a blog about obscure muzik & graphix,random thoughts and free minds.

Showing posts with label big city orchestra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label big city orchestra. Show all posts

Wednesday, 9 March 2022

THE STONE TAPES-Revolutions In The Head-(Attenuation Circuit-Bandcamp-Germany-2019)


 

All music by:
dAS
Edward-Ka Spel
Frans De Waard
Ninah Pixie
Philip Knight

Recorded at TeKaSky Studios in Nijmegen, Netherlands, late October 2018.
Ninah first prepared her collection of sipsi reed flutes, before bonding at the studio Crumar organ (also a Pixy!), with all it's stuttering (broken!) idiosyncrasies.....
Frans conjured textural movement by mixing multiple cassette players and I-Pad.....
dAS experimented with contact mics and sound boards, feeding his computer to his looper....
Edward conducted a ballet of custom voice samples and played software synths.....
Phil surfed the aether-static world of circuit bent radio, and powered up the analog synth
armoury. The recordings were mixed by Frans, and the sound mastered for CD by Edward.Cover artwork by Phil...and much thanks to Astrid, and to Sascha.

www.ubuibi.org
www.legendarypinkdots.org
www.fransdewaard.com
 

credits

released October 28, 2019

“Revolutions In The Head” represents the almost transcendental result of “Discipline In The Studio” as members of The Big City Orchestra, Legendary Pink Dots And Frans De Waard (Modelbau, Kapotte Muziek and much more) combined to create a stream of 60 minute soundtracks for a TV station in San Francisco .
If that sounds like a recipe for chaos, then think again. The concentration involved was almost terrifying, but the satisfaction displayed when that clock hit the magical 60 minute mark seemed like a glorious release.
All the music here was recorded in The Silverman’s Attic studio .
Das And Ninah of Big City Orchestra instigated the project and flew to The Netherlands for these sessions.
The first hours involved them, The Silverman and Frans while Edward Ka-Spel joined for the last part of the penultimate session and the final hour.
Edward had literally just got off the train from London, tiptoed upstairs, unpacked his keyboard and various devices, connected the wires as soundlessly as possible and found his patch in the cauldron. The “Hellos” were delayed as only 30 minutes had passed of that particular musical voyage.
When the music was over, there seemed to be a general consensus that this meeting of minds needed to be heard by a wider audience. A big thank you to Frans for the hours he spent editing to make this release possible. click me

 attenuation circuit - label for experimental music, we accept only submissions for free download releases
attenuation-circuit@web.de

FELT HAT REVIEWS

The Stone Tapes is the project of Ninah Pixie and dAS from Big City Orchestra, Edward-Ka Spel from Legendary Pink Dots, Frans De Waard and Philip Knight.
A mix of interesting and accomplished personalities can be a tricky terrain but the whole album is a gem. Starts with strong synth lead in "Trapped in the Wall" - a good start - then moving on to hauntological narrative of voices and prepared sounds with a bit of radio waves in the next track.
"Groundbyte" is pretty noisy track of sound sculpture - abstract and raw.
"Late 4 Assembly" is somewhat magical arpeggio of wonder - lightweight and sounding like a trance soundbox.
These are but a few of the tracks that open up a great album where all the participants nicely jumble up different pieces of the puzzle they create collectively.
A souvenir, a gem, something that is both rare and unique enough to be remembered more than well.

felthatreviews.blogspot.com/2019/12/revolutions-in-head-by-stone-tapes.html

TONESHIFT

This is a unique collaboration between dAS, Edward-Ka Spel, Frans De Waard, Ninah Pixie and Philip Knight calling themselves The Stone Tapes (an unlikely combo of The Big City Orchestra, Legendary Pink Dots and De Waard). I’m unsure if this is a one-off project but Revolutions In The Head sounds stunning and nu-psychedelic. It’s trips the mind with blurred voices and siphoning synths, deep breathing, transistor radio frequencies and plenty of leftfield spirit.

Tracks like Groundbyte make rings and reverberate into new modified shapes. The watery trickling like a late night shower permeates into the darkness. While some of these folks may have worked together in the past, as a unit they bring their alternate worlds into focus by finding (un)common threads. It’s sometimes switched-on, dazed but never confused, combining drone with understated industrial knob fiddling.

Snaking Down Bourbon is a drunken jam fusion, a mish-mosh of orchestral warp and aching metaphor. But wait for the sizzle of The Clock Always Stops At Zero to find its light. Between static and harmonization is the unknown, and that’s where they find themselves, in the grind, afloat. Just in time for the liquified ambient ending which is deftly haunted.

[ TJ NORRIS]
toneshift.net/2019/11/27/revolutions-in-the-head-by-the-stone-tapes/

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Groundbyte 04:10



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Ø Zone 05:03  

Monday, 4 May 2015

BIG CITY ORCHESTRA/ILLUSION OF SAFETY-Mail Collaboration-(Realization-Usa-1990)

Another cassette produced with the help of the letter box,a  bit  like Onco+Culver and Ehi/Not Breathing or C-drik/Deleted tapes. 
I wrote already about Big City Orchestra, one of the most idiosyncratic and original groups of the past two decades,there are quite few posts about them on this blog,so I am not going to bother now.
Illusion of Safety is Daniel Burke,active since the 1983 and working alone or with various collaborators,they have released over 20 CDs on labels such as Complacency, Die Stadt, Experimedia, Odd Size, Silent, Soleilmoon, Staalplaat, Tesco, and Waystyx, and played over three hundred gigs in Europe and North America. IOS's work has been called ambient, post-industrial, electro-acoustic, noise, sound collage, improvisation, and power electronics, but they are unwilling to limit their work to any given style or method. The sonic character and affective substance of the music will often shift abruptly within each recording and live performance. 
Actual webpage:illusionofsafety.net
Realization Recording is an experimental music label run by Jon Booth.It is still active nowadays,here their webpage.

Enjoy it.
~f~a~r*a*w*a^y^
click me 

Sunday, 1 February 2015

BIG CITY ORCHESTRA-Everyman Is A Volume-(Korm Plastics-Holland-c60-1988)

Here another tape by the legendary Big City Orchestra,a very old and famous American project already covered in this blog here and here.
The label is Korm Plastics:Dutch experimental label founded in 1984 by Frans de Waard. In 1992 the label began operating as a part of Staalplaat, but this relationship ceased in 2003.It is still very active,here their webpage.
Enjoy It.
~f¬a~r¬a~w¬a~y~
click me

Monday, 1 December 2014

BIG CITY ORCHESTRA-Massacre Again-(Tonspur Tapes-Germany-c60-1986)+BIGGE CITY ORCHESTRA Meets EEL O-Pandora Snicker Eros-(Ecto Tapes-Usa-c60)

Other 2 tapes by the famous and incredible Big City Orchestra,I already spoke about them when I posted Baobab and Anguilliform.
Their website is very well done  and offer us lots of info,videos,music + archives,people and more,go here to check it.
I guess they are quite famous in the underground scene having had a very long history and discography yet I am going to re-copy what it is written on the discogs page dedicated to them as I find it very good.
"One of the most idiosyncratic and original groups of the past two decades, BCO is not your standard Orchestra. Situated in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, the band has released an enormous catalog of recorded material over the past two decades. Formed in the late 1970's the ensemble continues to maintain a free-flowing roster of artists from around the world that collaborate on specific projects. Categorizing the Orchestra into any given genre can be a task, as releases continue to surprise even the most devout listener. There is never any way to precisely classify the next BCO release. An album of authentic sea-shanties? A wall of noise? A shimmering downpour of lullabies whispered to the wind? A humorous or thought-provoking album of Sound Collages? Vocal excursions set to make Rod McKuen blush? We press play, leaning forward with slight apprehension. We await the first wave of blissful deception. We are perpetually rewarded."
and to complete this post---this is their discogs page  where you`ll find lots of (if not all) their productions.
Enjoy those nice tapes.
ps-Pandora Snicker Eros is not indexed 
*f*a*r*a*w*a*y*
massacre again
meets eel o-pandora...

Thursday, 26 December 2013

Big City Orchestra- 2 tapes-Baobab(Biotope Art Organization-UK-199x)+Anguilliform(EE tapes -Belgium-1996)

BZG CZTY ZRCHZSTRZ-baobab
 BEEG CEETY ORCHEESTRA-anguilliform

Here two tapes by Big City Orchestra!!!It`s kind of difficult to explain their music as it changes all the time.I prefer to add here an introduction taken from Discogs webpage. "One of the most idiosyncratic and original groups of the past two decades, BCO is not your standard Orchestra. Situated in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, the band has released an enormous catalogue of recorded material over the past two decades. Formed in the late 1970's the ensemble continues to maintain a free-flowing roster of artists from around the world that collaborate on specific projects. Categorizing the Orchestra into any given genre can be a task, as releases continue to surprise even the most devout listener. There is never any way to precisely classify the next BCO release. An album of authentic sea-shanties? A wall of noise? A shimmering downpour of lullabies whispered to the wind? A humorous or thought-provoking album of Sound Collages? Vocal excursions set to make Rod McKuen blush? We press play, leaning forward with slight apprehension. We await the first wave of blissful deception. We are perpetually rewarded."

 <f.a.r.a.w.a.y>

baobab
anguilliform