Tag Archives: guitar

gaylon : aeon – Distant I & II

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

IMPORTANT INFORMATION !
since Bandcamp is forcing us to use ‘Stripe’ (wich involves massive, mandatory and uncontrolled data collection and implicit support to american far right) all my music is now free !

I ask you to support my work by using my Ko-Fi account :
ko-fi.com/aeon_music

NO $ FOR THE PIGS !
thanks.

*****************************************************************************************

see also : aeon7.bandcamp.com/album/distant-i

this album is a transatlantic collab with the talented multi-instrumentalist Alex Gaylon, who has experimented with several bands ranging from noise to jazz.

aeon :
‘after the rich experience of Alex’s guitar improvisations on “Distant I,” I felt the need to rework certain parts in my own ‘style’.

not to please my ego but to tell in more detail the story of this space castaway who slowly loses his mind.

in these troubled times I guess everyone can relate to it and maybe find some peace with our music.’

to enjoy the best experience, please use decent headphones, at high volume 🙂

we know that times are tough for many of you.
so we decided to set the price of this release to ‘pay what you want’ (or can).

for those who wonder what price is ‘fair’ the answer is $8 ($1 per track or 4 minutes). of course, any contribution, big or small, will still be greatly appreciated (remember that $1 is about 300 streams).

Reid Karris – Cityscape in a Glass Sphere (Petroglyph Music)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

This piece deals with reflected images, sounds and ideas and the perceptions thereof and how they echo
and compliment their real-life counterpoints.
The album consists of two tracks, each with compositional direction from the same score but in opposite
directions. These two tracks were then blended together, one forwards and one backwards for each
side, to create the two finished halves. The results are sounds occurring together moving forward while
their reflected sounds move backwards.

Reid Karris is an improvisor, composer and experimentalist residing in the Chicagoland area. He primarily
uses prepared guitars to explore sound creation and manipulation centering on extended and invented
techniques. Other than performing solo he regularly plays with his group Snek Trio and in various
settings with other musicians on prepared guitar, percussion, skatchboxes and homemade instruments.
As a solo artist he releases albums of conceptual composition using elements such as guitars,
percussion, manipulated field recordings and noise. He has released albums on Lurker Bias, Orb Tapes,
Ramble Records, Mother Brain Records, Pan Y Rosas Discos, and other independent experimental labels.

Aquino – Be Late. (Self-Released)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

In 2020, I, along with many folks around the world, stopped playing live shows. I also stopped writing songs with lyrics. It was something about my voice. I didn’t want to hear it.* During this moment, time was on all of our minds. We had a lot of it. Pre-pandemic, we seemed to be in a rush. And for some, post-pandemic, that pace came back with a vengeance.

I never wanted to be late. I feared late. But then someone issued me the challenge – be late. Challenge accepted.

This EP is the culmination of that meditation. I wrote these songs between 2020 and 2025. The song titles may be ridiculous, but so is always being on time.

Be late. (Unless it’s an emergency, of course. Or dinner’s ready.)

*I am writing songs with lyrics again. Yay.


All songs composed, performed, mixed, and mastered by Michael Aquino

snw – music at a distance 270 (One Zero Music)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

This is a particularly slow performance. I’d gone into it somewhat sleep-deprived, though by the third and fourth pieces, I was getting energy back from the music, enough energy to leave more space and allow the rests to speak. Thank you to the audience for staying with me.

The hollowbody Univox vibrates quite a lot–there’s a lot of air in there. Consequently, there’s a lot of air in these timbres: French horn, muted trumpet, accordion, glass harmonica timbres. This one’s a step toward a collaboration with silence.

The titles this week are references to the visual art of Louise Blyton. Thank you for listening!

Maurice Rickard: Guitar, programming

Signal chain: Univox Coily in Bb F Bb F Bb C tuning > Reuss Effects Understate, Reuss Effects Repeater Fuzz, Balls Effects KWB > Vox Wah > Hungry Robot Wardenclyffe Deluxe > Moyo Volume > Max/MSP eight-delay patch with FFT pitch shift, tremolo, convolution reverb, AudioThing Reels.

Impulses: Inchindown Oil Tanks ( Matt Gray mattg.co.uk ), silent5 Biamp MR/140 (Flat), St. Paul’s Huddersfield (near), Fort Worden Cistern

Cousin Silas & Eisenlager – Absentia (The Cousin Silas Emporium)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

It was a few years back that myself and Eisenlager created our first collab album. We always promised ourselves we would do another one, hence the title of the last track from the original release: “Believe Me, More Is Coming.”. Sadly he passed away before we managed it, but he did send me several pieces to consider. I thought it was time to dust off those pieces, add my bits, and refit some of his solo tracks he sent for the various Emporium Projects.

I guess this resulting album is both a tribute to the man, and a promise upheld that indeed more did come.

For Nobby, a good friend, supporter and above all, the man behind one of the best compilation series, Midnight Radio. It was these that helped me gain a little self confidence back in the day. I miss the guy.

Cousin Silas & aka:man – Cousin Silas & aka:man (The Cousin Silas Emporium)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

This release sees the album by aka:man, Ambient: Light, get the rework/refit treatment from myself. And then, it’s nicely topped off with 6 of our previous collaborations

credits

released February 14, 2025

Artwork by Ross Ackerman

akaman.bandcamp.com

Expedient Self – Speaker EP (Submarine Broadcasting Company)

Posted by John Lithium on

Label Description:

SubCastCo is super buzzed to welcome Expedient Self to our aquatic vessel.

I first heard this work on a weekend where for some universally signposted reason I encountered three albums by solo artists working the fertile field of guitar loops. Pleasingly, they were all very different.

‘Speaker’ is a wonderful, idiosyncratic and original take on the loop strategy.

Expedient Self is Brighton, UK based artist Simon Chandler. Active since 2019 releasing 2 previous EP’s and a single.

The EP ‘Chairs’ was reviewed in The Wire.

“Chairs

Expedient Self MC

Expedient Self is a solo electric guitar project created by Brighton’s Simon Chandler. He uses looped figures to create an array of different sounds, which he piles up in ways that resemble Frippertronics NOT ONE WHIT. Even the quieter pieces tend toward dissonance in a way that most such music does not, and the more active passages can be almost (fr)antic (sic).
Chandler has a great sense of how to assemble discordant elements into a weirdly coherent whole, creating a very heavy ambience that is not ambient at all.”