Mix roundup - end of summer 2011

As posts here have once again gotten scarce, here is a short selection of dj mixes and podcasts I've particularly enjoyed during the last few months

Futexture - Energetic Substrate Mix Fall 2011
A short but wonderful mix of Philip Glass, glitchy idm tracks and a well-placed Alan Watts sample

Rox - Plant Chants
A multi-cultural mix of shamanic music to expand your awareness (lots of other great psychill & trance mixes on his site too)

Radio BSOTS #116
thoughtful spoken word about the spiritual walk and eclectic soulful music

Pingipung Podcast #12 - Please be quiet I am thinking
Absolutely gorgeous electro-acoustic modern classical/soundtrack music mixed by the owner of the wonderful Aerotone-netlabel

Nova - Mondlicht
any mix featuring Telefon Tel Aviv, HUVA Network and Solar Fields is pretty much guaranteed to be excellent. deep idm/psychill atmospheres..

Expand Your Musical Horizons #78
a fine selection of downtempo and chillout tracks

DF Tram and DJ Rich-Ears present Lunar Fizz
An epic and eclectic mix with lots of interesting and entertaining sound clips thrown in

phalanx live at zajkert - modem debrecen 2011.09.09
another excellent mix by phalanx. as always, expect nothing less than top-notch ambient, chill, and glitchy idm grooves

WOZ – CALL THE AMBIENCE, AGAIN! (OKTOBER 2011)
a very atmospheric blend of chill, ambient, and drum n bass.
~

Ergo Phizmiz & Friends - The Faust-Cycle

i interrupt this longer-than-expected pause of hiddenplace music posts to feature what is certainly the most astonishing piece of netaudio i have ever come across. "The Faust-Cycle or, The House of Dr Faustus" is definitively the ultimate piece of sound collage.
completed over a period of 3 years, with a playing time of more than 14 hours(!!), and featuring an long list of collaborators, voice actors and guest musicians, words like "epic" do not even begin to describe the mind-boggling expansiveness of this work.
i usually try to listen to a release several times through before writing a review, but i must admit in this case, i have not yet heard the entire piece all the way through. what i have heard so far consists of surreal, dream-like spoken word narratives, interspersed with even more bizarre sample-based "songs" enveloped in extended passages of sound collage and audio pastiche made from a dizzying array of identifiable and unidentifiable musical pieces and sound sources. the moods range from melancholic to nostalgic, insane to inane, dream-like to nightmarish, classical to common; all unfolding like an opium-induced phantasmagoria played through a dust-covered 1920s phonograph found in an eccentric retired circus performer's attic. this is probably the most inaccessible piece i have featured on hiddenplace music, but certainly a thrilling and epic(?) piece of audio art for hardcore fans of avant-garde sound design.

Inna Breeze - Stairway to Heaven

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).
this amazing work, performed live by a full orchestra with organ, is a melodic and lyrical symphonic tone poem stylistically rooted in the program music of the romantic era, the americana jazz influences of the early 20th century and even modern film scores. brilliantly composed, performed and recorded, Stairway to Heaven is a must-hear for fans of classical music and film soundtracks (btw- the piece certainly has nothing musically to do with the Led Zepplin song of the same name! in the words of the composer, "In my youth I, of course, heard the beautiful Led Zeppelin's song of the same name. But «Stairway to Heaven» is dedicated not to this song nor my youth. I'm implying the different, almost literal meaning to this words nowadays: it's an ascension. The ascension of a whole life. We are all moving «there», one way or another...")

Francesco Lettera

normally i really cant stand sequenced orchestral music, but in the case of music by Francesco Lettera, the composition is of such quality that i can forgive the occasionally cheesy sounds (although, on the whole, the sequencing sounds quite good). the digital orchestral sometimes lacks the 'punch' of a live performance, but the composer has done a very admirable job of infusing the music with a great deal of evocative expression and lively capriciousness. Mr Lettra has two quality releases on the somewhat enigmatic netlabel dharmasound: Vertigini, and The wizard of OZ. drawing on a wide range of influences- most notably Danny Elfman, perhaps along with a few cut scenes of Mahler, a flashback to Vaughn Williams, a tiny reference to Prokofiev or Stravinsky- these releases should appeal to fans of music with a grand, panoramic quality.
thanks to the Machtdose podcast for turning me on to these releases.

Pavel Dombrovski plays George Crumb: A little suite for Christmas

today, another audio treat for fans of the avant-garde: a modern classical(?) piano piece by experimentalist composer George Crumb. presented by the russian top-40 netlabel, this piece is quite a unique find in the netaudio world and will most certainly fascinate those with an interest in classical composition, performance, and sound art. as instructed by Mr Crumb, the performer coaxes a huge variety of sounds from the piano, including many avant-garde techniques such as long periods of silence, heavy tone clusters, and knocking/strumming/plucking the inside of the piano. this piece is full of expressionistic emotion-- moments of quiet ambience are punctuated by violent explosions of sound. i was particularly impressed by a passage where the performer plays chords on the keys and plucks a melody on the open strings, giving a delicate, harp-like effect. dont be fooled by the somewhat cliché christmas titles, this is definitely not your average holiday music!