I was first introduced to Jolanda through her captivating work in Peter van Cooten’s mix for Soundwave (listen here), and I’ve been hooked ever since. I invited Jolanda to share a mix with us.
Jolanda’s mix features artists whose works are marked by their unique approach to sound and a profound sense of introspection. It is a haunting and deeply introspective exploration of the mystical power of sound.
Hailing from Italy, Jolanda has been making waves with her unique blend of organic and electronic soundscapes, drawing inspiration from her love of nature and the cosmos. Her album, Full Moon Session, was just released earlier this month, which includes live performances of songs from her Nine Spells album.
Jolanda also led the folk band She Owl, delivering two full-length albums and performing more than 300 concerts across Europe and the US. But in the past two years of isolation, Jolanda focused on a deeply personal project, one that connects her to her ancestral roots and promotes healing.
Jolanda has some words about her mix below.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Sanderson Dear.
See you then.
Jolanda Moletta
When I started working on my debut solo album Nine Spells, I wasn’t aware of other artists doing ambient/neoclassical/experimental music except for a few names. I didn’t know how my album would fit into these genres. I just had a vision of wanting to create something with only vocals and I imagined something meditative that was like a prayer, or an invocation. In months following the release of the first singles, it became clear that there was actually a community, and a scene, of these genres. My mix aims to put a spotlight on the many incredible women who are also creating beautiful music within this community. I am happy to now call some of these artists my friends, and others I would love to meet one day and maybe even collaborate with. So I truly do hope that you’ll warm to this mix and come to love their music as much as I have.
Today’s mix is inspired by Andrew Tasslemyer’s mix for Soundwave, my weekly ambient/classical/experimental/instrumentals show.
Andrew’s mix goes live tomorrow and includes Julie Byrne’s song, “Wisdom Teeth Song.” Julie is an amazing artist whose music is sometimes so heartfelt that it’s almost painful to listen to. If that wasn’t enough, Julie’s voice evokes memories of listening to songs of love and loss late at night on my AM radio in the 70s. Julie’s music hits me hard on many levels.
I’ve been sitting on a clutch of songs in a playlist for the last few years, and Andrew’s mix inspired me to share this mix with you. Expect to have a lot of feelings.
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
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.
I discovered Anthéne when Ishmael Cormack (listen to his mix for Soundwave here) requested music recommendations on Twitter. There were some great suggrestions, and I listened to everything I could find on Bandcamp or Spotify. Anthéne’s music was warm, dreamy, and organic for all its etherealness. Naturally, I extended to Anthéne to guest deejay on Soundwave.
Last week I drove from San Diego to Sacramento with Jonanathan Ammons’s mix providing the soundtrack for that apocalyptic journey. This week Anthéne’s mix was the music for my night drive back to San Diego. This time there were no abandoned cars, wildfire smoke choked skies, or searing sunlight. Instead, a beautiful, three-quarter orange moon floated on the horizon while the stars came out, one by one. It was a long drive, and I played Anthéne’s mix several times, which got me as far as Los Angeles.
If you feel like sharing, please tell me where you listened to today’s show.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Complex Holiday.
Jonathan guest deejayed on the show last October. Jonathan’s mix was so moving that I invited him back to Soundwave. Today’s mix is equally remarkable. I had the unique opportunity to listen to it while driving from San Diego to Sacramento to visit my wife this weekend. It’s wildfire season in California (it’s always wildfire season), and Jonathan’s mix provided the soundtrack to my apocalyptic drive. The skies were tinted dirty brown from the ashes from the wildfires, but somehow the sun managed to blast the landscape with glaring light: grass and trees parched from California’s megadrought. Every 20 miles or so, I’d pass an abandoned car to the side of the highway. And yet, Jonathan’s mix somehow lent some beauty to such desolate scenery.
Jonathan has some words about his mix below.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be anthéne.
See you then!
Jonathan Ammons
I think that my past year has looked like many people’s lives during the middle of one of the largest global pandemics in history. A lot of isolation, a lot of finding ways to busy yourself or occupy your mind. In the past, as someone who worked from home, I had enjoyed drone, ambient, and all of those experimental genres for the way they occupied a space without dominating it. If ambient music was created to generate music that did not evoke strong and tumultuous emotions — as Brian Eno claims— that was exactly what I wanted droning on in the background of my house while I pecked away at a keyboard for work. As a journalist, it provided this stoic, emotionless wallpaper for the background of my daily existence.
Covid changed a lot of that. They daily monotony left me just craving a change of emotion. But I didn’t want words; I didn’t want lyrics that would remind me of how things were when we were able to go places, meet people, kiss strangers at a bar… I wanted the same stability that the drone I’d come to love gave me, but I wanted something a little more expressive.
I also noticed that the more I used any streaming platform, the more the algorithm would eventually whittle things down to the same handful of artists. I wanted new things. I wanted variety in a locked-down life with no chance of spontaneity. So I decided to cut all algorithmic music out of my life. I stopped listening to Spotify or Pandora or any of those generated playlists and dialed back in to the radio.
I have to give a giant shoutout to Noods Radio out of Bristol, England, because they have been a major lifesaver. A station dedicated to the wild and weird sounds of Bristol. You never know what you’ll find, but the rich spread of creativity has introduced me to a slew of new artists. Props to BBC6’s great ambient show, as well.
Northern England’s A Beautiful Burning World make’s gorgeous sounds using very simple gear and tape loops. They even have a subscription system for $15 a year, and you can get their entire discography for cheaper than that! Much of this mix comes from artists discovered through the radio or combing around Bandcamp.
Seamstress makes delightful chill-out beats. Scanner gorgeously blends drone and ambient with deep arrangements that are so subtle, but meaningful. And I don’t know why it took me till now to notice Garth Stevenson’s incredible compositions. We really are in a golden age for the reinvention of modern classical music. Just look no further than Tristan Perich’s fantastic work.
I also have to give a shoutout to Kimathi Moore. Kima is an incredibly talented sound artist here in Asheville. His style’s shift between ambient, drone, and Edgard Varèse-like tone poems. I got the chance to work with him on a music video he shot for my latest album, and got to see just what a meticulous worker he is.No wonder his sounds are so precise and pristine.
Of course, I had to include some Harold Budd. I included a selection off of his album the Serpent (In Quicksilver) because I remember hearing an interview with him in which he claimed that it was his favorite record that he’d made. A major loss for the ambient music world, losing one of the original masters to this damned virus.
And lastly, the original tracks are two previously unreleased compositions. I started messing around with more tape loops in my studio this winter, and really decided to dive into it, which is how “The Same River” originated. The closing track is actually from a much larger piece I have coming out in the Fall. “A Certain Kind of Light” is a 40-minute piece in five movements. It was an experiment to see just how far I could go using only a single chord. The incredibly talented Olivia Springer performed all of the string parts for that piece. I’ve included the final movement of that piece to close out this mix as its debut.
Endless thanks to Joseph for having me back for another Soundwave mix. It’s been a pleasure to follow along and hear what everyone is listening to these days!
Today’s guest deejay is Sofia Nystrand, AKA Vargkvint.
For months, Sofia’s music kept appearing on my Spotify Discover Weekly playlists. If I didn’t find Sofia’s music there, she’d pop up on someone else’s playlist. Or I’d find her music on Bandcamp. In fact, Brueder Selke (CEEYS), played Sofia’s “Utåt” on their mix for Soundwave a few weeks ago.
There’s a reason for this, of course. Sofia has that magical ability to trasnport you to a world that is uniquely hers yet utterly familiar though her songs. Sofia deftly weaves folk, contemporary classical, pop, experimental music, and ambient. It’s a gorgeous thing to experience and I’m delighted to share her mix with you on today’s show.
If you’d like to hear more music from Sofia, she is featured on the Realismo Mágico compilation album from piano and coffee records. Some of the artists you’ll find on Sofia’s mix can also be found on the album (Klangriket, Sjors Mans, Jakob Lindhagen, Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, Simeon Walker, Ceeys). Sofia has also just released a rework of the first track, “Pomegranate,” by Sergio Diaz de Rojas.
Sofia has some words about her mix below.
Before I get out of Dodge, I’m happy to report that this weekend I briefly had my wife and kids in the same house. It was short lived, though. My wife headed back to work Sunday evening, and the kids will be visiting their dad next week. But after months and months of being apart, it was a small blessing.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Jonathan Ammons.
See you then!
Sofia Nyland, AKA Vargkvint
When I was working on this mixtape, I wanted it to be centered around collaboration and how music can change when being transformed by another person’s creativity. I’ve just released a rework album where people have reimagined my songs from the album Hav (I have two of them included in the mixtape), and it made me inspired to find other remixes or reworks to include. One of my favorite songs of this year is the rework that Alexandra Hamilton-Ayes have made of Frances Shelley’s ”Evening Star”. Apart from the amazing reworks, I have included a few newly released songs, and a couple of my personal favorites from artists who I really admire.
Sean is the host of Metal Postcard Records, an independent record label based out of Sydney. I met Sean nearly a decade ago when I interviewed him and showcased his label for solipsistic NATION. He releases great music through Metal Postcard Records, so I invited Sean to be our guest deejay last summer. It was a wonderful mix, so naturally, I asked Sean to delight us with another set.
A casual listen of Sean’s mix will leave you with the impression that it’s wonderful and whimsical. Its certainly that but a closer listen reveals depth and speaks to the human condition. It works on both levels, which is a neat trick. It’s also a bit of an Australia travelogue, so enjoy the ride!
If you want to hear more music from Sean, he also hosts Bottom of the Pops, which you can find on Spotify. It’s the Nuggets of internet radio. Sean also hosts shows on Dandelion Radio, FSK Radio out of Germany, and 8K in New Zealand.
Sean Hocking
Tuesday California officially opened up and eased pandemic restrictions.
I still wear a mask and socially distance in some situations but it’s nice to mingle with people and dine at restaurants. And it’s nice not wearing a mask at the gym, especially when I’m on the stair machine.
I’ll be listening to Sean’s mix on Fathers Day and hopefully hoping to go out for brunch with my family. If you’re a dad or have one, I hope you can do the same.
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.”
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.
Today’s guest deejay is Mike Cadoo, the founder of n5MD, an independent record label based out of Oakland, California, that focuses on ambient, modern composition, post-rock, and experimental electronic music.
I showcased n5MD on solipsistic NATION some years ago. Let me share what I said about n5MD on that episode of solipsistic NATION, which explains why I invited Mike to be our guest deejay on today’s show.
“What I’ve always found so charming is that the releases on n5MD don’t just provide music that establishes a mood. The releases on n5MD take you on an emotional journey, which I find far more compelling and interesting. Anyone can play a chord in E minor that will evoke an emotional response. Still, it’s much more difficult to build an emotionally complex song and takes you places in your imagination. Let me take that back. There are plenty of people who can do that, there are a just few people who do it well and do it with sincerity, and I think that’s what n5MD is all about.”
Mike’s mix for today’s show captures everything I just said about his label. Mike is going to take you by the hand and gently guide you through an emotional journey.
Mike explained that while waiting for the Near The Parenthesis vinyl to arrive, he made an ambient mix that features no n5MD artists. Mike usually does one of these each year, and I’m thankful he shared it with us.
As I’ve mentioned many times before, I launched SOUNDWAVE to cope with the stress and isolation brought about by COVID-19. I did not expect how much I would need SOUNDWAVE, and Mike’s mix, in particular, to provide the solace I need during our nation’s attempted coup. I suspect I will need it more in the next few weeks, if not the next few months and years.
On that sad note…
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Steve Swartz.
