Blog Outage Possible

If you read my other blog, you know that I am currently operating with a crippled computer: the hard disk is reporting an imminent failure. I am currently in the process of taking off any files that have not already been damaged.  I have not lost anything critical, as I already had them backed up. I did have several ongoing projects, all of which I was able to rescue, but the one I lost was the next podcast, which I had scheduled to upload next week. I think I can still get it done (the files are backed up, but I have to finish the editing with Audacity, and that may not be possible in my current configuration), and once I get it figured out I will upload it. Until then I am unlikely to have any more posts in the meantime.

Wolfram Spyra

Wolfram Spyra is a German composer and producer who began his career in the early 1990s installing "soundscapes",  collabarating with a variety of artists. He began his recording career in 1995 with the maxi-single Sex, Chaos, Energy, and the album Homelistening Is Killing Clubs:


 "Future of the Past" from Homelistening Is Killing Music.

His early music shows a heavy influence of the "Berlin School", but there are also influences from the German techno scene of the 1990s. He has released over two dozen albums in the years since 1995, including 4 collaborations with Pete Namlook. His website is here: there are also quite a few tracks available on Youtube, my favorite being "One Beat-One Second" (year and album unknown):

Free System Projekt

Free System Projekt is a band started in the early 1990s in Holland, by Marcel Engels and Ruud Heij. Using much of the same analog equipment as the earlier Berlin School, along with more modern digital synthesizers, they created a sound that was very similar to classic Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. While not terribly well known outside of fans of the genre, they have been very active for the past 17 years, releasing an average of about two albums per year since 1995.




 "Desolate Landscapes" from the CD Gent (2007).

I was unfamiliar with them until very recently, but they are rapidly becoming a favorite. They have a website here, and there is a lot of their recent material on Youtube. I will be following these guys in the future.

Radio Massacre International

The elements of the British trio Radio Massacre International came together in the early 1980s as an experimental music project. The trio consisted of Steve Dinsdale on drums and synthesizers, Duncan Goddard on bass and synthesizers, and Gary Houghton on guitars and synthesizers. Their early work was experimental in nature and never released commercially, but in 1993 they began recording their first commercial album, Frozen North, released in 1995. Their sound is reminiscent of the Berlin School of electronic music, and with the guitars and drums, they sound like a mixture of Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel. While mostly a studio band, they have had several recorded live performances, most notable being a 1996 appearance on the MTV Europe show "Party Zone", a dance music oriented show, in which they played no dance music:



There is an interview with the band about 16 minutes into the video which is quite interesting.


Radio Massacre international has been very prolific, averaging 3-4 albums per year since 1996 (many of which are live performances). Their American breakthrough came in 2002 with performances at festivals in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. In 2006 they released a 6 CD compilation of previously unreleased material dating back to 1987. They are still active, and since 2009 Dinsdale has released 4 solo albums, and this year Goddard released his first. Here is their website.

Alpha Wave Movement

Alpha Wave Movement is the name of an electronic music project of Gregory T Kyryluk, who started out in electronic music in the early 1980s with  Moog synthesizer. Alpha Wave Movement was created in 1992, bu it wasn't until 1995 that the first album, Transcendence. was released. The musical style was primarily Steve Roach influenced ambient music, with a large chunk of Berlin School type sequences thrown in. Equipment used was primarily digital synthesizers under MIDI control.


 The title track from Trancendence.

Alpha Wave Movement has released 16 albums total, including the recently released Yasumu. Kyryluk also records under other project names, Within Reason, Thought Guild, and Open Canvas, and has appeared on numerous compilations. His record label, Harmonic Resonance, has a website here, and Alpha Wave Movement has a Myspace page here.

Podcast 16

 Podcast 16 is now up. This one is 4 longer tracks, all produced in December of 2012. While there really isn't a common thread in these, I was listening to a lot of Edgard Varese at the time, and I did notice something of an influence in the first 3 tracks. All of these were testing various capabilities of Midilooper: most notable on track 4 was the time signature changes, something I discovered by trial and error since Midilooper has no documentation.  I will go into details in a future post, but by changing the time signature of Miilooper's playback, you can get some subtle but interesting rhythmic effects.

The download page is here.

Craig Padilla

About the same time that Redshift was launching the revival of the Berlin School style in Britain, in California Craig Padilla was starting to produce very similar music. His style is primarily Steve Roach Style ambient, with Berlin School style sequencing rolled in. His equipment is primarily 1970s and 1980s vintage equipment, notably the ARP 2600, APR 2500 sequencer module, Roland JP8080, and Sequential Circuits Pro One. His first album, Eye Of the Storm, was released in 1996 on the Space For Music label. He released over a dozen albums on Space For Music during the next 10 years, including a couple of live albums and several collaborations with Skip Murphy.


"Alturas" from Below The Mountain (2008)

 His breakthrough album was Vostok, released in 2002 on the Spotted Peccary Label.

Padilla has remained very active both as a music producer and a video producer. In 2012 he released two albums, The Heart Of The Soul, and When The Earth Is Far Away, a collaboration with Zero Ohms. His webite is here,  his Myspace page is here  and he has a Youtube channel here.