IDM Mailing Archive

%Array | F.0015.0011 ::..:::::::::::.....:....::::............:..::..:........:::::....::....:: NEWS Fallt Publishing | Beta 4.2 [Avignon] Work continues on re-building the Fallt website (currently Beta 4.2, Revision F) and we'd like to take this opportunity to encourage you to give us your feedback at this interim stage. Improvements we've made so far include: clearer navigation; improved cross-referencing throughout the site (in particular within our %Array archive); and easier access to MP3s from specific release pages. Our goal is to provide clearer access to our extensive back catalogue. We're trying to improve your user experience, but we'll be able to further improve this if you give us your feedback. Please don't hesitate to contact us with your opinions and constructive criticism; we welcome and appreciate your comments and thoughts: feedback@fallt.com ::::..:::: Christopher Willits | Pollen We're proud to announce that Christopher Willits' long-awaited 'Pollen' is finally available on Fallt. Initially a precursor, but now a follow up to his widely acclaimed release 'Folding, and the Tea' on 12k, 'Pollen' is a collection of beautiful folded guitar recordings. Willits, whose work has been described as "utterly magnificent, tender and moving" plays guitar and uses a series of self-built signal processes that fold smooth guitar lines on top of and into each other, generating patterns within patterns, and an unbounded stream of similar yet different forms. The result is a delicate music that unfolds within melodic and rhythmic spaces without being restrained by those spaces - music that can be listened to both casually and critically. For further details, check out: http://www.fallt.com/pollen ::::..:::: Sampler 3 + CD Art - Innovation in CD Packaging Design We're proud to announce that Fallt designers Fehler's artwork features alongside work by numerous internationally respected designers including Alorenz, Richard Chartier, Taylor Deupree and The Designers Republic in two books out in November 2003. Both 'Sampler 3' [Laurence King Publishing] and 'CD Art - Innovation in CD Packaging Design' [RotoVision] feature artwork from the Fallt back catalogue as well as extensive interviews with Fallt curator Christopher Murphy. For further details, check out: http://www.fallt.com/news ::::..:::: Fallt @ Sintesi Electronic Arts Festival Fallt designers Fehler will be showing '35 mm | Design in Miniature' as part of the Sintesi Electronic Arts Festival (http://www.sintesi.na.it) in December 2003. The Festival, which includes work by si-cut.db, Turux, Francisco Lopez and Tina Frank, is generously supported by the British Council. Drawing together work by eight designers/collectives working for a variety of small, independent labels, '35 mm' showcases some of the music industry's most creative, if overlooked, design today. In addition to '35 mm' Fallt designers Fehler will show a newly commissioned work in progress titled 'Apocrypha'. For further details, check out: http://www.fallt.com/35mm ::..:::::::::::.....:....::::............:..::..:........:::::....::....:: REVIEWS Son of Clay | Face Takes Shape [Komplott, CD] Where Herbert's seminal 1998 release 'Around the House' doctored domestic found sounds into voluptuously seductive house grooves, Son of Clay (aka Berlin based Andreas Bertilsson) sculpts snatched fragments of field recordings from his apartment into splintered digital chatter. Arrhythmic melodies for an increasingly arrhythmic audience. Building careful, but idiosyncratic portraits culled from the miniature sounds of everyday existence, Bertilsson unveils often overlooked vistas: an expansive radiator, stretching out into the distance; a cavernous stairwell, harbouring a perfect echo; a far off fridge, humming persistently. On top of these day-to-day fragments, squalls of sound trickle - strained harmonies, forever knocked off-centre - carefully constructed works and beautiful, detailed studies characterized by an uncompromisingly atonal ear. 'New Garden' hurriedly unravels, exposing the scattered fragments of garden railings (?) repeatedly struck, incessantly rippling outwards as echoes that fade slowly to reveal further, unidentifiable, samples. 'NoteBook' hovers likewise, a memory-soaked reprise locked into a groove that moulds and shapes (seemingly) the same set of sounds into a different outcome. The penultimate track, 'Two Polar Sleds', ticks metronomically over six time-stretched minutes, as chimes warp and bend as if detuned by passing magnets. Closing with the sublime elegance of 'For Astrid', Bertilsson concludes a striking debut. Housed in an understated digipack featuring beautifully delicate drawings by Astrid Svangren, and mastered by Andreas Tilliander (Mille Plateaux, Mitek) this is a beautiful release - hesitant, uncertain and careful, but quietly assured. There's no doubt we'll hear more of Bertilsson's work in future. [CM] :::::::::: Stephan Mathieu, Radboud Mens, Janek Schaefer, Timeblind | Quality Hotel [MUTEK, CD] The second in a series of live recordings produced during Montreal's MUTEK Festival, 'Quality Hotel' features the combined talents of Stephan Mathieu, Radboud Mens, Janek Schaefer and Timeblind flexing their sonic muscles on the final day of MUTEK 2002. Recorded in Mens' hotel room, the scene was a solid mass of cabling, linking four artists - umbilical-like - as they coaxed their machines to life, gently easing sound into the hot atmosphere of a sunny June morning. Listening to 'Quality Hotel' brings back fond memories of warm summer days in Montreal; friends meeting and exchanging ideas freely; music trickling from laptops into an overworked mixing desk; Schaefer manipulating his twin-armed turntable whilst simultaneously adjusting settings; all the while Chris (Timeblind) Sattinger struggling to get his recalcitrant laptop to co-operate... The result: seven tracks of warm melodies occasionally surfacing above a sea of hesitant and gentle static. A beautiful balance of four talents all trying to focus while I stumbled around the room photographing the process with a series of borrowed cameras (while suffering from a festival's worth of sleepless nights). The tracks - numbered after the hotel's floors - are a series of calm meditations, a suite of crystalline studies which unfurl gently, bearing all the characteristics of the different artists' trademark sounds and differing sensibilities. A perfect balance, the result of a rich improvisatory dialogue. After a gentle opening 'Fourth Floor' sees staccato pulses emerge from a gently wielding hiss. Hover. Slightly. Then fade to the machine hum of 'Seventh Floor', a growing chord - stretched, infinite - punctuated by low end grumble and shimmering pulses. By 'Ninth Floor' we’re in full flow, elegiac chords drifting momentarily before collapsing into an ocean of sibilance - old vinyl at its glorious best. The closing track, 'Eighteenth Floor', sees a far off melody escaping (presumably from Schaefer's turntables) as the others massage a spacious digital landscape from pulses and glitches. Fitting that the closing track is the longest, its sixteen minutes easing gently out to create a void, silently embracing. Leaving behind a sea of memories. At forty-eight generous minutes, Mathieu, Mens, Schaefer and Timeblind coax their machines into a beautiful display of restraint and mutual respect. Perhaps it's the tiredness brought on after such a well-organised and well-enjoyed festival, but the results are spectacular, fondly recalled and, one hopes, not the last of these spontaneous hotel room encounters. [CM] :::::::::: Dan Warburton, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Eric La Casa | Metro Pre Saint Gervais [Chloe, CD] "The Parisian Metro has long attracted artists, writers and musicians: Joseph Beuys spent his honeymoon riding the subways of the French capital; Queneau and Cortazar were fascinated by the sociology of its interconnecting networks; and countless millions of travellers - tourists and local residents - have experienced its unique atmosphere and acoustics." This overall brilliant release documenting the serendipitous melding and blurring of improvised violin (performed by Dan Warburton) and alto saxophone (Jean-Luc Guionnet) with happenstance occurrences and ambiences from within the underground subway station, Metro Pre Saint Gervais in Paris, at times sounds like it was composed and mixed in a studio, when in fact, it was wonderfully recorded live by sound artist Eric La Casa. Beautiful long acoustic drones, oscillations, twitterings, and yes, the occasional squawks and squeaks, all mixing and flowing in tune, timbre, and meter with various day to day workings of the subway station. The spontaneous voice-overs and underpinnings by various passers by and the subway employees talking over the intercom system evoke the sense that these recordings could have been well controlled electroacoustic compositions or cleverly made sound designs for film, TV and radio. This release presents two recordings, both made on July 10th, 2001, that manage to capture what I can only imagine to be a perfect example of what most improvising musicians dream about having properly documented under such circumstances. [DL] :::::::::: Rsundin | Seismo [and/OAR, 3" CDR] Ronnie Sundin's minimal soundscapes have been insinuating themselves into my consciousness more and more of late as I revisit several works that seem to be scattered near-permanently across my desk. Following 2002's 'Morphei' on Hapna comes this gentle excursion on US label and/OAR, twenty minutes of typically restrained minimal soundscapes characterised by a now familiar array of locations including, "...that beach in Santa Monica once again". Sundin has an ear for detail and a distinctive feel for phrasing which is seldom matched. Contrasting elongated near-silences with moments of elegant sustained activity, 'Seismo', despite it's brevity, is the perfect balance of quiet coupled with quivering counterpoint. [CM] :::::::::: Tape | Opera [Hapna, CD] Tape is a trio consisting of Andreas Berthling, his brother Johan Berthling, and Tomas Hallonsten. While Andreas Berthling is known for his work in the fields of digital music with releases on Microwave, Mitek and as a contributor to Fallt's 'invalidObject Series' the two other Tape members are more at home in a jazz context. Using a wide array of instruments like guitars, computer, harmonium, melodica, field recordings, percussion, harmonica, zither, piano, accordion, soprano sax and trumpet, Tape's music lives at the intersection of a 21st century chamber music and an imaginary folklore. I write this on a train from Weimar to Berlin - the distance to my girls at home is growing bigger and this always makes me feel a little melancholic - riding through the marvellous green and sun-flooded Mark Brandenburg countryside. Slowly passing by vast yellow rape fields and ancient, abandoned factories, the music on my headphones seems to fit almost too perfectly. The sun and nature are certainly core ingredients of 'Opera' and its slowly floating melodies carry the spirit of travel. Not, however, on an aircraft, but submerged in a landscape instead. 'Opera' is a wonderful release with some exquisite moments like the quiet 'Feeler' and the hymnic 'Radiolaria'. [SM] ::::..:::: Oren Ambarchi and Johan Berthling | My Days Are Darker Than Your Nights [Hapna, CD] Johan Berthling's co-operation with Australian guitarist Oren Ambarchi is a fine example of purely drone based music, somehow reminding me of a single frozen moment of Tape's 'Opera' (also on Hapna). It exists like a fragment of time flickering with almost unnoticeable change. If the mood of 'Opera' is a vivid green, yellow and blue, 'My Days Are Darker Than Your Nights' is slowly pulsating in shades of tinted dark magenta. Ambarchi sends the guitar through a daisy-chained array of effect-boxes; Berthling plays long, slowly ascending chords on the harmonium. Although the music progresses slowly, after a while the tones have interlocked so tightly that they propel each other so everything seems to move faster than light - like the infamous trip into a black hole. After 30 minutes the journey comes to an abrupt and somehow disturbing end with a more or less quick fade out, at a point where the piece seems to change direction. It's a bit of a pity, but I definitely can't say it ruins the whole piece. Like someone recently suggested, we live in an age of DIY audio helpers, so: copy/reverse/paste for a save landing, somewhere, probably. [SM] :::::::::: Pita | Early Works [Alku, 3" CDR] Comprising ten tracks amounting to almost twenty minutes, 'Early Works' is a brief glimpse into Mego co-founder Pita's past (the works on this CD were created between 1982 and 1984). It's difficult to surpass track two which, in its entirety below, encapsulates this release: "He has pulled a hand grenade pin and he is ready to blow up the aircraft if he has to. We must - I repeat - we must land at Beirut. We must land at Beirut. No alternative." "It's up to you to go on. It's up to you to go on. I can't give you permission, because my responsibilities don’t give me permission for you to land. The airport is closed." "Be advised we have no choice. We must land." "OK sir, land, land quietly. Land quietly. It's up to you sir, as you know the airport is not in my hands." PAUSE "They are beating the passengers! They are beating the passengers! They are threatening to kill them now! They are threatening to kill them now! We want the fuel now! Immediately! Immediately!" "Please sir! Please! We are doing our best!" Familiarly abrasive electronics from one of electronica’s finest. [F] :::::::::: Richard Chartier | Sketch for Winter [3 Particles, 3" CDR] "Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty... It seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind." Wilson 'Snowflake' Bentley, 1925 Like the pristine clarity of a snowflake whose beauty is in indirect proportionate to its size, Chartier's 'Sketch for Winter' - a mere six minutes of slowly melting splinters of sound - is a beautiful study in miniature. Crystalline tones fragment, a cascade of icy shards scatters leaving a digital wake, sparkling like an infinite field of glittering diamonds. An extremely limited release of only 31 copies it seems a shame this release melted without being more widely heard. One can only hope that next winter a snowstorm or blizzard awaits us from 3 Particles... Cold. [CB] :::::::::: Scion | Arrange and Process Basic Channel Tracks [Tresor, CD] "At last, some time before I stopped, the sun, red and very large, halted motionless upon the horizon, a vast dome glowing with a dull heat, and now and then suffering a momentary extinction." HG Wells, 1925 Fitting for Tresor's 200th release that it should revisit the nine slabs of heavy 12" vinyl and solitary sparkling CD that comprise Basic Channel's iconic back-catalogue. A molten slice of history that holds a mesmeric fascination for most who encountered it, Basic Channel exists like a crossover point for a moment etched in post house history. An indelible series that grew - phoenix like - from the glowing embers of house music's remains. Maurizio, Moritz von Oswald, M, Mark Ernestus, Vainqueur, Substance, Carl Craig, Underground Resistance, Mad Mike, Jeff Mills and Robert Hood; Berlin, Detroit. An interlocking, self-referential list that reads like a Who's Who of house (Version 2.0). To rework this material might seem like sacrilege, but that it's done by two of the original protagonists - Scion = Vainqueur + Substance - seems fitting. Built using Ableton's excellent Live software, the results are vast oceans of openness, the distant static of 12" vinyl engulfing familiar Basic Channel beats like a warm, pulsating envelope. Perfect memories, warmly remembered. Hot. [CB] :::::::::: Janek Schaefer | Skate/Rink [Staalplaat/audiOh!, LP + 3" CD] That Schaefer's place is assured in the pantheon of turntablists is unquestioned. His experiments with vinyl and the record player itself not only challenge our perceptions of the possibilities of vinyl and its various uses, but have earned him a place in The Guinness Book of Records (under 'The World’s Most Versatile Record Player' for his three-armed Tri-Phonic turntable). His latest, deluxe release 'Skate/Rink' only serves to further underline his creativity and his unwillingness to be forced to comply with the unrelenting spiral that is the record groove. 'Skate' is a number of things: sonic artefact; work of art - a delicious slab of 220g, heavy-duty vinyl; and, as if this wasn’t enough, a means for generating an infinite set of musical possibilities. Created using a modified lathe which - unable to cut spirals – cuts only very short scars of textural sound, 'Skate' is the result of a 'fragmented' cutting technique Schaefer developed to cut a concentric collage of individual short 'sound scars' onto the master. 'Rink', an accompanying 3" CD, features a composition by Schaefer utilising source material collected from the LP and 'Skate' installation (for those unfortunate enough not to own a turntable). Think of Oval's early experiments with scratched and damaged CDs and imagine you had their original CDs to experiment with and explore. 'Skate' skips and bounces along, the needle finding its own, random, place in an open-ended composition. Torn fragments of melody are wrenched from the vinyl's surface, which holds the needle momentarily before the groove trails off and the needle jumps, forced to negotiate a new trajectory. The result is a sound generator of simple, yet extraordinary, complexity. An audio equivalent to the infinite ocean of Jorge Luis Borges' 'Book of Sand'. Or, put more prosaically, great value for money. [CM] :::::::::: Arne Nordheim | Dodeka [Rune Grammofon, CD] Rune Grammofon celebrates its 30th release with a collection of 12 previously unreleased pieces by Norwegian composer Arne Nordheim. In the early 60s Nordheim's name became established internationally as Norway's leading composer of modernist chamber music. Later he began to experiment with pre-recorded tapes of various lengths which, played simultaneously, resulted in ever-varying pieces - a method, which he called the 'infinity technique'. 'Dodeka' - a set of short and purely electronic compositions created between 1967 and 1972 - does not instantly evoke the impression of hearing something entirely new from this era, nevertheless the 12 pieces do have a personal sound aesthetic and strongly bare Nordheim's sense of infinity. Though not directly linked with each other, they sound like a suite of variations based on a crystalline theme; dream-like layers of airy sounds and earthy low-end rumbles which succeed in carrying the listener into their own world, like watching a curtain of pure light moving slowly in the wind. And if, after all, 'Dodeka' coaxes a girl into your room to ask what's playing, well... it's definitely worth listening to again and again. [SM] :::::::::: Phill Niblock | Touch Food [Touch, 2 CD] "In the mid 1960s, I was riding a two stroke, Yamaha motorcycle up a long mountain slope in the Carolinas, stuck behind a diesel engine truck. Both of our throttles were very open, overcoming the force of gravity. Soon, the revolutions of our respective engines came to a nearly harmonic coincidence, but not quite. The strong physical presence of the beats resulting from the two engines running at slightly different frequencies put me in such a trance that I nearly rode off the side of the mountain." Phill Niblock So, Niblock's involvement with the drone is certainly one of an existential dimension, but there is also the fact that he was born a Libra 70 years ago under a constellation which leaves people to wander their entire lives looking for a certain kind of balance. With his music Niblock has found such a balance, or perhaps a state where organized sound floats and stands still at the same time. I was first introduced to many of the pieces on 'Touch Food' when I had the opportunity to witness one of his live performances at Glasgow's Instal Festival in 2002. The music was loud, the screenings large and bright; time seemed to stand still. We, the audience, found ourselves lost in a simple and pure unit of hypnotizing beauty. It was certainly one of the greatest performances I've ever experienced. Niblock's second release on Touch the double CD comprises three compositions for solo baritone sax, electric bass and clarinets; and a 70 minute piece for piano. Each piece follows his trademark method of having instrumentalists play long, held, pure tones or - in case of the piano piece - almost static movements which he layers track by track by track to create a long, slowly crawling tonal band that allows the frequencies to melt into each other to form a frozen momentum of eternal sound. 'Yam, almost May' for electric bass is an outstanding piece. Based on material performed by the French composer and software instrument designer Kasper T. Toeplitz, it has a hovering quality, like a shuttle into warmth. Meanwhile 'Pan Fried 70' features composer and pianist Reinhold Friedl playing the strings of a grand piano by working on them with another loose string, representing the other side of the sonic and emotional spectrum with its clangings and screeches of tortured metal. The effect of this long piece is breathtaking. 'Touch Food' is, in short, an exceptional collection of works by one of the outstanding composers of our time. [SM] :::::::::: Charlie Ferrari |In Corpus, Sanguis Fluit [Alku, 3" CDR] Yet another superb little slice of fun from the ever-excellent Alku. Charlie Ferrari - fittingly described as "the James Bond of electronica" - creates minimal edits of pristine funk, no nonsense enjoyable fun and games of the tongue-firmly-in-cheek variety. Four tracks of veering beats and enthusiastically programmed staccato patterns, marked by the occasional foray into asthmatic breakbeats [Cf. Aphex Twin's 'Ventolin' EPs], skip across seventeen relentless minutes with brief moments of respite courtesy of soothing fragments of piano. Ferrari is no Aphex clone, however, and 'In Corpus, Sanguis Fluit' marks a promising debut. Watch this space. [CM] ::..:::::::::::.....:....::::............:..::..:........:::::....::....:: 740 CHARACTER ASCII ART This issues's minimal ASCII Art is courtesy of periodic .microsound list contributor | || | who states: Local ASCII comprises converted error.messages received by 'underpowered' PPC 8500 utilising 'old world' Linux for pure-data experiments. Actual ASCII derived from personal Mac OS based application triggered by AppleScript - originally designed to produce 500 distinctly printed cardboard CD envelopes. . : . de meme . . ' . 1 0 o1 ' ::..:::::::::::.....:....::::............:..::..:........:::::....::....:: PLAYLIST Each issue we ask one of our contributors to share their current playlist with us. This issue we're grateful to regular Fallt collaborator Taylor Deupree for a recent playlist of firm favourites. Aco | Irony [Sony, CD] Minamo | Beautiful [Apestaartje, CD] Mojave 3 | Out of Tune [4AD, CD] Frank Bretschneider | Aerial Riverseries [Whatness, CD] Fennesz | Live in Japan [Headz, CD] Fleckfumie | Ausland [After Hours, CD] Microstoria | Model 3, Step 2 [Thrill Jockey, CD] Cafa | Notes for a Swim [Sucre, CD] And Also The Trees | The Millpond Years [Normal, CD] Piana | Snow Bird [Happy, CD] ::..:::::::::::.....:....::::............:..::..:........:::::....::....:: GOTO http://www.peoplelikeus.org/dnload.htm People Like Us (aka Vicki Bennett): "Making music more accessible for more people to download for free...". ::..:::::::::::.....:....::::............:..::..:........:::::....::....:: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to all those who contributed to this issue of '%Array', in particular: Stephan Mathieu, Ed @ Dense, A & R @ Alku, Dale Lloyd, Ronnie Sundin, Richard Chartier, Taylor Deupree and | || |. ::..:::::::::::.....:....::::............:..::..:........:::::....::....:: (UN)SUBSCRIBE %Array is published periodically by Fallt and emailed to registered subscribers. If you'd like to unsubscribe please contact us at: unsubscribe@fallt.com and we'll remove your from our subscriber list. Thank you. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org