Dave Stafford’s video “Formation of the Universe” is a solid introduction to an amorphous, fluid music application. The application is Borderlands Granular. It allows the user (né musician) to locate tiny segments of pre-existing music and build from them glistening, refracting cues that cycle in a random, often curiously delightful state. Stafford mixes vocal samples with less identifiable source material. In addition to posting the video, he wrote a lengthy appraisal of the app, which is one of his favorites. Stafford goes into detail on how it functions. The music makes good background listening as you read up on how it was recorded.
It’s the latest piece I’ve added to my ongoing YouTube playlist of fine [“Ambient Performances.”](https://disquiet.com/2016/04/30/a-youtube-playlist-of-ambient-performances/) Video originally posted to Stafford’s [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G260DQ0Bya8). More from Stafford at [pureambient.com](http://www.pureambient.com/artistdavestafford.html) and [pureambient.wordpress.com](https://pureambient.wordpress.com/)
While he skips the backward-masky quality of the original, SineRider’s electric-guitar cover of the Boards of Canada miniature “Over the Horizon Radar,” not even a minute and a half in length, is true to the source material’s pacing and mood. The video was recorded live, and the gap between what is seen and what is heard is worth reflecting on. The notes are plucked, but the sound really owes its quality to the (unspecified) guitar pedals that are, like the musician’s head, offscreen. A given pluck happens noticeable split seconds — we need another term for “split seconds,” as it suggests speed when what is in fact meant is a discernible gap — before the full impact of the playing is felt.
It’s the latest piece I’ve added to my ongoing YouTube playlist of fine [“Ambient Performances.”](https://disquiet.com/2016/04/30/a-youtube-playlist-of-ambient-performances/)
For reference, [here’s the original](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxSpuL8P5Ok):
And [here’s the work](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goL-Iu6Qz2o) of someone who listens like I do. This takes the original and loops it to play for five minutes:
Video originally posted at [youtube.com](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26JKwF6Wq8c). SineRider is the name under which Devin Powers records ambient/electronic music. He’s based in Norwood, Massachusetts. More from SineRider/Powers at [soundcloud.com/sinerider](https://soundcloud.com/sinerider), [twitter.com/sinerider](https://twitter.com/sinerider), and [sinerider.bandcamp.com](https://sinerider.bandcamp.com/).
The always dependable netlabel La bél, based in Italy, has released a beautiful album of lightly warped instrumental chamber pop music from Ykymr. Titled *Spring Fields Become a Hummingbird*, it’s a collection of seven tracks that range from melty piano and synth hymns, complete with layers of bird song (“Sorry”), to gently rhythmic post-rock (“Sleepy”). Two highlights are on the quieter side. “Snow in the Southerly” is one of those piano/bird pieces, adding a bit of electric guitar midway through. “Spring Birds” fuzzes out the piano in a static-tinged manner that sounds like an ancient archive.org 78 recording of some proto-minimalist’s private sketches.
Album originally posted for free download at [labelnetlabel.bandcamp.com](https://labelnetlabel.bandcamp.com/album/spring-fields-become-a-hummingbird). More from Ykymr, based in Tokyo, Japan, at [ykymr.bandcamp.com](https://ykymr.bandcamp.com/) and [ykymr.tumblr.com](http://ykymr.tumblr.com/).
This archaic callbox stands on a street that’s been in a constant state of construction for at least a decade. New structures have risen. Old ones have been refurbished or destroyed. Entirely new tunnels have been excavated and put into use. Businesses have come and gone. The callbox, nestled into some high brush and thick weeds, was locked shut at some point along the way. Then came the indignities: the cobwebs (it should be noted these withstood a day of rain) and the mess of paint. If this box could still make or take a call, it would be an effort to access it. Perhaps it’s on a list somewhere of historic items to be protected. Perhaps it’s low on another list of things to be disposed of, or to be retrofitted. Perhaps those lists have disappeared and no one today with a municipal title even knows of its existence. Perhaps the line still works, perhaps the line is still on, and perhaps someone on the other end hears people passing, few if any providing any evidence that they note the callbox’s presence.
The video’s reveal comes 33 seconds in. Up until that point the camera has been slowly gazing around traditional Kyoto, Japan: the vaulted roofs, the red gateways, the concrete structures, the sculptured foliage, the constructed waterways. The wide-angle, perfect geometry of the shots, and the slow motion in which they appear, at first have the feel of a video-game cutscene, but for all the perfection, this is real. This is Kyoto, in all its preserved beauty. The stroll is accompanied by a beat, the heady semi-swagger of solid instrumental hip-hop, the way instrumental hip-hop can be tinged with nostalgia. The nostalgia of instrumental hip-hop may often be for the very early 1990s, and the nostalgia of Kyoto may be for several centuries earlier, but they pair well. Hip-hop and Japan have a longstanding relationship, a sense of mutual regard, so the matchup makes sense. And then at 33 seconds, into view comes British producer Ally Mobbs, propped up on the edge of low wall, pounding gently if insistently on an MPC 500, the portable beat machine, his head bobbing. He’s as lost in the music as we are. The difference is, he’s making the music. We get barely five seconds before he disappears from view, the camera wandering back on its own way. At 51 seconds he appears again, and remains in view, until the very end (the video is 1:34 long, but the music is over at about 1:28). There is no sound besides the music, no footsteps or birds. The headspace of the music is the headspace of Mobbs himself, who’s performing the track — recording the track — live while the camera is filming.
The video was posted two days ago on the [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_br1lcm6gc) of Nedavine ([nedavine.bandcamp.com](https://nedavine.bandcamp.com/), [nedavine.com](http://www.nedavine.com/)). More from Ally Mobbs, who lives in Kyoto, at [allymobbs.com](http://www.allymobbs.com/), [allymobbs.bandcamp.com](http://allymobbs.bandcamp.com), and [twitter.com/allymobbs](https://twitter.com/allymobbs). Track found via a post Mobbs made on the [llllllll.co](http://llllllll.co/t/latest-tracks-videos/99/372?u=disquiet) discussion boards.
