soundscapes selected from
10 years of dreamSTATE performances
at THE AMBiENT PiNG

This page was created for people who enjoy
detailed liner notes with their albums.

I've gone deep into years of documentation to
compile notes and photos for each piece.
Follow your interests and ignore the rest...
Scott M2 - dreamSTATE

a decade dreaming is available on CD with
graphics & jewel case for only $5 from e-SPACE Editions

a decade dreaming is also available as a
free & legal mp3-download at the ping things label.

01. Premonition - 2009 08 18 - Supermarket
(Scott M2 + Jamie Todd)

This piece presents several conundrums:
1) As the album was released on the ping things label in the week before this concert - how was it recorded?
2) Does dreamSTATE employ an expensive Yamaha VTM1 (Virtual Time-Machine) modules?
3) Ten years of concerts at THE AMBiENT PiNG would stretch from 1999 to 2008. Why 2009?

The 10th Anniversary of THE AMBiENT PiNG on August 18th, 2009 also marked our 11th year of
dreamSTATE PiNG performances (and a return to Augusta Ave - only a block from the birth of the PiNG),
so I wanted to include a piece for that event. Since a decade dreaming was being released
by the ping things label just before the the concert - this was tricky business,
as dreamSTATE does not own or rent a Yamaha VTM1 Virtual Time Machine.

The solution I arrived at was to create a new piece that we could play in some form at that show.

The piece, actually titled Monition, contains a long sample from our very first PiNG performance
in August 1999 which I time-stretched (an appropriate concept here) and over which we
played some fresh textures. I thought everything was very together conceptually, but...

On the night of the show Jamie's computer began overloading when we started Monition,
so we had to just say "onwards" and skip right into the next portion of the set.
Monition was finally performed live at the PiNG on April 28th 2011 -
and I'll just keep on taking my irony pills. ~ SM2

Jamie + Scott at Supermarket 2009 08 18 - photo by Lynn Harrigan

02. Soundscape for Richard Wright - 2008 09 21 - Textile Museum
(Scott M2 + Jamie Todd + Eric Hopper)

Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright passed away on September 15th 2008, in the week before
we played at the PiNG's Textile Museum concert. We are all Pink Floyd fans and I would still
name them as my favourite group. I suggested that we play our opening piece (originally
intended to be a variation on Jharna) as an homage to Rick and all agreed. I fashioned a
ping from my Korg Kaossilator and Alesis Bitrman and we winged it from there.

Eric, Scott + Jamie at the Canadian Textile Museum Theatre 2008 09 21 - photo by Catherine Tammaro

Eric, Scott + Jamie create Soundscape for Richard Wright - a film by Scott M2

03. Jharna Revealed - 2007 08 28 - Drake Underground
(Scott M2 + Jamie Todd + Eric Hopper)

Tracks 02 + 03 feature our old friend Eric Hopper (aka Sylken) on synthesizer keyboards.

The music from this track was recorded at THE AMBiENT PiNG's 8th Anniversary Show. It was previously
released as an mp3 titled Jharna for members of the dreamSTATE e-mail list. I thought it would be
interesting to create a significantly different mix using subtractive methods to emphasize Eric's
keyboard parts, which I particularly liked. Jharna Revealed is that mix.

Scott, Jamie + Eric at the Drake Underground 2007 08 28 - photo by Caspar Verre

04. Laika's Last Orbit - 2005 04 27 - Hacienda
(Scott M2 + Jamie Todd)

We couldn't track down the tapes we were seeking for 2006 or 2004
and so substituted extra pieces from other shows in 2005 & 2003.

This extract from 2005 gave me a feeling of loneliness, space,
and the sense of technology failing. I titled it to honour Laika,
a stray dog captured and drafted by the Soviet Space Program
to be launched into space on November 3, 1957.

Premier Nikita Khrushchev had decreed that a spacecraft
be launched for the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution
to surpass their launch of Sputnik 1, the first earth orbital satellite,
on October 4th, 1957. With only a month to design and build
Sputnik 2, the scientists created no plan for Laika's safe return.

Although Laika's experience was kept secret for many decades,
it has been revealed that she passed away from the heat
(as the cooling system failed) and the stress from the launch
after only 5 to 7 hours in orbit. (Each orbit took 96 minutes.)
5 months later Sputnik 2 burned up in reentry to Earth's atmosphere.

Laika was the first earth being to die in outer space.

05. Nocturnal Passage - 2005 03 02 - Hacienda
(Scott M2 + Jamie Todd)

Another elegy. On February 27th, 2005 our friend and inspiration David Pritchard passed away.
I wrote a small piece about David for the PiNG newsletter and Jamie republished it on the net here
where you can read further if you're interested in learning more about David - a radio revolutionary,
electronic musician, guitarist, painter and all-round creative force.

This night was the launch of our 2nd CD PASSAGE and we dedicated our performance to David,
who had attended the launch for our 1st album and who, we liked to think, might still drop by.

The music is variations of pieces from PASSAGE and the title is a nod to David's 1st album,
Nocturnal Earthworm Stew.

Jamie + Scott at Hacienda 2005 03 02 - photo by Perren Baker

06. Elinvar - 2003 11 11 - C'est What!
(Scott M2 + Jamie Todd + Alan Bloor)

Alan Bloor (aka Pholde aka Knurl) is a sound artist who creates his own instruments
from selected pieces of hardened steel (saw blades, plates, blades, grills...) which he
bows and strikes with files, rods and pipes of hardened steel. Contact microphones
lead the sound through EQ, loopers and reverb to create ominous soundworlds.

Reviewing the tapes from this show and our preparation session, I discovered there's
an album of dreamSTATE/Pholde material available to weave from the recordings.
The working title is Alloy and it will reach fruition at dreamSTATE's normal glacial pace.
Alan is just the opposite - releasing several albums each year.

Elinvar is an alloy of nickel and chromium.

Jamie, Alan + Scott at C'est What! 2003 11 11 - photo by Eric Hopper

07. Sandstone - 2003 07 01 - C'est What!
(Scott M2 + Jamie Todd + Jim Field)

Jim Field (aka spacenoiz) is an experimental electronic musician and guitarist, previously
best known as a founder of the group Rhea's Obsession and currently as a member of Northumbria.
His real-time looping and sure hand on the e-bow are at the heart of Sandstone.

The title was inspired both by Jim's eastern-desert guitar work and
by the gritty textures of Jamie's synthesizer drones.

Jim, Jamie + Scott at C'est What! 2003 07 01 - photo by Eric Hopper

08. Universe City Line - 2002 11 12 - C'est What!
(Scott M2 + Jamie Todd + James Johnson + Wally Jericho)

Chicago area ambient artist James Johnson was visiting Toronto for his 3rd PiNG and invited
both dreamSTATE and our good friend trumpeter/looper Wally Jericho to join him for the evening.
Another (12 minute) piece from this show, Twilight Impressions, appears on James' Linger album.

This track was extracted from the opening of the second set and features James playing an FM-7
virtual electric piano and Wally's floating trumpet amidst dreamSTATE's chordal textures and drones.

The title is a small joke based on the underlying field recording of the
Toronto University Line subway that weaves in and out of the piece.

Wally, James, Jamie + Scott at C'est What! 2002 11 12 - photo by Julius Oklamcak

09. Processional - 2001 06 05 - C'est What!
(Scott M2 + Jamie Todd)

I think this was our first show with General Chaos Visuals - a fantastic duo who work strictly
with analog technology: hand-painted slides and discs rotating in vintage projectors,
overhead projectors with motorized moirés, handheld prisms and crystals to refract the lights
spontaneously with the sound. We love them! Their work is slower and deeper than
typical digital visual presentations and fits ambient music beautifully.

This piece flows by with sound waves looping and shifting. For me, it's both simple and
beguiling, and always jumped out when I was reviewing old tapes. I heard waves churning
in a harbour - saw a procession of clouds. The title simply means music for processions.

Scott + Jamie at C'est What! 2001 06 05 - photo by Mario Georgio

10. The Storm Within - 2000 06 13 - Po Boys Club
(Scott M2 + Jamie Todd + cheryl o)

In the year 2000 dreamSTATE embarked on The Drone Cycle 2000.
Each month we played a night of improvisations at the PiNG based
on a different note of the Chromatic Scale with a different guest:
January=C with Wally Jericho, February=C# with Kurt Swinghammer...

Cellist cheryl o felt that F was a good root note for her cello improv
and so she became our guest for June 2000. cheryl was a regular
looper with Planet of The Loops and employed several F/X pedals
but we invited our mutual friend Steven Sauvé (aka karmafarm) to
provide additional cello treatments from a station in the audience.
(That's probably Steven adding the ring-modulation to cheryl's
cello solo at the end of the piece.)

At PO Boys Club photographer Mario Georgio had a challenge
capturing shots illuminated only by a single light and our candles
surrounding the stage with his analog camera - but he came through!

11. Premillennial Landscape #1 - 1999 08 31 - Garvey's
(Scott M2 + Jamie Todd)

Our first PiNG performance! Garvey's (on Augusta Ave. in Kensington Market) had a
raised stage in the corner and Arnold Sprogis, the PiNG's founder, made arrangements
with Orbital Arts, a spaced gallery downstairs, for performers to choose a few pieces of
art to borrow for the stage at each show. The painted mannequin, dubbed Golden Boy,
ended up at every one of the early PiNGs and was later presented to Arnold to keep.

This piece was released soon after the show as our first non-CD mp3 track,
with the shortened title pm landscape #1. (Those were the days when Mp3.com and
BeSonic were exploding and before the .com collapse.) Jamie has remastered the piece
for a decade dreaming and it has finally found a home within an album.

Scott + Jamie at Garvey's 1999 08 31 - photo by Mario Georgio

12. Premillennial Landscape #2 - 1999 08 31 - Garvey's
(Scott M2 + Jamie Todd)

This is the section that immediately followed Premillennial Landscape #1 in the set
and it felt like more of an album closer. I created an extra-long fade-out to
ease people slowly out of the mix. I was also pleased that it included a
field recording - which were always important elements of our early shows.

Thanks for reading right to the end!
We hope you enjoyed these postcards from the trip.

Scott + Jamie at Garvey's 1999 08 31 - photo by Mario Georgio