Basic Soul…
After collecting dust for nearly two years, my Constance Dubs have been released into the world. Marking the debut of my newly minted Grey Deer moniker, this album finds me exploring decidedly rhythmic territory as I pay homage to ambient techno. Built from a familiar sonic palette, these tracks feature no synthesis; every sound heard within is sourced from either a guitar or field recordings.
Constance Dubs is available now on Recycled Plastics in both a digital and physical edition. You can purchase it from their Bandcamp. I will have copies available in my store within the next few days.
From the label:
Grey Deer is one Carl Ritger, sonic wizard, dweller of Colorado and perhaps better known as Radere. Constance Dubs is the debut release under his Grey Deer moniker, and fittingly so as it was recorded during the very early days of Carl’s musical maturation. Three longform pieces that might surprise Radere fans with their light but propulsive rhythm sections, Constance Dubs is a completely different kind of dub techno album. Steady kickdrums, hi hats and percussive taps are built entirely from field recordings, and the atmosphere around them is a foggy forest of guitars and debris. Very warm, wooden and seemingly wrested from beneath the roots of a mighty oak tree, Constance Dubs is an easily accessible unification of both ambient and techno sensibilities.
I’m pleased to announce that my latest release, I’ll Make You Quiet, is out today on Futuresequence. The album marks the label’s inaugural release, and is available for purchase directly from their Bandcamp. You can also pick it up at either Stashed Goods or Experimedia, if you feel so inclined.
From the label:
The iconic rock formations of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains are home to experimental artist Carl Ritger. A far cry from his hometown of Philadelphia, their impressively cinematic yet naturally rugged presence has exerted an influence on the artist in the relatively short time he has lived there. His fourth full-length album as Radere, I’ll Make You Quiet, narrates the scission of emotion generated from moving to new surroundings, a sense of wonderment and intimidation of being in the shadow of the mountains’ grand spectacle whilst intrinsically drawing on the melancholic loss of the past.
To date, Carl has primarily concerned himself with the creation of long-form textured drones. Releases like Maple Drip (Rural Colours), A Season In Decline (Full Spectrum Records) and Lost At Sea, I’m Never Coming Back (Basic Sounds) have all possessed an unraveling nature, unrestricted and formless by definition. I’ll Make You Quiet upsets this rhythm, setting clearly defined boundaries around individual tracks. The result is Carl’s most complete work to date, a leap forward in aesthetic maturity; the manifestation of an accomplished artist who has reached a summit in their career.
Creating a majestic sculptural architecture, given depth and life through his skillful ability to layer worn and distorted sound in moving patterns, Carl also weaves found sounds into the mix. Recordings of a set of house keys, an electric toothbrush and a tape recording of a flock of crows all make their way into these arrangements, as well as his signature processed guitar and electronics. Each track on the album was recorded primarily in single-take sessions, an intimate approach that reflects Carl’s interest with the unpredictable; sounds created out of chance, and an embrace of the temperamental nature of analog tape rather than digitally rendered files.
A gorgeous electro-acoustic installation by Bartholomäus Traubeck, entitled Years. The piece utilizes a modified turntable, Arduino and vvvv to convert tree rings into sound.
(Source: creativeapplications.net)
