German electronic magazine Beat highlighted the Conception compilation in its December 2011 issue. The article is a summary of music available on the net.  It’s not a review or anything, but it’s nice to get a mention.

Here’s a little scan of the blurb on the page:

Translation:

"Conception" offers 22 first insights into
the music of free-floating netlabels,

It was good to see my friends David Herpich and Phillip Wilkerson mentioned there as well.

Track List

1 – Contemplation 1 : Void in Form

Notes

Contemplation 1        ffm•004
Michael Meara

“Contemplation 1 – Void in Form” is the first in an ongoing series of subliminal drift pieces by Australian ambient musician Michael Meara. This long form piece features processed lap steel guitar and is intended for low level playback.

The Sutra of the Heart of the Lady Perfection of Wisdom

Thus have I heard. At one time Lord Buddha was staying at Vulture Peak Mountain in Rajagriha, with a great gathering of the monastic sangha and the bodhisattva sangha.
At the same time, noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, was looking right at the experience of the profound perfection of wisdom and he saw the five groups to be empty of nature.
Then, through the power of the Buddha, venerable Shariputra said to noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, “How does a son or daughter of the noble family, who wishes to practice the profound perfection of wisdom, train?”
Addressed in this way, noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, said to venerable Shariputra, “O Shariputra, a son or daughter of the noble family who wishes to practice the profound perfection of wisdom looks in this way: see the five groups to be truly empty of nature.
Form is emptiness; emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form; form is not other than emptiness. In the same way, feeling, concept, mental formation, and consciousness are emptiness.
Therefore, Shariputra, all experience is emptiness. It is not defined. It is not born or destroyed, impure or free from impurity, not incomplete or complete.
Therefore, Shariputra, in emptiness, there is no form, no feelings, no concepts, no mental formations, no consciousness; no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no appearance, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no mind object; no eye element up to no mind element and no mind consciousness element; no ignorance, no end of ignorance up to no old age and death, no end of old age and death; no suffering, no origin, no cessation, no path; no pristine awareness, no attainment, and no non-attainment.
Therefore, Shariputra, because, for bodhisattvas, there is no attainment, they rest, trusting the perfection of wisdom. With nothing clouding their minds, they have no fear. They leave delusion behind and come to the end of nirvana.

This translation by Ken McLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

I’ll let the music express this more directly. Michael Meara seems well suited to present these ideas in sonic form. Follow him in contemplation and see where he leads.

Brad Ross-MacLeod
Vancouver, BC
October 2011

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See the Download Help page for more information.

Internet Archive download coming soon.

License

Conception by Free Floating Music is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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My first foray into releasing music under the Free Floating banner was all|is|calm2010, a collection of Christmas/Winter/Solstice themed ambient music that I released through my blog.  My intention at the time was to make this an annual event.  Now that I have started the Free Floating Music label, I’ve decided to move the operation over here.

So now I want to announce that I am currently accepting submissions for the 2nd annual Christmas compilation, all|is|calm2011.

Submissions should conform to the following guidelines:

• Works should be original compositions where permission is given for release under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) License;
• Works may be cover versions of Christmas music but only of compositions in the public domain (Deck the Halls, Silent Night, etc.);
• Works should be ‘light’ ambient in nature, generally reflecting serene, meditative listening (beatless is also preferred);
• Works should generally be between 8 and 12 minutes in length (though there is some flexibility here);
• Works should be submitted by December 1, 2011 in wav format

I will notify you when I receive your submission and then once again when I have decided whether or not to include it in the compilation.

If you have any additional questions, requests or ideas please feel free to contact me.

(Image original source by Jenny Spadafora)

Track List

1 – Beyond and Before 30:36
2 – Assuage 32:21

Notes

Beyond and Before        ffm•003
Mirada

For me this release by Mirada is a lesson in listening.

In my initial listening to the work after I received it, I didn’t really know what was going on in the pieces. There seemed to me to be little to no movement. I found them moderately interesting as atmospheres, but wasn’t entirely moved by them.

For a (brief) while I considered passing on releasing them through Free Floating. I thought about sending Mark (Heath, AKA Mirada) to submit the work to the Complex Silence series or some other netlabel. But I persevered. I continued to listen–in headphones, in the car, while reading. And I’m certainly glad that I did, because when I did so I allowed Mirada to teach me to listen.

In my opinion the best ambient music will work on two levels. Brian Eno said it best (and first) that ambient music can be “actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener”. Those who have come to know my taste from my blog, my radio show, and this label can see that I hold this to be true. The music I prefer has minimal percussive or discordant elements and so can be “easily ignored” if so desired.

I guess my first listens to Beyond and Before found it easy to ignore. But knowing and appreciating Mirada’s music as I do (I have called Tranquil Reflection from his Unfolding Memories album “one of the best ambient tracks perhaps of all time”) I did the work of deep and attentive listening and was rewarded handsomely for my work.

These pieces work slowly and subtly. There are small movements within the grander scheme of the music. The music is at once grand and delicate. If you give yourself over to the progression within these pieces, you will find yourself getting lost in these large spaces that are also intimate and enveloping.

Enjoy your lesson….

Brad Ross-MacLeod
Vancouver, BC
September 2011

Download

Download in a number of formats:
MP3 320K, MP3 VBR, FLAC, ALAC, AAC, OGG. Images and liner notes included.
See the Download Help page for more information.

Internet Archive download coming soon.