Tag Archives: automatic music

Automatic Music vII now available from Boomkat.com

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” ‘Automatic Music: Volume II’ is the mesmerising follow-up to John Chantler’s self-released first volume, originally released in 2011, the same year as his ‘The Luminous Ground’ LP was charted in The Wire’s annual top 50. Two extended pieces for synthesiser/organ yield contrasting results on each side. First, ‘For Nuno’ is the more melodic of the two, with melting, kinetic modular scree and wheezing organ motifs seemingly attempting to untangle a conundrum which only gets more perplexing across its 20 minute lifespan. Secondly, the lustrous drones of ‘No Poetry’ unfold with the concentrated, hypnotic subtlety of a Phill Niblock or Eleh piece, all glassy, resonant harmonic overtones and warm sweeping bass oscillations that have us hooked for the 20 minute duration.”

Purchase from Boomkat
Boomkat Sold Out, but you can order here.

‘Automatic Music’ LP (SOLD OUT)

This LP collects two different pieces recorded in December 2010 and sometime in 2009 – both offering different fields of surface stasis/hidden activity…

The first, ‘Automatic Music for Erik Griswold’ was recorded in Bundaberg, Australia using a ‘Eurorack’ modular synthesiser plugged into a borrowed guitar amplifier. It was made in preparation for a concert in Osaka in January 2011 organised by Tetsuya Umeda and was an experiment in using the synthesiser without any external controller (I’d just been touring with Tujiko Noriko and Lawrence English and had grown accustomed to playing the synth with a Roland SH101 as keyboard/sequencer). It is named for Erik Griswold, a pianist living in Brisbane, Australia, whose exceptional ‘Wallpaper Music’ recording was part inspiration for this work.

The second side is the older piece. Recorded at home in London, UK using two reed organs (one Hohner, one Busilaccio) and recorded to an Akai GX4000D 1/4? reel-to-reel. This is my homage to the lineage of pieces focussed on frequency beating cycles that most actively crossed my radar with Jim O’Rourke’s ‘Two Organs’. Jokingly a ‘cover’ of said piece, the working title for the recording was ‘Biting The O’Rourke That Feeds’ before I later settled on nicking the title of a rather lovely upbeat Tenniscoats song as a sly nod to the seasonly themed (and vastly superior) records of my good friend and ongoing inspiration Lawrence English who mastered the record and to whom I owe many ongoing thanks…

Pressed in an edition of 110 LPs with a two colour screenprint sleeve made from archival grade photokraft paper using a drawing by Marcus Cope.

SOLD OUT!!!

Still available:

‘The Luminous Ground’ LP
£11 + pp (UK – £2.50 / EU £3.50 / ROW £7)

‘The Luminous Ground’ LP + For Barry Ray ‘New Days’ LP
£20 + pp (UK – £3.00 / EU £4.00 / ROW £7.50)

Alternatively, any of the above LPs can be collected in person for £10 each (cash) from Cafe OTO, London by prior arrangement.