In this one-hour podcast Gary talks about the art of sound design and illustrats how sound is being used and how it can be better used to tell stories. 
http://viewconference.it

Gary Rydstrom @ View Conference 2012

Unreleased. Feel free to drop in a word if you're interested...

- I'm not good at labelling music - I just play what I feel. You can call it a 'space' track, I suppose...

SUPER DISCO MINIOTTA - Nada Toulouse

from 'Blossoms In Red' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den243
available in October on all formats at [http://denovali.com/ensembleeconomique]

Based in Californian Humboldt County, Brian Pyle wanders the world on his countless travels. Far from being restless, he has his very own Pylesque way of travelling. Much like a Lynchian version of Hemingway, he has an eye for the thin layer between restlessness and relaxation, gloom and serenity. Wherever he goes, he ardently absorbes these nuances, rarefies them and moulds them into a seamless array of glimmering styles, from drone and ambient to shoegaze and post-wave, giving birth to yet another creation of his prolific Ensemble Economique project.
On his by now eleventh album and fourth Denovali release "Blossoms In Red", Pyle combines and perfects elements of his previous output into a cohesive narrative. The opener "From The Train Window, Red Flowers On The Mountain" is a surprisingly scarce ambient piece, which feels like an almost infinitely stretched precious moment of time. Despite being austere, it is warm, sublime and incredibly captivating and after listening to its full 8 minutes, one cannot help but to rewind and replay. Having barely escaped this seductively infinite loop, one encounters the title track "Blossoms In Red" featuring Portland electronic duo Soft Metals. Starting off with a characteristic sluggish programmed beat, one is immediately overpowered by the onset of the towering combination of a warm bassline and a shimmering synth ambience. As the track flows, these elements writhe around each other in a delicately beautiful fashion, absorbing the materialising wailing guitar which almost sounds like an ethereal voice, as well as the occasional melodic and rhythmic accents. The next track sees this guitar return in a rather pure form. "On The Sand", featuring jack-of-all-trades Peter Broderick, is essentially just reduced analogue drums, electric guitar, a simple vibrating bassline and hoarse almost spoken vocals. Slowly and methodically, these constituents form a captivating erotic ritual, much like a beguiling and hypnotic mandala procession of imperturbable blissful individuals on the beach. As proven on numerous occasions, Pyle can easily lead all his trumps in the presence of female lead vocals, and "Blossoms In Red" makes no exception. Indeed, "You, By Candlelight" is easily the best Ensemble Economique track with female vox to date. Pyle manages to embed the vocals just in the right minimal amount of instrumental layers, making the track radiate an elusive tranquility. The fifth and closing track "Nothing Is Perfect" is a classically tinged piano piece with only very little processing and sparse field recording samples. With all pieces of the album, Pyle manages to create tracks which feel like being composed only of two or three layers of sound, that are nevertheless allowed to develop a life cycle which seems incredibly long - track lengths vary from 6:30 to 8:10 - but still feels just right. Thus "Blossoms In Red" is probably Ensemble Economique's most minimalistic album, but at the same time - or maybe just for this reason - his most skilled work.

Blossoms In Red

Preorder / Buy

Ensemble Economique - You, By Candlelight (feat. J Moon)

The second volume of the Cafe Society Mix Series features The Rusty Cowboy. A man of many talents - sound designer, co-founder of cult band Spooky Monkey, guitarist and DJ, the Rusty Cowboy is a veteran and pioneer in the Maltese electronic music scene. In this Sexy Summer Sensation mix, he delivers his trademark sound, fusing elements of disco, funk and electronica. 

Cafe Society Mix Series Vol 2 : The Rusty Cowboy

I wrote this track for the Synthopia project by Urban Arts Berlin, where the challenge is to create compositions using only analog synthesis. No samples or other instruments are allowed. I took on this challenge by using only one analogue synth - my trusty Moog Sub 37.  All the sounds in the track were made with the Sub 37, including all the drum sounds. I must also give credit to Slate Digital Plugins, which were instrumental in the sound design and mastering process. The track was composed using Ableton Live 9. Enjoy! 

The (Tech Zoid)

Spooky Monkey

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