Our first compilation for 2008 presents a facet of ambient music that is often overlooked in favor of the more electronic or synthesized soundscapes. Here we have an eclectic collection of works featuring a broad variety string instruments, usually but not always treated to effects. In the artist credits below we’ve provided information about the instruments used, and you can see they range from the familiar to the exotic.

This compilation is divided into two parts, each with accompanying sleeve art so it can be burned to disks if you wish.

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*Disk A

01 Oil of Haemony – Beltaine Frost (04:04)
[ukulele, banjolele, effects]
www.wildmuse.net
www.myspace.com/arianadii

10 Audio Gourmet – Inner Monologue (07:14)
[guitar]
audiogourmet.blogspot.com/

Download this album as a zip file or visit the download page for other downloading and streaming options.

We at Webbed Hand hope you’ve been enjoying our many free albums. If from the kindness of your heart you’d like to give something to help us keep this label operating, we welcome you to donate securely using Paypal:

Somewhere in the spectrum between Musique Concrete and Phonography, is a vast gray area that is disowned and disputed by either side. This compilation treats this no-man’s land as its playground.

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Field recordings they are, with some processing, but not just walls of rhythmic noise. Sounds of nature, sounds of the city, using the non-instrumental rhythms and melodies of the source recording as the focal points, coaxing the music and beauty out of unplanned, un-orchestrated events. This 2-CD compilation was curated by Fred Yarm.

Curator’s Statement

The idea behind this compilation was to challenge phonographers and musicians to find a middle ground between their two crafts by sculpting field recordings into creative compositions without using traditional instrumentation (unless captured in the field). The terms passive to describe the phonographer’s process of capturing sound and active to describe the composer’s process were used; however, this sparked a great debate over how passive the phonographer’s craft is. In reality, phonography can be quite active in the choices of location and timing of the recordings, the placement and movement of the microphones, etc. However, in relative terms, the phonographer’s product is rarely as ordered as a musician’s composition and a composer’s product utilizes sounds that are generated for his or her specific purpose. This compilation allotted the artists the opportunity to find a middle ground in the realm of musique concrete.

The results that I received were astounding. The tracks represent everything from highly composed tracks telling stories or capturing the essence of far away locales to straight field recordings that the artist felt did not need any processing to demonstrate the beauty of the situation. Cracking ice on a lake, cicada songs, rusty gates, dripping water, moving trains, and a handful of other captured sounds provided the instrumental palettes for these compositions. Many thanks are to be given to the artists who accepted this challenge to coax such delightful music and beauty out of unplanned and un-orchestrated events. Their work far exceeded my expectations on many levels. In addition, I would like to thank C.P. McDill of Webbed Hand Records for his encouragement to initiate this compilation and for his efforts to see Far Afield into fruition.

-Frederic Yarm

Tracklist (Including URLs and contact info; this is a double-CD release):

First Disk

• A01. Quiet American – Khulna Station (for Andrew Raffo Dewar)

  http://www.quietamerican.org

• A02. Erick Gallun – Open Field Decay

  http://people.bu.edu/gallun

• A03. Lyndsey Cockwell – DWP

  http://www.lyndseycockwell.com

• A04. Don Bosco – Watching

  http://uk.geocities.com/dinnerdiscs

• A05. Doug Haire – The Hand Off
  http://doughaire.com
• A06. John Hanes – Tuscan Gate
  http://www.purelovepower.com
• A07. o.m.s. – n.m.a – format2002edit04m
  http://www.omsnma.be
• A08. Carlo Giordani – Valle Rossa

  http://www.johnroach.net/simultaneous/giordani_cv.html

• A09. John Roach – The Two Shades

  http://www.johnroach.net

• A10. Christopher Fleeger – Painting

  http://www.acousmatic.com

• A11. Direwires – Dayslumber via the Train
  http://www.direwires.com
• A12. devslashnull – Von Roll Grate System Test: 1984
  http://www.commtom.com
• A13. Raphael Lyon – Virginia Beach
  http://www.freematterfortheblind.com
• A14. Scott Smallwood – Basement Well
  http://music.princeton.edu/~skot
• A15. The Outsider – Aurora Storm
  
  xtheoutsiderx@hotmail.com
• A16. Angus Carlyle – The Sea Swells Again
  klf_book@yahoo.co.uk

Second Disk

• B01. Carlos Santos – Crossing Point

  http://www.granular.fm/–/a/carlossantos.php

• B02. Pete Stollery – Banchory Ears
  http://www.petestollery.com
• B03. Giuseppe Rapisarda – Dalla Finestra
  http://www.rapisarda.org/
• B04. HarS – SportNational
  http://soundblog.net/
• B05. Uveaele – Lava d’Or

  http://www.freewebs.com/plumbandplumber

• B06. Aaron Lewis – Long Pond 2/1 10am
  agileajl@gmail.com
• B07. Steve Bradley – SO2 Emission
  http://art-radio.net
• B08. Robert Horton – Insect Trust
  http://www.hoalrecords.com
• B09. Eric Bollman – 14th Street

  http://www.ericbollman.com

• B10. Davide Morelli – Foto.01

  http://www.davidemorelli.it

• B11. Thanos Chrysakis – Afar…Sounds Begin to Ooze

  http://www.stasisfield.com/artists/chrysakis.html

• B12. Martiensgohome – White Chapel Moose

  http://www.constantvzw.com/mgh/

• B13. Ambrose Pottie – Chainwash 16
  ambrosepottie@sympatico.ca
• B14. Seht – Death in Strip-mall
  http://www.dorkinglabs.com/seht.php
• B15. Archive – Imprint
  http://www.juniorbirdman.com/archive
• B16. Fred Yarm – Downspout Gamelon

  http://www2.ennui.net/~yarm

About the curator: Fred Yarm is a Boston-area experimental DJ, phonographer, theremin player, and sound artist. His discography and other information can be found on his website: http://www2.ennui.net/~yarm/

Visit the download page to stream or download this album.

We at Webbed Hand hope you’ve been enjoying our many free albums. If from the kindness of your heart you’d like to give something to help us keep this label operating, we welcome you to donate securely using Paypal:

Darkdrone Radio has regularly featured works by Webbed Hand artists in its rotation, and to show our appreciation for this abundance of promotion and exposure, we’re collaborating with Darkdrone to assemble this mix of new work and special edits of work already released.

Visit the download page to stream or download this album.

• 01 mayfairgrin – The Azulenic Cycle (edit)
• 02 Mystified – Heaves
• 03 Saluki Regicide – Coach and Six (remix)
• 04 Akashic Crow’s Nest – Nycticorax
• 05 spoonPhase – Lost Aquarium
• 06 Djinnestan – Rain 1 (edit)
• 07 Tree Helicopter – Ay Ulella (remix)
• 08 Mystified – Current Events
• 09 Saluki Regicide – To The Other Side (remix)
• 10 Djinnestan – Dirty Work
• 11 Mystified – Gibbet
• 12 Saluki Regicide – Mooring Mast (remix)
• 13 Tree Helicopter – Count Control Control 2
• 14 Akashic Crow’s Nest – Rain 1 (edit)

From the first few months of Webbed Hand’s existence as a netlabel, Darkdrone Radio (a popular netradio stream on Live365.com, now defunct) recognized its potential as a source of excellent sounds. Darkdrone has regularly featured works by Webbed Hand artists in its rotation, right in there alongside more prominent artists such as Rapoon, Vidna Obmana, and Brian Eno.

To show our appreciation for this abundance of promotion and exposure, we’ve collaborated with Darkdrone to assemble this mix of new work and special edits of work already released.

Visit the download page to stream or download this album.

We at Webbed Hand hope you’ve been enjoying our many free albums. If from the kindness of your heart you’d like to give something to help us keep this label operating, we welcome you to donate securely using Paypal:

“To Ancient Noise” is a compilation of manipulated environmental sounds. Whether field recordings, found sounds, radio snippets, or other odd recorded artifacts of audio, these elements are worked by sound artists in interesting and often startling ways.

Visit the download page to stream or download this album.

In some cases the sounds may not be processed much at all, but are rather selected for their rhythmic virtues. In other cases, sounds have been layered and effected into lush and alien soundscapes, dark and mysterious.

With but a few samples, artists can immerse listeners in dreamy escapist paradises, or harsh dehumanized dystopias. The tracks on this compilation were made with captured and found sounds. The artists were allowed to layer and process them with digital and/or analogue effects, but were requested to use no synthesizers or other conventional instruments.

Lest the idea be gotten that I think this compilation intends to be innovative or avant-garde, allow me to put that to rest. Manipulation of found sounds is a well-entrenched “tradition” in the audio arts, dating back in practice to the advent of magnetic tape, in the 1930s, and decades earlier than that in theory. What I want to show is that it is still going strong, continuing to evolve and mutate as new technologies enable new possibilities (and sounds to discover).

1. brekekekexkoaxkoax – Kayeets Charak Zamar
2. aodl – Attacking it With a Fork, Edition 3
3. Fred Yarm – Cats Eye bath Tub
4. Saluki Regicide – Stinging Nettle
5. Spagirus – Jasna Beat
6. Naturhistorische Museum der Klänge – Wrakhout
7. mystified – Ghosts of the Band
8. thE sounD of dirT – Dark
9. Djinnestan – A Trickle
10. Rafael Flores – Domestic
11. Kava Project – From Earth to Rust
12. forma – the spanish collage
13. C. Reider – vian ii-v
14. David Leith – Bottle Cart Etude
15. Tree Helicopter – Kiwi
16. Ronnie Cramer – Machinist Cavatina
17. J. Dippold – The Pot That Called The Kettle Back
18. Onemancult – Untitled

Visit the download page to stream or download this album.

We at Webbed Hand hope you’ve been enjoying our many free albums. If from the kindness of your heart you’d like to give something to help us keep this label operating, we welcome you to donate securely using Paypal: