Introduction
Artist: Various
Title / Release Page: Album In A Day 10
Release Date: 2015 Aug 22
Genre: Ambient / Shoe Gave / Post Rock
License: CC BY-NC-ND
Media: MP3 / FLAC / OGG
Pricing: Free / donation / Name Your Price
Label: BFW Recordings
Rating: ★★★★★★★★
BFW Recordings Album In A Day 10 is the latest volume in possibly one of the most remarkable series of albums I have had the chance to encounter on the ol’ internet. Back in August of 2010 a group of musicians took a Saturday to each compose, arrange and record one song. Those songs were compiled by BFW Recordings and released as Album In A Day 1. In total, the release was nearly an hour long, consisting of 13 tracks from 13 artists. Over the last five years this process has been repeated to bring us to volume 10 in the Album In A Day series.
BFW Recordings Album In A Day 10
While this isn’t the sing largest Album In A Day in the whole series, it is very close to the top: 44 tracks and 4 hours, 23 minutes long. Calling this (and many of the previous releases) an “album” is a bit of a stretch. Many of these releases would be 2-4 CD’s worth of music. It’s definitely an adventure listening to these releases as the range can be a bit daunting: ambient, post-rock, shoe-gaze, etc.
Part of what is fun about these releases is hearing things that you don’t expect to hear: for example La Machine Noir by Elektronic Dream Faktory (aka Tim Kays) sounds like a track that could have been written for the Blade Runner soundtrack (and is the kind of thing that I think Vangelis would have been quite happy to compose). Then there’s Other Side of The Sun by Evil Pink Machine, a straight up piece of electro-pop with a feeling of a song that could have been in an anime series like Cowboy Bebop. And then there’s the surprise of Final Exit with it’s Kraftwerk / Berlin School influences produce by ambient artist Scott Lawlor. And all of this within the first 10 tracks on the album.
There is also lots of extremely fine ambient, lead off by the beautiful guitar work of Cousin Silas on Deep Dreaming. While the more abstract style comes through on tracks like Primal Ice by Mystified. And there is also experimental works like Lucy by Disturbed Earth.
This is a release that just keeps glowing from one track to the next. I can barely scratch the surface of all the fantastic material on this release. After all, you can listen to all 44 tracks once, and start back at the beginning an feel like you are listening to a new album all over. Reaching a point of knowing all the tracks on this release can easily take a month or two.
Just to round things out a bit, here are some more of the artists that I haven’t mentioned so far: Jack Hertz, Grove of Whispers, David Gerard, Ari Proki, Hawkdream, Daniel Robert Lahey, Joel Sutton, Musicformesser, Mitternacht, Bing Satellites, Phillip Wilkerson, Another Neglected Hobby, Stephen Briggs. No offense to any artists I haven’t mentioned, I intend this list to only provide a sample of the work available on the release.
Conclusion
The whole Album In A Day series is a remarkable concept that features some really remarkable artists. A few artists on this release go even further by not only producing solo works, but also producing ensemble tracks or duet tracks as well. There is a lot of experimental / ambient work on this release, but the accessibility of that work is extremely high compared to some of the more esoteric releases available these days. Highly recommended for the adventurous listener.