Milieu

Earth Monkey Productions is a net label based in Barrow Island in Cumbria. They release free music with a focus on experimental, electronic, sound art and spoken word, and currently have 13 releases for download.

I downloaded the latest, emp013: 4th Alternative - New Dawn to try and get an impression of the kinds of things Earth Monkey releases, and I was impressed. New Dawn is a four track collection of ambient pieces, spanning 41 minutes. Each track has a lot of space, with rich timbres, subtle diversions and infinite patience.

4th Alternative is Rob “Bombardier” Davies. A classically trained pianist who like many musicians searched for expression outside the accepted norms. This led to experiments in music making using radio noise, synthesizers, and whatever instruments came to hand

On the surface, New Dawn sounds like classic 90s ambience, but remains simple and elegant throughout. There’s no zany samples, just sweet spacious ambience to immerse yourself in at your discretion. Sunburst is interesting because it features a more live or improvised sounding guitar, and very subdued and heavily processed vocal samples. These can be quite surprising sometimes, but fit in with the rest of the track’s aesthetic.

Dark Angel is denser than the other tracks, with more dynamic melodic development and some classic FM sounds. It’s difficult to describe the last track, Submerged. On one hand it’s reminiscent of the current crop of contemporary artists who process field recordings, but on the other there are sounds and melodies that remind me of more typical ambient music. It has the same gentle touch that the other tracks on the EP have.

If you like the sound of this, have a look at the Earth Monkey Productions site and see what else you can download. They’re also into last.fm, so see what you can find digging around on their last.fm page.

1bit Wonder recently celebrated their first birthday by releasing Celebration Compilation #2. I was going to review it, but started listening to Home is… by Kultobjekt and it was so good I just had to write about it!

Kultobjekt, also known as Mirsch - one of the founders of 1bit Wonder, previously released Bitte 1Bit! last August. He writes downplayed techno with elements of dub. On Home is…, he goes for several tracks of simplicity, then unleashes a few surprises. The strange vocal samples in Sanfrando, No Good Boy, Alter Rost liebt nicht make these tracks the highlights. Some Like It Smooth, the last track on the EP, takes cues from ambient and funk artists and stays true to the title.

Kultobjekt knows how to pace tracks, leaving out complex sounds for just the right moments. His choice of sounds is also well-balanced, bringing in almost noise-like high frequency percussive sounds in Lasmedo just as ambient pads start to rumble in, creating an interesting apex. Read more and download on the label’s page.