Piano (2)

Creative Mood

Digitonal - Beautiful Broken | Release date: 4th May 2015
Pre-order: http://bit.ly/beautifulbroken
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The length of time that Beautiful Broken has taken has been its saving grace,” says Digitonal’s Andy Dobson. “I don’t feel any pressure to align myself to the zeitgeist any more and that’s very liberating. I have made mistakes in the past where I would contrive certain things to fit in with a cer-tain scene, but I feel happy with the new album, because it’s me through and through.”

Beautiful Broken is Digitonal’s fifth album since he first started recording and playing live under that name in 1997, and the first all-new release since 2008’s Save Your Light For Darker Days. Since then Dobson has released the retrospective, Be Still My Bleeping Heart, written and scrapped an entire album, and for Beautiful Broken has composed new material and finished off some incomplete compositions.

The typical Digitonal process sees the pieces transformed from largely improvised works-in-progress played live to more structured studio creations. This can take some time. ’We Three’ dates back to a live prototype from 2004.

With long-time collaborator, violinist Samy Bishai currently working on a number of other musical projects and less Digitonal live work in recent years, the compositions have taken longer to evolve, and so Beautiful Broken has become essentially a Dobson solo venture.

Dobson is a classically trained clarinettist and former chorister, and the clean lines of minimalism and Early Music in particular have informed his role as an Electronica producer. Following a concert at the Union Chapel, London, in 2014, Dobson was most excited about a particular section in which the musicians played acoustically and so he decided to try to recreate that feel.

Beautiful Broken evokes the subtlety and self-contained intimacy of chamber music, but as befits his recent reconnection with Ambient, these elements move slowly through a cool electronic space. But what defines Ambient for him is the literal meaning of the word more than a particular musical genre, specifically the expanse of sound that he experienced singing in a choir in a candlelit Durham Cathedral.

This combination of sonic influences make Beautiful Broken Digitonal’s most original album to date. Although it’s not a radical departure, Dobson has realigned his approach. He admits that he has also gone back to minimalism in a big way and ‘Eighteen’ is a buoyant mesh of clarinet, tuned percussion and drum patterns, and an overt homage to Steve Reich’s epochal minimalist work, Music For Eighteen Musicians.

Apart from Bishai’s violin and Dobson’s own clarinet and keyboards, the instrumentalists on Beauti-ful Broken are Kat Avery (harp), and Georgina Hall and Ivan Hussey (cello). In line with the prevail-ing chamber mood, Dobson has guarded against over orchestrating, with the emphasis more on pared down written parts: the composition ‘Luna’, for example, is completely scored. Similarly, breakbeats have largely been replaced by more intricate microbeats.

There’s a melancholy, a bitter-sweetness to Digitonal’s music, and whichever way Dobson’s par-ticular balance of acoustic and electronic sounds tips in the future, he is currently searching for the kind of emotional narrative and sense of connection that one gets from songs. He certainly goes a long way towards achieving that on the affecting compositions on Beautiful Broken.

“I’ve always wanted to make music that’s emotive for me and the audience,” he explains. “I think it’s quite difficult with electronic music, to get the right blend. But that’s what I’m always working towards.”


Beautiful Broken

Luna

Digitonal - Luna

Select your favorite platform: https://ampl.ink/adLibitum  
Part dark electronic, part soundtrack music, ad libitum all blends together into a wonderful tapestry of sonic imagery. From deep reverberating piano to lush atmospheric textures to cool electronic grooves, each element is perfectly placed.

Analog Remastered by Ian Hawgood · Tokio 
Cover design by Helyn Davenport
CD copies have Sold Out.
Bruno is an Argentinian classically trained musician, producer, and composer based in Barcelona who writes for strings, piano, and electronics.  In 1998 he started as a producer for ad21, a personal platform and label. His Piano Textures series, started in 2007, is one of Sanfilippo’s most representative set of recordings, but he has also gained wider recognition in modern music – one of his piano compositions formed the basis for Canadian rapper Drake’s seminal hit, ‘Started From The Bottom’.
http://www.bruno-sanfilippo.com

Ad Libitum

Oniria

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a winged victory for the sullen 'steep hills of vicodin tears'

Buy Now!

Behind

This is a remix of Paper Unicorn from Ochre's album Isolette which actually turned into more of a cover version.  I've been a huge admirer of Chris' work right from his early demos - REM Sleep Research will always be somewhere in my all time top 10 electronica tracks.  

He's continued to release some of the most beautiful and intricate music in the field.  You can find the original of this track, and all his fantastic music at his bandcamp: http://bandcamp.ochremusic.com/

This cover version has been made available to download with the artist's permission.  Thanks to Chris, it's a wonderful piece and I had a lot of fun putting this together.

Unreleased

Paper Unicorn (Digitonal Transcription)

Ochre - Paper Unicorn (Digitonal Transcription)

Pre-order Ghost Stations:

- Just Music Store (CD/Vinyl/Digital) http://smarturl.it/ghoststations_JM
- iTunes http://smarturl.it/ghoststations
- Amazon (Digital) http://smarturl.it/ghoststations_amazon
- Amazon (CD) http://smarturl.it/ghoststations_amznCD
- Amazon (Vinyl) http://smarturl.it/ghoststations_amznLP
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'Ghost Stations', the ninth studio album by Marconi Union, is set for release on 12th August 2016.

After fourteen years of writing and performing, the trio - founder members Richard Talbot and Jamie Crossley with keyboard player Duncan Meadows - are thought to be “amongst today's most talented musicians” (The Sunday Times). They have steadily developed and refined an unique musical identity; evoking emotions from gracefully blending elements of dub, jazz, ambience and electronica within their richly melodic compositions.

With ‘Ghost Stations’, Marconi Union’s music continues to straddle the worlds of artistic credibility and musical accessibility. They were not afraid to accept the challenge of making new music rather than just repeating their earlier work and were well aware of the risk of trying new things.

“People who have bought our previous records may think we've gone too far in this direction or that direction or that we don't do enough of some particular aspect anymore, but we've already done those things in our previous work and we have to keep pushing our boundaries otherwise what is the point? We want people to hear Ghost Stations and say “'What the f**k is that' either in a good or bad way!”

Before making a record Marconi Union usually have a clear idea about its ultimate direction, but this time they decided to set aside any preconceptions. They spent the last two years experimenting with playing, programming, editing, re-editing, (agreeing and disagreeing) until ‘Ghost Stations’ naturally evolved. Once the title was decided upon, everything fell into place connecting ideas of abandonment, empty spaces and dereliction.

“We always want to move forward and try new things, there's no point in just treading water, so it was great to use a couple of guest musicians [Digitonal's Andy Dobson on clarinet and Giorgio Li Calzi on trumpet] Sometimes you need real playing, especially when it comes to feel”.

Over the last fourteen years, their studio albums,'Under Wires and Searchlights' (2003) (“sonically immaculate” Uncut), 'Distance' (2005) (“one of the most successful ambient albums of recent years” The Sunday Times), ‘A Lost Connection’ (2010) (“minimal, introspective, ethereal electronica – gorgeous” The Guardian), ‘Beautifully Falling Apart (2011) (“places MU firmly in the vanguard of acts making atmospheric, ambient music” Music OMH, Different Colours' (2012) (“a work of bewitching beauty” DMC), and their last album, Weightless (2014) (“an ethereal sense of free flowing dimensions” DJ Mag), have brought them to the attention of larger audiences and international critical acclaim.

Marconi Union have accepted festival invitations from Brian Eno, they have collaborated with the Marina Abramovic Institute and have also recorded ‘Weightless’, hailed as the “most relaxing song ever”, with its tens of millions of streams and YouTube views, (even earning the accolade of being named as one of the 'Best Inventions Of The Year' by Time Magazine). Their music has been selected to accompany art installations, independent arts based projects, theatre and ballet, and to serve as the beautiful musical backdrop to television commercials, drama and documentary films worldwide.

Ghost Stations

Pre-order album

Marconi Union - Sleeper (Edit)

Demo for my next album, The Gramophone Suite, which will be released late 2018. The track will also feature on the Soundcolours compilation "Chilltronica No6"

Film Two

Listen on Spotify

Touch // Rebirth

Emptiness

Second Touch // Royalty-Download Free

Wavering

Latest:
Helios - Espera: https://ghostly.ffm.to/helios-espera
Hollie Kenniff - The Quiet Drift: https://ampl.ink/5Y9Rw
Mint Julep - In a Deep and Dreamless Sleep: https://ampl.ink/omKoq
Goldmund - The Time it Takes: smarturl.it/ibfvzw

I write music for film and record as Helios, Mint Julep, Goldmund.

For licensing inquiries please visit: http://www.unseen-music.com/licensing

Wavering

Keith Kenniff