Phantasms II

Out today is the next in my series of releases inspired by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
As with the first volume, Phantasms II is a series of electronic miniatures designed as incidental music for an imaginary television show.

I hope you dig it.

Silent Spring

After keeping a fairly low profile for most of last year the releases are now coming thick and fast from me.

In addition to the release on Phonospheric that I mentioned earlier I have another out today on Northampton label Dark Meadow Recordings.

It's another slow drone piece but with significantly less isolationist tendencies than the other one.



you can buy a physical copy directly from the label for a teeny £2

or you can click the blue dot underneath the album and download it for free

Quietude #3

the new Quiet World Radio mixcloud is now up.

Quietude #3 by Quiet World on Mixcloud

Wonderful Wooden Reasons #38

issue 38 is now online at the usual places...

website

myspace

both of those have the mixcloud attached but it's also below

the new (shorter as it's now fortnightly) issue features reviews of...

Chemins - impasse #1
Glowing Pixie & Ghoul Detail - split
The Infant Cycle - Plays Fender Bass Guitars and Birdcages of Unknown Origin
Kaeba - Ianurek 5.0 X 100
Andrea Marruti & Fausto Balbo - Detrimental Dialogue
Olekranon - {bilal}
The Stinking Badger - Chunx Volume 1 1990-1997

hope you enjoy.

Wonderful Wooden Reasons 38 by Quiet World on Mixcloud

'Passing Through Occasionally'

I said at the beginning of the year that it was gong to be a busy year for me well I have a new album available via my good friend Adrian Shenton's Phonospheric label.

It's called 'Passing Through Occasionally' and it's a long slow sleepy drone piece.
here's the cover...


and here's an extract...

Ian Holloway - Passing Through Occasionally clip by Phonospheric

Some of you may remember Adrian from his Measuring of Moments cd I put out on Quiet World the other year, Phonospheric is his label.
he's already put out one cd of his own music and as of today he has another available too called Slowtime. Adrian sent me an advance copy the other month and it's really a rather fab set of clean, bright ambient pieces. well worth a listen.

more soon

Wonderful Wooden Reasons #37

After a 4 month hiatus the new issue of Wonderful Wooden Reasons (#37) is now online.

This'll be the last of these long issues because as of #38 I'm moving to a more me friendly format of smaller issues on a more regular fortnightly schedule.

in the meantime. the new issue is here and (for those of you still using the hellhole that is myspace) here.

if you just want to listen then the mixcloud is below.

this issue features an eclectic mix of drone, noise, free jazz, freak folk, shoegazer and plain old strangeness.

reviews of...

Banks Bailey - Upwelling
Albert Beger Electroacoustic Band - Peacemaker
derschlaeger - Blogs
Giant Bears - Whisper in the Hollows
Daniel Jones – MTT
Ian Middleton - Aural Spaces Versions
Yui Onodera & Celer - Generic City
Orchestramaxfieldparrish - Crossing of Shadows
The Raw Men Empire - Elodie
Colin Andrew Sheffield – Signatures
Matt Shoemaker - Soundtrack for Dislocation
Philip Sulidae - Banish
Tomo - Butterfly Dream and Other Guitar Works
Various - Underwater Noises
Simon Whetham & Paul Khimasia Morgan - The Grey Area

hope you find something worth exploring further.

Wonderful Wooden Reasons 37 by Quiet World on Mixcloud

Quiet World Radio #2: Quietude

Quiet World Radio #2: Quietude by Quiet World on Mixcloud

Balefire now online

the track I mentioned in the previous post is now available...

Ian Holloway - Balefire by cumbriaremixed

the full set of remixes are here...

Remixes by cumbriaremixed

Balefire

Spent a very productive morning making a contribution for Shaun Blezzard's Cumbria Remixed: Lanternhouse project. I'm pretty pleased with the finished result it's nice a mellow with a little bit of an uncomfortable vibe to it. I only sent it off (digitally) to Shaun at lunch time today so I doubt he's got to hear it yet.
Also been working on the second of the Quiet World radio mixes (which will be called Quietude from this point on) - the first is below in case you'd like to hear it. the second will go live on sunday.
The idea of these is to alternate them with the now fortnightly Wonderful Wooden Reasons mixes and zine. It's a chance to put some of the other music i listen to that doesn't necessarily get a chance to be featured in the WWR ones.
hope you dig it.

Quiet World Radio #1 by Quiet World on Mixcloud

A thorn may pick you but a falls tounge even more

A new download only album for your enjoyment.

peace

new music

I'm ridiculously busy at the moment. My new job and the course I'm enrolled on are keeping me up to my eyeballs in work.

i have had the gaze of a muse upon me the last few days though and have put the finishing touches to 2 long form drone pieces. I've no idea what I'm going to do with them - they'll probably sit on my hard-drive for the next year or so until i have the time to make them available.

I've also been working on some tunes for the next in the Phantasms series. it's a very different discipline working with such small time frames but it's good fun. their main appeal is that i can work on them for 10 minutes - feel I've done something productive (life wise) and then go back refreshed to doing something productive (work wise).

There will be two releases from me soon. The next month or so will see the release of A Slow Feather Falls on my own Quiet World label. ASFF is a collaboration with one of my regular musical partners field recordist Banks Bailey.

Also in the immediate future is a release on Adrian Shenton's Phonospheric label called 'Passing Through Occasionally'. I'll not be getting any spare copies of this so please check with Adrian if you'd like one.

Wonderful Wooden Reasons is currently backlogged but progressing. I may possibly adopt the blog format for the foreseeable future until my workload decreases.

peace
ian

a traditional xmas list

my list is now online at the zine and also below.

Top 10 for 2010

hi folks.

Because I'm a traditionalist at heart here's my top ten of 2010.

It's not ranked in any way these are just the ones I remember particularly digging. Obviously there were many more that could be here - everyone who passes through these pages is worth a listen, it's the whole point of the exercise.

My sincere thanks to everyone who has sent something to me. I'm way behind with my listening and it's been a tedious last few months not getting to listen to much music. I'll get a new issue up early in the new year.

Peace

ian

2010

Andrew Chalk - Ghosts of Nakhodka

(Siren 017)

CD

The first ever review written for WWR (or ECReviews as it was called then) was an Andrew Chalk album. He set my benchmark for what constitutes a perfect release and has subsequently exceeded it on numerous occasions. Let's be straight here if you've not listened to me yet about just how good this here fella is and gone out and sourced every one of his available releases then really what's the point in you reading me.

Andrew is at the absolute peak of his game at the moment. everything he lets us hear is another plateau, higher, grander and more panoramic than the previous. Ghosts of Nakhodka is a real showcase piece consisting of one longer piece of sumptuous drone music followed by a cavalcade of shorter instrumental sketches each of which throws out more moments of beauty, clarity and empathy than many musicians manage in a lifetime.

If you're not buying everything he releases then you're not buying anything that matters.

(www.farawaypress.eu)

Chemins - cdr #5

CDR

Apparently this is the last we'll see of Chemins for a little while which is a damn shame. Their five little cdr releases have been one of the absolute highlights of the last year. The good news is thought that they're going away to concentrate on writing a full length album for release next year sometime.

CDR #5 continues where the 4 previous left off with Chemins luxurious soundworld of slow drones and introspective guitar interspersed with flickering electronic and rolling builds all present and accounted for. This time out though the lovely wee fellas have added a host of other interesting twits and textures to the mix. There's a vaguely lounge jazz air to one part and a distinctly middle eastern flavour to another before the whole thing rises for a euphoric conclusion.

It all adds up to yet another really rather wonderful 20 minutes spent in very good company indeed. I cannot wait for the album.

Mendel Kaelen - Remembering What Was Forgotten

CD

Firstly my apologies to Mendel. I've had this fabulous album for a little while now and liked it so much I was carrying it around with me so I could keep playing it. Of course the inevitable happened and it got misplaced. Happily, earlier today it resurfaced so I can both listen to it again and also tell you all just how good it is.

Kaelen operates in the area of psychedelic drone augmented by field recordings which is nothing we haven't seen or heard before but the deeply ingrained sense of effortless beauty that runs through the four constituent compositions is just sublime, even at it's most bombastic - 'Light of Nature' - it is still beautifully poised with a distinct sense of implied melody behind the drawn out tones. I keep getting ridiculously lost in this album, only surfacing when the final chords die away and even then only long enough to press the play button again.

An exquisite album. Hugely and unrepentantly recommended for all lovers of the magic of the drone.

(www.mendelkaelen.com)

Sujo - Dimona

(Inam Records)

CDR

it's always a good thing when new Sujo drops through the letterbox. His heavy as hell grinding take on the post-rock monster is one of the most cathartic musical interludes I get sent here at WWR heights. 'Dimona' is a brutal half an hour of almost Godflesh levels of intense beauty. It's got a looser vibe than the erstwhile industrial - metal superstars but it hits the same level of uncompromising fuzzy and monolithic dystopia.

Undoubtedly this is one for the more 'metal' or 'rock' inclined among you and I pretty much guarantee you'll love it but in all honesty I'll happily recommend it to everyone cause it's ace!

(inamrecs AT yahoo.com)

Dead Shall Not Have Died In Vain / Dysthymia - split 7"

(Diophantine Discs n=23)

7"

Two track, two act single on 7" vinyl (my favourite format) from one of the best labels around is always going to get me to sit up and pay attention. Both artists are new to me so we'll begin in the traditional manner with side A.

Dead Shall Not Have Died In Vain which sounds like one of those Canadian post rock outfits that were in vogue a few years back - Godspeed Thee Silver Pan Am Flames or somesuch - is the nom de guerre of one Marc Benner. Here he layers crashing metal over lush ambient drones. It's just the right mix of noisy and mellow and is way, way, way too short.

Dysthymia is my first exposure to the music of Diophantine label head Kyle Wright. Right from the off this is a very different animal from the one living on the flip side. The music here is a massive crescendo of grinding noise laced through with a looping siren call. It builds and builds before erupting in the inevitable money shot of screeching soaring sound. It's great fun.

To sum up - everything released on Diophantine is worth hearing - Everything!

(discs.diophantine.net)

Viosac - Dawning Luminosity

CD

It'd be true to say I wasn't overly blown away by the previous Viosac albums that had kindly been passed my way. It wasn't that they were bad, they just weren't to my tastes. This time out though Graham Stewart has produced an album that is fully in line with what I love in my drone music.

'Dawning Luminosity' is a three song set of processed Moog drones that hover in the air and morph themselves into increasingly complex Venn diagrams. The music is distinctly electronic but holds a tactile warmth which you can almost feel as it swirls around you. I love this sort of vintage sci-fi soundworld that old tech just oozes so well and couple with some truly delightful and restrained musicianship this album is an absolute dream.

If like me you're a fan of the space drone of people like Tangerine Dream or Cluster then I really do recommend this one to you.

(www.viosac.net)

Hearts of Palm - Earth Headed Heart

(For Noises Sake)

CDR

An always welcome return from Cincinnati based experi-mentalists HOP who are here joined by C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core) on violin. Unlike their previous recordings this is a solid 30 minute block of unadulterated improv. It's noisy, chaotic, anarchic and fun. HoP are very much of the Faustian school of improvising and build their music from hard edged shards of metallic scree. All good improvisation is introspective in that it is reliant on the participants being fully focussed on their part in the whole but HoP's brand doesn't promote introspection on the part of the listener, at least not in this listener. Instead it promotes big cheesy grins as one becomes gloriously ensnared in their multi-layered tangle of textures, instruments and sounds.

(www.myspace.com/fornoisessake)

Marsfield - The Towering Sky

(Faraway Press 16)

CD

This album is like an octopus. It’s a many tentacled beast afloat in the murky depths manipulating it’s appendages in a manner that is not easily understood by onlookers but makes perfect sense to the octopus itself. It’s beautiful to behold, graceful beyond belief and you wish you could do it but you can’t because you‘re not an octopus. And yes I am drunk but that doesn’t stop me from being right.

(www.farawaypress.eu)

Nurse With Wound - Paranoia in Hi-Fi (Earworms 1978-2008)

(United Dirter DPROMCD69)

CD

It's been a while since I invested in a NWW album. She and Me Fall Together was the last one. I didn't think much of it and it catalysed a feeling that I'd been having for a while that the albums were just getting churned out and the quality had taken a nose dive. For a long time NWW had been my bench mark and I still dearly love many (and I do mean many) of the earlier albums but I'd gotten lost in the avalanche of releases and there was no way of carrying on so I didn't. Then the other week I was mooching around a little record store and spotted this little beauty with it's 99p price tag - yes that is right ninety, nine, pence. It had to be worth a shot.

PiHiFi consists of 4 long tracks of edited together highlights from the Nurse back-catalogue by Andrew Liles. Only a real obsessive would be able to spot where all the segments come from and I'm not even going to try but those bits you'll recognise and those bits you won't are married seamlessly with some of the deftest editing I've ever heard. It's an absolute corker of an album and I can't recommend it highly enough, especially at that price.

(?)

Darren Tate - Nature In The City

(Fungal 036)

CDR

The ever wonderful Mr. Tate returns with another scorching set of Cluster style cosmic voyages melding keyboards, guitar and field recordings to create a set that from the moment you hit play heads straight through your third eye and drags your mind behind it on a whistle-stop tour of all the most colourful non-places it can find. I love it when he gets his synths out as I don't think there's anyone who can do the cosmic thing with the ease that Tate obviously can. This is well worth tracking down a copy of.

(www.icrdistribution.com)

suddenly there was music

was meant to be working yesterday - for the next 2 years that's going to be pretty much a default setting for me - but the new medication that i'm currently taking really knocked the stuffing out of me - fortunately it's very short term so only 9 more days and i'm off it.
I thought i'd relax for half an hour or so and get my equilibrium back by playing with some sounds before getting on with work. 6 hours later i took the headphones off with a new piece of music finished that mixes my synth drones with one of Banks Bailey's beautiful field recordings from the Rincon Mountains in Arizona. I'm waiting to hear his take on it but i'm pretty happy with it. it's pretty gentle stuff which is where my head is at currently. my one real concern with it is the artificial synth noise which i might try and soften into a more organic sound but i'll wait an see what B has to say on it first.

Beautiful sunny day here with my mother and her husband on their way to visit bringing me my old gramophones that they've been storing. I'm going to use them in a class on tuesday and thursday this week as most of my students don't even know about vinyl let alone the old shellac 78's. Bloody philistines.

Phantasms

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop has always been a big influence on the music I listen to and the music I make. The wonderful noises they made throughout the 1970s shaped my ears in ways nothing else ever did. Doctor Who alone would have been enough but it is merely the tip of a very large iceberg indeed.

Lately I've been re-immersing myself in the work of people such as Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire and John Baker and got the idea to try and create a set of Radiophonics of my own, Phantasms is the result. It was created between 5th and 14th of September 2010 using a virtual FM7 synth (and a few other little twists and turns). It's as unrepentantly electronic as my music ever has gotten or is ever likely to get. I hope you dig it.

Buy it here or listen to it below.

Ian Holloway - Phantasms by Quiet World on Mixcloud

Teaching again & some new music

I teach my first class in about 7 years tomorrow. I've been doing more individual student work over the last few years and so have been away from the rigours of front of class teaching. For a long while i didn't miss it but over the last year or two i've got the jitters for it again.

I'm going to be teaching three courses this year which meant my summer went out the window as i was just sat here writing lessons. It was a lot of work and i haven't even got half of it done yet but i'm ahead and off and running as of tomorrow at 9.

last week i got the impulse to make some new tunes. I've been listening to a lot of Radiophonic Workshop stuff of late and had the idea to put together some electronic miniatures - sort of my own Doctor Who soundtrack album. It's all done on a virtual FM7 synth and i've kept it as live as possible. Each track was recorded with the minimal of layering and post-production work. I've avoided the endless tinkering and tweaking that usually happens with one of my compositions and instead i've let the originals stand.

It's unlikely i'll put this out as a cd but i think i'll make it available as a Bandcamp download (and as a mixcloud cloudcast for those of you who dont want to pay).

Here's to only track that's online so far - it's probably the most successfully soundtracky piece of them all.
2 by quietworld