Showing posts with label dark ambient. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dark ambient. Show all posts

emptywhale - Smashed Light

Much excitement and anticipation about the first new release by emptywhale in over a year. Whether it be a cautious return to the studio or heralding a change in direction, or the smashed light an accident or momentary act of frustration we will never know. Enigma is emptywhale's modus operandi and that ain't gonna change, nor is his capacity to pick you up on the sonic bus and transport you to a destination far from where you had intended to go...Let's hope there is more to follow soon.

This track is part of  touched two, the staggering collection of 255 tracks of contemporary sounds compiled in aid of cancer research and support. Available on Bandcamp here...

Return to Reason



This mashup (like the title suggests) is a return to some of my favourite themes, and working again with the soundscapes of one of my favourite musicians (emptywhale), who I blame entirely for the development of my cinematic 'style'. The themes of eroticism, passion, death, decay, disintegration, decline and disorder combine in a (humble) homage to Man Ray...

The delightfully dulcet soundscape is From A Clear Sky taken from emptywhale's third album Some Hollow Lullabies. You can download it here...

The HD MPEG movie file on the Internet Archive can be downloaded here...

You can see all of my videos here...

who is anonymous waves?

http://www.anonymouswaves.org/

UPDATE (March 1 2014) Since this article was first published the blog known as Bob Georgeson has been transformed into the anonymous waves website, therefore some of the ideas have been superseded and the links below may no longer work. The article has been left intact for archival reasons.

Well it's me (sort of), but that doesn't explain why. The idea started back in late 2012 after discussing aspects of collaboration with emptywhale. I had been impressed by what seemed like the growing number of creators working across different disciplines, and while musicians were often used to collaboration as a matter of course, it was largely infrequent among visual artists. With an increasing interest in audio-visual creations such as video I felt that to publish works under my name alone was a disservice to those whose work I 'appropriated'. The idea 'gelled' rapidly with the discovery of UbuWeb and the Internet Archive and the Creative Commons licensing principle, which enabled me to work with 'found' footage and sounds. A logical progression from my previous work in photomontage, and where my love of music could now come to the fore. The name anonymous waves comes from a line of the Francis Picabia poem 'Anecdote', pulished in 1918:

Anecdote

You see, I am crazy to imagine it
I am a man with nimble fingers
Who wants to cut the threads of old pains
False folds in my anxious brain
History in arabesques memories
I am only happy on the open sea
Where one goes further
On anonymous waves

Francis Picabia, from Poèmes et dessins de la Fille née sans mère 1918

The first cut of the website came into existence as a 'visual poem' loosely based around the poem, and used a variety of images, both my own and public domain. It also assumed a level of web browser knowledge of the user and content was there to be 'discovered' rather than 'fed'. While I liked the site it seemed that very few others shared my enthusiasm! During 2013 I also started a Netlabel housed on the Internet Archive, the idea to have a repository for all my collaborative work. I had been unhappy with the template restrictions of this blog in the way that my videos were embedded and displayed, so decided to rebuild the anonymous waves (a/w) site as a 'front end' for the Archive repository. Getting a .org domain name was easy, mapping it to the site less so (are you listening Google?).

And so the build began. I had envisaged that as a/w developed that this present blog (and Bob Georgeson) would be subordinated and fade off into the blogosphere, but ah, the best laid plans! Just as soon as I planned this I started getting a lot more cross postings and traffic. Popularity is very hard to ignore let alone dismiss. The outcome of all this? There is a role for both sites. This blog continues much as it has over the past two years (24,000 plus page views in that time) while the a/w site is the front end for future creative pursuits, and I hope further and future collaboration with some of the extraordinary artists and musicians I have met in that time.

http://www.anonymouswaves.org/

The anonymous waves website is simple in structure with minimal text (cynical readers might breathe a sigh of relief!). The Video page is roughly sequential and makes available the films at a good presentation size (you can go to the Internet Archive by clicking on the I/A icon should you wish to download the files). The Art page comprises graphics created at 640x640 pixels (CD size) for free use and the offer of design and typography skills. The Music page is stuff I listen to, and am influenced (and inspired) by, predominantly in video format and includes such gems as Dizzy Gillespie, Marcus Miller, Marilyn Mazur, emptywhale and Hyaena Reich to name a few. The Projects page lists current ideas and their status like the anonymous waves shopfront proposal. The Writing page is poetry I like and has the 'not to be missed' sound file of e.e cummings reading his masterpiece anyone lived in a pretty how town. Contact details are there (you can also follow us, and be followed, on Twitter), and finally The Other Side, a gallery of suitably deranged influences and hero worship. Bunuel, Arp, Picabia and the patron saint of the site Ulrike Meinhof.

http://www.anonymouswaves.org/
 
In a time of a global push to the far right Ulrike's knowing look reminds us of the price of freedom...

And why do all this? Well, exposure on an international level, making art available (for free) to a wide range of people, challenging oneself, subverting the traditional power structures in the art and music worlds are a few reasons, but most of all because it's fun. Ideas for collaboration welcome... 

black red white



Realization: anonymous waves
Sound: 'Complete' by The Implicit Order

You can download the HD files here...

'Complete' by The Implicit Order is taken from the extraordinary compilation album Classwar Karaoke - 0024 Survey curated by suRRism-Phonoethics and available as a free download from the Free Music Archive here...

More The Implicit Order soundscapes are available on Bandcamp here...

Violette



An audio-visual tribute to author Violette Leduc...

soundscape: Cousin Silas and emptywhale
eyescape: anonymous waves

'Mapping the Void' by Cousin Silas and emptywhale is taken from the album Silas and Friends Volume 1 released on the weareallghosts label. You can find it on the Archive here... 

For the HD downloadable video files go to its page on the Archive here...

Cindy

 

soundscape: The Implicit Order
eyescape: anonymous waves

This mashup was inspired by the track Cindy (Model Unit One) Drone Disco Remix by The Implicit Order, a prolific experimental artist hailing from the USA. I had done a review of his disturbing album 'Drifters' in an earlier post. You can check out The Implicit Order here...

For the HD downloadable files of the video go to it's page on The Internet Archive here...
For all my videos on the Archive go here...
You can follow anonymous waves on Twitter here...
If you want to collaborate email surrealdada@gmail.com

No Reason



soundscape: emptywhale
eyescape: anonymous waves

You can watch and download from the Internet Archive here (MPEG2 file and full screen recommended)...

...and the full set of videos can be found here...

As good as it gets...



'Beautiful' was the word that first came to mind when I first heard Some Hollow Lullabies, the third release from UK dark ambient outfit emptywhale. Subsequent listens have not changed my mind. The most integrated album to date shows this enigmatic artist at the height of his powers, defying classifications, and composing and producing a work of sublime beauty and intelligence. Meticulously crafted from start to finish it is quite simply 'as good as it gets'.

From the opening transportation of 'The Boy Who Could Hear Colours', the surprising introduction of melodic keyboard, to the closing fade and hints of where it all began we are left transfixed. Astute listeners may find it an interesting challenge to figure out these influences, but ultimately knowing this will not add to the appreciation because the emptywhale concept is precisely about the mystery. And the mystery ends up being what we (the listeners) experience as we listen...

I have said in the past that I find great humanism in the music of emptywhale. Here we have a man wandering through the British (if not world) landscape acutely aware of history and society and where the technological revolution had taken us, and the impact it has had on interpersonal communications (or lack thereof) . If there is 'darkness' in these soundscapes it is in this aspect of our lives that it is manifest...not through any contrived attempt at being different or trendy.

I must admit I have been critical of the ambient genre at times, finding the lack of individualism frustrating, but emptywhale takes it to a new level. At times orchestral, choral, hints of punk, even prog rock, sinister crackles, there are so many things happening here one is left in awe at the power of the meditative mix.

A track by track analysis is pointless in such a complete creation. All I can say is take 40 minutes out of your life and marvel and enjoy and wonder and appreciate that there are people in the world doing this for free...

And if you do feel compelled to part with some money emptywhale asks that you donate to cancer research...

An essential and permanent part of the collection of anyone seriously interested in contemporary music. The great Duke Ellington, once asked in interview about his composing methods, said "If it sounds good, it is good". Some Hollow Lullabies sounds very, very good...

You can download it here...

emptywhale - Some Hollow Lullabies


An absolutely beautiful work...

Review coming soon when I return to the studio...in the meantime you can enjoy it here...

http://www.weareallghosts.co.uk/

The Implicit Order - Drifters

 
Senseless murder might not be a theme that many musicians would base a work on, but then The Implicit Order (I/O) is not exactly your average concept. Disdaining any attempt at classification I/O is both highly original and constantly defying preconceptions. The most recent album 'Drifters' is dedicated to a young homeless woman called Sherry, who had been befriended by I/O. She ended up being murdered after being picked up by a drifter. So, why put out an album on such a subject?

I/O describes the album as a "cautionary tale to anyone who is down on their luck and looking for a place to belong". Sombre but never morbid the album touches the heartstrings without ever becoming sensationalist. The opening track 'Missing Youth' sets the tone with evocations of children, our children, and then counterpoints with hints of unrest. "Daily Dull Lives" hints at the mentally disturbed among us. Other tracks such as 'Every Year 1000's of Young People Disappear' and 'Small Towns Hold The Biggest Secrets' paint a picture of the darkness inherent in our societies. And the 9 minute 'Sherry (Car Wheels On A Gravel Road)' confronts us with the sadness of the knowledge that all victims leave families behind them. It is their suffering we find it hard to endure...

This is not the sort of music that one would play at a party, it may not even sit comfortably with a second listen, but it certainly is worthy of one serious listen, even if it is to remind ourselves that the world we live in can still be an evil place, and that great art is not just about entertainment, but enlightenment. A courageous, yet sensitive masterwork. Highly recommended...

You can check out The Implicit Order here...

Descent into Hell

 

Here's the cover to the new album...now all I need is some sounds and images to go with it...

Exhibition coming up...


The exhibition is called anonymous waves: bob georgeson - past & present. Runs from Saturday 2nd March - Monday 11th March as part of the 2013 Sculpture on the Edge event. The venue is Shop 7 Art Space upstairs at the Fishermen's Cooperative Bermagui Wharf. Hours 10am til the Horse & Camel Wine Bar closes...

Here's the blurb: Firmly committed to the surrealist aesthetic Bob Georgeson uses subversive, sometimes controversial, and often humorous ideas, images and themes to explore the intersection between reality and desire. From working mainly in photomontage in the past he is now increasingly exploring new technologies, in particular video art, and working primarily and collaboratively online in the public domain.

There will be a floor talk on Wednesday 6th March at 11am called: Art in the digital domain 

 
Adult themes and nudity

emptywhale and anonymous waves - a collaboration (of sorts)



For the HD version and downloadable files go here...

Apologia: This one represents the closest I (we?) have come to online collaboration, and the first video where I actively tried to work in with the music in terms of the atmosphere it creates, without wishing of course to make a music video per se. Art always comes first! In discussions with emptywhale about process we agree that once a creation is in the public domain one relinquishes control over how it might be used other than the Creative Commons licensing that stipulates it is not to be used for commercial gain, and acknowledges the original source. We agree that collaboration can lead to opening new doors that might not have previously been considered or explored. And there is no approval process in place, although in making this I have been very conscious of what emptywhale will think. Our desire for approval from others is a very strong emotion! The start point is mutual admiration for each other's creativity, and the desire to learn...

So, what exists remains...

anonymous waves comes from a line in the poem "Anecdote" penned by Francis Picabia in 1918. It reads:

You see, I am crazy to imagine it
I am a man with nimble fingers
Who wants to cut the threads of old pains
False folds in my anxious brain
History in arabesques memories
I am only happy on the open sea
Where one goes further
On anonymous waves.

I had done an earlier interactive visual poem with anonymous waves as it's title but have now decided to make this my new pseudonym, and the launch of an umbrella for new projects, including new media, public domain activities, online collaborations, interventions, the creation of a Netlabel and the gradual archiving and replacement of this blog. Time to move on...

Leg Show


Been working on another video lately using soundscapes by emptywhale but this one sort of popped out of the blue yesterday using some older footage that had remained dormant until now...