Pathetic Decline (Complete)
Artwork by: Sara Fournier

Pathetic Decline (Complete)

Tides (Demo Edit)

'Moon Phase' is a collection of lush and melancholic ambient pieces by our long time favorite artist, SineRider. Presented in a beautiful 4-panel CDr.

Written and Produced by Devin Powers.
Mastering by Rob Small.
Photography by Alexander Kopatz www.go70north.com 
Archives28 // ArchivesCD009
Archives / 2016

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SineRider - Across Rooftops

taken from the new album 'Confidence'
https://unperceivedrecords.bandcamp.com/album/confidence

Confidence

Memum : Radiance

First track off the new Billow Observatory album, "III: Chroma/Contour", on CD/LP/digital on February 8th! Preorder from: https://azurevistarecords.bandcamp.com/merch

Info:

"III: Chroma/Contour is the third album from Billow Observatory, the collaborative project of Danish producer Jonas Munk (Manual, Ulrich Schnauss collaborator and more) and Michigan native Jason Kolb (Auburn Lull). The album's nine tracks eschew the pulse and rhythm that defined the duo's previous effort (II: Plains/Patterns) in favor of sparse melodic possibilities and a more abstract palette of sounds. Chroma/Contour suggests looking both 20 years forward and twenty years back, while forgetting the present altogether. 

Much of the album plays out as a study in minimalism: the texture and colour of each sound is being explored in miniscule detail, with enough space in the soundfield to allow each sonic constituent to breathe fully. There's a conceptual dimension to several tracks on the album, with guitars, analog synths and voices being mangled by samplers, computer software and a broken dictaphone into pure abstraction. But simultaneously there's a melodic undercurrent, revealing a deeply emotional aspect of the music. Tracks such as Color In The Six, Iris and Soft Logic convey a melancholic sense of awe, a profoundly calming glimpse of the sublime."

Billow Observatory: "Iris"

Whitelabrecs began in January 2016 and since our first limited edition release three years ago, we’re proud to announce our fiftieth edition in the form of a special compilation album. Previously we’d released ‘Whitelabsounds’, which had no particular theme; a cross section of label artists and friends. This time, our label owner Harry Towell wanted to curate something with a specific theme so that this occasion was marked by a concept album.

‘Sleeplaboratory1.0’ is a sixteen track cross section of modern Ambient artists touching on everything from minimalist drone and modern classical cinematics to electro acoustic and synth influenced works. It is released in a run of 100 physical copies, as we’ve chosen to create a ‘gatefold LP’ styled CD package, complete with beautiful artwork provided over 4 panels by our regular collaborator Federica Jeanne de Luca. The album is also available digitally in a range of formats, carefully mastered by Tim Diagram who also contributes a track as Maps and Diagrams.

This album is intended as a relaxing companion for either conscious or sub-conscious listening, with contributing artists briefed to create something vacant which is likely to induce sleep. Harry selected the artists with the theme in mind and to help them understand his vision, he shared a link to Janek Schaefer’s ‘Lay-by Lullaby’ released on 12k back in 2014. It is an album which has been a huge part of his personal sleep routine, with him playing it at low volume on his iPod in bed ever since it was released so it seemed to be the perfect starting point.

Harry’s motivation behind creating this sleepy album was primarily due to his fascination on the relationship between Ambient music and sleep: Robert Rich, Max Richter and Tanner Menard all performed notable sleep concerts for starters. Harry was particularly honoured when Janek Schaefer agreed to provide the opening track to this accumulation of calming works and it was he that introduced the National Geographic edition at the time which had a large article about the science of sleep and how it sits in modern society.
Additionally, Harry was expecting the arrival of his first child during the production stages of Sleeplaboratory1.0 and he wanted the album to be particularly calming for babies.

We will not make any recommendation on how our listeners might best enjoy this record and so it’s down to you to choose the best environment to listen, whether this be late at night with headphones, on a loud system or perhaps played through Bluetooth speakers in and around your home.

Sleeplaboratory1.0

wlr050 Various Artists - Sleeplaboratory1.0

The lead track from the new album from Francesco Giannico, entitled "Les Mondes Imaginaires"...

Francesco Giannico "Les Mondes Imaginaires"  Primum

First single off the new Jonas Munk solo album, out on Azure Vista Records early 2020! More to be revealed in January.

Happy Holidays!

Jonas Munk: "Resonance"

Glåsbird's anonymous and imaginary travels to far flung locations continues, with this next excursion landing at the Norwegian fjords. The first two releases dealt with the more treacherous locations of Greenland and Svalbard but in Norskfjǫrðr, the dramatic and breathtaking landscape is underpinned by a road network which connects islands, peninsulas and mountains. A human thread of highway runs through this wild and rugged setting, passing lonely wood cabins and flashes of green.

To reflect this landscape, Glåsbird imagined a journey north to the edge of the Arctic sea over several days, stopping to capture the intimate acoustics of painted wooden shacks and drawing in the landscape through tiny window panes. Whilst the previous releases use reverb-heavy strings or tape-decaying piano to reflect the cold, stark expanse of snow, Norskfjǫrðr makes use of acoustic timbres with more emphasis on the raw sound. Various creaks and scrapes rustle underneath these melodies to reflect the sound from inside the cabin, micro-sound fragments being all the more audible due to the silent outdoors. A hint of folk is present at times in the form of bowed and plucked strings, to reflect the fauna and flora present across the West of Scandinavia. The familiar modern classical tones of piano and strings breathe a stark and chilling spine from time to time before the gently dramatic Endeligfjord marks the end of the journey, looking back out to the Barents sea.

Norskfjǫrðr

wlr071 glåsbird - norskfjǫrðr

Today I'm featuring a track by a Toronto based composer, Joshua Van Tassel, taken from his upcoming album, titled Dance Music Volume II : More Songs for Slow Motion, scheduled to be released in September of this year on Backward Music. During these troubled times, I feel like I keep going back to cinematic, ambient, and sombre music more and more. Almost every email I receive begins with "How are you holding up?" and it's almost awkward to admit that I'm okay, obliged to all this music that surrounds me to keep me centred, calm, and virtually connected to musicians that outpour their soul. Such is the case with music by Van Tassel. "Every day we are exposed to scenes of despair, ugliness, and struggle," says Joshua in the intro, "and I wanted to make a really beautiful album." The album is inspired by an electronic musical instrument named Ondes Martenot which is played by moving a metal ring along a wire (generating oscillations in the transistors). And "like the instrument that inspired it [...] the music is elegant and expressive, the score to a movie inside your head." The "Eternal Turtle" is a slow blooming piece, featuring The Venuti String Quartet, and Van Tassel on the electronics, piano, and of course the Ondea, the modernized version of the instrument.

"‘Eternal Turtle’ was the first piece I recorded for “Dance Music Volume 2”, and features only the Ondea. I had gotten the instrument about 2 months prior, and had been practicing every day, very slowly, and trying to play in tune. It’s very similar in tuning principle to a violin, where the slightest finger turn can cause the note you’re playing to be sharp or flat. I had started to experiment with more effects pedals as well, and created the ambience you hear at the very beginning of the track almost by accident withe a Chase Bliss MOOD pedal. For some reason, the sound immediately made me think of a giant, slow, and very old turtle moving slowly through and even older forest. I improvised the main line that runs through out the piece thinking about how this creature would move, then layered everything else immediately after. Compared to the other pieces on the album which in some cases took weeks, this one came out in one sitting and was the first time I felt like I had touched on the sound of the album I wanted to make. It was a lovely gift from a turtle I hope to thank in person someday." --Joshua Van Tassel

Dance Music Volume II: More Songs For Slow Motion

Eternal Turtle

TRACK PREMIERE : Joshua Van Tassel - Eternal Turtle

EVEning

Omar El Abd (Born 1983) is an electronic musician, guitarist and sound artist based in Cairo, Egypt.

Pathetic Decline (Complete)

Omar Elabd

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