tinyways » instrumental

Nordic Balkans: Detektivbyrån

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 15:15:20 +0000

[See post on tinyways.com to listen to audio]
E18 [MP3] (from Hemvägen EP)
Dansbanan [MP3] (from Hemvägen EP)
Lyckans Undulat [MP3] (from Lyckans Undulat)
In the same way that Julie Andrews leaps at the mountains in Austria in the Sound of Music, Detektivbyrån glides over the ice capped Nordic Balkans. With their minimal carnival music, always happy and forever minimal, they can exist in no other place. The grassy Balkans are no doubt not a place for these pale skinned Swedes, and none will argue that it’s hard to carry a small orchestra in the ice covered planes of Sweden. Thus, they exist in one place – in the Nordic Balkans.
Links:
Official website
Myspace profile

Photo by Malin Ringsby.

Podcast: tinyset #20 – Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet (soundtrack)

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 17:24:11 +0000

[See post on tinyways.com to listen to audio] tinyset #20 – Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet (Soundtrack) [57:56m]

In 1971 Gavin Bryars joined Alan Power to work on a film about the people living around the area of Elephant and Castle and Waterloo Stations in London. In the course of being filmed, some people broke into drunken song – sometimes bits of opera, sometimes sentimental ballads – and one, who in fact did not drink, sang a religious song “Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet”.
Listening to the hymn later Bryars noticed that it was in perfect pitch and formed an effective loop. While working on the tape, Bryars left his studio for a few hours, leaving the door open. Coming back he noticed that the normally lively room was unnaturally subdued. People were moving slowly and some were sitting alone, quietly weeping. He was puzzled until he realized the tape was still playing, and it was the tramp’s singing that overcame the people. Bryars continued to work on the piece, and looked for the tramp to show him the final piece, but by that time the tramp had died.
The movie that the recording was made for was never released. This is a soundtrack for that movie.

Click to show the playlist…

For the complete podcasts archive, click here.

Links:
More about the recordings and some MP3s of them
The story behind the recording
Wikipedia Article

Edited by Inbal Mishory.

Traveling Without Moving: Amiina – Kurr

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 18:00:39 +0000

K7, Amiina’s label, ordered the removal of these MP3s. I have tried to explain K7 the changing world and importance of sites as tinyways in spreading the art. I believe that sites such as tinyways are important to both the artist and the labels, both commercially and artistically. tinyways does not feature full albums, but only a few pieces. We do this to encourage the support of the artists. I believe that for Indie artists, that get very little exposure, such support is crucial. After this post was published, Amiina saw it and approved of it. However, the legal system and mainly the perception of many labels is still a few decades behind. I am sorry for that. You, my avid reader, know where to get K7′s albums for free. Labels as K7 should perish and make way to ones that really want to promote the art and have a basic understanding of the universe they function in.
~~Hilli [MP3]~~
~~Lori [MP3]~~
~~Rugla [MP3]~~
Music,at times, portrays images, and at times it portrays entire scenes, with movement, action and drama. On other occasions it portrays lack of movement. Such is the case with Amiina’s Kurr. It’s like standing in the middle of an endless ice field and moving no where. All is flat and white around us. The wind is caressing the planes, and we are standing, looking to one side, gazing to the other, moving our focus from one point to another point, both look the same. This is a lack of movement, and Amiina with their Icelandic roots show us that with such clarity that it doesn’t look frightening, it’s just peaceful. This is only one part of it, in other parts they place you elsewhere, and that’s how they make you move, by standing still at different places. Traveling without moving.
Links:
Official website
~~Amiina Shop (buy the new record here)~~
Amiina @ The Worker’s Institute

Edited by Inbal Mishory.

Loop: Gavin Bryars and Tom Waits – Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 19:00:41 +0000

The recordings were originally made for a movie. A full length soundtrack for the movie that never existed is available here.
[See post on tinyways.com to listen to audio]
Tramp with Orchestra IV (full strings) [MP3]
Tramp and Tom Waits with Full Orchestra [MP3]

When I copied the loop onto the continuous reel in Leicester, I left the door of the recording studio open (it opened onto one of the large painting studios) while I went downstairs to get a cup of coffee. When I came back I found the normally lively room unnaturally subdued. People were moving about much more slowly than usual, and a few were sitting alone, quietly weeping. I was puzzled until I realized that the tape was still playing and that they had been overcome by the old man’s unaccompanied singing.

From Wikipedia:

Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet is a piece of music composed by Gavin Bryars in 1971. It is based around a recorded loop of an un-named tramp improvising a hymn; eventually rich harmonies are played by a live ensemble of strings and brass, always increasing in density. The recording was originally made for a 1960s documentary by Alan Power which chronicled street life in London. Later when listening to the recordings, Bryars noticed that the clip was very in tune, and that it looped well into 13 bars. The tramp died before being able to hear the completed piece.

Links:
Wikipedia Article
Gavin Bryars
More about the recording

Warm and Cold: Adrian Klumpes – Be Still

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 17:57:52 +0000

[See post on tinyways.com to listen to audio]
Be Still [MP3]
Exhale [MP3]
Give In [MP3]
They say cold electronica is dead. Humanity, the ever alienated nation, has understood the disinterest of fellow men in one another, the unwiilingness to get close, really close. Society understood this, and thus cold electronic music doesn’t thrill as it used to, it revealed what it had to say, and now it can disappear like all the true prophets.
But if we add Jazz to it? Jazz, maybe the warmest music, a blend of the classical elite and the common passion. Let’s blend Jazz and Electronica together, then they shall both say: “yes, man is an alienating creature, but he is also warm, caring and loving”. Eurica, a new revelation, a new truth for us to marvel at, a new prophet has come to town. The music world suggested, and Adrian Klumpes did it, starting with the wonderful Triosk project, and following, depending on the piano only, he did his solo project of, his debut – Be Still.
Links:
Adrian Klumpes – official website
Adrian Klumpes @ Myspace
The Leaf Label
Triosk’s website
Be Still @ Posteverything.com

Lacking Time: The Matinee Orchestra – The Matinee Orchestra

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 12:07:41 +0000

[See post on tinyways.com to listen to audio]
Thanking You For Listening [MP3]
The Matinee March [MP3]
Run For Cover (Its Going To Rain) [MP3]
Imagination Of A Watermelon [MP3]
A Mobile, before being a phone, and before being something that goes with you, was thing that goes above you, goes in circles. The first Mobile is that merry-go-round that the parents hang over the head of their baby. Believing it spread health or just joy, one can’t deny that it all looks too much like superstition. When you are older you get garlic hung over your head, or around your neck, so all that babies can do is thank the colorfulness of their talisman. Many of these make sounds, inside tiny parts, metallic hands, pluck other parts, and make subtle primitive sound. We later discover them to be named lullabies. Our night music, to sleep with. It’s odd to create music that is not to be listened to, but is meant to alter the state of its listener so he won’t be able to listen, at least not in the conventional conscious way. When you are a baby, these shows of colors and movement occur over your head not only at night. Sleep is only bounded to the night at a later point, when you are young it’s still free. And so we have such shows during the day, our own private Matinee Orchestra.
The Matinee Orchestra do just that. They create that wonderful lullaby, the one to which we listen to during the day, the one forgotten so long ago. It’s music to sleep to (at night), and to be awake to (during the day). It’s for the winter indoors, and for the outdoors in the summer. Oh, and it’s nice to us, so nice.
Links:
The Matinee Orchestra @ MySpace
Review at Stylus magazine

Real Life Fragments: Monogram – Monogram

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 21:38:55 +0000

[See post on tinyways.com to listen to audio]
Uma [MP3]
Aria [MP3]
Le(S) Hasards (Berceuses #1) [MP3]
Not only computers and electronic toys can generate clicks. Actually, the clicks were there a long time before any electricity made its way in some rubber coated copper wires, they were all around us since the beginning of time, but they were all connected, so they just didn’t sound or look like small fragmented clicks. But if we take our natural sounds and fragment them to small tiny pieces, it’s click that we will have. And that’s exactly what Monogram is all about – creating natural clicks. They broke everything – the guitars, the drums, the piano. All is broken, but what we have is even more complete and encompassing then when it was all tied together.