Compost and Height

2012-01-11T09:21:00.001-08:00

Audiograft is an annual festival of Contemporary Music and Sound Art curated by the Sonic Art Research Unit at Oxford Brookes University.

Franz Hautzinger & Enrico Malatesta

2012-01-11T09:07:00.000-08:00

Franz Hautzinger- Quartertone Trumpet.
Enrico Malatesta - Percussion.

Recorded on 05/07/2011 at Radio Študent by Samo Pavlica- Linč

15:26 (WAV)

Diatribes and Hannah Marshall

2012-01-10T13:47:00.000-08:00

diatribes & hannah marshall

cyril bondi: bass drum, objects

d'incise: laptop, objects

hannah marshall: cello

recorded at dampfzentrale, bern, ch

15.10.2010

mastering by christian weber

diatribes.dincise.net

WAV

Marko Karlovčec & Lawrence Williams: 5th July 2011

2012-01-10T03:01:00.001-08:00

Marko Karlovčec & Lawrence Williams- alto saxophones

Recorded: 05.07.2011 in Radio Študent by Samo Pavlica- Linč

Live at Radio Student (23:22) (WAV)

four quartets and four soli

2011-11-19T03:29:00.001-08:00

Angharad Davies - violin

Julia Eckhardt - viola

Dominic Lash - doublebass

Stefan Thut - cello

The programme offers readings of four scores for open (string)quartet-settings and a quartet as a combination of four solo works. The setting of the traditional string quartet – two violins, viola and cello – is abandoned by replacing the second violin. Double bass player Dominic Lash joined the three string players Angharad Davies, Julia Eckhardt and Stefan Thut all active in the field of composed and improvised experimental music.
The idea of bringing together the four instrumentalists is inspired by Michael Pisaro’s cycle of solo-works ‘mind is moving’: the cycle allows for presentations as solos or in various combinations of the single pieces. A version for string trio was performed in Brussels at q-o2 in 2010 revealing previously unheard constellations.
The quartet scores cover various strategies combining precision and indeterminacy. Johnny Herbert’s piece minutes notes about a prescription for an action: the time of writing is still trackable in the score. John Lely defines durational aspects through the nature of the string instruments and their bows. Dominic Lash sets out a time grid in order to place actions that vary between processuality and stability. By the sparse use of signs Stefan Thut works with relatively determined systems organizing sound and silence. All of the pieces have in common to allow the sound of the environment accompanying the performed actions.

Johnny Herbert. Piece which is a time line of ideas for a piece - starting at 03:34 on Feb. 9th? (2011)
John Lely. String Trio or Quartet (2009/11)
Dominic Lash. for four (2011)
Stefan Thut. vier, 1-12 (2010)
Michael Pisaro. mind is moving #2,3,4,5 (1995/96)

July 3rd 2011
Säulenhalle Landhaus Solothurn (CH)

Download four quartets and four soli (aiff)

A Quiet Position - Edition one

2011-10-04T05:39:00.000-07:00

Wolf Notes Issue 2

2011-06-18T03:19:00.000-07:00

Michael Pisaro Prepared Piano (sketchbook)

Jason Kahn Notes on “Unheard Delhi”

Adam Sonderberg Tick Mark Studies: Ramones - Ramones (Sire, 1976)

Simon Reynell Thoughts on not being a musician

Fantastical Zoology By Jeph Jerman

Cover Image Trevor Simmons

How can we outsmart the sense of continuity
That eludes our steps as it prepares us
For ultimate wishful thinking once the mind has ended
Since this last thought both confines and uplifts us?
John Ashbery

An object, a space, an infinite number of measurements. Wolf Notes is an attempt at an open platform, each individual is free to refashion the composition devised in our approach, we initiate, they initiate. Found in juxtaposition, in harmony, at the base and summit of potentiality.

An openness is inescapable within any media, it is to be embraced, to be realised. All and any degree of interpretation will fall within myriad rooms of disposition. So to inhale and exhale, to move towards a positive sense of production, Wolf Notes in its totality is hope to the impossibility of maximum openness.

This work, and the works contained, are not objective fact, they are in a constant flux of interpretation, of feedback and feedforward, we respond by not responding by responding.

Download: Wolf Notes, Issue 2, June 2011

Jason Kahn | Unheard Delhi (audio)

2011-06-18T02:19:00.000-07:00

The full text of Unheard Delhi can be found in issue 2 of Wolf Notes

Unheard Delhi WAV

For the month of November 2011 I was an artist in residence in Delhi with the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and the media research center Sarai. One of my proposed projects for this residency was a continuation of my “Unheard Cities” series of works, which I've been realizing since 2002. “Unheard Cities” explores how we perceive urban sound environments in the form of installations, musical performances and, in the case of “Unheard Delhi,” works for radio. In “Unheard Delhi” I interviewed eight people with the question, “What is your favorite sound or sound environment in Delhi?” I recorded all the answers and then went out in the city and recorded the corresponding sounds. The resulting recordings and interviews were then mixed together for an approximately 60-minute long audio portrait of the city.

Improvising Strategies for Large Ensemble - headed by Gino Robair

2011-06-06T06:44:00.000-07:00

Oxford Brookes University,
Monday June 6th, 2pm - 4pm
This event was organised by Compost and Height and SARU

This interdisciplinary workshop examined a number of techniques you can use when improvising within a large group, focussing on global awareness and listening, while exploring strategies for achieving maximum variety and avoiding stagnation. Also discussed were concepts such as foreground/background, solo/support, and intention/non-intention.

This workshop was open to anyone interested in free improvisation, whether a beginner or intermediate or professional. And it is not just for musicians: the workshop is also for dancers, live video art, acting, and any other artform where improvising is important.

As an example of ways in which people from different media can work together, Gino used sections of “I, Norton,” an “opera” for improvisers that includes hand cues, graphic notation, and strategies. Other examples camee from the music of Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Butch Morris, and even Indonesian gamelan.

BIO
Gino Robair has created music for dance, theater, radio, television, silent film, and gamelan orchestra, and his works have been performed throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. He was composer in residence with the California Shakespeare Festival for five seasons and served as music director for the CBS animated series The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat. His commercial work includes themes for the MTV and Comedy Central cable networks.

Robair is also one of the "25 innovative percussionists" included in the book Percussion Profiles (SoundWorld, 2001). He has recorded with Tom Waits, Anthony Braxton, Terry Riley, Lou Harrison, John Butcher, Derek Bailey, Peter Kowald, Otomo Yoshihide, the ROVA Saxophone Quartet, and Eugene Chadbourne, among many others. In addition, Robair has performed with John Zorn, Nina Hagen, Fred Frith, Eddie Prevost, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Myra Melford, Wadada Leo Smith, and the Club Foot Orchestra.

Jack Harris | These are my Fingers

2011-06-05T12:19:00.001-07:00

These are my Fingers, 11:47 WAV

Anders Dahl, Patrick Farmer, Christian Munthe live at Geiger.

2011-05-13T08:06:00.000-07:00

Recorded live by Mattias Rickardsson, April 15, 2011, at the GEIGER festival #2 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Anders Dahl: electronics
Patrick Farmer: acoustic turntable
Christian Munthe: acoustic guitar

Live at Geiger 20:29 (MP3) (WAV)

Lawrence Dunn | if I in my North Room

2011-04-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

Lawrence Dunn - If I in my north room
MP3
Flac

Piano and Objects

Improvisation recorded 25.04.2011

Patrick Farmer - Apis Mellifera - moved to and fro

2011-04-19T11:27:00.001-07:00

Organised music from Thessaloniki has very kindly uploaded an album of mine, originally released in 2009, that has since sold out. You can purchase it HERE

Compost and Height at Q02

2011-03-23T02:33:00.000-07:00

We have spent the last couple of weeks at Q02, a beautiful space run by very lovely people.
Along with Kostis Kilymis we will be performing our post residency concert on Friday March 25th.

Programme:
Patrick Farmer. Consisting of similarity and opposite - Patrick Farmer and Sarah Hughes
Compost and Height talk - Patrick Farmer and Sarah Hughes
Improvisation - Patrick Farmer, Sarah Hughes, Kostis Kilymis
Michael Pisaro. A discrete reconciliation between balance and flux - Patrick Farmer, Sarah Hughes, Kostis Kilymis

www.q-o2.be

"Currently in residency at the q-o2 workspace are Sarah Hughes and Patrick Farmer, visual/sound artists from (at the moment) Oxford. They unfold a vivid explorational creativity involving field recordings, plants, objects and instumental sounds, feedback, and scores of other composers, all starting from the spatial surrounding. Their curiosity leads them to many collaborations with other artists, although this is surprisingly the first time they are developing a duo work. For the last days of their residency they have invited Kostis Kilymis, a greek electronic musician who runs the label ‘organised music from Thessaloniki’.

Sarah and Patrick also run a label, the well thought ‘Compost and Height’, which has existed since 2008 and started as an alternative to organising live events which, as they state, became difficult when they went to live in London. The label offers a platform for artists to disseminate their work – this consists mainly of audio downloads, cd releases, various projects and the publication Wolf Notes." - Julia Eckhardt

Koboku Senju in Oxford. May 27th.

2011-03-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

We're very pleased to be able to host Koboko Senju on
MAY 27th at ART JERICHO
KING STREET, OXFORD, OX2 6DF.
DOORS 8pm.
Tickets £4
Map

Koboku Senju are Toshimaru Nakamura | Tetuzi Akiyama | Eivind Lønning | Martin Taxt | Espen Reinertsen
(No Input Mixing Board, Guitar, Trumpet, Tuba, Saxophone)
+
Stephen Cornford | Patrick Farmer | Sarah Hughes
(Feedback, Turntable, Chorded Zither)

Compost and Height | Cathnor

Jean - Luc Guionnet & Klaus Filip: Live @ Radio Student

2011-03-01T07:57:00.000-08:00

Jean-Luc Guionnet- alto saxophone | Klaus Filip- lloopp

Recorded in Studio Radio Študent, 8th of July 2010. Recorded by Samo Pavlica- Linč

Live at Radio Student (30:06) WAV

Martin Küchen & Peter Šüklar (Das ÜÜ Duett): Live @ Radio Student

2011-02-09T08:30:00.000-08:00

Martin Küchen - baritone & alto saxophone. Peter Šüklar - percussion, objects.

Recorded on 17th of October 2010 in studio Radio Študent. Recorded by Samo Pavlica- Linč.

Photo of Martin Küchen by Nataša Grabec

Live @ Radio Student (22:20) WAV

A realisation of December 1952 by Jane Dickson and Lawrence Williams

2011-02-09T03:47:00.000-08:00

"December 1952" by Earle Brown, recorded live at The St. Davids Room, King's College London, September 21st 2010

Lawrence Williams - alto saxophone
Jane Dickson - piano

Lawrence Williams and Jane Dickson have worked together as a duo over the last year. Their work together consists of an interest in the meeting point of composition and improvisation and alternative methods of notation.

Jane Dickson is a London based pianist and composer. She specialises in augmenting acoustic instruments with live electronics for improvisation and composition using custom built systems in Max/MSP. She is studying composition at doctoral level at Goldsmiths, University of London where her current interests are the aptness of the use of live electronics with acoustic instruments in composition, the notation of live electronics and performance aesthetics.

Lawrence Williams is a tenor and alto saxophonist and composer. Having lived in London for the last nine years, he attended Eddie Prevost's improvisation workshop during 2007. He currently lives in Budapest. He has a strong interest in interdisciplinary collaboration and works extensively with theatre, dance and sometimes circus. He continues to curate and organise concerts where and when he can which usually focus on placing musicians in unique and sonically interesting spaces.

Photo of Jane Dickson by S.Hewitt
Photo of Lawrence Williams by Simon Ferenc Toth

December 1952 (11:57) AIFF

Jez riley French - Between gestures

2011-02-05T10:30:00.000-08:00

one . between kinetics (live sections from performance at sharmanka)
two . spaces between others (between scores, concert room at wandelweiser event)
three . between window and table (live sections from performance at 12 / 2)
four . between still morning and a long picnic (recording of room at 12 / 2)
five . between agedashi tofu, udon and central (recordings in restaurant and station)

field recordings, zither, salt, glass lenses, lx-1 camera, paper, contact microphones, table, fingers, shells

Between gestures (42.25) lossless
Between gestures pdf

Seth Cluett - tracing moving circles

2011-02-05T04:07:00.001-08:00

100 circles for the head, a wall-mounted set of drawings and an accompanying headphone-based sound recording, documents the acoustic trace of drawing 100 circles in three different ways: 100 single circles, 50 x 2 circles, and 25 x 4 circles

100 circles for the head tt 04.13, mp3

glass is a performance work produced as an unprocessed studio recording. The recording documents the sound of circular motions made by moving a piece of glass in each hand against two pieces of glass placed flat on a table. The performance is finished when it is no longer physically possible to continue the action, allowing exhaustion to create variations in an otherwise steady simple sound-producing motion.

Glass Performance 19.48, mp3

These audio downloads accompany Seth Cluett's tracing moving circles article in Wolf Notes, the first issue of a publication from Compost and Height
Wolf Notes, Volume 1, January 2011

Dominic Lash - Ledig Lullaby

2011-01-25T11:29:00.000-08:00

Being a blend of eight untreated field recordings of different lengths collected in upstate New York between the 27th July and the 3rd August 2010 at various locations (and at various points of the day and night) on the premises of the Omi International Arts Centre. Who said the countryside was quiet?

Edited and compiled in Geneva and Oxford in January 2011. Special thanks to Jeffrey Leppendorf and everyone involved in Music Omi 2010.

Ledig Lullaby (flac)

Sejiro Murayama | Tomaž Grom | Pascal Battus: Live @ Radio Študent, 1st July 2010

2011-01-13T07:27:00.000-08:00

Seijiro Murayama- percussion; Tomaž Grom- double bass; Pascal Battus- rotating surfaces.

Recorded on 1st of July 2010 in Studio Radio Študent, Ljubljana.

Recorded by Samo Pavlica.

Live @ Radio Študent, 1st July 201 (26:09) WAV

Brian Beaudry

2010-12-18T06:03:00.000-08:00

How Would You Describe Yourself - Vancouver, BC - field recordings and equalizer.

This began as a series of recordings involving the capture of natural sounds within an urban environment – downtown Vancouver in the summer. As I focused on the sound event of my choice with my microphones, I similarly edited the recordings to remove the majority of the dynamic range of traffic, pedestrian and HVAC sound. What resulted are sounds no more or less valuable to the ear than those that were removed (at least to me).

How would you describe yourself (flac)

Liquid Spite – Strachan Bay, Broughton Island & Port McNeill, BC – field recordings, equalizer and effects.
A product of my most recent bought of work in remote locations along the west coast of British Columbia. The spring there generally involves a great deal of rain, fog and wind: whose patterns and rhythms supplant the traffic, pedestrians and machines of the city. The effects of listening to the recordings once I had returned to the city surprised me. Much of it was psychologically comparable to listening to rush-hour traffic – a stressful and inadvisable practice. While the sound of rain on the roof of my house lulls me to sleep, the same sound on the roof of the bunkhouse on a ship is just a reminder of the dismal day ahead. Listening back now, without the immediacy of recent memory, I find them more pleasant. The dull echoes of distant trains and subways cannot replace the soothing hum of the ship's masts and cables. I suppose that “noise pollution” is what you make of it.

Liquid Spite (flac)

Vanessa Rossetto - Bookpacking 2

2010-09-19T06:29:00.000-07:00

I sell books for a "job," so I pack books every day. This summer I began recording myself working over a period of several weeks. At various times throughout, mostly toward the beginning of the recording period, I wore headphones while working so I was made even more aware of the sounds I was making in the course of my daily activities. Immediately it began to affect the gestures used and the speed with which I was going about my tasks. I began to think more and more about the specific sounds I was making while still being able to maintain a productive work flow. In turn, I began to think about all the sounds I was making whether I was working or not, whether I was recording them or not, and about the rhythm of labor in general.

This piece was edited down from many hours of recordings in Texas in August and September 2010. While it is edited, there are no additions; no parts that were not recorded during the process of working. Some days it rained and some it did not.

Vanessa Rossetto - Bookpacking 2

Kyle Bruckmann | Timothy Daisy

2010-09-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

During a recent project with my ensemble Wrack in Chicago, I was invited to perform on WNUR (http://www.wnur.org/), relentless supporters of the city’s Creative Music community. Since the rest of the band was busy teaching and working that morning, Tim and I jumped at the opportunity to play a good old-fashioned “free improv” duo set, stretching out and getting microscopic. Somehow, despite having been colleauges since 2002 and friends/mutual fans for longer, we’d previously only managed to play ensnared within my tortuous compositions. Many thanks to jazz show director Mike Corsa and engineer Trevor Ewen!

Kyle Bruckmann | Timothy Daisy

Kyle Bruckmann: Oboe, English Horn | Timothy Daisy: Percussion

John P. Hastings - A Sound Map of the United States

2010-09-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

I recently completed a move from Los Angeles, CA to Brooklyn, NY. Having the luxury of time (18 days), I was able to take a fairly esoteric route that yielded great opportunities for field recording. The 14 separate sites were edited into one 45-minute aural journey. I believe I was able to capture a fairly wide breadth of the U.S.A. (and Canada, though only Toronto) but this recording only scrapes the tiniest of surfaces. Below is a list of the locations and times of day:

00:00 - 03:47 Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA 1200
03:36 - 08:33 Stratosphere Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, NV 0900
06:48 - 11:30 Jacob Lake campground, AZ 0800
10:21 - 14:30 Four Corners National Monument (borders of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico & Colorado) 1645
13:06 - 16:23 Box Cañon Falls, Ouray, CO 1000
16:15 - 19:43 Border of Wyoming and Nebraska 1330
19:38 - 22:55 Oglala National Grasslands, NE 1717
22:47 - 25:13 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN 1420
24:25 - 25:29 Dan Flavin installation at Walker Art Center 1429
25:19 - 27:53 Kettle Moraine Park (northern section), WI 0848
27:42 - 31:37 Lake Huron, Straits State Park, MI 2245
31:37 - 36:24 Lafayette Park, Detroit, MI 1241
33:33 - 40:46 Tram 510 Toronto, ON 1919
37:10 - 44:30 Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NY 1021

The piece is dedicated to my father, who was with me on this adventure.

A sound map of the United States

John P. Hastings

Liquid Friction Assemblage - Untitled 1 | 3

2010-09-13T12:44:00.000-07:00

Chris Videll: percussion, objects, effects
Keith Sinzinger: keyboard, electronics, Fender bass, brass objects
Gary Rouzer: amplified objects, prepared electric bass
Daniel Barbiero: double bass

Untitled 1 | Untitled 3

An interview with Nate Wooley

2010-08-08T07:33:00.000-07:00

A wonderful interview with a wonderful Wooley

Here

Loris | Live at The Blurred Edges Festival, Hamburg. 01.05.10

2010-06-01T13:19:00.000-07:00

A performance void of any 'obvious' technical concern. Removed individual, homologous, all ability harboured within multilayered intuition. The playfulness of the tools chosen, bricolage, making use of what one finds that day in that place, no rhythm, no discernible structure - starting and stopping at the same time.

Thanks very so much to Gregory Büttner, Birgit Ulher, and Michael Maierhof

Loris is - Patrick Farmer | Sarah Hughes | Daniel Jones

Another Timbre

Loris - Live at The Blurred Edges Festival (28:27)

Q-O2 / 2009 / CD book | Now Available!

2010-05-25T10:32:00.000-07:00

€15/£13 - Postage: Within Belgium €2 - International €6

All orders are taken via Paypal, please contact us for further details.

Please click on the individual artists to listen to short samples:

Julia Eckhardt | Chiyoko Szlavnics | Mieke Lambrigts | Manfred Werder | Annette Krebs
Tim Parkinson | Olivier Toulemonde | Manu Holterbach | Aernoudt Jacobs | Anne Wellmer

The project /2009/ started on 4th of january 2009 and ended on 13th december 2009. It is a succession of sound recordings made over the course of one year by ten artists who had each four weeks to respond to the recording of an unknown predessessor. They got no information other than the recording itself. Each recording is 7 minutes long and is accompagnied by two pages in a diary. Recordings, diary and reflections are brought together in a listenbook.
The aim was to investigate how we perceive music, in a more precise way than ‘I liked it’ or ‘it spoke to me' and whether it is in any way possible to ‘understand’ experimental music. The proposition of the research-part of the project was that mis-understanding could lead to creative interaction, presupposing that there is an active and open listening.

Artists involved:
Julia Eckhardt, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Mieke Lambrigts, Manfred Werder, Annette Krebs, Tim Parkinson, Olivier Toulemonde, Manu Holterbach, Aernoudt Jacobs and Anne Wellmer
Their contributions provide in their diversity a reflection of the experimental music field, which seems to be very much in flux at the beginning of this century.

The CD book is released by Compost and Height and presented in collaboration with STUK (Displaced Sounds).

About Q-O2
Since 2006 Q-O2 has grown from a contemporary musicgroup to a workspace for experimental contemporary music and soundart. The organisation has its own space in the centre of Brussels.
In musical terms Q-O2 explores mainly three lines of approach: acoustic and electronic improvisation and composed music as well as installations and soundart. Through its conceptual preoccupations Q-O2 finds easily points of access to other disciplines.
Practically, Q-O2 workspace functions on three levels: by hosting artists on a working residency, by starting up and guiding projects in collaboration with other venues/art centres and by organising concerts on its own premises.

www.q-o2.be

Reviews for /2009/

It's not a new idea, that of the Exquisite Corpse, but it's often a fruitful one. In this case, Julia Eckhardt put together a piece (a very fine one, breathy and open, allowing for a good deal of inspection from many angles) and passed it along to Chiyoko Szlavnics, who was asked to, in some manner, react to it. There were a couple of constrictions: she had four weeks to do so and her creation, like Eckhardt's, should last seven minutes. Szlavnics' work was then passed along (presumably with no information other than the sound) to Mieke Lambrigts and then, in order, to Manfred Werder, Annette Krebs, Tim Parkinson (whose score is shown above--the cover of the booklet is simply white with "2009"), Olivier Toulemonde, Manu Helterbach, Aernoudt Jacbos and Ann Wellmer.

Gauging these specific reactions, given that, of course, the references aren't overt, if next to impossible but it's quite easy to simply listen to as a suite of sorts, picking up on the relatedness of any adjacent pieces (and echoes, perhaps, of earlier ones) in a more general sense. And much of the music is wonderful! Better, a number of the names were new to me so, for example, it was an extra pleasure hearing Mieke Lambrigts' contribution, "Teufelskreis", a fantastically subtle and mysterious sequence of low hums. Werder, perhaps obscurely, used information gleaned from her piece to create an unaltered field recording on a street in Brussels; it works.

Krebs, in Brussels, apparently (amazingly) recognizes that Werder's track stemmed from there and constructs an extremely complicated response (the booklet accompanying the cd, a very attractive one, includes commentary from several of the participants, scores or photos from others) that incorporates the Werder, guitar, taped conversation, Chinese song and much more. A great piece. Parkinson, somewhat inexplicably, offers a work for melodica and percussion, spare and quirky on the one hand (not dissimilar, in a way, to his piano composition that I've recently heard), slightly Partchian on the other. Toulemonde clear adopts the melodica sound as well as, obliquely, the percussion, blending them effectively with field recordings and his track is seamlessly continued by Holterbach, integrating lovely, high-pitched sounds, possibly rubbed wine glasses. Aernoudt Jacobs created a very attractive, rather prismatic score (perhaps from translating the previous piece graphically?) which sounds very different from Holterbach's, an intense but low-level electronic whir and rumble, segueing into eerie string-like sounds; very, very nice. Finally, Anne Wellmer records the ionosphere with a "long loop antenna", an utterly gorgeous series of crackles and low thrums.

An excellent set. Do hear it.
Brian Olewnick | Just Outside

...I’ve spent a couple of hours playing a CD that has been in and out of my CD player for a few weeks now, the //2009// compilation CD put together by the q.O2 organisation in Belgium for the Compost and Height label. The idea behind this compilation is really very simple, but if I think about it I can’t come up with another CD release that has adopted the same idea down the years. The disc works as a kind of game of musical Chinese whispers.
The q.O2 organisation in Brussells is a wonderful operation. They bring experimental musicians and artists into their city centre workspace throughout the year to take up week-long residencies, sometimes also playing concerts, but generally just making use of the creative space offered to them. During 2009, one of q.O2’s driving forces, Julia Eckhardt asked ten musicians (nine plus herself) to create a seven minute long piece of music, one a time, as the year progressed. However each was given the CD of the musician before them’s music and asked to respond to it. They did not know who had made the piece of music before them, or have any information other than the recording itself. The project began when Eckhardt herself made a piece of music, so starting the chain that is documented on this CD. Each musician was also asked to provide two diary pages about their contribution, which are collected in the handsome book that wraps around the CD here. Some of the contributions are written texts, some hand-drawn, some just consist of photographs. The whole project then takes on a new dimension beyond what we might expect from a various artists compilation. Rather than just listen to each track we ponder over its links to the preceding piece of music. Interesting stuff.
So Eckhardt’s opening piece, a composed work for viola starts things off with a rough, scraping rhythm as steady sweeps of the bow across the instruments body occasionally pull in slight tonal resonances from the edge of a string. The viola sounds very closely miked, so every tiny detail, or irregularity in the passing of the bow is captured. Tapping and scratching fingers add a further dimension and set of rhythms to the music a bit later in the track, which falls into silence around the three minute mark, quietly pulling itself back together after a bit of a pause.

Eckhardt’s piece, which is named Aspects 1-7 is followed by a track by someone named Chiyoko Szlavnics, a name new to me. Slvanics actually takes Eckhardt’s piece and reuses it, placing it as a layer in a laminal structure of murky field recordings, the grey, textural nature of the viola playing fitting in nicely with sounds of a jumbo jet’s cabin and industrial sounds from within a heating and cooling plant. Slowly the viola is consumed in these clouds of grainy white noise, resurfacing every so often. Rather than a response this piece feels like a remix of Eckhardt’s piece. Its nice, and the sounds added are full of depth and mystery, but it feels a bit of an obvious way to respond really.
There then follows a piece called Teufelskreis by another new name to me, Mieke Lambrigts. His/her work is a quiet piece that mixes deep bassy rumbles with circular textural rhythms, obviously influenced by the viola’s presence in the previous piece. The track sounds like distant rumbling factories and closeby mechanical machinery churning over. It has a certain charm to it, particularly when you consider how it follows and is informed by the track before it, and it is a nicely made piece of restrained electroacoustic composition, but perhaps otherwise a little run of the mill. Which, in many ways is how Manfred Werder’s contribution here could be described, as it contains a seven minute long field recording made in Brussells, at precisely 12:28PM on June 19th 2009. The recording then captures a series of run of the mill events heard in what sounds like some kind of pedestrian-filled tunnel beside a road in the city.
The recording is beautiful, in that it captures a little piece of everyday human lives and adds sounds that are a little less familiar, and others that are so commonplace that they sound completely anonymous, just another passing car, another chink of glass, unknown distant crash. The question then is how does this recording respond to Lambrigts’ music before it? The work here actually follows a Werder score, which in itself seems to just arrange particular places to stop and listen. In his diary notes Werder talks of allowing the music to help him choose where he would stop, listen and record this time, Exactly how the music informed these decisions is not clear, but the sense of grey, murky texture remains on rainy streets late in the evening.
There then follows seven minutes of Annette Krebs’ music, She provides lengthy notes in her diary pages, explaining the way her music responds, stretching from using small samples of Werder’s recording early on, to contrasting sounds from one piece to the another, for instance as Werder’s track cuts off suddenly at seven minutes, so Krebs chose to begin hers softly in response. The music consists of little grabs of voices, mostly in German separated by bell-like strikes at her amplified guitar and other small abstract ephemera. The voices here reflect the bustling crowds of voices in Werder’s Brussells streets, little bits of conversation cut off in much the same way, like hearing small parts of people’s conversations as they pass by. Its great stuff, very typical of Krebs’ music of late with perhaps even more use of the vocal samples than usual.

Before listening to the CD, the question of how Tim Parkinson might possibly respond to Annette Krebs was very much a question in my mind. Having listened many times now, I’m still not sure of the connections, but I like both pieces. Parkinson’s track is named Melodica and Percussion and mixes both instruments in little passages of somewhat quirky dislocation. There are held melodica notes that really grate, cheesy little two or three note riffs, soft, rather beautiful perussive interludes and an overall sense of avoiding all established music forms at all cost. Its this last fact that does link this piece to the preceding work. Neither flow in a traditional manner, both use surprise and sudden juxtaposition as compositional tools. Both are highly enjoyable.
Olivier Toulemonde uses parts of Parkinson’s piece in his work, which fuses a muted, rerecorded section of the track repeated often over a series of field recordings Toulemonde made around Brussells. So we get a wheezing, squeaking melodica sound, sped up slightly and popping in and out constantly throughout the piece, with the sounds of the city blended around it. This is an odd track, the like of which we probably would not have got without a project like this creating it. It works well, a very tense, almost wild stream of nervous energy that returns to Parkinson’s hammering percussion sounds at the end.
The piercing melodica sounds still seems present in the eighth track, an electro-acoustic work full of field recordings and (I am guessing) elements of Toulemonde’s piece buried in it composed by Manu Holterbach. The music gets very dense and heavy near its midpoint, oscillating, crossing streams of synth-like sound seeming to rise in volume and intensity, the ghost of the screeching melodica still there in the background alongside unknown thuds and crashes. This piece bears a close similarity to Toulemonde’s in many ways, the retained melodica sounds partly creating this feeling, the use of dense field recordings also helping. The heaving synth-like swarms give the track its own character however.
The ninth piece, named Echelon 9 is by Aernoudt Jacobs, who I am not familiar with, and whose diary contribution consists of a seemingly mathematic field of colours, like some kind of long bright blue barcode. The short paragraph explaining something about the image and how it links to the music as the colours link to the frequency of sounds confused me to be honest. I like the picture, the music consists of whistling ghostly noises and small thuds and pattering that build up here and there into massed sections. This is one of the few tracks here in which I struggle to hear any link at all between the track and the one that came before it, unless as I suspect a fair amount of computer processing was involved. I also didn’t like it that much, the droning, rolling sensation of the music not doing much for me.
Anne Wellmer’s notes on her piece suggest that initially she had planned to use her laptop to somehow calculate a lot of data from Jacobs’ work and transform the music digitally somehow. Apparently this took too long, so she chose a different option and went out at night with something called a long loop antenna to capture ionospheric sounds in the atmosphere. The final piece in the Chinese whisper puzzle then does not resemble Julia Eckhardt’s opening track very much. It is very quiet and subdued, resembling Lee Patterson’s pondlife recordings as much as anything else to me, all tiny pops and crackles and gentle moaning murmurs. Again I’m not sure how Wellmer arrived at this music from the starting point of Jacobs’ track but I’m glad she got here, as this piece is beautifully understated, softly coloured and nicely shaped.
So overall this compilation makes great listening. Even if a particular track may not sound particularly interesting, the game of trying to work out where it came from, how it was born from the track preceding it is thoroughly engaging. The accompanying notes in the book are very helpful, and occasionally quite beautiful, and the entire project is lovingly presented. In her opening notes Eckhardt states that she wanted the project to ask if it is possible for musicians or listeners to “understand” experimental music in a manner that goes beyond “I liked it” or “it spoke to me” She asks if misunderstanding is just as important, or potentially as fertile an area of discovery. As a semi-professional listener to this area of music these are the questions I ask myself every day as I listen and share my thoughts on this music. Does any of it make sense? can we respond to music in an effective worthwhile manner? This CD shows that the course of trying to do so is a thoroughly engrossing one.
Richard Pinnell | The Watchful Ear

The idea behind /2009/ is simple, though the work it showcases is very diverse, straddling the overlapping fields of sound art, composition, elecroacoustic music and field recording. Every month from January last year, an audio piece, beginning with a work by project organiser Julia Eckhardt, was given to a different sound artist, who then had a month to produce a seven minute response. This, in turn, was passed on anonymously to the next in the chain. It's a kind of Chinese whispers, a succession of linked statements that quickly leads the listener a long was from Eckhardt's opener. At the heart of the project at the outset, writes Eckhardt, was the proposition that "mis-understanding (in the sense of accidentally understanding something non-intended) could lead to a creative interaction".
The baton-passing idea gives the CD a completely different feel to a conventional compilation, setting up a distinctive series of re-voicings and acoustic meetings. The thinking behind the various encounters is documented in a large format booklet containing two pages of text, images and scores by the participants. These include Wandelweiser associates Manfred Werder and Tim Parkinson, Berlin improviser Annette Krebs and the sound artist Aernoudt Jacobs.
Eckhardt is based at the sonic arts workspace Q02 in Brussels, and this forms the site of much of the recording activity- most of the contributors had a short residency at Q02 at some point in 2009. Some of the changes from piece to piece are relatively small - involving sympathetic reworking of the source material - but others display a radical change of direction. Eckhardt's piece is a lovely seven part composition built around extended technique use of viola and cello. The next artist in line, Chiyoko Slavnics, overlays a room recording of Edkhardt's composition with field recordings, adding a dense impasto of sound to the existing piece while preserving its atmosphere. Manfred Werder's contribution, on the other hand, is a field recording made in Brussels as a realisation of his score 2005(1) which simply reads "place/time//(sounds)". There is no obvious relationship to the previous piece by Mike Lambrigts at all, though Werder writes that the location and style of recording were influenced by his involvement in /2009/. Annette Krebs, in turn, notes the continuous nature and exact seven minute duration of Werder's piece and embarks on an electroacoustic work broken into three fragments of voice, electronic sound and field recording. And so it goes on, each new episode opening up a distinct way of working with sound that is bought into sharp relief by its relationship to the previous one. A moment from Manu Holterbach's note on his contribution captures the flavour of the entire project: "I love it when things come together...into an alchemical mixture of chance, meeting, intuitions, and attention".
Will Montgomery The Wire Magazine

Daniel Menche - RHS Choir

2010-05-20T01:03:00.000-07:00

I work at a high school librarian here in Portland, Oregon. Once a week there's a choir class and occasionally I will poke my head in to hear the kids singing. The singing can be a bit rusty mainly due to the shyness factor in the young voices and or the reluctant learning of the music notes from the choir teacher. I really like that rough-awkward singing from the kids and it reminds me of being in choir as a little kid myself and I HATED IT! Mainly because I didn't understand music notation......nor did I want to. Well, anyways, I'm always thinking of ways to get young folks to have fun with sound and such and I had an idea to use these fine choir students for a future recording, utilizing their awkward singing sounds. My strategy for the kids was VOWELS! Every kid knows vowels! Easy right? A-E-I-O-U and just sing those letters as long as possible is what I will instruct the kids to do. I mentioned to the choir teacher that I will be coming in and taking ten minutes of the student’s time to record them for an album and the teachers were cool with it but also very confused. How can I be a known recording musician and not know about flat Cs or sharp D' or whatever that jargon is. I told them..."Don't worry....the kids will have fun and it'll sound fantastic." And so I barged into the classroom and hit record on my little recorder and began with the VOWEL singing game with the kids. The sheer state of confusion on their young faces was rather beautiful and the singing was fantastic to my ears. This recording is the raw unedited "as is" document. Later I did indeed work with the singing sounds and completed a full recording as yet released but this raw recording has a charm to it of the kids being confused and having some fun. The look on the choir teachers face when I had everyone screaming in different vowels was priceless. I can see her facial expression screaming at me "Music notation blasphemy!!!"...I respond back "Yep, sure is and now look at all the smiles on our kids".

RHS Choir (08:07)

"Hover" has since been released on Touch Records - click here for details

Michael Pisaro / Joseph Clayton Mills - Fields Have Ears (4) - Video and Score

2010-05-20T00:50:00.000-07:00

In November of last year Compost and Height were asked by Matt Davies to curate a night at the Cube Cinema in Bristol. The last performance of the night was of Michael Pisaro's work - Fields Have Ears (4). Joseph Clayton Mills was asked to create a video to work alongside the realisation, specially made for the score. We are pleased to be able to offer this video, and score, for download. Sadly the recording of the realisation didn't quite get off the ground.

Fields Have Ears (4) video

Fields Have Ears (4) score

Boris Snauwaert | Abandoned Rain

2010-05-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

"These field recordings of rain dripping in an abandoned (and largely destroyed) cotton mill are part of an ongoing series of sound recordings of places and landscapes in the nineteenth-century belt around Ghent, Belgium."

Abandoned Rain (22:01)

Maile Costa Colbert - Now's important

2010-04-07T10:48:00.001-07:00

To come at your own life within an anthropological context, "Now's Important" is an exploration of my grandmother's home in a little trailer park outside of Los Angeles."

Paul Vogel | Roy Carroll - Snowlady and Adrian asleep together

2010-04-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

The Snowlady story is a long one . I am a vegan educator and have friends ( Jacek and Aga) who rescue cats. Snowlady is one such. She was rescued in Dublin and was unhappy with the other cats at the sanctuary but made friends with Adrian who moved to Brno in the Czech Republic shortly afterwards. So last summer Jacek and I drove her across Europe to Brno. A long journey for a cat. She was not very comfortable spending the journey hiding in the back of the car and just as we got to the Czech border we stopped to sleep in the car. We awoke to find Snowlady purring loudly and looking wide eyed out of the window at a forest. She had never seen a forest before. I think she at that moment realised the possibilities for adventure life has to offer and for the first time I experienced her as truly alive. I'll never forget it. It was one of the most inspiring things I've ever seen and heard. We drove on to Brno and Adrian's apartment. We were all exhausted and went to sleep on the floor. Jacek and I on the floor, Adrian on the bed and snowlady underneath. I awoke to find her exploring the room and then going back to sleep, so that's it Snowlady and Adrian were asleep together.
The music was was made by me recording Clarinet in Dublin and sending it to Roy in Berlin to process. We had looked for an Irish arts council grant to perform at the i and e festival but did not get it so we had time no for rehersal and the performance at the festival could have been better. Anyway there are several more tracks which I see as relating to Snowlady's journey but this one is the final piece and the most contemplative.

Paul Vogel - A member of the Bristol Musicians Co-Op in the late seventies, Paul Vogel is currently a co-curator of i-and-e alongside David Lacey. Incorporating electronics with live clarinet performance, Vogel has composed music for radio and for contemporary dance groups and has also worked and recorded with many international improvisers, including Phil Durrant, Lee Patterson, Angharad Davies, Mark Wastell and Keith Rowe. He has released recordings on Homefront, Confront and Cathnor.

Roy Carroll - https://sites.google.com/site/royelylyonscarroll

"Snowlady and Adrian asleep together" (10:42)

Luca Forcucci - Unplugged Impression

2010-04-07T10:31:00.000-07:00

As stated by Félix Guattari in ʼLes Trois Ecologiesʼ, a new approach of our relationships seems necessary:

ʻAn ethico – political articulation, that I call ecosophy, between the three ecological registers, that of the environment, that of the social relationships and that of the human subjectivityʼ (Guattari, 1989)

Unplugged Impression proposes to describe this thematic by a listening of the natural field, the full immersion in an unknown environment. Here, the social relationships are those from the fauna. A deep listening of the environment of the forest activates the human subjectivity.

Unplugged Impression (08:53)
 

Greg Davis "Thirteen Locations Along Hunter Creek"

2010-04-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

Recorded in December 2009 along Hunter Creek, near Payson, Arizona.

"thirteen locations along hunter creek"

Florian Gerbaud - The nightingale or the singing monad

2010-04-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

"The nightingale or the singing monad" is a video inspired by my photographic work titled " Solitude is an exact geometry ".

The rain and wind sounds come from the video, they introduce the music I made, as a bridge towards the unknown .

the nightingale or the singing monad (separate audio - 02:40)

http://batsandswallows.blogspot.com/

Bryan Eubanks - No Reunions

2010-03-06T03:02:00.001-08:00

Electronics, fm transmitter, dsp | Developed January - March 2010

Recorded on March 3rd, 2010 in Brooklyn, NY

An improvisation exploring the impact of distance and time on both material and personal relationships

Bryan Eubanks - No Reunions (41:11)

Nate Wooley - The Almond (excerpt)

2010-03-05T14:23:00.000-08:00

"A curious variant on the long history of the kernel, the pulp and the almond. Here the kernel plays the part of a shell containing the almond; the kernel is outside and the almond inside. The almond (the new principle) finally bursts the old kernel which no longer suits it (it was the kernel of the old almond); it wants a kernel of its own...."-Louis Althusser from "For Marx"

This is an excerpt of a longer piece for trumpet. It is dedicated to Noemi Vuletic, Owen Eisenstadt, Chelsea Lopez, and Zosia Sinton. Four babies that have recently inherited me as their crazy "uncle" that will one day bore them with stories about James K. Polk for no apparent reason. As our generation now becomes mired in the muck of our own histories, opinions and aesthetics, these children now bear the burden of creating something truly "new", of "bursting the old kernel", and I wish them the very best of luck.

The piece is made only of trumpet tones, no extended technique, no processing. If you can listen to it very loudly or with headphones (or both) I think it is much nicer.

Nate Wooley - The Almond (25:04)

Image by Sarah Spears

Nick Hennies - Psalms

2010-03-05T14:20:00.000-08:00

"Psalms" was inspired by two pieces: a vibraphone solo I composed in 2001 as a memorial for Herbert Brün wherein random changes in resonance occur via consistency in striking location, and Alvin Lucier's "Silver Streetcar for the Orchestra" (which I first performed in April 2009) wherein changes in timbre and resonance occur via variation in striking location, dampening, and rate of attack. With the three "Psalms" I applied these playing methods to snare drum and woodblock, and also explored the vibraphone in much greater detail.

The "Psalms" are compositions that emerged from repeat performances where structure, duration, and form were slowly determined over time rather than the usual method of composing first and performing after. The "Psalms" along with "Silver Streetcar" and the untitled vibraphone piece from 2001 have now been recorded and will eventually be released as an album. This performance at the Avant Garden in Houston is an early version of the "Psalms," performed here as a single, continuous listening experience.

The live recording is a somewhat inaccurate representation of the music as it fails to pick up the wildly varied and alien sounds of the echoes and resonance in the room (for the studio recordings James Talambas mic'd both the instruments and various points of the space) but I think is still worth listening to.

The pieces on this recording are:

1. Psalm One for vibraphone
2. Psalm Two for snare drum
3. Psalm Three for woodblock
4. Silver Streetcar for the Orchestra (Alvin Lucier)
5. untitled (1918-2000)

Nick Hennies - Psalms (35:26)

Recorded live in Houston by Pete Gershon at the Avant Garden, 23 August 2009

Yannick Dauby & Yen-Ting Hsu

2010-02-24T09:33:00.001-08:00

Preparing the sticky rice for Mayasvi (03:30)

Tsou* people of Tapangu village, in Alishan mountain area, Taiwan. 15 February 2010. During the ritual for the God of War, there is a moment where one member of each main family should bring some food to Kuba, the collective house of the men. Amongst these foods is ufi (name in Tsou language), prepared from glutinous rice, mubu. After being cooked between leaves with steam, the rice will be crushed in a mortar. The difficulty of this work i not only to project with energy the huge pestel in the big wooden container, but also to lift it up, stuck by the rice transformed into a plastic paste. In the past, women would prepare this nutritious and simple meal, brought by the men to the war or the hunt.

Voyu 正在besia裡敲打米飯，準備Mayasvi需要的年糕。這些米飯在Mayasvi裡扮演要角，一週甚至更久前，當男人爬上爬下修繕Kuba（男子集會所）時，女人正在將米飯製成小米酒、糯米飯、年糕。大團大團的糯米飯(mubu)放置到木桶中，要用木杵大力重複敲打產生黏性，最後集結成塊狀，放到竹簍待涼，便成為祭典間分食眾人的年糕。這並非輕易的工作，平時打獵爬樹輕而易舉的Voyu氣喘吁吁。但過去這些準備工作全是鄒族女性的工作。

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsou
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutinous_rice

Treefrogs singing during Mayasvi (05:52)

His mouth is full of blood, but we don't know what appearance he has. He's terrible and likes noise, he's Iafafeoi, the God of War. During the night of Mayasvi, the ritual which is dedicated to him, the voices are raising up to the sky where Iafafeoi is observing. Meanwhile, in the sleepy village, a few Moltrecht's treefrogs (Tioekueku in Tsou language) are gathering and are sharing their calls with the singers.

雨來了，在村莊裡邊，莫式樹蛙正大展歌喉，像在和不遠的Kuba前歌舞的群眾較勁，傳說中容貌駭人的戰神Iafafeoi這時候還在Kuba上方側耳聆聽。鄒族每年有兩大祭典，homeyaya（小米收穫祭）肅穆寧靜地祭祀Baetongu（小米女神），Mayasvi（戰祭）以通宵的歌舞獻奉喜歡熱鬧的 Iafafeoi。此時的Tapangu（達邦部落），中心聚眾手拉著手歌唱，走踏步圍著Kuba的火，休息的人也沒閒著，自家門前點著柴火也是坐在街邊靜靜地參與。在午夜的送神儀式結束前，誰也輕忽不得。

More sounds recorded in the region of Chiayi in Taiwan : http://chiayisound.blogspot.com

Joda Clément & Tomasz Krakowiak - 'no one is there'

2010-02-24T09:27:00.000-08:00

'no one is there' (19:12)

Joda Clément - MS20 Synthesiser, Field Recordings
Tomasz Krakowiak - Percussion

Recorded at live at Somewhere There, Toronto, January 3rd 2010

Zimoun - Sound Sculptures and Installations, a compilation of works.

2010-02-24T09:13:00.000-08:00

Zimoun focusses on creating installations and sound sculptures, usually in connection with mechanical features, movement and physically generated sounds. His creations are graceful, mechanically harmonized works of poetic playfulness - simple yet complex, the result of repetitions with slight irregularities caused by routine and coincidene.

Zimoun is also founder of Leerraum.ch - a label and platform of artists who explore space, time, void, form and structure based on reductive principles and careful yet radical use of materials as well as a network to exchange knowledge, visions and ideas.

Billy Gomberg and Anne Guthrie | Richard Kamerman

2010-02-07T07:36:00.000-08:00

FrauFraulein - Billy Gomberg: Access Virus | Anne Guthrie: French horn

"Beautiful Orca, Yr World Is Yes" (27:00) Loseless | MP3

Richard Kamerman - ASUS Eee PC, broken PCI sound card CT-4780, amplification devices

"After the Great Wing War and Before Returning to the Edge" (18:45) Loseless | MP3

August 1, 2009, 232 Taafe Place, Brooklyn, NY.
Recorded by Billy. Mastered by Richard. Photos by Brian Lindgren.

Rick Reed & Colin Andrew Sheffield | untitled (Live in Austin)

2010-01-19T07:11:00.000-08:00

Excerpted from a live improvisation, recorded in concert at the Church
of the Friendly Ghost in Austin, Texas - December 13, 2003.

Recorded by Colin Andrew Sheffield. Accompanying artwork from a
painting by Rick Reed.
Thank you: The Gates Ensemble, Iron Kite, and Numbers On The Mast.
Special thanks to Brandon Cunningham.

Rick Reed and Colin Andrew Sheffield (14:16)

Michael Tanner

2010-01-16T04:56:00.000-08:00

The Piano.

"The piano looks up to me as if I am an older brother. 'why?' I would ask.

But the piano just gives me a baleful look, eager to please with a grin full of yellowing ivory. I hear him inhaling in the night time when I'm trying to sleep, inviting cat hair to dance a tune across his entrails and sew his proud hammers shut.

'I'm muted' he told me this morning over coffee. 'my belly is wound up tight with dust-bunnies' – meaning I (alice-like) would have to chase them down ornately carved holes, cheap red scissors in hand.

Inside my brothers' belly was like a gloomy porch. I wandered around and brushed the spiderweb of grey follicles which covered his wrought-iron ribs...web upon web, mesh upon mesh. Beneath my fingers I felt the grain of his timbers and pondered an appropriate cutting pattern. All the while he could be heard above me tapping impatiently in f #.

'I have an awkward touch' I reasoned 'you know this'.

Eventually the scissors eased through his worries like snowflakes, my fingers brushing the taught strings as I went. "ahhhhh" - he sighed a deep serene hum from his widening diaphragm, as the net around his lungs popped apart.

I reassured him as best I could before playing a long crude B-major - fingers held in position, we felt the vibration through both our chest bones and gradually deaden... Silently I closed his lid, turned the key and placed it back on the string round my neck."

Michael Tanner - Bridegroom. (04:07)
Michael Tanner - Sing the reverberate hills. (04:49)

Trevor Simmons - Eleven Pages, of a sketchbook.

2010-01-12T10:50:00.001-08:00

A dynamic, tempts most of me to make a display of myself and draw. I eventually forfeited my surroundings, without moving. All of the drawings included, are from sketchbooks and the things described-marks of a calligraphy pen- like constellations. The white space of the page, infinite.

Trevor Simmons - Eleven Pages, of a sketchbook.

www.okya.co.uk/trevor_simmons
www.myspace.com/skulking_rooms

Mark Peter Wright - Mal de Mer

2010-01-12T10:36:00.000-08:00

Mal de mer is a soundscape composition that consists of field recordings from the North East coast of England; Staithes, Sandsend, Robin Hoods Bay and Burniston.

Although specific in location and recording provenance, Mal de mer alludes to sound, and more specifically, an individual’s ability to listen beyond contextual site specifics. Here the listener is not necessarily searching for markers of a given environment, but opening the ear to an immersive and engaging experience. The intention is not to replicate place, but encourage a deep shift in perception and listening.

Mal de mer was first exhibited at the Manchester Victorian Baths during the FutureSonic07 Festival. All recordings made on location during 2006. With warm thanks to Patrick and Sarah.

*Headphones recommended.

Mark Peter Wright - Mal De Mer (09:08)

Julia Holter - A Gold Thunder

2010-01-08T12:35:00.001-08:00

"The text is a phonetic translation into English of the sounds of the words of some Yugoslavian epic poems, but only so far as I could guess based on writing. I don't think my song left much hint of any other language besides English, but maybe. Mainly I just did it to make the song, and was inspired by the idea of these Yugoslavian performers who would play for all nightlong for the bar crowd, improvising stories with their instrument on their laps.
This song is a one-track live recording of me singing and playing ukelele and casio simultaneously, both on my lap."

A GOLD THUNDER

hey, it's very drowsy here
poor mahogany rose

amid rose's hopelessness, a gold thunder

poor mahogany, oh,
it's lucky not
having such luck

A Gold Thunder (02:24)

Jeph Jerman - Live at Listen Space, NYC.

2010-01-07T15:29:00.000-08:00

From the first of two nights at Listen Space in NYC. My most minimal set-up yet. Pistachio shells, pine cones, rusty spring, superball bows, tin lids, wooden bench, brass bowl. The photo is of the floor behind the stage. Thank you Chris and Brian, Sarah and Patrick.

Jeph Jerman - Listen Space (19:49)

Elklink (Graham Lambkin & Adris Hoyos) 'Farm Stories part 1'

2010-01-06T05:27:00.000-08:00

"I was beginning to feel rather saddened by the initial optimism now undermined by such jerky abstraction, when boom!...Elklink...Hmm...Such fine, nice folks, too. Over from England, not a reptillian bone about Graham Lambkin and Adris Hoyos...Shadow Ring vagabonds..."Well, I thank it went accadin' ta plan", Lambkin commented to me when asked about their performance while under the rush hour heat of learning all about parking meters in between the show's intermission. You betcha', if your plan was to have a pre-recorded tape sail the sounds of 'carrots gittin'-chopped up" as some guy named Scott, who looked too much like AL Franken wearing an orange jumpsuit, stands and literally shreds a dozen carrots with a grinder onto a plastic bowl on-stage in obvious effect and product to the sound that seems to be the only thing doing much of anything; while Lambkin rips open the flat of his guitar strings with screws and all compressors available on hand, and lastly, Hoyos, back turned to the audience, slapping one cymbal for half an hour to an absolute pulp, hellenic rape and nothing stands stood...yeah, sure, it went all to plan, jesus. But I believe, and boy do I, that there are a few people left in this world who take life a little more seriously besides shootin' up a lot of urban noise and indulgence that we and I all day pretend to call music, cuz', well, hey, it's easy. Stop!... Call Jack Rose" - Carson Arnold

Recorded at Green Chimneys rehabilitation centre, Brewster, NY. August 2002.

Graham Lambkin - Organ, Tapes.
Adris Hoyos - Guitars

Farm Stories part 1 (10:39)

Another Timbre mini-fest

2010-01-01T10:41:00.001-08:00

Two concerts at Café Oto:

8pm Thursday 21st January
The Sealed Knot
(Burkhard Beins|Rhodri Davies|Mark Wastell)
+
Chris Burn / Simon H Fell
+
Stephen Cornford / Samuel Rodgers

The first concert for nearly two years by The Sealed Knot whose members were all key figures in the emergence of the New London Silence and Berlin Reductionism movements, which swept over improvised music a decade ago. This concert launches their new disc ‘and we disappear’.
Chris Burn is one of the earliest and most accomplished exponents of 'inside piano' playing, constantly uncovering new sounds from the belly of the instrument. This duo performance with French-based bassist Simon Fell launches their new trio disc (with prepared pianist Philip Thomas) ‘The Middle Distance’.
Stephen Cornford is better known for his sound sculptures and installations than for improvisation, but using piano feedback he has established a fascinating improvising duo with pianist Samuel Rodgers. They are launching their new cdr 'Turned Moment, weighting'.

8pm Friday 22nd January

John Tilbury / Sebastian Lexer
+
Loris
(Patrick Farmer|Sarah Hughes|Daniel Jones)
Cafe Oto
18-22 Ashwin Street, Dalston, London E8 3DL
www.cafeoto.co.uk

John Tilbury is a legendary figure in contemporary music, a peerless pianist whether improvising or interpreting scores. In this concert Tilbury plays minimalist piano works by the almost-forgotten Fluxus composer Terry Jennings, and, in collaboration with the electronics pioneer Sebastian Lexer, presents a live version of their ground-breaking realisation of John Cage's 'Electronic Music for Piano', which is being released alongside Jennings' piano works on a new cd on the Another Timbre label.
Loris brings together three of the UK's finest young improvisers - Patrick Farmer, Sarah Hughes and Daniel Jones. What exactly they will play is anyone's guess; their instruments vary from natural objects such as branches and stones, through lo-fi electronics and household goods, to more traditional instruments such as zither, piano and guitar. They too are launching their new disc on Another Timbre, 'The Cat from Cat Hill'.

at Cafe Oto
18-22 Ashwin Street, Dalston, London E8 3DL
www.cafeoto.co.uk
Advance tickets from www.anothertimbre.com

Christian Munthe (Sweden: guitar) & Bon Tan Sui (Japan: image & video): Blowing the Wind

2009-12-30T01:50:00.000-08:00

A few previews of an audio/video collaboration between the wonderful Christian Munthe and Bon Tan Sui. We shall be uploading one of these full length videos, of a series of 11, at the rate of one or two a day ,in high quality zip files. Thanks for being patient with us, and thanks so much to Christian.

Blowing the Wind preview No. 2

Blowing the Wind preview No.4

Blowing the Wind preview No.7

Blowing the Wind preview No.10

Blowing the Wind (1) audio and video
Blowing the Wind (2) audio and video
Blowing the Wind (3) audio and video
Blowing the Wind (4) audio and video
Blowing the Wind (5) audio and video
Blowing the Wind (6) audio and video

Compost and Height Live Event in Bristol

2009-10-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

MATT DAVIES | PATRICK FARMER | SARAH HUGHES | DANIEL JONES | DAVID THOMAS

Performing scores by
Michael Pisaro, with accompanying film by Joseph Clayton Mills
Manfred Werder
+ Debut performance by Loris’s (Farmer, Hughes and Jones) new release on Another Timbre label.

Saturday 28th November 2009
The Cube Cinema | Bristol
Doors 8pm
£5/£4

Patrick Farmer - gwenynen fêl | y drenewydd

2009-09-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

"Mantis was carried over the tumult of the dark and turbulent waters by a bee. The bee, however, became wearier and colder as he searched for solid ground, and Mantis felt heavier and heavier. He flew slower and sank down towards the water. At last, while floating on the water, the bee saw a great white flower, half-open, awaiting the sun's first rays. He laid Mantis in the heart of the flower and planted within him the seed of the first human being. Then the bee died. But as the sun rose and warmed the flower, Mantis awoke, and there, from the seed left by the bee, the first Bushman was born" - San people creation story.

Positioned at different points, mostly one hive at a time, between four hives out of ten in this particular apiary. What we are hearing I think boils down to four things, although if one wished, the list could go on for miles.

The physical material that the microphones "are in touch" with, in this case wood, and on track 05 a ceramic stopper.

The position on the build in relation to the activity inside the hive at any one time, which is densely interconnected to the atmosphere of the air. During this recording the air was charged with static, making the bees more aggressive than usual, the insects sensing the infrasonic shifts coupled together with the barometric pressure, cuasing them fly to the safety of their particular hive.

The proximity of the microphones in relation to actual physical contact between insect and transducer, this contact is usually the bees forewings, and perhaps the tarsus if they land on the microphone

Whilst I do not deny there there are many factors indwelling to my own particular methodologies throughout these recordings, I feel that due to the minimal editing and interference**, these pieces in their multiplicity represent perhaps a truer ear within the soundworld of these wonderful insects (an appendage that is almost always overlooked within reference to behaviour and other factors studied) than one that is chopped, rearranged, stitched, and processed. A more anthropic auditory document made by myself of honey bees has been released by the organised music from thessaloniki label.

**The placement of microphones in recording situations like this I have long felt to be more important than the processing and assemblage that inevitably ensues. I often spend much longer just sitting and thinking about where to attach them than I do anything else.

Perhaps these recordings fail in light of the thoughts presented here. If that is the case I would simply like to state that the thoughts and joy that these various recording processes have presented to me are enough to keep me smiling and listening , in awe of such phenomena and the myriad elements unknown to us, long may it stay that way.

01. Inside hive no 1 from top entrance (03:15)
02. Inside hive no 3 from top entrance (11:19)
03. Top ledge of hive no 3 above small entrance (12:17)
04. Inside small entrance of hive no 4 (09:36)
05. On ceramic stopper of hive no 1 (04:55)
06. Top entrances of hive nos 3 and 4 (15:52)
07. Top right of hive no 2 (02:55)
08. Wood stopper of hive no 4 (15:33)

Drawing by Sarah Hughes

Michael T. Bullock - banjo and feedback

2009-09-02T00:38:00.001-07:00

These two recordings were realized at STEIM in Amsterdam as part of my residency there in June 2009. I was listening to a lot of Alasdair Roberts and that manifested, I think, in the form of clear, ringing plucked strings. On that same journey, in Germany, I encountered this deer who was calm and friendly with anyone who had dried corn.

A Swim to the Gateway (18:35)

A Turn of the Pike (for Alasdair Roberts) (10:13)

Thanks to STEIM, LGAB, FVR, JR jr., Alice and Miss E.

Image by MTB

Ben Owen, Mike Shiftlet & Brendan Murray

2009-08-29T07:08:00.000-07:00

Image by Sarah Halpern

Ben Owen. Mike Shiflet. Brendan Murray. (15:36)

Jez riley French and Neil Davidson

2009-08-25T05:55:00.000-07:00

'Sunday afternoon, 29th March, 2009 - Neil's flat in Glasgow, in the kitchen with the window open: here is a recording, very much a location recording, of myself & Neil Davidson playing one of my photographic scores. These pieces begin with a very wide field of interpretation available to the performers & in this case the informal & sociable nature of the session had a significant influence on the work (positive). Neil plays acoustic flat wound guitar with preparations & I play field recordings, zither & paper. Glasgow contributes wind rattling the window & other sounds coming in through it' - JrF

Jez riley French. Neil Davidson. (20.06)

Will Montgomery | Thames Water

2009-08-25T05:52:00.000-07:00

The sounds in this piece were recorded with a pair of hydrophones between Festival Pier and Waterloo Bridge on the south bank of the Thames. The sounds include the Thames itself and water running from various outlet pipes set into the embankment. Recorded and edited April-July 2009.

Thames Water (10:31)

For Daniel and Laura.

2009-08-01T01:31:00.000-07:00

"I will start out this evening with an assertion: fantasy is a place where it rains."
Italo Calvino | Six Memos for the Next Millennium

The Seen | Patrick Farmer + guest | Cafe Oto June 27th 2009

2009-06-13T12:19:00.000-07:00

The Seen
Paul Abbott : piezo discs, metal, cymbal, mylar speaker, tape recorder, mixer
John Butcher : acoustic and amplified soprano saxophone
Matt Davis : trumpet
Jane Dickson : piano with electronics
Benedict Drew : roland sh101, small electronics
Phil Durrant : maschine
Phil Julian : inverted speakers, contact mics, objects/surfaces, electronics
Dominic Lash : contrabass
Jonathan McHugh – analogue subtractive synthesizer, mixing desk with feedback
Mark Wastell : amplified tam tam, shruti box

Patrick farmer + guest
prepared drums + resonating dubplate | field recordings | room harmonics

Friday 26th June 2009
£6 entrance
doors 8
Cafe Oto, Ashwin Street, London E8 3DL

Super!

Jeph Jerman - Putting the rabbit down.

2009-04-15T04:25:00.001-07:00

Coming home one evening I found a young rabbit on my front porch. a not uncommon occurrence, there were rabbits all over the yard throughout the day, but there was something different about this one: it didn't run off as i approached it. I got to within a foot or so and it still didn't hop away. i nudged it with my foot and it loped slightly sideways and then stayed put. I crouched down to take a close look and stayed that way for several minutes. The rabbit didn't move. "obviously something wrong here", I thought, and went inside. When i came out a few hours later, the rabbit was nearer my neighbor's house, and still not running away if I came near. It was then that I noticed that it's head was somewhat larger than before, and surmised that something was definitely wrong with it. I wondered if i should do anything, but eventually decided not to and went to bed. The next day when I came home from work the rabbit was in the driveway and I had to swerve to avoid hitting it. I had asked a co-worker who is knowledgeable about animals what she thought and she said it had probably been hit by a car, reassuring me that that didn't necessarily mean that I had hit it. I wondered then if this animal was trying to commit suicide to relieve itself. I got out of the car and went over to look at it again. I'll spare you the details but it was much worse off. I thought about killing it, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. what if it would recover? I went inside.

Coming out again several hours later I found the rabbit prone and barely alive. Putting on some old gardening gloves I picked it up and placed it in a grass-lined hole under a mesquite tree in my front yard. Then I went back in the house and got my recorder. Placing the microphones on either side of it's head I recorded several minutes of the rabbit's laboured breathing. I felt kind of strange about this, but I did it anyway, rationalizing that it was another fairly unique desert sound, and rabbits probably died every day, without me (or anyone else) noticing. By evening the rabbit was dead. I took it out into a large tract of land adjacent my house and buried it.

A number of conundrums presented themselves around this event. Should I have "put the rabbit out of it's misery"? should I have recorded it, or was this a ghoulish act? Should I do anything with the recording, or should I delete it? The recording resided on a shelf in my studio for a couple of years, and I thought about these things every so often. Recently, while working on some other field recordings, I decided that the rabbit recording would fit in with what I was working on, so I mixed it in. All the old questions came up again, and I wondered what to do with the finished piece. I told the story to a couple of good friends whom I was visiting in New York, and they encouraged me to publish the work along with the story. All of this has been compounded by the fact that it is nearing Easter, and images of rabbits are everywhere.

After telling the story to my friends, and expressing my doubts about what I was doing, I was reminded of the old zen story: two monks are walking along a path when they come to a stream, beside which stands a woman who is obviously trying to cross, but unable to do so on her own. the first monk, without thinking, hoists the woman on his back and wades across the river. the second monk follows. after this the two monks walk on. a while later the second monk turns to the first and says "why did you do that? you know that we're not allowed to touch women..." the first monk replies "put her down. I did an hour ago".

So I suppose this piece is my way of putting the rabbit down.

Putting the rabbit down (22:28)

Julien Skrobek - Lipno

2009-04-15T04:25:00.000-07:00

Dorota Kancuccy - bass
Krzystof Safarz – tone generator
Julien Skrobek - guitar
Julek Gruda – percussions

This is an excerpt from a recording made at the Halle Saint-Pierre in Paris, on July the 21st 2008. The idea was to play a jazz song ('It Don't Mean A Thing', chosen because our piece sure 'ain't got that swing') in the most pointillistic way possible with the atmosphere of the room as a guest (or host ?). The Halle Saint-Pierre is a museum for outsider art, and it can be quite noisy (you can checkJez Riley French's In Place blog for a description of the place: http://jezrileyfrench-inplace.blogspot.com/2008/08/favourite-place-halle-saint-pierre-by.html)

At some point, some people walked to the waiter just behind us and had this exchange which is clearly audible in the recording:

'fermé ! On arrive trop tard'
'ça fait dix and que tu viens boire des cafés gratuits ici et tu ne sais pas qu'on ferme à 18h?'

which could translate into:

- Closed ! We're too late
- You've been coming here for ten years to drink coffees on the house, and you still don't know we close at 6 ?'

Lipno (08:36) Loseless | MP3

Heddy Boubaker - The Fall of the Empire

2009-04-15T04:24:00.000-07:00

Bass saxophone solo improvisation recorded in Studio La Maison Peinte near Toulouse in april 2009, nothing more than a huge tube of Brass, air, and a few organic elements of my own.

Photo: Emilie Bousquet (july 1 2008 @ Le Ring - Toulouse)
Zéhavite Cohen (april 2007, made with Pinhole Camera)

http://boubaker.net/
http://lamaisonpeinte.free.fr/

The fall of the Empire (1:03:24)

Casey Thomas Anderson - Kitchen (206)

2009-04-08T05:56:00.000-07:00

Electric stove. Vent. Teapot. Refrigerator motor. Coffee brewing.

Newhall, California, 2009.

Kitchen (206) (11:47) Loseless | MP3

(photo by Tristan Murray)

James Mcdougall - An Opening in the Canopy

2009-03-28T13:36:00.000-07:00

James McDougall (Entia Non). All recordings taken at dawn in Mount Glorious National Park, South East Queensland, Australia. Slightly abstracted impressions of moving through a rain forest. Features of landscape, quietude and retreat. Minimal processing.

An Opening in the Canopy (20:47)

Hitoshi Kojo - Kumoma / Shigemi / Mogari

2009-03-16T12:52:00.004-07:00

These pieces were originally made for a compilation album "Yasujiro Ozu - Hitokomakura" of "and/OAR" label, which was released in 2007.

The participants were ordered to make the piece based on the stills of Ozu's movies.
Probably many of you know his movies. His movies were based on so-called ordinary daily life of old days in Japan.
At least it was my impression of his movies, even though the reality of my daily life in Japan was totally different...
So, it was an interesting challenge for me to see how I can work in the gap of the reality.
However it was much more difficult to adapt his movie's image to my work than I had expected.
Then, I needed to make up seven pieces until an acceptable one was made.
Now I can say, all the other pieces were funnily different from the image of Ozu's movie.
Dale Lloyd(and/OAR) told me that some of them might have been suitable for the previous compilation for the movies of Andrew Tarkovsky.
Three of them sounded listenable as they are. So, I decided to share them with you.

They were all composed between the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006 in Epesses and Cully in Switzerland.
All the sound sources were only taken from field recordings in various places.

Another mix of "Mogari" was used for a short video piece in same title, which I offered to a media art festival in Italy "Squardi Sonori 2008" later.

These photos are not related with Ozu's movie. Third photo is a still from the video piece "Mogari".

Kumoma (04:00) | Shigemi (04:00) | Mogari (04:00)

http://www.octpia.com/kojo/

Goh Lee Kwang - sickl2007

2009-03-16T12:52:00.003-07:00

All sources are 4'33", for no particular reason other than it is a
magic number. The mix was made recently with noise reduction and EQ
applied.

sickl2007 (14:02)

Dominic Lash - Noon Draw

2009-03-16T12:51:00.001-07:00

Dominic sent us this track as we were in the midst of assembling work for our split series, the inevitable happened, he changed his mind, we changed our minds, and we are now left with this wonderful improvisation. Rather than let him have it back, we thought we'd upload it here for you all.

Noon Draw (05:28)

Photo by Etnobofin

Mike Hansen - She is Asleep

2009-03-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

Taken from my ongoing project “The Music For John Cage”, which began about four years ago as both homage and an experiment that relates Cage’s musical formality to the instant compositions created though improvisation. As I started to move away from what I saw as improvised jazz in my own approach to music creation, I found myself delving, head first, into electro acoustic performing. I have found Cage’s use of the I-chi to control the play of his music a parallel to that of electro acoustic improvisation, EAI.

I wanted to escape the role that the turntable or, in my case, a vintage record player has begun to take in contemporary music making. I found by re-interpreting 20th century new music, through both graphic scores and my own affectual feeling derived from recorded performances of the compositions, has allowed the record player to be used in a way that subverts its intention. I found Cage to be the perfect fodder for this notion.

In my re-interpretations of She is Asleep parts 1 &2, I use found aspects of the recordings of Cage’s rendition. I have taken these appropriated samples and processed them as acoustically created sounds that make up the rest of the piece. This work evolves around layers of simple Lo-Fi processing. Sometimes the original source material is evident, opening flaunted, like some of the vocalizing heard in Cage’s version of She is Asleep, others are transported into realms that have no mirrored reflection of it’s source. The record player is equipped with contact microphones that allow for me to generate sounds from the player itself. The platter can be scene as a sounding board, where objects can be dropped, placed, dragged, plucked and then processed. The same can be said for the motors, which are amplified and then processed.

Cage, for me, has a great relevance in the construction of 21st century new music, especially in the EAI movement where tonality has been dismissed. Invented sound and chance has become a paramount reality in my music. I see my work occupying a sturdy relationship to Cagean theory.

She is Asleep (09:18 | 03:21)

Compost and Height first birthday celebration compilations.

2009-02-17T14:19:00.000-08:00

Benedict Drew: A Folding Table

2009-02-15T08:13:00.000-08:00

This album was first pencilled for release on the label Confront we changed our minds about it and now it is offered free of charge and with out any restrictions what so ever. A new set of works are now being made for Confront . A Folding Table was made in Whitstable, Kent 2006 - 2008. To download please visit:

http://www.benedictdrew.com/afoldingtable.html

Confront Records Website

Daniel Jones - Live at Seeds and Bridges

2009-02-08T11:54:00.001-08:00

"My second ever solo performance recorded on the 18th of October 2007 by Jez riley French at the Artlink Exchange in Hull as part of the Seeds & Bridges series of events.

Electric guitar, turntable, CD player and modified CD's, sampler, and amplified objects.

Enjoy!"

Live at seeds and Bridges (16:38)

Simon Whetham - Night of the Owl

2009-02-08T11:35:00.000-08:00

A live recording from 'Night of the Owl' - A Foundation, Liverpool - Saturday 15th November 2008 - Simon was invited to perform alongside the Owl Project, Philip Jeck and Tim Lambert, as part of the Liverpool Biennial Celebrations.

Night of the Owl (21:22)

Compost and Height First Birthday Celebration

2008-12-26T05:28:00.000-08:00

Benedict Drew | Matt Davis | Lee Patterson - Trumpet, Amplified Devices, Laptop

Benedict Drew
Benedict Drew is an Artist who works in performance, sound and video. For several years he has been involved in promoting concerts in London such as Audit and currently produces concerts for the London Musicians' Collective .
www.benedictdrew.com

Matt Davis
Matt Davis has performed with Robin Hayward, Otomo Yoshihide's Core Anode, Keith Rowe, Rhodri Davies, Ben Drew, Lee Patterson, Angharad Davies, Mark Wastell and Graham Halliwell. Please visit Matt's site as he has a wonderful solo trumpet album available for free download .
www.f-i-e-l-d.co.uk

Lee Patterson
Encompassing various forms, including improvised music, field recording, film soundtrack, sound installation and radio broadcast, Lee Pattersons' work is characterised by the revelation of subliminal or barely audible sounds. Utilising commonplace materials and invented methodologies, his practice aims toward a new understanding of his surroundings through altering perceptions of everyday reality. His unorthodox and idiosyncratic approaches to generating sound have led to collaborations with a host of international artists and experimental musicians.
www.myspace.com/therealleepatterson

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tim Parkinson and John Lely Piano compositions

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shale - Helena Gough, Daniel Jones, Matt Milton, Patrick Farmer - Laptop, Turntables, Violin, Snare Drum.

Helena Gough | www.helenagough.net
Patrick Farmer | www.myspace.com/woodandwhisks
Daniel Jones | www.myspace.com/stringspingsandboingythings
Matt Milton | www.myspace.com/mattmilton

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jez riley French

Solo set plus slide projections

http://jezrileyfrench-inplace.blogspot.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cafe Oto | 18-22 Ashwin Street | Dalston | London E8

SATURDAY 7th Febuary 2008

Times : 8pm
Tickets : £5 (tickets on the door only)

www.cafeoto.co.uk

Adam Sonderberg / Christian Weber - Horror Vacui

2008-11-27T11:49:00.000-08:00

Recorded 11 November 2008 at home in Chicago.

Sonderberg, bass drum
Weber, contrabass

Horror Vacui (04:08)

Michael Northam - Neti Neti

2008-11-27T11:44:00.000-08:00

This piece, like much of my work, has little emphasis on conceptual structures, nor any concrete reference to sources. The intention, as always, has been to maintain and keep a highly detailed non-referential sonic mass afloat. Hopefully removing the desire from the listener to attempt to name what they are listening to. Therefore I won't give any further reference other than it features elements from a particular rainy winter during my residency at 'Adishakti' in Vazhakulam near Pondicherry, South India 2007-08 and the obvious playing of shakuhachi during a residency this spring at 'intro in situ' in Maastricht.

The title is taken from the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, where a teacher is questioned by his students to describe 'brahman' (i.e. the background/source of all that exists). He responds to all questions by saying that brahman is not this, not that (neti, neti)—thereby slowly dislodging habits of verbal or mental conceptualization. This was a key tactic that was employed in the Indian philosophy of 'jhana yoga' (knowledge yoga) which is etymologically connected to chan buddhism which subsequently became zen buddhism.

my technique of non-referential sound 'composting' is and has been a humble attempt to avoid overtly 'mental' structures, intending rather to take the listener to an acousmatic state within which they are suspended for a while...

michael northam
brattleboro, vermont
november 2008

http://oro.preg.org

Neti Neti (18:02)

Jason Kahn - "Room to Room"

2008-11-20T08:03:00.000-08:00

This 36-minute piece documents three recent site-specific sound installations I exhibited in the city of Aarau, Switzerland this year.

In “Room to Room” I'm trying to achieve a sense of movement between the three spaces where the installations took place: a train station, a stairwell and an exhibition space.

Many thanks to Kunstraum Aarau for making these installations possible.

Artist Info

http://jasonkahn.net

"Room to Room" (36:35)

Joel Stern - Mead Goggle

2008-11-04T23:32:00.000-08:00

an assemblage in the style of my recent naturestrip album (objects masks props) stitching together fragments of...

- a free improvisation session with Brisbane electro-acoustic guru Lloyd Barrett using percussion, bells, mbira, trumpet and handmade string instruments
- fuzzy radio broadcasts recorded outdoors during a 2006 trip to ethiopia
- goatskin banjo pluckings from that same trip

influences: robert klippel, mead, heat, fernando arrabal

Mead Goggle (09:11)

websites:

Abject Leader -
www.abjectleader.org - 16mm Film Troupe
Naturestrip - www.naturestrip.com - Phonographic Sound Art
OtherFilm / Bazaar - www.otherfilm.org - Experimental Film Society / Store

Martin Küchen - Free Fire Zone

2008-11-04T23:26:00.000-08:00

Solo on baritone saxophone, pocket radio, electric toothbrush - no overdubs. Originally recorded for the Homo Sacer album.

Free Fire Zone (06:27)

John Grzinich, Yannick Dauby, Maksims Shentelevs - revenant: põdra

2008-11-03T07:05:00.000-08:00

revenant : põdra

With Yannick Dauby, John Grzinich, Maksims Shentelevs

Live unedited recorded made on the evening of June 13th, 2007 in southeastern Estonia.

It was mid-June and the white nights of the north were in full swing. We set out looking for a location to explore and ended up at a favorite place of mine, the ruins of an old soviet collective farm in a place I call Põdra (as is written on a nearby bus stop). The ruins are in a high state of decay due to the poor quality of the construction materials used. It is not clear if this facility was ever actually used.

Next to the ruins is a working electrical sub-station scattered with debris. We set up in an empty room attaching contact mics to found objects and using battery powered speakers to amplify small sounds and genreate feedback. Some pices of metal were bowed and played acoustically. In the background the sounds of the surrounding environment are apparent, particularly the repetitive call of Crex Crex or "Corn Crake", a bird that sounds like a deep cricket.

“revenant” is an ongoing project with open membership that focuses on site-specific acoustic actions, or activiated environments. Each action is a document of a specific moment in time in a specific location.
http://www.revenantsound.net/

artist info:
Yannick Dauby: http://www.kalerne.net/
John Grzinich: http://maaheli.ee/
Maksims Shentelevs: http://www.zaudetava.com/bernurits/

revenant : põdra (13:33)

Martin Taxt - Various improvisations

2008-11-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

I recorded these tracks at my rehearsal studio and also in my livingroom. All tracks are recorded with an Edirol, and I only use the tubes from my tuba and other horns in addition to my mouthpiece.

Various Improvisations (02:05 | 02:03 | 01:11)

Vanessa Rossetto and Barry Chabala - Viola and City

2008-11-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

From Viola City began life as viola improvisations made in response to environmental sounds in recorded in New York City by Vanessa. Barry took that piece and processed it through a program he wrote in ChucK

From Viola City | Viola and City (09:54 |13:29)

Emmanuel Mieville - La perle noire

2008-11-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

La perle noire , source material recorded in St Nazaire, France, in an oyster park. The immersion sensation is stunning, although I’m not using hydrophones but aerial microphones. The high screeching sounds come from the waves violently moving the oyster shells. Eventually, the strong winds saturated the mikes, but the result was engaging so it remained untreated. Other electronic sounds are mixed in an attempt to dramatise the piece.

(gear : AKG mikes and DAT).

La perle noire (06:18)

Lawrence English - Wind for the Trees

2008-11-01T12:30:00.001-07:00

This piece was recorded just recently on a trip to Stradbroke Island with Japanese musician KK Null. It's one of a number of experiments to record the motion of objects in wind. Using a hydrophone to capture these sounds, allows the documentation of a lot of very low frequency sound patterns that are entirely inaudible, but remarkably powerful nonetheless.

Wind for the Trees (05:19)

Simon Whetham - Ko Kradan Hermit Crab

2008-10-05T06:16:00.000-07:00

It's dark on the jungle island of Ko Kradan, off the south west coast of mainland Thailand. I'm scouting the beach for the source of a hooting sound when i hear the rustling, scratching sound you will now also hear. The biggest hermit crab I have ever seen is making it's way from the beach into the heart of the jungle, and is seemingly unable to do it quietly...

Ko Kradan Hermit Crab (04:08)

Photo by Bev Dale

Sarah Hughes and Patrick Farmer - Gathering ground to themselves

2008-10-05T05:59:00.000-07:00

A natural object recording made on the stone porch of a derelict boathouse in the grounds of Gregynog University, Powys, Wales. Most of this recording is relentless and one sided in its dynamic range, this is because the stereo microphone we were using at the time had a damaged right channel, which resulted in a lot of hiss when there was no close output for the microphone to pickup, hence the quick succession of creaking and fricative interplay.

| Pine cones | Sea Shells | Drift Wood | Acorns | Stones | Slate | Leaves | Bamboo | Dried Passion Fruit Skin | Fern |

Gathering ground to themselves (14:06)

Robert Curgenven - a+e18 (extract and remix)

2008-09-29T06:18:00.000-07:00

'on questions of...'

Locating a place via the isolation of its characteristics or by presuming it to be a defined and discrete entity, denies such a place much of the continua in which the terrestrial exists.
Does a place exist only if it is connected to another place in the mind of an individual, be they from the narrowed epistemological horizons and confines of the modern city or town?
Is a place knowable only by what inhabits it?
Surely a place cannot exist only in and of itself?
What if the Where of that place is not only outside of the person in question’s schema but also connected to other places via means not immediately perceivable or referable to by them?
(Simple categorical questions - Is it by a lake, a forest - what is happening there - is there walking, sitting... is there a road two kilometres away, is it flat, is it near a hill? – contextual details remain invisible to minds which seek only the renaming of the known.)

How can a purely locative means operate now without this new place being a function of other, known, places?
The questions concerning the actualities of the Where of this place need not a suspension (of belief, disbelief, etc), or its relegation to being a non-place, or a place which is Other - but it is in the shadow of the “I” that must know, state, possess, which prevents any articulation of space outside of that which is perceptible in mere phenomenological terms – which relegates “this place”, to being a sonic location of either that which is interesting or is not interesting.
When the unknown is categorised as an extension of the known world, its concrete existence is reduced to an abstraction - an isolated point in a noological desert. An empty space, inhabited by clones of the pre-existing and with only a name as signifier.

air+electricity: a+e18 (extract and remix)
Three continuous recordings of guitar/amp feedback: recorded in afternoons in Berlin, Stralau 68 (July 2008) and Melbourne, Brunswick (November 2007). Field recordings: Winton, musical fence, daytime (November 2006); Kakadu National Park, near Jabiru, daytime (June 2006); Alice Springs, claypans, night (May 2007); Sydney, Royal Botanical Gardens, night (December 2007); wind, Tanami Desert, daytime (November 2006); Alice Springs, Jessie Gap, morning (May 2007). Extract from RF006 limited edition CDR “air+electricity”, originally mixed by hand in Milan, 18-21 August, day and night –remixed for Compost and Height in Milan 9 September, 2008.

a+e18 (extract and remix) (07:20)

Joseph Clayton Mills - Agnosia

2008-09-19T12:10:00.001-07:00

Recorded 31 August 2008 in Chicago. Mixed 7 September 2008.

Instrumentation: Instructograph morse code machine, Acousticon carbon microphone hearing aid, tuning forks, antique wheelchair, shortwave radio, phonograph horn, feedback.

The devices used in this piece were originally intended to provide technological supplementation to the weaknesses and shortcomings of the human body (whether auditory, locomotive, or linguistic) but are now themselves antiquated and obsolete. As their practical utility has eroded, however, they have come alive in other ways; they remain marked by their particular history, carrying ghost traces of past owners and the material residue of years of use and disuse. Putting these objects to aesthetic rather than utilitarian purposes hopefully allows those qualities to emerge more fully.

Agnosia (12:47)

http://www.josephcmills.com

Chris Cogburn + Bonnie Jones + Liz Tonne - No Idea Festival 2008

2008-09-11T12:46:00.000-07:00

Chris Cogburn (percussion)
Bonnie Jones (electronics)
Liz Tonne (voice)

Recorded live at the No Idea Festival 2008 in Austin, Texas on February 16, 2008 by Ryan Edwards. A short video of the piece can be found here

Photo by Bonnie Jones

Live at No Idea Festival (26:34)

Philip Julian - "Artifact #3"

2008-09-03T01:42:00.000-07:00

Improvised and recorded in London on Sunday 24th August 2008 by Philip Julian

(Contact microphones, objects, surfaces and electronics)

Objects/surfaces used in this recording included alimunum foil, steel piping, sandpaper, cardboard, wood, ceramics, plastic, cotton and rubber.

ar-ti-fact (ahr-tuh-fakt)

1. any mass-produced, usually inexpensive object reflecting contemporary society or popular culture.

2. A structure or feature not normally present but visible as a result of an external agent or action,
such as one seen in a microscopic specimen...

3. An artificial product or effect observed in a natural system, especially one introduced by the
technology used in scientific investigation or by experimental error.

Sources:

1. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

2 & 3. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006
by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

"Artifact #3" (25:42)

Maile Colbert - Fall Leave Tumble Song

2008-09-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

After centuries of cultivation
The beauty of this land
still bites and stings
and retires to brownish golden last sighs...

I clutched so not to tumble back

I clutched in deep rooted attempt
to take root

The base of the song is a recording of a city park in Tehran at midnight, recorded by Vahid Sadjadi. Using Akira Rabelais's Argeïphontes Lyre program it is mutated, meshed, mixed with a recording I made of the Magnetosphere in Joshua Tree Desert at dawn...the dawn chorus. The rest was shaped and molded to follow and play with the lament of the children’s stretched swings and calls and midnight passes and they grow old.

Fall Leave Tumble Song (06:42)

Bonnie Jones - Jones Family Farm

2008-08-31T02:45:00.000-07:00

Jones Family Farm was recorded in May 2008, Amsterdam, STEIM. The text is from Eunoia "Chapter I" by Christian Bök, a section of the book that only uses words with the vowel "I". Please be careful if you have sensitive ears. The first few minutes of the piece have many "eyes" as well.

Jones Family Farm (13:41)

Benjamin.S Farmer - The Apple Tree Room

2008-08-20T11:13:00.001-07:00

'The rooms are our minds, and the stories within, merely dreams.’ 

The Apple Tree Room explores the boundaries of reality and human endeavour, its inhabitants using drugs, murder and death, to search for something none of them can understand: Why them? 

A novella about human darkness, suffering and pain, the Apple Tree also reveals the good. 

The Apple Tree Room

 

Steven Flato & Richard Kamerman - 20080705B

2008-08-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

Steven Flato - electric guitar
Richard Kamerman - mechanical parts, found objects

Recorded at home on a Saturday afternoon before going to a diner with Kelly.

20080705B (15:20)

Art work by Richard Kamerman

Vanessa Rossetto - For quiet room

2008-08-13T11:05:00.001-07:00

Begun on January 1, 2008, and completed at the beginning of August. Made using very thickly layered environmental recordings made in one seemingly 'quiet' room; no instruments were played. Through the layering, emergent melodies and drones reveal themselves. The idea was to explore the sounds heard in a music room that was idle. headphones are recommended but I have also found the piece works well when played in an active house; the quieter parts blend in with the normal environmental sounds at the location so that the louder parts seem to develop from nowhere and take you by surprise.

For Quiet room (21:08)

Pali Meursault - Sur Place 3, Saint-Martin-d'Hères

2008-07-26T10:39:00.000-07:00

Site-specific composition for cello, recorded during the night of the 4th of February, 2007, in the concrete basement of the future biggest swedish furniture store in Europe. Mixed & mastered in La F* de B* studio, Grenoble - France, 2007 - 2008. Thanks to Ici-Même.

Sur Place 3, Saint-Martin-d'Hères (18:25)

Goh Lee Kwang - Stormy weather, Bukit Mertajam, Penang, Malaysia.

2008-07-18T13:00:00.000-07:00

Recorded at my parent's house, my hometown, Bukit Mertajam, Penang, Malaysia in June, July, and October 2007. All sources are 4'33", for no particular reason other than it is a magic number. The mix was made recently with noise reduction and EQ applied.

Stormy Weather, Bukit Mertajam, Penang, Malaysia. (13:46)

Nikos Veliotis - Mugs on Speed

2008-07-16T02:02:00.000-07:00

9 tea mugs were put on a wide piece of marble, fed amphetamines, and recorded while dancing.

Mugs on Speed (12:30)