I met Joakim through Sofia Nystrand, AKA Vargkvint. After showcasing her lovely mix during the summer (you can listen to her mix here) I asked Sofia who she thought would want to share a mix on Soundwave. I’ve found this a great way to be introduced to new music. Sofia went above and beyond and put me in touch with Jakob Lindhagen, Bonander, and Joakim.
We’ll hear from Jakob and Bonander in the next few months, but today we begin with Sofia’s recommendations with Joakim’s mix.
I’ve been steeping in Joakim’s mix the last few months, as I do with all the mixes sent my way. I often listen to the mixes while doing chores and errands such as walking my dog, doing dishes, folding laundry, etc. Joakim’s mix, however, has been my constant companion during the mornings. While I’m drinking my first cup of coffee and sorting through emails, and scheduling my tasks for the day, Joakim’s six plays in the background, the sun on my face. I’m on a riding a train with the landscape passing by my window in my imagination. Sometimes I can almost feel the train gently rocking to and fro.
It’s a magical experience. Please share where Joakim’s mix takes you if you’re so inclined.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Munknörr.
We have Kévin Séry to thank for introducing me to Nick. After Kévin’s mix for Soundwave I asked who he thought would share a mix on show he said I should contact Nick. I did what I aways do, which is dip into Bandcamp and Spotify to listen to get a feel for the artist’s music. After an afternoon spend listening to his releases as Tyresta, I understood why Kévin thought Nick should I have guest deejay on the show.
Good call, Kévin.
Nick’s mix has been my soundtrack for the events unfolding in Ukraine. Some of the songs Nick selected in his mix seem prescient and apocalyptic. But Nick’s mix takes unexpected turns and is, thankfully, at times joyful and triumphant. At least that’s what I got out of it.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Joakim Alfvén.
See you then.
Nick Turner, AKA Tyresta
The music on this mix has inspired me greatly in recent years and features artists that hold identities that are typically under-valued in ambient, drone, and experimental music.
I met Damien through Kévin Séry, AKA From Overseas, who was our guest deejay back in July. Kévin spun a gorgeous mix. Afterward, I asked Kévin who he thought would want to share a mix on Soundwave, and he highly recommended Damien. After dipping into Damien’s catalog on Bandcamp, I understood why. Damien captures that dreamy, post-rock sound I love that creates ambient drone soundscapes. Wonderful stuff.
Damien’s mix for today’s show is no less extraordinary.
An interesting aspect about Soundwave is that you, dear reader, most likely listen to each show once. And that’s perfectly all right. Podcasts are a disposable medium. You listen to one podcast and then move on to the next. I do the same thing.
But I listen to each mix sent my way for Soundwave many times. They become the soundtrack to my life. Damien’s mix has provided the score to the horror unfolding in Ukraine. I’m sure that’s not how Damien wanted his mix to be distinguished, but there it is.
As I’ve said many times, I launched Soundwave to cope with the stress and isolation of the pandemic. I never anticipated that it would help me deal with a possible third World War.’
Wherever you are in the world listening to today’s show, I hope it finds you well. I hope today’s show provides solace or, at the very least, an hour’s worth of distraction. I naively hope the conflict in Ukraine winds down without too much more suffering and death. And I hope that things do not spin out of control and drag the rest of the world into this geopolitical shitstorm.
It’s an honor to be part of the Soundwave series. I love doing mixes like this and share new tunes from artist that I adore, have listened often on repeat and discovered . It’s a great way to go on a unique journey and to immerse yourself in the work of amazing artists that I collaborated with, adore and have inspired . This mix was made on Midnight of August 27, 2021. Preparing for fall season. There are more artists that I adore that didn’t fit with the mix, but for sure I’m going to add more of them in future mixes.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Tyresta.
Justin is a singer and songwriter best known as a founding member of the band Godflesh, which combined metal and industrial music. Justin is also know for Jesu, which some refer to as his “shoegaze” project. While those are some of Justin’s more well-known projects, he’s been involved with many projects over nearly four decades, including everything from remixes to ambient music.
Every episode of Soundwave features spectacular mixes from our amazing guest deejays. Today’s show is no less unique. But today’s show a special to me because my I have an intimate relationship with his music.
I discover Justin through Godflesh’s Streetcleaner album. I can tell you that the album fused metal and industrial music. I can tell you that while the album is bleak as hell, it is somehow psychedelic and cathartic. But you owe it to yourself to experience it. Loudly.
When I learned that Godflesh would be performing in Boston for their first US tour, I interviewed Justin and his partner, G. C. Green, for WMFO. Unfortunately, their drum machine was fried from the US’s electrical current despite the adaptor they used to protect. Justin has to go out on a Sunday morning and purchase a new drum machine. I never got the chance to interview Justin because he had to program beats into his new drum machine as quickly as possible. Instead, I smoked joints and played video games with their road crew in their tour bus. Justin eventually programmed his drum machine and delivered a pulverizing show. I believe they opened with “Love is A Dog from Hell.” A personal favorite of mine.
My other story is about Justin’s collaboration with Kevin Martin called Techno Animal. I was in a relationship with a woman that was crumbling. One night she didn’t come home and was sleeping with another man. The only thing that got e through that long and painful night was listening to Peter Gabriel’s Passion soundtrack and Techno Animal’s Ghosts album repeatedly.
When I launched Soundwave to cope with the stress and isolation of the early days of the pandemic, Justin was the first person I reached out to be a guest deejay on the show. It was a shot in the dark. I didn’t expect a response, but Justin replied to my invitation the next day and said he’d be play to share a mix.
So here we are today with a mix of some ambient music that Justin considers essential listening.
I encourage you to listen to anything that Justin has been involved in. You might consider beginning with Justin’s latest release, EXPECT NOTHING AND THE KINGDOM WILL BE YOURS, which he records under his ambient project monicker, FINAL.
Justin has some words about his mix below.
Justin Broadrick
Faced with the inevitably impossible task of squeezing my favourite, loosely speaking ambient tracks of all time into maximum one hour, i decided to simply include what immediately comes to mind as opposed to labouring over what should or should not appear in this mix, so this is a tiny snapshot of my ambient favourites; there will be some glaring omissions among songs that have stuck with me for decades, but this is my memory in the present…..
Join us next week when out guest deejay will be Inner Islands.
I discovered Monty when the Cryo Chamber label sent out an email announcing the release of Monty’s new album, Fifth Nature. Whenever Cryo Chamber drops an album I drop whatever I’m doing and listen to it because they never fail to deliver mind blowing. Fifth Nature was no exception.
Monty Adkins, Skrika
The “liner notes” explains that Fifth Nature is the first of a series of albums set in the far distant future on a dying Earth. I appreciate concept albums that created their own mythology, but you certainly need to be aware of the backstory of Fifth Nature. The album stands on its own and you will lose yourself in its richly textures of a soundtrack for a distant apocalypse. Enjoy!
Monty’s mix draws upon the roster of artists on Cryo Chamber. Think of it as a compilation album as distilled by Monty. His mix captures the spirit of the label as well as reflecting Monty’s own tastes.
You’re going to love today’s mix. I encourage you listen to other artists from Cryo Chamber that appear in Monty’s mix such as Dronny Darko and Tineidae who have guest deejayed on Soundwave
Join us next week for our 100th episode when our guest deejay will be Justin Broadrick.
Today’s guest deejay is Francisco Dominguez, AKA Forest Robots.
The story behind Forest Robots is sweet.
It began with Francisco’s travels to the Sierra Nevada. The photos he took while there told the tale of his adventures in those beautiful mountain landscapes. It wasn’t until the birth of his daughter that those stories coalesced. Those pictures and stories could teach his daughter about the wonders of nature, the importance of spending time outdoors, and how vital it is to help conserve public lands. Those same photos and stories, his music, all of distilled into the project he calls Forest Robots, a love letter to my daughter about the wonders of nature.
I had come across Francisco’s musical journeys through Bandcamp. Still, it wasn’t until John Shanahan, host of the Hypnagogue Podcast, played Forest Robots in his mix for Soundwave, that I was compelled to seek him out and invite him to guest deejay on the show.
It’s a lovely mix. Maybe you’ll listen to it when you visit the Sierra Nevada. Or perhaps you can visit the Sierra Nevada in your imagination while listening to it while doing the dishes or walking your dog, which is how I experienced Francisco’s mix.
I initially launched Soundwave to cope with the stress and isolation of the early days of the pandemic lockdown. But here we are nearly two years later, and the pandemic is winding down. Countries across the world are opening up and getting back to normal.
I’m dubious. In January, there were 60,000 deaths due to COVID-19. That doesn’t sound like getting back to normal to me. What it sounds like is that this is the new normal. COVID will be with us forever, and we’ll learn how to deal with it and batten down until COVID is about as deadly as the flu.
I told myself when I launched Soundwave that I’d wind down the show once the pandemic had become manageable. We’re not there yet, but soon. What happens when Soundwave outlives its original purpose?
I’m looking forward to finding out.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Monty Adkins.
Robert Koch is a German, Los Angeles-based artist, composer, and record producer. Koch made a name for himself as a member of the band Jahcoozi before launching a solo artist. His electronic music sound has been called “Wonderful and strange – pop music from the future” by John Peel.
Robert has woven a gorgeous mix that includes music from artists such as the late Harold Budd; Berlin-based musician, composer, and producer Midori Hirano; and Canadian instrumental music producer Jay Cliffen and select tracks from Robert’s new project Foam and Sand.
Foam and Sand is an ambient soundscape and visual endeavor inspired by Robert’s daily meditation habit.
The project took shape during the pandemic lockdown of 2020. Robert used tape recordings of slowed-down pianos, modular synths, and other sonic sources. The signature sound is created with loops that magnify the irregularities and imperfections of cassette recordings and that are then shaped by Robert into hazy meditative journeys. Through the process, the grainy subtleties of sound give way to vast and lush atmospheric soundscapes, making audible the complex interplay of micro and macro and highlighting the interconnectedness of these two spheres in life.
Harrold was our guest deejay back in December 2020. His mix spanned the gamut from Biosphere to John Coltrane. It was so gorgeous that I asked him if he would be so kind to grace us with another one. Today’s show is equally breath taking and the range is just as broad and unexpected yet some somehow manages to be cohesive.
Harrold is a trained composer, a poet, sound designer and performing musician, specializing in the use of environmental sounds and long attention spans. His works try to invoke the timelessness of the world and its landscapes. He sings medieval and renaissance music with Ensemble Vlechtwerk, and hosts the radio show Sensenta, a musical serial, at the Concertzender every Sunday evening that explores many of these themes.
Oh, and Harrold also shares his daily haiku+picture on Instagram, which you can experience here.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Robert Koch.
See you then.
Harrold Roeland
A slightly moody mix. I couldn’t help but point to the current affairs in Afghanistan, which are much on my mind, as is the death of Raymond Murray Schafer. Such an admirable composer and thinker, such a loss for the music world. So there’s a reference to today in the description. I don’t mind if that has lost its urgency by the time this mix sees the light of day, but just so you know it’s there. The soundscape weeps today.
Toby Wren is an Australian guitarist who has an album called The Carnatic Jazz Experiment. As the title implies, it heavily uses Southern Indian Carnatic Rhythms. I think he’s a genius and this album deserves to be much more widely heard than it is now. The album is strictly acoustic, so the electronic echoes added in the end are my own, better to segue into the next track.
Lotto are from Poland, a band playing very minimalistic Post-Rock. Drones with drums. Once, for Sensenta, my weekly radio show at the Concertzender, I needed a variation on one of their tracks we played the week before. That’s the one you hear, the original but with little echo’s and delays added. I think it makes the track more hypnotic than it already is, and hope they will forgive me for messing around with their work. Both the original and this version appeared on Sensenta, and you can find their original version on their excellent album Elite Feline. If you like this music, check out their album VV too. It’s a gem.
To add some depth, Lull fades into the background around the 18 minute mark. Low frequencies galore. Though used for effect and drowned out here, Mick Harris’s album, Like A Slow River, is a beauty when it comes to dark, noisy ambient. Music like a haunted transistor radio.
Kloob hails from Spain. Synthesizer-based ambient is what he’s good at, and he seems to be getting better at it each year. This is an oldie, from his album Deep Emotional Phases, a remix found on the album as a bonus track.
Martin Stürtzer is next. I ran into his work through the Concertzender. A synthesizer wizard from Germany, he knows just how to twiddle those knobs and connect those modules to make splendid colourful textures. This is one of his more minimalist works, taken from, at the time of writing, a brand new album.
Martin Stültzer’s track turns out to combine well with another new work: Loscil’s “Lux”, from the album Clara. I mixed the two together on the radio the day prior to making this mix, and thought that move deserved repeating here. Loscil joins the mix from Canada. Pure blissful ambient.
The time of writing is 15 august 2021. In the wonderful country of Afghanistan the situation seems to be going completely down the drain. The news is worrying and hard to drive out of one’s mind. Thinking about what could happen to innocent people, especially girls and women, is enough to give you a knot in your stomach. Anouar Brahem’s work Improbable Day feels right. He is a famous Ud player from Tunesia. During the Arab Spring, he was home and couldn’t believe what was happening around him. He then wrote a full album about that. His opening track is our closing track for this mix. Yes, the context is much different than that of Afghanistan, but the music is fit for an Improbable Day.
Some of the earliest releases on Silent Records can instantly transport me back to the end of the last century. The From Here To Tranquility compilation series simultaneously turned me on to so many great musicians and blew my mind (check out my interview with Kim for solipsistic NATION here). The 50 Years Of Sunshine compilation album was a delightful celebration of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of LSD. And albums from Psychic TV, Zoviet•France*, Vuemorph, and Heavenly Music Corporation expanded my consciousness and my musical horizons.
When I invited Kim to guest deejay on Soundwave I didn’t expect him to play select tracks from his label, but I was surprised at how much he learned into guitar and instrumental music, which, as of the recording of today’s mix, Kim was immersed in. And it was a welcome surprise because although we celebrate ambient music on Soundwave, the show’s format is ambient and classical, instrumental and experimental. I’m thrilled when guests deejay explores other music forms on the show.
Kim has some words about his mix below.
Before we get to Kim’s mix, I wanted to share that nearly two years into the pandemic, I finally caught COVID. I don’t know if it was because I’ve been vaccinated and received my booster, and I caught the omicron variant, but I was barely sick. I was congested and tired. That was it, thankfully.
I launched Soundwave in the early days of the pandemic to help cope with the stress and isolation of self-quarantine. I spent the last two years moving from dread of the virus to grim acceptance, and once I caught the virus, I barely noticed it.
Of course, I don’t want to suffer from long COVID. Bit if this is the worst of it, I count myself as very lucky.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Harrold Roeland.
See you then.
Kim Cascone
After many years of programming acousmatic laptop music, I’ve shifted my creative focus to the electric guitar again. This mix is a small sampling of avant-guitar work that has inspired me of late and includes a new work of mine.
Kazuya is a Japanese artist who creates immersive, ritualized compositions through bronze bells, gongs, and singing bowls. Kazuya’s music is rooted in Buddhist (Zenzhu) philosophy and sensibilities unique to Japan. Kazuya’s work and interests are also contemporary and span many cultures. Kazuya is also an award-winning writer and a connoisseur of Japanese Literature, Buddhist Folktales, and Zen Philosophical Works.
I came across Kazuya’s music at the beginning of the pandemic. At the time, my attention span had been whittled down to a blunt end. I could not read or watch anything. I couldn’t find escape in music because none of the lyrics of the songs I listened to spoke to the new reality in which we all found ourselves. The only thing that provided solace was ambient, classical, instrumental, and experimental music. The kind of music that was essentially free of lyrics. The kind of music you could project your own meaning on or lose yourself in.
I launched Soundwave to cope with the stress and isolation Brough about by the pandemic. I clutched at it like a drowning man grasps a life preserver. Soundwave gave me solace and succor in the months ahead that were far more challenging and heartbreaking than I could have imagined.
Kazuya Nagaya
Kazuya was one of the first musicians I invited to participate in Soundwave (listen to Kazuya on the second episode of Soundwave). He could not have known when he recorded “Thanatos” from his Dream Interpretation album that I would play that song repeatedly for days. It seemed to sum up everything I was feeling in those early days of the pandemic. It was crucial to me to have Kazuya on Soundwave. It took over a year for Kazuya to find time to prepare his mix, and it took six months before Kazuya’s mix was scheduled to arrive in your ears. But here we are.
Nearly two years into the pandemic, I am in a very different place than I was initially. But Kazuya’s “Thanatos” and today’s mix ia a touchstone to those painful times. At the same time, the way out is through, and Kazuya’s music also served as a form of catharsis.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Kim Cascone.
