my favorite release of 2008 has just been tweaked and professionally remastered, giving it an even more lush and refined sound. a perfect excuse to re-visit this stunningly beautiful album of ambient dream pop.
More stylishly polished music from electronicalabel.ru-- the Platforma EP occupies a pleasant space between minimal tech house, chillout and idm moods. subtle grooves, smooth atmospheres and glittering clicks n cuts. perfect for a warm, relaxed spring afternoon.
imagine if some artists from Windham Hill got together and formed an Explosions in the Sky cover band. it probably wouldnt sound much like Clouds of Six Directions, but for this fantastic album, audio and visual artist, multi-instrumentalist, writer, and New Mexico resident Heath Yonaites creates epic, emotional and brilliantly original acoustic instrumental music which defies genre descriptions. soaring and cinematic as the desert vistas of the american west yet delicate, intimate and lyrical.
on Lumina magica , french artist Bernard Reeb creates a really excellent album of pure ambient electronic spacemusic in the grand european tradition: deep, blissful, expansive and transporting. the album is available for free mp3 download on both the « les Cristaux Liquident » netlabel website and the artists personal site. and if you wish to support the artist, this album (and several others) are also available for purchase as lossless FLAC downloads from musiczeit .
last weekend, agents from hiddenplace music had the good fortune of visiting Musikmesse 2009 in Frankfurt, Germany- the world's largest trade fair for all things music-related. its quite impossible to see everything in one day, but i was able to shoot some photos and videos during the event, including a bit of @thomasraukamp performing a live set of netaudio minimal techno.
finnish producer Saine makes some of the most chilled out instrumental hiphop and downtempo music you can imagine. he already put out several tracks on the recently re-opened Tokyo Dawn, and this year he released his second full-length commercial album. as a promo for the new LP, he also put out the excelent Clockwork EP for free download.
on an earlier post, i featured an album by Anthony Paul Kerby, aka Nunc Sans. he also produces music under the name The Circular Ruins, and he recently released a free retrospective of tracks from several of his albums under that name. the music is deep hypnotic ambient spacemusic with subdued rhythmic elements. although compiled from albums spanning over several years, the compilation maintains a strong artistic vision and aesthetic. it should be noted that one track features offthesky, a favorite artist of hiddenplace music who will no doubt be well known by many of my readers. in all, this retrospective serves as an excellent introduction to the artist, as well as a thoroughly enjoyable album in its own right.
put out on the excellent Dusted Wax Kingdom netlabel, Fin by Tracing Arcs is quiet, atmospheric and subtle-- a smoky voice and smooth, flowing jazz textures. a fresh, original sound and top-quality production. in short, simply one of the best triphop albums i've heard in a long time.
i'm always quite pleased to discover a netaudio release that stands out from the usual electronica and experimental music. the ironically named russian netlabel top40 has already set a precedent of releasing live performances of works by modern classical composers such as Steve Reich and George Crumb. yet even among such distinctive releases, Stairway to Heaven stands out as the first symphony in their catalogue (and most likely the first new symphony to be released on a netlabel).
well-sequenced beats and synths, plenty of atmospheric reverb and a few japanese-flavored voice and instrument samples make up an excellent downtempo idm LP from the (apparently) videogame and anime-obsessed 3d animator Renzu. rhythmic and groovy yet smooth and chilled. more detailed info on the artist and tracks, as well as some very nice CG artwork, are available on the release page at bumpfoot netlabel.
i have mentioned that quiet ambient music is very fitting to the cold dark days of winter. i have also discovered that sometimes other styles of music are equally appropriate for those rare sunnier winter days when the sun glitters off the snow and ice. the Lycoris radiata EP put out on the electronica netlabel certainly evokes such and atomsphere.
during its heyday (ie when it was still free), mp3.com was a perfect gateway to explore new styles of music. i found a lot of great artists there, many of whom i still listen to today. one artist i found at that time was Kit Watkins. Mr Watkins has been recording music since the 70s- from playing in the progressive jazz/rock band Happy the Man, to his own solo work, to his ambient improvisational group Tone Ghost Ether. his multi-instrumental solo albums explore jazz and world music-inspired ambient sounds and textures, with a uniquely positive and peaceful vibe. a distinctive element in Kit's music is his expressive use of the wind synth, which gives his melodies and leads a flowing, lyrical quality not easily achieved with keyboards and sequencers.
for part 1 of my own 'best of 2008' series, i did another guest mix for one of my favorite podcasts, solipsistic NATION. the mix features tracks from some of my favorite chilled ambient/idm netaudio releases which came out in 2008. full track listing plus links to download all the tracks are available on solipsisticnation.com
