A song is a product of design. It's difficult to create an original melody, but that's only the blueprint. Every element of a piece of music could be produced any number of ways,  depending on which instrument plays at what time, for how long,  and with what what kind of effect. The architecture behind a piece of music can be much more involved than meets the ear, and this is what inspired Hrishikesh Hirway  to start a podcast called Song Exploder, where musicians "take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made."

99% Invisible-118- Song Exploder

Taken from Lusine's "Arterial" EP out August 5, 2014. 

Pre-order from The Ghostly Store here: http://www.theghostlystore.com/products/lusine-arterial

Lusine - Arterial

A Winged Victory for the Sullen - 'ATOMOS'
Double-Vinyl/CD/Digital out on Erased Tapes/Kranky on October 6, 2014

PRE-ORDER the album now!

Worldwide (excl. North America):
via Erased Tapes: www.erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP061
or via iTunes: http://snip.ftpromo.net/atomositms

In North America:
via Kranky: www.kranky.net
or via iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/atomos/id894692856

TOUR DATES: 
https://www.facebook.com/awvfts/app_123966167614127

After releasing a first glimpse in the form of the ‘Atomos VII’ EP earlier this year, A Winged Victory For The Sullen finally reveal their second full-length album entitled ‘Atomos’, which besides familiar piano, string and drone sounds also sees the duo introduce flurries of electronics, harp and modular synthesisers.  

Wayne McGregor, founder of Random Dance Company and resident choreographer at the Royal Ballet, chose to play the album repeatedly during practices with his core group of dancers. After noticing the group's reaction with the music, he contacted Adam and Dustin to see if they could write the score for his new oeuvre. The duo were given complete artistic freedom and they treated the score with the same care and attention as their debut album. They recorded more than sixty minutes of music over a four-month period during the summer of 2013 across studios in Brussels, Berlin and Reykjavik, with the help of their long time collaborative sound engineer Francesco Donadello. During the recording process they realised, that this would become their official second studio album. McGregor provided them with the inspiration to expand their sound palette into more electronic territory, whilst keeping their signature chamber sound, resulting in a very unique record.  

“As a wise man once said, one who procrastinates their own choosing will inevitably have their choice served to them by circumstance. We had virtually no time for second guessing ourselves. That being said, we tried to balance the discordance between being creative, and fulfilling our duties for a commissioned soundtrack with a very strict deadline, and all the while staying true to our collective melancholy.‘’ – Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie  

“We never imagined 2013 would be such an explosively creative year. The first record took us two years from start to finish, but in the micro span of time over last summer we were able to change the formula for the way we write, record, and let go. It was incredibly liberating.” – Dustin O’Halloran

OFFICIAL WEBSITES:  awvfts.com · erasedtapes.com · kranky.net

Atomos VI

grouper 'call across rooms'

Companion (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Plotting 

La la la, dum di di dum, a wop bop a loo bop a wop bom bom - why are songs riddled with non-words masquerading as words? Hrishikesh Hirway from Song Exploder and songwriter Tony Hazzard explain.

Read more about this episode at http://theallusionist.org/vocables. Say hello at http://twitter.com/allusionistshow and http://facebook.com/allusionistshow. Find Song Exploder at http://songexploder.net.

The Allusionist is a proud member of http://Radiotopia.fm for http://PRX.org. 

Radiotopia needs your support. Become a donor at http://on.prx.org/radiotopia-forever.

Allusionist 22: Vocables

I rarely eulogize. Not eloquent enough to say words that could honor, or encompass. I feel it best done with music, theirs or mine. Today we lost a great artist I never knew personally, and his output too immense for me to properly speak on. But in this song I felt like we collaborated, that is part of the power in sampling, for the final track of "Exquisite Corpse" from 2005. Hrishikesh Hirway provides the other vocals (beautiful words I believe) and even some of the drums that ebb up.

Goodnight Al Jarreau, you've left us so much to muse on.

Exquisite Corpse

Thanatopsis (feat. Hrishikesh Hirway)

gretchen jude - koto, samplers
subnaught - pitch pipe, samplers

recorded 2/19/2012 in oakland, ca

music for koto, pitch pipe, and samplers (with gretchen jude)

Material originally penned for a recent tour of Japan with fellow LA artist Matthewdavid, 'Sunsets and Clocks' is a brand new EP from Anenon.
 
Consider how personal an experience it is to wait. When caught in the space of time before a thing happens, we unconsciously reveal ourselves through our ticks - physical manifestations of where we let our thoughts drift in this non-space. While waiting, each foot tapped, itch scratched and phone checked reflects the places we allow ourselves to explore before we have to jump back into formal time and space to perform.
 
Anenon recorded 'Sunsets and Clocks' in the weeks directly preceding a whirlwind tour of Japan, where expectations and preconceptions (both false and true), collided over and over again in anticipation of the trip to come. In this collection of songs, Brian Allen Simon shares that intimate space, where he was both highly conscious of the relentless march of time and simultaneously removing himself from it, delving into an inner space where the lack of time smeared memories, fantasies, and fears into one another.
 
From the title, we can start to understand his headspace during this period, where the abstract concerns and artistic preparations for an international tour to a new country constantly collided with the pragmatic, binary problems of itineraries, exchange rates, and language barriers. These conflicting drives mirror the sharp contrast of the way the smudged shades of a fading sun mark the end of the day at the same time that the precision crafted gears of a timepiece click into place. 
 
We hear this theme reflected in how these pieces are unified by their maximal approaches to contrasts in the perception of time and meter, voice and tone. Anenon plays with this contrast through the shadowy textures of rhythm in the live improvisation of "We Yearn" and the meticulously interlocking beats driving "Ghost Light" and the title track. Boldly eschewing the use of the Rhodes and piano of his previous releases, these songs instead rely on the tenor sax and synthesizer. This new pairing fully realizes the theme in the marriage of the ethereal vibrations of the lungs and haunting accuracy of the keys.
 
1. We Yearn
2. Ghost Light
3. Dreamer (for Mary Jane)
4. Sunsets and Clocks
 
Music, cover photo and design by Brian Allen Simon.

Anenon - "Sunsets and Clocks"

http://songexploder.net
http://theoneamradio.com
