Kaito - Less Time Until The End

If you’re familiar with 2013’s ‘Until The End of Time’, you may have been witness to the undercurrent of colour in Hiroshi Watanabe’s music, but by no means would you have been thinking about stripping it back. Yet here we are with an album that has found another layer. By mistake? I very much doubt it. ‘Less Time Until The End’ works perfectly, without any of the beats that were present before, and now stands on its own as Kompakt’s latest ambient offering in the midst of the more notorious Pop Ambient 2014.

Maybe it’s because I’ve come into this relationship without a great deal of listens on the original version. Revisiting it now, I have no excuse as to why – it’s brilliant. But this ‘beatless’ version is in every way just as good, if not better.

The start, is slow. “Smile” is perhaps the one track from the previous album that sounds much better with beats – but it sits nicely as an intro into what’s to come.

‘Sky Is The Limit” and “I’m Leaving Home” immediately envelope you into dusk over city lights with calm twinkling sounds, and a sense of intensity brought to life through swirling synths. The laws of a ‘beatless’ album are broken straight away in one track, with thuds of bass, but just enough to entice and tease the former lives of these big, complex techno tracks.

“Run Through The Road In The Fog” stands alone, with hypnotising patterns, strings and keys which overlap, dodge and melt into one another, whilst “Behind My Life” takes a lesson from Thomas Fehlmann – notorious Kompakt sounding synths wrapped in Kaito space and expansiveness. ‘Dear Friends’ is just plain and simple addictive.

This record is packed full or colourful journeys, built around subtle melodies and lush synths. It’s albums like this that helped me appreciate ambient music in the first place. Coming from an electronic background, it isn’t until you strip back some of the more complex productions that you realise the real value of a piece – the purist iterations and the beauty of simplicity that form many of today’s great musical journeys. Emotion, which was once partly hidden, is given the space and time to express itself.

Release on LP, CD and Digital on Kompakt, or iTunes.

Passing by: Tegh, Inventions, Loscil, The Green Kingdom and Ulf Lohmann

Tegh – Night Scenes

Debut full length from Iranian producer Shahin Entezami on Inner Ocean Records (First Porya from Iran, now Shahin!) This is classic, expansive ambient music that’s perfect for reflection, window watching and imagineering. Download from Bandcamp (Name Your Price).

Inventions – Entity

The mighty Eluvium and Explosions In The Sky guitarist Mark Smith are teaming up for a new project titled ‘Inventions’. This track, taken from the self-titled album, is absolutely breathtaking, and i’ll be on the order as soon as it’s available (1st April) via Temporary Residence.

Loscil – Fury

Loscil hits the road this month alongside Fieldhead and with it, comes a split-tour CD. “Although not a collaboration in the strictest sense, sounds were shared by each artist allowing for a sort of aural infusion between the compositions”. As you’d expect from Scott, another masterpiece, albeit perhaps a little more accessible than his previous dark and mysterious tendencies. Seems like the release will be available to those who can catch him on tour first, with digital following on March 10th on Gizeh.

The Green Kingdom – Expanses

This one’s been on Bandcamp for a few weeks now and i’ve seen a few of you guys picking it up already. For those aware of The Green Kingdom, this masterpiece will come as no surprise. Deep textures, field recordings, and dubby elements make for a defining piece of work for Mike Cottone: “This album is, for all intents and purposes, a homage to classic ambient and ambient techno albums of the past”. Available on Bandcamp.

Ulf Lohmann – PCC

I’m cheating a bit now, because the sample below isn’t even the full track, and i’ve already devoted a whole post to Kompakt’s Pop Ambient 2014. But just give it a listen. It’s bloody good. I wish the track was out there in its entirety. Read the full review of Pop Ambient here.

And last but not least, can someone please explain to this guy why Nils Frahm is a genius, and not a ‘piano mess’?

Photo @astrangelyisolatedplace

Interview: Iran, influences and the making of Shallow with Porya Hatami

Porya Hatami is up there with one of my greatest musical finds in 2013. He follows a long line of ambient producers that use field recordings and live sampling as the base of their work, but there is something especially inviting about his music. The Iran-based producer has a relatively young discography, but his keen ear and attention to detail have his tracks echoing trademarks of the most revered sound artists of our current decade. And where other artists aim to challenge the status quo, Hatami demonstrates restraint, leaving a much more accessible and emotional experience at the forefront.

His upcoming release for Baltimore’s Tench is a half-step away from his recent experiemental efforts. The 43-minute, 3-track, album presents a serene collection of sounds that enduce tranquility and peace of mind. Soft pads, fluttering chimes and recordings of flowing water create a zen-like enviornment that seems to conclude as nearly as quickly as it starts. I caught up with the producer to discuss the album, his homeland and what we can expect to hear from the budding music-maker this year.

“Shallow” is set to release on February 18th. Pre-oder the album on Tench.

For anyone discovering you the first time, tell us a bit about yourself and your musical background.

I was born in Sanandaj, Iran and that’s also where I grew up. I actually never had any formal musical training, other than a few piano lessons when I was 14. I’m pretty much self taught. I studied many different forms of music before starting to produce, but not until 2007 did I start experimenting with music making software.

Field samples seem to play an lead role in your music. Has it always been the goal to incorporate your environment into your work? Can you elaborate a bit more on your process?

Yes, my environment is a major source of inspiration. I’ve always felt it was a good idea to collect the sounds from the places that I write about. My process depends a lot on the project that I’m working on, but I usually start with a simple sound, it could be a recording of an instrument, a pad, a sound from a synth, or a field recording, then I start to build a track around it. I usually let my tracks sit for a few weeks, then I’ll go back to them and start working on them again. Usually the last phase of production is where I delete parts of the track to come up with the most minimal version possible, while still feeling true to the original concept.

You’re currently based in Sanandaj, Iran, a country not predominantly known for electronic music. Can you lend some insight into cultural life there and how that pertains to, or influences, your practice?

Sanandaj (Sine in Kurdish) is located in the Northern West side of Iran and is surrounded by mountains. There is a historic castle on one of the mountains that’s around 6000 years old. Having several hills spread over the city provides beautiful and unprecedented views from every point. We speak Kurdish and wear traditional Kurdish clothing.

There are so many forms of Folk music here, most of them are vocal-only, with simple rhythms, for example “Domana” and “Bartonana”. There are also some very  unique instruments, my favorites being the “Shemshal” and “Narma Nay”. My cultural background definitely affects me as an artist, but it’s mostly the nature and environment here that influence my music directly.

Where have your other musical influences come from?

My earliest influences were classical music, especially Richard Wagner, who I still listen to all the time. Then came jazz and blues, artists like Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. Pink Floyd also had a huge impact on me.

Later, I got into 20th century avant-garde music, Morton Feldman, Stockhausen, Milton Babbitt, I learned about John Cage and indeterminacy, the minimalism movement and artists like Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Brian Eno, Harold Budd and William Basinski were a major source of inspiration too.

I ultimately discoverd more experimental music from Warp records, Kompakt and ~Scape. Jan Jelinek’s Loop Finding Jazz records, Taylor Deupree and 12k had a huge influence on my work today.

Your debut album was picked up by Canadian imprint Inner Ocean Records, re-mastered and released alongside a remix package featuring prominent sound artists, how did that project come about?

I was asked by 2 artists for the stems to remix some of the tracks on Land, which lead me to the idea of compiling a remix album. I decided to ask some of the artists that I knew and liked to join the project. Fortunately, they all agreed to contribute and that’s how the album came together.
Regarding Inner Ocean Records, I knew Cory was interested in releasing it because he was a fan of  the original album. We talked about it and he agreed to release the original album as well, I wasn’t happy with the first edition’s packaging, so it was a good opportunity to have it re-mastered and re-issued alongside the remix album.

Tell us a bit about your latest album Shallow, where it was recorded and how your relationship with Marc Ostermeir came to be.

“Shallow” was recorded last Spring/Summber in Sanandaj. I captured all the field recordings around the city and the idea of writing this album came from this fen in a small village near Sanandaj. I’ve spent so much time there with friends. I used to go to record the frogs , but didn’t end up using any of those recordings on this release.

When I finished the album i was looking for a label. I didn’t know Marc personally, but I knew his music and I knew the label well. I sent the album to Marc, he sat with the release for a couple of weeks and then let me know he was happy to release it. He’s a lovely gentleman, he did the mastering and artwork design for “Shallow” too.

Aside from your upcoming Tench release, what other projects do you have lined up this year?

I have 2 collaborative albums finished and ready to release, one with Lcoma (Liam Coleman) for Unknown Tone Records and the other with Lee Anthony Norris for Carpe Sonum. They’re both coming in the first half of 2014. I also have 2 solo albums this year, one is finished and will be release this May/June on Dronarivm and the other will come out on Time Released Sound around September/October. I also joined the collaborative project called The Angling Loser (Lee Anthony Norris, Sir Cliff ) and we may release something later this year. I’m also working on a 3 way collaboration with Darren Harper and (Josco) Gerry McDermott.

Visit his personal Bandcamp page.

Passing by: Markus Guentner, Odd Shapes, Audioglider, enh, Sonae and Mr Frankie

A few treats from ASIP regulars in this Passing By feature.

Markus Guentner – Our Home

A little gem released by Markus Guentner a few weeks back now; not to be missed and a free download. Dark, subdued and industrial with a reverberating bassline. Download on Soundcloud.

Odd Shapes – Ice Cream Cathedral’s ‘The Ranger’ remix

A superb EP all-round by Ice Cream Cathedral and a rare remix by Odd Shapes. You’d probably expect Asger to take the drums on this piece to another level, going by his remix duties on Uncharted Places, but instead he opts for a stripped back version, letting the beautiful vocal swirl and the melody shine. The Debut LP will be released March 4th through Oh!My Collective (ohm014).

Audioglider – Mixtape 14 (mix)

Audioglider always manages to come up with these mix tapes at the right time of my life, and as you’d expect from Roberto, it’s a dreamy, melodic and a perfect companion to lazy, hazy days. Featuring a bunch of great tracks from enh, Message To Bears, Bass Kittens and XSpance – the latter of which has a rather good album called ‘Night Echoes‘ up on Bandcamp. Download the mix on Soundcloud.

enh – So Zero (mix)

Continuing the ASIP contingent, enh‘s also been busy preparing his latest mix and it’s packed full of ASIP related goodies. From Roger Martinez’s Horizontal Excursions to Parks, Stray Theories, and Markus Guentner remixes from Uncharted Places. I can’t be biased all the time, but this one’s bound to be good with this lot involved! Download on Soundcloud.

Sonae – Winter (mix)

You may remember many moons ago, it was through Sonae’s mixtapes that she came to release her Places Series EP on ASIP. The mixes are quite the legend round these parts and we’ve been void of them for far too long now. Sonia’s back, with tracks from Loscil, Fieldhead, Jon Hopkins, Apparat and Peter Broderick. Play on Mixcloud.

Mr.Frankie – After The Bliss (mix)

I found myself enveloped in this mix by Mr Frankie – a beautiful blend of textures, dub and deep voids of techno. Some superb track choices including: DFRNT, Edanticonf, Voices from the Lake, Minilogue and Adam Michalak.

Image – Suddenly The Trees Are Giving Way (@astrangelyisolatedplace)

Interview: Max Cooper and the intricacies of Human.

There’s not many people who’s lives haven’t dissected with Max Cooper recently. He may have remixed one of your favourite artists, played at your favourite festival, or you may be a fellow Londoner – proudly following such home-grown talent. Either way, Max has quietly become one of today’s most respected electronic producers.

He first crept into the world of ASIP through my love of Traum Schallplatten – a label which in my eyes, is synonymous with emerging talent and unique approaches to electronic music. Max tucked a few EP’s under his belt and slowly garnered the respect he deserved. Mixes for Resident Advisor, and XLR8R also put his name on the map – injecting moments of beauty, piano and emotion to an otherwise techno-expectant crowd. Book-ending his RA mix with Underworld’s ‘To Heal’, remixing Nils Frahm, and an ambient rework of 2010’s ‘Sea of Sound’ on Traum were just some of the hints to the world that there was more to Max’s productions than straight-up glitchy techno.

2014, and Max is ready to unleash his first full album, ‘Human’. A confident coming-of-age, and an expression that’s taken years of remixes, EP’s and reworks to form. A unique take on an otherwise blurred-world between dance floor and home-listening; ‘Human’ is the convergence of Max’s varying styles, with ambient undertones, vocals, techno and damn right dirty bass-lines, sitting alongside each other in a gloriously potent full-length.

I was lucky enough to ask Max a few questions in light of this upcoming release, exploring his background and prying into the inspiration behind ‘Human’, below. This also gives me the opportunity to share some of my favourite music by Max, as well as a few previews of the album, ‘Human’.

‘Human’ is set to be released on March 14th via Fields and the single ‘Impacts’ taken from the album, is already doing the rounds alongside a remix from Gabe Gurnsey and a forthcoming Perc remix.

Recommended sound-tracks for your interview read are embedded below, starting with my favourite, Max’s Ambient rework of ‘The End Of Reason’ and ending on previews of Human’s first single ‘Impacts’.

Can you give us a brief introduction to your background in music? Did you always see yourself doing what you do today?

No I worked as a scientist for a long time and I assumed that would be my career, but music took over in the end. I didn’t have much of a background in music other than always having been passionate about it – that’s all you need these days though, computers remove a lot of the old barriers to expressing yourself musically.

You’re a well-known London export, what do you think of the music scene there now? How have you seen it evolve?

From what I can tell, it’s evolved into a very diverse form, there’s so much interesting creative work happening. I often go to concerts and exhibitions, theatre, art etc….there’s a lot of great things to go to outside of the club scene, which is what I get to most there because I’m away in clubs in other cities on weekends.

From London to Cologne…. I’m a big fan of Traum Schallplatten, which has been a home for many of your releases now. How did your relationship with Riley + crew come about?

I just sent them a demo and then was shocked to get a phone call a few days later saying they wanted to release my stuff – easy as that. Riley is one of the few established label managers out there I know of, who listens to a large number of demos and is willing to take risks on new artists. It’s a great thing, and that’s why he’s brought through so great acts.

You seem to be synonymous with remixes – and rightly so as most of them are ridiculously good. Has this always been your goal or has it naturally evolved this way?

It was never a goal to do a lot of remixes no, but over the years my remix work has proved productive. The way I see it a remix should always be about taking what you think is the best thing about the original track, and then making it better. It should be about adding to the quality of the original somehow, so in that sense you could argue that remixes, when done right, should be “better” than either artist on their own. This is an oversimplification though, because sometimes a remix is about changing the genre, presenting a piece of music in a new way, which is is hard to say whether that’s better or worse, it will just appeal to different people.

And I shouldn’t talk about music in terms of “better” or “worse” either, because of course it’s a subjective thing, and I don’t like it when people state that some piece of music is “bad” as they often do, with no option for debate in their mind – to someone else the same piece of music is “beautiful” or whatever. Everyone’s view is as valid, we are just all heavily influenced by our own perspective on many things, to the degree where it feels like music can be objectively bad or good. That’s probably part of the reason why music taste acts with such a strong correlation to friendship groups.

But anyway I’m getting off topic – in terms of remixes, I won’t do the job if I feel like I can’t “improve” or give new life to the original based on my own, subjective, musical scoring criteria. One time of note when this happened was when I was working on a remix of the composer Michael Nyman. I tried to remix “The heart asks pleasure first”, from his score to the film ‘The Piano”. It’s a piece my Sister used to play on the piano I think, and in my opinion one of the most beautiful, and greatest piano pieces ever written. I just couldn’t do it any justice at all. Outright fail.

You’re obviously a big fan of modern-classical and ambient music (Sea of Sound is amazing, as are the Michael Nyman remixes you mention above). Has this always been the case? 

Yes I think I’ve always been into the minimalist classical sound in particular, it’s similar to techno really, with all the simple looping melodies – it can’t be built on tricks and frills, those simple melodies really need to be strong, that’s part of the reason I love it, it strips things back to what I think is most important. So of course I love Philip Glass, Arvo Part, Steve Reich, Max Richter, Nils Frahm. Standard!

This type of music seems to be a big influence on a lot of your recent productions, (especially your EP with Tom Hodge), and it’s a relatively unique approach to dance floor orientated electronic music (at least to those who do it well). Can you give us a bit of an insight into how you approach these types of tracks? 

I approach with caution, it can sound shit in club/electronic context yes. It’s just a matter of doing each experiment for me and seeing what the outcome is, sometimes I decide it hasn’t worked and scrap it, sometimes I cautiously put it out there and wait for time to tell whether it’s a good idea or not – it’s always very hard to know at the time, as you get lost in the details.

Your remixes of Nils Frahm are pretty special. When I spoke to him at Decibel he said you just sent them to him and he simply couldn’t pass on them – is that true?

I guess so yes, I think that’s how it always works, or doesn’t work! I didn’t send them out of the blue though if that’s what you mean, obviously it was discussed first, but I don’t think Nils knew what to expect, so for him yes, he got a surprise in the inbox that day, luckily for me, a good one in his opinion.

Did you see him at Decibel last year?

My travel and set time meant me and Nils just missed each other at Decibel this time unfortunately, but I have seen Nils’ latest live show recently, and I was totally blown away, it’s the best thing I’ve seen in a long time.

How do you think your performance went at Decibel? I caught about half of it after running about town and you looked as if you were enjoying yourself! (I seem to remember you dropping ‘Impacts’ from your upcoming album and it shaking the place to the ground)

I love playing at Decibel, it’s always a pleasure – the audience are there to really listen to what you have to say, as well as to have a party, so I took the opportunity to push in lots of different directions and experiment, and have a lot of fun at the same time…..just the right combination.

You dropped (what you later said on twitter) was an Olafur Arnalds remix too? Any news on that one?

I did remix a track of Oli and Nils’ some time ago, but I think the one I played was something quite different – it’s a bootleg of one of Oli’s tracks with one from my friend Rob Clouth, under his Vaetxh pseudonym – so it’s immense glitch combined with serene beauty, one of my favourite things to play out in recent years.

Your upcoming album ‘Human’ will be your first full-length album. Any particular reason why it’s taken so long?

Yes it’s my first album, and it’s been two or three years in the making, in amongst other projects of course. It’s taken a while because I’ve been busying with other production projects, touring a lot, and most importantly, not quite ready for an album – I feel like I’m still developing and still have a long way to go to get where I want to be musically, so I didn’t want to rush out something that I’d hate 6 months later, or something that just slotted into an existing genre box. I wanted to take the opportunity to experiment and push away from the electronic music norms, so it took some time to come together.

Going by the tracks and album title, it seems like you had a very specific theme in mind… can you elaborate? It sounds like you’re combining the two sides of the brain/body in your music. Beautiful piano’s (the emotional, creative side) and computerised beats (the technical, mathematical side). Am i close?!

Yes I’ve always had a central interest in that combination of the objective world of form and precision and rules, with the subjective world of feeling. It’s just another form of obsession with the mind-body problem: We can describe humans ever more precisely as intricate machines, but it seems impossible (for me) to accept that a machine feels anything under the normal definition of a machine. So in order to solve the problem we either need some sort of spiritual addition for which there is no solid evidence for, or an acceptance that the feelings and the laws are themselves already somehow the same thing (a lot of people would no doubt argue those two are just different ways of saying the same thing also). So for me, there is no contradiction in trying to express something human with something computational or mechanical, instead, I see the two as one and the same thing, albeit viewed from a different perspective.

Sorry I’ve gone a bit off topic again, back to the album specifically – that is called Human, and it’s my attempt to put some concepts common to all humans, into musical form. And yes, your computer vs feeling theme is used throughout in order to do this, without it actually being the concept of the album. What you have landed on there is more of a deep rooted approach I’ve always been interested in, and something always present.

The album’s a wide-range of sound and styles. From the instrumental complex ‘Woven Ancestry’ to the intense electronic ‘Potency’ and the aforementioned ‘Impacts’ – I’m interested to know what type of listener you have in mind when producing such an album? How much of it do you gear towards the dance floor?

As with most of my work, it’s something designed with both club and home listening in mind, something that should be able to work for either. For me, for dance music to be good it needs to be good at home as well i.e. it needs to actually be good music. I want to go out and hear good music, I don’t want to have to rely on being hammered to enjoy what I hear in a club, but at the same time, if I decide to get hammered it still needs to sound good then too. So that’s what I try and do with my productions, and with this album. Admittedly it does go a bit hard to dance to towards the end – It can be the last set of the night in a strange club where everyone decides to lie down for the last 20 minutes.

Do you think we could ever see you producing a purely modern-classical or ambient album anytime soon?

Yes, I’d love to, maybe the next one. I might have done it this time, but I think it would be too big a step for the people who only know me for my club stuff. I need to ease them in gently, sort of trick them into not realising they’ve got old and lost their rave and are listening to classical music with their slippers on.

And lastly, I really enjoyed your Synesthetes mix from a few months back – it sounds like the British Musuem had a big influence on you when you were studying. What other places inspire you and your music?

The natural environment, it has more intricate beauty than we can ever create ourselves.