Original Productions

Field Recordings + Effects + Piano = ?

When not preoccupied with soothing rain recordings, photography, or heavily layered ambient mixes, Stefanski gets around to producing a bit of original material. These productions often sit in the world of musique concrete, noise collage, and mini travelogues. He often takes piano recordings and slows them down to a dark drone, blending in fragments found from youtube and whatever other layers fit that piece. Not all of these veer into darker ambient, projects like “Experimental Sound Mapping” simply document living, breathing environments with extensive recording and editing. A subtle sense of narrative keeps these long soundscape engaging, always unfolding with patience and a clear beginning, middle, and end. Scroll down for a comprehensive survey of original works.

"Selected Field Recording Works..." blends elements of a full length LP, an experimental DJ set, and a retrospective compilation.

This project materialized over nearly a year of molding together soundscapes that span the full time range since upgrading my field recording set up (2013-2016), with a few unreleased pieces and brand new tracks thrown into the mix. A defining feature of this project is the focus on original piano compositions which appear and recede into the distance throughout the forty minutes. I also tried to maintain a full and clear volume across the mix - hopefully presenting these HD recordings in a way that any listener with quality headphones can appreciate. My aim is for this album to meet the standard qualifier for successful ambient music - whether you want to let it simply be background noise or something more substantial to listen to deeply - I hope it achieves whichever you need it for.

Streaming on Soundcloud

Not quite a mixtape or an album, "Dark Shadows in the Periphery" represented a completely new method for the presentation of my field recordings. While the piece is designed to flow smoothly throughout its 30 minute runtime, there are actually ten separate soundscapes on display, crossfaded and layered into one psychedelic cocoon of sound.

There are a variety of recordings and recording styles used in this project, most notably the contrast of man-made vs. natural sound sources and the duality of living in urban and rural areas (Detroit vs Romeo, MI) While the ten pieces were originally conceived to be released on their own, I enjoyed the challenge of molding them into one cohesive statement. With pure sound-based listening it often seems difficult to hold the audience's deep attention for very long, leaving most of this work to remain stuck as "background" material. I tried to avoid this trend by constantly integrating new sounds, including some surprising everyday sources we tend to take for granted (supermarket check-out barcode readers, mosquitos buzzing in your ear, etc..), as well as through the maintaining of each recording in hi-fi 96 k / 24 bit audio (the fly that buzzed into the left channel mic will probably get your attention, as will the train passing by caught on the Crown SASS mic).

Streaming on Soundcloud

"The Retired Cosmonaut" began in April 2013 as a two track single, each piece over 8 minutes in length and combined backyard field recordings with sparse, original keyboard-based instrumentation. The result was two hazy, psychedelic soundscapes influenced by Brian Eno's "Thursday Afternoon" and Stars of the Lid's "Ballasted Orchestra".

Part I (Look at the Stars) blends synths with a ballad performed on an old piano and two recordings of my nephew, who was a toddler at the time. Blended throughout you will hear a procession of found sounds including light rain, a wind chime, church bells and bird song. Part II (Hamtramck 1914) begins with near silence, slowly revealing layers of a desolate, windy ambiance with chirping birds and morning doves. A sample from Arabic AM radio is manipulated into a bizarre loop that works its way up in the mix. A rainy road with passing cars merges with a string-based drone and eerie synths appearing from the periphery. While Part I has a definite melancholy to it, this part veers into the world of dark ambient.

This new reissue subtly retouches these two parts and throws in a brand new extended track, entitled "Meeting of the Moonwatchers". This extended journey was pieced together with a combination of field recordings from 2013 and a few new captures.

Streaming on Soundcloud

Purchase on Bandcamp

Entering 2016 I found myself gearing more and more of my field recording work towards the concept of sound maps. I tend to focus on one geographic location at a time, collecting as much sonic diversity from an area as possible. I then sift through all the material, editing the most interesting parts and mixing them into one cohesive journey. Typically I begin with 1-3 hours of sounds before mixing them down into one, dense 8-15 minute suite.

This first installment built winding soundscapes from material captured in three locations in southeast Michigan that I divided my time in at the time: Hamtramck, Detroit, and Romeo. Each showcasing very different sounds and atmospheres.

Streaming on Soundcloud

Stay tuned for Deluxe version with bonus track coming soon!

 "Tidally Locked" is a two track single featuring 20 continuous minutes of psychedelia bridging the gap between "songs" and "soundscape". Influenced at the time by the trippy textures of acts like Blondes, Flying Lotus, and John Talabot, I created a humid, alien-like rainforest of swirling beats, guitar, and found sound. Indeed, field recordings still play a very large role in my music even when it veers far from the ambient music of 2013's "The Retired Cosmonaut". Each track utilizes long, quiet passages of crickets to create a continuous flow, and the found AM radio chatter at the opening catches a bizarre government issued test broadcast.

The title track is an epic 12 minute journey influenced by the soundscapes of Pink Floyd but with a steady electronic beat. Layers of keyboards, synths, and percussion are gradually added into the mix before two separate left-turns, first into robotic chaos and later into tropical house with ghostly vocals. The flipside, “Moons of Saturn”, packs almost as many twists into a relatively shorter runtime.

Streaming on Soundcloud

Purchase on Bandcamp

My “debut album” was a mish-mash of indie folk, electronic, sound experiments and field recordings. Not everything stuck - but a few tracks like “Relaxing Rain and Loud Thunder” and “Summer Crickets” continue to wind up in live sets. Only about a third of the full album is still available on line.