Athens (Click to enlarge panoramic pic)

I wanted to share this experience with you all. It’s taken me a moment to post this because I’ve just moved to Los Angeles after living in San Francisco for 5 years. So far its been amazing, just taken some time to settle in.

After doing some shows with my friend Amon Tobin and his traveling hyperdimensional cube-a-tron in October, I embarked on my 3rd European tour this year. During the first few days, I experienced the largest protests in decades in Athens Greece. (At the time I visited. I hear they have now, in December, gotten larger). The first day of protesting was roughly 300,000 people and the 2nd seemed about 450,000.

I stayed in Athens longer than planned. The gig was canceled along with the other I was supposed to play in Thessaloniki because of rioting and the strikes. Many of the roads out of Athens were blocked. The following happened over those couple days.

I landed in Athens on the night of Oct 18th. Exhausted I just went to bed to get some rest for the 2 shows I had in Greece back to back. The next morning I rose and ran out into the streets to do the tourist thing. I’ve never been to Athens before so I trekked out on a solo mission to visit the surrounding neighborhoods.

Here is the first day:

day1: I climbed up to the Acropolis but once I got to the top I realized it was closed because of the strike. These are some stone steps just outside.

day1: On my way back down I ran into some beautiful wall art

Layers of history

day1: I then stopped into a small church. I was happy to see the flower of life etched in the wall much like the flower I saw in the back room at Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland 5 years ago. It felt like a nice little reminder.

day1: I made my way back down to the city center. Throughout the whole walk I kept seeing large piles of garbage everywhere.

day1: As I approached my hotel, I started to see lots of people walking in the same direction. Before I hopped in line, I saw this on the side of a building - Here's some advice, Stay alive.

day1: Riot cops waiting near the shopping areas of Athens. One saw me and told me to stop taking photos.

day1: Walking out into the protests. Families of all ages, food vendors, music, slogans being blared across speakers in every square. I lost count at the number of intersections filled with people. I walked with the crowd and stepped into a huge open area in front of the Parliament building. There were roughly 300,000 people combined throughout the area peacefully protesting. I couldn't understand anything that was being chanted or shouted through loudspeakers but luckily many locals could speak English and filled me in. Apparently people were on strike all over the country due to economic woes. The govt has been bailing out the banks, wages are being lowered and taxes are rising. People are not happy.

day1: People of all ages were at the protests. Many of them wearing masks. Some had simple doctors masks while others had full-on gas masks. This was a little kid with his parents.

day1: Guys standing arm in arm protecting the protests w pieces of wood. They were all around the area. Many of them were also carrying motorcycle helmets.

day1: I climbed a small tree and tried to see what was happening off to the side of the Parliament. People began shouting at cops in riot gear who had made a blockade the the previous night. This is where I really started to feel the emotions of the people. It felt like so much was brewing. This pic shows a man kicking a flare back to the cops that threw it over the blockade. In this tree is also where I smelled tear gas for my first time. Not pleasant.

day1: People started to pour around to the front of the Parliament. It seemed like a nervous slow rush of at least a thousand people.

day1: As the numbers of shouting groups started to grow at the steps of the Parliament, riot cops started lining up to guard the steps

day1: Wider shot in front of the Parliament after more people poured in.

day1: Then people started to light pipe bombs and smoke grenades at the Parliament building. The chanting was at a fervor at this point. I was also told by at least 3 people that some people dressed as Anarchists are actually Agent Provocateurs. Their role, I was told, was to mix among the people and create rioting as to break up the protest and cause unfocused chaos instead of focused change. As this happens, then real pissed off youth come into the mix and start burning as well, all the while thinking they are fighting the man. I wasn't sure what to think of that, but I had to leave to meet up with my tour manager Iain. Up until this point I was walking around by myself. We were to find out later that the show would get canceled due to the protests. Plumes of tear gas were hanging outside our hotel and the club up the street.

day1: That night we saw tons more garbage through the streets. Garbage, postal, public transport, airlines, and most public servies all involved with the strike.

The show was canceled. I met up with Iain the brave Scotsman who I convinced that I needed to go down there again the next day. He thought I was crazy for putting myself in harms way, but there was no choice for me. For me, embracing and absorbing new experience fuels my music. The amount of potent and raw passion I had experienced earlier in the day was something I needed to witness and be apart of. People are unsettled all over the globe right now and this was certainly not something I would run from. Half of my family is Greek, I sorta felt that I owed it to them as well. Iain reluctantly agreed to come with me the next day.

Here is the 2nd day:

day2: We walked back to the Parliament and saw some damage along the way. Broken store fronts, burned piles of garbage and a general sense of tension was everywhere.

day2: Steps of the Parliament, guys w motorcycle helmets standing arm in arm. They were out in more force this second day standing at the steps of the Parliament and around the perimeter of the protests.

day2: The first pipe bombs start to go off in a dense crowd. A woman started shouting over the loud speaker 'Don't let them split us up, stand your ground' in Greek. Large numbers of people started booing at the pipe bombs. Flares started being thrown. Then men with bats started protecting groups of women and children. From here it escalated quickly.

day2: Pipe bombs started to go off every minute, sometimes a few in a row. The day before was a passionate scene of people angry against their govt and authority, but the 2nd day was very different. People started attacking each other. Molotov cocktails started to fly in a cascade of rocks and flares. The men in helmets with bats started running at groups of people wearing black. I saw people being dragged and beaten. For the first and hopefully last time in my life I saw a man running on fire.

Above is a video from The Telegraph. This was one block away from where I was taking my photos. Warning – its a serious / sad video.

day2: Cameraman w gas mask, behind him a man being dragged to police for instigating violence. People were so upset with the cops who were not helping the situation at all and standing by the parliament. From what I saw, they were only making it worse by occasionally walking out to where people were then turning around.

day2: Old man wearing a mask and selling bread during protests.

At this point we had to leave. It turned very very dangerous and from a personal standpoint it started to enter a twisted realm of voyeurism that I didn’t want to take part in. Everywhere were people either running to hurt each other, protect themselves or cameramen filming all of it. It felt so strange. I started thinking of the ideas of compassion, humanity, life and death and how my connection to music would bring me to witness something like this. I felt so much love and sadness for the people involved. The grandparents, the kids, the families and hard working individuals in the middle of all of this. Given our current economic situation, I started to wonder when I might see this in the US. The 2nd show in Greece was also canceled.

day2: That night we took a walk through the streets because we were stranded from roadblocks. This was a Starbucks near the center of town. The protests continued to happen downtown and every once in a while we would walk through a tear gas area. It was such a wild scene to see people shopping or in cafes with something like this happening only a handful of blocks away. The majority of higher income areas and shopping districts has teams of cops in riot gear protecting the areas.

We were able to fly out the next night. I had so many thoughts running through my head and feelings pulling at my chest from the whole experience. Compassion, love, fear, hate, economy, greed, youth, families, polarities, the Vesica Pisces symbol, my brothers, my parents, friends and a whole range of personal questions filled my head. What’s happening to our world right now? Are we working together? Who’s running it? Are we? Is this chaos just a necessary part of our growth and the next step in our development? Our planet is clearly changing right now, and yet so is our solar system from what our scientists can understand. Wild times we are living in.

This trip affected me.

I’m embracing it. Within all the madness, there is also a tremendous amount of progress being made out in the world. It seems we are living in a very potent time and everyone around me feels as though their lives are changing daily. I know I’m beyond lucky to even be able to post my thoughts on a machine, while eating, from my couch, in my new home, in Los Angeles. I feel grateful I can take in this Athens trip and put it to sound. I guess that’s the least I can do.

What I saw was real. Our world is asking for us to pay attention. I hope you are.
Tell your friends and family you love ‘em while you’re at it.

Signing off until the new year. I’ll do another post then.
Best,
B

...

Vesica Piscis

Compassion and boundaries.
One of the simplest and yet most complex lessons out there. How do you know which? is what? for when? for who?…

I just landed in Athens Greece last night. I ate chicken beneath a half orange moon overlooking a monastery surrounded by wild (friendly) dogs.  I’ll be posting more about the current tour in Europe and the recent dates with Amon Tobin soon, but wanted to ask this question about Compassion and boundaries to see how you personally work with them.

I’ve had some very world-rocking happenings within the past few months that correlate to taking my protective layers down when it comes to people and experiences in general. Within all this has been a steady thread of looking at the power of setting healthy boundaries. Where do they start? With whom, when? etc.. How does one navigate the idea of boundaries and compassion whether in relationship, family, business or friendship after a connection has already been established. They seem easier to work out at the very beginning, but once their is an integration like the image above, how does one move about? Especially if the 2 people or companies or whatever are looking at the same situation through very different glasses.

Projection from one side or the other can color things until it’s no longer the same image (which is a whole huge lesson in itself.)

I ask this because my music is fueled directly from my experience in life. Social constructs, the emotional landscapes of just being human and the dynamics of our personal experiences have always been fascinating to me. A lot of these lessons and formulas can be drawn into the creative process and that in itself is another amazing thing to me.

One of the most compassionate things you can do is set healthy boundaries. One of the healthiest things for your boundaries is to be compassionate.

So I’m curious…how do you know which? is what? for when? for who?

Best
B

Welder: "Florescence" (New full length album)

I write music as 2 different alias’: “Eskmo” and another called “Welder.’

Today I released the 2nd Welder album on my own label Ancestor. It’s available on limited edition 180 gram double vinyl and digital. To stream the Welder album “Florescence” in it’s entirety, click HERE.

SF - Photo by Rob Kroenert

I’m off to enjoy my last weekend living in San Francisco.

I’m moving to an amazing new home in Los Angeles next week. It’s truly been a blessing to live up here in San Francisco these past 5 years. So much has happened.

During this time I created my other (but equally important) music persona:  Welder, my LLC and label Ancestor, released music on Ninja Tune, Warp Records, Planet Mu, started collaborating with Amon Tobin, remixed Bibio, +  Spor, +  The Glitch Mob, +  STS9, +  Bonobo, +  released a music video that has just hit 1 million views, released another that has just hit 600K, traveled to countries all over Europe, traveled to many of the states in the US, throughout Canada, worked tireless hours in my first proper studio away from the homestead and too much more to mention.

More importantly I’ve gotten to know some truly amazing people and find the time to work on developing myself and how I interact with the world professionally and personally. I’ve been lucky enough explore some of the most amazing landscapes I have ever seen. Nothing has influenced my music more these past 5 years (aside from falling in an out of love) then the Redwood groves in Northern California. The reason my music has started to sound like a “robotic tree” is solely due to these humbling towers. In southern California I hope to find equally amazing people and it’s own inspiring landscapes.

Here is a free track fully inspired by landscapes and amphibians i just gave out the other day.

Eskmo: “Amphibian” (Glitter version, 2009) by Eskmo

Onto the the next phase of the adventure…

All Love
B

Welder: "Florescence" (out Sept 26 on Ancestor) - Photo by Siouxzen Kang

I write music as “Eskmo” which I imagine you already know if you are reading this. But you may not know that I also write music as “Welder.”

I’m happy to announce I’m releasing a new Welder album entitled “Florescence” Sept 26 on my record label Ancestor. It will be available on VERY limited edition hand numbered / 180 gram / 2 X gatefold vinyl and digital.

Visit the Welder site for a free download of one of the tracks and more info on the album.
www.weldersounds.com

Amber

Years ago I was deeply involved in researching and exploring the concepts of lucid dreaming and dream work. I had some experiences that opened me to the idea of the depth of dreams and the importance of the states in between.

A few days ago on my facebook artist page I asked everyone to show me what sort of art, music or any type of creative project they were creating. I figured it would be a great way for people to share their work and hopefully be able to check out what other people are up to. It was a fantastic response. I often have people ask me after shows or sometimes in interviews about the creative process: where it comes from, what are the steps, any advice etc…

Taking the ideas and feelings of ethereal landscapes and dreamlike states and bringing them into the music have always been a focus of what I’m doing, but I’ve recently dove back into the world of trying to cultivate my dream world and integrating these experiences into the art (and hopefully more importantly into my daily life.) I woke up this morning from a dream that I felt should be shared with anyone involved in creative process in their life. Whether it’s art, music, culinary, architecture, photography, social work, counseling…any of it really. I know first hand it’s not the easiest life path. It’s filled with dynamic challenges and all the personal shadows that emerge in process stare you in the face. Of course mixed with all this are the amazing countless ways that diving into your art enlivens your experience of life.

Although of course this dream relates to my psyche and experiences right now in my own life, I picture the general idea perhaps having some relevancy to your own life.

So…

In this dream I was in a wooden library or study of some sort. Apparently I was hanging with George Lucas. No idea why. We were walking around his study looking at some of the paintings he was working on. He had a number of them lined along his walls and wanted to show me one in particular. We walked over to a work that was a mixed piece with essentially paint and chunks of amber placed in a few select spots around the canvas. Lots of deep red, brown and earth tones to the piece.

He seemed like he had been working constantly and was deeply passionate about the paintings he had been creating. He talked about how the process was great for him but also only a step towards something bigger than himself and deeper than he could understand at this time.

He said “Come look at this.”

Quickly the walls opened up and turned into a future cityscape with rails of machines moving and buildings reaching up to a green, windy and cloud covered sky. A yellow sun peaked through the clouds.

Lucas pointed towards the landscape and told me about how his art was just a stepping stone to some great change he wanted to be apart of in the world. It was clear he was concerned about the future and wondered if he was taking the right steps. Was he wasting his time? Not doing it right? Was the art just a side thing? Should he be more productive? On what? How could he even be?

With the walls still showing the future city, and some soft wind still rolling into the room, we stepped back over to the amber painting. I had a serious wave of thoughts coming to me and tried my best to translate it to him. It took me some stumbling into it but once I sat with it they came out. (Sometimes in my dreams my main guide lets me in on some info while at other times they allow me to speak as a way to make it feel more personal. Or something.) He already knew what I was saying but wanted to have me say it aloud to confirm his own thoughts but also so I would remember it.

“There is no reason to fear for the future.” I told him. “As an artist, your art is a direct reflection of where you came from, who you are, and where you are going. It’s all wrapped up into your work. Not in the sense of ‘what you put into your art is what you get out of it’, although that’s true too. More in the sense of your art being a map. Each color, each stroke, and the way you place that piece of amber onto a specific section of the canvas is a reflection of how you make decisions throughout your life. They all coincide with choices you make and events you place yourself into.”

He started to smile and I said “The future you see is already happening. There is no possible way for you to be out of sync with your timing, life path or art because its already here in front of you, showing you exactly where you are at. That specifically placed chunk of amber on that particular painting should show you that the art is already working. It’s proof within itself. There’s no point in questioning if you are doing the right thing. The art you have created is all the evidence you need and it speaks volumes. If you are wondering where to go, what to do, what the hell is happening out there…pick up your art. Look at it. Feel it. All your answers are already right there.”

Then he nodded as if to say “Thanks. You’re getting it..”

So take what you will from that, just felt like I should share. It’s a challenging path following your passion. But don’t let that stop or slow you down. It’s just an extension of your own growth. And there is no possible way that could be ‘better’ or ‘wrong’.

Best,
B

49 shows in the past few months has been a serious experience. I’ve been a hermit all these years of writing music and experiencing it all in a different way like this has been dynamic to say the least.

I’ve met so many amazing people, ate local foods, drank local drink and saw local sites in as many spots as possible. I’ve been given gifts. I’ve given gifts. I rode in a boat for hours with new friends through the canals of Amsterdam on a beautiful evening under a giant moon. I’ve experienced serious sadness and homesick feelings of emptiness in a fancy hotel in Brighton. The appreciation for home and family continues to grow daily. I’ve learned that airports are incredible environments for working on compassion, patience and non-judgement. I’ve learned that even though that’s true, I still find em touch to deal with.

Through all this I’ve contemplated moving from my home of San Francisco for the past 5 years to Los Angeles. We shall see. This has been amazing. Much love to everyone continuing to pay attention.

B

A couple vids from Dour Festival (Belgium) (the 2nd video has poor audio but good visual examples), then random pics below

Dour Festival - Belgium 2011

Copenhagen Jazz Festival

Antwerp

Berlin 2011

woah

Paris - Rex Club w/ Luke Vibert - pic by Marcus

Copenhagen Botanical Garden

Copehagen Elephante

Berlin- pic by Marcus)

Boat we stayed on at De Affaire Festival - Nijmegen, Netherlands

Berlin

Ravi Coltrane in Wuppertal

Road exhaustion - Photo © Noor One

Berlin graph

Dorian Concept - Pitch Festival Amsterdam

Day off in Amsterdam by the canals

Balaton sunset

Deerhoof at Dour

Zamardi Hungary

Antwerp Train Station

Now I’m home for a few days before I head back out again. Yesterday I spent a full day w/ nature and listened.
See you soon..
b

Sonar, Barcelona 2011

Sonar, Barcelona 2011

Red Rocks, CO 2011 - pic by Steve Conry

Red Rocks, CO 2011 - pic by Steve Conry

Krakow, Poland 2011

Krakow Poland - June 11 2011

Wroclaw Poland 2011

Hamburg 2011

Set the tone for the whole trip

Prague 2011

Berlin 2011

‘ISAM’ – Full album with track-by-track commentary from Amon Tobin by Amon Tobin

The first European show of my EU tour this June was in Graz Austria (Pics below) for the Springfestival. I played alongside Dorian Concept, Martyn and Samiyam on Thursday and ended up staying an extra day on Friday.

That extra night the good people over at FM4 asked me to come in and do a short interview and dj set. It seemed like most of the other djs coming into the studio were playing more danc-y type sets. So, given the gentle mist of rain outside, the proximity to rolling hills and a massive river, I figured I would go a more gentle route. (I admit this mix is more of something my alter ego “Welder” would put out, but the world is a weird place, you never know what can happen.) Here is the simple gentle set. Enjoy.

1) Clark: “Absence”
2) Yuichiro Fujimoto: “Open Window (For Piano)”
3) Aphex Twin: “Tha”
4) Bibio: “St. Christopher”
5) DJG: “BC3″
6) Panda Bear: “Drone”
Download HERE / Stream below

Eskmo: FM4 studio mix recorded in Graz Austria 2011 by Eskmo