Month: December 2017

Ambient Soundbath Podcast #64 – Juta Takahashi

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Ambient Soundbath Podcast #64 - Juta Takahashi
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I discovered the music of Juta Takahashi on the SomaFM DroneZone internet radio station; I hear a lot of great music there and I try to bring some of it to the Soundbath from time to time. Juta Takahashi is one such case.

Juta Takahashi was born in Miyagi, Japan in 1959, and produces music, primarily, through the use of computers and analog synthesizers. Artists such as Brian Eno, Harold Budd, Vangelis and Pete Namlook, etc. have had a major impact on his work and you can hear that influence throughout his catalog; much of his recorded work is comprised of improvised music.

Juta’s music is timbrally rich with deep sonics that, at times, I felt like I could just crawl into and rest for a thousand years. The sonic fabric of his music is dense and rich with a consonance that is both engaging and revitalizing; these were the qualities that caught my attention on several occasions on DroneZone, where I knew I had to give a closer listen. Juta’s work, like artists such as Stephen Phillips, Altus and Off Land are what the Soundbath is all about, so it’s my pleasure to present the work of Juta Takahashi to Soundbath listeners. Enjoy.

00:00 – 15:00 – Wet Dream – Silence
15:00 – 29:00 – The Azure Dragon – Quiet Rain
29:00 – 44:00 – Shining Valley – Albion
44:00 – 59:00 – Silence – Silence
59:00 – End – Enlightenment – The Door into Winter

Ambient Soundbath Podcast #63 – Geoffrey Chandler – Starscapes

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Ambient Soundbath Podcast #63 - Geoffrey Chandler - Starscapes
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This episode of the Ambient Soundbath Podcast features something that I haven’t done before here, a remix/remaster of sorts in the form of reworking the music for Geoffrey Chandler’s 1980 synthesizer space recording, Starscapes.

Who is Geoffrey Chandler, I don’t know. Did he do other recordings? I don’t know that either, except I can’t find any. I don’t know anything about Geoffrey Chanlder or Starscapes or the Unity Records label that released this on vinyl and cassette in 1980.

What I can tell you, is this is a fantastic recording with great music. Starscapes and Geoffrey Chandler belong to a canon of electronic (and maybe, New Age) music that came on the scene in the mid 1970s through the 90s, and somewhat died out just before the advent of the Internet, which meant it was also sort of lost to the current digital era. There were a ton of indie and self-released recordings coming out. The fidelity of synthesizers and the decreasing cost of home studios meant that more people were making and releasing music than ever before. There’s a great collection called I am the Center that chronicles this era and brings together some of the more well-known artists of the period. There are a lot of recordings from this era that have a warmth, purity and vibe that I’ve found myself drawn to. Often, what these recordings lack in fidelity they more than make up for in timbre, originality and character. Also, many of these recordings are out of print, with defunct labels and no trace of the artists. For a long time I lamented these sad facts, but then I realized that you and the listeners of the Ambient Soundbath Podcast could benefit from these recordings and perhaps we could breathe new life into the music.

So, today, I offer the first of these: Geoffrey Chandler’s Starscapes in its entirety, featuring a seamless, remixed version of Side A and Side B of the original cassette.

Enjoy.

p.s. If you are, or know, Geoffrey Chandler. We would love to hear more of the story behind this recording and others — Please get in touch.