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dronæment - fieldbox

[fm03] 3 CDs in metalbox including fields 1 + fields² + bonus disc and inserts

re-release of the fields 1 album plus 3 new tracks of the field serie as field² and a bonus disc with outtakes and related recordings of that period.

release date: 20. july 2009

tracklist

CD I – fields ¹

1. field map 1*
2. my other voice
3. it\’s the same as the last year – great
4. the deepest point on moon
5. ... is so quiet
6. a day in my eyes/ears
7. anduasende
8. field map 2 *

*used basic sounds created by Andrea Marutti and Aidan Baker

CD II – fields ²

1. field 3 – the kids are not alright
2. field 2 – some frozen minutes
3. field 5 – birds n organs live tonight

CD III – fields ^bonus

1. field 3 – raw mix
2. nord tmnaee
3. anduasende – raw mix
4. one day in dwarfs capital
5. fieldmap 4

about this record

This is a diary of sound and at the same time a phantasy story about my little world.
it was an illusion what I saw outside my windows and it was an illusion what I felt inside my rooms.
I went outside and caught the sound of fields to get the ambience of life.
Last year I left my door open. All sounds and solitude streamed back and out, merged with the sun and the sadness in the outer world.
Currently I feel like an alien, even if I´m familar with both worlds.
So I step outside and close the door – something new is waiting there and I take these recordings to keep the memories as the story of my life in my own little world. There is no direction to go right now, so I sit on packed bags and waiting for the train to take me away, even if I´m not sure if this is the train station.
dronæment may 2008

it was fitting.
he spent his last year outdoors,
and died by fire.
a dream beside the trees.
a bit of heaven.
he made me happy.
and i know he was happy too.
marie elisabeth ince july 2009

It takes a long time till this release was finished. At least, the Piano Saga by Marie Elisabeth Ince completed the whole work. Because her photos tell a similar story, of music that living outside and a needful farewell.
july 2009

links

• dronæment - website
• Piano Saga by Tiny White Lights

reviews

Foxy Digitalis

The first half of a long double-CD and collection of recordings by Dronæment (aka Marcus Obst), originally created in 2003/2004 and released in 2004 (I\’ll cover the lengthy second half, “Fields [2],” recorded 2005-2007, in a separate review), the strengths within this release come through its repetition and combination of electronics, field recordings, and guitar, especially on songs such as “Field Map 1” and ”...Is So Quiet.” “It\’s the Same as the Last Year—Great” is a high point of the album, as Obst works the spatial qualities of the song\’s instrumentation (droning organs and loops) into the aural environment of nature recordings of a stream; footsteps along the ground; and birds chirping; each sound coming in and out of focus throughout the course of the piece.

“Field Map 1” similarly conveys a sense of tension and build-up by creating subtle, minimal electronic drum beats which overlap one another over repetitive synth lines. One emphasis Obst seems to create is on the actual tone of the electronic instruments and recordings, which are crisp and clear, and the blurring of outdoor recordings into one another makes the song feel as though the listener is retrieving sounds from their memory rather than hearing them in a present experience. It\’s interesting to what a large extent Obst can give physical tone precendence in the recording and make it seem natural that the rest of the music will follow from this point. However, some of the recordings on the album do not work as well as the songs mentioned above—having very strong moments but also periods where the music lags—and perhaps because of the album\’s length seem to drift rather than build. 7/10—Jordan Anderson (14 April, 2010)

The second part of Dronæment\’s double CD “Fields [2]” has subtleties interlaced within its three long tracks that take the listener by surprise, and make engaging with the sounds presented here a pleasure. The album sometimes suffers from its nearly hour-length—there are occasional spaces where the music is not as interesting as on other parts of the album, and many of the songs\’ strengths rely on the tone of the instruments involved and how those tones fit in with the field recordings used. On the first track, “The Kids are not Alright,” a dark-sounding synth works beautifully, but wobbly sci-fi effects can detract from the overall sound. The CD\’s second piece, “Some Frozen Minutes,” involves layered field recordings of birds, children playing, a church bell ringing, dogs barking in the distance, and amusingly, a car driving by blaring what sounds like an Alanis Morrisette song out of its open windows, lending a feeling of detachment to the music and making the listener into a sort of observer of an imaginary scene. Long synth and organ drones that begin after several minutes of field recordings add real beauty to the track; a similar effect—the subtle combination of organ with recordings of nature—is used in an even more beautiful way on the next piece, “Birds n\’ Organs Live Tonight,” in which the organ lines shift harmonies over a drone, while densely overdubbed recordings of birds chirping sets a fast rhythm to the song; the places on the album where these two elements—the organs and synths themselves, and feeling of listening in on various human and animal elements within an environment going about their day, respectively—really make the album worth spending time with. 8/10—Jordan Anderson (21 April, 2010)

Vital Weekly

Packed in a handsome metal box with booklets, in an edition of 50, comes this 3CDR set by Dronaement, the musical project of Marcus Obst. There is the piano saga photo story by Marie Elisabeth Ince \’which completed the work [...] her photos tell a similar story, of music that living outside and a needful farewell\’, but its a bit unclear what ties in these recordings. A historic overview perhaps? All the music seems to be dealing with field recordings of some kind, but there are some differences to be noted. \’Fields 1\’ has eight tracks which deal with some kind of rhythm, even some sort of \’dance\’ rhythm at times. This is entirely absent in \’Fields 2\’, which only has three long tracks. These are mainly to be found in the world of drones and lots of field recordings (birds twitter a lot around here). Curiously \’Fields Bonus\’, the third disc is the longest here (almost seventy five minutes) with raw mixes of two pieces found on the other two discs and throughout some long pieces. I must say its all a bit to digest at once, but maybe that\’s just a reviewer\’s perspective. A long night of moody, minimal electronics and field recordings may lie ahead of the listener.

(FdW)

Sonomu

Packed in a snazzy metal box with stuffed with goodies, in an edition of a mere fifty copies, comes this triple CDR set by Dronæment, the ongoing field music/electronica project of Marcus Obst.
“Fields 1” has been released before under a triple billing with Andrea Marutti and Aidan Baker. It begins with a ”field map” (both opening and closing “field maps” feature sounds contributed by Marutti and Baker) which jauntily surveys the terrain before abandoning all rhythm for a quirkily airborne view.
The sound of rushing water is zoomed in on next, and we find ourselves in apparently lush surroundings populated with a large variety of species, some real, some electronically generated. A steady, very basic rhythm returns to guide those electronic birds further on their journey, soaring and zinging through the air, very reminiscent of the cosmic electronica of the 1970s.
”…Is So Quiet” is really not so, it is rubbery and repetitive and irresistable, a kind of naturalist´s dubstep. ”Anduasende” sounds like someone has opened a factory in the jungle. But as the disc rounds off with a second ”field map” and the drums return, it would seem the jungle growth has overtaken the machinery and wild order and harmony have been restored.
Whereas the first disc was ostensibly divided into eight tracks (which regardless flowed smoothly into one another), ”Fields 2” boasts three long tracks, each longer than the one before – approximately eleven, eighteen and twenty-five minutes, respectively. Although the first, untitled track begins rather haphazardly, we are without a doubt outside, the air fairly throbbing with human and avian activity.
The second must have been recorded in the morning, in some small village, I would like to think. The birds are indeed active, but the rest of the world seems just to be waking up. We may we be following the milkman on his morning rounds. The odd chime of a church bell would suggest a Sunday. Eventually a lovely drone, some seraphic choir, rises to the fore and is joined by the church organ.
The third track shatters this tranquility with what sounds like a motor starting and waking up all the owls in the neighbourhood from their daytime slumber. And they are not happy about it. The rumble turns into a sustained high-pitched drone, again very organ like, but with the rattling of mechanical cicadas giving it an edge.
Curiously, the final disc, “Fields Bonus”, said to contain among other things raw mixes of some of what we´ve heard before, is the most cohesive and distinctive of the discs. Obst sets off a cheap beat machine and shapes the air around it, experimenting with timbre.
Combining field recordings with slow, simple percussion conjures a unique but natural habitat where man, flora, fauna, consumer society and heavy machinery, playgrounds and killing fields, all seem equally integrated and at home.
Obst characterizes the entire collection as a sort of melding of the little world he inhabits and the big world outside his door into some kind of fantasy realm. Which does not seem far-fetched. Obst glories in sound-as-world and as refuge-from-world at the same time, juxtaposing unexpected aural fields, bemused by the results. But a backstory is quite unnecessary to the pleasures of this generous and optimistic collection.
The elaborate metal boxed set is due to come out in an economy-sized, two CD edition in the near future.

Stephen Fruitman

Kulturterrorismus

Marcus Obst, seines Zeichens Betreiber des Labels Field Muzick & kreativer Soundkünstler, veröffentlichte im Sommer 2009 mit seinem Projekt Dronaement die “Fieldbox”, welche das Re-Release des Albums “Field 1″, 3 neue Tracks der “Field” Serie (Field²) und eine Bonus CD umfasst, die in einer limitierten Auflage von 50 Exemplaren das Licht der Welt erblickte.
Auslieferung findet das Oeuvre in einer Metalbox inklusive einem 16seitigen Booklet, Aufklebern und der Photo Story “Piano Saga” von Marie Elisabeth Ince, die Musik (meistens Instrumente) Outdoor zeigt.
Inhaltlich verfasst der sächsische Akteur mit der “Fieldbox” eine Phantasiegeschichte über seine eigene kleine Welt, welche auf verschiedensten Illusionen basiert, die im Endeffekt ein Kommen & Gehen beschreiben. Wer ehr die “verrückteren” Thematiken fürs Kopfkino favorisiert, sollte sich die “Fieldbox” alleine unter diesem Gesichtspunkt mal näher anschauen.
Für alle Diejenigen, die das Werk “Field 1″ aus dem Jahre 2004 von Dronaement nicht kennen, hier eine Beschreibung der zu vernehmenden Tondokumente, die atmosphärische wie rhythmische Drones in Kombination mit Feldaufnahmen transportieren, welche experimentell oder total auf fröhliche Melodie getrimmt ertönen!
Hingegen “Field²” eröffnet 3 überlange Tracks, welche sich allesamt in dunkleren Sphären bewegen und aufgrund der Titel (z.B. ‘the kids are not alright’) für Nachdenklichkeit sorgen. Hier zeigt sich einmal mehr der schmale Grad zwischen Dark Ambient, Ambient & Drones, die hier gemeinsam eine tief ergreifende Melange bilden.
Der Bonustonträger dürfte im Besonderen die experimentierfreudige Kundschaft ansprechen, die hier zwei Rohmixe von bekannten Stücken + 3 ehr “krachigere” Darbietungen erhält, welche mir wie ein „Ausfegen“ des heimischen Studios vorkommt.
Insgesamt mag diese erschlagende Menge von perfekten Drones & Feldaufnahmen gefallen, welche man definitiv in mehreren Etappen sichten sollte, um die Vielzahl von feinen Nuancen herauszuhören.
Nach unzähligen Hörproben hier meine sehr unterschiedlichen Anspieltipps der “Fieldbox”: CD1: ‘… is so quiet’, CD2: ’some frozen minutes’, CD3: ‘nord tmnaee’.
Fazit: Wer über ausreichend Freizeit verfügt und Drones & Feldaufnahmen in allen Facetten schätzt, sollte sich diese opulente “Fieldbox” von Dronaement zulegen – meine absolute Empfehlung!

Raphael Feldmann

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• last change: 2010/04/21
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