An eclectic work that takes the scenic route through an aural travelogue of diverse soundscapes, Remote's eleven tracks cinematically dissolve into each other forming a seamless expanse of primarily instrumental music. Urgent urban rhythms, pastoral countryside peace, a vast ambient wasteland, and the trance drone of transportation are conjured up in this soundtrack for the imagination. The album balances linear loop based structures with strong melodic motifs, detailed textures, and dynamic events.

The collaboration was initiated by singer/percussionist Andy Stochansky, who has recorded and toured extensively with Ani DiFranco, appears on CD's by the Indigo Girls, Veda Hille and John Gorka, composed for dance and film, and has released three CD's of his own including the recent Radio Fuse Box which landed him on the cover of NOW magazine. Andy's web site can be found at http://freespeech.org/andystochansky.

Kurt Swinghammer has also appeared on the NOW cover for his work as a singer/songwriter and visual artist. He has toured and recorded with artists such as Ron Sexsmith, The Wild Strawberries, and Ani DiFranco, co-written with Allanis Morrisete and Arlene Bishop, and composed for feature films and television. Kurt created the cover art for Remote and has an extensive web site at www.swinghammer.com.

The project was mixed and edited with producer David Travers-Smith, who has worked with artists such as Jane Siberry, Katherine Wheatley, and Lenny Gallant. When David MacMillan from Virgin Records was a guest on a CBC Radio show hosted by the Rheostatic's Dave Bidini, he chose Remote as one of his favourite CD's of the year.

Remote
CD $15.00 ON SALE AGAIN SEPTEMEBER 8, 2003

1. Ramp 
2. Welcome Wagon Man 
3. My Wha Wha Receives 
4. Grandma and the Bee
5. Bird Wedding at Big Rothko
6. DSD-2 
7. Crater 
8. Post Industrial Park 
9. The Potato Chip Eaters 
10. Bon voyage 
11. Exhaust 

Vostok 6
released 1999

Space travel, the cold war, feminism and unrequited love.

Welcome to the world of Vostok 6, a new musical work by multimedia composer Kurt Swinghammer. Taking it's title from the Soviet space mission that launched cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova to fame as the first woman in outer space, Vostok 6 features 60 minutes of songs, soundscapes and spoken-word vignettes seamlessly blended into one musical statement. The concept for Swinghammer's latest audio adventure was borne of the artist's fascination with the achievements and ironies of Tereshkova's story, at a time when we are re-assessing our advancements in the twentieth century.

Code-named Seagull, Tereshkova had secretly circled the earth for three days in the summer of 1963, a milestone that was only reported to an astonished world media upon her safe return to Earth. Behind the Iron Curtain she became a celebrated symbol for the aspirations of women, but the West could only see their own short comings in the space race and suspiciously viewed the event as communist propaganda promoting sexual equality, which was probably more threatening than the Cold War itself. Although NASA is believed to have been training women twenty years before the Shuttle program, pioneering Tereshkova had not only gone where no woman had gone before, her marriage to fellow cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev produced the world's first child born to space travelled parents.

As a six year old space enthusiast at the time of Valentina's flight, Kurt remembers responding to the arresting image of the woman in her high tech habit. In Vostok 6 he uses her story as the context to explore a personal relationship with someone he idealises, falls in love with, and is ultimately separated from.

To convey this poignant and emotional narrative, Swinghammer pulls together a wide array of diverse musical elements from folk guitar fingerpicking to sequenced synthesiser arpeggios. Swinghammer describes Vostok 6 as a "Switched-On Bacharach" hybrid with a slice of cheesy listening, prog rock time signatures, and spy movie chord changes. Written, produced and performed by the multi-instrumentalist, Vostok 6 also features guest contributions from Barenaked Ladies' drummer Tyler Stewart and legendary Toronto broadcaster Mark "The Voice" Dailey. The final recording was mixed by Juno award winning producer Michael Phillip Wojewoda (Barenaked Ladies, Ashley MacIssac, Rheostatics).

Based in Toronto, Kurt has composed for film and television in addition to performing his songs in concert and on record. Additionally, he has contributed his producing, arranging, writing and guitar playing talents to a growing number of recordings artists such as Tory Cassis, Sarah Slean, Rennan, and Mia Sheard. Peggy Baker, celebrated choreographer, solo dancer and instructor at the National Ballet of Canada, created a solo dance set to the final track of Vostok 6 to be presented at the Premiere Dance Theatre in November, 1999.

Swinghammer also designed the cover for Vostok 6, and his graphic art resume includes animations for MuchMusic and HBO's Crashbox, set sculptures for dancer Peggy Baker, posters for Sam The Record Man, an illustrated children's book of Stompin Tom Connor's songs and many CD covers including one for musician David Wilcox which was nominated for a Best Album Art Juno in 1998.
 

Vostok 6
CD $15.00 ON SALE AGAIN SEPTEMEBER 8, 2003

part one

1. 6-16-63
2. Blue 
3. Nocturne
4. Of A Dream
5. MC Squared
6. The First
7. Vostok 6 
8. White Russians 
9. Star City

Intermission Control 

part 2

10. Mercury 
11. Cold War 
12. Dark 
13. Falling Star
14. Retro Rocket
15. Valentina 
16. Seagull 
17. Dawn

Visit Kurt's Website