When some months ago Thomas gave me a sneak preview of Audiovoltaics and we had a long Skype chat about it, I was thrilled about, not only the concept, but that Thomas was being innovative in the way we experience music reviews on the web. If this sounds like an exaggeration it isn’t. Thomas is one of the most respected voices of the growing Creative Commons/Netlabel community and he is very well respected journalist (he is the former editor of German Beat Magazine). If that isn’t enough, Thomas knows how to write great reviews (if this sounds like a pleonasm–being a journalist and knowing how to write well–please, go to any news website and judge for yourself the writing quality of most of its contributors) and he is also a very talented musician and DJ. In a nutshell, Thomas knows and loves the industry in which he works and that passion shows in every detail of his past and present work.

Audiovoltaics Website

Audiovoltaics sets an incredibly high standard for what an online music magazine should be. It is beautifully designed, the interface could not be simpler, allowing the visitor to focus on content and, when speaking of content, the seamless integration of text, audio and video allows you to stay on the site while being able to know, in one single spot, all the useful information there is to know about a certain artist or release.

Content

Thomas knows about every aspect of music so his articles are extremely informative and detailed. In this issue of Audiovoltaics you already get a glimpse that Thomas will not stay on his comfort zone and will aim to cover all kinds of creative arts.

Highlights

The netlabel portrait section, the interview with “To Rococo Rot” and the interview with Sven Kacirek deserve a highlight but all of Audiovoltaics is filled with pleasant surprises.

The “Peepin’ Music” section is a very welcome idea applied to Creative Commons music (based on the a very well known section from Wire magazine), where a known producer listens to music tracks and describes what he/she feels about them without knowing who the artists are.

Conclusion

If you are a music lover, want to get a peek of what the future of online music magazines might be like, have access to great and well-written content, you can’t miss Audiovoltaics.

…and I am not saying this because Thomas is my friend; I am saying this because I can’t wait for the October issue to be online.

Due to the amount of data flowing today on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Soundcloud or YouTube, it is really hard to find something that makes you stop from clicking immediately that mental “next” button: Diego Stocco’s work is one of those that makes you to stop to watch it because his work has that “wow!” factor. See it for yourself before I continue.

Diego is someone that, in the sound design world, doesn’t need any introduction. Those of you that never heard of him probably have already heard his work on such movie trailers as “Terminator:Salvation”, “2012?, “Eagle Eye”, “The Uninvited”, “Jumper”, “Transformers”, “Resident Evil: Extinction”, “Awake”, “Skinwalker” and “Lady in the Water” and video game trailers like “Justice League Heroes”, “Soulcalibur IV”, “MK vs DC, “Call of Duty, World at War” and television shows like “The Tudors” or “Moonlight”. Apart from that he has also done sound design for such brands like Nokia, Samsung, Panasonic, BMW and General Motors.

Diego has also achieved a name for himself by using non-traditional sound design techniques and by building his own instruments that he uses to create original sounds. The Experibass, a “monster” that is made of a violin, viola and cello strings amplified through the body of a double bass, caught the attention of Hans Zimmer who used Diego’s invention and talent on Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes”.

Interview with Diego Stocco

I recently came across Diego’s latest work “Music From a Bonsai” and this gave me the a good reason to bother Diego and have him answer some questions.

Your work as a composer and sound designer is widely perceived as innovative and you keep pushing that notion. What drives you to experiment with sound design and composition the way you do?

Diego Stocco (DS): Mostly curiosity, I can hear interesting sounds around all the time and I can’t stop thinking how they would sound organized into compositions. I think all objects and instruments contain sonic material that can be shaped into different forms, some of those can be tonal, some less, some are rhythmically defined, some very abstract.

When I first listened to some of your pieces lots of references came to my mind: Pan Sonic, Autechre, Amon Tobin even Aphex Twin but applied to natural sounds. Who are your main influencers? What role do they play when you are composing?

DS: I’ve heard about these artists before and I had a chance to listen to a couple of tracks from Amon Tobin, and probably Aphex Twin, but my musical heroes are Mike Oldfield and Peter Gabriel. These are the musicians that cracked wide open my musical sensibility and inspired me to go out and try my own things. I feel I learned from them the concept of expressing whatever music you have inside.

“Music from a Bonsai” is your latest experiment in using “living instruments” to produce a composition. What are the technical challenges to make such a production?

DS: This one was pretty challenging actually, the bonsai has this short and tiny sounds that are hard to control. Intentionally I didn’t want to start messing with synths and samplers, that would have surely helped in creating a more complex composition, but the spirit of this project was to stay true to the source.
Usually when I do these types of projects I test in advance if the techniques I want to use are actually going to work, but I like to keep the performance part open. I let my imagination suggest me a groove to start with, and when I feel it’s going and it’s solid, I start playing it with my hands too. Then I start layering the other elements and the piece becomes more defined.

Apart from your work as composer and sound designer you are also experimenting in building your own instruments. Experibass comes to mind immediately since it got you to play, as soloist, on Hans Zimmer’s “Sherlock Holmes” soundtrack. How did you come up with the idea to build the Experibass? And how was it to work with Hans Zimmer?

DS: I’ve been customizing and building instruments for a while, but the classical strings were a new territory for me. I was curious to hear what kind of resonances a violin string could have if amplified by a double bass.
So I built the instrument to find out. Then I also discovered many other interesting things happening within the instruments, for example, every note, hit and noise resonate through all the strings, creating sympathetic resonances. Once the instrument was ready I had to come up with some techniques to show even to myself how I was thinking to play it, and so I thought to make also a video.
It’s was a great surprise when Hans Zimmer contacted me. I always admired his soundtracks because besides being an incredible composer, he has such a natural instinct for great sounds.
He gave me the freedom to express the potentials of the Experibass on his music, encouraging me to come up with even more playing techniques. It was amazing to see his enthusiasm and positive reaction about what I was playing.

Do you prefer to use a large variety of tools (software) or do you stick with a few you already know? What are those? (Question submitted by Nick Maxwell)

DS: Every project is different and it depends what I’m trying to achieve, if there’s an opportunity to learn something new I definitely go for it.
There are some software and tools that have been a stable presence in my setup. I’ve been a Pro Tools user for a long time, that’s what I mostly use to record; inside Pro Tools I also do the mixing.
I’ve been using Røde mics for a variety of projects, they sound great and they have this particular model called NT6 which is so small that I can attach it to my fingers, as I did in “Music from a Tree”.
Rather than that, there might a new plugin sometimes that catches my attention, but I always thought that ideas are the most important tools, without those you could have a million dollar studio and not getting anything original out of it.

Below you can see the “Music from a Bonsai” video. If you leave any questions you might have for Diego, on the comments I am sure he will be kind enough to answer them.

:: Connect with Diego ::
Diego Stocco on Béhance
Diego’s Videos on VIMEO

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Original Post Translation

21st Century Beat Music is how Error Broadcast’s founders  define themselves and the truth is that they are right. After listening to their very interesting catalog, I have reached the conclusion,that Error Broadcast has been able to differentiate themselves from other labels and have a spot of their own, by releasing good music.

Error Broadcast is an Italo-German project run by Sven Swift y Flip that has released 8 references and 3 mixtapes. Contemporary beats, of (still) unknown artists that bring freshness and new sounds. There are other netlabels that I follow like Budabeats or Dusted Wax Kindom that release high quality hip-hop, but much less risky in format and with a more classic cut.

Error Broadcast’s first reference was the compilation [ebc001]V.A “Bag of Nothingness” that is a declaration of intentions with tracks from Comfort Fit + Prortformat (Tokyo Dawn Records), Lambent (Project Mooncircle), Apes on tapes and instant hits like “Juno Had a Rough Day” by Great Mundane.

The following 4 releases allowed me to get to knnow AEED, Swede:art x A-rec x Fuer.steps, Shlohmo and Pixelord.

AEED is synthetic and full of good taste. Shlohmo is a man from the future, minimalist and fresh that reminds me a bit of Dilla and people like Stones Throw. Swede:art x A-rec x Fuer.steps have really authentic themes and overall the whole thing sounds fat while Pixelord distinguishes himself in the use of his 8 bit synths and his analog arsenal.

After this Error Broadcast released Pixelord remixes and some days ago two new releases from Kenlo Cranqnuques and B-ju of which they have pressed some copies in 7″ vinyl that are almost sold out. Error Broadcast is offering some of these and you still can make an  entry to  their competition by following this link.

The mixtapes are also high-grade material and there is a lot of music to get to know. The selection and the mixing itself are really well done. They call it Wonky, some other say it is post-Dilla… to me it sounds like good music that I invite everyone to listen to.

The Great Mundane – Juno Had a Rough Day by Error
Broadcast

KenLo Craqnuques – L’Automne en Amour by Error
Broadcast

Pixelord – Quartz Boy by Error
Broadcast

AEED – More Time by Error
Broadcast

To open the doors to our readers to yet another genre, available on #ccmusic (meaning it is legal to download it, share it, copy it, reproduce it as long as you give attribution to the artist), I have invited Filipe “ps” Cruz that is an authority on the subject and runs one of the most important netlabels in Europe: Enough Records. Filipe was kind kind enough to make a selection of 10 tracks that are a true homage to this genre as well as having a great mood about them.

Track List

01 | L’homme Manete – Erase Form from [enrmp22] Gaming Sessions
02 | Anamanaguchi – Helix Nebula from [8bp065] Power Supply
03 | kplecraft – 718 suite: Part1 from [mtk.mp3.146] KNMS-001
04 | Skip – HyperSpaceAdventure from [enrmp231] HyperSpaceAdventure
05 | nullsleep – chippon from [enrcmp02] Retork
06 | Sabrepulse – The Manhattan Transfer from [N/A*] Turbo City
07 | pornophonique – 1/2 player game from [N/A] “8-bit lagerfeuer”
08 | Saskrotch – We Are Hi-Speed [remix] from [8BP102] I’ll have you Naked by the End of this ROM
09 | And. – Start Havok from [enrmp158] Dans
10 | Goto80 – Kill Piller from [Candy033] Zyndabox

Download whole release, including Cover Art by clicking here

Remember that you can download more tracks from the featured artists by clicking on the release link. Enjoy the 8Bit and ChipTune madness!

Picture Credits: su1droot under a CC License

Recently Miga released a double compilation, called precisely “Astúries” with a simple concept: only artists from the region would be featured on it. The result is an extraordinary showcase of talent and below you can listen to 10 tracks taken from the first part of the compilation but please don’t stop there and download the whole work. It is worth it.

[BRM008] VA | Rebel Music Volume 8

All tracks taken from “Astúries”, a compilation by Miga Netlabel. Go to the original release by clicking here

Picture Credits: Alain Müller under a CC License

A long career in the demoscene world took him to the netaudio scene and now he is dedicated to the promotion of the local scene with activities and collaborations through the platform netaudio.es, the magazine Phlow.es and the netaudio festival EXPANDING in Barcelona (Spain).

David has put up together a selection of ten Creative Commons tracks that have one thing in common: they are less techno oriented. This is not by chance. Has David explains “I would like to show that there is Creative Commons related music that has calm rhythms, nice atmospheres and good vibes and not only dancing minimal/techno releases. That’s why I’ve selected these peaceful songs. I hope you enjoy and relax with them”

[BRM007] VA | Rebel Music Volume 07

Track List

01 | Alex Martin | “La obsesión por la seguridad crea inseguridad” from Phlow.es Music for Peace

02 | Tracing Arcs | “A Pig and A Cow” from [DWK030] Fin

03 | Planet Boelex with Lisa’s Antenna | “Are you there” from [SFP01] Little Word

04 | D-Fried | “Inner Tourist” from [PHOKE54] – Clouds Leave No Trace

05 | Mosaik | “Tickles (with numellin)” from [SFP08] Leandi

06 | Jenifer Ávila | “Llegará” from

07 | Crisopa | “Buen Genoma” from [CRN006] Various Artists – Drifting Skywards 2

08 | Penca Catalogue | “Jokes” from [tube071] This is Hair Care

09 | Henrik José | “Little Things” from [sec.041] The Little Things

10 | Fernando Lagreca | “What we call love” from [APL041] Colpi di Sole

Download the whole release by clicking here (83mb includes cover art)

I want to thank David for taking his time to come up with this amazing selection that I’m sure will open new horizons to our readers. See the comment section below? Love it or hate it, let us know!

Picture Credits: B.G. Johnson under a CC License

As I usually do, when I invite someone to make a selection of CC Music, I also ask for a brief description of the thought behind it. Here is what Thomas had to say:

“This is not the typical walk through the diversity of today’s netaudio scene (and it is diverse, trust me!). Looking back I always loved albums that follow a recognizable spirit, like a tangible soul aspirating life into every single title. Breathing this pattern into a compilation is even harder – but I tried my best and here’s the result. This is also a celebration of some of the netlabels I came to adore during the last couple of years, whose music follow me wherever I go and find me wherever I happen to be in life. So this is a big ‘Thank You’ to those labels and people behind them – a lot more of you would deserve this attention. But they only allowed me to pick ten tracks ”

[BRM006] VA | Rebel Music Volume 05 by Various Artists

Track List

01 | Fredrik Stahl – Biblical Parenting from the “Universally Personal” EP

02 | Honeymoon Over! – Sophistication from the “Honeymoon Over!” EP

03 | This Mess Is Mine – Like a Whale That Swims Through The Thames from the “Weekend EP”

04 | Errnois Featuring Michele Romanello – Gorlitzer from the “The Winter Season” EP

05 | Volumina – Hide and Seek from the “This is our home, please come in” EP

06 | Bakers At Dawn – Same from the “You Must Hide your Love Forever” EP

07 | Holldrift – Great Northern Day from the “Wreath of Algona” EP

08 | Azeda Booth – First Little Britches from the “TubTrek” EP

09 | Emerald Park – Pasadena from the “For Tomorrow (2010 Edition)” EP

10 | Miss Ueki – Reykjavík from the “BiM20 Celebratory” Compilation

Please take your time to listen to this tracks and also explore the full EPs available for free download from this artists and do not forget to leave your comments. What is your favorite this week?

Picture Credits: Axel D under a CC License

Rute’s musical taste is fully translated on this new volume of the Rebel Music Series. From the more ambient tracks to the more playful themes this volume is a great example that Creative Commons music is not only about techno or electronica but that it spreads throughout all genres. A special mention goes to the last track from Alexandre Bateiras, that uses the typical Portuguese guitar to take us into a discovery to a new way to interpret Portugal’s traditional music.

[BRM05] VA | Rebel Music Volume 5 by Various Artists

Track Listing

1. The Grass Is Greener (Gate-Zero Remix) from [iD.042] Weigl & Hoffman – Elevate EP

2. Anti-Love (feat. Sleaze) from [BSOG0001] Just Plain Ant – Dig Deep

3. At the end of Mahon Street from [konfort016] The Incognito Traveller – The Incognito Traveller EP

4. One Night Stand from [tube066] Clorofila Azul – Revisitado (com voz)

5.To begin again from [fpr017] Pix – Life Living

6. Impulsion Pt.1 from [LostChildren046] Radius System – Escape / Restart

7. Thief from [aer008] This Mess Is Mine – Sign The Drafts EP

8. Stase Phychique from [insubcdr02b] Plaistow – Los Criminales Reciclados En Conductores De Autobuses

9. Pena from [Lástima] Azevedo Silva – Autista

10. Porto Largo from [merz0027] Alexandre Bateiras – Canções da Lua Nova

Download whole release: Zip file (73Mb includes cover art)

I hope you all like this new volume of “Rebel Music” and want to thank Rute for taking the time to curate it for us. What did you think? What is your favorite tracks from this volume? Let me know in the comments and don’t forget to explore the links to the full editions.

Picture Credits: K.G. Photos under a CC License

Rebel Music Volume 4 is a very special compilation of free music (released under a Creative Commons License). I am fortunate enough to know some really amazing persons in the Netaudio world and one of those persons is Roland Graffe (who I had the pleasure to meet in OffL last year). Roland is a 40 years old guy that works and lives in Berlin,Germany and, he is one of the makers of the German weblog Machtdose (an artificial word “meaning” “can of power”) which has a focus on arts and music. Since 2005 he is producing a monthly podcast where he presents his favorite netaudio tracks which he finds on netlabel & ccmusic-related sites the weeks before. Roland has a unique perspective on the netaudio scene and a envious music knowledge.

For this compilation Roland has compiled with a selection of music released in 2009 (with only one exception) with a myriad of music styles but that, in the whole, tells us a beautiful story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Feel free to download, play, share and spread the word. After all this is ccmusic. Also feel free to explore other tracks by the same musicians by clicking on the original releases where these tracks came from. It’s worth it.

[BRM004] VA | Rebel Music Vol. 04 by Various Artists

Track List

1. Julian Winter – Jasnost from [pj006] Julian Winter – L’art pour l’art

2. Miss Ueki – Circles 1.0 from [Bim19] Miss Ueki – Shake Shake

3. Adam Svanell – Tredje Långgatan 26 (Han som ville bli en sämre människa remix) from [IAT.MP3.011] Björn Kleinhenz – Quietly happy and deep inside – Covers and remixes

4. Tracky Birthday – WuBatman-Tang from [upfree26] Tracky Birthday – Animal Audition

5. docks – granulation 2 from [rer07] docks – “Ship” EP (The Netlabel “Reverse Engine” is no longer active)

6. Midimode vs Unlockedoor – Snezhynaya from [HW039] Midimode – Midimusicbox EP

7. Coba – Mini plack (Pablo en puna) from [epa059] Coba – Flor Mono

8. Vertical67 – First Shades from [ACP060] Vertical67 – The Space Between

9. So I’m Jo – Waiting For Time from [MDF04] So I’m Jo – Entrevoir

10. Stay Ali – Discoliner from [sfr049] Stay Ali – Music for Men

You can download the whole release, including the release art, in a zip file by clicking here. And don’t forget to leave your comments. What was your favorite track this week?

Image Credits: Frederic Poirot under a CC License

This new move, supported by the music industry, is a new attempt to apply a old business model to the digital revolution and to the way artists are reaching their audiences. MusicDNA is nothing more than a mp3 file on steroids that can reach up to 32GB per file and will include anything that has an URL on it. From the artist’s blog to a twitter stream, album covers and/or promotions.

To put it in a nutshell, MusicDNA wants to be a one stop information hub for anything about any artist while offering labels a way to keep tight control on who is buying and sharing what, with whom and even where.

Why does it matter?

We have heard it all before: the fact is that the music industry (not the artists) is taking a huge blow on revenue. The usual suspects are always the pirates that download music illegally only to share it with others but this argument couldn’t be more flawed: the numbers are actually up and artists are making more money while the major labels are making less money. (Read this excellent post here to understand it all). The fact is that the industry is at loss and unable to adapt to us, the consumers, but the artists are more flexible and understand their audience and reach out to it. And I’m not referring to artists you never heard of: Like them or not, names like RadioHead and Nine Inch Nails have already embraced this model and the results were very positive. MusicDNA matters to understand how desperate the music industry is and gives, all of us, an understanding of its inability to react and downsize a business that is hugely dependent on a business model that no longer makes sense.

Why will MusicDNA fail?

Forget about the privacy concerns that such by-products of MusicDNA, like MusicGPS, may raise. MusicDNA wants to put information that is available on the public domain into a mp3 for a higher price. You will still be buying the same song, with the same quality but because of all the added value the file will bring with it there will be an additional cost. Apparently the music industry thinks that we are all lazy, unable to find information by ourselves, unable to create trusted sources of information and it also thinks that we will be willing to pay more money for something we can get for free. I, for one, am not willing to do that.

What about you? Let me know in the comments!

Picture Credits: j / f / photos under a CC License