Look Eastward! Aye, look Eastward!

Lewis Carroll Mixes, Vol. 2

1 Chapter 23: An Outlandish Watch

2 Chapter 24: The Frogs' Birthday-Treat

3 Chapter 25: Looking Eastward

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For the second volume in this series, I put a few extra hours into preparing a few loops and "solo" material. Especially the first two parts feature some intricate detail-work and delicate juxtapositions. "The Frogs' Birthday-Treat" is indeed a rather playful treat, with its meandering xylophone and electronic beats & bleeps in the middle section. In "Looking Eastward", I let the single tracks play out more for themselves, dissolving into a calm and peaceful end.

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Featured artists and musical sources

Nick Drake, a musical clockwork, Markus Guentner, John Cage, Klaus Schulze, Rhythm and Sound, Burial, FOEhN, Sibil (Alonso & Bartomeu Carceres), more John Cage, Joanna Newsom, Jacques Dudon, Tanzania: Wagogo Entertainment Music, komet, The Penguin Café Orchestra, Jacula, This Heat, Marilyn Crispell, Gary Peacock, Conrad Schnitzler, FOEhN, Syd Barrett, Alia Musica/Miguel Sanchez (Bestiario De Cristo)

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"Aye, look Eastward! ... The West is the fitting tomb for all the sorrow and the sighing, all the errors and the follies of the Past: for all its withered Hopes and all its buried Loves! From the East comes new strength, new ambition, new Hope, new Life, new Love! Look Eastward! Aye, look Eastward!"

His last words were still ringing in my ears as I entered my room, and undrew the window-curtains, just in time to see the sun burst in glory from his ocean-prison, and clothe the world in the light of a new day.

...

"Fading, with the Night, the memory of a dead love, and the withered leaves of a blighted hope, and the sickly repinings and moody regrets that numb the best energies of the soul: and rising, broadening, rolling upward like a living flood, the manly resolve, and the dauntless will, and the heavenward gaze of faith--the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen!"

"Look Eastward! Aye, look Eastward!"

from: "Sylvie and Bruno" by Lewis Carroll, Chapter 25 (conclusion)

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BACK ON THE TRACK

Part 1: One Day

Part 2: In a Landscape in a Landscape

Part 3: Pastorale

Finally, ending a forced three month hiatus of no posting with a new mix. Not so much of my own material in here - just two complementary outtake tracks of electronics and bamboo percussion in the middle section and, closing the mix, "Pastorale 1" in the final master version, shimmering guitars all over.

We have Nobukazu Takemura in here, as well as Toru Takemitsu, along with the light-generated music by Jacques Dudon (thanks to Continuo), two tracks by Burial, and a lovely tune from the Dutch prog band Kayak. A neo-primitive ceremonial piece by an early Psychic TV leads into Synaulia's semi-authentic recreation of ancient Roman music. And much more. I hope you like it.

Lossless APE format: (1) (2) (3)

VBR format: (1) (2)

Aural Travelogue

Here in Germany, if you start somewhere in the southern parts and go up far enough, "Going North" will take you through a sequence of landscapes ranging from mountains & hills to the super-flat northern parts (like the "Lueneburg Heath"), interwoven with more or less healthy patches of forest while the hills get softer and smaller. Eventually, you end up at the windy gray/blue coast of the North Sea.

This very slow mix features, in order of appearance, music from Roedelius ("Halmharfe"), Howard Skempton (three pieces from his dance suite "Delicate"), Nico ("On the Desert Shore"), Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange (two long parts from their radio piece "Dreams"), Popol Vuh, Acid Mothers Temple offspring Uchu, David Tibet, Harmonia 76 (with Brian Eno), Edgar Froese ("Aqua"), Michel Redolfi and Japanese flutist Atsuya Okuda, amongst others.

Get it here.

Thanks to the Continuo blog for the great tape "Dross" by S*Core, from which I used the track "Muffle" twice in this mix.

Lewis Carroll in the Mix??

Here are the first 3 of 6 mixes made as musical/acoustic backdrops for six chapters from Lewis Carroll's strange little book, "Sylvie and Bruno". The mixes represent something like "variations on ...": I didn't try to illustrate anything from the story, although some parts get rather picturesque sometimes.

The first two parts are rather frugal regarding the sounds & music I used. "Light come, Light go" starts off with very beautiful piece for three recorders by the Swedish composer Lars Hallnäs. He hasn't got released much, but if you see any of the CDs from the Swedish "content" label with his works, grab it. Highly recommended. "Light come, Light go" closes with a magic little tune from a dubstep EP by Luca Venezia.

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The second part, "Through the Ivory Door", revolves around a percussion piece of mine, featuring an unsual sound-painting from Gavin Bryars' "Chambre d'Ecoute" and Modul's minimalistic pulsations. Additional FX & treatments by me.

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"Crossing the Line", the last part, draws a wide musical arc from Howard Skempton's miniature "Prelude" for hornto Deepchord's ultra-deep electronic dub, via Gimmer Nicholson's electronic folk from the late sixties, some heavily processed 12th century Templar Knight chants and the sweet "Woven Clouds" by Carter Tutti (of Throbbing Gristle fame).

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"Five o'clock tea! Ever to thee Faithful I'll be, Five o'clock tea!"

Narrative Musical Wallpaper

Live mix: Feb. 10, 2008

And so, finally - here's the second mix from my "HCE" series. It's a rather airy and flutey affair with some noisy excursions, inspired by episodes from Master Francis Rabelais' fantastic and preposterous epic "Five Books of the Lives, Heroic Deeds and Sayings of Gargantua and his Son Pantagruel".

You will find Takemitsu and Feldman here, a nice ditty by Aphex Twin spiced up with the voice of Aleister Crowley, a piece by electronic pioneer Franca Sacchi from Italy, a lengthy Sho solo by Mayumi Miyata and some perfectly static Gamelan music from Java. All glued together and modelled with music & sounds from me.

The first segment is structured after and uses samples from Peter Szöke's "The Unknown Music Of Birds". On this LP, the Hungarian musico-ornithologist reveals hidden aspects of birdsong via tape-manipulation. Fascinating. I'll post it in the "Closet of Curiosities" soon.

Enjoy the journey.

By the way: listener feedback is welcome and appreciated. If you downloaded the first mix, "Malachus Micgranes Teahouse #1", please leave a comment - how you liked it, and whatnot.

Mix d'Ameublement!

A new series of digital DJ mixes is starting here on "Hush! Caution! Echoland!" today. At this point, I'd call these mixes contemplative and textural, something like sonic wallpapers. But things may change. Who knows? I hope I can keep it up for a long time.

If you like slowly evolving themes & sounds, low frequencies & volumes mixed with rhythmic patterns, deep pulses, flowing or static sound surfaces, "Hush! Caution! Echoland!" may be a place to bookmark for you.

These are "real" mixes, performed live using effects like filters, delays and granulators. Tracks are cut out & in again, played simultaneously and contrasted with other tracks. A good portion of the music featured here are my own works - complete pieces & single tracks extracted from productions in my archives.

The rest of the material is drawn from a wide variety of genres & styles: Electronic, Avantgarde/New Music, Pop/Rock, Dance/Club Music, Ethnic and Field Recordings, Spoken Words. You like to be surprised? Please be my guest.

The first installment is "Malachus Micgranes' Teahouse #1" - right, the start of a series in a series - presenting my idea of 21st century Teahouse Music. Especially good with a pot of shaded green Kabusecha.

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... The Indians long ago knew that Music was going on permanently and that hearing it was like looking out a window at a landscape which didn't stop when one turned away ...

John Cage, from: "Rhythm Etc." (1962), in:
"A Year From Monday" - Wesleyan University Press, 1969