Vuzh Music Blog

So, I wasn’t very good about updating this blog when I had an album release this year. Sorry about that, heh heh.

Here is a catch-all post to announce each of my releases for 2018.

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In January, Dubbed Tapes put out a split release with myself and Kirsty Porter. At the time of this writing there are still 4 copies available. I really like the piece I did for the tape, it’s titled “The Science of Inattention”, it features some experiments with sine waves and some field recordings all collaged together.

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Next up, in April, there was a release called Pairs of Opposites Imply Unity containing recordings of two live performances from 2017. It’s some very intense electronic drone music. There was also a tape release of this one on Illuminated Paths.

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In May, I released a compilation of some early, mostly unreleased music, mostly from my 4-track days. It was the second volume of early music, titled Young Music, vol 2.

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In July, I released an album of lo-fi psychedelic minimalism called Sun Kinks that I had finished several years earlier and submitted to several different labels for release, unsuccessfully. People seemed to like it, though, which made me happy.

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Finally, in October, I released Disappointment Engine, a collection of new work from late 2017 & early 2018 that’s insistent, minimalist, psychedelic synth music.

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Thanks to anyone who listened to what I did this year!

I have a new release to announce. It is the result of a major project undertaken this past Winter / Spring.
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In Summer 2016, my friend Denver-based writer and musician Cody Yantis prompted me to do an album of all acoustic sources. Over the next many months I recorded many hours worth of improvisations with non-electric musical instruments and oddsorts, and collected field recordings. These were arranged, and multi-tracked with no processing other than EQ and compression.
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I’m quite proud of how this came out, it really feels like a marker of that time in my life.
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This new pro-dubbed cassette, dubbed in an edition of 50 on chrome tapes is available to purchase on Reno Park Press:
http://renoparkpress.com/002.html
http://renoparkpress.com/002.html
http://renoparkpress.com/002.html
http://renoparkpress.com/002.html
http://renoparkpress.com/002.html
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The label describes it like this:

“Listening After the End is a study of one’s immediate environment, of the resonant potential of what surrounds us. A frozen stream. A passing train. A ceiling fan. The wind. A cat plays; someone sneezes; an autoharp lets out a long hum. These vignettes–textural, spacious, and sonorous–are wonderfully evocative pieces that, when taken as a whole, form a vibrant sonic life, one that revels in the animus to be found in even the subtlest of things.”

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If you are unable to purchase the new cassette due to lack of funds, or perhaps you don’t have the means to play tapes, well worry not. There is also a free-to-download version that you can find right here:

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https://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/listening-after-the-end
https://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/listening-after-the-end
https://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/listening-after-the-end
https://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/listening-after-the-end
https://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/listening-after-the-end
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Each comes with a diary-like text describing what it was like to record each section of sound that you can hear on the album.
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Thank you for your attention.

I’m pleased to be performing on a fantastic bill of music by several of my friends & respected colleagues this coming Saturday. I’ll be playing alongside Offthesky + Radere, Stephen Karnes + Cody Yantis and the touring folk-dronester Andrew Weathers. Pretty unmissable lineup, if you ask me.
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The show will also be an informal release party for my brand new cassette release “Listening After the End”, out on Cody Yantis’ superb Reno Park Press.
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CELE pt. ZONE Full Spectrum Showcase
Saturday, August 12th @ 8pm
Bar Max
2412 E Colfax Ave, Denver, CO 80206
$10
For more info, ticketing and/or to RSVP click the link:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2063168043910739

Beginnings are a bit arbitrary, for some reason I set my year one of music making as 1991, even though I have recordings going back well into the 1980s.
Thinking back that 2016 was the 25th anniversary of that arbitrary date, it occurred to me to package up some of my early work that was currently unavailable. There are three volumes of this now planned.
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Here is the first volume:
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Young Music, Vol. 1
https://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/young-music-vol-1
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This first volume of collected early works spans the years 1988 to 1997, from when I was sixteen to twenty-six years old. It spans a period of time when I used many different ways to record music: first by borrowing equipment from friends, or by layering sounds by bouncing from one tape player to another – to a Fostex 4-track recorder – to an early hard-disk recorder, the Roland VS-880 – before I finally started doing work on computer (none of which you’ll hear on volume I, but there’s a smidge of it on volume II). Herein I explore a lot of areas of interest that I no longer find interesting, so there may be some novelty at that material, but there’s a surprisingly cogent expression of ideas I still use today on some material. This was a time when I had very little clarity on what I actually wanted to explore in music, and correspondingly, a lot of the stuff now is a little embarrassing to one degree or another. I can look past it because I know that I was really into what I was doing then, and I can hear myself fumbling awkwardly toward some of the things I’m doing now. Maybe in another twenty years I’ll look back on my current stuff with some embarrassment, who knows? Most of the tracks on Young Music vol. 1 feature the guitar, an instrument I relied on during my early years, but have since all but abandoned. All of this is lo-fi as fuck, much of it goes on for too long, and some of it may annoy. I fought the urge to completely remix and edit this material. Instead, all tracks are derived directly from mixes I made (either to tape or DAT) at or near the time I originally recorded the stuff.

An album of field recordings and “acoustic noise”
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Free to download:
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https://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/anent
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I’m playing a show on this upcoming Friday, July 7 in Boulder.
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If you’re nearby, and you’re into drone / noise you’re welcome to come.
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Here’s the event link on … (eughhh) Facebook (shudder) …
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https://www.facebook.com/events/1916420941959398
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And here’s a cool poster:
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I’m very pleased to announce a new release on the excellent Midnight Circles tape label!
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Chew Cinders is out now, available in free download or limited casssette C-26!
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https://midnightcircles.bandcamp.com/album/chew-cinders
https://midnightcircles.bandcamp.com/album/chew-cinders
https://midnightcircles.bandcamp.com/album/chew-cinders
https://midnightcircles.bandcamp.com/album/chew-cinders
https://midnightcircles.bandcamp.com/album/chew-cinders
https://midnightcircles.bandcamp.com/album/chew-cinders
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This music was recorded in Summer 2016, and I’m particularly happy with it. It’s the first music released that I made after my near-fatal illness in late 2015.
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The Midnight Circles label describes the work very well:

C. Reider – “Chew Cinders” C-26. 2 part sound-collage by C. Reider (USA). Great and dense combination of droning electronics, pitched voices and field-recordings. “Chew Cinders” possesses a resonating rhythm, sometimes flowing, sometimes cut-up in nature and blends generated and found sounds to an intriguing unity.
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Both parts of ‘Chew Cinders’ focus strongly on the manipulation of time and pitch. Throughout the record chunks of voice & field-recordings are slowed down and mixed into a sweeping array of synthesizers and noisier drones that evolve into long and dense passages from time to time. The cut-up character of the album blends electronics, effect-manipulations and field-recordings into a varied sound collage with parts that change abruptly in tone while other passages fade slowly into one another. ‘Chew Cinders’ combination of sounds spans from generated, synthetic tones to recordings of metals and bells, anonymous rooms as well as anonymous voices.

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I strongly encourage you to look into the other releases on the label as well. Midnight Circles releases some really high quality stuff.

I’ve just released two DIY cassettes. They’re both limited editions too, small run, so get yours!
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Sophist I
http://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/sophist-i-2

LIMITED TO 20
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Sophist II
http://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/sophist-ii

LIMITED TO 22
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From the description:

This is a series of very rough tracks, mostly improvised, experimenting with the integration of drum machines into my noise setup. These tracks are not very composed & polished.
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Digital version will not be released until a later date. Buyers of the cassette do get a pile of download codes to giveaway if they want to.

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http://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/sophist-i-2
http://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/sophist-i-2
http://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/sophist-i-2
http://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/sophist-i-2
http://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/sophist-i-2
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http://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/sophist-ii
http://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/sophist-ii
http://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/sophist-ii
http://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/sophist-ii
http://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/sophist-ii
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Thirteen years after our previous collaborative effort, I’m happy to announce the release of “Azure Bell, Midnight Well” by C. Reider and Tarkatak. The new release expands on the industrial ambient of the first album “The Druser Pricid“, with a more atmospheric, place-evoking release of edgy ambient music.
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Frans de Waard said of our original collab: “Both guys really know how to create a psychedelic atmosphere in sound, with dark soundscapes and hallucinating loops, analogue synths and processed guitar sounds. Like said, the music here is very much related to Troum, but has a particulary strong voice of its own.”
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I hope you will take the time to download & listen to this new work.
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Link to Azure Bell, Midnight Well
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In this interview just published by Perfect Sound Forever, Daniel Barbiero and I converse about the “Tape Loops” and “Not Subliminal” releases and some of the process and other attendant issues that come with a contemplative sound practice.
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A Conversation about Process, Being with Sound, and the Pleasure of Surprise
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http://www.furious.com/perfect/creider.html
http://www.furious.com/perfect/creider.html
http://www.furious.com/perfect/creider.html
http://www.furious.com/perfect/creider.html
http://www.furious.com/perfect/creider.html
http://www.furious.com/perfect/creider.html