cloud, Castle, Lake (Cosmic Winnetou)
Inner Travels ~ Yonder (Sounds of the Dawn)
Max Corbacho ~ Nocturnes II (SilentSun)
Kyle Landstra ~ Within / Without (Muzan Editions)
Guenter Schlienz ~ Tristan Magnetique (Otomatiek Music)
Seabat ~ Outside The Disc (Vestibule)
Various Artists ~ Switched-On Eugene (Numero Group)

~~~


By Catherine Debard ~ YlangYlang/Isness ~

Sandro Perri ~ In Another Life (Constellation Records)
Felicia Atkinson & Jefre Cantu Ledesma ~ Limpid as the Solitudes (Shelter Press)
Alex Zhang Hungtai ~ Divine Weight (NON Worldwide)
Tess Roby ~ Beacon (Italians Do It Detter)
Pendant ~ Make Me Know You Sweet (West Mineral Ltd.)
Grouper ~ Grid of Points (Kranky)
Low ~ Double Negative (Sub Pop)
Markus Floats ~ Second Album (Self-Released)
Adrianne Lenker ~ Abysskiss (Saddle Creek)
Lucrecia Dalt ~ Anticlines (RVNG Intl.)
TEREKKE ~ Improvisational Loops (Music From Memory)

~~~


By Michael Potter ~ The Electric Nature & \\NULL|Z0NE// ~

Yuzo Iwata ~ Daylight Moon (Siltbreeze)
Obnox ~ Templo del Sonido (Astral Spirits)
Sunwatchers ~ II (Trouble in Mind)
Mountain Movers ~ Pink Skies (Trouble in Mind)
Rosali ~ Trouble Anyway (Scissor Tail)
Low ~ Double Negative (Sub Pop)
Charalambides ~ Tom and Christina Carter (Drawing Room)
Daniel Bachman ~ The Morning Star (Three Lobed Recordings)
Weeping Bong Band ~ s/t (Feeding Tube)
Ramble Tamble ~ Outlaw Overtones (Eiderdown)

~~~


By Natasha Home ~ Sunmoonstar, Pearl and the Oysters & A Thousand Tones curator ~

Wizard Apprentice ‎~ I Am Invisible (Ratskin Records)
Yialmelic Frequencies ~ Yililok (Leaving Records)
Raw Silk ~ Raw Silk (Ehse Records)
Nakayama Munetoshi ~ Floating to Kill Time (Terminal Dream)
Laura Ortman ~ THE DISREMEMBER DANCER // DIG YOUR EYES (Ehepik Records)
Kate NV ~ для FOR (RVNG Intl.)
The Person ~ Tide Life (Moontown Records)
Laurel Halo ~ Raw Silk Uncut Wood (Latency Recordings)
Sarah Davachi ~ Gave in Rest (Ba Da Bing)
Jana Irmert ~ Flood (Fabrique Records)

~~~


By Matthew Hanner, Aural Canyon Label ~

Emily A. Sprague ~ Mount Vision (Self-released)
ann annie ~ Cordillera (Distant Bloom)
r beny ~ eistla (self-released)
Paparbark ~ Last Night (Seil Records)
Remember ~ The City Is My Friend (Dream Catalogue)
Future Museums ~ Rosewater Ceremony (Holodeck) 
Dedekind Cut ~ Tahoe (Kranky/Hospital Productions)
Steve Hauschildt ~ Dissolvi (Ghostly International)
John Carroll Kirby ~ Meditations On Music (Leaving Records)
Yialmelic Frequencies ~ Yililok (Leaving Records)

~~~


By Daniel Guillen ~ Lunaria ~ 

Alex Crispin ~ Open Submission (Constellation Tatsu)
Ashan ~ Far Drift Afield (Inner Islands)
Endurance ~ Shade Terrarium (Constellation Tatsu)
Inner Travels ~ Yonder (Sounds of the Dawn)
Kyle Landstra ~ Within / Without (Muzan Editions)
Max Corbacho ~ Nocturnes II (SilentSun)
Oliwa ~ Lost Memories (Geology Records)
Poemme ~ Moments in Golden Light (Constellation Tatsu)
Pulse Emitter ~ Xenharmonic Passages (Expansive)
William Basinski & Lawrence English ~ Selva Oscura (Temporary Residence)

~~~


By Camilla Padgitt-Coles ~ Ivy Meadows/Energy ✩/Tropical Rock ~

Omni Gardens ~ West Coast Escapism (Holodeck Records)
Jatinder Singh Durhailay & David Edren ~ Tea Notes (Earth.Rope.Pot.Plant)
Yialmelic Frequencies ~ Yililok (Leaving Records)
VA ~ A Thousand Tones Volume 2 (Elestial Sound)
Ramble Tamble ~ Outlaw Overtones (Eiderdown)
Louise Bock ~ Repetitives in Illocality (Feeding Tube Records)
Nick Stevens ~ The New Age (Galtta Tapes)
Arp ~ Zebra (Mexican Summer)
Jon Hassell ~ Listening To Pictures (Pentimento Volume One) (Ndeya) 
Ambienti Coassiali ~ Vol. 1 - Room 1-6 (Incidental Music)
~~~~


By Joshua Stefane ~ Endurance, Muzan Edition label ~

Matthias Puech ~ Alpestres (Hands in The Dark)
Meitei / 冥丁 ~ Kwaidan / 怪談 (Evening Chants)
Pulse Emitter ~ Xenharmonic Passages (Expansive)
Nicholas Langley ~ Entropy Soundtracks & Ambients Volume 2 (Third Kind Records)
April Larson ~ Hopeless Variations (Pyramid Blood)
Equip ~ Synthetic Core 88 (100% Electronica)
PJS ~ Glows (Pyramid Blood)
oliviaway ~ Ambition (Self-released)
N Chambers ~ Eight Informal Lines (Self-released)
Bana Haffar ~ Matiere (Self-released)

~~~


By Sean Conrad ~ Inner Islands/Channelers/Ashan ~

Ava Lux ~ Soft (Self-released)
De Leon ~ De Leon (Mana)
Emily A. Sprague ~ Mount Vision (Self-released)
Inner Travels ~ Yonder (Sounds of the Dawn)
Kenji Kihara ~ 点 線 面 - ten sen men (Self-released)
Laraaji ~ Vision Songs Vol 1 (Numero Group)
Pendant ~ Make Me Know You Sweet (West Mineral Ltd.)
Tuluum Shimmering ~ Dancing in the Seven Skies (Tuluum Shimmering Records)
Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar ~ Ragas Abhogi & Vardhani (Ideologic Organ)
Yialmelic Frequencies ~ Yililok (Leaving Records)

~~~


By Steve Targo ~ Inner Travels ~

Zazz ~ Soft Harbinger / Channelers ~ Enclosure / Channelers ~ Entrance to the Next (Inner Islands)
Ashan ~ Far Drift Afield (Inner Islands)
Electric Sound Bath ~ The Forces (Patient Sounds)
Starbirthed ~ Gems 1: Liquid Crystals (auasca)
Tuluum Shimmering ~ The One That Touched the Sky (Tuluum Shimmering Records)
Jatinder Singh Durhailay & David Edren ~ Tea Notes (Earth.Rope.Pot.Plant)
Pulse Emitter ~ Xenharmonic Passages (Expansive)
Deuter ~ Sattva  Temple Trance (New Earth)
Lunaria ~ Water Mind (ПANΘEON)

~~~


By Yuta Kudo ~ Rhucle/Alien Garage label ~ 

Chihei Hatakeyama ~ Afterimage (White Paddy Mountain)
Taylor Deupree ~ Fallen (12k)
Hikaru Utada ~ 初恋 (Sony Music)
Puppy Seed ~ Lost at Sea (Shimmering Moods)
Federico Durand ~ Pequeñas Melodías (IIKKI)
Jim O’Rourke ~ Sleep It’s Like Winter (Newhere Music)
No Death ~ Angel Tech (Dream Catalogue)
Mike Nigro and Andrew Oosterhoudt ~ Latitudes (Constellation Tatsu)
Mariah Carey ~ Caution (Epic Records)
Lee Noble ~ Q (Longform Editions)

~~~

Huge thanks to everyone involved! Let inspiration be with you!

Support independent music, spread love!

Happy New Year =)


Tuesday, March 20, 2018

zazz ~ soft harbinger



"Zazz is the long distance collaborative project of Ang Wilson and Braeyden Jae. Out of mutual admiration for each other’s musicality and expression, the project came to life when the two decided to develop a creative dialogue through sound, sending files back and forth with no pre-determined aesthetic or agenda. That space of not knowing and openness nurtures the trust and respect that guides the project. It allows for an honesty and presence that can be difficult to tap into when the course has already been charted. 

Soft Harbinger follows the thread of gentle and pastoral work that Braeyden has pursued with his project, softest, and that Ang has been known for, both with their solo project, teasips, and with Electric Sound Bath. Soft Harbinger is the debut album from Zazz and it’s a beautiful opening." ~ inner islands

Vernal equinox is definitely a good day to share some peaceful music with the world and honestly I can't think better place to look for it than Inner Islands label. For many years now it keeps this delicate flow of acoustic sensations which adds something meaningful to our world. Just a little bit of harmony... 

When David Bohm, one of the quantum physics pioneers, discussed his theories with attendees, he described our world as a hologram and the difference between hologram and usual picture is that each part of hologram keeps the whole picture. So if you tear a regular photo you'll have fragments which can't really tell you what was captured on the original (especially if it's really small fragments), while each piece of broken hologram will have same picture in it, just more blurred than original. Each tiny piece of it will be same, just less detailed... When I read about it in my childhood, guess my life was irreversibly changed that moment. If the Universe is holographic in its nature, it means each tiniest part of it is the universe itself. And of course I knew about it before – metaphorically, from tales, myths, from poetry... But this was science, huh! 

But yes, your yoga teacher or psychologist are right when they say each person is a universe. But important part here (from physics) is that if even smaller part contains the whole picture, it can be so blurry that you'd never tell that something's there. It's hidden, it's out of reach. Parts must be connected, integrated and here lies another trick moment – there is a big difference between a part and a fragment. A bunch of letters may create some words but you need a concept of harmony to create poetry of it. Rhythm. Waves. Patterns... There is no music in the world until the listener appears. A mind with an idea of harmony. And that's the hologram, the picture of the whole, the music made of natural noises, the very beginning of it. 

Of course we don't need to go metaphysical to enjoy music. We even gone so far that we can see harmony in something which was considered dumb noise only a few decades ago. I guess that's inevitable process, that's seeing the bigger picture. Following the patterns of harmony. I'll leave the question about nature of the harmony itself because I'm trying to talk about music here and music is obviously my favorite thing in this Hologram. Simply because it doesn't need words to make you feel these things. It always connects you with other people, events, places and sensations, you become something bigger than you was. And in case of Zazz it does that thing so delicately, that you may lose any thoughts just after few minutes spent inside these blissfully repeating patterns of universal harmony... If each musical track is a hologram then these two sides are filled with so many things that you'll need an eternity to explore them all. It's just like a window into the wider space. Wide as world itself. 


Friday, May 26, 2017

stag hare ~ starlights gloom


Farewell, Stag Hare!

«Starlights Gloom is an album about heaviness and lightness. Its made up of primarily sampled material from throughout the Stag Hare catalog. Its sort of a final farewell to the now decade long project, while being its own creature as well. I wanted it to be sort of feminine and tough, ethereal and grounding. It's maybe the last piece of art I have left to release that connects back to a specifically really hard time in my life. And so it was with mixed feelings that I was able to sit down with the tracks and finally finish them. By "really hard" I mean I didn't really think I was going to make it and I recorded the first versions of these tracks as a way to share a certain energy to my child as he grew up in case I wasn't around. I didn't want them to be sad, but I didn't want them to be overly optimistic either. After sitting on them for 2 years, and obviously still alive, thank Goddess, I decided I needed to finally finish these tracks and move on with my life. I used those initial sketches as a stepping off point and then just took the tracks where it felt like they wanted to go. The album isn't intended as any kind of profound statement, they are just tracks that sound good to me and I just finished them in a way that felt good. I didn't labor over them or think very deeply on them. In a way this was actually the most effortless Stag Hare album I have made, using mostly samples and short cuts to get the tracks where I wanted. And it felt fun, and it felt good. It's a bittersweet farewell to the whole Stag Hare project. I more or less have lived in the Stag Hare world for most of my adult life, and through it and the people it has been able to quietly reach I have stayed grounded and inspired. I love you all, and you all have helped keep me alive for the past ten years while I figured a lot of shit out. Still figuring that shit out, but I feel like I can finally step out of my Stag Hare safety womb and go try some other stuff.
~ Willow Skye-Biggs

Thursday, October 20, 2016

channelers ~ video & album premiere



Each time I see the news from Inner Islands my days turns into a little celebration. The music this label releases resonates so deeply with my perception of the world, that it feels almost impossible. Of course there are always some space for interpretations and subjectiveness but some things don't need an explanation. They just emerge somewhere between the sounds, between the flips of the tape, in the soft humming of endless water streams shown in this amazing video which label's boss Sean Conrad shot in American deserts and over expanses of Iceland... When the beauty arises, it touches hearts directly, without need in words. That's why we love music so much - it can be pure beauty, without strict material form, just flow of vibrations from one soul to another. It needs just few instruments or voice to appear and an open ear to be heard.


 «Reverence for the cycles of life, for the ever-changing sky, for the yearning that drives one forward, for the acceptance
that keeps one still».
inner islands

On the different paths life makes through the space and time there are always cycles, seasons, changes which unfold like an endless spiral. With every new turn we may feel something like deja vu, considering the ability of our minds to forget everything quickly, to think in one dimension. To regain the experience of past cycles in the present, to make them significant and changing, we create rituals - may kinds of them. Starting from morning tea and social interactions and up to religions and annual celebrations. And once again our minds are failing, forgetting the meaning, flattening the experience... So the only way here is awareness, which unavoidably leads to self-invented ceremonies, practices, to the clear feeling of your own unique path. While listening to the music created by any of Sean Conrad's projects this feeling on the uniqueness appears with every album, showing the perception of the world, which may be shared, but at the same time remains thw whole in itself. Like any river is created by the thousands of streams, the Inner Islands is a bright torrent of personal world perceptions, created by many artists and Sean's ability to maintain that stream is amazing. There is a place for many forms and crossroad for many path, but still this unique universe of sound keeps its doors open for any resonating soul. And its essence is always changing, moving with the sun and moon, growing, unfolding... Archipelago of the tiny whirls of creative energy, forming something bigger and powerful than its part taken separately. Each album of Ashan or Channelers seems like a private ceremony, which concentrates the overall aura of Inner Islands. Gathering of winds and waters, celebration of new cycle, which begins with every new batch of sounds released to the world... It may seem unimportant, but this is the thing of such intimate creations - it becomes bigger, when you inside of it. Like gazing at the drop of water, which reflects the whole sky. Each song here is a drop. And each tiny moment of silence between them is the passage from the inner to the outer. It's simply fascinating.

Saturday, September 17, 2016

matthew barlow / ashan


matthew barlow ~ hatha (inner islands, 2016)

«Just being, without striving. A place of stillness». inner islands

Focusing on sound healing practices, Matt Barlow took a vacation with his renowned Twin Springs Tapes label and started recording more and more music, which takes new turn in unfolding American New Age music. His latest tape for Inner Islands gives you not only the opportunity to relax and get nice background music for 30 minutes but also the possibility of deepest meditation on the nature of music. Combining simple drones with electronic melodies and contemplative flute playing, this tape reflects the idea, which I run through my haed so many times, while listening to some good ambient records - you don't need to be focused, to perceive everything in this flow of aural sensations, but at the same time, staying out any activity in mind and environment you actually start feeling everything so clearly! I think this state cannot be achieved by means of intentional focusing, so this state feels much more natural and I'm always so childishly happy when it happens. Of course, not only music can bring it, nature can too - bird songs, streaming water, whisper of the leaves... And you can actually hear and feel same energies in these two compositions. There is nothing supernatural about it, but still I have no other word than magic.

listen ~ buy tape
 

ashan ~ death is new life (heavy mess, 2016)

 «Sean Conrad (Channelers, Orra, Inner Islands) returns as Ashan with a collection of new songs exploring where the physical meets the spiritual and how the two influence and dialogue each other». heavy mess

For the new label run by Braeyden Jae (former boss of Inner Islands label), Sean Conrad (current Inner Islands mastermind) put an exclusive recording which brings to light new facet of his Ashan alias. Usually taking place somewhere far from city hum and electricity circuits, Ashan (almost) always was about instrumental psych-new-age jams, self-invented mantra singing and celebration of simple joys of life – this time Sean takes electric guitar, some distortion and drums, blending the rock music benefits with Ashan's usual sound. You already curious how it sounds? Okay, just hit play on Bandcamp and read further. And I'll continue playing this on repeat, each time wondering how same energy can take so many forms. This is obviously same Ashan I used to and behind all those walls of sounds, electronic drones, krautrock beats and psychedelic solos I hear same magic, that once entered this complicate world with "To Return To" album. Folk music can take many forms and I suppose that there is nothing hard for experienced artist as Mr. Conrad to transform his music into powerful rock outfit without losing primary inspiration. Actually this is fun synchronism between to friends – putting softest side of Braeyden Jae's music at Inner Islands and heavier side of Ashan on Heavy Mess. Consider this as "anti-unplugged" album and simply enjoy it!

listen ~ buy tape

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

channelers / softest / braeyden jae



«Essex is the 2nd album by Channelers (Ashan, gkfoes vjgoaf, etc). Expansive minimalism. Bridging the synthetic and organic. The repetitive fissle of a stream, the fluidity of its motion, and the clarity of its composition. The collection utilizes a diverse palette, devoting a unique ensemble to each piece. As a whole, it promotes a neutral space in favor of nurturing one’s physicality. Channelers is Sean Conrad, based in Oakland, California». inner islands

When it comes to Inner Islands, I never have doubts about the quality of music presented. Well-established provider of lovely ambient tunes and blissful new age meditations, Sean Conrad – is the man behind the Islands and also behind the Channelers alias. Being a huge fan of everything Sean does I fell in love with "Essex" from the very first minutes. Opening with 11-minute "Rest" composition, it immediately sets the mood to relaxed, so it's not really possible to do something else than nap while it unfolds with beautifully crafted loops. Gentle instrumentations reminds Ashan a lot (another Conrad's project), but stays wordless and beatless most of the time. I always wondered how he manages to create these endless, so nicely selected loops, because they aren't annoying even after very long period of time, they just give you space – to dream, to feel, to stay in peace with yourself and the environment. I'd call it meditation, but this music is not just a tool for certain purpose, there is always something more, about the life itself, about every single day and simple activities like cooking, drinking tea or maybe just looking out the window... When you wake up and see bright sunny morning outside after few weeks of cloudy greyness, this tape will be a perfect start to the day!



«six wishes is the 2nd full-length release from softest (braeyden jae, WYLD WYZRDZ, etc). The sounds from this project are invariably in sympathy with the name of their maker. Gentle rain on a dark green landscape. A warmth to gather yourself around. The pieces, instrumentally, are comprised of guitar, synths, keyboards, discreet sampling, and field recordings. softest is Braden McKenna, based in Salt Lake City, Utah.”». inner islands

It was a bit surprising to see Braden returning to his softest alias after immense number of releases as Braeyden Jae, but listening to the tape you'll immediately understand the decision. Softest side of Braden's guitar rumble brings here same kind of magic heard on "Essex" tape – slowly unfolding spirals of guitar bliss mixed with pleasant synth pads and field recordings, and once again Inner Islands release makes this world little happier. Usually Braden's ability to hypnotise comes from the same source as Sean's – nicely selected loops and almost invisible change of their flow during the composition. But this time something else comes into play – carefully picked echo intertwined with thorough layering creates another level of perception. And at certain moment it gains more effect in the mix with field recording natural noises. Beauty of the melodic lines drowns in reverberation and tape hiss – just to be born again, to change its state but to remain itself, like rain over the landscape, exactly. Isn't it what we all want?



«On Fog Mirror, SLC based musician Braden McKenna, has crafted a weighted, textural album of architectural drone punctuated with stirring washes of crackling static and arcing tones that gather like visible precipitation on an early morning windshield. Fog Mirror is braeyden jae's most deliberately paced, emotionally resonant record to date; the aural equivalent of watching a thick gray blanket envelop some distant, cliffed coastline». whited sepulchre

You may know Ryan Hall, who started Whited Sepulchre as founder of the fellow blog Tome to the Weather Machine, charity netlabel Heligator Records and co-founder of Denver-based Goldrush Music Festival. First two releases at his new label Whited Sepulchre are Fog Mirror vinyl and Braden's cassette split with Ant'lrd. Fog Mirror starts at the territory where softest ends – lush of pink noise covers every melody and every riff produced by Braden's guitar and melts all magic loops into thawing crunch of late spring snow. Overall composition here acts like variable high-level wind, changing directions and power, but always staying way too high to notice any small detail. Everything drowns in everything. Forests, lakes, mountains... Reverb takes part in it too, gaining subtle melodies to the level of this wind, giving them almost astronomical scale, wrapping whole planet into cocoon of dense magnetic fields, cosmic rays, gliding at the atmosphere, meteor showers... At the same time someone standing at the bus stop far away from city, hears thunder, sees lightning and thinks of the endlessness of time, of connection between people, of home... Breathing clean air charged with electricity. Someone small in the endless corridor of the two mirrors facing each other: mirrors of perception and thoughts about it, surfaces of feelings and contemplation on them. Music permeates these surfaces, but can we do the same? Or it will another reflection, or reflection of the reflection, finally faded in the fog? Infinite is not something big, it's here, right now – in every gaze, in every touch, in every tiny drop of fog... Music knows it.


Tuesday, August 26, 2014

hakobune / oliwa / former selves / panabrite


"reflection, buoyance, serenity, and wonder."

"spanning three continents, separated by the Pacific Ocean, four artists have come together to each contribute a piece to this beautiful and sprawling collection. While each piece retains its own microcosm, the four work with cohesion to take the listener through distinct stages of reflection, buoyance, serenity, and wonder. The pieces were gathered earlier this spring with inspiration from writer and photographer: Ana Cabaleiro, a main curator of the Microphones in the Trees blog. She dreamed of this gathering of sounds and so it came to be. The album features photography from fellow Microphones contributor: Marlene Parra." inner islands 

"Oliwa es ancestral y mágico. y puestos a soñar, Oliwa es la posibilidad de un split imaginario con Panabrite y Former Selves que sería ya como tocar el cielo." cuando hace casi dos años escribía estas palabras sobre 'futura' de Oliwa, no podía imaginar que se haría realidad y además en Inner Islands y con el aliciente grande de una portada caracoluda. luego, unos meses más tarde, Paul me escribía diciendo que, a lo mejor, tal vez, ese split iba a ser posible. era difícil olvidarse de una promesa así. hace unos días recibía otro correo de Sean: "i'm about to release this four-way split double cassette between Hakobune, Oliwa, Former Selves, and Panabrite. and i was hanging out with Paul who does Former Selves the other day and i asked him how this split came about. he said there was a piece you wrote on calm in trees where you mentioned that a dream split would be between Oliwa, Former Selves, and Panabrite. I guess they were inspired by that and made it happen. but it's thanks to you! i feel like you are definitely a part of this project in spirit." que te den ganas de dar botecillos cual canguro son cosas que no se pueden evitar. creo que no me hacía tanta ilusión una colaboración desde...bueno, desde 'swim trunks' y los lejanos 'plumas humeantes', 'árbore en la cresta' y 'moon jam/olelbes'. porque si hay una cinta especial y que esperaba con devoción, es ésta. imagina que existiera una peli de episodios de Gus Van Sant, Françoiz Ozon, Lukas Moodysson, Érick Zonca y Kelly Reichardt. añado uno más porque me hubiera encantado que se sumara Floating Gardens. ¿tal vez para la parte dos? ^^

 
'oceanic triangulation' es un recorrido delicado y tranquilo, una travesía entre músicos afines que va de un continente a otro en cuarenta minutos  cual exhalación. cada canción es espejo de la otra y los cambios son casi imperceptibles... si estás distraída ni te das cuenta de que están ahí. 'kakogawa' de Hakobune funciona como preámbulo y bienvenida con capas y capas de guitarras que parecen teclados. mirando al infinito, Takahiro Yorifuji construye canciones atmosféricas  profundamente determinadas por la sensibilidad oriental (conceptos japoneses: zen, minimalismo y wabi-sabi), en un sonido esquivo y al mismo tiempo envolvente, sugerente, en el que siempre parece que es invierno. decía Adrián: "si de alguien echo de menos más reseñas es de Habokune y su ambient drone de diminutas capas y paisajes que se extienden en el horizonte hasta el infinito. nanas celestiales y mínimas, casi inaudibles, que acaban por desaparecer. música trascendetal para escuchar con los ojos cerrados en la más absoluta calma." sólo sé que cada vez me gusta más Hakobune y las reseñas de Adrianus.


las canciones de Oliwa se sitúan en un mundo atemporal de leyenda. son como invitaciones a mundos misteriosos y ancestrales que se abren sólo para ti. Sebastián Oliwa, mago de la emoción como pocos hay en el mundo, te coge de la mano, te sube muy arriba en su globo aerostático y te deja entrar con él en ese espacio. el mismo en el que viven 'sleeping tortugas' de Wave Temples o 'garden music' de Inner Travels. música en la que te gustaría vivir y nos lleva a donde quiere y por donde quiere. comparte con Former Selves la capacidad para generar imágenes galácticas y de vértigo, esa forma de filtrarse a través de la piel, despacio, sin prisas,....casi en silencio. pero lo que más me gusta de 'after night, before sunrise', y valga como ejemplo del talento y duende de Sebi Oliwa, es el sonido blade runner, denso, inimitable, de su sintetizador (a partir del minuto seis muero) y la incorporación de ritmos tribales que se acercan trotones y te ponen la piel de gallina, augurio de todas las cosas bonitas y alucinantes, tan imposible enumerarlas, que pasan en 'selva primaria' (rainbow pyramid). siempre es una alegría saber que Oliwa sigue ahí, como siempre.

Paul se entrega a este split viajero con la dulzura a la que nos tiene acostumbrados. 'triangulate upon paradise' documenta un momento en el que Paul creía estar cerca de la felicidad, pero resultó ser una felicidad efímera a la que no sabía cómo llegar, ni cómo mantener. así que utilizó el recuerdo de aquellos años para encontrarla en el presente. por más que pase el tiempo y los discos, Former Selves sigue generando en mí un sentimiento de melancolía y tristeza. una tristeza inexacta, una tristeza porque sí, que nunca podría explicar. y una confianza eterna a cualquier cosa en la que asome el patuco. cada canción es la canción. 'triangulate upon paradise' sigue navengando en ese estilo musical que él mismo ha creado, con sus múltiples vericuetos, cambios, silencios y pequeñas montañas rusas. pianos suspendidos, voces difuminadas por un eco, nostalgia de ciencia ficción... o la música que oyen los astronautas cuando sueñan en el espacio. 

y para coronar tan mágica reunión, Panabrite nos regala su canción, digo composición, más bonita desde 'bathysphere suite'. y digo desde 'bathyspehere suite' porque a partir de ella todos sus discos, aún siendo preciosos, siempre me ha parecido que se alejan un poco del estilo acuático submarino del principio que tanto me gusta. aquí, para nuestro regocijo, es el Norm Chambers buzo, explorador y kosmische que apuesta por el encanto de las profundidades del mar y de la flora en general (hay pajaritos y cuencos...e improvisación cósmica). 'digest of botanicals' es, tal como sugiere el título, un compendio de ingredientes botánicos. tiene un poco de todo, el sonido burbujeante y saltarín de Jürgen Müller pero sobre todo unos sintes más kosmische y planeadores que nunca. puro equilibrismo ochentero con las teclas....hay momentos en que suenan como arpegios de guitarra. cuando empiezan las primeras notas, el eco de las gotas que caen de las estalactitas rebotando en una cueva, lo único que puedo decir es gracias. y que en nuestro microuniverso ocurren, muchas veces, pequeños milagros.

artwork: marlene parra / layout: sean conrad ~ fotolas: árbore, hoy.joy