96 Minutes of relaxation
I created this mix because I was inspired by one of Ambienteer’s blog entries a few months ago. James wrote about using an old 70′s transistor radio to listen to shortwave transmissions. He recorded samples from the radio, and distorted and looped them to use as elements in a number of his tracks.
After reading about these endeavours I began collecting music that reminded me of the tones, phase shifting or noises you would find on the HF bands. I remember listening to broadcasts from the International Space Station and numbers stations using a Sony ICF-2010 receiver so every time I discovered a track with a similar characteristic to these broadcasts I put it aside for this mix.
Modulations
The opening track by Ambienteer uses samples from the Russian space program ‘Soyuz’, amazingly this program started in 1967 and is still in use today. James obtained the samples from Sven Grahn who has a repository of samples of various satellites recorded near Stockholm, Sweden. Gurdonark’s weirdbient track Katykids reminds me of the selcal tones used to communicate with aircraft, check out his new album and other fantastic releases on the We Are All Ghosts Netlabel.
I’m delighted to hear the Archaic Horizon Netlabel has some new releases out. Dance of the Cryptids by Heroines of the U.S.S.R and Earlyguard’s epic Habitat phase back and forth like the effects of tropospheric propagation. Nice by Luis Marte has an off kilter warble, similar to that of RTTY data transmissions. Yggdrasil by Artificial Sun Project has eerie samples of numbers stations and a few of the other tracks contain elements that remind me of the infamous Russian Woodpecker. . Fond memories indeed, I’ll have to throw a wire out the window and fire up the receiver soon.
Thanks to Basil for the cover photograph. Discover more of his beautiful photographs here.
Until next time, enjoy the transmission.
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