the3rd2nd.com -- a netlabel for experimental electronic music

Renick Bell

renick — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:00:23 -0700

Renick Bell

Renick Bell is a composer and one half of the duo The Third Second (with Jason Landers). He has also composed music with Junichi Uesugi. Bell’s experimental work began with his introduction to the digital studio in 1994. Under the guidance of Dr. Steve Paxton, Bell began composing pieces that developed from electronic rock to more free-form explorations of sound. Bell moved to New York City in the fall of 1999, where he co-composed the score to Spun, a contemporary dance theater piece, with Kevin Wheeler and Aaron Nisbit. In the spring of 2001, Bell relocated to the mountains south of Taipei, Taiwan, and composed Seven Studies. After completing Seven Studies, he began work on Three Paths, which was completed in August of 2001. Bell moved to Tokyo, Japan in 2006 and currently lives there.

Releases by Renick Bell include:

Seven Studies (2002)
Three Paths (2002)
Ragalike (2007)
Reserve Drones (2011)

Releases as 05 Shambolic Scattered:

Mastication (2005)
Live in Taipei, May 20, 2005 (2007)

Releases with Jason Landers as The Third Second:

Dynamic Adrenal Challenge (1999, 2002)
Finding Balance (2005)

Releases with Junichi Uesugi:

Signal Farming (2008)
Reaped, Reconciled, Released (2011)

Mixes by Renick Bell:

THE3RD2ND_018 - Various Artists - A Gentle Introduction, Mixed by Renick Bell (audio) (2011) (2011)

Renick Bell's homepage can be found here: http://renickbell.net.

Photo of Renick Bell by Ryuhei Shindo.

Welcome to the3rd2nd.com! Download mp3s of experimental music, both electronic and improvised.

renick — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 09:48:05 -0700

Welcome to the3rd2nd.com! Download mp3s of experimental music, both electronic and improvised.

THE3RD2ND.COM is a netlabel for electronic and improvised music founded in 2002. Please freely consume the mp3s here, most under a Creative Commons license. Related media is also released, including video and code.

THE3RD2ND_018 - Various Artists - A Gentle Introduction, Mixed by Renick Bell (audio) (2011)

Renick Bell has mixed 30 of the softer tracks from this site into a 64-minute excursion that, by the end, stretches out in a peaceful way. Tracks from Yuji Takeda, YATE, bew, Junichi Uesugi, and Deserts of Sound, as well as his own tracks, containing drones, glitches, noise, and instrumental improvisations have been chosen to give listeners this gentle introduction into the3rd2nd.com.

The mix and more information about it can be found on this page:

http://the3rd2nd.com/wiki/doku.php?id=the3rd2nd_018_-_various_artists_-_a_gentle_introduction

THE3RD2ND_017 - Junichi Uesugi and Renick Bell - Reaped, Reconciled, Released (audio) (2011)

Junichi Uesugi and Renick Bell provide a set of rearranged improvisations primarily of guitar, viola, and drums. Departing somewhat from the drones of their previous release, Reaped, Reconciled, Released places greater emphasis on melodies and structure contrasted against preserved mistakes and noise.

Norio Kozima provided the cover art for this release.

The file pack containing the six songs in this EP can be downloaded from this page:

http://the3rd2nd.com/wiki/doku.php?id=the3rd2nd_017_-_junichi_uesugi_and_renick_bell_-_reaped_reconciled_released

THE3RD2ND_014 - Renick Bell - Reserve Drones (audio) (2011)

Due to a gap in the release list, this year THE3RD2ND_014 was released. Renick Bell provides a set of drones which had previously been held in reserve, having been recorded in 2009.

Synth strings and other drones provide a background for other synth improvisations.

The file pack contains mp3s of each drone, as well as a 49-minute mix of all of the drones. It can be found on this page:

http://the3rd2nd.com/wiki/doku.php?id=the3rd2nd_014_-_renick_bell_-_reserve_drones

THE3RD2ND_018 - Various Artists - A Gentle Introduction, Mixed by Renick Bell (audio) (2011)

renick — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 09:47:29 -0700

THE3RD2ND_018 - Various Artists - A Gentle Introduction, Mixed by Renick Bell (audio) (2011)

Download the release: http://the3rd2nd.com/releases/THE3RD2ND_018.zip (153.87 MB)

Sometimes I want to introduce people in a general way to what we are doing at the3rd2nd.com. I have never been able to comfortably say “listen to this one thing we put out, and then you will understand what we are about.” Jason and I talked about doing some mixes of the material on the site, and I think that is just what we have needed to demonstrate in a broad way where we have been. This mix is intended to be the beginning of a series of mixes presenting panoramas of the music here.

This mix remains not-quite-representative of our releases. I've deliberately chosen some of the sweeter, kinder tracks, though the audience might not find it exactly sweet or kind. Still, these tracks show all of us experimenting and improvising with electronic music in our studios with sounds which are, relative to other noises we make, gentle. Drones, glitches, noise, lots of instruments, and long hours with microphones and in front of computers are condensed into 64 minutes of what I think may be, for some, our more approachable side.

All of the tracks, with the exception of “Seed Study 05”, can be found in their original form on this site. The mix includes tracks from a majority of the releases on this site. Please download them as well to see how they fit into their respective releases.

This is a studio mix done in Ardour on a Linux computer, not a live one, but I've mostly avoided messing with the contents of the tracks themselves. I tried to mix and layer them in a way that I felt would take a listener on a journey which builds to some intensity and moves into a wide open space. It feels to me that we are concerned with transformations, so I wanted to let one track transform into the next one smoothly and naturally.

It also became clear to me when doing this mix that we are largely into making numbered sequences, right down to the name of our site. As our collective name implies changing the sequence, I hope this resequenced mix of some of our releases will serve as a gentle introduction, inviting listeners into the other works on this site.

Renick

tracklisting:

Yuji Takeda - Day 6
YATE - Neon Time Zone
bew - Audiopaint (Aln vs Cln remix)
Renick Bell - Study 07
YATE - Arp Session 02
05 Shambolic Scattered - Transition 03
05 Shambolic Scattered - Transition 09
Renick Bell - Seed Study 05
YATE - Phase III
05 Shambolic Scattered - Transition 05
YATE - Phase III
YATE - Arp Session 02
Renick Bell - Path 3
The Third Second - Endless Cosmic Ink
Deserts of Sound - Beyond the Horizon
The Third Second - Finding Balance, Side A
05 Shambolic Scattered - Transition 06
Renick Bell - Path 2
YATE - Phase IV
The Third Second - Fortunate Realization
Deserts of Sound - Atmosphere Transference System
Yuji Takeda - Day 3
Junichi Uesugi and Renick Bell - Wondering About Selfishness
Yuji Takeda - Day 4
YATE - Phase II
Renick Bell - Path 1
Renick Bell - Complement Drone
YATE - Arp Session 03
YATE - Arp Session 02
bew - Audiopaint 03

total playtime 64:17

release list

renick — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 08:58:39 -0700

release list

THE3RD2ND_013 - Junichi Uesugi and Renick Bell - Signal Farming (audio) (2008)

THE3RD2ND_005 - YATE - Phases Of Phantoms (audio) (2004)

THE3RD2ND_001 - The Third Second - Dynamic Adrenal Challenge (audio) (1999, 2002)

Junichi Uesugi

renick — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 09:11:54 -0700

Junichi Uesugi

Born the 16th of March, 1978, in Kyoto, Japan, he moved to Tokyo as a young child. He began creating music as an acoustic guitarist. He is in a duo with Renick Bell. In addition to the guitar, he plays viola, which he started to learn in 2003 after inspiration from John Cale's music. He is known as an eel freak, thus nicknamed “Unakichi” (ウナキチ).

Releases on the3rd2nd.com by Junichi Uesugi include:

Signal Farming (with Renick Bell) (2008)
Reaped, Reconciled, Released (with Renick Bell) (2011)

Photo of Junichi Uesugi by Ryuhei Shindo.

THE3RD2ND_017 - Junichi Uesugi and Renick Bell - Reaped, Reconciled, Released (audio) (2011)

renick — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 09:05:36 -0700

THE3RD2ND_017 - Junichi Uesugi and Renick Bell - Reaped, Reconciled, Released (audio) (2011)

Download the release: http://the3rd2nd.com/releases/THE3RD2ND_017.zip (61.5 MB)

Uesugi and Bell intended to get a different sound for this EP. Previously, for their first EP together (Signal Farming), the target was largely drones, but for this EP they changed their emphasis to recorded improvisations and a minimal approach. The sound they wanted let mistakes and noises coexist with more conventional music. The tracks use traditional instruments such as acoustic guitar and acoustic viola with as little processing as possible. They also used a wider range of instruments this time, such as drums, bass guitar, synths and so on.

The composition of this EP had many changes of direction, so it took three years, or six months per song. In fact, they could only manage one day a month to work on this EP, but by any calculation this EP took much more time than they anticipated.

They did two or three recordings in order to gather materials, with arrangement work done between recording sessions. The basic process was very similar to the first EP. Improvisations were recorded. They went over the recordings, selecting parts that they thought might make good songs, and then looked for other parts that might fit those foundation parts. Once enough sounds had been selected, they started to arrange them. Frequently, they found themselves going back to patterns similar to those they used on their first EP. When they noticed that, they tried to reconsider the selections or arrangement in order to get this revised sound.

Junichi joined an orchestra, which proved to be more useful than just as practice. It led to new ideas for how to construct their songs, they believe.

The location for editing and processing sounds moved from Gotanda to near Tokyo Station, and Junichi became a delivery service for vegetarian food from the Taiwanese vegetarian shop near his apartment exclusively to Renick's home. Even today they can't figure out which dish included amazake, but still music and eating made a good combination.

Finally, they reached a certain satisfaction with where the songs had arrived and decided to release them. The mixdown process revealed good things that had gone unnoticed, but also showed them many things that they would like to improve in their next set of compositions.

The result, six tracks of edited improvisations, can be found in the zipped filepack below.

Junichi Uesugi: acoustic guitar, electric guitar, acoustic viola, acoustic electric viola, electric bass

Renick Bell: drums, electronic drums, synths, effects, programming

cover illustration by Norio Kozima: http://kozimanorio.web.fc2.com/

tracklisting

ichi (3:49)
ni (4:42)
san (4:07)
interlude (2:17)
yon (6:30)
go (4:23)

total playtime: 25:48

Download the release: http://the3rd2nd.com/releases/THE3RD2ND_017.zip (61.5 MB)

THE3RD2ND_014 - Renick Bell - Reserve Drones (audio) (2011)

renick — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 09:12:17 -0700

THE3RD2ND_014 - Renick Bell - Reserve Drones (audio) (2011)

These drones, having been held in reserve, fill the gap in the release catalog at THE3RD2ND_014.

The project was undertaken as a study in the construction of drones.

Each track is based around synth-string improvisations in the Haskell programming language with hsc3 by Rohan Drape and scsynth from SuperCollider. Additional improvisations on Kaoscillator and Kaospad were recorded in separate sessions. Both types of improvisations, recorded in 2009, were processed and arranged in Ardour in January and February of 2011 to yield these five drones.

The drones were mixed just slightly to give a 50-minute seamless listening experience. The unmixed individual drones are also included in the file pack which can be downloaded below.

tracklisting:

1. Reserve Drones (mixed) (49:46) 1.Wellspring Drone; 2. Manifestations Drone; 3. Gateway Drone; 4. Root Drone; 5. Complement Drone

2. Wellspring Drone (8:08)

3. Manifestations Drone (17:13)

4. Gateway Drone (11:10)

5. Root Drone (5:33)

6. Complement Drone (9:55)