Sunday, January 11, 2015

Ambient mix – The earth as still as stone


“The sky is empty/silent
The earth as still as stone
Nothing stands above me
Now I can sleep alone”

Rowland S. Howard

I need to make something of a disclaimer regarding this mix. The original idea came from something that Mute boss Daniel Miller wrote in the liner notes to a Mojo compilation called “Electricity: A brief history of future sound” that came out in September 2012 and which for some reason stuck in my head. Miller wrote that “As far as the sequencing goes, I started with Fad Gadget’s “Back to nature” – a very important track for me personally because it was the track that really got Mute going as a label. I ended the compilation with Non’s “Total war” because it’s a track that can’t be followed”. Given the sheer aggression of sound and theme, I tended to agree with Miller’s opinion.

Nonetheless, the idea that “Total war” could not be followed seemed to me to be an interesting conceptual challenge for a mix. Could I create a narrative arc where this idea was the central theme? Could I sonically and thematically create this idea of war and destruction after which nothing would remain? Therefore, this mix should in no way be perceived as any kind of personal opinion or call to arms and should not necessarily be taken to be my personal opinion about the world. It is an intellectual exercise, a puzzle to assemble perhaps, and if anything, I would like to present a criticism of violence and fear and just ask why? Is violence essential to nature? Similarly, situating certain artist’s tracks around this intentional idea of violence and war may be to give them context and association that they do not have or do not want, so I apologise to them if there is any misunderstanding caused. Noise does not necessarily have to be violent and, indeed, I quite often find it soothing.

Continuing this idea I make particular reference to the brief appearance of the Kraftwerk track “Vom Himmel hoch” (From Heaven above) which features synthesised sounds of bombers coming in and dropping their payloads. Axis or Allied bombers or both? It was David Stubbs who pointed me to this track in his book “Future Days: Krautrock and the building of modern Germany” where he says: “In later musical life, Kraftwerk would become renowned for their synthetic transcriptions of modern mechanised life. The opening passage [of “Vom Himmel hoch”] is, however, a rare direct reference in the Krautrock canon to wartime, whose traumas and experiences generally play a much more suppressed and subliminal role in the music.” Stubbs also makes reference to Kraftwerk reclaiming potentially controversial national symbols for Germany, such as the autobahns, which were originally built by Hitler, and also romanticising trains which clearly had their own sinister purposes in the Second World War. This is obviously not to say that Kraftwerk are secret Nazi sympathisers, probably the opposite, but it warns that context and misinterpretation are always possible. This is also the point of this disclaimer, to try and avoid anyone taking this mix in the wrong way, but at the same time I do not want to imply that there is any fixed way that it should be taken. The title of this track also refers to a hymn text relating to the Nativity of Jesus written by Martin Luther in 1534 which reads "Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her" ("From heaven above to earth I come") and which has appeared in many other works, most notably Bach.

The mix was done at home during the first few days of the year on Christmas vacation and was finished last week before the events in Paris on Wednesday. I was playing it at home on Friday night to check the final adjustments I had made and I felt a little bit uncomfortable listening to the closing sequence, especially to “Total war”, but also the British Murder Boys track. Moreover, my French girlfriend was in the room and was reasonably upset by it, but ironically found the shift to Pharmakon’s “Bang bang” to be somehow even more disturbing, despite it being essentially quieter and a well-known pop “song”. This of course was the point of selecting it and it marks a clear epilogue, if there is indeed something after “total war”, or alternatively it is the last inhalation of breath before the beginning of a second climax. I should also add that some of my girlfriend’s family is from Algeria, like the French killers, and therefore the events this week were particularly important for her and others like her as they are clearly a betrayal and a profanity of the most profound kind.

If anyone was wondering, the mix was made entirely in Adobe Audition and in some cases there are three or even four tracks playing at once. I have used cut and paste editing of tracks in several occasions to create small loops or continuations of sounds and so on, that make it easier to graft the subsequent track or to create continuity of ideas such as the nature sounds.







Number
Artist
Track
Label
Year
1
Kevin Drumm & Jason Lescalleet
Dawn
Erstwhile Records
2014
2
Francisco Lopez
Untitled #286
Touch
2012
3
Chris Watson
Haefest
Touch
2013
4
Charles Cohen
Sunrise women-men
Generations Unlimited / Morphine Records
1988 / 2014
5
Laurie Spiegel
The expanding universe
Philo / Unseen Worlds
1980 / 2012
6
Kettenkarussell
Of course
Giegling
2014
7
Grouper
Lighthouse
Kranky
2014
8
David Bowie
Moss garden
RCA Victor
1977
9
Sandwell District
Untitled (7” B side)
Sandwell District
2011
10
Peder Mannerfelt
Nihilist 87
Digitalis Recordings
2014
11
Pierre Schaeffer
Étude aux chemins de fer
INA-GRM
1948 / 1990
12
Chris Watson
Veracruz - The tunnel
Touch
2011
13
Godspeed You Black Emperor
Nervous, sad, poor...
Constellation
1997
14
Lawrence English
Hapless gatherer
Room 40
2014
15
Koenraad Ecker
Decline
Digitalis Recordings
2014
16
Shifted
Untitled
Unknown Precept
2013
17
Ben Frost
The Carpathians
Bedroom Community
2009
18
Dale Cooper Quartet & The Dictaphones
Ma couloir                
Diesel Combustible
2006
19
These Immortal Souls
Untitled feedback (crowned)
Mute
1992
20
Boys Next Door
The friend catcher
Missing Link
1980
21
Valerio Tricoli
In your ruins is my shelter
PAN
2014
22
Kraftwerk
Vom Himmel hoch
Philips
1970
23
NON
Intro/Total War
Mute
1992
24
Ancient Methods
Guardians of an eternal bliss
Unknown Precept
2013
25
British Murder Boys
Hate is such a strong word
Counterbalance
2005
26
Pharmakon
Bang bang
Sacred Bones Records
2014
27
Roly Porter
Giant
Subtext
2013
28
Rowland S. Howard
Sleep alone
Reliant Records
1999