mastakaspa
Pity, that not on cd. Thumbs up for Susumu Yokota remix - my second favourite track on this blissful compilation. Yokota (RIP) definitely deserves such a good remixes. Enjoy tribute mix to this talented artist: www.mixcloud.com/mastakaspa/rest-in-peace-susumu-yokota/Favorite track: Orange Cascade.
Limited edition 14 track gatefold double 12" LP. Packaged in a matte gatefold reverse board, printed inner sleeve. Artwork by Non-Format.
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Limited edition 14 track CD. Packaged in a gatefold digi pack, artwork by non-format.
Includes unlimited streaming of Spaciousness
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 3 days
Purchasable with gift card
£27.50GBPor more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Limited edition 14 track gatefold double 12" LP. Packaged in a matte gatefold reverse board, printed inner sleeve. Artwork by Non-Format.
Includes unlimited streaming of Spaciousness
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 3 days
Purchasable with gift card
£22.50GBPor more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Limited edition 14 track CD. Packaged in a gatefold digi pack, artwork by non-format.
Includes unlimited streaming of Spaciousness
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 2 days
Purchasable with gift card
£5GBP
Streaming + Download
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
£8GBP or more
"A1" Art Print + T-Shirt + 2x12" Gatefold LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Non-Format designed A1 high quality Art print on Innova Archival Matt 230gsm paper. Limited to 20 copies.
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Limited edition 14 track gatefold double 12" LP. Packaged in a matte gatefold reverse board, printed inner sleeves. Artwork by Non-Format.
+
Limited edition Spaciousness T-Shirt. High quality extra fine mesh white screen print on navy 100% cotton heavyweight Alstyle Premium T-shirts. Limited to 50 Shirts.
Includes unlimited streaming of Spaciousness
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
"A1" Art Print + 2x12" Gatefold LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Non-Format designed A1 high quality Art print on Innova Archival Matt 230gsm paper. Limited to 20 copies.
+
Limited edition 14 track gatefold double 12" LP. Packaged in a matte gatefold reverse board, printed inner sleeves. Artwork by Non-Format.
Includes unlimited streaming of Spaciousness
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
2x 12" Gatefold Vinyl + Limited Edition T-Shirt
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Limited edition 14 track gatefold double 12" LP. Packaged in a matte gatefold reverse board, printed inner sleeves. Artwork by Non-Format.
+
Limited edition Spaciousness T-Shirt. High quality extra fine mesh white screen print on navy 100% cotton heavyweight Alstyle Premium T-shirts. Limited to 50 Shirts.
Includes unlimited streaming of Spaciousness
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
featuring Ulrich Schnauss, Carlos Niño, Matthewdavid ’s Mindflight, Susumu Yokota, new age legends Laraaji and Iasos, Abul Mogard and Teleplasmiste (includes Coil member Michael J York), 'new wave of new age ’ icons I. JORDAN and Yamaneko, Lo Recordings head Jon Tye, Blackwater, Private Agenda, MJ Lallo, D.K. (Antinote), Andras Fox, Cathy Lucas (Vanishing Twin) & Seahawks.
Spaciousness is the first volume in a series of releases that seeks to explore the connections, the overlaps, the roots and the future of a music variously referred to as ambient, deep listening, new age and even post classical.
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The idea of ‘Spacious’ music is not a new one, music and sound having always been linked to space.
From the point of view of Sufi mystic Hazrat Inayat Khan everything began with sound, first there was the void and into the void came vibration and all creation followed from this. So rather than ‘in the beginning was the word and the word was God’ it should read ‘in the beginning was sound and the sound was God’.
Spaciousness is the first volume in a series of releases that seeks to explore the connections, the overlaps, the roots and the future of a music variously referred to as ambient, deep listening, new age and even post classical.
Abul Mogard’s music is a deep meditation on the nature of existence and the vastness of space, reminiscent of Coil at their most expansive, it shares their ‘purpose of altering consciousness and affecting the perception of reality’ and like Coil the term ‘deep listening’ sits well.
The Coil connection is present too in the work of Teleplasmiste, Michael J York was formerly a member of Coil and Mark O Pilkington runs Strange Attractor Press who published David Keenan’s ‘Englands Hidden Reverse’, an examination and exploration of the work of Coil along with their contemporaries, friends and associates. Teleplasmiste’s ‘Ode To Ingo Swann’ is another deep space exploration dedicated to the spirit of visionary artist and psychic Ingo Swann.
Coil’s definition of ‘deep listening music is ‘music that is meant to affect the head, heart and feet simultaneously. It plays to your desire for pleasure. Originally, music and tribal rhythms were used for ritual purposes - for the accumulation of sexual and intellectual energy. We'd like our music to affect the listener in that way - as say a drug would.’
This is an apt description of Blackwater’s ‘Woodstock’, a bubbling cauldron of dense gamelan tones and tribal drums which brings to mind John Hassel’s Fourth World music. Private Agenda’s ‘Aquamarine’ is another example of music that employs beats in order to emphasise the space within the music itself rather than to enclose and limit the space.
Matthewdavid’s Leaving records label from Los Angeles, is a prime example of a label that best exemplifies ‘the new wave of new age’, with it’s releases by Yialmelic, Cool Maritime, Carlos Niño, Uppy and his own Mindflight project.
MD’s contribution to the compilation is in complete contrast to Abul Mogard, a floating cloud of sound that sounds like it’s made of air and light.
The music of Carlos Nino acts as a bridge between new age, meditative jazz, and free form experimentalism. His Carlos Nino and Friends project has included contributions from Dexter Story, Jamael Dean, Josh Johnson, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and of course the legendary ‘new age’ legend Iasos who features on the track ‘Going Home’.
Iasos along with Steven Halpern was one of the first musicians to conceive of a music which operated outside the mainstream, they created their own companies, releasing music which soundtracked peoples exploration of inner space. It’s success exceeded their wildest dreams, selling cassette tapes in huge quantities and completely bypassing the standard distribution networks. Instead they were sold via mail order, in crystal shops, meditation centres and at new age conventions.
Another ‘new age’ luminary is Laraaji. Laraaji was famously discovered busking in Washington Square by Brian Eno and so inadvertently became one of the founders of ambient music.
Laraaji also provided the title for this compilation when he thanked Jon Tye for his ‘Spaciousness’ in awaiting reply to his email.
Their collaboration as Seahawks, along with Pete Fowler, ‘Space Bubbles’ is a tribute to John C Lilly, whose work with Dolphins, flotation tanks and mind expanding drugs did so much to inspire not just the new age movement but ‘cosmonauts of inner space’ everywhere.
Jon Tye appears again, this time in collaboration with Ulrich Schnauss. Together they explore the intersection where live instruments collide with synthesised sound, employing sitar, flute and saxophone along with warm analogue synthesizers to create a truly immersive tone poem.
Inevitably the success of the new age movement spawned a lot of much derided ‘wallpaper’ music full of gurgling streams, dolphin talk and whale song but as the recent compilation ‘I Am The Center’ proved, there was an awful lot of incredibly good music too.
I. JORDAN and Yamaneko are further proof of the resurgence and continued exploration of new age music. India’s track despite being called ‘Rest’ is full of bubbling energy and movement whilst Yamaneko’s ‘Lost Winter’s Hiding’ is ‘one big stare out of a bedroom window at 2am’.
Their label New Atlantis with it’s regular monthly label event in South London is proof of the diversity and health of this new take on music that is spacious and thought provoking.
Which brings us perhaps inevitably to the question, is looking inwards a form of escapism?
Or is it any wonder that in an age of political turmoil and looming environmental crisis people look within and seek forms of self help to combat conditions like insomnia, anxiety and depression.
There’s also a punk aesthetic to the idea of tape releases - quick and cheap and in tandem with the rise of Bandcamp they provide a perfect way to connect with fans whilst avoiding the major networks and retaining complete artistic and commercial control.
Andras (Fox) and Cathy Lucas have created pieces that refuse to fit neatly into any category and yet are undoubtedly spacious and determined to explore the universe in their own unique way.
Andras takes sounds that have quite literally been in space as they were all featured on the gold Voyager record that was sent into space as part of the Voyager space mission. Cathy’s ‘Chatterscope’ contains ‘molecular pitter patter, meeting and greeting of matter, the mating song of quarks’.
Another space explorer is MJ Lallo, the recently released compilation ‘Take Me With You’ on the Séance Centre features tracks all recorded in her home studio between 1982 and 1997, primarily using drum computer, synth and her own voice processed through a Yamaha SPX 90 digital effects unit. Her piece for ‘Spaciousness’, written for the Vatican in the 1980’s is a beautiful ode to space that highlight’s MJ’s unique sound and cosmic mindset.
The inter-generational span of ‘spacious’ music is emphasised again by D.K.’s tribute to the sadly deceased Susumu Yokota, his version of ‘Wave Drops’ stays true to the original’s sense of deep devotion whilst bringing a fresh perspective and sound that is undeniably current.
We hope you enjoying coming with us on this voyage into SPACIOUSNESS.
credits
released May 17, 2019
Mastered by MatthewDavid
Art & Design by Non Format
Magic in its purest form. I love Floating Points, I love Pharoah Sanders, I love The London Symphony Orchestra. It's a match made in heaven, and the result is absolutely gorgeous. I have loved this record since its release, and realized I don't own it for some reason. So its time to change that. 9.5/10 honestly could become a 10/10 on an indepth vinyl relisten. angrypizza98
Minimalist compositions that take their time unfolding, bands of sound melting glacier-like from one end of the song to the other. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 6, 2023
