aboombong - asynartetic

My latest release is out on time for the latest Bandcamp Friday (starting 12am PDT on 8/7/2020). For 24 hours Bandcamp waives their fees to help out artists. I will be using that as a way to raise money to help the victims of the recent blast in Beirut. All proceeds raised this month from any aboombong purchase will go to http://redcross.org.lb who provides frontline relief to victims.

Most (not all, but most) aboombong songs involve improvisation at some level. I frequently use improvisations as source material and then editing and post-production manipulations to combine them into something coherent. On this album the improvisations themselves, the performances, are the focus. Taking cues from jazz - where the interplay between musicians is the substance of the performance -these songs were constructed "live" - with each performance played in direct response to the tracks laid down previously. Treatments and manipulations were applied (essentially) live as well (play, treat, playback while improvising the next track) for the most part. Enjoy and spread the word so I can raise some money for those in need. Thanks.

artist: aboombong

album: asynartetic

release: 2020

style: jazz, ambient, piano

players: me - piano, trap set, double sanza, wooden-headed dumbek, taganing, elephant bell, temple bell.

artwork/photography: me

Design consultation: Random

noon

noon from the album amnemonic...music and images by aboombong

I Feel - psychic enemies network

My brother seems to have put up some videos...this is from the first psychic enemies network album. I always felt like these tracks were soundtrack music for movies no one had made yet. Matt seems to have made one that works nicely. 

Aboombong artwork and soundart

A nice review of the latest aboombong album adumbral: études dans le contrôle imprécis over at Acts of Silence. We always appreciate help spreading the word...check out the other reviews and you'll find other great music. 

Also available on Spotify, Rhapsody, iTunes, Last.FM and from most of your favorite places to purchase downloads. Bandcamp is the only venue where you choose what to pay.  

adumbral: études dans le contrôle imprécis

Artist: aboombong
Album: adumbral: études dans le contrôle imprécis
Style: minimalist, looping, glitchy, electronics
Toys: Kaossilator, drum kit.

A new aboombong for a new year. Enjoy.

Update: now also available on Spotify, Rhapsody, iTunes, Last.FM and from most of your favorite places to purchase downloads. Bandcamp is the only venue where you choose what to pay.

aboombong - anaphora (new release)

artist: aboombong

album: anaphora

style: musique concrète, ambient, spoken word

players: 

aboombong - field recordings, fetal heart monitor, happy apple, Kawai K3; 

Random - beats; 

Carl - words. 

This one is a cross generational collaboration between my grandfather (pictured, on the left) and my son, born 101 years apart. Available name your price on bandcamp. Enjoy, and if you do, spread the word. 

aboombong - admixture

Starting the new year with a new release, admixture, a two-track, interactive e.p. from aboombong. With the exception of a little harmonica, this one is all percussion. The interactive element here is this: I am sending solicitations for additional elements for each track to my musician friends...and will accept them as well from those of you out there that feel inclined; I will take submitted additions to the songs and I will combine them into new versions: not remixs, admixs. If you are interested in participating...put together your contribution and then leave a comment or send me a note here (click on the link that says "For all other inquiries, click here") and we'll figure out how I can retrieve your contributions. No complicated rules, but remember, your contribution will be combined with things you haven't heard. Oh, and I don't want any samples of already released material. Contributions should be something you created from scratch.

Artist: aboombong
Album: admixture
Style: shoegaze, drone-rock, idm, psychedelic, dream pop
Features: percussion, harmonica, effects.


As always, this one is a pay what you want release. All proceeds go to more music.

endorphin rush from fescal

Another quick recommendation. A bandcamp buddy of aboombong (UPDATE: a nice review of the amnemonic is up over at Recent Music Heroes) and azwarm, Fescal has put out an impressive ambient drone album, Endorphin, that you can pick up (name your own price with no minimum) at the 1798 label's bandcamp page. Full of dense layers of pristine sound, it'll take you out of your head for a nice half hour long vacation from reality. Well worth your time and money. Check 'em out and spread the word.

aboombong - amnemonic (the new album)

The new one is here. Start spreading the word.

Artist: aboombong
Album: amnemonic
Release date: September 11, 2010


Style(s): afro-asian noise, post-rock shoegaze, musique concrète, minimalism, noise, drone, post-punk.
Toys: amplified tongue drum, Turkish darbuka, New Mexican wooden-headed goblet drum, Igbo Ekwe (two tone log slit drum), Ibo Ekpiri shaker, Vietnamese jack fruit danmo, camel bells, elephant bells, goat bells, 16-tine Thai temple bell, Mimi's souvenir travel bells collection, Trinidadian tenor steelpan, 5-string table-top electric guitar, Kawai K3, one-man-army chants, Stylophone S1 orchestra, harmonica, drum kit.

Tracklist:
1) Cheshiahud Loop
2) From Cracked and Bloodied Fingers
3) Cromsby Grovernor Worthington's Jujujaiponmolam
4) Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, & Wang Hongwen in Dahomey
5) Noon

"Restrained" would not be a good word to use to describe this one.

As with all the aboombong releases, this one is available for download from bandcamp in a variety of formats (including lossless formats) and you can name your own price. Please note that there is a special limited edition bonus track available for the first 200 folks who name a price of $5 or more over at bandcamp, or donate (from the button below) $5 or more to Pen & Mallet. I will email you a unique, one-time use download code with instructions for retrieving your bonus track in gratitude for your support (which goes directly to pay for things like drum sticks, guitar strings, cables, distribution, and an occasional bowl of Phở).

UPDATE: in a totally uncoordinated coincidence, the new dustdevil & crow, while speaking softly you can hear the insects sing is also out. It was a real honor to be invited to work on this one. Check it out and spread the word.
UPDATE2.7: The first review of amnemonic is in and it made me blush. Now featured over at Disquiet with some very positive words. Also thanks to Nadia for a nice review over at the couch sessions and to Estonia's Recent Music Heroes for a very positive(?) review (google translate had a hard time with the Estonian, but I see a rating of 10.0 and lots of nice phrases scattered throughout) ; and thanks to Disruptive Platypus, Dying For Bad Music, Living Exposed, The Sound of Eye, The Sirens Sound, geometria innamorata, & Exile on Moan Street for helping to spread the word. The latest review of "asynchronic" over at rym deserves mention as well (by Ily, August 14th).

Drag Along Behind and Urban Photography

Another quickee
The tune Drag Along Behind from asynchronic is featured in a nice video over at Living Exposed.

Check it out:

Two Minutes: Neil Johnson and Urban Photography - Living Exposed from Living Exposed on Vimeo.

UPDATE: Just found a review that google translate tells me is quite positive over at ondarock. "Non fate l’errore di perdervi questo primo, grande dispaccio."

azwarm: a morning's work

A couple of long ambient improvisations made with bells and pans.
Artist: azwarm
Album: a morning's work
Style: ambient, drone, musique concrète, minimalism, noise
Release: April 24th 2010
Players: me - ringing metal objects, manipulation.
Available in a variety of formats from http://azwarm.bandcamp.com (set your own price)


UPDATE: 3 Bells Gone now included in a nice mix over at Subversion.

Etude for Six Mirrored Hands

Music: Étude for Six Mirrored Hands
Recorded 2000
Players:
Yoko Ortega, Piano
Me, tape-manipulations


My collaborator on today's post, Yoko Ortega has, perhaps, the most cinematic life-story of anyone I've known. A Hiroshima survivor, Yoko grew up to be a radio and television celebrity in Japan with one of the country's first unscripted talk shows, and a million selling children's album (Yoko described it as "The Japanese Snow White" with Yoko singing the part of "Snow White" - I had hoped to post some excerpts, but, alas, I seem to have misplaced my copy and can't find a sign of it on the web). From what she showed me in her clip-book, Yoko's image was apparently a common sight in magazine and TV advertisements, and she told me she received a good bit of criticism in her day for her flamboyant fashion sense and the "too-outspoken" attitudes she displayed in her talk show. In the midst of her fame and fortune, Yoko met and married an American soldier from New Mexico and moved from the flash and glitter of her Tokoyo life to a small town in northern New Mexico, where her limited English didn't do much to help her communicate with her Spanish speaking neighbors. When I met her, she was teaching children with disabilities in an elementary school in Albuquerque and, despite being old enough to retire, was, instead, completing her Master's Degree. Much beloved by her students, Yoko used music (and her insider access to real Japanese Pokemon cards) to motivate her students to find their own talents and show them to the world.

In the years since this was recorded, I have lost contact with Yoko, so she has never heard the completed piece. The song was designed to be played 3 times independently: once on piano, once with a string quartet, and once with a brass quartet. Each performance was to be played without hearing the other performances and then all three were to be superimposed onto each other. This would allow slight differences in tempo (particularly during the long rests sprinkled throughout) to interleave the melody and make it more and more chaotic as the piece progressed. These 3 takes were then to be superimposed again over a quieter mirrored recording of themselves. I have never managed to organize the recordings of the chamber groups, so this is a rough sketch of the piece based on Yoko's piano performances. Listening to it, I think I may revisit the piece and see if I can complete it as intended. The sound quality suffers a bit from the quick and dirty tape manipulations, but adds a certain atmosphere that I like. I picture this as the soundtrack to a grainy silent film, perhaps Nosferatu.

Enjoy. Up next, more experimental pieces from the New Mexico State University Experimental Music Laboratory.

Cranky: Our Cupp runneth over

For Waltz Bop Shop fans (our most popular attraction so far here at Pen & Mallet), today we have the current work of WBS's bass player- Cranky. This includes a great version of the WBS classic..."Please Yourself!"(from All my idears are played live today).

Album: Cranky - complete work so far
Style: electro-minimalism? Lo-fi High-brow?
Players: Uncle Dewdrop Pony (vocals, programming)

vast active living intelligent system

Cdbaby is a great company. They have done a lot to make it easier for artists to release their own material. As is apparent from their name, however, they are really about selling CD's. Their support for on-line, digital releases is pretty bare bones. Ever since we ran out of hard-copies of valis, it has bothered me that the only format available was mp3. I have decided to rectify that situation. As of today, valis is now available in a variety of lossless formats over at bandcamp.com...To entice you further, I have included some bonus material.

Ambient soundtracks for your portable cortical theatre. Enjoy.

Artist: psychic enemies network
Album: valis
Style: ambient
Release: 2000
Players: my brother & me - guitar, electronics, tapes, loops, percussion
Available in a variety of formats from http://psychicenemiesnetwork.bandcamp.com/ (set your own price)




This album is still, of course, available at CDbaby, on itunes, and through various other on-line sources.

aboombong: ambientrance dub-dozen

Artist: aboombong
Album: aboombong
Style: ambientrance dub soundscapes
Release: June, 2009
Players: all me* - electronics, tapes, percussion
Available in a variety of formats from http://aboombong.bandcamp.com/ (set your own price)



Tracklist:
1. a
2. ab
3. abo
4. aboo
5. aboom
6. aboomb
7. aboombo
8. aboombon
9. aboombong
10. 3 Days 'til Sunrise (aboombong mix)
11. gnobmooba
12. birds

*aboom contains samples from Waltz Bop Shop and gnobmooba contains samples from ¡para!helion. Narrative in 3 Days 'til Sunrise recorded off of public radio in the late 1990's.

Update: Now on imeem & Last.fm
Update: Wow! aboombong is featured in this week's independent music discoveries (issue-13) over at A Future in Noise. Thanks Marilyn (^_^)
Update: Now also available at the great Dogs Can Read Your Mind blog along with lots of other ambient/drone/experimental music. Check it out.