O.S.T. Synken Score Excerpt MP3s

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The latest release from the adozen netlabel is a death-ambient grab bag. Titled Synken Outtakes and credited to longtime outward-electronic figure O.S.T. (aka Chris Douglas), it collects two dozen relatively brief tracks — they top out at just over five minutes, with over half under two minutes. Each and every entry could serve as a pace-setting cue in an urban thriller, all rattling, jangling, echoing nuance, like the bug-like white noise of “Frosis,” the rock-guitar effluvia of “Miv Rone,” and the hypnotic cymbals of “Digisn” (MP3).

In fact, the audio segments are just a dip into a deeper pool, some 600 of which were composed by Douglas as part of a project that paired him with the visual-production crew Transforma (Baris Hasselbach, Luke Bennett and Simon Krahl). The Synken website, synken.com, includes three additional soundtrack excerpts, a sunken treasure titled “Porg” (MP3), a dank, threatening bit of minimal techno titled “Lides” (MP3), and a glisteningly glitchy affair titled “PKV Anal” (MP3). Douglas has explained his production techniques by stating that “most of the tracks here are played on instruments (piano, organ, melodian, melodica, harmonica, vibraphone, guitars, zitars) then processed with either analog or digital effects.”

Get the full Synken Outtakes release at adozen.org. More on O.S.T. at amhain.net and myspace.com/rougishscald. Various stills here:

Proggy Instrumental MP3s from Marco Cervellin

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Wacky Southern Current is Marco Cervellin, whose release on the Petcord netlabel, Ageless Calm in Times of War, mixes proggy elements into a soothing, atmospheric whole. The key track is “Clouds Shifting” (MP3), with which the set opens. There’s a melting bed of syrupy sounds, joined by what could be guitar, reminiscent as it is of Adrian Belew’s sad-seagull sound. A reprise of the same song, which closes the five-track EP, emphasizes the woozy, Brian Eno 1970s-pop feel, with waterlogged melodies and a gently rocking groove.

This is more than just sweet little songs atop an electronica foundation. Take “Watercolour” (MP3), for instance. Its backing sounds, below and astride an acoustic (and, later, electric) guitar, are all, in one manner or another, echoes of the lead line, not merely framing ornaments.

Get the full set at petcord.com.

Battlestar Galactica (“A Disquiet Follows My Soul”) Remix MP3s

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Given that the next episode due out from Battlestar Galactica is titled “A Disquiet Follows My Soul” (air date: January 23), it seems a good time for a quick look at the growing number of BSG remixes — an inevitability, given the TV series’s Steve Reich-ian score cues, as well as the healthy overlap between science fiction, web-based fan communities, and electronic music. While youtube.com is awash with audio-video reworkings of BSG, the number of direct-to-download versions are more modest. One place to start is livejournal.com, where Aaron “AmR” Ribgy has posted links to a handful of his own club-ready mixes, including “Gaeta’s Lament (Quantized/Analog Mix)” (adrive.com), “Rebirth (Roslin & Adama’s Remix)” (adrive.com), and “Leoben’s Testament” (adrive.com), all accessible via those related adrive.com links. More on AmR/Rigby at his myspace.com/amrsocal page, and at rig1015.livejournal.com.

F.A.Q.: Ambient Social Networking

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The website’s F.A.Q. (aka “frequently asked questions,” at disquiet.com/faq) has been updated:

    10. Is Disquiet.com also on Twitter, Del.icio.us, MySpace, and so forth?

    Some of them, yes: twitter.com/disquiet, delicious.com/disquiet, and (though to a much lesser extent) myspace.com/disquietspace and (as of June 12, 2009) facebook.com/disquiet.

11 MP3s in Search of Ingmar Bergman

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

At the tail end of last year, the Praemedia record label spun off its own netlabel, focused on freely downloadable music. Named Lucescit, the netlabel (located at lucescit.praemedia.com) had as its first release a various-artists set titled Shimmering Green Bird: A Tribute to Ingmar Bergman, 11 tracks dedicated to the dour and introspective Swedish director (The Seventh Seal, Fanny and Alexander, Persona). Among the highlights of Shimming Green is “Mute Echo (In Honor of Persona)” by Agnes Szelag and Caroline Penwarden. It features overlapping vocals, like something the Roaches might have attempted during one of their least pop-minded phases. The moans, all vowelly glossolalia, are set to echo, per the title, into the background, occasionally achieving a tension in beading tones (MP3). Two “Sarabande” tracks by Lance Grabmiller, the proprietor of both Lucesit and Praemedia, take one of JS Bach‘s solo cello suites as its point of origin. “Sarabande 1” (MP3) opens with crackling old vinyl, the melody — the original was the pinnacle of hummable math — played out a la Wendy Carlos, the tones rudimentally synthesized, the pace as slow as a lullaby. Eventually there’s an intrusion of rambling percussion, something that’s played up even more in “Sarabande 2” (MP3). Robert Scott Thompson’s “Passagio” is the set’s most ethereal, structured as a series of ghostly reverberations (MP3). Other participants in Shimmering Green include A Million Billion, Phillip Greenlief, Encomiast, George Cremaschi, The Beautiful Room Is Empty, Nathan Hubbard, and Nina Deering. Get the full batch at lucescit.praemedia.com, available both as MP3s and “lossless” FLAC files.