Internet sound instrument

Here is an internet collaboration system from auracle.org for voice activated sound performance. It's plug and play, but it might want to install the java softsynth software on your computer.

If you find yourself all alone in Auracle's world, call up some friends and have them plug in -- or just turn your speakers up (a little!), and create a loop between your speakers and your microphone. Careful, feedback loops can gain amplitude quickly. You'll have your whole audio library to experiment with then.

The java softsynth website has many other audio toys to play with on this software.

The Classics @ musikethos.org

Classical music doesn't get a lot of representation on the internet -- you don't hear anybody getting busted for stealing downloading a Beethoven track. musikethos.org is putting an end to that. The classics, podsafe, performed by a group of musicians in Italy. (They have jazz there too.)

A little Mussorgsky anybody? The Old Castle.

Neko Case

I heard Neko Case at 3hive... She's on Anti records, where you'll also find Tom Waits, Tricky and Marianne Faithfull and music to sample. I didn't realize Psychedelic Country was a genre. Or is that Tammy Wynette covering Grace Slick covering Mazzy Star? Neko Case is from my home town... go neighbor!

sample: Hold on, Hold on
Neco Case: website
NPR: Live Concert Series

Spacemusic.nl podcasts

A weekly podcast in m4a format by TC of Rotterdam -- you can find an interview with TC on this Talking Portraits podcast. Last year he did his podcasts in mp3, this is the the best of spacemusic for 2005.

Aeolian wind harp

Let the breeze decide what you hear with an harmonic wind harp.

Listen to a sample.

Mike D.'s website

Mike D. does a weekly show on the cosmic lounge channel at digitally imported. Mike D.'s website features past programs in the listening area, and there's lots to read about the musicians he features.

Pandora gets an upgrade

New Pandora features offer Backstage, a new flavor of favorites, and improvements in the user interface. Read about it here.

organ²/ASLSP

Sorry -- I'm late reporting the news again. Last month witnessed a chord shift, the next one occurs in 2008... what's this about? John Cage's composition As Slow As Possible, a 75 minute piece, elongated to 639 years. Why 639 years? Because when this performance began, that's how long ago it was that the 12 tone (western) musical scale was first hardwired into a musical instrument.

Listen to the current tone and an NPR feature. Read a a review of the performance, and the Wikipedia entry.

Sounds of the Border: Playing the Wall

NPR featured Glenn Weyant's composition SonicAnta, performed with contact microphones and cello bow on a steel wall built on the American and Mexican border in Arizona.

Find sample playlists here.

Aes Dana

Vincent of Ultimae Records, aka Aes Dana ... at ~confluence~ ... a cozy event at Slide Ranch in Marin County, California overlooking the Pacific Ocea:

Aes Dana >  Live at Confluence (ambient trance) sample

Longplayer

Longplayer (composed by Jem Finer): Tibetan bells and gongs streamed live... listen for 1000 years.

Heard at the Audio Archive

Internet Archive > Audio

Unit 21 > September - October (dronology) sample

Remora > Ambient Drones For One Guitar (dronology) sample

Fred Yarm > Far Afield compilation (phonography dronology) sample

Mono

Post Rock from Japan... Mono's mp3's are gone for now... but you can still watch them perform:

2GB SD Flash $75 @ Radio Shack this week

Wow -- hard to pass this up... and it even comes with a $5 mail-in rebate... I've combined it with a $10 IOGEAR USB SD Reader and On The Fly Encryption for a secure -- play anywhere -- backup.

Internet CD Trading Club

Trade CD's at lala.com for a buck a piece.

Screwed with Music

The internet tells me that "screw music" is music that "screws with pitch" -- a technique mastered by DJ Screw[W][?].

Now we have screwmusicforever, a music label that shows no trace of screw music's hiphop origins, but if today's stream of music by Home is any indication -- this is definitely worth coming back to listen to again sometime.

Dance to the music

I've always been a sucker for cute cat video's -- and here's one at YouTube that's all about the music... Kitty dances with her Intel Dual Core MacBookPro.

Listen Different

For some reason, Apple's iPod has never appealed to me. I don't like the way it locks you into iTunes, and I don't like it's proprietary cable and battery. My SanDisk player runs on a AAA battery and a regular USB connection. Find something different to listen to at anythingbutipod.

3hive finds the music

I like 3hive... it's an mp3 blog that shares music shared by artists (i.e. legal downloads).

Creative Commons

Creative Commons offers flexible copyright licenses for creative works. More and more people offer these licenses to their work, which often provide the right to download and share music, photo's and other works. ccMixter is a web site devoted to offering remixes of music licensed under the Creative Commons license. Stream music sorted by tag or popularity, or bundle the tracks into a podcast.

Name That Tune

I discovered the musipedia search engine today. You can sing, whistle, or play it a few notes of a song and it will name it. I must sing in tune, because it identified Happy Birthday To You on my first attempt at singing it. This, by the way, is apparently very close, musically, to Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone.