SOUNDWAVE : 119 : COMPLEX HOLIDAY

SOUNDWAVE : 119 : COMPLEX HOLIDAY

Today’s guest deejay is Robert Farrugia, co-founder of Complex Holiday, an itinerant label for inside-out ambient and sound art tomfoolery.

Robert was our guest deejay last fall, and he returns to Soundwave sharing another lustrous mix.

For me, Robert’s mix captures the essence of ambient music, as explained by Brian Eno, who compared ambient music to a painting. You can enjoy a painting on two levels. On one level, you engage with the painting, looking at it, studying it, and reacting to it. But on another level, the same painting is on the periphery of your consciousness. But it’s still there, subtly affecting you.

I’d find myself immersed in Robert’s mix and then be distracted by an email or text message, lost in thought, and slowly becoming aware that Robert had shifted the territory in his sonic landscape. And then the cycle began again.

 

Robert Farrugia, Photograph by Chris Vella / Storbju
Robert Farrugia, Photograph by Chris Vella / Storbju

Robert has included a few releases from Complex Holiday on today’s show. Ben Mifsud Joslin album, New Life (Robert was involved in the recording process and performed additional instrumentation on Ben’s album), and Daniel Vujcic’s album, Palinopsia, will be released later this year. Robert himself makes an appearance with “Iota.”

Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Riz Maslen.

See you then.

  1. Warmth “Guiding Light”
  2. Robert Farrugia “Iota”
  3. Tone Color “Half-Remembered, Half-Forgotten”
  4. Ben Mifsud Joslin “New Life”
  5. Taylor Deupree “Twirl”
  6. Robert Farrugia “Digital Droplets”
  7. Daniel Vujcic “Quiblis Ark”
  8. Andrew Tasselmyer “Our Own Private Libraries”
  9. Daniel Vujcic “Volovod”
  10. David Allred “Potato”

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Logo by Rik Oostenbroek

SOUNDWAVE : 86 : ALISÚ

SOUNDWAVE : 86 : ALISÚ

Today’s guest deejay is Jessica Campos de la Paz, AKA Alisú.

Alisú is yet another musician that Soundwave guest deejay Axel Arturo Barceló introduced me to (listen to Axel’s mix here).

Jessica is a Chilean producer and graphic designer and Alisú is her electronic project. She began her career in 1998 performing live sets of dub, techno, IDM and experimental sounds, not only as Alisú but also in the project Manziping with Rodrigo Rivera and Antonio Díaz, performing at many South American festivals. On her first release for Bottom Forty, she composed three beautiful, purely hardware based tracks for her Rompiente EP with rhythmic vibes that take you from resonant underwater depths up into reflective cosmic atmospheres.

 

Jessica Campos de la Paz, AKA Alisú
Jessica Campos de la Paz, AKA Alisú

Alisú’s mix for today’s show is sexy and a little bit dangerous. Her mix also demonstrates the versatility of ambient and instrumental music. If you listen to these genres of music or listen to Soundwave, you alrready know what I’m talking about. But to the layperson, ambient and instrumental music conjures up swathes of pretty sounds. When I encounter such notions, I point them to the music from artists like Alisú.

I’m going to wrap this entry up because tonight I will be taking the reedy to to Boston. It will be the first time in several decades that my dad, brother, sister and I will be under the same roof. I’m pretty busy, but hit me up and maybe we can meet for some socially distanced coffee.

Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Textere Oris.

See you then!

  1. Riz Maslen “The Lake Woods”
  2. Alisú “Planeando sobre Valpo”
  3. Valentina Berthelon feat Javi de la Rosa “Sangre”
  4. Daniel Jeffs “Monkeys”
  5. Daniel Klauser “When U Dancing”
  6. F600 feat Fran Straube “Zoom”
  7. Lars from Mars “Flatforming”
  8. Delia “Sequence”
  9. Obsolete Music Technology “Broken Siren”
  10. Idealist “Time Lapse’
  11. Alisú “Introspection”
  12. Claro Intelecto “Patience”

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Logo by Rik Oostenbroek

SOUNDWAVE : 76 : MICHAEL DONALDSON

SOUNDWAVE : 76 : MICHAEL DONALDSON

Today’s guest deejay is Michael Donaldson.

I met Michael when he posted an interview with Daniel Fuzztone on Micro.blog. I enjoyed the interview and Michael’s other blog posts and Daniel’s music, so I invited both of them to guest deejay on Soundwave. We’ll hear Daniel’s mix in December.

I’m happy about the Micro.blog connection. It’s one of the aspects of social media I still like. When I joined Twitter 2006, it was easier to have actual conversations with people and establish friendships. It was also easier to chat with musicians, label owners, directors, etc and bypass the dual intermediaries. Those days are gone, and Micro.blog’s network is currently too small to be useful to me in that way, what it has going for it that’s invaluable is the conversations and connections you have there. It’s cosier. And because Micro.blog is subscription based, it eliminates the riff raft.

 

Michael Donaldson
Michael Donaldson

I got a kick out of Michael’s blog. It’s got a lot of 80/90s feel to it, so for me hearing Michael’s mix was like putting on a comfortable, worn-in sweater. Michael’s mix is wonderful, but the track that got me in the feels was My Bloody Valentine/Skylab’s “Incidental Peace.” It’s such an unlikely collaboration but somehow weaves a seamless blend of shoegaze and electronic music. It’s all kinds of wonderful and “Incidental Peace” is buttressed between music that is equally gorgeous.

I think what I love most about Michael’s mix is how dreamy it it. I’ll find myself listening to the it, and lose myself in the music and my own thoughts and feelings, only to resurface laster in the mix, uncertain how much time has passed.

Okay, time for me to pack it in. Tomorrow is my boy’s first baseball game of the season. I’ll be honest, even with social distancing I think it’s going to be unsettling being around so many people. At least we’ll all be outdoors.

Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Gert De Meeseter.

See you then!

  1. Gemini Revolution “Crumarooned”
  2. Bjørn Torske “HemmeligOrkester”
  3. Ralph Kinsella “Suffuse”
  4. Bill Nelson “Night Tides”
  5. More Ghost Than Man + San Mateo “11811 (Georgy Block 7.7)”
  6. Holger Czukay “Radio in an Hourglass”
  7. My Bloody Valentine meets Skylab “Incidental Peace”
  8. Fila Brazillia “Midnight Friends”
  9. Bill Nelson “Clothed in Light Amongst the Stars”
  10. Elijah Knutsen “Somewhere Knows”
  11. Q-Burns Abstract Message “The Burning City”

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Logo by Rik Oostenbroek