Tag Archives: ambient

Spoken + Song

“Postcard” spoken word in Winterkeep’s ambient musical postcard

postcards inside of postcards

“Winterkeep is the artist name of Mat Tyrrell, currently living in Queenstown, New Zealand”

Backgroundr: in the blur of all the Internet communiques, a musician from New Zealand reached out asking permission to use spoken word from my “Postcards from Gravelly Beach” pod – which i think of as audio collages delivered via RSS.

I was slow in returning his request (travelling) but of course the answer was “fill yer boots”. Due to the delay, the track is not on *the album* but can listen via YT above. Of course, the album tracks all being named as “postcard #x” is appropriate.

I was very curious to see what he would come up with and while i of course recognize my disembodied voice, somehow removed enough to where i don’t recall what and where the reading emerges. Such curious joy – somehow the music often fits the foggy riffs my brain talks to itself with (if’n ya know what i mean): explorations, traveling outside of time and constraints and contexts, dream state in between gasps of breath.

Winterkeep’s Blurb: Taken from an upcoming album exploring discarded postcards from another time. Absolutely inspired by discovering Richard Skelton recently, it’s given me a new direction to take my music. I hope you enjoy ☠️ Words courtesy of Dave Thorvald Olson – Postcards from Gravelly Beach

I replied: 

Holy smokes, I have arrived back from a ramble in my erstwhile home country (Canada) to my accidental home (Japan) and here is my voice, recorded somewhere I can’t quite remember… On a ramble by train, by ship, by tuk-tuk… Was it the Himalayas? Arabia? The Mediterranean? or was it here in my backyard barn? The details don’t matter, the impact, I’m hearing myself remixed and floated back while I am wiped out in bed under a mosquito net – is a uniquely powerful intrigue.

Dig in on all channels:

Craft Sessions

Accordion-style Postcard Scrapbook hangout (with jazz and sage)

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various beloved correspondence, mostly post cards, cards and whatnot, taped and glued with affection, maybe from you

Hangout in the Kura barn while i light sage, spin Ornette Coleman and fill up an accordion-style scrapbook with postcards and other postal treats using various sticky corners, washi tape, double-sided tape, envelopes and odds and ends. No chit-chat (not even my lovely beard), just ambient craft session.

Grab a chair if you want some company or otherwise have a notion.

Transport Rolls

Rolling Elsewhere: Japan trains / various incl. Kanazawa and Yokohama

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Roll around Japan with ambient train window views from various locations and rolling stock including the Thunderbird Limited Express towards Kanazawa and a Shinkansen service from Yokohama towards Osaka. In situ sound with no narration or drama rather a rather meditative “space cruise” looking as rice fields, towns and stations go past, and occasionally abstract from the speed, plus the whooshing of zipping through tunnels. That’s all. Enjoy the ride. 

Japan Life/Travel, Transport Rolls

Rolling Elsewhere: Kurobe Gorge Railway, Toyama, Japan (ambient, excerpts)

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Rolling Elsewhere: Kurobe Gorge Railway, Toyama / Unazuki to Keyakidaira stations (ambient excerpts)

Ambient meditative scenes of riding the narrow gauge railway up Kurobe Gorge, one of the steepest canyons in Japan with spectacular scenery, choogling open air carriages, and hydro-electric dam with medieval style castle (really).

Not documentary per se – just as-it-is snippets, stitched loosely to capture the feeling of the trip from Onazuki Onsen station to Keyakidaira (end of the line) station way up in the Japan Alps.

Backgrounder: Kurotetu Railways (official) JNTO Magazine Travel Japan Visitor Kurobe Gorge Railway (wikipedia)

The Kurobe Gorge Railway (黒部峡谷鉄道株式会社 Kurobe Kyōkoku Tetsudō Kabushiki Kaisha), or Kurotetsu (黒鉄) for short, is a private, 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) narrow gauge railway company operating the Kurobe Gorge Main Line along the Kurobe River in the Kurobe gorge area of Toyama Prefecture, Japan. The railway was built to serve the construction of the Kurobe dam for the Kansai Electric Power Company, which was completed in 1963; Kurotetsu was spun off from the power company in June 1971, but remains a wholly owned subsidiary. At its terminus, the Main Line links to Kurobe Senyō Railway, which is not open to general public.

 

Writing Life

Beat life: Candid Kerouac and Pals

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Bit more Jack Kerouac magic for you…

This candid, “scenes of life” outside an everydayish restaurant in New York footage (backed by a great Cat Power tune) besides showing the unscripted faces (Allen, Jack, Lucien?) whose work I/we know so well, reminds me of the importance of documenting just every day, day to day, you know, normal, ephemeral life.

Create and document your creations and life while documenting your own creations, and document that as well. 

Japan Life/Travel, Transport Rolls

Rolling Elsewhere – Thunderbird Limited Express Train, Japan (excerpts)

Video

Just rolling ambient views looking out window at countryside and stations in-situ while aboard the Thunderbird Limited Express train – from Shin-Osaka station toward Kanazawa via Kyoto.

No narration, or whatnot. This is all, roll on pleasantly. 

PS There are more, plenty.