Tag: ambient music

New Venus Vulture music release on Zenapolae

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 1 Comment

Some of you know that while I’m serious about writing, I also have a hobby of making ambient music. There are several releases around the web – some self-released and a few on netlabels. Most of the music comes out under the moniker Venus Vulture, but I’ve used some other names too (though I’m not anything to do with Vultures of Venus, whose music is quite different). This new work, on the Zenapolae netlabel is a combined release with Cheval Cheval – another name I use. It’s kind of like a side A/side B thing. Both are stand-alone three-track EPs, but taken together they combine to make an album-length work. I do see Cheval Cheval as different to Venus Vulture (Venus Vulture is a bit denser, darker and weirder), but Arnd at Zenapolae suggested combining the two and I think it works: two aspects of my music next to each other for the old compare and contrast.

Zen 091 Cheval Cheval – Restless Gases/Venus Vulture – I am lost upon a heartless sea amongst the ice and sharks is free download from Zenapolae.

zenCast016 – podcast mix

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been so busy with writing, and jabbering on about writing, of late, that I haven’t been up to much music. But I have been up to some. I have a new Venus Vulture release coming out on Zenapolae soon, but in the meantime I managed to put together a podcast mix that’s out now.

zenCast016 is an hour-long mix of ambient(ish) works from various netlabels – I’ve put a full track list below. As you may know, I listen to music as I write; and this is the kind of thing I would write to. I hope you enjoy it.

I’ll update again when the Venus Vulture release comes out.

Tracks in zenCast016
1. Lump – Kohina#2 – textone\txtn015 – 3 feet down and sinking e.p.
2. Rod Modell – Harmonics Of Ether – sutemos\Flow.ers (Sutemos008)
3. Ingredient – Striations – zenapolæ\zen051 – Ingredient
4. Minus Pilots – Sunshine Final Cut – testtube\[tube010] – Central Industries EP
5. milieu – over hills – [unknown]\milieu
6. Lezrod – Domrich – zymogen\[zym014] – Genki Vol. I
7. Ryonkt – transparence – Resting Bell\transparence
8. Venus Vulture – Times Sq. – [unreleased]
9. Dolby – [B2] Outward – thinner\thn008 – dub expo ep
10. Sleepy Town Manufacture – Kabyn – sutemos\intelligent toys 2
11. Minim.all – Branches – arh021\les mots inconnu
12. Arditi – Struggle for Victory – [equilibrium music]\(Destiny of Iron)
13. Zero a m m 0 – Uncomforting Variations – Resting Bell\
14. Anti- – ewwa – PUBE\[037] – tufts
15. 833-45 – Säänöttömyys – autoplate\apl004 – Solar Cycle 23
16. Muhr – Le Gouffre En Nous – zymogen\zym010 – muhr drames et precipices
17. Marko Füstenberg – Option21 – thinner\thn031 – option
18. Lys – Tolis – sutemos\Naunee

Thanks to Arnd Klotz for his encouragement.

Receive rejection, resubmit, recycle

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Wednesday was a tough day.

Not only did I learn I hadn’t placed in Writers of the Future, I got three other rejection slips in the mail. All form rejections. Still that means that those stories can all go out to other editors who might like them. So that’s what I did. Sent them out. Within an hour or so I had my list back up to twenty live submissions.

Then, as I sent off that last one, some good news. An acceptance. Yay. It is in a no-payment, no-copy anthology so it stokes just my ego, but by then it was in need of a little stoking.

And it got a little better too – with some new music accepted for release on Zenapolae. More on that in another post. Right now I’m getting back to writing the next story.

A music interlude

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

With all my focus on being a pulp fiction writer these days, on occasion I neglect the music side. Many years ago, unable to find enough ambient music to listen to while writing, I began making my own. Most of it was pretty awful – not even listenable by me – but some of it was okay. Over time, I got better too. Even to the point that some of my music has been released on some netlabels and has been played on the radio and by DJs. (This is also the reason why the blog URL is venusvulturenews – the music comes out under the moniker Venus Vulture, and music was why I first started the blog). It’s been a while since Pylon Suite came out on Zenapolae, but it was cool to see it very positively reviewed recently on acts of silence. I am slowly working on new music, but it’s more sporadic these days: more will definitely be coming.

Pylon Suite is about 40 minutes long and is intended to be background music while doing more concentrated activities (such as writing). It’s a free download.

Blueprints for Insect Architecture – stunning ambient

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

http://testtube.monocromatica.com/releases/tube234.htm>Blueprints for insect architecture by Daniel Maze and Dave Zeal is on high rotation at the moment. Wonderful immersive soundscapes with just hints of melody and rhythm and a very well attuned little glitchiness – almost like the background sound of scuttling termites constructing a mound. At a little under 40 minutes this makes for a nice little writing session.

Cheval Cheval – This Night Reflection on Zenapolae

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

In between writing furiously and developing some new Venus Vulture music, I’ve created another drone-ambient piece. Well, four tracks. The music is even less busy than the usual Venus Vulture fare, especially the direction VV is taking now, with more beats and melody, so this new work has been released under the name Cheval Cheval. The 30 minute EP titled This Night Reflection is out now on Zenapolae, as a free download. This is a quiet work, best listened to a low volume, perhaps even while going to sleep. One of my favourite cover pictures too. Enjoy.

My thanks to Arnd and Zenas of Zenapolae for the release.

Stockfinster: All Becomes Music

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment


Sutemos is a Lithuanian netlabel, releasing a variety of music, but specialising in electronica. A good introduction would be any of their Intelligent Toys compilations – the latest is “We Make Music” – described as “Style: Ambient/ IDM/ Experimental/ Instrumental/ Techno”. 51 tracks, divided into three “CD”s. You can stream any of the music from the website.

Lately I’ve been listening to the 2005 10-track release by Stockfinster – All Becomes Music. Unusually for me – with music to write to – this has vocals, especially the haunting title track, where the build is gradual, the voice-over eerie and refreshing. You can both stream and download the release for free. The release (as with other Sutemos releases) comes with a cool rotating gallery of photographs – example at left.

Pylon Suite – Venus Vulture soundscape on Zenapolae

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

A new Venus Vulture soundscape release doesn’t come along that often – the last were “Heavy Skies” on TurkbyTone Rekkids and “Stick With Me Giselle, Things Can Only Get Better” on Testtube, both in the first quarter of 2009. So after a year and a half of near-silence I’m excited to have a new extended piece released.

Released on the Zenapolae netlabel, Pylon Suite is a set of four tracks, making up a continuous thirty-eight minute movement. The set is deep and brooding, based on a long field recording (which wafts in and out through the album), together with long ambient drones. The tracks share elements, but progress, gradually becoming more complex – track four is the busiest (well, as busy as ambient drone music might be). Probably good to listen to at low volume while taking a bath or reading a horror novel.

The fabulous cover art was created by Arnd Klotz, based on photos I’d taken around the time I was composing the music.

Moss Wall Collection – ambient music by Sounds The Songs Of Seabirds

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Sounds The Songs of Seabirds is the moniker used by Bob Singley, a prolific ambient/improvisational folk artist from the Pacific Northwest. With numerous releases available through Bandcamp there’s a huge array of music available.

Moss Wall is a series of releases – seven long albums in a variety of low key styles. Bob allowed me to curate a collection of tracks for Zenapolae as a kind of overview of the series. Nine tracks, at least one from each release:

1. one rain drop
2. freezing rain
3. green leaves hanging on a limb
4. spores
5. as the high winds carry the birds
6. love (four)
7. frozen fog
8. marmot
9. purple nettle at trail 8

You can stream or download the compilation from Zenapolae here.