bvdub, Miktek, Synkro, Northern Electronics

bvdub - Lost Ambient (and more from the archives)

That day has come. Brock has embraced the world of Bandcamp and we're set to be both musically better-off and monetarily worse off. He's not just uploading any old crap either, we're treated some lost ambient tracks, as well as a twenty-six track compilation titled tech from times past. For once, Brock's titles are as a literal as could be, and in this instance, it means we've got some old ambient gems and tracks from his techno roots to dig into. Available on Bandcamp.

Miktek - Ambient Network III

For the Ultimae followers out there, Miktek will be old-hat to you by now. As a past home to Carbon Based Lifeforms, Solar Fields and many other space-ambient style astronauts, the label is a breeding ground for this style of  music. However it's nice to see the individual artists break-out to give us something plucked from their back catalog - the brilliance of Bandcamp. Miktek treats us to a unique collection of delicate sounds that will appeal to any lover of slow-paced ethereal soundscapes. Available on Bandcamp.

Synkro - Changes

As one half of Kiyoko, Joe Synkro has long been a household name for Drum'n Bass followers, however it's Joe's evolution in this sound which is attracting listeners from across genres. Similar to the likes of ASC with his progression of the autonomic sound, Synkro's heritage in Drum'n Bass has led him to explore more atmospheric sounds, underpinned with some unique beat-work and a general push-back on any genre pigeon-holing associated with such styles. You'll find some lush ambience wrapped in scattered beats, old-skool Jungle, and OPN-style choral, synth work amongst the many iterations in Changes. Available on Bandcamp.

Northern Electronics (RA Label Of The Month mix)

Something a little different, a mix from the land of RA. Northern Electronics are causing quite a stir in the world of techno with their barrage of deep swells hemorrhaging from the mind of label head Abdullah Rashim. Both Varg, and Acronym have produced some stunning favorites of late, and I'm not even a tenth of the way through the label's extensive catalogue on Bandcamp. Dig deep and you'll find some truly amazing ambient music hidden as preludes and intros to the many banging techno albums, along with styles progressive, immersive styles normally associated with Voices From The Lake. 

So what better way to get to know the label than this mix. Deep techno that will speak to anyone wishing for a darker pulse in their heartbeat.  Download available on Soundcloud.

Interview: Amigas, Soundtracks and remastering with Carbon Based Lifeforms

Carbon Based Lifeforms have been a big influence on me over the years and I stay close to their every move in a hope to hear another genre-defining, psychedelic ambient album. The duo's releases are few and far between considering how long Johannes Hedberg and Daniel Segerstad have been producing music, and we were lucky enough to get an exclusive production on our Europe Compilation recently (and even an isolatedmix). But, any news of another full-length soon has left their many fans crossing fingers in anticipation.

I recently caught up with Johannes and Daniel to see what they were up to, and whilst any new album might not be on the immediate horizon, the pair are busy in the studio remastering some of their classic albums for our listening pleasure. I also took the opportunity to get to know the duo a bit better and talk Amiga games, soundtracks, production techniques and Notch.

Hi guys, it’s been a while since we last spoke (2011!) I see that you’re busy remastering your albums?

Carbon Based Lifeforms: Yes, we decided to remaster the first three albums. Our aim was to get a more coherent sound between them. A lot happened between Hydroponic and Interloper, so we felt there was a lot of details waiting to be heard, especially on Hydroponic.

I'm sure your fans will be happy to have some of your albums on vinyl (me included). Why did you decide to remaster and press on vinyl?

Carbon Based Lifeforms: We've been wanting to release the albums on vinyl for a long time. Last year we were contacted by Blood Music, and we felt the time was right to do it. It's also a good new start for us as an independent band.

Did the support or encouragement of your fans help this decision?

Carbon Based Lifeforms:  We got a lot of questions about vinyl from our fans over the years so when Blood music asked us it was a no-brainer.

How comes we haven't seen any of your previous albums on vinyl before? Was this mainly because Ultimae Records didn’t support vinyl? (I see they are, only now releasing some)

At the time we were releasing on Ultimae they were too busy to bother with vinyl releases and back then there wasn't that big of a demand for vinyl.

So some other labels will be helping out with the remastered releases. Can you tell us how that came about?

Carbon Based Lifeforms: Since we went independent, we were discussing doing vinyl releases ourselves and then Blood Music contacted us. Given their track record of really special releases we were immediately intrigued to work with them. Also we felt it would be interesting to work with a label that isn't not really deep into the electronic scene.

You’re also revisiting the artwork for the releases, who do you have on board to do this and why did you choose them?

Carbon Based Lifeforms:  As we're aiming for a consistency between the albums sound wise we felt it was a great opportunity to update the graphics to reflect that notion.

We are working with Mattias Fredriksson who is an old friend and graphics/photography collaborator of ours. He's done a lot of stuff for us over the years. He also happens to make music, look out for a remix we did of his track "Snö på hisingen" on an upcoming compilation we're working on, release date tbd.

I always find artwork to be one of the most valuable, and time consuming pieces of a release - how much do you value packaging and artwork in your releases?

Carbon Based Lifeforms: For us the music is front line and center, however the packaging and graphics really help convey the mood we're aiming for, so in that sense it's really important. One of the really great things about vinyl releases are that the graphics can be really impressive.

Has the remastering process been painful? Can you tell us how you approached it and who is doing this for you?

Carbon Based Lifeforms: Yes!! It was hell for a while there :) especially Hydroponic. Since we did not do a proper job of exporting everything in a good format back in '02-'03 we had to get the old Cubase projects up and running which meant we had to spend way way way too much time tracking down really old plugins, most of which are not available anymore, so there was a lot of hunting the dark corners of the net.... and once we got everything up and running there was a lot of hours spent making sure the old plugins were doing what they were supposed to be doing.

Once we got everything up and running in Cubase we got the stems over to Vincent Villuis (Ultimae Studios) for mastering. We found some more bugs in the stems once we got the test masters back, but we sorted it out and Vince did a really awesome job with the tracks.

Getting the tracks ready for Hydroponic Garden was also a pain, especially MOS6581. Once we revisited the mastered files the first time, we realized that all the delays were missing...

What would you say is the biggest difference in your production technique now, versus back then? Has it changed much?

Carbon Based Lifeforms: We thought that we worked in pretty much the same way we’ve always done but we discovered during our remastering sessions, opening old projects from Hydroponic, that our method had changed significantly over the years. Back in the old days we relied heavily on effects such as delays and filters and we used a realtively small number of tracks and a lot simpler sounds. These days we tend to use much more complex sounds and a lot more of them.

I’m, intrigued to know more about your early work as Notch in the 90’s. Is it true you used the Amiga computer to produce? 

Carbon Based Lifeforms: Yes, we started out using Trackers on the Amiga in '91 and switched to Fasttracker II on PC a few years later. Not long after that we started using MIDI. Notch was us two, and our friend Mikael Lindquist. We shared our first hardware equipment and moved the rig to one another every three months.

I loved the Amiga - what was your favorite game? Mine was either Cannon Fodder, Speedball or Chaos Engine!

Carbon Based Lifeforms: There were tons of cool games, some favs were Hired Guns, Stunt Car Racer, Battle Squadron and Silkworm. Great times :)

If Carbon Based Lifeforms could soundtrack an old Amiga game, what would it be?

Carbon Based Lifeforms: That would probably be Elite or Syndicate :)

Will there ever be more music as Notch?

Carbon Based Lifeforms: No that will probably never happen. That was a different constellation of people and a lot of what we did back then was just getting to know the machines and the processes of writing music. That being said, we’ll probably make tracks in the vein of that era but that will most certainly be done under different monickers…

You were at the front of MP3 sites back in the day, what’s your opinion on the evolution of these today? And what about the likes of Spotify - is it something you support?

Carbon Based Lifeforms: Being geeks we embrace the new technology. Thanks to mp3.com we were discovered by Ultimae. Thanks to Youtube our music is found by new people. We love Spotify, both as users and as musicians. Spotify is actually our top source of income.

You have quite a special following, so I'm not entirely surprised! Have you seen a decline in downloads or sales since Spotify, or has it always had a positive impact on your album sales as far as you know?

Carbon Based Lifeforms: If anything we’ve seen an increase. Spotify is a good source of income, providing you have a good deal with your label/distributor. We feel that a lot of the crap that spotify gets is because of old school record deals. If you just go through a good aggregator, such as record union, you get a very good percentage. The shares that labels tend to take from digital sales is really odd, especially for older releases, since they have basically no expenses for those kinds of distribution systems.

You mentioned in your 2011 interview that you hope to work with a singer in the future - is this Ester? Can you tell us a bit more about that?

Carbon Based Lifeforms: Yes, we work with two singers, Karin and Ester. Ester being our newest find. Both are very talented and we hope to work with them both in upcoming projects.

How do you incorporate singing into your (mostly instrumental) ambient music? Is it hard?

Carbon Based Lifeforms: We tend to use it like another synthesizer most of the times. It requires that you work with good talent that hears/sees things the way we do though. 

The only album you’ve produced since 23 has been your soundtrack for Refuge. I would love to know how you approached this - how did you find the experience of writing a ‘score’?

Carbon Based Lifeforms: We were contacted by the director who gave us free reign, but of course with some input. Our take on it was to find a theme and to incorporate it in different moods. We used characters and chapters in the movie as basis. For the album we added more structure and sounds to make the tracks more interesting.

What would be your dream movie to score?

Carbon Based Lifeforms: A cross between Tron (1982) and Mullholland Drive maybe? :)

I noticed you recently posted a picture composing on a train! Is this a regular occurrence? Can you name any track you’ve made whilst on the move like this?

Carbon Based Lifeforms: hehe nope, first time:) That's Daniel trying to find time for music between work and family life:) Worked great though. The track is still an embryo, unnamed. A possible candidate for the new album.

It looks like you’re set to play/ have played a few festivals this year, Symbiosis Festival in September, Earthcore in November. How do you approach live set-ups for festivals? Will you do anything different?

Carbon Based Lifeforms: We have a very flexible setup in Ableton using two iPads running TouchOsc with several controllers for effects and other ways to manipulate tracks. We have several pages with tracks, controllers and additional samples, and the two iPads have the same setup. This way we can do pretty much whatever we want and follow the vibe of the crowd. No set sounds the same. We usually bring one TT-303 and a OP-1 for additional layers.

And so… will we see Twentythree on vinyl anytime soon?!!...

Carbon Based Lifeforms: We're focusing on Hydroponic, World Of Sleepers and Interloper for now. Depending on the outcome we might consider 23 :)

(Header photo by Aneta Hudzik)

todos - Kilchurn Session XIII

It dropped in my inbox as a surprise, the best possible kind of surprise, because todos' Kilchurn Sessions have been known to take quite some time to put together.  It's been nearly six months since Session 12, and with that amount of time under his belt to collect his next edition, you can expect only the very best to hit you in the 13th.

Once again opting for his trademark mix of new, old, classics, edits and samples, todos' journeys have become slightly deeper over the past few editions, and this one is no different, albeit punctuated with a few rather sublime lead vocal tracks.

He has left us all with another bunch of artists to dig deeper into, including, Body Boys, Alaskalaska and Landside, whilst reminding us of a few recent greats by Abul Mogard, Planet Boelex, and Segue, alongside some of the best new productions of the year from Synkro and Rival Consoles.

I always say it, and I'll say it again, todos manages to capture the essence of what a mixtape should be for me - the perfect blend of old and new, painstakingly curated and crafted with care with no agenda - just a journey. 

I've also taken the time to update the download links on all of todos' previous twelve legendary mixes which can be found and downloaded here.

Download

Tracklist

01. Zes - ‘Departure’ Edit
02. Samantha Glass - ‘Different Tissue’
03. Body Boys - ‘Yunnan’
04. Abul Mogard - ‘Slate-coloured Storm’
05. Nils Frahm - ‘Peter’ (Clark Remix) Edit
06. Alaskalaska - ‘Kings’
07. Russell. M. Harmon & Gavin Miller - ‘Vela’
08. Planet Boelex - ‘Moments’
09. DOGMA - ‘The Way Can Be Pretty Long’ Edit / (ghost) - '780.33'
10. Reinehr - ‘Lung’ / Library Tapes - ‘Fragment Li’
11. Lanterns On The Lake - ‘Green And Gold’
12. Ojan - ‘Intro’ / Hakobune & Dirk Serries - ‘The Slow Movement Of Thought’ Edit
13. Brother Blue - ‘Summoning UFOs’
14. Arandel - ‘Section 12’
15. Segue - ‘Identity Dub’
16. Synkro - ‘Overture’
17. Abereiddy Astronomical Society - ‘The Outsider’ (James Murray Remix)
18. Landside - ‘Wasteland'
19. Rival Consoles - ‘Looming’

Donnacha Costello - Stay Perfectly Still

Any new instrument, software, toy, or newfound capability to be creative is going to inspire you to be more productive. Just this past July, Donnacha Costello gave us his latest creation from his synth-inspired world- Love From Dust, and he's already tweaking the style and approach on his beloved Buchla Music Easel to bring us a new album, titled, Stay Perfectly Still. 

Love From Dust varied in approaches (which was outstanding given the overall simplicity in end-sound), invoking a certain Japanese feel alongside moments of complete ethereal, sci-fi induced space music. Stay Perfectly Still sees Donnacha refine the sound even further, getting closer to his 2001 ambient core and drawing parallels with productions such as Dry Retch. 

Melodies develop slower, layers envelope with more patience, distortion creeps unknowingly, tones become softer, the blanket gets softer, and you nod-off to sleep quicker. 

This Way, is the albums quiet interlude, to a quieter, That Way. Enso is the albums yang to Love From Dust's, track Farewell.  It's easy to draw comparisons between them both but you'll notice a maturity in approach, a taming of the beast, a taming of the Buchla maybe. Such a machine boasts such potential, and it takes skill to refine a sound rather than push it any many different directions.

Available on Bandcamp in vinyl and digital formats. 

Read more on Donnacha here, where I dive into some of my favourite tracks from his esteemed Color Series.

Helios - Yume

It's been three years since Helios graced us with a full-length album and in that time, those who followed him on social media may have seen the many soundtracks and scores he's been working on for the likes of Facebook, Apple and Google. A fitting job for such a talented artist and good on him for paying the bills through his talent, but it's been at the expense of his fans, craving new material under the Helios name. 

A successful Kickstarter campaign this year helped kick Keith's newest album into gear and we're now once again graced with his gentle, post-rock, ambient-blanketed touch.

Die-hard Helios fans will be pleased to know the sound we grew to love hasn't departed. A slightly more confident approach and some subtle experimentation and depth across instruments is more present; perhaps brought on by his recent soundtrack work. Uptempo tracks such as Pearls, and slow-burning melodies in Sing The Same Song Twice, are balanced against the grainy warm colors of album-ender, Embrace - my favorite track of the bunch, and Sonora Lac; featuring a gentle, teasing climax that so many Helios tracks sign off with. 

Keith's style is echoed in many of the artists we hear today and rightly so, from classical soundtrack influences, to guitar-licks, Helios' music continues to reign supreme. It's weird listening to this three years after his last album and thinking of all the artists I've listened to in this period that ring true to his sound. It's not to say Helios coined this style, but he was definitely one of the first influences for me, personally, in accessing the more post-rock / instrumental side of ambient music. I'm still to see him live, and live by his Live At The Triple Door, recording. 

I'm still a firmer admirer of his lighter, more textured ambient music such as Vargtimme, and his more recent Moeity, but there's no denying Helios still has the power to transcend genres and pull together a wide-encompassing, perfected sound that touches the soul. 

Available on Bandcamp in Digital and CD formats, with vinyl coming soon.