it's been over a year now that I announced the next compilation project of the series and in the meantime 27 projects have expressed their interest in becoming part of it. Much has happened, for example, I'm now employed by the C3S -- the organization I wanted to support by releasing DAR Vol. 4 in the first place -- and it's a pretty cool experience, having interesting people around and working in an inspiring athmosphere after a decade as lone freelancer. This way, I got in touch with the subject of musical disseminations even more. Maybe now is a good time to come clear with ones intention to release a CD under the current techno-socio-economical circumstances. You could call it a manifesto.
Because it's you who plays the main part in it as the contributors, I shall emphasize the perspective from the eyes of a dark ambient music producer. This obscure style is mainly choosen by rather introvert male persons, it seems. There are very few occasions where DA is being presented publicly. It's rather something listened to alone in a hermits cave rather than on a music festival. It's no use when someone wants to dance and it's bulky in some musical respects, so you possibly play more agreeable music when unilluminated people are around. Ergo: DA is music without location or ritual context.
Still, DA has its followers and there is a strong demand to celebrate it, to even 'worship' it and this way somehow 'connect'. More often than with other music styles, listeners tend to try to make their own DA music to delve deeper -- at least, this is my impression. One way to channel the desire for worshipping the music is to maintain physical media like CD or vinyl discs, even in post-iPoddic times, where music is ubiquitous, comes rained down from the cloud rather than being stored and thus owned. In this ephemeral world, it is my belief, disc possession will become even more important to many enthusiasts.
From the technical standpoint, the CD is an early compromise. DVD-Audio would have been perfect but hasn't been accepted by broader audience beyond audiophiles and it's not clear if Audio Blu-ray discs will.
So, lets make a CD!
But for us individuals, maybe even more important than having a top-notch state-of-the-art dark ambient compilation at the end, is the process of getting there. The production is a perfect occasion for you to get in touch with likeminded and perhaps, in a collective effort, create something much more awesome than just the sum of the pieces. Don't just think of Dark Ambient Radio as 'the label' that manages everything for you so you can concentrate on making music. I might pay the production costs, but I'm just a single person and far from insisting to grab every task at hand and do it myself. It's our compilation and if you want, feel free to get involved in every aspect as you see fit, be it cover design, promo, distro or anything production related. Nothing, except the announcing text on the radio page, is carved in stone. See it as a rare chance to connect to the scene and by doing so, help something emerge that contribues to it in a sustainable way.
The first thing you want to do -- if you not already did so and if you are still willing to participate -- is to register a user account on www.darkambientradio.de and send me a mail with your account name, so I can add you to the restricted Vol.4 forum area, where everything important will be happening. This is important, because I won't send a mailing again and you would be cut off from the process. So if you don't, we have to assume you changed your mind or you can't join for another reason.
I hereby would announce the official beginning of the project. But there is no haste: - Take your time in summer to get ideas, experiment, make field recordings or whatever it is that may lead you to a music track eventually. - Then, in autumn, maybe start putting it together, arrange some tracks as candidates for submission, see what the others may be up to, get to know them, maybe even collaborate with some comp mate -- everything is possible. - In winter the voting can start, if most of you agree. (If not, we can postpone the submission date for some extra time.) After that, mastering, cover design and everything else concerning the physical production can take place. - Finally, in early 2016, the CD can be released, promoted and distributed.
I suggest the deadline for joining to be by end of june and the hard limit of participating projects to be 30, to keep a reasonable amount of competition.
Really looking forward to work on this with you. I hope this will be fun for all of us!
@Goten Fixed this side effect of the new php version. Note: In Firefox (or IceCat) any stream link with a semicolon at the end will play directly in the browser, here http://s3.viastrea ming.net:8835/;
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