Today’s SOUNDWAVE features a mix of select tracks from Paleowolf!
I’ve been sitting on a handful of mixes since I invited guest deejays on SOUNDWAVE. If they were going to be generous with their time and efforts to send me a mix then I could be patient and release my own mixes on a later date. And at long last I can finally share with you today's mix of select tracks from Paleowolf.
I got turned on to Paleowolf when Warren Ellisraved about Paleowolf’s album, Megafauna Rituals. I’ve been waiting for an album like Megafauna Rituals for decades since listening to Brian Eno’s Ambient 4: On Land album. Yes, yes, I know that album is an imaginary soundscape the captures the essence of Eno’s England but I didn't know that when I first heard it. To me On Land was more of a touchstone to our Paleolithic past.
Speaking of the Paleolithic, Paleowolf’s music is the soundtrack to a lot of Ice Age role playing games such as Würm, Paleomythic and my own homebrew game based on the Strain rule set. You might want to incorporate it into your own game if that’s your bag.
Paleowolf’s new album, Primordial II
Scorpio V is the man behind Paleowolf and I was hoping to have him on the show to be a guest deejay but the guy is busy. After looking at all his releases and side projects I don't think the poor bastard has time to eat or sleep. In fact, as I write this his latest album, Primordial II, will be released November 16. Maybe after this album I can get him to guest deejay on SOUNDWAVE.
Before I head out, I want to turn you on to Ana Roxanne’s new album, Because of a Flower. I’ve been a fan of Ana’s music since her 2020 album, ~~~, so much so that I featured her track, “It’s a Rainy Day On The Cosmic Shore,” on the first edition of SOUNDWAVE.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be offthesky.
Today on SOUNDWAVE our guest deejay is n5MD recording artist, Daniel McCagh. I’ll talk about Daniel’s mix shortly but first let me tell you about the election that just took place in the U.S.
As I write this Joe Biden has been declared the president-elect of the United States. The vice president-elect is Kamala Harris is the first Indian-American, the first African-American, and the first female vice president in U.S. history. It is so long overdue that someone like Harris becomes a vice president that it took a while for me to recognize the significance of this accomplishment. This should have been the norm a very long time ago. Of course a woman should be a vice president. Of course a woman of color should be vice president. There shouldn’t be anything remarkable about this at all. But here we are at long last.
Here in San Diego the mood is ebullient. There are motorcades, the honking of horns and cheering. You can feel the difference; the joy and the relief. After four years of mendacity, racism, cruelty and incompetence we are ready for a change.
SOUNDWAVE was created as a coping mechanism to the isolation and stress of COVID-19. President Trump and his administration bungled the management of the crisis of COVID-19 so badly that they contributed to the spread of the virus. So badly, in fact, that the Trump administration effectively gave up. I can only hope that Biden’s administration will reign in the virus and accelerate a cure. As Americans we need to get back to our lives and loved ones and we need an economy that will work for everyone.
I’m not naive. I know this presidency will disappoint and outrage me as all other presidencies have in the past. But at least it will be a normal disappointment and outrage and not that nauseating horror show I’ve had to endure for the last four years.
Let’s take a break from politics.
Planet Boelex’s new album, Connect
Planet Boelex is a previous guest deejay on SOUNDWAVE and he has just released and new album called Connect. It’s about as beautiful as you’d expect and you can find it on Bandcamp for the very affordable price of $7.
Want more of Planet Boelex? You can listen to his mix for SOUNDWAVE here or listen to his live set for solipsistic NATION here.
Daniel McCagh
Okay, let’s talk about our guest deejay, Daniel McCagh.
Daniel describes his mix as a collection of some favourite tunes both beautiful and sometimes uncomfortable for deep and immersive listening. It’s the kind of soundscape that’s perfect for the rare rainy day we’re having this weekend in San Diego. After you are done listening to Daniel’s mix you will know that you have just experienced something profound and that you will need time to process it.
Daniel’s mix comes to us by way of Mike Cadoo, the founder of n5MD. I interviewed Mike and featured music from his label on solipsistic NATION some years ago. When I launched SOUNDWAVE I reached out to Mike to do a mix for a show. Mike was busy at the time but suggested that Daniel put together a mix for SOUNDWAVE. Great idea, Mike. Oh, and I still want you to do a mix of your own when time permits.
Daniel McCagh is an electronic music producer and sound artist currently residing in Melbourne, Australia. Daniel uses acoustic instruments and digital manipulation to create powerful emotive and cinematic music. Daniel is also the sole composer and sound designer behind Gutterbox Audio, having composed music and designed sound for global companies such as Polestar, Huawei, Acura and Volkswagen.
You’re in good hands. Enjoy today’s mix!
Join us next week when we’ll listen to a mix featuring Cryo Chamber recording artist Paleowolf.
Today’s show is very special to me. I suppose I say that about every edition of SOUNDWAVE but this edition is particularly special to me.
When COVID-19 hit the U.S. and we all went under self-quarantine I found that I couldn't listen to music. All the bands and musicians I used to enjoy no longer spoke to our new reality. They sounded vapid and out of touch. The only music I found that I could listen to or gave me solace was ambient, classical, experimental and instrumental music. There were no lyrics to distract me and I could impose any meaning I wanted.
At the time I was listening to Warren Ellis’s now defunct podcast and reading his newsletter. Ellis turned me on to Paleowolf earlier in the year so I trusted his taste in music. When he recommended Acoxaca’s album, In Abeyance the Devouring Flame album I did not hesitate to buy it and listen to it immediately.
In Abeyance is a quietly sublime album.
It’s a mournful album that resonated with what I was experiencing in my insular world. And somehow in that mourning I felt a spiritual and emotional release from my woes, if only for a little while. And I clung to that respite like someone clinging to a life raft. I played that album over and over and over again.
It’s also a minimal album but the more I listened to it the more I heard. I remember one listening experience deep into the night I thought I heard a car alarm. But it wasn’t a car alarm. It was a wailing sound buried deeply in the mix. I kept finding things like that in In Abeyance.
In Abeyance was released on the Other Forms of Consecrated Life music label. I was so on love with the album that I purchased every album from the label. Like In Abeyance, each album is a singular experience and one that I revisited repeatedly.
When I launched SOUNDWAVE I reached out to E & S at Other Forms and asked if they’d put together a mix for the show. I wanted to share the music that got me through a difficult stretch of the lockdown. Maybe you’ll find solace in it, too. And if you love the music you hear on today’s show I encourage you to purchase the albums and share it with anyone you think needs to hear it.
E &S will share their thoughts on today’s mix below.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Daniel McCagh.
See you then!
Other Forms of Consecrated Life
This mix is a small label sampler for Other Forms of Consecrated Life, a platform for experimental artists with an interest in audiovisual phenomena, hypnagogia, or dissociative states. The mix begins with low, pulsing drones from the archive of Lynette Sandholm Evvers, a chromesthesic, whose work has been favorably compared by Disquiet to Éliane Radigue. It then continues with the choral, eremitic musics of The Penitential Station and Acoxaca, before concluding with the more abrasive sounds of Tepe Gawra and Elizabeth Cottern, the latter whose album was described by Brainwashed as an ‘instant classic’.
As I write this we’re driving to Arizona to pick up our daughter who we haven’t seen her in over seven months.
Before the self-quarantine in California began we took our kids to stay with their bio-dad and his partner. We didn't know how the virus was going to play out and my wife was certain she was going to be summoned for duty and I was going to work from home. Having them with their dad and his girlfriend was our best option.
We picked up our boy from Arizona a few months ago and by the end of the day all our family will finally be under the same roof again.
So here we are in the car and we’re listening to today’s mix. That’s my wife's idea, which is very flattering. Ambient and experimental music isn’t her thing.
This mix is very special to me.
I launched SOUNDWAVE to help cope with the stress and isolation of being under self-quarantine due to COVID-19.
We’ve been living with the Corona virus for over half a year now so it’s easy to forget that the during the early days of the self-quarantine we were all white knuckling it. We were all asking ourselves how long this would go on, what can we do to protect ourselves, and will we or our family members or friends die from the virus?
I don’t know about you but during that time I found it difficult to focus on anything outside of work, and work was a blessed distraction. My television could barely hold my attention and I’d turn it off in frustration. I found myself unable to read books and would read the same paragraphs over and over again. And I discovered that music no longer spoke to the truth of my new reality. Love songs in particular seemed inane. The only music I could listen to was ambient, classical, experimental and instrumental where there were no lyrics and I could infer or impart my own meeting. And if that was the only music that gave me solace then surely others needed it to, so why not share it?
Shortly after launching SOUNDWAVE I invited folks I knew to guest deejay on the show. I was overwhelmed by the responses so I sat on today’s mix until the right time.
So here we are. Finally.
The first track on today’s mix comes from Dronny Darko’s latest album, Origin. The entire album is fantastic and I was so impressed that I invited Dronny to be a guest deejay on SOUNDWAVE. Dronny Darko is on the roster of artist on the Cryo Chamber label, as is our next artist, Sabled Sun, which is Simon Heath, the founder Cryo Chamber. And from Sabled Sun we segue into Multicast Dynamics. Samuel van Dijk is the man behind Multicast Dynamics and today’s track comes form his fifth album, Lost World.
All of these songs seamlessly blend into each other until we fade into Ecker & Meulyzer, who I discovered n the Bandcamp Daily blog. Wonderful, spooky stuff full of powerful rhythms and raw swaths of sounds.
From there we hear a piece by West Dylan Thorsdon from the Split soundtrack. That man can do a lot with just a bow and a cello that’ll raise the hair on the back of your neck.
Our next song is from the Devs soundtrack by Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow. If you haven’t watched Devs, please do so. It’s written and directed by Alex Garland and I think it’s Alex working in peak form. And Ben and Geoff’s music elevate Devs into sublimity. Oh, and Geoff is also a member of Portishead and you should definitely listen to his bandmate, Adrian Utley, mix for SOUNDWAVE.
We end today’s show with a piece by Those Who Walk Away from composer Matthew Patton’s album, The Infected Mass. It’s a mournful song for a mournful show. Patton’s piece is accompanied By some words by Peter Wessel Zapffe from his book, The Last Messiah. Prior to the pandemic I was knee deep in the nihilism of Thomas Ligotti and Emil Ciordan and Zapffe’s name kept popping up so naturally I had to read his stuff. Being steeped in nihilism isn’t the healthiest frame of mind to be in during the self-quarantine so I exorcised it with today’s mix.
I love this mix and I’m happy to finally share it with you after listening it to it weekly for the six months. It’s also something of a relief because today’s mix is also a touchstone to very unhappy time in my life and I’m glad to finally let go of it.
Join us again next week when our guest deejay will be E & S from one of my favorite labels, Other Forms of Consecrated Life.
A few months ago Dronny Darko came on the show with a killer mix. As usually, I asked Dronny who he knew personally who would be interested in sharing a mix of their own for SOUNDWAVE and Dronny recommended protoU. It’s a dark and mysterious that’s both ethereal and earthy. Sasha’s mix resonates with me because it is reminiscent of the first two albums that introduced me to ambient music, Brian Eno’s Ambient 4: On Land and Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks. Sasha’s mix also include’s Hivetribe’s “Uthernno”, which features one of my favorite recording of a 1950s housewife trying to describe a LSD experience.
You will not be disappointed with Sasha’s mix. I’ve had her mix on repeat for weeks and I still find something new in it.
In other news, this tiny show dedicated to niche genres of music that I launched to help cope with the stress of COVID-19 is growing ever so slightly, which is gratifying.
I don’t do much to promote SOUNDWAVE because it’s not that kind of show. It really is a form of therapy and I’m touched by every guest deejay’s generosity. I’m also moved that you, dear listener, take time out of your no doubt busy week to experience the mixes offered on this show. Maybe it’s time to share this show with more people. If you know of someone that you think would enjoy SOUNDWAVE, grab their phone and subscribe them to the podcast.
Join us again next week when our guest deejay will be… let me check my schedule… me!
Today’s guest deejay is Axel Arturo Barceló, who I met while interviewing him for solipsistic NATION about his netlabel, Discos Konfort. I enjoyed talking to Axel about his label and dug the music from his roster of artists that he was one of the first people I contacted when I started asking folks to guest deejay on SOUNDWAVE. I know you’re going to live his mix!
Axel Arturo Barceló
This is another one of those entries that I have to keep short because I have friends from out of town that I’m about to meet up with for dinner. A few things before I go…
A few weeks ago I saw a photo of apocalyptic skies due to the fires in NorCal that Robert Rich posted on Facebook. When I discovered that he and I lived in the same area I said we should hang out, and so we did. Robert is just a nice and thoughtful as you’d imagine. We was also generous and gave me a copy his latest CD, Offering to the Morning Fog. So cool to finally meet the guy whose music I’ve been listening to since last century. Check out Robert’s mix for SOUNDWAVE here.
Joseph Aleo and Robert Rich
This week I’ve been enjoying W. David Oliphant’s new album, Beyond All Defects: 2020, that he recorded with Sir Richard Bishop. Actually, I don’t know if enjoying is the right word. More like experiencing it. Oliphant’s music is haunting and that doesn’t even begin to capture the depth of his music. Look, just listen to the damn album and hear for yourself. Or listen to Oliphant’s mix for SOUNDWAVE.
Okay, that’s it. I got a flex. Join us next week when our guest deejay will be protoU.
Today’s guest deejay is Jonathan Ammons, a journalist, radio producer, and musician living in Asheville, North Carolina. You can find his music on Bandcamp and listen to his radio show from WPVM and Pacifica Radio Network at the Dirty Spoon.
Jonathan is yet another amazing person I was introduced to through my old friend, Steve Howard (listen to Steven’s SOUNDWAVE mix here). Meeting Jonathan is one of the unexpected pleasures in the evolution of SOUNDWAVE.
I launched SOUNDWAVE to help cope with the stress of the pandemic. In the first few months of COVID-19 it seemed that stepping outside your house might kill you. If that wasn’t terrifying enough, my family was scattered about the country so for a long time it was just me and my dog. That took a toll on me and my usual distractions, music, reading and television, could not hold my interest at all. In fact, they annoyed me or angered me. The only thing that provided any comfort was ambient, classical, experimental and instrumental music. I reasoned that if that music was giving me solace it might help others as well so I launched SOUNDWAVE. Very soon afterwards I decided to invite the talented people I know who might enjoy or, more importantly, need to share a mix of their own. And that very quickly led to asking my friends who they knew personally who might want to participate in the show. That decision introduced me to such wonderful people as Adrian Utley, Hannah Peel, Charles Hazlewood and Jonathan.
I don’t really know Jonathan, though. We’ve just had a few email exchanges arranging today’s show but through his mix I feel I know him more intimately than I might know him through a dozen conversations. That’s all projection, of course, but that is the power of music. It bypasses the rational and hits on emotional truths, which is why I launched SOUNDWAVE in the first place.
Back in 2016 there were a series of forest fires that broke out throughout Western North Carolina, surrounding my home in Asheville. The air was thick with smoke, and a perpetual haze fell over everything. It just so happened that it fell right on the heels of a devastating national election, and for a moment, it truly felt like the whole world was on fire.
I had just started spending time with a very lovely lady, and I asked her one night if she’d like to go watch the mountains burn.So I threw some camping chairs in the truck, grabbed a camera and a bottle of Champagne, and we headed out to the center of the fires.
There’s a strange feeling when you sit and watch your home burn to the ground. Halloween orange glowing from every hilltop, brick red clouds in the night sky. Knowing that everything would grow back eventually, but that the sights you grew up seeing would be permanently scarred. The world would be better, maybe even healthier than it was before, but it would take a lot of ash and rubble to get there.
I started making my first ambient LP — First Sight — during those fires. At the time, my office was on my screened in porch, and I could sit while I composed and watch ash fall from the sky. I like to think that much of my approach to the way I currently make music came from that experience.
I remember calling a friend one day, and saying, “you know how I’ve been complaining a lot about that knot in my stomach that wouldn’t go away? I think I finally figured out what that is. I think it’s despair. I just think it’s the first time I’ve ever felt it. Ithink I just didn’t realize it because it doesn’t feels as hopeless as I would have thought.”
From that point on, I was able to see the fragile, delicate things that fall apart, and not feel the overwhelming sense of loss I had initially felt. Instead, I understood it to be a burning of the dross, a disposal of things that were unnecessary. When a fire burns, after all, it makes way for far better things than grew there before. Sometimes you just have to let it burn.
I like to think of this mix as songs from the fire. Pieces of music that are as devastating as they are restorative. A little hazy, a little bleary, but beautiful in their own right. There are three original compositions in the mix, the first and last are from an as of yet unreleased record (this is actually their debut). The other, “Open Eyes”, is from my new album First Sight. The rest of the mix runs a gamut between crumbling organic sounds and stark synthesis. Ian William Craig actually wrote his new and beautiful record while also being surrounded by forest fires, Goldmund delivers gorgeous ambient versions of old Civil War era songs, and Oliver Patrice Weder delivers the most thoughtful, pensive piano performance… music to watch the world end. My favorite kind.
On today’s SOUNDWAVE our guest deejay is Hannah Peel! I’ll tell you why I am so excited to have her on today’s show shortly.
I just got back from traveling to Chicago for a vacation. I love that city and each time I go to there the more I want to move there. Granted, we went there just before fall, which is the best time to visit Chicago. It was neither hot and humid or wet and frigid.
I got to spend time with my brother and sister-in-law, run to the lakeshore and watch the sunrise, and bike around the city but overall it was an eating vacation. I live near Los Angeles so my expectations for superior restaurants is high. Chicago surpasses those expectations. You simply can’t get a bad meal in that city. The restaurant that served the best meals was The Purple Pig but our favorite dining experience was Podhalanka. We met Greg, the owner, who made us feel welcome and ordered our meals for us and each dish was delicious. Greg clearly loves what he does and he cares deeply that you are well fed.
But I’m not here to talk about what I did on my vacation. I’m here to tell you that I’m grateful that I was able to spend time with family and friends. I hadn’t realized how much I needed a vacation until we landed in O’Hare. Usually it takes me a day or two to unwind but I instantly relaxed the moment we arrived. And I’m also grateful for our vacation because it gave me some time to process a lot of my thoughts and feelings regarding COVID-19 and how to lead my life going forward. I’m not going to go into the details here but what I will share with you is that COVID-19 has brought into sharp relief that our time on this planet is short and we could leave it at any moment. The last few months I’ve met many people who have I opened up and shared their deepest thoughts with me. And why not? Now’s the time to do it. And like a lot of people, I’ve been reevaluating my life and what I want to do with it during the time I have remaining. Despite the anxiety of COVID-19 I’m also excited about the possibilities that lie before all of us.
I began SOUNDWAVE to help cope with the stress of the pandemic but over the last half year my relationship to COVID-19 has changed dramatically. I hope it has for you as well. Carpe diem.
Let’s get to today’s show, shall we?
As I mentioned above, our guest deejay is Hannah Peel.
Until a few weeks ago I wasn’t familiar with Hannah and had only become acquainted with her when I asked SOUNDWAVE guest deejay, Charles Hazlewood, who he knew personally that might be interested in sharing a mix on the show. Charles put me in contact with Portishead’s Adrian Utley and Hannah Peel. Adrian’s mix was lovely and Hannah’s mix is no less so.
On today’s show Hannah will take you to some very surprising places and she begins her mix with a track from Joni Mitchel. So unexpected! You’re in her capable hands so enjoy the journey. I know you’re going to love today’s show.
As I said, I was unfamiliar with Hannah but I’ve been getting up to speed. And you should, too, because Hannah’s music is also unexpected. Her songs can be delicate and achingly familiar. She’’ll paint impressionistic music with swathes of sound but will also delight you with covers of pop songs from the ‘80s performed on music boxes. I catch myself singing Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” constantly thanks to Hannah.
Join us again next week when our guest deejay will be Jonathan Ammons.
I’m very excited about today’s show because our guest deejay is Adrian Utley!
Most likely you know Adrian from Portishead, the band that put trip hop on the map late last century. Or you many know Adrian more recently for the work he did with Will Gregory for the soundtrack to the motion picture Arcadia, which I featured on the first episode of SOUNDWAVE. Adrian is a man who cares deeply about his craft and his love of sound and music is expressed in any project he is involved with.
I want to give special thanks to Charles Hazelwood for putting me in contact with Adrian. After Charles’s mix for SOUNDWAVE went live I asked him who he knew personally who might be interested in participating in the show and he suggested Adrian and Hannah Peel (who will be our guest deejay on next week’s show). It’s little things like that that make this show feel special and more intimate. At least to me, anyway.
Okay, time for me to wrap this up. My family and I are going to take a little but much needed vacation and get away from the wildfires and earthquakes that have wracked California.
I’m very excited about today’s show because our guest deejay is Elliott Sharp!
I told my wife about Elliott and she gave me a blank look. I get it. SOUNDWAVE is a niche show featuring niche musicians. But if you’re into this sort of thing then you’ll be just as thrilled as I am about today’s show.
I was introduced to Elliott’s music back when I was a deejay at WMFO. We broadcast under a freeform format and while I imagined myself as having broad tastes my fellow deejays turned me on to some fantastic experimental music and Elliott Sharp came up again and again.
When I came across Elliott on Instagram I immediately invited him to be a guest deejay on SOUNDWAVE and to my delight he obliged. I was curious what kind of mix he‘d put together and it’s just as expected as I expected and I know you‘ll love it just as much as I do.
Elliott will tell you all about his mix below. I gotta flex because we‘re dropping off a relative in Sacramento.
See you next week when our guest deejay will be Adrian Utley!
Elliott Sharp
A collection of pieces reflecting my mood as we near the end of Summer 2020, the summer of Covid-19, and the eve of a potentially apocalyptic American election.
The electrified mbira ensemble Konono N°1 from Congo Republic plays music that is simultaneously joyous and furious, danceable but stimulating cornersof the mind that reflect on history and colonialism, folk culture and electrified popular music.
With a wave of recent lynchings of African-Americans by uniformed police in the USA, forces that often see themelves as occupying armies, I’m reminded ofthis poignant blues by the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson. While the singer laments that he will be executed for “doing something wrong”, one can’t help imagine that we are witness to a much more primitive form of justice, that of the lynch mob.
Some of my favorite guitar music of all time is vọng cổ music from Vietnam, performed on electric guitars with deeply scalloped fretboards and-built-in electronic effects. This music is deep blues, transnational and cosmic.
With the Linda Music track from what was the Central African Republic, we hear amusic now vanished, played by people extinguished in the civil war between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. Tragic, beautiful music.
At this point, I humbly add my own composition Storm of the Eye performed by thefantastic virtuosi Hilary Hahn on violin and Cory Smythe on piano. Commissioned in 2009 by Hilary for her album In 27 Pieces, the piece makes great demands on the players both in use of extended techniques and in summoning a feeling for the times.
This program closesout with an excerpt from Quatermass by the great Tod Dockstader, a visionary pioneer of music concrete and electro acoustic music. He worked outside of the academy and therefore never received the recognition due him. His music was visceral and powerful, perfect for this moment.
