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winter guitar recording, day 3

The winter guitar recording session finished well on Tuesday. I’ve added some more photos to the photoset at flickr.

Overall, I was very pleased with how the recording session went. I ended up playing and recording all the pieces on Monday, then doing some critical listening and editing on Tuesday. I believe the record will consist of 8 or 9 pieces, although I have to make the final decision still.

One thing that’s affecting me a bit in terms of getting the record finished is a much-needed equipment repair. The second hinge on my 3-year-old Powerbook finally failed a couple months ago (the first hinge had broken over a year ago), so it’s off to PBParts in Arizona for repair. In anticipation of this, I’d bought a 200GB drive a little while back and got everything backed up, so it’s got a completely clean install of Mac OS X on it, and will be ready to do the other software installs once I get it back. Should feel like a new machine!

There’s still a lot of work left to do before the guitar record is out, however – I have to: come up with a final name for it, get the vellum inserts cut, then stamp them, finish designing the insert, get it printed, cut and folded, as well as finishing the actual audio editing and mastering. Whew!

I’ll post some more pictures of the rest of the process as it happens.

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goodbye 2005, hello 2006

It’s that time again, when we look back at the past year and look forward to the new one. chromedecay has a lot of projects going on right now, and a number of things in the works for 2006. Here’s an update:

recording guitars in the winter

One project that’s just come together in the last month or so is a set of improvisational guitar-based recordings. I’m actually going to be heading to my parents’ house tomorrow, New Year’s Day, and holing up there for a couple of days, recording a bunch of quiet, ambient guitar pieces. I’ve wanted to do a record like this for several years, especially during the winter – there’s something about the quiet and peace of winter that pulls me toward the more contemplative guitar-based material that I often perform in intimate concert settings.

I’m planning to take some photos and possibly offer some snippets of audio over the course of the time recording the project, so check the chromedecay blog in the next few days to see that as it unfolds.

This record, which is as yet untitled, will be available via chromedecay at the end of January or beginning of February. I’ve been working on the packaging over the last few weeks, and I’m pretty excited about it; it will be a very handmade piece of art. The cover will be hand-stamped on a piece of translucent vellum paper, along with a printed paper insert. I’ll be selling these via my site and at shows, so definitely e-mail me if you’re interested and I’ll reserve one for you.

chromedecay tracks pt2: 2001-2005

Another music project coming up is the second chapter in the “chromedecay tracks” series. I’m finishing the mixing and mastering now, and so in about 2 months (I hope!) I’ll have copies ready to purchase. This record is a set of my instrumental electronic music from 2001-2005, and it’s all culled from various projects that never saw the light of day, for whatever reason.

Once it’s a little closer to being released, I’ll be putting up a free, downloadable mix set based on tracks from it, so look for that in the coming weeks. For now, you can check out one track from it, entitled “rain at the airport”, via the Bill Van Loo MySpace site:

http://www.myspace.com/bvl

songs in the night

I’m still working on my collaborative project entitled “songs in the night”. This is a record I’m really excited about, as it’s the first of mine both to feature other musicians (particularly singers and rappers) and to deal with my Christian faith. The contributions from artists like Listener, Double Helix, re:flex the architect, and others have really inspired me, so expect to hear more about this as it gets closer to being done.

In the meantime, you can check out one of the instrumental tracks from it here:

as she sleeps [mp3 from the forthcoming “songs in the night”]

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chromedecay site update

Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed a change in the chromedecay site layout.

The biggest change comes in the site’s main page layout and formatting, which has been revamped to place more emphasis on the artistic output of the label – music, photos, events, and writing. There will still be some more tweaks here and there over the next month or so, but hopefully this new design will work out well.

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quick reminder: bill van loo with listener, saturday nov. 12

listener tour of homes

Just a quick reminder:

Saturday, November 12, I will be joining Listener on the Flint, Michigan stop of his “Tour of Homes”. Find out more information below:

my earlier post about the Listener tour of homes

listenertourofhomes.com

If you’re at all interested in coming out to see me, please contact me!

Show details:

where: 620 e. newall st. flint, mi 48505
when: 7 p.m.
cost: $5
contact: bill van loo (734.652.6883; [email protected]) or brown (810.656.92450

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a chromedecay chart

A chart of recent favorite listens:

1. Christopher Bissonnette – “comfortable expectations” (from “periphery”, on the chicago-based Kranky)

Chris Bissonnette is one of my friends in thinkbox. “Periphery” is his first full-length, released on Chicago’s own Kranky. He had a record release party last Saturday at Neptune Records in Royal Oak, and I was inspired to pick this record back up (I got a copy over the summer) and dig back into it. “Comfortable Expectations” hit me as a standout track while I was studying earlier this week.

2. Fennesz – “Venice” (the entire album; on Touch)

This is a nice, natural progression from “endless summer”…the distorted guitar is still present, but maybe isn’t as much of a focus as before. There are a couple surprises (the David Sylvian vocal contribution, the ROCKING LOUD TRACK at the end) but overall, a great continuation of his material.

You can download a non-album mp3 from the Venice sessions here:

http://www.fennesz.com/mp3s/mp3.html

3. Eluvium – “Talk amongst the trees” (again, the entire album; on temporary residence)

At the aforementioned Bissonnette release party, I got to talking with Rob Theakston. He mentioned he was collaborating with Eluvium on a track for an upcoming record Rob is working on (his first full-length solo effort), and asked me if I’d heard his latest (“Talk amongst the trees”). When I replied that I hadn’t, he insisted that I buy it. When I demurred, explaining that my record-buying money had been spent, he insisted on buying it for me. That’s a pretty strong testament to a record’s quality, in my opinion.

In terms of sound, it’s somewhere between Kompakt’s Pop Ambient series and fennesz. Beautiful washes of sound.

Eluvium’s site has 2 mp3s of his work available for download:

http://www.eluvium.net/

4. Sufjan Stevens – “Illinois” (the album; on Asthmatic Kitty)

I backed off on my near-obsessive listening to this (at any given day during the summer you could probably find me listening to at least one of the tracks) but it’s still getting some play time. Definitely my top record of 2005.

5. Rebecca Anderson – “live at the thunderbird coffeehouse” (unreleased)

A 30-minute set from Rebecca Anderson the night she opened for me at the Thunderbird Coffeehouse in Jackson, MI (September 23, 2005). Look for big things from Rebecca once she gets more of her solo material recorded.

Rebecca Anderson at MySpace

6. Brooks – “lost in lights” (from his MySpace page)

Also bumped into Brooks Mosher at the aforementioned Chris Bissonnette release party. He’s got a really nice track up at his MySpace site; it’s this sort of pitch-bendy little ambient thing that sits comfortably somewhere between Derrick May and Juan Atkins’ remix of Basic Channel’s “starlight”.

Brooks Mosher at MySpace

7. re:flex the architect – “here today gone tomorrow” (from his MySpace page)

re:flex is somebody I hooked up with from one of the Christian hip-hop forums I frequent. He’s a Nigerian who was born in Poland and lives in Southampton, Hampshire, United Kingdom. I’m a sucker for the sound of a British accent rapping (see Roots Manuva, check) but ‘flex brings his own style to this thing. “here today gone tomorrow” is from an upcoming mixtape project of his, I believe.

re:flex the architect at MySpace

He’s going to be on an upcoming project of mine, too, but I’ll say more of that once it gets closer to release.

OK, chart over.

A couple other things: I’ve recently started using MySpace, as you may have noted from the above mentions in my chart. I don’t really like the site very much (why does every third woman have to be almost nude in their profile photos?) but whatever. I’ve got an unreleased track from “chromedecay tracks pt.2: 2001-2005” up there called “rain at the airport” that you might dig:

Bill Van Loo at MySpace

Also, I just finished up the final mixes of my 2 contributions for the upcoming release from thinkbox entitled “thinkbox editions 03: structure”. This record, and the fourth in the series (“thinkbox editions 04: field”) will be released in March of 2006. Now that the two thinkbox: structure tracks are done, I’ll be finishing up my contributions for the thinkbox “field” record (another two tracks due next week) and finally getting “chromedecay tracks pt2” finished as well.

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Saturday, November 12th: Bill Van Loo with Listener (Flint, MI)

On November 12, 2005, Bill Van Loo will join Listener (avant-rapper with releases on such labels as Mush, Gotee and Deepspace5) for the Flint, Michigan stop on Listener’s “Tour of Homes”.

The idea behind the Tour of Homes is that of an intimate space; a house filled with people, food, and art. I’ll be playing a set of music before Listener steps up; I may also do some live video work. There will also be clothing displays courtesy brown, the shameless clothing mogul. Bring a passing dish and we can eat together!

Location:
620 E Newall Street (The House)
Flint, Michigan 48505
map

Please contact me or Josue (brown) if you want more details – we would love to see you out there!
Josue ([email protected])
ph: 810.656.9245
or Bill Van Loo ([email protected])
ph: 734.652.6883

http://www.listenertourofhomes.com/
http://www.forthelistener.com/

Here’s an excerpt from one of Listener’s early postings about the concept behind this tour:

“I want to assure you, and reiterate that this tour is not just so I can do a rap show in your living room. Even when I’m on tour in clubs I don’t really just do “rap” shows. I’m much more interested in the performance art aspect of writing and creating and I thought there’s no greater place than to do it in the comfort of your living room. We’re all friends, and I encourage you to invite many friends who aren’t interested in just rap music, but maybe other genres of independent music. This would be the perfect time to invite someone who would never set foot in a club, or a rap show because they think rap is stupid or all about bling. You can be sure that this will be an intimate evening of art expression and hopefully will push on some of the boundaries that you all might have about this genre. You might also consider letting me list the show that you host as an “open” show. That way if there are other fans in the area they can come and enjoy in this experience as well.”

Also:

“I think it’s crucial that we all eat together and talk and get to know one another before we can share openly.”

Hope to see you out there!