Hypnos Newsletter

Hypnos Newsletter Message

2008-10-29T17:57:38Z

CD release: Sans Serif - Tones for LaMonte

CD release announcement from Hypnos Recordings
Various artists
Title: Echoes of Polyhymnia
Hypnos Recordings, hyp2855

2008. Polyhymnia was one of the Muses of Greek myth, specifically the Muse of sacred hymn. Echoes of Polyhymnia compiles music in ambient and related genres composed and recorded exclusively by women. This genre is so male-dominated generally that we had a lot of fun gathering interesting ambient sounds, including some works that have one foot in ambient territory and another foot in one of several different, related genres. It covers styles and flavors as diverse as ambient, drone, glitch, vocal collage, goth and electronica.

Hypnos manager (and artist) Lena Griffin curated this specially-themed compilation which gathers an assortment of ambient & atmospheric sound works from around the world. This project reveals a totally new angle on ambient music, more diverse and wide-ranging than all previous ambient compilations from Hypnos. Ranging from ethereal to dark to pretty to spooky to melodic, we think this album displays a solidly worthwhile musical and soundscape content beyond just the curiosity and "I've never seen that before" factor of the theme.

"The nine Muses struck up a lifestirring melody. Polyhymnia, nursingmother of the dance, waved her arms and sketched in the air an image of a soundless voice, speaking with hands and moving eyes in a graphic picture of silence full of meaning." --The Dionysiaca of Nonnus

THE ARTISTS

Margaret Noble - This experimental sound artist performs with analogue hardware, turntables and toys.... more info at margaretnoble.net

Stellaria Fennica - This project, the alter ego of Mari Aho of Sweden, records atmospheric and melodic ambient with elements of electronica. The songs combine sorrowful piano parts with gloomy string combinations, together with dynamic drum sections carrying experimental touches

Kristin Miltner - Kristin Miltner makes music primarily with computers. A great deal of it involves her incredible voice, and she is a great keyboard player as well. She also plays in a duo called "miba,"with electronic musician and composer Mark Bartscher.

Clarissa Borba - Clarissa Borba is a percussionist who works with sound experimentation and unconventional ways of playing percussion instruments, vibraphone and marimba. She has a Master's Degree in Percussion Performance from the East Carolina University and a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Miami, and resides in France

Sara Ayers - Sara Ayers creates unflinchingly intimate soundscapes using her voice: sampled, layered, looped and pitch-shifted. Combined with occasional guitar washes and a warm bedrock of molten noise, she creates richly textured sonic atmospheres that vary in tone from the haunting whispers of angels to wall-of-sound banshee wails

Rose Bolton - Grew up in Toronto, where she began her musical training on classical violin and piano. Since studying music at McGill university, she has worked as both a classical and electronic composer, and a fiddler

Gydja - Gydja is the dark ambient/experimental/drone project of graphic designer, video artist, and writer, Abby Helasdottir who is based in New Zealand

The Floating World - This ambient/ experimental musician, real name Amanda Votta, lives in Ontario, Canada

K. Cornelius - A multimedia artist working in music, film/video, installation, performance, and other media. The instruments K. plays range from a whole world of musical territory and studies, including Djembe, Tabla, Doumbek, Darabouka, Frame Drums, Rattles, Waterphone, Sitar, Tanpura, Piano, Guitar, Drum kit, Marimba, Balaphone, Bells, Bowls, Electronics, Found Objects and more

Lena Griffin - This multi-instrumentalist released her debut CD, Extended Gestures for Cello, on Hypnos Secret Sounds in 2007. She resides in Portland, Oregon, works as the full-time manager of Hypnos Recordings, and assembled this collection

Track listing with mp3 sample clips:
1. Margaret Noble: "Nufon" mp3
2. Stellaria Fennica: "Hibernia" mp3
3. Kristin Miltner: "Slew Wave" mp3
4. Clarissa Borba: "Floating Tones" mp3
5. Sara Ayers: "There Was No More Time" mp3
6. Rose Bolton: "An Unheard Message" mp3
7. Gydja: "Wave-Particle Duality" mp3
8. The Floating World: "Kanam" mp3
9. K. Cornelius: "Of The Ancients" mp3
10. Lena Griffin: "She Forgot, She Dreamed" mp3

You can purchase Echoes of Polyhymnia directly from Hypnos for $12.99 here.

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CD release: Saul Stokes - Villa Galaxia

2008-08-22T15:05:25Z

Artist: Saul Stokes
Title: Villa Galaxia
Label: Binary/Stokesmusic (hyby0808)

2008. Always one of the most popular artists on the Hypnos and Binary labels through the years, Saul Stokes is also one we've been very proud to "launch" into the ambient/electronica world, going back to Saul's first album which was also the first album on Hypnos, Washed in Mercury in 1997. The first new work by Saul Stokes on Hypnos/Binary since Fields in 2005, this is certainly one of the most anticipated discs we've released in years.

Saul Stokes says: Stokes� 8th solo album to date, Villa Galaxia is a hyperfusion of sonic exploration seeded in Stokes� seminary music past, while arcing into a completely new genre defining collection of songs. Stripping away any notion of ambient drone or chill out labeling, Villa Galaxia surfs its own ocean of contemporary electronic music culture with eccentric listenable experimentalism wrapped in catchy lyrical orchestras of electronic fireworks.

Mirko Ruckels, aka recording artist Deepspace, says: "Hello Radar" is a great opening track, featuring wide-eyed crispy keyboard sounds, and a nice moody bassline. I can feel that I'm really going to like this- you know the feeling, when an album taps you on the shoulder and goes, "Are you ready? we are about to become good friends...." It happens far too infrequently don't you think. "Vapor trails" Slightly melancholy second track- with some great outro key washes. yay. "Blaze" is completely different and brings the album to a, dare I use the word, "chilled" place with it's slightly more, well, serious and blue feeling. I really like the big sunny melodies on "Night Painting". Vibrant, primary colours, sweet sounds. Fingerpainting. "Eta Car is a massive Star" sounds like an epic Mario Bros game, full of detail and shimmering pixely effects (I don't know what that means either). Really lovely. This is an excellent album that will attract many listeners. It's full of nooks and crannies and quite delirious. I like! Nay, love! Bravo Saul!

Villa Galaxia could be characterized as a bit of a throwback to an earlier Stokes sound, a bit simplified and less focused on pretty melodics than Saul's more recent work like Fields and Vast. Whether Saul's work is more about the melodies or the rhythms or the ambience, it always retains the the sound & feel of a Saul Stokes album.

Track listing with mp3 sample clips
hello radar
vapor trails
blaze
night painting
eta car is a massive star
future gamma
embedded in amber
interrupted by time

This CD on Binary/Stokesmusic is available for purchase for $12.99 here.

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CD release: Message from a Subatomic World

2008-07-31T15:23:23Z

CD release: Sans Serif - Tones for LaMonte

CD release announcement from Hypnos Recordings
Various artists
Title: Message From a Subatomic World
Hypnos Recordings (hyp2854)

2008. Having not released any various-artists compilations in the past decade, Hypnos released in 2007 a new compilation Sounds of a Universe Overheard featuring a diverse array of ambient soundscape artists from around the world. We are proud to follow last year's release with its "mirror image" compilation, which we believe meets or exceeds that high standard.

Here are another 10 exclusive tracks by 10 artists who have not appeared on Hypnos compilations before, though some of these artists will certainly be familiar to followers of our label. Message From a Subatomic World in comparison to its predecessor is perhaps a bit more abstract and deep-space, more mysterious and strange, whereas Sounds of a Universe Overheard is a bit more musical and structured overall.

THE ARTISTS

Austere - This elusive duo has released two albums with Hypnos in the past year, Solyaris on Hypnos and Pulse on Hypnos Secret Sounds. They've also ranged over a wide sonic territory with previous self-released projects during the past decade.

Evan Bartholomew - Perhaps best known for the rhythmic electronica he records as Bluetech, Evan has just recently started releasing ambient work under his own name, and recently launched his own Somnia label.

Relapxych.0 - This Swedish sonic experimentalist previously recorded under the name Objekt4 but has just launched this new project name.

Numina - Certainly familiar to Hypnos listeners, Numina has released 3 great CDs on our label, and he has been one of the great new names in the ambient music world this past 5 years.

Jason Sloan - A partner in the Slo.Bor label with Matt Borghi, Jason creates uncompromising sound art using tools as diverse as electric guitars, synthesizers, and self-designed software algorithms.

Phaenon - Real name Szymon Tankiewicz, his debut album was released on the Malignant label, and he has relocated from his native Poland to Maryland, USA.

Stephen Philips - Also familiar to Hypnos listeners, Stephen runs the Dark Duck Records label on which he has many releases under several identities, in addition to his two releases on our label.

True Color of Blood - Alter ego of Eric Kesner, who uses treated and layered electric guitars to craft unique and challenging ambient drone works, which he has released on labels like Gears of Sand, Eibon and Afe.

Svartsinn - This Norwegian dark ambient artist has several prior releases, mostly on the Cyclic Law label, and is a frequent live performer around the world.

Oophoi - No other name has gone from obscurity to such high regard among ambient listeners in such a short time, and this Italian master of the atmospheric drone has been greatly prolific, counting among his releases two projects on Hypnos, Athlit as a solo artist, and Distance to Zero with Paul Vnuk Jr. of Ma Ja Le.

THE TRACKS, with mp3 samples:
Austere - Crystil mp3
Evan Bartholomew - Sacrosanct mp3
Relapxych.0 - Distant Radiance mp3
Numina - Nadir Ever Spirals mp3
Jason Sloan - faded.forgotten [trace] mp3
Phaenon - Quantum Silence mp3
Stephen Philips - Down Deep mp3
True Color of Blood - Choosing to Remain Blind mp3
Svartsinn - Cold But Strong mp3
Oophoi - Icelight mp3

You can purchase Message From a Subatomic World directly from Hypnos for $12.99 here.

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CD release: Sans Serif - Tones for LaMonte

2008-07-17T15:50:15Z

Artist: Sans Serif
Title: Tones for LaMonte
Label: Hypnos Secret Sounds (Ltd CDR)

2008. Sans Serif is an alter ego of Forrest Fang, the talented multi-instrumentalist and composer whose most recent solo album Gongland was released on Projekt in 2000. He has also collaborated with Carl Weingarten on the album Invisibility released on The Foundry, as well as contributing instrumentally to the works of other artists such as Robert Rich.

Unlike the more traditionally structured and "musical" work Fang releases under his own name, the Sans Serif project is focused on minimalism. This project in particular is a tribute to the influential minimalist composer LaMonte Young, whose work was known for the use of long, sustained tones and alternate tunings. Of this project, Forrest Fang says:

"I like to think of this as a fairly organic release that was inspired by the harmonic drones of La Monte Young. In works like Young's Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer, there is an underlying tension between stasis and movement that I find very appealing; it suggests to me a horizontal music that is constantly shifting its position in aural space. I wanted the pieces of this project to reflect both movement and stillness within the same sonic space. I also thought the music should have more of a "live" feel, so I limited the layering of sounds to things that I could do in real time. I thought that a more simplified approach would also better reflect the nature of the project, which was to focus on basic fundamentals of sound, such as harmonics and timbre. The pieces are based on sonic fragments (some are abstract sounds, others fragments of unreleased pieces) that have been altered and processed through different sets of harmonic filters."

Hypnos is pleased to release Tones for LaMonte, a recording that bridges the two, related worlds of avant-garde classical influence, and modern ambient drone.

Track listing, with mp3 sample clips:
1. Alpha mp3
2. Omega mp3
3. Gamma mp3
4. Delta mp3
5. Theta mp3
6. (infinity) mp3

Purchase for $11.99 on Hypnos Online Store

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CD release: Steve Brand - Bridge to Nowhere

2008-06-12T10:04:58Z

Artist: Steve Brand
Title: Bridge to Nowhere
Label: Hypnos Secret Sounds (Ltd CDR)

2008. Steve Brand has just recently started releasing music under his own name, after more than 20 releases in the experimental realm under the name "Augur." Now Brand has a number of recordings scheduled for release on Hypnos, and also on the AtmoWorks label, and the first of these is Bridge to Nowhere.

Brand's work has always had a ritualistic element, and sound sources include: medicine drum, udu, rattles, various flutes, bells, conch shell, thumb piano, cora, Indian fiddle, found, natural and handmade objects, voice, field recordings and keyboards. Bridge to Nowhere is a spacious, slow-breathing exploration of a meditative state, and nowhere in Brand's work is the ritualistic element more present than in this case.

Ambient music in general is often considered to be "spacy" or conducive to altered states of consciousness in general, but this music specifically seems exploratory, meditative, and even a bit "druggy" and strange. As fans of this music ourselves, we particularly love it when an artist seems genuinely to have tapped into a reality outside our own -- to have slowed down the world or distorted it, or viewed things through a prism or kaleidoscope. The work of Steve Brand functions in this way, and we're pleased to be able to deliver this incredible, no-side-effects sound trip, to Hypnos listeners!

Track listing, with mp3 sample clips:
1. Bridge to Nowhere 1 - (14:43) - mp3 clip
2. Breathing Light - (20:40) - mp3 clip
3. Bridge to Nowhere 2 - (20:00) - mp3 clip
4. Through the Lens of Love - (20:00) - mp3 clip

Purchase for $11.99 on Hypnos Online Store

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CD release: M. Griffin - Fabrications

2008-05-28T14:06:48Z

Artist: M. Griffin
Title: Fabrications
Label: Hypnos Recordings

2008. Originally announced in 1997 as the follow-up by Hypnos founder Mike Griffin to his debut Sudden Dark, Fabrications has been reworked, abandoned, restarted from scratch, back-burnered, reimagined, and left frozen in carbonite. Among those who have followed Hypnos from the beginning, Fabrications achieved a certain notoriety as the album always promised for release in the coming year, which never quite arrived. 2008 is finally the year in which Fabrications is revealed, perhaps appropriate for the 10-year anniversary of its original planned release date, 1998.

Generally known as an ambient minimalist, utilizing synthesizers for most of his work, this time M. Griffin took advantage of "real world" sounds, captured with binaural microphones using a portable digital audio recorder. For this release, Griffin built up collages of numerous location recording elements, including cars driving on freeways, people walking in long echoing hallways, the ocean waves in Kona at night, a metalworking factory with heavy machinery crunching away, distant trains, and clothes driers. These elements were manipulated, combined, worked-on and re-worked, and overlaid with looped spoken elements later created by Griffin in the studio. The end result comes out something like the Zoviet France soundtrack to a David Lynch film, that is, a dark and dream-like collage of loops, spoken fragments, disembodied whispers, and the echo of far-off machinery.

While ambient music recordings generally only include a few "layers," Fabrications has been painstakingly built-up over the years so that all tracks are now comprised of dozens of layers, in some cases upward of 100. The result is incredibly complex, with ghostly remnants of real, concrete sounds filtered one against another. Aural signatures of many real places combine to form sonic impressions of a series of locations that do not really exist. These imagined, artificial locales are in effect, fabrications.

Track listing, with MP3 sample clips:
Water is Silver
Gravity
Behind
Air Sense Space
Devise
Sky is Glass Lit

Hypnos Online Store listing ($12.99 CD)

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CD announcement: Darkened Soul - Bathys

2008-05-14T17:00:26Z

CD announcement: Darkened Soul - Bathys

Artist: Darkened Soul
Title: Bathys
Label: Hypnos Secret Sounds (Ltd CDR)

2008. Hypnos is pleased to announce Bathys, the first appearance on our label (in this case, our Hypnos Secret Sounds imprint) by Darkened Soul. The word "bathys" in Greek translates as "deep," and the rest of the titles here continue the Greek language theme. It's the root of the word "bathyscaph" which is a submersible vessel for deep sea exploration.

"Deep" is relevant here, as this recording collects resonant dark ambient sounds into aural mixtures deep and spacious. This aural journey is evocative of a subterranean trek through wet, metal-walled tunnels, with gritty textures underfoot, and dripping sounds of water. Vague hints of machine-like sounds can be heard churning away in the distance. Bathys by Darkened Soul is an exercise in resonant dark ambient textures.

Darkened Soul is a psydonym under which Mike Soucy records dark ambient soundscapes. His previous releases have been mostly self-released, though Hypnos followers may have seen his release Seasons of Dark and Light on Umbra, the Italian label operated by recording artist Oophoi.

Track listing (with MP3 sample clips):
1 Eis Arthro Michani MP3 clip
2 Ateleiotos Agkareia MP3 clip
3 Mysteriodis MP3 clip
4 Trela MP3 clip
5 Ypexairesi MP3 clip
6 Bathys MP3 clip

Purchase for $11.99 on Hypnos Online Store

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Hypnos Newsletter Message

2008-04-25T16:48:10Z

Artist: Matt Borghi
Title: Huronic Minor
Label: Hypnos Secret Sounds (Ltd CDR)

2008. We here at Hypnos have long enjoyed Matt Borghi's subtle atmospheric ambient music, and believed it deserved more attention. Many of Matt's CDs are out of print, and we've agreed to re-issue a series of our favorite recordings on the Hypnos Secret Sounds imprint. The first of these Matt Borghi reissues will be Huronic Minor.

Simple, restrained, and artful, these recordings deserve to remain in print, and we hope these reissues will help introduce more of today's ambient music listeners to the work of this important artist.

Track listing (with MP3 sample clips):
1. Leaving the Gates of the Open Harbor
2. November's Peculiar Calm
3. Gray Dawn Illumination
4. Point Aux Barques
5. The Longest Night
6. Red Sky Morning
7. Brooding Dark Waters
8. Distant Harbor
9. Silent Moor

"...drifting ambient music par excellence. Matt's forte is similar to that of Stephen Philips' - the ability to meld subtle synthesizer shadings and drones into mesmerizing cloud-like tone poems. I never got bored with this CD, although if a non-ambient fan would listen to it, he or she might think the sound was monotonous. But that is true ambient music�s appeal. A startling shift of abrupt change calls attention to the music, thereby making it "non-ambient." Huronic Minor is that rarest of ambient releases, i.e. a joy to listen to in silence and be consumed by or equally effective played softly in the background as a sonic antidote for one's own confused or stressed out world so to speak. However one listens ton this highly recommended recording, the CD�s worth and artistry are unmistakable. Added recommendation emphasis if you live near the Great Lakes or a fishing port on the Atlantic Ocean."
--Reviewed by Bill Binkelman, Wind and Wire (www.windandwire.com)

"The album speaks of grays and blues, reds and yellows and serenity and confusion. The juxtapositions are ambiguities as Matt teases listeners and baits them to decide where to go with the drift. The soul becomes the guide as Matt provide only provides the vehicle. This gentle set provides essential sonic exploration and meditation!"
--Reviewed by Jim Brenholts, Author, Tracks Across the Universe

"I think Huronic Minor is brilliant, and if I may say, completely different from your previous effort For Running Time. I don't know what to play first. I will surely chose two or three longer pieces and give them airplay."
--Reviewed by Vladimir Jovanovic, Inner Space Radio, Croatia

" Borghi has crafted a superb collection of dark drones, bruised wanderings, and ravaged ruins, glimpses of a psyche's attempts to deal with nightmarish realities. This is rainy-day fog shrouded doom-cast netherworld music. Fans of Roach, Robert Scott Thompson, 1980s Robert Rich "sleep tunes," and all such "melting brain" music will enjoy this! Recommended release."
--Reviewed by John W. Patterson, EER reviews

Hypnos Online Store listing -- price is $11.99

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CD release: Sense Project - The Sublime

2008-03-16T18:49:09Z

Artist: Sense Project
Title: The Sublime
Label: Hypnos Secret Sounds, ltd 2cdr edition of 300

2008. This release is a departure for the Hypnos Secret Sounds imprint in that it will be a two disc set. Sense Project is an alter-ego of Robert Logan, who releases experimental electronic music under his true name, including the truly amazing debut CD Cognessence. Robert also composed the music for Alex Gibney's Oscar-winning documentary feature 'Taxi to the Darkside' along with Ivor Guest and Philip Sheppard.

The Sublime careens from drone ambient, to churning, confrontational Aphex Twin style rhythms, with perhaps more rich and diverse sound content than any album we've ever released. Normally we'd have reservations about releasing a double CD by a young, emerging artist but this one justifies its duration without question. If you're not sure about buying an ambient 2CDR release by a teen-aged recording artist (actually, he may be 20 by now... we should check before we go around repeating the "he's only 19" thing), just give the MP3 sample clips a try.

Track listing, with MP3 clips:

CD. 1 "The Sublime Part I"

1.) Vid�k MP3 clip
2.) Rain Chimes (featuring Andrea Black on vocals) MP3 clip
3.) A Moment MP3 clip
4.) Solar Insect MP3 clip
5.) The Sublime MP3 clip
6.) Garden (featuring Sarah Sarhandi on viola) MP3 clip
7.) Isten MP3 clip
8.) �jjel MP3 clip
9.) Death and After (featuring Francis Logan on violin) MP3 clip

CD. 2 "The Sublime Part II"

1.) Erd� MP3 clip
2.) Mantis Religiosa MP3 clip
3.) Prime Mover MP3 clip
4.) Shards MP3 clip
5.) The Lamb MP3 clip
6.) Voice of Many Waters MP3 clip
7.) Cimbalom MP3 clip
8.) The Beautiful MP3 clip

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CD release: Austere - Solyaris

2008-02-19T17:52:12Z

Artist: Austere
Title: Solyaris
Label: Hypnos

2008. This is a creative peak for this much-overlooked ambient duo, their first release on Hypnos, following their Hypnos Secret Sounds album Pulse in 2007. In their 10 years of productivity, Austere has covered territory from Pulse's drone minimalism , ranging back through odd and trippy Coil-inspired sonic experimentation, to seamless dark ambient, and occasionally glitchy weirdness. Despite some challenging material in their back catalog, Austere have in this case produced an album as friendly and pleasant as any Austere fan could have imagined possible, and yet without resorting to the usual tricks that make music sound "listenable."

Bill Binkelman of Wind and Wire said of Austere:
"Austere is an enigmatic duo who record some of the more interesting ambient music I've heard in my six plus years of reviewing. From the swirling drones (I was gonna say "dark" drones, but ....) and eerie melancholy of Monodia to the warmth and beauty amidst minimalism of Fade... Austere are less concerned with following the path and more concerned with breaking new ground. However, they are undoubtedly enigmatic, as one would glean from the above, and shun the spotlights of media and personality."

And the Austere boys themselves, not normally prone to gushing or self-praise, say these words on the subject of this recording:
"Solyaris, our first release for 2008 e.v. on the Hypnos label is major departure from our recent emphasis on Minimalist composition, but more in the direction started by our last release, mirror.shtml and is instead is a collection of recordings improvised and recorded "live" over a weekend session and are presented in their original form, unedited in any way aside from mastering by The Sound-O-Mat.

The recordings turned out extremely well; it was obvious that our Muse(s) had visited us, and we were able to simply "let the tapes roll" and play, and this recording is made up from one track each from a recording session (we may release the rest at some later point.)

We could not be more happy with the sound of this album � there was definitely something special about that weekend and it was one of those rare occasions where everything just seemed to come together without any effort, and we think this is reflected in the musick. The CD flows very nicely, and is one of the most uplifting and special CDs we have ever released. We hope that you might enjoy it at least half as much as we do."

We here at Hypnos are likewise happy with this album, and find ourselves playing it over and over, soothed and bewildered at the strange and beautiful atmosphere. Solyaris does not fit squarely into any one genre, but it is wonderful to listen to, without being easy or without depth. The sounds could be described as the thought transmissions of benevolent aliens. They mean you no harm, and they thank you for listening!

Track listing, with mp3 sample clips:
01 - Seraphim MP3
02 - Striae MP3
03 - Launch Sequence MP3
04 - Nictitate MP3

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CD announcement: Jonathan Block - The Anatomy of Waves

2008-02-01T11:01:32Z

Artist: Jonathan Block
Title: The Anatomy of Waves
Label: Hypnos Secret Sounds hss17, limited cdr edition of 300

Jonathan Block - The Anatomy of Waves image:
http://www.hypnos.com/catalog/hss-jb-aow.jpg

2008. Hypnos is very pleased to announce a new release by Jonathan Block on our Hypnos Secret Sounds imprint. Jonathan has previously worked with Hypnos, when his album Sonic Approach (under his alter-ego Synthetic Block) was released on our Binary sub-label. Also his track 'The Language of Rocks' heads off the most recent Hypnos compilation Sounds of a Universe Overheard. The new album, The Anatomy of Waves, is a series of four long tracks featuring improvisations using an electronic "wind instrument" device, an Akai EWI4000s wind synthesizer.

Surface waves. Standing waves. Sound waves. Waves are disturbances that travel through space and time transferring energy from one point to another; often the physical manifestation of an underlying cycle. The Anatomy of Waves is a study of these cycles through evolving waves of sound � representations of our attachment to the crests and troughs that are characteristics of living in this world.

The music on this CD was created using a wind synthesizer processed through an effects pedal board and looped using long delay times that fade slowly, enabling new sounds and loops to be added and subtracted. All the tracks have a compositional foundation but this structure is fluid enough to allow the music to move in any number of directions, often simultaneously. From melodic to abstract, musical elements emerge and coalesce by design and hazard as phrases interact with one another and sounds are added that never become part of a repeating loop. Jonathan Block has been releasing electronic music for over 20 years, often under the name Synthetic Block. Block�s music has been released by Hypnos, Binary and Gears of Sand. In addition to his solo works, Block has performed and recorded with Dave Fulton, The Circular Ruins (APK) and Ben Fleury-Steiner.

The Anatomy Of Waves was recorded using an Akai EWI4000s wind synthesizer with a Vox Tonelab LE for sound processing and a Boss DD-20 digital delay for looping.

Track listing (with mp3 sample clips):
01 Diffract - MP3 http://www.hypnos.com/audio/hss-jb-aow-01.mp3
02 Diffuse - MP3 http://www.hypnos.com/audio/hss-jb-aow-02.mp3
03 Dissolve - MP3 http://www.hypnos.com/audio/hss-jb-aow-03.mp3
04 Disperse - MP3 http://www.hypnos.com/audio/hss-jb-aow-04.mp3

This limited CDR release, on the Hypnos Secret Sounds imprint, is available for purchase for $11.99 here:
http://www.hypnos.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=HOS&Product_Code=hss17

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