![\"Bit](\"https:\/\/www.ambientblog.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/cover-1300-x-1300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nARD BIT & RADBOUD MENS \u2013
MARKING A BOUNDARY WITH THE TURNING POINT<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\nArd Bit<\/a> (Ard Janssen) <\/em><\/strong>and Radboud Mens<\/a><\/em><\/strong> are two artists from the Netherlands, each with his own musical history. Ard Bit<\/em><\/strong> (\u2018Electronic compost <\/em>(sic!) and sounds artist\u2019<\/em>, according to his Discogs profile) studied electronic music composition at the Institute of Sonology, and has released music since 2009. A lot of his works involve field recordings. Radboud Mens<\/em><\/strong>\u2018 <\/em>musical history goes back further in time: he started creating noise machines in 1988; his first release appeared in 1999.<\/p>\nThough their music definitely shares a common ground, their individual output can be quite different. And that difference is the starting point for this work, in which they explore \u2018the paradox of drone music, where stasis and movement coalesce in a delicate dance\u2019<\/em>.
This is \u2018drone music\u2019 indeed, but it is filled to the brim with all kinds of sonic details, \u2018tiny acoustic events [that] enrich the sonic landscape with subtlety and nuance\u2019<\/em>. The result is a set of (nine) adventurous soundscapes where so much is happening that they no longer fit the classic definition of \u2018music that is ignorable \u2026\u2019 <\/em> but at the same time have an ambient atmosphere all over them.<\/p>\n\u2018This album is about the tension between the horizontal and vertical musical events\u2019 <\/em>\u2013 the \u2018horizontal\u2019 being the underlying drone \u2018creating an illusion of immobility\u2019<\/em>, the \u2018vertical\u2019 being the \u2018small acoustic events that introduce the elusive dynamics\u2019<\/em>.
The whole is more than the sum of it parts \u2013 that applies to the two artists working together as well as to the resulting music. Ard Bit<\/em><\/strong> and Radboud Mens<\/em><\/strong> manage to refresh the genre with a lively kind of sound art seldom heard. <\/p>\nThe sad news is that Shimmering Moods Records<\/em> released the CD edition in a limited run of 50 only, which \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 sold out before the release date. This one definitely needs a repress! <\/p>\n
Though their music definitely shares a common ground, their individual output can be quite different. And that difference is the starting point for this work, in which they explore \u2018the paradox of drone music, where stasis and movement coalesce in a delicate dance\u2019<\/em>. \u2018This album is about the tension between the horizontal and vertical musical events\u2019 <\/em>\u2013 the \u2018horizontal\u2019 being the underlying drone \u2018creating an illusion of immobility\u2019<\/em>, the \u2018vertical\u2019 being the \u2018small acoustic events that introduce the elusive dynamics\u2019<\/em>. The sad news is that Shimmering Moods Records<\/em> released the CD edition in a limited run of 50 only, which \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 sold out before the release date. This one definitely needs a repress! <\/p>\n
This is \u2018drone music\u2019 indeed, but it is filled to the brim with all kinds of sonic details, \u2018tiny acoustic events [that] enrich the sonic landscape with subtlety and nuance\u2019<\/em>. The result is a set of (nine) adventurous soundscapes where so much is happening that they no longer fit the classic definition of \u2018music that is ignorable \u2026\u2019 <\/em> but at the same time have an ambient atmosphere all over them.<\/p>\n
The whole is more than the sum of it parts \u2013 that applies to the two artists working together as well as to the resulting music. Ard Bit<\/em><\/strong> and Radboud Mens<\/em><\/strong> manage to refresh the genre with a lively kind of sound art seldom heard. <\/p>\n