Sunday, January 24, 2021

Bell Tone Meditation by Paul Asbury Seaman

 


Great minds think alike. Both Paul and I had the idea of doing a "bell" based mix. I, however, am a procrastinator, and after creating a save folder for bell tunes 3 months ago, I have one track in it. So who knows when that puppy was going to get done.

Paul, on the other hand, sought out tracks and compiled them into a perfect playlist that became this mix - Bell Tone Meditation.

Here's what he has to say about it:

“For thousands of years bells, more than any other instrument, have been used to convey a sense of reverence and mystery, to represent clarity, to facilitate both quiet, solitary meditation and communal celebration. And, given the challenging artistic paradox of using sound to express silence, bells are the musical instrument used most often to express that, too. So it’s curious to me that bells (and their various metal/crystal-bowl cousins) are not used more often in ambient music, a genre defined, perhaps more than anything else, by subtle textures and tonal resonance over melody and rhythm.

Bells also have been the most common instrument to express cold and ice. Another reason this mix makes a  perfect midwinter offering.”

Thanks Paul!

Cheers!


[ s t r e a m ]    [ d o w n l o a d ]    [ i t u n e s ]


T R A C K L I S T :

  • 00:00    Cousin Silas - Derwent (Submerged 2021)
  • 05:36    Andarctica - at rest (buried with the bells 2019)
  • 11:40    Robert Rich - Belltone Glass (Alien Zoology - Live Archive Vol 4 2009)
  • 15:37    Jack Hertz - Invisible Pyramid (Teoton 2020)
  • 19:17    Andrew Lahiff - The Ringing of the Silent Bells (Slow Paths Beyond 2014)
  • 25:47    Crown Of Eternity - New Dimensions in Infinite VIbrations (Universal Hum 2018)
  • 31:50    The Heart Is Awake - Healing Sound Meditation(Healing Arts reMix) (the Healing Arts reMIXES Vol III 2020)
  • 36:00    Steve Roach & Serena Gabriel - Nectar Meditation (Nectar Meditation 2020)
  • 45:15    Glenn Sogge - Aether/Or -- A Non-Philosophical Disquisition (Musics for Long Thinkings, volume 4 2016)
  • 53:30    jarguna - My Temple (My Temple 2020)
  • 1:10:00    end


3 comments:

The Interstellar Radio Station said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Interstellar Radio Station said...

Re the procrastination mention - Remember Seaman did "The Voice of Silence: Bells, Gongs & Gamelan" just last year at this time, so he's wait out in front of you.

We love bells. Maybe its because we don’t get enough of them anymore with the reduction in bell tower activity.

If you are looking for bells for your bare bell folder, several Japanese artists like Stomu Yamash'ta are a great source for embedded bells - hell you did put Kitamura's Variation III in your "Not Seeing is a Flower" recently, remember? There is a fantastic bell section toward the end Tomita's Saturn. The Aporee site has loads of location recording bells from all over the world recorded by local folk, which is absolutely perfect for mix material. Also hobbyists on archive.org like Phonography Austin and Luis Antero. No one would mind if you mix in some tasteful metallic wind chimes or bowls, as Seaman mentions, they are after all variations of the bell concept, as Seaman cites. If you want to mix in some vintage material I can think of Amerlan's Carillon (Starflight 1), Jarre's Chronologie (had bells in the transitions), and Robert Rich's "A Passage in Bronze"- a beautiful and soothing bell track.

There is only a finite number of bell tracks that have ever been released, I think Seaman has just about nailed most of them between this and Voice of Silence, so you may have to adopt a little of PvC's mix style of inserting small excepts, like you did for Fragmented Dialog, Field Recordings 2020, and 4th World Volume 2.

The bells in this mix seem to lean towards the "Judgment Day"-type, but I very much appreciate and applaud the concept. Seaman is extremely resourceful for surfacing interesting tracks. Keep up your cutting edge mixology!

Low Light Mixes said...

Thanks for the heads up on all the Bell tracks!