The Time Bell in the Empty Archipelago

by Milieu

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	1.	The Time Bell at Dawn 00:09
	2.	The Empty Archipelago (Part 1) 02:08:13
	3.	The Empty Archipelago (Part 2) 01:15:41
	4.	The Empty Archipelago (Part 3) 01:11:00
	5.	The Empty Archipelago (Part 4) 01:11
	6.	The Empty Archipelago (Part 5) 30:24
	7.	The Empty Archipelago (Part 6) 45:24
	8.	The Time Bell in the Noonday Sun 00:06
	9.	The Empty Archipelago (Part 7 / Section 1) 02:59:58
	10.	The Empty Archipelago (Part 7 / Section 2) 02:59:47
	11.	The Empty Archipelago (Part 7 / Section 3) 02:59:56
	12.	The Empty Archipelago (Part 7 / Section 4) 02:55:17
	13.	The Time Bell at Dusk 00:21

about

"Every way ends, every road,
every foot-path leads at last
to the hill-crest—
then you retrace your steps,
or find the same slope on the other side,
precipitate."

-H.D., excerpt from "The Sheltered Garden" (1916)

---

When I recorded 'Time Bell' in June of 2023, I was still deeply involved in exploring Nintendo's magnificent 'Tears of the Kingdom' installation in the Legend of Zelda series. Zelda games have always held a special fascination for me, and the release before you is the closest I'll probably get to combining things like my Hylian Improvisations recordings with the Sleepbuilding series.

The music played here is in the minor pentatonic scale, exploring the voice of the modal resonator in Mutable Instruments' Rings. It recalls a forlorn atmosphere of fragmented islands, floating impossibly in the sky, with ancient machines waiting there in a dormant state for the time bell to ring, a day that never comes for thousands of years.

The glassy tones are sparse, wind-blown, carried from one cloud-covered islet to another, weaving through ruined stone buildings and verdant overgrowth, never quite resolving or settling, but merely present in a disconnected way. With all of the severe weather this valley has seen as of late, I personally find a lot of comfort in the tempo and spacious nature of these sounds.

April is itself a special month for me - since 2012, it has been the month I became a father - and so 'Time Bell' is also offered here on the occasion of my daughter's birthday, as Zelda remains one of many things we share interests in together. Through this lens, 'Time Bell' takes on an entirely new symbolism, one that aligns positively with Springtime, rejuvenation and rebirth, and a measured appraisal of the past at a recurrent point in time's linearity.

Further still, I rest assured that you will find a different meaning somewhere in these somnolent tones, and your reading of this material is also true. 'Time Bell' is a marker in a landscape that changes with or without us in it, and much like the inert automatons in the picturesque ruins of the Hyrulian sky, we may wake up and mark the time with something important to us, or we may remain asleep, and let time keep its own lonesome company.

The time bell is ambivalent, and it only ever means anything if and when we decide that it means something. Today, for me, it means that twelve years have passed, and so much is different while so much more has remained the same, and once again my work finds me held between two ends of a spectrum, always coming from somewhere and making my way elsewhere.

N.B. - There were some peaking errors in the original broadcast, which have been isolated and mitigated to the best of my ability, but there are still little remnants of those errors here. Nothing that should wake you up from a meditative state, I hope, but there is only so much you can do with broadcast audio like this after the fact, and your patience and understanding are appreciated.

---

YouTube playlist of all Sleepbuilding broadcasts: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbcjgVJRSgeSHy00DZLB8zFFIJbIgcYjo

All prior Sleepbuilding releases to date (all FREE): campsite.bio/oscillog

For more generative ambient music delivered to your inbox automatically each month, please consider subscribing to my Vibratelepathos series: vibratelepathos.bandcamp.com

24/7 Endless Ambient Broadcast Station at Twitch: twitch.tv/analogbotany

credits

released April 5, 2024

W/P by Brian Grainger. Recorded and broadcast at White Pillar Workshop, June 5th 2023, using the modal resonator in Mutable Instruments' Rings in conjunction with the R-EW Audioholistics modular system. Mastered by The Analog Botanist, Spring 2024. Poem excerpt by Hilda Doolittle. Additional text by Brian. Design by ABM&D using visual sampling of "Orange Circle" by Frantisek Kupka, ca. 1945-46. This is Milieu Music number MMD103. (C) + (P) Oscillog ASCAP 2024. All nights preserved.

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about

Milieu Dayton, Ohio

Psychedelic electronic music, sun-warmed analog ambient and sci-fi braindance, for cats, aliens and epicureans alike.

I also release music as Coppice Halifax: coppicehalifax.bandcamp.com

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