MUSlC IN THE STREETS (Recorded by T. Schwartz) (1957)

Subtitled "A fascinating collection of music and musicians recorded on the streets of New York," this album resurrects the seemingly long-lost sounds of public gathering: sociability, conviviality, hubbub and exchange. And of course performance. 

Does anyone remember this? When's the last time you've heard a busker? Seen a mall-choir? Watched a parade? These documented sonic rituals of the mundane are coming in as a restorative tonic today. NY, sure. But also anywhere. 

Folkways rarely lets us down. 

H0AHIO - HAPPY MAlL (1997)

This super group was initiated by the chanteuse/sonic polymath Haco, and for this debut recording, included sine-wave sampler-savant Sachiko M and jazz-koto player Michiyo Yagi. The work lulls the mind with churning minimalist repetitions, plucky folksy, scrambling improvisations, and well-placed moments of anthemic rock progressions and gentle digressions. Delicious, quixotic, lovely, confusing: all the sonic elements of dreamstate standing loud and proud. 

Dream it here...

DJ OL1VE - SLEEP (2001)

Future illbient hall-of-famer, G. Asch aka Olive aka The Audio Janitor, released this 13-track dream-salve in 2001 as a limited hand-crafted gift for friends who had trouble sleeping. Emerging from his time in the late 90s DJing for NY sleep-parties, this is the first installment of his sonic sleep medicines which has since yielded several albums and installations. The tones are warm, textured, graceful and suitably numbing. 

The project comes with instructions: "This is a sleeping pill. Please listen to it quietly."

OWOD MIX #03 - ONE DREAMER, ONCE DREAMING

A snapshot from our random playlist shuffle: music-box exotica, barrel organ cacophony, uncanny nostalgia & retro-tinged madness:

1) Dutch Band Organ - Did You See a Dream Walk? 2) F. Karlin - The Dream 3) K. Nordine - Thousand Dreams 4) Li De La Russe - Delia's Reverie 5) J. Plotkin - Mosquito Dream 6) A. Lane - Stories of Your Dream 7) Mapstation - TV Dream 8) Tuxedomoon - Dream Flight 9) F. Atkinson - Visnaga 10) Shock Exchange - Just a Dream 11)  Esquivel - Street of Dreams 12) E. Lurie - Possible Love 13) Broadcast - Aphid Sleeps 14) J. Gurascier - Sueno Otonal 15) C. Reimer - Carson Dial 16) K. Overall - Sleeping on the Train 17) R. Scott - Memories 18) W. Mertens - Bresque 19) W. Schumann - Pearl's Dream 20) Children's Ensemble - Piece vii 21) Shannon & the Clams - Into a Dream 22) D. Shore - My Isle of Golden Dreams 23) B. Lew - Aveugle Depuis 24) Paillard Music Box - La Sonnambula 25) M. Ribot - Dream of the Other 26) J. Miyake/ D. Byrne - A Dream Is a Wish  27) F. Durand - Hora de dormir 28) J. Derome - Reverie 29) C. Watson - Waiting 30) Regina Music Box - Garden of Dreams

0RUÃ - R0MA (20I9)

Just a total incendiary, throbbing, fuzzed-out pleasure today. Music for strutting, tripping, head-banging and perhaps dry-humping. We can't get enough of these enigmatic gents from Brazil and, it would seem, often Boise, Idaho.


Meltdown rock n' roll for lovers and dreamers.

B0RN OUT OF DREAMS (1985)

OWOD has previously mentioned a special, personal fascination with the year 1985 and even posted Wang Chung. Today, we have three more. The dreamstate is openly referenced and evoked in all. 

1985 a random date with only sentimental fixations that are too uninteresting to share. I'll say this: in the small island west-coast town where I grew up, you had to go elsewhere for your epic dream-sounds. A friend in the city had this industrial/noise taste-changer: NWW, Muslimgauze, P16.D4, Enrico Piva...wonderful!

Dream it here...

 

S0UNDS FROM THE MUS1C INTERI0R (MUSIC INTER1OR SAMPLER) (1985)

In mid 80s Canada, Attic Records was big into the weightless sounding adult instrumental scene. This record could sometimes be seen in your local bookstore or new-age boutique of the era, usually with Windham Hill or Heart-Music Sri Chinmoy cassettes. I didn't own it, but easily could have. I didn't know much about the new age, or architectural music, but I knew a girl who played ethereal flute through a Mr. Microphone and almost killed me with beauty. 

With Seigen Ono, Ichiko Hashimoto, Masahide Sukama, Yoshio Suzuki

Dream It...

SLEEPERS (1985)

This 1985 collection of "lull music," compositions and sounds from many of the now legendary sonic artists who found themselves in NY during the 80s. Whether this album of not-quite-soothing, dissonant timbres can fairly qualify as a "sleep aid" is debatable, but we'll take them at their word and label it so. Some people can sleep through anything. And I'm sure those were crazy days, where drifting off to this made sense. Thanks to P.E. for this, and many others. 

P. Oliveros, A. Lockwood, I. Mimaroglu, T. Johnson, A. Knowles, etc.

For you dedicated sleepers, you...

FRANC1S BEBEY - P1ÈCES P0UR GU1TARE SEULE (1965)

Bebey's sprawling sonic vision--and prodigious, polymathic talents--are on full display here...two early compositions for solo guitar. Gorgeous, spacious phrasing. Mesmerizing pluckery. A smart, soulful deep-dive into the quandaries/quagmires of genre, the musicology of empire. (Check his essay "La radiodiffusion en Afrique Noire", 1963)

(We previously posted on his album of sanza work (1982-84) here.)

Dream it here...

D10N MCGREG0R - THE FURTHER S0MNILOQU1ES OF D10N MCGREG0R (2004)

In the spirit of book-keeping here at OWOD, we must now present the long promised 3rd collection of Mr. McGregor's nocturnal transmissions from the other side of consciousness. As you may recall, this fellow dreams out loud, delivering an unequaled, often narrative, first-person reportage directly from the depths of slumberland. I recently learned there is a fourth volume of these 1960s recordings that has been released.

Hear the inside of the dreaming brain here...

MOT0HIRO N4KASH1MA - AND I WENT TO SLEEP (2004)

It has been hard to sleep. Some years now, some seasons. And yet dreams permeate the waking hours. I can't sleep so I sleepwalk while awake. Patience is a virtue. I thank anyone who still possesses any. Or at least dreams about it. Love, happiness, and blissful bewilderment to you all. 

Mr. Nakashima is from Osaka. These spacious pieces are as warm & cuddly as they are downtempo chill.

Dream it here...

DREAM WATER

Just an image.

No need to purchase this product, just dream about it. It only works in dreams anyway.

YUN0 - M00D1E (2018)

We have, admittedly, been neglecting our duties. The lawn has turned to hay and sparks with the rustle of the dry breeze.

The only breezy summer album that has sustained our sweaty, hallucinating selves is this EP. And it's not so cheerful, essentially a heartbreak album. Nonetheless, if you will please pardon the tautology, the chillwave chill of this album does provide some chilliness with which to comfortably chill.

Here, like the consolation of an air-conditioner in an otherwise stifling, lonely apartment. 

EIV1ND A4RSET - DREAM L0GIC (2012)

A day of house cleaning and taking stock. Today, a not-so-random rattle bag of recordings spanning the various fetishistic threads of dreams, dreaming and dreamwork you'll find in our archives: idiorrhythmic jazz, ambient space-out fodder, sleep/dream aids, plucky 'n lush solo strings, nature sounds, field recordings, folk music from the future-past.

Mr. Aarset's ECM album of collaborations with programmer / sampler Jan Bang is an appropriate segue to our line-up: music that halts, digresses, loses and gains rhythm without sacrificing the lulling and associative affects of dream logic.

Get it here.

ANDRÉ H4MEL / LA NEF ENSEMBLE - LES MUSIQUES D'URN0S (2017)

This outstanding release by Quebec composer Hamel features the Early Music NEF ensemble. The stunning project attempts to resurrect the 5000 year old music and instruments of the Urnos shepherd people in the Harappan-era Indus Valley.

As I understand it, evidence of advanced musical notation was discovered in the region around 1940. Hamel has spent years piecing together and imagining the melodies and musical rituals of this marginal historical community, resulting in this bagpipe-addled masterpiece of primordial revelry, droning folk/baroque tones and  mystifying, dream-worthy beauty.

Dream it here...

G. SCHIAFF1NI / M. IANNACC0NE - MEMO FR0M (1979)

We inch closer to completing our collection of Italian DIVerso posts. Here is the 11th of 12 releases from the Cramps label in the late 1970s (this is #12 in the series, but we have not been posting them in order).

This is a brass and percussion duet session of what seems mostly true free improv... a warm, charming dialogue of minimal, spacious gestures and textures, with moments of unpredictable cross-chatter and direct argument arising from time to time. The series' unique, intimate tone remains safely in place here. Our dream of fully assembling and posting the complete collection is close at hand.

Here...

THE FOLKL0RE OF PL4NTS (2017)

Works by 31 artists comprise this fructuous, conceptual compilation:  "Flora Britannica, the matter of Britain. This island’s plants clothe the landscape, characterising the country, lending it colour, scent and texture. They also colour the human imagination, suffusing it with a heady pharmacopoeia of mythic legends, local tales and magical lore."

Short pieces: meditative, pastoral, elemental, summery. Highlights include J. Bonnetta, Paper Dollhouse, Sam McLoughlin, Bridget Hayden, Dean McPhee, Modern Studies among many.

Midsummer's eve potions and poisons....

M0NA LING - HOW TO GET APPOINTMENTS BY TELEPH0NE (c.1960)

Speaking of collections, we've been interjecting these short lessons in  "professional telephone use" into some of our playlists to enduring amusement. (We date the album based on the red Western Electric / Bell Model 500 pictured, its ABS plastics, G1 headset and clear fingerwheel).

Ms. Ling's album, produced by the Success Motivation Institute, Inc., must have been written by her--it is narrated by some uncredited man. One track, "How to Write a Telephone Presentation" can almost be seen as a bizarre precursor example to McLuhan's media theories, if not also Kittler or Derrida. 

Brrrring brrrrrrrring...

M0RI CH1EKO - KATY0U FUUGETSU (2006)

Ms. Mori is a Koto virtuoso who began playing the instrument at age three. This solo album, augmented at times with her voice, brings the classical-folk tradition of her instrument into the world of the uncanny--where lyricality, spaciousness and intricately woven rhythmic textures meet dissonance, digression and chaos. A dream music smear of gagaku court music, country blues, and outsider serialist improv lullaby. Something that sounds at times like a hybrid of Yoritsube Matsudaira, John Fahey, Joanna Newsom and Derek Bailey. Beautiful.

Dream it...

J0EY BAR0N / R0BYN SCHULK0WSKY - NOW Y0U HEAR ME (2018)

Two percussionists. Love this. For those who both seek and find solace and restfulness in tapping, swishing and a near lack of melody. The opposite of a clock ticking in your bedroom, but nearly as gentle. I'm not weird, you're weird. See if this helps you drift off, awake or in bed. 

FRED FR1TH - R1VERS & TIDES (2003)

Frith's soundtrack to a documentary on artist Andy Goldsworthy, directed by Mr. T. Riedelsheimer. Subtitled "Working with Time." Guided by piano, violin, and soprano sax. Like our waterways, this is serene, calming and meditative, but also churning, surging and, at times, roaring. (More Frith soundtrack work here).

It is sometimes said that water in dreams is an image of the unconscious reflecting itself.

DREAM S0NGS AND HEAL1NG S0UNDS IN THE RA1NF0RESTS OF MALAYS1A (1995)

Traditional music from the peoples of the Malaysian rainforest to aid and guide dreams, interact with the spirit world, and provide curative benefits. While we can't attest to the last two claims, we did find, in our limited testing, that this music works best while fully asleep, or when you need some mental space while performing taskwork while awake.

Dream to dream ...

M1LT0N CARD0NA - CAMBUCHA (CARMEN) (1999)

Ending today's posts with some ass-shaking Caribbean party music for backyard decks and BBQs.

Dream it...

BIRD S0NGS IN Y0UR GARDEN (1961)

We've been inside, staying out of the sun and in the office. This doesn't mean our minds are not on those lounge chairs in the back yard. Professor Peter Paul Kellogg--renowned orthithologist and parabolic microphone innovator--carefully and crisply recorded these chirps and songs, while his mentor at Cornell University, Arthur A. Allen, provides the narration/ bird identification (side two is narration free). This project was also produced by the Houghton Mifflin Co. and the Federation of Ontario Naturalists in later 1963 editions, for those who care.

It's been awhile since we played and posted some unproduced nature sounds...dream it here.

V1DNA 0BMANA - S0UNDTRACK FOR THE AQUAR1UM (2001)

Swimming in rivers and oceans. Dreaming the life aquatic. In the early 1990s, Antwerp Zoo commissioned a series of soundtracks for their aquarium--atmospheric, watery and otherworldly sounds from two local Belgian acts, V.Obmana (D. Serries) and industrial-ambient-tribal band Hybryds. While the Zoo put out a sampling under their own imprimatur in 1993, today we present both works in their full-album formats.

Here is Vidna's collected recordings, compositions and field recordings (remastered) including a live performance from 1993.

So gentle, dreamy and...wet

HYBRYDS - S0UNDTRACK F0R THE AQUAR1UM (1995)

While you could safely play Vidna's album for your infant children and ensure a gentle night's sleep, the offering from Hybryds is a more haunting, brooding affair. Also rich with field recordings, these works bubble and froth with the sounds of the dark and the deep.

Submerge yourself in it...

ZEENA PARK1NS - N1GHTMARE ALLEY (1993)

The dreams that are the flip side of dreams. Dark days, darker nights. The screen door is unlocked, knocking in the wind. The way the mind takes you to what you dread most. Nightmares are not the opposite of dreams, but corollary. They are places of vulnerability and fixation, embedded into the act of dreaming itself, including our drives, desires and cultural production. The line between nightmares and dreams is not only razor-thin, it's permeable. We dream of money, carnality. We dream of what we fear. There is someone standing in the shadows of the darkened room.

The incredible Ms. Parkins--and her marvelous electric harp--begin our walk through the nightmare alleys.

KENY0N H0PK1NS - N1GHTMARE!! (1962)

The sleeve states: "And you awaken with perspiration, sick with dread. But you were thankful to be awake. It was so real. The memory of it has already started to recede down the hallway of your mind. But it was so real! You can recall, just barely, the dim circle of light in which you stood white it waited patiently in the darkness beyond. And the light grew fainter...."

"Here are 13 private hells in which time has already run out. Here are nightmares from which there is no wakening."

N4SH THE SLASH - DREAMS AND N1GHTMARES (1979)

The late Mr. Slash (1948-2014) divided his record into Left Side and Right Side, an apropos reminder of the dream/nightmare dialectic and the brain's conjoined hemispheres. The dream state: ingrained and engrained...wax cylinders and neural plasticity.

This stark offering of synth-drenched sonic architecture was composed as a soundtrack to Luis Buñuel's silent film Un Chien Andalou (1928). You may be a peculiar sort, one able to groove to this moody, propulsive score, but you may find yourself feeling claustrophobic and slightly techno-fascistic, if perhaps in an Ontario kind of way. Synthpop for sweating. New wave for discomfort. Space goth blues for tossing and turning...

DR. EUGENE WE1NBERG - A CHILD'S CRY: A CLUE TO DIAGN0SIS (1971)

In our deepest nightmares children cry. They are out of reach, out of sight...sad, lost, gone, disappeared, in pain, dead. The only drive stronger than the death drive is of course the parental drive. To protect, to understand, to relieve our children of discomfort, confusion, fear, and pain.

Dreams of crying here...

(This album was produced by Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company, so we'll add it to our Dreamwork of Capital medical category. Also, as a potential antidote, we have Soothing Sounds for Babies here.)

CURRENT 93 / S1CKNESS OF SNAKES - N1GHTMARE CULTURE (1985)

A split-album of gothic sound-collage experimentalism featuring one longish Current track (with S. Stapleton and D. Tibet) displaying their most apocalyptic of nightmares, and three short dark ambient tracks from the one-off pre-Coil project by J. Balance and P. Christopherson. These are the sounds of the dreaming brain consumed by fears of impending doom.

Dream it...

ALAN JEFFERS0N - GALACT1C N1GHTMARE (2015)

Self-recorded in the UK from 1979-1985--and previously released only on cassette--this space-based musical drama may be less of a nightmare than its title suggests. But viewed in a lineage with HG Well's War of the Worlds, this work offers up a compelling dystopian adventure rife with dark disco and campy nightmarescapes.

Dream it...

EL1ZABETH CLARE PR0PHET - S0UNDS OF AMERICAN DOOMSDAY CULTS (1984)

Chants, sermons and invocations from Ms. Prophet on behalf of the Church Universal & Triumphant, Inc. in Montana. I'm not too sure of the subtleties of their core principles. They do pay credence to a group of "ascended masters" including Christ, Buddha, El Moyra, Zarathustra, Hercules and the arc-angel Michael. They also certainly hate popular music and mass culture, which they pray to destroy. While this is certainly terrifying stuff, perhaps the most nightmarish quality is their unique (can we say innovative?) chanting style that could likely emerge from (or into) your most discomforting dream.

Dream it here...

DANTE / JOHN C1ARDI - THE INFERNO (CANTOS 1-8) (1959)

Folkways released this Immortal Drama of a Journey Through Hell, with the poet Ciardi guiding the way with monotone severity. "Abandon all hope all ye who enter here," Dante tells us. Indeed, the relationships between nightmares, death and even hell is on full display here. These connections--ingrained through centuries of acculturation--continue to underpin our unconscious thoughts and dreams. And they continue to bubble up in our waking hours, guiding both our social interactions and civilizing impulses (see Freud, here).

Dreaming Divine Dark Comedy...

D4NNY ELFMAN - THE N1GHTMARE BEF0RE CHR1STMAS (1993)

Here, at OWOD, our nightmares are filled with failure. We find ourselves at concerts where we learn we are to perform live without having rehearsed. We find ourselves in classrooms, unprepared for exams, and at the podiums of lecture halls without any notes. In this spirit, we present this soundtrack to the Tim Burton film, meant to be posted for Halloween (along with the whole nightmare sequence) and haunting our thoughts and dreams since.

Here it is...

JUST1N WALTER - LULLAB1ES AND N1GHTMARES (2013)

We'll end the day's posts with this wonderful trumpet-aided salve. Electronic atmospherics, both soothing and dreamy, and menacing and grating.

Sweet Nightmares, Baby...

J0E FRANK - DREAMS IN PROGRESS (AN OWOD MIX)

Time slows to viscous trickle around here. Days, nights come and go imperceptibly. The dog lays unmoving on the floor. The employees stare blankly at their screens. We fight to keep going.

Joe Frank (1938-2018) made over 250 hours of distinct, mindblowing radio works for NPR and KCRW Santa Monica over the course of 40 years. His monologues, dramas, and improvisations speak to the dreaminess of late-night America, the media of radiowaves and car travel, and the immersive, wayward possibilities of narrative voice itself. Here, we select and sample eight works (four hours) of short and long length spanning much of his career: specifically his works on (and within) the subject of dreams.

RIP, JF...

JÓH4NN JÓHANNSS0N - C0PENHAGEN DREAMS (2012)

J. Jóhannsson: 1969 - 2018.

A soundtrack to the documentary by M. Kestner. Vocals by Ms. H. Guðnadóttir.

RIP, JJ....

ORCHESTRE B4LIGH HAMD1 - L0VE ST0RY (1971?)

Here's a record of Eygptian mood-jazz from one of the country's greatest songwriters and composers. Psych-tinged easy listening. Off-kilter serialism, diversions into melodic reverie, a sound that manages to make the exotic exotic.

Dream it here...

EL1ANE R4D1GUE - MILA'S J0URNEY INSP1RED BY A DREAM (1987)

Two electronic dream-themed works today. Tried and tested while awake, in fatigue and in sleep. Highly recommended.

Ms. Radigue's Mila is Milarepa, the 11th century Tibetan Yogi. His place in sacred history is etched into the Kagyu "Whispered Transmission" lineage of Tibetan Buddhism; he is one of the sect's so-called Four Pillars. It is claimed he built and founded the large, nine-storey towered monastery in Lhodrag. His story is one of spite, revenge, sorcery and murder, as well as redemption, extreme self-deprivation and eventual enlightenment. He is often depicted with a greenish tone...for much of his later life he supposedly subsisted on a diet of nettle tea, a practice that tinted his skin.

Radigue spent over 20 years studying Milarepa's life, songs and poems, this 1984 recording being one of many works from this period. Robert Ashley narrates the story of the dream-inspired titular journey, while Lama Rinpoche interprets Mila's song--poems that, it is said, would erupt spontaneously from the Yogi's lips in times of enlightened states of consciousness. Radigue scores the polyvocal narrative with an unyielding yet gentle field of drone.

Dreaming into action...

ANNEA L0CKWOOD - TH0USAND YE4R DREAM1NG (1993)

As many of our posts are clearly beginning to suggest, many dream-makers tend to look eastward. Represented in sound, the patently uncanny logic of dreams often seems to lend itself to the foreign, the exotic, the orientalist. Thus even an album like this one--ostensibly about the Lascaux cave paintings--transforms contemplation of paleolithic life into something both tribal and zen-like. Here, didgeridoos, conch shells, rattles and frame-drums pull a brass and woodwind ensemble into a kind of primal and primativist study of timbre. A beautiful evocation from the fearful, mystical and mystifying youth of our species. (Check our previous Lockwood post here).

We post the 2007 reissue with Floating World (1999), an unprocessed tape-based, sound collage. 1,000 years.

TAKU SUG1M0TO - OPPOS1TE (1998)

One of only three releases by the briefly existing hatNOIR imprint from the Hat folks in Switzerland. A solo recording from this versatile guitarist and frequent Otomo Yoshihide collaborator. Spaciousness, quietness and understatement--restrained understatement even--permeate this solo recording, as well as our waking dreams.

Breathe it in...

OWOD MIX #02 - FLOUNDER, BE FALCON (2017)

A snapshot of playlist-singles from our dream-fodder folder: alphabetical by artist.

1) F. Hardy - Rêve 2) F. Sinatra - Deep in a Dream 3) I. Mori - Dream 4) J. Struntz & A. Farah - Tangle of Dreams 5) Lali Puna - Together In Electric Dreams 6) L. Anderson - Dreaming of Life Before Birth 7) L. Hazlewood - Won't You Tell Your Dreams? 8) Reed/Cale - A Dream 9) L. Connors/S. Langille - I Wish I Didn't Dream 10) M. Monroe - I Found a Dream 11) M. Chieko - Dreams 12) Nexus/Earle Birney - Ebb Begins from Dream 13) NOMA - Desert Dog 14) P. Bowles - Sleeping Song 15) P. Scherer - Horses Star in My Dreams 16) Phew - Dream 17) P. Glass - Video Dream 18) R. Blake - Nica's Dream 19) R. Slavin - Dreamzone 525 20) R. Lussier - Les Fesses de la Reine 21) R. Amarante - Fall Asleep 22) Sleeping People - Out Dream 23) Stirrup - Domi's Dream 24) Suicide - Dreams 25) S. Ciani - Thirteenth Voice 26) Trans Am - Night Dreaming 27) V. Astley - Afternoon: Summer of Their Dreams 28) Y. Honda - I Dream about You

HANNE DARB0VEN - OPUS 17A (1996)

We played a long composition from an art installation today. Double bassist R. Black performs the late German conceptual artist's Opus 17A, one of her maddening "mathmatical compositions" from her Wunschkonzert series, a grapho-maniacal installation of over 1,000 pages of notes, numbers and notations. This is a rare disc from the Dia Center, and another exemplar leitmotif of music for art.

For us today, it's music for dreaming while working...

M4R1O SCH1AN0 - AND H1S ALL ST4RS (1978)

We listened to this today: our 10th of the 12 DIVerso Series. This is an all-star big band that includes only Schiano on his sax with subtle synths by a Mr. F. De Sanctis--part lounge act, part dancehall gig--that soars and stumbles, swings, slumps and shrieks. We do love pursuing the collection of a good, rare series.

Keeping the dream alive...

M0NS4NTO CHEM1CAL C0MP4NY - ONB SAMBA / M0NS4NTO MARCH (1953)

Then this. With the help of the Don Juan Quartet, Monsanto self-released these two promotional tunes on 78 rpm. The first, a nervy yet bouncin' latin-tinged number is subtitled "music about a chemical"; the flip-side features the Monsanto March, a piece that seems like it might have been a rejected early soundtrack from an "on-hold" telephone call.

This record fits our previous entries of the dreamstates inherent in the aural representations we classify as "easy listening" as well as into our posts on corporate music/recordings.

GMO soundscape here....

AHMED MALEK (W/ FL4K0)- THE ELECTR1C TAPES (2017)

At some point later we listened to this jewel of Algerian ambient--an unfinished project from the late film composer recorded primarily in the late 1970s and early 80s. An expansive, meditative project of sounds both earthly and cosmic. Pure magic.

Dream it ...

(We obvs adore the historical afritronica resurgence: see Jagwa, Mergia, El Omari, Bebey)

R. MURRAY SCHAFER - THE VANC0UVER S0UNDSCAPE (1973)

We also played this today, adding to our sonic locations series. 'Unseen Sounds' and Acoustic Ecologies from the North American West coast ... the unyielding rhythms of nature, industry, commerce, socialization and celebration in full, beautiful splendor.

Dream it...

[Previous Soundsites: The Hudson River / New Hope, PA  / Vancouver, BC / Glacier Bay, AK / Tropical Rainforest / American Fast Food Restaurants / American Offices, Ross Dependancy (Anarctica) / Junk Yards / Holland by Boat]

1891 C0LLECTION: READ BY BELL0NA TIMES (2013)

Here are a few quick associative rejoinders to our posts, yesterday, on Sigmund Freud. The first, from LibriVox, an organization dedicated to the "acoustical liberation of books in the public domain" looks at 1891--the year, incidentally, Freud published his first solo effort, On Aphasia, and moved into his flat at Berggasse 19 in Vienna, where he would write all of his major works. This anthology, however, has nothing to do with Freud. Instead we get 4 hours of amazing period pieces, set firmly within the dreamscape of the Modern: texts by Sir Conan Doyle, Edith Wharton, Oscar Wilde and Lafcadio Hearn; pieces on American Hotels, Bohemian Scandals, Soup, and the Legacy of Antiquity.

Dream it all: Part One and Part Two.

NECR0POLIS, AMPH1BIANS & REPTILES: THE MUSIC OF AD0LF WÖLFLI (1986)

Wölfli's pathetic and gruesome life, most of it spent institutionalized near Bern, Switzerland from 1895-1930, gave rise to a monumental outpouring of primatif drawings and text (over 25,000 pages). Much of this material was accompanied by cryptic graphic musical scores. Wölfli himself would practice his works on a paper trumpet.

His psychologist, Dr. Walter Morgenthaler, a former student and protegé of Freud, archived Wölfli's work and produced Madness and Art: The Life and Works of Adolf Wölfli in 1921. It was Rilke who gave the book to Freud...to which the doctor pronounced the artist a "Geisteskrank Künstler." As Freud realized, this work was a product of the modern mind in psychic turmoil, somehow explicable.

This compilation disc captures Wölfli's compositions via interpretations by Nurse W/ Wound, G. Revell, and DDAA (who feature the paper trumpet).