Lightwave | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Paris, France |
| Genres | Ambient music |
| Years active | 1984–present |
| Members | Christoph Harbonnier Christian Wittman |
| Website | www |
Lightwave is the ambient music project of keyboardists Christoph Harbonnier and Christian Wittman, founded in 1984 in Paris, France. [1] They have collaborated with a plethora of artists, such as Hector Zazou, Michel Redolfi, Jon Hassell and Paul Haslinger.
Lightwave was originally conceived as an electronic music trio consisting of Serge Leroy, Laurent Bozeck and Christian Wittman. In 1987, Lightwave was re-established as a duo comprising musicians Christoph Harbonnier and Christian Wittman.
The first album by the newly formed Lightwave was released in 1990 under the title Nachtmusik for German Erdenklang. In 1993, it was the turn of Tycho Brahé with the help of the violinist Jacques Deregnaucourt, Hector Zazou and Paul Haslinger member of Tangerine Dream. The album, dedicated to the Danish astronomer of the same name, is an innovative blend of cosmic music and ambient music.
In 1995 Mundus Subterraneus, an album of what is considered their magnum opus, was published by Hearts of Space Records. The group, now a quartet, was inspired to create a guide to a journey into the bowels of Vesuvius by Athanasius Kircher, a philosopher of the seventeenth century. The album is a succession of sounds that evoke terrifying nightmares, symbolic journey into the bowels of the Earth, but represents collectively a journey in the human unconscious. [2]
The returning duo of Wittman and Harbonnier continued the work begun with the sound research of Mundus Subterraneus in subsequent albums: In Der Unterwelt (1996), consists of a single 20-minute suite, published by Plan Sonores; Cantus Umbrarum (1999), recorded within the Choranche caves in the Vercors region (France) on the occasion of Rugissants Festival of Grenoble, and Caryotype (2001) consisting of a suite in eleven movements.
In 2004, the group turns to chamber music for the album Bleue Comme Une Orange. Inspired by the works of Alexander Scriabin, the group uses classical instruments to a greater extent and featured the participation of Jon Hassell.
Their concerts and recordings of their records are the result of research of particular locations like the concert at the Gasometer in Oberhausen in Germany, and in the large domed observatory of Bischoffsheim Nice during the recording of the live album Uranography at M.A.N.C.A. (Musiques Actuelles Nice Côte d'Azur) Festival.
With a jovial approach to old and new electronic stringed instruments and sound materials, Lightwave focused on exploring poetic and sensual worlds, playing with sounds as with colors, shapes, concrete objects or spatial dimensions. [3] The duo favored mixing live electronic with acoustic instruments, performing impromptu compositions that were built on listening and sharing, similar in to a jazz trio or string quartet. Lightwave utilized analog synthesizers such as Polymoog, Oberheim and RSF Polykobol to craft their music.
Ambient techno is a subgenre of techno that incorporates the atmospheric textures of ambient music with the rhythmic elements and production of techno. It was pioneered by 1990s electronic artists such as Aphex Twin, Carl Craig, The Orb, The Future Sound of London, the Black Dog, Pete Namlook and Biosphere.
Jon Hassell was an American trumpet player and composer. He was best known for developing the concept of "Fourth World" music, which describes a "unified primitive/futurist sound" combining elements of various world ethnic traditions with modern electronic techniques. The concept was first articulated on Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics, his 1980 collaboration with Brian Eno.
Geir Aule Jenssen is a Norwegian electronic musician and composer who records as Biosphere. A resident of Tromsø within the Arctic Circle, Jenssen is well known for ambient and ambient house pieces, often inspired by Arctic or mountain settings, and his use of loops and peculiar samples from science fiction and natural sources. His 1997 album Substrata was voted by the users of the Hyperreal.org website in 2001 as the best all-time classic ambient album. He has also composed several film scores.
Mouse on Mars is a German electronic music duo formed in 1993 by Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma. Their music is a blend of electronic genres including IDM, dub, krautrock, breakbeat and ambient, featuring heavy use of organic analog synth and cross-frequency modulation. Their music also features live instrumentation including strings, horns, drums, bass, and guitar.
Ambient 4: On Land is the eighth solo studio album by Brian Eno, released in March 1982 by EG Records. It was the final edition in Eno's ambient series, which began in 1978 with the release of Ambient 1: Music for Airports. The album was released to critical acclaim, and is, along with the rest of the ambient series, recognised as a landmark album in the history of the ambient music genre.
The Pearl is the second collaborative studio album by Harold Budd and Brian Eno, released in August 1984 by Editions EG and produced by Eno and Daniel Lanois in Hamilton, Ontario. The Pearl is similar to Budd and Eno's previous collaboration, Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror (1980), consisting mostly of subtly treated piano textures, but with more pronounced electronic treatments and nature recordings. The album has been well received by music critics, and is considered by some as a landmark work in ambient music.
Paul Henry Beaver Jr. was an American musician who was a pioneer in popular electronic music, using the Moog synthesizer. From 1967, Beaver collaborated with Bernie Krause as the recording duo Beaver & Krause.
Hector Zazou was a prolific French composer and record producer who worked with, produced, and collaborated with an international array of recording artists. He worked on his own and other artists' albums, including Sandy Dillon, Mimi Goese, Barbara Gogan, Sevara Nazarkhan, Carlos Núñez, Italian group PGR, Anne Grete Preus, Laurence Revey, and Sainkho since 1976.
Paul Haslinger is an Austrian musician and composer. He lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
Emerald Web was an American musical duo, made up of the husband-wife team of Bob Stohl and Kat Epple. Founded in 1978 and active through the 1980s, Stohl and Epple were pioneers in New Age, ambient, and electronic music.
Every Man and Woman Is a Star is the second album by British electronic music duo Ultramarine. It was originally released in 1991 by Brainiak Records; a subsequent 1992 reissue on Rough Trade featured two additional tracks.
Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics is an album by Jon Hassell and Brian Eno. It was recorded at Celestial Sounds in New York City and released in 1980 by Editions EG, an imprint label of E.G. Records. "Fourth world music" is a musical aesthetic described by Hassell as "a unified primitive/futuristic sound combining features of world ethnic styles with advanced electronic techniques." Upon its release, the album received praise from a variety of critics.
Biomusic is a form of experimental music which deals with sounds created or performed by non-humans. The definition is also sometimes extended to include sounds made by humans in a directly biological way. For instance, music that is created by the brain waves of the composer can also be called biomusic as can music created by the human body without the use of tools or instruments that are not part of the body.
Canyon Dreams is the fortieth major release and it was released as the fourteenth soundtrack album by German band Tangerine Dream. It was recorded in 1986 and released in 1991 on compact disc and compact cassette formats. The music was written as a sound accompaniment for an eponymous scenic video film about the Grand Canyon by Jan Nickman, released by the record label Miramar in 1987 on VHS, Betamax and LaserDisc. The album's tracks are divided into various episodes and related to the titles of the cuts.
Scott Hansen, known professionally as Tycho, is an American musician, record producer, composer, and songwriter based in San Francisco. He is also known as ISO50 for his photographic and design work. His music blends multiple stylistic components, including downtempo guitar, analogue synthesis, and ambient elements such as breathing and found sounds of weather broadcasts and dialogue.
Dive is the second studio album by American ambient musician Scott Hansen's project Tycho. Taking around five years to produce and write, Dive, according to Hansen, is a set of "artifacts from a future which might have more in common with our past than our present." It is an electronica record with a sound and style that was compared to the works of Scottish group Boards of Canada by multiple professional music journalists. Dive was released on November 8, 2011 by the label Ghostly International to mostly positive reviews from critics, and it landed on Billboard's United States Top Dance/Electronic Albums and Top Heatseekers Albums charts.
Mundus Subterraneus is the third studio album by Lightwave, released in November 1995 by Fathom Records.
Cantus Umbrarum is the fourth studio album by Lightwave, released in 2000 by Horizon Music.
Reassemblage is the second studio album of Portland, Oregon duo Visible Cloaks, consisting of musicians Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile. The record is named after Trinh T. Minh-ha's 1982 documentary film of the same name, since both works observe its subject matter without showing meaning to it. Reassemblage departs from Doran's past hip-hop releases for a more high-quality style inspired by the works of Japanese synthesizer music acts such as Yellow Magic Orchestra and Ryuichi Sakamoto, all of which were featured on Doran's 2010 mix Fairlights, Mallets & Bamboo.
Weather is the fifth studio album by ambient music project Tycho, released on July 12, 2019. The album was preceded by the release of the singles "Easy" and "Pink & Blue", the latter of which was released along with the album announcement on May 14, 2019. Tycho will embark on a world tour in late 2019 and into 2020 in support of the album.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
