Name: Ruse by WhenIWasWater
Duration: 5 min 55 s
Description: TipTop Audio Buchla Modules with Pittsburgh Modular Double Helix Complex Oscillator.

Really cool.  I love the sounds and the overall vibe.

Tapes and Topographies is US based artist Todd Gautreau, who has had music releases on labels such as Past Inside the Present, Dronarivm, Shimmering Moods and his own imprint, Simulacra. His project has been active since 2014 following his previous alias Tear Ceremony and he also produces a downtempo as Sonogram.

With each new album, Todd follows a different workflow to achieve new details and results in his sound. Increasingly, his work has been aided by the use of hardware and outboard effects.
In his latest album Amplitudes, he has taken a set of sounds and fed these through a looper, experimenting with altered loop speeds. He used FM synthesis for the first time in this body of work, alongside some of his tried and tested methods, joined by field recordings.

These nine compositions clock in at almost 50 minutes; a compelling listen through dreamy, organic textures. Todd has created a lot of music in the last 18 months and Amplitudes is the latest in his continuous process of distilling his sounds and ideas down to their essence.
The album’s artwork is a macro-photograph of a stone, as the fine details are ‘amplified’ by the magnification effect of the camera’s lens. There is not a clear concept but inspiration is drawn from film and literature, as well as self-reflection, memory, loss and dreams. As these compositions play out, you’ll find yourself concentrating on fine details, whilst at other times, in a blissful state, zooming out to absorb the bigger picture.

Amplitudes

wlr104 Tapes and Topographies - Amplitudes

Made in response to @naviar-records haiku challenge 437. 
https://www.naviarrecords.com/2022/05/18/naviarhaiku437-high-noon/

Sunlight, birds and water. 
Slow, calm. 

Once again, I've found this to be a very satisfying and inspiring challenge.

Birds on Water

Birds on Water (naviarhaiku437)

Moog Matriarch with Microcosm Hologram and Strymon Nightsky

WhenIWasWater

Grains

TipTop Audio Buchla Modules with Pittsburgh Modular Double Helix Complex Oscillator.

Ruse

3 Electric Relaxation

Psalms

Concord

I recorded this in an apartment I was staying at in New York. It was early in the day. I was the only one up. I had another hour before my solitude was scheduled to be interrupted. The building’s HVAC each night disturbed my sleep, but as with a nightmare, those same sounds were tranquil, even beautiful, come morning. I had attempted another 30-second recording before this one. While it was underway I noted several disappointing disturbances — creaks and pops, the aural detritus of a building waking up. Apart from them I heard an extraordinary spatial drone, a manifestation of overtones, a symbiosis of modern domestic infrastructure and a room of high ceilings, a hard floor, and a wall of glass at one end. When the first attempt ended, I took a slow, deep breath and hit record. I knew in the moment that it would work out well. There is something of Schrödinger’s cat to the act of field recording. A place is many places when you listen to it over time, but when you hit record, it gets clarified (reduced, flattened, distilled) to one specific environment. This can feel like an exertion of influence when you undertake the recording process consciously, when you have situated yourself in the moment. I felt a kind of authorship as the second recording was underway. It was precisely what I had heard beneath the extraneous noises the first time. After 30 seconds had elapsed, I ceased recording. I had a sense it had worked out, a sense confirmed many hours later, when I listened back for the first time, on the flight home. Just minutes after this recording ended, the room went suddenly silent. The air conditioning system had reached a point — whether barometric or calendrical — that caused it to shut off. Minutes later, the lawnmowers began their prowling. I had been even more fortunate than I’d known when I hit record that second time.

In One Place (Second Attempt)

Sonification of the Dow Jones Index around September 11, 2001. A total of approx. 2000 data records have been sonified. From October 1998 to September 2006. September 11th is approximately in the middle of the work. The original has a length of 25 minutes. Here is the version shortened by 10 minutes. Created with TwoTone and then modified.

Sonification of the Dow Jones Index around September 11, 2001.

Recorded Saturday evening, 20th of April 2024.

Beyond the Occipital Cortex

Cacti

Putting a prototype Synthtech E950 through its paces, trying to get as unrecognizable as I can.

Ruse

WhenIWasWater

Recent comments

Gary Regester

Related tracks