The Book Report Ethos…

Like the music industry before it, the publishing sector has just begun its’ struggles towards the digital realm and in this process, slowly stripping the book of its physical form. The words or meaning are not lost in this transition though something important is shed: the value of form and a reader’s connection with it.

The weight of a book on one’s hand.

The tactile feeling of a matte finished or leather cover.

The soft, rough sound of pages rubbing against one another.

The “Book Report Series” was conceived as way of involving the shifting state of literature with a community that would not only help to highlight the significance of a book’s physical form but also allow one to glean new, immediate connections between differing art forms. – Wist Records

Book Repot 001: The Humble Bee- “The Royal Game” (Sound Report on Stefan Zweig’s “Chess”)

The Humble Bee opens up this promising new series with a 22-minute piece that is at once familiar and yet differs from anything we’ve heard from him so far. As the piece opens we hear the familiar hallmarks of a Humble Bee song: the hiss of tape loops, delicate and ghostly instrumentation (in this case piano), but instantly something is different. As it should be, this collection of book reports really are to some degree odes to other works – and this is key – WRITTEN works. Of the first three book reports The Humble Bee’s sounds most like a sort of soundtrack to the writing. For those not familiar with Zweig’s story, without giving too much away, it deals with a man who is gifted at chess, but his gift is gained via a very dark learning curve. It’s a simple story in terms of its narrative but very complex in terms of its emotional arc.

“The Royal Game” is a completely engrossing listen and of the three first book reports feels most like a series compositions interlinked together to form one longer song. It’s a different approach for The Humble Bee, as is this long-form approach to songwriting. In the span of 22 minutes the piece is able to take a turn from something lovely and warm, to something abrasive and confrontational, and finally, to something somber and grand. With the help of Emmanuel Witzthum the final minutes of the piece are just made to feel absolutely overwhelmingly haunting and all consuming. There’s not a lot of that warm tape hiss noise either to give us comfort, it’s just Witzthum giving this grand string finale while the piano plays. And finally, there is nothing but the sound of waves. In Zweig’s story all the events take place on a ship, and so it is appropriate that these final notes revolve around water. The combination of this grand string finale giving way to waves hints at the undoing of one man’s life that Zweig’s story plays out so well. As a book report, it’s a loyal rendering and ode to the entirety of Zweig’s piece, even capturing the emotional arc of the narrative.

Book Report 002: Offthesky – “The Door in the Wall” (Sound report on H.G Wells’s novella of the same name)

Now I have to say, “The Door in the wall and the Moth” may be one of my favourite Offthesky pieces. I am not at all familiar with the short story –and really this is meant to refer to a collection of short stories. However, as a piece of music… it begins with gentle processed sounds, but is primarily driven by sparse piano. It’s warm and lovely on one level, but also has a sense of unease. It feels so sparse and gentle it may just slip out of existence. And eventually that’s exactly what it does. And the listener is left with the sound of only those processed electronics, until it morphs into a drone-like fog, pressing forward and inescapable. Then the piano returns, but it seems faded and deeper recessed into the background like the last lights of hope (sanity?) disappearing forever. And slowly a swell begins like an orchestra tuning for a Penderecki performance. It’s all very ominous and mysterious – a perfect fit for Wells’s blend of humanity and science fiction. As a longer form composition “The Door in the Wall and the Moth” and the much shorter “The Sea Raiders” work together as an example of the importance of pacing your narrative to achieve a defined effect. Seriously, this one will amaze people in its ability to turn from lovely but haunted to outright horrifying.

Book Report 003: Depatterning “The Blasted Heath” (Sound Report on H.P Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space”)

Now, I was not at all familiar with the work of Depatterning (aka Gary Mentanko, he of Canada and now Ireland) and know Lovecraft, but not this particular tale, which deals with an evil that manifests itself in the form of a colour. The idea of a colour being evil to me suggests something that seems innocuous and mundane being a source of something dark and threatening. And that is exactly how this piece of music works: it takes a variety of sounds and sound sources, and then weaves them together into something wicked and sinister. Again, it’s a single piece spanning over 20 minutes. This one starts off with a tapestry like feel as elements enter and intertwine then fade out and return. It’s almost similar to Markus Popp’s work as Oval in its ability to take elements that sound almost familiar and twist them into something foreign and alien. It’s an engrossing piece from the outset and begins with a very strange feel to it that never quite settles down – and that is to the composition’s benefit.

One can almost picture glowing orbs as you listen, which sits well with the idea of a colour being a lure for evil. Throughout the piece strange sounds come into make it even odder: at one point what sounds like a baby’s cry comes in, another point sounds like an atomic bomb drop diffused into a sonic drone. It’s all very unnerving, but something about it won’t allow you to turn away – and something tells me that’s precisely the point of both Lovercraft’s piece and Mentanko’s work. As a first time listener of Mentanko’s work this one had me intrigued and interested to hear more of the man’s work.

What strikes me about this series is what often strikes about musicians that make what I would broadly term minimal electronic music, and that is their ability to collaborate in such a generous and complimentary way. Are any of these artists in fact collaborating with the authors of their respective reports? No. But there is a clear respect for the original works referenced and a very apparent attempt to honour the narratives of the original texts. Three book reports in, this is one engaging and rewarding series thus far. And with works from the likes of Tape Loop Orchestra and Marihiko Hara in the pipeline that benchmark for excellence has no indication of dropping any time soon.

- Brendan Moore for Fluid Radio

www.wistrec.com

It can be amusing where monikers arise from. Where bands are commonly subtitled with a “the”, implying a state or obligatory function from the audience, in Jason Corder, aka offthesky’s world, the scene in acclaimed British film “Trainspotting” transposed into his artist name. But we’re not “off the scag”, the phrase that he translated as “sky”, emotionally, for “Boy With The Golden Cough”. It’s timidly euphoric sleep-dust-in-eyes wander, in a two work exercise that blends his delectable approach to composition, sacrifices dulling comedown for a wholesome veracity. There’s a feeling he’s even putting faith in things which are faithless; the tool versus the soul; a diatribe quenched of malice.

Corder’s selected instruments: a washburn acoustic guitar, violin, saxophone, VST plugins, woodwind and bell set, are spread across “Boy With…” so they execute subtle motifs when layered and sequenced unitarily. In effect, this collaging of melody gives the two tracks a shared gumption for dredging up your skull’s memories, via a reading-between-lines corroboration of basic elements and mental interpretation. Within the bare bones of the composition lie prehensible themes of apparition and apprehension, as if the brain has been stripped of it’s prefrontal cells and rebuilt for a forthcoming lifetime. This secondary hypothesis for listeners is not frightening aurally: “If I Had An Ocean I’d Give You To It”, for instance, takes the guitar and smears it against protruding synthesis and Flamenco-simplistic harmony, welcoming you – instead of estranging – due to any virtuosoic arrogance that peppers the experimental scene’s worst case scenario.

Everything is very humanistic and organic musically, and this is only one side of Jason’s production arsenal, the artist using the Buzz tracker software previously, then deciding digital wasn’t enough. His wish to experiment with several platters speaks of substansial faculties for diversity as a musician, and also the tender, heartfelt side of composing music with a healthy lifespan and timespan, interlinked as a secret wish, not to mention an affirmation for change. “Always Loved The Way She Kills For You” begins with a dischord-esque percussive shimmering, like Godspeed’s “Static” outro recalibrated for it’s Modern Classical torpor. Woodwind also comparable to Marcus Schmickler’s melodically minded “Param” LP fleshes out the introductory section of the piece and later gives way to violin chords dragging their finely trimmed nails against velvet.

Once again, offthesky has presented a very fine, almost improvised tactility, always sumptuous, in a release which deserves a well of praise on the part of fans and new converts. The effects I received were becalming; the techniques from which I received those effects are ripe for incubating in one’s record collection. The context of hearing it didn’t bore or disconcert me, and what meaning I gleaned from this Rural Colours instalment, as befits their catalogue to date, transcends the unscripted anonymity that comes with DIY livestock, and all that perceptual doohickey. Truly beautiful – we’re in no need of a drug to say that.

- Mick Buckingham for Fluid Radio

www.ruralcolours.co.uk
www.offthesky.com

“Every summer, traveling through the mountains photographing, I am somehow able to renew and relive my childhood. I regain my southern, mountain accent and approach my people with openness, fascination, and respect; and they treat me with respect. My psychic antennae become sharpened and acute. I love these people, perhaps that is it, plain and simple. I respond to the sensual beauty of a hardened face with many scars, the deeply etched lines and flickers of sweat containing bright spots of sunlight. The eyes of my subjects reveal a kindness and curiosity, and their acceptance of me is gratifying. For me, this is rejuvenation of the spirit of time past, and I am better for the experience each time it happens. These portraits are, in a way, self-portraits that represent a long autobiographical exploration of creativity, imagination, vision, repulsion and salvation. My greatest fear as a photographer is to look into the eyes of my subject and not see my own reflection.

My work has been an artist’s search for a deeper understanding of my heritage and myself, using photography as a medium and the Appalachian people as collaborators with their own desires to communicate. I hope, too, that viewers, will see in these photographs something of the abiding strength and resourcefulness and dignity of the mountain people.”

- Shelby Lee Adams

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Originally from Kentucky, Offthesky is Jason Corder who currently resides in Denver, Colorado in the United States. From an early age, Jason experimented with simple piano melody patterns, tape deck recording, tracker software and 8bit explorations. He went on to teach himself guitar, learning more advanced music production software and eventually began to translate these ideas into his own tracks. These regularly shifting learning patterns started at the tender age of five, perhaps born out of an early Attention Deficiency Disorder diagnosis. This restlessness is something that Jason is comfortable with in music and embracing it has led to a gradual honing of craft over a lifetime of sound experiments. The more strings that he adds to his bow, the more curious he seems to get; and with each release, he likes to carefully explore his latest ideas and techniques. So for those of you with a few Offthesky records in your collection, you’ll notice a different shift and evolution explored within each. In 2006, Jason even decided to change the then Off The Sky moniker to the unique one-word morpheme ‘Offthesky’. If nothing else, this expresses his desire to hold evolution as a major facet of his artistic process.

Magnetically drawn to melody and texture, Jason’s sound typically comprises of a deep and quirky aesthetic that draws in on all his influences. Musically, he cites an early interest in jazz and orchestral music as the foundation to the odd way in which he likes to think about music. Elsewhere, he concedes that he has learnt more about music through film, painting and his own sound experiments along the way.

For his latest record ‘The Beautiful Nowhere’, Jason had initially set himself a loose rule to use as many acoustic instruments as possible, whilst limiting the use of heavy electronic processing techniques. Instruments including guitar, harmonium, cello, toy piano, violin, kalimba, vibraphone and voice were recorded in a cabin near Carter Lake, Colorado in the peace of a beautiful, yet remote space. It was this secluded environment that encouraged and an existential state of mind and the resulting material gleaned of ideas relating to isolation and the surrounding rural landscape. Around the time of recording, Jason also watched a documentary called ‘The True Meaning Of Pictures’, about photographer Shelby Lee Adams. His subjects lie in deep Appalachia; an incredible culture caught on film that has haunted Jason ever since.

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“This work is a study to be felt. It does speak to you, if not directly, indirectly, more intuitively than in a conscious sense. This is a feeling culture: its people live with memory and spirits of times past. Having the freedom to feel leads to fearless honesty: expressing emotions directly, where others do not, creating volatility and changes at times yet, leading to staying power, never leaving one’s family or place. Faith is important. Jesus says: “Behold, I stay with you always.” Some live with hurt and retribution. They think of the future with uncertainty. Analytic dialogue and planning are not the norm here. This is difficult for some to understand. My work explores both internal and external representation, with more emphasis on the inner processes.”

- Shelby Lee Adams

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Fluid was lucky enough to get some time with Jason recently, and he was able to fill us in on ‘The Beautiful Nowhere’, iPads and Shelby Lee Adams…

How long did the album take to complete?

JC: A little over a year – though some of the pieces were started a few years ago, left in the dust, revived and finished.  The longest I’ve let a song sit before finishing it is about 7-8 years, I think.  Just like a good drink, some things perfect with age…

Is that the way you usually work, starting multiple projects and songs and working at them over time?

JC: Not until the last few years really.   I think it makes more sense to work on a group of songs then set them down for many months, allowing time to blur my perspective of them a bit.  Going back to them after becoming completely unfamiliar with them helps give me to determine new directions to take with them.  Also learning how to use the delete button in that process has really helped!

How did the record come to its home at Hibernate?

JC: Well, Jonathan and I were in some talks about me putting a record out with Hibernate.  I actually sent him a whole different album to begin with and he responded with “I’d love to put this out on vinyl, would you mind adjusting it to fit on a record?”.

The funny thing was, I had already finished a whole other record and had made it especially for vinyl to begin with.  I kind of did that just to go through the process of creating a work for that medium (and with a little faith that somebody would want to release it on vinyl).  So anyway, at that point I wrote Jonathan back and said ‘Hey, I’ve actually got this other record (The Beautiful Nowhere) that was made just for a 45 format’.  I’m really happy he loved it instead.  The original record I sent him – Endless Yonder – will be out soon via Alex Navarro’s SEM label.  I’m very excited for that release as well!

Were you listening to any material during this period that you felt had an influence on the two albums?

JC: Absolutely!  I’m always trying to soak in some kind of music… actually I got back into classical music a little bit; returning to my childhood years when that was all I was allowed to listen to.  Debussy is one name in particular whose melodies I adore.  But I also really got into Iron And Wine, as well as Morgan Packard’s latest Anticipate release – some excellent and inspiring music all around!

How would you describe your approach to guitar?

JC: Loose and loopy… pretty, melodic and rhythmic too.  I guess I’m kind of an existentialist when it comes to playing instruments.  I typically like to only do like 3-4 takes, and I love it when notes don’t completely hit on the beat or when mistakes just pop up and turn into really golden moments in the song.  This always feels better in the end than the songs I’ve created where every note had to be ironed, cut, and edited.

During the creation of these records, I also created a live loop system using Max for Live, a broken trigger finger, and Ableton’s Looper effect.  I control the trigger finger with my toes (now dubbed it ‘trigger toe’) to start and stop loop.  The ‘trigger toe’ has a nice feature of allowing the pressure from each drum pad to transmit a cc – so the harder my toe pushes down on a pad, the more reverb I get on the guitar.  But I used this setup on just about every song on these records…

At what point did you come to appreciate that spontaneity in your music? Was there a project or song that triggered it?

JC: It’s hard to say.  I think working and playing with allot of different musicians has really helped me become addicted to embracing the loveliness of spontaneous sonic happening.   But I think with my earlier records I ended up, sadly, ironing or editing out too many of the beautiful spontaneous moments because either a label expected me to do something very refined or “professional” or whatever.  And I was probably a bit immature and self conscious; feeling I had to make something “perfect” therefore “acceptable” – which is a necessary but difficult part becoming a strong musician.

That’s all not to say that putting allot of effort into perfecting a mix or arrangement is a bad thing – it’s not.  But an artist should allow for some freedom in their process and just feel okay with leaving in a few screw-ups.  Some artists who have inspired me to go this route along the way are Phoenicia (their Brown Out record in particular), John Coltrane, Ricardo Villalobos, and of course Animal Collective.

I’m also taken with the idea of Coltrane as an influence – jazz is a pretty experimental field, and it seems to sit with your style of unconventional musicianship well. Are there any elements that you take from jazz directly?

JC: Well, I’ve certainly worked in my fair share of samples taken from old jazz records.  I guess you don’t get more direct than that!  But anymore I just try and take ideas from the spirit of that kind of music.  Like the loose knit performance mentality that permeates jazz.

Did working on these two albums give you a direction for your next?

JC: Yes, of course!  Lately I’ve been making guitar loops with the iPad using my Behringer FCB1010 floor stomp box and an awesome app called the ‘Every Day Looper’.  I guess I want to be like all those weird bands out there who are now trying to make a record using just the iPad.  It’s probably worth trying out just to get away from the usual tools and tricks and there are some amazing music creation apps for the iPad now…

I’m really interested in you using the iPad for music. Could you make a whole record that way?

JC: Well after a couple months of researching various apps and how they are able to interact with each other, I really think it’s 100% possible now – certainly not as easy as just using Logic or Ableton on a higher powered computer but with patience, it’s doable. So through the research, I’ve become obsessed with actually attempting to create a record that uses nothing but the iPad, acoustic instruments and a contact mic – mostly to satisfy my weird internal sense of self competition and to hopefully gain some patience through the process.

But there’s a slew of great apps out there that really make it super fun to jam out and make sounds on the iPad (or iPhone).  Iasuto is one, similar to Reaktor in the sense that you place modules and wire them up.  But there’s the added aspect of each module’s distance from each other effecting various parameters – such as volume levels, pitch, etc.  And you can animate the movement of the modules, which makes for some seriously cool dynamic weirdness.  Also “Sunvox” is a great “tracker” style app that lets you wire up synths through various effects.  So if you can get past the “tracker” style learning curve you can do some wicked sequencing.  And then there’s multitrack DAW – a great DAW style app that lets you have up to 24 tracks and a timeline based audio arranger.  And you can take recorded sounds created in the other mentioned apps and move them into multitrack DAW for editing/arranging.  All without a laptop or internet connection.

I could go on and on about all this nerdiness – but once I’ve finished the record I’m going to try and blog about the whole experience.  Hopefully that will inspire others of the possibilities of using mobile devices to make music.  I know it’s a totally trendy thing to try and do nowadays but the bottom line is it’s a lot of fun.  And I’m just happy to be able to arrange music in some really odd, remote places…

How have you made records in the past, have you always done it yourself?

JC: I guess on a majority of my release I’ve done most of the work.  There’s a few where it was 50/50 effort (Suspended, Flyover Sound, Further To Find Closer) – and usually I’ll do the final polishing master pass if possible.  I’ve been working with pillow garden lately (Sarah Chung) as she has some nice organic ideas and a voice that really works with my music.  I’d like to use less of my voice and more of the female voice as it typically contains textural qualities that just seem to fit with what I do on the guitar.  She and I just put out a free release via Audio Gourmet called ‘A Dream In A Dream’ – very pretty sleepy washy stuff.

But all in all I really love working with different musicians as much as possible. New minds add new ideas and angles that I wouldn’t have been able to come up with on my own.  It makes for a more dynamic record in the end too.  Plus I’m a sampling junky so I love recording musicians who are willing to just play along to my music, impromptu-style.  I’ve tried working with classically trained musicians but getting past the dogma of sheet music and old-school academic thinking usually would get in the way.  And of course working in the field recording plants, trees and clouds is always super fun – typically natural things are some of the best performers (and you don’t have to even bug them to play for you!)

How did you become interested in the works of Shelby Lee Adams?

JC: Having spent a lot of time immersed in Appalachian culture during my life, I was immediately drawn to his movie and work.  He takes incredibly haunting photographs, that some have deemed controversial because they appear to take advantage of the subject matter.  But the film about his life and the issues surrounding his photographs, “The True Meaning Of Pictures”, nudged me into deeper research about the musical history of that culture.

How did this influence work its way into the album?

JC: Some time after watching the film, I ended up driving around to a slew of antique stores in small run-down towns in Kentucky looking for old instruments, records and trinkets that I could feed off of and soak into the music somehow.  Some of the old vinyl featuring gospel hymns and porch side folk tunes are what helped me to come up with some of the song titles, melodies and feelings that went into “The Beautiful Nowhere”.  That title itself kind of takes from the idea of rustic beauty that those tiny towns entail.

What was it in particular about Adam’s work that struck the chord?

JC: Aside from the beauty of his photos, I found the persistent nature of his approach fascinating – he would spend years and years photographing an entire generation of one family.  I’m inspired by artists who really embrace their work and who really stick with it, regardless of the critics crap and regardless of the ups and downs life brings.

Do you avidly dislike music critics? My impression was you’d been fairly well treated by them?

JC: I’ve certainly endured my fair share of thrown tomatoes.  I think this is a good humbling and cathartic experience for an artist to deal with.  And I certainly don’t dislike critics at all; there’s a necessary context for critical review. But I think this kind of review, especially in the indy circuit, can become shallow and pretentious very quickly.  It’s a real cop-out for a reviewer to just speil about something they don’t like. The real challenge is for a reviewer to find something good within something they don’t like.

I’m really interested in the Apallachian aspect of the project; I remember reading at one point that it had a strong influence on recorded music because people testing early phonographs and the like went out to record musicians from that area, and it bled into a lot of early recorded music from the US. Which songs do you think captured this element, and how did the elements you gathered come to play into the record?

JC: What really inspired me about those old recordings was how live and raw they were.  Many times the recorder would set up their gear right there on the front porch and those backwoods banjo players would just go to town so free spirited and natural like while the needle cut straight into that disc.  I’m really inspired by that kind of fearlessness to be able to perform and record in such a live fashion.  But people were far more fearless back then – they had to face much harder times; so much starvation, constant sickness and death.  I think that kind of hard living made for much more passionate musical expressions – people really had to have a way to release!

Do you think our relative comfort today has changed the type of music we produce?

JC: Absolutely.  Innovations in technology have made it so we don’t necessarily have to work as hard to achieve results that surpass the styles and standards of yesteryear.  But with all this ease of use and the endless ocean of presets, a slew of lazy modern music has emerged like a bad disease.  But I love that no matter how drowned in comfort the world becomes, people will always have the will to want and make good heart felt music. That’s just a part of our beautiful design…

Can you still see the influence of Appallachian music in modern music today? Is the DNA still recognisable to you?

JC: Those styles today are somewhat watered down I guess.  Music tends to be so produced anymore that I think it’s harder to find folk or bluegrass music that can really capture the spirit of those old recordings.  Those were one take wonders by truly unique people who lived in much different times.  Also I think musicians back then were far less intimidated by the microphone.

True, and I’ve heard it said that after the players heard themselves played back, their style of playing changed. They’d never heard recorded music before, and actually hearing themselves played back affected the way they played. Does listening to the material you’ve recorded change the way you’ve developed as well?

JC: Certainly so – it’s a healthy move for a musician to record themselves performing then listen back to it.  You can get a more objective perspective of the music and it’s easier then to tell if the music is worth sharing with the world or not.  Also, I like listening to my music with random people in the room listening.  I certainly get a bit self-conscious but that allows me to have a more psychologically heightened awareness of what’s going on in the music.  So that helps mistakes or improvements just pop right out of the songs…

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“People’s faces reflect what God has given them and just as importantly, what others have caused, shunned or propagated. A number of folks simply can’t speak efficiently for themselves. I find the faces I photograph easily enough, but society has often conditioned many to stay as they are, while speaking worlds apart. Only when we as a people learn to accept our complete collective shadow and integrate within society, will we begin to mend.”

- Shelby Lee Adams

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The Beautiful Nowhere is released on or about July 1 on Hibernate, in a limited edition vinyl pressing of 250. There is also a limited edition CD of 200 copies, with a printed recycled pulp card placed inside handcut/folded/made textured organic mulberry paper sleeve hand stamped on the front; all kept safely in a hand sewn hessien bag. The album is mastered by Taylor Deupree, with artwork by Jason Corder & Jonathan Lees and includes photography by Iris Ann Sigurðardóttir. An instant digital download is included for both formats.

www.offthesky.com
www.noise.offthesky.com
www.hibernate-recs.co.uk
www.shelby-lee-adams.blogspot.com

We recently mentioned the one year celebration of the Audio Gourmet label by bringing your attention to the ‘In The Bleak Wilderness Of Sleep‘ compilation. The label are now offering extra audio gifts to celebrate their first birthday, this time round from Offthesky and Pillow Garden…

Words from the label…

The Audio Gourmet first birthday festivities continue and we’re the ones offering the presents…and what a treat it is too!

Ever since the birth of the label last year, we’ve been talking to Jason Corder about the possibility of releasing an Offthesky EP on Audio Gourmet. Now a year on, it is a reality – he has teamed up again with Pillow Garden for this short excursion ahead of a stunning solo debut for Hibernate, due out this summer.

“A Dream In A Dream” is the debut EP from Offthesky and Pillow Garden. For many Offthesky will need little introduction, having graced several of the finest labels and netlabels such as Home Normal, Resting Bell and Zymogen. This prolific artist has been operating in this field for about a decade and has become a firm favourite with many. His project alongside Pillow Garden began with several live performances and first surfaced as the opening track to Audio Gourmet’s Hidden Landscapes compilation album released in January 2011.

Pillow Garden is experimental new media artist and educator Sarah Chung. She uses a variety of field recordings, orphaned instruments and curious objects to create collages of layered compositions. Sarah especially enjoys the process of revealing hidden sounds that are secretly embedded in any ordinary or extraordinary object; pine cones, books, bird cages, chairs, forks and glasses are just some of the items that may be found/heard. Pillow garden invites the listener to lie back and contemplate the various sounds that have been stretched, cultivated and sown like seeds to grow in the lush multifarious garden of your imagination.

A Dream In A Dream carefully fuses the artists’ respective backgrounds together in a dense wash of detail that never quite reaches a crescendo. Heavily treated recordings of instruments, gently mutated vocals, field recordings, subtle chimes and snippets of tape-deck effects make for an otherworldly listening experience that gives off a warm glow from start to finish.

Conceptually, the EP maps out dreams within dreams; several unconscious experiences that are half thought and collapsing in on one another. Always encouraging the wandering of thoughts and offering a gentle push into the daydream, this two piece set will have you spinning out into the fantastical in no time.

Pillow Garden is the audio collaboration of Sarah Chung and Jason Corder.
www.offthesky.com | www.pillowgarden.com

Original photograph taken by Richard Outram
www.richardoutram.com

www.music.audiogourmet.co.uk

The latest subscription pack from Rural Colours has arrived and contains yet another three high quality experimental works for listeners to enjoy…

Isnaj Dui – Protective Displacement

Isnaj Dui is the solo project of Katie English, a classically trained flautist with previous releases on Smallfish, Home Normal and the artists own FBox Records. Katie was inspired to create Protective Displacement by a clock which has passed through her family through the generations, the antique timepiece taking a central role in a beautiful long form piece. This turns out to be an inspired choice and Katie creates a quite moving eulogy to the clock, with her flute providing a textural base for the whirring and ticking, bringing to mind the passage of time and the pride of place which family heirlooms such as these often take in our homes.

Offthesky and Ten & Tracer – To All The 12 Year Old Girls Who Buy Our Tapes

The second release of the pack lightens the mood and injects a little humour for good measure. Offthesky is the solo project of Jason Corder while Ten & Tracer is the moniker of Jonathan Cannup. Both artists are from Kentucky and are in fact neighbours, with a slew of releases on Home Normal, The Land Of and Resting Bell to name but a few. The pair are joined by Sarah Chung who provides violin on all but the opening number. The four tracks are a curious blend of found sounds and manipulated tape recordings, organic in nature and with tape hiss, clicks and inaudible voices being highlighted rather than hidden. It’s a striking work which shows a strong chemistry between the two artists.

Ghost & Tape – Live

Ghost & Tape is the name which Danish born, Barcelona based Heine Christensen records under and Live follows a self-titled release on Japan’s Schole label. The name is apt, as the artist fuses upbeat finger picking guitar with tape loops and what sounds like vinyl scratches and static. Christensen makes use of small glitches and backwards effects to add an extra depth to his tracks and Live is marked by an uplifting, optimistic mood which is present on each of the three tracks, a nice concluding CD to finish the pack.

Physical copies of these excellent releases will be limited to subscribers only but each work will be released digitally through the Rural Colours website.

- Review by Adam Williams for Fluid Radio

www.ruralcolours.co.uk

Gurun Gurun is a Czech-based experimental, weird ambient & improvised music collective formed in the autumn 2007 by guitarist Tomas Knoflicek and keyboardist Jara Tarnovski…

Their musical work combines guitars, analogue synthesizers, turntables, acoustic instruments and digital effects to span musical spaces ranging from hypno-minimalist atmospheres to warm tones of slow moving, repetitive melodic stanzas.

Their twelve track debut album is a balancing act of frenetic yet sedate melodic layering that dances between chaotic and considered; multiple tones vie for space around central melodies that sound as though they could have been sampled from multiple genres of film soundtrack.

Track one, ‘Fu’, featuring vocals by Japanese sound and melody artist Moskitoo, is a loping and cyclical excursion in beeping and sliding textures, all resting on an at times staccato electronic pulse.

‘Karumi’ leads in with some recording hiss and clatter, then slides into stringed and woodwind exchanges that are anchored by bass drops and glitchy beeping and bubbling. The arrangement coheres nicely at about the three minute mark and brings in new layers which seem to be mobile phone interference (!) and GYBE-esque Tesla cello.

‘Emoto’ is a haunted toybox leading into the melodic ‘Kodomo’, voiced by Japanese chanteuse Rurarakiss; an almost conventional melody and structure carefully covered in effects and incongruous musical layers, deconstructed to centre around evocative wood lines. Singular tracks pepper the peripheries with multiple indecipherable interjections.

‘Yume No Mori’ features aquatic swathes of burbling electronic tones with liberal amounts of delay and analogue hiss – vocals are in this instance provided by occasional 12k contributor and former video artist Sawako. The bass outro provides a neat segue into ‘Io’, which hovers briefly before landing in a soundscape of disconcerting cinematic cues.

‘Anu Uta’ again features contributions by Moskitoo, with what amounts to the most conventional song structure on the release thus far, and by far the most accessible. The restraint demonstrated on this track points to a songwriting nous not previously demonstrated; and is by far the most effective demonstration of the unitary sound. The field and effect layers are used here to create mood at appropriate junctures, and the repeated vocal refrain to fade sells the package effectively.

‘Kuko’, again featuring Rurarakiss, reverts to a more dislocatory presentation. The at times almost chiptune layers skitter across the speakers and are countered by treated vocals and wavering bass bubbles.

Bridging track ‘Ato Toa Ota Tao’ leads into ‘Yuki   ? Hawaiian Snowflake’, returning Sawako to the forefront, before pitching her behind treated vocals, only to have her peer back out amongst hiss, guitar samples and wavering electronic layers.

Two remixes finish the album out, with a version of ‘Karumi’ that seemingly isolates and highlights some of the more melodic ideas by fellow Czech Kora et le Mechanix. Opiate remixes ‘Fu’, with a reverbed space becoming home to a more considered take on the same material.

On the subject of mixes, all purchases of ‘Gurun Gurun’ from the Home Normal store will include a free bonus album download featuring remixes by Dot Tape Dot, Park Avenue Music, Pimmon, Zavoloka, Orla Wren, offthesky and Part Timer, with its own unique artwork. Given the bounty of individual tracks the remixers likely had to work with, this would no doubt present a wealth of divergent material.

As a whole, the release is definitely identifiable as a debut album, with no idea spared inclusion. It can most certainly be categorized as experimental in that conventional arrangement and musical convention are for the most point substituted with alternate approaches.  The strong point that results from this approach would be the enthusiasm and vibrancy this energy lends proceedings.

There appears to be a theme of sorts – the general environment created feels to be an attempt to capture a youthful naivety, and this is aided by the use of breathy Eastern vocalists who add an ethereal and childlike quality to the exercise. The cover features a small child riding a stuffed animal at an amusement park, so the artwork is consistent with this theme. Songs like ‘Ana Uta’ point to a bright direction for Gurun Gurun, demonstrating a clear ability to be able to harness their divergent and chaotic threads when the opportunity presents.

- Review by Alex Gibson for Fluid Radio

Tracklist:

01. Fu (ft. Moskitoo)
02. Karumi
03. Emoto
04. Kodomo (ft. Rurarakiss)
05. Yume No Mori (ft. Sawako)
06. Io
07. Ano Uta (ft. Moskitoo)
08. Kúkó (ft. Rurarakiss)
09. Ato Toa Ota Tao
10. Yuki ? Hawaiian Snowflake (ft. Sawako)
11. Karumi (Kora et le Mechanix mix)
12. Fu (Opiate mix)

www.homenormal.com
www.gurunas.net
www.myspace.com/gurunas

This unique package is a beautiful hand crafted pop-out display style booklet conceived by ACRE collective’s Jonathan Canupp (aka Ten and Tracer) and Jason Corder…

All the cover artwork was created by Jason Corder using Jared Tarbell’s open source flash generative artwork code. Each package is hand made to order by offthesky and of course hand numbered – Takes about an hour to print, cut, glue, and construct each one of these. Due to the personal, conceptual nature of this release, there will be no digital version for sale or distribution ever.

Each CD will contain a different variation of songs created using special generative composition techniques conceived by offthesky – in other words no two cds will ever sound alike! When you purchase a cd, your songs are rendered and burned uniquely after the packaging is constructed. You are the only owner of that iteration of the songs on the record. (also offthesky will delete the .wav file masters making you the sole owner of those song versions).

Printed inside the package is a web address pointing to an “audio gallery” of sorts. Anyone who buys the cd will have access to this gallery and can go there to listen to an array of different variations to get a feel for how each piece is self similar yet different. There will be extended information about the creation process of the songs as well as extras goodies to downloads.

This record has been released with the help of the ACRE collective in Denver Colorado. ACRE is a group of visual artists, musicians, and writers from around the world working together.

And last but not least, if you purchase the “iterate i” EP, you will receive a code/link to download another free EP – informally titled “gift i”.

Notes from offthesky…

One of the beautiful aspects of nature, is it’s persistent ability to seemingly never repeat itself. You can walk into a field and upon close inspection, notice no two plants will ever match. And the amount of new subtle variations that surface are always incessant and surprising with each season. It seems nature is always re-inventing itself; constantly evolving.

Upon researching the origins of recorded sound, I stumbled upon some information about some of the first mass produced recordings – the original master created was unable to withstand being copied more than 20-30 times before deteriorating. This meant that the musicians had to play the songs over and over to make many master copy recordings (there was no protools back then!) – therefore several similar variations of the same songs would be printed and released onto the public.

Just like photographers of years past would produce only so many copies or prints of a single negative to release, I wanted to take and synthesize all the above concepts in mind to produce my very own form of generative or fractal composition for this series. – Jason

www.offthesky.com
www.myspace.com/offthesky

Well, what’s to say about Jason Corder? He’s been pretty much my favourite artist since I first heard his Resting Bell release, ‘Rare Decay’. Of course I love lots of music but rarely has an artist put out so much amazing work, under various monikers, as Jason. I love his work so much, I am releasing him across all my labels – Home Normal, Tokyo Droning and Nomadic Kids Republic. That’s how varied his work is, and gosh darn it, why not?

Jason has been with the Home Normal ‘project’ (as I initially termed it) since its inception. The early pieces from Hiding Nature were with me at the end of 2008 and were one of the main reasons for starting the label. He spent the past year finalising it and, I have to say (and I know I may be biased here), I think this is his chef-d’oeuvre.

The album is obviously an offthesky record, with its minute attention to detail and its beautiful, often creeping, sometimes sporadic, bursts of melody. Essentially Jason’s plan was to make an album of heavily processed vibraphone pieces, yet it became so much more featuring clever use of warbly guitar tones and textures throughout, and incredible haunting vocal arrangements on ‘Frozen Fountain’, for example. It ranges from the melodic brilliance of ‘Hand Held Lightly’ to the more experimental playfulness of ‘Clockwort’, from the guitar chords mixed with bleeps of melody on ‘Little Subtle Secret’ to the delicately processed vibraphone of ‘Rest But Not Least’.

Its a complete listening experience by one of the most talented producers around today, an astonishing record and the most fun I have heard in melodious experimentation in some time, maybe ever. As Jason himself says, ‘Enjoy this with your nearest breathing thing’. And I have, and I will, again and again and again and… – Ian Hawgood

All music by Jason Corder
Photography by Joseph Borreson

01. birds eye view
02. kind of brittle
03. frozen fountain
04. rest but not least
05. hand held lightly
06. light like
07. clockwort
08. fear of flora
09. little subtle secret

Purchase from Home Normal here
Purchase from Experimedia here

www.homenormal.com
www.offthesky.com

A new offthesky release is enough to get anyone excited isn’t it? Well it has me hooked anyway and rounds up the Home Normal posts…For now at least…

Well, what’s to say about Jason Corder? He’s been pretty much my favourite artist since I first heard his Resting Bell release, ‘Rare Decay’. Of course I love lots of music but rarely has an artist put out so much amazing work, under various monikers, as Jason. I love his work so much, I am releasing him across all my labels – Home Normal, Tokyo Droning and Nomadic Kids Republic. That’s how varied his work is, and gosh darn it, why not?

Jason has been with the Home Normal ‘project’ (as I initially termed it) since its inception. The early pieces from Hiding Nature were with me at the end of 2008 and were one of the main reasons for starting the label. He spent the past year finalising it and, I have to say (and I know I may be biased here), I think this is his chef-d’oeuvre.

The album is obviously an offthesky record, with its minute attention to detail and its beautiful, often creeping, sometimes sporadic, bursts of melody. Essentially Jason’s plan was to make an album of heavily processed vibraphone pieces, yet it became so much more featuring clever use of warbly guitar tones and textures throughout, and incredible haunting vocal arrangements on ‘Frozen Fountain’, for example. It ranges from the melodic brilliance of ‘Hand Held Lightly’ to the more experimental playfulness of ‘Clockwort’, from the guitar chords mixed with bleeps of melody on ‘Little Subtle Secret’ to the delicately processed vibraphone of ‘Rest But Not Least’.

Its a complete listening experience by one of the most talented producers around today, an astonishing record and the most fun I have heard in melodious experimentation in some time, maybe ever. As Jason himself says, ‘Enjoy this with your nearest breathing thing’. And I have, and I will, again and again and again and… – Ian Hawgood

All music by Jason Corder
Photography by Joseph Borreson

Tracklist:

01. birds eye view
02. kind of brittle
03. frozen fountain
04. rest but not least
05. hand held lightly
06. light like
07. clockwort
08. fear of flora
09. little subtle secret

Pre-Order from Home Normal here

Pre-Order from Experimedia here

www.homenormal.com

www.myspace.com/offthesky

Offthesky Exclusive by Fluid Radio on Mixcloud

For those that missed out on Jason’s wonderful mix you now have the opportunity to sit back and listen when it’s most convenient…

jason corder began devising sonic schemes in the womb by performing on the uterus wall to cope with the intense darkness. he finally forged an escape plan in 1977 and upgraded his musical medium to a sterling kitchen floor kit. many years later during the dark ages of the 386/amiga, jason retired the cutlery to began forging into the vast void of 8bit tracking.

later he began his travels to countless electronic music events which catalysted him into a fertile pit of sonic clay. using adverse software such as buzz, jason began an evolution. though after realizing the creative short comings of purely digital creation, acoustics, space resonation, and concept became common place. instruments such as guitar, piano, sine waves, field-recordings and weather pattern data are mainstays for off the sky.

today jason resides in the placidly humble bluegrass hills of kentucky and composes experimental electronic music in collaboration with other working musicians. occasionally, he still writes music for fetuses..

A Word About The Process:

offthesky was originally created as a vessel to combine community and concept. the players are as random as the process entails and can encompass the classically trained to the fervent yet musically illiterate appreciator. each album concept surrounds the use of chaos theory and weather patterns to drive the movement, texture, timbres, tone, and dynamic of each recorded instrument (actually, temperature records and collated barometric pressure pattern data as well as fractal mathematics have been mined and interpolated to drive reaktor(vst) or max/msp dsp lfo/parameters).

the methods for creating an album are usually as evolved and random as the sky patterns they are inspired from. yet an axiom of offthesky is to keep each album conceptually based upon a theme much like the work of “herbert”, “loscil”, etc. the choice of software depends consistently on the desired final form- i.e. audiomulch is used for more experimental or avante-garde albums (cold distances). logic/cubase sx is used for more structured albums (gently down the stream). ableton live 6 is utilized for a juxtaposition of percussive and experimental texture (the geist cycles). and few albums use several programs in tandem (studies of form in transit, caustic light studies, inconnu)

several rules also apply throughout the creation of an album: field recorded sound must be incorporated – natural instruments such as piano, guitar, and the vocal chords must all be used to some variant degree. each song must have several different internal movements, viscous transition, and fluidoisity throughout to display change and evolution. percussion sounds, lyrics, presets, synthesizers, and third-party samples are optional as long as they are tweaked to some variation.

the number one rule for the offthesky project is to explore the possibility of breaking these rules as well as questioning every aspect of the sound and process including the mentality surrounding the music, and the actuall breaking of the rules (as well as questioning the world surrounding the concept and mentality – as this feeds directly into the creativity). this is at times a very self-anxious, humbling, and mentally daunting task but lends an evolved, honest, and un-anchored output.

the only rule that will always apply, is that of never creating a work to ‘fit in’ to a label or allowing a third party’s wishes to effect the sonic drama.

Track List:

1. autmn comp – fiael
2. creek caught fire – heart of midlight
3. evolute of an ion apple
4. creek caught fire – saftey snake hole
5. rare decay – rare decay
6. cold distances – thousand year decent
7. rare decay – back to the end of the beginning again

www.offthesky.com