Coming soon on Fluid Audio...

Music: Fields We Found
Mastering: Ian Hawgood
Design: Daniel Crossley

Paths

Fields We Found - Retrieve

“I could hear everything, together with the hum of my hotel neon. I never felt sadder in my life.” - Jack Kerouac, “On the Road” (1957)

In chapter 13 of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” we find Sal in a Los Angeles hotel room with his new girlfriend, Terry, soon after they’ve decided to hitchhike back to New York with the $10 they share between them. Staring out the window in a sleepless fit, Sal observes a domestic dispute across the street: the humming neon sign of the hotel is an audible element amidst the police’s questioning, family’s sobbing, and city’s howling sirens, all of them blending together in an oddly poignant moment. 

This idea of sound adding context and emotion to human experiences is the foundation of Hotel Neon. The project formed in 2012 under far less desperate conditions than Sal’s, but it has always been anchored in the practice of recording musical responses to the current moment. The chord progression of “A Lament,” for instance, was recorded in the hours following the breaking news out of Sandy Hook on December 14, 2012. Ever since then, we have continued to create soundtracks for specific settings and situations in our lives.

“Hotel Neon 10: Reworks” is a reflection on the 10th anniversary of our debut self-titled album, which was released on July 30, 2013 in a batch of 100 cassettes. Initially a loose collection of minimal drone experiments with no intention for follow-up after the tapes ran out, Hotel Neon has morphed into the central musical identity for each of us, leading to friendships, experiences, and purpose that we could never have imagined at the time.

This is not simply a remaster or remix; HN10 has been entirely reworked from the ground up. You will notice that some of the essential elements and structures from the original songs come through, but we made a concerted effort to build on those early ideas and present a new album with our current tools, techniques, and experience.

We deeply appreciate your support, and thank you for listening.

Music: Hotel Neon (Andrew Tasselmyer, Michael Tasselmyer, Steven Kemner)
Mastered: Rafael Anton Irisarri
Design Daniel Crossley

Hotel Neon 10: Reworks

Hotel Neon - Dust And Drag

DR-88 : ARIA ROSTAMI - 'Siren' CD / DL
releases August 4, 2023 

Over the last few years, Rostami has been playing with new ideas using field recordings, improvised piano, and tape processing. Already having made a few records experimenting with these ideas, "Siren" sets itself apart as a concentrated approach to illustrate abstract environments and landscapes through sound. On songs like "Cold Stream" and "The Recent Past" you will hear literal field recordings of nature mixed with composed musical emulations of environments, whether it be a representation of running water or the quiet nostalgia of suburban life. Songs like "Landscape" and "Today and Tomorrow" take field recordings of field recording records played in Rostami's studio space along with multiple recordings of the same piano performance. The piano is recorded with a field recorder, as midi and as a D/I recording and woven together, in and out, blending the soundscapes of field recordings and studio recordings into an undefined grey area.

Music written and recorded by Aria Rostami
Cover image by Dylan Tushar
Mastered by Ian Hawgood
Thank you Pepper, Afshin, Abbas, Nasrin, Dylan Tushar, Daniel Blomquist, Ashkan, Evan Scott, David August, and Sean Raji
license

Buy  CD / DL

The Recent Past

Tracklist

01. Stijn Hüwels - Midtown
02. The Inventors of Aircraft - Waiting For Something To Break
03. Ian Hawgood & David Cordero -  Singular in the afterthought alone
04. Darren Harper - Traverse
05. Ambalek - Heage
06. Blochemy - Maze
07. Danny Clay - 02 12.21.2022
08. Hummingbird - West
09. Observatories (Ian Hawgood & Craig Tattersall) - Our Recently Acquired Knowledge

343. Sleepy Sunday Podcast (Elm Records)

Tracklist

01. Tomotsugu Nakamura - Tiger Lily
02. David Cordero & Rhucle - In the Mirror
03. Celer - In The Intimate Hours
04. Emily A. Sprague - Mirror
05. Francisco Sonur - Another way
06. Glacis - Seven
07. Szymon Kaliski - And Belong
08. Thme -  Under red
09. Forest Robots - Over The Drainage Divide
10. Minamo & Moskitoo - Palm Fable
11. Michael Grigoni & Stephen Vitello- Slow Machines - A Clearing

346. Sleepy Sunday Podcast (Elm Records)

Tracklist

01. Anthéne -  Balance (featuring Fields We Found)
02. Glåsbird - Kata
03. Old Amica - Signal
04. Tomotsugu Nakamura - Heliotrope
05. Will Samson - Beatrijs' Theremin
06. Far away Nebraska - Lei
07. Jason Calhoun -  Small Circle
08. 't Geruis - In Purple
09. Arovane - Endett
10. Sonmi451 -  Hyperbole
11. Shuttle358 - Meteor heart

349. Sleepy Sunday Podcast (Elm Records)

Hey, you remember the Icelandic independent imprint called INNI Music, yes? It opened up with Atli Örvarsson's You Are Here back in 2020, and then there was Rose Riebl's Do Not Move Stones in 2021, followed up with Jónsi, Sin Fang, Alex Somers, Kjartan Holm's Sounds of Fischer Vol. 1 a year after, all of which have consistently made to my Best of the Year lists, in every single year. Right. So, yes, this is the same Holm from that Jónsi (of Sigur Rós fame) collaboration, this time with a solo release. Hailing from Reykjavik, Kjartan Holm is a musician and a film composer with half a dozen scores under his belt. This album, titled HORIZON, was originally written for a same-named documentary about the late Icelandic painter Georg Guðni, "whose innovative interpretations of forms and ideas paved the way for a renaissance in Icelandic landscape painting." The music, as conveyed in a piece I am premiering for you today, is capturing the vast and sprawling atmospheres, blending abstract textures with ethereal melodies in pastel haze, shifting tones, and wide brushstrokes. You don't even need to look up the paintings to see the resemblance (but I recommend that you do). Lovely tonalities to get lost in on this one, and I recommend that you pick up the album, in just a few days...

HORIZON

Limitless Pt. II

TRACK PREMIERE : Kjartan Holm - Limitless Pt. II

Like everyone, I dream. I seem to dream a lot, and although I don't have recurring dreams, I do dream about someone from my past on a regular basis, yet we've not spoken for 34 years. Although we live fairly close to each other, I've seen her a handful of times over the years.

This was written after one such dream. We met, we talked about the years gone by, and we laid ghosts to rest.

Alas, it was but a dream. I awoke with a feeling of sadness and regret as I always do after dreaming of her.

Dreamscape EP

What A Dream I Had

Schlafes Trauma

Moog Subharmonicon playing the chords and arpeggio. A different mix of the sub oscillators fed through a separate filter forming the bass.

Winter Is Coming

Due out on limited CD on July 24th

DR-69 : PORYA HATAMI - Kani + Remixes (incl. Darren McClure, Purl, Arovane, Tomotsugu Nakamura, Sven Laux)

Originally released in 2013 on the Inner Ocean label, Porya Hatami’s “Kani” was a four track EP showcasing his intimate take on modern ambient music. The Iranian artist has issued a large number of albums that imbue pastoral ambient with subtle field recordings and melodies. The melodic aspect of Hatami’s work took centre stage in this release, and shone bright across the four pieces.

So now, seven years later, “Kani” is being given the reissue that it deserves, and will delight those listeners new to it, and those who are rediscovering it again. Besides the original four tracks, there are an additional five remixes by artists working in a similar orbit to Hatami, and some who have collaborated directly with him in the past.

These reworks cover plenty of ground, reimagining the source material into new shapes. Some remixes extend the foggy soundscapes and conjure delicate melodic plucks. Others add mellow pulses that infer rhythm under the washes of sound, while others take these rhythmic ideas much further.

Original tracks mastered by Jason Corder aka offthesky
Remixes mastered by Porya Hatami
Artwork by Hawar Amini

Buy CD / DL

Porya Hatami - Restless (Sven Laux Interpretation)

Elm Records is an independent record label specialising in ambient and experimental music.

349. Sleepy Sunday Podcast (Elm Records)

Elm Records

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