If you’re following our label output, you would have noticed a debut album by Quiet Places released last month. Alongside Dennis White and Dave Gardner, the UK-based production trio is yet another milestone in the esteemed Charlie May’s career - one that has brought us some of the most revered and innovative music of the past thirty(!) or so years, through the likes of the duo, Spooky, as Sasha’s engineer and producer, or more recently on stage with Sasha, Dave and Dennis as part of the Refracted Live Shows. To say I’m honored to have Charlie a part of the label alongside Dennis and Dave is an understatement, let alone having him provide us with this stunning isolatedmix.
Of course, by me holding back any potential royalty payments until he agreed ;-) I was able to persuade Charlie to go deep with this one - taking the time to answer a few questions, provide a meticulously detailed track list (for the diggers) and a journey that will battle for your very favorite mix of the entire 100+ series so far. Charlie warned me at the beginning of this; his mixes are rare in this shape and form and if he’s doing it, he’s going to put everything into it. He didn’t disappoint.
Thank you Charlie for the time and effort gone into this one. You can grab the last few copies of the Quiet Places record here, (or digital) featuring one third of the man himself.
Interview with Charlie May
ASIP: You're no stranger to production partnerships over the years, of course, but how did Quiet Places come about?
CM: Dave Gardner, Dennis White and myself were an integral part of the Sasha Refracted Live shows. I think we spent 6 months building this technical monster with 16 musicians on stage and over 2hrs of material all of which had to be meticulously planned and executed. It was like putting a man into space. No room for error and of course we wanted to do it the hard way... without laptops on stage. It was a beast. So Quiet Places came about by necessary accident.
The three of us were programming and rehearsing all the time and of course we would continually come up with these little jams which we always recorded one way or another. As an antidote to the stress and structure we were under the Quiet Places project fell together very loosely, and that looseness and need to relax musically became a template for the album. Only 2 rules : no beats and no grid. Once you step away from those two constraints you are in a different world sonically. It's a very loose jam with laptops .. playing all the weird and wonderful nuggets we've each been hoarding over the past months. So what began as purely therapeutic became a rewarding record making experience.
Pictured - behind the scenes with some of the Refracted Live crew
What do each of you bring to the studio and process when making a Quiet Places record?
CM: Whisky, plenty of sci-fi both new and old, books and movies and a particular strain of humour that few can grasp / tolerate ... Dennis is a first rate engineer as well as an accomplished drummer. He's about the only one who can play anything in time and also remember what to play immediately. Plus he gets saddled with a lot of the arranging and mixing .. all the grunt work which on a seamless ambient record can get fairly hefty.
Dave is a bit of an encyclopedia of just about anything as long as it's weird and no one makes a sandwich quite like he does, so we always eat well. He has this amazing knowledge of electronic music and its production .. who did what when and how. He's the one who will turn around and say 'that's shit' or 'take half of that out and it's great'. He gives me crap for liking Def Leppard but it's only because he hasn't seen the light yet.
I have no idea what I do .. play some bits and find weird sounds and samples .. bitch and moan about everything and try to understand their contraband humour. We'll probably hate each other by album 3 and throw in the towel for good.
“I couldn’t live without the dark underbelly of music and the peek behind the curtain that is offered when a particular bunch of sounds sparks up the old brain”
I've read plenty on your musical inspirations over the years, but who are some more modern producers that excite you in the Ambient realm?
CM: It's weird but since I stopped buying vinyl and CD's .. hard copies of music that I can physically hold and look at, I can't remember the names of artists or the track titles. Other people seem to be able to reel off huge catalogues of hot product verbatim but I draw a blank. I am going to make a concerted effort to buy hard copies again and move away from this 'music by mouse' clicking nonsense .. next next next ..
I think it's albums that I remember not tracks. Online music seems so instantaneous and track orientated that I just glaze over in the deluge.
“we are so drenched in constant noise in our weird over strained culture that occasionally I want to grab little pieces and frame them”
I don't think many Charlie May fans will be too surprised to see you creating Ambient music in Quiet Places and putting together epic Ambient mixes like this, but can you tell us a little about how Ambient music has played a role in your life over the years?
CM: 'Ambient' is one large bucket now isn't it ..!? We all define music so differently but with me it was always about music that evoked something transcendent. Not necessarily emotion based but always with that sense of 'other'. I grew up in a classical environment and for as long as I can remember I felt drawn to the slower more expansive pieces along with those composers who re-evaluated their sound palette and turned traditional uses of orchestra or piano or voices inside out.
I can't really put my finger on what it is that gets a hook in me musically, and I don't feel I need to as long as it continues to do so. Needless to say I couldn't live without the dark underbelly of music and the peek behind the curtain that is offered when a particular bunch of sounds sparks up the old brain. If nothing else then existence and all its associated weirdness is fundamentally magical, and without music that evokes that magic, be it sinister or blissful, things are going to get pretty dull.
Going by the Quiet Places record and of course this mix, you're a big fan of using samples to add atmosphere and feeling - are you always on the hunt? Whats the weirdest or most surprising one you've used?!
CM: Sometimes I like to make imaginary sci-fi movies with sound, and samples seem to me to be the audio equivalent of photographs. Little evocative snapshots. They can be very powerful if used well and very annoying if not so it's a fine balance which I still struggle to get right. Also we are so drenched in constant noise in our weird over strained culture that occasionally I want to grab little pieces and frame them .. otherwise I never get a foothold it seems. I do constantly record and photograph stuff .. I try and be discerning rather than compulsive as you can drive yourself nuts grabbing samples constantly. The modern 'smart' phone, despite being the brain-melting saboteur of human destiny and personal doomsday device of our worst nightmares is actually a very handy recording studio / sound library. As is the internet .. I love all the low quality nuggets people post everywhere .. all that detritus .. like electronic landfill. I like to scavenge about the scrap heap picking out the gems. It's highly satisfying to make music with sounds that you didn't generate yourself. You get away from that 'preset' sound immediately. As far as the weirdest samples I've used .. well just one look at some of the stuff on line .. absolutely bonkers. It's a wonderful way to capture how utterly lollipop the world we live in actually is.
“I am wrestling with this whole beats issue at the moment .. it hasn’t been that kind of musical year for me so far which usually means some heavy beat driven techno is on its way in the studio.”
I remember Dennis (Quiet Places) telling me there were clearance issues with some of the samples on the original Quiet Places demo (which were later replaced). Do you feel like the record ended up better off for it now? Any samples that you still wish remained?
CM: There's always a moment of panic ... several actually, when you use a sample that may have clearance issues further along the road. You get attached to it very quickly only to have it feel like having a tumour removed when you stubbornly realise you can't use it. But strangely enough you can usually replace it with something better. There were a couple on QP01 like that and they ended up being much better when we replaced or resourced them so although that whole clearance deal can be a drag it's important to have faith that u can get around the problem. That's where having a good publisher can really help. Thanks Richard!
There's a cheeky ambient self-release on your Bandcamp page that people here might be interested in, how much more of this music do you have in the locker? Are you always dabbling in this style?
CM: I have quite a bit lying about that I am constantly in the process of finishing up and hopefully releasing. The 'Short Back And Sides' album on Bandcamp was originally put together in the mid '90's .. 25 years later i had to find all the old DAT tapes and hope they still played. I had to finish and release it in order to sleep at night .. unfinished albums can do that to you. There is another ambient album being complied and jigged around with at the moment that i am keen to get out this year. I do love working without having to face 'drums' and tick various stylistic boxes along the way .. so the ambient pile is constantly growing.
How would you describe your isolatedmix before people dive into it?
CM: I went slightly down the rabbit hole with this one .. what with pretty much all musical antics of this summer having been vaporised by 'the malarkey' I thought it a good time to go through a 30 year old music library and start something.
I must have pulled out hundreds of tracks and then foolishly attempted to make them all get along happily which was never going to happen. So it became this sort of hearts of darkness sci-fi journey .. I love stories so it has that kind of structure to it. All the usual protagonists.
There are no beats (I like to be able to fall asleep to a good downtempo mix) and heaps of samples and effects with sporadic moments of terror and bliss. Many twists and turns but hopefully in the final reckoning the theatre of it all produces some kind of resolution. It's up to the listener to make of it what they want. I went sightly crackers making it and have more than enough tracks left over for another. However, am going to need a lot more ram next time ...
Did you contemplate taking it into more beat-driven territory or was it always an intention to keep strictly horizontal?
CM: I am wrestling with this whole beats issue at the moment .. it hasn't been that kind of musical year for me so far which usually means some heavy beat driven techno is on its way in the studio. In the case of this mix however adding beats would have broken the spell and immediately diluted the cinematic vibe. Plus this way it's far easier to mix and i can ignore things like tempo and pace and cut in half the stockpile of potential contenders. The lazy option in other words.
Any tracks that you thought might make the cut and didn't?
CM: There are so many great tracks that i tried to shoe-horn in there but they just wouldn't sit comfortably with their neighbours .. that's the bitter pill of building a mix .. sometimes you have to ditch your prized tune for the benefit of the collective .. making that decision never gets any easier either.
Quiet Places Vol 1... we are all assuming more volumes, right?!
CM: Volume 2 is currently underway in assorted darkened bunkers .. we'll see how it turns out. It's slightly different from Vol 1 and as yet still slightly feral but sounding really good to my ears. Before that though we have a full length film of Volume 01 nearing completion which is something that I am interested to see.
I suppose as long as the three of us keep our inane whatsapp group foolishness going there will be more Quiet Places records. But it's also the sort of musical collective that flourishes under intense existential pressure. Short of the total collapse of human civilisation which at this point actually seems quite possible we may make it to Volume 03 yet. Thanks for listening and enjoy !
~
Listen on Soundcloud, Mixcloud, or the ASIP Podcast.
Tracklist
01. Sample - Storm beach 01
02. Brian Eno - Aragon
03. Dick Mills - Adagio
04. Aphex Twin - Tree
05. Ryuichi Sakamoto / Alva Noto - Second Dream
06. Field recording - Victoria line 01
07. Henry Wolff + Nancy Hennings - Time Ice
08. Sample - meta 03
09. Sample - last breath
10. Henry Wolff + Nancy Hennings - The Silver Eye
11. Brian Eno - Tal Coat
12. Chris watson - Vatnajokull
13. Jerry Goldsmith - The Alien Planet / Main Title
14. Sample - last breath
15. Field recording - rain roof innit
16. Field recording - rainy thundery aug 2020
17. Field recording - speed lift 01
18. Leandro Fresco + Rafael Anton Irisarri - El Reflejo Que El Sol Ha Perdido
19. Field recording - gong 01
20. Burial - In McDonalds
21. Jon Hopkins - Feel First Life
22. Sample - terrence mckenna
23. Julianna Barwick - Inspirit
24. Sample collage - misc instagram
25. Colleen - Please Gamelan Again
26. Sample collage - misc instagram
27. Monolake - Silence
28. Aphex twin - White Blur
29. Fennesz - Shift
30. Earthaven - By the Little Mississippi River
31. Earthaven - Massasauga Marsh
32. Donato Dozzy - Vapourware 01
33. Sample - metasynth 01
34. Sample - metasynth 04
35. Andy Stott - Leaving
36. Sample collage - misc instagram
37. Mark Pritchard - ?
38. Sample - din is noise
39. Max Richter - Infra
40. Sample - ram dass - fear
41. John Cage - Dream
42. Leandro Fresco + Rafael Anton Irisarri - Elevado Como Barrilete
43. Robert Henke - [_Flicker]
44. Robert Henke - [Convex]
45. Lorn - I Am A Dagger
46. Sample - misc instagram
47. Brian eno - Shadow
48. Cliff Martinez - My Name On a Car
49. Hans Zimmer / Benjamin Wallfisch - All The Best Memories Are Hers
50. Daniel Lanois - Space Love
51. Lorn - Replika
52. Lorn - All Directions Are The Same
53. Thomas Ankersmit + Valerio Tricoli - Hunt
54. Bernard Szajner - Spice
55. Sample - misc instagram
56. Sample - winter storm ambience
57. Mozart - Sequentia Lacrimosa Dies Illa (cm re-tweak)
58. Sample - ufo sighting
59. Stormloop - Snowbound
60. Cliff Martinez - Wrong Floor
61. Cliff Martinez - I Drive
62. Daniel Lanois - Carla
63. Sample - metallic portal
64. Vivaldi - Winter (cm re-tweak)
65. Henry Wolff + Nancy Hennings - Transmigration 02
66. Brian Eno - Matta
67. Merrin Karras - Drawn, Quartered
68. Sample collage - misc instagram
69. Sample - sophia - i will destroy humans
71. Allen Bruce Ray - High Spirits Walnut Condor cm flute
72. Jonuzi Me Shoket - Vome Kaba (cm re-tweak)
73. Dead Can Dance - The Host of Seraphim
74. Lunatik Sound System - November Sky
75. Sample - ce5 radar
76. Sample - byron katie - walk in silence
77. Sample - misc instagram
77. Brian Eno - Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills)
78. David Hykes - Current Circulation
79. STL - Loosing Touch With My Mind
80. Sample collage - misc internet
81. Sample - overview effect
82. Robert Henke - Signal To Noise 2
83. Sample - instagram drone
84. Sample - acustica purple demo
85. Jon Hopkins - Campfire
86. Sample - Ekhart Tolle - Resist Nothing
87. Ólafur Arnalds - Brot
~
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