That is the only god I could imagine believing in, a god whose passion is not redemption, who saves nothing, fulfils no purpose--a god who simply is.” 
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris

Back in the early seventies, Edward Artemiev created a wonderful and prophetic soundtrack for Andrei Tarkovsky’s cinema adaptation of Stanislaw Lem’s book Solaris, a study of the clash between faith and science presented as a sci-fi story of astronauts who encounter a mystical and superior intelligence which exists as an ocean on a distant planet. The soundtrack, as well as Artemiev’s own extended adaptations of it, and his music for Stalker and The Mirror have recently been re-released on vinyl by Russian collectors’ label MiruMir. These synthesised ambient works, far ahead of their time, should be heard anyone who loves or has any interest in ambient music.

For me, the outstanding feature of the Solaris soundtrack was the repeated and varied use of J.S. Bach’s sublime chorale prelude BWV 639, “Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ” from the Little Organ Book. I became obsessed with it, collecting and compiling different versions, especially Isao Tomita’s wonderful adaptations, also inspired by the film.

As a tribute to all of the above creative masters, this is my offering to one of the great directors, one of the great authors and two of the great composers. If it is too long, that is because I am still obsessed with it.

Candles on his altar

Seeker

Made from a six second DTMF tone generated in Audacity.

All mistakes, glitches, accidents, indecisions, twists of fate, acts of karma and signs from the Universe have been retained.

Tone construction 01

Not sure if this fits the bill, but… A five beat rhythm track was created in Audacity, then multi-tracked and mixed with different pitches and effects and assigned to extreme left or right channels – with one mix being in “true” stereo and one dead centre in mono. A couple of mixes were placed to provide a counter-rhythm. I hope.

A drone track was added in 2 octaves (one left, one right) as well as a Bluecat mix which gives that jittery effect.

Nice and short for a change.

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The Assignment: Get intentional with stereo.

Step 1: Think about stereo for a moment.

Step 2: Now think about it a bit more — specifically, think less about using stereo as a means to give a sense of a physical space to a recording, and more about using stereo as a compositional tool.

Step 3: Record a piece of music in which you engage with stereo based on the ideas you formulated in Step 1 and Step 2.

More on this 549th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Sidelines (The Assignment: Get intentional with stereo) — at: https://disquiet.com/0549/  

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto /

Tone construction 03 [disquiet0549]

Being way out of touch and not having any idea what gabber was, I took a crash course. Turns out to be good ol’ hardcore techno! Can’t say it ever did much for me, but that’s probably just an age thing. Our own https://soundcloud.com/lityk has even been generous enough to use some of my sounds in his work, like this one: https://soundcloud.com/lityk/dronebrute   and an earlier one which even came out on vinyl! https://www.discogs.com/release/8227918-Lityk-Feat-Tuonela-3-Kotti-Telepath-Subsonic-002

Anyway, many of the tracks I came across had some fascinating dynamics. I picked this one as a sound source:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss8aTYJVMyw&list=PLwt1yl0k-dTevOoOXJaEOKna3WjTumUHz&index=16

ie  Kesj & Donut - Total confusionz

and fed it into my trusty outdated ambient v.3 software.

And this, with some multi-tracking and tonal tweaking, was the result. For me, it’s ambient but still has elements of the brutal power of the original. And just 1 real beat in 5 minutes!

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The Assignment: Field-test a hybrid genre.

Thanks to Sevenism for having proposed this project.

Gabber and ambient music seem like polar opposites. Gabber is typified by a constant distorted kick drum pummelling you at upwards of 200bpm. Ambient, on the other hand, can be deeply immersive or barely noticeable. This project asks the question: is “gabber ambient” possible?

Step 1: Consider what makes gabber gabber and what makes ambient ambient. Where is there crossover?

Step 2: Make a track that could be construed as “gabba ambient.”

Step 3: You’re probably going to want to delete it. Try not to. Save and upload.

More on this 556th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Gabber Ambient (The Assignment: Field-test a hybrid genre) — at: https://disquiet.com/0556/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto /

Gambient ambit or ambient gambit [disquiet0556]

I returned to the Samplebrain tracks from a couple of weeks ago – I had subjected one of the results to my trusty demo copy of The Mangle. One of the original samples was of birdsong, and they reappear in an interestingly altered way, realistic and yet surrealistic/enhanced/dreamlike as well. Which may or may not be what this Disquiet is about. Or both.

Image courtesy of NightCafe AI generator

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The Assignment: What does this imaginary genre sound like?

Step 1: Think about what a genre means, where it begins, where it ends, what makes a genre a genre.

Step 2: Familiarize yourself with the concept of magical realism, most often associated with the fiction of such authors as Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende, Jorge Luis Borges, Alice Hoffman, and Haruki Murakami, among others.

Step 3: Imagine what “digital magical realism” would sound like, were it the name of a genre.

Step 4: Record a piece of music that sounds like what you think “digital magical realism” sounds like.

ore on this 562nd weekly Disquiet Junto project — Digital Magical Realism (The Assignment: What does this imaginary genre sound like?) — at: https://disquiet.com/0563/ 

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto /

Aviantimatter (disquiet0563)

I wonder who they are / The men who really run this land
And I wonder why they run it / With such a thoughtless hand   
 -- David Crosby, "What Are Their Names"

Track list:
David Crosby – I'd Swear There Was Somebody Here
Shane Morris – The Internal Field (excerpt)
Deep Listening Band – Phantom
Ingvar Tautra – The Island
Le Révélateur - Fleuve Noir
Michael Valentine West – recDEP2
Fossil Aerosol Mining Project – The Failed Resurrection of Easy Listening
Jacob Newman – Pollen Absynthesis
Rumblin Cynth Rampo – Fall of memory Naviar Haiku 463
Maggi Payne – Ahh-Ahh (Ver 2.1) (excerpt)
Slow Walkers – Procession
Night Note – Reconciliation
Andrew Quitter – More Revelations/November (excerpt)
DRNTTCKS – Europa 2 (Extended Version) (excerpt)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eclectic current – I’d swear there was nobody left

No more, this road is closed

Nobody goes down there

Voices beneath the ash

Tone construction 06

“Lost, so small amid that dark, hands grown cold, body image fading down corridors of television sky.”  ― William Gibson, Neuromancer

Track list & start times:
00:00  Le Révélateur – Fleuve Noir
06:30  Josco & Spheruleus – Tungsao
14:52  LazenbeeIndustries – gullible
20:10  Sun Plexus – Le Singe qui Lèche le Linge qui Sèche  (excerpt 1)
31:35  Bing Satellites – The Dreamer and the Dream
41:57  Kuba Kapsa Ensemble – Vantdraught 10 No. 2 (excerpt)
48:02  Michael Begg – Why Fum'th in Fight
55:43  Mike Patton – Radius of Convergence
59:58  Julien Boulier – Estuaire Ephemere
1:03:44  Omit – Flow Pulser
1:10:15  Dichotomy Engine – One With Black Matter
1:16:37  Soft Generator – A Further Point Of View (excerpt)
1:28:16  Sun Plexus – Le Singe qui Lèche le Linge qui Sèche  (excerpt 2)
1:38:29  Mach Feedback – Vanished
1:44:06  Ostacoli Sonori – FourSevenSeven(naviarhaiku477)
1:49:23  Second Thought – Quartz
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Eclectic current – Down corridors of television sky

Tone construction 07

Made for Naviar Records' 480th Haiku Challenge. Details at https://www.naviarrecords.com/2023/03/15/naviarhaiku480-filling-my-shadows/

Filling my shadows [naviarhaiku480]

Tamyamgong

Made for Naviar Records' 482nd Haiku Challenge. Details and other inspirations at https://www.naviarrecords.com/2023/03/29/naviarhaiku482-dark-and-light/

Subsolar point equation (lounge version) [naviarhaiku482]

Railingong

“Sometimes, the most profound of awakenings come wrapped in the quietest of moments.”  ― Stephen Crane

Track list and start times:
00:00  Henry Mancini – Hatari!
02:52  Death Ambient – Carnival Death
04:48  Andrew Yencken – Metamorphoses I (excerpt)
10:50  irunak & Tuonela – Mysterious derivation
19:16  Hal Willner – Bercuse On Parade
24:53  Les Baxter – Busy Port
27:46  Taragana Pyjarama – Four Legged
32:18  Boson Spin – Boheimizer
36:23  Luca Forcucci, Crystal Sepulveda, Cheryle Leonar – Bodyscape
47:42  leithal – Troll kalla mig
51:42  Oneohtrix Point Never – Animals
55:27  Tim Linghaus – I was Atoms and Waves
58:05  Richard Skelton – Larch Light (excerpt)
1:08:08  Lawrence Bartlett – Fur Seals 
1:10:53  halF unusual – halF countinG [naviarhaiku479]
1:12:44  Simon Whetham – The Phoenix (excerpt)
1:20:48  Thu Bird – Black Mind
1:24:46  The Lost Trail Orchestra – Untitled 9 
1:40:42  Hal Willner – Alamo Hellfire
1:46:21  Carter Thomas – Sonoma (excerpt)
1:50:39  Uncle Hassell – Bayou Bartholomew
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eclectic current – Mysterious derivations

All sounds are drawn from https://soundcloud.com/muterial/off-the-rails?in=muterial/sets/off-the-rails-collaborations , treated and mistreated with The Mangle, paulstretch and various Audacity plugins and effects, then cut up and reassembled in a counter-intuitive fashion.

muterial Off The Rails (Tuonela reconstruction)

Unrealing

“Tell people there's an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure.”  ― George Carlin

Track list and start times:
00:00  Matthew Revert – Claire's Apartment
04:53  Elif Yalvaç – Green Cathedral
10:01  Boson Spin – misurnu
14:04  Stefan Węgłowski – Ray of Night
21:01  Jannick Schou – Emptiness Waiting To Be Filled
28:52  Helecho Experimentar / Antonella Eye Porcelluzzi – pesquiza
33:09  Higanbana – Destroyer Of Body Prt3
38:23  Thomas Dimuzio – Zosz
45:22  Plinth – The London Necropolis Company
47:11  Simon Fisher Turner – guerrilla22 (excerpt)
54:41  Norah Lorway – end credits towards something else
1:02:41  Sleep Research Facility – 86ºs 115ºw
1:13:27  Stefan Wesolowski – Antyfona Do NMP
1:18:59  Terry Mullett – SC 211226 170311
1:26:16  Voice of Eye – Triton
1:32:29  Scanner – Ground Veil
1:34:45  Rumblin Cynth Rampo – Meddwl slefrod môr
1:53:31  Ichtyor Tides – Tepes Reduct
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eclectic current – Uncertainment venue

Opalescent landscape

Made for Naviar Records' 487th Haiku Challenge, Details at https://www.naviarrecords.com/2023/05/03/naviarhaiku487-sound-of-mountain/

Made from treated elements of https://soundcloud.com/agnosturaelwar/mountain-puffs-naviarhaiku485   Thanks Ingvar!

Mountain ocean rain cycle [naviarhaiku487]

Passing by

Cloud cover

Further exploration of the wonderful https://soundcloud.com/agnosturaelwar/mountain-puffs-naviarhaiku485

Puff the Magic Mountain (with Ingvar Tautra)

Dereliction

They walked to the edge

“…sound is spherical, but while listening to it, it seems to us to possess only two dimensions: pitch and duration; the third, depth–we know that it exists, but in a certain sense it escapes us.”  - Giacinto Scelsi

	Track list and start times:
00:00  The Legendary Pink Dots – Chemical Playschool 19 Part 2 (excerpt)
05:20  Spires That in the Sunset Rise – Terrestrials
12:57  Ilhan Mimaroglu – Fragmentation
18:39  Arca – EN
21:35  The Residents – Diskomo
29:13  Chris Watson – Invertebrate Harmonics
35:26  Aisha Orazbayeva & Lucy Railton – Duo for Violin and Cello, Pt. 2 (Scelsi)
39:45  Norman McLaren – Lignes verticales |Lines vertical
45:09  Scott Lawlor – Winter Seclusion (naviarhaiku488)
59:28  Friendsound – Lost Angel Proper St. (excerpt)
1:03:44  Zavoloka – Ornament
1:10:28  Snakefinger – Sawney Bean/Sawney's Death Dance
1:14:50  Mean Flow & Marco Lucchi – MoonSoon
1:19:07  Jules Fonzy – Ton silence aurait dû être de mise - JS2X
1:22:21  Ingvar Tautra – Three makes a perfect pair (excerpt)
1:34:15  Jimmy Peggie – Light Emerging
1:40:16  Ilhan Mimaroglu – To Kill a Sunrise
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eclectic current – The escape of sound

Shortwave meditation 01

Shortwave Meditation 02

Made for Naviar Records' 489th Haiku Challenge. Details at https://www.naviarrecords.com/2023/05/17/naviarhaiku489-dividing-the-autumn-sky/

Tree of two skies [naviarhaiku489]

Creek bed

Maffrane

Certain fears are encouraged

“I never practice my guitar; from time to time I just open the case and throw in a piece of raw meat.” ~ Wes Montgomery

Track list and start times:
00:00  Michio Kurihara – Pendulum On A G-String / The Last Cicada
06:38  Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders – Sequoia Seed Escape Pod
11:26  Evelyn Glennie & Fred Frith – Improvising in an empty factory
15:07  From The Mouth Of The Sun — Bodies in Fog
20:00  Mary Lattimore – We Wave From Our Boats
23:33  Hiss Tracts – for the transient projectionist
28:40  Francisco Sonur – The name of any river
34:12  Wodwo – Blueshift 
41:04  Volker Kriegel – Strings Revisited
48:25  Ashtray Navigations – The Feather
54:36  David Gilmour – The Colors Of Infinity (excerpt)
58:37  LeRoy Holmes – Search For The Vulcan
1:01:18  Saguache – Lattice Borealis
1:05:33  Night Note – Lilienthal
1:13:29  Tomo-Nakaguchi – A Drizzly Rain Day In Asagaya
1:18:57  Peter Wright – The Sunday Hangover
1:22:19  Scott Solter & Rohner Segnitz  – The Sea Breaks over a Derelict
1:30:14  The Moon is a Spaceship – flying at the sun
1:35:21  Von Pilman – The Calling
1:39:42  Aporia – #2
1:44:13  Melvins – The Anti-Vermin Seed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eclectic current – The time I burned my guitar

Abandoned shoreline

The scent of bitter almond forces memory from the darkness

Samples used include these artists and tracks: Firesign Theatre, Pharaoh Sanders , Alice Coltrane & Pharaoh Sanders,  The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake (Free Audio Books for Intellectual Exercise), Captain Goodvibes, Cluster, Going Home – Fallen Soldier Tribute by Unidentified Piper, The Lithgow Highland Pipe Band, Tangerine Dream, Mike Oldfield, Pere Ubu, Stomu Yamash’ta and a few (culled from ancient mixtape cassettes) that I can’t identify… yet.

The rest is original tracks, re-imaginings of some earlier tracks and field recordings made by me.

This is a 320kbps mp3 – a lossless copy (flac) may be obtained by contacting me by personal message.

The scent of bitter almond forces memory from the darkness

Sumitaku Kenshin (1961-1987), who died of acute myeloid leukemia just before turning 26, devoted the last 20 months of his life to haiku.

Made for http://www.naviarrecords.com/2017/09/27/5469/ 

The title is from another haiku by Sumitaku Kenshin:

furikaereba tsuki no aru waga kage (Turning around, I see my shadow in the moonlight)(Tr. Nakaoka Naomi & Kurose Hiroko)


This track uses the following sounds:

http://freesound.org/people/bassboybg/sounds/201637/
http://freesound.org/people/ERH/sounds/69192/
http://freesound.org/people/mariiao2/sounds/240676/
http://freesound.org/people/jmfenlon/sounds/351248/
http://freesound.org/people/bajko/sounds/385279/
http://freesound.org/people/Benboncan/sounds/63832/ 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUDJPWqFhgQ   audio
Excerpts from “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane

I see my shadow in the moonlight [Naviarhaiku195]

Piano - https://soundcloud.com/mirandashvangiradze

Ambiences & Production - Tuonela

This tune is now stuck in my head forever: https://soundcloud.com/mirandashvangiradze/in-paris  Not a bad thing at all! This is an ambient remix. The piano is from Mira's own track, all the ambient sounds are derived from that track, nothing else has been added.

I've done a couple of old tricks and a new one, outsmarted myself and had to adjust track lengths to two decimal places and... it sort of works... Oh, and I slowed it a little to emphasise the wonderful swing of the tune. It would be a lot easier if I could play accordion! :)

Image: A 60s model stands in a bubble on the Seine in Paris;  photo taken by fashion photographer Melvin Sokolsky

Mira in Paris (featuring Miranda Shvangiradze)

The Dream Garden

Augustus awoke with a glassy tinkling in his ears. It was so cold that there was a sparkle of fine frost over the dormitory. On his bed lay a long, elegant crystal, shimmering from within. It was his last dream, frozen solid.

Wrapping his ragged blanket around him, Augustus cradled the frigid fantasy and sneaked out. He felt sick with fear as he descended the steep, narrow staircase. His bare feet were numb and he clenched his jaw to stop his teeth chattering

He knelt by the grey stone wall at the end of the garden, rocking the glistening gem in his arms until the first beam of the rising sun fell upon it. The crystal gradually lost its luster, fading and shriveling until Augustus was left holding the body of a large lizard with glowing skin. Its diamond eyes faded in the dawn light.

Fighting back tears, he scraped a hole in the vegetable patch with his bare hands, burying the body with the others. As he crept back to bed, he prayed he would dream no more dreams, at least until it was warmer and they could find their own way to the garden.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Dream Garden

Milky Way

You must hear this: https://vimeo.com/52766051

*****

Ed Brunsden was kind and patient enough to interview me for  his blog Desert... Mountain... Dust...  - you can read it at https://desertmountaindust.blogspot.com.au/2017/02/tuonela-primitive-progressive.html

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. ~ Aldous Huxley

All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it. ~ Jean Cocteau

All music is beautiful. ~ Billy Strayhorn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've become addicted to drone. Again. I was the kid with his head on the piano, listening to the overtones die away, or pressing his ear to the steel hull of the ferry, enthralled by the sounds it created. I was the kid who formed wordless songs to accompany the sound of train wheels on a long journey, or hummed along with the fan on a hot day.

In the 60s I used to play my 45s on 16, or backwards, or by hand using razor blades as stylii.

I made cut-up tapes on a cheap cassette recorder in the 70s and experimented with reel-to-reel in the 80s. 

Thank you Subotnick, Lygeti, Coltrane, Jimi, Mimaroglu, Eno, Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk, Throbbing Gristle...

I am not a musician. I am a scavenger of sounds. I use the most basic software to process those sounds, stretching and filtering until something emerges that makes a joyful noise. Or not...

Tuonela

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