Blog Archives

Track list:
1 Lights Inside and Ahead
2 3.14 Transfer To Frankfurt
3 Deck Allusion
4 3.31 Night Train To Berlin
5 A Single Quantum Event
6 3.13 Beijing Layover
7 Associations With the Same Intention
8 3.21 Basel After A Rain
9 Ends That Come As Quickly As Beginnings

Release description:
Touring is a strange experience. There are disappointments and surprises. The audience you expected wasn’t there, but those shows usually end up being the best. I didn’t expect I’d see these cities. Frankfurt in the rain, or falling asleep in the back of a car in Basel, waiting for a show to start. You wake up and you’re in a different place, or already moving on to the next before you can experience the place.

All the tapes I dubbed for the tour I left in the first hotel, and did the rest on the trains en route. When we walked to the field at Tempelhof, it was totally covered with snow, and it was so cold my camera lens froze. Your hair whipped in the wind like a mustang.

I remember the taxi interiors in Poland, and how many women wore leather in Russia. I couldn’t find bookstores, but it didn’t matter. Meeting everyone was the best part of it, you experience these small events during the days or at night, and you think how we’ll remember this forever. Then you return home, and never speak with them again.

Tempelhof was recorded on tour in 2013 in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, and Russia. It was mixed in Japan between 2013 and 2015.

 

Track list:

1 Bleeds and swell blends
2 These dreams, how portentously gloomy
3 Natural deflections
4 Acrimonious, like fiddles

Release description:

Artist statement

A few years ago I took a road trip with my 80-year old uncle through parts of the American southwest. We drove to Moab, where the sunset turned the canyon walls orange in the early evening, and after midnight, passing puffy clouds still showed through the the navy blue sky. In the morning, the buttes seemed brilliant bleached in sunlight, and the view from above the canyon was completely silent save for the wind, and birds occasionally flying past. In the Needles district, the centuries-old petroglyphs were mixed with graffiti; spraypaint cans lying half-submerged rusted in the sand below. We drove through the back roads of the La Sal Mountains, and down across the windswept grey Colorado plateau.

Past the expanses of Monument Valley, on the outskirts of Kayenta, rainstorms loomed in the distance as teenage hitchhikers dotted the roadsides, along which were makeshift souvenir shops, alone like fireworks stands after a passed holiday. Climbing out of the desert, we passed through Aspen, through the ski resorts and celebrity mansions, where the average annual household income is $69,000, compared to $21,000 in Kayenta. The next day, our drive ended near Ouray, the fog rolling over the evergreen-lined roads.

Several years later, after leaving California, I put together a collection of tracks made with an electric piano and a wooden flute. Two tracks were copied onto two sun-baked cassette tapes I had found on the dashboard of a car, and the other two from a warped 12″ test pressing. Revisiting these pieces after living in Japan for several years, they instantly reminded me of the trip, and what I left behind in the United States. The tapes fluttered and stuck, drenched in hiss and grime. The record skipped, wavered, and dropped in and out. Yet with these imperfections, it completely reflected my memory of the places, and what they represented. There are sides to everything, whether it causes you to change or not.

– Will Long, 2015

アーティスト・ステートメント

数年前、８０歳になる叔父とアメリカ南西部を車で旅したことがあった。我々がドライブをしたモアブという場所では、夕方になると夕日が渓谷の壁をオレンジ色に染め、夜中を過ぎると、濃紺の夜空にふわふわの雲が現われては通り過ぎていった。朝になると、太陽にさらされたビュート（孤立丘）が輝いて見え、渓谷の上からの景色は、風と、時折飛んで行く鳥の音をのぞいては完全な静寂に包まれていた。ニードルズ地区にある、何世紀も前の岩面彫刻には落書きが入り混じっていて、錆びたスプレーペイントの缶が砂地に半分埋もれて残されていた。我々はラ・サル山脈の裏道をドライブして、吹きさらしの灰色のコロラド高原を超えて行った。

カエンタ郊外の広々としたモニュメントバレーを過ぎると、遠くのほうにぼんやりと暴風雨が見えた。沿道にはティーンエイジャーのヒッチハイカー達が点在し、簡易な作りの土産店が休日明けの花火の屋台のように寂しそうに並んでいた。砂漠を抜けると、我々はアスペンというスキーリゾートを通り過ぎた。セレブなマンションが立ち並ぶその辺りの一世帯の年収は69,000ドル、一方カエンタでは21,000ドルだ。

何年か後になってカリフォルニアを去ったあと、私は電子ピアノと木笛を使って一連の曲を制作した。その中の２曲が、車のダッシュボードの上で陽にあたって劣化したカセットテープの中にコピーされているのを私は発見した。そして残りの２曲は、歪んでしまったテストプレス用のレコードの中にあった。日本に何年か住んだ後でこれらの作品を再検討してみると、あの旅のこと、そして私がアメリカに置いてきたもののことがすぐさま思い起こされた。テープには歪みやひっかかりがあり、ノイズとホコリまみれだった。レコードには音飛びや音揺れがあり、音が大きくなったり小さくなったりした。けれどもこれらの不完全さは、それぞれの場所の私の思い出、そしてそれらが意味するものを見事に象徴していた。すべてのものには、両端がある。それが我々に変化を起こさせるものかどうかにかかわらず。

– Will Long, 2015

Press statement

Inspired by the American Southwest, “How could you believe me when I told you that I loved you when you know I’ve been a liar all my life” is the new album by American musician Celer, aka Will Long, now living in Japan. Sourced from an electric piano and wooden flute, tape loops were copied to sun-baked cassette tapes, and a warped vinyl tester, using the most basic format-inherent effects. Based on an idea of primitive Americana, it can be seen as a mediation on the different sides of music and cultural perception, or a reflection of inherent imperfections.

 

Track list:

1 Simon Scott – Water Shadow
2 A Winged Victory For the Sullen – Ti Prego Memory Man
3 Celer – Nothing So Mystical
4 Black Swan – Passings, Heartbreak
5 Jim Haynes – This is Radio Sweden
6 EN – White
7 Pjusk – Dorsk
8 Fieldhead – 37th
9 Noveller – Bright Clouds Bloom

Release description:
SMM: Opiate is the second release in Ghostly’s SMM series, which is an ongoing exploration of the evocative possibilities of sound, with a focus on classical minimalism, electronic and drone composition, film soundtracks, and fragile imaginary landscapes. Opiate is the follow-up to 2011’s SMM: Context, and as with that record, it’s a carefully chosen selection of music, compiled over some two years from around the world.

The record opens with Simon Scott’s “Water Shadow,” a luxuriant piece of beatless ambience that’s like a wash of warm water or the first touch of the summer sun on your face after a long, cold winter. It’s a warmth that doesn’t last, though — “Ti Prego Memory Man,” by A Winged Victory for the Sullen, is no less beautiful. It’s a stately, alpine beauty, its chilly sounds a harbinger of things to come. Celer’s “Nothing So Mystical” is more minimal still, while Black Swan’s “Passing Heartbreak” brings whispers of humanity, its sound coalescing out of an atmospheric whirl of vocal textures.

The wryly titled “This Is Radio Sweden,” by Jim Haynes, is all brooding background noise that’s shot through with what sounds like an old-fashioned telephone engaged tone, a track that seems shot through with connotations of absence and loss. EN’s “White” is both somber and somehow transportive, setting plucked chords from what sounds like a banjo over a glistening synth figure, while Pjusk’s “Dorsk” slows to a sort of stasis, with only the faintest of basslines to indicate any sign of life. Fieldhead’s “37th” is like a slow, mindful from such a reverie, and Noveller’s “Bright Cloud Blooms” brings the cycle to a close with another brief flush of precious warmth.

As a whole, the compilation seems to follow a narrative arc, descending through a series of stages into near-complete stillness, and then slowly ascending back to where it began. As a whole, the experience is certainly evocative of the opiated sensation evoked by the record’s title — but really, it’s a compilation that invites you to find your own meaning in it, or simply to appreciate the beauty of its music and escape the world for a while.

Track list:

1 Maru Dai Dawn
2 Pandimension
3 Perta Ine
4 Ersatz Athene
5 Epitaph
6 4D Samba
7 Beyond AD
8 Naeba
9 Not Here
10 Maru Dai Dawn (Asdasfr Bawd Remix)
11 Not Here (Celer Remix)
12 Pandimension (Ghost Drops x Shisd Remix)
13 Maru Dai Dawn (Foodman Remix)

 

Release description:
CD issue of Nico Niquo’s EPITAPH. Featuring four exclusive remixes from Foodman, Celer, Ghost Drops x Shisd, and Asdasfr Bawd.

Track list:
1 Circle Routes
2 (12.5.12) Making tea over a rocket launch broadcast
3 In plum and magenta
4 (12.21.12) On the Shinkansen leaving Kyoto
5 Tangent lines
6 (12.20.12) Back in Kawaramachi, Kyoto
7 Equal to moments of completion
8 (4.8.13) A morning
9 Wishes to prolong
10 (4.8.13) An evening
11 Attempts to make time pass differently

Release description:
“Hill towns and empty mountains pass by, but the smoothness of the train blurs the view, and it’s easier than ever to fall asleep in the low morning sunlight coming in through the train’s windows”, writes Will Long, the artist behind the Celer moniker, in his liner notes to Sky Limits, one of his most fulfilling records to date.

First created as a duo project in 2005, Celer has been US-born musician Will Long’s solo vehicle since 2009. Through the years and thanks to an astounding rate of production, Celer has become a reference in the field of ambient electronic music. The care Long puts in his ethereal albums and his flawless musical intuition have earned him the critics’praise and invites to release material on key labels such as Spekk, Glacial Movements, Humming Conch, Experimedia, and/OAR, and now Baskaru.

Sky Limits consists in a series of daydreaming-prone, strings-laden ambient tracks interspersed with field recordings of daily life in Tokyo and Kyoto. This album is a reflection on the evanescent nature of memories, dreams, and reality.

 

Track list:
1 The Pulling Pools Of Piccard’s Scientific Motions / First Night In Complete Darkness / Instrument Settings Below The Transparent Ocean / Our Entrance Into The Stream / Settling Inside The Natural Pathway / Carving An Impermanent Pathway Into The Moonlit Surface / The Melodies Of Our Heartbeats Slowing
2 Before Pollution / Underwater Thunderstorm / Family Photos Speckled With Ocean Dust / The Gentle Streaming / Glass Nets / Loophole / Pre-Sea
3 Passing Emptiness / Waking With The Resting Sun / The Coldest Surface Winds / Beyond The Ice Caps / Buoy / Disregarded Realizations And Discoveries / Leaving Everything In Peace

Release description:
The album ‘Mesoscaphe’ is a sound work dedicated to the 1969 voyage of the Ben Franklin, the naturally-propelled submarine created to explore the currents of the Gulf Stream, and the nature of the sea. Half of the sound is composed of original pieces of music, meant to symbolize a deepening human element culled from memory, from strings, pianos, and electronics. The other half of the sound is composed of natural field recordings, of the Ben Franklin itself, as well as the surrounding oceans and habitats, with the intention of providing realism through sound, just as if it were an actual document from the voyage, of the surrounding ocean. The artists exchanged their own original sounds with each other, allowing each artist to experiment and remix outside of their own sound sources, with the potential to apply our own sound methods to each others’ sound sources, and develop the concept even further. Titles were made to coordinate with the movement of the voyage, creating their own story, in relation to the progressing sounds. The final result is a documented literary and audio interpretation of the voyage, from the perspective of 3 sound and visual artists, of the experiences and surroundings of the crew of the Ben Franklin, traveling for 30 days by the gentle glide of the Gulf Stream. We hope to bring attention to an important event in history, overshadowed by the moon landings, and for people to know the story of the revolutionary submarine that explored the nature of the ocean, challenged scientific development, and ended up in a salvage yard.

Track list:
1 This Thinking Globe Exploding
2 The Carved God Is Gone; Waking Above The Pileus Clouds
3 Stargazing Lily Lacks The Flower
4 Retranslating The Upside-Down Mountain
5 A Crush, A Hero-Worship & Hyperrealism
6 The Separation Of The Two-Phased Apple Blossoms
7 Delaying The Entropy; In Emptiness, Forms Are Born

Release description:
Limited to 500 copies in digipak. First edition.

Track list:
1 Illegal Photographs Of The Funeral Fires / In A Pulse / Dancing As Terrorism / Varanasi / Auctorial Days Of Delhi / So Very Sari, I Swear / Chest Mulct / The Sangha Inside / Sweep / The Ananta – Shesha Over The Ganges / New Years In Dharamsala / Leaving A New Home / Shesha (That Which Remains)

Track list:
1 80,000 Feet
2 Taking Measures Toward Morning
3 Cherry Souls Awakening
4 Scarfs, Blisters And Night Lights
5 Artificial Colours
6 Swift And Ersatz Cough To Morning
7 Fathom This Young Life
8 Metal Master
9 Diphenhydramine
10 Sluggish In The Morning
11 Seeing; That Side Of Teaching
12 Mi
13 Peak Pressure
14 Rain Machines
15 Voiceless Devilfish
16 Swarms Of Orange
17 The Divine Is Not Invisible
18 Passing Hills And Still Windmills
19 Petrified Forest
20 Ice Deserts Over Ross Island
21 Scratch The Chest Of Your Voices
22 Blind Darsan
23 Missed Language
24 Late Calms
25 “To Be Holy, Be Wholly Your Own”
26 Hyperopia
27 Right To Left
28 A Minor Echolocation
29 We Were Blond First
30 The Stars Are Only Smears
31 Orionne
32 5:59 AM
33 Ends Meet
34 Mass Clouds
35 Till The Clouds Roll By
36 Apricot Sunrise
37 Echelons

Release description:
Polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs), also known as “nacreous clouds”, are found in the winter polar stratosphere at altitudes of 15,000–25,000 metres (50,000–80,000 ft). Due to their high altitude and the curvature of the surface
of the Earth, these clouds will receive sunlight from below the horizon and reflect it to the ground, shining brightly well before dawn or after dusk. PSCs form at very low temperatures, below −78 °C. These temperatures can occur in the lower stratosphere in polar winter. In the Antarctic, temperatures below −88 °C frequently cause type II PSCs. Such low temperatures are rarer in the Arctic. Apart from arctic regions, PSCs have also been known to be seen in Scandinavia, Iceland, Alaska and Northern Canada. Sometimes, however, they occur as far south as England.

This beautiful release features 37 short tracks of raw iridescent ambience (total time exceeding 78 minutes) reflecting the hyper-temporal nature of what are known as “nacreous clouds”. And like the clouds, the tracks are
quick to appear and disappear. Playback using the random shuffle mode of your CD player is highly recommended.

While this is undoubtedly an ambient release, it is unusual in that there are many short tracks instead of one or two long ones, and each of the tracks is notably “raw” in that they do not use additional processing like reverb to
enhance the initial processed sound sources further. This might prove to be a challenge for those who prefer their ambience buried under a thousand pounds of reverb, but it is not the intent of the artists or and/OAR to release
“just another ambient CD”. Instead, we invite you to explore an alternative method of rendering ambience in a way that is more immediate, therefore effecting the listener’s mind in a more personal and powerful way.