Coming soon: “Into The Maelström, Vol4 -The Return of The Professor”, my live ambient improv set from May 12th on Stillstream.com, performed entirely on processed/looped PIANO this time (AKA “The 88-String Guitar” LOL).
The whole set was over an hour and 33 minutes long - here’s a small excerpt. I’ll have the full length set available on my Bandcamp site soon. Enjoy! :)
https://soundcloud.com/har-ambientguitarist/har-into-the-maelstr-m-vol4
(30 plays)For 5/11 and 5/12: I’ve set all of my releases available on Bandcamp to “Name Your Price”. Help support independent music…thanks! :)
Now available on Bandcamp: “Into The Maelström, Vol. 3: The Surge. LIVE: January 13, 2013”, a 50+ minute live-in-the-studio dark ambient improv soundscape performed on solo 8-string guitar on Stillstream. Enjoy! :)
http://ambientguitarist.bandcamp.com/album/into-the-maelstr-m-vol-3-the-surge-live-january-13-2013
As a salute to all of my Facebook friends who assume that all of THEIR Facebook friends must be watching the same TV show they are when they post their vague cryptic play-by-plays, I’ve decided to do the same thing…but for the songs I’m listening to. Ready? Here goes:
A question of definition: without getting into the typical pointless “what is and isn’t ambient music” pissing match (AKA “The Petulent ‘But Eno Says It’s Gotta Be Ignorable!!’ Whine”) - where can one draw a line between ambient/atmospheric music, and “pretty or not-so-pretty instrumental music”…? Where does one end and the other begin?
To me at least, it seems like a lot of people are starting to easily blur the lines between “ambient/atmospheric music” and what would normally be simply called “instrumental music” under any other circumstance. Not saying that I personally think it’s right or wrong - just observing what appears to be shifting perceptions and parameters.
As an example of the former: Michelle Cross & Joe Frawley’s outstanding ”Dolls Come To Life” album - while lacking so-called “standard” ambient staples like drones, and featuring melodic actually-sung vocals along with defined structures, tempo and cadence (albeit often rubato), it is indeed richly textured/soundscaped, darkly moody and undeniably very very atmospheric. In my book I’d call that ambient/atmospheric music, and featured it on my show on Stillstream. The sustaining high number of listeners during the entire album play seemed to indicate that they agreed with my opinion.
As an example of the latter: I’ve often heard either beautifully played acoustic guitar, piano or perhaps Chapman Stick instrumental solos with the ol’ hint o’ reverb…or, spikey, dry, heavily sequenced electronica…or, even full-blown metal instrumental tracks with a few whispy synth pads tossed in there…placed squarely into the “ambient music” category.
I’ve heard examples of when that definition might certainly be correct, and others when I’d say IMHO it might not be. Good-sounding and well executed? Sure. Moody? Perhaps. Atmospheric? Sometimes, but not always. Ambient? That appears to be up for grabs now.
The counter-argument I’ll often hear is: “Well, the music still depicts a mood…ergo, it’s atmospheric, and if it’s atmospheric, that means it’s ambient!”
My counter-counter-argument would then be: well, since ALL music typically depicts some kind of mood - regardless of whether it’s one you enjoy hearing or not (yes, even predictable cash-grab pop music you might totally hate and groan about can still depict a mood) - then therefore shouldn’t ALL music by this logic be considered “ambient”…?
My favorite counter-counter-counter-argument to date has been along the lines of: “yeah, but - it’s got a lot of reverb so it’s REALLY ambient!”
D’oh! ;)
Again, I’m not going to call one right and one wrong - one person’s ambient soundscape is another person’s “Awww, that’s justa buncha SOUNDS, mannnnn!”….just like any other style of music. Or visual art. Or literature.
I just find it somewhat interesting how increasingly all-inclusive ambient music seems to be becoming in the eyes/ears of some people.
As always, Your Mileage May Vary.™ :)
—Har
My Doomsday-inspired track “B’ak’tun 13” from December 2012 is now available at my Bandcamp store at:
http://ambientguitarist.bandcamp.com/album/baktun-13
My live ambient/trip-hop-ish performance on Stillstream from July 22nd, “Into The Maelström, Vol. 2: Down The Corridor” is finally up and available on my Bandcamp store…
http://ambientguitarist.bandcamp.com/album/into-the-maelstr-m-vol-2-down-the-corridor-live-july-22-2012
I now have all three of my solo releases now available as high quality digital downloads from my Bandcamp store with more to follow very soon.
http://ambientguitarist.bandcamp.com/
My live solo long-form ambient improv set on 8-string guitar from last week’s show on Stillstream, January 13th, 2013.
This is just processed/looped 8-string guitar played live in real-time with no synths, MIDI pickups etc used.
As with all such live improvised performances, it is fraught with hazard and contains the occasional kind of “warts and all” artifacts that is sometimes the nature of the beast. :)
Enjoy!
—Har
(RANT MODE ENGAGED)
So, today I received an “Overstock Notification” from CDBaby, with whom I’ve been distributing both my physical and digital releases for quite a number of years now. This is the second such notice I’ve received from them, with the first about a month ago concerning an older project that had 9 CD in stock and hasn’t been selling much, so they want the inventory dropped down.
However, today’s notice was for another album with much different inventory numbers, and it read like this:
We have too many copies of Dream Tower Blueprints based on your sales history.
We can either return the excess stock to you at your expense or recycle it at no cost.
…
…We have too many copies of the following titles:
Artist: Har, Album: Dream Tower Blueprints as of 1/14/2013, you have 2 total, with excess stock of 1
Regards,
CD Baby’s Inventory Management Wizards.
Yes, you read that correctly: CDBaby saying that my current stock of TWO CDs is too much, and what do I want them to do with the ONE additional CD that’s apparently too much for their warehouse - have it sent back to me at my own cost, or have it “recycled”. This in light of the fact that when I originally signed the contract with them years ago, it basically said something along the lines of “don’t worry, we will keep your stock forever”.
So for the want of - what? - approx a quarter of an inch of additional vertical stacking space….time to take immediate action, pal. But hey, remember….CDBaby LOVES you!
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Meanwhile on CDbaby’s own Facebook page, they chattily ask: “How have you determined your CD’s selling price?”
Well, I can tell you how I have to now: low enough to try to liquefy the CD inventory of all three of the CD albums I have with CDBaby down to just the one disk each, that they apparently feel is right amount for their warehouse.
The funny thing is, they still are trying to encourage people to sell physical CDs over digital-only releases. No big surprise there, considering CDBaby was bought up by the company DiskMakers who’s business it is to - you guessed it - make disks.
But apparently now things have become just tooooooo much for their widdle warehouse to handle anymore, so…they’ll be glad to send them back to you at own cost (barring the fact that the current inventory levels were based on their OWN restocking requests in the past)….or, they’ll be glad to trash them for you. But hey, THAT they’ll do at no cost.
So - I’m sad to say that this marks the beginning of the end of my physical CD sales altogether. Once my already-tiny inventory of CDs is depeleted with CDBaby, I’ll not be restocking them.
The truth is: being an independant musician dealing with once-wonderful companies like CDBaby to try to distribute physical CDs that it seems the majority of the music-buying public no longer desire, is just no longer a cost effective option anymore.
Meanwhile, I’ll be starting to move all of my albums over to Bandcamp where they’ll be available for digital purchase only going forward - as will my various future musical releases. You can find my most recent digital release already there at http://ambientguitarist.bandcamp.com, with more to follow very soon.
The end of an era. A shame.
—Har
(RANT MODE DISENGAGED)
