A collection of instrumental recordings made between 2004 and 2005. 'Elements' and 'Sonny' are straight forward guitar pieces, but elsewhere there's ambient music ('Lonely Spaceship', 'Elegy'), solo accordion numbers ('Wait Until Morning', 'Stephanie's Eyes') and stuff even I don't know how to classify ('Displacement', 'Waves').
All the songs were written by me except for 'Lonely Spaceship', which was created through morphing samples of unusual instruments I found on www.oddmusic.com
A big, big thank you to Snoogans for designing the cover, please check out his wonderful music here: http://snoogans.dmusic.com
And more of my music can be downloaded at http://simonw.dmusic.com
Simon
Update 20/06/06 - I have changed the license to permit artists to alter, transform and remix the album at the gentle behest of my friend Gurdonark.
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Reviewer:FNH - - December 31, 2008 Subject: Free Audio Review Another accidental find here at the Archive, but a very plesant one. The ambient nature of these tracks appealed great deal to me, and I'm cutting these to a CD right now. A loverly set to listen to while reading.
http://FreeAudioReview.blogspot.com
Reviewer:gurdonark - - March 13, 2006 Subject: A Solid Mix of Diverse Genres In Songs without Words, Volume 1, Simon Waldram presents a set of pieces which differ a good bit from one another stylistically, and yet make a pleasing whole.
The collection starts off with "Kari Poise", a simple and appealing bit of insubstantial melodic ambient pop.
The second song, "Elements" is a pleasing near-ambient bit of guitar pop--its sedate exploration of its themes is quite appealing.
"Wait Until Morning" uses the accordion to good and unexpected effect---this is no shanty song or Welk anthem or rollicking ranchera, but instead an almost organ-like quite piece--informed, once again, by ambient music, but a melodic thing unto itself.
"Lonely Spaceship" suffers from a rather workaday title, but the song itself is pleasant minimalist dark ambient.
Perhaps the strongest piece in the set is "Elegy (Reconstructed)" which captures its theme without being too "been there, done that".
"Sonny" is a solid guitar piece, but perhaps less exploratory than the other works on this album.
"Stephanie's Eyes" is a simple electronica melody, short and pleasant.
"Waves" is a fascinating piece, crossing that unguarded border from minimalist dark ambient to quiet melodic noise--a great juxtaposition with the other pieces on this instrumental album.
The ending track, "Pulling Us Together" is a stately ambient melody, with some curious samples in the background. It makes a nice closing piece for an interesting work, shimmering quietly off into the sunset.
This album is a solid, good way to spend a half an hour. It's consistently interesting and never annoying.
As a reviewer, the only issue is "how many stars". The early pieces in this album, while all pleasing, pale next to the more experimental pieces which strongly close the album. Although it has a few sound level issues that almost cause me to set "4 stars", the effective closing pieces run me up to 5 stars.
I do offer the criticism that this work is licensed with "no derivatives", when I think that Mr. Waldram and those who listen to his work would be best served by a license which permits remixes.
If one only wishes to hear "folk record" or "minimal dark ambience" or "noise" or "Hendrix-derived guitar solos", but never wishes to hear them all in one collection, then this may not be the ideal download.
If one sees all these genres as one continuum, as I do, this is an enjoyable collection indeed.
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