Nick Standing AKA Jabun: Multi-instrumentalist, Composer & Mastering Specialist at JabunAudio making dynamic, clean and punchy masters to encourage people to turn up your music, rather than turn it down! Creator of the Skapunk project Better Than The Book
Better Than The Book's Plot Holes will be on BBC Introducing Sussex & Surrey Radio this Thursday! Tune in 8-10pm GMT on BBC Sounds!
Amazing news to share: Better Than The Book's new single Plot Holes will be playing on BBC Introducing Sussex & Surrey Radio this Thursday! Thanks so much to host and DJ Melita for choosing the track!
You can tune in to the show live at 8-10pm GMT on BBC Sounds wherever you are in the world and the show will be repeating again on Saturday as well as available to listen to for the following month online. Hope to see you there and here's what Melita has to say about the upcoming show:
BBC Introducing in Sussex & Surrey, 8-10pm Thursdays
BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey, BBC Sounds, smart speaker & DAB
Listen in Brighton on 95.3 FM
Listen in Sussex & Surrey 104-104.8 FM
Listen nationally & internationally online at BBC Sounds here:
January 2025 Patreon & News Post: Better Than The Book's Plot Holes has been released (album open for pre-orders), Nephology playlisting and thanks, Holiday funtimes and gifts, studio updates (IT'S ALL HERE NOW), YouTube videos + reflecting on 2024, setting goals and more!
This post got a bit long so feel free to check out the full thing over on Patreon
Hi everyone and hope you had a great December, Christmas, New Years and Holiday season! It's been a heckin' super busy time over here, so much so that I've fallen behind on my pre-scheduled YouTube video recording! Fortunately I prepared videos up until the end of January in case of busy times, but there's going to be a lot of catching up to do this coming month, and man oh man it's looking to be an even busier time to come! Speaking of which, with Better Than The Book's big single release earlier this week (more on that in a moment), there'll be no extra Patreon rewards this month so everyone's news will be together in one post again. Should be back to the usual jam for February, and with that, let's get on with the news for the month!
Firstly, it's been just a few days since the launch but things are already looking great for the first single "Plot Holes" from Better Than The Book's upcoming 3rd full length album "Side Character In My Own Life"! If you've not already heard it check it out on YouTube, or on Bandcamp if you want to pick up a copy or pre-order the album now:
I've already said a lot about the single launch in the last post so to save repeating myself, check out the launch post along over on Patreon which talks about the track, the full track listing for the upcoming album, associated Patreon rewards and more! Hope to see you over there:
And a big thanks to everyone who's listened and shared the music so far! Not even a week after launch and Plot Holes has already been streamed well over 1000 times (almost here on Newgrounds alone) and even received a Front Page Feature Award too! Thanks so much for the love peeps, and I'm sure the rest of the album is going to blow your socks off too! Check out the Plot Holes here on Newgrounds below:
Onto other recent music releases, all the listening parties have now been completed for November's Jabun - Nephology album and all the tracks have been playlisted on YouTube and Newgrounds now, as well as the album being up on Spotify too! With over 6 hours total of listening party streaming time for this album it's been the longest release party yet and thanks so much to everyone who joined and really made it a memorable launch for Jabun's Nephology! Check out the cloudwatching livestream playlist below and the Nephology album on Bandcamp if you've not heard it already:
Onto some Christmas and Holiday funtimes news now, this year was the first one at my wife Eva and I's new house and we were hosting which made for a busy challenge but super enjoyable time with close family. As usual gifts were exchanged and some fun highlights included a toy pig from Battersea Power Station (In reference to Pink Floyd), Tickets to Iron Maiden and the 40th Anniversary addition of Iron Maiden's Powerslave album on vinyl (the title track of which was the first guitar solo I ever learnt and performed live) which also has this cool feature where when you play it under a strobe light it shows an animated loop for each of the tracks on the album (super cool), the Mario Bros Wonder game which has been some very silly multiplayer fun, and Eva and I both getting eachother the same supposedly discontinued flavour of our favourite instant noodles! Good times all around and thanks my dear family, I'm looking forward to the next visit soon! On top of that, my twin Eamon was up to his usual dank mashup madness and made yet another Christmas album this year! It ended up being a 12 days of Christmas countdown of sorts on his YouTube channel and is as messed up as it is heartfelt! Check it out below:
Onto Studio updates, with a few trips back down south in December + my family coming up to visit for Christmas, I FINALLY managed to move the rest of my equipment up into the new studio! Apart from the family piano and my very first Marshall guitar and bass amps which are staying down south, it's the first time EVER that all my instruments and equipment have been under the same roof and in the same room! Some notable additions include my BIG bass amp (an Ashdown EVO EVO II 500 + 4x10 cab), my first bass and guitar, a Squier Vintage Modified (and modified again) Jazz Bass, and stock Yamaha Pacifica 112 I picked up at a McDonalds car part from eBay at age 14, my trusty balalaika, and tenor saxaflute (Bamboo saxophone) which I've been making a new effort to play now that I can be as noisy and terribly sounding as I want (and it's going "well" so far)! There's still A LOT of stuff to sort out in the studio with a massive pile of mostly CDs and manga boxed up against the back wall now, but it's finally ALL HERE and available to record and jam now; for the first time ever! It's a great feeling and I'm sure it'll be even better once I get things a bit more sorted and less cluttered soon!
Next it's onto the YouTube videos for the month and although as mentioned I wasn't able to keep up with my recording, I've still managed to release the usual 2 a week videos on top of the new music! This month we said hello to the new studio with some build updates, and some jams! Here's the updated main playlist:
Hello New Music Studio Part 1: Just about Moved In
The Biggest Guitar Case You've Ever Seen?!
Jazz Funk Guitar Noodles with my homemade Spring Reverb
What goes through my head after watching a great anime
Hello New Music Studio Part 2: Computer Desk Cable Management
Vintage Yamaha Combo Organs are NEAT! (YC-25D)
KORG Electribe EM-1 Instrumental Dark Triplet Hip Hop beat "B-35 Bomber"
Dark Phonk Vibes on Vintage Yamaha YC-25D Combo Organ
Jump by Van Halen but on Vintage Combo Organ instead of synth (Yamaha YC-25D)
Next month will feature some amp repairs and testing, some more studio build updates and jams and back to some synth stuff too! Thanks for sticking around and watching and hope you enjoy what's to come!
Finally as it's the first post of the year, I thought it'd be nice to reflect on the year gone by, celebrate the successes, reflect on goals, and set some new ones for 2025! It's been a heck of a busy year, not so much on the music release schedule this time, but more preparing for the future and things to come! Speaking of releasing stuff though, 2024 was my first full calendar year of releasing 2 videos a week on YouTube, and crazy as I thought it was, 104 videos later, I'm still going and the JabunAudio channel has surpassed 500 subscribers too! That's something to celebrate! On top of that, although we unfortunately didn't make it to the stage this year due to injury and busy life stuff (more on that later), the Better Than The Book live band got back together for its first full band practices since January 2020 which was amazing fun! Hoping to get back to it in the new year when we can! And speaking of BTTB, although the album wasn't released just yet, master audio has been finished for BTTB's upcoming 3rd full-length album Side Character In My Own Life and the first single Plot Holes just made it to release before the year was out too! Additionally Jabun released its 6th album/EP project Nephology in November with a tonne of live streaming party fun, and moving onto collaborator news Sif Savery's Tales of Zale: Flicking lights short film reached over a million views on YouTube, I mastered the madness monster of a rap track "Smack a Fish (Motha Sharka)" by eterniTRex, and kept up with my yearly INKtober contribution to Cyberdevil's challenge with the beat for B-35 Bomber on Newgrounds. On top of all this (and likely much to the disruption of the above), as well as a tonne of long overdue or unexpected equipment fixes and maintenance, Eva and I finally managed to buy our own place including my very own studio space! It's not quite set up yet, but it's getting there! To top things off for a year of celebration, I was very pleased to find that my custom NOISE oscillator for the KORG NTS-1 finally made it's way onto the official KORG user oscillator software list! That's pretty darn neat! Phew, what a year it's been! Kinda looks like a lot when it's all piled up like that!
In terms of the (audio related) goals I actually set, it wasn't super successful from a completion point of view mainly due to logistical and health problems and the other busy life stuff above, but things have been progressing slowly but surely, and technically I did put out a Jabun album, just not the one I was aiming to on the goals list (as usual)! There's still time for all of these though, so with that I think I'll be reprising the same goals for 2025:
1) Release the upcoming Better Than The Book album!
2) Finish recording the next Jabun album
3) Play my first live shows as Better Than The Book or Jabun
And set an additional goal 4) to finish getting the new studio set up. Goal 1) is definitely doable and I can still dream about the rest! Wish me luck and I hope you all have great years to come too!
That about wraps things up for this post! The next thing I'll be doing on Patreon is updating all the Reward Archive posts so expect a post about that before the month is over and hopefully we should be back the usual reward schedule for February! With the hype train started for BTTB's new album it's going to be a busy few months ahead and I've gotta get my paint brush out soon to start on the artwork for that too! SO MANY THINGS TO DO! Until the next post I hope you enjoy all the new music and videos and thanks as always for supporting Jabun, Better Than The Book, and my various projects for another year! Let's make 2025 the best one yet and take care!
The first single "Plot Holes" from Better Than The Book's upcoming 3rd full-length album "Side Character In My Own Life" has been released! Listen now and pre-order the album on Bandcamp!
Hi everyone and hope you've been having some great festive celebrations this week! I'm super happy to announce that the time has finally come to share the first moment of this next upcoming chapter of Better Than The Book - Side Character In My Own Life! Check out the first pre-release single "Plot Holes"! I hope it blows you away:
Plot Holes was one of the first tracks to be written for the upcoming Side Character In My Own Life album, and like most of the album was written back in 2020 / early 2021 (Track 05 "Rewrite" was rewritten in 2023). With the world in lockdown, some questionable characters pulling the strings, not to mention some horrible things going on on top of that, it was a tense and emotional era and it's no wonder that the world's collective consciousness was at breaking point. Plot Holes was written to help process all that was going on, about how some uncomfortable realities had to be faced, and how at the time (and still now) the world just didn't seem to make sense anymore. I hope you find it enjoyable, relatable and that it brings some much needed catharsis, power and motivation to you however you experienced these past 5 years!
The Side Character In My Own life album is more or less a snapshot of that time in my life with another 5 years of performance, writing, audio engineering and production experience under my belt which I really believe is my best collective release to date! With the album art and many other things still left to sort out, I don't have a concrete release date planned for the album just yet but I'm hoping for the first half of this year without rushing things. I was determined to get something out before 2024 was over though, and Plot Holes seemed like the best foot forward so to speak. The album goes through many style shifts and motions, but I think this set's the overall musical tone nicely!
Bandcamp pre-orders are now open along with the Plot Holes (Radio Edit) single ready to download, and I'll be updating the page with the pre-release singles as they're released + artwork, lyrics and descriptions in due time. Of course the current art is just a placeholder for what's to come, and there is a LOT of new music to come! Check out the track list for the new album below:
Better Than The Book - Side Character In My Own Life
01 - 2020 Was A Write-off, But What Comes Next?
02 - Side Character In My Own Life
03 - Mood Swings
04 - Red Kite
05 - Rewrite
06 - Don't Be Too Hard On Yourself
07 - Hold Me Tight
08 - Bump In The Night
09 - Plot Holes
10 - You'll Never Be Too Old For This
Bonus Tracks
11 - Hearts Racing Backwards
12 - Plot Holes (Alternative Version)
13 - Hold Me Tight (Non-Acoustic)
14 - Side Character In My Own Life (Acoustic)
+ Additional Radio Edits for Tracks 07, 08, 09 & 10
Written, performed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Recorded, mixed and mastered at JabunAudio by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Artwork, images and photography by Nick Standing [Jabun]
No generative A.I. tools were used in the creation of this album.
More album credits and special thanks are to come but for now I'd like to extend an immediate thanks to my family and friends (both online and offline) for their support and a big thanks to the current supporters on Patreon with extra mention to $10+ patrons: Nathan Puray, and Michael White! Thank you all so much for your help and support in making my musical dreams a reality! You folks are amazing!
Of course my supporters on Patreon are celebrating today with the full download package of the Plot Holes (Radio Edit) single which includes Mp3s (+ WAVs for the $10 patrons) and full sized placeholder art! If any of that sounds good to you, then consider becoming a patron for as little as $1 today, and remember you'll be getting the full back-catalogue of rewards for your tier when you join, including the full Better Than The Book, Jabun and Nick Standing discographies, bonus Patreon exclusives and much more! Find out more below:
That about wraps things up for this post and I'll be back in a few days for the usual monthly round-up of news! More Better Than The Book is coming soon as I prepare for this biggest album launch yet and after hearing Plot Holes I hope you're a hyped as I am for the rest of the album! Until the next single launch and more I hope you enjoy the new music and thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book and my music however you can! Take care, happy holidays, and I'll see you in 2025! It's gonna be one heck of a ska punk filled year!
Better Than The Book's new single "Plot Holes" from the upcoming "Side Character In My Own Life" album releases on Monday 30th December! Mark your calendars and join me for the premier at 8pm GMT on YouTube!
Hi everyone and hope you've been having some amazing holiday celebrations this week!
It's almost time for Better Than The Book to launch the first single "Plot Holes" from its upcoming 3rd full-length album "Side Character In My Own Life"! Mark your calendars for Monday 30th December at 8pm GMT, pin the link below, and I'll see you at the premier for something that I'm sure will blow you away! I can't wait to share it with you!
Pre-orders for the album are now open on Bandcamp, and Plot Holes (Radio Edit) will be available to download as soon as the premier is complete too! Note that the album release date has yet to be confirmed and of course the current art is just a placeholder for what's to come but I'll be updating the page with the pre-release singles as soon as they're released + artwork, lyrics and descriptions in due time. As you can tell from the track list there is a LOT of new music to come! Check out the Bandcamp page below:
And if you REALLY can't wait then the $10 patrons already have access to the Plot Holes single below! Become a patron to access that and all past rewards for your tier when you so:
Announcing Better Than The Book's upcoming 3rd full-length album "Side Character In My Own Life" with the first single "Plot Holes" coming on December 30th! Pre-orders are now open on Bandcamp!
Hi everyone and hope you're all well and enjoy the holiday season!
It's been a long LONG time in the making, but after 2 home and studio moves, a global pandemic and 2 computer meltdowns (not to mention a tonne of equipment fixes and even restoring a vintage organ), it's finally (almost) time for me to start sharing the follow-up to Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album from 2019 (and man that feels like a lifetime ago now)!
I was determined to share SOMETHING before 2024 was over and although the album's not quite ready to launch yet, I am happy to say that the audio is 100% complete, admin is well on the way, and its mainly just artwork, mp3 conversions, and all the visual good stuff left to sort out!
With that said on December 30th at 8pm GMT I will be launching the first single "Plot Holes" from Better Than The Book's 3rd full-length album "Side Character In My Own Life"! If you've not heard it yet, here's a solo live performance demo from earlier this year:
I'm absolutely sure the final recorded version is going to blow your socks off!
Bandcamp pre-orders are now open, and I'll be updating the page with the pre-release singles as they're released, artwork, lyrics and descriptions in due time. Of course the current art is just a placeholder for what's to come, and there is a LOT of new music to come! Check out the track list for the new album below:
(Note that the album release date is a placeholder to be confirmed)
Better Than The Book - Side Character In My Own Life
01 - 2020 Was A Write-off, But What Comes Next?
02 - Side Character In My Own Life
03 - Mood Swings
04 - Red Kite
05 - Rewrite
06 - Don't Be Too Hard On Yourself
07 - Hold Me Tight
08 - Bump In The Night
09 - Plot Holes
10 - You'll Never Be Too Old For This
Bonus Tracks
11 - Hearts Racing Backwards
12 - Plot Holes (Alternative Version)
13 - Hold Me Tight (Non-Acoustic)
14 - Side Character In My Own Life (Acoustic)
+ Additional Radio Edits for Tracks 07, 08, 09 & 10
Written, performed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Recorded, mixed and mastered at JabunAudio by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Artwork, images and photography by Nick Standing [Jabun]
No generative A.I. tools were used in the creation of this album.
More album credits and special thanks are to come but for now I'd like to extend an immediate thanks to my family and friends (both online and offline) for their support and a big thanks to the current supporters on Patreon with extra mention to $10+ patrons: Nathan Puray, and Michael White! Thank you all so much for your help and support in making my musical dreams a reality! You folks are amazing!
And speaking of them, the $10 supporters on Patreon have just been granted access to the Plot Holes pre-release single download including mp3, WAV and artwork downloads! If that sounds good to you then become a $10 patron and experience Plot Holes before anyone else (and remember that you'll receive all past rewards for your tier as well when you do):
I'll also be giving the $10 patrons full early access to the complete "Side Character In My Own Life" album as soon as the artwork and mp3 files are made which should be in the coming months!
And with that I'll leave you to it for today! Mark your calendars for December 30th at 8pm GMT and I hope you're as excited as I am for this next chapter of Better Than The Book! I hope you have an amazing holiday season until then and I'll be back on Saturday 28th for a reminder before Monday 30th's big premier! Thanks for supporting Better Than The Book and my music however you can, Happy Holidays and take care!
Nephology is a 6+ hour collection of 3 long-form ultra ambient remixes of my 2nd album 15-4-20 inspired by cloud gazing. Each track is a 2+ hour long soundscape showcasing a different atmosphere and mood, and the album as a concept aims to be an auditory and musical expression of cloud watching. I hope you enjoy the chill vibes and it helps you with your study, meditation, or just general relaxation! Thanks for supporting my music however you can and I'll be back later this month with the first real taste of the new Better Than The Book album! Take care!
December 2024 Patreon & News Post: Jabun's Nephology album has been released, a huge thanks for 500 subscribers on YouTube, listening parties (next one at 8pm GMT today), fixing gear, more videos and more!
Hi everyone and hope you've had a great November! It's the beginning of another month which means another news roundup to share and since Jabun's Nephology album was released just a few days ago (more on that in a moment), there's no extra rewards this time so I thought I'd just make one news post for all the patrons today. Don't worry though, I'll be sharing something more before the year is out so there's still more rewards to come this month! Until then though, let's get on with the news!
First of all, as you're probably already aware on Wednesday 27th November I released my 6th album/EP project as Jabun - Nephology, a 6+ hour collection of 3 long-form ultra ambient remixes of my 2nd album 15-4-20 inspired by cloud gazing! I've already rambled a lot about it in various posts last month, so I shan't repeat myself here, but you can purchase, read all about and listen to the album over on the Bandcamp page here:
And of course for the appropriate Patreon subscribers you've got the full download package of Nephology in your rewards below which includes Mp3s (+ WAVs for the $10 patrons) and full sized album art + cover photo + alternative cover! If any of that sounds good to you and you're not a Patreon supporter yet then consider becoming a patron for as little as $1 today, and remember you'll be getting the full back-catalogue of rewards for your tier when you join, including the full BTTB, Jabun and Nick Standing discographies, bonus Patreon exclusives and much more! Find out more below:
For the Bandcamp savvy amongst you, it's the final Bandcamp Friday of 2024 on Friday 6th December which means that when you purchase anything on Bandcamp day (not just my music), 100% of your contribution will go straight to the artists you want to support. If you're planning on picking anything up or sending a digital download Christmas present then this coming Friday is the best time to do so. Thanks for supporting independent music however you can!
To celebrate the Nephology release I'll be hosting a number of listening / chillout / cloud watching parties on YouTube! The one for the first track Cumulus was on Wednesday but don't worry if you missed it as I'll be holding listening parties for the next 2 tracks on my JabunAudio YouTube channel today on Sunday 1st December and on Wednesday 4th December. If you've not done so already, subscribe to the channel to keep in the loop via the link below and come hang out, ask questions, and let's enjoy some Nephology together!
And speaking of my YouTube Channel, I want to say a HUGE thanks to everyone who's been watching and supporting the channel since I started this 2-videos-a-week schedule last year (and everyone before that too), as the JabunAudio YouTube Channel has just exceeded 500 subscribers! It's really cool to see that people are enjoying the videos (of me mainly messing around in the studio) and music (hopefully)! I'll be releasing a dedicated thank you video at the start of 2025 to celebrate and show my appreciation and I look forward to seeing how the channel grows in the next 500 subs and more! Thanks so much for watching and listening!
Keeping on the topic of listening, alongside the Jabun Nephology listening parties on YouTube, on Wednesday 27th, I held the first private listening party for Better Than The Book's upcoming Side Character In My Own Life album, just myself, and Eamon and Sam from the BTTB live band. It's always a nerve-racking experience showing these projects to people for the first time, but I can safely say now, that I'm not the only one who thinks this new album is gonna blow some minds, from a performance, writing and production point of view! Get ready for a ska punk journey like no other in the coming months, starting before the year is over! I can't wait to share it!
Onto some studio updates now, things are slowly but surely settling in at the new studio though there is still a little way to go yet. More than half of my current acoustic tiles are up now with still some planning to get the rest of them done soon, and it's certainly sounding a lot better and more studio quality now between these walls (with still some room for improvement). In terms of equipment repairs, after a month long dance with NI tech support, we FINALLY managed to resurrect my beloved Session Horns plugin I use for all my Better Than The Book brass work! A HUGE horray and thanks to Franky from NI tech support for the patience and troubleshooting. We got there eventually!
On top of that, my main guitar amp of 17 years, a Marshall AVT50x combo has been rescued from a silent grave by an incredibly simple fix! Basically all that had happened is that after many years of being thrown around the back of cars and moved around, the one pre-amp valve had wobbled free and become slightly deseated from its socket on the main circuit board. A quick wiggle and firm press back and the amp was back in working order! While it was apart anyway though, I took the time to replace what had become a very noisey output fan, and now it's running much smoother (I've made a video about it which will be coming out in the new year if you're interested). I also noticed that a lot of noise was coming from the new computer tower into the reverb circuit so I relocated the reverb to a new position in the speaker cabinet section of the combo, shielded the tank more with copper tape and moved the PC tower a few inches further away and all the noise is basically gone now. Horray!
If that wasn't enough repairs for the month, I also fired up my Moog just to find out that one of the keys was sticking/ not triggering properly, but thankfully that was just a 5 minute job for some contact cleaner and button mashing, no extra parts needed. Phew!
For now the next step for studio set-up will be switching to a slightly smaller but hopefully as ergonomic synth desk in order to make room for my big bass amp which I'll be picking up later this month, then planning some shelves and storage spaces. There sure does seem to be a lot of Tetrising needed to fit this 20+ years of my music recording (and 28+ of music playing) life into this new studio. It's a big job but I'm looking forward to the adventure!
Finally for this month as usual I've been keeping up with my 2 a week videos on the now 500+ subs strong JabunAudio Channel! This month we said farewell to the old studio along with a tonne of organ related videos, and more. Here's the updated main playlist:
Nektar NP-2 Sustain Pedal Half Damper function with Yamaha Reface CP?!
I'm moving! Goodbye Studio Tour!
Inside my Homemade Spring Reverb Unit (with Yamaha YC-25D Organ)
Vintage String Machine Vibes with the Yamaha YC-25D Combo Organ and MXR Phase 90 Script (Arp Solina)
MXR Phase 90 vs Jim Dunlop Rotovibe vs Phase 45 Clone Shootout with Combo Organ (Yamaha YC-25D)
One last jam before moving house: War Pigs by Black Sabbath on Organ (Yamaha YC-25D)
KORG Volca Keys Synth Challenge: 3 part Techno Drums + Bass LIVE NO OVERDUBS!!!
Uncut Guitar Practice - The stuff YouTube guitarists don't share (at least that's what I hope)...
Next month we're saying hello to the new studio along with some more guitar and organ and a few little insights into setting everything up! Hope you enjoy it and looking forward to seeing you in the comments!
That wraps things up for this time! I'll be back before the end of the year with something extra special from BTTB before it's time to update the reward archives at the beginning of 2025, so the next (usual) beginning of January post will likely be another "no extra rewards" shared news post! Until then, I hope you enjoy the Nephology album, hope to see you at some of the listening parties this week and thanks as always for supporting my music however you can! Take care, happy holidays if I don't speak to you before, and enjoy some cloud watching!
Jabun's new "Nephology" album has been released along with download rewards for all subscribers on Patreon! Join me for a cloud watching party at 8pm GMT tonight on YouTube!
Hi everyone! It's finally time to release Jabun's 6th album/EP project "Nephology"! Check it out now on Bandcamp and I hope you enjoy it:
Well... I got distracted again! After I released my 5th and shortest collective Jabun project June22 in March 2023, I was super sure that it’d be my ska-punk project Better Than The Book which would be getting the next album release. Time sure does fly though, and alongside the hard work on that BTTB album I got back to some ambient explorations in some free evenings. An experiment with the first track from my 15-4-20 album turned into an over 2 hour long ultra ambient remix like nothing I’ve ever done before, and after revisiting the results at a later date, I figured I’d do similar remixes for the other 2 tracks from 15-4-20 as well and a new album project (and by far the longest one to date) was formed! For those eager to hear the new Better Than The Book album though, don’t you worry. Audio is actually now 100% complete for my ska-punk project’s next release, but it just so happened that the admin for this Jabun project filled a much smaller to-do list so it’s coming first! Thanks for your patience!
Nephology is a 6+ hour collection of 3 long-form ultra ambient remixes of my 2nd album 15-4-20 inspired by cloud gazing. Each track is a 2+ hour long soundscape showcasing a different atmosphere and mood, and the album as a concept aims to be an auditory and musical expression of cloud watching. All tracks were remixed using Paul’s Extreme Sound Stretch, Ableton Live 8 and Valhalla Supermassive and were mastered in Ableton Live 8.
Nephology isn’t an album to listen to note for note so to speak, more a collection of 3 sonic paintings to have in the background, glance through at your leisure, and just enjoy the vibes for as short or long a time as you want, much like how you’d experience watching clouds in the sky. These 3 tracks and over 6 hours of ambient remix material are all non-looping and never exactly repeating much like how the 15-4-20 album was (and how cloud gazing is) and through the gently evolving sounds I hope you enjoy the sound design, shifting textures, and unexpected moments and have fun with it.
Cumulus shares deep, dense and warm slowly drifting ambiences gradually morphing as time goes by. Meanwhile, Stratus shares a similar vibe to its precursor but with lighter and more dynamically evolving textures. Finally, Cirrus shifts the tone entirely to a colder, mysterious and more out of this world soundscape where you can almost hear the wind and ice crystals swirling into those distinct wispy formations as they pass by. Whether you sit down to listen intently, have them on in the background while doing something else, or simply immerse yourself in the sounds for as long as you’d like to, I hope you enjoy these ambient sonic experiments from 2024 and the overall concept I wanted to share with this album.
Much like the 15-4-20 album, Nephology’s album cover photo is of the sky, in fact the same sky as before, but this time looking up from the ground instead of out of the window. The note paper motif is very typical for me (see Better Than The Book) but hadn’t previously been used in any of the Jabun album covers. I thought it fit well with the literal meaning of Nephology which is the study or contemplation of clouds. Interestingly, the lines of the paper were drawn digitally, but the punched holes were actually photos of paper holes because drawing them in didn’t look quite real? Strange how that goes! I also created visualisers for this album which are slowed down footage looking out of that same window as 15-4-20 at the passing and evolving clouds. I’m really going to miss the view from that studio of 2019-2024 and I wonder what will bring me inspiration and where it’ll take my music in the next few years to come!
Nephology Tracklist:
01 Cumulus
02 Stratus
03 Cirrus
All tracks written, performed, remixed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Recorded, mixed and mastered at JabunAudio by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Album artwork, images and photography by Nick Standing [Jabun]
No generative A.I. tools were used in the creation of this album.
You can explore the full Nephology album credits and special thanks on the dedicated Bandcamp page, but for now I'd like to extend an immediate thanks to my family and friends (both online and offline) for their support and a big thanks to the current supporters on Patreon with extra mention to $10+ patrons: Nathan Puray, and Michael White! Thank you all so much for your help and support in making my musical dreams a reality! You folks are amazing!
To celebrate the release launch I'll be hosting a listening / chillout / cloud watching party "premier" for the first track "Cumulus" on YouTube at 8pm (GMT) tonight! Check out the link below and come hang out, ask questions, and let's enjoy some Nephology together! I look forward to seeing you there:
And I'll be holding listening parties for the next tracks on my JabunAudio YouTube channel in the coming week too (on Sunday 1st December and next Wednesday 4th December). If you've not done so already, subscribe to the channel to keep in the loop!
Of course my supporters on Patreon are celebrating today with the full download package of Nephology which includes Mp3s (+ WAVs for the $10 patrons) and full sized album art + cover photo + alternative cover! If any of that sounds good to you, then consider becoming a patron for as little as $1 today, and remember you'll be getting the full back-catalogue of rewards for your tier when you join, including the full BTTB, Jabun and Nick Standing discographies, bonus Patreon exclusives and much more! Find out more below:
That about wraps things up for this post! I'll be back on Sunday for a shared monthly news roundup for all Patreon supporters but since the Nephology album has just launched there'll be no extra rewards this time. Having said that, I will be back before the end of the year with something extra special from BTTB before it's time to update the reward archives at the beginning of 2025! Until then, I hope you enjoy the Nephology album, hope to see you at some of the listening parties this week and thanks as always for supporting my music however you can and on Patreon! Take care and enjoy some cloud watching!
Jabun's Nephology album releases this Wednesday on November 27th! Join me for a cloud gazing party at 8pm GMT on YouTube!
Hi again everyone and hope you're having a great February so far! In case you haven't heard already I'll be releasing my latest album as Jabun "Nephology" on Wednesday November 27th at midnight (GMT)! To celebrate I'll be hosting a listening / chillout / cloud watching party "premier" for the first track "Cumulus" on YouTube at 8pm (GMT) on Wednesday! Check out the link below and come hang out, ask questions, and let's enjoy some Nephology together! I look forward to seeing you there:
I'll be holding listening parties for the next tracks on my JabunAudio YouTube channel in the coming week too (on Sunday 1st December and next Wednesday 4th December). Subscribe to the channel to keep in the loop!
Nephology is a 6+ hour collection of 3 long-form ultra ambient remixes of my 2nd album 15-4-20 inspired by cloud gazing. Each track is a 2+ hour long soundscape showcasing a different atmosphere and mood, and the album as a concept aims to be an auditory and musical expression of cloud watching.
Nephology Tracklist:
01 Cumulus
02 Stratus
03 Cirrus
All tracks written, performed, remixed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Recorded, mixed and mastered at JabunAudio by Nick Standing [Jabun]
Album artwork, images and photography by Nick Standing [Jabun]
No generative A.I. tools were used in the creation of this album.
You can read all about Nephology on the dedicated Bandcamp page, including the full album credits and special thanks but for now I'd like to extend an immediate thanks to my family and friends (both online and offline) for their support and a big thanks to the current supporters on Patreon with extra mention to $10+ patrons: Nathan Puray, and Michael White! Thank you all so much for your help and support in making my musical dreams a reality! You folks are amazing!
And if you really can't wait, the $10 supporters on Patreon already have access to the full album including Mp3s, WAVs, and full sized album art + cover photo + alternative cover! If that sounds good to you then become a $10 patron and experience Nephology in full now (and remember that you'll receive all past rewards for your tier as well when you do):
Until Wednesday 27th and the next post (when I'll be giving out the associated Patreon rewards), I really hope you're hyped for these latest ambient soundscapes from Jabun and thanks as always for supporting my music however you can! Take care, all the best and see you on Wednesday!
Nephology is a 6+ hour collection of 3 long-form ultra ambient remixes of my 2nd album 15-4-20 inspired by cloud gazing. Each track is a 2+ hour long soundscape showcasing a different atmosphere and mood, and the album as a concept aims to be an auditory and musical expression of cloud watching.
You can read all about it on the Nephology Bandcamp page, and I'll be streaming the album track by track on my JabunAudio YouTube channel in the coming weeks too!
