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Sunday, March 14, 2010
Displaying 1 through 10 of 148 total records.
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ARTIST: BASS COMMUNION V MUSLIMGAUZE
TITLE:
LABEL: SOLEILMOON |
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| DESCRIPTION: NOTE: This CD is currently out of stock, but is still available for download from the iTunes Music Store. Click the the iTunes link to go the iTunes Music Store (requires free iTunes software). In 1996 Steven Wilson, the mind behind Bass Communion, wrote to Bryn Jones to express his admiration of
Muslimgauze. Subsequently they met and Steven gave Bryn some of his own music, although he suspected
that it wouldn't appeal to him. It didn't, but as with all the music that Bryn was exposed to, his natural
instinct to rework it into something that did proved irresistable. And so it came to pass that only four days
after their meeting Steven received a parcel containing two and a half hours of reconstructions and
obliterations of his orginal music. The new pieces were distorted, grainy, loop-driven tracks, but Steven felt
they were too close to Bryn's own music to simply release as a remix album. Instead he decided to use them
as the basis for new pieces, and re-edited and overdubbed the tapes, finally returning them to Bryn for
approval. So began a period of collaboration by post. Each time Bryn would provide rhythms and each time
Steven moulded the raw material only to have Bryn obliterate it again!! Finally in early 1997 the battle was
over and an album was complete, but was somehow swept away under the deluge of Bryn's own release
schedule and never issued. Now in the aftermath of Bryn's death these recordings are finally being issued by
Soleilmoon in a limited edition of 600 copies at a special low price. For Muslimgauze fans these recordings are
significant in that they represent one of the only instances of a true two-way collaboration betwen Bryn and
another musician, as opposed to being simply a remix project. For Bass Communion fans the recordings are
an opportunity to hear Steven's ambient textures, sonic fluctuations and low-end bass fused with the hard
edged ethnic rhythms that were Bryn's trademark. NOTE: The actual price of the download depends on how many songs you purchase, and where you live. It is NOT free. The price mentioned here is $0.00 because we do NOT sell the downloads on this site. We are only trying to direct you to the iTunes pages where the album and individual songs are sold. Thank you.
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| ITEM NUMBER: 06484 |
FORMAT: iTunes download |
PRICE: $0.00 |
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ARTIST: BASS COMMUNION VS. MUSLIMGAUZE
TITLE: bcvsmgcd
LABEL: SOLEILMOON RECORDINGS |
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| DESCRIPTION: I only met Bryn Jones once, although we spoke many times on the telephone between 1996-1998. I discovered Muslimgauze through a random purchase of the double CD Blue Mosque, and had been deeply impressed by the originality and intensity of the work. I was used to working in completely different musical genres, but despite this the music suggested an artist with a similarly wide interest in music as myself, drawing as it did on world music, electronica, industrial and ambient. In fact during our first telephone conversation I learned that Bryn did not feel any affinity or have any interest in ANY other music, his agenda being almost entirely political. However I suspect that he was being defensive as he also told me that he had being making his music in almost entire isolation since the beginning, with virtually no interest from the media, any other musicians, or for that matter the listening public. He made music for himself and to express his political beliefs - he did not care that the whole world seemed to ignore him. The very last time I spoke to him in late 1998 I asked him if he had revised this view at all. By that time a limited edition series (the only way his record label could deal with his prolific work rate) had been a big success and his CDs were regularly reviewed/discussed. Many other musicians had asked him to remix their work or to collaborate with them and his music had inspired a fanatical following, particularly on the internet. In short there was incredible respect for him and his work, which had also led to invitations for concert performances all over the world. Yes, he admitted, he was feeling happier with his lot in life. He died a few weeks later.
The meeting took place in his home town of Swinton, Manchester a few weeks after I first contacted him to tell him how much I admired his music. We had arranged that I would drive to near his home and call him from a payphone. We met at a nearby bar and I gave him some CDs of my own work, explaining that I did not really expect he would like them, but that I would be happy if he would listen to them anyway. In return he gave me a cassette of an album that he had just completed. I noted with some amusement that it was titled “For Staalplaat, recorded...” and then the previous day’s date. He had recorded the whole album in a single day, partly explaining how Bryn was able to produce a discography of well over 100 releases in his 15 years as a recording artist.
About four days after my meeting with Bryn I received a parcel containing two digital audio tapes. I was stunned to discover that these tapes contained two and a half hours of Muslimgauze reconstructions of the CDs I had given Bryn only a few days earlier! I had not asked Bryn to do these mixes but he had done them anyway. I later found out he felt compelled to remix anything that he was given in order to “improve it”. Some of the mixes were of NO-MAN and one in particular struck me as being very effective. I played it to my partner in NO-MAN (the singer Tim Bowness) and our record company, both of whom liked it, so we decided to include it on a forthcoming release. Bryn seemed very happy about this and when he was eventually paid for the work and sent copies of the finished CD I again received at least an hour’s worth of new mixes using other tracks from the album. It seemed that if you gave any music to Bryn he would “improve it”.
Some of the other music on the tapes was so far removed from the source material that I suggested to Bryn that I used it as the basis for a collaborative project. I would take his rhythms and build something new out of them with further overdubbing and editing. He liked the idea and several more DAT swaps and a few months later we had completed the Bass Communion v Muslimgauze album, which alas we were unable to secure a release for during Bryn’s lifetime (partly because his extreme work rate meant that there was always a backlog of Muslimgauze releases). The five pieces completed while he was alive were eventually issued in 1999 on Soleilmoon (SOL 89 CD), and later on I completed two additional pieces that had been left uncompleted at the time of Bryn’s death, and these were released as a companion EP in early 2000 (SOL 106 CD). Both releases have been out of print for some time, but I’m happy that the music is available once again on this new Bass Communion versus Muslimgauze complete edition. Steven Wilson (January 2000, revised March 2006)
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| ITEM NUMBER: 07908 |
FORMAT: CD |
PRICE: $14.99 |
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ARTIST: BAUMANN, FRANZISKA
TITLE: Eternal Ice Melts - Voice Sphere Remixes
LABEL: SOLEILMOON RECORDINGS |
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| DESCRIPTION: In the fall of 2003 Franziska Baumann performed at the Matrix Festival of contemporary music, in Leipzig, Germany. Her manipulated recordings of melting glacier ice wowed the audience, but just as memorable were the 125 copies of a remix CD distributed at the event. Noted artists Lull, Seetyca and Clemmens Presser were drafted to compose pieces based on her works. For Mick Harris (Lull) fans, finding a copy of this CD has been their holy grail. On October 16 Soleilmoon puts an end to their frustration, and does it in typical over-the-top Soleilmoon fashion, with a hand numbered limited edition presented in a silkscreened vellum slip cover. Fortunately, the quantity is more reasonable this time: 500 copies will be made. And finally, just for this new edition, Kurt Gluck (Submerged) has contributed a heart pounding new drum’n’bass track.
Lull is the name of the dark ambient side project of Mick Harris, former drummer for Napalm Death and current leader of challenging industrial music band Scorn. German artist Seetyca is a prolific artist who records his bleak, isolationist soundscapes music for many labels, including darkwinter.com. Clemens Presser, another German artist, has contributed to several compilations and is now working on his first solo album. Kurt Gluck runs the Ohm Resistance label and is a famous drum’n’bass DJ. He has collaborated with Bill Laswell and John Zorn, and regularly moves back and forth between the dance and experimental music scenes.
Franziska Baumann is fascinated by the glacier as a listening space. She has been examining the forms of sound in and upon the glacier, inspired by the enormous tide of ice and its multilayered temporal and spatial dimensions, and she sets her own voice in a dialogue with its icy spaces
Using stereo, zoom and contact microphones, Franziska Baumann senses the aliveness and dynamics of ice and the poetry of the sounds that live in glacial crevasses and grottos. The sounds of the glacier (creaks, drips, rumbles, shuffles etc.) were recorded at different times on and within. Her voice touches the icy crevasse walls in their various states, from karstic to icy smoothness.
Warmth and cold produce different sound pictures. In collaboration with glaciologists from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) and the Swiss Computing Center in Zurich, she has transformed seismographic recordings of glacial movements into sound paintings. A portrait of this work was broadcasted on Swiss television in December 2001. |
| ITEM NUMBER: 07907 |
FORMAT: CD |
PRICE: $4.99 |
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ARTIST: BLACK FACTION (FOREIGN TERRAIN)
TITLE: Internal Dissident Part I
LABEL: SOLEILMOON |
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| DESCRIPTION: Think of the epic poem "The Divine Comedy", by the 14th century Florentine Dante Alighieri. It describes the poet's Imaginary journey through Hell and up toward Purgatory. Now imagine how that would sound filtered through the musical mind of a contemporary sound designer and Mancunian electronica artist. This is "Internal Dissident part I". This is a narrative story that starts with one of Black Faction's signature sound design bridges, then seeps into the first track, Manchestique Concréte, an homage to Manchester's electronica scene. From there it goes out onto another bridge, taking us into Alighieri's world, as Virgil guides Dante on his journey through Malebolge (Hell). Lamenting voices and the monologue of a raging demon hasten us along to a burial… Caucus Burial Tape part II. Cellos merge with lush electronic melodies, and crisp beats carry us further into hell, with a nicely distorted ending. Sepia Indate comes from the lands of Arabia as a purring sound source that tickles your bass bins and sweetens the hi end. (Listen carefully for the Jesus-speak of an old woman). The next road along the journey is an homage to a departed friend, Muslimgauze, and the Khyber Pass is the route. It takes us to the Afghan Front to join the Mujahadeen and their fight against the so-called "communist threat". Exiting Afghanistan via the Persia of old is Odessa, and we're back on the journey with Virgil. It's a track Leftfield would be proud of, building from crushed hip hop vocals into a stunning Nu-Dub masterpiece – right in step with Black Faction's sound design skills. Caucus Burial Tape Part I represents Dante’s guide as he explains the perils of the journey to Virgil. It's a track that sees Black Faction put the beats back on the road, with a pizzicato string response weaving a beautiful yet haunting reminder of our mission. Widow Maker, as the most moving track on the CD, is without a doubt the finale. There's an innocent simplicity to the melody, interlaced with well crafted beats and a red static backdrop. The track continues until a breakdown, where the ultimate gift of human emotion through music is delivered. It's enough for a banquet, and well worth the journey. The journey of "The Divine Comedy". There is light ahead.
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| ITEM NUMBER: 03821 |
FORMAT: CD |
PRICE: $12.99 |
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ARTIST: CONTINUUM (Fear Falls Burning and Bass Communion)
TITLE: Continuum Vol. 1
LABEL: SOLEILMOON RECORDINGS |
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| DESCRIPTION: Multi-talented and eclectic musician Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree, Bass Communion, Blackfield) and internationally renowned experimental artist vidnaObmana have joined together to bring you Continuum: A multi-layered synonym for their collective ambition and vision, motivated by their immense passion for a wide-range of musical styles. In the coming years Continuum will produce a series of limited edition albums for Soleilmoon Recordings. Each CD will be presented in a beautiful oversized digipack with breathtaking design and artwork by Lasse Hoile. The first release, naturally titled “Volume 1”, encapsulates both artist's love for desolate, minimal music, and features three 20 minute pieces of richly melancholic textural music. It’s a CD that will be appreciated by fans of microscopic ambient music, and the start of a project that will unleash Continuum's willful vision of music that transcends the barriers of genre and style. Only 1000 copies have been manufactured.
Before launching their Continuum project both artists had already released music with Soleilmoon. Steven Wilson worked collaboratively with Bryn Jones of Muslimgauze in a series of remixes of each other’s work, the result of which was an album and an EP, both simply titled “Bass Communion v. Muslimgauze”, issued shortly after Jones died in 1999. VidnaObmana likewise worked with other artists to produce music for Soleilmoon, first with Asmus Tietchens on “Motives for Recycling” in 1999 and more recently with Frans de Waard (Beequeen, Goem, Shifts) and Tietchens on “The Shifts Recyclings” in 2002. Both albums used material from previously released recordings as a source or starting point, hence the “Recycling” in the titles.
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| ITEM NUMBER: 06312 |
FORMAT: CD |
PRICE: $14.99 |
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Displaying 1 through 10 of 148 total records.
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