Tag: ambient music

Zencast 012 – mix by Venus Vulture

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 1 Comment


Zenapolae is a netlabel that releases a range of ambient and experimental music. They also have regular ‘Zencasts’ of hour-long mixes of tracks from the label and from other netlabels.

Recently I completed a mix exclusively made up from Zenapolae releases and it’s available from Zenapolae as Zencast 012 – you can download it here. The mix is a very blended piece, using long sections of various tracks overlaid with long sections of others.

Tracklist
1. Todd Christopher – aurumplateau
2. Saffron Slumber – Of Ice, Water, and Steam
3. Petal – Meridian
4. Ingredient – Striations
5. zenasprime – esion2 (edit)
6. Maszyna 01 – kosmos
7. d/form – 00:11:59::00:21:15
8. Petal – Occlusion
9. lolpix – Ephialtes
10. Weird Fields – Carousel
11. Raumwerk – Mitte (edit)
12. AmgSphont – zatpacu
13. Instruction Shuttle – Further Adrift
14. d/form – 00:51:09::00:60:00
15. Saffron Slumber – Of Ice, Water, and Steam

enjoy

Paleocene Palecopeia.mp3 – Venus Vulture track on Reverbnation

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I’ve uploaded a little noodling to the Venus Vulture Reverbnation site – just some drones with a few processed guitar sounds (and those inevitable field recordings) – as part of the 2010 music project. A shade under three minutes long.

Download the track – yes, Paleocene is a real word, Palecopeia is made up. More on that later.

See, stream and/or download the full list of 2010 tracks here.

Brunk – Winter ep

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Well, it’s the height of winter here and, by coincidence really, I’ve been listening to my cd copy of brunk’s Winter ep released through Resting Bell. Winter ep is a nice short collection of four tracks, mostly laid-back guitar, about 20 minutes long, just a nice warm up with hot chocolate and a new story on the go. The cd seems to be sold out now (it was a limited edition), but you can still download from Resting Bell, or from Brunk’s bandcamp site, where he has some other material available too.

Danny Norbury – Fluid Radio Mix

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I usually enjoy the mixes on Fluid Radio so Danny Norbury’s new mix was almost anticipated. A wonderful low-key blend of quiet melodies and sounds and vocals, this is a delicious album-length (41 minutes) outing.

Track List:
00:00 The Humble Bee – A Century Of Sea Stories (Xmas 1936)
03:20 Cornelius – Omstart
07:46 Sunwrae – Autumn Never Fall
13:36 John Fahey – Night Train Of Valhalla
15:48 Dick Annegarn – Coutances
18:38 Moondog – Fujiyama 2
23:03 Hope Sandoval – Baby Let Me
24:23 The Boats – The Arrow Home
29:52 The Medium Necks – My Mane
31:56 Vincent Gallo – Yes I’m Lonely
35:38 Squarepusher – Goodnight Jade
38:19 Gabriel Fauré – In Paradisum

Listen to the mix here.

Misound – Stanze di te

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been listening to a few CDs from Ryonkt’s Slow Flow Records lately. On high rotation has been Stanze di te by Misound. This is a deep and delicious immersion: a great way to relax through an hour of writing. Some wonderful sound patterns, deep, moody, at times a little glitchy, at times quite melodic, sometimes with some distant and almost recognisable field recordings to it.

You can stream a track here through Soundcloud – well worth a listen.

12k – a perfect introduction

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I am an unabashed fan of Taylor Deupree’s 12k label – an imprint that focuses on minimal music, but has evolved over the years. I frequently listen to Shuttle358, Sawako, Steinbruchel and others from the roster as I write. Taylor has made an hour-long mix of tracks For all the things we did in May which has just come out as a stream on Fluid Radio (of which I’m also a fan). The mix is wonderfully low-key, beginning with one of my favourite pieces, Shuttle358’s “Gone”, then progressing fairly organically through tracks I’m familiar with, and some I’d never heard.

A wonderful introduction to 12k’s roster and style.

NNTS – Stroll compilation

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Mark from NTNS radio – a show on Still Stream an internet ambient radio station, has made numerous compilations of creative commons recordings, available for streaming and download. Stroll is an eclectic mix of sometimes busy, sometimes very quiet pieces, that runs the length of a decent CD – full disclosure: Stroll includes a Venus Vulture track from Heavy Skies. Certainly for me that is part of the appeal – to hear my own track in a different context, next to pieces by different people.

Stroll is one of four sets making up the best of NTNS radio from April, May and June 2009 – the others, Meander, Trip and Cruise, are all similar in length and tone, all easily available and very listenable.

I’ve burned Stroll to CD and fire it in to write to – after all the reason I first began making ambient music was because I couldn’t find enough readily available to listen to as I wrote (the Internet has really changed that – there’s more than enough now). It was great over the weekend to listen to an hour and a quarter while I worked hard on a longer, pacey dieselpunk story – it was just the right kind of laid back but still edgy kind of music to really help keep the words flowing.

Ghosts in the trees, ghosts in the hall – new Venus Vulture track on Reverbnation

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I’ve just uploaded a new track to the Venus Vulture Reverbnation page. This is a quirky thing, with a slight beat, an odd melody. I think I like echo too much, but perhaps that suits the ideas of ghosts.

I had a couple of tracks – Ghosts in the Trees, and Ghosts in the Hall – with a similar feel and similar sound, but neither seemed to really work. So I made this track by taking elements of each and creating a new mix.

Fluid Radio – taster

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I often sing the praises of Fluid Radio – an eclectic internet radio station from Experimedia in the UK with a couple of varied channels. Usually I listen to their mixes more than the radio stream – it’s cool having artists I recognise bringing some of their favourite tracks, whether their own or those of others, together in a honed set.

Something I’ve been listening to lately is the Taster – a mix of tracks from forthcoming projects on Fluid Audio. Best, I think, for listening to with the lights low, perhaps only with the light from your screen.

2010 Taster |Fluid Radio:

Sand under my toes, Dust in my hair – new 8min Venus Vulture track available on Reverbnation

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 1 Comment

My latest ambient excursion, and longest for a while, is now available for free download or streaming on theVenus Vulture page at Reverbnation. “Sand under my toes, Dust in my hair” goes through a number of changes. Really it’s an attempt at narrative through sound. The track begins with a walk along a beach at sunset, then the wind cools and picks up and we hurry along almost lost until finally descending into a cave in the cliff, just lit by the sliver of crescent moon. Well, that was the mood I was looking for. Perhaps you’ll hear something different.