Special shout-out to Aidan Hanratty and Bandcloud today who hangs it up after over 400 weekly emails covering weird electronic music (and more!). Aidan was one of the most supportive people when Foxy Digitalis came back from the dead, and I will appreciate that forever. An amazing run, though – can’t be understated. Go give him some love and appreciation for the endless hours of … Continue reading The Capsule Garden Vol 1.29: August 19, 2022
By creating sonic landscapes built around isolated communities and environments, Norman W. Long challenges listeners to consider the relationships between people and nature that exist in post-industrial urban environments where many Black and Brown communities live. Long’s earlier piece this year, Black Space in Winter, and his latest album, Black Brown Gray Green, especially configure these environmental sounds into visceral sonic contexts. His work is imaginative and … Continue reading Hearing Landscapes: An Interview With Norman W. Long
Until now I was only familiar with Norman W. Long’s incredible field-recording-based solo work, so learning about his drone project, eXU-9, was exciting. On Space Cadet, Long takes these dense explorations to find meditative spaces where we can ruminate on “freedom, resilience, expansion, openness, and universal consciousness.” There are mountains of pain and trauma underlying these recordings, but they are an act of defiance; of processing and … Continue reading eXU-9 “Space Cadet”
The description of this piece says so much: “These recordings offer us a way to listen to communities of color by listening for the ecological, economic and residential life that make up the community.” Norman W Long assembles a selection of field recordings, combined with other composed sounds, to present a reflection on how sound shapes the world. It’s an eye-opening and captivating offering, familiar … Continue reading Norman W Long “Black Space in Winter”
