Grove of Whispers

Cinema of Porcelain Fur

Dark Ambient, Drone, Experimental
Grove of Whispers #014
Released at: Ilse.bandcamp.com
Cover: Ilse.bandcamp.com
Direct URL: Cinema of Porcelain Fur

Growl

Dark Ambient, Drone, Experimental
Grove of Whispers #006
Released at: Eg0cide Productions
Download: archive.org
Cover: oddsock
Mirror Site: archive.org
Direct URL: Growl
Review at archive.org: Review Growl

Growl is an excerpt from the Grove of Whispers show of September 4, 2012. Performed live on Stillstream using midi controller, hackintosh and the buddhalizer virtual machine. Vocal samples chopped and screwed from old time radio shows.

Special thanks to all the folks at stillstream.com and electro-music.com for their inspiration and support. Thank you.

Swirl

Dark Ambient, Drone, Experimental
Grove of Whispers #005
Released at: Webbed Hand Records
Download: archive.org
Cover: BitJuiceArquepoetica
Mirror Site: archive.org
Direct URL: Swirl
Review at archive.org: Review The Somnambulist

A dark and surrounding moodscape, recorded as a live radio session by Grove of Whispers.

Swirl was performed on stillstream.com October 19, 2012.

Done live using midi controller and hackintosh. Music fashioned using the buddhalizer. A virtual extension of my imagination.

Carmilla (featuring pixyblink)

Dark Ambient, Drone, Experimental
Grove of Whispers #007
Released at: black circle records
Cover: Crow
Direct URL: Carmilla

Carmilla is based on the Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Carmilla, the title character, is the original prototype for a legion of female and lesbian vampires.

First published in 1872, it tells the story of a young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire named Carmilla. Carmilla predates Bram Stoker's Dracula by 25 years.

Featuring the spectacular voice of pixyblink as Carmilla. Drones were fashioned using the spectral content of various tracks from the Nine Inch Nails release "Ghosts I - IV (March 2, 2008)".

Tea In The Sahara (featuring Jeff Sampson)

Dark Ambient, Drone, Experimental
Grove of Whispers #013
Released at: Sombre Soniks
Download: Sombre Soniks
Cover: Sombre Soniks
Mirror Site: Sombre Soniks
Direct URL: Tea in the Sahara
Review at archive.org: N/A

The Somnambulist

Dark Ambient, Drone, Experimental
Grove of Whispers #004
Released at: Webbed Hand Records
Download: archive.org
Cover: BitJuice
Mirror Site: archive.org
Direct URL: The Somnambulist
Review at archive.org: Review The Somnambulist

Noise: unwanted sound. Distraction.

A barrier to sleep, or when used to mask annoying sounds, a veil making it possible.

It frequently induces the psychological phenomenon known as pareidolia, leading one to hear voices.

The Sonambulist: a mixture of various noise sources you might find in a nocturnal environment. A car on a rain drenched highway, the hiss of a television late at night, a shortwave radio in search of a signal. The mind is provoked. Will it find order among the chaos?

Voices and ghost phenomenon provided by:

Bing Satellites
C.P. Mcdill
Disturbed Earth
Jeff Sampson
pixyblink
The Implicit Order

Whisper Of Latex

Dark Ambient, Drone, Experimental
Grove of Whispers #011
Released at: BFW recordings
Download: archive.org
Cover: bfwrecordings
Mirror Site: archive.org
Direct URL: Whisper Of Latex
Review at archive.org: wh247

Track done during The Somnambulist Session.

John Tocher - Before Dawn

Dark Ambient, Drone, Experimental
Grove of Whispers #003
Released at: Treetrunk Records
Download: archive.org
Cover: BitJuice
Mirror Site: archive.org
Direct URL: Before Dawn
Review at archive.org: Review Before Dawn

I had been up all night listening to and working on music. Just before dawn a big storm was raging. Some storms have a way of energizing me rather than lulling. As you will hear, I left my H2 Zoom recorder running, jumped off the porch and drove off into the rain.

The voices heard throughout are processed and derived from a field recording of an annoying conversation. Repeated over and over was the phrase: "you know what question I hate?"

I'll let you guess what question that was.

Done live using AudioMulch, midi controller, hackintosh, personal field recordings. Drones fashioned from incidental overheard conversation. This is a companion piece to After Dusk. Which was also fashioned from field recordings made just in front of my home.

Dedicated to my friend Pete who passed on recently.

John Tocher - After Dusk

Dark Ambient, Drone, Experimental
Grove of Whispers #002
Released at: Treetrunk Records
Download: archive.org
Cover: FM Era
Mirror Site: archive.org
Direct URL: After Dusk
Review at archive.org: Review After Dusk

Performed on stillstream.com June 24, 2012.

This is the extended and revised version of a performance for the Summer Solstice 2012 streaming online concert at electro-music.com, which happened the previous day, Saturday June 23, 2012.

Done live using AudioMulch, midi controller, hackintosh, personal field recordings, drones fashioned from old tires and vinyl noise taken from a host of 78s.

John Tocher - Hardanger

Dark Ambient, Drone, Experimental
Grove of Whispers #001
Released at: Webbed Hand Records
Download: archive.org
Cover: Trey Ratcliff
Mirror Site: archive.org
Direct URL: Hardanger
Review at archive.org: Review Hardanger

This work is dedicated to the memory of ambient artist Lucette Bourdin.

"The track title 'Hardanger' comes from hardanger fiddle music I ran across. I was listening to a rip I had of Alien Air Music, and just at the end of the previous show they had an off-beat classical music spotlight where they played this hardanger fiddle track done with troll tuning. Quite haunting. I was so taken with the track I edited it out and made a stand alone track of it -- I have since bought the CD. I forget which track it is, but I remember the DJ was saying the composer was living in some godforsaken place, dying of syphilis.

I got a chance to chat with Lucette Bourdin -- I sent her the hardanger fiddle track, and we both listened and discussed how beautiful it was. It was shortly after this I found out she was dying. In fact I never got to talk to her again. Not one-on-one anyway.

I don't know much about her in fact. I know she started making music seriously after being diagnosed with cancer. This thing (I am writing) is not so much about her as it is about her bringing the awareness to me (again) that we are all dying. Some of us have more time than others of course, but everyone's time is more limited than they realize. That is a gift from her, I think.

I wanted to find some hardanger fiddle music to close out my show, ideally an old 78. I searched on archive.org and ran across this release which consists of (among other things) some processed hardanger fiddle music. So the title is my nod to both influences.

The track itself was somewhat accidental. I had stretched it and just hit it right the first time. I tried shorter and longer but neither sounded as good. I think it might be some of Eno's idea about recordings. Once you can hear something again it takes on a life of its own. Once I heard it stretched that first time it seemed as if it could be no other way. I don't think that is correct though, I think I just got lucky. Or it's corny to say, but there might be some other reason-- intuition, act of god, etc. It’s like a sculpture. It is there in the rock and it emerges. There was some polishing to be done, but I did not change the amount of stretching. I tried some further processing, but everything I did in this direction seemed to take it away from some essence that was there.

For me, part of doing this particular piece of music (and maybe it's just part of doing music) was getting my ego out of the way. I wanted to do more to it to feel like it was mine. There is a Buddhist aspect to it I think, getting out of the way."