Webbed Hand Records » Audio Gourmet

wh112 Audio Gourmet – Subconscious Substance

C.P. McDill — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:07:07 +0000

This is an album to play when you are sitting along, reminiscing about bygone times. Subtle, restful melodies and sounds of nature guide the mind to positive, yet nostalgic reveries.

Download the whole album as a zip file or click here for more downloading and streaming options.

TRACK ORDER:
01 Garden’s Apex (03:52)
02 7 Minutes Of Peace (07:23)
03 October (09:39)
04 Preserving The Obsolete (07:49)
05 Forgotten Dreams (03:30)
06 Subconscious Substance (09:47)
07 25 Years On (07:22)
08 Underlying The Mind (04:59)
09 The Future [Bonus Drone] (12:57)

Recorded and Produced by H. Towell
Cover photo by B. Towell
total time: 01:07:18

from the artist:

This album is themed around the idea of nostalgia, the subconscious and distant memories; that strange intangible feeling triggered by a familiar stimulus. The brain associates these stimuli with a dormant memory in the brain. Sometimes, these memories can be relived clear as day…others so feint a glimmer that you cannot possibly comprehend what your brain is trying to tell you.
This album should hopefully capture the essence of nostalgia, and also serve as a preservation for the sound that I have lifted from every day life.

(1) Garden’s Apex
Some of the faintest of memories lie in childhood. It will seem a natural process to explore as time presses on and you grow older, yet for children the first experience of this begins within their own back-garden.

(2) 7 Minutes Of Peace
This track is an effort to preserve and transport the listener to the amazing level of peace I felt as I wandered around Caldey Island, near Tenby, Wales. The piece accurately captures the sheer tranquility and general aura of the island, and shall serve as a vivid nod of nostalgia for as long as I live.

(3) October
It is October, late Autumn, and winter begins to draw near. The familiar scent of burning wood reminds us of many a year gone by. The leaves have turned, shrivelled and dropped, leaving our trees bare once again as yet another year passes.

(4) Preserving The Obsolete
A well looked after piano can last over a century, outliving most human beings. It was my usual walk home from lunch, past the auction rooms, where I was to discover the piano. It was left out for the skip, discarded and disused. I decided to come back when nobody was around and see if I could squeeze any last sounds from it before it were to be condemned to the tip forever. I can be unsure of the age of this piano, but try to imagine the lives that it has touched? The people who have played on it? The people listening? Its past owners?

(5) Forgotten Dreams
We spend days, months, years sleeping and dreaming. During which, all of our thoughts and past experiences are regurgitate and merged together to create surreal experiences that for just a moment, seem real. Each time we go to bed, for the hours that we spend sleeping, our brain creates a subconscious existence within our mind. Only a fraction of this will be remembered vividly. For the rest of our life, these forgotten dreams can only be faintly relived…just for a split second.

(6) Subconscious Substance
The subconscious substance – the brain’s basement of memories, events and past experiences, forgotten. We only revisit them for a split second, when a familiar stimulus triggers a sudden moment of unexplained nostalgia.

(7) 25 Years On
In just a 25 year lifespan, a village, town or city can change considerably. Imagine revisiting somewhere you have not been 25 years on…Old buildings are destroyed, new ones are built. The size of the place can grow, the shops and businesses can change and the whole place will seem rather unfamiliar in comparison to the way you remember it. Yet, in and amongst all this change, a few things remain unchanged and familiar.
All of this change is difficult to comprehend, as the memories you hold so fondly seem like yesterday. It is only when you look how you too have changed and what has happened in your life that you will realize the magnitude of time that has elapsed.

(8) Underlying The Mind
Inside our minds, there are many negative aspects that we are constantly battling with. Doubts, regrets and things we’d have done differently, just eating away at us. An optimist will try to put these niggling pessimistic thoughts to the depths of their subconsciousness. However, regardless, from time to time the thoughts will creep up to the surface of our minds and infect our dreams…

(9) The Future [BONUS DRONE]
This track was included on the album at the last minute and is an edited version of a 25 minute piece. This quiet reflective track serves as a window into the boundless and unknown future. It is quite easy as humans with our advanced brains to ponder upon the past, but it is fascinating that the future and what will happen is a complete mystery. Even more mysterious and intangible than nostalgia itself…

–H. Towell

Download the whole album as a zip file or click here for more downloading and streaming options.

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wh103 Audio Gourmet – Defying Science

C.P. McDill — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:38:28 +0000

Dark ambient, drone, musique concrete, field recordings, and orchestrated noise are all descriptions which easily fit this collection of quiet yet deep mood pieces. This is the third album on Webbed Hand by Audio Gourmet.

Download the whole album as a zip file or click here for other download and streaming options.

The track order:
01 Inner Monologue
02 Zephirus
03 Arcane Truth
04 Ancient Paean
05 Magnetic Implosion
06 Relic
07 Circa 1812
08 Sumerian Empire
09 An Uncertain Moment
10 Lament For An Extinct Species
11 Hollow Endeavour
12 Birth Of A Planet
13 Tomorrow’s Memory
14 Cries Of The Forlorn Machines
15 The Unseen Species

Recorded and Produced by H. Towell

Russ Burgess contributed field recordings and sounds to “Cries Of The Forlorn Machines.”

“Inner Monologue” also appears on Webbed Hand Presents String Ambient (wh101)

Download the whole album as a zip file or click here for other download and streaming options.

wh098 Audio Gourmet – Earth’s Exit Door

C.P. McDill — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:08:46 +0000

Audio Gourmet returns to Webbed Hand with a conceptual ambient album called Earth’s Exit Door. These very subtle soundscapes reveal a lot of detail the closer you listen.

Visit the download page to stream or download this album.

Recorded and produced by:
Audio Gourmet (H. Salsava)
Cover Illustration by Will Kelly
Length 00:44:03

01 Inverted Nucleus (08:25)
02 Artificial Intelligence (08:56)
03 Hydrogen (12:54)
04 The Mist Before Sunrise (06:11)
05 The Day Of The Tremor (07:37)

An explanation of the concepts of this album, by H. Salsava:

EARTH’S EXIT DOOR

“Check the sytem, reboot the brain. Re-install the software and continue with lifes game; just be sure to avoid Earth’s exit door…”

INVERTED NUCLEUS
An inverted nucleus created itself by accident or chance. They have no concept of being self aware; they are merely organic cell making engines.
Cell-making engines multiply and divide to create more complex life forms that are driven at the core by an inverted nucleus. A defected nucleus is unstable, because they have the inverse to a
rational DNA coding that would otherwise create a stable life form. This means, potentially, that two identical nuclei can be inverted and create totally different organic masses due to the complexity and nature of the DNA coding that has become irrationalised within the cell:
One inverted or defected nucleus could produce an organism that struggles to function in any way and will cease to exist, while the other will experience the opposite effects and the proteins
generated by this inverted DNA will create cells and biological functions that will thrive in harmony, thus giving birth to inverted life or ‘dark life’, as has become the popular term. If allowed to flourish, this dark life will seek out higher and greater goals as intelligence is evolved and will thus begin the quest to better itself, just as its brother, the original nucleus had already achieved.
This could well be the origin of life in the universe: if you could imagine a biological big-bang that created the first ever nucleus and DNA strands. Thus, just like the universe that acts as the womb for all life, ever destroying and creating itself in an infinity of big-bangs and big-crunches. Life cycles on within, on its own oscillating path of self creation and self destruction. Human beings, having evolved considerably through extensive mutation, are constantly searching for ways to escape this constant cycle and live in sustained harmony. Striving to keep the ‘exit door’ shut, if you will.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Ceasing to exist after only a brief ephemeral period of time is something of immense contention for humans, as they wish to remain on the planet and keep the ‘exit door’ shut. Others want to escape through the ‘exit door’, through a spiritual connection and live for eternity that way. Searching for a ‘higher source’.
Through means of science and research, we are able to understand more of our existence and are able to create ways of making it easier, and our goals more attainable. A created intelligence aids a life full of perplexing and menial problems/tasks; it is designed to alleviate some of life’s hardships. As humans, we realize how small our existence is and thrive to expand our perception in order to expand our knowledge and technology and potentially develop a solution to keeping the ‘exit door’ shut.

HYDROGEN
Water is an element SO crucial for sustaining the existence of any life-form. We all need it to stay hydrated, to stay hygienic and to stay healthy. This point cannot be emphasized enough; water is absolutely paramount for us to exist.
However, by complete contrast, it has wiped out hundreds of species in the form of regular ice-ages that destroy most living things. Ice is stored water, in frozen form. It is fascinating, that one of the most vital elements we require to exist can be equally as lethal to man-kind.

THE MIST BEFORE SUNRISE
‘The mist before sunrise’ is a metaphor for the human fear of the unknown. An unspecified quantity is the most daunting prospect for a human being. As humans, we like to accurately predict the outcomes in life and if the eventuality of something is clouded, we are not sure how to react.
We learn from our experiences, some of which are mistakes, so it is necessary for our development to confront them. Every discovery ever made will have entailed some element of risk. Sometimes, what may have seemed like a huge obstacle can turn out to be a worthwhile and positive discovery. An element of informed caution is of course to be taken on board, as
for each chance of a positive outcome, there is an equal chance of a negative one…

THE DAY OF THE TREMOR
It is amazing that a seemingly ‘perfect’ day can be mutilated into destruction by the means of a natural disaster. In one unpredictable fell swoop, our state of contentment can be wiped out completely. As advanced as the human race has developed, a natural disaster will wipe out our creations, possessions, experiments and ultimately, some of mankind.
Those who have not experienced an earthquake will struggle to fully empathize with those who have been affected by its grave consequences. It’s the survivors of such destruction that know the real value in life – to stay alive, breathing and at least staying clear of Earth’s Exit Door…

For more information about this artist, visit Audio Gourmet.

Visit the download page to stream or download this album.

wh091 Audio Gourmet – Rusted Dreams

C.P. McDill — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:17:58 +0000

Audio Gourmet appears on Webbed Hand for the first time with his latest ambient offering, an EP of two tracks called “Rusted Dreams.” These soft, dreamlike soundscapes elicit imaginative reveries.

Visit the download page to stream or download this release.

Recorded and produced by Audio Gourmet (H. Salsava)
01 A Stream of Lava (00:10:12)
02 Procrastinations (00:14:57)

An explanation of the tracks by the artist:

A STREAM OF LAVA:

If you’ve ever watched liquid trickling down-stream, you will notice that it doesn’t follow a straight-forward path. It changes direction randomly like dreams; like hallucinated thoughts pulling us away in various unconnected movements. That short, inching trickle of information will seemingly take hours of your subconscious time; yet with one fell swoop can change direction in an instant. The initial plot and story-line of your dreams are swapped sporadically for a new, more exciting destination of hallucinated thoughts.

PROCRASTINATIONS:

Dreams aren’t always subconscious sleep-scapes and dormant ideas. They can be conscious ambitions, hopes and objectives. With correct application, these can materialise into your reality. It is through procrastination that our dreams can eventually slip away as if you were clasping someone’s hand by the edge of a cliff. Drifting by into oblivion as each day passes.

Visit the artist homepage: Audio Gourmet.

Visit the download page to stream or download this release.