The Long Form Feeling

[åpne sinn]

It starts as a tingle. A visceral shimmer on the upper spine not unlike that strange elongation of sensation you feel when, after long periods of time in cold weather you stand in a steaming-hot shower and feel your tensed muscles slowly loosen. Eyelids respond slowly in this time, and the feeling spreads from your shoulders down.

What follows is a sort of pleasant slowness; a "dumbing-down" of the day's wanton silliness and a dulling of the ever-present aches and pains of modern existence. The long notes reach into the body and lengthen the muscles, the tendons, the thoughts...bringing a softness to sharp edges. Brainwaves stretch out beyond normal freneticism and settle into a sliver-thin pulse.

The drug that I speak of is not acid or shrooms, not ludes or any other psychotropic or mind-altering pill. I do not refer to the soft middle of alchohol or the well-rounded dullness of work-a-day weed. I refer instead to the long pleasure of music, pure in it's expression of the base wonders of life. In Long-Form Ambient I find a clarity of thought centered to a pin-prick of intution while all around the edges the noise fades to a pleasant and tertiary buzz.

Much appreciation to the following artists, who's listed works stand as a wonderful portal to that other realm of long-form thoughts and slowed perceptions.

Thom Brennan: Satori

Steve Roach: Immersion One -Three, Darkest Before Dawn, The Dream Circle

Vidna Obmana: Landscape in Obscurity, Spirit Dome

Vir Unis: Return of the Locust Queen, Everything Seeks Balance

[Steve Brand]

Long form works have definitely been my drug of choice for some time now. I find that when you really listen, and let go inside a long from piece, time is suspended, and the sounds becomes a part of your psyche. I have at least 4 playlists of about 4 hours each on my iPod of just long form works. I've completed at least 4 long form pieces of my own in the last year that I hope will be coming on AtmoWorks in 2009. I would add to EOL's list:

Alio Die : Password for Ethnogenic Experience
Alio Die, Vidna Obmana : Echo Passage
Alio Die, James Johnson : Sospenione D'estate
James Johnson : Minimum 1, Odyssey, Entering Twilight
Steve Roach : Edge of Silence, Slow Heat, Immersion 2 - Artifact Ghost
Steve Roach, Vidna Obmana : Circles and Artifacts
Vidna Obmana : Sound for the Aquarium
Harold Budd : As Long as I can Hold My Breath (by night)
Jim Cole : The Way Beyond
Robert Rich : Somnium

[Chris Russell]

Lately I have been drifting off into Steve Roach, A Deeper Silence.
With every listen it gets deeper.

[Steve Brand]

I can remember my first exposures to long form ambient. I can remember reading the running time and thinking, "Hang on, a song that's 60 minutes long?!" I began to notice that in these longer songs, there were sometimes subtly differing zones of feeling...at times, because of the time it took to shift the zone/feeling, I hadn't even noticed the change. I even noticed that the same "events" that might occupy a shorter song may occur in a longer piece, but these events take more time to unfold, they are more protracted, they emerge, develop, and disappear, re-emerge again, etc. Or, there might be radically different feelings inside the long form that maybe repeated and revisited, created continuity that was hard to perceive, but more noticeable.

At times, I'll leave one long form piece playing over the course of a day, which you might think would be less than interesting, but a fascinating thing happens: time actually seems to warp, and it's boundaries softened. I've enjoyed some long form pieces while camping, and the day seems to go on forever. The piece incorporates the sounds of the surroundings, the changing light. I think I can remember reading an interview with Roach regarding "Slow Heat," in which he said this piece would often be playing over speakers outside his desert home in Tucson, and it would meld into the environment...that idea fascinates me still.

After listening to long form pieces over and over, shorter songs sometimes seemed hurried, seemed to erupt, unfold and disappear before I had a chance to enjoy...shorter songs sometimes seemed like thumbnails for more developed pieces...others, while shorter, seemed perfectly paced and timed, giving the idea plenty of space. Obviously, I'm a devotee to long form ambient works, but as an artist that also has created some, I wonder if people avoid them, thinking they aren't getting "bang for their buck"..."one song for $9.99?!"...but it's not a huge factor in my decision to create them. What comes, comes.

[SAVO]

Im not sure what U guys mean by Long-Form works?

[Steve Brand]

Savo - Just check out any of the pieces we have listed and you'll see what we're talking about. Most of these are pieces that time in at around 60 to 70 minutes. My disk with Dean, "Broken Gold," is a long form.

SAVO said:

Im not sure what U guys mean by Long-Form works?

[Nathan Youngblood]

SAVO said:

Im not sure what U guys mean by Long-Form works?

Try "Darkest Before Dawn" by Roach. Its one of my favorite wombs to sleep in..

[John Koch-Northrup]

Long form pieces... I'm trying to remember, but I think Sylvian/Czukay would be my first forays into long form pieces. Although due to being on vinyl - those were shorter pieces than is the norm for long tracks now!

I have Steve Roach's Slow Heat - which was one of the first albums from him I bought (I didn't really discover Steve's music until John/Vir played some music for me - which is frankly how I discovered a lot of "ambient" music.

I do love songs that take their sweet time getting there - long slow unfolding - subtle shifts and movement in the underlying textures.

[åpne sinn]

My first exposure to long-form came back in 1986 when I heard Eno's "Discreet Music" for the first time. I was about 19 at the time, and I remember being absolutely blown away by the fact that he could create a piece that could retain my interest for almost 31 minutes. It's such a minimal piece, with very few "notes" being played throughout that you wouldn't think it could possibly stay interesting for such a long time, but it was the way the notes were played - the flow of the music that kept it going. It's still one of my absolute favorites to this day, and one of the most "organic" long-forms I've ever found.

Some others that deserve mention:

Phaenon - Submerged
Disturbed Earth - Watercolour
Igneous Flame/Achromus - Halo/Arc Light
William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops (which if you haven't heard the story of, its fascinating and depressing)
Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon

and one of my absolute favorites that somehow got left off of my original post -
Paul Vnuk Jr. - Silence Speaks in Shadow

[John Koch-Northrup]

Silence Speaks in Shadow is truly a good one!

[Ensueno]

My favourite long form piece - Neroli/Brian Eno and... of course Thursday Afternoon

[SAVO]

OOh I see now...yeh, My favourite long form I think would be A Lily's "The Shipwreck". Great massaging Pulse Ambient.

Can't say I like much which goes on for more than half an hour, but the longer an ambient track goes on for the better.

[Michael]

I love pretty much all those already listed...

Another few -

Jean Michel Jarre 'Waiting For Cousteau' (or "En Attendant Cousteau" depending where/when you bought it) - this 45min track is quite sublime & unique compared to his other material

Lull "Continue"

Roach "Midnight Moon"

Roger Eno "Flood"

Oophoi "Upuaut"