Various Artists

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the pros and cons and the value added of participating in compilations. For the last years 7+ I've contributed works to quite many of them. Some I personally initiated, to others I was invited or just got in touch so I join. Putting music in compilations almost didn't bring me anything, but cool contacts and artist discoveries. Oh yes, and the awesome process of creating something short and thorough.

I really like the whole process about writing a piece for a compilation. I always try to keep the material I'm contributing exclusive, especially the works I give away for physical releases you can hardly find on the Internet (only if they are ripped and uploaded). Sometimes I like to focus on just a tiny bit of music without getting deeper in concepts or length, and in this cases just one piece is more than enough. Then why don't I put it as a single or whatnot. Well because I like the idea of my work surrounded by other interesting, and sometimes also unknown to me artists.

Without a unifying concept or a specific occasion compilations are pointless, they are also difficult for comprehending if their volume is too big (especially applying for online samplers). But with all of this said they are fun to do, because in the ideal scenario they are a result of a friendly and meaningful communication and that's cool, cus maybe someday you'll meet that Argentinian artist who wrote the track after yours.

Here are two compilations that I've contributed music so far this year.

DARK AMBIENT RADIO VOL. 3 (CD) // Mytrip 'Small Humyn'

Back in 2006 I took part in the first ever sampler created in the community of the great German dark ambient radio. Now some years after it has turned into a tradition, all tracks are chosen by anonymous voting. Community and democracy at its max, oh yes quality dark ambient too. My piece is called 'Small Humyn' and it's closing the compilation. It's quite a noisy track for such a release, and the best about it is that I don't even remember how or when I created it. I can't find any traces of it in my archives. Below is a sample mix of all pieces.

 DAR official site | Discogs

REVIEWS:
@Guts Of Darkness (French) / English translation
@Medienkonverter (German)
@Kulturterrorismus (German)
@Winter Light (English)
 
WELCOME TO OUR DECAYED FACTORY (2xCDr) // Мytrip 'Meat Extraction'

Besides being very active (too active for my taste) releasing music in the Internet, Abandonment is one of the few signs that the concept of noise / dark ambient / experimental / etc. exists in Bulgaria, even though that the number of local artists released by this DIY label is not that big. However Abandonment has been around for quite some time and this compilation is a celebration of the label anniversary. It consists of music of about 30 artists and 'Meat Extraction', another very noisy and hostile Mytrip piece has the honor of opening this extreme collection of music for the listener. 

Abandonment official site | Discogs

If you are curious about the other compilations that I've taken part as Mytrip in the last few years, check out this Discogs list. I think it's pretty full. Some of those samplers are already sold out, others are hard to find even on the Internet, because the people/labels who initiated them are inactive, but if you dig deeper you can always find what you're looking for.