Category: Releases

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Something new, an EP of material of a different flavour.

It’s 4 tracks exploring lots of rhythmic ideas and instrumentation inspired by various parts of the world.

Now up on Bandcamp only.

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So Below is a live performance piece for a chapel or resonant space, with the option of using various instruments. It was first performed in 2019 at the Glasgow University Chapel, supported by Cryptic, and with Maarten Vos on cello.

The setup is for an array of speakers around the space, with the sound moving through the room. It is performed in the dark, or as near-dark as can be achieved, and the focus is on the sound rather than the performance. This recording has been adapted to stereo.

It will be available only on Bandcamp.

Cello: Maarten Vos

Equipment: Cello, Voice, Monochord, Symbolic Sound Kyma, Looper

Software: Ableton Live, Madrona Labs Kaivo, Madrona Labs Aalto

Thanks to PRS Foundation for funding

and Cryptic for the support.

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This is the second volume of work created from the research into music and sound’s role in healthcare that I conducted as part of an NHS Music Fellowship in 2018.

Again, the focus is largely on ambient and beat-less music, that helps induce a state of calm or reflection. One of the few universally measurable effects of music in a healthcare context is the reduction of the stress response, so important in improving the body’s ability to heal itself. Many other facets of music obviously affect people in widely different ways, and what one person may find cathartic, another may find deeply depressing.

There are some commonalities amongst traditional cultures however, with certain scales associated with feelings of calm and passivity, and I have used some of these here.

The album will be on Bandcamp only for the first few months to raise money for NHS charities. Once it goes to streaming it essentially makes no money, but that’s another conversation. For today (1st May) it is also worth much more as Bandcamp are waiving their fees, so I’d encourage anyone who was interested to buy it today especially.

And finally, you can hear it here:

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Finally available as a digital download, after being on cassette only. Now released under my Alex Smoke moniker, as Alex Menzies will now just be used for commercial work.

It’s a combination of ideas from various cultures, from my work on music and health, and from experimenting with acoustic sources and physical modelling.

I think of it as night music.

Available in all the usual places but buying it directly from my Bandcamp is by far the most helpful to me personally.

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The first official result of my last year’s music fellowship with the NHS, exploring the links between health and sound.

Of the many fascinating avenues that I explored, this album encapsulates ideas from just a few of them, and is particularly focussed on the use of music as a way of reducing stress.

I will be writing up a more complete overview of my year’s research at some point, and there will be a further album later in the year exploring other ideas from it.

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The second volume of my Other World Music series, under my own name, has been released.

Again, it draws its influences from various musical traditions and forms and incorporates some of the research of my NHS music fellowship this year.

 

I am just pressing up tapes and releasing them myself although they will also be in shops such as Boomkat sometime around the middle of December.

It is limited to a run of 111.

You can buy it from my website here:

https://www.alexmenzies.net/product/other-world-music-vol-ii-cassette

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For the last few years I have been working increasingly away from the dancefloor under my own name, and soaking up more varied influences. Other World Music will be a series of albums reflecting my explorations in these new fields, part electronic, part acoustic, and exploring facets of sound and music such as psycho-acoustics, modal forms and various other approaches to modern composition.

Other World Music Vol.1 is the first release on my new label of the same name, and represents a bit of a crossing point in some ways, as is nearly always the way when setting a new course.

The release is digital and cassette, and can be bought from my Bandcamp, although the digital release on its own can be bought from all the usual places. The cassette comes with a free download version and is housed in a nice handmade lino-print sleeve with a tracklist card. If you would like it signed, just ask at checkout on Bandcamp. It is limited at 100 copies.

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cov-flo-etanan

This year I will be writing and releasing more music as Alex Menzies. Music that is more personal and not so easily categorised.
To this end I have a new website dedicated to my composition work under my own name, which will also serve as a hub for new music released this year.
There will be several releases this year in digital formats from the usual places, with a solid format LP featuring a ‘best of’ selection at the end of the year.

You can check out the new site Here.

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This is my hip hop album collaboration with Non from the Shadowhuntaz from 2008.

Originally penned for release on my Hum+Haw label.

It never saw the light of day as we ran out of cash and I lost faith in it a bit. But now enough time has passed that I don’t care, and I’d rather have it out than not.

So here it is:

Fool Logo

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h7vgqgiiiha1nny/Mad%20Man%27s%20Drum%202015.zip?dl=0