News

July 20th 2014 •

Three rough ambient tracks below.

I may or may not do something with them. Though I've set myself the goal of putting out tracks every week! However short or unpolished they are. As an exercise.











Janurary 28th 2013 •

First update in quite a while! 2012 was a quiet year, musically, and I was just too lazy in 2011 to make updates. I aim to change that. Anyways, I've added a backlog of 2 compilations and a side project to the releases.







Also, here's an old interview over at Culture is not your Friend!

And finally, I am currently working on a full length album. First full solo album since 2006!



May 29th 2011 •



More info on the release page! New photos in that oddly-name section of the site, too.



Stuff

Cloudscapes is the solo musical works of Etienne Blythe. It started off as banging on the family piano and annoying neighbors with diy sirens at a young age and has since evolved into more constructive projects.

I like to play ambient soundscapes, drones, bowed strings, electroacoustic, purcussive/rythmic (electronic or not), rough-edged folky guitar, phychadelic, synths, noises, etc...

I'm interested in different kinds of music, so sometimes "cloudscapes" goes through creative changes over time. Early on I was making some broken electronic ambient music and badly sequenced purcussion. Strictly an at-home thing. Then came recording rough classical guitar on top with a $5 microphone and through software effects, which was a lot of fun!

When I began playing live shows in 2007, I found it really difficult to translate what was before heavily processed and sequenced into a live environment. Playing a laptop with a knob box didn't hold my interest a whole lot after a couple shows and so I began playing "cloudscapes" as a more improv kind of thing. It still is even now, sort of. No computers, just a more limited pallet. I start rehearsing with a general idea, build a soundtrack for a story that doesn't exist, and try and remember all that for the show.

I took a break from CD/CD-R releases between 2006 and 2009. The interesting thing is how my method has changed between the heavily "set-up" and prepared pre-2006 songs and the new improv. There is still a bunch of post-work put into new material, but it's based off a recorded jam on-the-fly, or even a rehersal.

I'm also hugely interested in DIY. Whether instruments and electronics, or homebrew releases and distro!


Other projects

I currently play in two other bands, and have collaborated/jammed with really awesome people! Dora Bleu, .cut, gmackrr and PK that one time, Montreal Nintendo Orkestar, Johnny Vane, friends at Burritoville, Arno, Alexandre st Onge, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few!

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