Veiled Witch Dies In Illusion, by Backwire

Chilled and soothing sound experiments from British Colombian producer Backwire.

Coined as “A collection of BACKWIRE material recorded from 2019-2022 using various guitars, pedals, 4 tracks, synthesizers” – Veiled Witch Dies In Illusion is a 6-track project of minimalist tunes that dance between psychedelic soundscapes and percussive ambience with emotional grace.

The short tracks carry a heavy weight – Strident Realm in particular exudes a melancholy mood, allowing the listener to settle in and pontificate as the progression loops for a few meditative minutes.

It’s raw and emotional for sure, and a solid listen for fans of this type of ambient. You can stream/download the digital version of the album now via bandcamp – with a mention of physical editions sometime in the future. Lets hope that means cassettes, I feel like this project would sound great on tape!

Guitar Samples, by DR00

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Torontos Legendary Entertainment bring us an interesting new project from producer DR00 – Guitar Samples. An experimental 9 track tape that is, according to the creator, made entirely of guitar samples, sans a few bits of percussion on a track or two. The result is a very organic and interesting listen. The vibe is solid whether the track is pulsing with rhythms like the remixed Oak, or simply blissing out over the possibilities of sonic manipulation on tracks such as Beyond Recognition.

You can grab a CD of the project from Legendary Entertainment, there is also a Cassette release available via Æescape Sounds, but either way you will be doing yourself a favor picking this up!

Geographics 2, by Cousin Silas

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The Small Scottish Netlabel of weareallghosts brings us this truly beautiful work of relaxing ambience from Cousin Silas. Geographics 2 is a long-playing 9 track album focusing on soundscapes constructed from guitars and lush atmospheres. The overall tone of the album is both majestic and melancholy. Much like the album artwork suggests, it evokes feelings of misty mornings alone in the wilderness. The tasteful compositions don’t stray too far from traditional ambient styles, which is almost a breath of fresh air with so much weird genre-bending nowadays! For the most part this is an incredibly relaxing work of new age ambience, a highly recommended listen! You can grab the album from Bandcamp or Archive.

Favorite Track. 3 Through Lincolnshire (Spring 1969)

I have a considerable amount of love for Cousin Silas and his music. He is consistently wonderful, as an inspiration and as a friend, and I am proud to present his latest work: “Geographics 2 (waag_rel075)” … the long overdue follow up to “Geographics” on the brilliant Shaun Blezard’s now sadly dormant Earth Monkey Productions.

It was Geographics that got me into Cousin Silas’ music. That and his Ballard Landscapes, which were all on EMP. And it was EMP that got me into Silas by promoting his work. Blezard’s netlabel introduced me to the concept of netlabel and was a key inspiration for me to start weareallghosts.

It seems like we’ve come full circle with waag releasing Cousin Silas’ follow up all these years later.

And what a release it is: mellow, ambient guitar soundscapes. Nothing rushed or overwrought, just simple ambience … the kind that settles the mind.

Here’s to you, Cousin Silas … and to you, Shaun Blezard! Cheers to you both.

A 320kbps version of this release is available over on Archive (archive.org/details/we-are-all-ghosts) for free with a lossless version available on Bandcamp for ‘pay what you want’ which does include ‘free’. If you decide to download this album here for free, and you can with our best wishes, then all we ask is that you please tell people about it.

Tx

Volume 1 available here =>archive.org/details/cousinsilas_geographies

released 19 September 2015

Music by Cousin Silas
Photography by Johan De Paepe (used with permission)
Design and Logistics by Thomas Mathie for weareallghosts.co.uk

For Shaun the Earth Monkey

Battle Brook Canoe Route, by Marcus Eads

Some fantastic new fingerstyle-pickin from Marcus Eads

Prism, by Western Skies Motel

Phenomenal solo-guitar pieces, could not recommend this one more!!!!

Book of Forgotten Dreams, by Jazzdefector

Assembly Field brings us a lovely 4-part ambient project from Jazzdefector, Book of Forgotten Dreams. This collection of compositions is as beautiful as it is subtle.

Sherburne County 10″ by Marcus Eads

A while ago I did a write-up for a recent album by Instrumentalist/Songwriter Marcus Eads, Sherburne County Instrumentals. Recently, Marcus released a 3-track album titled Sherburne County 10″, featuring two re-workings of tracks from the original album, packaged together with a brand new piece at the end! As a huge personal fan, I will take anything this guy releases, though I am always eager for another full length or conceptual album.