Sundaze (23)

Hello, at Sundaze today i ask "noise ? what noise ?" Today's posts are certainly not of the comfortably numb type , no fluffly clouds in sight..Last week Aphex Twin's ambient works II were in a way the other side of todays album, he released under the Polygon Window moniker, one he never used again. It makes sense that at the time he wasn't sure where his music would lead him, and the labelling of the press can become very sticky. I think it's an exploration album for and by Richard D. James. Some would label it techno it certainly has some there but there's always the ambient backdrop.... Fennesz is another artist that likes to twist sound around and then pattern it back together , the album here is a collection of work starting with 95's Instrument EP to which are added several tracks done for compilation albums and reworkings. Fennesz strong style creates enough cohesion to make this album enjoyable in the back, but upfront and loud, things get really moving between those ears...Finally Daniel Myer he has released 3 albums under the alias Architect, but is probably better known for his work with Haujobb, the electro industrial-noise band who has been around since the early 90's. Unlike Haujobb, however, this solo album bounces in between IDM and techno it is much more personal and thoughtful. I Went Out Shopping To Get Some Noise is as ironic as it is ambivalent... It's dense but certainly not claustrophobic, city rhythms and those, at least in the west, tend to have plenty of quiter moments everyday...great album.

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Polygon Window - Surfing On Sine Waves ( 93 flac 272mb)

Richard D. James is listed as the creator of the music; however, his name is printed over the brown cliff on the back of the album. The full text reads "Writing, programming, arranging, engineering, producing + location recording by Richard d. James at Llannerlog Studios, Cornwall." An image of him running down a flight of stairs can also be found inside the liner notes.

The brooding album is a collection of largely instrumental electronic music (a few vocal samples are included in places). It might have been recorded by James onto cassettes in his bedroom studio, using a limited range of cheaply available drum machines, synthesizers, sequencers and samplers, some likely modified by himself. Most of the tracks feature insistent drum machine patterns (the ambient Quino-phec being an exception) and James' characteristic angular, modal, melodies. James makes liberal use of lengthy digital reverberation, giving a spacious and mesmerising feel to the tracks.

The album was re-released in 2000 by Warp to celebrate the opening of Warp's American division (albums by Warp had previously been distributed in America through Sire Records and Nothing Records). The re-release features two previously unreleased tracks that were recorded during the same time this album was created.



1 - Polygon Window (5:28)
2 - Audax Powder (4:40)
3 - Quoth (5:36)
4 - If It Really Is Me (7:03)
5 - Supremacy II (4:07)
6 - UT1 - Dot (5:20)
7 - Untitled (6:24)
8 - Quixote (6:03)
9 - Quino - Phec (4:41)

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Fennesz - Field Recordings 1995:2002 (02 flac 349 mb)

Vienna-based guitarist Christian Fennesz is one of the city's many artists associated with the noted Mego label, which releases mostly freeform ambient and experimental electronica. He was born and raised in Austria and studied music formally in art school. Similar in some respects to the work of Seefeel or Experimental Audio Research, Fennesz's six-string soundscapes are both darker than the former and more complex and intricate than the latter, combining dense, multilayered sheets of treated guitar and synth with thin, odd-metered electronic percussion and engaging sampler work. A former member of Austrian underground experimental rock group Maische, as well as performed ensemble pieces for conceptual and multimedia art installation. His first solo work for Mego, the Instrument EP, was released in 1996, and featured four tracks of stunning, uncompromised ambient and electro-acoustic, combining elements of experimental electro/techno with heavily treated guitar and electronics.Rereleased as part of the Field Recordings album. Hotel Paral.lel followed in 1997, and three years later Fennesz returned with Plus Forty Seven Degrees 56' 37" Minus Sixteen Degrees 51' 08" and Music for an Isolation Tank. Endless Summer, released in 2000, brought him back to the Mego fold. (see Eurotour -Austria 2).

Since the 1990s, Fennesz played live with Ryuichi Sakamoto, with British electroacoustic improvisation icon Keith Rowe, and with quirky American pop group Sparklehorse. He has also worked alongside Peter Rehberg and Jim O'Rourke in the improvisional trio Fenn O'Berg, and with British singer David Sylvian - Sylvian sang on Fennesz's album Venice while Fennesz composed the music for "A Fire in the Forest" from Sylvian's album Blemish and made contributions to Sylvian's "When Loud Weather Buffeted Naoshima". Fennesz also appeared on the Ulver remix/compilation album 1993-2003: First Decade in the Machines, contributing "Only The Poor Have Time To Travel". Fennesz and Sakamoto released a collaborative album entitled "Cendre" in March 2007 on Sakamoto's new Commmons label.



01 - Good Man (4:05)
02 - Instrument 1 (5:27)
03 - Instrument 2 (6:05)
04 - Instrument 3 (5:16)
05 - Instrument 4 (5:05)
06 - Betrieb by Ekkehard Ehlers (Fennesz Remix) (3:55)
07 - Menthol (3:51)
08 - Surf (5:36)
09 - Stairs (1:28)
10 - Ivend00 (1:30)
11 - Namewithnohorse (Version) (2:02)
12 - Odessa (Version) (1:28)
13 - Codeine by S.Mathieu & E. Ehlers (Fennesz Remix) (5:17)

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Architect - I Went Out Shopping To Get Some Noise ( 04, 71 min. flac 457mb)

Architect is one of the many projects of Daniel Myer, there are not many who have so many different projects with such variety and yet a surprisingly high quality. Architect is one of the projects which explores electronic landscapes. "The Galactic Supermarket", Architect's first album was released in 1998 through hymen records, it set the sphere for architect's second album entitled "i went out shopping to get some noise". even though there were six years inbetween these two albums (2004, also hymen). Architect succeeded in combining electronic sounds with ambient and experimental sounds. Fans of Haujobb's ambient-side should have no problem finding their way here, as well as fanatics of the so-called clicks'n'-cut genre.

The stunning feature of this record is that even if there's a lot of power and distortions concentrated in the rhythmical section, you won't classify it as industrial or noise, the music flows flawlessly with a lot of depth and detail assembled with surgical production. keeping it simple, it's very accessible, the hooking melodies and the epic setting are so charming and fascinating that you're obliged to listen and re-listen several times to discover new layers of sound you didn't notice before. "The Analysis of Noise Trading" is Architect's third album , bringing the trilogy to completion, it is like the two other albums, not exactly an easy record, a record that is made to play once and than cool down.



01 - Anger Management (4:26)
02 - Belgian Connection (6:32)
03 - Icl Feelings (6:36)
04 - Colorado 6am (5:02)
05 - Unlike (6:33)
06 - Dievorce (6:37)
07 - Colorfusion (4:45)
08 - Grand Diesel (6:40)
09 - Fifth Puppy (5:16)
10 - Unlike Reaktor Version (5:39)
11 - Charles B (6:03)
12 - Beyer Dynamic (4:09)
13 - Moonshine Live Version (3:26)

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