DR-76 : The Green Kingdom - Empyrean CD / DL
Due out on July 18th
dronarivm.bandcamp.com

'Empyrean' is the third in a trilogy of albums on Dronarivm. Whereas Expanses might be evocative of vast landscapes and Harbor the feeling of floating on gentle waves, Empyrean seeks to transcend the Earthly realm altogether. The album differs slightly from the previous two in that piano plays a larger role in many of the tracks, bringing an ethereal modern classical feel to the Green Kingdom sound at times. Although the mood ranges from pensive to lighter pieces, the intent was to provide soundscapes that elevate one's midstate to the clouds above.

mastered by Ian Hawgood

Buy CD / DL

THE GREEN KINGDOM - With You

Taken from the upcoming album 'Alden' forthcoming on Fluid Audio.

Music by Gilded (Adam Trainer & Matt Rösner)
Mastering by Ian Hawgood
Design by Daniel Crossley

www.fluidaudio.co.uk

Alden

Gilded - Forging Iron Amongst The Trees

Today I'd like to introduce you to Laurel-based (Mississippi, US) neo-classical composer, pianist, and synth (and breakfast food) enthusiast, Jameson Nathan Jones. Perhaps "an introduction" is the wrong term here since Jones appeared on these pages back in 2021 with his beautiful piece, "Places We Could Have Gone", which I have featured on this Piano Day Special. He's got a handful of releases on his Bandcamp page, with the 5-track Carried EP appearing on Bigo & Twigetti imprint in May 2019. He's now off to release a full-length on an independent label, Fractured Capstan, scheduled for December 2nd, and I am excited to premiere a track titled "Kept" from the upcoming album, Somewhat the Same. The result is a very humble "collection of sonic experiments created with no cameras, no recording engineers, and no intended end-game or subsequent expectations," and it is moving in its honesty, sincerity, and warmth. Here, gently guided modular synth arpeggios are accompanied by soft piano keys, a touch of distorted lead swarms, and driving percussion to create a melodic journey through voltages and space. It's a beautiful marriage of organic and synthetic, and I think that when you hear this piece, you will appreciate my choice for today's track premiere. 

"Kept" was among the first tracks written in an empty church during the first lockdown. It started with some simple piano ideas, which I layered using the same felt upright featured in my 2018 release, "Sanctuary Sessions." The piano sits in the church's large, reverberant sanctuary, and I've always found that some kind of magic happens when recording such an intimate sound in such a large space. As was a common theme for this album, those initial recordings were fleshed out back at my studio, where I created a bed of tape loops from samples I had made of the church's magnificent pipe organ. While the organ features much more prominently on other tracks, I find the instrument's string celeste stops to be so stunning I tried to work them in almost like a reverb-drenched synth pad at various points throughout the record. Several layers of synths and eurorack percussion continue to build through the climax before it fades back to its humble beginnings."

Somewhat the Same

Kept

TRACK PREMIERE : Jameson Nathan Jones - Kept

Silent HIll F - Geisha's Whispers

Tibetan Ruhe

Title:
Clusters

Dates:
25-Oct-2025 (inception), 26-Oct-2025 (finalised), 26-Oct-2025 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/clusters

Description:
My six track digital recorder, FindTheBeat needed some user documentation updates, once that was done my newly acquired Soma Lyra8 was sitting there along side my Soma Enner and Soma COSMOS beckoning to be played. How could I resist!

I decided to go with a theme of cluster chords on the Lyra 8, introducing the notes slowly one pair of closely spaced notes at a time. Then see what I can do with the Soma Enner. Thanks Rick Beato on your YouTube video so many years ago on cluster chords. The tuning of the cluster chords on the Lyra was all done by ear, with no particular tuning system in mind, no tuning forks, no tuner apps, just listen and let my emotions guide me. I have only had my Lyra 8 for five days now, it's like meeting an old friend that now has a beard, there is a certain amount of familiarity having played the Soma Enner and having designed digital synthesisers from scratch, there was and still is a certain amount of mystery about the Lyra 8. As others have put, the interest in the Lyra 8 lies in the details, the fine changes of tuning and parameters. So back to tuning of the Lyra 8 for this piece, each pair of notes 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 (8 oscillator synthesiser), where tuned to have close frequencies (i.e. notes 1 and 2 close frequencies), then find an interesting frequency for note 3 that fits well with note pair 1-2, then tune note 4 closely to note 3. Then continue all the way up to note pair 7-8. This was done prior to the live recording.

The signal chain was:
Soma Enner (LEFT out) --> Soma Lyra (MONO IN, MONO OUT) --> Soma COSMOS (LEFT IN, LEFT OUT, RIGHT OUT) --> Native Instruments Komplete Audio --> computer --> FindTheBeat.

Four audio tracks were used for Clusters, three for looping and adjusting play-back speeds, recording and playing in new material during the performance. So the loops were never static. The fifth track was used as the master track to record all incoming audio and looped tracks.

The Soma COSMOS played the role of a reverb unit.

The Ableton Push2 was used as the midi controller for the six track audio recorder.

The main parts were played on the Lyra 8, whereas the Enner played a supporting role adding texture and rhythm. Once the cluster chords were introduced, tuning of the Lyra 8 was adjusted live for the lyrical parts. Similarly on the Enner, it's tuning was adjusted live during the performance. Enner human inputs were playing the touch pads for oscillator and filter connections, adjusting the tuning knobs, the piezo plate of the Enner was used for the textural elements (hand tapping the plate and tickling the taught spring).

Because the Enner was directly connected to the Lyra 8, I could instantly swap between instruments or played them both at once. The "Fast" switches along with the "Hold" knob on the Lyra 8 were handy to sustain notes, leaving my hands free to improvise on other settings of the Lyra 8 and play the Enner.

Clusters

Composed, Played & Recorded By Madeleine Cocolas + Monolyth & Cobalt.                                                                                                                Mixed by Monolyth & Cobalt in October 2015.

Madeleine Cocolas : piano                                                                                                                                                                                     Monolyth & Cobalt : strings, breathes on tapes, electronic devices,  effects processors, loop pedal, amplified objects.

Month Seven Project (Madeleine Cocolas + Monolyth & Cobalt)

'Soundscapes Vol.1' is our first CD compilation. Eight ambient tracks by Robert Farrugia, Logic Moon, Dead Melodies, Powlos, CloudBurn, The Aurora Principle, Caught In The Wake Forever and Warmth.

Mastering by Rob Small.
Archives30 // ArchivesCD011
Archives / 2016

Buy CD/Digital

Caught In The Wake Forever - Durham

'Oblivion' is the new work by german artist Logic Moon. The album comes in a 6-Panel CD with pictures by Alexander Kopatz.

Written and Produced by Logic Moon.
Photography by Alexander Kopatz | www.go70north.com
Mastering by Rob Small.
Archives38 // ArchivesCD019
Archives / 2017

Logic Moon - Bergen

Not Home may seem an unusual choice of single from Anne Garner’s upcoming album Lost Play but there’s precious little that is conventional about this singer-songwriter. Fans of her strange, seductive melancholy will be beguiled once again by the song’s signature union of disembodied sadness and reassuring intimacy. Warm waves of electric guitar and synthesiser cradle glitchy, restless percussives, the soaring silvered pedal steel of Jack Hayter (Hefner, Dollboy) and a lyrical message both beautiful and hard to hear.

Not Home and Porya Hatami's remix are available across all major platforms and in lossless 24bit audio exclusively from Slowcraft Records.

Written by Anne Garner
Produced by James Murray with Anne Garner
Artwork by Bobbie Russon
Mastered by Dean Honer
_____

annegarner.com
poryahatami.com
jackhayter.com
bobbierusson.com

slowcraft.info

https://slowcraft.bandcamp.com/album/not-home

Not Home

11th May 2018

DR-66 : Christopher Bissonnette - 'The Wine Dark Sea' CD / DL
due out on March, 13th
dronarivm.bandcamp.com

The Wine Dark Sea is Bissonnette’s fifth solo studio album. The album’s title is derived from the writings of Homer, where he oft referred to a rough and stormy sea as “wine-dark”. Homer’s descriptions of colour are devoid of any reference to the colour blue. And any suggested meaning in his description of the sea point to the colour red. This apparent contradiction has brought much speculation about the significance and understanding of colour in ancient Greece. Keeping with the motif of colour, track titles on the album are based on references from contemporary artists and their insights on colour, form and implied meaning.

The album represents a shift for Bissonnette’s work, moving from an exclusively synth-based series of explorations to a hybrid of electronic and acoustic methods. The result is a rolling and slow-moving tide of tones and undulations. The textures are in some passages soft and mollifying but fluently shift to moments of tension and unease. The Wine Dark Sea is an aural allegory to sound and colour and our tenuous understanding of abstract meaning.

Mastered by Porya Hatami
Cover photo by Christopher Bissonnette

CHRISTOPHER BISSONNETTE - See With Eyes Closed (from 'The Wine Dark Sea')

Pre-order and buy Vinyl/CD releases 
https://archivesdubmusic.bandcamp.com/merch

Caught In The Wake Forever - Durham

ARCHIVES