2024 Favorite Ambient Albums Part 2
17 hours ago
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
whats in a name
its been several quiet years on the blog, in the studio and on the road . but now another blog within a frickin week ? well i wanted to explain the S_W_Z_K thing . as many of you know our james has left the building and to be quite frank we are a bit bored with the swayzak moniker . this new S_W_Z_K ting originates from a gig myself and richard davis did in warsaw about a year ago . the flyer was simply SWZK and it looked great ! so for a new project by myself and with contributions from mr davis it seemed the right thing to do . I noted our polish connection continues :) however the truth of the meaning of swayzak in polish is not "union" though it was a nice idea and one RA used to have a little dig . why the need for the dig ?
swayzak as i recall originates from a doped out trip to cornwall and the small malibu surf community that perish in the english channel and its sewage waste that drifts by their boards , whilst waiting on a 6inch swell ! james and i somehow were re-enacting the legendary film "point break" with keanu and yes you guessed it patrick swayzee rest his soul ! whoever actually caught the wave with the boogie board was the swayzak .......
so there u go !
essdoubbleuzedkay as i prefer it to sound rather than swizzik , or the italian swiyzaak is here to stay and expect more to come , the music is a little more serious as is the artwork , the live show i hope will be the crowning glory with the first shows lined up for tresor berlin 9th june and redgallery london on 16th june ! the idea is the record / cd / digital is a advert for the live and not the other way round . the live show indeed will be different and the tracks will evolve as they should ...myself and mr davis will be at the controls , he suggested on stage boiler suits (pete townshend) too , but am not sure i prefer 1980s (terry hall) style rude boy with braces but that could look a bit facist . anyway i like the idea of a stage costume but judging by the artwork and the comments maybe it should be captain caveman !
expect deep throbbing techno something that they used to call IDM in the old days , more to come
Monday, 23 April 2012
the work continues
Well its been a long and quietish journey of recent , sorry for the lack of info but finally new album is ready and mastered , coming on the world famous tresor label outta berlin and this record has a real berlin flavour !
The origins of this record began with a conversation james and myself (brun) had in a macdonalds eatery somewhere in east berlin one saturday night before playing at tresor . things were not going so well , we had low bookings , our zest for recording had diminished and pockets were empty . We thought long and hard what to do and by the time the main course had been microwaved , the idea was upon us . WE WILL DO NO MORE ALBUMS and release nothing , only work on live performance . this was before we had even drank any beer !!!
Anyway the idea soon fell by the wayside , sadly in this day and age one must plug the shit out of ones work with dj charts on every corner, mixes on every blog, podcasts on every ipod etc etc something that i find less than appealing . So making no music although quite a interesting approach was probably not the best way to get some gigs and pay the rent . One must reiterate the money is not the be all but it helps keeps the baliffs at bay and feed the flock. so the next idea was to make a album based on our rather off the cuff live performances (which were fewer and fewer) and so it began .
In a cold and rather sad montpellier winter , between visits to the flea markets and ice cream we churned out several loops from our live sets and morphed them into some high energy tuneage . after some days i left the scene and headed back to london town where i began the process of turning these loops into bigger heavier faster type thing ,running them thru my collection of delays , reverbs , eqs and valve compressors til finally i had some powerful chunks of audio . then i put them aside thinking they were rubbish.
In the meantime james had had enough , working with me or working on house music maybe both , but it has been hard to work when we are in two different cities , and two different systems of music making . he quit - maybe to help me get on or to get on with his own "lugano fell" project , perhaps a bit of both whatever the reason we are still friends and still talk which is more than most musical partners do :)and good luck to him !
Then by chance using the wonders of the internet i sent a link of the tracks to a friend from "greta cottage workshop" underground hipster label , he liked them a lot so my chin perked up and i set about looking for a label . i knew the music was wrong for our old label k7 (they dont understand me) and oddly one of their ex employees had just started working for tresor A+R . that was it i sent he liked and the project shifted into second gear . no other label was contacted by me in the making of this . One has a feeling about a project , and tresor seemed to be kick starting the label and the club was starting to be a regular gig for us , each time it got better and better !
In the meantime my father james brown died , oddly on september 11th and that set me back quite a bit , but made me more determined to complete as he always said i was no good :( The track "end of the line old boy" are his words to me in the hospital ......very sad days indeed .
I took the still loops for a holiday in bologna and stayed with my good mate francesco brini , we had a free hour one day and ran the loops thru some quality kit in his studio , there i was able to witness the power of the tracks in their fullness and i was actually blown away ! they were massive .....Upon my return i played some of the bits to vangelis @ phonica - lovely chap who suggested i sent them to "ostgut" the label of panoramabar that oh so cool place at 7am . but in the end i didnt bother and was happy i stuck to tresor . what sealed the deal was the last trip to tresor the main man dimitri hegemann came down for dinner and was really great to chat with him about the history of the club and the fall of the iron curtain .
I set about turning the loops into tracks and the tracks into order , and struggled a bit with finalising them , i sent a few to my old chum sir richard davis and asked him to sprinkle his magic - but this time no vocals only music ! his contribution was massive to me and we spent a few days in neukolln eq'ing and working on one last tune to complete the album . The next day , after a coffee we walked down the canal and mastered at the legendary "dubplates and mastering" with CGB , a truly awesome engineer . He turned it up so loud we got a complaint from hardwax - the techno store downstairs :) what better compliment could you have !
and so it comes after montpellier , london, bologna and berlin - S_W_Z_K is a departure from swayzak of old but gives more of a flavour of the live works to come and the desire to get heavier rather than mellow with age .......the live shows will be all about the energy and a sonic assault on your senses , throbbing gristle watch out !
The origins of this record began with a conversation james and myself (brun) had in a macdonalds eatery somewhere in east berlin one saturday night before playing at tresor . things were not going so well , we had low bookings , our zest for recording had diminished and pockets were empty . We thought long and hard what to do and by the time the main course had been microwaved , the idea was upon us . WE WILL DO NO MORE ALBUMS and release nothing , only work on live performance . this was before we had even drank any beer !!!
Anyway the idea soon fell by the wayside , sadly in this day and age one must plug the shit out of ones work with dj charts on every corner, mixes on every blog, podcasts on every ipod etc etc something that i find less than appealing . So making no music although quite a interesting approach was probably not the best way to get some gigs and pay the rent . One must reiterate the money is not the be all but it helps keeps the baliffs at bay and feed the flock. so the next idea was to make a album based on our rather off the cuff live performances (which were fewer and fewer) and so it began .
In a cold and rather sad montpellier winter , between visits to the flea markets and ice cream we churned out several loops from our live sets and morphed them into some high energy tuneage . after some days i left the scene and headed back to london town where i began the process of turning these loops into bigger heavier faster type thing ,running them thru my collection of delays , reverbs , eqs and valve compressors til finally i had some powerful chunks of audio . then i put them aside thinking they were rubbish.
In the meantime james had had enough , working with me or working on house music maybe both , but it has been hard to work when we are in two different cities , and two different systems of music making . he quit - maybe to help me get on or to get on with his own "lugano fell" project , perhaps a bit of both whatever the reason we are still friends and still talk which is more than most musical partners do :)and good luck to him !
Then by chance using the wonders of the internet i sent a link of the tracks to a friend from "greta cottage workshop" underground hipster label , he liked them a lot so my chin perked up and i set about looking for a label . i knew the music was wrong for our old label k7 (they dont understand me) and oddly one of their ex employees had just started working for tresor A+R . that was it i sent he liked and the project shifted into second gear . no other label was contacted by me in the making of this . One has a feeling about a project , and tresor seemed to be kick starting the label and the club was starting to be a regular gig for us , each time it got better and better !
In the meantime my father james brown died , oddly on september 11th and that set me back quite a bit , but made me more determined to complete as he always said i was no good :( The track "end of the line old boy" are his words to me in the hospital ......very sad days indeed .
I took the still loops for a holiday in bologna and stayed with my good mate francesco brini , we had a free hour one day and ran the loops thru some quality kit in his studio , there i was able to witness the power of the tracks in their fullness and i was actually blown away ! they were massive .....Upon my return i played some of the bits to vangelis @ phonica - lovely chap who suggested i sent them to "ostgut" the label of panoramabar that oh so cool place at 7am . but in the end i didnt bother and was happy i stuck to tresor . what sealed the deal was the last trip to tresor the main man dimitri hegemann came down for dinner and was really great to chat with him about the history of the club and the fall of the iron curtain .
I set about turning the loops into tracks and the tracks into order , and struggled a bit with finalising them , i sent a few to my old chum sir richard davis and asked him to sprinkle his magic - but this time no vocals only music ! his contribution was massive to me and we spent a few days in neukolln eq'ing and working on one last tune to complete the album . The next day , after a coffee we walked down the canal and mastered at the legendary "dubplates and mastering" with CGB , a truly awesome engineer . He turned it up so loud we got a complaint from hardwax - the techno store downstairs :) what better compliment could you have !
and so it comes after montpellier , london, bologna and berlin - S_W_Z_K is a departure from swayzak of old but gives more of a flavour of the live works to come and the desire to get heavier rather than mellow with age .......the live shows will be all about the energy and a sonic assault on your senses , throbbing gristle watch out !
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