Ever have one of those times where you're feeling chilled and fine and all is good, and then... it's not? Well, that's what this is about.

Turbulence

Then She Reaches for the Gun was formed in 2021 by Mat Ward. At its essence is sound collage, experimentation and the desire to merge and defy genres. Ward invites musicians, sound artists, poets and anyone interested to send him files to be used, abused and showcased ‘as suggested by the work’. They are not always musical but field recordings, spoken word, engine noises and drunken rants. Animals participate a lot too! The raw material is arranged one phrase asks for the next in an alchemical and intuitive process that will most often feature dozens of tracks weaving in and out of each other, colliding, harmonising, arguing and laughing along the way.

Both the aesthetic and the compositional methods use what Frank Zappa called Xenochrony - the mixing together of separately recorded and rhythmically opposing musical phrases to create polyrhythmic and polytempi compositions.The work also features fragmented story telling with the human voice (in many languages) appearing unannounced throughout the tracks offering up snippets of thoughts, conversations, jokes and existential angst. The absurdity of humanities desperate claim to have any real understanding of its place in the universe is revealed through the recorded follies and genuine emotions of the participants in these works. The project is a celebration of experimentation, chance, diversity and community. It pays homage to all musical tastes and genres whilst maintaining a sense of humour and irreverence that is needed to stay sane in the climate of early 21st Century contemporary culture.

I Am Never Freer Than When I Am With You features the following artists

Humans

Adam Meredith - Ford XD with XF front mods/Voice
Ambient Annie - Electronica/Field Recording/Voice
Andrew Harper - Field Recordings
Angostura Elwar -  2 x Behringer CRAVE analog synths/Yamaha P200 electronic piano 
Antonella Eye Porcelluzzi - Text/Voice
Ariad Music - Clarinet/Percussion/Piano
Axel Weiß - Electric Guitar/Robot Voices
Banalytic - experimental Electronics
Belial Pelgrim - Digital Strings/Electronica
Brendan Corey Benson - Electric Guitar
Carolyn Wigston - Voice
Chicago Word Brigade - Electronica
Dan Hewins - Bass Guitar
Dane Renshaw - Drums/Voice
Dani Kirby - Keyboard/Piano/Voice
Dylan Banks - Intonarumori/Voice
Frank Wilke - French Horn/Trombone/Voice
Garbage Truck Disco - Drum programming/Electric Guitar/Joyous Pop Punk
Glenn Ward - Electric Guitar/Skyhooks
Hakan - Moog Voyager XL
Hverheij- Drums/Electric Guitar/Synth
Johnny Python- Bass Guitar/Drum Programming/Electric Guitar/Text/Voice
JZsuperstar - Electric Guitar/Field Recordings/Keyboards
Lady ElectroTrek - Organ
Libby Laksmi - Jazzy Loops/Synth Bass
Loop(c)y - Electric Guitar
Malo Bernard-O’Meara - Drums
Maxx Black - Guitar/Ukulele
Minimal Drone Girl - Cat Wrangling/Field Recordings
Oberlin - Eurorack/Piano
Paolo D’Emilio - Electronica
Paul Miller - Electronic Percussion/Keyboards/Phat Electro Bass
Phil Bywater - Saxophones/Voice
Raul Mainer - DAW Programming/Heavy Metal
Robert Jefferson - Akai Rhythm wolf/GakkenSX-150 ll/Korg Kaosilator/Percussion
Rosin Dust - Violin/Field Recordings
Sarah Megahertz - Speedway Noise
Scratch Kelly - Beats/Electronica
Stan Magendanz - Electronica
Ten Atmospheres - Field Recordings/Synths
Texmex Shaman - Electric Guitar
The Windscale Blues Experiment - Clarinet/Flute/Saxophones
Timothy Korstad - Demons/Electronica
Thomas Bergheim - Bass Guitar/Electric Guitar
Tobias Schmitt - Electronica/Processed Organ/Text
Tuonela - Demons/Electronica
Vartch - Drones/Things/Trousers (not T-shirts)/Voice
Widar’s Spiritual Front - Electronica/Ms Pacman
W:I:L-o’ the-wisp - Bass Guitar/Electric Guitar/Electronica
Wivresse - Electronica/Voice
Zanshin - Acoustic and Processed Drums

Mat Ward - Arrangements/Bass Guitar/Double Bass/Field Recordings/Intonarumori/Marimba/Noise/Percussion/Piano

Dogs
Boogie
Brophy
Buddy
Hancho
Jack
Momo
Neska
Poldo
Senna
Shyamsundara
Star

Oily (cat)
And many cows from Milis, Sardinia

I Am Never Freer Than When I Am With You

A new track from the New album....https://nomatesensemble.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-never-freer-than-when-i-am-with-you     
Daiphanousness features the following artists

Adam Meredith - Voice/Ford XD with XF front mods
Ariad Music - Piano
Axel Weiß - Synth
Banalytic - Hybrid Modular, Digital, Analogue Sounds
Belial Pelgrim - Digital Strings
Chicago Word Brigade - Electronica
Dane Renshaw - Cymbals
Dani Kirby - Voice
Frank Wilke - French Horn
Glenn Ward - Electric Guitar
Loop(c)y - Electric Guitar
Oily - Meows/Squeaky Toy
Paul Miller - Phat Electro Bass/Keyboards
Raul Mainer - Drum Programming
Rosin Dust - Violin
Scratch Kelly - Beats

Mat Ward - Arrangement/Digital Orchestration

Diaphanousness

In the words of T.S. Eliot, "Time present and time past / Are both perhaps present in time future"2. "Aurora Fracture" embodies this timeless wisdom, crafting a soundscape that is both a nostalgic glance backward and a hopeful gaze forward, all within the eternal present of sound.

Aurora Fracture:Drone maker by Mod dwarf

All music by Peter Hofland

Special thanks for the use of their wonderful sound recordings goes to:

Pryanic, for the great recording of kids on a playground:  https://freesound.org/people/pryanic/
HZ37 for the fine recording of sparrows: https://freesound.org/people/hz37/
and Amsaenz03 for the sound of the basketball: https://freesound.org/people/amsaenz03/

Artwork: Ernst Haas

Summer Times

Stories

2025-04-15

The Nibelungen Saga

L'io lontano

halleluya

Le bal des coeurs brisés

Title:
Ruapuna

Dates:
28-Jun-2025 (inception), 28-Jun-2025 (finalised), 28-Jun-2025 (released)

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

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

Description:

Fun at the Ruapuna race track, Christchurch, New Zealand. My son was participating in the Auto Cross events using my wife's Holden Astra instead of his Mazda MX5, so my wife and I came along to watch. Zero preparation on my behalf, but, I did have my iPhone with me. The new cars, as flash as their engines and suspension systems were, audibly, they did not have have the same pizazz as the older vehicles stretching right back to the early 1970's and some obviously modified extensively.

I took something like 50 sound sample recordings of the cars waiting for their run on the track, to racing past on the track. Thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

What captured my interest was the white Datsun 1200, which I think was the make and model that of one my friends drove when I was in my twenties (1980's) and thought it was a cool car, so there is some connection here. He was always talking about what modifications he and his father did to the the car (thanks Dave). Just loved the engine sound as it roared past. I recorded this and used it as part of this soundscape composition, plus some other cars (sorry, did not take note of their makes). 

The sound samples were then dropped into Ableton Live and mangled through two digital granular synthesisers, the PitchLoop89 and the Granulator III (both creations by Robert Henke). This gave the back drop of inspiration. Then some samples were dropped into an Ableton Live drum rack, to spontaneously play samples at will. Next came my Soma Enner, an analogue synthesiser, no specific tuning, just an impressionist approach to improvisation. Finally added my Soma Pipe synthesiser (driven by mouth clicks and other sibilances via a very close up mic), feeding this through the Soma Cosmos for it's interpretation of granular synthesis, recorded into Ableton Live.

My aim was to compose the music on the same days as the Auto Cross track event, whilst I still had the vibe of the day floating around in my head, to then capture the vibe of the day and my own interpretation of the sounds.


Ruapuna

Welcome to my place of musical experiments and my endless journey of exploring new sound textures, rhythms and melodic ideas. I am a multi-instrumentalist coming from a background of having actively played, harmonica, recorder, piano, organ, clarinet, tin whistle, pan pipes, guitar, violin, Shakuhachi, jaw harp, didgeridoo and accordion. My genre is mostly a fusion of Jazz and Soundscape, however I often seek inspiration from a wide variety of music, Celtic, Rock, Heavy Metal, Classical, Folk, Micro-tonal, just to name a few. I also build my own instruments, various Shakuhachi using them either directly in recordings or sample the sounds to incorporate in pitch shifting tools in Ableton Live. I often set myself a music challenge, taking every day sounds not considered musical, sampling, transforming and moulding them into a virtual musical instrument. Experimenting with evolving polymeters is a favourite feature of my works. I have been classically trained but soon ventured into free improvisation, which is my happy place.

I am based on the South Island of New Zealand, enjoying the great outdoors there. I often take inspiration from this for my music and associated cover art.

I have a no cover’s policy, all my works being original compositions, the only exception would be the odd jazz interpretation of a Bach piece from the Baroque era. My percussion sections do not use any artificial intelligence drum machines, nor do I use auto tuners for my violin playing. Paid likes and plays — none of that either. 

I also participate in musical collaborations, from accepting sound samples to see what I can do with them, to instrumental collaborations. Send me a message if interested.

Please join me on this wonderful journey of music exploration.

Ruapuna

Norman Freund

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