15 Degrees Below Zero are Daniel Blomquist, Michael Addison Mersereau and Mark Wilson, their instrumentation comprising everything but the kitchen sink (laptop, samplers, keyboards, effects, mixing, processing, guitars, vocals, harmonica, pedals, contact microphones, etc.).  Their latest album, Resting on A was mastered by Thomas Dimuzio, a fringe music artist/producer with a Bill Laswell-sized discography and a name well-known to those 'in the know' about ambient-industrial noise.  If you like experimental ambient music, 15 Degrees Below Zero is a project well worth checking out.

Resting on A takes a very minimal approach, even with the track titles ('3.4.1', '3.4.4', '2.5', '3.12.2', '3.25', etc.).  I’m guessing there might be some mathematical significance to that, but I flunk high school algebra, so how would I really know?  The soundscapes on this work are somewhat more spacey and subdued than what I’ve heard on previous 15 Degrees' releases, nearly Eno-esque in some places.  Multilayered, but still very minimal, where events blend and morph with each other in an often placid pastiche, a dichotomy of calm and tension, stillness and motion.  This is best illustrated on the lengthy track '2.5', which runs about 24 ½ minutes.  This is not drone music, but atmosphere music.  In your mind, you may hear ghostly voices emerge, or you may get the impression of arctic isolation.  The canvas on which 15 Degrees Below Zero paints is open to interpretation, often seemingly amorphous, yet with structure and balance.  Even subdued melody can be extracted from certain passages.

The track following '2.5' has more experimental noise in the form of recurring looped pitched noise and static distortion that culminates seamlessly in wavering bellish bass tones on the next track.  I’m guessing there is some heavy use of ring modulation here.  There is much emphasis on the lower frequencies throughout the album, so you should prepare your listening system for that.  Not to say that higher timbres have been neglected; they do appear transiently for affect now and then.  I wonder how much of the music has been improvised and how much has been structured, as it seems to have a rather precise framework.

Track 6 ('3.12.1') features some spoken word over repeated electronic tones and noise rumblings.  I’m not much of fan of spoken word samples in music except for short, appropriate interjections (that’s the old school industrial in me), but it’s a short track and not really obtrusive.  Track 7 ('2.19.2') features old school electronics along the lines of Varèse, Stockhausen, etc., a sort of nod to musique concrete.  On the final track, '3.12.4', heavy processed guitar takes over.  All-in-all, Resting on A is a really good album with a high replayability factor.  But there is more… a bonus video of 'December December' a track from their previous New Travel CD.  It would not play without glitches for me no matter what program I used to play it on, but the surreal visuals were rather interesting."
rated: 4.5/5"
Steve Mecca,
Chain D.L.K.
http://www.chaindlk.com/

"I have to say I was a massive fan of ‘Under a Morphine Sky’, which was beautifully bleak and attention grabbing, and it's quite nice to see how things have evolved from there to now with this trio’s latest release.

The best words I can use when listening to 15DBZ is ‘sound sculpture’, because that's exactly what this is -- taking the organic and electronic and evolving it into form, sometimes ambient, sometimes noisy, and for the some of the time, both.

There is an overlying hum to this album, a rich drone that seems to flow as the base to a lot of the tracks occasionally rising and lifting the ambient quality of this act to the maximum atmosphere, cold and warm in equal measure with the occasional momentary feeling of being lost at a crossroads not knowing which route to take with the feeling of desperation reaching a peak when you realise you have taken the wrong path and there is no going back.

Without doubt there is a lot about 15DBZ which will not appeal to just anyone, such is their eclectic nature; even for myself some of the tracks do appear a little over lengthy in part, and there was the odd occasion where I wanted them to hurry up the journey somewhat.  Taking that into account, however, with a lot of patience there is a lot on this release to sink your teeth into for the discerning ambient and noise fan alike and is value for money in the process."
-Tony Young/Autoclav1.1,
They Fell
http://theyfell.com/

Today is the official release date for 15 Degrees Below Zero's Resting on A CD on Edgetone Records.

With their third full length CD Resting on A, 15 Degrees Below Zero (Daniel Blomquist/The Twittering Machine, Michael Addison Mersereau, and Mark Wilson/Conure) re-introduce the listener to their signature blend of guitar, digital and analog atmospheres, and noise. The trio continue to explore a territory of noise-oriented soundscapes and compositional narratives that emerge between the planes of discord and melody, but with this release, a feeling of spaciousness underlies the existing tension.

$13ppd (domestic) / $14ppd (int'l)
Please PayPal payment to me at "mark.wilson@crunchpod.com".

http://15dbz.crunchpod.com/
http://www.myspace.com/15degreesbelowzero
http://www.facebook.com/pages/15-Degrees-Below-Zero/45442896512
http://www.edgetonerecords.com/

This is a live version of "Kronos", recorded by Meghan Sherwood at Koo's Art Center in Long Beach, CA on August 11, 2007.  The studio version of this piece can be found on our 10" vinyl release Between Checks and Artillery, Between Work and Image on the illustrious label .Angle.Rec.

Two unmastered tracks from 15 Degrees Below Zero's next CD "Resting on A" (to be released on April 22, 2009) have been posted to our profile.  Please give them a listen and let us know what you think.

The tracks are titled 3.12.4 and 3.4.4.  (Unfortunately, MySpace removed the periods from the titles.)

Thanks!

Mark