Was The Year That Was 2013: The Tune
I can’t seem to do those end of year lists. Too much work. I can’t bear to trawl back through all of this year’s posts to work out a list. So, I usually end up with three tracks. This year I found myself head-scratching as no tune had really grabbed me. Then I realised why. This year, the tune of the year is not a track but a mix. And the runner up wasn’t a tune but an album. Go figure.
My tune of the year is the Synesthetes Museum mix by Max Cooper, which I described somewhat inarticulately as a “conceptual cracker“. It’s a musical walk round the British Museum and the diversity, breadth of vision and care of its creation is breath-taking.
Max said “The brief for this mix was to make something inspired by an architectural space. When I was doing my Post-Doc at UCL I used to go the British Museum to relax, and work in the beautiful library there, so I chose the space for the mix. I wanted to capture the ambient atmosphere in the central courtyard, so I did some binaural recording to include in the mix. I also wanted to make the mix something of an exploration through history and ideas in line with the contents of the museum, so I brought in lots of disparate music spanning the centuries and continents. I also mixed it in a way to be like a journey though the museum, turning corners and regularly coming across something totally different and unexpected, with each track being like a different exhibit. Hence the name of the mix, in that, each piece of music almost has a visual content.”
And it’s still available for free download
The runner up, kind of inevitably, is Ukkonen’s The Ancient Tonalities of… (review here). Another conceptual piece. This took in early music in tradition to bring an album of warm organic ambient to which I’ve returned over and over. I said “Finnish recluse Ukkonen has produced another masterpiece.” I’ve no cause to change that view now.
Have this mix Ukkonen did for Hyp157 which blends sources and tracks from the album into a 30 min free download
And order yourself the album here.
