Vuzh Music Blog

2011, my 20th year in music, was a very active year for me, even given the fact that I began a hiatus from creating music after the first third of the year.
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My releases
I re-released Crook’d Finger vs. Harlan / Crook’d Finger vs. D.Rhythm:O early in the year…
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Not long after that came the massive compilation The More Unknown C. Reider, a collection of artists using sounds appropriated from my work to compose their own music.
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Then there was what I consider to be my ‘major’ work of the year, Owning Extinctions, a response, in sound, to the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Modisti was kind enough to release my experiments with sine waves, Formerly Sine Drones in June.
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I re-released a very early collaborative work featuring myself, Carrie from Auzel and Terry from Histatic Charge. We called ourselves The Unseelie Court, and our one off release from 1995 titled Fall also came out in June.
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Finally, I released the inaugural track for the Dystimbria netlabel, a difficult slab of calming drones and sharp noise titled “A Strange Seed”, which used sounds donated by Thomas Park of Mystified, Dave Seidel of Mysterybear and Miquel Parera Jaques.
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New Labels / New Projects
As mentioned, I also began the new netlabel Dystimbria, which is now up to its sixth release. It explores the area between ambient music and noise music with each new track drawing source material from the music that came before.
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I also created a new subsection of Vuzh Music called Vuzh Underground Editions for releasing classics from the cassette underground into the CC netlabel underground.
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My biggest project of the year won’t come into fruition until the Spring of 2012, it’s an exhibition of sound art which I am curating as a student project for Front Range Community College. I have a new website for it here: Sound Through Barriers.
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Releases on Vuzh Music
This year, my netlabel Vuzh Music released a varied lot of cool music, all of which is licensed in the Creative Commons, and is free to download:

• The Implicit Order – They Live in the Sky
• Apollon – Nox
• Auzel – Old
• Histatic Charge – Histatic Charge
• Saffron Slumber – Piano Drones

It’s the end of year, and I always look forward to reading the end of year best of lists for netlabel music, as it’s a great way to see if I missed anything.
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I’m still working on my own best of 2011 list, so definitely look for that in the coming weeks…
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In the meantime, I’m pleased to see that some of my works and those released on my two netlabels have gotten some appreciation in best of lists.
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Both Mystified’s top 10 list, and the top 10 by Acts of Silence gave a nod to Owning Extinctions by C. Reider. Thanks to both of you!
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Acts of Silence also lists “Cheptel éparpillé” by Le Berger in his top 10, this track was released on my brand new netlabel Dystimbria.cc, where you can find it and download it for free.
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Also receiving mentions in Acts of Silence’s 100 notable netlabel releases list were Vuzh Music releases of Apollon – Nox and Auzel – Old and C. Reider’s release on Modisti netlabel “Formerly Sine Drones”.

After the release of this year’s debut album by Auzel on Vuzh Music, entitled “Old“, many were intrigued by this unique release and the enigma behind the music, described on the website simply as “a mysterious woman”.
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You can learn about more about this reclusive personality, as she has agreed to an interview with AUTOreverse. You can read the interview here:
http://autoreversetoinfinity.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/interview-with-carrie-hodges-aka-auzel/

An alternate mix of a song from Auzel’s debut album “Old” was released yesterday on her SoundCloud… it sounds a little more spooky than the one on the album, I think.
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Four (secret by the river alternate mix) by harebell

It was a busy news week at Vuzh Music, so I thought I’d do a roundup of everything that happened, in case you missed something.
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It would be a pity if you missed the incredible new release from the new Vuzh Music artist Auzel, her release is so peculiar and awesome that it gives me shivers.
http://www.vuzhmusic.com/releases/auzel_old.html
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Then there was the big interview with C. Reider! Interesting stuff to read. Subjects discussed include listening, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico & lots of stuff about my history & method of composing.

http://autoreversetoinfinity.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/interview-c-reider-of-vuzh-music/
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Disquiet ezine wrote an informative article about the new C. Reider release “Formerly Sine Drones”, much space is given to the methodology & constraints of this strange little work.
http://disquiet.com/2011/07/11/c-reider-modisti-sine-wave/
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AUTOreverse also reviewed the lovely new Auzel release, Ian compared it to things like Skinner Box, Rasputina & 4AD releases. Money quote: “This album is scary and weird. I like it very much.”
http://autoreversetoinfinity.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/review-auzel-old-2011/
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Lastly, I joined the silly new social network Google Plus. Add me or whatever.
https://plus.google.com/115824106778896363774

Auzel has gotten her first review of the brand new release “Old” from AUTOreverse webzine. Ian Stewart of AUTOreverse said:
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14 shortish pieces. Micro, minimalistic. Lots of samples, surrounded by rustic, homemade vocal drones. “I Remember It More Now” is a couple of rhythmic, glitchy loops beset by noise-abuse. “The Maid And The Cook” is kooky and frenetic, using some seriously high frequencies amid piano and xylophone-type sounds. Like a lost piece by Skinner Box. “Incorrect Spell” continues similarly, maybe like one of the early Rasputina album interludes. “Too True” is an all-too-brief vocal piece that sounds like some lost record on 4AD that I wish I had heard before. Wow. “Herringbone” is a whispery, breathy, trippy, heavily-processed conversation. “She Turned Into The Dog” is just gorgeous ambience, sounds like an echoey cello or an e-bow with a bit of humming on top. This album is scary and weird. I like it very much. A mighty fine release.

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http://autoreversetoinfinity.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/review-auzel-old-2011/

A new release by a new artist on Vuzh Music! Auzel’s debut release is called “Old”. It is a diverse set of peculiar, tiny, composed vignettes that suggest contemporary avant-garde composition as much as freak-folk or hometaper weirdness.
keywords: weird, dreamy folk, female vocals, lo-fi
http://www.vuzhmusic.com/releases/auzel_old.html
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