Posts tagged bass communion
5.1 Surround Sound Q&A with Steven Wilson
0QuadrophonicQuad.com have just posted a lengthy Q&A with Steven Wilson, regarding 5.1 surround sound. Notably, Steven Wilson confirms that he is indeed remixing Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s records into 5.1 surround, and that there are plans to re-issue both Porcupine Tree’s In Absentia and Deadwing with brand new anti-loudness stereo masters. I’ve included several answers from the Q&A below, but to read the full Q&A, head over to QuadrophonicQuad.com.
Dear Steven, in a recent Q&A with starsdie.com you mentioned that there are some unreleased Bass Communion 5.1 mixes that you may release in the future. As you have been producing and mixing other artists for quite some time, are there perhaps more unreleased 5.1 mixes you have done? And if so, will they see a release in the future as well, perhaps via Tonefloat or your own Headphone Dust label? Thanks - Robert van Diggele
SW: I’d love to release some of those Bass Communion 5.1 mixes, but as a project like this already appeals to a relatively small percentage of my fans, the proportion of them also interested in 5.1 is miniscule! Certainly it’s been tough to justify 5.1 BC releases (though I’ve done a couple of DVDAs bundled with CDs). All the same I hope to do a box set some time which would tie up a lot of Bass Communion stereo / vinyl only rarities, and add a disc with some of those unreleased surround mixes too. Apart from that there is a beautiful 5.1 mix of Opeth’s Damnation record which I really hope will come out one day. Plus there are a number of other seventies albums that are in the pipeline, but can’t say too much about that at the moment.
Steven Wilson 2012 Community Q&A – Steven Answers Your Questions!
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Steven Wilson has responded to many of your recently submitted questions! Thanks to Steven for providing us with some truly great answers, and to all who participated and submitted a question – all of us here at StarsDie.com really appreciate it. Steven’s answers to your questions (in italics) are below!
(If you are viewing this from the site’s homepage, hit the ‘more’ button below to read on!)
Bass Communion’s ‘Litany Part 1′ added to the SW Fan App for iOS
0Steven Wilson has released a Bass Communion track, titled ‘Litany Part 1′ on the Steven Wilson Fan App for streaming. The track was used recently as the exit music during the first leg of the Grace for Drowning tour. Litany is an EP originally released in 2009 by Steven Wilson as a short collection of work in progress material, that could possibly be used for a future full length record. You can buy the Litany EP on 12″ vinyl from the Bass Communion section of Tonefloat’s online store, here. The Steven Wilson app has also been updated with twelve new ‘Remainder The Black Dog’ photos from Lasse Hoile, which you can see below in the gallery.
Steven Wilson’s Interview with Stereoboard.com – Part 2
0The 2nd part of Steven Wilson’s long interview with Stereoboard.com has been posted online, and I’ve included some extracts from it below. The interview was conducted last week, and Steven has confirmed that he has no current plans for Porcupine Tree, which means that we may have to wait even longer for the band’s eleventh album. At least we’ll still have Storm Corrosion to look forward to in April, and the continuation of Steven’s solo tour, the dates for which should be announced very soon.
Steven, talking about Porcupine Tree, the band has been dormant since the Royal Albert Hall show last year. What are your future plans with the band looking into next year?
Well, I have none to be honest. That is not to say that we will not get together at some point and do something but at the moment we are all doing our own things. I am having a great time doing what I am doing. I also have a record coming out next year with my friend Mikael (Åkerfeldt) from Opeth, the Storm Corrosion record. They are doing other things as well. We will get back together and we will make another record, I am fairly sure of that. At the moment, however, there really are no particular plans for Porcupine Tree – Steven Wilson
I was actually going to ask about Storm Corrosion next. What can you tell us about the forthcoming collaboration between you and Mikael?
Yes the album is coming out in April. If you had asked me what I could say about it six months ago I would have told you to expect the unexpected but…well, I think now that both “Grace for Drowning” and the new Opeth record, “Heritage”, have come out…I think you get more of a sense of where we are both at. In a way, you can think of Storm Corrosion as the third part of a trilogy of records. It has a lot of the same musical qualities except that I think it is even more melancholic, orchestral and twisted, in a way. It is a very dark record. There are hardly any drums on it. We have tried to use different musical forces, like woodwind instrumentation for example. There are lots of percussion parts rather than drum parts. It is not an easy listen. It is really dark and twisted. I am very curious as to what people will think about it. I suppose perhaps the best comparative points would be some of the darker moments on, well, both “Grace for Drowning” and “Heritage”.
I noticed that you recently did a show with No-Man after a while of inactivity with that project. I was just wondering if you and Tim (Bowness, Steven’s collaborator in No-Man) have thought about doing another No-Man record at all.
Again, there are not really any plans. Tim and I get together at very irregular intervals to make records…I think it seems to be something like every five years or so. I guess that maybe in a couple of years we will actually be due for the next one! There are no plans but what I will say is that none of my musical projects are finished or over. For me it is nice to say that I have a number of creative outlets and collaborations that I can go back to at any time if I feel the muse is in that place. I have no plans to make records with any of these projects at the moment. That goes for No-Man, Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, etcetera. That is not to say that it will not happen though, not at all.
The interview on Stereoboard.com has been divided up into two parts, due to it’s length. Use the links below to read the full interview!
Steven Wilson’s Interview with Stereoboard.com – Part 1
2Stereoboard.com have just posted part one of a two part interview with Steven Wilson, where he discusses his new solo album ‘Grace for Drowning’ and the recent tour that took him across the USA, Canada and Europe. I’ve included two questions and answers from the interview below. For the complete interview, visit Stereoboard.com here.
Steven, when I first heard you were releasing a solo album I remember being surprised because of the vast range of other projects you have had. Now that I have heard both of the solo records though I think that perhaps your solo material wouldn’t fit comfortably into any of your other projects after all. What’s your take on that?
I think that is part of it. More broadly I would say that it is very difficult in any of my other projects to bring all the aspects of my musical personality together as I can do on my solo albums. Now, without question, Porcupine Tree is clearly my most commercially successful and best known musical project but that is not through design.
That is just something that happened. Porcupine Tree is an aspect of my musical personality. Bass Communion is an aspect of my personality, etcetera. I think the thing about my solo project is that it is the first time I have tried to combine all these different parts of my musical personality. There is my interest in jazz and in industrial music and in progressive rock and in drones, in pop music even as well. It is the first time, in a way, that I have been able to bring everything to one project. In a way, that makes sense because all the other projects are collaborative with the exception of Bass Communion and they involve other musicians.
I wouldn’t want any musician that I played with to have to play music that they themselves didn’t like and didn’t want to play. I mean, for example, there is one member of Porcupine Tree who really detests jazz music. I would never be able to bring that element into Porcupine Tree, for example. Similarly, in Blackfield, Aviv is very committed to the idea of the three minute pop song. He does not like things that go on for ages, which are too long in his view. All my other projects have something of me in them, quite a lot of me, they are still collaborations and thus I still have to be aware of what the others are thinking. With a solo project I am liberated from that. For the first time I think the whole breadth of my musical personality has been touched upon.
I for one thought “Grace for Drowning” was an incredible record. I haven’t actually read a single bad review of it that I can remember. How proud does that make you?
It is funny people ask me that. I am often not particularly aware of the reaction it has received. I always try to make things as good as I can and that I would like to listen to. I am enormously proud of it of course. For some reason…this record seems to have…captured something that people wanted at this time, more so I think than other records I have made in the last five years or so. I mean, those albums are all albums I am proud of and they all have their fans but this one seems to have been more universally acclaimed. I am not sure I approached it in any different a way to other records other than the fact that I spent more time upon it. I mean, I have this reputation as a bit of a workaholic and someone who releases ten albums a year or whatever but in reality that isn’t really true.
Actually the last record I made before this one was “The Incident”. There was the Blackfield record but I didn’t write that, those were Aviv’s songs that I just played on. I have pretty much worked on this record for two years straight. In the meantime all these other records that I have been involved in have come out, whether that is Anathema or King Crimson or Opeth or whatever, but I am just involved in those. I am not writing for those bands. For two years all my creative energy really went into “Grace for Drowning”. I think this record, in particular, seems extremely uncompromising in comparison to other albums I have done. Not that any of them have compromised but this one especially is very ambitious and experimental.
I think there is a sense that at this time in the history of rock music…with all the download culture and all the reality bullshit…that people seem to want this record and this kind of music and musical statement from me….and that’s brilliant for me. I think this record is the kind of record that really taps into the music I fell in love with when I was a kid, in particular the mix between jazz and rock music. I think people forget the influence jazz had on ambitious rock music towards the end of the sixties and in the early seventies. That is why I think there was such an extraordinary run of albums at that time. Trying to tap into that spirit has been run of the fundamentals of the album. People seem to have picked up on that and my passion for that.
Sorry, I am aware that this has been an extremely long answer to your question! In summary, yes I am happy but I am not necessarily that aware of it because I do not read reviews much. I try and cut myself off from that side of things but I cannot help but get an impression of what has been said and I have had lots of people telling me how much this record means to them and that is a great thing for me and it makes me very proud.
Thanks to Benjamin Bland for conducting the interview. Visit Stereoboard.com for more on music news and reviews, tour info and merchandise here.
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