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Author: dave
Maidens of Zeal
Wav/Arr-Cooked from Ableton/Logic sessions by fellow travellers ov[f thee Moorlands.Stem heads took maybe 3 years to serve the Galaxon pastie from the Co Op near Zeal Monachorum.
Mixes by those in thee and three know.
Pics by Sunshine Superman
Design by LoMo
Mastered by Árni Grétar
Cornerstone
“Cornerstone”, the debut solo album from Italian sound artist Andrea Bellucci under his new “Ithaki” moniker presents us with a unique mix of lush haunting ambience and meticulously crafted downtempo glitch IDM.
Fans of Andrea’s collaboration project, ILUITEQ (With Sergio Calzoni) will find instant familiarity of sound in the ambient works with the album “Soundtracks For Winter Departures”.
Juxtaposed amongst these organic textures lie a stark complex intertwining of both analogue and digital rhythms, deep basses and futuristic soundscapes… all further enhanced by careful analogue mixing and valve mastering by blackparticle.
Laser cut and etched bespoke wood and perspex CD boxed set. Glass mastered and silk-screened CD. This edition comes with a unique oil painting, monotype screen print and wooden TXT coaster.
So Far from Home
In July of 2020 I released a digital only version of “So Far From Home” it was a return to a “Space Music” style which I’m probably best known for with my release “FAXology”
The track was a synergy of both Analogue & Digital synths, some found sounds & sound bites that I had collected over time, I initially built a foundation of various hums/drones manipulated machine-like sounds etc and then added more musical themes that gave a sense of being transported through deep space with only the mechanical & electronic sounds of the hi tech craft to keep you company.
I felt it was important to convey some varying emotional moods; as on this journey you encounter various majestic phenomena with a sense of wonder with moments of loneliness and uncertainty as you venture further out into the vastness of uncharted space.
Three distinct movements morph & shift during its fifty five minute duration.
“So Far From Home” was quite a popular digital release and I had some requests about a CD release at some point. I returned to the track in early jan of 2022 and after composing the accompanying track “Dreams Of Our Blue Planet” in Dec of 2021, Which I felt like it belonged within the same sonic universe.
For the CD release I went back and reworked the mix, giving some sounds more prominence and expanding the stereo mIx, additional automated panning on certain sounds along with some subtle tweaks to the arrangement and FX enhancement, which introduces some unheard tones from the original synth experimentation sessions.
I am now delighted to present this new CD Mix version of “So Far From Home” along with a brand new track “Dreams Of Our Blue Planet” which clocks in at just over twenty minutes with an emotive and deeply atmospheric aesthetic.
Love
One would think the word ‘love’ in a track title in this day and age would suggest the same kind of vapidity associated with empty-headed pop, but Krystian Shek has managed to deconstruct the word and its meanings in a manner so original the ear is fairly floored. On this utterly spellbinding new recording, Shek’s outpouring of love is reflected in the immersive harmolodics and quietly respirating instances that simmer like liquid tears in a Batty rain.
The opening fifteen-minute title track establishes a mood that surely feels lustrous, deep, and resonant: synths that sear the night sky burn bright then vanish like disintegrating meteorites, the pensive (e)motion of sequencers drawing breath, unidentifiable electronic filigree cutting across the entire soundstage in an enormous etch-a-sketch of digital iconography. “Cinta Gara” gradually unfolds to glimpse the sequencers in full flight, riding the timewinds, capturing the moondawn as it irises overhead, the spectator drifting aimlessly through pulsing modular hushes and tangerine dreams. “Ionized” feels like a callback to the titular work’s expansive cinematic remit, its faux-piano notations nearly getting lost amongst the machine buzz flotsam and richly atmospheric jetsam. Shek never fails to disappoint, and like everything else he’s committed to shiny plastic object, this one is just as necessary.
Small Theater
There’s ambient, and, well, there’s ambient. There are also artists
who can drone on and on, who can drone with the best of them, and
even over the breadth of a full CD or respectfully-sized catalog
still manage to say very little. Yamaoka is not one of these artists.
On the contrary, his is a soundworld forever in evolution, where
texture is so finely-wrought and considered it is virtually
de-texturalized, his practice being a crash-course in studio dynamics,
studio exploration, studio ingenuity. Once again gracing Carpe Sonum
with his presence, Yamaoka ratchets the emotional atmospheric level
up to ten, ravishing us with wave after wave of aural balm, sensory
deprivation, and tonal technique. But gorgeous as it all is, floral
wallpaper it sure ain’t. Rather, these ten slices of discrete music
have a habit of sneaking up on you; what seems like a collection
of sonic zircons are actually finely-buffed diamonds. The opening
track’s lush life cascades about the ears and head with the cyclical
comfort of digital waves smashing up on smooth shorelines, while
the following work adds ticking percussive motifs that help to
embrace you in its womblike amniotic fluid. And roughly half-way
through, Yamaoka channels his inner (Richard) Pinhas and Fripp/Eno
affectations across a series of endlessly-repeating icicle sequencers
that refract their surroundings into a thousand brilliant points
of light. Yamaoka manages to tap into the awe and mystery of sound
which reaches from the inner mind to the outer limits.
who can drone on and on, who can drone with the best of them, and
even over the breadth of a full CD or respectfully-sized catalog
still manage to say very little. Yamaoka is not one of these artists.
On the contrary, his is a soundworld forever in evolution, where
texture is so finely-wrought and considered it is virtually
de-texturalized, his practice being a crash-course in studio dynamics,
studio exploration, studio ingenuity. Once again gracing Carpe Sonum
with his presence, Yamaoka ratchets the emotional atmospheric level
up to ten, ravishing us with wave after wave of aural balm, sensory
deprivation, and tonal technique. But gorgeous as it all is, floral
wallpaper it sure ain’t. Rather, these ten slices of discrete music
have a habit of sneaking up on you; what seems like a collection
of sonic zircons are actually finely-buffed diamonds. The opening
track’s lush life cascades about the ears and head with the cyclical
comfort of digital waves smashing up on smooth shorelines, while
the following work adds ticking percussive motifs that help to
embrace you in its womblike amniotic fluid. And roughly half-way
through, Yamaoka channels his inner (Richard) Pinhas and Fripp/Eno
affectations across a series of endlessly-repeating icicle sequencers
that refract their surroundings into a thousand brilliant points
of light. Yamaoka manages to tap into the awe and mystery of sound
which reaches from the inner mind to the outer limits.
credits
Variants of Perception
A man of prolific means and invention to match, Mick Chillage is one of those names virtually synonymous with deep, high-quality, far-reaching electronic music, an artist who easily glides between modes of ambience and rhythmic facility with a finely-honed, agile grace. His return to the Carpe Sonum fold is no less dramatic. The lengthy pieces adorning this latest work allow the artist’s usual stately pace to run free and allow his gradually dawning motifs room to pulse and breathe; ten minutes of a typical Chillage piece often exposes more ideas per second than other artist’s whole volumes. The dramatis analogae of “Echoes of Perception” takes in a veritable smorgasbord of synths, modules, pads, sequencers, bass, and perambulating ghost-voices that together paint a unearthly picture teeming with all sorts of wonderfully devised gossamer and broad, electronic gimcrackery. His many collaborations with Lee Norris as Autumn of Communion seemed to have rubbed off on this one, as Chillage fairly revels in a bubbling tableau of starshine beats, spaced-out shimmer, and supple beds of pillowly-soft rhythmatix. “A Recollection of Distant Environments” finds him channelling the ever-present (and reverential) Namlookisms of yore but skewed through a Berlin school filter of chocolate-coated sequencers, and the kind of beat structure so beloved of IDMers from Boards of Canada to Black Dog, further reincarnated from late 90s imprints such as n5MD, De:focus, and Rephlex. Sweet licorice labyrinths of sonic perambula to get all twisty in.
Tensegrity–Collection’s Edition
The original Tensegrity compilation album released back in 2015 encapsulated the idea of the structural principal based on a system of isolated components, never touching each other and under continuous tension.
At the start of the pandemic this term seemed somewhat prophetic and entirely appropriate, so we put together Tensegrity Vol.2 which includes 11 individual tracks featuring new and old …TXT artists as well as a 50 minute full analogue seamless mix by blackparticle.
Tensegrity Vol.3 encapsulates the heavier side of …TXT and includes 9 individual tracks plus a 48 minute full analogue seamless mix.
This collectors edition is all 3 albums together, housed in a laser cut, etched and hand numbered wooden box.
Tides of Melancholy
“Tides Of Melancholy” will be released just on the first anniversary of Before & After Silence Recordings in late December 2021 and it will be the sixth CD on the label. The album consists of five Ambient pieces of varying lengths, three of which were composed in 2021.
The three pieces I composed in 2021 seemed to fit within a particular emotive narrative and sonic aesthetic. I saw a connection with the piece “Footsteps In Fog ” track three which I had written after the passing of Harold Budd in 2020, strangely at the time of writing the piece I felt it could possibly be part of an album at some point.
Track one “Submerged Cathedrals” came about rather quickly, some sonic experimentation led me to an almost human-like tonal quality that I played on the keys. This inspired me, adding more keys, piano, strings and deeper synths. The track conveys a mournful feel, like a once beautiful structure that is vividly remembered but is now lost forever in deep murky waters and its haunting sentiments sets the tone of the album.
Track Two “One Sanguine Day” seems to shift between a certain sombre tone and shifts with moments that shimmer with light and a sense of hope.
The title track “Tides Of Melancholy” feels like a soundtrack to a series of filmic snapshots from deep within a melancholic state of mind as it slowly builds and shifts to a layered tapestry of emotive tone and colour.
The closing-piece “Arc Of Light” was originally Written and recorded in late 2019. It’s somewhat Electro-Acoustic, Neoclassical and subtle synthesised elements with the eventual emergence of a jazz influenced rhythm and bass combo lifts the track almost as if the melancholic state of mind Has subsided and finishes the theme and concept of the album
In a fitting way.
Mick Chillage
December 2021
King Biscuit Radio 1975 FM Broadcast
1975 was the year in which Kraftwerk’s live shows took off and you can hear that on this record. Kraftwerk developed a progressive robot pop style by mixing electronic sounds and hypnotic rhythms with pop melodies. Kraftwerk was the birthplace of electronic music and is still an example for great artists. This registration includes the world hit Autobahn.
