“I’ll Read You A Story” taken from The Golden Morning Breaks and Colleen Et Les Boîtes À Musique. The video was made by Jon Nordstrom
Tag Archive for 'ambient'
After a two month wait, Dutchman Wouter Van Veldhoven’s latest ambient release finally arrived on my doorstep. Considering the monumental delay, I have to assume the simple square six-inch cardboard package’s journey from Eat This Media’s Dutch offices to The Submersible Dirigible’s NYC-based corporate towers was a laborous one, apparently traveling over land by crab-walk, and over the Atlantic by paddleboat. Fortunately, Wouter’s latest record turned out to be a soothing remedy for injustice, allowing me to quickly forgive the collaborative failure of the Dutch and American mail-carriers.
wouter in context (bookmarked aac): Download (62)
wouter in context (mp3): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (113)With only a handful of previous releases — I assume Wouter’s work hasn’t yet captured the eye of most ambient music fans. Considering Wouter’s Four Simple Songs alongside his earlier, far-too-limited Ruststukken (Slaapwell, 2007), it seems likely he’ll soon be to mentioned alongside the best established work from our era’s biggest contemporary-minimalist super-celebrities. Stylistically, Wouter’s brittle tape-fueled ambient arrangements feel inspired primarily by William Basinski’s own melancholy, high-altitude tape-glaciers. “Second Simple Song” (see podcast) makes the most convincing case for Basinski’s influence on the record; the track’s leaky organs and inky rythms are drenched in a shrill, pervasive electrostatic leaking from the track’s warmer, ailing melodies. Decay and crafted interference burden the more emotive instrumentation like a wet blanket, familiar from comparable Basinski releases like The Disintegration Loops (2062, 2002/2003) or Variations for Piano & Tape (2062, 2006).
There is light. We neither see nor touch it.
In its empty clarities rests
what we touch and see.
I see with my fingertips
what my eyes touch:
shadows, the world.
With shadows I draw worlds,
I scatter worlds with shadows.
I hear the light beat on the other side.
– ‘This side’, Octavio Paz
edit: podcast fixed
Any researcher looking to uncover an exhaustive list of international musical hotbeds, those alluring capitals for creativity and genre-bending developed by the contemporary music underground (e.g., Iceland, the UK, Finland, Sweden, Denmark) would probably find Italy ranked alongside the likes of Mongolia, Cambodia or the United Arab Emirates. Until just recently, I doubt I could name many noteworthy Italian musicians myself, besides the glorious Goblin, or Luciano Pavarotti — and the latter only comes to mind because I regularly encounter his likeness featured proudly on a wall mural inside my local pizza place. Goblin and Pavarotti are nothing to sneeze at, surely, but aren’t quite cutting edge. Partly for that reason, discovering Fabio Orsi’s ambient work — and subsequently the work of Gianluca Becuzzi, Valerio Cosi, among others — has been especially delightful. Encountering your favorite genre surprisingly well developed in yet another region overseas leads to a barrage of new discoveries.
Fabio Orsi’s Picture Myself In a Cloud (Speaking Through Thought), his first release for ruralfaune (myspace), is the latest in an accomplished catalog of finely crafted, endlessly pleasing electro-acoustic, ambient releases from the Italian musician. Picture Myself fits snugly alongside an already impressive catalog of under-celebrated releases on the finest of micro-labels, including LVD, Digitalis, and (the apparently Italian) A Silent Place. Continue reading ‘Fabio Orsi’s ‘Picture Myself In a Cloud’ (ruralfaune 2008)’
Fabio Orsi - Part One (Picture Myself..., ruralfaune 2008): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (223)
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