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Category Archives: soundscapers
The Longitudinal Mode of Vibration
In 1981 Ellen Fullman began developing the “Long String Instrument,” an installation of dozens of wires fifty feet or more in length, tuned in Just Intonation and ‘bowed’ with rosin coated fingers. Fullman has developed a unique notation system to choreograph the performer’s movements, exploring sonic events that occur at specific nodal point locations along the string-length of the instrument.
The artist’s description of her breakthrough discovery from her fine web home.
From there a few excerpts from her artist’s statement.
My work resides between the fields of sound art and music.
My music explores natural tunings based on the physics of vibrating strings. Through observation, I have determined that there is an optimal bowing speed in which strings speaks most clearly in the longitudinal mode, presumably based on a relationship to the speed of the wave moving through the material, which in turn regulates the pace of the walking performer.
Ms. Fullman first came to my attention in 1997 when she released a record Suspended Music shared with the Deep Listening Band. After hearing it, I tracked down The Long Stringed Instrument, her annunciation of her innovation recorded in 1985.
A new recording, Through Glass Panes, is just out, its on its way; here a review at The Liminal UK. Full notes at Important Records. MP3 Download of the title track at Free Music Archive. embed:
Videos at Havenozen. h/t too.
Harmonic Cross Sweep download at Epitonic.
Fullman is an exemplar of the sound explorer. There’s much I might say about the essential gravity of the feminine principal in what the untutored might term avant-garde music–of the last fifty or so years. Called to mind are Eliane Radigue, Eleanor Hovda, Dana Reason, Ikue Mori, Hildegard Westerkamp, Zeena Parkins, Maryanne Amacher, many many more, and, above all, Pauline Oliveros*. Yet, to honor this principle means to me to just deeply stop and deeply listen.
*“Deep Listening is experiencing heightened awareness of sound, silence and sounding”
Posted in inspiration, masters, soundscapers, visionaries
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Wrapping Up 2010 IV. Electro & Beyond
| AMBIENT | DRONE-DRIFT-NOISE |
 Flight Patterns Open Graves |
 Ruins of Morning Nadja |
| Praha Meditations Alio Die |
Yellow Swans Going Places |
| The Art of Dying Alone bvdub |
The Effective Disconnect Brian McBride |
| Sigh of Ages Steve Roach |
The Ominous Silence Northaunt |
| EXPERIMENTAL | BEATS-DRUM&BASS-BREAKS |
 Desert Phase Kaya Project |
 The New Emancipation Soweto Kinch |
| Variations for Oud and Synthesizer Keith Fullerton Whitman |
Kompilation Plastikman |
| Funeral Mariachi Sun City Girls |
Ninja Tune XX (various artists) |
| My Friend Rain Robert Millis (recordist/compiler) |
Into the Deep 3-4-5-6 Bulb |
Turning to genres of music that can hardly be encompassed by either electronic or experimental, the challenge mention in a previous post, is how to deal with the flood of musical creativity. Again, one can’t keep up. I don’t try. I follow my favorites, keep a close eye on credible blogs, and am open to completely out-of-the-blue investigations.
I have no problem with accepting and receiving this flood as documentation of prolix artistry. This is different than being the musical equivalent of a picky eater. I like it that a new find, the noise and dark ambient guitarist Aidan Baker rolled out over ten recordings last year, under is own name, with Nadja, (duo with Leah Buckhart,) and in partnership with other sonic explorers. I have experienced six of ‘em. Steve Roach, in my pantheon of sound painters, released four recordings; a wave of riches, and, yes, some better than others. Yet, I want to hear every last note.
For me it’s about the documentation of artistry for better or for worse. Still, I can’t try everything at the buffet. Overall, the rise of the cheap digital studio has inspired a prolific, oft lo-fi, tendency. This has caused an explosion in the aforementioned documentation, and, paradoxically, amplified the challenge of being selective, and this against wishing to take in every last note.
Half of the sixteen recordings listed here are by artists new to me last year. Pride of place goes to Open Graves exercise in deep listening, and the flood of ambient noise unleashed by Mr. Baker. Ruins of Morning is both heavy and heavenly. The Kaya Project‘s ambient post-rock meshes pedal steel with slow moving sound worlds. I have a weak spot for what I call slow music. Even Soweto Kinch‘s marvelous down-tempo hip-hop unfolds at a leisurely pace.
It’s all every-last noteworthy.
Posted in Beats & Breaks, sound & beyond, soundscapers, yearly recap
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Prolific Glorious Slow Sounds
Synthesist, composer, and ambient maestro Steve Roach, in my world, is an iconic music maker. I have this week collected his autograph for the third time on a new release, provided directly via the artist’s web store. He also serves as a paragon of skipping the middle dudes and providing one’s artistry directly to the consumer, and doing so with the human touch. In fact, he’s been doing so for about a decade.
The beautifully packaged box pairs The Desert Inbetween and Immersion Five: Circadian Rhythms (two discs.) The former record, made with Brian Parnham, mines Roach’s tribal sonics with the help of multi-instrumentalist Parnham, especially his didgeridoo. Immersion Five is indeed the fifth release in Roach’s series of minimalist and meditative ambient explorations.
Steve released five recordings last year. Too much? No. I’m an advocate on behalf of artistry of the profound type, unleashing as much as is necessary. Sign of Ages was my favorite of a glorious outpouring. Here we are in the first month of 2011, and I’d describe the three discs of Roach’s new set to be necessary chapters.
Here’s a year-old taste of the Steve Roach sound, produced by Andres CV; on Vimeo.
Steve Roach music New age from andres cv on Vimeo.
Posted in masters, soundscapers, visionaries
Tagged ambient, Brian Parnham, Steve Roach
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Bird Maniax
Trained as a musician and composer, French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot creates works by drawing on the rhythms of daily life to produce sound in unexpected ways. His installation for The Curve will take the form of a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other instruments and objects. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a captivating, live soundscape. | Barbican Artgallery notice
On one hand, of course one had to be there. On the other hand, something of its moment is able to be retained, thanks to persistent RSS, google image search and youtube.
h/t to Trudi Esberger, whose blog tipped me off to this exhibit from the spring. Short personal review from Skittle Muster on the worthwhile 365 Days of Music blog..
Posted in music of the moment, soundscapers, video
Tagged Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, sound design
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Deep Riches
I’ve mentioned Robert Rich is a big influence on my own approach to sound design and ambient music. (The biggest difference is he is a master and I’m a charlatan.) What I have always responded to in Rich’s soundworld is the way he conjoins slow developing abstract sonics with at times tactile organic, and painterly ambient landscapes. As a listener, one can almost reach out and touch his sound.
As a musician he has been plying the analog waters for decades. Although he conducts his soundworld from a laptop these days, his genius is expressed through his command of modular synthesis. To this he adds (usually,) heavily treated flute, pedal steel guitar, and percussion.
Here’s an example of his innovative use of modular synthesizers.
Ambient music pioneer Robert Rich uses the MOTM-730 VC Divider to trigger 4 voices in synchopation, but with non-standard timing. He refers to this as the ‘penny in the dryer’ effect. | src
Robert Rich portal at Synthtopia. Interviews, performances, and a five part series on synthesizers.
Robert Rich Live @ Klusa Daba Festival 30.08.08 from Viktors Keino on Vimeo.
Interview-podcast podcast at solipsisticnation/
In the years that followed he developed a complex range of sounds founded upon the seamless integration of electronic, electric, and acoustic instrumentation, and the exploration of complex just tunings. His music continues to tend toward the organic and much of it is based on a concept in synthesis he refers to as glurp. His interest in using unique sounds has inspired him to create a large collection of original field recordings and homemade instruments. One of these instruments is a range of flutes made from PVC pipe. | wikipedia
Rich has issued, on average, about one record per year over 30 years. He’s collaborated with a lot of similarly evocative artists such as Alio Die, Ian Boddy, Markus Reuter. This includes masterful work with Steve Roach. Having absorbed almost every one, the best ones count as major masterpieces against his minor masterpieces. Sure, there have been a few missteps, but even these count as fascinating experiments. His so-called sleep concerts, where he unwinds hour after hour of archetypal lunar ambient sound are legendary. His very slow sleep music has been recorded, with Somnium being a highlight of his output.
Here’s are a handful of stone masterpieces to consider.
My favorite of his collaborations with Steve Roach.
Peerless tribal ambient that achieves pride of place in that section of his recordings inflected by world music.
This compilation features recordings from 1993-1995, including The Simorgh Sleeps on Velvet Tongues, that was anthologized by Asphodel on Swarm of Drones. With drones, tribal meditations, and dark ambient excursions, this may be the only Rich record able to showcase the breadth of artistry.
My favorite Rich record is a collaboration with Brian Lustmord. Known for eerie, if not downright frightening, dark ambient, Lustmord’s aesthetic is slowed down and given the cinematic treatment by Rich, and Stalker ends up for me a relentlessly beautiful desert island disc.
Posted in inspiration, masters, soundscapers
Tagged ambient, Brian Lustmord, dark ambient, Robert Rich, sleep music, techno
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Alio Die
Alio Die is a mystical sound designer and auteur of ambient musical soundscapes. (Like good ol’ Kamelmauz, he has a regular name too, Stefano Musso.) An Italian, Alio Die is mining the same electro-acoustic wellsprings that deep divers such as Steve Roach, Vidna Obmana, Ian Boddy, Peter Namlook, Robert Rich, are also mining. However, he strikes me as the audionaut most secure in gathering in olden European sources, especially voice.
His music is too graceful to fall down into the dark layer. Airy and serious, very focused yet open–Alio Die is sound to travel on.
Alio Die:
home page
MySpace I | MySpace II
@ Projekt Records
