Los Angeles-based label Leaving Records begins a series of contemporary New Age releases on cassette with Ashram by Matthewdavid’s Mindflight and 21 Exoticism ESCAP by White Rainbow. Each cassette is available in a limited run of 150.
Label co-founder Matthewdavid aka Matthew McQueen – whose most recent album In My World was released via Flying Lotus‘s Brainfeeder label in 2014 – has this to say about Ashram: “You are in a cave in an Indonesian ashram. Surrounded by statues of Ganesh, the fragrant smells of incense and flowers put your senses at ease as you sublimate. The sound of trickling fountains reverberates throughout your mind, breaking your defenses down into a state of pure, blissful relaxation. This is the ideal environment to introduce the freshly minted “Leaving Records for the New Age” series. Fittingly, these sounds come straight from label founder and forward-thinking steward of modern New Age music, Matthewdavid. He is your pilot for the duration of his Ashram, transporting you from one serene scene to the next on his Mindflight Express. In this collection of three long-form compositions, heavy water sounds and flute mix with field recordings from Bali, sweeping synthesizers, and the angelic vocals of Nora Keyes (“Dancing Ganesh”). Though Ashram documents a special time and place in the producer’s life, it may only whet listeners’ appetites for its forthcoming double-LP followup, the contemporary New Age masterwork Trust the Guide and Glide.”
Order the tape here
Adam Forkner has been making music as White Rainbow since 2003 and has released a number of psychedelic ambient electronic records via Kranky. He describes 21 Exoticism ESCAP thus:
“4 dark purple clouds of supreme drift.
68 minutes of billowed drifted smears of complicated color
There are no memories of the creation of these 4 pieces.
“Time doesn’t exist when you’re in the zone.”
Gentle Flight – A thick synth and string pad opens as clouds do to show sparkles of sunny piano plink.
Strong Pull – Deep meditation on sadness.
Staged CC – Low rumble underbed, chimed shimmers, vocal swells.
DX Cloud – Frequency Modulation Synthesis Cloud tribute to Steve Roach Structures from Silence. for floating to sleep relax.
“WHITE RAINBOW is in the business of cloud-making:
A dark purple cloud of noir-ish melancholy envelopes and covers your surroundings
Stains your clothes
Imagine a man alone, in a darkened room, surrounded by the blinking lights of various music technologies
Its 11am, its 3am, its 6pm
Time blurs alone in this room
This is sound color painting for waiting, for accepting that waiting is not actually waiting
No.
No flights of fancy, no fantasy within the mind or in the networks
No escape
The sublime in this absurd
Exoticism, digital imperialism, 21 century spiritual escapism
All take us away from the simple beauty of our present condition
In rags as a beggar, or a mansion on the hill, surrounded by bowls of fruit
Sipping coffee on a porch in paris
On a cliff overlooking a vast green rainforest
In a yoga pose
In lululemon flexible sweat wicking tech fabrics
Or in dirt stained jeans
Mindfulness as corporate mandate
“Progress”, “success”, “achievement”, “self actualization” and “growth”
Return to the prison of eternal now
To reach outside of ones self is to fall into the traps of objectification
There is no 4th world
There is nothing but the world
A tiny bed, steps away
From the blinking lights of the various music technologies
And when the coffee and food and rest and the blurred hours and days
Aligne in some random confluence
With the machines
Everything melts
And the world is gone”
Order the tape here
Visit the Leaving Records website for more info
