I Could Listen To Stone In Focus Forever

  On 12/17/2013 at 8:15 AM, goDel said:

Lol at the track naming discussion.

 

Mr J, aren't you taking things too seriously, or do you just need an occasional platform to show us your knowledge? Even if RDJ is still hell bent about these tracks having no names, which i highly doubt, the fact of the matter is these track names are basically well known and commonly used at this point. Which kinda makes the entire discussion useless, imo.

 

Kinda like the autechre peelsession where the original tracknames were lost and John Peel decided to give his own versions. Thank god for the autechre boys for having the flexibility of not sticking to their holy tracknames. It's not like those tracks would sound completely different, right? And if the listener is free to make up his own mind, well apparently a majority decided to go with these unofficial names. Hurrah for democracy.

 

99 headaches? Stone in focus? Imo, it only adds to the backstory. And you could be that awesome fan who knows the entire backstory! A shining example of fanhood, and what not.

 

And I'm the stupid dork typing this response. Wont do it again, obv.

 

Beautiful boring, btw!

Nah, just a personal pet peeve of mine. I guess I am that "awesome fan" who DOES know the entire backstory - again, just a personal preference of mine. I have this thing for categorizing and labeling things "properly".

I do really agree with you, Joyrex, and not just because you're the sites administrator.

To me, music is one of the purest way to communicate, and touches something very deep inside me, which words rarely ever do.

I really love ,btw Foil. And you're an asshat (=<3) for thinking that is too long; it is perfect as it is.

  On 12/17/2013 at 6:52 PM, Phoenix said:

I do really agree with you, Joyrex, and not just because you're the sites administrator.

 

To me, music is one of the purest way to communicate, and touches something very deep inside me, which words rarely ever do.

 

I really love ,btw Foil. And you're an asshat (=

Well played.

(ps I did really mean all that stuff about music being the most beautiful way to communicate )

From now on, I will whistle, sing or hum my responses in this thread.

  On 4/10/2013 at 8:42 PM, MadnessR said:

She knows the song well, as I play it all the time. As I posted earlier, this is the first song I played for my daughter while we were in the darkened hospital room. It's the first song she ever heard.

So, just had our second baby and as with the first, Stone in Focus is the first song he's ever heard. I'd like to thank Richard for making the soundtrack of my life. Such beautiful emotional music. A perfect moment with the most perfect music ever created. Thank you Mr. James.

  On 12/17/2013 at 6:52 PM, Phoenix said:

I do really agree with you, Joyrex, and not just because you're the sites administrator.

 

Show off, that's why I agree with him

but not about this. If there was one consistent track listing then it would make sense to call them #3 or #19 (best two tracks, imho) but with the US CD, UK CD and UK LP versions all having different track listings, the photos, which I refuse to believe were assigned totally randomly without any thought whatsoever, are useful)

"SAW2 CD2 TRK7"

When I just started getting into ambient I played Stone in Focus and White Blur (the one with the Konichiwa stuff) and my mom said "wtf is this depressing stuff". I later found out that she finds almost anything I listen to depressing.

Hearing this track for the first time ever though..

  On 8/6/2014 at 11:43 PM, MadnessR said:

So, just had our second baby and as with the first, Stone in Focus is the first song he's ever heard. I'd like to thank Richard for making the soundtrack of my life. Such beautiful emotional music. A perfect moment with the most perfect music ever created. Thank you Mr. James.

nice one. congrats for babby part deux.

  On 8/7/2014 at 2:17 PM, usagi said:

 

  On 8/6/2014 at 11:43 PM, MadnessR said:

So, just had our second baby and as with the first, Stone in Focus is the first song he's ever heard. I'd like to thank Richard for making the soundtrack of my life. Such beautiful emotional music. A perfect moment with the most perfect music ever created. Thank you Mr. James.

 

nice one. congrats for babby part deux.

 

Yes, congrats. Warning, though, #2 is more of a game changer than #1. Going anywhere is like planning/packing for a moon mission

lol at the track-naming pedantry, like somebody telling you how to pronounce something properly... good luck undoing the decades-reinforced "mis-labeling" of these tracks.

  On 12/10/2013 at 9:39 PM, Joyrex said:

It's an ambient track; it doesn't need a "title". Even the numerical designation is superfulous, and only needed for our human need to organize and categorize.

Most ambient artists out there give names to their tracks and to their albums. Real names with real, understandable human words. And you say they don't have to? That ambient music doesn't need a title? Strange way of looking at ambient music. That's like saying an abstract painting, unlike a figurative one, doesn't need a title.

  On 12/17/2013 at 6:52 PM, Phoenix said:

I really love ,btw Foil. And you're an asshat (=<3) for thinking that is too long; it is perfect as it is.

i think i read somewhere that the earth produces a sound as it turns on its axis, a constant, very very low C #. this is the second note in the sequence, set far below the other two.

i've always thought of stone in focus as a kind of geological lament, just a total state of permanence on the very edge of awareness. watching time go by on the scale of stars, a feeling completely removed from human touch, yet transcending it with its eternity.

the earth turns endlessly. we peer out of it in one movement, feel the drag of its axis in another, and in the next, become full and satisfied of its rock. the infinite repetition makes us feel perfectly still (through permanence), yet always in motion.

nice track.

Stone in Focus always reminds me of one of the few memories I had of my mother's parents. I only met them once or twice, before they died, shortly after that incident. The last time I saw them we were at their appartment and they were talking to my parents. So me and my sister sat in the living room and waited. My grandmother had this really tall "grandfather clock" and she put puppets inside of it. It was really dark inside so I could hardly see them and to me it even looked like they were rotating on a platform, but I was very very little, like 3 or 4, so that might have been imagination. Anyway, that clock had a really nice, big ticking sound that I always associate with Stone in Focus now.

  On 8/9/2014 at 4:21 PM, MassfreeKid said:

 

  On 12/10/2013 at 9:39 PM, Joyrex said:

It's an ambient track; it doesn't need a "title". Even the numerical designation is superfulous, and only needed for our human need to organize and categorize.

Most ambient artists out there give names to their tracks and to their albums. Real names with real, understandable human words. And you say they don't have to? That ambient music doesn't need a title? Strange way of looking at ambient music. That's like saying an abstract painting, unlike a figurative one, doesn't need a title.

 

I remember reading/hearing/seeing Rick Wright (of Pink Floyd, former living person) say at one point that their early psychedelic track were given names because that was more interesting than just naming them 1, 2, 3 etc.

I think this makes sense. Given that RDJ didn't give the tracks on the album a clear, overt name, but did give us strange, at times misleading, reference pictures, I don't think there is anything wrong with referring to the tracks by the conventional names for said pictures. we know what they sound like. and we love them.

rhubarb ftw

so i just found out that the quiet hissing and cycling sounds in the background of the most common stone in focus mp3 is there because it was ripped from a cassette, and the cd version on 'excursions in ambience' doesn't have it. it's like my whole world is coming crashing down.

  On 8/15/2014 at 5:18 PM, petina said:

so i just found out that the quiet hissing and cycling sounds in the background of the most common stone in focus mp3 is there because it was ripped from a cassette, and the cd version on 'excursions in ambience' doesn't have it. it's like my whole world is coming crashing down.

  On 12/10/2013 at 7:28 PM, Joyrex said:

You are all a bunch of asses

 

If you must, refer to it as "#19" (the UK original vinyl tracklisting is the only valid one, since it contains all the tracks).

 

Fun Fact: On (28mix) was a SAW II "leftover" track - I sure would love to see how many tracks he ended up making and then distilling it down to the 25 actually released.

I don't know for sure if this actually happened but maybe someone can confirm.

I remember when AFX toured with Moby and vapor space he played several tracks from the ON Ep (it hadn't been released yet) but the On Ep was released shortly after and the memory of the tracks was still fresh so it was instantly recognizable. Between tracks there was definetly bits of (28 mix) like ambient noise. I remember the people who I went with were a bit freaked out about it. This was also around the time (just before) SAW II was released. Anyway I remember reading that the LA show was super ambient and scary.

I wonder if any of the WATMM users attended that show? The reviewer described the show as being frightening and noisy (like parts of 28 mix or SAW II) but I've never heard that AFX played any of the music live other than that one time... Did any one here go to that show?

  On 8/21/2014 at 12:27 AM, Papillon said:

 

  On 12/10/2013 at 7:28 PM, Joyrex said:

You are all a bunch of asses

 

If you must, refer to it as "#19" (the UK original vinyl tracklisting is the only valid one, since it contains all the tracks).

 

Fun Fact: On (28mix) was a SAW II "leftover" track - I sure would love to see how many tracks he ended up making and then distilling it down to the 25 actually released.

I don't know for sure if this actually happened but maybe someone can confirm.

 

I remember when AFX toured with Moby and vapor space he played several tracks from the ON Ep (it hadn't been released yet) but the On Ep was released shortly after and the memory of the tracks was still fresh so it was instantly recognizable. Between tracks there was definetly bits of (28 mix) like ambient noise. I remember the people who I went with were a bit freaked out about it. This was also around the time (just before) SAW II was released. Anyway I remember reading that the LA show was super ambient and scary.

 

I wonder if any of the WATMM users attended that show? The reviewer described the show as being frightening and noisy (like parts of 28 mix or SAW II) but I've never heard that AFX played any of the music live other than that one time... Did any one here go to that show?

 

Nice story! I only know that he did a couple of ambient sets around '94, also here in Amsterdam playing sounds of wood being chopped, or so the story goes (I was still playing with Lego back then).

Sorry to sound like a n00b here, but how can I purchase an electronic copy of this legally? Bleep doesn't have it, nor does iTunes. I keep listening to it on youtube, but I want my own copy for listening when I don't have an Internet connection.

  On 11/5/2014 at 8:02 PM, apriorion said:

Sorry to sound like a n00b here, but how can I purchase an electronic copy of this legally? Bleep doesn't have it, nor does iTunes. I keep listening to it on youtube, but I want my own copy for listening when I don't have an Internet connection.

Most definitely worthy of experiencing outside of YouTube.

Uncertain if there is a proper digital option at this time, you could however purchase “Excursions in Ambience 3: Third Dimension” on CD and rip into your library. May be the most economical route. Some copies are reasonable on amazon or discogs.