2/3 a.m.

Well, usually I’d agree: Metal mostly sucks for me, but there’s a lot of excellent stuff to discover in these two compilations, “from death to tech to prog to grind to black to hardcore to doom and more”. Check them out, you might discover some very interesting stuff, even if your not that much into ‘regular’ metal stuff (like me). Metal Sucks, the website that compiled these two collections seems to be a good source for alternative metal.

and

If you like what you’ve heard before, you really really really should check out the original orchestral version of Debussy’s La Mer. Here’s a classic recording of the 1950s of the Orchestra of the Theatre National de l’Opera de Paris, conducted by Manuel Rosenthal.

Grab it here.

I always loved the music of Claude Debussy and the French impressionists. This is a surprisingly good ambient-adaption of his wonderful orchestral suite La Mer which reminds me a little of Isao Tomita’s electronic reworkings of the music of Claude Debussy (“Snowflakes Are Dancing”) in the 1970s.

It’s good to see, that Debussy’s music still works and still seems to be modern. After 100 years.

gacougnol:

La Mer - Claude Debussy by Lily Pond Orchestra
FREE DOWNLOAD

and I’ll be there :-)

Check livelooping.de for details

Moon8 by Brad Smith (2010)

Brad Smith - Money

vs.

The Dark Side of the Moon - The 8-bit Album by Various Artists by ptesquad.com (2011)

Sergeeo - Money

   VS. 

Get them here:

Brad Smith

Various Artists by ptesquad.com

Some very interesting compilations came out lately (think of Album in a Day Vol. 2 or the fantastic Brave New World). I think, it’s normal, that I prefer some tracks over others. As usual the Ambienteer-Track Konets is stunning, also impressive Tehn’s contribution Repeatmagicnumberwonderful (sic!) and Marcus Fischer’s Owvls,

[PS025] Various Artists - Number Stations part II by PublicSpacesLab

Get it here

• Various Artists – Number Stations part II – MP3 [177 MB] via archive.org
• Various Artists – Number Stations part II – FLAC [346 MB] via archive.org
• don’t forget to download the booklet [PDF format]
• and don’t forget to check the release details on the pages of Public Space Lab

And I really like the colours in the artwork:

I’m listening to beautifully sad music on a tender spring morning. I never heard anything about Her Name Is Calla before (at least I can’t remember) but this seems to me a band worth to be checked out… wow, this is awesome stuff…

The music of the 20th century starts (probably) here:

New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Igor Stravinsky, conductor

Recorded in 1940 (Columbia Masterworks 78rpm Album MM 417 (XCO 27226 - 27233))
Digital transfer by F. Reeder.

Download it here

Oh I understand, “free music” doesn’t mean only free of charge - but it also means that the artist(s) have the maximum liberty in choosing their style and sounds. They don’t have to sell, they don’t have to fulfil a contract, to join the actual hype of the moment, just to be in the charts or on the radio. Free music leaves the artist all possibilities. At least if he doesn’t have to make a living out of his music.

But what when an artist chooses to be mainstream (and I don’t mean that in a pejorative way?). Listen to the new album by Monk Turner. Isn’t it that the good music you like to listen to your adult-orientated radio? Isn’t that the kind of music you can play to your friends, who only listen to the same old dozen of CDs they bought 15 years ago? Isn’t that the kind of music many major artists would love to make (and sell!) if they only had Turner’s talent to write charming pop-songs? Isn’t that the kind of music you like to sing along (and not being ashamed because it’s really cool stuff) and tap your feet? Do yourself a favour: Turn into mainstream, or wait: Even better - let’s turn this into mainstream music, because if this was the mainstream stuff they play on the radio, it wouldn’t be so boring and nerving…

Great album, probably the album of the month…

Since I don’t have much time today, I’ll make it a quick one. Get this → here

This is a VERY eclectic mix of various styles and sounds, all of them written and produced in one day. To be honest: I don’t like all of it (I’m really not that much into the more danceable tracks) BUT there’s some very fine ambient and pop/rock on it. I’ll have to check A LOT of new artists (sigh). Thank you for this. Surely one of the most interesting releases this month.

“Heimweh” is German for homesickness. But it has more longing in it. More being lost. More pain. Beautiful mix. Full of longing, of feeling lost, of pain.

Heimweh by Un Homme Qui Dort. on Mixcloud

With all the terrible things going on in the world right now, in Japan, in Libya, in Bahrein, in Yemen and elsewhere, today it really felt like spring. A tender, fragile spring, but spring nevertheless. Just like in the second movement of The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741):

Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons: Spring - II. Largo

I thought, you might enjoy a decent recording of the immortal concerts. Here’s a recording by US-American Violinist John Harrison. He recorded it live back in 2000 with the Wichita State University Chamber Players, conducted by Robert Turizziani. Luckily he published the recordings (you can find them in the Wikipedia) under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 1.0 License, so I just downloaded the individual OGGs from the Wikipedia and packed them into one nice little zip-file.

Download → John Harrison - Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (12 ogg-Files, 43 MB)

I’m pretty sure that this isn’t a CC-licensed release but since it is a free (MP3-) release and since it is so brilliant, I must include it here. Go and do yourself a favour and grab the newest release “Icon” of italian doom-metal-monsters Lento. Just imagine japanese postrocker Mono meeting the early early Black Sabbath without Ozzy and both in a very very dark mood, the result you might get may sounds like Lento. Or Lento sounds like something else. Nevermind my incompetent characterisations. Download. Listen. And check out the cool vinyl- and CD-versions of it.

Get it here → http://www.denovali.com/lento/

For those who read my German blogs regularly, the name Michael Peters should sound familiar: The Cologne-based artist (and former student of Robert Fripp) has created quite an impressive quantity of diverse music over the past almost 40 years (!): Loop-based ambient, regular electronic ambient, soundscapes, acoustic guitar music, experimental music, field recordings, even something similar to Progressive Rock every now and then (more in the King Crimson-vein and less in the cheesy Emerson Lake & Palmer vein)

A couple of weeks ago he called out remix artists to lay hands on one of hiss finest releases, »Stretched Landscape« (2001), yesterday the results of this Remix Project have been released. It’s quite interesting to hear, how some remixers have retained the original character of the fragments, while others have created something completely different out of it.

You can download the album for free (see below). It doesn’t come with a CC-license, but it’s nevertheless an excellent addition to your ambient/electronica-collection (in the end: It’s not the license that counts). 

Don’t forget to check out the fantastic original Stretched Landscape-relase too

and click yourself through his vast catalogue of remarkable releases.