Sunday, October 26, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Iannis Xenakis (1922 - 2001)
May 29 would be his 86th birthday. He is a composer, architect, and scientist - one of the most important artist of the 20th century, and my great hero.
I sometimes wonder, what I would be doing, what I would listen, and what I would think about art and music - if he didn't exist or I didn't know about him. Having this wonder, terrifies me.
"...really great music combines peace and struggle, serenity and pain... to escape from the trivial cycle of relationships in music, the musician, the artist, must be absolutely independent, which means absolutely alone." - Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis - Metastasis (1953-1954), for orchestra of 61 instrumentalists
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Ahn Trio
I produced a remix for the new album by Ahn Trio, who is a world-famous classical piano trio.
The track is called This Is Not America (superdrive - This Is America Mix), and the original version was released in 1985, by David Bowie and Pat Metheny. This is a song from the soundtrack to the film The Falcon and the Snowman.
This is a song with meaningful political messages. I don't usually like songs with political messages, but this one is really special. I think it's a beautiful songwriting. The original production itself is quiet sanctuary. Pat Metheny played super additive and beautiful guitar lines, with Bowie's vocal blending in perfectly. The mix is also amazing.
So when I decided to remix this song, I wanted and tried to be very careful to not to hurt (insult) the original. It was so difficult. I also didn't want to destroy Ahn Trio's original intention to this remake, and wanted to keep their dynamics and flow as much as possible.
I used simple ideas, simple sound sources (all made from Ahn Trio's recordings), noises, and subtle specialization in the mix. I added quiet a bit of minimal details and changes that could be found by serious listeners. :) I don't know what other people would think (ones who love the original version, specially), but I personally like it.
These days, I am writing original pieces for Ahn Trio. I always hoped that I could write for amazing classical performers, and in the (near) future this is really what I HOPE to be able to do. So this is very important to me. I hope I can finish it well. :)
HUGE respect to Ahn Trio (Maria, Lucia, Angella :) for this amazing opportunity and thanks to Peter Cho at Belikewater Productions who's been giving me amazing connections!
And finally BIG thanks to Valdo Meller at Universal Mastering Studios who did an incredible job with mastering this track. We are going to ask him to do mastering for mo:tet's tracks as well.
--Available from Amazon.com
re-platform
re-platform (double CD) is out in Japan by Cirque.
This is a remix album, and the original music is written by Yoshihiro HANNO, for the motion picture named Platform (Zhantai) by Zhang Ke Jia.
I worked on a 30-mins long ambient piece with Yoshihiro HANNO and AOKI takamasa.
As far as I know, it's only available in Japan for now - Amazon.co.jp
When I started to make ambient music, Terre Thaemlitz was one of great ambient composers I respected a lot. I feel both shy and honored to be on the same album with him.
Thanks to Yoshihiro HANNO for giving me an opportunity to work on this.
---KOREAN
re-platform 이 더블 씨디로 일본에서 발매되었다. 리믹스 앨범이라고 할수 있는데, 전곡이 엠비언 형식의 음악이고, 어쩌면 원곡에 영감을 받은 엠비언 앨범이라고 해야 더 정확할것 같다.
원곡은 지아 장케 감독의 2000년 영화인 Platform (Zhantai) 의 사운드트랙으로 Yoshihiro HANNO 가 작곡하였다.
나는 HANNO 와 AOKI 와 함께 30분 정도 길이의 엠비언트 곡을 만들었고. 각자 10분씩 만들어서 HANNO 가 믹스 하였다.
HANNO 의 레이블인 Cirque 를 통해서 일본에서만 발매되었고, 일본에서만 구매가 가능한걸로 알고 있다. 적어도 지금까지는... Amazon Japan 에서 구입이 가능하다.
처음 엠비언 음악을 만들기 시작하였을때 Terre Thaemlitz 라는 작곡가의 음악을 많이 들었는데, 특히 Trucker 라는 곡을 좋아했다. 내가 음악적으로 존경하는 아티스트중 한명이랑 같은 앨범에 참여하고 포함될수 있어서 부끄러움과 동시에 영광이라고 생각한다.
여러모로 의미가 많은 작업이였고, HANNO 에게 고맙다는 말을 전하고 싶다.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008)
Fare well...
"Perhaps, as some wit remarked, the best proof that there is Intelligent Life in Outer Space is the fact it hasn't come here. Well, it can't hide forever - one day we will overhear it." - Arthur C. Clarke
Thursday, March 13, 2008
dark energy
"Think of a rubber band. When you pull on it, it pulls back. It is attempting to retract. When you try to make it smaller, it will push outward. It will try and expand. This rubber band is the universe. Because the positive energy is trying to expand the universe, the negative energy is pulling it back in, and vice versa."
Newborn stars peek out from beneath their natal blanket of dust in this dynamic image of the Rho Ophiuchi dark cloud from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Called "Rho Oph" by astronomers, it's one of the closest star-forming regions to our own solar system. Located near the constellations Scorpius and Ophiuchus, the nebula is about 407 light years away from Earth. Rho Oph is made up of a large main cloud of molecular hydrogen, a key molecule allowing new stars to form from cold cosmic gas, with two long streamers trailing off in different directions. Recent studies reveal more than 300 young stellar objects within the large central cloud. Their median age is only 300,000 years, very young compared to some of the universe's oldest stars, which are more than 12 billion years old. The colors in this image reflect the relative temperatures and evolutionary states of the various stars. The youngest stars are surrounded by dusty disks of gas from which they, and their potential planetary systems, are forming. These young disk systems show up as red in this image. Some of these young stellar objects are surrounded by their own compact nebulae. More evolved stars, which have shed their natal material, are blue.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA
Newborn stars peek out from beneath their natal blanket of dust in this dynamic image of the Rho Ophiuchi dark cloud from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Called "Rho Oph" by astronomers, it's one of the closest star-forming regions to our own solar system. Located near the constellations Scorpius and Ophiuchus, the nebula is about 407 light years away from Earth. Rho Oph is made up of a large main cloud of molecular hydrogen, a key molecule allowing new stars to form from cold cosmic gas, with two long streamers trailing off in different directions. Recent studies reveal more than 300 young stellar objects within the large central cloud. Their median age is only 300,000 years, very young compared to some of the universe's oldest stars, which are more than 12 billion years old. The colors in this image reflect the relative temperatures and evolutionary states of the various stars. The youngest stars are surrounded by dusty disks of gas from which they, and their potential planetary systems, are forming. These young disk systems show up as red in this image. Some of these young stellar objects are surrounded by their own compact nebulae. More evolved stars, which have shed their natal material, are blue.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA
Gravitational lensing.
A massive cluster of yellowish galaxies, seemingly caught in a red and blue spider web of eerily distorted background galaxies, makes for a spellbinding picture from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. To make this image, Hubble peered straight through the center of one of the most massive galaxy clusters known, called Abell 1689.
The gravity of the cluster's stars, plus dark matter, acts as a 2-million-light-year-wide "lens" in space. This "gravitational lens" bends and magnifies the light of the galaxies located far behind it. Some of the faintest arcs in this image are background galaxies over 13 billion light-years away.
The most prominent lensing effect is the long blue arc, just above, and to the left of, centre.
The picture is an exquisite demonstration of Albert Einstein's prediction that gravity warps space and distorts beams of light. The image is a composite of visible-light and near-infrared exposures taken in June 2002.
CREDIT: NASA, N. Benitez (JHU), T. Broadhurst (Racah Institute of Physics/The Hebrew University), H. Ford (JHU), M. Clampin (STScI),G. Hartig (STScI), G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick Observatory), the ACS Science Team and ESAMonday, February 18, 2008
Berlin
0. Now I live in Berlin...I really love the city so far. Clearly one of the coolest city I've been to. I live in East Berlin, and I personally like the atmosphere better here than West Berlin.I feel more comfortable since most of people speak English... compare to Paris. It's colder than Paris though, and the weather can be depressing sometimes.
1. I am finalizing mo:tet's tracks, with yoonsang and Kayip.
2. I am finally making some progress on my own debut album.
3. My friend Craig Cloutier is updating somewhat outdated superdrive.org
4. I produced 2 tracks for Jaehyung Jung, a Korean pop singer songwriter. We just finished mixing and mastering in Japan. This will be released very soon in Korea.
5. I am writing original pieces for Ahn Trio.
6. My remix of "This Is Not America" (David Bowie, Pat Metheny) for Ahn Trio will be released in the US, by Sony BMG Masterworks on April 1st. Thanks to Peter Cho at Belikewater Productions and members of the Ahn Trio.
7. "re-platform", is a 30 minutes long ambient remix piece, and is a collaboration with RADIQ a.k.a Yoshihiro HANNO and AOKI takamasa. It will be featured in a double-cd album, and will be released by RADIQ's own label in Japan - Cirque in April. Thanks to Yoshihiro HANNO.
8. Since I moved to Berlin, I am addicted to Milka Noisette chocolate.
9. I have a new hobby - going for a walk before the sunset. I never realized how relaxing and refreshing that can be.
10. I terribly miss eating good Korean foods.
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