downstream – Page 204

Stasis Report: Basinski ✚ Skeen ✚ More

Four brand new tracks and one from earlier this year added to the ambient playlist on Spotify and Google Play Music as of October 21, 2018

October 21, 2018October 21, 2018 / By Marc Weidenbaum

The latest update to my Stasis Report ambient-music playlist on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/user/dsqt/playlist/1YhR54cjP640J92AOxaoel?si=kDLQAGomSnKEqaMTBllKvg) and [Google Play Music](https://play.google.com/music/playlist/AMaBXylvMU-QFhCR1_vMgMgwndCq6WD-bq1MPNrUfZ9zXbCPE5IGbMj8aWwsLhjdTtH0QbKDa5dZkKizJ2pUmTHJ4Ib9Ws1_5A%3D%3D). The following five tracks were added on Sunday, October 21. All are from 2018, four of the five from this month. No room for a classic track this week — too much new music coming out as the end of 2018 approaches.

✚ “Mono No Aware 1.4” from **William Basinski** and **Lawrence English** off *Selva Oscura*. It was released by the Temporary Residence label on October 12, 2018:
[williambasinski.bandcamp.com](https://williambasinski.bandcamp.com/album/selva-oscura).

✚ “A Parallel Array of Horses,” the title track off the new album by **Geneva Skeen**. It was released by the Room40 label on October 19, 2018: [room40.bandcamp.com](https://room40.bandcamp.com/album/a-parallel-array-of-horses).

✚ “Glacial Tongues” is off the new **r beny** album, *Eistla*, self-released on October 5, 2018: [rbeny.bandcamp.com](https://rbeny.bandcamp.com/album/eistla).

✚ “Jordan Beckons,” off the new album *Valet to Iowa* by **Carey Moore**. It was self-released on October 11, 2018: [careymoore.bandcamp.com](https://careymoore.bandcamp.com/album/valet-to-iowa).

✚ “At Dawn” by Lea Bertucci off *Metal Aether*, released back on February 9, 2018, by the NNA Tapes label: [leabertucci.bandcamp.com](https://leabertucci.bandcamp.com/album/metal-aether)

Some previous Stasis Report tracks were removed to make room for these, keeping the playlist length to roughly two hours. Those retired tracks — from **Eashwarashwar Subramanian**, **Laura Karpman**, **Less Bells**, **Field Works** (with **Loscil**), **Suss**, **ioflow**, and **Aphex Twin** — are now in the [Stasis Archives](https://open.spotify.com/user/dsqt/playlist/7wQclXEfiEJ20KNIONJXGw?si=vXVq2rneQAekHlWwcn-7nw) playlist (currently only on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/user/dsqt/playlist/7wQclXEfiEJ20KNIONJXGw?si=vXVq2rneQAekHlWwcn-7nw)).

Disquiet Junto Project 0355: Sonic Vivisection

The Assignment: Operate with incisions on a live sound in real time.

October 18, 2018October 19, 2018 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Each Thursday in the [Disquiet Junto group](https://disquiet.com/junto/), a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, October 22, 2018, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on. It was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, October 18, 2018.

Tracks will be added to [the playlist](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0355) for the duration of the project.

These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at [tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto](http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto)):

**Disquiet Junto Project 0355: Sonic Vivisection**

The Assignment: Operate with incisions on a live sound in real time.

Step 1: Consider the concept of vivisection, or “the cutting of or operation on a living animal usually for physiological or pathological investigation,” per the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

Step 2: Consider how that term might be applied to sound — for example, enacting cuts into a live sound source in real time.

Step 3: Record a short piece of music/sound based on the thoughts that arose upon reflection on Steps 1 and 2 above.

Six More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0355” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your track.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0355” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0355-sonic-vivisection/

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Other Details:

Length: The length of your track is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0355” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

Upload: When participating in this project, post one finished track with the project tag, and be sure to include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.

Download: Please consider setting your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).

Context: When posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:

More on this 355th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Sonic Vivisection / The Assignment: Operate with incisions on a live sound in real time) at:

https://disquiet.com/0355/

Applied Loop Theory from Indonesia

A live ambient performance video by Fahmi Mursyid

October 15, 2018October 16, 2018 / By Marc Weidenbaum

It will not be surprising that sometimes the most enticing ambient music is made with the most minimal elements. No phalanx of gear and patch cables, no state-of-the-art computer running multiple programs in unison, no battery of controllers offering gestural interfaces to the musician. Just a combination of tape loop and a small number of effects — that is all it takes for Fahmi Mursyid, of Bandung, Indonesia, to usher the listener into a lush, artfully circumspect zone of sonic density.

“I discovered that the most interesting music of all was made by simply lining the loops in unison, and letting them slowly shift out of phase with other” — that quote from the minimalist composer Steve Reich introduces the video on YouTube, where Mursyid has posted a live recording of the track’s performance, simply titled “Ambient / Drone : Tape Loops Experiment.” In it, a looper allows Mursyid to layer segments of the tape, though never so much that the desolate quietude of its opening instance is ever fully lost.

This is the latest video I’ve added to [my YouTube playlist of recommended live performances of ambient music](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAgCxRbmR1MJxihgJkCPEnehAPvjoF71-). Video originally posted at [Mursyid’s YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkgdAge4AVk&list=WL&index=3&t=0s) back in October 2017. More from Fahmi Mursyid at [ideologikal.bandcamp.com](https://ideologikal.bandcamp.com/).

Stasis Report: Davachi ✚ Eno/Shields ✚ Classic Oliveros ✚

Four recent tracks and one Deep Listening Band classic from 1991 newly added to the ambient playlist on Spotify and Google Play Music as of October 14, 2018

October 14, 2018October 21, 2018 / By Marc Weidenbaum

The latest update to my Stasis Report ambient-music playlist on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/user/dsqt/playlist/1YhR54cjP640J92AOxaoel?si=kDLQAGomSnKEqaMTBllKvg) and [Google Play Music](https://play.google.com/music/playlist/AMaBXylvMU-QFhCR1_vMgMgwndCq6WD-bq1MPNrUfZ9zXbCPE5IGbMj8aWwsLhjdTtH0QbKDa5dZkKizJ2pUmTHJ4Ib9Ws1_5A%3D%3D). The following five tracks were added on Sunday, October 14. Three of the tracks are from the past month, one is from the summer, and one dates back to 1991.

✚ “Full Moon Serenade” off *Arrive without Leaving* from **Laraaji**, with **Arji OceAnanda** and **Dallas Acid**, released by Flying Moonlight on October 12, 2018: [bandcamp.com](https://laraaji-arji-dallasacid.bandcamp.com/album/arrive-without-leaving)

✚ “Gloaming” by **Sarah Davachi** off *Gave in Rest*, released by Ba Da Bing Records on September 14, 2018: [badabingrecords.bandcamp.com/album](https://badabingrecords.bandcamp.com/album/gave-in-rest).

✚ “The Weight of History” by **Brian Eno** with **Kevin Shields**. Initially an exclusive for Record Store Day, it was released this past week to streaming services: [pitchfork.com](https://pitchfork.com/news/listen-to-my-bloody-valentines-kevin-shields-and-brian-enos-new-song-the-weight-of-history/).

✚ “Triangle Waves” by **Hainbach** off *Ambient Piano Works*, released by the Seil Records label back on July 26, 2018: [seilrecords.bandcamp.com](https://seilrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-piano-works).

✚ “Phantom” by **Deep Listening Band** from the album *The Ready Made Boomerang*, recorded in the Fort Warden Cistern in 1988, and released on the New Albion label in 1991. The core bands is **Pauline Oliveros**, **Stuart Dempster**, and **Panaiotis**, with guests **Thomasa Eckert** and **William O. Smith**: [newalbion.com](http://www.newalbion.com/blog/-pauline-oliverosdeep-listening-band-the-ready-made-boomerang).

Some previous Stasis Report tracks were removed to make room for these, keeping the playlist length to roughly two hours. Those retired tracks (from **North Atlantic Drift**, **Mark Rushton**, **Les Momies de Palerme**, and **Grouper**, plus **Christina Vantzou** remixing **Balmorhea**, and a duet of **Julia Kent** and **Jean D.L**) are now in the [Stasis Archives](https://open.spotify.com/user/dsqt/playlist/7wQclXEfiEJ20KNIONJXGw?si=vXVq2rneQAekHlWwcn-7nw) playlist (currently only on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/user/dsqt/playlist/7wQclXEfiEJ20KNIONJXGw?si=vXVq2rneQAekHlWwcn-7nw)).

Two Sides of Michiru Aoyama

A new album on the Mirae Arts label

October 10, 2018 / By Marc Weidenbaum

<a href="http://miraearts.bandcamp.com/album/brilliant-days">Brilliant Days by Michiru Aoyama</a>

Ten minutes into the nearly 20-minute runtime of “Side A,” the opening track — the first half — of *Brilliant Days*, the new album by Michiru Aoyama, the music gets so quiet, the volume dips so near-thoroughly, that you might think the light bits of noise that linger are from tension on your headphone jack. Up until that moment, it has been all strings (guitar, though it could be mistaken for a synthesized simulation) and rustling (marbles? cash registers? leaves?), a sonic kaleidoscope of materials coming in and out of focus, in and out of interaction with each other, a soft tornado of simple sounds.

When the music recovers from that dip, when the second half of “Side A” is revealed as, in essence, a track unto itself, the vibe is heavier, the sounds deeper and the momentum at once more insistent and, yet, still suggested rather than explicit — less a matter of beats, more a matter of pulses. The music has moved from drone to atmospheric exotica, and it doesn’t let up on “Side B,” another nearly 20-minute escape into Aoyama’s considered exploration of melody and sound design.

Get the full album at [miraearts.bandcamp.com](https://miraearts.bandcamp.com/album/brilliant-days). Michiru Aoyama is based in Kamakura, Japan. More from Aoyama at [soundcloud.com/michiru-aoyama](https://soundcloud.com/michiru-aoyama).