Archives

Ambient Soundbath Podcast #73 – This Quiet Place

Ambient Soundbath Player Logo
Ambient Soundbath Podcast
Ambient Soundbath Podcast #73 - This Quiet Place
Loading
/

this_quiet_place_soundbath

Good salutations, Soundbath listeners… I’m really excited for this program as it’s the first to feature a guest host. I actually got this idea from Dave Michuda, host of Low Light Mixes, after he asked me to do a mix for him (you can hear it here).

This program features longtime reviewer, podcaster, proponent and friend, John Shanahan of the Hypnagogue Podcast – A highly recommended and well-curated program. Without further ado, I’ll let John tell the rest of the story.

—

Theme: This Quiet Place

It just so happens Matt Borghi contacted me about guest hosting the Ambient Soundbath on the one-year anniversary of my moving from a house on a busy main road to a new home, well off the beaten path on the edge of a marsh. For a year now I’ve been reveling in this almost astonishing level of calm, augmented and accented with beautiful night sounds and the whisper of wind coming off the water and through the trees. The night that Matt reached out with his kind offer, the rest of my family was elsewhere, so I sat down at my studio controls in this place we call The Cottage in the Woods and curated a flow that echoes the serenity, mystery, and hushed joys of the night world around me in this quiet place. I hope you enjoy it.

John Shanahan, Host
Hypnagogue Podcast
hypnagoguepodcast.com

Playlist:

(Start) Stephen Phillips, Deep Down, from Message from a Subatomic World  hypnos.com/releases-v-mfsw.php

7.26  Offland, Accipiter (Drone Variation), from Accipiter/Coast offland.bandcamp.com/album/accipiter-coast

21.02  Chronotope Project, Clear Bell Ringing in Empty Sky, from Solar Winds   chronotopeproject.bandcamp.com/album/solar-winds

32.00  Igneous Flame, Clairaudient, from Ocean Sighs    igneousflame.bandcamp.com/album/ocean-sighs

37.47  Algol, Gilese 581d, from Goldilocks Zone   earthmantra.bandcamp.com/album/goldilocks-zone

47.31  Mark Harris, Before You Awake_Or the Fool Who Mimics the Sun, from The Angry Child  n5md.bandcamp.com/album/the-angry-child

56.18  Lucette Bourdin, The Dusty Attic, from Golden Sun   lucettebourdin.bandcamp.com/album/golden-sun

 

Ambient Soundbath Podcast #72 – Agawa Bay

Ambient Soundbath Player Logo
Ambient Soundbath Podcast
Ambient Soundbath Podcast #72 - Agawa Bay
Loading
/

ambient_soundbath_agawa_bay

I’m finally getting around to mining all the creative inspiration I gained from a recent trip around Lake Superior, both through western Ontario on the north side and on the southern side through Michigan’s UP (upper peninsula) by way of Duluth. What an amazing trip!

For a trip that’s literally a day’s car ride away and within the Great Lakes Basin, I had no idea how beautiful, how breath-taking and just how awe-inspiring it could be. One such bit of inspiration came from our visit to Agawa Bay and the Lake Superior Provincial State Park. These places left deep impressions that I’ve tried to tap into with this new long form work – Agawa Bay

Enjoy.

-Matt

Ambient Soundbath Podcast #71 – Journeys Out of Body

Ambient Soundbath Player Logo
Ambient Soundbath Podcast
Ambient Soundbath Podcast #71 - Journeys Out of Body
Loading
/

soundbath_journeys_out_of_body

With this episode of the Ambient Soundbath Podcast, we’re featuring David Naegele’s Journeys Out of Body, another vintage new age cassette from the early 1980s. What can I tell you about this release? Not a heck of a lot, but I can tell you, people seem to love it and really want to get their hands on a good copy of it.

Ambient Soundbath listener Simon brought this recording to my attention a couple months ago, not long after I had posted the Upper Astral Soundbath, of which David Naegele was part of. These are some vintage sounds to be sure, but it’s also a darker, somewhat spookier recording. I like it. The recording I had was pretty scratchy so I spent some time working on it, fixing the equalization, adjusting the depth and redefining the stereo field to make it a better listen on the podcast.

This episode wouldn’t have been possible without listener Simon’s kind generosity in more ways than one, so this program is dedicated to him. Thank you, Simon.

Enjoy.

-Matt

p.s. This is the first Soundbath since I deleted my Facebook accounts, so letting your friends and other folks know about the podcast directly, word-of-mouth, the old-fashioned way, is more important than ever. Please continue to spread the word about the Soundbath. If you’re curious as to why I would delete my Facebook accounts, I highly recommend reading Jaron Lanier’s fantastic Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. 

Ambient Soundbath Podcast #70 – Helical Drone

Ambient Soundbath Player Logo
Ambient Soundbath Podcast
Ambient Soundbath Podcast #70 - Helical Drone
Loading
/

Screen Shot 2018-06-14 at 8.46.01 PM

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.

Enjoy.
-Matt

Ambient Soundbath Podcast #69 – Upper Astral

Ambient Soundbath Player Logo
Ambient Soundbath Podcast
Ambient Soundbath Podcast #69 - Upper Astral
Loading
/

journey_to_edge_ambient_soundbath

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:

Celestial Harmonies – Journey to the Edge of the Universe – Valley of the Sun – 1983
Massage (Sides 1 & 2) – Astral Massage – Valley of the Sun – 1987

Enjoy.

-Matt

Ambient Soundbath Podcast #68 – Max Corbacho

Ambient Soundbath Player Logo
Ambient Soundbath Podcast
Ambient Soundbath Podcast #68 - Max Corbacho
Loading
/

ambient-soundbath-corbacho

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.

Enjoy.
– Matt

Playlist

00:00 – 13:00 – Primal Perception – Arte Magnetica
13:00 – 26:00  – The Flowing Path – Splendid Labyrinths
26:00 – 30:00 – Transparent Phenomena – Source of Present
30:00 – 45:00 – Wonderheart – Splendid Labyrinths
45:00 – 51:00  – Echoing Shade – Source of Present
51:00 – 71:00 – Source of Present – Source of Present

Ambient Soundbath Podcast #67 – Strings and Drones

Ambient Soundbath Player Logo
Ambient Soundbath Podcast
Ambient Soundbath Podcast #67 - Strings and Drones
Loading
/

DurangoBudd

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).

This is a carefully curated Soundbath consisting of tracks from Durango Budd’s debut release, Drones for Prepared and Synthesized Piano, Michael Goldapper’s cinematic long-player, The Pines, as well as several sublime unreleased tracks that you won’t hear or be able to anywhere else.

Enjoy.

– Matt

Playlist

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

Ambient Soundbath Player Logo
Ambient Soundbath Podcast
Ambient Soundbath Podcast #66
Loading
/

morning_dew_bare_tree_limb

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.

Enjoy.

Ambient Soundbath Podcast #65 – Huronic Minor Trilogy

Ambient Soundbath Player Logo
Ambient Soundbath Podcast
Ambient Soundbath Podcast #65 - Huronic Minor Trilogy
Loading
/

phantom_light_matt_borghi

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.

Tracks are, as follows:

00:00 – 20:00 – North Manitou Island Shoal – The Phantom Light
21:00 – 30:00 – Gray shades of night on the horizon – Ghost Ship on a Black Sea.
30:00 – 50:00 – Seul Choix Point – The Phantom Light
50:00 – 66:00 – Manistee North Pierhead – The Phantom Light
66:00 – 73:00 – November’s Peculiar Calm – Huronic Minor
73:00 – 90:00 – Ghost ship on a Black Sea – Ghost Ship on a Black Sea.

Enjoy.

Ambient Soundbath Podcast #64 – Juta Takahashi

Ambient Soundbath Player Logo
Ambient Soundbath Podcast
Ambient Soundbath Podcast #64 - Juta Takahashi
Loading
/

maxresdefault

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