Tracks from NOUS III, out May 29 2020 on Our Silent Canvas Records. 
Pre-order here: https://oursilentcanvas.bandcamp.com/album/nous-iii

Tracks from NOUS III

Spelk Remix

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Press on Nous I

"A half-airy, half-aggressive interdisciplinary happening organized by the young and enterprising composer Christopher Bono, who brought together a wise, postcategory, electric and acoustic 12-person crew." -- New York Times

"You couldn’t pigeonhole it into one genre if you tried — it goes from eerie David Lynchian soundscapes to Eastern melodies to avant-garde jazz drum freakouts to a million other places, all while remaining strangely accessible." - Brooklyn Vegan 

www.allnous.com
©2019 Our Silent Canvas

Nous II

NOUS is an experimental music project with a fluctuating group of artists exploring ritual and spontaneity within music. The first trilogy of releases were culled from a 5-day musical retreat wherein 13 musicians were invited to join Christopher Bono at the legendary Dreamland Studios, a converted church, with producer Kevin McMahon (Swans, Titus Andronicus) on an intensive 7-day immersion -- recording for 5 days, with 2 live performances at the conclusion. Each member was given a 47 page handbook that included a series of 60 musical "seed" ideas along with a list of conceptual cues. These ideas acted as a starting place for each improvisation. Bono then designed a daily schedule that began with a morning warmup routine of yoga followed by silent meditation, vocal toning, body percussion, and then a mixed percussion and toning session before moving to their respective instruments. These morning sessions were designed to move gradually from silence to sound within the body (vocal toning), rhythm on the body and finally to a blend of external instruments coinciding with internal sound (instruments and vocal toning.) Once the recording schedule began each day, Bono mixed the seed and conceptual ideas along with timed periods of free improvisation.This conceptual social experiment led to 3 albums and a transcendent sound formed from a unique fusing of collective consciousness.

Nous band members on this recording:
~ Christopher Bono (Composer, Ghost Against Ghost) christopherbono.com
~ Greg Fox (Guardian Alien, Zs, Ben Frost, ex-Liturgy)
~ Shahzad Ismaily (Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson, Bonnie Prince Billy)
~ Thor Harris (Swans, Angels of Light, Amanda Palmer, Shearwater)
~ Grey Mcmurray (itsnotyouitsme, So Percussion, Tyondai Braxton)


Special guests:
~ Clarice Jensen, Cello (ACME: American Contemporary Music Ensemble, yMusic, Ra Ra Riot)
~ Anthony Molina (Mercury Rev)
~ Caleb Burhans, Composer (itsnotyouitsme, ACME)
~ Laura Lutzke, Violin (ACME)
~ Alex Sopp, Flutes (ACME, yMusic)
~ Imago, Cello / Vocals (Múm)
~ Cecilie Hafstad, Vocals
~ Hariprakaash, Gong
~ Akil Davis and Loud Sol Productions

NOUS III

NOUS II - Nighten Gale

Tsyphur Zalan - Oceanic Day

Gabbarein is Norwegian singer Cecilie Hafstad and American producer-composer Christopher Bono.

'Ra Rising Sun' is accompanied by a sensually-captivating music video produced and directed by Ragnarok Film in Trondheim, Norway. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5zELrQVAXM

The album is built on emotive improvised vocals framed by sensitive, sparse textures and arrangements and a variety of instrumentation including synths, mandolin, kalimba, guitars, flute, violin, mixed percussion, and local nature samples. Most of the tracks have a calming and transcendent aura, while some channel an ancient Scandinavian intensity through pounding rhythms and indigenous melodies.  As a whole, Gabbarein is a moving and powerful listening experience that transports audiences to the sublime Arctic setting of Norway’s Northern Territory, where the mystical appearance of a White Reindeer served as a spiritual guide during the recording process.

"Ra Rising Sun" sonically captures the awe-inducing landscapes and emotional depths realized during Gabbarein's one-of-a-kind Arctic Circle recording sessions. It is now available on all major streaming platforms, listen here: http://fanlink.to/rarisingsun

Gabbarein's self-titled, full-length debut is scheduled for release on May 3, 2024, via digital and limited 2LP, featuring full project notes, recording session photos and a vinyl etching.  Pre-order at www.oursilentcanvasstore.org

More info at: http://oursilentcanvas.org/gabbarein

©2024 Our Silent Canvas

Gabbarein

Ra Rising Sun

Pre Order 2LP

Ghost Against Ghost - The River Of The Intimate, Pt. 2 (Spelk Remix)
Winner of Indaba worldwide remix project.
www.ghostagainstghost.com
©2019 Our Silent Canvas

Ghost Against Ghost - The River Of The Intimate, Pt. 2 (Spelk Remix)

NOUS - We Hope The Weather Will Continue

Second single released from upcoming NOUS II.

Check out this review!

https://www.heavyblogisheavy.com/2019/09/27/hear-nous-declare-here-in-my-heart-it-is-what-it-is/


https://www.allnous.com

©2019 Our Silent Canvas

NOUS - Here In My Chest It Is What It Is

NOUS - Yoj! Yoj!

Our Silent Canvas is excited to announce NOUS II, the second album from the improvisational NOUS project.

This album features the same lineup as NOUS I, but NOUS founder and curator, Christopher Bono takes the project and the musicians on a deeper dive into the post-rock, and ambient genres. The project maintains the spirit of spontaneity, but the musical experiments are conducted within a framework of more melodic exploration alongside cellular motif and groove oriented experiments.

“Nighten Gale” is the first single release from the new album. This piano and strings driven piece was presented in the studio to the the talented group of experimental musicians as a basic lead sheet featuring a simple progression and no dynamic suggestions. The 9 musicians received this minimalist input and together recorded a sweeping new-classical sonic Ark that journeys through contrasting peaks of heavy and gentle dramatic moments.

https://www.allnous.com
©2019 Our Silent Canvas

NOUS - Nighten Gale

https://www.oursilentcanvas.org
©2020 Our Silent Canvas

New York experimental music project  NOUS, led by producer and composer Christopher Bono, announces NOUS III, the third installment from the lineup which comprised the band's opening trilogy of releases. 

The ethos of NOUS is to consistently explore the spectrum of improvisational possibilities in music.  While the ensemble has explored free jazz, noise, traditional song structures and rhythmic motifs as improvisational fodder, the first single from NOUS III, “Ninths” is a contemplative and atmospheric melodic work that was presented to the musicians as a simple lead sheet that consisted of a series of “Ninth” chords (music theory nomenclature) moving in a parallel fashion. This repetitive progression provides the foundation on which NOUS weaves and layers a dynamic improvisational performance.

NOUS is an experimental music project with a fluctuating group of artists exploring ritual and spontaneity within music. The first trilogy of releases were culled from a 5-day musical retreat & social experiment wherein 13 musicians were invited to join Christopher at the legendary Dreamland Studios, a converted church, with producer Kevin McMahon (Swans, Titus Andronicus) on an intensive 7-day immersion -- recording for 5 days, with 2 live performances at the conclusion. Each member was given a 47 page handbook that included a series of 60 musical “seed” ideas along with a list of conceptual cues. These ideas acted as a starting place for each improvisation. Bono then designed a daily schedule that began with a morning warmup routine of yoga followed by silent meditation, vocal toning, body percussion, and then a mixed percussion and toning session before moving to their respective instruments. These morning sessions were designed to move gradually from silence to sound within the body (vocal toning), rhythm on the body and finally to a blend of external instruments coinciding with internal sound (instruments and vocal toning). Once the recording schedule began each day, Bono mixed the seed and conceptual ideas along with timed periods of free improvisation.This conceptual social experiment led to 3 albums and a transcendent sound formed from a unique fusing of collective consciousness.

NOUS - Ninths

NOUS - Never Can It Be

NOUS - Dust Suspended

NOUS - Blush

https://www.allnous.com
©2019 Our Silent Canvas

NOUS - Formless

NOUS - A Falling Tear

Single released from upcoming NOUS II.

Check out this review!

www.heavyblogisheavy.com/2019/09/27/h…-what-it-is/

www.allnous.com

NOUS- Look Again At That Dot

https://www.tsyphurzalan.com/
https://www.oursilentcanvas.org/

The new album from Christopher Bono’s Tsyphur Zalan project, Oceanic Day, is the second in a three part series of contemplative, drone ambient albums described to friends as “music composed for airplane announcements”.  The material was originally recorded as studies for two live immersive and interactive sound bath performances performed in 2018. However, at the urging of friends, Bono realized there was enough material for a series of ambient albums. The music was all performed and mixed live in the studio, no overdubs no computers, all in one take.  All synthesizers and sounds were either analog or organic, which gives the album a classic feel. 

The album’s concept and intention are informed and influenced by Bono's 15 years of meditation practice, in particular a series of three 10-day silent meditation retreats attended in 2018. Bono also built the idea upon his personal practice of sound therapy and healing, a subject he spent two years intimately studying during the composition and first performance of his epic Orchestral Requiem BARDO.

Background:

Tsyphur Zalan is the experimental, electronic side project of  Christopher Bono.  Bono, a prolific composer and producer, releases work through his artist run label Our Silent Canvas (OSC).  Bono’s other critically acclaimed projects include his post/art rock project Ghost Against Ghost, improvisational ensemble NOUS, and Nous Alpha an electronic soundscape duo collaboration with Gareth Jones (Depeche Mode, Grizzly Bear, Can, Mogwai), as well as his solo compositional pieces best highlighted by the epic Orchestral conceptual Requiem, BARDO.  2020 will be a record year for Bono and Our Silent Canvas, as the artist is making a pledge to release 12 full length albums, one for each month of the year. The last few years have been a busy time at the OSC studio in upstate New York, and the label has an impressive queue of music coming down the pipeline. These will include not only the 2 remaining Tsyphur Zalan ambient albums, but new music from NOUS, Nous Alpha, and the introduction of two new projects Gabbarein (Scandinavian Psych Folk recorded in the arctic circle in Norway), and Experimental Music Summer Camp (indie jam acid rock featuring members of Swans and special guests).

Bono: “The name "Tsyphur Zalan" came to me in 2002 within a fuzzy headed dream state 
while waking one college morning. At the time I had just begun playing and experimenting with music, forfeiting a professional baseball career in exchange for a now twenty-years of organizing intentional sound. I wrote the strange name in a journal that I kept at my bedside in anticipation of late-night inspiration.  The name came to me exactly like the credits in Star Wars (without the orchestral music), floating sideways in a space like aura. It was kitschy and weird. But I always found it fascinating, considering it was such a bizarre name. I performed under the name for two years living in Boston, but soon pulled away from its exotic sounding nature. 

Several years later, to break up the mundane routine of a longstanding studio project, I started working on some quick experimental electronic songs/tracks. As these started to pile up, I realized they could be released under that strange Tsyphur Zalan name. It seemed to fit. 

So, in 2015, I released the first official Tsyphur album, Sink. It got a premiere at Vice’s Creator’s Project for the video I did with genius stop animation director Toby Stretch. I then did a single, “The Theatre is the Spectacle of the Sublime”. The single was a very dark, Halloween themed track that also turned into a video with Toby and received a premiere by Nowness.”

Oceanic Dawn, the first release in the tryptic Oceanic series was released in June of 2019. Oceanic Day will be the second album, and the final third album will be the darker and moodier Oceanic Dusk.

©2019 Our Silent Canvas

05 - Ukrainian Lullaby

04 - Sukha

02 - Shiva Heartwarming Gift

01 - Baby Sloth

03- Patient Winter Drone

Circle of Celebration

Ascending

NOUS, Laraaji & Arji OceAnanda - Ascending

from the album CIRCLE OF CELEBRATION by NOUS, Laraaji and Arji OceAnanda

https://www.oursilentcanvas.org/nouslaraaji

©2021 Our Silent Canvas

Floating

NOUS, Laraaji and Arji OceAnanda - Floating

NOUS, Laraaji & Arji OceAnanda - Through The Veil

Hari Ram

NOUS, Laraaji and Arji OceAnanda - Hari Ram

Ceremonial

NOUS, Laraaji and Arji OceAnanda - Ceremonial

Non-Profit record label for experimental electronic, avant-pop, contemporary classical, post-rock, hypnotic, psychedelic, weird and other extreme and beautiful sounds.

Playlists by Our Silent Canvas