• September 18th, 2016
The title for this episode was taken from a statement made by the great Harold Budd, albeit a paraphrase. He spoke of his intent to deliberately create beautiful music in the face of the experimental music "dogma" of dissonance and atonality that chaffed him. That has always struck me as a cool statement. I'll leave it to others to determine if there is anything beautiful about this episode.
About the music: There are 12 different guitar loops as I attempted to create some textures. It does get muddy at times but...this was an improv, off the cuff effort...soooo..
As always, I feature a charity for those who would be so inclined to direct any impulse to support this podcast towards a more noble cause. This month, the charity is Agape International Missions, an outreach mission. Here's a statement from their website:
"Agape International Missions (AIM) was founded on the ground in Cambodia in 1988 as a humanitarian aid and church planting organization in Cambodia. Since 2005, our ministries have focused on ending the evil of child sexual slavery."
I learned of this organization through watching a very well done....and horrific documentary called "The Pink Room" that showed the systemic problem of sex slavery in Cambodia where young children are sold into prostitution by their families and subjected to rape. A horrific situation. AIM is literally on the ground in Cambodia fighting the good fight to address the root causes of the issue.
Please consider supporting them with donations or purchases of items.
Thanks,
Alan
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• May 30th, 2016
The latest podcast is a piece of music that is a product of a very jet-lagged mind. 2x trips to Germany in 4 weeks...some of the music created in the 4 days home between trips. The primary guitar was laid down the day after the 2nd return home. Normally, I handle time zone changes alright but the "boomerang" nature of these trips kinda threw me for a loop.
This episodes featured cause is the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (I mistakenly referenced them as the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association..my bad). IAVA.org. "Give them some love...".
To all the families, in America and elsewhere, who have lost loved ones in armed conflicted, may God bless you.
Cheers,
Alan
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• February 8th, 2016
Greetings:
The latest episode has no official title ("creators laziness") and was recorded over 2 days in January, 2016. Thus, its not technically live and, in fact, has a bit more over-dubbing than I intended but....oh well....
The suggested cause of focus is the on going refugee crisis as a result of the civil war in Syria. I encourage any donation to any charity of chose. I've selected the
UN Refugee fund but please, if you are so inclined, assist in any avenue you deem fit.
Cheers,
Alan Imberg
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• March 14th, 2015
Greetings to All:
This latest podcast of Ambient Devotional music is entitled "Jeddah". The music is inspired by a recent trip I took to Jeddah Saudi Arabia. The music isn't necessarily "Arabic" in flavor but is, rather, an audio recollection of images of the environment and experience.
I will expound on the experience in greater detail when I publish my latest blog entry. Please check my website (alanimberg.com) for updates. As with all my podcast, I encourage listeners to donate time or money to a specific charity. For this episode, I'm suggesting multiple veterans support charities. Below is a link to a CNBC page that has a top 10 list of charities help U.S. veterans. I'm a strong believer in the importance of supporting veterans of armed service, especially in this era of men/women returning from combat and having physical and mental needs that are not being served by the very persons that called them into duty (i.e. the U.S. Government with representatives all too quick to yell jingoism about supporting the troops but deny funding for actually supporting them when the fighting stops). As such, its left for charities to fill the huge gap in support services.
Cheers and blessings,
Alan Imberg
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• March 2nd, 2014
Greetings "Y'all":
Its been a while since my last podcast, largely due to frequent travel to Brazil in 2013 and into 2014. As such, I want to highlight a Brazilian charity focused on the problem of abandoned children which rings home to me, given my 27 trips to Brazil (and counting) and the evidence I have seen to the problem of impoverish kids.
The music for this podcast is based on some very quickly recorded loops that I improvised over. As usual, guitars and effects were the only things abused on this recording.
Below is a link to Task Brasil. Please consider a donation of support and listen to the podcast for further detail.
http://www.taskbrasil.org.uk/
Cheers,
Alan
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• February 2nd, 2013
After a bit of a pause (been traveling lots), the pod cast is back. No particular theme or title for this month's installment. The featured charity is the United Church of Christ Disaster Relief Fund, providing support for both natural and man-made disasters (see Syria).
http://www.ucc.org/disaster
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• October 3rd, 2011
This is episode 5 of this podcast series titled “Guitar Impression” by Alan Imberg. The podcast consists of Ambient music that is devotional in intent and recorded live (1 take improvisational performance). This particular episode is titled “I Hope...”.
In addition to showcasing the music of Alan Imberg for free, the motivation for doing this podcast is to spotlight various charities/causes in the hopes of inspiring someone to donate money and/or time to the spotlighted charity. For this episode, I'd like to highlight an organization whose focus is on assisting veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts of the past decade (www.IAVA.org)
Who Are They:
IAVA is 21st Century veterans’ organization dedicated to standing with the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan from their first day home through the rest of their lives.
Mission & Vision:
To improve the lives of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families. They strive to build an empowered generation of veterans who provide sustainable leadership for our country and their communities.
Impact:
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are entering their ninth and tenth years respectively. Over 2.2 million Americans have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, and thousands have been deployed multiple times. IAVA is focused on addressing mental health injuries, a stretched VA system, inadequate health care for female veterans, and GI Bill educational benefits.
For more information about Alan Imberg, and his music, please visit www.alanimberg.com
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• April 3rd, 2011
This is episode 4 of this podcast series titled “Guitar Impression” by Alan Imberg. The podcast consists of Ambient music that is devotional in intent and recorded live (1 take improvisational performance). This particular episode is titled “Empathy”.
In addition to showcasing the music of Alan Imberg for free, the motivation for doing this podcast is to spotlight various charities/causes in the hopes of inspiring someone to donate money and/or time to the spotlighted charity. For this episode, the spotlight is a bit more general.
As is common international knowledge, the devastating earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan has created incredible hard-ship and devastation with the tragedy continuing to unfold as the damaged nuclear power plant threatens even more devastation.
Please consider donating any amount of money to the Red Cross (http://www.jrc.or.jp/english/index.html), the United Church of Christ disaster relief (http://www.ucc.org/disaster/japan-earthquake-2011/) or any relief agency/charity to assist with providing food, medicine, clothing, and shelter to the 1000's of affected peoples.
For more information about Alan Imberg, and his music, please visit www.alanimberg.com
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• June 18th, 2010
This is episode 3 of this podcast series titled “Guitar Impression” by Alan Imberg. The podcast consists of Ambient music that is devotional in intent and recorded live (1 take improvisational performance based on a strategy and includes "flubs", unintended pops, AND music). This particular episode is titled “Conversations”.
The episode title, this time around, is more in reference to the applied strategy where I utilized two loopers (long duration delay units) whereby a musical phrase would be recorded into the looper in real time, then I'd react to it with another phrase in the 2nd looper, and so on.
In addition to showcasing the music of Alan Imberg, the motivation for doing this podcast is to spotlight various charities and causes in the hopes of inspiring someone to donate money and/or time to the spotlighted charity/cause. For this episode, the spotlighted cause is Autism Speaks (http://www.autismspeaks.org)
Autism Speaks was founded in February 2005 by Bob and Suzanne Wright, grandparents of a child with autism. Since then, Autism Speaks has grown into the nation's largest autism science and advocacy organization, dedicated to funding research into the causes, prevention, treatments and a cure for autism; increasing awareness of autism spectrum disorders; and advocating for the needs of individuals with autism and their families.
Additionally, I'd like to make a plug for the book "How Our Children with Autism Raised Us as Parents: The Ninety-Nine Jobs Needed to Raise Kids with Autism" by Sandy Hallett and Nikki Wisor. Its a heartwarming and funny book about the challenges (and rewards) of being a parent of children with Autism. Its available at Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/How-Children-Autism-Raised-Parents/dp/1434995143)
Please consider donating any amount of money or time to Autism Speaks and pick up a copy of the book.
For more information about Alan Imberg and his CD’s for sale, please visit www.alanimberg.com
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• January 2nd, 2010
This is episode 2 of this podcast series titled “Guitar Impression” by Alan Imberg. The podcast consists of Ambient music that is devotional in intent and recorded live (1 take improvisational performance). This particular episode is titled “Transitions”.
In addition to showcasing the music of Alan Imberg for free, the motivation for doing this podcast is to spotlight various charities in the hopes of inspiring someone to donate money and/or time to the spotlighted charity. For this episode, the spotlighted charity is children's hospitals in general. Children's hosptials are in many communities around the United States and do amazing work in caring for what must be considered the most precious and vulnerable amongst our society.
Please consider donating any amount of money to your local children's hosptial or to the most famous of American children's hospitals, St. Jude (http://www.stjude.org).
For more information about Alan Imberg, his CD’s for sale, and the aforementioned charity, please visit www.alanimberg.com
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