Brian Wenckebach: "My Life Went By Like A Dream" video

Experimental guitarist Brian Wenckebach has made a video for My Life Went By Like A Dream, a track from his latest album A Morning, A Life: "Instrumental albums are rarely huge sellers - most people want words, although they don't pay much attention to the actual lyrics - but being a big guy in a small niche is not so bad. A Morning, A Life is a trip that visits 16 places and all of them is a landmark in its own right. Most some of them only last three minutes or less, but each one of them is a treasure trove fully deserving close inspection."

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HCTF review of the A Morning, A Life.

Brian Wenckebach: A Morning, A Life

NYC-based guitarist Brian Wenckebach has been pushing the boundaries of ambient and post-rock for years under as a solo artist (the one-man project MIS+RESS) and a band member (Elika, Measured Thee Koukouvaya), but his new album A Morning, A Life is his long-awaited debut that bears his own name. Wenckebach's tone is instantly recognizable. His fluidity serves as a soothing layer for his knack to indulge in abstract motifs.

Painting with sound is a challenge and it takes years of practice to get it right. One bad note can ruin the mood and a carefully constructed composition comes crashing down. Wenkebach has mastered the art - he can even get away with fucking up on purpose during Everyone We Love Is Dying. Instrumental albums are rarely huge sellers - most people want words, although they don't pay much attention to the actual lyrics - but being a big guy in a small niche is not so bad. A Morning, A Life is a trip that visits 16 places and all of them is a landmark in its own right. Most some of them only last three minutes or less, but each one of them is a treasure trove fully deserving close inspection.

MIS+RESS: Dispellers

Guitarist Brian Wenckebach is on a roll with his solo ambient avant-garde project MIS+RESS. On his new album Dispellers pastoral proggy musings. His crystal clear tone and smart use of echo and loops will appeal to post-rock fans who can handle gentle excursions that dig deep.

With this album Wenckebach's music could be likened to water colour sketches, using the calm perseverance of Matt Stevens and the melodic sensibilities of Mike Oldfield. He can turn a small snippet into something truly memorable and carefully sidesteps all the pitfalls of bubbling New Age fodder.

Measured: My Heart Waits

After NY synth shoegaze quartet Elika folded, lead singer Evagelia Maravelias dropped out of the music scene, but now is back with Measured, a new trio tryign their hand at soft spoken dream pop. Her former band mate Brian Wenckebach is on board again playing guitar, baas and keyboards and Ulrich Schnauss brought along his impressive range of synths.

Thee Koukouvaya: Το παρελθόν περιέχει το μέλλον

It took John O'Hara and Brian Wenckebach some time to record Το παρελθόν περιέχει το μέλλον ("The past contains the future"), the third album of their Thee Koukouvaya project. As restless sonic explorers they are inspired by unlikelu oddities like the Fifty Two Hertz Whale (a creature that might qualify as the loneliest whale and extinct ferns (Glossopteris). They create highbrow avant-garde electronic textures that are almost, but nog quite danceable. They have love to catch the listener on the wrong foot.

MIS+RESS: Zellersasn EP

Guitarist Brian Wenckebach picked eight from his free-flowing guitar segments for the Zellersasn EP by his solo project MIS+RESS. It would be more accurate to label them as improvised structures in stead of actual "songs". With just his guitar and the live looper and sample sequencer after which the EP was named all the tracks sound spontaneous, about halfway avant-garde and next level post-rock.

Wenckebach is adamant to find new ways to make the guitar sound like a whole bunch of instruments and he ended up with surprisingly delicate music, with swirling notes and spot-on motifs. He is a modernist and a sculptor of sound. The electric guitar hasn't been explored in full by a long shot. Playing with guts and an open mind are the way to go.

MIS+RESS: "Nested Infinities" video

Watch the new MIS+RESS video for Nested Infinities, a track from the S/T album.. Guitarist Brian Wenckebach chooses his notes carefully, making sure that each one counts. Dreamy shoegaze for a Sunday brunch.

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HCTF review of S/T.

MIS+RESS: S/T

Guitarist Brian Wenckebach is an explorer. The former member of shoegaze duo Elika and experimental outfit Thee Koukouvaya now goes ambient with his solo project MIS+RESS. With his guitar and four effects pedals he recorded ten tracks for his S/T album in his sister-in-law's childhood bedroom in Toms River, NJ. Minimalism is the keyword for his compositions, pastoral with a twist. Wenckebachmigth be the first to use the system of stellar classification for a track. Listening to OBAFGKM is like lying in a field at night while staring at the sky.

S/T is not escapist or New Age. He conjures up deserted landscapes where something went wrong (The Great Dying) or feeling left alone (No More Parties). His guitar sounds sad most of the time, a vehicle for his thoughts and doubts. He only needs a handful of notes and a few choice effects to paint a whole picture.

Thee Koukouvaya: Ancient Race of Techno-Voyagers

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At first it looks like John O'Hara and Brian Wenckebach go for a harsh post-industrial sound on Ancient Race of Techno-Voyagers, the new album of their Thee Koukouvaya project. They kick off with a couple of static heavy compositions - We Walked Out Of Mexico Loaded and, Suspicion Breeds Confidence - before slowing down a bit with The Modern Beige. Listeners who have made this far will be surprised that the album switches to a far more gentle mood in an Eighties kind of way, with tracks like Planetary Archive, and the full-on ambient excursions during Nauplia and Aged Into Conformity. That's when the duo's love for analog synths comes to the fore in all its glory.

Ancient Race of Techno-Voyagers is a litmus test for avant-garde post-dance fans, taking cues from Krautrock, Dead Can Dance and minimalist pioneers such as Terry Riley. Cutting edge, inspired electronic music, bridging the gap between 20st century classical music and current left-field dance. Start with the accessible Limbic Crisis For Sparkle And Foam and Margaritas By The Pool before going in at the deep end.

Thee Koukouvaya: This is The Mythology of Modern Death

Earlier this year electronic shoegaze experimentalists Thee Koukouvaya dropped the lengthy Witches' Jelly, a bold statement that caused some stirs in ambient circles.

John O'Hara and Brian Wenckebach keep it more succinct in their debut album This is The Mythology of Modern Death, a throwback to the early days of house with geographical references and means of navigation as the glue between the tracks - 40.207958, -74.041691 happen to be the coordinates of a hospital in Neptune City, NJ, and A Life In A Portolan Chart refers to a type of map that was invented in Italy in the 13th Century. All nerding aside the duo has come up with a stack of slow moving, meandering dance tracks that can stand on their own. Recommended if you like Eno and Kraftwerk.

Thee Koukouvaya: Witches' Jelly

Shoegaze electronic experimentalists John O'Hara and Brian Wenckebach go in at the deep for their new composition Witches' Jelly for their Thee Koukouvaya project. It is a sprawling ambient track, moving slowly like a glacier, with loops that never end. Set aside half an hour and hold tight for riding the wave. Enjoy the view that your brain will invent on the spot and find yourself mumbling "I'll have what they were having".

Witches' Jelly is released on the Greek microlabel Sound In Silence. Digital and limited edition (115 copies) handmade CD. A full-length will be released thru Saint Marie Records on October 9th.

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