this monthly's been happening for a little while now. thanks beatroute for printing your piece on us.
Alejandro Bento 'Rain' Souns Remix
souns remix of alejandro bento's 'rain' is out now on the subtempo imprint. the whole release is worth checking out, some beautiful work in there. listen here, read a little bit about it at a strangely isolated place and finest ego, and buy it here.
vso new music festival 2017
last year was such a pleasure and an inspiration. excited to take in all the concerts and provide a cap on the evening for folks. i'll be dj'ing the post-concerts jan 24, 26, 27, and 29.
you can check out the full festival program here
and listen to my post-concerts from last year below..
livePA in support of ASC
brighter colours ep
my first release of the year is on really good records. cheers folks. here's all the info:
Michael Red's 'Brighter Colours' EP is a collection of tracks that trace back to dubstep's early days in Vancouver. Tracks that got the best dancefloor reactions back then AND still do now. 'Presha Dem' and 'Chops' were both dropped on acetate at the legendary Dubforms parties actually. Worth another note is that 'Chops' is the original take of it's re-imagined dub version 'Ops Dub' (released on New York's South Fork Sound). Stripping down sounds to the essentials being a central theme in dub music - "Chops" is "Ops Dub" but with the "C", the added colour and drums, still intact. Sound System Culture, Dub Music, and West Coast Canadian influences are all clear here. Functional bass heavy dancefloor music .. with lasting depth. Lighta! Really Good!
featured in ZamZam's mix for RBMA, BunZero's SubFM show, Spurz mix for the-levels-are-very-high
"REALLY GOOD VIBES" ~ moresounds
"birds sound like rewinds sometimes" ~ Om Unit
"Great dubby vibe. Fantastic!" ~ CBC electronic
"Riding down the street in a zamboni, cause the streets are all frozen, blasting the ep, looking for the best veggie burger in town." ~ Danny Corn
"Wonderful EP! Love the variety of the tunes yet the vibe is unified. Glad to hear a couple favorites in here." ~ E3 (zam zam)
"Very strong release, 'Presha Dem' is a percy!" ~ Blind Prophet (south fork sound)
"COOL" ~ Ed Solo
"REALLY FRESH BEATS" ~ KeepDeep
in between times
only the most sensitive radar could catch this one. low flying release and personal creative exercise in clearing out some cob webs .. or perhaps more accurately - going through old photos in the attic.
split vinyl EP with taal mala
it's been an extra long process to get this release together but totally worth the wait. the fellas from babel printed and pressed (also see undone) worked hard to get it right and it shows. the booklet looks great. the vinyl sounds amazing. the video by endtask is world class. proud of this one. nice one taal mala too of course. vinyl & booklet is available at record shops in vancouver, new york, bristol, toronto, juno, rwd_fwd, red eye and bandcamp.
also a little lighter flash to the sinking ship, where me and taal mala and the label all lived under the same roof for a time, and where this project was seeded.
YEARS END - A1PHA
i initiated the low key YEARS END at the very end of last year, and got a bunch of positive feedback about it. the plan is to release another albums worth of material at the very end of this year too. i'll also be slowly feeding select unreleased back catelog and certain older short-run physical releases to there too.
just put up the original score i did for A1PHA, a short film eron carruth wrote and directed. thanks for the support
new forms festival 2016
a belated but hearty thanks to everyone who came out and took part in new forms festival 2016. it was a pleasure to put together two of the line up's for this year. the satellite gallery on friday night with lee bannon, strategy, x/o, rosen, wzrdryAV, and aspecial performance from mark van hoen. and the main room saturday night with untold, deft, swisha, hood joplin and c130. it's been nothing but positive and entusiastic responses on all fronts. happy this could happen in vancouver. special thanks to malcolm levy, scott w, emmy, rauiri, matt, and the whole rest of the team. cheers!
a time and place, revisted
extremely pleased to announce my audio installation for +15 soundscapes a time and place, revisted is happening from now until the start of january. a network of discreet speakers spread across a downtown calgary city block playing a soundscape i created, 24 hours a day. many thanks to arts commons to selecting my work for this, constantine katsiris and sheena jardine-olade for helping prep my work behind the scenes. and extra special thanks to tanya tagaq for letting me use her voice in the work and hosting me in her home community of cambridge bay, which allowed for the whole thing to happen in the first place.
arts commons wrote up their own description of the project, so i figured i'd share the description, in my words, below..
- PROJECT DESCRIPTION
A Time and Place, Revisited is a meditative sound journey of music and soundscapes created exclusively from audio recorded in and around Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. Invited by musical collaborator Tanya Tagaq, and an acclaimed Inuit throat singer, Michael Red flew up to the far north in 2006 to carefully record sounds from the land, life and Tanya in her home community. Sounds gathered include wind, rushing water, still water, slush, ice melting and crackling, birds, sled dogs, a qillauti (drum) played and tightened, swishing ulus (knives) together, fingers running through furs and feathers, objects being banged and clanging together at the community dump, the 10 o'clock siren, kids laughing and playing, and Tanya singing and experimenting with her voice. Over the course of three years, back in Vancouver, Red meticulously processed and categorized the three weeks of raw material he recorded and shaped them into a comprehensive sound library. This library includes full sets of drums, percussion, bass, melodic instruments, and atmospheres - all created the recordings from up north and computer software process's. Michael has used parts of this library in performance with Tanya, as well as in part of a installation for CODE:live (part of the 2010 Olympics), but never dove deep in the full expanses of the nunavut sound library until now.
A Time and Place, Revisited is a continuous cycling mix of the songs, soundscapes and sound art inspired by, and made from, the Canadian Artic. It is intended as a cyclical story that can be picked up anywhere, moving between the quieter moments of ambient field recordings and more dramatic areas like beat-driven songs. It is a sound expression of an experience - a compilation of ideas, emotions and expressions inspired from land above the treeline.
- ARTIST STATEMENT
A Time and Place, Revisited is a journey that engages the listener in a similar way to how they might experience the north themselves: quiet contemplations, wildly raw and powerful moments, mysterious and magical diversions, simple natural beauty.
This work is very much “alive”. Finding the life in raw audio recordings of things like wind and water, and allowing space for that life to speak in it's own voice.
The first appearance of this work was part of an art installation for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. This is a further developed and refined version of that work, hence the “revisited” in the title.
twin maples video premiere in iceland
gratitude to emma hendrix, julie gendron and skálar for putting together an AV event in seydisfjordur, iceland that saw the world premiere of my and vasho pekar's video twin maples. vasho did the visual, i did the audio, and (soon enough) the general public will get to see it (presently figuring out the right outlet for the piece.. might even see a physical release). cheers
Anahata 心輪
my friend sammy chien recently showed me some documentation from a show in taiwan i contributed music to in 2015. ..sometimes documentation is slow to come around, heh (and actually there apparently is still "proper" video to come).
an alternate version of my track 'harpoon' on king deluxe blasted out to 30, 000 people with a large scale live projections and dance performances. thanks for including me sammy.
modern math showcase & secret release
a belated huge shout out to my modern math family for hosting a stellar night in calgary this past july. production, vibes, and everyone's performances were very much on point (that's kline in the photo below).
a semi-secret mini-compilation got released as part of the event which you can grab here. the password is: mm999math
my track 'silent dub 22' is on there (shouts to others with the life number 22), which is partly an invocation of primal source energy (red light wrapped in white light) and a carrier wave of ancestral cords connecting to the present. file under: relentless intensity / fire.
hello to fall / thank you to summer
needless to say summer was loaded with interesting and fun and fullfilling times. i kept meaning to update the news feed with all that was happening but (as is the typical story) i was way too busy with shows, other music work, general life and finding precious pockets of time to unwind and ground. i'll be catching up on everything here soon enough. for now, here's some words i dropped on facebook recently that sheds a little light. plus a pic beach fire i had with a few friends, here on the sunshine coast.
- just tying up producing and mixing 3 songs for a friend's next album. pro gig, aimed at radio and pop sphere. very exciting to be building on those skills and experience.
- starting a project scoring an exciting dance performance to be toured nationally. 20 minutes of material.
- next release on low indigo will be a collab between myself and international-name/honourary-vancouverite
- i have a public audio installation running for 3 months, 24 hours a day, in downtown calgary very soon. very excited about that one.
- other projects in the works on the sound design and musical scoring tip.
- been a heavy focus for over the past year(s) that i get my livePA to the point of where i feel it matches a similar quality/versatility/impact as my dj sets. this past summer was the goal to show people that. i feel like i got there. very pleased with that.
- curated two rooms of talent for new forms festival. extremely excited about that coming up in october.
- trying out dj'ing some things in roberts creek this fall, sunshine coast. honestly didn't think the scene was here but HOLY - a thing i played in august proved that idea wrong.
- i hardly ever bring out-of-towners to vancouver ever more. i gotta genuinely be a fan and excited about it and see the need for van to have them (lots of other promoters bringing great names to van these days - so way less voids to fill, compared to years past). ..this thursday i'm bringing HODGE through the red gate with some rock solid locals. VERY STOKED.
- put up a few mixs last week. one official, my diversity fest afternoon set, and one less official (non-friends might needa dig a lil). i desperately want to get more mixs up online and into hungry ears and souls, but it takes time for me to prep mixs (i like to go thru recordings from shows many times thru and tidy up eq's and volumes - so they work on any playback system and stand the test of time a bit). ...so, believe me, i am the one who is MOST aware of pending sets i "owe" the internet. it/they will get done as soon as i have the window of time. sets from basscoast (including 2015) and shambhala are at the top of the cue. paid music projects and releases of my own original music take precedent (i am and was and will always be an artist way ahead of being a dj).
- official healing/transcendant guided sound sessions i want to do more of. if you have budget and space/opportunity - hit me up. this area of work can/could be potentially be partly/all "in kind" (team earth) but you gotta have the right setting and vibes.
- i had a recent vision that might be one of my ultimate callings (finally saw clearly what some central piece looks like). seeds have been cultivating for years (decades really), and been "talking" for years about how next summer might be the one, but .. next summer might be the one. ;)
- osh, and also a nice handful of releases i'm excited about as well. some appearances on others albums and some solo mred and souns stuff.
- personal life transitions been heavy for a while now ..like they have been for many of us. hugs
- other stuff. this is a snapshot for this sunday, sept 11. love you
slope's obsidian EP + track give away
slope's slow-burning obsidian ep is out now on low indigo. grab the music and get all the info here. thanks beatroute and lastdaydeaf for the nods. check out the free track from slope & kline loosely paired with the release, and also the perfectly alligned video from corinthian.
thanks KAMP and BASS COAST
had a stellar time in the BC interior that last couple weeks.
KAMP was a really sweet time. i would totally recommend. really enjoyed soaking up the "kamp" vibes and making a few new friends. did a sound journey workshop which i thought went particularly well, and might make a point to do more of, and had fun with the mainstage set on saturday night. go team blue
BASS COAST is pretty much a local legend and now a garunteed sell-out each year. so solid. through and through. didn't catch a set i wasn't feeling. it was gift to deliver an umcompromising live set on the closing night. very thankful to be part of that fam. long live bass coast.
cheers
souns @ pretty good not bad
wanted to take the time to thank the team from the first annual pretty good not bad festival in victoria, bc.
great performances from laurel halo, loscil, sean evans, chris dammeyar, compzit, magnetic ring, emp interactions, liquid transmitter, and the local dancers and drummers who opened the ambient picnic. it was especially a treat to live collab with loscil. had a good time during my souns set as well.
thanks all
chambers - sigma flare ll
sigma flare ll is out now on debacle records.
resident advisor announced it, tiny mix tapes did a premiere, ransom note had a first listen, and beatroute did an interview piece on it.
many thanks to all involved :)
music on boomkat
..always was a personal goal to get my music up on boomkat. they don't accept just anything. so pleased that i have a small handful of pieces up on there now. here's to many more.
..and thanks for stopping by the website, by the way. if you're reading this - cheers!
mysteries of the deep
a recording of one of my dj sets for vancouver symphony orchestra's new music festival made it to the mysteries of the deep podcast under the chambers umbrella. naturally, given the context, it features all ambient, solo piano, and neo-classical music. thanks to debacle and all else involved.