Carmen Rizzo introduced me to Naneum when he was a guest deejay on Soundwave. Carmen’s mix was gorgeous and I invited each musician he featured on his mix to guest deejay on Soundwave as well.
Jon’s mix is equally gorgeous. Whenever I listen to it I’m transported from sunny San Diego to a snow morning in the woods of Massachusetts when I was a boy. I can’t explain why but there is something about the delicacy of the music Jon selected that evokes that experience. That’s the beauty of the mixes on Soundwave, they take you on a journey. I’m curious to know where Jon’s mix takes you.
Naneum: solo piano
If you want to hear more music from Jon, you can begin with his January 2021 release, Solo Piano. You can hear more of his music here.
I’m going to keep today’s show notes brief. I just drove over eight hours to Sacramento to spend the next few weeks with my wife. I’m looking forward to catching up, having a nice meal, and getting some shuteye. I want to get up early so we can go kayaking.
Fitz Gitler introduced me to Nate after I asked him who would be interested in doing a mix for Soundwave (listen to Fitz’s mix here). If Fitz recommends anything then I’m going to listen because that guy has excellent taste in music, so invited Nate to guest deejay on Soundwave without hesitation.
Nate did not disappoint. I’ve listened to his mix many times, usually with a cup of coffee while I’m starting my workday. Despite each listen, Nate’s mix sounds fresh even as it’s burnished with another lacquer of familiarity.
Nature said that today’s mix inspired him to dust off his Ableton and begin composing again. I look forward to whatever he decides to share.
Nate is a medical geographer who uses maps to support health programs around the world. When I asked him if there was anything I should mention on today’s show notes, he said he wanted to promote efforts such as 80,000 Hours (a London-based organization that conducts research on which careers have the most significant positive social impact and provides career advice based on that research), GiveWell (an American non-profit charity assessment and effective altruism-focused organization, focusing primarily on the cost-effectiveness of the organizations that it evaluates, rather than traditional metrics such as the percentage of the organization’s budget that is spent on overhead), and Animal Charity Evaluators (a US-based non-profit charity evaluator and effective altruism-focused organization that finds and promotes the most effective ways to help animals).
Nate was some words about his mix below.
As of Monday, I am fully vaccinated. Outwardly, you’d never know that being vaccinated has changed my life. I still wear my mask when I go out into the world. I still keep my distance from people. I don’t want to pass on the virus even though I may be immune to it, and I certainly don’t want to risk catching one of the variants. Inwardly, I feel like a weight has been lifted. I feel a little bit invincible.
Before the pandemic, I purchased tickets to see Swans perform in Los Angeles. The concert was rescheduled, rescheduled again, and finally canceled. I’m hoping that once enough people have been vaccinated that I’ll finally get to see them.
This week I’ve been putting my CDs in storage. While packing, I came across fantastic music by C – Schulz, Coil, Zoviet France, Techno Animal, Z’EV , and others that I plan to share on a future mix.
Okay, that’s it for me.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Jon Solo, AKA Naneum.
See you then!
Nate Heard Photo Credit: Miles Heard
Like many mixes that appear on Soundwave, this one captures a specific moment, even though these selections come together from a span of about 50 years. I received Joseph’s kind invitation to be a guest deejay the day after seditious white supremacists stormed the Capitol building. I was a mess. I happen to live in Washington, D.C., and have spent some time in those office buildings. Terre Thaemlitz’s “D.C. D.O.A.” (1997) came to mind and ended up anchoring this mix.
“I got a phone call. He wants us to join him.”
“In Washington.”
“Some kind of big demonstration.”
“They think they’ve finally got a shot.”
“I can’t go to Washington. I can’t even get out of bed!”
Julianna Barwick goes straight for catharsis with “Inspirit” (2020). It’s a purification. Listening to it feels like participating in a rite. Like “Inspirit,” Haruomi Hosono and Bill Laswell’s “Unfinished Screams” (1996) washes over you, but in alternating waves of drum & bass and ambient synth & insect passages. The outro forms a bridge to the musique concrète and collage pieces that compose the mix’s core.
The one electronic music class I’ve taken focused primarily on tape processing and the studio techniques Delia Derbyshire used, such as cutting and splicing magnetic tape with a razor. This excerpt of “Circle of Light” (1969) is a nod to Derbyshire’s brilliance with this medium and, like other excerpts in the mix, encourages seeking out the complete pieces.
“Espace/Escape” (1989) is one of the most tonally rich pieces of musique concrète I know and endlessly rewarding on repeated listening. Holger Czukay’s “Träum Mal Wieder” (1984), roughly “dream again,” is also built from ethereal, dreamlike sources but is held together by driving percussion and has much more structure than its name suggests.
The album “Pan De Sonic – Iso,” which includes the track “Evening Night fall – Fire, cricket, wine glass etc” (2021), will be available by the time this mix appears on Soundwave. Ai Yamamoto composed it entirely of “domestic field recordings” from the artist’s COVID lockdown in Melbourne. It promises to be an extraordinary release.
Chris Burke’s “Everything I Need” (1995) is at once jagged and tender, much like Joe Cocker’s source vocals. To my ear, Burke captures the essence of Cocker’s song with only variations on a four-second sample.
“Avril 14th” (Aphex Twin) is recognizable from the opening bar of loscil’s remix of Wagner and Murcof’s cover (2017). But unlike the original or the cover, the melody doesn’t hit until 2:03, which for me, was one of the biggest payoffs in music I’d heard in a long time. It’s patient and brilliantly arranged.
The opening track on Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster & Panaiotis‘s “Deep Listening” is “Lear” (1993) which, the more I thought about it, evoked the 45th president. The greed. The king’s solicitation of flattery. King Lear does not want the responsibility of power. Only the benefits. Shakespeare’s tragedies typically end with a restoration of order after chaos. Maybe less so with Lear.
I’d wanted to end this mix on an up note but settled for something absurd. Negativland’s “Time Zones” fit the moment and make for a clear bookend to Thaemlitz. The madness of Lear and the brain worms of conservative political talk radio. Some kind of big demonstration? “It’s not even funny.” Eleven tracks. “It’s ridiculous.”
I met Mauricio through Axel Arturo Barceló, our guest deejay, last October (listen to Axel’s mix here). After Axel’s mix went out, I asked him who he knew that would be interested in guest deejaying on Soundwave, and he recommended Mauricio. And here we are.
Mauricio is an excellent deejay, and his mix is fantastic. His mix included music from several projects that he’s part of.
Mauricio is an audiovisual artist from the suburbs of Mexico City suburbs. Haiteku is his Techno project since 2010. He publishes works on labels like Blaq Records (Mexico-Berlin), Nova Fund Recordings (Mexico), and the now defunct PCCL.
Mauricio is also part of the WOS Colectivo, a label for for national and international producers of electronic music, sound experimentation, plastic, and visual arts. The WOS Colectivo promotes producers who are not a part of the mainstream and support their local scene. In addition to the WOS Colectivo, Mauricio is also a member of Abolipop Records, a label that producers, and we’re open to new platforms and formats. Suplex publishes EPs, unreleased tracks, live sessions, oddities, and reissues.
Mauricio has some words about his mix below.
Before we hear from Mauricio, I wanted to share how my feelings about Soundwave have changed.
When I launched Soundwave, it was my way of coping with the stress and isolation of the pandemic. My wife’s job took her away from San Diego, and my kids were with their bio dad. It was just my dog and me. I was sad, lonely, and wondered if every time I left the house, I would contract COVID-19 and die. Grim times.
A year later, living with the pandemic has become a routine. As of Monday, I will be fully vaccinated and live in the world without fear of getting ill or dying. I work remotely so I visit my wife and kids regularly, and in a few months, we’ll all be under the same roof again. During that time, Soundwave changed from a source of succor to a font of delight. The music is wonderful, and the relationships I’ve formed through the show are dear to me.
Gert De Meester’s Die Geschwächten Kinder Von Empain EP
Speaking of delight, guest deejay Gert De Meester of Distant Fires Burning has released a pay-what-you-want single on Bandcamp called Die Geschwächten Kinder Von Empain. Gert will donate the profits from his single to Dokters van de Wereld (Doctors of the World). Want to hear more music from Gert? Listen to his mix for Soundwave here.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Nate Heard.
See you then!
Mauricio Sotelo, AKA Haiteku
Altiplano is a short mixtape about contemporary Mexican electronic artists.
The “Altiplano” (the plateau region) is the zone of the center of Mexico, shaped for various states. From this zone, are the electronic artists that participate on this mixtape, all of them, independent producers.
The music of this material came from the independent label WOS Colectivo and Abolipop Records, on different releases and years.
Daniel and I met on Twitter over our shared appreciation of Paleowolf (listen to the Paleowolf mix on Soundwave here). I learned he is the host of Inter-Dimensional Music, a syndicated weekly community radio broadcast of “heavy mellow, kosmische slop, and void contemplation tactics.” After enjoying a couple of his shows, I invited Daniel to guest deejay on Soundwave.
What I love about Daniel’s mix is that his segues are so seamless that I often am unaware that he’s transitioned into another track. Granted, the music featured on Soundwave lends itself to those kinds of segues, but Daniel is particularly deft at it.
The other remarkable thing about Daniel’s mix, for me at least, is that he selected songs that feel very familiar to me. Except that I’ve never heard them before. They feel intimate and worn in.
Finally, Daniel’s mix took me on a sonic and emotional journey. I’d get lost in his mix. When it ended, I was satisfied but would have been just as happy to have it continue indefinitely.
Before I wrap up today’s show notes, there a couple of things I want to mention.
My second Moderna vaccination.
Monday I got my second dose of the Moderna vaccination. I was prepared for the worst: a very sore arm, chills, fevers, body aches, etc. I experienced none of that. I did sleep for over 24 hours, though.
Hans-Joachim Roedelis
Michael Donaldson was inspired by mix from Krautrock legend Hans-Joachim Roedelius to write a post on Roedelius’s musical career on his blog. It’s a good overview of Roedelius, so please read it if you’d like to learn more about the man.
Back to Beyond and Cycle
Guest deejay protoU has released a new album, Back to Beyond with Alphaxone. Listen to protoU’s mix for Soundwave here. Rhucle, who has also guest deejayed on Soundwave, has released his new album, Cycle. Both albums are fantastic and unique to each artist.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Mauricio Sotelo, AKA Haiteku.
See you then!
Daniel Chamberlin
Here’s an hour of heavy mellow meditation.
Cosmic Chambo presents a heavy mellow ritual soundtrack for meditation, yoga, and other mindfulness practices in the service of transcending false binaries and dismantling white supremacy. Listen for hypnotic choral music, metal-informed jazz drone, heavyweight ambient dub, and organic industrial rhythms.
Last month Roedelius’s “Wenn Der Südwind Weht” appeared on my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist. On a lark, I sent Roedelius an email inviting him to guest deejay on Soundwave.
I didn’t expect a response.
I’ve been surprised how many people I’ve invited to guest deejay on Soundwave have declined because, despite the pandemic, they are very busy. And that was a good thing to hear in the early days of the pandemic when it felt like the world was grinding to a halt. These people were getting on with their lives, performing and recording music.
I follow all the guest deejays on Twitter (check my SOUNDWAVE list here), and the Hypnagogue Podcast kept turning up on Kirk Markarian’s Twitter feed. I trust Kirk’s taste in music, so I listened to a few episodes of Hypnagoge. I loved everything I heard and invited John to guest deejay on SOUNDWAVE.
John’s mix is everything you’d expect in a SOUNDWAVE mix, but what especially delighted mas his selected dub tracks.
I’ve been a fan of dub since last century.
I first became aware of dub when I read William Gibson’s cyberpunk classic, Neuromancer. In the novel, Case, our protagonist, finds himself in a Jamaican space colony called Zion.
Case gradually became aware of the music that pulsed constantly through the cluster. It was called dub, a sensuous mosaic cooked from vast libraries of digitalized pop; it was worship, Molly said, and a sense of community.
I was intrigued by that mysterious description. Shortly afterwards I came across the 21st Century Dub album on ROIR. I was hooked and became a dub devotee. I even adopted the persona of a character called King Dub. I’d speak with an Jamaican patois, and combined with some echo and pitch-shifting, I became a deejay from the deepest realm of dub spinning tracks from everyone from Ras Michael and The Sons of Negus to The Orb.
When I launched SOUNDWAVE I assumed there would be a lot of dub. The genre is a natural fit for the format of those show. I’ve been disappointed that dub has been a blind spot and I’m relieved that John is the first guest deejay to include dub tracks in the mix. Hopefully he won’t be the last.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Roedelius. Check out his livestream concert here.
John Shanahan
The Hypnagogue Podcast began over a decade ago as an offshoot of the Hypnagogue Reviews site, which I ran from 2003 until 2017, when I decided I didn’t have anything worth saying anymore. Now the music does the eclectic talking for me every two weeks, built from the amazing range of music sent my way.
I laid down this Soundwave mix as I do my own show—picking an interesting place to start and following a stream of semi-conscsiousness through my library to see what associations arise. So we kick off with haunting sound-sculptor Joe Frawley and move with the piano into the sparse, emotional spaces of Memory Bell. The Detroit76, a Matt Borghi side project, shifts us smoothly into beat-driven groove territory, segueing into tasty licks from Austin funk-dub duo Canartic, which melts neatly into into vintage Cyberchump. Forest Robots offer a bridge by way of plucked-string tones in a wash of electronica, and Corciolli & Emmanuele Baldini use it to escort us further intro electro-acoustic territory. That put me in mind of the modern chamber music of Domingues and Kane, after which we flick the switch to Tim Story’s brand of electronic chamber music. At the end, the ride finishes courtesy of the person who brought my show to Joseph’s attention in the first place, Neuro…No Neuro, aka Kirk Markarian.
When I listen to a song, there’s always a part of me thinking how that song would work in a mix. What song would go before it? What would go after it? What would be the shape of the mix?
I can’t turn that part of me off.
Today, on a whim, I listened to my Liked Songs playlists on Spotify while running errands. I dug what I was listening to (I did like the songs, after all). And as is my way, I heard songs in the playlist that just felt right together. It’d be a shame not to share it.
So here it is. I hope you like it.
Oh, and you can also find the playlist for today’s show here on Spotify.
Innesti’s mix concludes my deep dive of musicians I’ve discovered on Bandcamp and invited to deejay on SOUNDWAVE.
Innesti
When I found Innesti on Bandcamp, I immersed myself in their music. I think it was Brian Eno who described ambient music in a metaphor of a painting: you can either have the painting as something that’s part of your background and enjoy it on that level, or you can choose to shift your focus to the painting and experience it at that level. Innesti’s music definitely fulfills those categories but awards active listening.
I’m listening to some of Innesti’s music as I write this. It’s the golden hour, and the kitchen I am writing you from is magically lit, and Innesti is providing the soundtrack to this enchanting moment.
I’ll most definitely feature more artists on Bandcamp on the show in the future, but not at the same volume.
If you’re unfamiliar with Bandcamp, it’s a service that sells music and gives musician and music labels a fair percentage of money generated from sales on Bandcamp.
The pilgrimage to Amoeba Music
Speaking of buying music, yesterday we took our son to Amoeba Music in Los Angeles. He recently got into vinyl, so and I’m happy to indulge him. California has leveled off on COVID-19 infections enough that the state is opening business to the public. Even so, there was a long line to get in the building because they can only admit people in at lowered numbers for everyone’s safety.
As soon as you feel safe enough, I encourage you to head out to your local music store and pick up some albums for yourself or someone as a gift. You or they deserve it, and your local music store needs your support.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be John Shanahan, host of the Hypnagogue Podcast.
Michał is based in Warsaw, Poland, and is an ambient electroacoustic artist that explores multimedia, sound art, and ambient genre through guitar soundscapes, field recordings, and samples. He is a conceptual leader of MM3, who creates 360° concepts of composing music, sound design, audio production, visual arts, and live performances. Michał is also a member of NUDA, a polish modern jazz/avantgarde band. Michał is currently working on different multimedia concepts and audio-visual works connecting the language of music and social commitment.
Michał is yet another musician I discovered on one of my deep dives on Bandcamp. I don’t have anything else to say about Bandcamp that I haven’t said here already. If you haven’t used Bandcamp’s service, please do. They do great work, and they make sure that the artists and music labels receive a high percentage of the money they make through selling music. You can buy the music you love and know that the musicians are fairly compensated for their work.
Michał’s mix for today’s show is a surprise. I suppose all the mixes on SOUNDWAVE are surprised. What I mean is that I invite people I respect to guest deejay on the show and give them the parameters that their mix focus on ambient, classical, experimental, and instrumental music. How they choose to interpret that is up to the guest deejay.
Therein lies what I think the charm of the show is. What music do these talented musicians love and want to share with us? It would be a mistake to believe that the guest deejays would select tracks like their own music, yet I make this mistake again and again.
Take Michał’s opening track, “When the World Ended.” It’s a beautiful piece of poetry that serves as a kind of a mission statement for today’s mix. At least, that how it seemed to me. There’s nothing in Michał’s own music that prepared me for it. Nor did I expect Radiohead’s Thom Yorke to make an appearance Michał’s mix, yet here we are. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised by Yorke’s appearance after hearing him on Robin Rimbaud’s mix from a few weeks ago. You’ll hear more from Yorke on upcoming mixes on SOUNDWAVE as well.
I know you will take as much delight in Michał’s mix as I did.
Before I get out of Dodge, I want to briefly share my experience of getting my first shot of the Moderna vaccine. I’ll get my second dose the first weekend of May, but I already feel invincible. I still have to take the same precautions of social distancing and wearing a mask, but the background anxiety of going out into the world has melted away. It’s remarkable how much my outlook has changed. I’ve gone from learning how to live with the pandemic on a day-to-day basis to the feeling we have this virus on the ropes and that we can soon go back to our lives.
That raises an important question: how much of our old lives do we want to go back to? The pandemic has been harrowing, but in some ways, it’s made changes in my life for the better and opened me up to possibilities. How has your life changed under the pandemic?
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Innesti.
I ask each guest to deejay who they know who would be interested in participating in the show with a mix. Harrold Roeland, who was a guest deejay on Soundwave back in December, suggested Peter. I’ve known about Ambientblog for years and have listened to many of Peter’s mixes on Mixcloud. I’m thankful that Harrold made the introduction because Peter’s mix is exceptional.
Peter’s Soundwave mix.
Mix is not the word for what Peter does on today’s show.
It’s more accurate to say that Peter composed a concept album masterfully weaved from a multitude of sampled material. Take a look at the “playlist” below to get an idea of the scope of today’s show. It’s a work of art you get to immerse yourself in for the next hour.
Peter’s mix, like all of his Ambientblog shows, is an experience. Follow Ambientblog on Mixcloud to hear more of his work.
I’ve included an excerpt about today’s show from Peter’s website below.
Today’s show is special because it’s also Soundwave’s one-year anniversary.
I launched Soundwave to help me cope with the stress and isolation of COVID-19.
This close to what we all hope is the finish line of the pandemic its easy to forget that we were all white-knuckling it for the first couple of months. Every day was filled with existential dread. Would this trip to the grocery store kill me or someone I love? It’s exhausting to live that way.
During that time, I could not watch tv or movies or listen to music because they were not speaking to the truth of our new reality. I’d watch a tv show and fret how there was no social distancing and why the cast wasn’t wearing masks. Pop music was particularly difficult to listen to because it was so painfully vapid. How am I supposed to enjoy a love song when I might be a patient or a vector in this pandemic?
The only music that I could tolerate and gave me solace was ambient, classical, experimental, and instrumental music. It was the soundtrack for my stay-at-home lockdown. And if I found some relief with this music, why not share it with others? Any why not ask people I respect to share their mixes?
I’m humbled by everyone’s gift of generosity of time and effort. We’re all going through this together, each in our way. I’m grateful that during this pandemic that each guest deejay lovingly crafted mixes to share with us.
My first vaccination shot.
Today’s show is also special because today, I also got my first shot for the COVID-19 vaccination.
I was shopping for groceries when the Mercy Plaza Pharmacy called me and told me they had extra doses. Could I stop by for a vaccination? Most definitely.
My cilantro stymied the woman who was ringing up my items at the grocery store: were they regular cilantro or organic? She was about to do a price check when I explained that I needed to get the hell out of there to be vaccinated. I didn’t care about the cilantro’s cost; ring me up so I can leave! She understood.
The folks at Mercy Plaza Pharmacy couldn’t be nicer. They’re a family-owned business, and the owner checked up on me after my shot to see how I was feeling. We talked about San Diego, Sacramento, and our kids. This is going to sound weird, but I had such a great time that I can’t wait to go back.
So here we are a year later. We’re almost at the finish line. Hopefully, next year, this will be behind us, and we can all enjoy each other’s company. I’m looking forward to meeting some of you in person. Maybe I’ll even get to meet Peter.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Michał Milczarek.
See you then!
Ambientblog album art.
It’s my honour to open the second year of this series with my contribution. Of course, we can only hope that the series will continue for musical reasons, not because of the pandemic.
Clicking through the list of contributions, you’ll find that most of them are what I call mixtape-style compilations: a head-tail-mix of (full) tracks. Traditionally, my (Ambientblog) mixes are different (which does not mean necessarily ‘better’, by the way) in that they incorporate many sampled parts of tracks (a full-length track is either an exception or a very short track itself), mixed in a layered collage-style. I always try to shuffle the collage’s fragments so that they seem to melt together and thus start telling a different story.
Whether this is successful or not can only be determined by the listener.
This mix is simply named after the podcast Soundwave. It is a happy coincidence that it literally starts with waves—sonically manipulated by Jos Smolders—and ends with the same waves morphing into the sound of a cheering crowd.
Different kinds of soundwaves are all around us, every moment. Sometimes we’re aware; most of the time, we are not. This mix (hopefully) shows that it can be rewarding to take a moment’s rest to really listen and let the sounds affect you.
Gert De Meester’s Die Geschwächten Kinder Von Empain EP
Frank Riggio’s Empreinte Initiale EP
