| November 2008 news
November 26, 2008
FIRE, WALK WITH ME
• tube'|147 - Philip Croaton + Ilia Belorukov - Still Fire
«In little over two months, Philip and Ilia from St. Petersburg return with a new Jazzy ambient release called 'Still Fire'. This new work is perhaps heavier on the dramatic side, thanks to some deliberate connections to a couple of works from film director David Lynch: Twin Peaks the TV series and Inland Empire, a 2006 movie which has a most convenient plot connection to Eastern Europe countries, namely Poland. Both 'Lynchean' works tell stories around girls who get into complex episodic troubles of some sort. Anyway, Philip uses some well placed samples to strenghten the dramatic tone of the Still Fire pieces.
This album is a lot different from 'Un[view]mask[ed]'. While the previous release was strongly supported by rhythmic patterns and loops - via sampled drums and bass lines, among several other instruments - 'Still Fire' is a completely beat-free ambient experience, with Ilia Belorukov's trademark sax punctuating occasionally the dense drone surroundings with distinct reverbed phrasings and sounds.
If you're into space-ambient-jazz you can't miss this release.»
Now, Philip Croaton speaks of Still Fire:
«Still Fire was an inalienable part of my Unachievable – a dark, noise-drone album. And after I've finished recording of bass part for SF, I had an idea to put in this composition another instrument – saxophone. I gave first version of SF to Ilia Belorukov with a green light to making everything he likes into it.
At the end we had a strong saxophone-based line as an add to minimalistic bass part, witch became a powerful duet.
After some time, I decided to continue the storyline of SF. So I began thinking about a concept, and replaced bass with electric guitar. And because I really enjoyed Ilia's ideas on SF, I was sure that he would take a part on SF II.
Third part of Still Fire became completive, generalized and fully independent of previous parts. It took all the best of SF and SF II with an extension of new ideas, which made it unique. Once again Ilia Belorukov took part on the writing process with some saxophone additions.» - Pedro Leitão
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November 17, 2008
CHECKMATE
• tube'|146 - Speed Chess - Speed Chess
«Wes Slover is a 21 year old audio engineer from Seattle, and Speed Chess is his first take at a conceptual release of its own. Wes loved music throughout middle and high school as he played in bands and for himself, but his fascination turned out to be with sound itself, as processed or unprocessed audio matter, and I'm sure that's the reason why he can't have enought sound to play with. In his own words: «Any chance I get I'm producing music.». Figures.
Speed Chess' concept revolves around the game of Chess. Metodically and mathematically, Wes works his way in with sequenced rhythms that somehow pay tribute to 90's electronica, via IDM, but also have a strong pop feeling about them. 'Kathryn Elizabeth', for instance, is gentle and sad song about a girl. Some other tracks have strong drum'n'bass and jungle influences, like 'Bedtime for the monster'. There aren't two songs lookalike but they all have in common a very accurate sense of momentum and harmony. The sound design is perfect, which doesn't come as a surprise given Wes' background and present occupation. All the samples, keyboards, drums, beat sequencing and everything else are all of great and solid design quality, and Wes has a real talent to write songs, as I'm sure you will notice as soon as you start listening to this release.» - Pedro Leitão
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November 06, 2008
PATH THROUGH THE FOREST
• tube'|145 - David Fungi - aal_sentieri
«David Fungi, from Varese, Italy, is clearly inspired by nature. Field recordings pop up from the initial sounds of “aal_sentieri”, blended with synthetic and metallic electronic sounds which produce the kind of ambience one might recognize from William Basinski. It is this razor edge that defines the strong personality of this recording. Even though “Aal_sentieri” is ambient music, it is also restless, menacing, provokes the listener and gives him a sense of travelling through a mysterious and dark forest. As the piece unfolds through its 23 minutes, the sound layering becomes more complex, while one can only guess the origin of the animal noises underneath. When the path comes to an end, a climax appears in the last 4 minutes, first with a burst of industrial noise and finally an orchestral and cinematic climax, finishing the track. “aal_sentieri” leaves the listener in the company of silence, which in a strange kind of way almost works as a reverberation of the track. It is not easy to capture one's imagination like this, but David Fungi has that skill to mix disparate sounds in a coherent manner, making “aal_sentieri” a fine and peculiar release.»
- César A. Laia
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