From the 25th March 2009 Improvione gig. This piece was shaping up quite nicely when Mike's RE-20 Space Echo pedal had a catastrophic failure and started producing a nasty click followed by screaming feedback - and not the good kind. Trumpeter Simon Taylor carried on gamely while Mike and I discussed what was going on but in the end we gave up on it and took a break while Mike reconfigured his pedals. Since Andy therefore probably won't be using this section as an Improvizone.com download, I thought it was fair game to edit up into a Darkroom podcast. Oh, fake wind and real wind? The real wind is obviously the trumpet. The fake wind is my Akai EWI (making its debut appearance) which is making the cello noises. Copyright 2009 Darkroom.

spaceechofail

Music

Another bass clarinet and guitar duet, rehearsing for our two Tuesdays Post gigs at the start of November. Recorded in rehearsal, 29th October 2014. Photo credit https://www.flickr.com/photos/balladist/2409358994. Copyright 2014 Darkroom.

once proud eyes

maid of stone

A sampler of Darkroom's album Gravity's Dirty Work - a continuous edit from the tracks
- strung with black nylon
- baby armageddon
- karhupuisto / beautiful retreat
- a pair a part

The album is available on CD, double heavyweight vinyl or digital download from
http://darkroomtheband.bandcamp.com/album/gravitys-dirty-work

"The Darkroom duo of Michael Bearpark (No-Man, Henry Fool) and Andrew Ostler (Expert Sleepers) return with their first double album.

"Begun as an exploration of early 90's electronica and its many sources, the album developed from extended improvisations through meticulous editing, layering and post-production into a coherent and timeless suite.

"The trademark blurring of guitars, synthesiser and found sounds moves from the heavenly Beck meets Talk Talk atmospherics of Karhupuisto / Beautiful Retreat through apocalyptic foot-on-monitor fuzz mayhem at the end of the title track before closing with the eloquent scandinavian jazz-electronica fusion of A Pair A Part.

"Also featuring Andrew Booker (No-Man, Henry Fool, Sanguine Hum) on percussion and Simon H. Fell (Keith Tippett, Derek Bailey, Lol Coxhill) on double bass, the album is mastered for all formats by Jon Astley (The Who, George Harrison, Tori Amos).

"Artwork by the inimitable Carl Glover."

Copyright 2013 Darkroom.

Gravity's Dirty Work album sampler

A rehearsal recording from July 2013. This was intended to be the ambient start and ambient end of a 30 minute set, which would get noiser in the middle. The loopfest was to be the debut of Os's bass clarinet, and indeed this recording is the first published Darkroom recording featuring the bass clarinet. Let us know if you like it. Copyright 2013 Darkroom.

grey skies thinking

An excerpt from a rehearsal for Darkroom's forthcoming gig at Tuesdays Post. We were mainly testing that we could sync Mike's Timefactor pedal with the laptop, which generates the loop that you hear through most of this piece. The drums are from the modular. The bassline was added afterwards in the studio, by recording a clarinet loop and then tracking its pitch and envelope (using Silent Way Follower), and using that to drive the modular (in a lower octave). Copyright 2013 Darkroom.

spaceechofail

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