seriöst

2 4 the price of 1

Awesome Music for Friends

Taken from 'Fringe' LP/Download (E064, Ecstatic 03/09/2021)

A gorgeous swell of intimate soundscaping from Felisha Ledesma on this simmering stunner for Ecstatic, despatching two extended, richly absorbing pieces weft from everyday detritius; synths, strings, voicemail, found sounds - hitting a similar spot for us as Ulla’s diaristic 'inside means inside me’ but with a more defined play of sound-as-light that gently and memorably tugs at the earlobes and heartstrings. 

Exploring a music of presence and ultra subtle inference, ‘Fringe’ is the 2nd release by Ledesma, student of Berlin's estimable Universität der Künste, following from a debut for Enmossed x Psychic Liberation earlier this year. Using AMQR - a software synthesiser built by Ledesma together with Ess Mattisson - both pieces here shimmer with elusive timbres that occupy a realm that feels lost between worlds - neither electronic nor acoustic, but more a sort of observational sound that radiates togetherness and warmth. 

Operating at insightful levels of synaesthesia, Ledesma poetically turns ostensibly humdrum sources into clouds of smoke - emails, voicenotes, walking along the water, a poem attached to an email, walking alone in New York during lockdown, going for a swim at sunset in the desert - all turn into a smudge of memory. When ‘Beamsplitters’ opens with a tangible human presence - a voicemail from a friend - it startles with its earthly pull, eventually getting lost in a tangled spool of found sound leaving just a trace of iridescent, intimate reverie. 

On ‘Golden Mirror’ Felisha gently diffracts a lonesome guitar phrase into a humming thizz with a steeply uncanny ability to jog the memory in a similar way to how olfactory stimulus can conjure feelings of nostalgia. It’s a trick familiar from an emergent new realm of lower case composers creating something like submerged, small scale symphonies that work counter to notions of classical excess or anodyne ambient, instead focusing on microcosmic, highly peronalised sort of worldbuilding that’s impenetrable, yet somehow entirely open.

Felisha Ledesma - Golden Mirror [E064]

His life was gentle; and the elements
so mixed in him, that Nature might stand up,
and say to all the world, This was a Man!

William Shakespeare
English poet and dramatist (1564-1616)
considered one of the greatest English writers.

This was a Man!

Taken from the album MUSIC VOL. released as CD and Download

COH '132' (EMEGO 222)

Music, lyrics, vocals, production: Anne Wichmann

Cool – why keep up the charade, for who?
Cool – it looks like I need first aid, nothing new
Hot – pretend to be what I am not
Hot – I might surprise myself, just show me, what you got, girl

You try to control it all, but it´s not possible
The facade you hold up is a bore, ´cause you´re still touchable
And the rain turns to snow, turns to ice

Here comes the ice princess

I want to pay but what´s the price?
I try to smile but feel like ice
The ice princess wants to dance
The ice princess wants to dance 

I want to pay but what´s the price?
Seems like my mind is too concise 
The ice princess wants to laugh
The ice princess wants to laugh at herself anew
I lose my cool – hot cat

I lose my cool - I play the air guitar for you
Cool – be my own movie star, wohooo
Hot – I´ll eat your beauty quark. What?
Hot – How do you like it so far? A lot?

I try to control it all, but it´s not possible
The facade I hold up is a bore, `cause I´m still touchable

The ice princess wants to dance
The ice princess wants to dance 
I want to pay but what´s the price?
I try to smile but feel like ice

The ice princess wants to laugh
The ice princess wants to laugh
I want to pay but what´s the price?

When the snow turns to rain and the sun comes out
I gaze at the rainbow
I lose my cool


Lose my cool

Taken from the compilation - Evidence of Intense Beauty

Music can be a transformational experience... 

Evidence of intense beauty is a series of exquisite compositions from pioneers in the field of ambient microsound and modern classical curated by David Newman from Audiobulb Records. These works are exemplars selected by the artists to represent their conceptual sense of beauty. 

This collection brings together the work of artists who are immersed in a broad range of aesthetics. Beauty cannot be predefined but the principal responsibility of the composer is to control the experience of time for the listener and in that time help them discover what resonates within. 

Paul Dresher once said that human attention and consciousness works by “holding onto a certain amount of familiarity, and then introducing a certain amount of newness”. 

This idea brings the hope of an intensely beautiful music. A beauty in what is both endlessly new and evolving becoming incredibly moving. Beauty is the experience of an outstanding and benign emotional impact. 

Our audience includes people who actively engage with music and who want to be taken on a journey. Each track takes the ingredients of minimalism coupled with a strong sense of tonality to produce a slowly evolving narrative. We present materials in a way that engages with the listener progressing and enhancing their experience of time.

Monty Adkins - With Small Hands Waving

From Idle Worship Cassette and Digital out April 28 2017 on Sounds of the Dawn

Idle Worship

Purchase

Alex Crispin - Green Ember (Cassette and Digital Out 4/28/17)

LFO-18

LFO-18  C-Shape

In tribute to the 'Holkham Drones' title of Luke Abbott's recent debut album, we will be transforming Room 2 of our next Border Commune night at London's Corsica Studios (24th September) into a cosy alternative space dedicated to a series of live performances around the theme of Drone, named 'The Holkham Drone Zone'.

Although originally advertised, Luke Abbott himself won't actually be able to attend this special evening of drone thanks to a double booking. But by way of apology he is giving away 'Forgive and Remember', a special improvised lone-home-drone for your home listening delectation, accompanied by the following explanation:

"Although Border Community have dedicated a whole room to the Drone-theme of the title of my album, thanks to a double-booking and contrary to earlier advertisements I won't actually be able to attend the drone-evening. To make up for it, I have recorded this home-drone session, and I strongly advise you to check out the other live performances from my brothers in drone Wesley Matsell, James Holden, Dan Tombs, Perc and An'Unexpectacle which will still be going ahead in my absence..."

Border Commune @ Corsica Studios, London : 24th September
Tickets: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/92718

Room 1:
James Holden
Perc
Margot

Room 2:
'The Holkham Drone Zone' : Improvisations in the key of drone with your host DJ Wesley Matsell
Featuring:
James Holden
An'Unexpectacle Drone Zone
Perc
'Telechromatic Distortion' by Dan Tombs
Wesley Matsell

Luke abbott - forgive and remember

Something upbeat and happy. Each time I pass couples in love in the street I can imagine the love and passion between them. How good it feels to love and be loved. Wishing love and happiness to everyone. Copyright protected ©

Passion Within

Passion Within ©

Candy Love

Candy Love (ft Marvin)

Paul Amlehn - Compositional Process and Strategies, Catalyst Texts and Vocals for Music, Production
Leo Abrahams - Guitar, Effects, Programming
David Lynch - Visual Art

On An Unknown Beach

Paul Amlehn - Compositional Strategy, Catalyst Texts and Vocals for Music, Production
Mally Harpaz - Harmonium, Vibraphone, Cymbal Percussion
David Lynch - Visual Art

Song of the Stellar Circuits

Written and produced by Greig Baird 
Layout and design by 扎克 
-- 
© Healing Sound Propagandist 
HSP-05 | MMXIX 
pastinsidethepresent.com/hsp 
healingsoundpropagandist.bandcamp.com
license
all rights reserved

In the Summer of 2019 Greig Baird and his family moved home and into a new area of a city they have lived for many years.

The layers and layers of history in this new locale were palpable and inspired Baird to create this small collection of music, ‘Once Hallowed’.

This new area was home to a Franciscan Friary established in the 13th century and later home to a church, Allhallows-on-the-Wall built in the 19th century. This church was later a corset factory, then later a parachute factory during war time. The last burials in this place were conducted in secrecy by the light of a midnight moon during the cholera epidemic of 1832. The wall outside Baird’s home dates to Roman times and was once the south-western city limit.

The burial grounds now deconsecrated and long abandoned are also home to the catacombs of the city. Again abandoned long ago, bodies long removed, tales of stolen skulls and grave robbing, and the stone of which they are built are all that remains. The areas wildlife, dog walkers, children playing, students hanging around, drunks falling asleep on abandoned tombs and the city’s drug dealers plying trade all make the place what it is. Often beautiful as the light changes and Falcons fly above, the sounds of the day city form into the nocturnal; sometimes sad as the desperation of people’s modern situations becomes abundantly clear.

The relics of the past experienced in our present creates something else. Something deeply inspiring, creating an atmosphere deeply felt and not entirely understood.

Once Hallowed

'Distant Station (Nocturne)' - Once Hallowed - [Healing Sound Propagandist, 2019]

Solo Steinway 2017 Album VOL.1

Moonlight & Bees

loess - blaen

My name is Paul Amlehn. I am an artist working in the mediums of literature, music, visual art, theater, opera, dance, performance art, and film.

My poetry, prose, and texts for theater and opera have been published in literary journals in 23 countries, including Exquisite Corpse, the California Quarterly, Poetry Salzburg Review, and Evergreen Review.

My paintings, photographs, music, and video art works have been exhibited throughout the world, including at Artist's Space, Luhring Augustine, the Chelsea Art Museum, and Tate Liverpool, and at festivals which include Art 42 Basel (with the Serpentine Gallery - curated by Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist), documenta 14, and the 51st, 55th, 56th, 57th, 58th, and 60th Venice Biennales.

On my music projects I have collaborated with Robert Fripp (King Crimson), Ulrich Krieger (Lou Reed), Chuck Hammer (David Bowie), Jamie Saft (Iggy Pop), Susan Stenger (John Cale), Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno), Michael Blair (Tom Waits), David Van Tieghem (Laurie Anderson), Michael Johnson (Joy Division), Mick Harvey (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), Joe Gore (PJ Harvey), Terry Edwards (Tindersticks), Mick Rossi (Leonard Cohen), Jem Finer (The Pogues), Mark Egan (Arcadia), Dieter Moebius (Cluster), Jess Stewart (Psychic TV), Eberhard Kranemann (Kraftwerk), Thomas Stern (Einsturzende Neubauten), Stephen Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire), Susan Alcorn, Suzanne Ciani, Keiron Melling (The Fall), Julia Kent (Antony and the Johnsons), Laurent Petitgand (Wim Wenders), Jen Baker (Werner Herzog), John King (Merce Cunningham Dance Company), Robert Black (Bang on a Can All-Stars), Frank Cassara (Steve Reich and Musicians), Andy Findon (Michael Nyman Group), Andrew Sterman (Philip Glass Ensemble), Jeff Zeigler (Kronos Quartet), and many others.

On my film and video art projects I have collaborated with actors, actresses, singers, and dancers, including Philippe Nahon (Gaspar Noe), Artur Barciś (Krzysztof Kieślowski), Anne Louise Hassing (Lars von Trier), Kate Moran (Peter Greenaway), Kate Fisher (Robert Wilson), Elisa Lasowski (David Cronenberg), Pamela Flores (Alejandro Jodorowsky), Stefania Casini (Andy Warhol), and many others.

I am currently working on an album of music which has texts and vocals by William S. Burroughs, in cooperation with the Burroughs Estate. I am also presently working on an album of music which reimagines the work of John Cage, in cooperation with the John Cage Trust.

Cover art for my albums has been provided by painter Gerhard Richter and artist, musician, and filmmaker David Lynch.

At the end of 2024, I worked on several re-creation compositions which utilzed sonic elements from pre-existing songs by Brian Eno and David Byrne, Nine Inch Nails, and Grimes, from their albums "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," Ghosts I-IV," and "Miss Anthropocene, combined with new music by myself and other musicians.

Earlier this year, I collaborated with painter Gottfried Helnwein on a short film called: Epigenetic Trauma Painting No. 1.

I'm presently working on a new music recording project. Musicians who have contributed to this project thus far are: Stan Harrison (Radiohead), Alan Splet (David Lynch), Ben Somers (Seal), Jarboe (Swans), Rob Burns (David Gilmour), Ben Holmes (Monsters of God), Nicholas Currie (Momus), RK Faulhaber (Nurse With Wound), Ann Kroeber (David Lynch), Peter Hess (Philip Glass Ensemble), and many others.

Soli Deo gloria.

On An Unknown Beach

Paul Amlehn 2