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The PiNG presents AKUMU and Mara's Torment



THE AMBiENT PiNG   http://www.theambientping.com
Tuesdays @ HACiENDA - 794 Bathurst Street at Bloor
(directly across from the Bathurst subway station) - Toronto
Doors open at 9pm - 1st set at 9:30 - PayWhatYouCan
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This Tuesday October 25th - Mara's Torment and AKUMU

rik and sovaak the sock monkey of mara's torment return to the PiNG 
to play an extra special ookie scary show filled with fear, frights,
horror and mayhem. Or maybe not. Maybe they'll just perform the
same delightful ballads and saucy sea shanties that have made them
so beloved the world over. Either way it proves to be a fun and
exciting time for the whole family, especially if your family likes
saucy sea shanties.  And Pirates!!!  Yaaaarrr!!!!
http://www.marastorment.com

Akumu (aka Deane Hughes) is a composer of atmospheric ambience,
shadowy beats and minimal manipulations. Formed as a solo project in
2000, Akumu has released three full-length albums on his own Spider
Records imprint. His newest CD, "Magmas" (2005) was conceived and
written in Guatemala, Honduras & Mexico; it is the follow-up to 2004’s
"Fluxes", an ambient, zero-bpm recording of unflinching minimalism
that The Wire says “raises neat hackles across the skin.” For 6 months,
Deane traveled throughout remote locations, making binaural recordings
from which he created the drone- and loop-based instruments that form
the spine of material. Akumu has performed live across Ontario and
Quebec, including 2005’s Mutek festival in Montréal, featuring visual
projections of his photography, animated collages and 2D/3D digital
experiments. For this performance, Akumu's set will highlight and
improvise on "Magmas" and "Fluxes" to create an immersive, flowing
soundscape of micro-sonics, ambient drones and low-frequency pulses.
http://www.spiderrecords.com/akumu

Between Sets CD - "Messianicghosts" by Rapoon
Yes, the PiNG is bound by law, as Halloween approaches, to play some
spooky music and thus we feature these sparce, unsettling tracks
by Robin Storey's Rapoon project. http://pretentious.net/Rapoon/
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Coming Tuesday November 1st - A Worthy Fall, Night 3 - November
http://www.worthyrecords.com
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rik maclean's *ping things* CD Reviews

"Studios and Airplanes" by Building Castles Out of Matchsticks

I've never been secretive about my appreciation for Anne Sulikowski's
work as Building Castles Out of Matchsticks. Her sense of environment,
the way that she weaves disparate threads of sound and noise into a
beautifully cohesive tapestry, the way that she's able to put so much
emotion and feeling into electronic music, it's all combined to make
me realize how very much I enjoy her work. With the release of her
latest disc "Studios and Airplanes", Anne proves her mastery of the
medium once again and validates my feelings that she's one of the
premier electronic artists working today.

"I Cut My Wrists With Your Bad Thoughts" opens the disc with a series
of looping field recordings where cityscape sounds come together to
create a living, breathing, screaming immersive environment. You
can't help but feel completely surrounded by what's happening,
can't help but feel that you exist only within the space that
Anne has made.

"It is Clear That the Rain Would Come" follows, droning poetry
spoken/sung in a wind tunnel, messages in bottles thrown out to
sea hopeful that somebody will find them. But as with messages
in bottles, words get washed away and blurred, pleas get lost
and confused, and in the end all that's left is a beautiful
stained piece of paper that holds mysteries and secrets 
and whispers that you'll never hear.

An uptempo beat plays underneath a heavy wall of static in
"The Stars Are My Boyfriends", Anne singing sweetly just on the
edges of the track, just deep enough in the mix that you can't
quite understand the words, and instead you're left to imagine
what she's singing, the only clear thought that the stars are
her boyfriends, and all the wonder that entails.

"Window Pain Will Be Our Love Song" moves the disc forward with
a shuffling urgency, fast beats competing with an oscillating
drone to fill out the space. There’s something revelatory about
this track, a weight being lifted. Or maybe a greater strength
has been found to carry the same weight?

Skip ahead to "It's So Surprising Just How Quickly Things Can End",
where the sounds of falling rain and thunder blend into a wall
of drone building in intensity. And out of nowhere a drum 
pattern begins, giving form and shape to the noise, a beacon
around which everything is formed. It's like hope, something
to cling onto in the midst of all the darkness.

And then it all comes together. "Somehow You'd Find A Way"
brings all of the themes of the disc and sums them all up in
an accessible and appealing popsong format. There's a clarity
of vision here, a sad resolve overtop deceptively upbeat
drumming. It's the sound of realization and acceptance, and
in that awareness there's a sense of empowerment, an optimism
that things will be different next time, that what's been is
gone and that the future holds promise. Hope. And sure enough,
disc closer "When Winter is Gone and Spring Comes Back My World
Will be Green Again" proves that point, melodies rising and
gaining clarity from thick waves of sound, slowly overtaking
the darkness.

I've said countless times in the past that Anne has a way of
bringing emotion and organicism to her work. With the release
of "Studios and Airplanes", Anne has once again shown her skill
at breathing life into her pieces, a gift that has helped her
develop a very loyal following. Surely it's a gift that will
continue to bring her to the attention of those who are
willing to try something new.

rik maclean - rik@pingthings.com

http://www.pingthings.com = ambient + electronic + chill things
Send an e-mail to pingthings-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
for updates on *all* the latest releases on sale at ping things
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THE AMBiENT PiNG is a social sound/art event presenting
live performances by Toronto's finest ambient, chillout, improv
and experimental music artists plus performers from across
the continent, every Tuesday evening at HACiENDA -
794 Bathurst Street at Bloor. http://www.theambientping.com
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Please forward this e-mail to any friends who may be interested
in live ambient, chillout and experimental music performances
or to any of your appropriate newsgroups. Thanks.