The netlabel has moved sites!

Hi all! Just a quick message to inform that this blog will no longer be used to host the links to Audio Gourmet Netlabel releases. Courtesy of the Hibernate Records label boss Jonathan Lees, we have a new website in which to inform of our musical ventures. It utilises bandcamp for the release section for ease of use and to stay up to date with the movements of the label, you can click the news section.

Visit today here:
www.audiogourmet.co.uk

Many thanks to all who have begun supporting this netlabel so far - long may it continue to grow!!

AGN004 - Vincent Kuhner - "Hiatus"

http://www.archive.org/details/Agn004-VincentKhner-hiatus

CATALOG NUMBER: AGN004

RELEASE DATE: 27th May 2010

ARTIST NATIONALITY: Greek

ALBUM GENRES: Ambient, Drone, Experimental, Field Recordings

PHOTOGRAPHY: Photograph take by the artist. Text and album image work done by Jonathan Lees

TRACKLIST:

(1) First (4:28)

(2) Second (2:17)

(3) Third (2:39)

(4) Fourth (4:36)

TEXT:
Our next release is this four track E.P from a Greek artist called Vincent Kuhner, who has lived in London for the last two years. He is also responsible for running the Felt Collective label, which served as the platform from which his first album, the lengthily titled 'No Minute Gone Comes Ever Back Again Take Heed And See Ye Nothing Do In Vain' was released in April earlier this year.Vincent Kuhner has been experimenting with ambient music production over the last four years, honing his craft working towards releasing his debut and preparing a follow up for this. 'Hiatus' is the follow up to his first release as an artist and is now available for free download here on the Audio Gourmet netlabel.The E.P is comprised of four numbered pieces, chronologically ordered and each with its own unique character.
These have been titled with numbers to withhold any obvious conceptual theme, thus allowing you as a listener to unfold your own thoughts and ideas as you listen.The first and last piece on this piece are epic drone soundscapes, drenched in effects and tiny detail. 'Two' is a short field recording and 'three' is the most experimental, fusing fuzzy undertones with quirky chord stabs.This is an excellent follow up to Vincent Kuhner's debut release and serves as an example of the kind of high quality experimental ambient music we can expect to hear from him in the future.

LINKS AND FURTHER READING:
www.feltcollective.com Download Vincent Kuhner's original full album here. Plus, there is plenty of information on Felt as a collective.
http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2010/04/no-minute-gone-comes-ever-back-again-take-the-heed-and-see-ye-nothing-do-in-vain/ Here is a post from Fluid Radio about that first release.
http://www.myspace.com/vncntknr Myspace page for Vincent Kuhner

AGN003 - Damian Valles - "In The Shadow Of The Occluding Body"

http://www.archive.org/details/DamianValles-inTheShadowOfTheOccludingBody

CATALOG NUMBER: AGN003
RELEASE DATE: 17th May 2010
ARTIST NATIONALITY: Canadian
ALBUM GENRES: Electro Acoustic, Drone, Ambient
PHOTOGRAPHY: Jonathan Lees (http://photography.hibernate-recs.co.uk/) Jonathan also runs the Hibernate label: http://www.hibernate-recs.co.uk/
TRACKLIST:
(1) Umbra (8:55)
(2) Penumbra (Nearly There) (6:05)

TEXT:
For the next 15 minute E.P, we welcome Damian Valles to our catalog with a pair of gloomy electro-acoustic dronescapes.Damian has had releases out on Under The Spire, his own imprint Rural Route and more recently, the stunning 'Bow Echoes' which is available for free download on Resting Bell. Damian is a multi-instrumentalist from Canada and throughout his discography you will find that he is more than capable of producing various types of electro-acoustic/ambient music to a very high quality. A testament to this is the fact that 'Bow Echoes' has surpassed the 30,000 download count!
For his E.P on Audio Gourmet 'In The Shadows Of The Occluding Body', Valles has explored darker territory than in previous releases. Throughout this atmospheric 2 track journey, the overall listening experience is riddled with a sense of doom as Damian explores an array of carefully sculpted guitar-based drone textures.
This really is an excellent peice of work and we are extremely pleased to be able to bring it to your ears through Audio Gourmet. The fact that Damian Valles has released an E.P through the Audio Gourmet netlabel collection hints that we mean business as a label - long may we continue to present you work from artists of this calibre!

LINKS AND FURTHER READING:
http://www.myspace.com/damianvalles Click here to see Damian's Myspace page and keep up to date with his work.
http://damianvalles.standardform.org/ Damian also runs the Rural Route imprint on Standard Form - a collection of 3" CDs. His own release can be purchased from this link.
http://www.restingbell.net/releases/rb081-bow-echoes Be sure to download yourself a copy of Damian's Resting Bell release 'Bow Echoes'. This is likely to be one of the best netlabel releases of all time and simply cannot be missed.
http://www.mixcloud.com/FluidRadio/damian-valles-exclusive/ Just this weekend passed, Damian put together his second mix for Fluid Radio. Visit here to listen to an excellent mix that features 'Umbra' from this E.P as the starting track...
http://soundcloud.com/damianvalles Like a lot of artists these days, Damian keeps listeners up to date with his works on Soundcloud

AGN002 - Darren Harper "Momentary" E.P

http://www.archive.org/details/DarrenHarper-momentaryE.p

CATALOG NUMBER: AGN002
RELEASE DATE: 11th May 2010
ARTIST NATIONALITY: American
ALBUM GENRES: Ambient, Drone, Field Recordings
PHOTOGRAPHY:Jonathan Lees (http://photography.hibernate-recs.co.uk/) Jonathan also runs the Hibernate label: http://www.hibernate-recs.co.uk/
TRACKLIST:
(1) Fields and Glass (6:39)
(2) Leaves and Piano (8:13)

TEXT:
For the second Audio Gourmet release, we welcome talented American ambient artist Darren Harper to our roster. Darren has had (3?) albums out on the Earth Mantra netlabel to date (http://www.earthmantra.com/) and another due out this month. He's also got work out on and collaborates with Jacob Newman under the guise Frequent Sync. To assist his forthcoming full album release on Earth Mantra, he has treated us to this exceptional E.P of top drawer ambient music.
First up, 'Fields and Glass' serves as the darker half of the E.P, fusing environmental field recordings from the far east with a complex and eerie drone. Darren used these open-source field recordings as part of an 'unconscious collaboration' with his unsuspecting studio partner to tap in to the recording environment, by adding his own atmospheric interpretation of the recorded events. There are a lot of open-source sounds available from around the world and it is fascinating to think that these recorded fragments of time can be used freely for artistic expression by artists that have never met the person behind the source.
The second track on the E.P is entitled 'Leaves and Piano' and features a delicate looped piano composition with restful drone accents. This piece is incredibly beautiful and its flowing, subtle repetition of the piano loop guides the mind to a lulling meditative state.

Darren Harper is a highly talented artist and a name to watch out for. His work continues to better itself with each release; Audio Gourmet is delighted to include this magnificent E.P to its catalog of releases. Enjoy...

LINKS AND FURTHER READING:
http://darrenjh.blogspot.com/ Darren runs a blog site, chronicling is music-making adventures.
http://www.earthmantra.com/artist-detail.php?id=43 Here you can find more information and links to his Earth Mantra work.
http://www.myspace.com/darrenjharper Darren's just set up a Myspace page - please add him to stay up to date with his projects
http://www.capturedspace.org/music/frequentsync/ For more information on his collaboration project 'Frequent Sync' with Jacob Newman, visit this link.

AGN001 - SPHERULEUS "Rust" E.P

http://www.archive.org/details/Spheruleus-rustE.p

CATALOG NUMBER: AGN001

RELEASE DATE: 4th May 2010

ARTIST NATIONALITY: English

ALBUM GENRES: Electro-acoustic, Ambient, Field Recordings

PHOTOGRAPHY: Jonathan Lees (http://photography.hibernate-recs.co.uk/) Jonathan also runs the Hibernate label: http://www.hibernate-recs.co.uk/

TRACKLIST:

(1) Rusting (6:08)

(2) Stalling (3:54)

(3) Brittle (4:56)

TEXT:

"The first release on the Audio Gourmet netlabel is from label owner Harry Towell under his Spheruleus guise. As Spheruleus, Harry has recently had a limited-run CD album released on Under The Spire (http://www.underthespire.co.uk/) and has another forthcoming on Hibernate (http://www.hibernate-recs.co.uk)%20this/ fifteen minute E.P showcases his typical production approach and sits somewhere in between the different styles of sound design to be heard on these two CD label releases. For the Rust E.P, Harry has fused treated instrument takes of zither, vibraphone, guitar, trumpet and harmonica with drones and field recordings. The mood of the E.P is light and mellow; designed as an audio representation of the rust process. It would have been all too easy to portray this with a much darker approach to sound art, but instead the pieces sound as if content to 'rust' away slowly as time elapses. The process of rusting is a slow and subtle degradation of a building, vehicle or object as it gradually head towards uselessness. This ageing process sits in line with the ephemoral existence of the physical human being and in many ways, our metallic creations reflect our own temporary lifespan. The very nature of ephemorality can be a saddening and daunting fact but when accepted, the mere simplicity of existence can be truly savoured for what it is.Don't be bogged down with the unnecessary clutter that we humans weigh ourselves down with and enjoy one of life's most basic yet vital requirements - to draw breath and exist."

LINKS AND FURTHER READING:

http://audiogourmet.blogspot.com/

For the last couple of years, Harry has run the Audio Gourmet blog which follows his music taste closely and serves as a window of information about the ambient music scene. Posts inform of his own production work, mixes, events and features a monthly music reviews section.

www.myspace.com/spheruleus

Feel free to add Spheruleus on Myspace at the above link.

If you have enjoyed this E.P or have anything to say, post a comment on this blog or email the label at: audiogourmet@gmail.com

Audio Gourmet Netlabel Music/Submission Policy

This post will outline some rough guidelines for the music policy of the Audio Gourmet Netlabel. I don't want it to be overly strict or regimented - I just feel there are a couple of things that need to be cleared up at this stage:

WHAT WE WANT:
Music that either fit somewhere under the following genres:
Ambient, Soundscapes, Drone, Sound Design, Electro-Acoustic, Acoustic, Modern Classical, Tape/Loop manipulations, Acoustic Gloom, Avant-Garde Minimalism, Musique Concrete, Field Recordings, Phonography, Experimental/Ambient Jazz, Experimental/Abstract Folk, Glitch (Ambient Based)

WHAT WE DON'T WANT:
Dance or IDM music, Anything with a beat arrangement - percussion and drum sections to be loose and undefined. This doesn't necessarily mean I am against these styles of music - it's just not the direction I want the label to go down I'm afraid.

GUIDELINES:

• Albums/E.Ps mustn't be a second over 15 minutes, but may be up to a minute shorter if necessary. Aim for that 15 minute timeframe when writing/compiling the record.
• No less than two tracks for the album/E.P - I want to try and keep the pieces no longer than 7 minutes so that there's a chance that people can use them in mixes. No single long form drones are arrangements please. Not that I don't enjoy listening to them mind!
• mp3 quality to be 320kbps. My computer has hardly any space left, so try to encode your work ready for release for me, rather than sending over massive WAV files.
• If you have artwork then send it over and it can be used if suitable.
• Write a short paragraph about the concept of your work, or maybe a brief overview of yourself as an artist. I'll write a few words about each release too. I can also post links to any current releases you have out or anything else you'd like to promote.
• When a release is out, I'll make sure I put in a fair bit of work to get it promoted. Anything you as the artist can do to help promote the work too will help drum up some interest.

If you have anything to send for consideration, email me at Audiogourmet@gmail.com

I'll take a listen and get back to you either way. There may be a wait as we start to build a release schedule, but I should be able to get albums out pretty quickly as they will of course be short and quick to upload

Cheers,

Harry

Introducing the Audio Gourmet Netlabel!

Hi, and welcome to the Audio Gourmet Netlabel. I'm Harry Towell, and for the last couple of years I have run the Audio Gourmet blog - posting reviews, mixtapes, releases and general ramblings about the music I am particularly fond of. This has of course varied over that timeframe but largely focusses around the ambient/modern classical/drone/electro-acoustic movements.
Also, I myself have produced music for both netlabels and limited edition CD labels under the guises Spheruleus, Audio Gourmet and Eyes Flutter Beneath.

I have long toyed with the idea of setting up a netlabel or label of some form and it is a direction I've always seen myself heading towards as my fondness for music intensifies with time.
So, I have set up this blog and a netlabel page on www.archive.org to showcase a collection of music released for free under the Creative Commons license.

This netlabel collection is conceptually based around mini albums, E.Ps and short pieces of sound-art that serve to exact the timespan of a standard tea break. (This in compliance with British employment law, is 15 minutes - at least, so I believe...)
On your average work tea break, this mere fifteen minutes is obviously not enough to listen to an album in full and thus this netlabel concept was born:

"A netlabel to showcase a collection of short albums and E.Ps that can be listened to in full during a standard working tea-break."

Over the forthcoming months, years, decades or however long I decide to run with the project, I hope to bring you some fine audio from a selection of top artists new and familiar.

I do need a bit of help setting up though - here are a few things I am looking for:

MUSIC
Obviously, a netlabel cannot run without contributing artists and I am sure you'd overlook an endless collection of works by my good self...so I am appealing for artists who are keen to get something together that I could consider for a release here.
I'll post up a rough guideline of what I'm after in a moment. It's likely by the time you've read this that I've got that posted- so scroll up and take a look and see whether it appeals to you.

VISUALS
I'm a sound artist and rambling non-sensical writer, not a visual artist or photographer. So, I am going to need to hear from someone in the world that would be willing to assume 'picture duty' for this. In some cases, the sound artists may wish to get something together themselves - which is fine, but for the artists lacking in graphic flair like me, we're going to need someone keen to help out. Credit will of course be given for whoever helps out - maybe we could have a few people involved in this? We'll see. Email me if you're interested: audiogourmet@gmail.com

HELP!
I am likely to need assistance and advice from people already established or in the know, since this is very much a new venture. I know how netlabels work having supported them for years - but I have of course never run one before. If anyone could lend some support and ideas, maybe get involved with the running of the netlabel - please get in touch. I'll need someone IT savvy on-board too, let me know if you can help out with this.

Anyway, I hope this venture is enjoyable and rewarding - hopefully we'll be able to turn some heads with some superb music.

Cheers,
Harry