Phaneronaut

Naer het leven (2020)

Tone poems and sonic meditations based on the SOMA Ether v2 anti-radio.

Cover for Phaneronaut's album Nar het leven, showing a drawing of a Dodo bird: White Dodo by Pieter Holsteyn II (1614 – 1673)

Tracklist

  1. Het einde van een droom 01:23
  2. Wakker worden in tijden van quarantaine 13:46
  3. Ontbijt 00:50
  4. Herrineringen aan de Metro 10:30
  5. Een Dagdroom 01:20
  6. Op het werk 08:40
  7. Het begin van een nachtmerrie 02:40

Free download: phaneronaut.bandcamp.com/album/naer-het-leven

Listen here:

Click here for more streaming links

This album is a series of tone poems and sonic meditations built around recordings made with the SOMA Laboratory Ether v2 anti-radio (tracks 2, 4 and 6). The SOMA Ether is capturing electro-magnetic waves all around us, that otherwise not available to the senses, and transforms them into sound. This album tries to transform some of these sounds into music.

The album title “Naer het leven” alludes to this technique of using quasi-field-recordings; it is a Dutch term from the seventeenth century and usually refers to the practice of painting directly from life.

All the Ether recordings were done by me, capturing the electro-magnetic waves around my home, my work office and the Munich underground train system (U3), with the exception of one sample in “Herrineringen aan de Metro” from Hainbach’s Ether soundpack featuring the Berlin underground, available via his Patreon page: http://www.patreon.com/hainbach

Credits

Released June 29, 2020

Composed, preformed, recorded and mixed by Udo Gerhards between February and June 2020. Most of the work on the album was done during the Covid-19 lockdown period in Munich between March and May of 2020.

Instruments and pedals

Pittsburgh Modular Voltage Research Laboratory (Tracks 1, 4)
SOMA Laboratory Ether v2 (Tracks 2, 4, 6)
Sismo Synths Lito, 2020 version (Track 2)
Korg Volca Kick (Track 2)
Rattly & Raw Lockdown Kitchen (Track 3)
Soniccouture Blanks (Tracks 3, 6)
Make Noise 0-Coast (Tracks 4, 5)
Gamechanger Audio Plasma Pedal (Track 4)
Spitfire Audio BBC Symphony Orchestra (Track 4)
Trogotronic 657 Mini Mutant (Tracks 4, 7)
Leaf Audio Microphonic Soundbox (Track 6)
Neon-Egg Planetarium (Track 7)
Vocals (Track 6)

Cover image “White Dodo” by Pieter Holsteyn II (1614 – 1673)