tucson – Synecdoche

November 6, 2022November 8, 2022

SOUNDWAVE : 136 : SAM ROSENTHAL

Today’s guest deejay is Sam Rosenthal.

I invited Sam to guest deejay on Soundwave because he is the founder of Projekt Records. I didn’t ask Sam because Projekt explores genres of music I love, such as ambient, darkwave, and goth, although that’s part of it. No, it’s because Sam has been running Projekt and releasing breathtaking music for nearly 40 years!

For a lot of us, Projekt has become an institution. It feels like it’s always been a part of our lives. Incredibly, I’ve been listening to music released by Projekt for nearly half my life. Sam’s Black Tape for a Blue Girl has always been a favorite. Steve Roach, of course, who makes an appearance on today’s mix. And I’ve been listening to Anji Bee and Ryan Lum’s Lovespirals for years. And so many compilation albums.

I fully expect Sam will be releasing more music from Projekt well into the middle of the 21st century. And Sam will be the house deejay at my funeral. Wow, that got dark. Sam, I hope you took that in the spirit that was intended.

Sam has some words about his mix below.

Join us next week when our guest deejay will be DJ Bulut.

See you then.

Sam Rosenthal, founder of Projekt Records

I put together a mix of tracks selected from the 600+ electronic/ambient/drone albums released on Projekt over the last 39 years (founded in 1983!) Three are my collaborations with label artists; for the other four, rather than selecting “hits” I programmed deep tracks that I quite enjoy. With over 50 releases on Projekt in 2022 there is an abundance of wonderful music to chose from. My intention for Soundwave was to create an hour flow of the mood of Projekt — an exploration and overview for listeners discovering the label for the first time.

Sam Rosenthal & Projekt Artists “the Alabaster reliquary of glittering ashes”
Steve Roach “In the Eye of Noche Compressed”
theAdelaidean & deepspace “Star Cradle”
Sam Rosenthal / jarguna “Evening market of the petal fields > part 3”
Forrest Fang “In Air, It Seems”
Lorenzo Montanà “Between Worlds”
jarguna “Return to the Paganism”

September 19, 2021April 2, 2022

SOUNDWAVE : 77 : GERT DE MEESTER

Today’s guest deejay is Gert De Meester.

Gert appeared on Soundwave last year, and I enjoyed his mix so much I invited him back. Today’s show is equally fantastic. Gert can expect another invitation from me in 2022.

Gert says today’s show features a perfect mixture of tracks that have influenced him and tracks that currently influence him. He said they’re all such beautiful tracks, and what’s best, you can find them all on Bandcamp, some of them entirely for free.

Today’s mix also includes a track form Gert’s project, Distant Fires Burning. You’re gong to love today’s mix and you’ll want to hear more music from Gert. Good news! You can find his latest album, Inperspectycon Vol.1, here.

One thing that’s interesting about the 21st century is music is so freely available, and it’s nearly endless. Consequently, I don’t think most music gets the attention due, and I’m not wagging my finger. I’m just as guilty. It’s exceedingly rare that I will listen to a song or an album repeatedly. There’s so much I want to listen to, and I’m often impatient to listen to the next song, even while I’m listening to something that very moment.

Take today’s show. It’s spectacular. But you’ll listen to it once. Some of you might even listen to it twice. And then you’re on to the next show. Or the next song. Or the next video.

As the producer of Soundwave, however, I have a very different relationship with the music you hear.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I receive these mixes months before I publish them on Soundwave. I live with these mixes. I marinate in these mixes.

I’ve become very familiar with Gert’s mix. It’s a gorgeous experience. But after repeated listening, I’ve come to appreciate just how dense the songs that appear in today’s show are. I’ve become intimately acquainted with every snap, crackle, and pop. I lose myself in the swooshes, the sizzle, and grit.

Gert’s mix is made for repeated listening. I encourage you to do so.

Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Michael Southard of Triplicate Records.

See you then!

Taylor Dupree “Everything’s Gone Grey”
Neuro… No Neuro “Blend With Internal Mirror”
Loscil “First Narrows”
Biosphere “Endurium”
For Greater Good “Love You Terrorist (Stockholm Syndrome Mix by Distant Fires Burning)”
Boards Of Canada “XYZ (Peel Session)”
He Can Jog “My (Mother’s) Records”
Umlaut “Audio(bulbs)”
Jon Doe One “Karper”
Autistici “Edall”
Distant Fires Burning & Seigo Aoyama “Or The Horror Of It Now”
Ashtoreth & Stratosphere “The Burning Spirit”
Dadavistic Orchestra “Strung Valve Checkout”
Oubys “ToweringWindTowering”
Roel Funcken “Graydon Margolis AMB”
Sonmi451 “Hippocampus”
Darren McClure “Time Takes It’s Course”

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Logo by Rik Oostenbroek

April 25, 2021June 27, 2021

SOUNDWAVE : 56 : JOHN SHANAHAN

Today’s guest deejay is John Shanahan, host of the Hypnagogue Podcast.

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.

John has some words about his mix below.

Before I wrap things up I want to let you know that guest deejay Frank Riggio has released his new single, Empreinte Initiale

Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Roedelius. Check out his livestream concert here.

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.

Thank you, Kirk!

Joe Frawley “Sunday (Recurrences)”
Memory Bell “Entropy, Obsolete”
Matt Borghi and The Detroit76 “Space Telescope”
Canartic “Aux 1”
Cyberchump “Interstellar Dub Station Freakout”
Forest Robots “On A Desolate Shore Under A Full Moon”
Corciolli & Emmanuele Baldini “Glacier”
Domingues & Kane “Lament No 7”
Tim Story “The Woman Singing”
Neuro…No Neuro “Much-needed Recharge”

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

Logo by Rik Oostenbroek

July 5, 2020July 2, 2021

SOUNDWAVE : 14 : GERT DE MEESTER

Hello again. Welcome back to SOUNDWAVE!

I just got back from a 4th of July party with my wife’s unit so I’m going to keep this short and sweet.

If you’re new to the show, I launched SOUNDWAVE to help cope with the stress of the first month of the lockdown due to COVID-19. Ambient, classical, experimental and instrumental music was the only music I could listen at that time. If it was helping me, I imagined it would help others.

Today was the first time in over four months of the lockdown I’ve been around this many people at once. It was great! It felt completely normal. And it gave me a charge. But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I was a little uneasy. Four months will do that to you.

If you’re in the U.S., I hope you had a fine holiday. For everyone in the world, I hope you’re having a lovely weekend.

We just got home and we’re winding down and this is the perfect opportunity to jot down today’s show notes. Our guest for today’s show is Gert De Meester of Distant Fires Burning.

I met Gert when I reached out to David Newman, founder of Audiobulb Records to participate on the show with a mix. David took pass but suggested I contact Gert and Kirk Markarian. I owe David because Kirk’s mix was fantastic and I’ve been waiting impatiently to take Gert’s mix live. I know you’re going to love it!

Gert’s going to rap with you about his mix below. Before I go, please join us again next week when our guest deejay is Carmen Rizzo. You’re in for a treat.

See you then!

Our first track is Autistici’s “Wire Cage For Tiny Birds.” Something that allways has attracted me to Autistici’s music, is the sense for new sounds and intricate sounddesign. This has allways been reflected in my music. I am quite happy with the fact that David has released my last album on his Audiobulb label. It fits there perfectly.

“K & J” is the opener of my last album. You hear a Jazzbass processed through ableton and a stockload of effects, basically my livesetup. “K & J” are the two most important people in my life.

Our third track is Taylor Deupree’s “Northern”. Taylor has allways been of great influence on me, besides Tim Hecker and Biosphere. But in Taylor’s music, I really find beauty, reminiscence, maybe a bit of wanderlust. It’s that freedom that speaks to me, that encounter with the new, but allways the hint at nature and down to earth noises.

“Scrape To Touch” is by Neuro… No Neuro and is one of my best labelmates and I saw him grow immensely in music making. His music really cought me by surprise as I host a Spotify playlist and i listen to all Audiobulb albums to give them a fair chance of getting included (me and David get along quite well, musically). But Kirk’s music really caught me on a permanent level.

“Geomagnetic Disturbance” is one of the first tracks where the Jazzbass got incorporated in my music. It was an outtake of 2010’s album Build on Me on U-Cover CDR Limited, but it got picked up by these great people of Consouling Sounds for this compilation. Quite a lot Hecker inspired, but hey, everybody’s got to learn sometimes…

Our last track is Svær’s “Broken Waltz Of Fukushima”. (Such a great 2019 discovery. He played as support of Tim Hecker in Brussels in 2019. What a great show that was, connected with him on Facebook, discovered he was a fellow Belgian too. And all of a sudden I got a message he released his debut album, the rest is history…

Cheers, I hope you enjoy this mix.

Autistici “Wire Cage For Tiny Birds”
Distant Fires Burning “K & J”
Taylor Deupree “Northern”
Neuro… No Neuro “Scrape To Touch”
Distant Fires Burning “Geomagnetic Disturbance”
Svær “Broken Waltz Of Fukushima”

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

Logo by Rik Oostenbroek