#stuart chalmers

[musicmakesyousmart]

Stuart Chalmers - The Heart of Nature

Opal Tapes

2021

[bluetapes]

blue thirty-eight: Obsidian Shard

A grand music of fragments. Instead of identifiable notes, there are gasps, hisses, scribbles and chimes in a constantly reconfiguring mosaic of small, precise sounds. But blue thirty-eight is recognisably a composition, and not a freeform exercise in squall. That’s not to knock freeform exercises in squall, which we’re as susceptible to the charms of as anyone – but this is music full of purpose and direction – it just takes a few listens to find it.

Little is known about Obsidian Shard, the author of this stuttering symphony, but it is clear that this is an entity of an evolved and difficult-to-second-guess musical intelligence.

If we’re making this sound difficult, be assured that it isn’t – this is a work that hits the same pleasure centres of the brain as our Claus Poulsen- Stuart Chalmers-Taming Power axis of releases, or the playful oddities constructed by Ratkiller or Suren Seneviratne.

Available for pre-order over at Bandcamp!

[hvnxblade]

[bluetapes]

Thanks to Spectra-Sonic Sound for playing Hallucination Engine from blue thirty-six: Stuart Chalmers and Claus Poulsen on the latest edition of their show alongside champs like Rhys Chatham!

You can listen to the full show here.

Click on the Bandcamp link above to pre-order blue thirty-six!

[bluetapes]

Well, it's been a big week, full of anticipation. But we're here now and the end is in sight.

That's right, it's Bandcamp Friday.I have two excellent new releases up for pre-order and you should definitely check them out.

Firstly, tape loop mage Stuart Chalmers is back, this time with Claus Poulsen! Recorded entirely live this is a collection of erratic, eccentric miniatures, each with their own slightly warped personality. Swarmandal, Casio Sk1 and globs of alien sound.

Next, we welcome the legendary Anna Homler (aka Breadwoman!) to Blue Tapes, performing here with koto player Liz Falconer. We've partnered them with the magnificent Korean gayageum trio Heystring for an absolute bomb of an EP.

Pre-order on tape or digital from just £3 over at https://bluetapes.bandcamp.com/

[bluetapes]

Available to pre-order now from https://bluetapes.bandcamp.com/album/blue-thirty-six

My two favourite albums of 2019 might have been blue thirty-two: Stuart Chalmers and Taming Power, and the remarkable Fictions in the Age of Reason by Stuart Chalmers and Claus Poulsen. Blue Tapes released the first of those; now, to square the circle, we’re proud to present a brand new collaboration by Stuart and Claus. Recorded completely live and hammered and tacked together out of bits of swarmandal, tape loops and Casio SK-1, these improvisations somehow transcend their component parts, feeling immersive, 3D and full of gleaming alien intelligence. As a counterblast to the gently unfolding long-form narratives of Fictions…, these new pieces are short, eccentric, and sometimes jarring. They scuttle around the listener and claw and then, when least expected, swell to unimaginable proportions and eat you whole. I love this monstrous brood of not-pop songs and I hope you will too. Praise for Stuart Chalmers: “Stuart Chalmers has taken Laraaji’s cult classic, cosmic-zither aesthetic, and expanded the lungs wide enough for a whole other world to drift right on in there. Themes haze & meld along Primordial beginnings, Call & Response spirit fights; Oh, the Light, Ahh the Dark, Owe the Other…” – Cassette Gods “Chalmers career in soundtracking sci-fi movies or the works of David Lynch should be assured.” – Idwal Fisher “Beautiful tracks of downbeat tape loops, dreamstates, hypnagogic soundfields, paranoid moonlit scenes with werewolves and ghostly children, snythesizer and tape hiss.” – Open Sound Group Praise for Claus Poulsen: “In the case of Claus Poulsen, it is a bit more complicated to say anything about genre or style. He operates in different musical fields, from noise to improvisation and surely something else as well. Yet, what I am served here is quite a surprise; a pleasant surprise at that. They call this 'fifth world' music, which is, of course, a bunch towards Brian Eno and Jon Hassell's 'fourth world' music, which the latter described as "a unified primitive/futuristic sound combining features of world ethnic styles with advanced electronic techniques." - Vital Weekly

[bluetapes]

blue thirty​-​six

by

Stuart Chalmers and Claus Poulsen

Recorded completely live and hammered and tacked together out of bits of swarmandal, tape loops and Casio SK-1, these improvisations somehow transcend their component parts, feeling immersive, 3D and full of gleaming alien intelligence.

[bluetapes]

Another clip for a track off our new Stuart Chalmers and Claus Poulsen release - Hallucination Engine

Pre-order here!