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Welcome to September at the PiNG. Each week this month we'll be featuring a disc from ambient master Steve Roach's "The Dreamtime Box" between sets. Yes - another 4 CD set from Roach! This one includes his newly remastered classic "Dreamtime Return". Also - be sure to read rik maclean's column this week, as he focuses on New Orleans and what that city means to him - obviously a lot, as he ensures that throughout September *all* money (except taxes/shipping) from CD sales from an extensive list of artists at ping things will be sent directly to the American Red Cross disaster relief efforts. Help rik and dozens of creative artists help others through their art! http://www.pingthings.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . THE AMBiENT PiNG http://www.theambientping.com Tuesdays @ HACiENDA - 794 Bathurst Street at Bloor (directly across from the Bathurst subway station) - Toronto Doors open at 9pm - 1st set at 9:30 - PayWhatYouCan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This Tuesday September 6th - A Worthy Fall - September This fall the PiNG will be hosting a monthly showcase for the inspiring independent label Worthy Records on the first Tuesday of each month. Worthy Records has been releasing a huge catalog of works by creative musicians from across Ontario and Canada and each month we'll present 2 or 3 artists. September features the mesmerizing ambient, post-rock songs of The London Apartments (from Windsor) and Weird State Inbetween (from St.Catharines)- a collaboration between Scott Johnson and Anne Sulikowski oozing improv electronic music with keyboards, pedals, blips, skips, vocals, beats, distortion, loops and found sounds. http://www.worthyrecords.com "A more clearly enunciated Windy and Carl at the wheel, with Fridge beats riding shotgun and arguing over the map, doing 30 mph down 495 at midnight, with My Morning Jacket, Auburn Lull, and Slowdive tied up in the trunk." http://www.thelondonapartments.com "The Weird State In Between's debut release on Worthy Records (music for listening rather than profit) is without a doubt one of the freshest noise recordings of the year. It's disgustingly beautiful, cathartically romantic, a sledgehammer french kiss." http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pageartist.cfm?bandID=256530 Between Sets CD - "Dreamtime Return - disc 1" by Steve Roach An undeniable masterpiece of the ambient world. "17 years after its release "Dreamtime Return" still sounds like a transmission from the near future and the very distant past." http://www.steveroach.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Coming Tuesday September 13th - Wendy Atkinson with David Lester http://www.tinforest.com/tinfr/wendyatkinson/ http://mecca_normal.tripod.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ||: IN THE LOOP :|| by Luna Tek Even with a hot summer coming to a close, THE AMBiENT PiNG concert on August 29, 2005 continued to heat up the experimental music scene in Toronto with two stellar acts: Michael Keith with David Sait and The Riderless from London, Ontario. Michael Keith (Guqin) and David Sait (Guzheng) kicked off the evening with a majestic first set replete with exotic undertones. The duo, both originally guitarists, took an interest in traditional Chinese music a few years ago and began improvising together even though their particular instruments are not historically played together. Breaking with tradition in this arrangement, Keith's interpretation reaped slide-guitar effects with a Ry Cooder edge. To the audience's delight, their elegant experimentation yielded a sense of longing without the usual crush of melancholy. The tension between notes created a spare yet ultimately fulfilling experience akin to the procedural technique of sound poems: they set up aesthetic and emotional expectations and then rewarded the audience with unexpectedly melodic "songs." After the concert, I asked Michael Keith about his interest in traditional Chinese music. Keith explained that he discovered the Guquin through Derek Bailey, an avant garde guitar player. After reading an article with Bailey discussing the Guqin, Keith decided to check it out for himself. His interest in this ancient instrument has led to an interest in Chinese culture, broadening his creative horizons to the extent that he is now planning trip to Bejing. In the second set, The Riderless continued their cross-country tour with passages of pure improvisation, a departure from the free style approach they used to play when they were more into creating walls of pure rock-oriented noise. While tonight's performance was completely free-form, the band explored the chords and melodies available to them in a post-rock universe. With six musicians playing guitars, synthesizer, a homemade xylophone, saxophone, clarinet and drums, The Riderless commanded the stage with an ambient set that built in intensity and included lots of texture, rhythm and the pure joy of playing. More info: http://www.alexiteric.com http://www.davidsait.com http://www.theriderless.com Luna Tek - luna@theambientping.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . rik maclean's *ping things* CD Reviews I spend alot of time telling you about music I love. But today I thought I'd tell you about a city that I love. I've idealized New Orleans ever since the first time I read "Interview with a Vampire" when I was eleven. There was something about the way the city was described, something so magical about it that appealed to my eleven year old psyche. And like a handful of other places and ideals and songs that wormed their way into my being in those early formative years, New Orleans has always had a special place in my heart. I finally went to visit there in 2000. The Cure were playing two gigs in a theatre on the "Bloodflowers" tour and I had a travelling companion with connections in the travel industry. Really, it was too good an opportunity to pass up. So we went. I don't think I've ever been so excited about a vacation in my entire life. I'll admit that I was a little nervous about going though. You know how there are places you dream of all your life, and when you finally get there it's nothing like you had imagined? I was so scared that the city wouldn't live up to my expectations, that it would be one of those places that we create in our heads that has no hope of existing in the real world. But when I got there I was thrilled to find that it was exactly what I had always dreamed of. Beautiful, mysterious, haunted. My companion and I walked through the French Quarter, we did the Garden District tour, we saw Marie LeVeaux' tomb and a million other things. It was everything I had thought it would be and more, and it's the only city I've ever been to that has made me think seriously of leaving my beloved Toronto. And even though I didn't leave then, New Orleans has always had an Echo Beach type quality to it, a notion in my head that I had somewhere to run away to, somewhere to go and start again if I ever needed to. We were only there for a few days, but they were among the most wonderful I've ever had before or since. Dreams fulfilled, wishes made real, the discovery that the magic you hold in your heart sometimes does exist in the real world. Going to New Orleans meant something very special to me and I'll always hold that feeling close inside. *** This last week, seeing pictures of what has happened in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, seeing what the people of New Orleans and the surrounding environs are going through, has been heartbreaking, devastating. With this in mind, a number of artists in the ping things catalogue have kindly and generously agreed to donate all earnings (excluding shipping and taxes) from sales of their CDs through ping things for the remainder of September to the American Red Cross to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina. If you were thinking of buying some new music, now is the time to do so as the money you spend will be used to help others in this time of need. http://www.pingthings.com There are people affected by Hurricane Katrina that desperately require our assistance. Making a purchase at ping things this month is one way that you can help them. Alternatively, if you'd like to pursue help in other ways, please visit http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/katrina/help.center/ where CNN has collected a comprehensive list of charities and organizations that are helping out. Please look inside your heart and give generously. rik maclean - rik@pingthings.com http://www.pingthings.com = ambient + electronic + chill things Send an e-mail to pingthings-subscribe@yahoogroups.com for updates on *all* the latest releases on sale at ping things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . THE AMBiENT PiNG is a social sound/art event presenting live performances by Toronto's finest ambient, chillout, improv and experimental music artists plus performers from across the continent, every Tuesday evening at HACiENDA - 794 Bathurst Street at Bloor. http://www.theambientping.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Please forward this e-mail to any friends who may be interested in live ambient, chillout and experimental music performances or to any of your appropriate newsgroups. Thanks.