I love this - so evocative, like the sun-bleached memory of a dream 

One of the tracks off of the upcoming album from Monochromie, entitled "Colors In The Dark". Out on Time Released Sound in two versions, in early August.

Monochromie..."Colors In The Dark"....Old Times

We’re happy to announce the welcoming of Heather Woods Broderick to our roster with her new album Domes. The album will be released on May 13th 2022 on vinyl, tape and digital. After having released solo albums on Western Vinyl and Preservation, Domes presents the first entirely instrumental work of the California based multi-instrumentalist.

Domes is a collection of meditative pieces based around the cello. While not being her primary instrument, the cello holds a very special place for the artist. Throughout the past 2 years, Heather often felt the need to find moments of respite in response to the chaotic and turbulent times we all faced in that period. Her days started or ended with the cello. A single melody initiated a process in which new elements were gradually added to the initial loop until the sounds filled her up. This process and the instrumental nature of these pieces opened the path for self-reflection and enabled her to express emotions outside the world of words or lyrics:
 
“The cyclical nature of the loop combined with the sound feeling like it’s surrounding me feels serene and safe. My hope is that listeners experience this as well.” - Heather Woods Broderick
 
Domes is a documentation of that period and offers 7 pieces which to the artist feels like dense masses – strong grounding sounds that can hold weight or be used to disperse weight - in an emotional sense. The album title, Domes, reflects this idea as domes are made out of triangles – the strongest shapes in the physical world. Coincidentally, there are 7 different triangles. As such, the pieces on Domes each reflect a different triangle, a different strongest shape which offers the listener a solid basis to find rest and calmness.

Artwork by Femke Strijbol
Mastered by D. James Goodwin

DAUWLP020

Heather Woods Broderick - Figura

from the album Wilderness Of Mirrors RM460

LP/CD

Lawrence English - Another Body

piano, voice and cassette tape
after a poem by Roy Doughty 
written for and performed by Anne Rainwater
Center for New Music, SF

11.19.2014 (wake)

The Silence Set - We Will Die Enraged

Utilitarium

For Craig.

1/8" & 1/4" tape loops + fx.



Meek Bees

PURCHASE 'Swim' by Blue Cranes @
AMAZON (digital & physical): http://www.amazon.com/Swim-Blue-Cranes/dp/B00BX49BPC
WAYSIDE (physical - ships worldwide): http://www.waysidemusic.com/search.aspx?keyword=cranes
ITUNES (digital): https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/swim/id644220746
BANDCAMP (hi-fi digital): http://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/swim

Since their formation in 2007, Blue Cranes have become a key player in the Portland, Oregon creative music/DIY scene and one of the most exciting groups to keep tabs on in the Northwest. They’ve developed a singular musical voice grounded in melody and explosive improvisations—marking off their unique microcosmic territory in “post-jazz” circles. 

The members of the quintet—Reed Wallsmith on alto saxophone, Joe Cunningham on tenor saxophone, Rebecca Sanborn on keyboards, Keith Brush on bass, and Ji Tanzer on drums—bring a unique array of experiences to their group-centered aesthetic, including work with AU, The Decemberists, Laura Veirs, Wayne Horvitz, Rebecca Gates, Laura Gibson, Ethan Rose, Pete Krebs, Black Prairie and Portland Cello Project. The band takes an evolutionary step forward on their fourth full-length album, 'Swim', to be released June 4th on the Washington, D.C.-based Cuneiform Records.

'Swim' is a departure from Blue Cranes' previous, and in some ways simpler, albums. Steered dutifully by producer Nate Query of The Decemberists, it is a window into the sometimes messy emotional space of a group struggling with and celebrating the ephemeralness of life. This work is the culmination of several between-album projects, including a 30-day crowd-sourced Amtrak train tour in 2011, and a seven day group composition retreat, supported in part by a grant from Portland’s Regional Arts and Culture Council. However, the heart of 'Swim' lies in indelibly profound life events—the passing away of two dear friends, a serious injury, two weddings, and the birth of a child (Wallsmith's first)—events at tragic and uplifting extremes, both cathartic and celebratory.

“It’s a lot denser than our other records,” says Cunningham. “It’s got this heaviness to it, and a lot of dissonance. I think we were all sort of okay with that because of how we were feeling. It’s dark, but it’s not all dark.” “It's an imprint of that time,” adds Sanborn. “Just as our new works in progress are marked by who we are now.”

The musical response to all the heaviness happening to the band behind the scenes is spellbindingly good. The droning “Cass Corridor” sounds like an ominous alarm clock, pulsing and bursting with strings, space-y organs and nightmarish crescendos of brass. Guests Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), Noah Bernstein (tUnE-yArDs), and many more were tasked with recording a single unison note, which is mashed together in a cacophonic climax near the end of the song. “Polarnatt,” which was birthed in a group-writing session, sounds unhinged, like the soundtrack to an exploratory documentary. “Everything Is Going To Be Okay” is presented in memory of Wallsmith's sister-in-law, ethnomusicologist Franya Berkman. Written after she was diagnosed with late stage breast cancer, it moves through sadness, confusion, and anger to a celebration of life and all of its hopefulness, uncertainty and beauty.

More than half of the album incorporates arrangements for a string trio that includes Patti King (Radiation City) and Anna Fritz (Portland Cello Project)—cementing the group's love affair with that lush sonic palette. The tempestuous “Great Dane Small Horse” features the lucid voice of master improviser and violist Eyvind Kang (Bill Frisell, Laura Veirs). Album finale “Goldfinches”—recorded in a basement in Davis, California while the band was on tour—features The Devil Makes Three’s Cooper McBean on musical saw.

If the musical cameos on 'Swim' alone aren’t an indication of the band’s communal artistry, their internal relationships with each other as players is more than enough. “We listen to each other very deeply,” says Wallsmith. 

“We’ll show up with a song, and no one is scared to say anything about it,” continues Cunningham. “We just dig into it, pull it apart and nobody’s going to get their feelings hurt. It’s definitely a loving relationship.”

Blue Cranes, "Everything Is Going To Be Okay" from 'Swim'

A piece of music written for a documentary film about an installation at MIT's Media Lab.

From their Vimeo Page: (http://vimeo.com/67177328)

The Silk Pavilion explores the relationship between digital and biological fabrication on product and architectural scales.

The primary structure was created of 26 polygonal panels made of silk threads laid down by a CNC (Computer-Numerically Controlled) machine. Inspired by the silkworm’s ability to generate a 3D cocoon out of a single multi-property silk thread (1km in length), the overall geometry of the pavilion was created using an algorithm that assigns a single continuous thread across patches providing various degrees of density.

Overall density variation was informed by the silkworm itself deployed as a biological “printer” in the creation of a secondary structure. A swarm of 6,500 silkworms was positioned at the bottom rim of the scaffold spinning flat non-woven silk patches as they locally reinforced the gaps across CNC-deposited silk fibers. Following their pupation stage the silkworms were removed. Resulting moths can produce 1.5 million eggs with the potential of constructing up to 250 additional pavilions.

Affected by spatial and environmental conditions including geometrical density as well as variation in natural light and heat, the silkworms were found to migrate to darker and denser areas. Desired light effects informed variations in material organization across the surface area of the structure. A season-specific sun path diagram mapping solar trajectories in space dictated the location, size and density of apertures within the structure in order to lock-in rays of natural light entering the pavilion from South and East elevations. The central oculus is located against the East elevation and may be used as a sun-clock.

Parallel basic research explored the use of silkworms as entities that can “compute” material organization based on external performance criteria. Specifically, we explored the formation of non-woven fiber structures generated by the silkworms as a computational schema for determining shape and material optimization of fiber-based surface structures.

Research and Design by the Mediated Matter Research Group at the MIT Media Lab in collaboration with Prof. Fiorenzo Omenetto (TUFTS University) and Dr. James Weaver (WYSS Institute, Harvard University). Mediated Matter researchers include Markus Kayser, Jared Laucks, Carlos David Gonzalez Uribe, Jorge Duro-Royo and Neri Oxman (Director).


Silk Pavilion

You Were Suspended In The Air

6.20.2013

http://ruhe.bandcamp.com

I am a musician/sound artist.
I work mostly with tape & analog components, employing looping systems frequently, and I sometimes supplement with digital effects & processes such as convolution & granular synthesis.

I am creator & former host of The Outpost online radio show (RIP) (http://theoutpostshow.com) as well as founder & director of Clothbound Recordings (http://clothbound.net).

Feel free to get in touch!

Meek Bees

Ruhe

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