Over the last few years I have been fortunate to be asked to do many remixes for various labels,
artists, and friends, many of which saw mainly digital releases and a few which made it onto CD
and some of which unfortunately never ended up being released.
In some cases where I created an ambient remix of a techno track, I found these often got
overlooked somewhat, a problem due to the fact that they ended up in the techno or house
sections of Juno or Beatport etc.. I guess my thinking outside of the box in these very much
genre specific days was a poor creative decision on my part ? But my true feelings on the art of
remix is that the remix should really bring something new to the original track, rather than purely
just adding a new rhythm section or stuttering and juggling and filtering the musical elements of
the original.. So from a creative aspect I am still extremely happy with these remixes despite
their lack of critical or commercial success.
Now in 2013 I have over 30 remixes on my hard drive and feel that it would be a great time
to bring most of these together in two collections. Volume One of "Rewired" will focus on my Ambient/Experimental and Downtempo or Chillout reworks and Volume two will feature the
more upbeat moments which venture from Electro, Techno, House, IDM etc..
Both volumes will feature some previously unreleased remix exclusives.
Of course none of this would have been possible without the assistance of all the great artists
and labels who firstly so kindly asked me to remix them and now have given me the freedom
to finally release all these remixes myself... So a big thank you to all involved.
June 2013, see's the eagerly awaited follow up to my collaboration with Lee Anthony Norris AKA Norken, Metamatics etc under the Autumn Of Communion guise on Darren Bergstein's [Periphery] new sub label Anodize.
The debut Autumn Of Communion album was released last year on the legendary Fax label
just weeks before the sad passing of ambient master and label boss Pete Namlook,
which will now go down in history as the final release for the cult label.
Work began on Autumn Of Communion 2 in late November 2012 and continued through solidly until the end of January 2013, like the first outing AOC2 continues with themes of deep ambient, haunting soundscapes, deep bass frequencies, field recordings and moments of emotive melody so it should delight fans of the first but it also brings some new sonic terrain into the world of Autumn Of Communion.
Pre orders are now being taken from the Anodize website for the limited edition of 300 CD's
which comes in a metal case..
Download from the official Autumn Of Communion Bandcamp page
The "Vaporized" EP was released on UK based Robot Records back in 2010.
The EP was a collection of full on electro and breaks tracks which
reached the top ten electro chart at Juno download plus the top of the Official StreetSounds Electro chart. for several weeks.
This new special edition sees the addition of two previously unreleased
electro tracks "Bio Read Out" and "Electron" and is only available
exclusively from bandcamp..
In 2009 I released my second EP "Departure" for Irish based Techno label Nice and Nasty now
in their 20th year..Nice and Nasty are better known for their more dancefloor friendly cuts so the title "Departure"seemed more than fitting for the release that consisted of four "Chill Out" or
"Downtempo" electronic music that ranged from elements of Jazz to soundtrack inspired ambience to bleepy and bass driven frequencies.
Shortly after the release of the original EP a collection of remixes followed, a remix
EP of each track every three months which saw the likes of Finlands IDM master Lackluster
turning out a couple of rather stunning glitchy yet emotive remixes.
Dave Anderson [Ferox] Showing of his distinct freestyle keyboard playing style amongst some
funky yet minimal grooves.Tomas Jirku's remix went off on a really deep musical and majestic vibe.
Ireland's new techno shinning light The Parellel turned out a solid chunk of abstract electro which
got some airplay on Dave Clarke's White Noise radio show and UK based IDM/Classical
veteran Pentatonik delivered an epic cinematic remix of The Final Storm.
Some of the original artworks : Photo by Lee Fraged and design Desy Balmer
So January 2013 will see the release of Mick Chillage "Departure First Class Edition" an
exclusive tobandcamp which will feature all the remixes fifteen in total and
the four original tracks along with a previously unreleased exclusive all re-mastered and
available as a complete package or individual track downloads.
End of November 2012 sees the re-release of my "Night Works" album on ...txt recordings..
Last year Night Works was the first release on the new Lee Norris inprint ...txt, the label was set
up to specialize in ambient music and so far has gone onto release music albums from Solipsism,
Nacht Plank, and recently an album from Ishq..
This special edition release of "Night Works" features all new artwork a previously unreleased track
an alternative running order. The album is also in a mixed/sequenced format or gapless audio and
limited to 50 numbered CD's.
Night Works as the title suggest is a collection of tracks which were conceived in the twighlight
hours between 2008 & 2011 which venture from dark soundtrack inspired ambience to environmental drones.
On November the 8th 2012 Peter Kuhlmann AKA Pete Namlook passed away leaving a permanent void within the ambient/electronic music world.. Pete Namlook is probably the most prolific electronic music artist ever with well over 100 CD albums including solo work under a dizzying array of aliases and genres and many collaborations with some of the most influential names in electronic music, from ex Tangerine Dream member Klause Schulze, to Herbie Hancock producer Bill Laswell and with one of dance musics biggest exports Richie Hawtin and many more, all of which have released on Pete's cult label Fax..
Although Peter is probably best known for many of his ambient creations during the early to mid 90's ambient techno boom, Pete was never really comfortable with the tag "Ambient" he preferred the term "Environmental" as he got most of his early musical inspiration from nature.
In his early years Pete enjoyed sitting by rivers and finding a rhythm within the flowing water were he could attempt to play his guitar in sync with the streams. Pete's further musical inspirations came from psychedelic rock masters Pink Floyd and the classical chamber music of Bach, he also grew great inspiration from early subharmonic electronic master Oskar Sala along with many jazz masters.
In the early nineties Pete became exposed to the dance music explosion that swept across Europe and into his homeland of Germany. Pete began to make his own techno and trance etc, with a vision of releasing 12" vinyl with a slamming techno track on one side and one of his environmental tracks on the other. He wanted to give the DJ's something that could be played in clubs, chillout rooms and at home.
Many of the labels he went to in Berlin, Frankurt etc, were not really interested in mixing the styles in this way, so after some frustration in 1992 Peter set up Fax +49-69/450464 his first release was a limited 12" under the alias of True Colours with Non Eric,
Pascal F.E.O.S. within the year Pete had released several techno/trance 12" releases under various alias from Subsequence to Hearts Of Space some of which were collaborations with some well known DJ's, many of which made quite an impact on the German club scene.
It was his first full length ambient masterpiece with Dr Atmo under the Silence alias that really introduced the world to Pete's ambient side. Due to the success of Silence and a rather limited initial run Pete liscensed the album to UK electronica label Rising High, which lead to another cult collaboration with Mixmaster Morris AKA The Irresistible force called Dreamfish in 1993 and to worldwide acclaim. Pete also licenced many releases to other labels like Instinct in the U.S and Music Man Records and Belgium's Mighty R&S offshoot Apollo.. In later years Pete took 100% control of the label and no longer licensed Fax releases.
By the end of 1993 the Fax label was regularly releasing 12"s and CD albums all within different
genres and aliases many were collaborations and some had nothing to do with Pete at all.
To avoid confusion the Fax label was broken up into different divisions and color coded depending on the style of music. The releases also had unique cataloging for example a release with Pete that was a collaboration from an artist outside of Germany have had the PW initial [Pete World] any that Pete had not been involved with were PS [Pete Sub] and the PK catalog was for Pete's solo work or collaborations within Germany..
PK releases left image, PW right :
The PS side of the label became a great platform for many established techno/electronica artist to release more experimental/ambient music and over the twenty years of Fax, big names like Anthony Rother, Atom Heart, Move D, Steve Stoll, Spacetime Continumm, along with many more and lesser known artist got an oppurtunity to release on the label.
PS releases :
Also the Ambient World label was set up to re-issue any releases
which where in high demand but out of print on the Fax label. These AW
releases add unique artwork which separated them from the minimalistic
yet iconic circular images that identified the original Fax material.
So right through the 90's Pete and his label continued to release an incredible amount of electronic music covering a dizzying amount of genres, sometimes releasing two or three releases a month. By the end of the 90's the ambient trend had died off somewhat and illegal downloading and sharing was a new problem for many labels so Fax became a little less prolific and began to release more manageable numbers, maybe only eight albums a year.
While many music journalists and music fans had written off the ambient genre as a place where no new ground could be covered Pete continued to bring new levels within the scene mixing up jazzed out drum and bass with Atom Heart on the Jet Chamber series, mixing up classic space ambient with IDM intricacies on SHADO with The Higher Intelligence Agency along with many more ground breaking releases..
By the mid to late naughties, technology was marking the end of physical formats, but Pete continued to push his music on CD now in limited numbers of anywhere between 1,000 or 300 copies depending on the project but yet he also experimented with new formats like the MP3 CD, where you could get a complete series like Jet Chamber or Silence on one disc or the DTS CD which Pete was now releasing all his PK releases mixed in 5.1 audio along with a stereo mix CD.
While many people will remember Pete and Fax just for the seminal ambient music of the early to mid 90's I find this somewhat unfair. The label had released just about any kind of music that could be made with electronic instruments along with eastern and traditional jazz instrumentation and beyond.
Another very unique element to Fax and Pete Namlook was the fact that he handled almost every aspect of his business, orders could placed directly from Pete via email, there was always a friendly and personal connection with him.
Many orders came with a greeting card and a personal message like "Enjoy the summer Mick, greetings from Germany", signed Peter, or in the past I received plant seeds which came with advice from Pete on how best to grow them or bonus CD's I wasn't expecting. Pete was actively involved in the Fax forum on Discogs, and enjoyed getting into lengthy discussions with the fans directly. It was these personal touches that really separated him from other artists and showed his rather humble and generous side.
Pete and his label continued to redefine electronic music right up to his untimely and deeply sad passing this year and the legacy he has left behind will continue to be a timeless stirring of emotions.
R.I.P Peter Kuhlmann, you are sadly missed.
For a full comprehensive look at Fax and its output check out Fax @ discogs or namlook.de
November 2012 will see the release of a new collaboration project between Myself and Lee Anthony Norris AKA Metamatics/Norken/Nacht Plank etc.. Lee rose from the UK electronica/IDM explosion of the early to mid nineties with his Metamatics alias which saw a series of 12"s and album on the seminal but now defunct yet highly respected Clear records. Lee also pioneered his own take on House and Techno under the guise of Norken and environmental ambient sounds as Nacht Plank. Lee founded the seminal Neo Ouija records in 2000.
Autumn Of Communion was born almost as quickly as the seasons themselves change..
In summer of 2012 Lee and I discussed a collaboration which could possibly convey
everything
we love about electronic music, movies, the mysteries of nature/life
and beyond by combining each of our own musical idiosyncrasies.
The
results are a synergistic kaleidoscope of deeply atmospheric drones, lush synthwork
and emotive melody with environmental touches and intricate rhythmic
details which reflect a hint of classic 90's ambient/electronica but
displays a strong unique identity.
So the new project "Autumn Of Communion" will be release on the legendary Fax records
run by the highly prolific ambient master Pete Namlook, the label now running in its 20th year and still releasing full CD albums which is a testament to Pete's dedication as many electronic music labels struggle today with digital only releases. So I am absolutely delighted to have been fortunate enough to work with such an influential artist of mine and then to finding a home for the project with Fax has been a dream come true.
