SEQUENCE1 is a 42 track album of outstanding ambient and experimental music from various artists, compiled and released by electronica magazine Futuresequence.com. Conceived as an anniversary release, marking a year since Futuresequence's launch, this epic production contains exclusive tracks and new works exploring the global frontiers of the electronic music scene.
Category Archives: Music
Cityscapes by Fetal Pulse
Fetal Pulse is the name of an experimental electronic music project by Canadian musician Pedro Costa. ‘Aurora’ was the first video for Fetal Pulse’s debut album Cityscapes, a 10 track album released on the 8th March 2011.
Cityscapes is an instrumental album with a lot of charm and character. Mainly down-tempo, part ambient, mostly melodic, the tracks sit perfectly side by side to create a beautifully balanced whole. Pedro puts his musicality to good use conjuring up themes and dynamic changes that always flow and sustain interest. The sounds are colourful and the cleverly designed musical arrangements offer the right sonic combinations at the right times. This is an album that always feels comfortable and welcoming, like an old friend whose company you appreciate, time and again.
Film by: Richard-François Léonard, Stéphane Drouot and Zakaria Mofril, licensed under Creative Commons.
Photography by: Craig Cloutier, licensed under Creative Commons.
Also available via http://soundcloud.com/fetalpulse and http://www.facebook.com/FetalPulse
Videos of Harp Guitar Performances
Andy McKee – "Gates to Gnomeria"
Don Alder – "Sayonara Calm"
Michael Hedges – "Because It’s There"
More Recordings
YouTube has a selection of harp guitar performances by several exponents of the instrument.
Recordings of these performances under Creative Commons licenses are rare but Swedish composer/guitarist Thomas Almqvist ( right) is sharing a cool live recording of a 16-string harp guitar at MacJams.com called Embla. Thanks Thomas!
Albums on Amazon
Reference
Tags: acoustic guitar, Andy McKee, Don Alder, harp guitar, guitar, guitarists, Michael Hedges, music, videos, YouTube
Music Legend James Brown Dies Aged 73
The "Godfather of Soul" James Brown has died today at the age of seventy three. He was admitted to hospital in Atlanta on Sunday suffering with pneumonia. His contribution to music is immeasurable and his influence on popular culture will continue to be felt long into the future. Having spent six decades in entertainment the singing star had 119 chart hit records, second only to Elvis Presley.
He had a tough childhood living in the deep south of America, having to pick cotton and shine shoes to support his family. By the age of sixteen he was convicted of armed robbery and served three years in a juvenile detention center. His musical career found its roots in Gospel music but his ideas were outside of the usual norm for popular artists of the time. Confronted with social hardships and a music business based on "popular conceptions" he often funded his own recordings. Believing in his own sound and sticking to his guns, he went on to transform Gospel into R&B, then Soul into Funk. These developments had profound effects, leading to new forms of music production and leaving a lasting legacy on what was to become the worlds biggest selling music genre, Hip Hop.
James Brown had also been a political activist with a strong social agenda, lobbying for poor Afro Americans and sponsoring food stamps. He believed in black capitalism and managed to move with the times by using his exceptional music catalog to remain at the forefront of developments in the music and movie industries. Along with his sound recordings he’ll be remembered for his distinctive vocal style, part sung – part spoken, and his energetic live stage performances. As the most sampled artist in recorded history he continues to be truly inspirational and influential.
tags: funk, gospel, James Brown, music, obituaries, performer, singer, R&B
Pump Audio Helps Indie Musicians Pump Up the Volume
Pump Audio is a music licensing agent that connects independent musicians and labels with buyers in the mainstream media. This is a new kind of digital marketplace that makes it easier for artists to make their music available to a wide range of media production outlets including television, radio, Internet, and film. Possible uses include: commercials, jingles, industry presentations, movie soundtracks, promotions, TV background music, video games, websites and any type of production that needs audio enhancement. The numerous avenues for sales means new music in every genre is required to maintain a catalog suitable for all purposes.
The 50/50 Deal
The Pump agreement pre-clears the music for potential licensing, full ownership of the music remains with the musician and the agreement is completely non-exclusive. This means musicians retain control over their original recording and publishing copyrights. A minimum 1 year commitment is expected. Musicians receive 50% of the license fees received by Pump Audio and also performance royalties where appropriate. Pump acts as the Administration Agent for royalties collected through a performing rights society such as ASCAP, BMI or SESAC (see the FAQ for more details).
Music Submission
All music must be submitted on a broadcast quality, 16bit, 44.1khz CD. No fees are required for submission. An A&R department auditions each song prior to acceptance in the catalog. Each CD sent is treated separately and requires a separate contract.
Pump Technology
Pump Audio have developed a portable music delivery service known as the PumpBox. There are webware and hardware versions of the PumpBox that provide comprehensive search capabilities for finding music in the catalog. Thousands of creative producers can search by genre, mood, instrument and tempo for music that is instantly available for use. Local desktop installations are placed with industry clients such as MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, the History Channel and some of the top ad agencies worldwide. Only the best Pump Audio artists are selected for the PumpBox although the larger catalog is still accessible to clients in other ways. Music that makes it into the PumpBox has the greatest chance of being seen and used.
Pump Audio and Creative Commons Partner on Commercial Licensing for Independent Artists – PR Newswire
Excerpts from the above press release:
"Pump Audio is offering a variety of Creative Commons copyright licenses to its independent musicians who want to allow various forms of non-commercial use of their music."
"As part of the partnership, Pump Audio has introduced an online badge for artists, allowing them to designate on any Web page, artist blog or MySpace profile that their music is available for commercial licensing through Pump Audio. Artists can pair their new Pump Audio badges with similar badges for their Creative Commons copyright licenses, enabling them to promote both their commercial and non-commercial licensing preferences. (Examples can be found at http://www.lovetheory.com/listenbuy.html and http://www.myspace.com/garynewvision )"
"Creative Commons copyright licenses allow authors and artists to mark their works as free to copy or transform under certain conditions — to declare "some rights reserved," in contrast to the traditional "all rights reserved" — thereby enabling others to access a growing pool of raw materials without legal friction. As musicians select a Creative Commons copyright license from the Creative Commons Web site, they also will be prompted to join Pump Audio for commercial licensing of their music."
This is part of the Creative Commons initiative to find and present ways that CC licensing models can be applied to commercial ventures.
Technorati tags: audio, audio licensing, advertising, bands, composers, creative commons, distribution, film, Internet, media, music, musicians, production, publishing, pump audio, radio, recording, television
Free Music Lunch 01 – I Got the Jazzy Blues
This is the first in a series of free music posts under the title "Free Music Lunch". Throughout the series I’ll be highlighting Open Music projects and independent artists that offer original music in various flavours of free. Most of the music will be available under copyleft licenses such as Creative Commons and some works will be in the public domain. This is music you can explore on a deeper level, unconstrained by DRM and conventional copyright restrictions. In some cases, permission will be granted by the copyright holder to sample, remix and mashup the music.
The raw ingredients
Don’t expect hype about the latest free tracks from major record labels, or highly polished studio productions, that’s not what this series is about. The focus is on independent, grassroots music creation; involving low budgets, accessible technologies, recycled culture and creative thinking.
As we discover the artists, their music and creative processes, we will also become aware of the tools they use to create and communicate. Observing the anatomy of digital music sharing will hopefully lead us to discover more new music and learn about the art of participation.
Don’t mention the J. word
In light of the decision to scrap the award for best jazz act in this years MOBO awards (aah, the sweet smell of commercialism), it seems only fitting to bring to the table, some new music with strong jazz influences. The Music of Black Origin awards have courted controversy before and it’s sadly ironic, that jazz musicians have to protest outside the Royal Albert Hall venue to make their voice heard. Jazz is, after all, at the heart of just about all black popular music. Last year the important stylistic origin, Gospel, was rested, perhaps next year it will be Reggae or another serious genre.
However, controversy brings attention and in a live TV broadcast from outside the venue, where jazz musicians were playing music in the streets, MOBO founder Kanya King MBE, lightheartedly mentioned how the situation was helping protesters to raise the profile of jazz music. No doubt the musicians had a slightly colder perspective of events. Given the popularity and demand for live jazz music in London, the MOBO decision is difficult to understand. Was the jazz catagory dropped due to the restrictions of broadcasting time and prioritizing for an intended audience? Are the Mobos good for black music?
The upcoming London Jazz Festival is the UK’s largest annual celebration of jazz. In 2005 it was voted Best London Festival in the music category of the 20th Time Out Live Awards.
"In 2005 the London Jazz Festival reached over 60,000 concert-goers with 206 groups playing 165 events in 35 venues, presenting a fantastic programme of new commissions, special projects, education work and premieres. Across the capital the Festival achieved more sold out shows and rave reviews across more venues than ever before. Furthermore live broadcasts and recordings by BBC Radio 3 – which reaches over two million listeners every week – enabled a nationwide audience to enjoy the incredible music-making that occurred throughout this year’s Festival both on air and online." Serious.org.uk
The 2006 London Jazz Festival runs from Friday 10 to Sunday 19 November.
Food for thought …
"Whether right or wrong, …imagination is shaped by the pictures seen… Consequently, they lead to stereotypes that are hard to shake." Walter Lippmann, (Public Opinion, 1922, 95-156) via Wikipedia Stereotyping.
"It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf." Walter Lippmann Wikiquote
And so, in support of the free spirit of jazz and liberal copyleft tradition, here are some open music projects and downloads where jazz is still a main ingredient.
Free Music Lunch 01 – Menu
- Revolution Void – collaborative nu-jazz releases
- Lucky 7’s – modern jazz septet
- Open Music Factory – independent musicians community
- Heritage – Prince Albert Hunt’s Texas Ramblers – Public Domain 4U
- Jazz Juice – free music download sources
Revolution Void
Revolution Void Records is a netlabel run by jazz pianist and electronic music producer Jonah Dempcy. The label puts out remixes, collaborations and original music, by Jonah’s Revolution Void project and other artists, in styles such as downtempo, electronic jazz (nu-jazz) and instrumental hiphop. Jonah uses Creative Commons licenses which make it easy for people to share and promote his work. Here’s a video on YouTube which uses his track Weekend Amnesia as the soundtrack to episode 1 of Father Underground Returns.
The latest offering from Revolution Void is a 10 track instrumental album titled Thread Soul. It was released on 7-25-2006 under a Creative Commons Attrib-NonCommercial license which allows users to freely modify and distribute the album, for non-commercial purposes only.
Thread Soul is the follow-up to the excellent Increase the Dosage album released in 2004.
"Whereas Increase the Dosage had a slew of guest musicians including Seamus Blake (Mingus Big Band), Matthew Garrison (Herbie Hancock) and Michael Shrieve (Santana), Thread Soul focuses more on grooves and soundscapes than live improvisation. Nevertheless, Thread Soul contains its fair share of jazz improvisation, thanks to guest performances by bassist Lucas Pickford (Brian Blade) and saxophonist Cochemea Gastelum (Fred Wesley, Robert Walter’s 20th Congress). The end result is a mix of midtempo breakbeats, instrumental hiphop and ambient electronic with a penchant for jazz improvisation."
Stream all tracks (.m3u) – Download via the Internet Archive or via BitTorrent at LegalTorrents.com
You can also get Revolution Void albums and lots more jazz via Jamendo. Their streaming music widget lets you share albums directly on your webpage.
If you’re interested in learning more about Jonah’s piano technique, check out his informative CastPost blog. You can play audio and video recordings on jazz music and jazz lessons.
Lucky 7’s
Lucky 7’s are a septet of musicians from the New Orleans and Chicago Jazz scenes. This is modern, improvisational Jazz, with a traditional acoustic sound. The lineup includes drums, double bass, vibes, trombone and tuba, cornet, tenor sax and bass clarinet. They have some free mp3 downloads available under a Creative Commons Music Sharing License.
Open Music Factory
The Open Music Factory is an independent musicians community where you can find all types of musical projects. Musicians collaborate by using the forums to communicate and post audio files which can be hosted at the Internet Archive or elsewhere. The site advises:
Before sharing any original sound recording on the net, never forget to upload it to Creative Commons.
That gives you a good anti-piracy protection on your creations.
You can do this by using the ccPublisher tool. For information about copyrights, including CC licenses, see the forum section for Artists Protection. Other collaborative communities also use CC licenses, notably ccMixter and NINJAM (more on these in the future – here’s a link to dozens of ccMixter projects tagged Jazz).
There are currently several collaborations at the Open Music Factory featuring strong jazz influences. You can find all the projects in the section for Open Music Collaborations.
It’s interesting to watch the ideas develop over time and you can track the changing versions by reading through the comments in each project thread. The influence of jazz is often seen in online collaborations where the role of improvisation and riffing on ideas comes to the fore.
Here are a couple of drum tracks hosted at the Internet Archive, from a work in progress called MYAGOA – Flying High (New Age- Jazz Fusion style) Other versions at FoneticFreek on SoundClick .
Two 4/4 percussion parts at 85 bpm in MP3 and OGG formats. No rights reserved – CC – public domain.
You can find more jazzy breaks and samples at Freesound.
Heritage
It’s impossible to talk about jazz without mentioning the blues, so here’s something to wet your appetite…
Prince Albert Hunt’s Texas Ramblers – Blues In The Bottle (March 28, 1928) Duration: 3:26. Download and stream via the Internet Archive.
Recorded on March 28, 1928 in San Antonio, Texas. This recording is considered one of the first of what would be later categorized as "Western" or "Texas" Swing, popularized later by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. The style is a unique amalgam of blues, ragtime, jazz and old time fiddle music. Michelle Shocked claims that Prince Albert Hunt chose to live "on the wrong side of the tracks." He was shot to death outside of a Dallas bar in March of 1931.
Public Domain 4U Has a collection of around eighty, early blues recordings, converted to MP3 format. These are public domain recordings that are free to download and share.
Jazz Juice
Sources of freshly squeezed jazz, 100% pure copyleft .
- 15 Megs of Fame – Songs in Jazz is a catalog of blues/jazz pieces free to share under a Creative Commons music sharing license.
- ActoGuitar and Berklee Shares offer free music lessons under Creative Commons licenses.
- Dogmazic Jazz has a growing catalog of CC licensed jazz recordings for download in MP3 and Ogg formats. There are also thousands of streaming audio channels.
- Internet Archive Jazz Search provides access to a huge collection of free media files and CC/public domain materials.
- Magnatune Jazz Podcast listen to artists on the Magnatune netlabel.
- Oddio Overplay – Super Sound Sites use the search engine to find jazz related projects.
- Opsound: Genre jazz podcast on Odeo listen to experimental/electronic artists from the Opsound Community. The Odeo widget can be embedded in webpages.
- Open Media Directory explore dozens of music and video sites, many of which offer jazz related music.
- Remix Commons Jazz find unusual mixes under CC licenses.
- SoundClick CC License search the musicians community for free jazz music.
- Starfrosch Jazz get the latest free mp3 downloads from musicians and netlabels using copyleft licenses.
The music mentioned in this post is generally podsafe, however, you should check individual licenses before using content in webcasts.
Further resources:
- BBC – MOBO Awards 2006
- Rowolo Netlabel List a source of websites offering free music releases.
- Western Union to Sponsor MOBOs
- Wikipedia Free jazz provides info about the term and goes some way to explaining what free jazz isn’t.
- Wikipedia List of Independent Record Labels and Netlabels
tags: audio, blues, breakbeat, copyleft, creative commons, downloads, free, free music lunch, jazz, lessons, mobo, mp3, music, musicians, netlabels, nu jazz, open music, public domain,
ActoGuitar Free Guitar Lessons Remix Community
ActoGuitar.com is an educational resource and community platform for guitarists. The site provides free guitar lessons with a program of structured learning for beginners and add-on lessons in niche topics. Community tools allow members to remix, socialize and interact making it easy to share work, ask questions, or give advice.
"We are a community with a purpose: to help people learn to play guitar, and to help experienced guitarists with professional ambitions reach their aspirations."
ActoGuitar is developing an open business model and emphasis is placed on building a commons by sharing content under a Creative Commons license. Members are encouraged to participate by contributing their own works and by developing existing lessons through the use of audio, video, text and graphical materials. The collaborative process is moderated by ActoGuitar editors to ensure quality content.
Added to my Squidoo lens for Guitar Tools – news, tips and resources for guitarists.
Technorati Tags: actoguitar, cc, creative commons, education, guitar, guitarist, guitars, learning, music, musicians, open business, tuition, tutorials
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Desktop Blues Player
Desktopblues is a fun online application that lets you play music via a virtual blues guitarist. You can trigger a selection of guitar licks and vocal phrases using the mouse to create your own version of the blues. Turn the radio option on and you have a handy twelve bar blues backing track to jam along to in E major. The sound toy uses an authentic acoustic blues style played and sung by creator Christian Buehlmann from Winturthur, Switzerland noisegames.com
Via Music Stuff Blog
Added to the Museum of Sound Toys
Technorati Tags: audio, blues, Flash, guitar, mix, music
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Netcandy Volume 1 – The Hip Hop Edition
Harald Walker has compiled and mixed a selection of Hip Hop artists from various styles. Netcandy Volume 1 – The Hip Hop Edition is a netlabel journey released under a CC license via the Sonic Walker website. The mix is also available for download and streaming at the Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/swm008 (69.4MB mp3)
Tracklist
Labor Of Love – Sex Cellz (Sixteensteps, ss001)
Mloski-Cell Abstracta (Monokom, MNKM009)
This One – Black Side (Dust Shop, DSR001)
Kaffeinik – Playin Basketball (Pitjamajusto, pj002)
Nikki – Blue Night (Ndorphin Records, ndn012)
Starfrosch – Don’t Ever Come Back (Realaudio, rabr006)
Cresh Frazy – The Nex (Sixteensteps, ss002)
Normablock – Ayer Fue Corto (signal-zero, SZ005)
Broke Gringos – Light It Up (Skit) (iD.EOLOGY, iD.007)
Kampion – Primaveral (Filtro, filtro008)
Fleur Earth & Forsch – Was will ich (iD.EOLOGY, iD.029)
Phour Trakk – Return of the Spirit (iD.EOLOGY, iD.019)
Zengineers – The legacy (iD.EOLOGY, iD.031)
This One – No Time For Lookin Back (Dust Shop, DSR002)
Comfort Fit – Freeze The Cut feat. Blaktroniks (Tokyodawn Records)
Phour Trakk – Long Transfer (iD.EOLOGY, iD.028)
Labor Of Love – Sex Cellz (Sixteensteps, ss001)
Mloski-Cell Abstracta (Monokom, MNKM009)
This One – Black Side (Dust Shop, DSR001)
Kaffeinik – Playin Basketball (Pitjamajusto, pj002)
Nikki – Blue Night (Ndorphin Records, ndn012)
Starfrosch – Don’t Ever Come Back (Realaudio, rabr006)
Cresh Frazy – The Nex (Sixteensteps, ss002)
Normablock – Ayer Fue Corto (signal-zero, SZ005)
Broke Gringos – Light It Up (Skit) (iD.EOLOGY, iD.007)
Kampion – Primaveral (Filtro, filtro008)
Fleur Earth & Forsch – Was will ich (iD.EOLOGY, iD.029)
Phour Trakk – Return of the Spirit (iD.EOLOGY, iD.019)
Zengineers – The legacy (iD.EOLOGY, iD.031)
This One – No Time For Lookin Back (Dust Shop, DSR002)
Comfort Fit – Freeze The Cut feat. Blaktroniks (Tokyodawn Records)
Phour Trakk – Long Transfer (iD.EOLOGY, iD.028)
Sonic Walker is a netlabel, blog and podcast based in Holland. All kinds of electronic music from the netlabel community is promoted through sharing free and legal DJ mixes. Mp3 files can be downloaded directly from the site and you can also subscribe to DJ mixes via the podcast feed: http://podcast.xs4all.nl/rss/nlwalker/Sonic+Walker+Radio
Links to netlabels and music resources are shared at: http://del.icio.us/SonicWalker
Technorati Tags: audio, creative commons, dj, downloads, electronic, hip hop, mix, mp3, music, netlabels, podcasts, podsafe
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Spheric Lounge Electronic Ambient Improvisations
Spheric Lounge is an electronic ambient music project based in Munich. Several times a month an open circle of friends and creative people meet for live performances at various venues. The atmospheric events which feature improvised music, dance and creative visuals are well known within the Munich music scene.
Sessions
Each live session is recorded and edited for release in mp3 format on the website. The first available session was recorded on the 17th September, 2004. There are now hundreds of titles and over 30 hours of music available under a Creative Commons license. The project is open for future participation through live events and digital production via the Internet.
Documentation
All sessions and post production are documented at the website in the Sessions area including team members, photos, compositions, locations and even instruments. Supplying documentation is a mark of quality that future generations will value and good photos are beyond verbal descriptions. Many people will appreciate seeing the venues, people, and equipment configurations.
The Spheric Lounge team have embraced the Open Music philosophy in a stylized and productive fashion. They are succeeding in using grassroots collaboration and live recorded improvisations to produce high quality productions. This is an interesting combination of raw improvisation and digital post production; the framework is electronic ambient/Creative Commons. Ambient music producers, DJs and podcasters will find these recordings a welcome source to build upon for years to come.
Audio Feeds
You can listen to a continuous audio stream in your browser (Mirpod) or add the m3u-playlist: http://www.sphericlounge.de/all_titles.m3u to your music player ie WinAmp
Add the following podcast feed to your podcatcher: http://www.sphericlounge.de/sphericlounge.rssin
Related Resources
Livepa is a blog focusing on the art of live electronic music performance where you can learn more about the artists, the music, equipment and events.
Technorati Tags: ambient, audio, chillout, Creative Commons, electronic, improvisation, jamming, konzert, live, mp3, Munich, music, musik, performance, playlist, podcast, spheric lounge, streaming
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Dave's Imaginary Sound Space 