Guest post by John Also Bennett (JAB / Seabat / Forma). JAB’s debut solo album
Erg Herbe was released on Shelter Press earlier this year.
This mix was compiled as the second volume in my “Appel d’ Air” mix series, the first volume of which is available
here. It takes its name from the
Michel Redolfi album of the same name. I’m always looking for music that uses flute or wind instruments, open spaces, and environmental sound in tandem, even if these conditions are only met loosely. In this collection I included two pieces of music originally composed as environmental music for video games (“Inside The Deku Tree” from
Legend of Zelda and a
Resident Evil Save Room theme), both of which were designed to color the atmosphere of a virtual space, and both of which use flute (albeit electronic). Eva-Maria Houben’s “ein schlummer (a slumber)” uses flute and organ and their reverberations inside a large cathedral: the near silences between notes as the reverb tails off are as important as the notes themselves. I also included one of my own compositions, “Chanterai por mon coraige,” recorded in a decrepit mill in the French countryside, pictured above. Like many of the pieces included on this mix, the sound of the space in which the piece was recorded plays a role in the composition; in this case evening crickets and the churning of a nearby creek. You can download an mp3 version
here.
Tracklist:
1. Daniel Kobialka – Organic Eternity (Excerpt)
2. Koji Kondo – Inside The Deku Tree (Legend of Zelda – Ocarina Of Time)
3. Mary Jane Leach – Downland’s Tears (Excerpt)
4. Vijay Raghav Rao – Raga Malkauns – Alap and Gat n Jhaptal
5. Jim Fassett – Symphony Of The Birds (Third Movement)
6. Eva-Maria Houben – ein schlummer (a slumber)
7. Steve Roach – Spectre
8. Mamoru Samuragochi – Resident Evil – Save Room (2002 Remake)
9. Harold Budd with Jon Gibson – How Vacantly You Stare At Me
10. Che Chen & Robbie Lee – This Was The Only Place That Was Green
11. JAB – Chanterai por mon coraige
12. Jefre-Cantu Ledesma – Joy
Delighted to share a record here after a long hiatus, and delighted that it’s this one. (Hello, hi! Thank you for your patience, and for being here, and for the sweet emails that I haven’t responded to because I don’t know how to email anymore, sorry!)
SHERBET is one of the more apt album titles that comes to mind–it feels like a candy-toned icy sugar cloud. (Also realizing as I type this that my boyfriend was correct when he said a few years back that sherbet is due for a resurgence in interest–it does seem like the most proto-vaporwave dessert, no? Suddenly consumed with a strong desire to bust out my ice cream machine.)
Nobuo Ariga only released three records under his own name, none of which seemed to pick up much traction as it took me a long to track this one down, but he was prolific as a writer and session musician on a ton of other pop releases. If you like any of the following, you will probably like this record:
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Hello! I’m still here, still up to my ears in food projects, still missing sharing music, and still very much looking forward to getting back to it. In the mean time, here’s my most recent episode of 
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This month’s mix for 
