Ambient Soundbath #70 is another original work in the vein of Parallax Drone; a piece inspired by Philip Glass’ Early Works where I’ve experimented with some compositional devices called parallel and contrary motion that he worked with on that recording… You can hear it in the criss-crossing of the sounds as they move from speaker to speaker, but also in harmonic and intervalic (space between note pitches) opposition to each other. Musically, as I was working on this it felt like many helices moving in, out and around each other.
This is definitely a deep listening work and one that lends itself to close listening. This is also a work, like Parallax Drone, that’s meant to be a dimensional drone, one that you can retreat into and let it surround you.
Upper Astral is an interesting artist that I found when scouring YouTube for vintage new age cassettes releases. I found a variety of Upper Astral recordings, but when I looked at how I could put them together for a single Ambient Soundbath program I couldn’t get many of them to work well together. I played around with different configurations of recordings of the era (1981 – 1988), generally released on the, long defunct, Valley of the Sun label during that golden age of the new age music genre.
Some might argue that it wasn’t a golden age at all and was, in fact, a highly opportunistic period where consciousness trends hung over from the 1960s, 1980s capitalism and the price-points (and accessibility) of home recording studios all intersected to create a miasma of products and services that tried to sell well-being with little regard to quality. That may be somewhat true, but there was also some great music and some great sounds happening during this period. Frankly, even if there was a lot of schlock to wade through, there were some fine recordings made by little-known artists capturing the wide range of synthesizers that were hitting the marketplace.
This episode of the Ambient Soundbath features re-imagined and re-treated Upper Astral compositions, two in fact – Celestial Harmonies and Astral Massage, sides one and two. I reworked these recordings to take off some of the rough edges and artifacting left on the decades-old cassettes, thereby increasing the listenability and immersion of the pieces. Howard Givens of Spotted Peccary Recordings, when counseling me as a young recording artist, once cautioned: “You don’t want the fidelity of the recording to be a barrier to listening to the music.” Sage advice. He probably doesn’t even remember that, but I never forgot it and think about it often.
Upper Astral, for these recordings, features the work of David Naegele and David Storrs. This recording features two re-imagined tracks from two distinct recordings:
The Ambient Soundbath Podcast website is now ad-free, and I just wanted to take a minute and acknowledge one of our listeners, and now a sustaining member, and thank them for their donation – Thank you.
The Soundbath has many listeners (nearly 1,600) and my hope is that the Soundbath becomes the public service that I had always hoped it could be. Moving to WordPress.com and not hosting the Soundbath myself, as I had done for years was a tough choice, but I wanted the Soundbath to be available in perpetuity. That’s also why I moved all of the Soundbath files to be hosted at Archive.org. This might have started as my podcast, but now it’s our refuge, our place for thinking and being.
Thank you for listening, donating and staying in touch; I love hearing from you.
This episode of the Ambient Soundbath Podcast features the evocative sound worlds of electronic musician and sound synthesist, Max Corbacho. Max’s work, more than any other artist I know of, reminds me of the work of Steve Roach, but Max journeys a bit more deeply into the tension of discord and sweet resolve.
I’ve been wanting to include the work of Max Corbacho on the Soundbath for a long time and I think that these selections, make for a great soundbath and a great session of music for thinking and being. Please check out Max’s extensive catalog and learn a bit more about his otherworldly soundscapes.
This episode of the Ambient Soundbath Podcast features two artists that are new to the genre, prepared piano and drone synthesist Durango Budd and my long-time collaborator and oldest friend, Michael Goldapper (fans of Ghostly International may remember the KOSIK project that we had together).
00:00 – 02:30 – Piano Drone 5 – Durango Budd – Drones for Prepared and Synthesized Piano
02:30 – 20:00 – Time to Sleep – Michael Goldapper – The Pines
20:00 – 28:00 – Journey Home – Michael Goldapper – The Pines
28:00 – 30:00 – Piano Drone 9 – Durango Budd – Drones for Prepared and Synthesized Piano
30:00 – 35:00 – Last Flame – Michael Goldapper – The Pines 35:00 – 38:00 – Piano Drone 9 – Durango Budd – Drones for Prepared and Synthesized Piano
38:00 – 45:00 – Unreleased 1 – Michael Goldapper – Ambient Soundbath Exclusive
45:00 – 53:00 – Piano Synthesis Drone 8 – Durango Budd – Drones for Prepared and Synthesized Piano
53:00 – 60:00 – Unreleased 2 – Michael Goldapper – Ambient Soundbath Exclusive
60:00 – 69:00 – Unreleased 3 – Michael Goldapper – Ambient Soundbath Exclusive
Ambient Soundbath Podcast #66 is an original work that I (Matt Borghi) created expressly for the podcast. This composition, that I’ve titled: Morning dew gathered on weeping cherry limbs, came about as many of my tracks do. I was meditating and contemplating sound. I began to ‘play’ with some synthesizer sounds that went with my state of mind and also enhanced my sound meditation session. I began recording the sonic ideas that I was playing with in a very calm, meditative state of mind and then let the piece unfold. This piece is the outcome of that meditation.
This Soundbath, #65, and the first of 2018 is brought to you by the kind generosity and support of Soundbath listener, Roland Jehring, who’s tuning in from a small town outside of Berlin, Germany. It’s crazy to think that this podcast, which I create in the quiet midwestern environs of East Lansing, MI is being listened to on the other side of the world. Modern technology sure is somethin’!
And so, because of Herr Jehring’s kind generosity I’m focusing this episode on some of the works that he enjoys, specifically the work within my Huronic Minor trilogy, which includes, Huronic Minor, The Phantom Light and Ghost Ship on a Black Sea. I’ve also reimagined some of these tracks a bit and freshened them up to reflect audio production advances not available to my meager bedroom studio 1999.
I discovered the music of Juta Takahashi on the SomaFMDroneZone 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
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.
This episode of the Ambient Soundbath Podcast features a new original work by Matt Borghi (me) called Infinite Resonance. It’s a single track, long-form work that I’ve found works great for rest, relaxation, sleep and meditation. It probably works pretty good for yoga, too, but I haven’t tried it out in that capacity yet.
This track is brand new and has never been released before and it’s part of a series of tracks that I’m “designing” expressly for the purposes of meditation, sleep, relaxation, etc… Listening while in heightened states of mental awareness and physical centeredness — A deeper layer of thinking and being, perhaps.
Please enjoy this work and let me know what you think of it, how it works for you and any other feedback that you care to share.
