Sonic Landscapes

1. Bloom

Developed by ambient music pioneer Brian Eno and software designer Peter Chilvers, Bloom is an addicting music generator that creates ethereal, dream-like  generative music. The user creates the original melody or sound pattern, which then loops, evolves, and transforms into a full-bodied ambient composition. Its softly meandering quality makes Bloom perfect to listen to while sinking into sleep.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bloom/id292792586?mt=8

2. Kling Klang Machine

Created by the electronic music godfathers of Kraftwerk, users of the “Kling Klang Machine” can alter, adjust, and mix an automated 24-hour algorithm-based melody. Depending on your timezone, which is registered on a world map interface, you will hear a different automated soundscape, which you can then manipulate using an array of control settings. The idea arises from the Kraftwerk mantra: “We play the machines and the machines play us.”

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kraftwerk-kling-klang-machine/id423962784?mt=8

Aid Sonic Landscapes in the internationalization of the struggle for great music. The countries marked in red demarcate where Sonic Landscapes has been listened to. Send this link to friends in the countries marked in white and let’s fill in the gaps as we proceed to global unity!

Thanks to Comrade Slade for assistance with graphics.

[ Check out Slade’s excellent band, the BFG’s, at  https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-BFGs/99996167899 ]

To download any episode of Sonic Landscapes onto your computer, simply:

1. Right click on the episode link

2. Choose “download linked file”

3. Behold! The music is yours!

British music video director and video artist Chris Cunningham is known for his surreal, twitchy film work for artists such as Aphex Twin, Autechre, Portishead, Squarepusher, and Björk. From that short list of clients one can get a sense of Cunningham’s unconventional aesthetic preferences. Just as these musicians and bands push the limits of what can be done with sound and technology, Chris Cunningham experiments with light, color, film quality, and eccentric speeds and tempos in his videos. His style is distinctively creepy, as you will surely see in the videos below, but there is always an underlying sense of sick humor which pervades his films. As The Telegraph articulates, Chris Cunningham’s films are “like…Looney Tunes short[s] for a generation raised on video nasties and rave music.”

Here is a selection of some of my personal favorites of the work of Chris Cunningham.

NOTE: Cunningham’s video for Aphex Twin’s “Windowlicker” is considered by many the crown jewel of his portfolio. As it has already been featured on a previous Sonic Landscapes music video list, it has not been included in the following selection.