en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal The Last.fm journal for Shadowcast. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2011/03/06/49938i_new_sun_thief_album,_%22winds%22_available_for_free_download Sun, 6 Mar 2011 02:59:04 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2011/03/06/49938i_new_sun_thief_album,_%22winds%22_available_for_free_download after nearly a year of work, I've completed the followup to "Work of the Mind".

Sun Thief - Winds
http://sunthief.bandcamp.com/album/winds


---
"Winds" is a folk-influenced ambient-drone meditation on the decline of Midwestern agriculture. I grew up in rural areas with lots of farmland (in Indiana and Ohio) and have always been surrounded by farmers, their land and work, farm equipment and the agricultural awareness of the seasons. Throughout the recordings I focused on childhood and adolescent memories of wandering among acres and acres of corn and soy with friends, acutely aware of the back-breaking work that can go into maintaining such an enterprise, yet remaining an outsider.This record focuses on the sense of rust in the cogs of the small-town agricultural machinery; as factory farms replace locally owned enterprises, the families watch as their land is left unused, the once-pristine equipment of yesterday now left to rust in barns with peeling paint and bent frames. This is an album about that desolation: the lonely silo, the post-harvest field, the out of tune piano and the creaking porch.
--

"Winds" has been the product of a year of work, roughly, and has gone through several stages. It was born out of the inspiration that surrounded last year's Sun Thief album "Work of the Mind" and the accompanying releases by Methuselah. The material here has passed through many iterations, some leaning more in the direction of folk music, emphasizing the acoustic instruments, and some material moving deep into expansive drone-drift. The end product ended up resting somewhere inbetween. This album features a renewed focus on acoustic instrumentation - acoustic guitar (both 6 and 12-string), piano, and harmonica provide the source material for most of these tracks. Beyond that, the album is layered with field recordings I've been collecting over the past year, many of them recorded on my trusty Zoom H2 portable microphone. All of this material coalesced onto a harddrive and found its way into various audio-mangling devices on my laptop. The seven pieces are meant to be seamless, each ebbs and flows into the next to provide a textural listening experience. Many of the guitar parts were recorded on strings that were nearly 10 years old in order to acheive a certain tonal quality, the piano was slightly out of tune, and I don't know a damn thing about playing the harmonica.

(Musical) Influences:
Aidan Baker, Alva Noto, Andrew Chalk, Barn Owl, Bitcrush, BJ Nilsen, Boduf Songs, Brainbow, Brian Eno, bvdub, Crescent, Dead Voices On Air, Earth, Echospace, Emeralds, Fennesz, Gas, Grails, Hala Strana, James Blackshaw, Jandek, Jasper TX, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Labradford, Locrian, Loscil, lovesliescrushing, Lull, Mark McGuire, Monos, Nadja, The North Sea, Oophoi, Peter Wright, Philip Jeck, Rapoon, Reformed Faction, Richard Skelton, Scott Cortez, Stars of the Lid, steven r smith, Thomas Koner, Tim Hecker, Troum, We Were Ravens, Yellow Swans, Xela, Zoviet France

Of course, things I've read and people I've met have played a big role too.
It is a pleasure to share this labor of the past year or so with you. Thank you for reading. Let's have a conversation about the interaction between music and environment sometime.

[1] the garden and the cistern
[2] white fields, machines
[3] barnrust sunset
[4] kitchen window: silos [featuring andrew gordon on drums]
[5] the fire on the hill
[6] storm-piano transmission
[7] and who will deliver us from the dust?

Here is the rest of the artwork for the album:



]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2011/03/06/49936p_new_sun_thief_album,_%22winds%22_available_for_free_download Sun, 6 Mar 2011 02:57:43 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2011/03/06/49936p_new_sun_thief_album,_%22winds%22_available_for_free_download after nearly a year of work, I've completed the followup to "Work of the Mind".

Sun Thief - Winds
http://sunthief.bandcamp.com/album/winds


---
"Winds" is a folk-influenced ambient-drone meditation on the decline of Midwestern agriculture. I grew up in rural areas with lots of farmland (in Indiana and Ohio) and have always been surrounded by farmers, their land and work, farm equipment and the agricultural awareness of the seasons. Throughout the recordings I focused on childhood and adolescent memories of wandering among acres and acres of corn and soy with friends, acutely aware of the back-breaking work that can go into maintaining such an enterprise, yet remaining an outsider.This record focuses on the sense of rust in the cogs of the small-town agricultural machinery; as factory farms replace locally owned enterprises, the families watch as their land is left unused, the once-pristine equipment of yesterday now left to rust in barns with peeling paint and bent frames. This is an album about that desolation: the lonely silo, the post-harvest field, the out of tune piano and the creaking porch.
--

"Winds" has been the product of a year of work, roughly, and has gone through several stages. It was born out of the inspiration that surrounded last year's Sun Thief album "Work of the Mind" and the accompanying releases by Methuselah. The material here has passed through many iterations, some leaning more in the direction of folk music, emphasizing the acoustic instruments, and some material moving deep into expansive drone-drift. The end product ended up resting somewhere inbetween. This album features a renewed focus on acoustic instrumentation - acoustic guitar (both 6 and 12-string), piano, and harmonica provide the source material for most of these tracks. Beyond that, the album is layered with field recordings I've been collecting over the past year, many of them recorded on my trusty Zoom H2 portable microphone. All of this material coalesced onto a harddrive and found its way into various audio-mangling devices on my laptop. The seven pieces are meant to be seamless, each ebbs and flows into the next to provide a textural listening experience. Many of the guitar parts were recorded on strings that were nearly 10 years old in order to acheive a certain tonal quality, the piano was slightly out of tune, and I don't know a damn thing about playing the harmonica.

(Musical) Influences:
Aidan Baker, Alva Noto, Andrew Chalk, Barn Owl, Bitcrush, BJ Nilsen, Boduf Songs, Brainbow, Brian Eno, bvdub, Crescent, Dead Voices On Air, Earth, Echospace, Emeralds, Fennesz, Gas, Grails, Hala Strana, James Blackshaw, Jandek, Jasper TX, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Labradford, Locrian, Loscil, lovesliescrushing, Lull, Mark McGuire, Monos, Nadja, The North Sea, Oophoi, Peter Wright, Philip Jeck, Rapoon, Reformed Faction, Richard Skelton, Scott Cortez, Stars of the Lid, steven r smith, Thomas Koner, Tim Hecker, Troum, We Were Ravens, Yellow Swans, Xela, Zoviet France

Of course, things I've read and people I've met have played a big role too.
It is a pleasure to share this labor of the past year or so with you. Thank you for reading. Let's have a conversation about the interaction between music and environment sometime.

[1] the garden and the cistern
[2] white fields, machines
[3] barnrust sunset
[4] kitchen window: silos [featuring andrew gordon on drums]
[5] the fire on the hill
[6] storm-piano transmission
[7] and who will deliver us from the dust?

Here is the rest of the artwork for the album:



]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2010/06/23/3q8exx_methuselah_-_a_great_leap_in_the_dark_---_new_collaboration,_sun_thief_%252B_we_were_ravens Wed, 23 Jun 2010 02:38:08 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2010/06/23/3q8exx_methuselah_-_a_great_leap_in_the_dark_---_new_collaboration,_sun_thief_%252B_we_were_ravens Methuselah - A Great Leap In The Dark
http://methuselah.bandcamp.com
8-track full length album now available for FREE download as 320 mp3s, VBR, or FLAC



Methuselah is the collaboration of Adam Wetterhan (Sun Thief, Shadowclast) and Luke Knight (We Were Ravens, Apollo) of Columbus, Ohio. The album was conceived through many late-night "noise jams", the two artists each with their own set up, improvising abstract electronic pulses and drones to an agreed key and tempo. Hours of recordings were compiled, examined, edited and finally structured into finished songs. These "songs" were then woven together and finely tuned to create the post-industrial drone-noise-ambient-glitch tapestry that is "A Great Leap In The Dark".

Knight is currently pursuing a degree in Music Technology from Capital University, Wetterhan is currently pursuing degrees in Philosophy and Religion also from Capital University. Conceptually, the album is intertwined with explorations the two have made on the fringes of religion and philosophy, the same late-night noise jams often bookended by intellectual explorations of human nature, symbol and meaning, especially the notion of modernity as the interface between the worlds great religions and philosophies and the synthesis of ideas that is possible now more than ever. "A Great Leap In The Dark" expresses these ideas, moods, and themes in a variety of ways, refusing to rest on one single sound - but all undeniably "Methuselah". The album functions as a journey rather than a collection of songs, moving the listener through the dark tunnels of consciousness towards some inexplicable end.

A list of influences from Adam and Luke:
Æthenor, Aidan Baker, Andrew Chalk, Autechre, Beehatch, Belong, Black Dice, Brainbow, Brian Eno, Circle, Cisfinitum, Coil, Current 93, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, Dead Voices On Air, Deathprod, Download, Edward Ka-Spel, Eluvium, Emeralds, Esperik Glare, expo 70, Final, Frozen Rabbit, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Growing, Hecq, Infinite Body, Isis, Loscil, m.cadoo, Maeror Tri, Main, Mountains, Nadja, Nurse With Wound, Oneohtrix Point Never, Oren Ambarchi, Phil Western, Rapoon, Reformed Faction, Skyramps, Stars of the Lid, Steve Roach, Steven R. Smith, Sun Watcher, Sunn O))) , Supersilent, Tangerine Dream, The Angelic Process, The Caretaker, The Legendary Pink Dots, The Silverman, Thisquietarmy, Thomas Köner, Thuja, Gas, Tim Hecker, Troum, Tuk, White Rainbow, Zoviet France]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2010/04/25/3lai88_new_album_from_me_(first_new_release_in_5_years)_-_sun_thief_-_work_of_the_mind Sun, 25 Apr 2010 19:13:39 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2010/04/25/3lai88_new_album_from_me_(first_new_release_in_5_years)_-_sun_thief_-_work_of_the_mind Sun Thief - Work of the Mind
Click HERE to Download the album - it's free!

.

Hello everyone!
Over the past few months I've experienced an increased amount of musical activity that goes beyond any creative period I've had since I released Tesseract (under the name Shadowclast) back in 2005 on en:peg digital. This new album bears little, if any, resemblance to the Shadowclast material - which was more involved in intricate breakbeats, spastic melodies and post-industrial distortion, all leading to the (all too obvious, at times) "epic" crescendo. My new project, Sun Thief, is the opposite of that and reflects my recent obsession (at least over the past few years) with ambient music, and drones in general. Sun Thief is epic too, but in the sense that it conveys vast expanses of time and memory, and reflects a sense of journey. Sun Thief's music is directly related to my studies here at Capital University as I pursue a double major in Philosophy and Religion, in some ways I see this as religious music.

The album is well over an hour long and features me playing acoustic guitar, harmonica, and various household instruments. All, of course, run through quite a bit of live and completely improvised electronic processing. Some tracks have pronounced rhythms to them, others do not. Some tracks have buried, mostly incomprehensible vocals, others do not. Some of the tracks are "heavy", others are "light". I don't really know how to describe the music contained within beyond all that. Below I'll list some of the artists I've been listening to so you can get a better idea. Suffice it so say that the album is all over the place, and is not homogeneous from track to track.

Also, he doesn't know it yet but Pete O'Hare contributed guitar work to track 4.

A too-long list of influences:
Zoviet France, Rapoon, Dead Voices On Air, Tim Hecker, Brian Eno, Autechre, Nadja, Loscil, Thuja, Steven R. Smith, Explosions in the Sky, Download, Frozen Rabbit, Pole, Can, Troum, Circle, Maeror Tri, The Legendary Pink Dots, Edward Ka-Spel, The Silverman, Main, Gas, Eluvium, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, Coil, Thisquietarmy, Reformed Faction, Current 93, White Rainbow, Helios, Sun Watcher, Supersilent, Emeralds.
(be sure to check out some of the artists from this list if you haven't already!)

Physical copies are on their way. Let me know in this note if you would like one! They're freeeee.

I'm very interested in collaborating on future Sun Thief releases or on other projects, so hit me up if you think we'd be good together. :D

Please share this with anyone who might take interest!
Feedback is appreciated!



------
And here are the liner notes:

Sun Thief - Work of the Mind

Recorded March - April 2010
All sounds by Adam Wetterhan unless otherwise noted
contact: sunthiefmusic@gmail.com

[1] - Becoming

[2] - Nous

[3] - Reborn

[4] - Song of Knowing pt 1
additional guitars: Pete O'Hare
[5] - Song of Knowing pt 2

[6] - Song of Knowing pt 3

[7] - Non-Dualism

[8] - Unknown

[9] - No-Mind

Ecclesiastes 1:3-11
3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
11 There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.

John 1:5
5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2007/03/07/ja8_hmmm._blogging. Wed, 7 Mar 2007 01:05:00 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2007/03/07/ja8_hmmm._blogging. So, I broke down and joined the blogging legions. I promise mine will maintain a certain standard of quality.

Check it out, first two posts include:

--Short reviews of ambient records I've been enjoying

and

--Some unfinished poetry.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2006/12/19/ja7_shadowclast_top_of_2006 Tue, 19 Dec 2006 01:16:52 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2006/12/19/ja7_shadowclast_top_of_2006 My obligatory Best of '06 post, enjoy! Post comments!

10. II

9. In Distance

8. Silver

7. Drum's Not Dead

6. Conference of the Birds

5. Your Children Placate You From Premature Graves

4. Maaet

3. Isis - In The Absence of Truth

2. Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain

1. Black Ships Ate the Sky

If you know anything about my music taste, you'll probably notice a (disturbing) lack of IDM in this list. Never fear, I haven't forgotten my roots - I just got a bit "burned out" with glitchy beats and minimal melodies. Also, I felt the need to explore a lot of artists (and genres) I feel that I've been neglecting, so I spent most of my record-money this year purchasing less electronic music than usual. I'll follow this post (or edit this one) with a list of non-2006 releases I discovered this year.

2006 Discoveries:
Lycia
Cylkk recommended these guys to me, probably about a year ago, and their autumnal ethereal/goth/neofolk hybrid is extremely pleasing to mine ears. Acquired most of their discography this year, from the primitve Ionia to the fully realized Cold. Mike van Portfleet's vocals are intensely moving, sinister and hopeful at the same time, and the addition of a female vocalist on later albums adds just the right amount of balance.

Current 93
The aforementioned Black Ships Ate The Sky was my introduction to David Tibet's kaleidoscopic mythos of Maldoror, Noddy, Lazarus and Black Ships. Yet another artist investigation inspired by my preoccupation with The Legendary Pink Dots. Tibet has proved to be a HUGE influence on me - my religious views, my music, my writing. I'm very glad I purchased this album. I've gone from having heard only a 1-minute clip and not being especially impressed to sitting my Current 93 collection next to The Legendary Pink Dots and Skinny Puppy on my shelf.

Can
Yet another artist investigation inspired by my preoccupation with The Legendary Pink Dots. Can were my introduction to krautrock, and remain my favorites of the genre. I currently own all of the Can albums from Soundtracks to Soon Over Babaluma, all of which have been acquired this year. I'm still a bit skeptical of taking the plunge into the earlier, Malcolm Mooney-lead Can albums, as well as the post-Soon Over Babaluma releases.

Black Dice, Lightning Bolt, Wolf Eyes
I lump these three in together because I discovered them all around the same time. I came home from my area indie record shop with Creature Comforts, Burned Mind, and Hypermagic Mountain on the same day and vastly enjoyed these bands fucked up approach to songwriting. I coined (or at least I think I did) the genre name "Damage" for these artists, and I place their noisy innovation next to the burgeoning "industrial" artists of the late 70s such as Nurse With Wound and Throbbing Gristle.

Kranky
I've slowly begun collecting releases from Kranky records. Here are a few I purchased this year:
Playthroughs
Submers
The Dead Texan
A Peripheral Blur
While I do not consider any of these albums to be masterpieces, they ARE well developed ambience. Very peaceful. Good for sleeping, reading, or calming down.


Looking forward to in '07 (under construction)
NEW Skinny Puppy.
The new album from cEvin and Ogre is on the horizon. It's called MYTHMAKER, and its gonna eat your soul.
cLICK hERE tO lISTEN tO sAMPLES fROM MYTHMAKER
and more samples here too.

favorite track samples:
---- DaL (listen to that vocal melody in the last half of the clip. wow!)
---- JaHer (somebody said this sounds like SP collaborating with Bola. very fitting comparison. seems like the verses sound a bit like Candle)
---- HaZe (vocal manipulations are awesome, very interesting atmosphere)


---
Also, thanks to Cylkk for subscribing me! Sweet.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2006/03/14/ja6_rediscovering_early_80%27s_obscure__primitive_electro Tue, 14 Mar 2006 00:38:28 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2006/03/14/ja6_rediscovering_early_80%27s_obscure__primitive_electro Skinny Puppy - Remission
Skinny Puppy - Bites
Skinny Puppy - Back & Forth 3
Front Line Assembly - Total Terror 1
Cabaret Voltaire - Radiation (BBC Sessions)
Portion Control - I Staggered Mentally
cEvin Key - the Dragon Experience

recommend some more stuff along these lines and i'll be sure to grab 'em up. discuss!]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2006/01/16/ja5_anticipations_2006 Mon, 16 Jan 2006 19:50:38 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2006/01/16/ja5_anticipations_2006 Looking forward to these releases this year:

Bitcrush - In Distance (n5MD) [05.15.06]
Another Electronic Musician - Patience (n5MD)
Keef Baker - TBA (n5MD)
subtractiveLAD - Suture (n5MD) February
Loess - Wind & Water (n5MD) Spring 2006
Damiak - ??? (n5MD)
Displacer - Cage Fighter's Lullaby (M-Tronic)
Funckarma - Refurbished Two (n5MD) plus some other goodies, TBA.
Haujobb - ??? (TBA)
O2 (Mike Wells) - ??? (TBA)
Mogwai- Mr. Beast
The Legendary Pink Dots - Your Children Placate You from Premature Graves - (TBA) Marjtin is back on board!
Skinny Puppy - apparently went back into the studio recently, plus a possible new "from the vault" series.
cEvin Key - seems to have some new solo tracks in progress
Ohgr - outtakes from Welt + Sunnypsyop
Front Line Assembly - Artificial Soldier(Metropolis)
Depeche Mode - SACD Reissues, Remastered w/ Bonus Material (Speak + Spell thru Exciter) Beginning in March.
Arcade Fire - ???
Bong-Ra - Soldaat Van Oranje - (Sublight)
Somatic Responses - GIAUZAR - (Sublight)
Shadowclast - ??? - (not sure yet....) I'm working on some new tunes, not sure what label I'll be going to.
Nine Inch Nails - With_Teeth Outtakes (2006 - yeah, right) I almost always like his non-album tracks more than the actual album.
Nerve Filter - Linear. IDM/drum'n'bass/noise/dub sideproject from Tom Shear of futurepop/ebm outfit "Assemblage 23". (out now)
The Knife - Silent Shout
Portion Control - new album and archive boxset of rereleases (TBA)

feel free to post any other new releases in this journal.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2005/12/28/ja4_shadowclast_-_top_of_2005 Wed, 28 Dec 2005 03:40:43 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Shadowcast/journal/2005/12/28/ja4_shadowclast_-_top_of_2005 No particular order, except for number one, the album of the year.

Coil - Ape Of Naples
Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
The Flashbulb - Kirlian Selections
Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene*
Bitcrush - Shimmer & Fade
Iron & Wine - Woman King
Pelican - The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw
Venetian Snares - Rossz Csillag Alatt Született
Mogwai - Government Comissions
subtractiveLAD - Giving Up The Ghost
Architect - The Analysis of Noise Trading
Run_Return - Metro_North


* - includes "EP To Be You and Me"

------
Some releases I haven't had a chance to hear that might've made this top 10:
Depeche Mode - Playing The Angel
Edward Ka-Spel - A Long Red Ladder To The Moon


------
Important (Re)Discoveries of the Year
The Legendary Pink Dots
- went really all out on the Dots this year, I have purchased nearly twenty albums over the past three months!
Pink Floyd
Isis
Can
Depeche Mode
The Flashbulb
Swans
The Cure
Aesthetic Perfection
Broken Social Scene]]>