Archive for the ‘Blog from Sam’ Category
Mar 10
the ProjektList 🚀 3-9-23
From Projekt’s Sam Rosenthal
☀️ Today is the retail release date for Steve’s 2CD Rest of Life. It’s a beautiful & subtle album that has been getting really great support and interest from the listeners at Bandcamp. postthispostthat writes, It’s like sitting on a train and instead of seeing landscape go by, it is your thought and memories seen through this window. I think I could listen to this sat quite comfortably for the rest of my life. mdbevilacqua writes, Another timeless journey that ends up in enlightenment. Order the 2CD at the Projekt website, and Projekt’s European Website. Digital & CD at Projekt’s Bandcamp. Stream it at Spotify, Pandora, and Amazon Music.
Musique Machine writes: The music overtakes with a subtlety that is rare among contemporary practitioners of the genre. To “listen” to Rest of Life is to be plunged into a temporality that is entirely out of step with that of everyday experience, hurried along by tasks and goals that put one squarely on the path of a time pre-determined, all too aware of where things are headed and why. …it was unavoidable – the feeling of having escaped some internal, ideological structure of time while listening. … Very highly recommended for fans of Roach’s previous works, and for anyone who is ready to hear what the rest holds. ☀️ Steve Roach’s “The Drift Home” is getting a lot of spins on Apple’s Ambient Chill playlist
☀️ Germany’s Schallwelle is the most important prize for electronic music in Europe. This year, two Projekt artists top the Best Ambient Album category: #1 Ian Boddy & Erik Wøllo – Revolve #2 Steve Roach—What Remains
☀️ Arin Aksberg’s debut is Projekt’s #1 title at Bandcamp this month, and it’s name-your-price. It Flows Between Us is the sound of duality — neo-classical piano-based tracks and compositional ambient pieces juxtapose with occasional post-rock tones that originate within ethereal spaces before venturing into the depths of darkness. Dave Aftandilian writes, I love the gentleness and fragility of Aksberg’s keyboards. His closely observed compositions powerfully capture the fleeting beauty of a precise moment, showing how important it is that we pay attention to the world with wide-eyed wonder so that we do not miss the uniqueness of each sparkling fractal snowflake before it melts, or the hushed brilliance of the sun-diamonds on the wave-tips before their shimmering fades into darkness.
☀️ A video for “Eternal chronology” from Projekt’s recent Aglaia release is now playing at YouTube..
☀️Deepspace’s Superradiance selected as one of the “Best new release 2022 – WPPM Sound and Vision”
☀️ Great comments about Byron Metcalf & Shane Morris’s Ancestral Resonance at Bandcamp. John Wolfe writes, As a forest elder this ole spirit gravitates towards the infinite beat. This production feels very intuitive in its presentation.There is also a deep understanding of ancient tribal respect for coming together in its presentation.F amiliar with both artist, it becomes a very special journey. Frank Inzan Owen (Hidden Mountain) writes: A stunning, visceral journey of depth and breadth. Stretches the dreamingbody across vistas of space-time.
☀️ Exposé reviews Jarguna: My Temple 2 is a single long form, a cascade of slow moving floating ambient chords occasionally mixed with mysterious field recordings and duly informed by metallic sounding textures that fold gently into the fabric of the piece. Amongst Jungles is more of an electronic album in the classic sense of the word, with clusters of bold colors dancing across the listener’s field of vision and bristling arrangements of sequential evocations, swirling around inside the overall immersive experience.
☀️ Projekt has 5 albums on the One World Music Albums Chart for February 2023. #41 Paulina Fae – Dreamwalkers Instrumental #53 Lorenzo Montana – Decorar Silenzio #57 Erik Wøllo – The Shape of Time #79 Byron Metcalf/Shane Morris – Ancestral Resonance #83 Jarguna/Nicola Serena – Amongst Jungles
☀️ Sam interviewed on Mind Body Spirit. Host Diane Ray is somebody he’s known since 1st grade. A full hour dedicated to Projekt’s 40th.
Listening Booth Playlists at Spotify and Soundcloud and Pandora and YouTube.
RECENT PROJEKT RELEASES: Arin Aksberg: It Flows Between Us Steve Roach: Rest of Life 2CD
thank you for supporting independent music www.projekt.com
Feb 15
the ProjektList 🚀 2-15-23
From Projekt’s Sam Rosenthal. Hi all….. middle of February already, wow! This year is coming on fast! Lots of new Projekt musicfor you to enjoy…so much to talk about…
☀️ This is your last call for a name-your-price download on Amongst Jungles, the recent collaboration between Jarguna and Nicola Serena. Grab it during these final days.Tango Mango writes on Bandcamp: “It’s chilled and intricate at the same time. Have to say, Vegetal Sculpture took me way back to Gong/Hillage albums. Bless their socks.” Styles: Electronic, ambient, space music. Dave Aftandilian writes on Bandcamp: “Fascinating ambient visions of a future when the worlds of nature and society become so intertwined that the borders between them disappear. There is some darkness here: shadowed places with unknown, unsavory denizens. But mostly the feeling is exploratory, hopeful, and transformative: warm tears of rain glossing a leaf, dropping to the dirty pavement, then moistening a seed in a crack that becomes a green shoot shining amongst the gray.”
☀️ Last weekend’s Hearts of Space radio show included four tracks from Erik Wøllo’s new album the Shape of Time, as well as a track from Blue Radiance. HOS has an Online subscription thingie.
☀️ Steve Roach’s “Towards the Blue — 2021 Remastered” (from Quiet Music) is the opening track on Spotify’s Ambient 1980s playlist.
☀️ KKUP’s Contemplation Connection played music Peter Phippen, Ivar Lunde, Jr.’s Into the Ancient, Forrest Fang’s Forever Cascades, and Steve Roach’s Ambient Church.
☀️ Peter Phippen has an upcoming show collaborating with Victoria Shoemaker: Horizon Flute School Summit, April 14 – 16 in Hiawatha, Iowa. Details at Peter’s website.
☀️ Phippen, Crawford & Lunde Jr’s Galaxies is available from the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire, WI, as part of their Sawdust City Sounds program. Check it out (literally!) here.
☀️ 80’s-alternative-themed Sirius XMshow Slicing Up Eyeballs posted about Black Tape For A Blue Girl’s Mesmerized by the Sirens Kickstarter, which is almost to the goal with two weeks to go! Support the CD, LP (in two color variations) & MiniDisc.
☀️ An in depthtribute to classic Projekt artist Soul Whirling Somewhere at Svmusica.
☀️ Ashkelon Sain of Trance to the Sun has launched a new darkwave instrumental project named Solara Obscura. A digital single is available, and theyperformMarch 11 at Portland’s Coffin Club.
☀️ Wonderful review of Deepspace’s The Blue Dunes at Exposé Online. “…uniformly excellent, tapping into that subconscious wonderworld of sound that guides the listener along on an explorative floating ambient journey. The Blue Dunes represents a glacial moving sonic sculpture that will quite intentionally alter the listener’s mood and consciousness.”
☀️Erik Wøllo’s the Shape Of Time in Darkroom magazine, Italy
☀️ Great review of Byron Metcalf & Shane Morris’s Ancestral Resonance at Exposé Online. “…dreamy and quixotic, each of the eight long tracks offering a shadowy path through the dark moonlit night, with echoes of mysticism and exotic power that echo primal and hypnotic emotions from deep in the soul. Every additional spin offers further insights into a hidden secret world known only to our distant ancestors. A brilliant and epic journey through the past.”
☀️ Italy’s Hic Sunt Leones released Eight Parts of Reality by AGLAIA, at Bandcamp.
☀️ Peter Phippen’s new album Ghosts is name-your-price at Bandcamp.Samedited avideo with footage of Peter performing “Inside the Underworld” in the studio integrated with cool imagery. video at YouTube:
☀️ Pavel Zelinka’s posted his “40th Anniversary Projekt!” Radio Show. It’s on Český Rozhlas, the public radio broadcaster of the Czech Republic operating since 1923. It is the oldest radio broadcaster in continental Europe and the second oldest in Europe after the BBC! Listen to the Projekt episode of Art Cafe.
Listening Booth
Playlists at Spotify and Soundcloud and Pandoraand YouTube.
Out & upcoming Projekt releases:
Jarguna and Nicola Serena: Amongst Jungles Byron Metcalf & Shane Morris: Ancestral Resonance Peter Phippen: Ghosts Erik Wøllo: The Le Paysage Single Arin Aksberg: It Flows Between Us • March 3
Jan 25
the ProjektList 🚀 1•24•23
From Projekt’s Sam Rosenthal. Welcome to the ProjektList, my somewhat regular round-up of Projekt-related press, streaming, releases, and concerts.
🚀 Projekt Records turns 40 years old in 2023!
🚀 Projekt Records’ tracks had over 67.5 million streams in 2022!
🚀 Over the past 20 years, Projekt has manufactured 315,920 CDs at Disc Makers. Wow, you all still love physical things!
🚀 Erik Wollo’s The Shape of Time is Projekt’s best selling CD and download this month. Can you do me a favor? Would a few purchasers pop over to Amazon and write a review of the album? It doesn’t need to be journalism, just some positive comments that encourage shoppers to add it to their cart. Write about your reflections on what you like about the album, the mood, how you feel listening to it. That word-of-mouth helps us out. Thanks.
🚀 Erik Wøllo has a video for “The Shape of Time 2” at YouTube.
🚀 Marco of Jarguna opened a label to release music from around the world. His first bandcamp album is Burkina Faso collection Vol.1, with singers he recorded in 2008.
🚀 Peter Phippen has two upcoming shows. Peter and Rahbi Crawford: Heart of Winter Concert, January 27 in Viroqua, WI. Peter and Victoria Shoemaker: Horizon Flute School Summit, April 14 – 16 in Hiawatha, Iowa. More details at Peter’s website.
🚀 Schallwende nominations! The soundwave is the German prize for musicians and active people in the field of electronic music. Erik Wøllo nominated in 3 categories and Steve Roach in 1.
I asked Lorenzo Montanà about “Sentiero,” the closing track on his name-your-price album Decorar Silenzio
He replied: ‘Sentiero’ is Italian for ‘Path.’ It’s a mysterious track, a way of inner research, a dreamlike journey inspired by the surrealist atmospheres of David Lynch. In my mind, the song begins walking along an overgrown path in the woods, making one’s way through the branches of trees. At a certain point everything stops, you hear what seems to be footsteps and an indistinct voice speaks but we do not understand. The sense of disorientation increases, until, as in an awakening, a subtle music arrives from far away which takes us back; we awaken far away on a terrace where I imagine two figures dancing on the rooftops to the tune of a melancholy waltz. We are left like this, no longer knowing how to distinguish a vision or a memory from reality.
Listening Booth
Playlists at Spotify and Soundcloud and Pandora and YouTube.
Dec 21
Let me tell you what I’m thankful for…
From Projekt’s Sam Rosenthal….
Happy winter solstice,
As the year draws to a close, and much of the country is about to be buried under a blanket of Brrrr!! I’m sitting on the edge of my chair thinking about what I’m thankful for. Well, the reason I’m actually on the edge of my chair is because Nova kitty is sitting behind me, hogging most of the space. My office is on what used to the back porch of my house, it’s a bit cold out here, and the chair is near the space heater, and Nova likes the warmth. One of the things I’m thankful for is Nova. She’s 17+ years old, and quite honestly I wasn’t sure she’d make it even two years when I adopted her the day after Xmas 2018. She’s been with me 4 years now! She’s a happy cat, even with her health issues. I released an album of her purrs a couple of weeks ago. I just told my son today: I’m more excited about Nova’s album receiving name-your-price donations than I am when my own albums get donations, crowdfunding & purchases. Not to say I don’t appreciate that too… but Nova’s never had an album before. And your donations are going to buy her favorite treats for months to come. Thank you! She appreciates it. She’d thank you herself, but you know how hard it is to get those little toe-beans aligned properly on the keyboard.
I love paying Projekt artists. It’s true. I love that I’m the middleman / conduit moving money around the world from your heartfelt donations, streams and purchases, into their pockets. There are only a few people on Projekt supporting themselves full time from music. The rest of us create music around our day jobs (my day job is running Projekt). Yes, of course everyone appreciates money! : ) Everyone appreciates being able to buy more gear, treats for their pets, and paying the rent. Whatever it’s going towards, it’s you who make it possible.
This year, Projekt has really gotten behind the name-your-price model on Bandcamp. Those donations often add up to a nice Paypal payment to one of your favorite musicians. You may have noticed that Projekt is bringing new artists to the label. It thrills me to connect you with great new artists and connect them with great new fans!
Right now I’m proofing the audio files on a new album you’ll be hearing very soon. It’s by a 23-year-old musician from Norway. Wow this is good! I can’t wait until you hear it.
I’ve been in COVID lockdown for three years. I have an immunocompromised family member I see regularly, and I would rather not risk it. It’s been nice to keep in touch with so many of you — and so many great artists — via emails and tweets. It’s nice to know you’re out there and that you care! I’m taking a couple weeks off work here, checking email for emergencies of course. On the break I’m going to remix my 1987 album, Black Tape For A Blue Girl’s Mesmerized by the sirens. There’ll be a vinyl / CD / MiniDisc release next year. Kickstarter coming in February.
In conclusion, you can be thankful that I’m not asking you to purchase something or grab a name-your-price. : ) This is just a message from me to you. I’d like to write more often, but finding the time. Ah! There’s the problem….. I will try. Stay warm, stay safe, wear a mask, have a great holiday…. I’m looking forwards to lots of new music in 2023… and better days ahead!
Sam
Dec 12
Projekt Holiday 20% Discount
excludes new, preOrder, & sale items. ends 1-3-23. use checkout code ring-in-23 at projekt.com (not at our bandcamp store)
Dec 08
Paulina Fae: in dreams…
Paulina Fae: in dreams…
by Patrick Ogle
Paulina Fae is a musician and fine artist. There is a dreamlike quality in her work be it aural or imagery. There is something about both that seems to slip through the fingers just as you feel you are about to define it.
“I think there’s a running theme with my music in that the songs are elemental and explorative. There isn’t really one specific thing I’m aiming to communicate; it’s more a ceaseless desire to make and share music, however it may be,” she says.
Fae has been releasing music since 2007 with her discovery of Garageband.
“DAWS were completely new to me. I had no knowledge of the technicalities of mastering songs. I wasn’t sure where I was going with it and was debating whether this was something that I wanted to keep doing as a solo recording artist. But as I experimented and learned, the more I improved. I was playing around mostly with piano and vocals at first. It took trial and error to unfurl the technical issues in finding my sound.”
And that sound is refined and perfected in her latest record, Glow. It calls to mind ambient artists and performers as divergent as Zola Jesus and Kate Bush. The comparisons are specious and only a vague point of reference for the uninitiated; Paulina Fae really sounds like Paulina Fae.
To get to this point she experimented and figured out what worked… and what didn’t.
“The opening song on my debut album Bloodroots was a song I’d written for a friend and fellow music enthusiast who’d passed unexpectedly. It’s called ‘Rachel and Sitka.’ That one I think catapulted me into a song-making obsession. I discovered how exciting it was to create this way, and it opened up a new way of thinking for me. I might remaster some of those early songs one day. Maybe. That first album is no longer available to the public,” she says.
As a kid in the 1980s she wrote songs and lyrics but, as is often the case, had no outlet for them except, as she puts it “hissy tape recordings.” She left music behind and delved into visual arts.
“Eventually I learned how to use Logic Pro, which I started using after my third album. That was a game changer in enabling me to do what I really wanted with my music, to fine-tune and master better than previously,” says Fae.
Her music and art do intersect.
“One complements the other. The visual lends voice and interpretation to the sound and vice-versa. They play off the other, and both forms act as narrator. New directions and ideas pop up. That’s how The Secret Language of Trees happened in 2019-2020,” says Fae. “It’s a ‘graphic novella’ book of 11 lyrical stories intertwined with 11 songs. The drawings evolved with the songs; the songs evolved with the drawings. It was a really exciting project for me. Part of it was planned ahead of time, part of it was spontaneous.”
Fae takes different approaches when writing her songs.
“For the most part I’ll play around on the keyboard, the guitar, the ukulele, or in Logic. A little whisper of something happens, and I build it from there.”
She notes this is similar to how she draws.
“The songs have a will all their own and once they begin, it becomes an obsession to structure and layer in a way that complements the personality of a song. It’s always a journey and I never know what will happen — the possibilities are endless; I like that. It fuels me.”
The latest record, Glow, is, according to Fae, part of a trend toward happier songs and her figuring out how to get the best out of her voice.
“I have more fun making songs these days, a little less frustration. The frustration is still there but not the way it used to be. I play guitar and ukulele and incorporate those sounds into the songs, which I didn’t do before. I play a lot more with the sounds than I used to, organically,” she says.
Like many musicians she looks back at earlier work and wishes she knew then what she knows now but it doesn’t bog her down in creative nostalgia.
“As artists we’re often critical of our own work. But of course, it’s how we progress. I try to honor the earlier work; it’s all connected.” says Fae.
If you are looking to see her live you may need to take a trip to the Land of Nod. She says she hasn’t played live in the earthly realm.
“I mean, I remember a lot of dreams playing live. But playing live here, for real — I haven’t. I enjoy recording and mastering songs, putting them out and then making more songs when I’m ready,” she says. “That’s where I put my energy and time. It’s an invigorating experience, personally. A passion. But the idea of playing live — I’m always open to possibilities.”
To paraphrase Delmore Schwartz, “In dreams begin possibilities!”
Nov 24
Christmas Moments & some sales!
Begin your boozy holiday cheer early with a free 4-song EP from Thanatos! It’s name-your-price at Bandcamp, and it’ll be streaming Friday at Spotify. Sam edited a video of Pat and Sarah singing “All the gifts we got wrong,” playing at YouTube.
Thanatos: Christmas Moments EP Name-your-price at BandcampChristmas means different things to different people. Some folks are religious, some are sort-of-religious and others are not religious at all! Still, there’s a common thread among those who celebrate the holiday — memories, moments, indelible occasions that stand out. It is a time when family and friends come together. A time when strangers are kinder to each other, if they are not wrestling on a Walmart floor over who gets to buy the last My Pal Scout Smarty Paws Customizable Puppy.
Thanatos’ Christmas Moments EP is about Christmas past and the lasting hold they have on our imaginations. On the EP’s two originals, Thanatos’ guitarist/vocalist Patrick Ogle tells heartfelt tales of past memories that are still with us, still living within us. Joined by Black Tape For A Blue Girl’s Sam Rosenthal on electronics, and Faith & the Muse’s William Faith on guitar on one track, the EP is rounded out by two Christmas chestnuts.
Christmas Moments remains true to Thanatos’ penchant for mixing acoustics and electronics while calling to mind Cat Stevens, Al Stewart, and a tiny whiff of Irish Christmas ballads. There is also a whiff of Christmas magic; and by magic we mean bourbon.
Track Listing 1 A Special Gift (Christmas Moments) 2 All The Gifts We Got Wrong (A Christmas Song) 3 O Holy Night 4 It Came Upon A Midnight Clear“All The Gifts We Got Wrong (A Christmas Song)” | YouTube
Take a look at our sale, we’ve got CDs + LPs selling at below our cost to make room in the warehouse! Click for the full list of titles. Sift through the bins and find something cool.
This is a box of 10 CDs selected from Projekt’s Electronic & Ambient titles. Shipping to USA only, available at our Bandcamp.
Nov 22
Darkwave Warehouse Sale.
Take a look at our sale, we’ve got CDs + LPs selling at below our cost to make room in the warehouse! Click for the full list of titles. Sift through the bins and find something cool.
Nov 10
💌 the ProjektList | 11•10•22
From Projekt’s Sam Rosenthal. Welcome to today’s ProjektList. This is my somewhat regular round-up of Projekt-related press, streaming, releases, and concerts. If you have a question about an order from Projekt.com or our Bandcamp page, reply to this message and Joe will get back to you.<
🌊 LAST CALL!!! It’s the final few days for a name-your-price Bandcamp download on Deepspace’s The Blue Dunes.
MYSTICWOLF75 wrote (on Bandcamp): This is a really beautiful album of floating ambience. The gorgeous opener, “The Blue Dunes”, really sets the mood for the rest of the album and “An Unexpected Shelter” has a real Steve Roach feel to it (and I mean this very complimentary, as I am a huge Steve Roach fan). This will definitely be getting played a lot! Lovely cover art, too! Favorite track: “The Blue Dunes.”
🌊 Soundwave #136 • I created an hour flow of the mood of Projekt — an exploration and overview for listeners discovering the label for the first time.
🌊 Dirk Serries just released The Listening Place, check it out on Bandcamp. A live performance as part of Martina Verhoeven Butterfly Zi’s mindfulness session #6 on October 22, 2022.
🌊 “Emptiness” the 3rd video from Deepspace’s The Blue Dunes is now at YouTube.
🌊 Through his “Gothic Homemaking” YouTube series, Aurelio Voltaire has become a lifestyle guru to people who embrace spookiness in all seasons. Free gift link to the article.
🌊 11-CDs-for-$35 darkwave clearance box. There are 10 of these available on our Bandcamp page. While supplies last.
🌊 The remastered LP of Projekt’s 1995 Excelsis compilation are here to bring you pre-Xmas cheer. Martin Bowes of Attrition (and I) worked on a beautiful, vivid remastering of the album for the LP + CD formats. The LP is available in two lovely colors, 250 per edition, from Projekt’s website and Bandcamp page and also from the European Webstore.
Out now & upcoming Projekt releasesDeepspace: The Blue Dunes • out now Peter Phippen: Woodnotes Wyld: Historic Flute Sounds From The Dr. Richard W. Payne Collection • out now Michael Stearns: Chronos — 2022 Remaster, Original X-86 Ambisonics Mix • out now Forrest Fang: The Lost Seasons of Amorphia • out now Black Tape For A Blue Girl: Bastille Day (Serpent Single) • out now theAdelaidean: In the Key of Sleep • out now Thanatos: Christmas Moments EP • November 25 Aglaia: Perennial source • December 2
Oct 27
Aurelio Voltaire in the New York Times!
Through his “Gothic Homemaking” YouTube series, Aurelio Voltaire has become a lifestyle guru to people who embrace spookiness in all seasons. Free Link to the article.
