Your download will start in few seconds...
If it doesn't, click this link
http://media.sonicsquirrel.net/zymogen/zym015/zym015_sky_diary_edits.zip
or choose a different mirror.
zym015
- Sky Diary Edits
07/03/2007
Everything started when Sky Diaries, the original EP by young fellow Fred Baty a.k.a. Crepusculum, was released at 12rec. in December 2006. It was a five song EP comprised solely of incredible acoustic music, composed with a guitar and some decent electronic enhancements. His music left me completely stunned and I immediately thought that the pureness of Fred's guitar-play would be a fantastic inspiration in the hands of electronic musicians.
From both Zymogen and 12rec., several names came up. We were lucky enough to receive enthusiastic responses from both sides as well as from artists of other great labels such as EKO, Rain Music, Autoplate, Standard Klik Music and Nexsound. In the end there were so many great tracks that we decided to assemble two different playlists; one for the digital EP, downloadable for free on Zymogen, and one for the amazing handmade CDr-LP available at the 12rec. webshop, both with exclusive remixes and artwork.
Many artists took part in the project, adding their personal touch to every single Crepusculum track. These include Tupolev bassist and sound-artist Alexandr Vatagin, Darren McClure, Engine7, Emil Klotzsch & Raimund Sudermann, Bluermutt, Letna, Alexandre Navarro, Ibakusha, The Love Songs, Heezen, Koutaro Fukui, GoGooo and the Netaudio legend Marsen Jules who contributed different remixes for both the album and the EP.
What is particularly incredible about Sky Diary Edits is how the different interpretations of the same source fit together. Every musician deconstructed Fred's guitar as if to get closer to the original melancholia of his melodies. This is particularly evident in pieces by Darren McClure, Klotzsch & Sudermann, Letna and GoGooo. Certain musicians chose to completely turn the tracks inside out in order to give a new feel such as Heezen and Bluermutt. The album serves as a vital constituent of the whole as it completes the EP with some of the best remixes of the entire project, namely by Klotzsch & Sudermann, Koutaro Fukui, The Love Songs and GoGooo… absolutely unmissable!
Filippo Aldovini
Artwork
Download
Track List:
- 01. Alexandr Vatagin - End Of the Community
- 02. Darren McClure - A Sheltered Life - Hazuka mix
- 03. Engine7 - Anachronism - Twilight mix
- 04. Letna - Les Couleurs
- 05. Bluermutt - #FFCC33
- 06. Ibakusha - Covalent Bond
- 07. Heezen - Crashed Cars
- 08. Marsen Jules - A Sheltered Life
Artwork:
Download ZIP file from zymogen.
General Info:
-Crepusculum is Fred Baty
-The album version contains 5 exclusive remixes by The Love Songs, Alexandre Navarro, Klotzsch & Sudermann, Koutaro Fukui, Gogooo and Marsen Jules.
License:
Music:
© Alexandr Vatagin, Darren McClure, Engine7, Letna, Bluermutt, Ibakusha, Heezen, Marsen Jules
© Zymogen, 12rec.
Cover Artwork:
© Laurent Batailley
© Zymogen
This work (audio tracks, cover, text) is licensed under a creative commons license.
Stream
Podcast:
Get standard podcast:
Get iTunes podcast:
Play Here:
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Reviews for this release
I have been a long time fan of the 12rec label. All their releases are short run CDR pressings with simultaneous MP3 and printable artwork (which are always beautifully designed) file downloads available. I will confess that, in spite of good intentions, I have never actually sent money across to support by buying a hard copy of any of the releases. Receiving this one as a free review copy has, of course, upped the guilt quotient so, alongside buying some things for myself, I will highly recommend everyone else do the same! One of the key features of the label is its lack of genre focus. While left-field electronica and folktronic sounds do appear regularly, anything that takes the label’s fancy gets a look in, and the quality is consistently high.
This particular release is no exception. In conjunction with Zymogen, who have looked after the downloadable side of things for this one, comes a collection of remixes of work from Crepusculum’s earlier Sky Diaries EP. It’s a remarkably cohesive collection with all 12 remixers picking the strengths out of Fred Baty’s original recordings and working them into a group of enigmatic, evocative, downbeat mood pieces. Engine 7 rides a simple chord and melody progression for 6 minutes of attention holding prettiness in ‘Anachronism (Twilight Mix)’. Bluermutt cut and pastes a couple of simple acoustic guitar riffs and frames them in delicate processed percussion. In fact, glitchy rhythms and Baty’s acoustic guitar are the dominant features of the album. Heezen works them in to a relative frenzy in ‘Crashed Cars’ and The Love Songs mix them with intimate sax samples. GoGooo uses his contemplative looping and delaying techniques to their usual stunning effect. Adding to the sense of unity across the album is the way they have been edited together with field recordings and drone washes overlapping the endings and beginnings of tracks. But ultimately, the strength of the work lies in the melodic grab of even the simplest structures, intrinsic to Baty’s originals.
What more can be said but to head to Zymogen and download the release or, better still, support 12rec by actually sending (a relatively tiny amount of) money to them for a hard copy?
Cyclic Defrost / 24 Dec 2007
Atmospheric ambient electronica of the subtlest kind, Sky Diary Edits re-works a five-song 2006 EP by Fred Baty aka Crepusculum (Latin for 'sundown') into a dozen variations by a coterie of electronic artists. The original release, Sky Diaries, largely features acoustic music composed with a guitar and some electronic enhancements (available, incidentally, as a free download at the 12rec. site); the new versions, predictably, expand upon that formula with less restrictive arrangements.
Differences in artistic temperament and approach are camouflaged by seamless transitions that bridge one piece to the next; consequently, ambient sections naturally merge with song-styled treatments. Slivers of guitar fireworks generate subtle hues in Letna's "Les Couleurs" that flow into Alexandre Navarro's gently flickering "Visage" and the robust folktronica of Engine7's "Anachronism (Twilight Mix)". The lovely Rhodes melody in Alexandr Vatagin's "End of the Community" re-appears elsewhere, acting like a leitmotif to help unify the album, while the shimmering acoustic loops of Koutaro Fukui's "Sakura" could pass for a Steve Reich homage. Deftly sustaining a marvelously controlled mood throughout, Klotzsch & Sudermann sculpt eleven evocative minutes of delicate, glistening atmosphere in "Missing Sheep", after which Marsen Jules brings the collection to a graceful close with the hypnotic lull of "A Sheltered Life Reprise". Though most of the contributors' names will be largely unfamiliar outside of a small, close-knit community, the quality of the material is certainly credible enough, if sometimes somewhat unassuming in character.
Textura.org / 31 Oct 2007
Some netlabels decided to get together, published and released two albums of remixes. These collections of remixes are inspired by two artists, Crepusculum and Arrial and are being remixed in post-production by various artists.
One release is called ‘the Sky Diaries Edits’, co-released bij 12rec and Zymogen. This collection of remixes is inspired by Crepusculum (Fred Baty).
'Sky Diary Edits' is really quite thrilling, the musicality of the original tracks of being remixed into the extraordinary beautiful. Where the original album by Crepusculum was totally acoustical guitar based, in the remix version the taped noises, clicks and added instruments do contribute in making a truly lucid and meditative gesture.
[...]
Jmdkm.blog / 29 Sep 2007
Zymogen è l'etichetta con il sito più bello della rete (ok, magari esagero, ma è davvero bello). É italiana ma pubblica prevalentemente artisti stranieri. Non è 'del giro di...' nessuno, ossia non ha particolari affiliazioni con altre realtà nostrane. Non mi risulta che sia particolarmente famosa. Fa anche cose bizzarre, come collaborare con un'etichetta - altrettanto impeccabile dal punto di vista grafico e stilistico, la 12 Rec - che pubblica in CD-R questo disco.
Ecco. Questo per cominciare a contestualizzare "Sky Diary Edits", dall'aspetto curatissimo e dalla musica raffinata ed accattivante. La storia da cui nasce è piuttosto comune: un EP, nella fattispecie quello dell'inglese Fred Baty/Crepusculum (già su 12 Rec), finisce nelle mani di un amante dell'elettronica, Filippo Aldovini/Zymogen, il quale pensa che le dolci ballate folk del londinese potrebbero diventare materiale molto interessante nelle mani di sapienti musicisti elettronici. Ecco che ne vengono reclutati tredici di varie provenienze, ed al loro talento viene affidata la musica di Crepusculum. L'operazione, come già detto, non brilla per fantasia, sebbene il doppio formato in cui viene pubblicata (un EP online scaricabile grauitamente sotto creative commons ed un CD-R acquistabile con quattro tracce in più, ma in cui alcuni remix sono differenti) sia abbastanza bizzarro, per non dire intricato (mentre scrivo mi rendo conto che online è disponibile un brano che sul CD-R non c'è), la musica scorre gradevole e, incredibilmente, omogenea. Dove il demerito del disco sta, per quel che mi riguarda, in questa complessa combinazione di remix presenti o meno sui due dischi, il pregio (ed è ciò che più conta, torno a ripeterlo) sta nella musica, che riesce a mantenere un equilibrio notevole tra il rispetto dell'originale e la creatività dei singoli artisti/remixers creando una stabile atmosfera generale, tanto da farlo sembrare opera di una persona sola. Certo molto del merito a questo punto va a chi ha selezionato i personaggi in questione, i quali hanno saputo creare un'interessante amalgama che pesca tra l'elettronica pacata dei primi Manitoba/Caribou e le sperimentazioni à la 12k (forse fin troppo presa ad esempio), passando per i doverosi suoni acustici originali folk-pop, saccheggiati e riasseblati con sapienza melodica e ritmica, talvolta in granulizzazioni degne del Fennesz del celebratissimo "Endless Summer". Niente di nuovo, ma in definitiva un disco che si fa ascoltare molto volentieri e che spinge all'approfondimento delle opere dei singoli musicisti, tra i quali qui segnalo in particolare Bluermutt e Klotzsch & Sudermann, per mero gusto mio autori dei due brani che prediligo.
Sands-zine / 13 Sep 2007
La Zymogen è una netlabel italiana da sempre impegnata a produrre musica di altissima qualità, rivestendole con eleganti covers e preziose note di accompagnamento.
Siamo arrivati alla quindicesima uscita e il discorso si fa ancor più interessante: "Sky Diary Edits" è un lavoro corale di remixaggio operato da varie menti elettroniche tra cui l'amatissimo Marsen Jules sulla base di un acustic-work a firma Crepusculum uscito tempo addietro su 12rec.
Inutile dirvi che il risultato è pura poesia digitale che si nutre degli infiniti impalpabili arpeggi di una sei corde silenziosamente suonata da un timido e triste alieno innamorato.
Mp3 imperdibilmente emotivo da usarsi in caso di prolungato viaggio introspettivo.
8/10
Mirco Salvadori / Rockerilla / 09 Sep 2007
Au départ, il y a un ep signé Fred Baty sous le nom de Crepusculum, sorti en 2006 sur 12rec. 5 titres composés à la guitare autour de laquelle viennent s’ajouter des sonorités electronica fines et délicates. Le résultat est assez splendide et touche la sensibilité de Filippo Aldovini du label Zymogen qui décide de confier ce matériel sonore de grande qualité à différents musiciens électroniciens pour des relecture ou des recompositions.
Le résultat donne quelque chose de très réussi, où l’on voit des gens tels que Alexandr Vatagin, Darren McClure, Marsen Jules ou Letna se réapproprier les parties de guitares de Crepusculum avec beaucoup d’à-propos. Au total 8 titres d’electronica rêveuse, riche de douces mélodies dont Fred Baty ne peut être que très fier.
Si les 8 titres vous ont séduit, il est possible de commander la version longue 12 titres, sous format cd-r, pour 6 euros sur le label 12rec.
Ondefixe / 13 Jul 2007
Zymogen nos presenta una propuesta de gran calidad, ocho artistas interpretan y reconstruyen la esencia de las melodías tomadas de la guitarra de Fred Baty, el compositor original.
La versión física del álbum incluye cinco remixes y un exquisito diseño gráfico.
Netlabels & News / 06 Jul 2007
Después de algunos meses de diálogos el netlabel zymogen se alía con 12rec para crear este proyecto titulado "sky diary edits". Todo empezó con el ep titulado "sky diary" publicado en 12rec, una música que mezclaba sonidos de guitarra e instrumentos acústicos con exquisita electrónica, música delicada ideal para estar en un buen sofá relajado…
En este "sky diary edits" han juntado a varios artistas de los mejores netlabels del estilo (eko, rain, autoplate…) para crear esta recopilación con ocho temas del ya mencionado estilo.
A parte de esta referencia gratuïta en zymogen podemos comprar la version en cd desde la web de 12rec, que contiene 5 remixes adicionales.
Oír para creer / 05 Jul 2007