Mystified Music

Thomas, while cleaning out his desk,  came across some vintage AutoCad / PanMuse material– the original data sheets used to create Our Skies Radio and other PanMuse music.

The idea was to use natural or astronomical data tables as sources for actual notes, or as seeds for several generative processes as mapped out in Algo-Arts software.

This was the work that landed Thomas in “Spin” Magazine. And every now and then, someone comissions one of the vintage pieces (usually “Our Skies 1″ or “Our Skies 2″) for use in a documentary.

The roots of this whole thing were easy to hold in Thomas’ hand– about 50 time-stained sheets of data tables.

Incidentally, Thomas used his methods from 2000-2001 to create a short soundtrack for a fractal animation last night. More information on this forthcoming.

Mystified is really excited about some of the releases coming down the pipe. In November, among other things, will be a split tape from Elite Tapes ( www.elitetapes.com ) featuring C.P. McDill’s project Tree Helicopter on one side and mystified on the other. Also due out is a 3″ cdr of atmospheric tracks by mystified on Industrial Culture Records, featuring an original piece of glitch art on the cover supplied by the talented Mark Jondahl ( www.markjondahl.com ). These are just 2 of many release coming out very soon. So stay tuned!

Some folks may wonder what the “Wizards Preview”  link (in the sidebar) stands for. Longtime friend and collaborator Plexus Instruments ( www.plexusinstruments.com ) is teaming up with mystified for a split release. Planned are 2 longform pieces, each 30 minutes in length.

The current agenda is to release the pieces both online as a NetRelease and on a special surround-sound dvd. Work has begun on this project, and it is expected to be ready in late 2007 or early 2008.

More information will be, of course, available here.

Are you a Last FM user? Many people seem to enjoy this site. It is free for the basic service, and it allows people to create playlists of their favorite music, tag the music according to descriptive labels, and meet other people with similar (or even different) musical tastes.

Many mystified pieces are available at Last FM, for free streaming. There is even a free video. Mystified’s page is here: http://www.last.fm/music/Mystified .

 Thomas of mystified is also a user of Last FM. If you join and want to “friend” him, for updates and musical recommendations, he is here: http://www.last.fm/user/mystified13/ .

Mystified is not officially affiliated with Last FM, nor do we make any money from referrals. Thomas just wanted to share an interesting site / service.

I just wanted to spend a moment in appreciation of the talented Sandy Spreitz. Sandy is a California-based multi-genre artist. He has contributed many dozens of original images for mystified releases, such as “Think Cosmically, Act Locally” and “The Synthetic Room”. An example of Sandy’s art can be found on the “Some Images” page (see the sidebar).

Sandy is as friendly as he is talented. His visual contributions have helped to shape the overall presentation of much of Thomas’ work. Sandy, here’s to you.

Hello there! A new music video, in the form of a slide show, is available. The video is set to mystified’s song, “The Many”. Images are from various projects from the past 3 years. The video is only about 2 minutes long– short but sweet.

You can see it here:

http://www.myspace.com/mystified

A new song is up for streaming at mystified’s Myspace page: “Lunar Drone”.

The track is deep, dark and spooky for October. Feel free to check it out!

http://www.myspace.com/mystified

Mystified wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for coming by the new website. So far, website activity has been strong, and folks have been dropping by from all kinds of locations.

One of the main reasons for this new site was to get away from the old Flash-powered site. There were complaints about the old site, and several reliable people recommended a change.

 My musical friend K.M. Krebs (see links) updated his site with a platform called “Wordpress”. I really liked the appearance and workability of his site, so I looked into doing the same.

So far, I am very pleased. And it is nice that there is the possiblity for more interaction here. Of course, comments are welcome. They are screened, but if they are comprehensible and not spam I will tend to approve them.

Surf on!

Things are looking up! Mystified has over 2 dozen complete projects in the process of being released, covering a wide range of cool labels. Some of these are NetReleases, though most are cdr or cassette. Thomas will post release announcements here, and add any new information to the discography. So stop by often, and– of course– feel free to comment!

Fred Avila of “Blastbeats For Freedom”  ( http://blastbeatsforfreedom.blogspot.com/ ) writes 3 very nice reviews of mystified releases. Reviewed are “Iron”, “Drinking Hot Beer” and “Mellow Utility”. See the reviews behind the cut.

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