hanging out with audiophiles

hanging out with audiophiles
hanging out with audiophiles

My name is Jamie Lidell and I'm gonna delve into the heady magic of creating music in a modern studio, probe the depths of production, get tech crazy with mixing tricks, studio skills and equipment. I'll be joined by fellow musicians, engineers and all-round audiophiles who kindly share their tips, stories and ingenious insight from the bizarre world of music production. I shall answer questions and seek knowledge from other music makers on a quest to discover how to make things sound RIGHT. I will also share some studio trickery on each episode as I explore some of my favourite innovations in music tech and my creations... outpourings from the weirdo brain! Welcome to a place for musicians, producers and listeners alike as we "cheers" our love of everything audio.

  1. OCT 6

    HOWA EP129 - Taylor Deupree & Joseph Branciforte

    A fascinating and frankly bonkers translation has taken place Taylor Deupree’s original album Stil., released in 2002 was made with 100% digital techniques with a heavy dose of microsound, layering and looping. It now exists as something wildly different and yet painstakingly based on that work. This new iteration is a 100% acoustic version which takes it from Stil. to Sti.ll This is a rare form of digital to analog conversion and should only be attempted by festidious and slightly insane people! Sti.ll, released in 2024, is a complete reimagining of Stil., recorded entirely with acoustic instruments, such as clarinets, vibraphones, and cellos, played by live musicians. This new version abandons digital sound manipulation in favor of human performance, where sounds previously made with software are recreated through physical instruments and microphones. The transformations go beyond just switching mediums; the acoustic textures bring warmth and depth, making it an entirely new and distinct experience, while retaining the essence of the original. Who would attempt such madness? Taylor Deupree (wiki-ish) is a prolific electronic musician, sound artist, and founder of the record label 12k. Known for his contributions to the microsound and minimalist electronic music movements, Taylor’s work often blends digital and acoustic elements. His music is characterized by its delicate, detailed textures and use of repetition to create slowly evolving soundscapes. Joe Branciforte (wiki-ish) is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and Grammy award-winning recording engineer and producer based in New York. He is the founder of the record label Greyfade, which focuses on process-based composition, electronic and acoustic minimalism, and alternative tuning systems. Joe’s expertise spans both electronic and acoustic music, making him adept at bridging these worlds in innovative ways. His work often involves live electronic processing of acoustic instruments, and he has collaborated with renowned artists like Kenneth Kirschner and Theo Bleckmann. His technical mastery and creative vision were key to bringing Taylor Deupree’s acoustic reimagining of Stil. to life in Sti.ll, where he played an integral role in transcribing and arranging the complex digital compositions for live instrumentation. So good to chat with these masters about a project of such huge scope. We discuss this album at length and also Taylor’s collaboration with the late, great Ryuichi Sakamoto links: https://www.taylordeupree.com https://josephbranciforte.com MUSIC from the show: from the email I received: Last year Miet Warlop and me (Micha Volders) went to Dhaka, Bangladesh to make a visceral musical performance with young students. It opened the Dhaka Art Summit and we played for a curious Bengali crowd of thousands. This city is a whole other universe, it’s loud, it’s overcrowded, it’s vibrant. I work on a daily basis with young artists but I rarely experienced this kind of hunger, joy and motivation from these young students. We rehearsed 3 weeks in a row on this huge ghetto sound system placed middle on the road in the city, to a point where local residents were fed up and sabotaged our (already super shabby) P;A system by cutting all the wires,  It was challenging, it was exciting and it was touching. So one year later we made a record out of the recordings of this venture : it’s called ICCHĀ ——> check it out here

    1h 25m
  2. JUL 23

    HOWA EP 126 - ANDY FALCONER

    Im going to read from the press release this time coz its a good’n The simpatico sophomore album by the unstoppably prolific Alex Paterson and fellow Orb original Andy Falconer is an epic sail through the sky at night. Helmed by gentle spirits with warmth in their hearts, ‘SETI’ feels cold and dark, yet also glowing and welcoming. Aboard a cosy candlelit spacecraft, the duo experience the cosmos as somewhere overwhelmingly infinite, yet reassuring and friendly. A sort of ‘ambient unplugged’, it’s full of acoustic instruments and nostalgic samples, folding space between the old world, and places where no man has gone before. Dr Paterson speaks “The first LP had a great reception and sold so well I couldn’t even get a copy myself. Andy is brilliant at making ambient music, and working with him is always rewarding. We understand each other’s brains – it’s easy and organic - so doing another made total sense.” He adds, “SETI stands for Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence, but it’s also something you sit on, to chill out, which is why the album contains a Three Piece Suite. This record is musical ambience, which is what we like to make, rather than drone ambience, which there’s a lot of these days.” That last point struck me as it describes the sensations I associate with the music of the Orb which is a sort of maximal ambient rush. It’s a sound that whizzes me right back to my dreamy youth tbh when these guys were so responsible for making the soundtrack that accompanied me through my last years at school. It was a time when I needed music to blow my mind. When I was told I could speak to an original member of the orb I was so curious to ask Andy how it was all made back in those days. We get into that right at the end of this chat as well as a walk down memory lane and up the present.  It was great to catch up with Andy in Portugal. He’s had quite the life! Let’s get into it

    1h 43m
  3. JUN 27

    HOWA EP 125 - MATTHEW HERBERT

    Bones.... Wind.... Caves.... A simpler time When we apes first tooted.. the fluuuute Yes it’s wild how far we’ve come and Matthew Herbert and I go back a bit too .. I mean not to the flute tooting era but we go back. He speaks during this chat of his achievements as an evolved ape and many had me gasping !  He tells of multiple slippers that he can slide into to tap different sonic personas. The making of 1000 pieces of music a year! The upkeep of his musical organ filled with pigs blood. Yes The stories are wild in this one so Strap in! Did I mention we go way back? Yes ! I was lucky enough to collaborate with him on a few notable pieces of music. 1) He played on the second super_collider LP raw digits on a track called gravity rearranging  2) I was a singer on his album Goodbye Swingtime and joined him and the bigband at the Hollywood Bowl opening for Bjork in 2003 alongside Bonnie Prince Billy. Hollywood bowl bigband? I mean come on!! 3) He joined me alongside Arto Lindsay, performing the most monumental show of my career at Sonar 2003. That show was the real unveiling of all my efforts in the lab to make an impov looping performance with max/msp. Something I’d dreamt of for years and finally made real. It was so fitting to have him and Arto come on for the final number and make a total racket with me. We just all clattered it to the ground. A moment I’ll never forget and it was all down to Matthew really as it was watching him show using multiple boss echos in short looping mode that got me started on that road. A brilliant and restless musical mind that has always moved in his own lane. It’s a treat to welcome onto the show Matthew Herbert ____   It’s been a while but I’ve some music to play from an artist and pod listener  This time it’s from an LP called TRIPLE TRANSIT  The artist is Braile and he makes some really solid Modular YouTube pieces too  His new record is out August 8th on Hotflush recordings.  Link! https://braillesounds.bandcamp.com/album/triple-transit

    1h 20m
4.8
out of 5
239 Ratings

About

My name is Jamie Lidell and I'm gonna delve into the heady magic of creating music in a modern studio, probe the depths of production, get tech crazy with mixing tricks, studio skills and equipment. I'll be joined by fellow musicians, engineers and all-round audiophiles who kindly share their tips, stories and ingenious insight from the bizarre world of music production. I shall answer questions and seek knowledge from other music makers on a quest to discover how to make things sound RIGHT. I will also share some studio trickery on each episode as I explore some of my favourite innovations in music tech and my creations... outpourings from the weirdo brain! Welcome to a place for musicians, producers and listeners alike as we "cheers" our love of everything audio.

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