interesting bits for the old year

Hello friends,
Today I´ll be posting some links and videos of random interesting things that I´ve come across on the internet and other blogs. Stuff that has caught my eye and my ear this past year. Hope you enjoy.


This I just found the other day on Jefre Cantu-Ledesma´s excellent Root Strata blog:
Keith Fullerton Whitman - Pyramid Atlantic (I guarantee this is worth sitting through!)




















Keith Fullerton Whitman´s "Generator" Cassette on Root Strata with an excellent review from Boomkat.





















Steve Moore´s "Primitive Neural Pathways" in Self-Titled Mag (I also enjoyed the interview with Steve on Genesis)

And my album of the year comes from the man Greg Davis and the Home Normal label:

Greg Davis & Chris Weisman - Northern Songs














It came out on Greg´s Autumn Records first in a limited edition of 100 cd-rs, then the proper CD followed on Home Normal, and I believe it´s still available though only 1000 copies were made. And apparently Autumn Records released a vinyl version of 300 copies but either I totally missed out on that one or it hasn´t been released yet........ hoping for the latter.

The next record came out in 2009, but I got it at the same time as the above one, so it goes on my 2010 list:-)

Greg Davis - Midpoint
















This is one of my favorite drone albums of all time, ever since I heard this I´ve been dying to go to a Greg Davis show. To be honest, I enjoyed Greg´s early CDs, but didn´t really get into it much (the Carpark days). Then I was floored by his "Mutually Arising" CD on Kranky (2 mega bliss-out drone works) and stumbled upon his Crystal Vibrations blog where he shares his collection of good New Age records and I really started paying attention. This Midpoint album is two amazing live sets from shows at either side of the U.S. The second track is my favorite thing I´ve heard from Greg: synthesizer drone, new age electronic sounds, gongs, processed voice, tribal drumming, and a sense of depth, development, and evolution within the piece that demonstrates Greg´s intuitive compositional style... ending up with some beautiful arpeggios that will remind you a lot of the Keith Fullerton Whitman video above. A cosmic/organic/electronic immersive experience to settle your mind. And if you haven´t heard his work with Zach Wallace as Sun Circle, you´re missing out.

Oren Ambarchi - Live at Corsica Studios 3.09.10



























I´ve been a big fan of Oren´s take on avant-guitar drone for quite a while, and was immensely pleased with this free download from the always excellent Touch label. In the same slowly unfolding and harshly beautiful style as his "Lost Like A Star" album and "A Final Kiss on Poisoned Cheeks" piece.
3.09.10 - Live at Corsica Studios – 25:59 - 192 kbps

And to finish up, here´s a few more things in no particular order that inspired me in 2010 or helped me through the year:

··Rediscovering Nick Drake
··My girls
··Popol Vuh and Stars of the Lid (as usual), Brian Eno´s Another Green World, and lots of Machinefabriek
··2010 albums of note: The Alps - Le Voyage, Emeralds - Does It Look Like I´m Here?, Eleh - Repose, Dolphins Into The Future - The Music of Belief, Eluvium - Similes, Barn Owl - Ancestral Star, Sun Araw - Off Duty
··Reading books
··Green tea
··Seeing a few good shows: Emeralds, Robert Fripp & Theo Travis, KK Null and Tabata Mitsuru, and Seefeel
··El Intruso and our recent/on-going/future projects

(even though we still haven´t finished recording our studio album.....)


I guess that´s enough random tidbits for now, happy new year everyone. I hope it´s better than the old one.

Another (2) Green World(s)

Let´s start from the basic principle that this is one of the best albums ever made:






















I posted it on my other blog a while back. It´s one of those albums I keep going back to, it´s just so beautifully and creatively made. It stands out for its time and for today, full of innovative sounds and ideas. I won´t get into further detail because I really just wanted to point out two other albums in reference to it:



















This is Eluvium´s latest full length album, and it´s beautiful. Plenty of ambient/post rock soundscapes as usual, but at the first listen I picked up lots of Brian Eno influence that I never noticed in Eluvium´s other albums. The vocals and vocal lines are very reminiscent of Another Green World, as well as other arrangements and sound choices... Great album, highly recommended.

And then we have Arp:



















This is more underground than Eluvium I suppose. Arp is Alexis Georgopoulos, also a member of the Alps with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. This album is obviously Eno-influenced, someone else compared it to the Apollo album, but really I´d have to say it mostly echoes Another Green World. One track is practically a rip-off, but it´s still a great track:-) Spacey electronics and plenty of modular synth work, while still quite "song-based".

So basically, if you just can´t get enough early Eno and you want to spend some more time in other green worlds, give these two albums a listen.