Quadricotteri in volo

Questo video ha quasi un anno, ma è decisamente bello.

I quadricotteri sono dei piccolissimi elicotteri con 4 eliche. Dei droni, spesso muniti di videocamera.

Qui Ars Electronica Futurelab ne ha riuniti ben 49, li ha dotati di luce e li ha lanciati, pilotandoli in formazione nella notte di Linz.

Belli da vedere, ma per me il momento più emozionante è quello della partenza, anche se ho l’impressione che il video, in quell’istante, sia stato un po’ accelerato.

Torment of the Metals

coverThe sound of Akashic Crow’s Nest begins with the use of an image synthesizer which turns very long photographic images into audio output, in the manner of a piano roll. The initial part of composing this music is thus designing the picture. For this latest project, the first audio output is converted to midi and run through a different softsynth, before being subjected to a battery of effects to get to the sounds you hear on this album.

Download from Webbed Hand Records

Excerpt:

We will become insects, someday


Osoroshisa (Japanese for “the amount of terror”) is the moniker of Tim Salden from Belgium, who has both a good command of Japanese (speaking and writing).

Some notes from the author:

What does the main title mean:
Itsuka, Oretachi Mushi Ni Naru means We will become insects, someday. I kinda thought of Buddhism and  reïncarnation. And since I’m studying Japanese at the University, I wanted to write all the titles in Japanese.

Songmeanings:
The first song [Gakushou 1 – Hotaru No Shoumetsu] means: Movement 1 – Extinction Of The Firefly

Why those title:
I love the view of fireflies during summer, so I tried to recreate a summernight,
but with a bit more tension. Starting from the middle part, the fireflies start to shine their light.

Excerpt:

Listen to and download the whole album from Rain netlabel

Nanimo Nai Wakusei

Osoroshisa - Nanimo Nai Wakusei - front cover Nanimo nai wakusei means “empty planets” in Japanese and is an apt description for key elements of Tim Salden’s music as Osoroshisa. It reflects the width of uninhabited and lonesome worlds and how time becomes a secondary factor on an empty planet that lacks any point of reference for perceiving its continuous passage. In the broader sense, it may also refer to isolated persons living in a solar system of their own, without a way of taking notice of other worlds apart from theirs and where chains of events have gradually been replaced by a constant train of thoughts. Accordingly, the music is located between drone and dark ambient without being particularly representative of either genre and evolves slowly, with recurrent figures weaved into persistent drones and subtle changes in modulation rather than thematic variation and progression.

Osoroshisa (Japanese for “the amount of terror”) is the moniker of Tim Salden from Belgium, who has both a good command of Japanese (speaking and writing) and a sizable collection of obscure vinyl records with synth-music from the seventies and eighties. Perhaps it is this vintage analogue sound that left its traces in his drone inspired sound, as well as the impression of cavernous space. His musical works involve slow motion changes and addition or subtraction of sound layers (where “stock drone” has the tendency of being static and repetitive) and pictures a feeling of loneliness and sadness, the recursion of thoughts and events without an actual resolution.

Download the whole album from Internet Archive

Excerpts:

Dea Varanus

coverMatúš Mikula, aka 900piesek, è slovacco, uno dei giovani musicisti elettroacustici europei che creano una sorta di science fiction ambient con un po’ di nostalgia degli anni ’70.

L’album, dal titolo Dea Varanus, è pubblicato da Test Tube ed è scaricabile qui.

All four tracks emanate sound through a dense and foggy underwater-like world… as if we were in a different dimension. Audio data is served to you using computers and machines from another time. Referencially, this is ambient electronics circa 1970’s, while some keyboards sound definitely like Vangelis, Blade Runner period, which is actually very appropriate.

Dear listener, we recommend the use of headphones throughout this journey, as the fine subtleties of the atmospheric and environmental audio pieces you’re hearing will surely gain much detail simply because of their use.
This is a ‘vintage modern classic’, with drones. Enjoy.

[Pedro Leitão]

Excerpts: Ra

The Lanthanide Series

Alcuni dei drones di Kalte, duo canadese, sono decisamente accattivanti. Qualcuno può dire che sono soltanto drones, ma si tratta di un genere che mi affascina e che non è così facile come sembra.

Ecco le note di programma. Il riferimento alla tavola periodica di Mendeleev, citata nelle note, è nel titolo: la serie dei lantanoidi (in passato lantanidi) è costituita dai 15 elementi chimici, detti anche terre rare, che sulla Tavola periodica si trovano fra il lantanio ed il lutezio. Hanno numero atomico compreso fra 57 e 71 inclusi.

Toronto’s Kalte (a duo featuring long-established sound artists Deane Hughes and Rik MacLean) make their recorded debut with this Periodic Table-inspired EP. The harsh Canadian winter served as the backdrop for the creation of these tracks, and while there may be a certain oppressiveness to its roots, the resulting sounds progress from darkness to light. The sonic spectrum on display here slowly builds in complexity at first, with more and more elements layered over a similar low-ringing drone. A slight stylistic shift takes the music to a slightly higher pitch and a more gentle tone for the final two tracks, with buzzes and drones intertwined in a mesmerizingly thick blanket of static.

L’intero EP si può ascoltare e acquistare qui.

Krypton

Krypton

Krypton is a solo project of Krzysztof Berg from Szczecin in Poland (born in 1986). He’s been fascinated in sounds since 1999, when he recorded his first track on some popular music software in that times.

Krzysztof Berg about Krypton:

It’s hard to consider krypton’s music – mostly it’s electronic music with enormous variety of deep & atmo sounds. Most often krypton experiments with many different sounds simultaneously, that’s why many people consider his music little “strange”. For a while now, he’s been more focused on the silent & dark melodies, structure and arrangement of his songs. His music is for all people but not for everyone.

The last work by Krypton is “Silent Drama” published by the netlabel Test Tube.

From Silent Drama

Download the whole album

Personalmente, questa musica eterea mi piace e la ascolto volentieri, ma da un po’ ho dei dubbi sull’artisticità della faccenda. Con i sistemi attuali, mettere in piedi pezzi del genere è maledettamente semplice e non particolarmente innovativo.

Non che la semplicità in sé sia un problema. Anche comporre come Cage era semplice, ma all’epoca aveva un suo senso. Anche i loop del primo Eno erano semplici, ma erano una novità.

D’altra parte, Krypton è piuttosto raffinato, per cui lo segnalo. Chi vivrà vedrà…