Hawk Moon Records Volume III

http://hawkmoonrecords.bandcamp.com/album/hawk-moon-records-volume-iii
Spheruleus piece 'Under Respite Vision' is featured on Hawk Moon's third compilation installment:

PRESS RELEASE:

For our third Hawk Moon compilation, we charged a small band of selected artists with the brief of creating ‘music to sleep to’. If you look right back to the very roots of ambient and drone music, this idea is something that’s been explored many times over the years. Not striving for mere cliché, we wanted to give a current crop of artists the chance to express themselves with this oft-explored theme. We wondered what new techniques and textures might crop up and if our chosen few would draw influence from sounds explored previously for this conceptual venture.
Often in works such as these, the sound is drawn out to allow the subtle nuances of a drone to develop and activate the subconscious; an ideal state of mind for drifting off to sleep. So to avoid any timeframe issues in the curating process, we kept the list of artists approach to an absolute minimum, thus allowing them the time to work on something a little longer, if necessary. Most selected mid length pieces, some put a shorter slant on their work and somehow, the compilation has turned out to be exactly CD length.
We hope you enjoy listening to this collection of sleepy soundscapes, whether subconsciously or otherwise…

credits

released 17 September 2012
Artwork by Lauren Honey

Spheruleus - The Late Surge Of Gold [Analogpath]

http://analogpath.com/main/spheruleus-2/

Copies are still available at the time of writing, from the link above. Digital version coming soon

The Late Surge of Gold was composed specifically for Analogpath,

recorded during last year’s Indian Summer in the UK, a phenomenon in

which the sun shines deep into autumn. This is an album which

documents warm and hazy summer, the bright sunshine that extends

through autumn before eventually descending into the cold of winter.

The sounds are a typical example of Spheruleus’ work, pooling together

fragile acoustic recordings from the artist’s instrument collection.

They are joined by field recordings, static and subtle drones which

amount to a lo-fi pastoral tale, unfolding the full spectrum of

seasonal colours from the warmth of yellow and orange, fading slowly

to grey and darkness.

Artwork by Johan Söderberg, except from the image which features a

building. This was taken by Harry Towell on holiday in the Peak

District at the height of the Indian Summer.

Ekca Liena and Spheruleus - Mapping The Boundary Layer [Home Normal]

www.homenormal.com

Mapping the Boundary Layer is the fruits of a collaboration between Ekca Liena and I, first established back in 2009. It took place after I remixed a piece of his work for a planned remix album which never came to be. Dan of Ekca Liena liked my remix so much that we spent the following two years talking about a possible collaboration album of our combined sounds. For one reason or another, nothing took place until eventually, things started to click and we started creating atmospheric tracks influenced by the weather.
It was released on the mighty Home Normal label in a run of 500 digipack copies, still available to purchase from some places, if you do a bit of searching.  Digital copies can also be obtained from various distributors including iTunes.

We all agreed to do something different for the press release and presented it as a sort of interview, conducted by Home Normal boss Ian Hawgood:

IAN: Hello lads

DAN: Good morning Ian…

HARRY: Good morrow sir.

IAN: What exactly is ‘mapping the boundary layer’ then?

DAN: Well in atmospheric terms it’s basically the bottom, the section closest to the earth… essentially the part of the atmosphere in which we live and experience the different weather systems first hand. The inspiration for the music and textures on the album came from the concept of exploring or tracing a thread through these weather systems, through the turbulence and serenity of the air around us. As well as the environmental field recordings, a direct and blatant link to the subject matter at hand, the music plays a significant part in representing the abstract sense of drama some associate with the changing weather. That strange, oppressive tension of a gathering storm; the contented lushness of a spring breeze rolling through the willows…

HARRY: Absolutely on the nose Dan - there’s really not a lot to add to that!

IAN: How did the collaboration start?

HARRY: It began after Dan had approached me about doing a remix/collaborating with him 3 years ago. The eventual piece became what is now Summing Elements and formed the start of our project. We did leave it though for an awfully long time - I guess we picked it back up in early 2011 and from there it all came together from nowhere, it seemed. Although we never wanted to rush it and were prepared to take as long a necessary, we managed to strike a natural flow and bounced off one another really well. I’m sure I can speak for us both in saying that some collaborations can be difficult to establish and carry through but this, it just seemed to happen. And smoothly, at that!

 IAN: There’s a heck of a lot going on in the album…what gear did you use if you don’t mind me asking?

HARRY: I always use my collection of acoustic instruments as the main ingredient in my work and it was no different here. When I received work from Dan, I’d add zither, violin, harmonica, ukulele, voice, glockenspiel etc - whatever worked. Then on the most part, I’d use some effects to get them sounding how I wanted and then passed the whole thing back to Dan. So it was literally just cheap or second hand acoustic instruments, a mic and a laptop from my end. I’m also well into using radio static, tape hiss and vinyl crackle too. I’ve a lot of samples recorded from real sources on my hard-drive and I’m always recycling them or adding to the collection. So this is also a prominent feature in the album.

IAN: The artwork is fantastic. Can you tell me a bit about it?

DAN: Harry sourced this image from an artist friend of his I believe, it’s exactly what I’d imagined when we were creating the album.

HARRY: Yeah, at around the time Dan and I re-established this project last year, I got an email from a Swedish artist called Johan who expressed an interest in working with me. He sent just a couple of images and this one just fit with our vision perfectly. It’s a painting that he made late one night when struggling to sleep. It kept him up for hours and was a real labour of love - it’s a special picture that really gets our concept of atmospheric weather conditions across, with its textured stormy aesthetic.

It can be viewed in two ways, from what I get from it. You can either imagine that it is a stormy sea, with a big sweeping wave or it looks like an overhead view of mountain-tops during a heavy storm.

All music by Ekca Liena and Spheruleus 
Mastered by Ian Hawgood 
Cover art by Johan Soderberg

Tracklist:
01 Apparatus and Installation
02 Enclosed Low
03 Windwards
04 Advection
05 Landspouts
06 Scrambling Radiosonde
07 Fog Bound
08 Summing Elements
09 Derecho Belt
10 Storm Waning / Calm Warning

Spheruleus - Revolving Fields [Rural Colours]

http://music.audiogourmet.co.uk/track/revolving-fields


"Revolving Fields is a single long form piece composed with the idea of an imaginary time lapse film, focussing on active farm land. Over its duration, the sped-up video footage would document the changes in appearance to agricultural fields. Carefully prepared soil turns to slowly germinating seeds, which grow to larger crops before being harvested. Then back again, ready for the cycle to repeat itself. A shift in weather patterns and a clearly visible change of colour tones blend seamlessly into one. Browns to greens to gold and then back again. Revolving fields, never static. Always changing form." 



released on Rural Colours, July 2012  
www.ruralcolours.co.uk
All instruments performed and produced by Harry Towell 
Artwork by Johan Soderberg 
Mastered by Jason Corder

Spheruleus - Cyanometry [Tessellate Recordings]

The cyanometer is a circular measuring instrument made from graduating shades of blue, originally created as means to measure the blueness of the sky. It was invented in the late 1700s by Horace Benedict de Saussore to assist his studies and fascination with the sky. He correctly supposed that the level of blueness visible in the sky was as a result of the amount of suspended particles present in the atmosphere.
In recent times, not much has been written about cyanometry and a quick scour of the internet will yield you little in the way of further reading. 

It was on a particularly crisp blue day, the sort that would have had Saussore engaged, cyanometer at the ready when Harry Towell (Spheruleus) happened upon the concept for his latest project. He embarked on a long walk through the surrounding countryside in Lincolnshire, UK with the intention of drawing inspiration for a new body of work.
He had hoped that the quiet farmland, trees, fields and electricity pylons would provide the spark required to propell his work with sound yet on that day, it was the sky that fixated him and thus Cyanometry was born.


Back in the studio, Harry set about weaving his collection of acoustic instruments into his usual style of rustic melancholy. Inspired and fresh from his walk with a theme in mind, he allowed the resulting lo-fi sounds to retain their melodic properties and set them against a backdrop of noise, radio interference and vinyl crackle.
Field recordings taken during the walk and at other locations filter into the mix; an old lady pushes her trolley through the backstreets of a sleepy village, ice cracks under foot on a cold morning and the cogs and gears of a bicycle turn, all the while permeated by fragments of forgotten radio broadcasts.
The final stage of the recording process saw Harry team up with work colleague and piano owner Neil Winning to round off this set of short recordings with an additional element.
After a short period of tweaking, the final outcome was married with track titles to reflect the varying moods of the sky. 

TESSELLATE RECORDINGS 
www.tessellate-recordings.com

credits

released 12 July 2012
Recorded and produced by Harry Towell
Piano by Neil Winning
Cover photo by Paul Randall
Artwork by Harry Towell
Additional photography by Harry and Baz Towell

Instruments used:
Piano, classical guitar, violin, duduk, ukulele, harmonica, glockenspiel, trumpet, bugel and keyboard

Bonus remixes by Tom Honey, Hummingbird and Harry Towell. Remix photography by Harry Towell and Hummingbird

CD print design by: Christian Roth

Pleq & Spheruleus - Quietus Gradualis [Time Released Sound]

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of collaborating with Pleq again, as we had done on the 'A Silent Swaying Breath' album. We were invited by Time Released Sound to create work to spread across two 3" CDRs as part of their special chocolate box series, with Colin from the label creating unique artworks for packaging. There were two editions on offer in limited supply, the primary being an insane and elaborate edition of 80 which have since sold out. The took the form of a pop-art inspired game, complete with pieces, also housing both discs containing our contribution to the series.
The second version of pairs both tracks onto a 5" CD, contained within a wallet. This is still available to order (at the time of writing) from Time Released Sound:
http://timereleasedsound.com/shop/releases/pleqspheruleus-picture-sleeve/

Sound wise, Pleq and I worked hard to create two slowly developing soundscapes, full of subtle detail and accompanied by a helping of tape hiss. The theme for the project and concept behind the titling is centred around the slow and gradual process of decay and disintegration. The sounds condense this lengthy journey that all objects, buildings and people are subjected to as a simple existence is slowly warped and changed by the hands of time. The two individual tracks are titled to reflect the different angles of this process. Apologue refers to the stories, legends and folklore that rise from the passing of something. The folky feel to the track swells and falls to indicate the changes that the story carries with it. Slowly with time, it becomes diluted.
Vestiges refers to the physical evidence that remains; things that are left behind and refuse to disappear completely. This piece is consequently much deeper and contains a gritty power to it. You can listen to a sample here:

[escala 2:3] vv.aa. – escala 2.3

http://escalared.com/archives/651

A massive three part compilation album with some of the finest names in the scene, completely free!

Some of you may be familiar with the Escala netlabel and others may have noticed the Sismografo Spanish national radio program that regularly hosts shows featuring top quality experimental music. I was honoured to be invited to get in on the action and teamed up with American artist Jared Smyth, whose recent work on new Japanese label ANALOGPATH has been one of my personal year highlights from 2012. Our short piece is called Transignal and is the starting point for a collaboration EP that will be available for free on Audio Gourmet later this year.

PRESS RELEASE:

escala 2.3 is a joint project between Escala netlabel and Sismógrafo Radio3. A massive release divided into three volumes which brings together many of the best ambient, drone, soundscape and electroacustic music producers.
A unique compilation to keep abreast of the latest proposals in advanced music that presents a matchless quality among the experimental scene, both because of the artists who make it up and of the included unreleased tracks.

Recent Spheruleus remixes

Over the last twelve months I've managed to make a few remix appearances that have as yet gone unmentioned on here. I thought it would be worth bunching them together on a post so that you can check them out and also get yourself acquainted with the rest of the albums that they appear on.

I'm always keen to remix material so if anyone out there needs something reworking for a release, please get in touch here:
audiogourmet(at)gmail(dot)com

JOSCO - 0611 (Spheruleus Version)

So to kick this post off, most recently I had a remix go out on Somehow Recordings, as part of this remix album for Josco's 0611 EP out last year on the same label. It has been renamed Khan Tam - ngan - Roum Kan and has only just been released this week. For now, without an available digital copy, you'll have to act fast to get a copy of the CD from the label:
http://www.somehowrecordings.co.uk/page16.html
Other remixers include Shaula, Alessio Ballerini, Nobuto Suda, Joshua Carro, Damian Valles, Mushy and Fernando Carvalho
PLEQ AND LAUKI - XII (Spheruleus Remix)

Also on Somehow Recordings and out earlier this year, I was invited by my friends Pleq and Mikel Lauki to remix a piece from their The Anatomy Of Melancholy album. I'm in good company, with other remixes from Offthesky, Antonymes and Maps and Diagrams. The disc sold out fast, but you can still get yourself a full digital version at the above link.


y0t0 - URIARRA ROAD (Spheruleus Remix)
Released in July last year, this remix of y0t0 (one half of Hessien) came out on Fac-Ture as a digital only release. Fac-Ture is a label run by Fluid Radio boss Daniel Crossley and is curated as exquisitely as both the posts on Fluid Radio and the music sold in its Stashed Goods store.
I'm also delighted to join a roster of remixers consisting of Jasper TX, Seaworthy, Field Rotation, Relmic Statute, Ghosting Season, Downliners Sekt
The album is still available for all at a measly £2 and if you still can't stretch to that, my remix is on offer for just 30p.

A preview of what's to come...

Here's a sneak preview of a new project for 2012, that will mark the first release on my new label Tessellate Recordings. The first album is a lo-fi Spheruleus record that pits ten melodic pieces on a bed of noise and static. It is themed around the Cyanometer, which is an instrumnt designed to measure the level blueness of the sky. The album will be available this July in a highly limited edition run of 50, plus a digital version.

PRESS RELEASE:

The cyanometer is a circular measuring instrument made from graduating shades of blue, originally created as means to measure the blueness of the sky. It was invented in the late 1700s by Horace Benedict de Saussore to assist his studies and fascination with the sky. He correctly supposed that the level of blueness visible in the sky was as a result of the amount of suspended particles present in the atmosphere.
 In recent times, not much has been written about cyanometry and a quick scour of the internet will yield you little in the way of further reading.

It was on a particularly crisp blue day, the sort that would have had Saussore engaged, cyanometer at the ready when Harry Towell (Spheruleus) happened upon the concept for his latest project. He embarked on a long walk through the surrounding countryside in Lincolnshire, UK with the intention of drawing inspiration for a new body of work.
 He had hoped that the quiet farmland, trees, fields and electricity pylons would provide the spark required to propell his work with sound yet on that day, it was the sky that fixated him and thus Cyanometry was born.

Back in the studio, Harry set about weaving his collection of acoustic instruments into his usual style of rustic melancholy. Inspired and fresh from his walk with a theme in mind, he allowed the resulting lo-fi sounds to retain their melodic properties and set them against a backdrop of noise, radio interference and vinyl crackle.
 Field recordings taken during the walk and at other locations filter into the mix; an old lady pushes her trolley through the backstreets of a sleepy village, ice cracks under foot on a cold morning and the cogs and gears of a bicycle turn, all the while permeated by fragments of forgotten radio broadcasts.
 The final stage of the recording process saw Harry team up with work colleague and piano owner Neil Winning to round off this set of short recordings with an additional element.
 After a short period of tweaking, the final outcome was married with track titles to reflect the varying moods of the sky.

For those new to the Spheruleus sound, Lincolnshire (UK) based artist Harry Towell has been releasing experimental material since 2008 on labels such as Hibernate, Under The Spire, Time Released Sound and most recently a collaboration with Ekca Liena on Home Normal.
 When he is not manipulating frequencies whether acoustic or otherwise, Harry spends his spare time curating netlabel Audio Gourmet and now its new sister label Tessellate Recordings.

Tessellate Recordings specialises in issuing hand-made limited edition CDrs and accompanying digital versions, releasing albums just a few times a year.
 'Cyanometry' is available in a limited run of just 50 copies, with the first 20 sold featuring a hand-stamped tessellating hexagonal pattern in different shades of sky tones. The remaining copies are plain recycled card with hand-stamped titling. Inside is a disc containing the album with printed artwork designed by Christian Roth of Resting Bell, the album tracklist and credits, a 4x4 photographic print of the album artwork as well as a unique image taken just for you.
 Also, there will be a handwritten thankyou note.

TSR01 Spheruleus - Cyanometry will be released on 12th July 2012. It will be available to pre-order 2-4 weeks before the release date.
TESSELLATE RECORDINGS www.tessellate-recordings.com

Credits

 released 12 July 2012
Recorded and produced by Harry Towell
Piano by Neil Winning
Cover photo by Paul Randall
Artwork by Harry Towell
Additional photography by Harry and Baz Towell

Instruments used:
Piano, classical guitar, violin, duduk, ukulele, harmonica, glockenspiel, trumpet, bugel and keyboard

PREVIEW TRACKLIST:
01 Blue Cast
02 Sky's The Limit
03 Blueprints
04 Horizon
05 Inhibition
06 Scattered Light
07 Suspended Particles
08 Lined With Silver
09 White
10 A Grey End To A Blue Day

Pleq / Hiroki Sasajima / Spheruleus - Time and Language [Felt]

http://digital.feltcollective.com/album/time-language

I'm proud and honoured to have my very first vinyl release, courtesy of Felt, a label run by my friend Byron. It is a long distance collaborative project between Pleq, Hiroki Sasajima and I, called 'Time and Language' mastered by Taylor Deupree.

PRESS RELEASE:

The third instalment of Felt welcome's three upcoming artists on a really special collaboration project. Pleq, Hiroki Sasajima and Spheruleus manage to overcome the sheer geographic distance that lies between them to produce a really wonderful studio album.

Pleq and Hiroki Sasajima are from bustling capital cities; Warsaw and Tokyo respectively, which has naturally had an impact on their sound.Whilst Spheruleus is from a quiet Lincolnshire town in the UK,surrounded by farmland. As a result of the inspiration drawn from
their different environments, the solo output from these three artists is all quite different, with Pleq exploring glitch, drone and sometimes downtempo styles, Hiroki working mainly with field recordings and digital processes and Spheruleus focussing on acoustic instruments.

Whilst it took several months for the three artists to
craft the final outcome, the listener gets a sense of not a studio album but rather a live improvised session. The sound is compound as if they were all in the same room performing together and yet you can clearly distinguish the three different approaches of sound design, overlapping and yet never barricade each other. The tracks are inspired by the language barrier and obviously the physical distance between the artists, and are named after a certain time of day that everybody in the world experiences, irrespective of timezone or language differences. Almost as if they are trying to capture various everyday life emotions and transcode them to a non-language, universal and appealing form. The oneness and
togetherness of music.

Throughout this record, Hiroki Sasajima's field recordings and drones are carefully adapted by Pleq with the addition of gentle drones and glitching textures, with Spheruleus weaving in subtle acoustic sounds using his instrument collection. Together, three far-flung sound artists have created a short and beautifully cohesive selection of moods, designed for the turntable and beyond.

 

All tracks written & produced by Bartosz Dziadosz,Hiroki Sasajima & Harry Towell

Mastering by Taylor Deupree
Album cover by Nefelie Pd
Drawing by Ioannis Fanariotis

Felt / 3           

Spheruleus - Dissolve

http://music.audiogourmet.co.uk/album/dissolve

SIDE A: Retreat (21:31)

SIDE B: Dissolve (20.19)

In his first solo release since last year's 'Voyage' album on Hibernate, Spheruleus gets the year up and running with this pair of longform pieces called 'Dissolve'.Dissolve is currently a digital only release, presented as a vinyl or tape set with two 'sides'.Both pieces are continuous longform tracks, culled from a wide pool of instruments including guitar, violin, cello, harmonica, vibraphone, french horn, piano and voice. The instrument sounds are blurred into a swirling collage, accompanied by light shards of noise, radio static and field recordings.The cover artwork was provided by photographer Richard Outram, (who also did the artwork for Voyage) and then treated with a canvas effect to make it look like a painting of what would (at first) be the artist's ideal home.

Harry Towell, the man behind the Spheruleus moniker has recently been residing in a living space for a short time, which has for some unknown reason been less than inspiring. He is due to move soon, which got him thinking about the time he has spent living in his current home and how his musical creativity has been hindered by it. He pondered upon what would be the most ideal place to live in terms of inspiring creativity and immediately recalled Richard Outram's beautiful photograph of an isolated house against a backdrop of mountains on the Llyn Peninsula in Wales.The area is very much untouched and the houses are scattered sparsely.Soon, thoughts turned to how such a place of isolation may eventually induce a despairing loneliness despite its obvious beauty. In turn, this gave Harry the inspiration to make the most of his current living space and overcome his hindered productivity with one last creative surge before he moves to pastures new.

Aside from this, the rest is left wide open for individual interpretation and it is hoped that the imagery and titles evoke thoughts that each listener can relate to themselves.There are currently no plans for a physical issue of 'Dissolve'. However, if you're a label interested in releasing it then please get in touch here audiogourmet@gmail.com

Credits

released 24 February 2012

All sounds recorded and arranged by Harry Towell

Photography by Richard Outram

Photo editing by Harry Towell

Spheruleus - Voyage [Hibernate Records]

http://store.hibernate-recs.co.uk/products/12687

'Voyage' is the latest album from Lincolnshire based sound designer Harry Towell. Released under his Spheruleus guise, this album utimately provides a soundtrack to a doomed sea-voyage. Through eight different movements, 'Voyage' chronicles everything from the immense pride felt as the ship sets sail to depicting the horror and heartache of its sinking. The album then closes with detailed passages that portray the decomposition of the ship as it begins to rot deep under sea.

This album is well researched with Harry having explored his chosen subject thoroughly. For the two years in which the album has been in the making, the young sound designer studied the history of great sea disasters and also took inspiration from soundtracks such as Gavin Bryars’ ‘The Sinking Of The Titanic’ and Gareth Hardwick's 'Of The Sea And Shore'. Although the Titantic's infamous fate was naturally a strong influence on the project, 'Voyage', does not refer to any particular sinking ship. Instead, its purpose is to sonically depict the various emotional aspects that lie within a failed sea voyage, as felt by all those who are affected by it.

Once the concept for 'Voyage' had been born, Harry revisited one of his old demos from early 2010 and decided to make this the spine of the album. He then used his instrument collection including; guitar, violin, trumpet, bugle, zither and keyboard to add several layers to the demo. In doing so Harry has been able to develop his chosen theme and create the character required to turn this forgotten treasure into the album it is today. As a poignant exaggeration of the events that unfold through the track 'She Sinks', there is a contribution from Russian pianist Alex Tiuniaev that opens and closes this dramatic track. He also performs on the track 'Clouds Swarm', as it heads into a crescendo.

Aside from his solo production work, Harry also records with brother Stuart under the name Paper Relics and runs the Audio Gourmet netlabel, which specialises in 15 minute EPs designed for shorter 'tea-break' listening. His work as Spheruleus has seen him release through netlabels such as Test Tube, Resting Bell, Earth Mantra, Audio Gourmet and in March 2010, his first physical album 'Frozen Quarters' was released on CD format by the Under The Spire imprint.

Mastered by Rudi Arapahoe at Purgatory Mastering

Photography by Richard Outram and Daniel Crossley
Design by Jonathan Lees

Limited edition CD pressing of 200. Released 07/10/11

INTERVIEW:

http://www.tokafi.com/15questions/interview-spheruleus/

You can find out a lot more about this album through this interview on Tokafi. It covers the thoughts behind the project, the sounds and ideas that helped create it and lots more...

REVIEWS:

The Silent Ballet:

http://thesilentballet.com/dnn/Home/tabid/36/ctl/Details/mid/384/ItemID/4496/Default.aspx

Fluid Radio: http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2011/09/spheruleus-voyage/

Was Ist Das?:http://www.wasistdas.co.uk/voyage.htm

Beach Sloth: http://beachsloth.blogspot.com/2011/11/spheruleus-voyage-71.html

To Eleven: http://toeleven.net/tag/spheruleus/

Zen Effects: http://zeneffects.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/spheruleus-voyage/

MIX:

In conjunction with the release of Voyage, Spheruleus has made a mix featuring some of his favourite nautical themed tracks. You can stream it here:

Marine Broadcast by Spheruleus on Mixcloud

Various Artists - Just A Moment

http://music.audiogourmet.co.uk/album/just-a-moment

Following March's earthquake in Japan, there has been great progress in the on-going rebuilding project but still, much work remains. So Bartosz Dziadosz (Pleq) and I (Harry Towell) decided that we would put together something special to be released through Audio Gourmet to raise money for the cause and donations will be sent via Ian Hawgood, who's wife is currently working directly with some of the people affected.

There have already been some excellent compilations put together that have raised hundreds of pounds for Japan, including Kanshin, For Nihon and 31 Songs For Japan to name but a few.
We wanted to try and do something too and between the two of us, we invited 60 artists to each put together a short track of roughly a minute in length.
As a result, we've collected a global effort of short pieces spanning many of the sub-genres that make up what some might call ambient music. It fits perfectly in line with the Audio Gourmet aesthetic and is perhaps a shining example of the sorts of sounds we seek to release within our 15 minute EP section.

Conceptually, the sixty 'moments' that make up this hour-long compilation album fit together neatly with the intention of stretching out your recess periods from 15 minutes to an hour. The netlabel section of Audio Gourmet is specifically for short 'working' tea breaks, when time is of the essence. The Just A Moment compilation has been put together for when you have the time to enjoy a longer tea break and the quick changes of the many tracks should see that your listening experience remains a conscious one throughout the hour...

released 29 July 2011
Curated and compiled by Harry Towell (Spheruleus) and Bartosz Dziadosz (Pleq)

Mastered by Byron Felt (Felt Collective)

Artwork by Gerry McDermott

1 Marihiko Hara And PolarM – Forgotten Constellation
2 Fraqsea – Crayon
3 Alvari Lume – Untitled
4 Spheruleus – Untitled #1
5 Darren Harper – A Moment For You
6 Damian Valles – Old Sol
7 Elintseeker – Reja
8 Flica – Don't Weep

9 Tone Color - Less Than A Minute
10 The Green Kingdom – Rashida
11 Offthesky – All Not Said
12 Duncan Ó Ceallaigh – Scapa Flow
13 Paper Relics – Kindling
14 Jacaszek – Window
15 Bartosz Dziadosz And Shintaro Aoki – Wake Up
16 Talvihorros – Hallowed

17 Lauki – Form
18 Widesky – Zephyr Studies
19 Antonymes – Alone And Adrift
20 Lights Dim – *

21 Strom Noir – Milk Dream
22 Alex Tiuniaev – Even If
23 Visionary Hours – The Return Of Basho
24 Segue – An Open Space
25 Silencio – The Escapist

26 Gimu – Oboe
27 Mark Harris – Lost
28 Listening Mirror – Guitar Improv No.2 (Excerpt)
29 Hakobune – A Lamppost
30 Philippe Lamy – The Photo I Took

31 Félicia Atkinson – Poings Serrés

32 Specta Ciera – Scattered Papers
33 Josco – Fluxus
34 Leonardo Rosado – Passing By
35 Shotahirama – Self Reference Engine
36 Philippe Petit – Coffea Cymbalum

37 Hiroki Sasajima And Ami Yamasaki – A Dream The Vapor Have
38 Nicolas Bernier – Untitled

39 Quinn Walker – Iceboxes
40 Hior Chronik – Your Inner
41 Monolyth & Cobalt – Estampes
42 Szymon Kaliski – Of A Fraction
43 Byron Felt – Repeat
44 Wil Bolton – Charcoal
45 Deep Into Perspectives – Flickering Lights
46 Julien Demoulin – Inertia
47 The Inventors Of Aircraft – Before Light
48 Bengalfuel – Snakes
49 Raül Fuentes – Les Partícules Magnètiques
50 Spyweirdos – A Track With Small Duration But Not Small Title
51 Field Rotation – April
52 Dentist – Metals
53 Pjusk – Dieseldyr
54 Danny Clay – Nocturne
55 Tim Noble – A Symphony Of Exit Signs: Adagio
56 Yukitomo Hamasaki - Abstr P No03
57 David Velez – 3600
58 Alex Durlak – Architectural Boat Tour
59 Autistici – Type G (Edit)
60 Hajimeinoue – Permeation

Various Artists - Kanshin

WWW.KANSHIN.CO.UK

Kanshin is a two CD compilation album that presents a collection of sound design work from some of the scene's finest artists from across the globe. It has been put together to raise money for the current recovery in Japan following March's earthquake.

As the sensationalist media broadcasters find other things to talk about in the news, a huge recovery operation is still on-going as we speak. Many people have lost everything. So we decided to put together Kanshin so that via Ian Hawgood, 100% of profit from compilation sales will go directly towards the Japan recovery and on-going relief efforts. Ian lives in Japan and his wife is currently working with both the Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support organisation (JEARS)
in Sendai and surrounding areas, as well as the Direct Help for Victims and Animals Rejected from Shelters in Japan group who are going up to areas which are not receiving government support for food, water, basic
supplies, as well as rebuilding and cleaning up. By this means they are able to transport food, clothing and aid directly almost every other weekend and during holidays to areas which are not getting enough or any support.
Ian's wife has also arranged a house as a base in Sendai for volunteers and a temporary home for found animals who are then moved on through JEARS either to foster homes or animal centres. We felt that any funds we can send this way would probably have more of an immediate impact than donating via one of the larger UK charities.

Ian himself has contributed to the compilation in a collaboration with Peter Jørgensen and through 3 hours and some 30 tracks, the line up that comprises this album is surely as exciting as it gets...

Kanshin is curated by Daniel Crossley (Fluid Radio/Fluid
Audio/Facture) and Jonathan Lees (Hibernate/Rural Colours), with invaluable assistance from Ian Hazeldine (Cover art), Wil Bolton (Mastering) and Damian Valles (Digital distribution). This release is made possible by the generosity of all of the artists involved.

TRACKLIST:

1. Clem Leek: Light Passage II (Grief)
2. Hummingbird: Dancing Shadows
3. Relmic Statute: Lopery
4. Scissors and Sellotape: Heal
5. P Jørgensen & Ian Hawgood: Isles
6. Wil Bolton: Lost In Transit
7. Field Rotation: A Pondering Silence
8. Caught In The Wake Forever: LiaFail (At Dawn)
9. Damian Valles: Clime
10. Library Tapes: May (Variation)
11. Yellow6: Repeat
12. Maps & Diagrams with Yvat: Again
13. Felicia Atkinson: Chaleur Vacante
14. Hessien: Flightless And Nocturnal
15. Yann Novak: 3 Surfaces Excerpt
16. Offthesky With Ten And Tracer: Therapy Refuge
17. Orla Wren With Katie English: Swallowtail Yellow
18. The Moving Dawn Orchestra: We’re Here
19. Spheruleus: Residue
20. The Silence Set: So Will Everything We Love
21. Aaron Martin & Machinefabriek: Utsutsu
22. Szymon Kaliski: And Longing
23. Jeremy Bible & Jason Henry: Grainslip
24. Bengalfuel: Gorgon
25. David Newlyn: Landscape (III)
26. Tom White: Bright Rooms
27. Listening Mirror: The Cause Of It All
28. Talvihorros – Perigee
29. Alex Durlak: Bellows
30. Antonymes: Kiotsuketene
31. Kyle Bobby Dunn: Britannia Into Morning

"In The Bleak Wilderness Of Sleep" (Compilation featuring a Spheruleus track)

http://music.audiogourmet.co.uk/album/in-the-bleak-wilderness-of-sleep

1. Michael Trommer - Pushing Through Gray

2. Simon Whetham - Cold Shoulder (Part 1.2)

3. D'Incise - Octobre-Septembre

4. James McDougall - Scarborough

5. Specta Ciera - Under Cool Air

6. Deep Into Perspectives - Home

7. Francisco Lopez - Untitled #264

8. Spheruleus - Overcast

9. Small Things On Sundays - Harbour

10. Philip Sulidae - Aher

11. Natalia Noelia Siebuła & Bartosz Dziadosz - Ótta og kvíða

12. Julien Demoulin - Dull Ache

"As well as curating and putting together this compilation album to celebrate Audio Gourmet's first birthday, I've taken the time to put together a Spheruleus track for it. It's pretty intense; dark and brooding. It was recorded using guitar, violin, radio and vinyl static and voice."

BLURB:

On the 17th of May 2011, Audio Gourmet is precisely a year old. To celebrate this, we have been busy putting together a couple of compilation albums. One of which is 'In The Bleak Wilderness Of Sleep' available for purchase here as either a multi-format digital album or as a limited edition CDr. The compilation features 12 tracks from some of the globe's most talented sound-designers. It is a subtly rewarding headphone listen from start to finish; curated and ordered to purposefully induce a state of sleep. Starting off minimally, gradually gathering tone and atmosphere, the experience goes on without ever boiling over or reaching a crescendo. Parts of the album are light and restful whereas traces of it tread darker territory. All in all, the imagery that the album conjurs sits perfectly as a soundtrack to the dreams one experiences during a nights sleep.

The artwork was put together by French artist Eric Lacombe (Monstror) who some may remember for his cover art collaborations for Spheruleus releases in the past. Here for 'In The Bleak Wilderness Of Sleep', his surreal imagery lends itself perfectly to this mysterious dream invoking soundtrack.

The limited edition CDr release comes housed inside a recycled card case with the cover artwork slipped inside and printed to photographic paper. Along with a CDr copy of the album itself, the tracklist will be printed to high quality salmon coloured paper/card. On the front, the album title will be rubber stamped in brown ink and on the back, the Audio Gourmet logo will be cut out by lazers. It will be hand-numbered in brown pen and limited to 200 copies.

*The first 50 copies will include a second bonus image, taken by select friends and photographers. These include: Gerry McDermott, Harry Towell, James McDougall, Peter Nejedly, Seth Chrisman, Simon Whetham and Stuart Towell.

Everyone who purchases the CD version will be entitled to a free and instant digital copy of the album. For those that wish to purchase a digital only version, this can be obtained as usual through the Audio Gourmet Bandcamp account.

Spheruleus - Forgotten Outland (Resting Bell)

SPHERULEUS - FORGOTTEN OUTLAND

Resting Bell, February 2011

Description
The sound-art of Spheruleus is produced by British artist Harry Towell with a previous discography including releases on the likes of Under The Spire, Earth Mantra and Test Tube as well as his own label Audio Gourmet. Intrigued by all things old and rustic, his music is often inspired by the rural Lincolnshire surroundings in which he lives and his first outing of 2011, here on Resting Bell, is intended to really captured this.

A short collection of deliberately loose and degraded instrument samples and field recordings, ‘Forgotten Outland’ is presented as if it were an old record found discarded inside a derelict farm building on disused land.
It comprises of blurred melodic passages and offers a faded insight into times gone by when the farmland thrived. Just like the physical state of the farm itself, the record sounds timeworn, warped and a shadow of its former self.

The instrument leads and various sounds climb over one another as if fighting for a voice. Nothing seems structured or in order, although amidst the deluge of disjointed melody, subtle detail can be focused upon to reveal parts of this purposefully concealed soundtrack.

Release Date
25.02.2011

All sounds performed, recorded and arranged by Harry Towell between spring 2010 and winter 2011
Instruments used: Guitar, Vibraphone, Zither, Bugle, Keyboard, Harmonica, Trumpet and Violin

Artwork
Photography by Jonathan Lees, Cragg Vale Photography
(http://www.craggvalephotography.co.uk/)

Additional Photography, by Harry Towell:

18/02/2011 Spheruleus - Debris [Audio Gourmet]

http://music.audiogourmet.co.uk/album/debris

AG004: SPHERULEUS - DEBRIS
Audio Gourmet, February 2011

For the first Spheruleus outing of 2011, Audio Gourmet label curator Harry Towell has scoured his hard-drive to put together a collection of tracks that are born out of unfinished samples and discarded parts of previous projects. They have been presented as a four track EP which is aptly titled 'Debris'.

The source material was drawn from the usual collection of instrument samples that Towell's work typically comprises of, although heavily processed with 'vintage' style ambient production techniques. The resulting soundtrack is loose and drifting with moments of hiss and static - a production style that you might not always associate with the work of Spheruleus.
The aim was to draw out the near 24 minute duration as long as possible, giving the impression of time standing still and allowing these otherwise unused sounds a chance to have their 'day'.

2011 is to be a big year for Spheruleus, with CD album 'Voyage' scheduled for release on Hibernate this summer and another short album coming out on Resting Bell at the end of February. Not to mention the debut Paper Relics album recorded with brother Stuart due out in March/April...

spheruleus.blogspot.com
creditsreleased 18 February 2011
Recorded and produced by Harry Towell
Photography by Stuart Towell

Hibernate Records/Rural Colours forecast mix...

Hibernate/Rural Colours Selection by Fluid Radio on Mixcloud

Jonathan from Hibernate and Rural Colours has put together a mix for Fluid Radio that delves through the catalog of forthcoming releases on both labels.
I've an album coming out on Hibernate myself this summer called 'Voyage'. An unmastered and un-final edit of a track from this called 'Submerged' is included in this forecast - click play to hear for yourself....

15 questions to Harry Towell/Spheruleus | Interview on Tokafi

INTRO (Tobias Fischer, Tokafi)
There's nothing inherently mysterious about working with sound. Sometimes, in fact, it simply means giving in to the simple pleasures in life: Not all too long ago, at a time when most of Britain was hiding from an unexpected bout of „snow of considerable proportion“, Lincolnshire's Harry Towell put the extreme climatic conditions to good use by spending the entire day roaming the countryside with childlike curiosity, trudging through the white with his portable recorder and listening to the soles of his shoes creating gnashing, grating and gritting little patterns in the snow. Back home, most likely over a hot, steaming cup of coffee, he then arranged his found sonic objects into what would become the 2009 debut album of his Spheruleus project, The Disguised Familiar. It is telling that Towell didn't just degrade the field recordings resulting from the hike as a backdrop to his drones and ambient textures, but rather respectfully treated them as music in their own right, aiming for his melodies and harmonies to bring out the beauty of the sounds and not the other way round. The episode, recounted in more depth on the artist's MySpace site, may seem trivial. But it goes a long way in defining the territory which has served as a home for Spheruleus ever since: Perhaps due to Towell growing up in a rural surrounding, nature plays an essential role in his oeuvre, its quietude, moods and beauty extolled by the covers of his releases, its sounds seamlessly integrated into the textures of the compositions, its shapes mimicked by their organic architecture and flowing arrangements. Rather than seeking to conceptually translate physical landscapes to the world of sound, Towell is creating his own, personalised environments, equally intimate and mysterious spaces marked by „blurred perspectives“ and „silent collisions“, by rot and decay – in short, by the eternal cycle of life and death. It is a kind of music which doesn't just re-attune the senses of the listener, but effectively makes them perceptive to the seemingly imperceptible hidden underneath the surface: On the follow-up to The Disguised Familiar, A Vision Obscurred, time first stands still and then it fades away completely, leaving nothing but an infinite horizon over a solitary landscape of absolute forms and objects across which, with spectre-like weightlessness, the dreamy guitar lines of his brother Stuart sail like blood red clouds. This time, propelled by „deeply personal reflections“, the path was leading inwards, to the subconscious as a place of unworked-through emotions. As in a surrealist painting, one can still clearly identify the multitude of metaphors and references – anyone who's read Towell's list of favourites knows the eclecticism of his taste as well as his insatiable appetite for new and fresh sounds – but their meaning has been strangely deformed. If these scenes should occasionally seem to take on Freud'ean qualities, then that is by no means a coincidence: Towell's only release so far under the guise of Eyes Flutter Beneath wasn't called Inside the Dream Laboratory for nothing after all, and quite a few of the fifteen-minute EPs of his Audio Gourmet label are marked by a similar feeling of spinning out into the fantastical. This, of course, is the real reason for the outwardly mysterious facade of working with sound in general and Spheruleus's oeuvre in particular: The mere act of juxtaposition and re-contextualising can turn even the simplest, every-day items into spiritual symbols.

INTERVIEW: (Tobias Fischer, Tokafi with Harry Towell, Spheruleus)
VISIT http://www.tokafi.com/15questions/15-questions-harry-towell-spheruleus to read the full interview

Spheruleus 'Forgotten Outland' coming soon on Resting Bell

Wilting Bounds by Spheruleus