Artist: litmus0001Title: stillorgan road
#ca149
Date: 2008-07-02
Keywords: dark ambient, experimental, improvisation, electro-organic, shoegazer, pulsedrone, soundscape
Tracklist:
01 - charybdis - 5:54 (320 kbps)
02 - manchester specification - 7:23 (320 kbps)
03 - intercontinental - 24:32 (320 kbps)
04 - nocturne soninke - 4:51 (320 kbps)
05 - PUREX operations - 7:49 (320 kbps)
06 - elegy I - 13:16 (320 kbps)
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litmus0001 embarks on another journey to dark and beautiful corners of submental dischordian situationist impressionism with his 15th album and first Clinical Archives release, “stillorgan road”. This album, recorded and composed in the middle of a particularly long Wisconsin winter, contains six new pieces of moody lush atmospheric wide-space ambient soundscapes generated through experimental improvisation and informed with a relentless shoegazer aesthetic.
“It sounds like walking through the forest at night!” – Dr. B. Y.
Jonathan Ewald has recorded and performed as litmus0001 since 2001. He gets strange and lovely sounds from instruments you wouldn’t expect to sound like that. He uses things like knives and chains and alligator clips and bamboo sticks on bass strings. He does things like put a contact mic on a big tin box that used to contain cheap Thai cookies, and beats the daylights out of it in front of an amp to counterpoint percussion and feedback. He improvises spacey arpeggios and plays with sliders and knobs. He runs it all through a few well chosen effects pedals and liveloops. He is influenced by many musicians, composers, artists and philosophers from diverse traditions and genres.
Jonathan Ewald – 6 string bass, 6 string guitar, Roland MC202, effects, liveloops, devices and implements, samples, field recordings, production.
Contact:
www.myspace.com/litmus0001music
www.geocities.com/litmus0001
Review from Mathyas Anderson
"Julie’s carefree spirit took flight in October of 1990 on Stillorgan Road in Dublin Ireland. Only a few know why she jumped off the bridge and out of this mortal tomb. A bit of a sad (if not honoring) title to what is truly a positive and uplifting set of songs by Jonathan Ewald who is litmus0001.
Ewald is an artist. He makes no apologies or explanations for his art. This is a single person in a personal dialog with the tools that bring his aural vision to fruition. And by tools I mean there’s not much here; a bass, guitar, a little box called MC202, a few well chosen effects, and recording software. The list of noisemakers is small but the sound created is large and, in its own paradox, unassuming. Listen to ‘Intercontinental’ and you’ll hear what I mean; the skittering guitar lines channeling the 4AD sound with something from Durutti Column circa 1984. And as we’re led through a small tour of the standards of lush, we come out the other side in deep space. We’re out there and lost in the circuits of wires, transistors, volume controls and wash of Ewald’s effect patchwork. And then the outside world invades. The world of events from a warbling long ago weave into ‘Nocturne Soninke’ after a heady beginning that cloys the idea of melody and chillums. The tapestry of guitar and lost voice hang on the wall long after the last moment is heard, like a dream almost remembered or a thought left behind. It means something now, even as it fades.
These songs Ewald creates move in, over, and beyond like passing clouds. They contain substance and strength without resorting to the easy-road of noise. Ewald does not take the easy way out. And I for one am glad. ‘Stillorgan Road’ is minimalist creation. This is music to listen to, a sonic tonic for the head and soul. "
(Mathyas Anderson)