meditation – Page 3

SOUNDWAVE : 53 : AMBIENTBLOG

Today’s guest deejay is Peter van Cooten, host of Ambientblog and DreamScenes on Concertzender.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Thanks to Joseph Aleo for inviting me!

Jos Smolders “Plate 7”
Mia Zabelka & Icostech “The Final Stop”
Robert Scott Thompson “Still The Syllables Of Water Whisper”
Charley van Veldhoven & Túrion “Hemellichaam IV (Henrik Meierkord Recycle)”
FM Einheit & Susie Green “Joyful Pleasure”
Joey Largent “Below Diorite Waters”
Barbara Ellison “De Auflaan de Pussychat”
Jana Winderen “The Listener”
Grace Ferguson “Barnumbirr”
C-drík “An Imaginary Place Inhabited By Those Who Are Asleep”
James Osland & Finn Kelvin “Things That Have Form Will Alway Disappear”
Daniel Thomas Freeman “Crawling Out Of The Void”
William Basinski “For Whom The Bell Tolls”
Morgen Würde “Mittsommer”
Biosphere “Stordjupta”
Randal Collier-Ford “Eyes Of The Temple (feat. Northumbria)”
Merope “Alma”
Space Whisper “Park Date”
Innesti “Dark Describes An Arc”
Joost Lijbaart “Twinkling Night”
Pinkcourtesyphone “Another Interior”
f5point6 “Natural Selection”
Andrew Heath “I Sleep Above The Forest”
Lustmord “Journey Of The Dead Man”
Bow Quintet feat. Aidan Baker “Bryanbaum Variation”
Aase Frejadóttir “Saying It”
James Rushford “Musica Callada, Book I – Angelico”
Nick Luscombe “Tokyo Spring Birdsong”
Akropolis Reed Quintet “Homage to Paradise Valley: I. Ghosts of Black Bottom”
Kate Carr “I Spotted Some Backyard Dancing”
Olivier Alary “Khaltoum”
Kazuya Nagaya “the Book Of Sunken Memory”
Jos Smolders “Plate 5”
A Winged Victory For The Sullen “Every Solstice & Equinox”

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SOUNDWAVE : 50 : EMIL ZAPFFE

Today’s guest deejay is João Guimarães, AKA Emil Zapffe.

If you’ve been listening to SOUNDWAVE for the last few weeks, then it will come as no surprise that I discovered João on Bandcamp.

When SOUNDWAVE comes up in conversation with those unfamiliar with ambient music, I sometimes have to explain that not all ambient music is swathes of pretty sounds. Ambient can be haunting and discordant. Or, in João’s case, it’s grand in scope. If you want to experience it yourself, go to João’s Bandcamp page and play any of his songs with the volume cranked to 11. His music will shake your windows and vibrate dishes off your table. You’ve been warned.

But if you’re expecting that kind of experience on today’s show, then you’ll be just as surprised as I was. João’s mix covers quite the gamut. Yes, there is that big sound, but it’s also delicate, mournful, and lovely. It’s precisely the kind of mix I’d share with people I have to explain the depth and complexity ambient music offers.

Oh, and I also appreciate that João and I appreciate Peter Wessel Zapffe’s nihilist essay, “The Last Messiah” (listen to an excerpt from the essay on my October 2020 mix). I usually embrace Nietzche’s existential exuberance, but it’s easy to waffle and settle into existential dread, something Zapffe (Peter Wessel, not Emil) explores in his essay. As long as I don’t fall into Emil Cioran’s existential disgust, I guess I’m doing okay.

João has some words regarding his mix below.

Before I wrap this up, I feel the need to mention that it was this time last year that California went under lockdown. Like most people, I’ve gotten along with my life. I work from home, I rarely go out, and when I do, I wear a mask even when I don’t need to. Vaccinations for the entire U.S. are just around the corner. But a year ago, we were all white-knuckling it, and every day was filled with angst. I’m relieved that we’re about to turn the corner.

Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Rhucle.

See you then!

For this mixtape, I tried to make a selection of compositions that touched me this past year and permitted me to escape reality for a while. Our world outside changed, but our inner world changed too, with lots of questions about the nature of existence, the fabric of society, our strengths, and our deepest fears. Through these sounds, I could cope with reality and dream outside its claw, making my mind and spirit expand beyond self-imposed barriers. I hope the listeners can expand their senses and spirits, and for a while, inhabit their inner world, free of any form of limitation or weakness. In times of fear, all we have is our imagination.

Thanks to Joseph Aleo for this invitation, it’s an honor.

Giulio Aldinucci “Phoenix”
Emil Zapffe “Fragmented Anchors”
SVLBRD “The Void”
Mono Tape “Origin”
Mount Shrine & Alphaxone “The Realms of Madmen”
David Cordero “Tras la tormenta (feat. Carles Guajardo)”

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SOUNDWAVE : 47 : OUT OF HELL

Today’s guest deejay is Boris Tyurin, AKA Out of Hell.

Out of Hell continues my exploration of musicians who mine the ores of ambient, classical, experimental, and instrumental on Bandcamp. It’s been a successful endeavor, and previous Bandcamp artists who have been guest deejays on SOUNDWAVE are Ishmael Cormack, Tim Six of ΠΑΝΘΕΟΝ Records, and Ivan Somov, AKA Notnotice.

I’ll be honest, what made me listen to Out of Hell’s was the influence of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft on his music.

It’s interesting because Lovecraft’s books are in the public domain Lovecraft permeates popular culture. In particular, his Cthulhu mythos. You can find Lovecraft’s tentacled Elder God in the form of crochet toys, tiki mugs, and pajamas. The sublime terror of Cthulhu has been diminished into a safe, consumer item. The only people who tap into the nihilistic horror of Cthulhu are comic book writer Alan Moore, role-playing game creators, and bands such as Rudimentary Peni and Skinny Puppy.

Not everything Out of Hell records is touched by the tentacles of Cthulhu, but the influence is there. Out of Hell explores the realm of dark ambient. His music can be just as delicate and pretty as a lot of ambient music, but it’s mysterious and often tinged with dream and anxiety. His mix is more than a selection of some of his best work. It’s an experience to be had.

Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Dani, founder of Kloob Music.

See you then!

Out of Hell “The Dark”
Ouy of Hell “Symphony in Moonlight and Nightmares”
Out of Hell “The Temple”
Out of Hell “The Whisperer in Darkness”
Out of Hell “The Voice of the Night”
Out of Hell “The Ruins”
Out of Hell “Introspection”

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SOUNDWAVE : 46 : IVAN SOMOV

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today’s guest deejay is Ivan Somov, AKA Notnotice.

While I stream music like everyone else, I’m also old fashioned and still purchase songs and albums. Bandcamp is my preferred vendor because they give the music labels and artists a generous share of the money generated from Bandcamp sales.

I spend an hour at least an hour a week exploring Bandcamp and listened to great music. If I came across someone I thought would be a good fit for SOUNDWAVE, I’d invite them to be a guest deejay. It’s a no-brainer, really, and we’ve heard great mixed from folks such as Tim Six, who runs ΠΑΝΘΕΟΝ Records with his wife, Mila, and Ishmael Cormack . Next week’s show will feature Out of Hell, and in the weeks to come our guest deejays will be Less Bells, Emil Zapffe, and Rhucle.

Ivan is yet another talented musician I discovered after searching Bandcamp for ambient, classical, experimental, and instrumental music to listen to. These are difficult genres. It’s easy to record music in those genres that are awful, hard to do mediocre, hard still to record something great, and a challenge to create something great. When I find something great, as I said, I am compelled to reach out to the artist and invite them to be a guest deejay on SOUNDWAVE. And that brings us to today’s show, which I’m listening to as I write this.

Ivan’s mix is going to take you on a journey. To me, that is the point of art. It’s not enough to craft a pretty or catching sound. Evoking emotion is one thing, but if the music can transport you to somewhere else and spur your imagination, that’s magic. And Ivan’s mix is magic and will be your soundscape for today’s sonic safari. The mix is the map. Your destination will be your own for you to discover.

Quick note: Ivan begins today’s mix with a track from Symphocat, a Russian musician and label owner. Tim Six also featured Symphocat on last week’s show. I’m taking that as a sign that I need to extend an invitation to guest deejay on the show.

Ivan has some words about Notice that he’d like to share with you below.

Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Out of Hell.

See you then!

Notnotice – a project created to implement the ambient and not only the mood of the author. Originally was written only dark ambient, but later decided not limited by the rigid framework, but at the same time, the music has not lost the original dark and cold, Notnotice tries to embody in their tracks the idea of loneliness and alienation.

Symphocat “Svifa I Himininn”
Forest Management “Fill In The Blank”
unknown “Way number 3”
Notnotice “Stockholm Syndrome”
Acronym “Rails”
очень длинный кот “v parallelnih mirah”
Bad Sector & Tommaso Lisa “Untitled”
kmerl “Constellation”
Stanislav Tolkachev “Borderland”
Canadian Rifles “1812”
FH HF “Seconds Remain As Abstract Strokes”
gacha bakradze “Broken Keyboard”
Jeremiah M. Carter & Chelsea Bridges “White Rose Royale”
Appropriate Savagery “Makeup & Ketamine, During a Quiet Evening”
Christian Michael Filardo “Charm Syndicate”
Concrete Fantasies “stealth2 (Agadez Magi)”
Varg2™ “600 Lives To Become Nothing But A Memory (ft. Soho Rezanejad)”
Cio D’Or “Triplet”
EyeScream “(A)(ny)(thing)(ll)”

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SOUNDWAVE : 44 : ISHMAEL CORMACK

Today’s guest deejay is Ishmael Cormack.

To date, nearly all the guest deejays on SOUNDWAVE are people I have relationships with or introduced to me through the guest deejays. Ishmael is different.

These days I purchase nearly all my music on Bandcamp. Yes, I said purchase. I’m old fashioned that way. Oh, I do more than my fair share of streaming, but if I find music I genuinely love, I’m happy to spend money on it. Bandcamp is my favorite platform to purchase music because the artists and labels are treated fairly, and they receive a higher percentage of money from sales than most other platforms. So I’m on Bandcamp a lot. And because of SOUNDWAVE, I tend to peruse releases from ambient, classical, experimental, and instrumental musicians.

If you enjoy music from any of those genres, you know from experience that most of it are dreck. The music tends to be bland or outright terrible. It isn’t easy to compose music in those genres that’s engaging and take you on an emotional journey. It’s refreshing to find musicians who do it well, and Ishmael is one of those artists.

I'm not a musician myself, so it’s difficult for me not to fall into clichés to describe Ishmael’s music using words like delicate, pretty, or sonorous. I’m reminded of an interview I once heard with Ben Frost where he complained of this very thing. I believe he said something to the effect that sommeliers have many metaphors to describe wines’ taste, but we lack the same when talking about music.

It’s almost a shame, then, that today’s mix from Ishmael does not feature his music. Almost, because Ishmael has lovingly selected tracks that are, sigh, delicate, pretty, and sonorous, but it’s true. It’s a wonderful mix.

If you enjoy today’s show, and I have no doubt you will, then support the artists by following my example and purchasing their music. And while you’re at it, listen to Ishmael’s releases on Bandcamp, and if you hear something like it, show him your appreciation by spending some money on his music.

Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Tim Six, founder of ΠΑΝΘΕΟΝ Records.

See you then!

Ishmael Cormack

Andrew Chalk “The Flood”
Taylor Deupree & Marcus Fischer “On Branches”
Richard Ginns “Faded From The Winter”
Tom Scott “Ribbon Glass”
Jens Pauly “Licht”
Cyril Secq “Huitiéme Branche”
Morimoto Naoki “Nod”
Suda Norihito “The Weather Of The Day Was To Calm Almost As If Nothing Had Happened”
Melissa Pons “Screeching Dawn”
Jodi Cave “For Sine And Breath Tones”
Federico Durand “IIu Wouter”
Van Veldhoven “First Lullaby”

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SOUNDWAVE : 39 : APPLEFISH

Today’s guest deejay is Nik Davies. You most likely know her as Applefish.

Even before launching SOUNDWAVE I listened to a lot of ambient, classical, experimental and instrumental music. But as you can imagine, I listen to even more music from those genres these days. After perusing Bandcamp and listening to playlists on Spotify certain musicians turned up again and again. And for good reason, their music was singular and provocative. Applefish is one of those artists and I approached her to do a mix for SOUNDWAVE which we’ll listen to today.

2020 was a hard year for all of us. There was so much fear and uncertainty. Confronting your mortality on a daily basis is exhausting.

SOUNDWAVE was my way of coping with the stress and isolation of COVID-19. Pop music, movies, tv and books did not speak to the truth of the new reality I found myself in. The only thing I could focus on and gave me some relief was ambient, classical, experimental and instrumental. Because there are no vocals I could project whatever meaning I needed to on songs form those genres or a song would resonate with me. If I was finding solace in this music than surely others needed to hear it as well, and so I launched this show to share that music.

Almost immediately I decided to invite musicians, music label owners, journalists, etc to guest deejay on SOUNDWAVE. I started with people I knew and then asked the guest deejays who they thought would be interested in sharing a mix on the show. I’ve met so many amazing people and heard some mind blowing mixes.

I have some great shows in store for you in 2021! That said, I’m hoping this time next year nearly everyone will have been vaccinated and COVID-19 will be no more of a threat than any of the viruses we vaccinate for. And on that day I will retire SOUNDWAVE, content that it serviced its purpose.

Until then, today’s mix by Nik is the perfect way to wind down 2020. It’s quiet and it’s beautiful. Nik’s mix is like a blanket you wrap yourself in to keep yourself warm in a sometimes cold and harsh would. It’s also an expansive mix that makes me optimistic. And that’s a fine way to end 2020

Join us next week (and net year) when our guest deejay will be Fitz Gitler.

See you then!

Applefish “Andromeda”
Good Weather For An Airstrike “Thaw”
Aphex Twin “#3”
Lauge “Pine Trees Covered in Fog”
Lauge & Matt Tondut “Above the Clouds”
Crows Labyrinth “Our Last Dream (Single Version)”
Applefish “Astrosat”
Biosphere “Poa Alpina”
Applefish“Return to the Trubutaries”
Good Weather For An Airstrike “The Depths Between Us”
Spacecraft “Zodiacal Light”

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SOUNDWAVE : 31 : OTHER FORMS OF CONSECRATED LIFE

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!

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’.

Lynette Sandholm Evvers “Photism”
The Penitential Station “The Powers of the Soul and the Manner of Her Working”
Acoxaca “In Abeyance the Devouring Flame”
Tepe Gawra “Tholoi, C”
Elizabeth Cottern ”Akoasm I”

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