My latest composition is called “After You, Keith” and is based on a sample from Keith Jarret’s Köln Concert.

Also, in a brief note, the voting for the Laurie Anderson remix contest has ended. I ended up on a 123rd place, which probably is what to expect from such an alternative mix. Now all hope is for the jury to appreciate it. Their picks will be announced on the 17th of June.

As usual when you want to investigate a system, you tear it down to its smallest parts and then reconstruct it to create a representative model, which will, if you’re in luck, tell you what you need to know about the system…

The remix was created using a technique I will use and describe more in detail later, in a coming art project (probably not under the Lost Shadow name, though).

Why not free downloads?
Why are we making these changes? Well, it turns out that our experiment with free downloads and donations did not yield the effect we had hoped. Last year Phonocratic Records was run at personal economical loss, and we have no reason to expect that this will change in the near future without taking any action. Still, we believe that there is value in the music we make available, so we will try another marketing model, using downloads and micropayments. Last.fm does not serve this purpose very well, while Bandcamp turns out to be a great place to securely sell music downloads (and physical albums). It will still be possible to donate to Lost Shadow through the Store, but we suggest that our listeners instead download the high-quality music files from Bandcamp, and make the small micropayments there. Hey, 3 euros for a 12 song album is about as cheap as a cup of coffee! And it’s even cheaper than a beer!

Remaining free
A number of tracks will remain free. These are:

• Songs from albums released before 2006. These albums will not be made available through Bandcamp, and will therefore remain downloadable from Last.fm for free (still at only 128kps, though).
• All Lost Shadow singles, previous ones, and coming ones. However, only the lead tracks might be made available for free download in some instances. The singles will be downloadable as 128kps mp3 from Last.fm, or in a variety of  high-quality formats from Bandcamp. Regardless of format, the files will be free.
• Selected albums and songs, such as the “Age and Time” album released last year.

Also, free steaming of all songs is available from both Last.fm and Bandcamp.

No more physical singles
As mentioned at the release of the A Nuance of Future single, we will not continue to release singles in physical format. This is also part of the new strategy for Phonocratic Records. We feel both sad and excited about this decision. The good thing is that we can now focus on bringing you the best possible digital experience for the singles. Also, it should be noted that our albums will still be available in physical CD format, as well as in digital download form, and we do not plan to change that.

We hope that our listeners will be positive about these changes and that we’re putting the value back behind the music.

I also announce that the Lost Shadow forum will be taken down later this year. It has not been much of a success, and is mostly unused nowadays. As it will be possible to comment on every articles here, the forum’s role seems to have disappeared. I encourage you to discuss the news items posted on phonocratic.com. This site will also have an RSS-feed, so you can keep yourself up to date with Lost Shadow using your favorite RSS-reader.

This new site will focus on Lost Shadow, but also contain material from Avoid, House Mouse, Johan Bengtsson and The Alvedons. Most of the information that was found on the old site has been transferred here, feel free to contact me if there is something you’re missing!

I have also decided to make most of my music available from last.fm. Unfortunately, I cannot upload covers of other artists’ songs, but still there is more than ten albums available that you can download for free. If you like them, please consider a donation or to join the friends of Lost Shadow (can be done in the store).

In a few days a new single will be out, called Pirate Bay, to celebrate this new site. I will soon submit it to last.fm, and will tell you here when it is released. Until then, keep it up, and enjoy the new site!