Mega premiere on our YouTube and soundcloud channels for this ace new chugger by Jack Pattern.
12″ is out this Friday via our homies at Cosmic Pint Glass!
Category: Feature
This article is hopefully the first in a series on the subject of field recording. If your goal is relaxation, focus, or just an aesthetic appreciation of sonic texture, this article is an introduction to the best places on the internet to go to hear, and find out about field recording.
Phonography, otherwise known as field recording, is the recording of natural or man-made sounds in-situ and away from the recording studio. But does it produce art or music? In modern music, the line between music and sound has become blurred. Sound and noise play a part in electronic composition that is as important as tone and scale. Today to ask if something is music or noise seems like an out-of-date question.
Like photography is the capturing of light to produce an image, phonography is the capturing of sound to produce a recording. Unlike ‘art’ or ‘music’, which have normative aspects, the words ‘phonography’ and ‘photography’ are matter-of-fact descriptions of a technical act. A bad photo may or may not be art, but nobody says a bad photo is not a photo.
Radio Aporee
The Radio Aporee project is “a global soundmap dedicated to field recording, phonography and the art of listening”. Field recordings from all over the world are placed on a 3D Google map, along with information about the recordings and recordists. You can explore the world while exploring the variety of sonic textures and landscapes that field recording can offer. New updates are added by its active user base every day.
Prolific UK electro producer Plant43 (aka Emile Facey) brings the crispy clean beats to new label Future Massive, launched from the AI Records camp. Check our premiere of ‘Heart Beats In Silence’:
For the announcement Future Massive have released a video created by label founder Steve Hyland for first single Hearts Beat in Silence. Drawing reference from the EP title, the unknown structure in question appears as an obelisk in multiple liminal spaces – unsettling and misplaced until it resolves into human form.
This humanoid avatar embodies a lonely alien force observing our culture from a stellar distance, reflecting upon our fragility through the falling petals whilst basking in the electro glow. Watch the video for lead track Hearts Beat in Silence here:
Pre-order the red vinyl here
Vital Contrast is a gorgeous release coming 25th June from Paul Oednom on the ever-reliable Serein label, operating out of Wales, UK. Check the player for an exclusive preview of ‘Flux’, the opening track from the EP. Guitar and synths ebb and flow as one, into a psychedelic tapestry of tones.
A few months back I posted some rambling thoughts on the beguiling Ciat-Lonbarde Plumbutter and Cocoquantus instruments. Along with being the most popular posts on the blog, they generated a few recurring questions from people. Mainly along the lines of “WTF are those things?” and “what do they sound like?”.
Well, I thought I’d do a little follow up vid to give some visual context to the ramblings. Included in this 13 minute improvisation is the Monome Norns Shield, running the wonderful Sines app by Oootini.
Categories
New Label: Eastern Ears
Great to see local sound experimentalists and noise enthusiasts, Eastern Ear (formally NNSAC), have started releasing recordings of music performed at their events.
Their first release by Twinkle3, consisting of Clive Bell (shakuhachi and other woodwind), David Ross (drosscillator and percussion) and Richard Scott (electronics and analogue synthesiser), was a very memorable gig. So it’s great to hear the sounds again, in clean digital form (especially that wonderfully blooping and burbling EMS Synthi).
A mesmerising blend of futuristic alien rhythms, electro-acoustic interludes and 1950’s synthesis.
Eastern Ear are based in Norwich and organise regular workshops, performances/events, along with the excellent Yarmonics sonic arts festival in Great Yarmouth.
In case you’ve been living under a virtual rock, ‘Bandcamp Friday’ is where the website waives their commision fees for a day each month.
On one hand, this results in every artist with an instagram account shouting further into the void. But on the other, labels and artists are now planning their release schedule around this day, to capitalise on releasing and pre-releasing new music. So it is certainly worth a dig!
Here’s our top picks from yesterdays busy, yet fruitful Bandcamp Friday (2nd April 2021).
Polypores – Shpongos
Black Girl / White Girl – Hyper Reality
Benge – Syndrones and Syntones
Apologist – Air Foundry
Ben Pest – On The Three
Dexorcist – Body Clock EP
Last week we featured a premiere of Grey Skies – ‘Heavy Burden‘ from his new release, Year. To follow up, Elias has kindly provided some insight on his influences, composition and production techniques.
” After being a member of indie/post punk bands for more than a decade, and being a huge fan of ambient and experimental music I wanted to create a record that is totally different from what people who know my previous creations would expect.
Here we have an exclusive premiere of ‘Heavy Burden’, from Greek musician Elias Smilios. Taken from his upcoming release as Grey Skies – Year is an album that creates wonderfully bent landscapes of mysterious worlds. More to come from this producer and this special album, soon on the blog. In the meantime, let this piece soundtrack the Autumn as it rolls in.
Golden Ratio Frequencies is a label you will have heard played on our monthly radio show. A label that operates in the meditative end of the audio spectrum. We’re lucky to share this exclusive premiere of a track from the excellent new LP by Salvaticus Selvatico. Sit back and let ‘Peaks’ occupy the space between your headphones.
Pre-order ‘The Science of Breathing’ from bandcamp here