Darkroom Ambient Podcast - Free Music From Ambient/avant-garde Improvisers Darkroom

From the 30th July 2008 Improvizone gig. This was the last section of the night, though there were bass, drums and sitar playing too. This podcast just takes Mike's guitar and my processing of Mike's guitar, for a more ambient experience. Copyright 2008 Darkroom.

Apologies for the long delay between podcasts this time. My main excuse is that as of about two weeks ago I now have a baby boy on my hands. Expect to hear lots of cute baby gurgles on future podcasts. Anyway - this podcast is similar to the last, in that it consists of a semi-random ambient thing I left playing during a pause in a recent Improvizone gig. In other news - our new album is nearing completion. Keep an eye on the blog for more information. We may also put one of the album tracks on this podcast as a free download. Copyright 2008 Darkroom.

This comes from the May 23rd Improvizone performance at the Design Museum, London. The line-up was Os, Andrew Booker and Steve Lawson, but Mike was there in spirit since Os, without any keyboard to play, was spending half his time processing bits of Mike's guitar parts from the forthcoming album. We played pretty much constantly for 3 hours, except for a 15 minute break, during which Os left a semi-random ambient thing happening on the laptop - 2 minutes of which was recorded, which is what you hear in this podcast. Copyright 2008 Darkroom.

This little track is the sound of Os getting to know his new Prophet '08 keyboard. The first track on this podcast so far to feature no guitar at all. Copyright 2008 Darkroom. Composed and performed by Andrew Ostler.

In contrast to the ambient miniatures that have been the last few podcast episodes, here's an entire track from a recent gig (Croydon, 27/2/2008). We played 3 tracks (i.e. we stopped for applause 3 times - given that it was all improvised the concept of a track is moot) and this is the middle one. What you hear here is unedited but quite heavily mixed, mainly to beef up the drums. Personally I was rather pleased with the Tangerine Dream-esque synth choral sound that builds up later in the track. Copyright 2008 Darkroom. Composed and performed by Michael Bearpark, Andrew Booker and Andrew Ostler.

The final track that we'll be uploading from the recent BBC soundtrack. Unusually for Darkroom, this is entirely acoustic guitar. Copyright 2008 Darkroom. Composed and performed by Michael Bearpark and Andrew Ostler.

Hello, and welcome to the Darkroom podcast for February 26th 2008. We're breaking with tradition tonight by recording this introduction, rather than just giving you the music by itself. We're doing this because there's actually quite a lot going on in Darkroom-land right now, and we wanted to tell you about it. First, and most importantly, Darkroom has a shiny new website, which you can find at darkroomtheband.net. Central to the site is our blog, which is being updated quite regularly at the moment, with news of our own doings, including progress on the new album, as well as various other bits and bobs of potential interest. We heartily encourage you to subscribe to it, and if you're not sure how to subscribe to blogs, my personal recommendation is to check out Google Reader. Secondly, we recently made available a free download-only release, containing tracks that didn't quite make it onto our album "The DAC Mixes". You can get it for free from burningshed.com, or read about it on our website, which once aga

The second track from the recent BBC soundtrack. The brief for this one was 'screaming guitar'. Copyright 2008 Darkroom. Composed and performed by Michael Bearpark and Andrew Ostler.

We recently did some music for a BBC television news programme - read all about it on the darkroomtheband.net blog. This is the first of several sections that we're going to tidy up and post here. This one's brief was to be ominous and brooding - low hanging fruit for an ambient outfit like ourselves, but surprisingly hard to do when you only have 30 seconds to work with. Copyright 2008 Darkroom. Composed and performed by Michael Bearpark and Andrew Ostler.

About a third of our set from the Festival of Live Looping held in the Norwich Arts Centre on Saturday 17th November 2007. Once again, we were playing with the drummer Andrew Booker. Copyright 2007 Darkroom. Composed and performed by Andrew Booker, Michael Bearpark and Andrew Ostler.

After something of a long break from the podcast, here's a bang-up-to-date rehearsal recording from yesterday (13th October 2007). We were rehearsing with an electronic drummer by the name of Andrew Booker, with whom we'll shortly be playing a number of gigs, including at the Improvizone nights (http://www.improvizone.com/) and at a loopfest in Norwich. Copyright 2007 Darkroom. Composed and performed by Andrew Booker, Michael Bearpark and Andrew Ostler.

This track has its basis in the same session as the last episode (that of April 4th). It's been doubled-up in the studio and had another layer of keyboard added. This track is dedicated to Paul Needler and his Ambientia podcast, since he was kind enough to feature the music of Darkroom in a recent episode (see http://www.armsfullofsound.com/). Copyright 2007 Darkroom. Composed and performed by Michael Bearpark and Andrew Ostler.

Mike and I got together on April 4th with the intention of creating some classic Eno-esque ambient. Instead we produced some rather nice drones. This is the last 10 minutes or so of one improvisation. Copyright 2007 Darkroom. Composed and performed by Michael Bearpark and Andrew Ostler.

I was listening back to some old recordings that had yet to be turned into anything, when this short section jumped out at me. It was recorded in a hotel room (rock and roll!) in Zürich - we were over for the '1st International Loopfestival Zürich' (http://www.loopfestival.com/) and were rehearsing for our performance there. The track sounds like it has a piano on it but it must be slowed down guitar - there was barely room for the two of us in the room, let alone a piano. Copyright 2007 Darkroom. Composed and performed by Michael Bearpark and Andrew Ostler.

Following on from the last episode, here's some more of what Mike and I got up to with Daryl Shawn. A little more edited than last time, and with some drums overlaid. Probably the least ambient thing on this podcast so far! Copyright 2007 Darkroom and Daryl Shawn. Composed and performed by Daryl Shawn, Michael Bearpark and Andrew Ostler.

More NINJAM-ing, this time using it to its full potential for long-distance collaboration. Mike and I (in the UK) jammed for an evening with acoustic guitarist Daryl Shawn (in Mexico). This episode is a slightly edited section from right at the start - Daryl had been up and running for a while, whereas Mike had just plugged in. More to follow! Copyright 2007 Darkroom and Daryl Shawn. Composed and performed by Daryl Shawn, Michael Bearpark and Andrew Ostler.

A section of an improvisation Mike and I did using NINJAM, a clever bit of software that lets musicians jam over the internet. (Some bass subsequently added in the studio.) This track is an audiophile's nightmare - the sections of audio that were transported over the net were Ogg Vorbis compressed; the whole jam was recorded to minidisc; and now you're listening to an mp3. That's 3 different kinds of lossy compression! Copyright 2006 Darkroom. Composed and performed by Michael Bearpark and Andrew Ostler.

A section from an extended gig at a Norwich shoe factory in September 2005 (extract code bata42_36.30_41.30), with some additional bass, synth and vocal added in the studio. Copyright 2006 Darkroom. Original material composed and performed by Michael Bearpark and Andrew Ostler; vocal by Melissa Terras.

Finally, a track which is more than just a quick edit from a rehearsal recording. Though still based on material recorded in rehearsal (the "bass and meringue" session from May), this track adds layers of drums recorded way back in 2004. Copyright 2006 Darkroom. Original material composed and performed by Michael Bearpark and Andrew Ostler; drums by Diego Mancini.

The second part of a two part rehearsal extract from May 2006. This is the prettier of the two parts. It picks up about 3 minutes on from the end of the first part. Copyright 2006 Darkroom. Composed and performed by Michael Bearpark and Andrew Ostler.