Tag Archive: Ambient Music


RANDOM SHADES OF DAY

Filed under: Italy, Music — Leave a comment
May 26, 2010

The UK-based label Priviliged To Fail Records have done an immense public service in releasing a superb new triple CD by Fabio Orsi entitled Random Shades of Day.

Fabio is originally from Taranto, Italy but is now based in Berlin. He is such a prolific artist  that it is hard to keep track of his release schedule, not least because many of his recordings come out as limited runs on small labels or as self released CDRs.

This box set is therefore invaluable as it includes two CDs of previously unreleased and out-of-print material spanning his career to date. As an added bonus, a third disc is a four-part piece of all new tunes from which the album gets its title.

His stock in trade is ambient electronica using extended drones, keyboard/ guitar loops, eery voices and found sounds. Continue reading →

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OCEAN OF SOUND

Filed under: Books, Music — Leave a comment
February 7, 2010

‘Ocean of Sound’ by David Toop was first published over a decade ago but still reads as a highly contemporary if occasionally confusing account of experimental music in the 21st century.

Toop, born in 1949, is described as a musician, author and music curator. He’s a regular contributor to The Wire magazine and has released half a dozen solo albums of instrumental electronica. On top of this, he’s also  been involved in numerous collaborations with artists like Eno. Prince Far I, John Zorn, Derek Bailey and (rather less fashionably) The Flying Lizards.

The book is subtitled ‘Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds’ and its stated aim is “to explore is the path by which sound (and music in particular) has come to express [an] alternately disorientating and inspiring openness through which all that is solid melts into aether”.

Clear? I didn’t think so! Continue reading →

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AN ATHEIST IN A GOSPEL CHOIR

Filed under: Atheism, Music — Leave a comment
January 17, 2010

Good interview with Brian Eno in today’s Observer by Paul Morley. He talks about how he combines an interest in abstract experimental art with his work on results driven pop with mainstream acts like Coldplay and U2.  These apparent contradictions never bother him too much. In the same spirit,  he reveals that  he is in a local gospel choir despite being an atheist.

In talking about his invention of Ambient Music, I like what he says about giving genre labels to music:

“All the signs were in the air all around with ambient music in the mid 1970s, and other people were doing a similar thing. I just gave it a name. Which is exactly what it needed. A name. A name. Giving something a name can be just the same as inventing it. By naming something you create a difference. You say that this is now real. Names are very important.”

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ELECTRONIC GOSPEL

Filed under: Music — 2 Comments
September 23, 2008

A vivid and treasured memory from 1977 is that of walking into Barbarellas club in Birmingham while Talking Heads were midway through ‘Uh-Ho Love Comes To Town’. They were actually the support act to The Ramones which explains why I missed the first part of their set.

I still remember being enthralled by David Byrne who looked nervous and nerdy but curiously charismatic at the same time. The way he sang looked like therapy – a way of releasing his demons in public.

I saw the band less than a year later at the same venue – this time they were headlining (with Dire Straits as support) – and this cemented my unwavering love for the band. Continue reading →

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