Time and Music Intertwined

Music is art. Music when recorded has also since the early 1900's also been associated with mass-production. We may be moving on from those times, at least when it comes to music as a physical medium, and at least partially. One way for record label owners, curators and musicians making sense of the diminishing amount of (records) artefacts circulated in the economy, is to make fewer records, items which people may actually care about.

This limitation is when it comes to various labels such as Time Released Sound, Ornaments and many more, self imposed and not forced upon them by terms of lack of sales. The difference is important, as is the motivation: Time Released Sound is one outlet which clearly wants to trancend the division between the record and art, and the art in this context means creating unique containers for the actual records.

Susan Matthews & Richard Moult - Fluids by Time Released Sound

As Ambientblog.net puts it when it comes to these labels:

"(...) There are the 'labour of love' labels, run by people definitely not into it "for the money", releasing extremely limited physical releases mostly packed in hand-crafted artwork so delicate and complex that it would be impossible to create more than 50 copies of a release."

Some people might scoff at the notion of releasing so few records, at the same time it illustrates the difference of motivations among artists. Of course, some will still want to live the rock n' roll lifestyle with many listeners and followers, others find different motivations. And I admit that having a record which I know has in some way been handcrafted does on a personal level simply feels better, then just buying a generic CD.

Antonymes - 281210 by Time Released Sound

(image and music courtesy of Time Released Sound label)

Related post from the archives:

Be quiet, we might be witnessing the end of an industry.

Giving and Receiving out on Load and Clear

(cover photography, Kajsa Jansson)

Suecae Sounds - Giving and Receiving (Load and Clear) by Suecae Sounds

The player above my new release called Giving and Receiving, published today under the Suecae Sounds moniker. It is released on Belgian netlabel Load and Clear, available to download for free here.

If you like it. Feel free to listen to more music published at Load and Clear's website. Featuring prominent releases such as Ocralab - Airform EP, Mr.Bizz - Soul Mate EP and Christoph Schindling - Admission among others.

Lylac (Helios Remix) @ Audiobulb

Lylac (He­lios Remix) from Audiobulb on Vimeo.

Kind of tired post-work, I stumbled across Audio-bulb records. There I found the video for the artist Papercutz - Lylac (Helios Remix). It goes without saying that I found it good enough to warrant a post on my blog, so that others hopefully can enjoy this etheral piece of music and video.

My Design in a Field of Motion

Motionfield - Under the Stars

The ambient artist Motionfield has recently released a new album of his: the soothing record Under the Stars. The music is a blending pot of warm ambient and mellow electronica. I would go as far as saying that this has some strong references to the great pioneer's of syntheziser music.

I designed the cover with the basis of a photograph I took this spring. The first cover entirely done by me. So this is somewhat different then the covers which I have contributed my images to.

It is available for purchase from many venues, such as Emusic and Record Union. For those who have an account at the streaming e-music service Spotify, you are also able to listen to the album there.

On the Cover: Reprise

A second photography of mine has found a home with one of the netlabel Kahvi's releases. The first one was Polaski's Bendii Syndrome. This time around it is Acrilic Colors ep Yves Klein Blue. It was released on the netlabel Kahvi Collective a couple of days ago and is available for free.

The sounds of Jupiter

A friend of mine pointed my attention towards an unlikely source of music. The planet Jupiter. Allegedly the NASA Voyager once picked up: "The complex interactions of charged electromagnetic particles from the solar wind , planetary magnetosphere etc. create vibration "soundscapes". The result below is a kind of ambient induced sweep of sounds which alters slowly. And I love ambient.

Here is a track from the 1990 album Space Sounds released by Brain/Mind research.



I sincerely doubt that this track is a unedited and raw recordning. But after reading a little from the people of NASA themselves, it seems that this is not fiction anymore. Leaving science. It has been done officially and NASA has some clips of sounds to listen to.

This of course could provide a fascinating backdrop for those who want to seek insperation from other sources then the usual. Maybe especially for those who are into sci fi and space exploration. Many ambient musicians have a keen interest in field recordings of natural sound, which they use in their music. I too own an old minidisc and a sony stereo microphone to record sounds. But most of us admittedly stay on the earth.

Artist Proton Kinoun did not use any audible material from any space exploration program to create his vivid and stunning album Apeiron. But the inspiraration is similar. With a rich imagination and the images of the Hubble Space Telescope he created one of the most beautiful free ambient albums that I have had the privileige to listen to. The netlabel Omnisphere recommends complete darkness and the use of headphones when listening to it. I can only agree.

Surreal Beauty

Portrait of Judy Garland

I recently stumbled across the art haven fthr productions, while enjoying the swedish artist Mosaik's newest EP out on Softphase netlabel. I liked the Mosaik release so much that I wrote a review of it for the netmagazine Original Sound Versions, which I hope will surface in due time on their website.

Behind Fthr productions is graphic artist Antti Jädertpolm, who creates a kind of modern surrealist art with some extremely interesting use of collage techniques. I wrote him to ask if I could put a couple of his stunning images on my blog, to my happiness he thought that this was fine.

Saturday night Hammock Collage

Like you can see in Portrait of Judy Garland and Saturday night Hammock Collage, there is a whole lot of attention to details. The common theme found in his images seems to my mind to be the amount of layers that can be found in almost every image and a very quirky kind of beauty.

Spring

There are both lighter and darker motives and a whole lot in between. What many of them share though is the overwhelming imagery . You can browse Antti's quite massive collective of fine art here. I warmly recommend you to view them in full size. It does all the difference.

On the Cover

The DJ gone artist producer Polaski just released a new free EP on excellent net-label Kahvi Collective, a great source for independent electronic music . I am the man resonsible behind the photography for the cover, which I am very happy to see together with the very soothing and relaxing music of Bendii Syndrome which is currently playing in my headphones.

You can download the release here.

That is not all though. I have just finished designed my first record cover for ambient artist Motionfield which is due release on Itunes and other spaces within two months. Seing as I am very much fond of his Laponia LP, it was quite an honour that he contacted me to ask me if I wanted to do the cover for his yet to be released album.

Some Valuable Recognition

The life of a Horse - 4 July 2009

Hello fellow traveler. I hope summer is treating you well, it certainly has been very warm lately this part of Sweden. I must have taken more baths outdoors the last two weeks then I took during 2008 in its entirely. I have some happy things to share with you this fourth of July. Things that I look forward to and a couple of very positive personal achievements.

In august one of my photographs are going to be used as a record cover by the excellent free net-label Kahvi Collective. I have written about their releases both on this blog, and on Original Sound Version. I have been listening to their artists since the very beginning and safe to say I am quite honored. I definitely look forward seeing my work together with music on a label that has affected me personally to a great extent.

Another thing I've been meaning to write for quite a while is to tell you that I have been accepted with a song of mine into a compilation that is going to be released for free later this year. Since the track list isn't official yet and I submitted it as a part of a contest I don't think I should write more just now...

Musically I will soon hopefully be able to delve into a new inspirational fields. I have recently bought a used Sony Minidisc and have ordered a small stereo microphone of good quality to connect to it. While I was pondering the alternatives I was looking for much more expensive options like the Zoom H4, but settled for what in the rapidly accelerating field of technology is an almost dead format. But that matters little to me, I am happy just as long as I can work with it as I intend.

What will I be able to do with my new Minidisc then? I will basically be able to record and collect my own sounds anywhere and then use it in musical projects. Imagine the possibilities. Nature is its own symphony which easily lends itself to musical ambition.

It will be very interesting to see where this will this lead me. I hope to find this out in a not to distant future.

A different kind of musical journey

I have been out of touch with the older music labels in net-label scene as of late. As this way of distributing music literally has exploded in the last couple of years, it has grown harder and harder to keep track of. I have a few reliable sources which helps me to keep track on new releases, but some of the old labels should not be forgotten. One of these labels is Kahvi Collective.

The artist Ambientium released a truly epic album for free at the collective February this year. Its name is Fractal Philosophy and I hope that it will move beyond being only listened to by those who already know about the net label scene.

What you get when you download the album is ten tracks of ambient and electronic music with a clear spiritual touch which tells the unusual vivid imaginative progression of the universe. From the beginning to the now. It takes off with the track Hadron Era trough the subsequently nine breathing stations with the final destination of Home.

In the beginning it is composed of loose and slightly bent out of shape ambient. As it continues it moves to the terrain on to more accessible electronica, only to later go back to realm of ambient again. As a listener you sense an underlying story in the journey. What that story is? That is up for you to find out and quite possibly create. As this album is less about songs and more about setting a mood it is best enjoyed in its totality. As a personal suggestion I can recommend it in unison with any kind of contemplative practice. Like mediation, prayer or just relaxation.

Bottom line is: Fractal Philosophy has personality. It is distinctly different and carefully blends the dreamy with the focused. It gently drifts along its soundscape and begs to be listened to with headphones to make you appreciate the subtleties and stereo panorama.

It is no wonder that it is precisely Kahvi Collective who provides us with this treat. They have over 250 releases of albums, singles and ep’s available for free on their website for everyone to enjoy - and quite possible fall in love with. Even though it is free they do however encourage people to donate money to their favorite artists. For the very modest sum of 30 $ they will even send you two DVD’s with all their releases thus far.

Ambientium's website can be found here.

Tokyo Dawn is back

The legendary free content german label Tokyo Dawn Records are back. And because we have been such nice children they have thrown in a special treat for us. The 2003 LP Practice avoiding mistakes is now available as a free download. The album is oozing with the laid back quality of trippy Hip Hop beats. Personal favorites are the chilly track from The Groove Guerrillas That day and the Krii remix treatment of the classic Pimp Knowledgy.

There's also Opossum sporting Too Late featuering the sweet vocals of Missamadina. Anthony Baggette treats us to two tracks, most notewortly being Summer in the hood; this feels like the season this album is made for. Carefree warm days out in the open. But until the day that summer comes, why not invoke the spirit of the season with these 20 tracks?

Feel the Phlow

I love to find out new music. I love to share music with people I appreciate. Recently I found out Phlow magazine which keeps it's eye out on the ever growing net-label scene. So I thought: why not pass it on to the people who may stumble across this blog? Phlow is quite eclectic in it's choices and recommendations and seem to be all over the place stylistically. This gives them an edge. The most important thing is that they are good.

They also have a raffle fo the artist He Can Jog's CD Middlemarch. An album that I hope to win. Behind He Can Jog is Eric Schoster and produces something called fractal Folk. Never heard that one before; which makes this all the more exiting.

Another mp3 and music related blog I would like to recomend is Aurgasm. They explain their mission with the following words: "We scout out music you've never heard and deliver only the finest. Expect music curiously different, yet simply enjoyable". I found out about the two lovely artists Cour de Pirate (curious and fragile french pop) and Lily Frost (swing-jazz) trough Aurgasm; something that I am grateful for.

Last but definetly not least comes the mp3-blog Palmsout Sounds. They have dedicated much focus lately on electronic dance music of all kinds and flavours. Sometimes Hip Hop. Often they host tracks by various artists and DJ mixes that you get to download for free. They recently ran into some minor trouble due to copyright issues because they publish bootleg remixes, but I have the feeling that they will come out swinging!

There are of course more to mention. But these will do for now.