By Chvad SB, on June 1st, 2015 An album cover displaying a drawing of a little pooch looking lost and worried in a post-nuclear landscape (by cartoonist Richard Sala) sets you up for a bad time from the get-go. And Crickets Were the Compass does indeed open by howling like an air raid siren, with lone guitar notes seeking somewhere to flee. […]
By Chvad SB, on April 26th, 2015 Some strangely affecting moments on Chvad SB’s Crickets Were The Compass (SILBER RECORDS NO NUMBER). This American experimental droner has been active for over 20 years with his band and solo work. Here he works against the trend towards “lushness” in ambient electronica, and his empty-stage pulsations and eerie bleak tones hint at inner darkness […]
By Chvad SB, on December 3rd, 2014 The cover art of Crickets Were The Compass depicts beautifully in ink and watercolour a grainy, post-apocalyptic landscape strewn with grim, colourless debris. A solitary dog stands in the foreground, dolefully glancing about; after an unspecified disaster, life has inevitably found a way. As much is reinforced by brief elaborations upon each of the tracks’ […]
By Chvad SB, on December 1st, 2014 Chvad SB knows what it means to be harsh. On Crickets Were The Compass Chvad SB makes sure to keep things distorted. Everything filters through a similar sound of slow collapse like at any moment true hell could be potentially unleashed. Thanks to Chvad SB’s idea of restraint this never quite happens. Instead the pieces […]
By Chvad SB, on November 18th, 2014 En seis canciones Chvad SB establece un tono de mal humor lleno de vibraciones misteriosas que en su mayoría son inquietantes y a veces, melódicas. Los paisajes sonoros cuentan una historia. Sobre todo un sutil zumbido establece el tono, mientras que los sonidos posteriores parecen como el de las películas de terror. Creando una corriente […]
By Chvad SB, on October 24th, 2014 Musiker und Label schätzen sich. Keine Selbstverständlichkeit. Das Menschliche, so der Info-Text weiter, stehe in seiner Musik genauso im Vordergrund wie das Akustische. Und dann: Die Veröffentlichung beinhalte ein Testament des Verlusts und beschäftige sich mit lieb gewonnenen Erinnerungen und wie diese loszulassen seien.
Ich verstehe nicht, warum ein Mensch das als handelnde […]
By Chvad SB, on October 3rd, 2014 “Uses for Insects and Magnetic Fields”Silber Media, 2014Review by Kent Manthie
Out now, on the Silber Media label, run by Brian Silber, Chvad SB’s newest disc is Crickets Were the Compass, the third album he’s put out under his own moniker, as opposed to the various projects with which he’s been involved since back in […]
By Chvad SB, on September 29th, 2014 ENG: I’m constantly moved by the cover for “Crickets Were The Compass”. A cartoon of a dog staring wistfully into the distance, waiting for his master, who’ll probably never come – there is something both touching and depressing in this picture. The background is kept in gray tones presenting an apocalyptic scenery, and this poor […]
By Chvad SB, on September 17th, 2014 Genre/Influences: Dark-ambient, apocalyptic soundscape.
Content: If Chvad SB doesn’t directly ring a bell; some bands this American artist has been involved in have become quite renowned and established bands. Controlled Bleeding even belongs to the so-called pioneers and references in industrial/experimental music, but Chvad SB got also involved in The Qualia (signed on WTII Records), […]
By Chvad SB, on September 12th, 2014 Ils l’ont fait, oui Charles toi qui frappait du poing contre le sable face à une statue de la liberté enfoncée dans le sable, la mer commençant son long office de destruction par l’érosion. La bombe a donné à l’homme ce qu’il voulait, un souffle nouveau, sauf que le souffle a le bruit sourd d’un […]
By Chvad SB, on September 9th, 2014 Chvad SB maakt al dik twintig jaar muziek/geluid voor films. Niet dat het op een soundtrack terechtkomt, daarvoor is het meestal te abstract, te ongemakkelijk, te discordant & discomforting zoals velen het noemen. Deze keer is er alsnog een pak geluid geregistreerd en als Crickets Were the Compass op de markt gebracht.
De veelheid aan […]
By Chvad SB, on September 9th, 2014 Verwijmeren debuteert (www.softcorridor.net) met een plaat die nauw verwant klinkt met zijn familienaam. Levend en ademend in Delft en afgestudeerd fysicus reist hij reeds jarenlang met het openbaar vervoer, meestal voor lange afstanden en dus voor een langere tijdsduur. Dan kijkt een mens door het raam en gaat aan het nadenken, aan het mijmeren en […]
By Chvad SB, on September 9th, 2014 It might be the case that Chvad SB was on the radar of the Creative Ellipse record label, but fact remain that this innovative and progressive one man project has extremely little to do with metal in general. When I say Things Outside The Skin, Tongue Muzzle, The Qualia and the pioneers of this genre […]
By Chvad SB, on September 3rd, 2014 Up to this point in time Chvad SB is probably best known as a former member of the bands Things Outside The Skin, Tongue Muzzle, The Qualia, and Controlled Bleeding (he also runs the record label Facility). Crickets Were The Compass is the third album released under his own name. Chvad has had ties to […]
By Chvad SB, on August 31st, 2014 Holy living God, this is probably the worst album cover we’ve ever seen. So bad, in fact, it’s the sole reason this album didn’t get a perfect score. Now, hey, hey now, wait up, we love the music, but it deserved something better! Something with this much value musically needs a proper visual representation. In […]
By Chvad SB, on August 28th, 2014 Auf dem Cover steht ein naiv gemalter Hund in zerbombter Stadtlandschaft. Vor ihm liegt ein Ball. Über die Schulter sucht der Hund womöglich den Blickkontaktzu seinem Menschlein, um ihm den Ball zu bringen – wobei dort wohl kein Menschchen mehr ist. So wenig bedrohlich die Szene wirkt, so wenig scheint der dunkle Ambient-Sound wirklich beunruhigend.
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By Chvad SB, on August 11th, 2014 Het hoesje van dit album toont een tekening van een troosteloos landschap met kapotte huizen, dode bomen en een hoop afval en op de voorgrond een eenzaam en wat triest kijkende hondje. Het heeft iets lieflijk en onheilspellend tegelijk. De muziek klinkt vooral onheilspellend en desolaat en even post-apocalyptisch als het landschap op de hoes. […]
By Chvad SB, on August 11th, 2014 Though new to me, Chvad SB has been in action for over 20 years as a recording artist, scoring films, and a member of Controlled Bleeding.
Chvad SB has a flair for bringing together experimental and pleasantly accessible sound elements to create hauntingly minimal yet strangely melodic, image inducing soundtracks for the mind. The opening […]
By Chvad SB, on August 11th, 2014 Početak karijere ovog bruklinškog muzičara seže u 1991. godinu, a prema pres materijalima bio je osnivač experimentalnih i industrial bendova kao što su THINGS OUTSIDE THE SKIN (Facility Records) and Tongue Muzzle (Facility Records) i član bendova Controlled Bleeding i The Qualia (WTII Records). Također, osnivač je i Facility Recordsa. Kad nije sudjelovao u gomili […]
By Chvad SB, on August 11th, 2014 Bei Chvad SB geht es experimentell zur Sache, wenn er auf seinem neuen Album „Crickets Were The Compass“ mit modularen Synthesizern, gefundenen Objekten, selbstgebauten Instrumenten und ein wenig Gitarre neue Sounds kreiert, die insgesamt einen Ambient-Drone-Cocktail ergeben, der nicht gerade gefällig wegzuschlürfen ist.
Die teils improvisierten Stücke entziehen sich jeglicher Songstruktur. Oszillierende Klangteppiche und sich […]
By Chvad SB, on July 15th, 2014 Der aus Brooklyn stammende Musiker Chvad SB stellt die Hörerschaft mit seinem Album Crickets Were The Compass auf eine recht harte Probe. Gewohnte Songstrukturen, wiederkehrenden Themen und oder gar Melodiebögen, dies alles gibt es auf Crickets Were The Compass nicht zu hören. Stattdessen werden ruhige soundtrackartige Klänge auf die Ohren der Hörer losgelassen. In diesen […]
By Chvad SB, on July 15th, 2014 Chvad SB, in his latest, Crickets were the Compass, follows Brain Eno’s On Land dicta far more cogently than most, then gets spacefaced and even Can-rocks a bit. The Dust Cloud Permeates is a prime example of this, dark and subtle, moving in layers, cross-stitching modalities. Anyone with half a wit knows Satie’s ‘furniture music’ […]
By Chvad SB, on July 15th, 2014 Der Musiker ist im Bereich von Industrial, Drone, Ambient und Noise erfahren. CHVAD SB war Initiator oder zumindest Teil von Gruppen wie Things Outside The Skin, Tongue Muzzle, Controlled Bleeding und The Qualia. Seit 1991 versucht er sich in verschiedenen Konstellationen und Stilen, um neuartige, düstere Klangwelten zu erschaffen. „Crickets Were The Compass“ ist die […]
By Chvad SB, on July 11th, 2014 CHVAD SB ist ein Künstler, der schon seit einigen Jahren im Ambient, in der Filmmusik und im experimentellen Sound unterwegs ist und dabei verschiedene Projekte unterhält und unterhalten hat. Zudem ist er seit 2012 auch im Dunstkreis der neu formierten CONTROLLED BLEEDING unterwegs. Mit „Crickets Were The Compass“ legt er nun ein Album vor, das […]
By Chvad SB, on July 10th, 2014 It’s a dog’s life, so what’s the hurry?
In another remarkable coincidence regarding the luck of the draw for our CD reviews (live events seldom work out that way except hearing three performances of Beethoven’s Overture to Lenora No.3 in Ottawa within the span of a few days in the ‘70s), how curious indeed to […]
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