Umunhum by Limestone Ziggurat

N.B. Relocating to Cleveland, studio packed up in boxes. Raiding the archives to have some new things up for this almost Bandcamp of Fridays.

"Umunhum" was the first piece of held-tone music I created using the Indian resonator from Error Instruments. Indian is a unique resonator, quite unlike other so-named devices, and resembles more vowel-like shapes, similar to flutes, but is also quite capable of more percussive work. I don't pretend to fully understand the alchemy at play under the hood of Paul Tas' machines, but I enjoy that about them too - they offer just enough operational control to be used as tools, but often employ complex relationships between controls, where each aspect of the machine is in some way dependent on the present position/behavior of the other aspects of the machine. This leads to a natural exploration and a lot of experimenting, which is I'm sure what Paul Tas would like to read if he were to find this release.

Either way, "Umunhum" is named for the mountain peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which means "Resting Place of the Hummingbird" in the Ohlone language. Atop this peak sits a disused 85.5-ton AN/FPS-24 radar tower, which appears in the cover photograph. This tower was completed in 1962 and used to watch for hostile aircraft during the Cold War. Its signal caused electronic interference in many radio, TV and sound systems within its 250-mile range on each rotation.

In addition to the Indian resonator, the sound you hear has been further shaped by an E560 Deflector Shield from Synthesis Technology, a Magneto four-head tape delay system from Strymon and a three-stage panned stereo delay in GoldWave.

Tracklist

1.	Umunhum	56:01

Credits

released November 7, 2025

W/P by Brian Grainger. Recorded at White Pillar on 2nd June 2025 using the Audioholistics modular system. Mastered by The Analog Botanist. Text by Brian. Design by ABM&D using a photograph of The Cube, Santa Cruz Mountains, California taken by ???. This is Milieu Music number ONE-25/311a.

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