Artists
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GEARS OF SAND RECORDINGS
Gears of Sand (GoS) Recordings was started by Ben Fleury-Steiner as a philosophy (inspired by Cage, Young, Inoue, Akita, among others) for his own musical experiments in 2001. By 2004, after 'meeting' a community of atmospheric artists via the internet who shared his love for drone, noise, textural ambience, and other unclassifiable experimental musics, he decided to transform GoS into a vehicle for releasing works of artists he came to greatly admire, such as Dark Duck/Dissonance Records founder and eclectic musician Stephen Philips, the late and great ambient synthesist Daniel Russo (aka IXOHOXI), the Italian drone master Oophoi, and his electronic sound design guru and close friend William Fields.
Beyond GoS as an ethos based on aural explorations without boundaries, a constancy, indeed, his all encompassing phrase "sounds of impermanence," Fleury-Steiner's introduction in 2005 to the approach of a prolific experimental guitarist, Aidan Baker (GoS Releases "Pendulum" and "Green & Cold"), made a strong and lasting impression on him.
Baker's ability to release high quality works at such a rapid rate, made Fleury-Steiner realize that the real purpose of GoS was to release as many great atmospheric works, from as many different artists as possible, with no goals or objectives: Simply to make the sounds he loved available to likeminded listeners.
In the last 3+ years GoS has issued 33 releases by artists from more than a half-dozen countries from around the world. Embracing an internet world without boundaries, Fleury-Steiner "imagines Gears of Sand as an ever-growing community of artists who are forging sonic community through the pure sounds of their craft indefintely."
Gears of Sand's Myspace Page
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JEREMY BIBLE AND JASON HENRY
This highly productive duo fuse an incredibly diverse array of sounds and styles (musique concrete, electroacoustic and electronic). The result is a music with depth and soft command: slow morphing textures, broken piano melodies mesh and depart leaving residues both familiar and boundless..
Jeremy Bible and Jason Henry's GOS Releases:
Vryashn
Jeremy Bible and Jason Henry's Website
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SAITO KOJI
Saito Koji was born in Fukushima, Japan in 1978. He uses electric guitar, some effects and field recordings to render delicate minimal sound collages. He cites three primary influences in his approach to experimental ambient guitar: Otomo Yoshihide, Derek Bailey, and the sublime visuals of Kaoru Abe. Since 2003 Koji has released 3 works on the Japanese Magic Book Records.
Saito Koji's GOS Releases:
Guitar
Saito Koji's Website
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RUMFORSKNING
"Rumforskning is an ambient/drone duo operating in the field between wide soundscapes and cold glitchy textures. The project was formed by Danny Kreutzfeldt and Mads Weitling in 2003 and the project has always been driven by a need to deliver both atmospheric and challenging ambient music with emphasis on outer space as metaphor."
Rumforskning's GOS Releases:
Himmelhvælv
Rumforskning's Website
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GYDJA
Abby Helasdottir has been creating music since 1995 under the name Gydja (an Old Norse word for priestess). She describes her music as "usually linear and could be defined as a soundscape, it is also not necessarily always dark ambient in style, embracing electro-acoustic and experimental techniques." Abby uses granular synthesis, samples of water and speech to sublime effect; Gydja's music is a constantly evolving ecosystem of otherworldly pulses and living machinery all melded into expansive liquid dronescapes that literally gush into one's ears.
Gydja's GOS Releases:
Machina Mumdi
Gydja's Website
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ASHER
asher thal-nir is an artist living and working in somerville, massachusets. His sound work is composed using recordings of acoustic and electronic instruments, location recordings and found recordings which are combined and processed in various ways. His work has been published online and on disk by conv, leerraum [ ], mystery sea, the land of, laboratoire moderne,winds measure, transparent radiation, term. and homophoni, with upcoming solo and collaborative releases on einzeleinheit, leerraum [ ], and/OAR, gears of sand, room40, and sourdine.
Aaher's GOS Releases:
Simple Machines
Asher's Myspace Page
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CELER
Celer is the sound, visual, literary, and art project of the husband and wife Will & Danielle Baquet-Long. They have produced a constantly growing collection of homemade releases, as well as creating works for labels in North America, Japan, and Europe. Their intent is producing works that reflect the nature of love, and their concerns and interests, through a relative and absolute symposium of expression. They currently reside on the coast of Southern California.
Celer's GOS Releases:
Treehouse
Celer's Website
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CHRISTOPHER MCFALL
Christopher McFall is a sound artist working out of Kansas City, USA. His primary methods of working involve the use of computer-based programming techniques, which are applied to art of processing sounds from field recordings and then re-combining them in a multitrack format. The main motivation behind Christopher's workings revolve around the desire to manipulate/engineer recorded aspects of the macroscopic world around him into a microscopic mosaic. Christopher's first CD release, 'Four Feels for Fire' is now available on Entr'acte. He has released online recordings previously on Con-v, Filament Recordings, Laboratoire Moderne, Alg-a and Testube.
Christopher McFall's GOS Releases:
Solemn Words for a Fabled Apparatus
Christopher McFall's Website
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YUI ONODERA
Yui Onodera is composer and multi instrumentalist who resides in Tokto, Japan. His works are multi-faceted immersions that employ both static electro acoustic sounds, field recordings, electronics, voice, electric guitar, piano, and various other instruments. In 2003, he founded the electronic experimental music label CRITICAL PATH. Yui is very active in Tokyo's burgeoning experimental music scene, organizing live music events, composing for independent film and contemporary dance and butoh
Yui Onodera's GOS Releases:
Rhizome
Yui Onodera's Website
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AIDAN BAKER
Aidan Baker is a musician currently based in Toronto, Canada. Classically trained in flute, he is self-taught on guitar, drums, & various other instruments. A regular performer in & around Toronto, he has also performed in New York, Montreal, Chicago, San Francisco, & such festivals as The Om Festival, Mutek, SXSW, & The Distillery Jazz Festival. He has released numerous cds on independent labels from around the world. Baker explores the deconstructive sonic possibilities of the electric guitar as a primary sound source, creating music that ranges from experimental to post-rock to contemporary classical.
Aidan Baker's GOS Releases:
Pendulum
Green & Cold
Aidan Baker's Website
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MATT BORGHI
Matt Borghi is an East Lansing, MI-based composer of ambient music.
Matt Borghi's GOS Releases:
What the Night Leaves Behind
Matt Borghi's Website
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CON_SENSE
The mysterious Con_Sense is comprised of two rather noteworthy artists who appear anonymously in this collaborative project. Con_Sense's music is one that defies categorization--it is an utterly fascinating merge of styles-- and must be heard to be appreciated.
Con_Sense's GOS Releases:
Compass
Con_Sense's Website
Con_Sense on Myspace
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WILLIAM FIELDS
William Fields (b. 1977) is an electronic music composer and performer currently based out of Wilmington, DE, in the suburbs of Philadelphia. He has been writing music and experimenting with sound since 1993. His work covers a wide range stylistically, but is always warm and melodic.
William Fields' GOS Releases:
Timbre
William Fields' Website
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ENCOMIAST
Encomiast is led by Ross Hagen: composition, production, performance and features the sounds of Nick Paul: synths and programming (1999 - 2003) Samantha Balsam: vocals (2000-01) Megan Garland: flutes, vocals, Neville Harson: anything and everything, and additional live and recording contributions from Toby Sinkinson, Joe Skinner, Travis Bellet, and many others. The prject came into being around 1999 and has released five full-length collections on various labels beginning w/ the self-titled excursion in 1999 (now OOP, to be reissued on H/s), winter's end on Lens Records in 2001, and espera on H/s Recordings in 2003. 2005 has seenmers de sommeil on Mystery Sea, [laurentide] on Absolute Zero Media, a split with Sagramon on Swamp of Pus, and havens on Crucialblast. In addition, the project has been featured on a number of compilations, been involved in film music, and performed live in a semi-consistent manner. As indicated by the "members" section, the lineup is fairly malleable, as are the sound sources, encompassing everything from analog synths, to field recordings, to old rock demos. While I have been pretty much in control over the final products, encomiast would not be nearly as successful a project were it not for the contributions of those mentioned.
Encomiast's GOS Releases:
Transit Bed
Encomiast's Website
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BEN FLEURY-STEINER
“Fleury-Steiner’s ambience is evocative stuff in the best sense, great ringing droughts of sonic wash that reveal tonalities within tonalities, high-frequency drones that shimmer and vibrate like jeweled curtains that reflect piercing sunlight . . . Fundamentally, Fleury-Steiner’s sound is filled with contradicting emotions, denoting both introspection and excitation, pat “drone” music this is not, and the fact that it confounds any such glib categorical baggage makes it even more compelling.”
-Darren Bergstein, e|i Magazine
Ben Fleury-Steiner is proprietor of Gears of Sand Recordings; since 2001 he has released nearly 30 recordings by accomplished and lesser known artists from around the world.
An accomplished Wilmington, Delaware-based musician and sound artist, Fleury-Steiner began his sonic journey in the early 1990s engrossing himself in jazz saxophone with Jeff Harrington (Berkeley College of Music). However, a roommate studying classical composition introduced him to Arvo Part, Steve Reich and Brian Eno; three legendary composers that completely changed his perspective of sound.
Since that time, Fleury-Steiner has released a number of works under his own name and numerous aliases (Paradin, eneg, and Light of Shipwreck) on his own Gears of Sand label, Dissonance (Maryland, U.S.A.), Mystery Sea (Belgium), Umbra (Italy), Taâlem (France), Dharmasound (Italy), White-Label Music (U.K.), and Cyclene (Detroit, U.S.A.).
In second-half of 2007 and into early 2008, Fleury-Steiner has a number of new reocrdings coming out on labels from around the world. The forthcoming collabration, "Second Week of the Second Month" with Canadian experimental guitarist, Aidan Baker is set for release in July on Kikapu (U.S.A./Swizerland). The summer also sees a new collaboration of moody, textural ambient music with Matt Borghi, "What the Night Leaves Behind," set for release on Gears of Sand. Fleury-Steiner's first release under the alias Light of Shipwreck, an ambient metal noise work entilted "From the Idle Cylinders" is set for release on the classic Crucial Blast Records (Maryland, U.S.A.).
Early 2008 sees two new 3" releases on the French Taalem label ("He Dreams in Rivers") and the Texas-based drone syndicate Los Bango Sound ("The Nephelauxetic Series") and the full length collaboration "Nautilus with Wings" with Danny Kreutzfeldt will be released by the Belgian "night ocean drones" series, Mystery Sea.
Perhaps his most realized work to date, a new Fleury-Steiner cd that really captures the artist's musical approach as a study at the intersections of noise, droney melody, and deep swells of emotion is also set to be released in the new year. More than two years in the making, the engimatic "Keep a Weather Eye Open," will be issues by the consistenly excellent Infraction Records (Ohio, U.S.A.).
Fleury-Steiner has performed live throughout North America, including performances at The Gate music series and electro-music festival in Philadelphia, Eye Drum Art Center in Atlanta, GA, 311 Florida (Washington, D.C.), Mojo 13 (Wilmington, Delaware), and Toronto’s AMBiENT PiNG. He currently resides in North Wilmington, Delaware with his wife Ruth, two twin daughters, Anna and Robin, and three cats.
Ben Fleury-Steiner's GOS Releases:
Chroma
Drifts
As a means through which I can speak
Ben Fleury-Steiner's Website
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HINSIDAN
Denmark's Hinsidan (Swedish for "The Here After") are Atish Pare and Superjus. Their sound has diverse roots in rock, electronic music, classical avantgarde and even pop. At the most basic and essential level, Hinsidan are about a deep appreciation for sounds, tones and beats that takes the listener out of their comfort zone. Their music might be considered as conceptual but it's genuinely more felt than thought, although subtle political themes do provide inspiration.
Hinsidan's GOS Releases:
Bleach Dye Yr Heart
Hinsidan's Website
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CORDELL KLIER
Cordell Klier (Minneapolis, MN.) is an avant-garde sound artist, abstract & commercial graphic designer, poet, and lable owner of DOCTSECT media & O-KVLT records. Thru the years he has worked within many genres of sound. Everything from noise to metal, to punk, pop, and hiphop, but currently recognising silence, drone, and, glitch as his main medium(s) of output.
Cordell Klier''s GOS Releases:
Espionage
Cordell Klier's Website
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MIKRONESIA
Mikronesia (Michael McDermott) is a producer, composer, musician and sound artist. Since 1999 he has been playing theaters, clubs, parties and galleries along the U.S. East Coast as a multi-instrumentalist and laptop based performer. Mikronesia is involved in several projects and bands lending his keyboard and electronics wizardry to artists from all musical genres. The Mikronesia sound is one of deep introspection, experimental ambient and subtle glitch.
Mikronesia's GOS Releases:
Tissue Paper Ghosts
Iris or Comfortable Too
Mikronesia's Website
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MOLJEBKA PVLSE
Mathias Josefson is a sound-artist from Stockholm, Sweden, and currently attending the Royal University College of Fine Arts. His main project is Moljebka Pvlse, which is an experimental music group that works with both electronic and acoustic instruments, as well as with field recordings and found sounds. What comes out is hypnotic and meditative soundscapes. Over the years, Moljebka Pvlse has performed live in Canada, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, the Ukraine and the U.S.
Moljebka Pvlse's GOS Releases:
Driftsond
Moljebka Pvlse's Website
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NETHERWORLD
Netherworld describes his music as "playing the quietness of the silence, desolate darkness and glacial landscapes." He has numerous releases on the Italian ambient label Umbra. Netherworld also runs the isolationist ambient label Glacial Movements.
Netherworld's GOS Releases:
Six Impending Clouds
Netherworld's Website
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OÖPHOI
Oophoi has released 20+ Cds for many international labels (Hic Sunt Leones, Amplexus, Hypnos, Nextera, Electroshock, Skean Dhu, Stella Maris, Aplaus, Mystery Sea), and now he runs his own label Umbra, devoted to the music of new italian ambient artists. He uses traditional instruments as synths and sampling machines, but also singing bowls, flutes, special percussions (woodchimes, stones, shells, crystal chimes) and processed voices; all his music is recorded using analog-only devices (no computers!) in The Kiva, his studio, which used to be a stall in a XV Century stone country house in the hills of central Italy.
Oophoi's GOS Releases:
Signals from the great beyond (Out of Print)
Oophoi's Website
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M. PECK
Based in Northeast Tennessee, Michael Peck incorporates both analog and digital synthesizers, software based instruments and theremin to weave deep space and dark ambient soundscapes to sculpt austere visions derived from sound.
M. Peck's GOS Releases:
Compendium
Glacial
M. Peck's Website
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PATRICK BALTHROP
Patrick Balthrop uses real-time processing applications and customized software to produce electronic music. Unlike many of his Chicago House counterparts, Patrick constructs and assembles sounds between ten and one hundred milliseconds into microbeats. Balthrop's interactive, three-dimensional surround sound mixes and sound designs have been critically acclaimed. His songs have been placed in films, including most recently "The Regret", which will be heard at The Sundance Film Festival and the New York International Independent Film Festival. Patrick's software research has led to the development of performance based generative plug-ins, which through their interactions and transformations continuously regenerate and redefine the audio signals that produced them.
Patrick Balthrop's GOS Releases:
Autopoetic
Patrick Balthrop's Website
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PHOLDE
Pholde is the ambient side of sound artist Alan Bloor, who is also known for his extreme noise project called Knurl. Pholde creates ambient soundscapes by the bowing and scraping of self-created metal sound-sculptures with other metal objects.
Pholde's GOS Releases:
That which tends to dissuade
Pholde's Website
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POCKA
Pocka's GOS Releases:
Pocka''s Website
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MATHIEU RUHLMANN
Mathieu Ruhlmann is a visual and sound artist. He first began composing soundworks to accompany his visual art based on found material. He has created works for various labels in Europe, Canada and the United States as well as contributed to several compilations. He has also produced sound installations and held performances throughout North America. He currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Mathieu Ruhlmann's GOS Releases:
Mathieu Ruhlmann's Website
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SALVAGESOUND
Using processed field recordings and found sounds, Matthew Poulakakis of Salvagesound creates a fascinatingly rhythmic musique concrete.
Salvagesound's GOS Releases:
12 Reductions
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SECONDS IN FORMALDEHYDE
As Seconds in Formaldehyde, Martin Fuhs employs the pure sound of the guitar to create captivating, droney atmospheres. His somewhat dark monicker is actually an inspiring metaphor for the building of notes, harmonics, and chords structures that form the living and breathing sonic entity that is SIF
Seconds in Formaldehyde's GOS Releases:
II
Seconds in Formaldehyde's Website
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SYNTHETIC BLOCK/JONATHAN BLOCK
Jonathan Block has been recording and releasing electronic music for over 20 years. He created the term "progressive ambient music" to describe his explorations of the ambient, space and progressive domains. Block was a founding member of the musical collective the Objective Music Coalition in 1983 with other musicians who were interested in developing an applied creative practice without regard to genre. He joined the emerging ambient/space music scene of the early 1990s, releasing a number of cassettes under his own Ironing Board Recordings imprint.
Synthetic Block's GOS Releases:
Escape Velocity
Means of Ascent
Shadows on Water (with The Circular Ruins)
Synthetic Block's Website
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THE CIRCULAR RUINS
Anthony Paul Kerby ( APK ). Ontario, Canada. Born in Essex, England. The music of The Circular Ruins is a complex and distinctive amalgum of ambient, groove ambient, and experimental forms of electronica, and has been widely praised within the electronic and ambient music scene. APK also releases a related form of ambient electronica under the name Lammergeyer.
The Circurlar Ruin's GOS Releases:
Shadows on Water (with The Circular Ruins)
The Circulr Ruins' Website
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TIN MOTH'S BREATH
Tin Moth's Breath is a collaborative tapestry of ambient and other mesmeric din. The process is one of exchange between Jim Brenholts (aka Rigel Orionis - pictured above) and Ben Fleury-Steiner. The result is always one of complete unpredictability and intrigue as the two artists employ numerous instruments and processes to tap tastes and musical compulsions that are as vast as many ecosystems. The result is always a special gift for the adventurous, deep listener.
Tin Moth's Breath GOS Releases:
Ecclesiastes: The Thorns of Time
Identities
Jim Brenholt's (aka Rigel Orionis) Website