“What’d he look like?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t lift his head up. He could’ve been… just anybody.”

A disembodied voice, a tape snippet, inquires, on Maastunnel, the A Side to this auspicious pairing of these two giants of drone. ‘Maastunnel/Mt. Mitake’ came about after Machinefabriek & Celer played a show together in Tokyo in 2010, and was released to coincide with an upcoming European tour, so we will most likely hear more from these combined heads.

Both Machinefabriek & Celer are hyper-prolific, nigh-on legendary in the ambient/drone/field recordings microcosm, so what happens when they get together? That’s why i started with that quote, it is a fine example of the egolessness of both artist’s work, an almost slavish devotion to the ‘sound’, the ‘work’. Tasteful in the extreme, you can hear the individual spirit of each, the squeaky field recordings that are Machinefabriek’s hallmark, the drifting, cloud-like melodies Celer is known for. The overall effect achieved, is a sonic world, an auditory hallucination, with Machinefabriek creating the space for Celer to score, events unfolding, humans interacting with the inanimate.

‘Maastunnel’ is the more pastoral of the two, which is funny as its named after a tunnel, but its tinkling, splashing water give a sense of the outdoors. ‘Mt. Mitake’, named after the mountain to the west of Tokyo, is a more sci-fi affair, think Vangelis, think Klaus Schulze – dreamy, futuristic, floating. The pair make for more colorful drones and inner-visions than the monochromatic blur often found in the more industrial cadre of this style.

‘Maastunnel/Mt. Mitake’ is an exercise in restraint, in good taste. They show respect for one another, the music, and the listener. The whole shebang clocks in at a scant ten-minutes, which means you will spend a lot of time hitting play, or flipping over this little gem. Poring over its intricacies. Makes for pleasant company in the morning, if you want to keep that dreamy vibe going. I’m looking forward to hearing more from these two.

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The prolific Celer (Will Long) & Machinefabriek (Rutger Zuydervelt) join forces for this cheeky ambient 7” release – created in celebration of their tour of the Netherlands and Belgium across March 2012.

Swapping numerous files between their respective home towns of Tokyo and Rotterdam the two have drawn on local geography and field recordings for inspiration here. Even the cover art is a combination of artwork found in a Tokyo nostalgia shop by Will Long and the design skills of Rutger.

‘Maastunnel’ on side A is named after the tunnel that connects the banks of the Nieuwe Maas in Rotterdam and was constructed during World War II. It apparently serves almost 75,000 vehicles daily although little hint of this commotion is found within the track itself as haunting reverb heavy melodies and water sounds introduce us to the piece. Squeaks and flutters surround a further Burial style melody – it feels like night time on the river until a quiet vocal sample cuts the music abruptly and we enter the Maastunnel accompanied by the creaking hums of its old wooden escalators.

On the flip ‘Mt. Mitake’ is named after a mountain to the west of Tokyo which Will Long climbed the day between finding the vinyl artwork and finishing the track. A pretty shimmering motif threads the piece together whilst menacing metallic drones advance then retreat in the mix. It’s all ever so slightly unnerving and makes me wonder if Mt. Mitake hides a dark secret and isn’t just an attractive hiking opportunity for Tokyo weekender’s.

Evocative and haunting pieces of collaborative work. We’d like to hear more please.

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Now based in Tokyo, where the source material for this album was first aired during a performance in a temple, Will Long has made Tightrope one of his finest pieces of music to date. Presented as one epic collage clocking in at over an hour long, Tightrope is in fact made up of 24 separate sections that have been layered ad infinitum in order to create a work of silky serenity that floats and flows majestically.

The sources are myriad, ranging from ringtones to the crackle of a log fire, but they are manipulated in such a way as to blend seamlessly into one another as one extended, gently ebbing wave. Long himself claims to be able to pick apart and identify individual elements still but to the casual listener Tightrope will more likely present itself as an extended exercise in meditative contemplation.

There isn’t a great deal of obvious darkness present, save, perhaps, the subtly throbbing undertones around the twenty-and thirty-minute marks. Instead Tightrope concentrates on lighter textures and becoming, through repetition and the sense of nebulous familiarity it breeds, a kind of musical palimpsest where sounds are layered and brushed away, layered and brushed away until what remains is a scarcely decipherable patchwork of elements that only give up their secrets in brief, prismatic flashes.

There are moments of crumble and collapse – occasions where the music will fall back to rest on a tone whose presence is everlasting but rarely felt – and this allows Long to build again. Even still, the general ambience never strays too far from where it began and the pace has a kind of slow-motion stateliness to it that lulls and soothes without ever losing focus.

Will Long spoke about Tightrope almost as though it was an act of throwaway flippancy, remarking that at first it was a simple matter of making, mixing and moving on. It was only afterwards that he began to realise the music’s importance as a series of “collected, unplanned memories… things I can hear and relate to”. For the listener without these cues it’s more likely this music will function as a means of discreetly exposing an emotional core; provoking memories of times and places hitherto unlinked to the music but which resonate at a cerebral depth only the music can access. It’s a powerful and sometimes perilous technique that this artist is consistently adept at and, as ever, Will Long’s poise and patience is absolutely perfect here. Tightrope may be his most affecting statement yet.

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Edition of 250 with postcard containing download code redeemable fromt the label** Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek) meets Will Long in a charming trans-continental hook-up created to celebrate their upcoming tour of The Netherlands and Belgium. Originally meeting and performing in Tokyo in 2010, they began exchanging files and ideas in October 2011, and had completed hours of material by November, from which these two tracks were sourced. A-side ‘Maastunnel’, named after the tunnel which connects the banks of the Nieuwe Maas, uses field recordings of the tunnel’s old wooden escalators to lend a creaking, ethereal sense of space and place to their warmly symphonic ambient flourishes. Meanwhile the B-side ‘Mt. Mitake’, named after the mountain to the west of Tokyo, is a more placid, spacious piece, reflecting the sunny, blue-skied spirit of the images on the attached postcard, but with a brooding underlying element that should ensure you return to this side again and again.

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The breathtaking sounds that surround me for quite some time now are the result of a collaboration of two of the best drone craftsmen – Will Long and Rutger Zuydervelt as Celer and Machinefabriek. Having a wonderful basinski-esque beginning of the first piece called ‘Maastunnel’ it is suddenly interrupted to restart developing with an even cinematic sound design and a slightly modified loop. There is no doubt that these guys are collaborating perfectly on this release and being aware of the fact that it has an overall duration of just nearly 10 minutes I surely won’t be the only person that expresses the wish to see more of these Celer & Machinefabriek projects some time. ‘Mt. Mitake’ is a decent droning piece that is also based on the repetition of a single (beautiful) loop with a frugal but lovely melodic element that is suppressed for some time in a turbulent and slightly distorted drone part before it returns and lets the piece end with a certain softness and beauty that we also had at the beginning of ‘Maastunnel’. An amazing and intense though really short release that is definitely rounded off perfectly!

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In contrast to its music, the story of Celer is eventful but short and tragic. Danielle Baquet and Will Long began recording in 2005 and married in 2007, living in Huntington Beach, California. Two short years later, Danielle died tragically of congenital heart failure. And yet in her unfairly brief life, Danielle traveled, studied, taught, painted, wrote and created more art than most of us could in several long lifetimes. In its first two years alone, Celer released a mind-boggling twenty-two pieces. Since Danielle’s passing, her talented partner, now residing in Tokyo, has continued to release previously unheard material recorded by the duo and oversee reissues of out-of-print and early, handmade self-releases; at the time of writing, Celer’s list of CD, CDR, cassette tape, vinyl and digital releases has climbed well beyond seventy.

Sunlir is one of Celer’s earliest recordings, originally half of a double, self-released set. The ten loops created and ”orchestrated” by the couple in 2006 each shimmer as they flow and reverberate as they ebb. And each bears a strong resemblance to the next, as the duo essay variations on a form. But each breathes deeply and they are symmetrical as starfish and like starfish, a little rough around the edges, heralding the unprecedented, consistent vibrancy of the sound they would come to make their own. Still searching but Sunlir radiates confidence. As the rain-forest is to the planet, Celer is to ambient music – its lungs.

Originally released as three, single-track mini CDRs in a hand-painted carton box, these long-form pieces show off Celer at its prime, masters of a uniquely affecting ambient music that garnered the duo a standing among critics and listeners it never relinquished. The rhythm of the ”all-inclusive” is still there but it now pulses gently under the thin skin of the temples. The drone is accordant but leavened with a nigh on undetectable atonal yeast. Levitation is indeed achieved though the only breaking points occur between tracks and even then are barely noticeable. Rather, the album is as smooth and flawless as a fresh sheet of ice. It possesses a seraphic decorum that makes you feel virtuous just by listening.

With the release of Menggayakan, Will artistically retracted his avowal that the name Celer would be retired after the duo’s remaining recorded portfolio had been made available. A brand-new single collaboration with Machinefabriek has also just been released. Menggayakan, dedicated to Danielle, is an Indonesian term that means something along the lines of ”instill with beauty and therewith strength” and was recorded in Jakarta in 2010. Punctuating the atmosphere with field recordings and broadcast samples – which feature unadulterated at irregular intervals, in contrast to the duo’s work, which as a rule subsumed them in the drone—Will Long asserts himself as a solo artist (he has previously released a handful of tracks under his own name). Midway through there is an especially funny and intimate moment which seems to creep its way right into the framework of a gamelan like a june bug. This ambient sighs and soughs deeply, too, with a recessed undertone that seems to grow darker as the album progresses. As the album draws out its exquisite, strings-drenched conclusion, you get that falling feeling, tumbling head over heels in slow motion.

Though great travelers, that big, blue stretch of Californian ocean was always reflected in the duo’s music. Now Will Long watches that same water from the other side. The unexpected shift of perspective means there is even more to anticipate.

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Well here’s a little gem that will definitely be a collector’s item quickly:

Celer (Will Long) and Machinefabriek (Rutger Zuydervelt) – two giants of the ambient-electronic improv scene – met and performed together in Tokyo in 2010, and decided to collaborate on these tracks about a year later. Exchanging an reconstructing each others audio files has resulted in this 7″ vinyl release: “Maastunnel-Mt. Mitake“. An impressive, though short, ‘audio bridge’ between Rotterdam and Tokyo.

“Maastunnel-Mt. Mitake” comes as a 7-inch single with two tracks, around 5 minutes each. The tracks found their inspiration in Mt. Mitake, a mountain to the west of Tokyo, and in the Maastunnel in Rotterdam.

The reason these tracks work so very well may be that Celer’s and Machinefabriek’s approach are usually quite different. But together their sounds become a perfect blend of organic and mechanic, of acoustic and electronic, of natural and artificial (as the titles indicate).
Or of East and West, if you insist.

In addition to the physical release, there’s the download version (also included with the 7-inch order), which also includes two videos by Marcel Douma. Beautiful images,a pleasure to watch, and perfectly fitting the music – but not exactly visually related to the Maastunnel , and probably not to Mt. Mitake either.

For now, there’s only ten minutes of this beauty. Celer and Machinefabriek will be touring Holland and Belgium in march 2012 (together with Kleefsta/Bakker/Kleefstra!). We can only hope they will record all their shows to create a follow up to this “Maastunnel-Mt. Mitake“

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Rutger Zuydervelt, ofwel de genius achter het productieve en immer kwalitatieve en evoluerende Machinefabriek project grapt er al over dat volgens de discogs website het ambientproject Celer 64 en Machinefabriek maar liefst 99 releases heeft uitgebracht. Tel ze bij elkaar op en je hebt een ontzaglijke discografie voorhanden. En nog mooi ook! Nu ze de handen ineenslaan is die gedachte niet zo gek natuurlijk. Dat ze samenwerken is dan weer te gek. Ik heb bij elkaar niet meer dan één derde in kast staan, maar beide artiesten zijn aan elkaar gewaagd zowel qua muziek als artwork. De samenwerking is het gevolg van een optreden en ontmoeting in Tokio in 2010.
Celer is na het trieste, vroegtijdige overlijden van Danielle Baquet-Long in 2009 het soloproject geworden van Will Long. De muziek van Celer kenmerkt zich door diepgravende, langzaam veranderende atmosferische ambientsoundscapes die veelal emotioneel geladen zijn. Machinefabriek brengt doorgaans abstracte elektronica die ergens tussen glitch, (gitaar)ambient, softnoise en drones uitkomen. Hij werkt met vele artiesten samen en weet een hoge productie te koppelen aan kwaliteit en variatie. Een zeldzaam gegeven.
Samen brengen ze nu de 7” Maastunnel / Mt. Mitake, wat op papier een groot contrast lijkt, namelijk de drukke betonnen verkeerstunnel tegenover de serene omgeving van de Japanse berg. Toch haken de twee nummers met diezelfde titels vooral aan bij dat laatste. Ze brengen twee rustieke, elektro-akoestische klanklandschappen die het mooiste van beide naar boven haalt. Serene ambient gaat hand in hand met subtiele drones en fijnbesnaarde samples van omgevingsgeluiden en stemmen. Het is zinnenprikkelend en tot de verbeelding sprekend. De schoonheid van beide tracks, die samen net onder de 10 minuten finishen, is gewoonweg verbluffend. Een kleinood om innig te koesteren en een samenwerking die wat mij betreft snel een full-length vervolg mag krijgen.

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Well, how’s this for a match made in ambient minimal heaven. Messrs Long and Fabriek are collaborating on both sides of this deliciously packaged little 7” with a full colour sleeve and a postcard inside with a download (which includes two videos by Marco Douma) in a hand-numbered edition of 250. You don’t need me to tell you these aren’t gonna be around very long! On the first side there’s a slowly pulsing and therapeutic piece of layered mid-end drones and field recordings that’s best administered horizontally. Flip it and you’ve got something a bit hissier with some glassy high pitched tones underpinned by a repeated two note refrain down at the bottom, intermittent free melodies in the mid, and a constant industrial whirring that slowly builds. This one’s much darker and more imposing than the cleaner and more relaxing A side, but if you’ve made it on here in time to buy one of these babies then you’ll already know that these two are as accomplished as they come when it comes to this kind of meditative tone-building business. And let’s face it, even if you don’t like it there’s always eBay…