Well, it’s the height of winter here and, by coincidence really, I’ve been listening to my cd copy of brunk’s Winter ep released through Resting Bell. Winter ep is a nice short collection of four tracks, mostly laid-back guitar, about 20 minutes long, just a nice warm up with hot chocolate and a new story on the go. The cd seems to be sold out now (it was a limited edition), but you can still download from Resting Bell, or from Brunk’s bandcamp site, where he has some other material available too.
Tag: resting bell
phantomshadows available again
The Venus Vulture album phantomshadows, which was originally released on the Resting Bell netlabel, is available again. It can be streamed or downloaded (for free) on the Venus Vulture Bandcamp page. phantomshadows is a minimal ambient drone album of four tracks, each around 14 minutes. The release was combined with a set of images, which are available on the Flickr page.
The funny details:
The release went out of print because I, silly me, had joined APRA – the New Zealand branch of the Australian Performing Rights Association. I think they do good work, but they’re not really compatible with creative commons licences. Christian, who does an extraordinary job at Resting Bell, was faced with paying GEMA (the German equivalent of APRA) fees for releasing my music – even though it was never my intent to generate money from this release. My bad. I’m no longer a member of APRA, though GEMA’s rules are different, it appears possible that I will never be able to release music through Resting Bell or any other German netlabel.
venusvulture.com clean-up happening
My website venusvulture.com has been a little neglected, I must admit, probably in favour of this blog.
I do my own coding and uploading, which takes time and effort and I’ve been slack – there are some broken links (the Resting Bell netlabel releases are out of print now, and Bookhabit sold to Smashwords, so my eBook Habitat is also unavailable*), and my publications list is out of date, so there’s lots of clean-up to do.
I’ll be launching the new site in early January with a new look (which I’ve already designed and laid out) with active links.
*I did have the option to move Habitat to Smashwords, but the process is complex and given how little response I got through Bookhabit, I’m not convinced it’s worth it. I also think that Habitat is dated now, in terms of my writing, so it’s probably good to be out of print too.
Resting Bell releases off-line
Well, the APRA/GEMA thing didn’t go away or get smooth as I thought it may have. My releases – Signal Artifacts and phantomshadows – are both unavailable until I can sort that out. Kind of no one to blame, just bureaucracy. I’m trying to get more music up and around. Will update soon. Mood – sad.
Venus Vulture track on NTNS best of- compilation
The Venus Vulture track Distant Rainfall part 2 from the Heavy Skies EP has been included on Stroll, one of the four best of NTNS radio – AprMayJune 2009 compilations, which also includes tracks from Resting Bell and TestTube labelmates, Phillip Wilkerson, Sylvie Walder & entia non and d’incise. Mark of NTNS has been a great supporter, as well a playing tracks on the radio show, he also included a track from Signal Artifacts on the end of year compilation Sun in 2008.
Nice review of Signal Artifacts – in Portuguese
I came across this review of Signal Artifacts on the jazz e arredores site. I don’t speak Portuguese, but thanks to google translate, this is a rough English approximation:
The New Zealand photographer and sound artist Sean Monaghan invites us to a dive in the depths of the yawning abyss electronically, through Signal Artifacts. After gentle descent, began to settle the outlines of the moving image, in between which is worrying desvendam pathways of serenity. The vehicle’s dispatch, which links the different stations between the departure and arrival, the drone is bright, dotted with glitch, sounds of strings and pieces of occasional noise. Signal Artifacts from Venus Vulture, also known as Sean Monaghan, from the German netlabel Resting Bell. MP3 download with CD Edition limited to 25 copies.
Signal Resolutions 11 August 2008 on lakaFILZ Resting Bell web mix
I don’t know much about this but there’s a very cool tribute to the Resting Bell netlabel including a Venus Vulture track. Listen online here
Playlist:
The Way Up To The Hill (Mensa – Southern Recordings)
Dream Of The Lighthouse Keeper (Astrowind – Der Leuchtturm)
The Clifts (Mensa – Southern Recordings)
Listless is more (Offthesky – Rare Decay)
0Forest At The Edge Of The Endless Fields (Astrowind – Der Leuchtturm)
Signal resolutions – 11 August 2008 (Venus Vulture – Signal Artifacts)
4.0 (Glenn Ryszko – 4.0 subtle distorted guitar drones)
1.0 (Glenn Ryszko – 4.0 subtle distorted guitar drones)
Libau (Astrowind – Der Leuchtturm)
Iside outside corners (Offthesky – Rare Decay)
Signal Artifacts reviews
A couple of archive.org users have reviewed Signal Artifacts – one postive, one not so much – nice to have a balance:
Reviewer: brian’sworld – – December 2, 2008
Subject: hmmm
just not really there for me. not a lot happens – yes, i know its ambient. tonally ok but in terms of interesting development it is lacking. not quite up to his standard nor resting bells.
Reviewer: junbuggy – – November 13, 2008
Subject: high quality
another high quality release and a really rather lovely and interesting addition to the Resting Bell catalogue.
Lots in progress and moving at pace
Flat out busy rationalising projects and getting ready for my next batch of marking. The new CD packaging for Venus Vulture – Signal Artifacts is nearly ready. I’d forgotten how much work it is to put these things together right. It will be available when the official release comes out on Resting Bell soon. I’m putting together a “shop” page for the website to make it more straightforward to get things.
I’ll post again when there’s something tangible 🙂
Radio Interview tomorrow
For those of you in the Palmerston North area, I’m getting interviewed about phantomshadows on Access Radio Saturday 23rd at 10.30am. Listen in on 999am.