28 May 2019: Blow Up Hollywood / Tidsrymd / Leaving Richmond / Ethereal Ephemera

I will also be hosting the (Mostly) Country show,  Rural Electric, from 7-9 pm, the block before Freeform.





Tonight we begin by featuring the new release from Blow Up Hollywood, Gold.


GOLD is the latest release from the ambient rock band and finds them returning to their roots both sonically and thematically.

Gold is available as a traditional Vinyl LP album, as well as in CD and MP3 formats. Visit the Blow Up Hollywood Shop to purchase your very own copy.

This is a superb album and we think you will agree after hearing it.

Blow Up Hollywood is an underground American rock band. Their eclectic sound, built over a decade of recording, incorporates many different styles, diverse as progressive rock, post-rock, experimental, pop, classical, jazz and ambient soundscapes. Founded by Steve Messina and Nik Chinboukas in 2001, the group has evolved into more of a collective than a band, as some of their members have changed over the years.



We continue tonight's show with the ambient sounds of Tidsrymd from Gothenberg, Sweden and the release I juliaskan, released September 23, 2018; All songs composed and produced by Johan Ohlsson; Mastered by Joakim Westlund.  Their Facebook page here.
Johan Ohlsson:
The EP is called "I juliaskan", which translates "In the Ashes of July". The title came about halfway into making the title track, during the autumn of 2018. What I heard reminded me of the forest fires, which plagued a few areas of Sweden during the summer and were very difficult get under control.

That summer had somewhat of a strange feeling to it, because of recurrent thunder with little or no rain, dry grass everywhere, different reports of the fires and farmers having to make emergency slaughters due to drought. I won't go into politics, but I think during that summer the concept of climate change became something close to home for the first time to a lot of people in Sweden.

"Dagvild" is a Swedish expression, which means that you don't know which day of the week it is. To me, at least, it associatively follows the theme of summer.

The track "Sinnesro" seems to be your typical relaxation music, but it has some slightly unnerving detuning and dissonance in there, to create a sort of contrast.

This is the First EP I've made on my own, after playing in bands for a couple of years, and I made most of it quite fast in a sort of rush of inspiration during my free weekends. I hope you'll enjoy it – or that you'll enjoy something else.


Great Distances is the 7th studio album from the Los Angeles based electronic music project: leaving richmond.

7 lovingly crafted electronic-instrumental tracks to add to your collection

Futurism with a human feel.

Lush melodies and sonic landscapes play with layered evolving beats to create music with meaningful purpose.

I want to soundtrack your thoughts.

The atmospheric, instrumental music of Jordan Pier has made its way into a number of hit TV shows, broadcasts and advertisements and continues to gain new fans year after year.

credits

released May 17, 2019

All tracks composed and mixed by leaving richmond.
All tracks mastered by Bad Bat Records.









Finally, we end the show with the soothing ambient sounds of ethereal ephemera and their latest release, escape to dreamscape.

Two warm and soothing ambient soundscapes.
Drifting, slow and peaceful.

Live improvised recordings using virtual tape loops and a range of sound sources.
More of this sort of thing:
etherealephemera.bandcamp.com

credits

released March 18, 2019

All music written, performed and produced by Brin Coleman
at MCos, Manchester, March 2019.

Cover design and photography by Brin Coleman.
Cover photograph: San Francisco, April 2017.









21 May 2019 : Gong - Bernhard Wöstheinrich & Evan Foreman

The Universe Also Collapses
Gong offer an intriguing new model for band longevity. Rather than groups facing the prospect of merely becoming a tribute act to themselves, renewal and regeneration is possible if founding elders are willing to pass the baton on to younger players who don’t just knock out the old standbys, but embrace the spirit and philosophy that fuelled the band in the first place. This is exactly what Daevid Allen planned for Gong, and so far, it’s worked out spectacularly.
If 2016’s Rejoice! I’m Dead! was a confident assertion of the post-Allen band’s musical identity, then The Universe Also Collapses pushes even further out while retaining Gong’s sense of wonderment and mischief. Featuring just four songs, it’s an album that aims to “bridge the worlds of lysergic exploration and quantum physics,” with lyrical themes of rebirth and re-death seeking to rise above the petty affairs of Man… It’s also an attempt to make a genuinely psychedelic record for the 21st century, Kavus Torabi expressing disappointment with most music that goes under that banner these days – instead, “I want to hear music that makes me feel like I’m on drugs.”
Opening 20-minute track Forever Reoccurring makes a pretty good case for achieving this objective, establishing its cosmic credentials upfront with a shimmer of glissando guitar and pulsing synth. Torabi’s weaving vocal is like a spell, a stoned invocation of blissed-out clarity, borne aloft on Dave Sturt’s buoyant bass. There’s a big surge of chords and some excellent angular fretwork from Torabi – in tandem with Ian East’s playful but powerful sax, it’s difficult not to draw favourable comparisons with VdGG and King Crimson in their 70s pomp. It’s unhurried, discursive stuff, but you can practically hear the molecules buzzing in the song’s super-structure.
If Never I’m And Ever You is a short, nervy head-rush after a long trip, before My Sawtooth Wake takes us on another extended journey, only this time the terrain is a good deal bumpier. Fabio Golfetti’s glissando still weaves its magic, but the main riff is a tough, almost funky strut from a band getting ready to enter into battle with itself. There’s a weightless pull-back to the vocal, but the bass keeps bursting through, becoming more encrusted with noise each time. The Elemental brings the album to a blackly upbeat conclusion, East’s sax like the mocking tootling of faery folk as Torabi sings, ‘The world is ending just the same as it began.’ It combines the whimsical with the deadly serious in a way that Allen would surely have approved of.
By Joe Banks

1. Forever Reoccuring
2. If Never I'm Ever You
3. My Sawtooth Wake
4. The Elemental
Materiaal Series, Part XVII

Recording of the performance at Edge Media Space at Farmington High School, Farmington, April 16, 2019.

Composed, programmed, and recorded in real-time by a crazy mind and his laptop, accompanied by Evan Foreman on percussions and electronics. No prepared sequences, patterns, or melodies used.

The Edge Media Space is an experimental multi-media facility at Farmington High School, run by Evan Foreman. The main studio is an inspiring space with an eclectic collection of all kinds of audio-, computer-, video- and synth gear.

Video Set 1
youtu.be/qkGzEWASLqc

Video Set 2
youtu.be/DeFh11AedR0

credits

released May 9, 2019

Bernhard Wöstheinrich: Keyboards and virtual synthesizers, Live-Sequencing
Evan Foreman: Percussion and Electronics

Live Recording: Gabe Gantkin
Editing, mixing and mastering: Markus Reuter
Cover drawing: Christine Kriegerowski

Special thanks to George "G$" Bley

14 May 2019: IDMf / Gerhard Jason / Bards of Antiquity / Tidsrymd

Tonight's show veers away from the mostly electronica full albums of recent programs in order to feature a number of artists who deserve more airplay and recognition.  FreeForm Radio's mission since its beginnings in 1987 has been to play music not usually heard on public or commercial radio.  With the advent of Internet Radio and Streaming Services, it's difficult to find music that hasn't been played elsewhere, so we do our best to spotlight artists who deserve more airplay and recognition.
So here we go!
From the IDMfNetLabel Bandcamp page:
What do you get when a group of IDMf producers join forces to make sweet sweet music together? You get...Date Nite. Our 56th release features the tracks of 10 IDMf artists who paired up for the first time, bringing these 8 beautiful, musical love-children into being. Some are fast, some are slow, some are chill, and some are in your face, but all of these tracks are aimed to please, and were selected by the IDMf community to bring to you.  Their Facebook page is here.

released May 11, 2019

Cover art by Jayson Abalos
Mastering by James Pingel

Released by the IDMforums Netlabel and the community at idmforums.com
May 11, 2019
ambient chillstep drum & bass drumstep electronic idm electronica United Kingdom
From Gerhard Jason's Bandcamp page:
lo-fi for Headphones is an Experiment album infused with elements of Sound Art, Industrial, Spoken Word Poetry, Anti-Folk, and Noise. As a Sound Collage it is at times beautiful, peaceful; hopeful. At other times, it is angry, disturbing, and frightening. It is a little like life in that way. Sometimes it hurts.

lo-fi for Headphones is not intended to be played in a random order, which is why no song can be purchased individually. One song leads into the next. It is a journey. Plug in your headphones and listen from track one through to thirty. Use the first minute or so of the first track to set a comfortable listening level. Sometimes you will have to listen closely to hear what is going on, and that is okay. At other times, the sounds will get quite loud, and that is also okay. It is never so loud that it could damage your eardrums, but it is loud enough to make you uncomfortable.

lo-fi for Headphones is influenced by bands such as Leather Strip and Skinny Puppy; by the song Revolution #9 by The Beatles, and by certain segments of Brian Wilson’s masterpiece, Smile.

released April 16, 2011

Gerhard Jason resides in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. He has been playing guitar since 1995 and he began experimenting with different sounds and techniques in 2000, after the birth of his first daughter. lo-fi for Headphones was recorded between 2000 and 2005. In 2011 it was released as a sixteen track EP on Amazon titled, The Beautiful Noise. More recently, Gerhard removed the EP from Amazon’s catalogue and re-imagined it as a full album. Gerhard went back to the tracks that he’d originally recorded, which hadn’t been included in the early 2000s, and gave them the place they deserved. Along with these tracks, for the sake of continuity, Gerhard added three songs that were recorded more recently.

Gerhard is currently at work on an acoustic Anti-Folk album titled, Mixed States. A rough demo, in its entirety, can be heard here: soundcloud.com/gerhard-jason-geick/the-rough-mixed-states-demo

anti-folk electronic experimental guitar industrial mandolin noise sound art anti-folk industrial noise sound art Edmonton
From Bards of Antiquity's Bandcamp page:
Self-exiled star traveler escapes the pressures of existence through severe isolation and deep hibernation, only to succumb to the irresistible pull of dark oblivion.
released October 31, 2017
The Bards of Antiquity is a recording project led by John Vincent Carpetta with guest musicians on select tracks. Self-produced, they craft concept albums telling tales of love and death, inspired by the classics.  Their Facebook page here.
alternative experimental progressive rock adult alternative rock alternative rock psychedelic rock rock space Concord


We end tonight's show with the ambient sounds of our final artist, Tidsrymd from Gothenberg, Sweden and the release I juliaskan, released September 23, 2018; All songs composed and produced by Johan Ohlsson; Mastered by Joakim Westlund.  Their Facebook page here.
Johan Ohlsson:
The EP is called "I juliaskan", which translates "In the Ashes of July". The title came about halfway into making the title track, during the autumn of 2018. What I heard reminded me of the forest fires, which plagued a few areas of Sweden during the summer and were very difficult get under control.

That summer had somewhat of a strange feeling to it, because of recurrent thunder with little or no rain, dry grass everywhere, different reports of the fires and farmers having to make emergency slaughters due to drought. I won't go into politics, but I think during that summer the concept of climate change became something close to home for the first time to a lot of people in Sweden.

"Dagvild" is a Swedish expression, which means that you don't know which day of the week it is. To me, at least, it associatively follows the theme of summer.

The track "Sinnesro" seems to be your typical relaxation music, but it has some slightly unnerving detuning and dissonance in there, to create a sort of contrast.

This is the First EP I've made on my own, after playing in bands for a couple of years, and I made most of it quite fast in a sort of rush of inspiration during my free weekends. I hope you'll enjoy it – or that you'll enjoy something else. 🙂



 
 

07 May 2019




I will not be hosting FreeForm Radio this week (May 7); I'll be back next Tuesday with some experimental/ambient/progressive music.