New from Audio Gourmet

It’s been a while since we last mentioned any news from Audio Gourmet. The label have recently featured four new digital releases from Widesky, Wbaum, Savaran and Themuru that are well worth investigating…

Widesky – Celestial Bodies

Widesky is New Mexico, US based experimental artist Seth Chrisman. His only release before this was an acclaimed EP on Rural Colours earlier this year called ‘Floating In Being’.

His work is typically created through extended techniques using field recordings, radio static, found sound and instrument sources. These are then processed with software to create his eventual compositions.

The two pieces that form ‘Celestial Bodies’ were recorded in 2010. They are both improvisations with guitar and laptop, recorded in one take without overdubs. ‘Sungrazing’ features a nylon string guitar adorned with a contact microphone whilst ‘Radiosonde’ is an electric guitar improvisation. Seth began experimenting with more complex DSP chains for these pieces, and in forming the title for the EP, he vaguely recalls having ‘celestial bodies’ on the mind when lost in improvisation, hence the names of tracks and the EP.

Wbaum- Spaces

Wbaum is the solo project of musician and producer Claus Poulsen who works with laptop, turntables, guitars, field recordings and other sound sources. His output from this can sit anywhere within the blurred boundaries of electronica, ambient, noise and pop.

Having played in many bands, most notably 8 years of noise improvisations with Alarm112, he decided to make music on his own under the Wbaum moniker(pronounced “wunderbaum”).
So far it is just the CD/LP ‘The Wonderful World Of…’, released on Elektrolyt in January 2010 that comprises his discography. He now adds to it via Audio Gourmet, with this short set of guitar experiments called ‘Spaces’.

His journey as an artist is very much an on-going process and he prefers to experiment with sound and texture in an improvised fashion, with a loose goal of gradually honing his craft over the months and years that lie ahead. Claus is constantly pushing himself in different areas and experimenting with ideas in search of something new, unexpcted or accidental.

After immersing yourself in these six short but atmospheric movements, it might strike you that Claus’s sound is remarkably refined for someone who has only had one other solo release under his belt. It’s perhaps largely attributed to the ten releases he has racked up alongside Henrik Bagner as Small Things On Sundays…(see AGN016). The duo have been going since 2008 and their sound is sculptured from dark and cavernous ambient drones and noise textures.

Aside from music, Claus is keen on photography and intends to produce cover artwork under the name Artwerk. This is mostly for his own releases, although he would consider working with other artists on this as a sideproject if any interest were to arise.

Savaran – Observations

Savaran is Mark Walters from Wales in the UK. He is an electronic musician, sound designer and sound artist working in the ambient, electronic, electro-acoustic and experimental genres from his small home studio on the Welsh border near Shrewsbury. Mark also works as a full-time archaeologist. His music is inspired by the random daily events that life throws at you, landscapes, environment, atmosphere, astronomy, geology, past cultures, or just the indefinable need to make music. His constantly evolving musical output has been released on a number of labels over the last year including Hofa Media, Wasamix, Gradient Audio, Ember Music, FeedbackLoop and Somehow Recordings.

The Audio Gourmet EP Observations includes four tracks recorded between April and July 2011 which tend to explore a far more acoustic and organic sound than previous releases. Opening track The Jewelled Sea blends coastal field recordings made on holiday in Scotland with gentle ripples of processed and sequenced synthesizer sounds that provide a background swell for the minutiae of hydrophone derived flotsam and jetsam.

Inside Out was inspired by a rainy Sunday morning in Islington, London observing umbrella clad passers-by from a cosy hostelry and soaking up the sights and sounds of the street scene.

Lost in Conversation is a live improvised piece played over the complex crosstalk of multiple conversations in a busy restaurant.

1860 Redux revisits a phonautogram of the oldest song recording made by Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville in April 1860. The song Au Clair de la Lune was sung by an unknown performer and the original lasts just 10 seconds. The faint warbling voice on the original is lost in a fog of hiss and distortion which makes it quite a difficult listen. I stretched and processed the sound with reverbs to create a gentle wash that fades in and out of this ambient track as a small homage and remix of the original achievement.

Themuru – Themuru

The EP is finally ready for release today and it is a seamless blend of dark territories with rare glimpses of light amongst a deluge of blackness. Now that summer is drawing to a close, it is perfect for the colder months that lie ahead. The EP titles are in a language that seems as unfamiliar as the bleak fifteen minutes that they represent. It seems that little is known about themuru and after attempting to conduct some research, I am at a complete loss. The stance of remaining inconspicuous has often been adopted by artists, particularly in the ambient field. It has been suggested by some that this is due to sheer laziness.

This is certainly not the case with themuru…

The ambiguously titled ‘….’ EP is so intricately put together and so cleverly done, that it stands as a real testament to the quality of this artist’s work. Coupled with a stunning set of bonus images (one for each track, included as a PDF in the download folder), it’s clear that Themuru takes great pride in his work and allows it to be his sole representative, rather than a collection of words and clear conceptual ideas.

‘….’ is saying ‘take this EP, allow it the time and space to sink in. Apply to it your own concepts and thoughts.’

It must be pointed out that whilst the fifteen minute EP has been split into separate tracks to suit our release guidelines, it is best enjoyed with gapless playback. themuru has composed the whole EP as a seamless blend of the four pieces and it works best when listened to in this fashion.

www.music.audiogourmet.co.uk