Ramblings of Altus

For those who were on the fence on purchasing “Winter Embrace II” because the samples available online were too short, here is a video containing a 14 minute remix. This will give you excellent idea what the full release is like.
http://bluewaterrecords.com/releases-detail.php?albumid=38

Enjoy the video!

Spirit from Mike Carss on Vimeo.

Also available on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wuv_zxRaOA

A sampler of tracks are now available at SoundCloud. This is a great page for new listeners to hear the various styles I write. Enjoy.
http://soundcloud.com/altusmusic

Sonic Strata 2 – Download Now (www.archive.org/details/SonicStrata2)
The new release from The Ambient Collective “Sonic Strata 2″ features three 20-minute tracks written by four artists each.
Part 1 – Tange, Annode, eigensphere, Modulator ESP
Part 2 – usr/sbin, Gregg Plummer, Sonoprint, Somnarium
Part 3 – Steve Gane, Altus, Litmus0001, Jujigen

By request, “24 Hours” and “Only One Earth to Destroy” are now available to download in FLAC format.

Download 24 Hours
Download Only One Earth to Destroy

Silvercord and Altus – Lullaby

I’m happy to announce the 2006 collaborative release with Silvercord (Geoff Nostrant) has finally been given a proper home at Earth Mantra.

This re-release contains higher bitrate MP3s, as well as lossless FLAC. So if you already have this release and it’s one of your favourites, it’s certainly worthwhile to replace those old files.

Black Trees Among Amber Skies

The latest from Altus is now available to download in MP3, and FLAC for those who rather to burn to CD.

Ambient music for night-time Winter walks in the city.
Originally planned to be released in early January, this album was put aside for other projects. Hence the reason it’s an out-of-season theme. Even if you’re not a lover of Winter, don’t let that stop you from enjoying the album.

Full-length previews are also available at last.fm.

Tune to stillstream.com at 11pm EST on March 26th (Friday) to be the first to hear the latest offering from Altus. (The release will likely play around midnight)

The sound of Black Trees Among Amber Skies is classic Altus. Melancholy and haunting, yet with that pinch of hope. This release is what you’ve been waiting for… The reason you keep coming back for more.

Join us in the Stillstream chat room, and links will be made available to download the release before anyone else. I hope to see you there!

The release date for everyone else is March 27th.

I’m pleased to announce a collaboration with visual artist and animator, Sharon Katz of Ottawa, Canada.
You can read more about the animated short “Ooh La La” here.

This was my first attempt at writing music to visuals, and I’m very happy with the results. At this time, I can’t share it with you all online. However I believe that once it’s made the rounds at various film festivals, it will be made publicly available.

The schizophrenic release Macro from 2008 is now available in FLAC.

Even after two years, this is still my personal favourite release. If any album needed to be heard in FLAC, it’s Rapid Eye Movements.

I wouldn’t be surprised if a large number of people never heard it since it’s only available in the OGG format. OGG is excellent compression technology (better than MP3), but not supported out-of-the-box by the two most used players (Windows Media Media and iTunes). Of course, neither is FLAC, but my FLAC releases are for a specific audience.

If you’ve not heard Rapid Eye Movements yet, please take the time to either install another player, or the codec to work with your music player of choice. There’s details on the download page.

You can also check it out at last.fm, but keep in mind that they are heavily compressed and takes away from the experience.