05 October 2021: Ian Boddy DiN69 "Nevermore"; Bernhard Wostheinrich and Ombient

 

 Be sure to follow KMXT FreeForm Radio on Facebook and Bandcamp.  

Please support FreeForm Radio and KMXT by going to KMXT.org and pledging your support.

 

 Our thanks to Ian Boddy and DiN with providing us with a copy of this release.

 

 

The DiN label, established in 1999, reaches something of a milestone with “Nevermore” (DiN69) as it represents the 100th release on the esteemed British electronic music label. This equates to this, the 69th album on the main DiN imprint as well as 26 digital only releases on the DiNDDL sub-label and 5 Tone Science albums.

It seems only fitting then that this release comes from DiN label boss Ian Boddy. Performed live at DiN HQ the performance was videoed and streamed on March 27th 2021 as part of the three day Soundquest Festival. This was organised by ambient luminary Steve Roach and had an audience watching and listening of 1000+ music fans across the globe coming together in these strange days of a global pandemic. This surely inspired Boddy to conjure up a mesmerising tour de force of a live show that shows all his skills and experience built up over a life time of performing.

Boddy’s set up was centred around his large Serge modular system supplemented by three cases of Eurorack. Eschewing the presence of a laptop this allowed him to sculpt and evolve a series of engaging electronic soundscapes. Ranging from the spacey and eerie to beautifully pastoral with his Ondes Martenot style French Connection keyboard featured at several points with its hauntingly beautiful tones. Novation & Moog keyboards fill out Boddy’s arsenal of instruments and the video shows him in constant motion playing, tweaking and sculpting the hour long set. In the two rhythmic excursions “From Here To There” and “Nevermore” one can literally hear Boddy build the complex, intertwining patterns brick by brick before launching out with some inspired solo playing that can only really happen in a live performance.

Released in a limited edition digipak with beautiful artwork by Wendy Carroll this is music that not only celebrates the work of one of the UK’s leading exponents of electronic music but also the label he has curated with such love and care for the last 22 years. 

credits

releases October 15, 2021

Performed live by Ian Boddy in the DiN Studio & recorded / videod in February 2021.

Streamed live on March 27th as part of the three day SoundQuest Festival 2021.
Multi-track mix, video edit & mastering by Ian Boddy.


Instruments:
Serge Modular
Eurorack Modular
Analogue Systems French Connection
Make Noise 0-Coast
Moog Matriarch
Novation Summit
Folktek Resonant Garden
Moog MF-104M Analog Delay

Thanks to:
All the SoundQuest team for making this amazing event happen:
Steve Roach, Serena Gabriel, Eric Freeman & Mavromedia.
soundquestfest.live

all rights reserved

ambient em electronic electronic music electronica soundquest downtempo modular synth synthwave Sunderland

 

BWMAT201918 | released June 8, 2019 | Materiaal Series, Part 018 | Recorded live on the 14 April 2019 broadcast of STAR’S END Ambient Radio on WXPN 88.5FM in Philadelphia , USA


“In tones edged in platinum the collaboration between Bernhard Wöstheinrich & Ombient rings of a far-ranging sonic intelligence – which is felt in its unrestrained directness of expression. By overcoming the limitations of contemporary music this duo better expresses their un-conforming ideas of the cosmos and infinite space” – Chuck van Zyl

 

Bernhard Wöstheinrich elicits meaning from abstraction in electronic music and painting. He has studied graphic design and has created an eclectic body of work in both graphics and music.
Bernhard speaks in his own musical voice; the musical arc of his work often moves from the curiously beautiful to the beautifully curious. 

credits

released June 8, 2019

Bernhard Wöstheinrich – Keyboards and virtual synthesizers, Live-Sequencing
Ombient / Mike Hunter - Maxikorg, Minimoog, Meris Polymoon


Audio recorded by Roycee Martin & Jeff Towne
Editing and mastering: Markus Reuter
Cover drawing: Christine Kriegerowski

Video by Chuck van Zyl

Special thanks to Chuck van Zyl and the whole crew that was around at the studio of WXPN in Philadelphia & George “G$” Bley

www.starsend.org
www.ombient.com

all rights reserved

ambient ambient electronic big beat big beat electro electronica Berlin

 

 Be sure to follow KMXT FreeForm Radio on Facebook and Bandcamp.  

Please support FreeForm Radio and KMXT by going to KMXT.org and pledging your support.

27 April 2021: Bernhard Wostheinrich & Tim Motzer: Schloss Tegal

 Be sure to follow KMXT FreeForm Radio on Facebook and Bandcamp.  

Please support FreeForm Radio and KMXT by going to KMXT.org and pledging your support.

Recorded live on May 27, 2017, broadcast of Frank Somalus' show at RSD-Radio, Berlin, Germany.

"I remember vividly flying past many tall buildings in Bernhard's sister's speeding old blue convertible and the blur of a vast German boulevard somewhere in former East Berlin. It was a long drive and rather dream-like. I had just finished a European tour with Bandit65 with Kurt Rosenwinkel and Gintas Janusonis, and was now here in Berlin visiting my great friend & colleague Bernhard to play a few shows.
This radio broadcast set was quite inspired. We had not improvised together in quite a long time, perhaps a few years. It was so good to be back in Berlin among friends. I still remember the feeling, as it was the last time I've been there since Covid-19 has taken hold of our planet. Listening to this brings back so many memories, and our performance that day went to amazing places. I believe it to be my favorite concert we've ever done thus far.
We hope you will enjoy this magic sonic ride, filled with mysterious melodic and harmonic sequences, ever shifting driving rhythmic terrain, beauitiful transitions and colours like I've never heard or experienced since. We were so in it. This is so ON! This magic duo. This is a great one folks." - Tim Motzer

credits

Materiaal Series, Vol. XLII   released April 18, 2021

Tim Motzer - guitar, electronics
Bernhard Wöstheinrich - keyboards, live-arrangements, electronics
recorded live in Berlin at RSD-Radio

Mastering: Markus Reuter
Artwork by Christine Kriegerowski (duckwoman.de)

Thank you to Frank Somalus!
www.rsd-radio.com

Tags

ambient ambient electronic big beat big beat electro electronica Berlin

 

In the Blur of a Vast Boulevard 57:08    I met Richard Schneider (Schloss Tegal) at Klub 007 in Prague in December 2019, right before the pandemic. Having been invited by Jan Kruml to work together on a radio transmission on Radio 1, I stayed in Prague for some days and had the chance to attend a Schloss Tegal live performance; that night, various musicians from the Prague underground played at the club, including Vladimir Hirsch. After the concert I had some talks with Richard regarding his participation in the compilation "Drone Islands – The Lost Maps" which I was going to release a month later, and I congratulated him on the performance. At the time, I couldn’t imagine that our paths would have crossed again till the moment we talked online about the release of “Musick From Madness” (a document of the early Schloss Tegal productions) through the Eighth Tower Records label. More than a simple release - though one of historical importance that I’m honored to publish - this publication represents the best way to remember some friends whom I had the pleasure to know and collaborate with: people I could hardly meet in person at the moment. Raffaele Pezzella Musick from Madness on Bandcamp Schloss Tegel was a Berlin-based hospital: see below for more information credits releases June 4, 2021 Music by Schloss Tegal (RL Schneider, MW Burch). RL Schneider: Synth, Samples, Electronics MW Burch: Tapes, Samples, Electroacoustics Recorded between 1986 and 1990 Edited by Eighth Tower Records Originally released on C46 cassette in 1991 by State Of Flux Mastered by Raffaele Pezzella (Sonologyst) Artwork by Black Space Industry eighthtowerrecords.bandcamp.com © 2021. All rights reserved   FreeForm Radio thanks Raffaele Pezzella for providing a promotional copy of this release. Notes: Tracks “The Father is Omnipotent”, “I Give Everything to the Devil”, “The Red Skull”, recorded between 1986 and 1990, and previously unreleased. The original cassette, published by State Of Flux, existed in two editions. In the first, an edition of 25, each copy has a bone glued to the inside cover. The second edition is exactly the same, but without the bone. A State Of Flux was a label, distributor and radio program on WCUW-FM in Worchester, Massachusetts all run by John Collegio.  Tags ambient dark ambient dark chamber drone industrial noise Italy   1. Blood Of Sacrifice 04:00 2. In the Light In the Darkness 05:46 3. Smart Drug 04:26 4. Cadaver Obedience (Decay Mix) 03:11 5. The Father Is Omnipotent 6. Ring In Place 7. Vortex 8. Natan Speaks 9. I Give Everything to the Devil 10. Watch Me Flop Around 11. The Red Skull    Schloss Tegel was a Berlin-based hospital where disaffected soldiers were treated for exhaustion, depression, and other mental conditions spawned by the very violent and demanding nature of their profession. One would think that, if a post-industrial project known for the darkness embedded in their work chose this as their name, it would be because of the dubious methods used to treat their patients; perhaps the hospital was known for having submitted its subjects to inhumane experiments and practices that were on the verge of being pure psychological and physical torture. Nonetheless, this couldn't be further from the truth. Schloss Tegel was a place where the healing process was approached through music and art therapy. How can a project with such gruesome sound and aesthetics be named after a place of healing and improvement? Can we take it as black humor or as a way to reflect the fractured and foggy state of mind of those who attended such an institution? Having been spawned out of the decaying biomechanical world of early industrial music, which fused technology with primitive impulses to create bleak and harsh soundscapes instead of danceable techno pieces, Schloss Tegal (RL Schneider, MW Burch) released "Musick From Madness" on cassette tape around the early 90s, and despite being their second outing (the first being the Procession of the Dead 7"), it already showcased the elements that would grant them the title of pioneers - or even founders - of the dark ambient genre. We had the paradoxical positioning of harsh and soft textures, obscure samples, a very cinematic presence, and loose song structures that flowed like nightmares from which, as the title of the final track in the seminal "Oranur III" (Tegal Records, 1995) states, you can't wake up. Now, thanks to Raffaele Pezzella’s Eighth Tower Records label, Musick from Madness finally has a proper reissue. If industrial and some of its offshoots, like the ever-controversial power-electronics, intended to place the listener in the center of a tumbling building being demolished by heavy and rusty machinery, Schloss Tegal aimed to create ethereal wreckage: the structure being explored and subsequently destroyed was not one belonging to an unnamed urban landscape, it was the mind itself. While it still had the raw power of early Throbbing Gristle or Whitehouse, the force with which Schloss Tegal struck was very different; somewhat gentler, but still very unnerving. Every detail and every sample is buried under decaying sound layers that feel as if they are struggling to keep everything underneath, but their presence somehow seeps through the cracks. It is all very subliminal. These suffocating atmospheres came rather naturally to the duo if we are to take into consideration everything they were consuming outside of music. With interests such as the teachings of Satanism, the intricate plots that only conspiracy theories can provide, and a proclivity towards the darker side of human nature manifested in a strong interest in serial killers of the late 70s and 80s, it is no wonder that Schloss Tegal were able to conjure such bleak, yet intriguing, landscapes with little effort. To listen to “Musick From Madness” is to let the darkness take hold and lead us through a slow, overwhelming and spiraling descent into uncharted territory. Beginning with hypnotic pulses and unintelligible samples whose echoes linger through the songs with a ghost-like presence, the album eventually gives in to cacophony; nonetheless, it is all very subtle. It doesn't turn harsh or dissonant, but as it progresses, its persistent, maddening state becomes highly - and dangerously - contagious. The duo were already experts in creating engaging experiences, knowing when to hold back, and when to bring back certain motifs to give us a sense of direction, even if for a brief moment. The goal was never to scare us, but to help us assimilate the darkness within. Parting from that point of view - which one could say is very psychoanalytical - it starts to make sense that this enigmatic duo took their name from a, rather wholesome, mental facility. This is the dichotomy of Schloss Tegal. Jorge C. Ortega

14 January 2020: Nigel Mullaney / Cool Spring / Bernhard Wostheinrich

Nigel Mullaney is a familiar name for followers of the DiN label with his early releases with label boss Ian Boddy under the name of Dub Atomica as well as his album with Ray Sherwin, “Music By Mirrors” (DiN38) under the moniker of Mazmoneth. More recently he has been working with Boddy utilising modular synth systems at several venues including the recently released download album “Schemes & Ruses” (DiNDDL23) recorded at the Capstone Theatre in Liverpool.

It thus comes as somewhat of a surprise that “31 Days” is his first solo album on DiN. It’s genesis came about through a musical challenge he set himself to compose a track a day for the entire month of January 2018. In the studio and on the road he explored sonic improvisations using a range of portable modular synthesisers as well as a selection of analogue keyboards and vintage outboard gear. Essentially each of the tracks is a live recording with no overdubs or additional stem mixing.

This resulted in over 4 hours of material that Ian Boddy carefully listened through and curated into a track list which represents a 70 minute cross section of Mullaney’s 31 day musical odyssey. As with Boddy’s DiN iNDEX sampler albums the music ebbs and flows from gloriously cinematic orchestral textures through to wonderfully rhythmic drum and sequencer tracks laced with cutting edge sound design and first class production values.

To quote Mullaney, “as the days and weeks progressed I found myself connected with my music and art like never before. It simply flowed through me”. The music certainly reflects this with a fresh and vibrant feel that showcases a talented musician at the top of their game. 

credits

releases January 17, 2020

“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.”

Ray Bradbury


I’ve been told on many occasions that I think way too much…. After years of working on commissions and interpreting clients concepts of what music has to sound like I had found myself in a creative blackhole. Over thinking and over analysing music had separated me from the art of creative expression, improvisation and musical freedom.

I had a plan to fix this, a challenge I had contemplated undertaking for a number of years - to compose, programme, perform and record one track a day for 31 consecutive days. In the studio and on the road I began to explore sonic improvisations and soundscapes without any self conscious preconceptions, and as the days and weeks progressed I found myself connected with my music and art like never before. It simply flowed through me.

Essentially what you have here is a live album, using modular synthesisers, a selection of analog keyboards and vintage outboard gear. The music was performed and recorded directly into a Tascam Stereo DSD recorder with no overdubs and no additional stem mixing. After presenting Ian Boddy with over 4 hours of music he applied his expert critical listening and curated a track list which represents a 70 minute cross section from my 31 Day musical journey.

Nigel Christopher Mullaney 01.10.19


Special thanks to :

Jonathan Paul Jowett - Phoenix Creative Media Ltd
Ian Boddy - DiN Records
Jennifer Leggett
Wendy Carroll
Ben Wilson - DivKid Ben
Robin Rimbaud - Scanner
Dan Wahlbeck - DPW Design
Ickle Boo & The Boys


This one's for you Dad x 

 

Materiaal Series, Part XXIII

Performed and recorded live on October 6, 2018 at Orion Studios, Baltimore, MD, USA, as an opener for the legendary Soft Machine.

ECM recording artist David Rothenberg wrote Why Birds Sing, published in six languages and turned into a BBC TV show. He has written other books about making music with whales and bugs, has sixteen CDs out and his latest book, CD, and film is called Nightingales in Berlin.

www.nightingalesinberlin.com

Jay Nicholas, bass player extraordinaire and legendary studio engineer, has worked at Chung King Studios with the likes of David Bowie, Wyclef Jean, the Neville Brothers and the Wu-Tang Clan.

www.allmusic.com/artist/jay-nicholas-mn0001839831

------------------
watch the drop!
youtu.be/Z51wmigO9Qo?t=233
------------------

credits

released December 13, 2019

Bernhard Wöstheinrich: keyboards and virtual synthesizers, live-sequencing
David Rothenberg: clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone and iPad
Jay Nicholas: bass & wavedrum

Performed and recorded live at Orion Studios, Baltimore, MD, USA, October 6, 2018

Mixed and mastered by Markus Reuter

Artwork by Christine Kriegerowski
Video by Jefferson Ogata

Special thanks to Leonardo Pavkovic, Mike Potter, Joe Tracey and Chris Baker

www.orionsound.com

1.	Live at the Orion Studios 2018 - before the drop 22:03 video
				Live at the Orion Studios 2018 - after the drop 08:02

Cool Spring

by David Rothenberg, Bernhard Wöstheinrich, Jay Nicholas

•  

	1.	Cool Spring 16:14
	2.	Stick Insect Undisguised 04:40
	3.	It’s All in the Cloud 10:49
	4.	One Leap Takes You There 09:29
	5.	Dystopia is Cheap 09:55

about

David and Bernhard have been playing together for three years, and it happens whenever the two are in the same country.
Last October we found them both in the Hudson Valley of New York, where they were joined in the studio by bass player and producer Jay Nicholas in the village where David and Jay live, definitely a Cool Spring.


ECM recording artist David Rothenberg wrote Why Birds Sing, published in six languages and turned into a BBC TV show. He has written other books about making music with whales and bugs, has sixteen CDs out and is working on a book about the nightingales of Berlin and the musicians who play with them.

www.davidrothenberg.net

Bernhard leads his own solo project "The Redundant Rocker" and among others he has collaborated with Markus Reuter (in centrozoon) Tim Motzer, Ian Boddy, No-Man singer Tim Bowness, Conrad Schnitzler†, and Erik Wøllo. Bernhard elicits meaning from abstraction in electronic music and painting. He has studied graphic design and has created an eclectic body of work in both graphics and music. Using a compositional approach akin to his work as a visual artist, Bernhard usually begins by improvising abstract sonic structures which are subsequently developed into an increasingly detailed aural picture.

www.redundantrocker.com


Jay Nicholas, bass player extraordinaire and legendary studio engineer, has worked at Chung King Studios with the likes of David Bowie, Wyclef Jean, the Neville Brothers and the Wu-Tang Clan.

www.allmusic.com/artist/jay-nicholas-mn0001839831  

credits

released March 18, 2016

David Rothenberg: clarinet, bass clarinet, contralto clarinet
Bernhard Wöstheinrich: keyboards and electronics
Jay Nicholas: bass

Performed and recorded on B Street, October 2015

Mixed and mastered by Markus Reuter

Artwork by Christine Kriegerowski
Special thanks to George "G$" Bley

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

Tags ambient ambient electronic big beat big beat electro electronica free download percussion world music Berlin

24 October 2017: ARC (Ian Boddy & Mark Shreeve); Bernhard Wöstheinrich & Gaston Klares

An evening of electronic music with four virtuosos of the genre: Ian Boddy, Mark Shreeve, Bernhard Wöstheinrich & Gaston Klares

“Fleet” (DiN53) is the seventh concert album by the duo ARC (DiN label boss Ian Boddy and Mark Shreeve). This fact alone should tell you how popular this musical partnership is in a live setting where they continue to dazzle audiences with their mix of live electronics underpinned by huge slabs of analogue sequencing.

“Fleet” was recorded to multitrack at the E-Scape Electronic Music Festival in Halesworth, Suffolk on 13th May 2017. On returning to the studio this allowed Mark Shreeve to mix and master the resulting performance in fine detail to produce a stunning, dynamic album that preserves all the power and richness of their live show. The seven tracks, complete with enthusiastic audience ambience, spans almost 78 minutes for the next best thing to actually being there!

What is most evident on this ARC album are the richly harmonic themes, most notably in the opening title track which builds and grows through a series of gorgeous melodies to it’s climax. Tracks such as “Soar” are more delicate in nature with distant mellotrons overlaid with intertwining sequencer patterns whereas “Crux” opens with a spooky ambient section before ramping up to a live sequencer fest that lovers of Berlin School electronica will lap up. ARC always like to leave the stage with a bang and for the last...  more

credits

released October 20, 2017

All tracks composed, played & produced by Ian Boddy & Mark Shreeve.
Recorded in concert at the E-Scape electronic music festival, The Cut, Halesworth, Suffolk on May 13th 2017.

Mixed & mastered by Mark Shreeve (June - July 2017).

Ian Boddy:
Eurorack modular, Moog Voyager, Dave Smith Poly Evolver & Ableton Live

Mark Shreeve:
Moog & Moon modular sequencing, Roland System 100-M, Roland Juno 60 & Logic Pro X 

	1.	Fleet 08:38
	2.	Soar 08:37
	3.	Surge 12:23
	4.	Escape 08:07
	5.	Crux 13:59
	6.	Runner 12:01
	7.	Howl 10:42

 

 

Nuu-Chah-Hulth

Materiaal Series, Part VIII | On March 25, 2016, Gaston Klares and Bernhard Wöstheinrich met in the 'Radio Modul' basement studio in Berlin-Kreuzberg for an elaborate recording session in between stacks of their electronic appliances.

From 1992 until 2014 Gaston Klares was the host of the well-established Luxembourgian Electronic Music radio show "Silent Running" (Radio ARA). He is still an active steam punk artisan and a spaced-out synth-wizard.

In these sessions the two like-minded fellows take a deep bow to the fore-mothers and -fathers of the movement of traditional electronic music and drift about in deep pulsating electronic ostinatos and coalescing soundscapes.

The title and the track names of this release are referencing the names of native tribes from the Northwest American Coast.

credits

released July 1, 2016

Bernhard Wöstheinrich: Keyboards and virtual synthesizers, Live-Sequencing
Gaston Klares: Keyboards, analog and digital Synthesizers, modified field recordings

Editing and mastering: Markus Reuter
Cover drawing: Christine Kriegerowski

Special thanks to Lukas Schmolzi

	1.Ahousaht 20:28
	2.	Ehatteshaht 31:54
	3.	Hesquiaht 30:32
	4.	Hupacasath 23:08