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....