arms full of sound
2004 marked the second year that Arms Full of Sound had been performing live. The show in late 2003 was the proving ground for The Ambient Ping venue, and Arms Full of Sound was given two shows in 2004: September 7 and December 7.
In the months leading up to April 2004, Arms Full of Sound was busy juggling around the idea of releasing the 2003 show as a live CD or producing a third studio album. Each was up in the air, and each certainly had enough material by this time. Up until April, promotion was they key and CD sales on the first 2 CD’s begun. When the two 2004 shows were confirmed with The Ambient Ping, the marketing took an expanded angle.
Since the shows were 3 month apart, it was decided that they would be related to one another in some way. The show in 2003 was a two-set show, but the music that came out that night seemed to take the audience on a complete journey from start to finish. For 2004, Arms Full of Sound decided that this concept would be spread over both concert dates. In order to do this, Journey to Ambientia was born.
This project immediately took on a woven concept that touched on the 2003 concert by establishing that a visitor came in 2003 to give everyone a taste of what awaits them on Ambientia. The design of the 2004 shows had more structure, similar to that of an itinerary:
Journey to Ambientia Part 1: Departure at Gate Alpha
Set 1 - Setting Sail • Set 2 - Infinite Dimension
* * * * *
Journey to Ambientia Part 2: Arrival
Set 1 - Rhythmic Universe • Set 2 - Journey’s End
This was built as an open ended journey where the end was either a stay on Ambientia or a return to Gate Alpha. It was entirely up to the listener.
To build the story around the first offering of the project, a series of Letters from Ambientia were published on the website and through the eMail list. In them The Traveler gives account of finding himself still on Ambientia.
CD’s released around this project were:
“Pieces of a Larger Experiment”
“Minework in G”
“Air is the Means”
Journey to Ambientia
The First Journey
