NOSIGNAL Media Labs

'Source' Reviewed on Other People's Music

2025-10-10 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

"Source (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)" was featured in this week's Other People's Music, "Synths and Sensibilities" by Fediverse music maven Ether Diver.

The review describes the album as "an absolute smorgasbord of synthesized texture, timbre and tone". You can read the whole review here, and be sure to check out the other indie music featured in the issue!

"Source" is available to stream for free at bandwagon.fm.

Source

2025-09-23 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

My latest album, "Source (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)", is now available! Inspired by the myth of Eurydice and Orpheus and the wisdom of Rick Rubin, "Source" is the soundtrack to a fateful journey through a dream-like Underworld in search of a doomed love.

The 8 tracks on this album represent a departure from the post-punk sensibilities of my earlier work. Using a wide variety of vintage, analog, and modular synthesizers, "Source" is as much an exploration of the Underworld as it is a recontextualization of vintage sounds in a non-nostalgic, contemporary context.

"Source" is available on Bandcamp, or free and federated on bandwagon.fm. You can also hear it as part of the regular rotation over at the Indiebeat fedi radio station.

Source (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Coraline Ada Ehmke

I've Been Deleting Your Texts

2025-08-15 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

I came across an unfinished poem from 2017 and decided to put it to music. Features a spoken word performance over analog and digital synths.

Listen to "I've Been Deleting Your Texts" by Coraline Ada Ehmke on Soundcloud, and please call me back, okay?.

Drone Day 2025

2025-05-24 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

May 24, 2025 was the final segment of my 5-year "Gangs of Ireland" project. Starting in 2021, each year on Drone Day (droneday.org) I've created a new experimental piece inspired by a segment from an 80s-era Irish talk show featuring young goths, punks, & mods. This year wrapped the series revisiting each of the young people and paying musical tribute.

The performance was recorded live at a Drone Day festival in Marlboro, New York.

Figure Six

2025-05-05 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

"Figure Six" is the fourth release from the mysterious postpunk ensemble Sudre's Violin, and according to sources is likely to be their last for the foreseeable future.

The six songs on the album feature the usual lineup of heavy percussion, luscious bass, lonesome guitar, and sinister piano that the band is known for. In an interesting bit of trivia, the final track on the song was inspired by a Disquiet Junto prompt and is in the bizarre time signature of 29/16.

Get your copy of "Figure Six" on Bandcamp, or federated on bandwagon.fm.

Figure 6 by Sudre's Violin

True Colors EP

2025-05-03 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

I met Randall met via Chicago DJ Jeff Moyer's twitch.tv stream and we decided to collaborate on an EP. We worked together remotely and asynchronously blending my more experimental approach with Randall's happy synthpop roots. A mix of synthesizers, guitars and deep layers of sonic texture.

The title track features samples from the speech that Lana Wachowski gave when she was awarded the HRC Visibility Award in 2013. That speech saved my life.

Get your copy of "True Colors" on Bandcamp.

True Colors by Shapes with Two Edges

Sudre's Violin Rare Live Peformance

2024-12-24 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

Bootleg recording of a rare Sudre's Violin live performance, probably from a warehouse party. The band indicated that the song, titled "The Puzzle-Box Waltz", is from the LP they're releasing next year.

Disturbing Dreams

2024-11-20 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

"A Foolish Consistency" from the Sudre's Violin release "Seven Souls" was featured as the fourth track on the inaugural episode of Disturbing Dreams, a radio show highlighting dark ambient and electronic music from unsigned artists.

Check it out at Mixcloud.

Album Release: Seven Souls

2024-08-13 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

Following 2022's debut "Five Lies Left" EP, and 2023's "The Nine Doors", "Seven Souls" is the latest release from Sudre's Violin. As successive layers of veils are lifted from their eyes, the listener is taken on a journey through 7 sonic landscapes haunted by broken synths, throaty guitars, eerie pianos, and hypnotic rhythms.

"Seven Souls" is available on:

Seven Souls by Sudre's Violin

Drone Day 2024

2024-05-25 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

May 25, 2024 made year 4 of my 5-year "Gangs of Ireland" project. Starting in 2021, each year on Drone Day (droneday.org) I've created a new experimental piece inspired by a segment from an 80s-era Irish talk show featuring young goths, punks, & mods. This year was "The Mod".

The performance was live-streamed, and you can see the concert video from the livestream broadcast from NO SIGNAL Multimedia Labs.

The studio and live versions of this track are available on the "Gangs of Ireland" playlist on SoundCloud.

Songs for Girls: Stray Willow

2024-02-24 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

Another piece for _Songs for Girls (The Singles)_, my catch-all for miscellaneous work

I love the dreamy feel of the guitar, the melody being carried by the bassline, and the Roland/Studio Electronics SE-02 analog synth is really nice here as well.

Listen to "Stray Willow" by Coraline Ada Ehmke on Soundcloud.

Songs for Girls: Someone (Or Something)

2024-01-26 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

_Songs for Girls (The Singles)_ is a catch-all for miscellaneous work that's not part of a specific project. Like this piece, a work-in-progress that I originally started to just practice drum programming.

I'm pretty fond of the guitar part, especially the solo that comes in just after the 2:00 mark.

Listen to "Someone (or Something)" by Coraline Ada Ehmke on Soundcloud.

New Release: The Nine Doors

2023-11-23 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

Following 2022's debut "Five Lies Left" EP, this new release, "The Nine Doors" is a full-length album featuring 9 original songs. The wordless narrative of "The Nine Doors" unfolds through the dark instrumentation, hypnotic rhythms, broken synths, and haunted piano that is the signature sound of Sudre's Violin.

The theme and feel of "The Nine Doors" is inspired by the modern literary classic "The Club Dumas" by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. (There's also an obligatory Nick Drake reference, of course.)

Listen or pick up "The Nine Doors" on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Bandcamp, Pandora, Soundcloud, or Spotify.

The Nine Doors by Sudre's Violin

Uncle Karma with Horns circa 1993

2023-09-13 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

This is a living room recording (one mic, in the middle of the room) of my old band from Austin, Uncle Karma, jamming and improvising with some friend-of-a-friend horn players. We only have the vaguest memory of this happening. It was recorded in Austin, Texas on August 4, 1993.

My friend, former bandmate, and most recently Auntie Kismet collaborator rescued five selections from the session from on an old cassette tape he found.

Come feel that 90s freeform jazz vibe with "Uncle Karma With Horns (August 4, 1993)".

Drone Day 2023

2023-07-03 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

2023 marked the 3rd year of my 5-year "Gangs of Ireland" project. Starting in 2021, each year on Drone Day (droneday.org) I've created a new experimental piece inspired by a segment from an 80s-era Irish talk show featuring young goths, punks, & mods. This year's piece is "The Iconoclast".

Check out my Drone Day 2023 performance video from a live performance at an experimental music event in Hudson Valley, New York.

The studio version of this track is available on the "Gangs of Ireland" playlist on SoundCloud.

New Release! 'Five Lies Left'

2022-11-22 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

13 months in the making, "Five Lies Left" is the first release from my Sudre's Violin solo project. It's been (kindly) described as dreadful, dread-full, and highly experiential.

This project brought me back to a more performance-based approach to recording. The guitar is live, the bass is live, and the synth and piano parts were mostly improvised and minimally edited. (In contrast, most of the sparse vocals are of unnatural origin.)

It's available for free/pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp. You can also stream it on Apple Music, Pandora, or Spotify.

Drone Day 2022

2022-07-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

For the second year in a row, on 2022-05-09 I took part in Drone Day, a 24-hour, global celebration of drone & experimental music.

This year's piece is called "The Goth", featuring samples from the Gay Byrne interview with 19-year-old goth Siobhan. You can listen to the WIP on soundcloud.

This is part of a 5-year project called "Gangs of Ireland", featuring a series of 5 monotonic compositions inspired by a 1983 Irish TV interview show. Every successive Drone Day, I will live-stream while I compose, record, and produce a new song in the series.

The complete Drone Day 2022 live session is available on YouTube.

The studio version of this track is available on the Gangs of Ireland playlist on soundcloud.

'The Punk' Reviewed on The Hard Times Podcast 'Fanboys'

2021-12-16 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

I got my very first music review on 2021-12-14, on the Hard Times 'Fanboys' Podcast! Starting around the 27:23 mark, they talk about "The Punk", my experimental Drone Day piece.

"It made me feel a way that drone music never has, that was really really cool"
"It could be in the soundtrack for Prometheus"
"It's creepy, it's haunted, but also a little bit uplifting. You feel wonder."

I can't thank The Hard Times enough for the kind words and constructive feedback. Listen to the song "The Punk" on Soundcloud.

Guest Appearance on Engaging Conversations with David J Hansen

2021-08-31 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

On 2021-08-29 I joined David J Hansen for "Engaging Conversations", his series of interviews with Industrial/Goth/Post-Punk DJs and artists.

We had a great talk, covering topics like the creative process, world-building with music, mental health, and the power of storytelling.

My favorite question was, "What does music mean to you?"

Watch the full interview on YouTube.

A Little Fire Scarecrow

2021-07-27 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

Throughout my 30s, my music came from a place of sorrow. After I transitioned in 2014, I was sure that I would never make music again. Because that creative center, that sorrow I had drawn on for so long, was no longer with me.

But from the day in 2016 that an idea for a drum pattern haunted me and tricked me into opening Logic again, to the day in 2020 that I decided that I was ready to explore new directions, I released 8 albums. One of my songs was even featured on an official Spotify playlist for Trans Day of Visibility.

Out of those 65 songs, these are the 8 that best tell the story of that era of my musical journey. Grab a copy of "(Not the Worst of) A Little Fire Scarecrow" for free or pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp.

Cameras (Official Video)

2021-07-09 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

Watch the official video for the first Calamity Orchestra single, "Cameras". The song is a reflection on how the world viewed the anti-racist and anti-fascist protests in 2020, mediated by cameras-- cell, press, body.

In the mean time, you can download both singles on Bandcamp.

Isolation 1980

2021-07-08 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

What if COVID had struck in 1980, and we were all stuck at home with 3 channels of crap on TV? At least we would have had Joy Division to listen to.

Watch the music video short "Isolation 1980".

Drone Day 2021

2021-06-28 00:00:00 +0000 UTC

On 2021-05-09 I took part in Drone Day, a 24-hour, global celebration of drone, tone, soundscaping, and more. Streaming live for 2 hours, I created a song called "The Punk", inspired by an Irish talk show from 1982. It was a great opportunity to use my Stargazer drone synth. Something, from nothing, to something.

My Drone Day session performance/documentary: strict copyright or fair use. Or, catch the highlights.

The studio version of this track is available on the Gangs of Ireland playlist on soundcloud.