Like some ingenious combination of John Cage's chance operations and the numbers station data stream captured on The Conet Project, Strategy's new album immerses listeners in baffling sonic waters. It's a riveting work that converts the enigmatic effluvia of shortwave and dispatch radio chatter into thrumming, static-riddled clouds of ambience. An undercurrent of unease wafts through Information Pollution's four lengthy tracks, as barely audible molecules of aural junk never meant for public consumption get repurposed into an unsettling strain of inverted chillout music. 

Information Pollution was born out of restraints. After moving into a new house with little space to set up his studio properly, Strategy (Portland producer Paul Dickow) could only work with a few devices at a time. He'd acquired an old Akai reel-to-reel tape deck with tube pre-amps from his father, who'd recently cleaned out his own studio. Using radios, homemade effects boxes, and the tape deck, Strategy recorded these sound collages live to tape, without touching any synths or deploying any samples. “I discovered a lot of ghostly shortwave sounds,” Dickow says, “but also ambulance, parking, and school bus dispatch channels on forgotten frequencies that I think might have been once used for police or broadcast TV.” The result falls somewhere between Philip Jeck's eroding turntable symphonies and William Basinski's poignantly decaying Disintegration Loops. 

Dickow relates that he uses the term “Information Pollution” to classify “any spam, broadcast saturation, junk mail, invasion of unwanted information [that enters] the social-emotional public realm.” As with the material Strategy created with cassette tape loops on his last Further release, 2015's Noise Tape Self, “there's a sense of machines having their own life, beyond our control.” But instead of chaos, Strategy has produced an artful alchemization of discarded tones. 

Although Information Pollution sounds unlike anything in Strategy's sprawling catalog, he likens the album to his activities within Portland's '90s/early '00s experimental/noise scene. The reason he hasn't issued anything in this style till now? He wanted to wait till he was sure he'd “given it the necessary rigor and study.” 

With this album Strategy has shaped the random output of radios into a gripping document. As Dickow puts it, “This is the audio equivalent of photographing the oil slicks that appear in the puddles of parking lots."

Strategy - Information Pollution

ambient

The new release from Monolyth & Cobalt, entitled "Polarlicht", will be available on the Time Released Sound label, in early April...in a deluxe limited version of 65 copies, and a digipak version as well...

Monolyth & Cobalt......"Dùthaich"

'NOLAN' - taken from Ben Frost's forthcoming album A U R O R A, out 26/27 May 2014 on Mute / Bedroom Community. Pre-order A U R O R A here: iTunes -- smarturl.it/auroraiTunes
CD -- smarturl.it/auroraCD
Standard Vinyl -- smarturl.it/auroraLP
Coloured Limited Edition Vinyl Boomkat -- boomkat.com/vinyl/969946
Rough Trade -- www.roughtrade.com/albums/81853

www.ethermachines.com
www.facebook.com/theghostofbenfrost
www.twitter.com/ethermachines
www.benfrost.bandcamp.com
www.myspace.com/theghostofbenfrost
@benfrost


Ben Frost :: 'Nolan'

In collaboration with Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Julianna Barwick - "Meet You At Midnight" from Rosabi EP, out 6/3/14 on Dead Oceans.

In collaboration with Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Julianna Barwick, Rosabi EP, out 6/3/14 on Dead Oceans.

More info on Julianna's new EP + beer: http://bit.ly/jb_rosabi

TOUR DATES:
[tickets: http://bit.ly/jb_tour]
5/09 | Umea, Sweden - Made Festival
5/10 | London, England - Royal Albert Hall
5/11 | Cork, Ireland - Cork Opera House *
5/25 | Halifax, Nova Scotia - Obey Festival
6/07 | Brooklyn, NY - Roulette **
6/21 | Calgary, Alberta - Sled Island Festival
6/22 | Calgary, Alberta - Sled Island Festival
8/01 | Happy Valley, OR - Pickathon
8/02 | Happy Valley, OR - Pickathon
8/03 | Happy Valley, OR - Pickathon
* with Kronos Quartet
** with Brooklyn Youth Chorus


Julianna Barwick's ethereal looping has the uncanny ability to adapt to the space in which she performs - be it a church, warehouse, museum. Now Julianna can add Dogfish Head Craft Brewery's new brewhouse to the list. 

Late last year, Dogfish Head Founder and President Sam Calagione invited Julianna to perform in the newly renovated space as well as to collaborate on a unique brew. This June, Dogfish Head will release Rosabi, a well-hopped Imperial Pale Ale, along with a mini-album composed by Julianna that incorporates the symphony of sounds found in the brewing process. Of the project Sam said, 
 
 "I just love Julianna's sonic palette, her layered style reminds me of the art of brewing. Her songs are beautiful but completely unconventional, just as our beer recipes are completely nontraditional. But in the end, they are both distinct and find an adventurous community of enthusiasts." 

The 10-inch record will be available in a limited edition of 1,000, sold only in sealed cases of six 750ml bottles of the 8% ABV Rosabi. Julianna's home state of Louisiana is reflected with a touch of red rice, her love of hops with Citrusy Simcoe and Centennial feed. Her go-to ingredient, wasabi, adds bittering and herbal notes - plus a subtle heat. 

Juliana Barwick
Artist Page http://deadoceans.com/artist.php?name=barwickjulianna
Official Website http://www.juliannabarwick.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/JuliannaBarwick
Twitter https://twitter.com/juliannabarwick

In collaboration with Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Julianna Barwick - "Meet You At Midnight" from Rosabi EP, out 6/3/14 on Dead Oceans.

Tower of Babble

Further Records