Shane Morris - Train.To.Knowhere (Just Not Normal, 2010)

01 Train.to.Knowhere
02 Train departs [field recording]

One of the thriving forces behind the electro-music scenery and it’s quarterly marathons is quickly becoming the illusive and flamboyant releaser of sounds to hold dear. With albums on Earth Mantra and EdP (forgive me if I’m wrong on this one) the reputation of this usually live performing longtracker has now reached the outer realms of Just not Normal territory.
Why you may ask is such the case; Well Shane besides his love for the synthetic also has a growing love for the useage of field recordings. There was the ‘No Labels No Music’ compilation album recently on EdP that was initiated by Shane on the electro-music.com forum for one. But Shane will not stop there, nor with this release right here.
Train.to.Knowhere starts of with one of Shane’s own field recordings and from that builds into an hour long epilogue. One that captures your attention; so much so that if you aren’t paying enough attention, you might just miss the train…
Just Not Normal

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Shane Morris & Dan Minoza - The Ritual Space (Earth Mantra, 2010)

1 Ritual Observances
2 Chandrakantha

In July of 2010, we were privileged to be part of an intimate electronic music gathering held in Kansas City in the USA. Called the 2010 Kansas City Regional Electro-Music Festival, this event attracted ambient and electronic artists from all around the United States, who met for a few brief days to share music and art, collaboration and camaraderie.

Amongst the live performances, demos, and lectures put on by the various participants, two ambient artists who had never played together before presented a multi-hour ambient performance of great depth and beauty. Shane Morris and Dan Minoza were those two artists, and this beautiful album, entitled The Ritual Space, is a gorgeous excerpt from that singular live concert.

Only the fact that we were in the audience during this performance makes it easy for us to accept that this recording is live, uncut, and improvised in real time with no overdubs or edits by two artists who had never before made a single note of music together. What you hear in this recording is exactly what the audience heard that day. Indeed, the music of this album calls to the listener in a way that few ambient pieces can, inviting the hearer to fully participate and immerse themselves in the sonic space that the artists have so lovingly crafted. Our belief is that this recording would stand tall amongst nearly any collection of studio pieces, but as a live performance we are simply blown away.

So many facets of this music deserve comment, but we will point out just a few of the highlights that we found so irresistible. Firstly, we found Dan's use of the extended-range Warr guitar to be revelatory. He plays the instrument with a remarkably deft and gentle touch, and his processing of the sounds carried us softly as if on a cloud. Shane's tasteful keyboard work complemented Dan's guitar masterfully, but we particularly enjoyed his use of percussion and bowed gong to create otherworldly sound textures. Shane is a multi-instrumentalist in the truest sense of the word, and it was quite inspiring to see his performance in the flesh. Finally, we must add that during their performance, a light thunderstorm developed right over the performance venue. Snug and warm inside, the audience was treated to both the exquisite music of this talented duo as well as the music of nature falling upon the roof of the indoor venue. We cannot imagine a more apt setting for such magnificent music, an experience we will treasure always.

So it is our profound honor to present to you The Ritual Space, the live concert by Dan Minoza and Shane Morris. We hope to hear much more from these two masters of the ambient form again in the future.
Earth Mantra

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Shane Morris - Premonition (Earth Mantra, 2010)

01 Premonition 58:14

We have often mentioned how much we enjoy meeting new artists, one of the true joys of running a netlabel. But we enjoy just as much welcoming back artists who have already released with us, and love presenting new works by these folks to our audience. Such is our pleasure today, as we introduce the latest release by ambient multi-instrumentalist Shane Morris, entitled Premonition.

Like Shane's previous Earth Mantra title Magnetosphere, Premonition is live music, a recording of a piece Shane performed in real time on March 25, 2010, with no editing or overdubs. Also like his previous release, this album showcases Shane's powerful live performance chops. Listening to the music, one easily forgets that the artist is composing all music and generating all sounds as the music commences. Having witnessed Shane's performances in person, we can attest to his singular talent at delivering majestic and effortless live ambient music. He is truly a master of the art.

This performance is no exception. The music drifts along lazily through placid sound worlds, punctuated at careful intervals with shakers, light percussion, and various otherworldly instruments. As always, Shane designs sounds of immaculate beauty, layering and interleaving them in perfect balance, with never so much that it overwhelms, but with never so little that one loses the thread of the piece. We find particularly remarkable how seamlessly the individual components of this work dovetail. One understands, while listening, how deeply Shane understands the ambient form, and how broadly he sees the forest while focusing on the trees. Simply exceptional work.

On his web site, Shane lists no influences we can find, but we would hazard a guess that Steve Roach figures prominently among them. To us, this particular recording strongly evokes some of Roach's softer, more enigmatic longform pieces, with all the mystery and delicious abstraction that implies. But this is no mere Roach emulation; Shane's musical voice shines clearly through, an aesthetic that honors the masters that have come before while charting new directions forward. We would go so far as to say that Shane takes up the mantle that Roach has given us and yet guides us to wholly new realms and vistas unique to his own point of view. Astonishing music.

So we are truly honored to be bringing the work of Shane Morris to our listeners and could not be more excited to unveil Premonition, Shane's sophomore Earth Mantra title. May it be only the latest of many more releases to come in the future. Highly, highly recommended.
Earth Mantra

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