"Cloud Deck" new electronica from Seen From Space

"Old Earth" - new Berlin School track by Seen From Space

A bit of a homage to Ashra Temple's "New Age of Earth", a classic Berlin School album that I used to play obsessively long ago. Not that I buy all that cerebral "New Age" stuff - hence the "Old" in the title - but the musical influence is massive.

Two new "Berlin School" tracks from Seen From Space

Both recorded in one take using the Elektron boxes. Some loops recorded in Logic with sounds from Virus C, Supernova II, various soft synths etc.

Whisper Ship - new Deep House/Berlin School track

New track from Seen From Space. As usual, recorded in one take on Elektron Octatrack and Analog Four. Loops created in Logic Pro 8 with sounds from Supernova II, Access Virus C, Korg MS2000BR and the synths in Logic.

56 degrees north - winter slideshow with dubtronica

Recorded in one take on Elektron Octatrack and Analog Four. Loops created in Logic Pro 8 with sounds from Supernova II, Access Virus C and the synths in Logic.

Photos taken in and around Edinburgh, not all this winter.

"Berlin School" jam

From the Wikipedia entry: "The Berlin School was a style of electronic music that emerged in the 1970s. An offshoot of Krautrock, Berlin School was so named because most of its early practitioners were based in West Berlin, Germany. It was shaped by artists such as Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and Manuel Gottsching. Innovative Berlin School recordings were a precursor of ambient music."

I'm using sounds from: Access Virus C, Supernova II, Omnisphere, Korg MS2000BR, and remixed on the Octatrack. The Analog 4 comes into its own in part 2!

Elektron Octatrack tutorial 1 - How to work with Scenes

The basics of setting up Scenes in the Octatrack, and then into more creative territory. Of interest to the advanced Elektron person as well as the beginner I hope.

The Circle K by Miles Cosmo - progressive drum & bass

Miles Cosmo's music is bursting with ideas and crosses genres like electronica should. This drum & bass track is a great example. It evolves constantly throughout, and ends in a beautiful space with a harp revisiting a synth theme from earlier in the song.

More Ebotronix genius - Buchla, Moog Prodigy etc

"Flame 4 Vox quad jungle"

I don't think Herr Ebotronix sleeps, eats, or has any sort of social life. His productivity amazes! Quality is consistently high too.

Live jam #107 (looping with Ableton Live)

Rheyne lights his videos using his lighty-up instruments and controllers, plus some "music visualisation" software that drives the screens (and a bit of studio lighting). They're always visually lovely and the music is at the serene end of down-tempo. He describes this one as "Live looping with USB controllers, iOS devices, and Ableton Live. Performed in one take with no pre-recorded loops or samples".

Ambient album "Reveal" from Elskavon

Reveal is the third album from Elskavon, the ambient post-rock project of 26-year old Minneapolis composer Chris Bartels.

Kaguya Probe - live studio jam

Beuatiful OTB (Outside The Box) music from Gary Hayes. "Loosely based on a Cm harp piece I wrote in the 90s - in fact I was about to play the harp in real time with this at one stage - for another session methinks!"

Canopy "1988" - Ambient Post Rock

Gosh another new genre! One to sit alongside Folktronica. How is one brain alone meant to keep up with today's world? Actually this is really beautiful music and probably deserves a more poetic categorisation. Not sure I'm the man to invent one right this moment.

Canopy is the project of Ryan Vanden Heuvel.

Mutable Braids / Make Noise STO meets the Malekko Dual Borg

A sequenced modular jam from TheBuchlaMongo. "Little random Noodle with the Mutable Braids, Make Noise STO, Malekko Dual Borg. Braids is on Channel one in the Manhattan Mix, STO Sub on Channel 2 and the Shape out from the STO on Channel 3. Sequence from Elektron Octatrack, Fx from Eventide Space/Pitchfactor."

"Eve" by Rheyne

Recorded live in one take; very serene electronica. His YouTube videos are beautifully lit too.

Elektron Analog four & Octatrack - ambient system i1

Unusual to hear these boxes used in purely ambient context. Beautifully done I have to say, even down to the sleepy sounding livestock that wander through after about 3.00. (I use these same two boxes for my own live rig.)

From dakitanmonkey.

Waldorf Q - ambient drone soundscape

Give it a minute or so to get going and you'll hear some amazing space drones from this über-synth, thanks to synth4ever.

Emilienstraße (Dub Techno) by Phelios

Phelios says: "My old Atari ST is back! All sounds are triggered by Notator SL using the Log-3 Midi interface. I created a nice pattern chain and did a 1-take recording."

Dave Smith Instruments - Pro 2 [Spacewhales]

Legendary synth designer Dave Smith has a new instrument on the market, the Pro 2. I want one of course, but it's not especially cheap. Trooper Starship has done a Space Music demo all with voices programmed on the Pro 2, apart from the percussion parts.




The Pro 2...

"October North East" by Seen From Space

OK it's no more October yet than it's still August! (See previous post.) Not absolutely sure why the months keep on creeping into the titles.

Here are some more underground synthetic beats with a middle based on a classical piece. This time an instrumental snippet from Brahms' German Requiem. For this I've used the absolutely gorgeous 12-string guitar sample in Omnisphere - that's the soft synth that does the spooky drones on the telly when someone lets themselves into their house at night and doesn't turn on the lights, and you just know they're about to become another corpse to be investigated. It has other more cheerful uses though.



More music from Seen From Space...