Inner Spaces: Drone, Ambient, Experimental, etc.

[Birds in Hell]

Definitely planning to pick this up.

[psychobain]

oh my

[psychobain]

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Over the course of 15 years, Tim Hecker's experimental electronic compositions have intensified like oceans. While few contemplated their soothing, unfathomable waves, the observant noted rising temperatures, torment and microcosmic disturbances that truly told of awesome powers. But with Virgins, Hecker may have reached his point of no return, a piece of such force and clarity that even the indifferent should tape up the windows.

From the opening seconds of "Prism," Hecker heralds a change. His layered drones, incidental percussion and piano motifs, long submerged in deep chasms of noise, echo and static, are now exposed and glinting. "Prism" hurtles inexorably upward, piercing and shattering through sound barriers before the rest of the album bursts into fragments, then dust, then mist, almost as if Hecker himself is exploding from the murky beneath. Not only do you hear distinct notes and instruments; you also sense the room in which they were played and the people who played them. What had always been vaguely melancholy, solitary and dreamlike is now harrowingly vivid, visceral and real, yet no less mesmerizing.

On the surface, Hecker reinvents himself, but he also re-frames what he's done before. Compare Virgins' "Black Refractions" to "Borderlands," from 2009's An Imaginary Country. Technically, they couldn't sound any different. The former sets a stunningly simple, repetitive piano melody atop distant but definite brushes, while the latter is a reverberating sound bath. But the underlying component remains the same: a beautiful, indelible melody. The comparison invites listeners to search back through these songs, to listen for what now seems obvious.

For the first time in his career, Hecker recorded his compositions with live ensembles and mixed these sessions with composer Valgeir Sigurðsson, whose engineering and producing credits include fellow Icelanders Björk and Sigur Rós. For an artist who recently referred to his process as "a kind of continual transformation," the effect of Hecker's new way of working feels startling and revelatory. An artist many critics and fans assumed would simply continue to refine his signature sound has instead shed its most defining characteristics. The transformation is complete; this is a new being.

It is an artist's boldest move, to reject his established style, especially when his audience is relatively small yet devoted. It's as if Richard Serra demolished one of Gehry's shimmering civic trophies and built a rural mega-spiral from its scraps. Sharp, blinding, somewhat confusing, wholly fascinating and most definitely meaningful — but would his biggest fans long for the age of rust? For Virgins' listeners, the proposition is simpler: Hit play and forget what you know.

[Yeddie Yedder]

I just realized I never received my SOTL LP! Need to get that figured out.

[bodysnatcher]

http://studentsofdecay.com/post/1114715 ... antepleure

[psychobain]

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Incorporating purposefully vintage equipment along the lines of beaten, even sometimes out of tune instruments, Arnalds and Ott make for a chilling team, oftentimes sneaking in between the lines of Chopin’s original compositions to meld together a story of their own. Finding strength in fragility and something confident in the offbeat intimacy of the worn keys of a piano melding with hushed strings, a classical, yet innovative, take on Chopin’s work begins to take shape. Ott takes the reins beautifully on an unusual, old school pianos purchased solely for the development of she and Arnalds’ collaboration, coming to a head with her coarsely elegant take on “Nocturne in C Minor”, fusing together weightlessly with a string ensemble introduction in the form of “Eyes Shut”.

They perform a remarkable rendition of “Prélude in D Flat Major”, otherwise known as “Raindrop”, with an emotive, soul-bearing quality simply not seen or heard of in other recent performances of the composition, almost as if both Arnalds and Ott are mere feet away from the listener, delivering their rendition specifically for them. At times, one can hear the instrumentalists rustling through their papers, mixing in with palpable breaths and creaks of the piano and retro recording equipment that craft this illusion to become much more than simply makeshift. The deliberation that the two instrumentalists had placed into the creation of The Chopin Project being as human as it possibly could be brings a feeling of organic life to the record that simply isn’t heard of much in recording, period, any longer, let alone in a classical setting.
- popmatters.com

[Yeddie Yedder]

Kranky is ready to ship SOTL LPs.


....excited. Seeing them in November.

[psychobain]

The new Max Richter project sounds very interesting, specially the live experience, check this thing:

The German-born British composer Max Richter has announced his latest endeavor—one of the longest single pieces in the history of classical music. Richter describes it as "an eight-hour lullaby" that's appropriately titled SLEEP.

The full eight-hour version will be available digitally on September 4 via Deutsche Grammophon. A one-hour adaptation of the piece, from SLEEP, will be released on CD, vinyl, and digitally the same day. “You could say that the short one is meant to be listened to and the long one is meant to be heard while sleeping,” said Richter in a statement.

It's appropriate, then, that the full eight-hour piece will be premiered to an audience lying in beds. The world premiere happens in Berlin this September at a concert that will go from midnight to 8 a.m. The audience will be given beds instead of seats. That's right: It's a classical music slumber party.

Richter says he doesn't expect anyone to sit and listen to the piece in its entirety. “It’s really an experiment to try and understand how we experience music in different states of consciousness," he said.

He consulted with neuroscientist David Eagleman while working on the piece to learn about how the brain functions during sleep. "Sleeping is one of the most important things we all do,” Richter said. "We spend a third of our lives asleep and it’s always been one of my favourite things, ever since I was a child. ... For me, SLEEP is an attempt to see how that space when your conscious mind is on holiday can be a place for music to live."

[bodysnatcher]

Woah I can't wait to hear that

[psychobain]

both versions are avaliable already

[E.H. Ruddock]

I'm downloading a shitload of new ambient right now

[bodysnatcher]

what'd you get, E.H.?

[E.H. Ruddock]

what'd you get, E.H.?

VA - Planet Discovery
Seaman - My Space
Yen Pox - Between the Horizon and the Abyss
Starkey - The Transponder Orchestra
Mesarthim - Isolate
VA - Organic Beats

[psychobain]

i want a new Caretaker release

[psychobain]

[psychobain]

[bodysnatcher]

get in on this, guys. it's so fucking good.

Slow Meadow - S/T

[E.H. Ruddock]

Not necessarily ambient, but the Northern Exposure album by Sasha and John Digweed is so great.

[Birds in Hell]

I work in a pretty noisy office and this album has helped keep me sane recently.

[WtOB?]

Basinski has said that he finished the project the morning of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, and sat on the roof of his apartment building in Brooklyn with friends listening to the project as the World Trade Center towers collapsed.

some of the most beautiful music ever made.