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sinceileftyoublog · 2 years

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Kyle Hamlett Duo Interview: Into the Grey

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Sometimes, all it takes is a few instruments, an old house, and two free days to make magic. Such was the case for Tape Diamonds (Arrowhawk), the new album from singer-songwriter Kyle Hamlett and pedal steel extraordinaire Luke Schneider.

Hamlett and Schneider played together for a long time in Lylas, a psychedelic band centered around Hamlett’s compositions that saw a rotating cast of members and last released an album in 2017. Since then, Hamlett started to release finger-picked folk songs under his own name, including his debut solo LP Nowhere Far. Schneider, meanwhile, started to make his name as a session player for the likes of Margo Price, Orville Peck, and Lilly Hiatt, all while becoming a key player in a burgeoning Nashville scene of ambient Americana and receiving loads of critical praise for his 2020 new age pedal steel album Altar of Harmony, released via Third Man Records. Over the winter, Hamlett took advantage of fortunate timing and brought a batch of songs, guitars, harmonica, melodica, percussion instruments, and a Tascam 388 tape recorder to a heat-less house off of Music Row, inviting Schneider to lay his woozy pedal steel and dobro over some compositions that followed the Nowhere Far writing sessions. The result was Tape Diamonds, an appropriately named record that finds breadth in the smallest of moments.

The songs on Tape Diamonds contain roughly the same ingredients: Hamlett’s acoustic guitar, self-described “impressionistic” lyrics, and laid-back, gentle singing, and Schneider’s glistening pedal steel. Yet, each of them give off distinct vibes. Opener “Expected Of” is quietly jubilant, with its jaunty picking and buzzing harmonica. “South”, on the contrary, dabbles in melancholy and nostalgia, similar to the type of Americana that Schneider practices on his solo records and with Nashville Ambient Ensemble. Engineer Jake Davis captures eons of emotion with simple effects, like the trailing echo on Hamlett’s voice on “ZZZ”, fleeting like a ghost of someone’s past. Some of the very song titles reflect the push-pull of Hamlett and Schneider’s paradoxically simultaneous qualities; “Almost Motion” and “Fast As Vaseline” could be tags on Bandcamp attached to Tape Diamonds. Best, the two players revisited existing tunes with the same plaintive, yet adventurous spirit with which they approached Hamlett’s new songs, adapting Lylas’ “Years & Years” and The Smiths’ “Death of a Disco Dancer” to contemporary ears.

Last month, I spoke with Hamlett over the phone from his house in Nashville about Tape Diamonds, working with Schneider again, winter, and his current relationship with The Smiths. Read our conversation below, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: What made now the right time to finally sit down with Luke and record Tape Diamonds?

Kyle Hamlett: It was a timing thing. Lylas for a long time had been a rotating cast but had settled into a pretty steady lineup around the mid Aughts. A couple of those guys got really busy with other projects, and we couldn’t work on as much Lylas stuff. I didn’t want to call anything I was doing that didn’t involve them “Lylas,” so I gave myself permission to do stuff under my own name, which I had been resisting for a long time, for whatever reason. In doing so, I got back in touch with Luke, who was having a pause in his busy schedule. We just dove in. I wrote those songs right after I had written some other songs that would end up being my first “solo album,” so it was this burst of writing that felt like a bit of liberation and [a realization that,] “I can do this by myself, or I can do this with Luke, and it will be just a two-piece.” [I] was reigning it in, a bit less structured.

SILY: How would you compare working with Luke in a full band versus working with him in just a duo?

KH: That’s a great question. In a larger band, there’s less sonic space to ask for. He does such beautiful, textural things so well, he stretches out more and leans into that. He’s a very sensitive listener, and no matter the setting, doesn’t put anything in that doesn’t need to be there. He’s not a guy that plays just to play. That sensibility remained. But by nature of the sparsity of the duo thing, he had more room to put his psychedelic textures in the forefront.

SILY: Yours and his guitar playing, by virtue of both your playing style and the quality of the instruments themselves, are distinct. The songs that start with you versus the songs that start with him end up with different feelings. How did you decide who would come in first on each song?

KH: Certain songs felt a bit more open. Most of them originated from songs I had written on the guitar and showed to him, so if there was one with a busier finger-picking pattern, it made more sense for me to start it or for us to start together. But if it was a slower, more spacious one, with a deliberate or dragging tempo, it was nice to have a bit of a color there [for Luke to provide] a sonic bed for things to sit in. The tempo and feel of the songs suggested that to us.

SILY: Was there something in general that inspired the lyrics?

KH: It depends on the song. A couple were definitely inspired by specific instances and experiences I’ve had. They’re all kind of impressionistic. I like dream-like lyrics and lyrics that leave room for the listener’s imagination. I don’t want to dictate too much what you’re supposed to be experiencing. A lot of them were born from what the music seemed to suggest. Even the ones based on some real-life experience tend to be abstracted.

SILY: Did the time of year you recorded Tape Diamonds have an effect on the final product? Do you find it a particularly wintry or pastoral record?

KH: I tend to shift. One winter, I’ll want rock and roll, and another winter, I’ll want something soft and acoustic. But we principally recorded it on a very cold day in this old house on Music Row, and Luke literally had a blanket on his pedal steel to keep it in tune. Everything was slipping and weird, and the [heat] was out. That’s definitely infused in my memory. [Tape Diamonds] doesn’t feel inseparable from that to me. I feel like I wrote some of the songs in a summer/fall kind of state. But it definitely works for winter and colder weather.

SILY: The great irony of Chicago winters is that even when it’s bitingly cold, it’s so blindingly sunny. I feel like the shimmery nature of the music will be a good soundtrack to a Chicago winter.

KH: “Shimmery” is a perfect word for Luke’s textures. Chicago winters: I’ve only been there a couple times, and they feel pretty brutal. I’m super impressed whenever I meet somebody who has lived there for a long time. It’s pretty hard not to be beaten down by the consistent cold.

SILY: There’s no such thing as bad weather--just bad coats!

KH: I like that.

SILY: Did you have a general approach to the sequencing of the record, or at least to groups of a couple tracks that sounded good back-to-back?

KH: We were thinking of the flow of everything, sonically more so than thematically or lyrically or with any kind of arc. It was just about what seemed like a good start, what seemed like a good way to follow that up, and what the next song needed. It was intuitive. I remember sending it to Luke, and he had one or two suggestions, but it was something we both agreed on pretty quickly. We can sometimes have very different opinions and know what we like or don’t like. I was surprised we agreed so quickly.

SILY: I really like “ZZZ”, which is a very fleeting song, even in terms of the trailing on your voice. To follow it with something as expansive as “Night Nurse” was very effective.

KH: Thanks. Some of them are a little more expansive and long, and we didn’t want too many of them in a row, or some of the shorter ones [in a row, for that matter.]

SILY: What’s your and Luke’s relationship with The Smiths, in the past and now, and how did you approach the cover?

KH: We both have historically liked The Smiths quite a bit. I remember in one of our first conversations, I was very much responding to Morrissey’s lyrics and poetry and vocal approach, and Luke was very into Johnny Marr’s radical and unconventional guitar arrangements and structures. We were geeking out. We bonded over them for a long time. A friend’s wife told me years ago she thought Lylas should cover “Death of a Disco Dancer”, and it never happened. For some reason, I thought it would be fun to do that now since we were playing together again--Luke was playing pretty regularly with Lylas at that point. It was fun to cover the Lylas song “Years & Years”, too. That was one of the first songs Luke played pedal steel on, so it was fun to have a reunion on that one. But back to The Smiths: I can’t fully speak for Luke with where he’s at with them now. Morrissey is obviously a problematic, opinionated, toxic guy in some ways. But the poetry and music in that song in particular still speak to a higher truth for me most of the time.

I heard somebody in an interview refer to Woody Allen as “the late Woody Allen.” I thought, “Are we going to have to start referring to Morrissey that way, too?”

SILY: Why did you release “Expected Of” as the first single?

KH: That was one of the last ones I wrote. I wrote that one and “New Orbit” after the initial reacquaintance of myself and Luke. I wrote it in a burst of inspiration by how easy and fun it was to play with Luke. Because it was the newer of them, it was more exciting to me than some of the songs I was thinking about for a while. There’s also an immediacy to it, which I like. It doesn’t have pedal steel, so in a way it’s a little unrepresentative of what you get from the rest of [Tape Diamonds], but I like that. It sets you up to be surprised. It’s not an encapsulation of everything. It [also] sounded great to me. [Engineer] Jake Davis got great guitar, voice, dobro, and percussion sounds.

SILY: “New Orbit” is one of a few song titles on here that get at the vibe of the record, the contradictory nature of the record being both expansive and immediate. The other are “Almost Motion” and “Fast as Vaseline”. They’re paradoxical and appropriate.

KH: I like paradoxes in words and phrases and sounds. It’s nice to think about the context of just the sound. We’re shooting for something a little more extensive and mysterious. One of my favorite things is to have a lyric almost immediately contradict itself. I’m thinking of The Beatles’ “Revolution”, when John Lennon sings, “You can count me out--in.” It goes along with especially what he’s saying, such a bold anthemic statement immediately undercut in a way that somehow gives it more gravity to me. That’s something I’ve always responded to. I very rarely trust absolutes. The grey areas are always more interesting. Contradictions are more thought-provoking to me.

SILY: What’s the inspiration behind the album title?

KH: Funny story. We recorded [Tape Diamonds] on Tascam 388. I actually had a little reel of tape I took to the first session, [thinking to myself,] “This album’s gonna live on a little piece of tape.” If we botched the take, we would record over that take. A couple times, if we did the song a little faster, when we got to the end, there would be a little residual bit from the previous take. Are you familiar with the musical term “diamonds,” where it’s just a big open hit, like, “Dunnnnnn”? [Because] there are a couple songs that end and then end again. The one that made it onto the record is “Rocky 13″. You hear it end and then a little flash from the previous take. We kind of just coined those “Tape Diamonds,” and I liked the phrasing of it. It’s also a contradiction, if you think of tape being very analog, sticky, visceral, and tactile, and diamonds being a more glamorous, regal, hard thing. It’s a neat, evocative phrase to me. It’s funny it was an in-joke that started during the sessions.

SILY: What’s the story behind the cover art?

KH: That’s from a photo my wife took. She’s a visual artist, and when I have a project nearing completion, I start talking to her about it. She’s usually very familiar with the material and where it’s headed. I don’t think I had any ideas, really. She had taken the photograph and asked what I thought about it. I showed Luke, and he and I had talked about it a bit. He liked a lot of private press new age LPs and wanted a sensibility that felt a bit like that, so he thought this was perfect. Another thing we could have not landed on so easily, but something about that photo hit the right nerve for all of us.

SILY: What else is next for you?

KH: There’s nothing left over from this session, as far as I recall, but I’d love to do more with Luke. We haven’t begun that process yet, but I have a couple songs I’d like to do with him. I’d also like to open it up to more 50/50 collaboration if that’s cool with him. If he’s making his own ambient pedal steel music at the time, he might not have energy for it. But if he’s in the zone, it might be cool for us to build up the soundscapes together and have it less of me coming in with my song and adding his beautiful textures to it. It would be fun to have it happen a little more in the moment, in the room. We’ll see what actually shakes out.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately you’ve enjoyed?

KH: I’ve been catching up on Stranger Things. I’m a Kate Bush fan and am thrilled [“Running Up That Hill”] is in most peoples’ ears right now. Hopefully, that will make the human race more positive and understanding people, having that little bit of cosmic heaven in their ear. But I haven’t reached that season yet; I’m at the end of season 3. I’m reading Carl Jung’s autobiography right now, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, which is incredibly fascinating. I’m listening to a lot of Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music, Robyn Hitchcock, and The Cleaners From Venus. Midnight Cleaners has been on heavy rotation; “Only a Shadow” is a timeless piece of music.

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doomandgloomfromthetomb · 7 months

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Prairiewolf - Lagniappe Session

We checked out an I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One-era Yo La Tengo tape yesterday ... today, we've got Prairiewolf covering an ICHTHBAO classic. Jeremy, Stefan and I made our Lagniappe Session debut over on Aquarium Drunkard this week with our take on YLT's luminous/lovely "Green Arrow" alongside an extended/extremely heady rendition of the unclassifiable Eddie Harris/Melvin Jackson jam "Silver Cycles." Huzzah for gratis grooves! Thank you to AD for asking us to be a part of the Lagniappe legacy. An honor and a privilege.

What else!? Prairiewolf is playing a show THIS FRIDAY down in Denver at Enigma Bazaar. It's a stacked bill, featuring the mighty Moon Bros. and The International Disassociation of Aaron Dooley. You don't want to miss it. Afterwards, Aaron is taking his crew out on the road for an honest-to-goodness tour, going all over the place. Check out the dates and go see him!

More???! How about Of Ambience and Americana, a killer Centripetal Force collection that just showed up this week, offering up some very sweet "ambient Americana" zones. Prairiewolf's "Lunar Deluxe" makes an appearance — and I'd be lying if I didn't swell up with pride seeing our name listed amongst so many greats: Nashville Ambient Ensemble, Eve Maret, Joseph Allred and more. Go get it!

ONE MORE THING. Golden Brown's Wide Ranging Rider is out NOW on Inner Islands — and I implore you to grab your copy. The more I listen, the more I'm convinced that it's Stefan's best work yet, stripping things back considerably, but still finding an expansive, magical vibe. A raspberry cloud to float away on ...

#prairiewolf #lagniappe sessions #aquarium drunkard #aaron dooley #moon bros.#golden brown #yo la tengo #melvin jackson #eddie harris

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theam-cjsw · 4 months

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AM Gold 2023: Part One

AM Gold (Part 1 of 2): A look back at some favourite releases from 2023, crossing genres and continents to find the best early-morning sounds. Hope you enjoy, and stay tuned for Part 2 next week.

(For the full list of 100 AM Gold albums, head on over yonder)

Listen on Soundcloud

Stream from CJSW

Hour One:

Chrysalis Golden Brown • Weird Choices

Sundog Nico Georis • Cloud Suites

Burner Phone Peace Flag Ensemble • Astral Plains

Floating With an Intimate Stranger Mike Reed • Separatist Party

Prism Nashville Ambient Ensemble • Light and Space

An Apology Ivan the Tolerable • Under Magnetic Mountain

137 Riddle Brendan Eder Ensemble • Therapy

Imprints of the Circle Buildings and Food • Infinity Plus One

Into Through Exit Wormhole Test Card • Channels

Abstract Sky Violeta Vicci • Cavaglia

Ode ao Gato Pedro Ricardo • Soprem Bons Ventos

Hour Two:

A Time to Blossom Modern Cosmology • What Will You Grow Now?

Fin du monde N NAO • L'eau et les rêves

Pan Over the Hill ML Buch • Suntub

You Do It Marlene Ribeiro • Toquei no Sol

Nuska Maya Ongaku • Approach to Anima

mdhvn Markus Floats • Fourth Album

Momentary Hollie Kenniff • We All Have Places That We Miss

Kuroganemochi Hochzeitskapelle • The Orchestra In The Sky [Kobe + Tokyo Recordings]

Hour Three:

Forecast NETRVNNER • Phantom

Faster Than the Medicine Lael Neale • Star Eaters Delight

Magic Baby Cool • Earthling On The Road To Self Love

Aselestine Yo La Tengo • This Stupid World

100 Years Ryan Bourne • Plant City

Cosmic Bliss Misha Panfilov • In Focus

A Return from Ashes The Ironsides • Changing Light

It's Been So Long Bristol Manor • The Other Side

Sunny Afternoon Pia Fraus • Evening Colours

Diskbänksrealism Ulrika Spacek • Compact Trauma

A Worker’s Graveyard (Poor Eternal) ALL HANDS_MAKE LIGHT • "Darling the Dawn"

Time White Poppy • Sound of Blue

#music #cjsw #playlist #podcast #radio #ambient #electronic music #new music

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nwdsc · 2 years

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(▶︎ Earthing | TENGGERから)

韓国

Earthing by TENGGER

If you are interested in only the digital edition of 'Earthing' you can get it here: tengger.bandcamp.com/album/earthing TENGGER is a traveling musical family, made up of Pan-Asian couple, ITTA (from South Korea) and MARQIDO (from Japan), who create their brand of psychedelic New-Age drone magic through the use of voice, harmonium, toy instruments (played by ITTA), as well as synths and electronics (played by MARQIDO). The duo originally started out with the moniker “10” but, since the birth of their son RAAI (who joins them on tour dancing, singing, and playing synths and toy Instruments), they have called themselves TENGGER (meaning ‘unlimited expanse of sky’ in Mongolian) to mark the expansion of the family. The name also means ‘huge sea’ in Hungarian. Travel, as spiritual experience in real environments and the sound between the space and the audience have been central themes of their works. The family’s yearly pilgrimages inform every aspect of their art. Earthing is TENGGER's seventh studio album. It was recorded during the pandemic distanced stretch of 2021 in their home studio, a space they have named Studio Kyurt. The family's homestead is located in the Korean highlands. They received inspiration for Earthing through their frequent walks around their home. They climbed mountains, gazed at waterfalls, and hiked to the ocean, observing and absorbing the natural world along the way. It was only then that they received a message through nature, "There is nothing divided and we are connected all in the life circulation." The family took the message to heart and recorded Earthing in nature itself, paying respect to the idea of being in the now and being present. 'Earthing' was initially released digitally by TENGGER themselves in early 2022. It was immediately met with praise and positive energy. Previous releases from TENGGER have been on labels such as Guruguru Brain, Sunrise Ocean Bender, and Beyond Beyond is Beyond. TENGGER is recommended for those who enjoy the likes of Don Slepian, Popul Vuh, and Nashville Ambient Ensemble. クレジット2022年10月21日リリース

#2210 #EL

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jakobdodson · 2 years

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2021 in Music

Here is a note about the music I listened to in 2021. I hope you enjoy it!

Favorite Albums of 2021

Promises - Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra

I could cheese it up and try to articulate something about how Promises can imbue wonder into the ordinary and blah blah blah... but I like the way this review from Paste puts it:

“Promises is the kind of album that can rearrange the molecules in the room.”

Word.

I remember studying for the LSAT one Saturday morning earlier this year and deciding to put this one on. I thought it was boring. “Mmm... nice background music!”, or so I thought.

By Movement 6, I had a thousand yard stare and onset existential crisis.

How often do I give my full attention to really listening? (and not just to music...) How often is it taken from me?

Pretty rare, in my experience. For better or for worse.

Anyway, shoutout to this one for inflicting irreparable damage to my LSAT score!

Favorite Songs:

Movement 6

Movement 7

Movement 8

I Don’t Live Here Anymore - The War On Drugs

Sometimes something finds you at the right moment; a relationship, a nice view, the peanut butter bacon burger at Fat Guys...

I spun this one over and over and over and I think its because it found me at a good time? Musically, lyrically... it really moved me.

“Feel the storm coming on Feel the darkness at your gate Live the loneliness of life Keep on moving at your pace Ain't the sky just shades of gray Until you seen it from the other side? Oh, if loving you is the same It's only some occasional rain”

Just shades of gray, indeed.

Favorite Songs:

Harmonia’s Dream

Change

I Don’t Live Here Anymore (feat. Lucius)

Occasional Rain

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Runners up

Ignorance - The Weather Station

Talk Memory - BADBADNOTGOOD

My Morning Jacket - My Morning Jacket

Music For Psychedelic Therapy - Jon Hopkins

An Overview on Phenomenal Nature - Cassandra Jenkins

Far In - Helado Negro

Day/Night - Parcels

Liked It

Sympathetic Magic - Typhoon

Two Saviors - Buck Meek

Good Woman - The Staves

A Billion Little Lights - Wild Pink

L.W. - King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard

CARNAGE - Nick Cave & Warren Ellis

As the Love Continues - Mogwai

Yol - Altin Gün

The Pet Parade - Fruit Bats

Collections From The Whiteout - Ben Howard

Green to Gold - The Antlers

G_d’s Pee AT STATES END - Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Head of Roses - Flock of Dimes

Music - Benny Sings

MAYBE WERE THE VISITORS - Page McConnell

Bright Green Field - Squid

Cicada Waves - Ben Seretan

Fire In Little Africa - Fire In Little Africa

Long Lost - Lord Huron

Butterfly 3000 - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Quietly Blowing It - Hiss Golden Messenger

Home Video - Lucy Dacus

I Know I’m Funny haha - Faye Webster

The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers - Valerie June

SOUR - Olivia Rodrigo

Jubilee - Japanese Breakfast

BLONDIE - Nick Midnight

Gold-Digger Sound - Leon Bridges

One Foot In Front Of The Other - Griff

The Ballad of Dood & Juanita - Sturgill Simpson

Lost Futures - Marisa Anderson & William Tyler

Local Valley - José González

Big Bend (An Original Soundtrack for Public Television) - Explosions In The Sky

Year Of The Spider - Shannon & The Clams

Music Of The Spheres - Coldplay

Donda - Kanye West

Projector - Geese

Valentine - Snail Mail

Pressure Machine - The Killers

Infinite Granite - Deafheaven

Tethers - Minor Moon

An Evening With Silk Sonic - Silk Sonic

30 - Adele

Things Take Time, Take Time - Courtney Barnett

How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? - Big Red Machine

Cerulean - Nashville Ambient Ensemble

Meh

For the first time - Black Country, New Road

Little Oblivions - Julien Baker

New Long Leg - Dry Cleaning

Sketchy - Tune Yards

Ice Melt - Crumb

Star-Crossed - Kacey Musgraves

Sob Rock - John Mayer

Afrique Victime - Mdou Moctar

Audio Drag for Ego Slobs - Gustaf

Certified Lover Boy - Drake

Queens of the Summer Hotel - Aimee Mann

Dark in Here - The Mountain Goats

Haven’t listened yet...

Silver Dream - Moon Taxi

Strawberry Mansion - Langhorne Slim

Medicine at Midnight - Foo Fighters

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - New Fragility

As Days Get Dark - Arab Strap

When You See Yourself - Kings of Leon

Reincarnation - BONZIE

The Million Masks of God - Manchester Orchestra

Convocations - Sufjan Stevens

Daddy’s Home - St. Vincent

Changephobia - Rostam

Blue Weekend - Wolf Alice

CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST - Tyler, The Creator

Alem - Altin Gun

Peace Or Love - Kings Of Convenience

Elsewhere - Hammock

Trespass on Foot - Kiran Leonard

Petunia - Tonstartssbandht

Raise the Roof - Robert Plant & Allison Kraus

Which Way to Be Happy - Penelope Isles

Henki - Richard Dawson & Circle

Long Lost - Lord Huron

Not from 2021 (Albums that weren’t released this year, yet finally clicked for me):

Naturally - J.J. Cale

American Stars ‘N Bars - Neil Young

Youth Pastoral - Ben Seretan

Aja - Steely Dan

The Royal Scam - Steely Dan

Exile On Main Street - The Rolling Stones

Look-Ka Py Py - The Meters

Capacity - Big Thief

UFOF - Big Thief

Departure Songs - Hammock

Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow - Hammock

Live Vol. 1 - Parcels

Wildflowers - Tom Petty

Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town - Emmylou Harris

Wrecking Ball - Emmylou Harris

Concerts Attended in 2021:

Jon Fullbright & Patty Griffin - Woody Guthrie Folk Festival - Guthrie, OK - 7/16/21

Phish - Walmart AMP - Rogers, AR - 7/28/21

Links to past lists:

10 Albums that changed my life, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

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Happy Listening!

Jake

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gimmetinnitus · 3 years

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stream these :: Tape Deck Mountain + PACKS + Nun Gun + Russian Baths + Infinity Shred + Steady Sun + David Shrigley & Lord Stornoway + Nashville Ambient Ensemble + Kim Gordon + The Reds, Pinks & Purples + La Femme + Pizza Crunch – GIMME TINNITUS - https://bit.ly/300fREf

#tape deck mountain #shoegaze #music #gimme tinnitus #stream these

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riotactmedia · 3 years

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Nashville Ambient Ensemble announce debut LP ‘Cerulean’ // Hear dreamy first single “Conversion” via Vol. 1 Brooklyn!

“On this track (and the album in general), I was inspired compositionally by the modal jazz of John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Using modal jazz and bluegrass as a model, I wanted to create a non-hierarchical setting where no one player was given priority over another. On this track, the mixolydian mode and very simple chord changes provide a static foundation for the soloists to step into the foreground one-by-one. John Coltrane believed strongly in the transformative power of music – hence the title, ‘Conversion,’ is a nod to that sensibility.” Listen HERE // Cerulean is out March 19th on Centripetal Force Records!

#nashville ambient ensemble #vol. 1 brooklyn #premiere #ambient

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spectrumpulse · 1 year

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joshuanatalieasdxz-blog · 5 years

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6 kinds of tune You ought to understand about

There are heaps of different types of track which have distinct features. The one of a kind styles of consist of:

They originated from the African-American paintings songs. The songs are characterised by easy and undeniable designs. the primary blues song became posted in 1912 and changed into written by using Hart Wand. previous to Nineteen Forties, blues track became played unplugged however with the access of electrical devices, maximum of the music now heavily relies at the gadgets. in line with experts, the track is the precursor of R&B and Rock song. there are numerous styles of blues track with the maximum famous being Delta, Chicago, soar, East coast, and leap blues.

Punjabi Music

It is stated to be one of the oldest surviving kinds of contemporary times. most people remember it because the maximum restrictive and formal kinds of music. it is sung with uncontrolled vibrato and general emotional launch. whilst the tune is incredible, it regularly lacks the intimacy that is common with maximum different sorts of songs. there are numerous sorts of this track consisting of: opera, madrigals, symphony, chamber music, choral and Gregorian chant.

Punjabi Mp3 Download

This is a huge shape of music this is characterised through a strong beat, easy chord shape, and regularly performed loudly. the main contraptions used are electric powered guitar, bass, vocals, and drums. professionals document that the songs originated from the fusion of country music and blues. there are many types of this music beneath this style. They consist of: Rock n roll, southern, garage, glam and punk rock.

United states of america tune emerged in 1920. professionals consider that it emerged from people songs of the southern u.s.. much like the blues track, the songs characteristic a simple, 3-chord arrangement. This association gives a variety of room for innovation. The songs are sung the usage of special instruments along with harmonicas, banjos, electric powered guitars and fiddles. there are numerous sorts of those songs inclusive of: rockabilly, u . s . rock, Honky Tonk, blue glass music, outlaw u . s . a ., u . s . a . rock, Nashville sound, modern country, new traditionist, Bakersfield sound, Texas u . s . and many others.

Also known as the classical version of the blues song, it resulted from among the black community of the southern US. The tune is regularly performed by means of ensembles but in a few instances, single artists perform it too. The songs are characterised via African undertones which can be glaring in the combination of improvisations, syncopation, swing note, and polyrhythms. just like other styles of tune, there are numerous varieties of jazz music. They encompass: Bebop, Chicago style, New Orleans, and fusion jazz music.

From its name, that is a sort of track this is characterized by using using digital gadgets. The most commonplace contraptions used are: electric guitar, theremin, and synthesizers. It become famous the various kids within the Nineteen Seventies and 1980s wherein it turned into heavily performed inside the Discos. over time, the music has inculcated different varieties of music such as tough rock, metal, or even R&B. The exceptional varieties of this tune encompass: smash, hard dance, trance tune, techno, uk storage, residence track, ambient, commercial track, jungle, and trance tune.

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sinceileftyoublog · 3 years

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Nashville Ambient Ensemble Interview: A Little Help From My Friends

BY JORDAN MAINZER

“I feel like Nashville his my home,” Michael Hix said. The experimental musician, who now leads the Nashville Ambient Ensemble, is fully immersed in the ambient country scene that’s logically emerged from the fingerpicked guitar renaissance of the early 2010s. But for him, it took coming back to Tennessee to get there.

Hix grew up in Southeast Tennessee in a rural town, the closest city Chattanooga, before going to college in Nashville and staying there for a few years after. Then, like many before him, he moved to New York, exploring the various experimental music scenes thriving in the nation’s biggest city. After he and his wife had a child, they realized they needed more space and moved back to Nashville two years ago. “It’s been great to be back,” Hix said. “The avant garde and experimental/music scene--there’s always been a space for that here, but I really noticed when I moved back two years ago, it’s really grown an amazing amount. There are a lot of new people in the scene I didn’t know previously.”

Many of those new people would end up playing with Hix in Nashville Ambient Ensemble and on their debut album Cerulean, released last month via Centripetal Force. The group--Hix on synth and keys, venerable pedal steel player Luke Schneider, pianist Kim Rueger, baritone electric guitarist Jack Silverman, singer Deli Paloma-Sisk, guitar synth player Cynthia Cárdenas, and electric guitarist Timon Kaple--came together slowly as Hix would meet the various members at shows and parties. (He knew only Kaple and Schneider before moving back to Nashville.) Once he had a group and music that embraced improvisation more heavily than any of his solo material--he calls each song “a loose constant theme and a cycle of solos”--the band rehearsed a couple times and recorded over two sessions. Their chemistry is palpable, on the arpeggiated “Ingia”, the guitar-forward title track, and swaying “Coda”. And as it turns out, having a kid also influenced Hix’s ability to let go. “Part of this project was me realizing as a parent that I didn’t have the time anymore to sweat over my solo compositions where I’d have things ornately composed down to the smallest detail,” he said. “If I called on a little help with my friends and got an ensemble environment together and relied on improvisation, I could make more music with less content.”

Speaking with Hix earlier this year over the phone, I got the sense that not just collaboration, but taking in other types of art directly seep into his creative output just as much as anything. Hix is as likely to cite ambient legend William Basinski and director Andrei Tarkovsky as formative influences as he is instrumental or experimental country music; he trades music, book, and film recommendations with passion and curiosity. With an increasingly open approach to music making, you realize how Hix and Nashville Ambient Ensemble both lead and transcend the ambient country scene highlighted by artists like Schneider and Chuck Johnson. Laying the groundwork but providing space for expression, the Nashville Ambient Ensemble could switch out members and instruments and still retain the exploratory spirit of the group and the scene.

Below, read my conversation with Hix about moving back to Nashville, starting the Ensemble, making Cerulean, and what the future holds.

Since I Left You: When you lived in New York, did you feel isolated from the Nashville scene?

Michael Hix: Yeah, I was kind of isolated from it. In fact, when I moved to New York, I honestly didn’t see myself ever moving back to Nashville. I was planning on just staying in New York. I wasn’t really keeping up with what was going on here. I was just totally invested in the kind of music I was doing in New York. I was really surprised when I came back here that there were so many new artists doing really great work, and a pretty good, sizable experimental music community. That’s been really cool to see. I’ve been able to meet a lot of new people.

I expected that I would get back in the groove in my old circle, but I’ve met so many new people.

SILY: Of the folks in the Nashville Ambient Ensemble, how many were in your old circle, and how many were new?

MH: The only person I really knew was Timon Kaple. We went to college together, and he was in my larger circle of friends. The only other person I knew was Luke Schneider. He was just an acquaintance of mine, and we had never hung out but ran into each other when I moved back. At the time, he was starting to record his own solo, ambient, new age kind of music. We just hit it off and started to exchange music. Those two guys were the only ones I knew, and the others I met when I moved back to Nashville.

SILY: When was this group formed, and when was this music written and recorded?

MH: This took off in a crazy way. I feel like I didn’t really have to think about it very much. It happened very organically and quickly. One of the things I was struck by when I moved back to Nashville was how unique it was in how music is made here, in a really collective manner. Even if you’re not getting into a project with someone, they want to jam with you. I played one show in January 2019, and just at that first show, I had 3 or 4 people ask me if I wanted to jam or if I collaborated. That’s really representative of Nashville. That first show that I played, Timon came up to me--we hadn’t made music before--and asked to get together some time. It’s the same night I met Jack Silverman. I also met Deli Paloma-Sisk that night. She played that show as well. After that, I got together with Timon once in 2019, and I had a couple more people in that period ask me if I made music, so I thought I’d just make a supergroup.

I had been in a similar group ensemble thing before I left Nashville, back in 2011. I was really wanting to do that again. At a certain point, I just started asking people if they were interested in an ambient ensemble. I asked Jack if he wanted to be involved, Luke, he was on board. Deli joined. The other two, Kim and Cynthia, I met Cynthia at a party one night and Deli was telling her about the project, and Cynthia asked to be in the group, and I was like, “Yeah, sure!” She has this MIDI guitar synthesizer set up. That’s what she plays on the album--really amazing. Kim Rueger, who goes by the moniker Belly Full Of Stars, I was speaking to her at a show one night asking her if she knew any pianists, and she was like, “I play piano.” It came together super organically. We had two rehearsals January 2020. These people are all really talented. We booked two days at the Battle Tapes studio in Nashville and recorded everything live in the studio in two sessions. It was really quick.

SILY: That’s a lot of lead up to a short recording process!

MH: Organizing it together took some time, but once we got everyone on board, it was really quick. I sent around some demos, we rehearsed twice, and then we recorded the album.

SILY: The opening track, “Breve”, is effective because you can hear all the elements going on, and it’s a unique hybrid of styles, the electronics with the country western instrumentals. Why did you lead off with this track, and what’s the story behind it?

MH: The pieces came together really quickly. I wrote every piece except for “Cerulean”, which was written by Jack Silverman. All the tracks I wrote came together really quickly, and it just so happened I had two that were a lot shorter than the other three, and I had the idea of bookending the album with these short tracks that serve as a prologue and an epilogue, which is why I placed “Breve” first. Knowing it was gonna be the first track and an introduction, I wanted to showcase all of the sounds in a very concise, clear way. That was kind of my direction with the track.

SILY: It’s interesting the title track is the only one not written by you!

MH: [laughs] Right.

SILY: Why did you name the album after that track?

MH: I was speaking to my wife about this, and I had a couple other ideas for album titles. She said, “Read me the names of your tracks.” We both thought that Cerulean was a really great title that was evocative but not heavy. You didn’t really have to read into it very much. It provided a tone for the album. This project was honestly about trying to get myself out of the way. I really wanted the other players involved to really shine on the album. I really liked the idea of using someone else’s [song] for the album title.

SILY: The track “Inga” seems to me to be exemplary of the mix between structure and improvisation that’s on the record. Can you talk about balancing those two aspects of the music?

MH: “Inga” and “Conversion” are probably the two examples where we achieved what we were aiming towards the most. In “Inga”, I definitely provided, to use a metaphor, the structure of the house, but everyone else made it a home. Something that had beauty in it. All of the songs, we had a very loose structure, some charts with the chord changes, but the sheet music for the songs would be a list that was just the order of the solos. I think the reason “Inga” works so well along with "Conversion” is that everyone has a solo in that song. You have the extended experience of the piece cycling through solos for each of the soloists.

The way we recorded that one, we had a loose structure of these chord changes and some from my modular synth, but the primary structure of it was the order of the solos. In the studio when we were recording, I had a microphone and would just call out whose solo was coming up next.

SILY: Why did you release “Conversion” as the first single?

MH: I thought about “Inga” for the first track, but personally, “Conversion” is generally the strongest track on the album. At the same time, I think it’s the most representative of what I wanted to achieve with the project and the concept.

SILY: What’s the inspiration behind the cover art?

MH: The cover art is a painting by Wendy Walker Silverman, who is a really great Nashville artist who is also the wife of Jack Silverman, the guitarist in the band. The cover features her painting. It’s been kind of altered by the person who designed the album art [Alethea Hall], but that is her painting there.

SILY: Are there loose plans to perform any of these songs in a live stream or socially distant show?

MH: We would definitely like to play some shows. Due to the nature of the project and the fact that every person involved has their own music projects and other things going on, it would be hard for us, once touring is a thing that happens, to go on tour. But we would like to play an album release show in Nashville once that makes sense to do so. We’ll probably wait till we can have a good amount of people attend in terms of COVID restrictions. We’ll see what happens after that and what kind of opportunities arrive for performances.

SILY: What else is next for the Ensemble?

MH: I’ll see what kind of level of interest people have in it, both listening and enjoying as well as other artists and musicians in the community here, whether anyone expresses interest in being involved. I’ve definitely already started to think about a round two and have some ideas of people I’d love to ask to be involved. I’d like to change things up a bit and get some other people and instruments involved. We’ll see: I’m not exactly sure. It was a ton of work organizing the whole thing, being a big group, and getting the recordings done. I mixed the album, so having a regular job, being a parent, and trying to carry through a project like that is a lot of work. I definitely want to do it again.

SILY: What have you been listening to, reading, and watching lately?

MH: I love the new William Basinski album Lamentations. I really loved the new compilation from Music From Memory, Virtual Dreams: Ambient Explorations In The House & Techno Age, 1993-1997. I just listened to a reissue from Aguirre Records from Morgan Fisher and Lol Coxhill, called Slow Music. It’s one of those albums that really didn’t get a lot of attention back then but could be considered an essential or cornerstone album for a genre of music. Morgan Fisher is a really great composer--he has a few great albums--but this is the best one I’ve heard of his. It takes some tape recordings of Lol Coxhill playing I think soprano saxophone, and he cuts the tape up and makes a composition out of the various recordings.

I watched the films of Bi Gan: Kaili Blues and Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Both are absolutely mind-blowing. I’m a big Andrei Tarkovsky fan, and he’s a big influence on me. Bi Gan definitely has some strong Tarkovsky vibes but definitely has his own language. Long Day’s Journey Into Night was in particular amazing.

SILY: Is there anything I didn’t ask about the record you want to say?

MH: One of the things I’m most satisfied about this album is I’m almost not on it. I didn’t anticipate it, but realized it when listening to the recordings. I’m always working on trying to remove my ego as much as possible from my music, which is hard when you’re making solo music. I think William Basinski achieves that in an amazing way, and I haven’t been that effective at it. But I think it happened in the Ensemble album. There’s my modular synth sound, and I play keys, but I didn’t do any solos on the album. It was really satisfying to know that though I organized the project and wrote the music, it was the other people who shined through.

The other thing I’m happy about is that it really does have a Nashville sound, in large part because of the pedal steel, but it’s there with the other players as well. To some extent, the music does give you a flavor of what Nashville is about and what’s unique about it. There are some really great artists doing some really progressive sounds.

Cerulean by Nashville Ambient Ensemble

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ykrecordsblog · 2 years

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yk Records 2021

By all accounts, 2021 was a better year than 2020. That's not to say it wasn't without its hardships but we did get to see vaccines be distributed and accepted by millions. We saw restaurants, bars and venues re-open to some degree. We also felt a tiny twinge of normalcy return. The bar was very low but 2021 was an improvement, for sure. I hope you were able to enjoy it in some form or fashion.

Looking back at the year for yk Records releases, it was an enjoyable success on all counts! We made a conscious effort to focus on digital releases this year just to see how it felt... and it felt pretty good! We'll always be drawn to putting things out physically (and will continue to do so) but it was good confirmation that digital releases are still exciting.

Below you'll find a list of official releases for the year but don't forget to also check out our list of Music Video Releases for the year, as there's additional goodness to enjoy there, too.

Find us on Bandcamp, on Spotify or wherever you like to stream. Here's a Spotify playlist of everything shown below; shuffle and enjoy.

No Stress - Prelude No. 1 The debut release from No Stress, aka Paul Horton, blends together a wide range of influences from hip-hop and jazz to lo-fi ambient and even a little glitch. Tons of great guest musicians on here too.

Coupler - The City Is a Lie We Tell Ourselves The third EP from a series of releases investigating different ideas and executions. This release ponders the idea of "place" during a pandemic. If we're all stuck indoors, what does it matter where you are? It's a beautifully sprawling collection of works; great for deep ruminations.

Stone Jack Jones - "I'm Made" / "Heaven Knows" A digital single featuring two brand new tracks with Adia Victoria (who released her own fantastic album in 2021 as well). If you enjoyed the dark psychedelia of Black Snake, this is an excellent addendum.

Jack Silverman - Now What The debut EP from Jack Silverman is three songs of "noir psychedelia." Produced with Roger Mountenot, each of these soundscapes largely focuses on Silverman's excellent guitar skills but it's an immersive batch. Be sure to listen to "Cerulean" - which was also featured on the Nashville Ambient Ensemble album of the same name (of which Jack is a member).

Jay Leo Phillips - DAYS The first of two EPs for the year giving JLP some room to explore new sonic territory. Fans of Tortoise, The Sea and Cake or Jim O"Rourke will feel right at home. This isn't what you may except from Phillips but it's a refreshing change of pace.

Cody Uhler - Darbo's Island & "Purple Barreling" Maxisingle For years, Uhler has been studying and tinkering within the constraints of making music on vintage 8-bit and 16-bit videogame systems. Out of this exploration grew Darbo's Island; an imagined soundtrack to a game that never existed. It doesn't play by the rules of the original systems but its an absolutely fascinating listen. It's not chiptune, we call it "Saturday Morning Cartoonica." Be sure to check the maxisingle for some amazing remixes as well.

DM Stith - Double Singles To celebrate the fifth anniversary of DM Stith's full-length album Pigeonheart, we put together two new singles culled from b-sides and alternate versions of the original recording sessions. "My Impatience" / "Cormorant" and "High Tower" / "Imperial Leather" are beautiful pieces of work and hard to imagine how they ever got cut.

You Drive - "Such a Perfect Thing" It's been a few years since we heard from the Makeup and Vanity Set + Jasmin Kaset collab outfit You Drive so when they sent me this track to release as a single, I was very game. The track was featured in season 3 of The Girlfriend Experience but didn't make the soundtrack; we're happy to help get it out into the world.

The Robe - The Jason EP The first of what we hope is many future collaboration EPs. The Robe - aka Rollum Haas - connects with longtime friend JB Bennett to create this absolutely magical EP that feels like a modern blend of new wave, krautrock and pop gems.

Jay Leo Phillips - EP 2 The second sonic exploration from JLP in 2021 focuses more on ambient soundscapes. I don't believe there's a single guitar on this one; which is rare for Phillips but, clearly, not something he should shy away from.

Jasmin Kaset - "Have You Met Me Yet?" / "I Will Never Let You Go From Me" These two tracks had been waiting in the yk Release hopper for almost a year and it felt great to get them out into the world. Kaset brings an undeniable rock track combined with a Prince-esque R&B ballad.

Uncle Skeleton - Golden Hour & "Double Dip" maxisingle The very first yk Records release was from Uncle Skeleton back in 2009. Now, twelve years later, he's released his sixth album. It's an album designed to be listened to in one sitting, preferably during sunset with no distractions. It's a starkly different vibe from his original release but the elements of dance, ELO influence and incredible texture are all still present; as well as a load of new vocal influences and collaborators. It truly is a golden release.

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