The album began life as a two hour improvised live set which was performed in the ambient space at Radion, Amsterdam, from 4:00am to 6:00am in November 2023. Most of the tracks were built up from singular pieces using a laptop, a MiniLab keyboard and a mixer.
Sequences and samples were modulated with filters and fed into synthesizers and mixed live with structures improvised at times. It was a one-off performance and not recorded.
In February 2024 I started to reconstruct the tracks in the studio – taking some ideas from the live set and and adding new material, reworking sections and additional new samples and musical segments.
Field recordings that were made in the UK and The Netherlands were also used. The spoken word segments were contributed by Tess Afanasyeva (Amsterdam) and Yanna Chess (Kerang, Southern Australia, via a Soundcloud collaboration).
Thanks to: Forest Elf, Louis vd R, Kymatik, Bob P Vivaldi.
Vocals on Stochastic: Tess Afanasyeva & Yanna Chess.
Vocals & Text on Pratolol: Yanna Chess.
For Claudia.
Review: Vital Weekly 1452
It’s been a while since I last heard from Mark Tamea, who released his latest work as Mark/a Tamea. Even when he’s located in the same beautiful city as the Vital Weekly HQ, I somehow forgot about him; despite the town’s smallness, we don’t bump into each other. The last one I heard was ‘Five Augmented Locations’, reviewed in Vital Weekly 948 about ten years ago.
Much has changed since then in his personal life, which is a private thing, but also his music. From the few releases I heard, I considered him interested in modern composition, sampling, plunderphonics and computer arrangements. The pieces on ‘Axis Non Parallel’ are different. Sampling, electronics, and even plunderphonics all stay, but no longer as modern composed music, but as a form of ambient and techno music. The basis of the pieces on this release stems from a two-hour improvisation at the ambient space at Radion in Amsterdam, with loops and sequences going into synths and a sampler with various other sounds. Tamea added spoken words from Tess Afanasyeva & Yanna Chess on a piece, which further enhances the idea of classic ambient house music.
If you have no idea what ‘ambient house’ is, don’t let the word house misguide you, as it has little to do with straightforward pounding 4/4/ beats. Think of it as ambient music spiced up with percussive elements, sometimes even an actual rhythm. Still, not the kind of thing to move your feet to. As someone once said, head-nod music. What remains are Tamea’s sounds of violins, cello, and such, thrown around sparsely, adding a more abstract sound to the pieces, making this even better fit for home consumption.
‘About Two Squares‘ is a strange abstraction with a refined melodic twist and bass bumble. The result is atmospheric and, at the same time, also quite light, going back and forth between the dark mood and light passages. A trip that is a chill-out one (the first time I played this, I fell asleep, which, as John Cage would say, is a good thing), and it works great at home, so I also suspect at a chill-out room when dancing requires a break. I forgot to ask if this is an entirely new direction for him or a one-off, but time will tell. (FdW)
– Frans de Waard
‘Like a journey through an arthouse movie’ – Radio Nacional de España 3.