Today’s guest deejay is Johan de Reybekill, AKA Phaedrus.
I discovered Johan through Quasi, the album collaborated on with Dronny Darko (listen to Dronny’s mix for Soundwave here). I was swept away by the experience and listened to Johan’s projects and concerts. Of course, I invited Johan to guest deejay on Soundwave, and he’s shared something wonderful with us.
I have a routine for my four-year-old grandkid when it’s time to sleep. I tell him a story that includes events from his day and his friends, the Little Old Mouse and Purple Monster. Then I play some ambient music for him to drift away to, usually Brian Eno, whom we call Uncle Eno. My go-to’s are Eno’s Ambient 4: On Land and The Pearl, an album he recorded with the late Harold Budd. I’ve listed to a lot of Brian Eno since becoming a Dziadzia (that’s Polish for “grandpa”), and as much as I love Eno’s music, sometimes that means switching things up. Johan doesn’t know it, but I’ve used today’s mix to send my grandkid off to Sleepytime on more than one occasion.
Johan has words about today’s mix below.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Sunwarper.
See you then.
Johan de Reybekill, AKA Phaedrus
In this mix I have worked with subtle contrasts like: “noisy / minimalistic”, “melodic / droning”, “dark / gentle”, “static / volatile”. A majority of the pieces on the mix is from some of my favourite Scandinavian artists.
The process of creating the mix made me realise just how much I love listening to music in that special way, where I am actively listening to the music in depth; its composition, qualities and details.
I found myself going for long walks just to listen to the mix in its entirety, go home and make adjustments, go for another walk, and so on. I loved the process of working with my own and others’ music as an integral part of what came to be the mix. It was a pleasure and an honour to contribute to Soundwave.
I met Steve through Jason Engling, who guest deejayed on Soundwave a couple of years ago. Steve shared a magical mix that I have listened to many times. Today’s show is no less resplendent in its emotions and sounds. It’s a journey.
Earlier this week, I was telling a friend about Soundwave and Steve’s mix. I explained that because Soundwave was created to help me cope with stress and isolation during the first few months of the pandemic, it is a touchstone to those fearful and uncertain times. For me, Soundwave has become a weekly meditative act of reflecting on those early days and the impact of the pandemic on nearly everything in our lives. While I go back to that emotional space weekly, my thoughts and feelings about those times have changed.
As I write this, it is a beautiful day in San Diego, and I can see the ocean from where I sit. I’ve seen this view many times, and while the view is the same, I’m not the person I was at the beginning of this pandemic. I’ve changed. We’ve all changed. I find myself asking who this person is I’ve become and what will I do? Where do I go from here? Steve’s mix provides the soundtrack for the journey.
I often feel misplaced. Out of tune with much of the goings on of the world around me. As a result, sound and nature have always been a source of refuge. As a child raised around fields and Great Lakes, I’m always drawn to music and sound that drifts, billows or breathes. And so it is with this mix of music. It’s intended as a reflection of my lack of place but also my sense of solitude, refuge and wonder. For me, these are the underscores of moments of abandon out on the road or a morning walk in my neighborhood. Moments of solitude where my mind surveys the landscape of hardships and joys. Spaces where my thoughts drift to someone I deeply miss. Or during the exhale at the end of a long day. To me, these pieces of music are boundless and internal. Drifting like a breeze or a trace of a memory. Something otherworldly but familiar. Nostalgic and grateful. The spirit of a land but not a place.
In the beforetimes, a friend posted a link to Heilung’s new album, Futha, on Facebook. I listened to a few songs and scoffed that Heilung was a Nordic version of Enya. But Heilung’s costumes captured my imagination, and I went back and listened to their album in its entirety and became a fan. So much so that I went to perform when they were in Los Angeles.
Heilung we’re excellent! I was transported to an age undreamt of for the next hour or so. Heilung looked like Nordic shamans and cheiftans. Aside from the band, there were a dozen warriors and shield maidens. Antlers adorned microphone stands. Some of the audience dressed almost as provocatively as I saw on stage.
Spotify started to serve up music much like Heilung on my Discover Weekly playlist within a few weeks. It dawned on me that what Heilung called amplified history was a genre.
Munknörr
And that’s how I came across Munknörr.
Munknörr means “the ship of the mind,” and this music on today’s show will transport you to other worlds and times. If you’re new to Munknörr, today’s show is an excellent place to start. Damián’s mix explores their many singles and albums.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Darren McClure.
Sadly Supercontext is now defunct although Christian and co-host Charlie Bennet still release a monthly podcast for Patreon supporters where they chat about the media they’ve been consuming. I highly recommend you go through their archives and listen to shows you think might strike your fancy.
I respect Christian and Charlie’s taste in music and invited them to guest deejay on SOUNDWAVE. Christian has delivered a mix that ranges from prog to math to dirge rock with a dollop of hip hop. Not your usual SOUNDWAVE fare but for me, at least, it was the perfect soundtrack to this week. 300,000+ dead from COIVD-19 and a President and his supporters who seemingly want to upend democracy. Christian’s mix is the blast of sound and fury I needed to propel me though the week.
Special thanks go out to Taylor Shechet for sequencing this week’s mix. Christian didn’t have the original tracks and when I offered to assemble the mix GarageBand refused to import the audio files. Taylor did me a solid by putting the mix together. And if you love today’s show then you’re definitely going to love Taylor’s mix for SOUNDWAVE that I’ll release in the next month or so.
CORRIDOR Magazine
Before I go, I want to mention that Christian and David Moore are launching a project called CORRIDOR Magazine, a new horror magazine bringing the weird worlds of short fiction, art, comics, and essays together under one roof. I’m helping fund it and so should you if this sort of thing is your bag.
Jonathan Ammon’s American Splendor album
I also wanted to share Jonathan Ammons’s new release, “Living Proof,” from his forthcoming album, American Splendor. I’m looking forward to the album. If you want to hear more music from Jonathan, listen to his mix for SOUNDWAVE here.
Harold Budd
Lastly, some sad news. Ambient composer Harold Budd died December 7. Just the day before I was listening to The Pearl, an album he recorded with Brian Eno, the day before he passed and was thinking how much I enjoyed his music. Harold was a pioneer in ambient music. He will be missed and my condolences go out to his family and friends.
And on that somber note, it’s time for me to say goodbye.
Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Harrold Roeland.
I met James years ago back when I was hosting the small WORLD podcast. I was part of the second wave of podcasting and I was small WORLD as the punk rock Fresh Air. If by punk rock, you mean badly played music on out of tune instruments. Anyway, James Curcio was one of my guests and I believe we we talked about his book, Join My Cult!
During the course of producing small WORLD I noticed that James would pop up again again in various circles. Into culture jamming? James was there. Interested in philosophy. James is your man. Writing? James. Music? James again. Magick? Also James.
When I was putting together a list of guest deejays for SOUNDWAVE I included James because I was curious what kind of mix he’d put together. I suspected it would be a playlist that included Coil, Current 93 and Dead Moon. You know, some sort of musical art project attempting to turn lead into gold. Instead, I got a mix of David Bowie interspersed with industrial and Nordic folk music. Did not see that coming.
Before I let James introduced this week’s show, I want to thank everyone who is listening to the show and the kind words they’ve shared. I just ask that you do it in on iTunes. Leave SOUNDWAVE a quick review and whatever algorithm Apple uses pushes the show up their podcast charts. SOUNDWAVE is a super niche show so I don’t expect that it’d take much.
Come back next week. Out guest deejay will be electronic musician Frank Riggio.
James Curcio
This mix was probably inspired by spending 3 years writing and researching MASKS: Bowie & Artists of Artifice (especially the themes that come up in this long-form blog post, Masks All The Way Down). But it’s not a “Bowie mix” as such: mortality, futility, transience, being lost in the simulacra, isolation during coronavirus… and some great beats. Everything in our lives feel so fragile now, but of course the truth is it always was. The outro track is an original remix of Nine Inch Nail’s “Me I’m Not” that I did like 10 years back, and some live studio outtakes from a mushroom party.
I’m writing the show notes you’re reading from my backyard. Vince Millett’s mix, today’s guest deejay, plays in the background. The sun is out, the sky is blue, birds are chirping and my dog is smelling a flower. It is an idyllic day. Except that it’s week seven of California’s safe at home. COVID-19 has completely disrupted civilization and we’ll feel the aftershocks for years, if not decades, to come. So, yeah except for that, I’m having a fantastic day.
Today’s mix, by the way, is spectacular.
Opening the show to guest deejays has been a great idea because it’s really exposed me to so many musicians I’ve never heard before. I was counting on Vince to turn me on to some great stuff and his mix does not disappoint. It is exactly why he was one of the first people I asked to guest deejay on SOUNDWAVE.
I met Vince eight years ago on Twitter. I was impressed with his netlabel, Broken Drum Records, and his podcast, Secret Archives of the Vatican, and invited him to be a guest deejay for solipsistic NATION, my electronic music podcast. You’ll want to listen to that episode as soon as you’re done with today’s show. Vince’s taste in music leans towards the Asian and Middle Eastern and that is reflected in today’s mix. Each song is a gem. Dhafer Youssef’s “Dawn Prayer,” for example, is gut wrenchingly beautiful
Vince will talk about his musical selections below but before I go, I want to thank everyone who has sent the mixes you will hear in the upcoming months.
In just a few short weeks I’ve received a lot of mixes for SOUNDWAVE from some amazing guest deejays. It’s humbling how everyone were so quick to respond to my requests and their generosity of their time.
Last week’s show featured a gorgeous mix by Steven Howard. Next week’s guest deejay is James Curcio and his mix was inspired by the three years he spent writing and researching for his book, MASKS: Bowie & Artists of Artifice, and is a meditation on mortality, futility, transience, being lost in the simulacra and isolation during the coronavirus.
See you then.
Vince Millett
We open with “Kemancheh” by Moving Ninja. Some years back when I was first discovering dubstep, the folk music of my hometown Croydon, I was surprised to find tracks like this that were far away from the dancefloor and had some middle eastern influences. Genre labels can be so limiting and misleading.
We then move into one of my own, “Outremer” by Thousand Yard Prayer. This is built upon a simple Viola Da Gamba line playing an Arabian musical scale with some medieval frame drums, a Persian ney flute and some subtle Croydon post-dubstep bass wobble adding to the low end.
Tunisian born oud player and vocalist Dhafer Youssef then leads us into the exquisite “Dawn Prayer.” His music gets marketed as jazz but I’m not convinced. It is unique. Listen to that voice!
Next we head towards the world of film soundtracks with “Eastern Path” by Vangelis from the film Alexander. The duduk is one of the most expressive and melancholy instruments on the planet.
We continue to head east with “Battle Remembered” by Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. I’m not a huge fan of western classical music but I love to hear musicians from that world working with highly skilled musicians from other traditions.
Bassist Jonas Hellborg recorded “Suriya” live in Aleppo in 1996. The whole album, Aram of the Two Rivers, is beautiful and is another example of superb musicians from disparate traditions creating something transcendent.
I finish this mix with my favourite piece of medieval music, “Palästinalied,” here played by Kalenda Maya from their album Pilegrimreiser. I have a Spotify playlist with 42 versions of this tune, all sounding different. This is a particularly chilled rendition.
Let me rehash some stuff with you before we got to today’s excellent show featuring a lustrous mix from Sean Horton.
I launched SOUNDWAVE because it was my way of coping with COVID-19. My wife is away for the next month with her unit and our kids our with their dad for the foreseeable future. It’s just me and my dog. Work keeps me busy during the day but at night it gets lonely. I found myself listening to a lot of ambient, classical, experimental and instrumental music and I decided to share it with my friends and created the show you’re listening to now.
My intention was to release a new show once a month. After the first show I decided I would release SOUNDWAVE weekly until the stay at home order ends. But then it occurred to me that pretty much everyone else on the planet is also stuck at home so I invited friends, deejays, musicians, producers, etc to participate on the show. And that brings us to our first guest deejay, Sean Horton.
I interviewed Sean Horton for solipsistic NATION to talk about Decibel Festival, an annual music and digital arts festival in Seattle that ran from 2004 to 2015. Decibel Festival was unique platform for exposing attendees to leading-edge multimedia art from around the globe. With a focus on live performance, interactive multimedia art, state-of-the-art sound and technology based education; Decibel solidified itself as one of the premier electronic music festivals and promotional organizations in the world. In 2014, Sean was named #43 on Rolling Stone’s “50 Most Important People in EDM.”
Sean also records under them name Nordic Soul where he distills his love for techno, house, hip hop, jazz, soul, industrial, ambient and dub. As Nordic Soul, Sean has shared the stage with an eclectic mix of musicians from Grimes to Moby to The Orb to Major Lazer to… well, the list goes on. Sean has also performed at several major festivals world-wide, including Dimensions (Croatia), MUTEK (Montreal) and Communikey (Boulder). Nordic Soul has released music on a wide variety of labels including K Records, Buttermilk Records, Peloton and basic_sounds.
Given all that, you understand Sean was one of the first people I invited to join me and SOUNDWAVE. Funny thing, Sean and I have struck up a friendship online which moved from talking about music to our favorite books, tv shows and movies and then to living under COVID-19. An unexpected and welcome development of the pandemic. I look forward to meeting Sean in Los Angeles after this dies down a bit and hoisting a pint with him. From a safe six feet, of course.
Sean has crafted a beautiful mix, but I expected no less from him. Prepare for an emotional journey and see where it takes you. I’ll let Sean introduce his mix below. I know you’re going to love it just as much as I do.
I’ll see you all next week when we are joined by our next guest deejay, my old and dear friend, Steven Howard.
Sean Horton
During this time in isolation I’ve been rediscovering my love of ambient music. I first discovered ambient music working at Harmony House records in Detroit my junior year in high school in 1992. It was the early days of the Rave Movement and Detroit was a hot bed for warehouse parties and Techno Music at the time. This was also a remarkable time where nearly every Rave would have two rooms, a “Dance Room” and an “Ambient Room.” I was an “Ambient Room” individual largely in part because I fell in love the music.
Out of all of the ambient music albums I’ve encountered over the years, the two that I come back to the most are the first and second ambient albums I ever knowingly experienced, Brian Eno’s Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks and Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2. This mix features two of my favorite selections from each album.
Historically ambient music has predominantly been characterized as synthetic, but over the past fifteen years or so there has been growing movement of more organic forms of ambient music and film scores which are often referred to as neo classical (i.e. Nils Frahm, Max Richter, Ólafur Arnalds, Hauschka, Jóhann Jóhannsson , Hildur Guðnadóttir, Stars of the Lid, etc.). Where Ambient music fueled my teen-early 20’s love of electronic music; neo classical music fueled my love of melody and organic tone. I firmly believe that both ambient and neo classical music can and should co-exist.
This particular mix evolved out of a playlist I put together in late March 2020 featuring some of my favorite ambient and neo classical artists and songs. As common with a lot of ambient music, these selections are all void of rhythm and nearly void of all voice. That said, this is an ideal mix for reading, writing, sleeping, meditation, yoga, etc. My hope is this mix will instill a sense of calm and mental clarity with the listener.
