Vital Weekly 824

YELLOW6 - SOUNDS AND MOVING PICTURES (CD/DVD by Lunasylum/Editions6) Although around for a long time, it wasn't until Vital Weekly 815 that we reviewed something again by Jon Attwood, better known as Yellow6. That was a collaborative work with French Larkian, but in spring time last year he toured the lowlands, Belgium, The Netherlands and France, performing at the Tonefloat tf100 festival (along with Dirk Serries as Sleep Of Reason) and in Antwerp at the Live Looping Festival. That is a well-chosen name for a festival where people like Yellow6 perform. Basically a man, a guitar and loop devices. His three pieces from that festival are captured in audio and film, and both can heard and watched. On the CD there are also six pieces recorded from the audience, so we have a curious mixture of guitar playing and audience activities, although which is very quiet most of the time. These six pieces have been manipulated by David Newlyn. Like I remarked when reviewing the collaborative CD with Larkian, this kind of music hardly progresses, and probably

  doesn't

want to either. With all of this audio and video material, quite an overload. As a music lover I should say I enjoyed the CD more, but that's not entirely true. The CD contains great music, but perhaps music that I also know well quite now. Therefore I had more joy here with the DVD, especially his playing at the Live Looping festival, which lasts thirty minutes. Its interesting to see Attwood at work, playing few notes and then starting to loop them around, adding a few more, more loops, a texture, a strum, loop and loop. The floor is covered with all sorts of boxes to transform sounds, color them, change them. Attwood is playing them with great care and hardly a guitar hero, rock god type of musician. On the DVD there is a bunch more of bonus material, such as a spacious film and likewise spacious soundtrack by various film makers and even a slide show of tour pictures. Video and images work well together here and that's nice. But obviously sometimes you just want to sit back and enjoy 'just' music and then the CD is perhaps the best alternative. Like said, in this particular world 'innovation' doesn't seem to be that important, but quality is delivered no less. An excellent tour report. (FdW)

Address: http://lunasylum.consouling.be

also on the podcast.... http://www.vitalweekly.net/podcast.html

Unlabel compilation - Red Candy

Unlabel download compilation for February including otherwise unavailable Yellow6 track "Red Candy".  Planned for the final MMM release (if i'd made the deadline) this was played live on the last euro tour but never formally recorded or released (this is a rehearsal take).
download free here:

http://unlabel.bandcamp.com/album/the23rdproject-02-february-2012

concorde - the start of our decline

anyone who has bought the Yellow6/Egsun split CD 'Worth Wasting Time' and wondered about the origin of the titles of my contributions.... here's the story:

as a child i remember Concorde flying over my house. It was an amazing creation and with the ability to halve the travel time across the Atlantic. admittedly this was only available to a select few businessmen and celebrities (in the days when celebrity meant that the person had an achievement or talent to be celebrated, not the modern day use of the word to describe a lifestyle desired by those with no ability or desire to work for a living). these were times when the average person could only dream of seeing New York where in recent times a weekend break has been within the reach of many.

back to the point.... for hundreds of years, each technological advance made by mankind has been replaced by something bigger or better or more efficient.

when Concorde was grounded, there was nothing - it was a return to the longer slower flight times the rest of use had expect, and no bigger better faster new development.

for me, this seemed to mark a turning point for human kind. the life we have know of constant growth and improvement may be coming to an end.

i have felt for a long time that the constant desire for more is unsustainable, and ultimately empty. do we really need a faster car, bigger TV, more computer games etc.? Does that make us happy or leave us wanting even more?

similarly for companies and nations - is growth in economic and financial wealth really the best most desirable option? it certainly is not sustainable. things can't continue to grow forever and at some time will start to go backwards as more people and less resources will not allow it to continue. then what? who knows...

so, that's the thinking behind those titles... just my own thoughts and ponderings

jon.

yellow6 news Jan 2012

Hi

I hope you had a good holiday season and are surviving January so far.

A couple of bits of news for you to keep sprits up in the long dark days….

A highly recommended watch: The Silent Surgery – a film by Sean Townsend (Somnambulist Red) featuring music by Yellow6 in chapter 1

http://youtu.be/QJ96CPzoeoU

The Yellow6 track is “Leaves Fall”

And… somehow I managed to miss this off my last few updates, but arriving in the mail from Greece today were copies of the new Yellow6/Egsun split CD “Worth Wasting Time” on Somehow Ecstatic Records. This 4 track CD features two new and exclusive Yellow6 tracks: ‘Concord’ and ‘The start of our decline’ by Yellow6 along with 5 excellent tracks by Egsun.

Some description:

Minimal drone guitar sounds and cool "labradford" like motifs on one hand (yellow6) and quite esoteric minimal music, using cello, music boxes and lots of other instruments on the other (Egsun) .It's released in CD format in 300 hand-numbered copies. The artwork is stamped with an awesome-looking glitter ink on 100% recycled paper cd-wallets.

Available from Yellow6 (in the store shortly) or from Somehow Ecstatic (where you can sample an Egsun track): http://somehowecstatic.blogspot.com/

Lastly, Sounds and Moving Pictures will be available through Bandcamp in the next few days as a name your price download of the audio CD and physical purchase of CD/DVD

That’s all for now

Jon./Yellow6

Yellow6 end of year news

Hi

So, the end of another year draws near and a busy and eventful one it has been.

I played some shows in France, Belgium and Holland in the spring which included one in Lille, viewed by a few people there (including me) as one of the best I have ever played….of course this was the one show on the trip that wasn’t recorded but such is the way of things.

The trip started with my third Plane Ari Home Gig, as ever a great experience, and a recording of one of my rehearsals the afternoon of the gig appears on the Silber free download Christmas compilation. My track was written and recorded on a keyboard remaining at the house after the Library Tapes gig the previous week so thanks to Marc for inviting me to play, Do for the piano and Brian for asking me to contribute to the comp. here’s the details from the Silber newsletter:

“It's called "Six Feet Below the Snow" & I'm pretty stoked about it. Goes all over the map genre wise & some stuff is serious with other stuff being dumb fun. Go to www.silbermedia.com/comps/sixfeet to listen or download it for free. The artist roster is Charles DeMar, Jon DeRosa, Thorn1, Landerim, Miss Massive Snowflake, Goddakk, Origami Boe, Moodring, Remora, Pacific 231, Sibyll Kalff, Yellow6, Lullabier, Feel No Other, Tony Whitlock, Les Marquises, Løzninger, Electric Bird Noise, Parties, & Drekka with Michael Demery Toran. “

During the tour, one show was the ToneFloat tf100 show where Dirk Serries and I played our first and only (so far?) show as Sleep of Reason. This show was recorded and will be released as part of the Sleep of Reason trilogy on tonefloat early 2012 – a very limited 3LP + 10” vinyl set.

The final show of the tour was the Antwerp Live Looping Festival. This show was recorded as audio and video and forms the centrepiece of the Sounds and Moving Pictures CD/DVD set recently released by Luansylum/Editions6.

Also released during 2012 was VALLEY, the second part of the 2 album set with thisquietarmy. The 2CD set of both albums plus additional tracks (bonus from the original sessions, live track, Fear Falls Burning remix) will be released early 2012 with cut price available for anyone who bought both vinyl editions.

Hibernate records released the David Newlyn and Yellow6 ‘Minatures’ 3” cdr in the postcard series and it was the fastest selling of the series so far with all 100 copies going quick. If you missed out you can download it here: http://davidnewlyn.bandcamp.com/ for £2. There will be more David Newlyn and Yellow6 recordings released in 2012.

Also for download is the compilation ‘Orphan Songs’ which is free from Bandcamp here: http://yellow6.bandcamp.com/releases

Later in the year came the highly regarded Larkian & Yellow6 album ‘Offtempo’ released by Basses Frequences, and there are plans for a second collaboration to come in the future.

Lastly , I released the above mentioned Sounds and Moving Pictures CD/DVD set and the latest in a long line of merry6mas CDs, this one being titled ‘Drifting for the Horizon’ and also the first as a pressed CD rather than cdr, but still with hand finished packaging.

For next year? Lots of collaborations, some ongoing work on a film soundtrack, the first in the planned ‘letterpress series’ on Hiberante records – a collaboration with Fraser McGowan (Caught In The Wake Forever) – a mix of field recordings and guitars, and whatever else comes out when I pick up the guitar.

Also to end the year, I have to mention the end of Make Mine Music after 10 fine years and a legacy of great music. The final digital release MM070 is available to download form the MMM website. Unfortunately I missed the deadline for getting a track on it for various reasons, but there’s loads of good stuff from label favourites and mainstays so worth checking out. http://www.makeminemusic.co.uk/releases.php All MMM releases are now deleted but remaining back catalogue is available from Norman Records, and Y6 releases from me.

Too late for Christmas gifts, but maybe something to spend the Christmas money on…. All of these are still available from the Y6 shop http://www.yellow6.com/shop.php

Larkian and Yellow6 - Offtempo

Thisquietarmy&yellow6 - Valley (LP silver vinyl)

Drifting For The Horizon [merry6mas2011]

Sounds and Moving Pictures

Also:

CUT

In Time This Too Will Fade

close/r

Thanks again for your support in 2012, and huge thanks to all who have shared their music and artwork for this years releases, and to all who have helped or contributed in any way, especially by buying releases which helps keep them coming.

Finally, for those interested in such things, some of my favourite listening of the year has included (not all released this year):

Low – C’Mon

Richmond Fontaine – High Country

A Winged Victory for The Sullen

Two People In a Room

Azusa Plane – Where The Sands Turn to Gold

Tom Waits – Bad As Me

The National – High Violet

Sonic Youth – Simon Werner a Disparu

Steve Reich – WTC 9/11

Kuniko plays Reich

Dangermouse and Daniel Luppi – ROME

Cowboy Junkies – Sing In My Room

Eraas - Eraas

Magic Numbers – the Runaway

Esmerine – La Lechuza

Coldstream – South Island

And still trying to make up my mind about Lou Reed and Metallica!

merry christmas, happy holidays and a happy new year

jon./yellow6

Norman Records Reviews

those lovely people at Norman Records have reviewed a couple of the recent reviews and given each of them 5 shiny Norman stars... for 'Merry6mas' I have been referred to as "the Santa of minimal"

OFFTEMPO:

Ooh I like this a lot. I played this the other morning and it totally set me up for the day. In a word it’s fucking lovely. OK that’s two words but counting was never my strong point. Larkian is a name from the past who I’ve not heard of in a while but I remember hearing a single by him on Tricycle Evolutif back in 2001 (yes 10 years ago). Yellow 6 you’re all of course familiar with and the pair have teamed up for this collaborative effort on Basses Frequences/Three Four Records. This is one of those file sharing things where artists batter musical tracks too and from across the Internet until an album is born. It features the usual Yellow6 post rock melodies as well with more of a shoegazey vibe running through some of the tracks. There’s plenty of reverb and atmospheric sounds-capes to indulge yourself in as well. It’s drifting and evocative music which works really well. This is a fine collaboration and you should already be getting excited in case they do another one!

http://www.normanrecords.com/artists/23896&artist=Larkian%20&%20Yellow6

and DRIFTING FOR THE HORIZON (MERRY6MAS2011)

Look. It’s Christmas soon and that means that there’s a few definites.... There’s gonna be time off work, family, food, booze, presents and a new Yellow 6 xmas CD. It’ll be sad when these things end and I have to say it’s a thoroughly nice tradition to do a limited release at the end of each year just for the fans in the name of Christmas (said the jew). Drifting For The Horizon is the 1st of these festive releases which isn’t on a CDR and there’s 250 of the buggers so this one shouldn’t last more than 5 minutes. You know what you’re getting with Yellow 6. He’s not gonna win over any new fans with his brand of cinematic instrumental drifty post rock (without the rock) but he’s gonna keep his legions of fans sweet with this 63 minute beastie. It’s lovely and drifty and I don’t really know what else to say about it cos I’ve reviewed about a gerjillion of his CD’s already but he’s one of a handful of artists I can never get enough of. There’s some beautiful guitar work here and it’s an emotive listen! Nice work Mr 6.

http://www.normanrecords.com/cd/130213-yellow-6-drifting-for-the-horizon-merry6mas-2011

News November 2011

Hi

Just a brief follow up to the news of a few weeks back.

All pre-orders for merry6mas2011 and Sounds and Moving Pictures have been packaged and will be mailed tomorrow.

Anyone who hasn’t yet ordered, you can from the website now and all orders will ship out straight away. This includes and orders for merry6mas2011 that are placed through Bandcamp.

http://yellow6.bandcamp.com/

so – here’s the highlights again, and various things can be heard at the Bandcamp page (also through Facebook) to stream, download or buy.

Last of all, a couple of re-issues or CD versions are coming up but not until the new year. A different physical release of ‘OLD’ will be released by Cathedral Transmissions, and the DEATH:VALLEY 2CD set will be released by Basses Frequences. More news on them in time….

Thanks for your continued support – it means more than you could know

Jon./Yellow6