Cutest Puppy in the World - A Warm Winter

The Cutest Puppy in the World is Bryan Rhodes (of Baltimore) and Layne Garrett (of Washington, DC). We explore emergent forms, extremes of saturated and empty space, scorched remnants of the familiar. Our music is all improvised.

Since the summer of 2005, we have performed extensively in DC and the mid-Atlantic region alongside many amazing musicians. In 2005, we self-released a CD-R entitled ::shut in the basement::. It made free103point9's Top 150 of 2005. Sockets put out FINFOLK in early 2006, with cover art by renowned collage artist Joseph Mills. The record received critical praise from Terrascope, Fakejazz, and Noiseweek, among others. Apotrope came out in April 2007 on New American Folk Hero, to giddy smiles and shrieks of delight the world over. And now A warm winter here on Zeromoon.

These two improvisations were recorded on January 23, 2008 in Washington, DC. Instrumentation includes prepared/de-tuned guitar, various keyboards/synthesizers, found objects, and voice. We were wearing t-shirts in our unheated basement.

Go and get it.

Preliminary Saturation - Cigarettes & Sandpaper

Preliminary Saturation is the electro-acoustic, free improv, drone-duo in which Dutch sound artists Wouter Jaspers and Steffan de Turck combine their forces. To some extent, both might be better known for their solo-projects: Franz Fjodor and staplerfahrer, respectively. As Franz Fjodor, Jaspers displays a fascination for the darker side of life; with self-made instruments he creates a sound that shippers between droning soundscapes, depressed noise and dark folk. His style signature varies with his mood: from psycho chants to punk screams, from guitar oriented drones to field recordings. De Turck plays around with crunched and broken (micro)sounds, electro-magnetic waves and noise. Sometimes in a back-to-basics analogue setting, other times solemnly using his powerbook. Every once and a while, they come together in the safe harbor of one of their living rooms, pop open a bottle of wine, light some cigarettes and start improvising as long as the mood is right. It's how this recording was made.

In October 2008, Jaspers and De Turck will team up for a tour that will take them along the US East Coast, both playing shows as their individual projects and as Preliminary Saturation.

Make these boys of noise proud and download it now.

xedh - exadh

Miguel A. García (aka xedh) is one of the few artists working in the laptop domain that manages to go beyond the sterile audio terrain that many practioners of digital music tend to get lost in and never find a way out. Xedh exploits the pristine frequencies and extreme sonic range...and still ensures that his music has some muscle and perhaps a bit of humor. In his new mp3 ep for zeromoon he uses sounds from a few artists (simon daniel, thierry massard, & rafael flores) and throws in some of his own using a mixer, mics, sine waves, and treated sounds. In his own words: "It's somehow curious to watch in an almost unconscious way how links
generate themselves, in this case between people/sounds connected by their escape from more established shapes. The
hidden face of one of the most active characters of the most extreme
german industrial music, a french critic-poet with the rediscovered sin
of youth, and a living legend among the Iberian experimental music scene.
I really was Between them, myself and the intention of a piece
which I expected to make them to engage in a dialogue and to exist here
and now together: a kind of tribute to the others. But when i tried
it, i had to face the impossibility of generating something real
without having them transformed, internalized, absorbed, and to
finally recognize myself in them too. I couldn't deny myself.
So what this piece brought up was the confrontation between
differences, between the other and self, between the foreign and own,
the external, the internal, outside, inside, confused to be just
one. A piece about being human." Sounds good to me, now go get it.

Robertas Kundrotas & Gintas K - "Septyni Tiltai Pasaulio Centre"

Gintas K has been working as a sound artist exploring minimal digital sounds, sine waves, noise, glitches, microwaves and acoustic vibration, making music for films, sound installations. Kundrotas Robertas, poet, prose writer, playwright. Since 1990 he is editor-in-chief of the legendary new music magazine "Tango", since 1999 he is editor-in-chief of publishing house "Pasvires pasaulis." "Septyni tiltai pasaulio centre" (Seven bridges in the centre of the world) was recorded October 13, 2007, at the audiovisual poetry festival "Tarp: Vasaros 5" which took place at the
Vasaros 5 Mental Hospital, Vilnius, Lithuania. Download it now!

Myo - "Light"

Myo is Cory O'Brien, an improviser who works with plexiglass, dry ice,
and computer. 'Light' is a collection of live and studio recordings
that focus on very active sounds in a minimal framework.

Light was created with free software, and is licensed under a Creative
Commons Sampling+ License. Art is by Aghost. Download it now!

Caustic Castle - "Static Attack"

Caustic Castle is Kenneth Yates, also of the improvised noise duo's Harm Stryker (w/ Constant Mauk) & Insects With Tits (w/ Chefkirk) and an organizer with the HzCollective. Kenneth Yates utilizes the no-input mixing technique coupled with live processing using the on-board mixer EQ's, various filters, effects pedals and aux-sends to re-route the paths in which the feedback loops interact. With his music usually comes an abstract visual fascination with architecture and its psyhogeographical effects on the human psyche. Lately I've been working with abstract visual manipulator Eric Eaton who uses looped 16mm film, detourned slide images, and stop motion video. Inspired by past revolutionary art and social movements like DaDa & the Situationiste Internationale, Caustic Castle struggles to find a parallel between art, sound & social unrest. Download it now!

Goem | FDW - Live @ Warehouse

Live recording of Goem|FDW from September 8, 2007 at the Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music in Washington DC. Dutch experimental music pioneer Frans de Waard creates ultra minimal techno with subtle electronic textures. Download it now.

Northern Machine - Live at Sonic Circuits

Continuing our series of releasing audio documents from last year's Sonic Circuits festival in zeromoon's lovely hometown of Washington DC is this live set from Northern Machine. Dark ambient drone something generate by two men with a mass quantity of equipment. All done live. You know what to do. Download it now.

Tüsüri: "Bi Saiakera EP"

I get overloaded with demos...as if I have nothing else to listen to do much less listen too. But once in awhile there is a glimmer in the mud that attracts the eye, and in this case the ear. Tüsüri is Oier Iruretagoiena, and he comes from the most industrial side of Gipuzkoa (Basque Country) according to his bio. His 15 minutes of zeromoon fame is a delightful side tour into field recordings and radio static shaped up into something special. Very beautiful, and created "in the dark." Download it now!

Michael Gendreau - Live at Sonic Circuits DC 2006

Michael Gendreau has been a musician since the age of 6. After 35+ years and numerous projects, releases, and collaborations, Gendreau performed at the Sonic Circuits Festival in Washington DC on October 2006 using old record players amplified with accelerometers, and sine waves. Download it now!

If, Bwana - Live at Sonic Circuits DC 2006

If, Bwana is the spawn of the godfather of the 1980's independent hometaping network, Al Margolis. This track is his live performance at the 2006 Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music which took place in Washington, DC. Minimal yet dense drones of a menancing and etheral nature for intense yet scary listening. Download it now!