Archive for January 2016 | Monthly archive page
Jan 26
Black Tape For A Blue Girl recording (with video)
I was in the studio this weekend recording vocals with Oscar & Dani Herrera for the upcoming Black Tape For A Blue Girl album, These fleeting moments. As you might know, Oscar was the band’s original vocalist from 1986-1999, performing on the first 7 of our 10 studio albums. Oscar sings eight songs on These fleeting moments. Dani – his daughter – sings three; Dani was not even a year old when vocals were laid down for our The Rope debut 30 years ago.
This was our second weekend of recording, after a session back in August. I’m excited! The vocals are all done, and they sound amazing. In fact, the entire recording for the album might be finished! I have to do some more rough mixes, and listen through and see if there’s anything else I’d like to add. But yeah, I think it might be done. Wow! The album will have a Kickstarter campaign and then a release in mid-2016.
This time I shot some video in the studio of Oscar and Dani. I made one minute clips for you:
I’m limitlessRead more about this track on my Patreon post
One promised love She’s gone The vastness of lifeThe recording of this album is supported by the patrons at patreon.com/Blacktapeforabluegirl
Do you know that there’s a lot of people who didn’t realize that Black Tape For A Blue Girl is still making music. I often get Facebook friend requests with a message like, “Wow! It was so cool to find you here. I used to listen to your music in college, nice to see you’re still active.” If you could help spread the word, that would be great!
Thanks. Sam
Previous statement:
Oscar Herrera returns to Black Tape For A Blue GirlSixteen years after he last sang with the band, original Blacktape vocalist Oscar Herrera is back in the studio with Sam Rosenthal recording These Fleeting Moments. This is more than just a nostalgic one-song appearance — Oscar sings eight songs on the new album. Complementing Oscar is his daughter Dani who sings three songs; she was not even a year old when vocals were laid down for the band’s The Rope debut 30 years ago. Here is a video with an excerpt from one of the new tracks, “The vastness of life,” followed by the duo on Sam’s couch performing the 1989 Blacktape song “Through sky blue rooms.” Recorded in August of 2015, it’s all the more poignant because of the Bowie magazine cover playfully propped up to watch over them. Oscar and Dani return to Portland in late January to record the remaining vocals on These Fleeting Moments. Sam’s lyrics emotionally confront an awareness of time’s passage, questioning where we are in life and love. The album of all new material will be Kickstarted and then released in the spring.
Jan 22
Forrest Fang – Stream two unreleased tracks
< Forrest Fang: The Sleepwalker’s Ocean (2-CD)
Purchase your copy of the limited-edition 2-CD, $17 at the Projekt website. $10 download at Projekt’s Bandcamp store.
Listen to two unreleased songs on Forrest’s Soundcloud page.
Forrest talks about the pieces: I’d like to share these two recent pieces with my listeners as a thank you. The first piece, “Chimera,” is an outtake from my recordings for the Projekt release, The Sleepwalker’s Ocean. I left it off the album only because it didn’t seem to fit anywhere. The piece has elements that were composed at different times and were blended together much later. The second piece, “Arrow,” is a short experimental piece I recorded recently just for fun. It incorporates two instruments that date back to my childhood: a drum with a cardboard frame that my father helped me make in Indian Guides and a pair of maracas given to my family by a visiting exchange student. I’ve included a picture of them.
The Sleepwalker’s Ocean is a hypnotic deep-ambient exploration through the fantastical, elusive realm of the subconscious. Disc 2 is a first for Fang: a 54-minute electronic landscape that explores an interior world of elusive and impressionistic thoughts and images. Embracing the American minimalists and ambient soundscape artists, Fang blends electronics with acoustic instruments within a framework influenced by traditional Asian music.
Limited edition of 300
A review from Eurock.com Forrest Fang – The Sleepwalkers Ocean Forrest Fang is one of my 35-year long musical heroes. As a student at university, in 1980 he brought me a copy of his very first album composing experiment, Music from the Blackboard Jungle. Since then he has had a career outside the music industry while continuing to peruse his musical dreams releasing a total of 13 albums to date.
His brand new double album is entitled The Sleepwalker’s Ocean, a masterpiece of sonic architecture that combines the deep ebb and flow of electronic earth tones with swirling jet stream sound currents and free-floating celestial melodies. Forest creates intricate sonic textures and timbers using synth/ keyboards & guitar intertwined with exotica – Mandolin/ Marxolin/Saron/Lavta & Cántaro.
The album’s extended five-part title track and the whole of disc two entitled “An Alternate Ocean (The Salton Sea)” contain music that transcends any genre while transporting you to another time and place.
Fifteen years post-millennium we are plunging headlong into the era of diminishing returns. Music production is fast becoming simply a ghost in the machine. You can still buy CDs, but have to pay again to play and promote it on radio. The digital domain has destroyed the spirit of humanity in producing music while filling the coffers of the Tech gods.
The few sacred stores still surviving recycle old musical artifacts and detritus from the present. Fortunately, artists like Forrest Fang have continued their path for decades defying the continuing shift of the zeitgeist making music for art’s sake, stimulating the senses and fortifying the soul. “If music be the food of love, then play on.”
January webstore top-5 Forrest Fang: The Sleepwalker’s Ocean (2-CD) Steve Roach: Emotions Revealed (CD) Klaus Schulze & Pete Namlook: Dark Side Of The Moog Vol. 1-4 (5CD Box) (Pre-Order, Mid-Feb) Steve Roach: Vortex 2-Pack Forrest Fang: Phantoms (CD) – 70% Off
Jan 16
Sam Rosenthal, album by album
Like all of my friends, I have been reading endless articles on Bowie. Suffice to say, Bowie’s artistic integrity has been an important part of my life as a fan of music, and as a creator of art.
An email from the local Clinton Street Movie Theatre, included a few sentences that really sums it up, “I read from friend after friend how life-changing and life-affirming this man was to each of them. His brilliance pierced the divisions of nationality and race and age, and united us in an understanding that it is okay to be whoever we are. Bowie was also a marvelous example that we don’t need to be only one thing — we can be whoever we want to be today, and we can reinvent ourselves tomorrow — as long as our core is true and kind and loving and non-judgemental.”
Reading this BBC article, the infographic of Bowie’s discography caught my eye. I love timelines, graphs, & data. I was curious what my recorded career would look like in a similar format.
You can comment on my facebook page.
Jan 12
Oscar Herrera returns to Black Tape For A Blue Girl
Sixteen years after he last sang with the band, original Blacktape vocalist Oscar Herrera is back in the studio with Sam Rosenthal recording These Fleeting Moments. This is more than just a nostalgic one-song appearance — Oscar sings eight songs on the new album. Complementing Oscar is his daughter Dani who sings three songs; she was not even a year old when vocals were laid down for the band’s The Rope debut 30 years ago. Here is a video with an excerpt from one of the new tracks, “The vastness of life,” followed by the duo on Sam’s couch performing the 1989 Blacktape song “Through sky blue rooms.” Recorded in August of 2015, it’s all the more poignant because of the Bowie magazine cover playfully propped up to watch over them. Oscar and Dani return to Portland in late January to record the remaining vocals on These Fleeting Moments. Sam’s lyrics emotionally confront an awareness of time’s passage, questioning where we are in life and love. The album of all new material will be Kickstarted and then released in the spring.
Stay tuned for updates from the studio.
Video at YouTube https://youtu.be/jK2GxWPLmXE
* Oscar was the band’s vocalist from 1986-1999, performing on the first 7 of their 10 studio albums.
drifting half a billion miles from the sun it’s cold and empty, everything I should have done the vastness of life, so little of it touched time, always time, rushing by death waits, we’re not immortal death waits, we’re not immortal
Click here for a blog with links to all the videos shot in the studio.
Jan 08
Forrest Fang — Q: What is the Marxolin ?
Forrest Fang’s The Sleepwalker’s Ocean (2-CD) is the #1 seller (of the past 30 days) in the Projekt webstore. This very cool hypnotic deep-ambient exploration CD is limited to 300 physical copies. It’s also available for download at Bandcamp.
kjb wrote “OK, I took the bait. The list of instruments on The Sleepwalker’s Ocean ranged from typical to Mediterranean-like names, but I had to look up what a Marxolin is. Great thing about Projekt music is all the literary references and oddities contained therein.”
I asked Forrest to tell us more about the Marxolin:
The Marxolin is anan instrument which appears occasionally on my albums, including my latest one, “The Sleepwalker’s Ocean.” The Marxolin was a zither-like folk instrument created in the early 20th Century by inventor Henry Marx, and was manufactured through his company, The Marxochime Colony, in Troy, Michigan. The instrument was marketed to farmers by travelling salesmen who trumpeted its ease of use, but I find it hard to imagine that anyone had an easy time playing them. Ideally, the chords are to be played with little hammers while a bow plays the melody on individual strings. Not easy to do, as I have found. I’ve always had a weakness for unusual musical instruments, beginning with a plastic hose from a vacuum cleaner I had while in college. I picked up my Marxolin when an online retailer was liquidating the few instruments remaining in the Marxochime warehouse. Above is a picture of it on my living room floor. Mine was probably a late model. You can hear me play the hammers from the Marxolin on “Gone To Ground” from the new album. Thanks for your interest.
The Sleepwalker’s Ocean is a hypnotic deep-ambient exploration through the fantastical, elusive realm of the subconscious. Disc 2 is a first for Fang: a 54-minute electronic landscape that explores an interior world of elusive and impressionistic thoughts and images. Embracing the American minimalists and ambient soundscape artists, Fang blends electronics with acoustic instruments within a framework influenced by traditional Asian music. Purchase a copy today.
The following was part of the post the weekend of January 8th. The promotion has ended. Thanks to the 600 people who downloaded.
One of the fun things about running Projekt Records is introducing people to great music; hearing is believing! With that in mind, through Sunday evening I’ve made Forrest’s 2000 release, Gongland, a name-your-price download. Gongland was his first CD on Projekt (though he released 7 albums before it); you should hear it.
Download this weekend at Bandcamp.
“On Gongland, Fang produces soundscapes suffused with peace and a sense of floating and drifting beauty that are wondrous to explore.” – Alternate Music Press (Ben Kettlewell)
Download Gongland for $7 at Bandcamp.
Jan 01
2015 Projekt webstore Top-10 List
1 Lycia: A Line That Connects CD (out of print) 2 Erik Wøllo: Echotides (ep) 3 Alio Die & Lorenzo Montanà: Holographic Codex CD 4 Erik Wollo: Blue Radiance CD 5 Dirk Serries & Stratophere: 2-pack CDs 6 Steve Roach: Etheric Imprints CD 7 Lycia: Quiet Moments CD 8 Forrest Fang: Letters To The Farthest Star CD 9 Steve Roach: Skeleton 2-Pack CDs 10 Mirabilis: Here and the Hereafter CD (with 2 bonus CDs)
Projekt Webstore Top-5 for the previous 30 days:1 Forrest Fang: The Sleepwalker’s Ocean 2-CD 2 Steve Roach: Vortex 2-Pack 2-CD 3 Steve Roach: Emotions Revealed CD 4 Steve Roach & Mark Seelig: Nightbloom (50% OFF) CD 5 Steve Roach: immersion : three (50% OFF) 3-CD
