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c. reider ¦ ne quid nimis
a diary of tentative ambient drafts


     ne quid nimis was recorded in the early nineties. I was very poor, but I'd managed to scrape together some money for a used 4-track that I did not know how to use. I had a guitar and a bass, but otherwise no real instruments, so I used what was around me. This was my fourth recorded release.

     'Ne Quid Nimis' is Latin for "avoid excess"... I was interested in very slow, very quiet music. It actually seemed rebellious to want to make music that was quiet and slow. Rebellious against the stupid aggression and machismo that is so popular in music and other fronts.

     Because I wanted quiet music, I made the mistake of recording most of the sounds quietly, and so the signal-to-noise ratio was tilted the wrong way, making it difficult to mix through all the hiss. I have remixed and mastered these recordings in 2009, cleaning and equalizing all tracks to bring out the best in each one, but this is still by nature a very low-fidelity release.

     The subtitle of this record was "a Diary of Tentative Ambient Drafts". While I don't think that much of the music presented here is ambient in the accepted modern sense, and although I wouldn't call this music ambient today, it is clearly a music of patience. Its whole point was to slowly explore a sound space that to me sounded quiet and calming. I had no idea that the sounds I was using were not calming to other people, but then I still wonder about that now!

     Recorded to 4-track 1992-1996. Remixed 2009. C. Reider biography/discography



  • breathes in mists
    Sunday, January 28, 1996 --- Malfunctioning Alesis SR-16, hand turned music box, guitar, Trigon Incantor (built by Q.R. Ghazala).
  • the hypnopomp
    Sunday, November 13, 1994 --- Guitar, bass guitar, Casio PT-1, cabinet door, water pot, cast iron woodstove, purr mechanism from a plush cat toy, circuit-bent electronics.
  • the poisoned lambs 2
    Saturday, January 27, 1996 --- Bass guitar, scrap iron, malfunctioning Alesis SR-16
  • coagulant
    Wednesday, April 20, 1994 --- Scrap iron and aluminum
  • the speaking holes
    Monday, February 28, 1994 --- Polished stones
  • dreamdroneone
    Tuesday, March 1, 1994 --- Re-tuned music box, destroyed compact discs, fan
  • waiting
    Saturday, January 27, 1996 --- Destroyed and abused compact discs
  • dying
    Saturday, July 18, 1992 --- Guitar
  • the hypnogog
    Sunday, November 20, 1994 --- Tapes (the voice of Bob Enyart), bass guitar, guitar, nose whistle, fabric
  • in a red time
    Friday, April 15, 1994 --- Voice, guitar, tin can
Thanks to:
-Carl Howard, who originally released this on cassette on his label AudioFile Tapes.
-Karin A. Feltzing, who painted the cover art.
-Richard Hodges, who lent effects pedals, shelter and mixing equipment.
-Erinn Thorp, who engineered and recorded "dying" and played guitar with me on it as well.
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     I wrote a series of blog posts about each track on this album, here are links to each if you would like to learn more about ne quid nimis:


Review by AUTOreverse:
     The best words to describe this tape by C. Reider are AMBIENT ELECTRONIC MUSIC. And like all other ambient music that I listen to, the best quality it can have for me is that it can either be participatory or slip off into the background. Some of the time notice is paid to what is going on, while most of the time you just keep writing a letter or reading a book or cleaning your room. You don't have to be active unless you choose to be. This tape is like that. There were sections of this tape that caught my attention like light to a moth. Then there would be minutes of daydreaming about the sound of a neighbor mowing in the distance and how nice the breeze feels coming into my window against my face. For this kind of music, that is the perfect quality to have. This tape is great at night, when the world is still, the room lacks light, your mind is busy with thoughts of what came in the day, focus comes into your eyes and then focus leaves.



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