Two of the best

This Thursday (Sept 29) tune in to SoundScape on Yarra Valley FM 99.1 or get it streamed live from the website, to catch some marvellous ambient music.

Our first featured artist will be Bass Communion, having origins in Steven Wilson's earliest work as a musician. Taking influence from German experimental electronic music artist such as Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and Conrad Schnitzler.

Bass Communion's albums have often featured collaborations from other musicians, including Robert Fripp of King Crimson, saxophonist Theo Travis, Bryn Jones (also known as Muslimgauze), and Vidna Obmana.

Bass Communion's music is where "ominous monolithic drones, and dark swirling rhythm-less waves of sound slowly evolve, envelope, and then dissipate into vacuous chasms of space. Where whispery traces of icy melodies are sonically layered and processed infinitely across alien soundscapes."

Our second featured artist is Bill Laswell who was born in 1955 in Salem, Illinois, and is a bassist, producer and record label owner.

Laswell ranks among the most prolific of modern musicians, being involved in hundreds of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. Laswell's music draws upon many different genres, most notably funk, various world music, jazz, dub and ambient styles. He has also played or produced music from the noisier, more aggressive end of the rock spectrum, such as hardcore punk and metal.

According to music critic Chris Brazier, "Laswell’s pet concept is 'collision music' which involves bringing together musicians from wildly divergent but complementary spheres and seeing what comes out."

This week's Goon Show will be 'The Sleeping Prince'.

Ambient from England, Canada and the US

Tune in this Thursday (Sept 22) on SoundScape from 9 pm to hear some more of the best ambient music. Get it on Yarra Valley FM 99.1 or streamed live from the website.

First up we will hear pieces by Michael Brook. Michael Brook (born 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian guitarist, inventor, producer, and film music composer. He plays in many genres, including rock, electronica, world music, minimalism and film scores. He toured as a member of the Sylvian and Fripp tour group, with the final concert at the Royal Albert Hall in December 1994. He has produced soundtracks for Heat, Mission Impossible 2, Black Hawk Down, and An Inconvenient Truth.

Then we will have music from birthday boy Michael Torke, born September 22, 1961, an American composer who writes music influenced by jazz and minimalism. Sometimes described as a post-minimalist.

Followed up by George Evelyn, better known as Nightmares on Wax and also known as DJ EASE (Experimental Sample Expert), is a DJ from Leeds, UK, Evelyn got his start in the music industry through an interest in hip hop and on joining a local breakdancing crew. He was influenced by Quincy Jones and Curtis Mayfield. In 2009, Nightmares on Wax toured the United States. DJ Ease was then nominated for DJ of the year 2010.

The Goon Show this week will be 'The Mysterious Punch-up-the-conker'.

From London to Michigan

Tune in this Thursday (Sept 15) to SoundScape on Yarra Valley FM 99.1 - also streamed live from the website.

Our two featured Ambient groups will be:

The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated to FSOL) is a prolific British electronic music band composed of Garry Cobain (sometimes styled as Gaz Cobain) and Brian Dougans. The duo are often credited with pushing the boundaries of electronic music experimentation and of pioneering a new era of dance music. Although often labelled as ambient, Cobain and Dougans usually resist being typecast into any one particular genre. Their work covers most areas of electronic music, such as ambient techno, house music, trip-hop, ambient dub, acid techno and often involves extreme experimentation.

Then we will hear from Deepchord (real name Rod Modell), an electronic music producer from Detroit, Michigan. He worked with Mike Schommer to produce music under the Deepchord moniker as well as create a similarly named record label; however, currently the artist name of "Deepchord" represents only Modell. The musical style of Deepchord is similar to both the minimal Berlin sound of artist like Basic Channel and the techno tradition of Detroit. Modell might be best known for his collaboration with Stephen Hitchell (Soultek) as Echospace. In 2007, they released the album The Coldest Season on the record label Modern Love. Modell has also performed live with Hitchell as Echospace.

The Goon Show this week (at 10 pm) will be 'The Moon Show'.

It's on again!

...and it won't be easy to beat last week, but I'll try! Tune in this Thursday (Sept 8) to SoundScape on Yarra Valley FM 99.1 or get it streamed live from the website.

I'll start the show with O Yuki Conjugate, an organic ambient musical group, formed in Nottingham in 1982, now sometimes based in London. Their music has variously been categorized as darkwave, industrial, ambient and tribal-ambient. Members of the group vary, but include C. Elliot, R. Horberry, T. Horberry, A. Hulme, D. Mudford, P.A. Woodhead & R. Jenkins. Currently in their 3rd incarnation, their music is often hard to find and released in limited editions.

Instruments O Yuki Conjugate use include tongue drums, roto-toms, bongos, congas, "big bean," "found percussion," drum machine, wind chimes, loops, frying pan, bass guitar, samples, keyboards, fractal guitar, e-bow, flutes, chants, radio, wildlife, tablas, berimbau, nose-singing, and vocals. Their music, as apparent from this list, is percussive and inventive, but it is also atmospheric.

That will be followed up by four pieces by Mira Calix, (real name Chantal Passamonte), an artist signed to Warp Records, specialising in mixing her intimate vocals with jittering beats and experimental electronic textures.

Mira Calix's earlier music is almost exclusively electronic. However, since 2003 she has incorporated orchestration and live classical instruments in her performances and recorded work. More recently she has concentrated mostly on collaborations and commissions. There have been several installation pieces, film soundtracks and works for theatre.

..and this weeks Goon Show will be 'Shifting Sands of India' on at 10 pm.