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.

Voice of Eye (and more...)

This Thursday (Sept 1) on SoundScape we can enjoy some more wonderful ambient music. Tune in to Yarra Valley FM 99.1 or get it streamed live from the website.

First up we will have Voice of Eye, an experimental ambient music duo whose members are Bonnie McNaim and Jim Wilson. Formed in 1991 in Houston, Texas, their sound is one that blends electronic soundscapes, drones, and world music, particularly with Middle Eastern overtones, and tends to evoke an atmospheric or shamanistic quality. Many of the instruments used are home-made or heavily modified. Using this "odd palette of instrumentation," their music has been described as "largely indescribable, but totally inviting."

A local ambient/electronic artist, Mike Baum, once gave me a cd of his computer composed music. Untitled and unreleased, we will hear a couple of his numbers.

We will also be playing some music by KK Null, who was born Kazuyuki Kishino in Tokyo, Japan. Composer, guitarist, singer, mastermind of ZENI GEVA and electronic wizard. One of the top names in Japanese noise music and in a larger context, one of the great cult artists in experimental music since the early 80's. In 1981 KK NULL studied at Butoh dancer, Min Tanaka's "Mai-Juku" workshop and started his career by performing guitar improvisations in the clubs in Tokyo. Null joined the noise/progressive rock band Ybo2 in 1984, issuing several albums and EPs throughout the remainder of the decade. Later he founded more bands, such as Absolute Null Punkt (aka ANP) and his most well known one, the self-described "progressive hardcore trio" Zeni Geva. Altogether Null has released more than 100 albums.

The Goon Show this week will be "The Rent Collectors" at 10 pm.

Tim Burton

This Thursday (August 25) on SoundScape we will celebrate Tim Burton's birthday with some great soundtracks from variety of his films.

Tune in to Yarra Valley FM 99.1 from 9 pm or get it streamed live from the website.

Music (and songs) from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', 'Corpse Bride', 'Alice in Wonderland', 'Edward Scissorhand', 'Batman' and 'Sweeny Todd'. 

Tim Burton was raised in Burbank, California. He spent most of his childhood as a recluse, drawing cartoons and watching old movies (he was especially fond of films with Vincent Price). Tim Burton's early film career was fuelled by almost unbelievable good luck, but it's his talent and originality that have kept him at the top of the Hollywood tree. 

Tim Burton began drawing at an early age, going on to attend the California Institute of the Arts, studying animation after being awarded a fellowship from Disney, for whom he went on to work. Although he found that the mainstream Disney films he worked on (The Fox and the Hound (1981)) were far removed from his own sensibility, Disney let him have the freedom to work on his own personal projects, the six-minute animated black-and-white Gothic Vincent Price tribute Vincent (1982), and the 27-minute live-action Frankenweenie (1984), which was judged unsuitable for children and never released. However, Paul Reubens (aka Pee-Wee Herman) saw it and decided that Burton, still only in his mid-twenties, would be the ideal person to direct his feature debut, Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985). 

An enormous (and surprise) box-office hit, it led to the supernatural comedy Beetlejuice (1988), which in turn led to Burton being entrusted with the reins on the hugely expensive Batman (1989). Although his least personal film, it was one of the most successful films of all time, and gave him unprecedented power in Hollywood considering the originality and adventurousness of his work thus far. 

Edward Scissorhands (1990), another hit, saw him at the peak of his creative powers and established a fruitful working relationship with actor Johnny Depp. Batman Returns (1992) was a far darker and quirkier film than the original, a reflection of how much creative freedom Burton had won (though Warner Bros were reputedly unhappy with the final result).

This week's Goon Show will be "Wings Over Dagenham" at 10 pm.

Cool Man.....

Last week, I played one track by Pete Namlook (Bedouin Love). This week (August 18) we will be able to hear some more of his ambient music. You can tune in from 9 pm on Thursday to Yarra Valley FM 99.1 or get it streamed live from the website.

Pete Namlook (born 1960 as Peter Kuhlmann in Frankfurt, Germany) is an ambient and electronic-music producer and composer. In 1992, he founded the German record label FAX +49-69/450464 .

He is inspired by the music of Eberhard Weber, Miles Davis, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Chopin, Wendy Carlos, Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd, he also composes his own albums.

Pete Namlook has released many solo albums, as well as collaboration albums with notable artists such as Klaus Schulze, Bill Laswell, Geir Jenssen (alias Biosphere), Atom Heart, Richie Hawtin, Tetsu Inoue, Dr Atmo and Tying Tiffany. (“Namlook” is “Koolman” spelled backwards, which is the German pronunciation of his real name.)

Pete is one of the pioneers of electronic music, and focused on the untapped potential of analogue synthesizers, often developed or extended in his laboratory.

We will be playing 'In Heaven', 'State of Mind', 'A million mile to Earth', and 'Silent Intelligence pt's V & VIII (with Richie Hawtin).

 This week's Goon Show will be 'Emperor of the Universe'.