In The Bleak Wilderness Of Sleep (Album Sampler Mix) by Audio Gourmet Netlabel

On the 17th of May 2011, Audio Gourmet will be precisely a year old. To celebrate this, we have been busy putting together a couple of compilation albums. One of which is ‘In The Bleak Wilderness Of Sleep’ will be available for purchase as either a multi-format digital album or as a limited edition CDr.

The compilation features 12 tracks from some of the globe’s most talented sound-designers. It is a subtly rewarding headphone listen from start to finish; curated and ordered to purposefully induce a state of sleep. Starting off minimally and gradually gathering tone and atmosphere, the experience goes on without ever boiling over or reaching a crescendo. Parts of the album are light and restful whereas traces of it tread darker territory. All in all, the imagery that the album conjurs sits perfectly as a soundtrack to the dreams one experiences during a nights sleep.

The artwork was put together by French artist Eric Lacombe (Monstror) who some may remember for his cover art collaborations for Spheruleus releases in the past. Here for ‘In The Bleak Wilderness Of Sleep’, his surreal imagery lends itself perfectly to this mysterious dream invoking soundtrack.

The limited edition CDr release comes housed inside a recycled card case with the cover artwork slipped inside and printed to photographic paper. Along with a hand-numbered/catalogued CDr copy of the album itself, the tracklist will be printed to high quality salmon coloured paper. On the front, the album title will be rubber stamped in brown ink and on the back, the Audio Gourmet logo will be cut out by lazers. It will be hand-numbered in brown pen and limited to 200 copies. The first 50 copies will include a second bonus image, taken by select friends and photographers.

There will also be a digital counterpart available too, through the Audio Gourmet Bandcamp account.
This should all be out on or around the 17th May…more details to follow soon!

I am going to spend a bit of time working on the netlabel since our increasing popularity means that the Bandcamp free download credits are running out at a very quick rate. I get 200 per month for the Audio Gourmet account and then the rest I have to buy from sales of the ‘Full Albums’. If there are insufficient funds for me to be able to buy these extra free download credits, everything on the netlabel automatically gets set to a paid download. Which really defeats the object of a netlabel. It’s like they are forcing you to make money! Never my intention for these mere fifteen minute excursions of sound-art.

The Hidden Landscapes compilation, which I put together to try and raise a little money to keep the download credits topped up didn’t seem to do quite as well as I thought – perhaps because people preferred to go for the physical CD instead. I wouldn’t have this any other way of course, because it was amazing to be involved with the production of such a wonderful compilation and to have Hibernate Records on-board with print and distribution. It looks stunning as a disc and the overall aesthetic comes across best as a physical package. I don’t think that long term, putting together compilations to raise money for the netlabel is going to be enough to keep everything going. I’ll of course keep organising them for the ‘full albums’ tab on the site, as it’s great to work with artists on longer form material.

I think I am going to start setting each release as a ‘donate to the netlabel’ through Bandcamp where you’ll also be able to stream the tracks as usual and then you can download for free via a mirror link to Archive, which I will post up for each release. It might take me quite some time to ‘archive’ all of the past EPs, but it will be a work in progress that I promise to keep chipping away at when I get spare time. If anybody has an EP they’d particularly like to download for free, just send me a message here and I’ll make that a priority for you.

I shouldn’t be feeling uncomfortable about a growth in popularity of Audio Gourmet…especially with an exciting pile of about 10 superb EPs scheduled for release!! So changes need to be made so that I can encourage growth and carry on spreading the word with each release…

I will begin working on releasing a collection of fine ambient EPs over the next few weeks, from the following artists:
Jukka Vakkinen-Kannonen
Coldstream
The Inventors Of Aircraft
Simon Whetham
Julien Demoulin
Listening Mirror
Leonardo Rosado
Luis Antero

Plenty of other things in the pipeline, including another compilation album in production for our first birthday, in May this year…more information on this to follow nearer the time

Thanks for alll your support,
Harry
Audio Gourmet

Out this winter as edition number two on the ‘Full Releases’ tab here at Audio Gourmet, will be a digital re-issue of Spheruleus’ first CD album ‘Frozen Quarters’, released on the superb Under The Spire label earlier this year.

Frozen Quarters was inspired during a colder British winter, as sound designer Harry Towell recorded a selection of field recordings within his everyday environment, intending to preserve and ‘capture’ these moments. Further narrative through means of treated acoustic instrument compositions helped solidify this mysterious and experimental sound project as an intriguing listen from start to finish.

This will be out as the cold kicks in, to serve as your listening companion as this coming winter unfolds…

More information to follow soon.

Hopefully over the last couple of months, you’ve all been enjoying your teabreaks courtesy of the Audio Gourmet netlabel catalog. Each 15 minute EP is produced by top quality ambient and/or experimental artists from around the globe and then given away at www.audiogourmet.co.uk, ideally for ‘teabreak’ listening.

A new venture for the label is in the form of a more ‘lunchbreak’ based excursion, I.E a full artist album.
The release rate for this will be very slow in comparison to the free EPs, to allow you to digest the material after indulging in a rich aural feast.
The full albums will not be given away for free because of the sheer time it takes to conceive an album idea, record, arrange and treat, not to mention the sheer length of time it takes to upload WAV files here on Bandcamp!
Having said that, I’ve decided to set the price for this in-depth and full album release to a minimum of just £5. You can choose to pay more if you believe the album to be worth the extra donation, although it will not be frowned upon if you go for the minimum fee – I will just be glad that you have chosen to take a listen!

THIS WILL BE OUT THIS WEEK…!

Hi all,

A quick note to inform of my latest ambient mix, which is available for listening and download via the ‘Mixes’ tab on this website. It features 60 pieces of music, cut up and aranged harmonically. There are tracks released and forthcoming from the Audio Gourmet label along with tracks from other netlabels, big labels and unreleased pieces.

Let me know your thoughts…this one took a long time to put together!

Cheers,
Harry

After releasing a double dose of our trademark teabreak EPs this week, I can confirm the next two releases for you all to look forward to…

Next will be a couple of stunning soundscapes from Michael Trommer. These have been carved out of and inspired by field recordings made in abandoned/empty shopping malls and commercial buildings. Michael, a Toronto based artist, is extremely talented and we’re deligthted to have him on-board the Audio Gourmet netlabel.

Also, we’ve a three track EP from Ibreathefur, who also has a forthcoming release on the wonderful Under The Spire. The tracks are beautifully polished ambient drones of the highest quality and are not to be missed…

I’ll keep you all posted – these should be out within the next couple of weeks…in the meantime, please enjoy our current releases!

Next up on the label, we’ve an EP from the SubVersions blog writer under his new production pseudonym Foci’s Left. This features two of his own productions spanning the last three years and a collection of remixes from David Tagg, Darren Harper and Spheruleus.

After this, we have a three track EP from talented experimental jazz guitarist Alvari Lume. This Finnish artist is extremely gifted and sees the Audio Gourmet netlabel adding diversity to the music policy as its catalog expands. This EP will be titled ‘Ennen’, meaning ‘then’ in Finnish and is a collection of older works from the artist. Forthcoming as a future release will be another EP from Alvari Lume, entitled ‘nyt’, meaning ‘now’ in Finnish. This is a collection of experimental pieces he is working on now…