lost in a sea of sound

Find a moment and recharge the consciousness. Absorb the sound radiance, letting the mind rest from daily responsibilities. Simple and pure energy, diffused and saturating the world around us. Bright like the color of our star, Lily Tapes and Discs has provided sonic recuperation for all. A beautiful split cassette between Jason Calhoun as Naps and Ben Lovell veiled as Lung Cycles. The A and B sides perfectly balanced and fantastically rejuvenating. 

The sustained tones on the Naps side are rich with depth and emotion. There is nothing dark or looming, only a feeling of being focused in the center. Amazingly there are many adverse reactions to drone music. On brief samples, the sounds are the same, the journey does not go anywhere, and this composition is not music. All things said when this genre is being played. If only more people could understand, depart from thoughts and let these low cycle per second sound waves permeate their spirits. There is a softly fluctuating allure to Ja…

Chihei Hatakeyama is like peridotite in the world of ambient serenity. The heavy for creating the most weightless tranquilities. With a massive amount of material including compact discs, cassettes and vinyl, this is Chihei's second cassette for Constellation Tatsu in the last few years. When the label decided on the mood and feel of the 2018 Spring Batch, Chihei Hatakeyama must have been the clean up batter for the line up.

This composition titled Scene, delivers forty minutes of  controlled molecular settling. Four beautiful and ethereal tracks, with all boundaries removed. Even though these sounds warm the heart, in the crevasses of this sonic blanket, there is a sensation of sadness. Extremely difficult to explain how or why this emotion exists, but it is there. The sublime caliber of Hatakeyama's work on Scene, is the gentle brushing of sentiment form distant spirits. Forgotten souls with full lives, now disintegrating memories as time churns forward. These tones hold str…

MANAS is live on this recording from late last summer. Recorded at Fresh Produce records in Macon, Georgia. The label curator for \\NULL|ZØNE//, Michael Potter, is noted as the person capturing these sounds. This makes sense since the \\NULL|ZØNE// headquarters is just an hour and a half away in Athens, Georgia. MANAS is the combination of Tashi Dorji and Thom Nguyen. Both artist talented in creating sounds on the thresholds of what listeners understand. It is difficult to describe music on the fringe, and in this case, a live recording only heard on cassette. Especially one so intensely performed.

The best way to make a connection with these sounds is to keep a simple focus. Live At is a shattering performance utilizing percussion by Thom Nguyen and some form of strings by Tashi Dorji. Through the course of the thirty minutes recorded on this cassette, sounds take on all perspectives. From sustained heavy rhythms and crashing patterns of stringed riffs, to an inferno of cacophony. Th…

AUTO¹ is a confluence. A myriad of experiences funneling through eight tracks. Listening back on previous Somnoroase Păsărele accomplishments, it is easy to tell we have not been here before. This aural landscape is dense with sound thickets. Somewhere behind this new flourishing growth is a substantial resonating source. Origins of rhythms and irregular beats need to be verified. Music scholars are amassing an exploratory party in hopes of further deciphering these foreign signals.

Each track in AUTO¹ is simply titled AUTO and then a number. Even though there are starts and stops and with a nomenclature of separation, AUTO¹ is not really a compilation of tracks. This release is one fluid source. As the body of work deepens, more tributaries of sound augment the flow. AUTO¹ holds feelings of intensity. The melodies are crystalline, every angle in sound can be heard in definition. Most of this revolves around Gili Mocanu's creativity and experience. Both the recording and productio…

In the recesses of thinking minds, infinite amounts of signals are relayed. Either physically or in some psionic methods yet to be understood. The processes concern tranquil harmonies from wise old souls, memories of lifetimes of experience, decisions for the future and meditation in the present. The mind is the greatest machine still masking how it truly functions. S. Oliwa has connected sound to the intricate synapses of the consciousness. The subject in this case, a content being who strives for the path of higher vibration. The result, an exquisite soundtrack to a world each of us has and holds precious.

Lost Memories expands horizons over eight tracks in the course of a half hour. These sounds are the most inner workings of fabric holding each of us in place. Like a distant land never seen before yet so nostalgic when finally traveled. S. Oliwa has a special ability with channeling serene harmonies through the infinite inner space. Maybe some distant descendant of Kharon the ferr…

Are there worlds of sound still hidden and undisturbed? The fast paced hyper connection of cultures and countries, exposes the land. The final small pockets of music lifted up then a bilateral assimilation takes place. There is still aural landscapes where the corruption of information has not found. Here on this split with Nagual and Tongue Depressor, arrays of cacophony and solid blocks of drone. Intricacy and intensity, creating the most well balance sonic environment.

The Nagual side titled Concentric/Parallel, unleashes abstract objects, stretched and pounded by an unfamiliar dense atmosphere. These sonic mutations are torn from the roots and dragged across endless segments of land. Shuddering percussion rising from objects that have no ability to make a beat. This is an harmonic upheaval, the presence of unknown entities pegging all analog gauges. David Shapiro & Ian McColm have found a sonic plateau non have uncovered. A place where sounds cruise with menacing fortitude. Li…

Deep into the far reaches of cosmic creation, The Last Ambien Hero maintains momentum. In motion long before and far after the existence of our human civilization, Traveling a pathway through the galactic center, light intensity is to immeasurable to record. Sound becomes the true medium to collect and process this physical realm, Now stored here on this extensive analog recording.

An hour and a half of deep intrigue divided by the flip of the cassette. Two side long pieces titled Cassini and Trappist -1. Both tracks in reference to man's discovery of the space beyond. Textures in sound smoothly carved in vibrant arcs light years long. Ending abruptly as singularities pull with increasing force. As the sound disappears, voids are filled with meandering waves, some crystalline and others beyond our knowledge. The process repeats as the listener reaches and passes through the galaxy's orbital axis. Traveling now in empty and lonely space. A quiet ensues, sounds are astronomicall…

The flow of civilization is built from the sediment of countless souls. Daily lives producing commotion, taking only brief moments of rest for prayer and tribute. A monastery, cathedral or the waving flames of ceremonial fires, all holding generational resonance for futures to encounter. Concrete Colored Paint is the droning vortex of life on Earth. Centuries of sound somehow condensed and compressed on to two small spinning reels of tape. When played, releasing mysteries to be followed by questions and a quest for understanding. Peter Kris is the sound collector behind Concrete Colored Paint. Memories of life, amassed as recorded moments, delivered in sweeping sonic motions. A collection of beautiful pageantry, tones reaching deep into times wonders. All just on one side of this split.....

Tap Water takes control for the cassette's flip. Ian Franklin & Mike Haley join consciousnesses, an astral projecting sling shot into obscured realities. Pummeling sonic debris resonating a…

Crystal clear water reflecting and transparent simultaneously. Resting not in a hidden place, only difficult to find. II sentiero degli Dei needs ample time to be really heard. The aural landscape robust with heavily woven tones. Find the path then travel with open consciousness. What seems dark is actually gorgeous depth. Listening quickly without patience reflects absorbing grey tones. Slow the pace, this half hour rapidly becomes too short. Molecular density perfectly described by sound. Fabric holding the landscape is uprooted, ground water seeps in filling the indentations. This asunder ground looks like devastation, but after closer scrutiny, life blossoms where trees once were. La Tredicesima Luna has the unique ability to make sounds so forlorn, and at the same time, wrap minds with a tranquil blanket of warmth.

Two side long pieces in an opaque delivery. Drone burning ancient glowing embers adding fortitude and flickering light to the emptiness beyond the shadows. Thoughts ga…

German Army combining forces with Dunes producing Germ Class. This beautifully produced and packaged compact disc on Dub Ditch Picnic brings the sold out world of cassettes and compact disc back and more massive than before. Bitter Values combines two earlier works by Germ Class, the first on the Portugal label OTA. A limited run, at the end of last year, of fifty cassettes titled Dimensions of Value. These quickly sold out. The second portion of Bitter Values consist of a an earlier 2015 composition titled Eat Bitter. This was released on cassette by the label Night People and also on CDR by Subsist Records from Valencia, Spain.

Hard labor over lifetimes, engines churning, natural light kept out, particulates in the air kept in.... Blank faces performing monotonous duties until injury or age keeps them away. These are the motions of slow mechanized beats, electronic processes only natural in the contained environment they exist. This is one portion of the sounds making Germ Class. Ev…

The slow drip of a water droplet filled with primordial minerals. Descending with the force of gravity, a stalactite is slowly formed from the cave ceiling. Molecules depositing material on the cave floor produces a mirroring image called a stalagmite. Like an icicle rising from the ground, reaching to touch the point of origin of it's creation. Occasionally the special occurrence of the stalactites and stalagmites connect and column is formed. The entire grandiose natural wonder is sometimes referred to as a cathedral cavern or ceiling. How does this geologic formation connect with Scrateboard's cassette tilted Your Hand? Absolute patience is the foundation, inverted sounds reversed in time, only showing their notes when light is cast upon them. Your Hand develops using processes only measurable in geologic time. Massive amounts of energy compressed and held tightly. Sounds reaching molten temperatures, escaping with a warbled fever. Ancient notes regenerating in the continui…

The sounds of Sputnik 1 still travel in space. Overtime, met with alien responses, dialogues deciphered, originating location probed.  Like an emergency beacon gaining the ocean surface from a submarine in trouble, satellites float just outside the atmosphere sending locations to unknown space. The arrival of kind help or the curiously malevolent is a fate set in motion almost sixty one years ago with the first Russian launch. Now, with Grant Evans recordings of Vessel, there is proof uncharted life has recorded our existence.

A mechanical process in repetition over countless life years of travel. Warbled noises droning through, fluctuating radiation levels augmenting activity. On this composition titled Vessel, foreign bleeps and signals tangle in an otherworldly symphony. The aural fields have been replanted by a strange settling force. Discerning the timbre of these sounds needs care and careful listening. A collection of harmonic fluidity balancing on the frail edge of comforting …