Ambient / Noise / Lowercase / Field Recordings / etc.

[Dtknuckles]

What were the most interesting bits?

I have mixed feelings about Basinski's music but his creative process is fascinating.

There was some interesting stuff about process, you be super ex what I’m he uses for source recording. There is a story about the person who inspired a song and another about finding an assistant. Also some stuff about Henry Grimes I found interesting.

Why the cold feet about his music?

i got loops when it came out on a whim and an emusic subscription, but really fell in love with Selva Oscura

 

[dropsonde]

There was some interesting stuff about process, you be super ex what I’m he uses for source recording. There is a story about the person who inspired a song and another about finding an assistant. Also some stuff about Henry Grimes I found interesting.

Why the cold feet about his music?

i got loops when it came out on a whim and an emusic subscription, but really fell in love with Selva Oscura

For such a very long career, too much of returning over and over to the same ideas (analog loops, decay, loss, etc.). I rarely call ambient music boring but I carve out an exception for Basinski. If you isolate any of his albums they’re quite interesting — Loops is obviously the one that gets the most attention— but I wish he explored new ideas.

 

[wokeupnew]

For such a very long career, too much of returning over and over to the same ideas (analog loops, decay, loss, etc.). I rarely call ambient music boring but I carve out an exception for Basinski. If you isolate any of his albums they’re quite interesting — Loops is obviously the one that gets the most attention— but I wish he explored new ideas.

I agree. I love The Disintegration Loops and his 92982 album. That one is loops but it's a little more interesting. It seems like he has two albums out a year nowadays. I always give them the benefit of a doubt but it's more/less the same thing each time. I can easily do without them.

 

[Rip_City]

There was some interesting stuff about process, you be super ex what I’m he uses for source recording. There is a story about the person who inspired a song and another about finding an assistant. Also some stuff about Henry Grimes I found interesting.

Why the cold feet about his music?

i got loops when it came out on a whim and an emusic subscription, but really fell in love with Selva Oscura

For such a very long career, too much of returning over and over to the same ideas (analog loops, decay, loss, etc.). I rarely call ambient music boring but I carve out an exception for Basinski. If you isolate any of his albums they’re quite interesting — Loops is obviously the one that gets the most attention— but I wish he explored new ideas.

All of this, @dropsonde. I just don't care for the guy's music. Relaxing, sure. But just so fucking boring and a snoozefest from the first second to the final.
If anything, this discussion above is related to my development of a better ear for the genre and to try to find more interesting progressions in artists' musical ideas and concepts. If I were to have, say, a cube of records housing ambient albums (though I'm sure I'll have more in my ideal collection of 500 LPs as a maximum cap), I want each and every one of them to sound distinct. I don't get that with Basinski from album to album.

 

[Dtknuckles]

@dropsonde @wokeupnew

I get it, listing to a loop playing over and over again can be a little mind numbing, but the Selva album is where he really gets me. The sound on that album is so massive. for some reason i find that it is like some all encompassing presence that slowly and gradually unfolds. Like being stuck insides a star or watching humanity from a distance. I think I really get image because I was listening to it in the early morning darkness in a part of my commute where I look down on a freeway.

@Rip_City better ear? What do you think has changed about your enjoyment of ambient music?

 

[wokeupnew]

@dropsonde @wokeupnew

I get it, listing to a loop playing over and over again can be a little mind numbing, but the Selva album is where he really gets me. The sound on that album is so massive. for some reason i find that it is like some all encompassing presence that slowly and gradually unfolds. Like being stuck insides a star or watching humanity from a distance. I think I really get image because I was listening to it in the early morning darkness in a part of my commute where I look down on a freeway.

@Rip_City better ear? What do you think has changed about your enjoyment of ambient music?

hmmm I've never listened to that one. It could also be because it's a collab with Lawrence English so his style has to change a little to collab.

 

[Dtknuckles]

hmmm I've never listened to that one. It could also be because it's a collab with Lawrence English so his style has to change a little to collab.

since this conversation started I was thinking the elements I like may be because of English.

 

[Rip_City]

@Rip_City better ear? What do you think has changed about your enjoyment of ambient music?

Variations within the same track. The ability to feel emotion with the slightest of chord changes with that can vary from being elevated and uplifting, to crushing and debilitated.
Of course, this feeling varies for all artists.

 

[dropsonde]

@dropsonde @wokeupnew

I get it, listing to a loop playing over and over again can be a little mind numbing, but the Selva album is where he really gets me. The sound on that album is so massive. for some reason i find that it is like some all encompassing presence that slowly and gradually unfolds. Like being stuck insides a star or watching humanity from a distance. I think I really get image because I was listening to it in the early morning darkness in a part of my commute where I look down on a freeway.

@Rip_City better ear? What do you think has changed about your enjoyment of ambient music?

To clarify, I can find a lot of joy in repetitive loops. It would be a challenge to enjoy ambient music otherwise. I enjoy pulling a random Basinski album out every once in a while when the mood is right. But I can't get excited about 20 years of 30 albums of revisiting the same sounds and themes. (Although I won't say that about AC/DC. )

 

[wokeupnew]

on the topic of loop ambient, not sure if anyone here listens to Celer or Willamette but they are two of my absolute favorite artists

some favorites











https://willamette.bandcamp.com/album/always-in-postscript

 

[duke86fan]

aparently RYM is all over this and calling it the best EAI or onkyo album (basically good morning and good night but not good morning and good night because though it has the 3 people in it it doesn't sound the exact same)...

 

[EvanBenner]

Quick cross-post from Preorders

Past Inside the Present's second release in their Anon series is up for orders. Two label artists on a split album, only to be revealed after the vinyl sells out. (The first one sold out pretty quick. The pairing was 36 & Isaac Helsen.)






Also at Juno for those yonder UKward.

BENOIT PIOULARD/FROM OVERSEAS - Anon 2 Vinyl at Juno Records.

Buy Anon 2 at Juno Records. In stock now for same-day shipping.

www.juno.co.uk

 

[ITrustMyGuitar]

Graham Lambkin box set up. First 4 LPs + 42 page booklet. First time on vinyl for Salmon Run and Softly Softly Copy Copy....

 

[dropsonde]

I need to share about a phenomenal meditative album, The Cinder Grove, I've discovered by Oakland artist Chuck Johnson. What makes the album really interesting is his use of pedal steel guitar as the foundation of his sound palette with strings, electronics and piano. I was expecting it to sound Southwestern-y, and while it does in some passages when he lets that steel guitar wail or glide between notes, it still completely works. But really he keeps the guitar grounded in spacey, slow-moving, rich instrumental music. The album features Sarah Davachi on piano. One of my favorite ambient albums of 2021 so far. Give it a listen!

 

[Dtknuckles]

I need to share about a phenomenal meditative album, The Cinder Grove, I've discovered by Oakland artist Chuck Johnson. What makes the album really interesting is his use of pedal steel guitar as the foundation of his sound palette among strings, electronics and piano. I was expecting it to sound Southwestern-y, and while maybe it does in some passages when he lets that steel guitar wail or glide between notes, it still completely works. But really he keeps the guitar firmly grounded in spacey, slow-moving, rich instrumental music. The album features Sarah Davachi on piano. One of my favorite ambient albums of 2021 so far. Give it a listen!

Ha! I’ve been listing to this album. I’ve bought multiple records from this label. Great music, packaging and pressings. Usually in the mail the day of ordering.

 

[dropsonde]

Ha! I’ve been listing to this album. I’ve bought multiple records from this label. Great music, packaging and pressings. Usually in the mail the day of ordering.

My brother you need to bring these recs to the people.

 

[Dtknuckles]

My brother you need to bring these recs to the people.

Sometimes you just want to keep the club bangers to yourself.

 

[dropsonde]

Sometimes you just want to keep the club bangers to yourself.

I’ve had the hot jamz fever.

 

[Dtknuckles]

I’ve had the hot jamz fever.

This is what I’ve ordered from the three labels that guy runs

VDSQ-029: Rob Noyes Arc Minutes | Black Editions Group

Rob Noyes' second full-length LP Arc Minutes is a dazzling display of 12-string melodicism, Arc Minutes If one had to pin an influence from the holy trinity, rather than the existential drift of Fahey or the raga-tinged interpretations of Robbie Basho, Noyes excels at L

www.blackeditionsgroup.com

BE-008/157: Go Hirano Corridor of Daylights | Black Editions Group

Go Hirano's third album, Corridor of Daylights, newly mastered for its first ever vinyl release including bonus tracks in a deluxe LP edition. Includes bonus track and story book, originally released on CD by P.S.F. Records, Japan.

www.blackeditionsgroup.com

BE-006/211: Makoto Kawashima Homo Sacer | Black Editions Group

Makoto Kawashima, Homo Sacer. Deluxe LP with digital download from the Black Editions catalog. His debut album.

www.blackeditionsgroup.com

Tashi Dorji "Solo Acoustic Vol.13" LP | Black Editions Group

Rarely has a guitarist emerged with as distinctive and singular a voice as Dorji has with this series of nylon-string improvisations. Recorded in the U.S. and Bhutan, VDSQ solo acoustic Volume 13 stands as a defining document of a great 21st Century guitarist.

www.blackeditionsgroup.com

 

[Dtknuckles]

@dropsonde

Not the same label, but (I think this is the only place you can get this record in the us customs free.

Haruka Nakamura - Twilight (10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

New 2xLP re-press has arrived (9/18/2024)Release date: 2xLP 5/14/2021Release date: 2xCD+Art Book 1/22/20212xLP (new black vinyl re-press) + Art Book is limited to 1000. 2LP: Remastered album tracks + 8 previously unreleased tracks. 12-inch double vinyl housed in gatefold sleeves and 4-page...

darla.com