Early Morning Migration, Ezekiel Honig & Morgan Packard

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Early Morning Migration, Ezekiel Honig & Morgan Packard Occasionally, in the back of my mind, I get the feeling that I'm screwed because it turns out I've already listened to all the good ambient music, and I've got nothing new to write about here. The feeling is a bit silly, obviously, as is embarrassingly made clear to me as I stumble upon a record or artist I've never heard of before and am promptly blown away.

This happened to me a few days ago when I discovered Early Morning Migration, by Ezekiel Honig & Morgan Packard. It's a collaboration, except they didn't create the tracks together. Six are by Honig, and 5 are by Packard. The result is a long, slow, beautifully sad record full of subtlety and texture. This is really nice stuff, and I've already tracked down other work from both of these artists, about which there will be more here in the near future.

Related Ezekiel Honig Wikipedia entry Ezekiel Honig MySpace profile

Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd

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Before the Day Breaks After the Night Falls On the recommendation of a reader, I recently picked up two new records by Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd, Before The Day Breaks and After The Night Falls. I'm familiar with Budd's work, specifically his collaboration with Brian Eno on Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror. I've also got Budd's The White Arcades. I like both of those records, and had heard good things about Budd's collaboration with Guthrie in the past, so I figured these would be right up my alley.

These two records have a similarity about them. And by that, I mean they sound like Harold Budd. Big, roomy, reverby sounding keys and guitar, but all muted and flattened a bit to sound like you're listening to something just off in the distance. Or, maybe, what it would be like to listen to another record under water.

The two records are apparently meant each meant to be a counterpoint to the other, and you can see this in the titles of the tracks, i.e. track 1 on Before The Day Breaks is "How Close Your Soul" while track 1 on After The Night Falls is "How Distant Your Heart." I created a playlist that positions the corresponding tracks from the two records together and you can hear the kind of call and response going on.

These are two very nice records, and if you have any interest in Budd's work, or if you like his previous work, which many consider to be prototypically "ambient," then you'd be wise to have a listen to these records.

Marsen Jules

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Les Fleurs, Marsen Jules Marsen Jules is the alias of Martin Juhls, a German electronic musician. Back in January I downloaded Les Fleurs and found it fairly interesting. It mixes glitchy tech sounds and instrumentation with longer melodies and atmospheric sounds.

Golden, Marsen Jules

So when I came across a copy of the recently released follow up to Les Fleurs, Golden, I figured it would be worth a listen. Turns out I was right. It's more of the subtle glitchy sounds I liked in Les Fleurs, along with spare acoustic guitar melodies. And it's a bit more "electronic" sounding than some of the records I've been listening to lately, so it's a refreshing change of pace to all the piano and orchestration. You might call Golden minimal, but it certainly does not lack atmosphere or texture.

Juhls also produces and performs as krill.minima. Checkout the Marsen Jules site for more information and some free mp3 downloads.

Related Official Marsen Jules site Marsen Jules MySpace profile

Iceland Airwaves

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Iceland Airwaves The annual Icelandic music festival Iceland Airwaves is happening again this year, from October 17th through the 21st, in, where else, Reykjavík. Not sure exactly what the lineup is this year, but in years past they've had a number of Ambient Music Blog favorites perform.

And if you're interested in going, a nice way to go would be for free. To celebrate the DVD release of Screaming Masterpiece, Milan records is giving away a trip for two to the festival.

Soundtracks, Part 4: Asche & Spencer, Monster's Ball

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Monster’s Ball, Soundtrack Part 4 of the soundtrack series is the soundtrack for Monster's Ball, composed by Asche & Spencer. There's a two things that make this record interesting. The first is, of course, the music. The tracks are quiet, but striking. A consistent theme, figuratively and literally, stretches across the work, but each "song" has it's own melody, its own contribution to the whole. It's a great listen for a quiet summer afternoon, as a thunderstorm approaches and you're considering where you might have left your flashlight.

The second interesting thing is that this record was recorded buy what amounts to an advertising agency. Asche & Spencer is a Minneapolis based agency that composes music for number of different mediums, from film to television commercials to software. Their approach is collaborative, and despite what their name seems to say, there's way more than 2 people working on the music. In face, Mark Asche, the Asche of Asche & Spencer, is no longer part of the company. It's a really interesting way of working, and somehow they find a way of avoiding compromise until there's no point of view in a collaborative environment. These guys aren't just making cute ad jingles, they're producing first-rate art. Really nice stuff, highly recommended.

This interview and short video give nice insight into how Asche & Spencer works.

Related Soundtracks, Part 1: Michael Brook, An Inconvenient Truth Soundtracks, Part 2: Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson & Sigur Ros, Angels of the Universe Soundtracks, Part 3: Cliff Martinez, Solaris Ambient Music Blog: Video: Making the Music for “Monster’s Ball” Having a Ball! - An Interview with Composer Thad Spencer of Asche & Spencer

You Who Pretend To Sleep, Joy Wants Eternity

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You Who Pretend To Sleep, Joy Wants Eternity I first mentioned Seattle post-rock band Joy Wants Eternity a few weeks back. Since then, I've acquired their second release, You Who Pretend To Sleep, and I quite like it. There's some standard post-rock type instrumental rocking going on here, but in addition there's some quieter, spacier tracks that really add some nice texture and keep the record from feeling like too much of a one trick pony. As in: loud rocking, quiet rocking, repeat until there's no space left on the CD.

If you like Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, and all the rest, you'll definitely like this. If I had a car and drove, this is the kind of record I'd listen to on the highway late at night.

Related Official Joy Wants Eternity Site Joy Wants Eternity MySpace Profile Ambient Music Blog: must you smash your ears before you learn to listen with your eyes, Joy Wants Eternity

Interview: Brian Eno on 77 Million Paintings, Full Transcript

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Photo courtesy of Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

I've posted about Brian Eno's "77 Million Paintings" a few times before. The work was recently on view at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center, and Wired did an interview with Eno where he discusses the piece. It's an interesting read, and gives a bit of insight into Eno's approach to his work.

Related Wired: Interview: Brian Eno on 77 Million Paintings, Full Transcript 77 Million Paintings wrap up 77 Million Paintings

Kurr, Amiina

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Kurr, Amiina I finally got my hands on the new Amiina record Kurr via eMusic, and I have to say I really like it. There are a few holdout tracks from previous EP's Seoul and AnimaminA, but on the whole the songs on this full-length record are more refined, a bit more pop-ish, some even with nice melodic hooks and bridges.

I hate to say it, but some of the tracks sound like they're destined for Volkswagen commercials. If you're into strange, but not to strange, Icelandic music like me, this is definitely a record to get. And if you're a bit put off by some of the weirdness of their previous work, this Amiina release is certainly more accessible.

Related Amiina MySpace Profile Official Amiina Site Amiina Wikipedia Entry

Piano Solos, Vol. 2, Dustin O'Halloran

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Piano Solos, Vol. 2, Dustin O’Halloran I had mentioned Dustin O'Halloran's Prelude 2 a few weeks ago, and that record reminded me that I hadn't yet picked up O'Halloran's Piano Solos, Vol. 2. It's not available via eMusic, so I added it to an Amazon order and it arrived this past week. I've been listening to it quite a bit. I don't have much to say about it, but if you like piano music, or O'Halloran's work specifically, this record does not disappoint.

If you're not familiar with O'Halloran, his first record Piano Solos is a great place to start. You can also stream a number of tracks from his official Web site.

Related Ambient Music Blog: Prelude 2, Dustin O'Halloran Official Dustin O'Halloran Site Dustin O'Halloran MySpace Profile

Records for June, 2007

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I added about 167 tracks to my library in the month of June. Some new releases, some old stuff I just discovered, and a few things here and there I had been meaning to grab but hadn't gotten around to yet. All in all I'd say I like nearly all of this stuff. The better ones have either been mentioned on the site specifically or will be over the next few weeks. AnimaminA, Amiina Seoul, Amiina Monster's Ball, Asche & Spencer Autumn Magnets, Bury the Sound Piano Solos, Vol. 2, Dustin O'Halloran Far From Refuge, God Is an Astronaut Mysterious Skin, Soundtrack, Harold Budd & Robin Guthrie You Who Pretend To Sleep, Joy Wants Eternity Golden, Marsen Jules Summer Make Good, Mum Before The Day Breaks, Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd After The Night Falls, Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd Ágætis Byrjun, Sigur Rós Prelude 2, Dustin O'Halloran Endless Summer, Fennesz In the Evenings of Regret, Grace Cathedral Park must you smash your ears before you learn to listen with your eyes, Joy Wants Eternity Finally We Are No One, Mum The Solaris Project, The Solaris Project

Autumn Magnets, Bury the Sound

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Autumn Magnets, Bury the Sound From Hidden Shoal Recordings, the label that brings you Ambient Music Blog favorites Wes Willenbring and Slow Dancing Society, comes a new record by Melbourne, Australia-based band Bury the Sound. Autmn Magnets is a 3 track EP of instrumental post-rock type stuff, and fairly intense at that. Nice tempo changes as well.

You can download the tracks from the Hidden Shoal Recordings online store (Hidden Shoal is all digital), or you can wait until July 3rd when it should be available widely in all the usual online places.

The Solaris Project

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The Solaris Project I received a pre-release copy of some tracks by a Seattle-based duo by the name of The Solaris Project recently. They create long, interesting drones with guitar and koto. The tracks were all recorded live, with minimal post-production fussing with. The result is some really top-rate ambient music.

No news just yet on when they'll have tracks available for purchase or download, but in the meantime head over to their MySpace profile where you can stream 3 of tracks from the disc I received. I'm looking forward to hearing more from these guys.

Related The Solaris Project MySpace profile