soundwave – Synecdoche

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.

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.

Moving Ninja “Kemancheh”
Thousand Yard Prayer “Outremer”
Dhafer Youssef “Dawn Prayer”
Vangelis “Eastern Path”
Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble “Battle Remembered”
Jonas Hellborg “Suriya”
Kalenda Maya “Palästinalied”

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Logo by Rik Oostenbroek

I’ve expanded the scope of SOUNDWAVE by inviting musicians, deejays, podcasters, etc to contribute mixes to the show. I’ve been overwhelmed with their generosity and support.

Last Sunday’s show featured our first guest deejay, Sean Horton, who provided a gorgeous mix of music. All week long people have shared with me how much it meant to them. On today’s show we’ll hear another mix of music no less beautiful than Sean’s, this time from my old and dear friend, Steven Howard.

I met Steven last century one day while I was wrapping up my show at WMFO. He was their be trained by one of our staff but for whatever reasons that deejay failed to show up. I gave Steven a 15 minute crash course on how to operate our board, wished him well, and ran off to work.

Steven and I became fast friends and he introduced me to so much music. Over the decades I’ve watched Steven meet the girlfriend he would later marry, become a proud father of two boys, move from Boston to Asheville and help launch two radio stations. You can catch his show, Mental Notes, on AshevilleFM.

Steven was one of the first people I asked to participate in SOUNDWAVE. You will, of course, love his mix but what I think you will really enjoy is the field recordings he weaved into the music. It’s a reminder of the world that’s out there waiting for us when it’s safer to leave our homes.

Before I let Steven talk about today’s show I implore you to purchase any of the songs you hear on today’s mix or any mix you hear on SOUNDWAVE. The artists are pouring their hearts into each track. Your purchases of songs or albums not only helps them continue working on their craft but also puts food on their tables or pays for the roof over their heads.

See you next Sunday when our guest deejay is Vince Millett, the founder of Broken Drum Records and the host of the Secret Archives of the Vatican podcast.

It’s kind of silly to say this here:

I knew I had some field recordings on my phone. My intention was always to use them somehow. As I started going through files of artists in my digital library, I dropped tracks into a folder for your project. It was easy to pick the tracks I wanted. I only picked 9 between A-O in my experimental section of my digital library. I then sequenced those into an order roughly resembling a fantasy walk in nature.

Often when I would drive to work in South Boston at 4 am, I’d listen to ambient music like Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Vol II. I always loved how the city looked with the backdrop of dark ambient playing. When I moved to Western North Carolina I would take drives into the mountains or onto the parkway sometimes alone. Ambient worked well there, too.

Being in many different time slots on the radio has moved me further away from experimental sounds over the past handful of years. I have always felt that way about experimental radio. Sometimes I’ve felt like I’ve made all the segues I needed to make. Then you come along and ask me to do a short 30 minute project. I realize if I’m to make a piece, it has to include some original work.

In the layering of these pieces as I sequenced them, I imagined walking in some unknown place, as if superimposed on a green screen and looking down a crater at pulsing orb embedded in a forest. While it looked ominous there was no danger. I passed along wind whipped water of a mountain lake and looked up and saw the late morning sky and heard a plane’s echo of the mountainside. Behind some five miles back, that orb has flown off. I hear it and look.

My heart is exhilarated. I feel good. I’m nearer my goal with the others at camp. The stars are coming up and it’s been a long day. It’s time to feed.

Steven Howard “Field Recording: crows in trees before sunrise (Three Lakes, Wisconsin – July 7, 2019)”
Oren Ambarchi “This Evening So Soon”
Biosphere “Antennaria”
Annea Lockwood “floating world: Part 1”
BJ Nilsen “Black Light”
Sylvain Chauveau “A”
Colleen “Your Heart Is So Loud”
Pauline Oliveros & Miya Masaoka “Twilight – Bashou (Tolling Of A Bell)”
Geir Jenssen “Cho Oyu Basecamp – Morning”
Steven Howard “Field Recording: katydids from our backyard (Asheville, North Carolina – July 19, 2019)”

Subscribe to SOUNDWAVE on iTunes, Overcast, Castro and Pocketcasts.

Logo by Rik Oostenbroek

Tag: soundwave

SOUNDWAVE : 5 : VINCE MILLETT

SOUNDWAVE : 4 : STEVEN HOWARD